White House says Olympics are about athletes

WASHINGTON -- China's crackdown in Tibet will not cause President Bush to cancel his planned trip to the Beijing Olympics, the White House said Thursday.

At the same time, the administration interceded on behalf of Tibetan protesters and requested a firsthand look at how Chinese police were dealing with them.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi Wednesday night for about 20 minutes, urging restraint and also Chinese talks with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetans' spiritual leader.

To underscore U.S. disapproval of the crackdown, Rice then told reporters Thursday, "We are certainly concerned about the situation in Tibet" and that she hoped China would exercise restraint.

The Dalai Lama, she said, is "an authoritative figure" who stands not for independence but for Tibetan cultural autonomy.

Protests against Chinese rule in Tibet have drawn a harsh response from Beijing. Authorities say 325 people have been injured and 16 people died.

Rice called Foreign Minister Yang as China sent additional troops into restive areas and made more arrests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the administration was not "calling into question" reports of tough action against Tibetan protesters. But he said, "We don't have a clear understanding of exactly what has happened and what is going on in those areas."

The State Department's consular affairs bureau, in an advisory for Americans planning to attend the Olympics, said the threat level for terrorism against Americans in China remains low and "there is no reason to believe that U.S. citizens are being targeted at this time."

The State Department is advising Americans planning to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing to take care and be mindful that they could be under surveillance.

"We have requested access to those areas, including Lhasa, so that we can have our own on-the-ground assessment of what has happened and what is ongoing," McCormack added.

So far, the spokesman said, the Chinese government has not granted the request.

Presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino said Bush's position is that the Olympics "should be about the athletes and not necessarily about politics."

She said that Bush, in accepting the invitation last year from Chinese President Hu Jintao to attend the Olympics, told him the games would "shine a spotlight on all things Chinese."

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Perino added.

Bush agreed to go to the Olympics during a meeting with Hu in Australia last September during the Asia Pacific Economic Council meeting. A White House spokesman said at the time that Bush was going to the games for the sports and not for any political statement.

Hwever, the statement cited the violence in Tibet as an example of how potentially dangerous events can occur in the run-up to the Olympics.

American spectators or Americans at large public gatherings were advised to use caution and to be alert.

The European Union spoke out Thursday against any boycott, saying it would be counterproductive to efforts to improve human rights in China.

"Boycotting the XXIX Olympiad is not the right answer to the current political problems," said a statement from Slovenia, which holds the EU's rotating presidency. "A boycott could signify actually losing an opportunity to promote human rights and could, at the same time, cause considerable harm to the population of China as a whole."

The statement follows a meeting of EU sports ministers in Slovenia on Monday where several nations rejected calls for a boycott over China's human rights record.

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Associated Press White House Correspondent Terence Hunt contributed to this report.