US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will attend the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, the State Department said Thursday.
US President George W. Bush has already said he would attend the opening ceremony of the summer games in August, saying skipping the event, as human rights activists had urged him to do, would have been "an affront" to China's people, making it harder to engage with China's leaders.
"She does intend to attend the closing ceremony and looks forward to it," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
"She also hopes to take in some of the competition in the last day or two," he said, citing the track and field and basketball finals as among the highlights at the tail end of the games.
