Let the people say what they think, Bush tells Beijing

August 09, 2008

BEIJING: US President George W.Bush has opened a massive new embassy in Beijing, one of the US's biggest and a symbol of the growing importance of Washington's relationship with Beijing.

Mr Bush, in Beijing to attend the Olympics, opened the concrete and glass building just days after the Chinese inaugurated their own sparkling new site in Washington.

"No doubt this is an impressive complex," Mr Bush said.

"To me, it speaks of the importance of our relations with China. It reflects the solid foundation underpinning our relations. It is a commitment to strengthen that foundation for years to come," he said.

But the US president also used the occasion to take another swipe at China's human rights record, calling for the communist country to lessen repression and "let people say what they think".

His comments came on the heels of a speech on Thursday in Bangkok in which he urged greater freedoms for the Chinese people. Beijing responded that Mr Bush should not meddle in its internal affairs.

China has rounded up dissidents ahead of the Olympics and imposed internet restrictions on journalists that some say amount to censorship, contrary to Beijing's commitments when it won the rights for the games.

The ceremony was also attended by former president George HW Bush and former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, who established diplomatic ties between Washington and Beijing three decades ago.

The old US embassy was the scene of riots by hundreds of Chinese protesters in 1999, in a rare protest permitted in the capital after the US bombed China's embassy in Belgrade.

The US embassy in Beijing is the third that Mr Bush has opened during his presidency, after Kabul and Kigali, in Rwanda.

Planning began in the mid-1990s for the embassy, which brings together US staff previously based at three compounds and embassy offices on 20 sites around Beijing.

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