The US Presidential hopeful, Barack Obama has announced that he will not attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics unless China makes ‘serious concessions’ on the Tibet issue. By stating so, Obama has taken a jab at the current US President George W Bush, who has conceded attending the event. 

Barack Obama clearly said that he wishes to see China make some really crucial progress on the Tibet issue before he makes a commitment to attend the Olympics opening ceremonies. ‘In the absence of some sense of progress, in the absence of some sense from the Dalai Lama that there was progress, I would not have gone,’ Barack Obama said.

The senator from Illinois thereafter added that the US government had not exerted required pressure on China for coming up with a solution during its talks with the representatives of the Dalai Lama, who is the Spiritual guru of the Tibetans.  It was only the previous week when George Bush had stated that he will attend the opening ceremony of Olympics. Contrarily, some prominent leaders have decided to boycott the mega sports event to show disapproval of China's human rights record and its handling of unrest in Tibet.