Bush trip to Asia will blend fun, diplomacy
President Bush’s visit to Beijing this week almost looks like a vacation — right down to a family reunion. But his three-nation Asian trip, which begins today, also takes him to the doorsteps of two troublesome regimes while forcing him to balance the Olympic spirit with the delicacies of diplomacy.
It will be mostly business first, with a one-day stop in Seoul, South Korea, to meet with President Lee Myung-bak. Getting North Korea to live up to its promise to continue dismantling its nuclear weapons program will be high on the agenda.
Then comes a day in Bangkok, Thailand, where the mood will generally be celebratory as the two countries mark 175 years of bilateral relations.
Bush also will deliver a speech on his hopes for future American foreign policy in Asia. He denies any suggestion that the region has gotten short shrift with America’s focus on Iraq and Afghanistan and contends that relations “have never been better” with China, Japan and South Korea.
Still, with the presidential election three months away, major initiatives are unlikely.
“The speech will be a formality about the U. S. engagement with Asia, especially on security and economic engagement,” said Professor Chaiwat Khamchoo of Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “America has three key words; promote: democracy, security and the economy in Asia. Protocolwise, he cannot declare any significant policies since this is his last speech” of his administration on Asia.
Bush told foreign journalists last week that he will have a message directed at the people of Myanmar as he meets with Burmese activists. First lady Laura Bush, a vocal critic of the military regime in Thailand’s neighbor, plans to visit a refugee camp near the Myanmar border.
Then comes a little break to be “first fan” at the Olympics, where the president will attend the opening ceremonies Friday. His wife, brother and one of his daughters are going along, and they will meet his father, the first President George Bush, and sister, Dorothy Bush Koch, in Beijing.
The president, 62, who says he’s “sprinting” to a strong finish to his term, plans to do a little of that literally. In an echo of his first trip to China in 1975 with his then-envoy father, when he says he spent his time bicycling around Beijing, he said he hopes to take a spin on the Olympic mountain bike course this time.
Bush has been an unwavering supporter of the Beijing Olympics, agreeing nearly a year ago to attend and sticking to his decision despite calls to stay away to protest China’s human rights lapses or its rule over Tibet.
During his four-day stay, Bush will lunch with President Hu Jintao, with whom Bush has developed a workmanlike relationship, calling him “a straightforward guy.”
Bush will try to use his stop to press one of his favorite issues: religious freedom. He will attend Sunday services at a government- approved Christian church and meet with its pastor, who once sent Bush a Bible to replace one the president lost on a 2005 trip to China.
In South Korea, Bush will meet with President Lee Myung-bak, whose attempts to foster goodwill with Washington by allowing resumed imports of U. S. beef sparked weeks of raucous anti-government protests over fears of mad cow disease.
Lee replaced top advisers and fired a few ministers, and also negotiated more safeguards for the imports. The protests grew to encompass a range of grievances against what was seen as Lee’s heavy-handed policies, but they have largely dwindled recently.
