Bush sharpens China critique on eve of Olympics

By Matt Spetalnick

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Just hours before flying to Beijing for the Olympics, U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday will use some of his bluntest language yet in publicly pressing China to clean up its human rights record.

Bush, on the eve of the Games' opening ceremonies when the eyes of the world will be on Beijing, is to deliver a speech in Bangkok voicing "firm opposition" to China's detention of dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists.

His sharper critique of the state of human rights in China is likely to anger the country's communist leadership. It has been accused of cracking down on dissent ahead of the Games instead of granting more freedoms, as originally promised.

But Bush made clear at a news conference in Seoul on Wednesday that he had no intention of using the Olympics as a platform for lecturing China on human rights, though he intends to discuss such matters privately with President Hu Jintao.

Bush had faced criticism from rights groups not only for attending the Games but also for not speaking out more forcefully against Beijing's crackdown in the run-up.

Bush has chided China on human rights before, focusing especially on restrictions on religious freedom, and he drew the Chinese government's ire by meeting dissidents at the White House ahead of his week-long farewell trip to East Asia.

In a wide-ranging speech in the Thai capital that aides have billed as an Asia policy statement, Bush will have a more pointed message including his "deep concerns" over rights in China, according to an advance text released by the White House.

"The United States believes the people of China deserve the fundamental liberty that is the natural right of all human beings," Bush will say.

"We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly, and labor rights not to antagonize China's leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential."

TEMPERED MESSAGE

But Bush will temper his message by saying any changes in China would have to come "on its own terms and in keeping with its own history and traditions."

Bush will praise China's economic prowess and cite shared interests with the United States. He will reaffirm Washington's "one-China policy" and his view that nothing should be done unilaterally by either side to alter the status quo on Taiwan.

On the ground in Beijing, he faces a delicate balancing act. He has insisted he is going as another sports fan. But his four-day stay will include worshipping at a church, followed by a statement on religious freedom, and then talks with Hu.

Aides say he will do nothing to embarrass his hosts who see the Olympics as a coming-out party for China on the world stage.

Thursday's speech could ease pressure from rights advocates and leading U.S. lawmakers to make a stronger statement on democratic reform and meet dissidents while on Chinese soil.