A Times Editorial

Bush's thoughtful message

Westerners report that anti-Americanism is spreading in China. Many people in the streets of Beijing and Shanghai still say U.S. forces deliberately bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999. Government leaders have done a good job of indoctrinating the country's citizens into believing the United States wants to keep China poor, weak and humiliated.

During a speech at Tsinghua University in Beijing last week, President Bush responded to those misperceptions. His words did not contain the bravado the Chinese public might have expected. The president didn't talk tough on terrorism or lecture China on the changes it will have to make as a new member of the World Trade Organization. Instead, he spent his time explaining that capitalism doesn't measure the soul of America, and he gently nudged China to move forward with democratization and individual freedoms. He was humble, instructive and eloquent.

"Like most nations, we're on a long journey toward achieving our own ideals of equality and justice," the president said. But, despite "its share of problems and faults," the United States flourishes because we embrace the conditions that allow individuals to fulfill their potential.

"We are a free nation, where men and women have the opportunity to achieve their dreams," Bush told his audience. "Life in America shows that liberty paired with law is not to be feared. In a free society, diversity is not disorder. Debate is not strife. And dissent is not revolution. A free society trusts its citizens to seek greatness in themselves and their country."

His words spoke directly to the anxieties of China's leadership, which has resisted real political reform even as it accelerates its post-communist economic transformation. The president was most direct in criticizing China's continued repression of any religion not directly under state control, but the speech was not a finger-wagging diatribe. Instead, it had the effect of linking the challenges facing leaders in Washington and Beijing.

China's leaders deserve credit for allowing President Bush's words to be broadcast directly to a national audience. The president deserves credit for using the opportunity to deliver a thoughtful message that may open some eyes, if not some hearts.

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