The White House on Wednesday said that U.S. President George W. Bush called Chinese President Hu Jintao to raise concerns about the situation in Tibet. In a statement by the White House press secretary, Bush was said to have urged the country to open relations with Tibet's religious leader, the Dalai Lama, in an effort to normalize the now-violent relations between the two countries. The recent violence is the latest in the string of Tibetan protests and Chinese crackdowns in demonstrations against China's claim over Tibet since 1950. In the call, Bush “encouraged the Chinese government to engage in substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama's representatives and to allow access for journalists and diplomats” into the country. Foreign journalists were allowed back into the country for the first time since the violence erupted. Bush and Jintao also spoke about the upcoming Taiwanese elections that are thought to provide “a fresh opportunity for both sides [Taiwan and China] to reach out and engage one another in peacefully resolving their differences.” According to the statement, “the two Presidents also discussed North Korean denuclearization….The two presidents pledged to continue to work closely with the other Six-Party partners in urging North Korea to deliver a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear weapons programs, and nuclear proliferation activities and to complete the agreed disablement.” The two leaders also spoke on the situation in Myanmar (Burma), where Bush “expressed his concern that the regime intends to hold a referendum that was drafted without input from democratic or ethnic minority groups.” Bush stressed “the need for the Burmese leadership to make changes to the referendum process to make it free, fair, and credible to the Burmese people and the international community.”
