Bush has little to show after Asian tour

Bush meets Hu after his arrival in Beijing on Saturday
President Bush returned from China with little to show according to many reports. There was much posturing with veiled criticism from both sides. Bush visited a Protestant Church and received a bible from the priest. Sky News commented that one man had been jailed only the week before for ‘printing bibles without permission’. After the service President Bush urged the Chinese authorities to relax the laws on religious practice. He had earlier spoken in Japan and criticized China’s human rights record. He added that China should not fear freedom [CNN]. "What I say to the Chinese is ... a free society is in your interests." But whilst China’s state run news agency, Xinhua News, described George Bush’s meeting with Hu Jintao as achieving “important results”, George Bush described the conversation as constrictive.
Bush called for currency reform. Taiwanese “so-called independence will not be tolerated” said President Hu, in response to Bush’s call for peaceful negotiations. On trade, few concessions were made. Piracy is one area in which some progress was said to have been made.

His Asian tour also encompassed South Korea and Japan. In Japan he was greeted by a number of protests with placards reading “Bush is a Murderer”. Much of the protest was directed at the US policy in Iraq. And at home further criticism was directed at the Iraq policy and demands for a withdrawal by some senators. Amnesty International has also criticised the United States ‘use of torture’ at ‘black sites’ around the world and operating outside the Geneva Convention. The US denies they are operating such camps or that they torture prisoners. Meanwhile in Iraq the violence continues unabated. On Sunday the 98th British troop was killed and four others were injured. The roadside bomb occurred in Basra. A US troop was killed in Haditha by another roadside bomb and 8 insurgents were killed as they opened fire on the US convoy. Another blast killed a child in Baghdad and injured 5. China too has it’s problems as further cases of bird flu are identified with at least 1 human case. China says the situation is under control. But with another death in Indonesia and warnings that vaccine capacity is unlikely to be reached for at least 3 to 5 years according to Mike Leavitt, a US Health Services Secretary, the future remains uncertain.
[20:37 GMT 21/11/2005]