 Bush to attend Games' opening ceremony
By Li Xiaokun (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-05 08:07 US President George W. Bush said on Thursday that he will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, despite calls for him to boycott the event. "The president and Mrs Bush will attend the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games on Aug 8," as part of a trip to China after visiting the Republic of Korea and Thailand, White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement. Some Western leaders have threatened to boycott the opening ceremony, and US presidential campaign rivals, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have also urged the president to skip the event. However, Bush has always said he would go to the Olympics to encourage US athletes, and rejected using the sports event as diplomatic leverage. "It says I'm supporting our athletes is what it says. And I don't view the Olympics as a political event. I view it as a sporting event," Bush told ABC television in April. In Beijing, Bush will meet President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders. The focus for their talks will be the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Perino said. Then, the president and first lady will attend the opening ceremony. The Seoul stop of Bush's Asia trip will focus on the proposed bilateral free-trade agreement and recent riots sparked by the resumption of US beef exports to the Republic of Korea, Perino said. The announcement by the White House came just hours after media reported that Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda had also decided to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games, making him the first Japanese prime minister to attend an Olympic opening ceremony for 20 years. Fukuda will travel in a small-sized airplane of the Air Self-Defense Force, rather than using a government aircraft, in order to save fuel, the Kyodo news agency said. The Foreign Ministry did not publicly respond to the news of Bush and Fukuda's scheduled appearances. Analysts have said China appears neither excited by the promises to attend the Olympics nor bothered by threats to boycott it, as it might not want the issue to become political. "To highlight the number of VIP attendees could leave the host open to the hassle of many politically charged boycott threats," Wang Fan, head of the International Relations Institute of the China Foreign Affairs University, said. Bush's plan to attend the opening ceremony reflected his friendly attitude toward China, he said. In contrast, French President Nicolas Sarkozy became the target of the Chinese public's wrath after he said on Monday that his attendance at the opening ceremony will depend on the result of the talks between the central government and representatives of the Dalai Lama. Agencies contributed to the story (China Daily 07/05/2008 page1) |
