Foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration American opposition to the government of Myanmar at the time. Relations with India improved significantly during George W. Bush's tenure. In September 2001, President Bush removed sanctions which had been imposed in May 1998, after the Pokhran-II nuclear tests. Both his Indian contemporaries, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Manmohan Singh visited the United States at various times. President Bush called Chinese President Hu Jintao March 26, 2008 to express his concern about China's crackdown on protesters in Tibet since March 10, 2008. Bush and Hu also discussed issues including Taiwan, North Korea's denuclearization and Myanmar. Relations with New Zealand under the
Hu Jintao the curtailing of freedom of speech drew extensive criticism from human rights organizations and Western governments, while artists and writers inside the country chided increased restrictions on cultural expressions during Hu's term. Although in the early years of his tenure Hu attempted to pioneer a form of "intraparty democracy" that called for greater participation from lower-ranked members to determine policy and select the leadership, there was little evidence of meaningful changes to the party's governing structure and decision-making process. Consensus-based decision-making became a hallmark of the Hu era. Hu was never a strongman, did not rule by fiat, and was