Bush in China: Religion and Human Rights?

Good gravy Marie.

Bush is on his way to China to attend the Olympics but confesses to WaPo stenographer Michael Abramowitz that he's got two other serious purposes for the trip. Besides getting away from the Obama/McCain Everybody Hates Bush Show, that is. Let's let him tell it. (Get your gag reflex under control, now.)

Bush said that he speaks candidly with Chinese President Hu Jintao about human rights, particularly religious freedom, and that he has shared his religious beliefs with Hu and Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, urging them to lift restrictions on underground churches.

"My main objective in my discussions on religious freedom is to remind this new generation of leadership that religion is not to be feared but to be welcomed in society," Bush said in an interview. Asked whether he thinks he is making an impact on Hu, he replied: "Oh, I think he listens, absolutely. I think he's interested. . . . He absorbs, he takes in, he listens."

(emphasis added)

As usual with Bush, one hardly knows where to begin to deconstruct the lies, misinformation, inaccuracies, and propaganda. There's just so much iof it packed into every word that taking it apart is like unpacking Dr Who's Tardis.

Let's start with the gagging part.

It's a good thing the Chinese have lots of practice being inscrutable, otherwise Hu Jintao would have difficulty keeping a straight face while the man who throws people in jail on his own say-so, without counsel or trial or even charges and without allowing the court to see the evidence, the man who defends torture, the man whose Labor Dept kills workers and whose Immigration Service separates families and throws 11-yr-olds in jail, lectures him on "human rights abuses". Does somebody like Bush even know what a "human right" is?

Yes, as it turns out, he does - sort of. It's the right to be a fundamentalist Christian. Asked about freedom in China and the internet crackdown by the Chinese, Bush replies by talking about...evangelical religion.

Bush also grappled with how to gauge openness and freedom in China today. "I mean, this is a closed society in many ways," he said. "The Internet provides interesting opportunities for people to express themselves. Sometimes it's open, sometimes the filters are there. I've talked to the evangelicals who go there who feel like the underground church movement has gotten a few steps forward, a step-and-a-half back. It's really hard to tell."

Yeah, it is - if your gauge is how well the fundy Xtians are doing in Beijing. If you use, oh I don't know, the Amnesty International model? It's a lot easier and clearer.

As for his policies toward China, the best he can do is offer this childish assessment: :

[I]t is "important to engage the Chinese".

Well, um, yes. We've known that for about 5 decades but never mind. It's a whole new idea in the BushBrain. It's around a little, kind of lonely, but it's there at last. An actual idea. As for, like, how we "engage them", well, that will have to be left for another day because Georgie's run out his string. He doesn't have a clue.

But that doesn't stop Abramowitz from peddling his right-wing narrative.

Bush emphasized that it is "important to engage the Chinese" -- a striking comment for a president who came to office with aides depicting China as a "strategic competitor" and surrounded by hawks who looked suspiciously upon the Chinese government. Even critics of the president say he has emerged as an unexpected diplomat with China, conducting a personal campaign to woo the senior Chinese leadership.

One is simply longing to know just who these appreciative "critics" might be. Charles Krauthammer, perhaps? Michael Gordon?

Never mind. Nixon went to China. Bush is going to China. The Legacy is safe.