Forget silly comparisons to 1936. Bush is right in choosing to attend the Beijing Olympics. March 8, 2008
President Bush is catching quite a few javelins for his decision to attend the Olympic Games this summer in Beijing, with one Republican congressman saying his presence would be akin to President Franklin D. Roosevelt attending Adolf Hitler's Berlin Olympics in 1936. Setting aside that we're all thoroughly sick of rhetorical references to Hitler, Bush is, for a change, on solid diplomatic ground.
The comments came from Rep. Frank R. Wolf of Virginia, who co-chairs a congressional caucus on Sudan and is mad at China because its economic and political ties to Khartoum are allowing the regime to flout international efforts to halt mass killings in Darfur. Congress has little power to stop the president from going to the Olympics if he chooses, but Wolf is doing the next best thing by introducing legislation that would prohibit diplomatic and other government personnel from spending federal money to attend.
It hardly bears pointing out, but we will anyway: China is not Nazi Germany. Its conduct on domestic human rights is abysmal and its backing of rogue regimes is reprehensible, but it is hardly a threat to world stability and it isn't committing genocide on its own people. Director Steven Spielberg's decision to withdraw as artistic director of the Beijing Games because of China's stance on Darfur was a highly principled one, and other Americans considering a trip to see the show in August should consult their consciences. But the president is different.
When the U.S. welcomed China into the World Trade Organization in 2001, it was part of a profound shift in strategy that started with President Nixon in 1972. By then, it was clear that isolating and ostracizing China didn't work, and that the best way to open its society, free its markets (as well as its people) and set it on the path to democracy was through closer economic and diplomatic ties. There is every sign that this approach is working, albeit slowly. And that's why Bush should go to the Games.
Bush justified his decision to attend by saying it would give him a chance to discuss human rights with Chinese President Hu Jintao. We're glad he has come around to this way of thinking, even if he's a bit late in recognizing the importance of engagement with regimes he doesn't like. Now that he sees the value of diplomacy, we have a modest proposal: Perhaps he could swing by North Korea, Iran and Cuba on his way home from Beijing.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korean leader Kim Jong Il hopes for stronger friendship with Syria, the North's official news agency reported Saturday, amid lingering suspicions of a secret nuclear connection between the two countries. Kim expressed the hope in a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad on the anniversary of a 1963 coup that brought Syria's Baath Arab Socialist Party to power, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported. "I express my firm belief that the friendly cooperative relations between the two countries will be further expanded and strengthened in various areas," Kim said in the message. The North's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong Nam, sent a similar message to the Syrian president, KCNA said. North Korea has been suspected of helping Syria with a secret nuclear program. But Pyongyang has strongly denied the accusations, saying it has never spread its nuclear expertise beyond its borders. Syria has also denied receiving any North Korean nuclear help. The alleged nuclear link is believed to be a sticking point stalling international talks on the North's nuclear programs, along with the communist nation's suspected uranium enrichment program. Under last year's agreement with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, the North is required to give a full account of its nuclear programs, including whether it spread nuclear technology beyond its borders. Pyongyang claims it gave the nuclear declaration to the United States in November, but Washington says the North never produced a "complete and correct" declaration. North Korea and Syria established diplomatic relations in 1966.
Japan and North Korea have offered loans for Thailand's multi-billion-baht megaprojects to expand the transport infrastructure, Transport Minister Santi Prompat said. Representatives of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) met the minister in Bangkok yesterday.
The JBIC offered loans for the nine railway projects Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has proposed for greater Bangkok. The projects are estimated to be worth 700 billion baht.
Mr Santi said the JBIC confirmed it would sign a contract with Thailand this month for the disbursement of its first batch of loans worth 18 billion baht for the Purple Line section from Bang Sue, Bangkok, to Bang Yai in Nonthaburi.
The JBIC is also interested in extending loans for projects of the State Railway of Thailand and in giving both financial and technical support to the expansion of Suvarnabhumi airport.
The airport expansion plan includes building a third runway and a satellite passenger terminal.
Mr Santi said the government had already prepared the investment for the third runway and it would need financial support for the construction of the additional terminal.
Apart from JBIC, many other financial institutions were offering loans for the airport's expansion, he said.
The minister said the expansion project had to start right away because it would take five to six years to complete.
He warned that a few years' delay could undermine Thailand's goal to be an air transport hub for the region.
Yesterday, Mr Santi also received a North Korean government representative who informed him of North Korea's intention to provide loans to Thailand for mass transit projects.
He said the government should be open to offers of financial support from other countries too.
