BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush pressed his case for more religious freedom in China on Sunday in frank conversations with the country’s Communist leaders and by attending a worship service at a Beijing church.
Bush spent the day blending diplomacy with Olympic fun — watching a gold medal win by U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps and seeing Chinese President Hu Jintao for private talks.
“Our relationship is constructive and it’s important and also very candid,” Bush said as he sat down with Hu after attending prayers at a Communist government-sanctioned church.
The White House described the conversations as candid on the issue of human rights and religious freedom and that Bush told Hu he should expect those issues to remain a topic when either presidential hopeful John McCain or Barack Obama takes over in January.
“He told President Hu that this is an important aspect of the U.S.-China dialogue and that the Chinese can expect that any future American president will also make it an important aspect of our dialogue,” said Dennis Wilder, a White House National Security Council official, told reporters.
Bush’s trip to Beijing has been a balancing act, taking in the Olympic games and praising China on a variety of issues while publicly nudging China to improve its internationally criticized record on human rights.
Wilder said that he believed he saw some movement by China based on what Hu told Bush during their meeting.
“President Hu seemed to indicate that the door is open to religious freedom in China and that in the future there will be more room for religious believers,” Wilder said.
Bush reiterated his position that the United States was not trying to impose “something Western” on China when pushing for religious freedom, he said.
However, progress may take some time. Chinese plainclothes police detained a Chinese activist to prevent him from going to the church service Bush was attending, the activist’s brother said. He later escaped from the police, the brother said.
“While I can’t confirm this specific report, we’re disappointed anytime that someone is unable to worship freely,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
‘LOVING RELIGION’
Bush, a frequent churchgoer with a strong base among Christian fundamentalists, has made appeals for greater religious liberties a focus of his efforts to coax China toward democratic reforms.
He said outside the Kuanjie Protestant church that “it just goes to show that God is universal, God is love and no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion.”
The service, almost entirely in Chinese but translated for Bush and his family, was held in a modest building with a plain white cross on the roof and included a children’s choir performing “Amazing Grace” in English and Chinese.
Many other Christians, who make up only a small part of China’s religious faithful, worship at so-called underground churches. Wilder said he hoped Hu’s comments meant that those churches would be permitted to operate legally.
As Bush and Hu sat down for their talks, the Chinese leader focused his remarks to reporters on the Olympics and thanked Bush for his fourth trip to China.
The two also discussed economic issues as well as Taiwan and efforts to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
Rights advocates and leading lawmakers at home, some of whom had urged Bush to boycott the Olympics, have chided him for not speaking out more forcefully about the human rights situation in China and the crackdown on dissent in the run-up to the Games.
Bush needs China’s help to curb North Korean and Iranian nuclear ambitions, thus limiting U.S. leverage to press for rapid political reforms of the one-party state. Washington is also mindful of Beijing’s increasing economic clout.
In between church and meetings, Bush stopped by the Olympic swimming venue to see Phelps win the gold medal in the 400 metres individual medley final and break his own world record.
“I looked up and saw President Bush giving me the thumbs up and holding the American flag. That was pretty cool,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Benjamin Lim; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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