President Bush has stated that he will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on 8 August 2008, despite calls for him to boycott it.
Speaking before the opening of the G 8 Summit on the island of Hokkaido in Japan, Bush said that not going to the ceremony "would be an affront to the Chinese people" that might make it "more difficult to be able to speak frankly with the Chinese leadership."
Given the amount of dollars held by the Chinese, Bush is wise not to "affront" them.
Other leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, are avoiding the opening ceremony to protest China's record on human rights and its dealings in Tibet and Sudan. Brown of course (trying to avoid being controversial) claims that he was never going to go, as he was too busy.
Prime Minister Fukuda of Japan is also going:
"I don't think you have to really link Olympics with politics."
The Olympics is primarily about politics and money, to think otherwise is naive in the extreme. However, as said before on this site, many of those who call for a boycott are hypocrites as they own many products manufactured in China.
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