The Condoleezza Rice ’08 contingent shouldn’t lose all hope after the secretary of state’s insistence last week that she wouldn’t seek the presidency; Rice has again proved her facility with bold, empty gestures during yesterday’s visit to China, when she took a break from talks with Communist Party leaders to attend a Palm Sunday service in a Protestant church shut down during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, but reopened in 1980. After the service and guest-book signing (“Yours in Christ, Condoleeza”), Rice spoke about the need for an atmosphere of religious freedom that “‘in fact allows in fact for the expansion of religion and communities of believers.'” Freedom to evangelize sounds great at home, as Rice knows well, and she also scored valuable campaign points with American Catholics and Upper West Siders by pressing for religious freedom on behalf of Chinese Catholics and Tibetan Buddhists. But until Falun Gong followers organize themselves into a stronger voting bloc, Condi has little time for their religious freedom.