U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

Interview With Valorie Lawson of WSFA

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Montgomery, Alabama
April 14, 2008

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QUESTION: National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley was on the radio this weekend and he supported the President, saying that he didn't feel like the U.S. should boycott the Olympics -- what do you think about that? Would you say let's not participate or would you say let's go to the opening ceremony?

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, I am a big believer that the Olympics is a sporting event. And I really wasn't very favorable toward the American boycott of the Olympics in 1980 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Frankly, I thought it looked kind of weak. They invade Afghanistan, the best thing you can do is boycott the Olympics and deny athletes who've trained their whole lives the opportunity to be in the Olympics. And so I see the Olympics as a sporting event.

Now, that doesn't mean that the President will not, or that I will not talk to the Chinese and press the Chinese about human rights, about Tibet, about Darfur. We've been doing it. We'll do it before, during and after the Olympics. But it's also -- this is going to be a moment of pride for 1.3 billion Chinese people. And I think it's important to realize that, too. You don't want to take their moment of pride and make it a moment in which the United States, for really political theater, decides not to come to the Olympics.

And so I know the President will look at the schedule and the like. But I believe that going to the Olympics is (inaudible.)

QUESTION: But is it a show of support for what has happened?

SECRETARY RICE: The show of support for the people of Tibet is doing what we do every day, which is telling the attorneys they ought to be in dialogue with the Dalai Lama, calling for diplomats and the press to get in and see. A show of support was the President meeting with the Dalai Lama, I think, every year for the last several years. And by the way, a show of support with the congressional level right up to the Dalai Lama. That's a show of support. I think that's a much more important show of support than what do you do about the Olympics.

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