Hadley: skipping Olympics opening ceremonies would be a ‘cop-out’

Associated Press
April 13, 2008

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 adviser said today.

The kind of “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 Hadley said.

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

“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 today. “Because what he has said is we need to be using diplomacy.”

Calling a boycott “a bit of a red herring,” 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 check the box on Tibet.’ That’s a cop-out.

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This article was posted: Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 3:31 pm

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