Rice meets Chinese FM on Bush’s trip to Olympics
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Chinese counterpart held talks Monday on President George W. Bush’s trip to the Olympics in Beijing and international issues, the State Department said.
Rice met with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at her office in the afternoon before a working dinner, officials said.
They “discussed the president’s upcoming trip to China” for the Olympics and a “wide range of issues of bilateral and international importance,” including North Korea, Iran, trade and economic issues, human rights and Taiwan, State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper told AFP.
China’s rights record has come under renewed scrutiny this year, especially after it used the armed forces to put down an outburst of violence across the restive Tibet region in March.
US lawmakers have called on Bush to make a “strong public statement” in Beijing on China’s human rights situation and meet with families of jailed “prisoners of conscience.”
Bush was also asked to seek to visit the troubled Tibet and Xinjiang regions while in China to attend the games.
Rice said at the weekend that while China dealt with security threats in the runup to the Olympics, it should avoid using them as “a cover” to muzzle political dissent.
Beijing, she recalled, had pledged to be more tolerant before winning its campaign to host the Olympics.
Tags: amp, beijing, bet, game, games, lawmaker, lawmakers, Trip, trip to, trip to china
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Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 4:52 pm under