Bush says US firmly opposed to China's repression

BANGKOK: With all eyes on Beijing, US President George W Bush on Thursday bluntly told China that America is strongly opposed to the way the communist government represses its people, a rebuke delivered from the heart of Asia on the cusp of the Olympic Games.

In perhaps his last major address in Asia, Bush said the United States speaks out for a free press, free assembly and labour rights not to antagonise China's leaders, but because it's the only path the potent US rival can take to reach its full potential.
"America stands in firm opposition to China's detention of political dissidents and human rights advocates and religious activists," Bush said.

"We press for openness and justice not to impose our beliefs, but to allow the Chinese people to express theirs."

Along with his chiding, Bush offered praise for China's market reforms and hope that it will embrace freedom, reflecting the delicate balance that the President seeks to strike with the potent US rival.

"Change in China will arrive on its own terms and in keeping with its own history and its own traditions. Yet change will arrive," he said.

Bush brought his message to Thailand, a turbulent democracy. The marquee speech of his three-country trip hailed deepening ties between the US and Asia. He pledged that whoever follows him in the White House will inherit an alliance that is now stronger than ever.