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Olympics: Obama in two minds
02/04/2008 17:21 - (SA)
Washington - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama warned on Wednesday China had "played" the US on trade and said he was in "two minds" whether America should play a full role in the Olympics.
The Illinois senator said he was a "strong believer" in free trade, but believed that US negotiators had not been tough enough in their dealings with Beijing.
"I think that we have not been very savvy negotiators when it comes to China. I think they've played us," Obama told CBS News, three weeks before the next Democratic nominating contest, the Pennsylvania primary.
"They definitely are stealing our intellectual property and that has direct consequences in terms of the bottom lines for businesses here in the US."
Trade has been a key issue in the Democratic White House race, especially in relation to the flight of blue collar manufacturing jobs to China and other Asian markets with low labour costs.
Obama was also asked whether the US should be a full participant in this year's Beijing Olympics, as global concern mounts about the communist giant's human rights record and crackdown in Tibet.
"I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, I think that what's happened in Tibet, China's support of the Sudanese government in Darfur, is a real problem," Obama said.
"I'm hesitant to make the Olympics a site of political protest because I think it's partly about bringing the world together."
Obama spoke a day after some US lawmakers introduced a bill designed to President George W Bush to skip the Olympics opening ceremony.
The US leader has said he plans to attend the Games in August despite calls for world leaders to boycott the ceremony in protest at the Chinese government's action against demonstrations in Tibet.
Exiled Tibetan leaders have put the death toll from the Chinese crackdown at 135-140 people, with another 1 000 injured and many detained following protests that began in the Tibetan capital Lhasa on March 10 and escalated into rioting there four days later.
- AFP
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US Elections Special Report
