Bush aide backs talk, not boycott in Beijing

It would be a “cop-out” for countries to skip the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics as a way of protesting China’s crackdown in Tibet, President Bush’s national security advisor said Sunday.

The “quiet diplomacy” that the U.S. is practicing is a better way to send a message to China’s leaders rather than “frontal confrontation,” Stephen J. Hadley said.

President Bush has given no indication that he will skip the Aug. 8 event. “I don’t view the Olympics as a political event,” Bush said last week. “I view it as a sporting event.” The White House has not yet said whether he will attend the opening ceremony.

“We haven’t worked out the details of his schedule at this point in time, but from his vantage point, if you listen to what he said, he has no reason not to go,” Hadley said in broadcast interviews Sunday. “Because what he has said is we need to be using diplomacy.”

Hadley added: “I think, unfortunately, a lot of countries say, ‘Well, if we say that we are not going to the opening ceremonies, we’ve checked the box on Tibet.’ That’s a cop-out.

“If other countries are concerned about Tibet, they ought to do what we are doing through quiet diplomacy, send the message clearly to the Chinese that this is an opportunity with the whole world watching, to show that they take into account and are determined to treat their citizens with dignity and respect,” he said.

Hadley spoke on “Fox News Sunday” and ABC’s “This Week.”

“The whole issue of opening ceremonies is a nonissue,” he said. “I think it is a way of dodging what really needs to happen if you’re concerned about” Tibet.