By Xinhua
London : US President George W. Bush has said that his plans to attend the Beijing Olympics remain unchanged.
“I’m going to the Olympics. I view the Olympics as a sporting event,” Bush told the BBC in an interview Thursday.
When asked about Hollywood movie director Steven Spielberg’s withdrawal from the Beijing Olympics as an artistic advisor over the violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, Bush said he had no reason to use the Olympics as a way to highlight such issues.
“I have a little different platform than Steven Spielberg, so I get to talk to President Hu Jintao,” the president said.
Spielberg Wednesday announced his decision to quit the upcoming Olympics as an artistic advisor, citing concerns over the violence in Darfur, which he linked to the Chinese government.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a press conference Thursday that China has made positive efforts to resolve the Darfur issue, and that linking the issue to the Olympic Games would not help and is against the Olympic spirit.