A bull in a China Shop.
'Ya gotta love President Bush's recent trip to China.
China does not exactly have a stellar record regarding child labor, human rights, women's rights, minorities rights, etc. etc. etc.
I had
written earlier that Bush had met with the Dali Lama prior to Bush's meeting with Hu Jintao and that the Chinese had officially groused about this.
Now, when he was in Busan, South Korea, he had a few words about Taiwan. MyWay/AP
has the story:
Bush Hails Taiwan As Model of Freedom
Piquing China just days before meetings with its leaders, U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday held up the self-governing island of Taiwan that Beijing claims as its own as a model of freedom "at all levels" that the communist giant should emulate.
Bush's speech opening a four-country tour of Asia amounted to a road map of the coming discussions he was to have on a potential bird flu outbreak, global trade, North Korea's nuclear ambitions and other issues at a gathering of Pacific Rim economies in South Korea.
Bush arrived in Busan, South Korea, on Wednesday night for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and a one-on-one meeting with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun. The president met with his closest Asian ally, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in Kyoto, Japan, earlier Wednesday and was traveling to China and Mongolia over the weekend.
In remarks sure to irritate his Chinese hosts, Bush prodded the communist nation to grant basic freedoms to its 1.3 billion people and further open its economy.
President Bush meets with Hu Jintao in a few days -- I would love to be a fly on that wall. Heh...
Posted by DaveH at November 16, 2005 10:59 PM