DON'T CARRY THE MESSAGE, CARRY THEM:

Bush Meets Chinese Democracy Activists: Pledges To Air Their Concerns on Trip to Beijing Olympics (ELI LAKE, July 30, 2008, NY Sun)

Before departing for Beijing for the Olympic Games, President Bush is signaling that he will raise concerns from Chinese human rights activists in his meetings with Chinese leaders.

Mr. Bush met yesterday with five Chinese exiles, including Harry Wu, the geologist who spent nearly 20 years in Chinese labor camps and later wrote about his native country's gulags, or the laogai. Also at the meeting was Wei Jingsheng, a man considered by many to be the father of China's democracy movement and the author of the essay "The Fifth Modernization." There was Robert Fu, a Christian minister and former prisoner who handed Mr. Bush a "prayer for China" wristband and urged the president to intercede on behalf of an underground church leader imprisoned in China named Zhang Rongliang, according to the Associated Press. The president also heard from Rebiya Kadeer, a former prisoner and advocate for the rights of China's Muslim Uighur community that seeks independence, and Sasha Gong, a former factory worker who now works for Radio Free Asia's Cantonese Service.

A White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said in a statement that Mr. Bush promised to take the message of the five activists to China's high officials next month during the Olympic ceremonies. "The president assured them that he will carry the message of freedom as he travels to Beijing for the games, just as he has regularly made this a priority in all of his meetings with Chinese officials. He told the activists that engagement with Chinese leaders gives him an opportunity to make the United States' position clear — human rights and religious freedom should not be denied to anyone."

Add them to the official US delegation and make the PRC stop the party from entering the country.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 30, 2008 8:26 AM