Bush to China

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "Pressure from all Sides as Bush Visits China." The article states, "The idea of giving a Reaganesque “tear down this wall” speech on human rights in China — as members of Congress and others are calling on Mr. Bush to do — has been abandoned as potentially insulting to the president’s hosts, one senior administration official said. It would be unlikely that most Chinese would see or hear it anyway, because of state control of the media." It continues, "Mr. Bush will be the first sitting president to attend an Olympic Games overseas, and Mr. Bush and his aides have said that the trip is a gesture of respect to China. While his love of sports is evident, he showed no such enthusiasm for the Olympic spirit when the games were held in Greece in 2004. And once he decided to attend in 2008, he rebuffed calls for him to at least boycott the opening ceremonies."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

• If one of your friends was really misbehaving in their own home and nobody else saw would you tell them to stop misbehaving? Why/why not?
• Do you think it would be fair for a country to make a law saying that people cannot say whatever they want? Why/why not? Do you think it's important to be able to say whatever you want? Explain!
  
• If you could play in Olympic sport what sport would you participate in? What do you like about this sport?
  
• If you could say one thing so that everybody in the world could hear you, what would you say? Why would you say this?
  

Discussion Starters for Older Students

• Vocabulary terms to discuss: Activist; Reaganesque; Thwarted; and, Dissidents.
  
• Do you think that President Bush should be making this trip to China? Why/why not? Consider developing arguments for both sides of this question.
  
• Imagine that you were an adviser to President Bush and he asked your advice as to what he should say to the Chinese President about human rights. What would you advise? Why? What if President Bush asked what he should say about human rights on Chinese television?
  
• Do you think that the leadership of China believes they are wrong in denying citizens basic rights? How do you think that they might justify this behavior?