Earlier in the week I commented on Bush's opposition to a declaration of Turkish genocide. So, it was great interest that I noted that today he presented a congressional award to the Dalai Lama and kinda rubbed it in China's face. W said that he had told the Chinese that religious freedom was important and that they should welcome the Dalai Lama in China. Fair enough.
What this tells me is that the administration thinks that fighting terrorism is a more worthy strategic goal than out economic relationship with China. In the grand scheme of international politics, China is (and will be) a much bigger player than Turkey. Yet, Bush goes out of his way to placate the country from which our military planes take off and kicks sand in the face of a country with whom we have a huge trade deficit and has nuclear weapons.
Don't get me wrong. Bush should welcome the Dalai Lama and criticize China's human rights record. It's just interesting that he's OK with that, but not good with acknowledging a historical fact about actions taken by a government which is unrelated to the current one in Turkey.
Clearly, Bush thinks the war on terror is going to be with us longer than trade with China.
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