(CBS) Background and analysis by CBS News State Department Reporter Charles Wolfson.

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Don’t look now but the pressure is starting to build on China to make concessions on human rights in the run up to the Olympics that it will host this August.

Human Rights activists, well aware that China wants to use the Olympics to showcase the modernization that has taken place in the world’s most populous country, are pulling every lever they can to put pressure on China’s political leadership to bring about change in the government’s attitude on human rights - a very sensitive subject to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

This week, French President Nicholas Sarkozy left open the possibility of boycotting the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony over the issue of Tibet and China’s crackdown on demonstrators there. The Bush administration, meanwhile, has staked out a position which de-links China’s human rights actions from the Olympics. “Our view…is that the Olympics is an important international sporting event,” said State department spokesman Sean McCormack, adding “On the other side of that, we would encourage the Chinese government to put their best face forward during the Olympics. The world is going to be watching.”

And on Wednesday, President George W. Bush called President Hu Jintao of China and has raised concerns about the crackdown in Tibet. The White House said Mr. Bush encouraged Hu to engage in "substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama's representatives and to allow access for journalists and diplomats."

Ken Lieberthal, a China expert at the University of Michigan and a former senior director at the National Security Council under President Clinton, notes “if some significant global leaders boycott the opening ceremony, it’ll be a blow to China’s face and it would create a very strong sour note.”

The current trigger for talk about a boycott is the situation in Tibet. Many world leaders are uncomfortable seeing Tibetan demonstrators rounded up by Chinese troops, even if there is only a limited amount of reporting coming out of Lhasa because of Chinese restrictions on press coverage. The European Union has urged Beijing to not use force to stop the Tibetan protests. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged restraint on Chinese authorities and she’s encouraged them to open a dialogue with Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India.

The Dalai Lama has offered to engage in dialogue, even to reassure Beijing he does not favor separation. So far Beijing has ignored the offer, perhaps, says China expert Lieberthal, because “China is concerned that if the Dalai Lama did come back (eventually), the popular response could lead to a crisis much worse than we’re seeing now.” One State department official said recent comments by Chinese authorities have been “accusatory” toward the Dalai Lama, saying that he is “trying to disrupt the Olympics.”

While Tibet is in the spotlight now it is by no means the only point of contention between Beijing and the rest of the world. China’s position on Sudan’s Darfur region has antagonized many capitals, the feeling being that China is more interested in Sudan’s oil than in alleviating the suffering of those in Darfur.

In the State Department’s 2007 Human Rights report there is no shortage of complaints about China’s shortcomings. The report said China’s record “remained poor” last year, saying the government “continued to monitor, harass, detain, arrest, and imprison activists, writers, journalists and defense lawyers and their families, many of whom were seeking to exercise their rights under the law.”

While Rice and other American officials always bring up human rights issues in their discussions with the Chinese, the impact of these diplomatic protests is questionable. A State department official concedes that “it has certainly been true in the past in advance of some visits (by senior U.S. officials)…there have been releases of prisoners.” But, says the official, “it’s an up and down thing. Over time, some things get worse, some get better.”

According to last year’s report the getting worse category included “increased efforts to control and censor the Internet, and the government tightened restrictions on freedom of speech and the domestic press.”

So, Washington’s strategy is twofold: urge restraint on China as it acts to stop demonstrations and counsel dialogue between Beijing’s leaders and the Dalai Lama even as President Bush and Secretary Rice make their plans to attend the Olympics which they see as simply “an important international sporting event.”

Meanwhile, it's taken the Chinese almost two weeks to give one permission for one U.S. diplomat to visit Lhasa to see first hand what the situation is like in Tibet’s capital.

Will there be a boycott? Between now and the scheduled opening of the games in August the Olympic torch will travel thousands of miles over several continents covering a path which includes Tibet. “A lot more will happen,” predicts China expert Lieberthal. “We will see additional efforts made by various groups-those tied to Darfur, to Tibet and others and I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it.”

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