Why does everyone like China?
I don’t get it. Communist USSR was considered an enemy country. Communist Cuba is still an enemy country, and we have economic sanctions against them. Communist Korea is an enemy country, and we have sanctions against them too. Communist China, however, is an ally, and we trade with them all the time. They have a veto in the UN Security Council, which is designed to, among other things, protect human rights. At the same time, they beat elderly mourners when they try to pay their respects to previous political leaders (Zhao was the leader of the Communist party, until he decided that the Tiananmen Square massacre was not a good thing. He was then put under house arrest for 15 years, and passed away last week). They censor news stories, they arrest peaceful protesters. If you do something they don’t like, they take you away in the dead of night and you are never heard from again. They persecute Bhuddists. Why on earth are they considered such a great country? Why are we holding the Olympics there? Why do they have so much power over human rights in the UN? Why don’t we have sanctions against them? Why on Earth does everyone like China!?
This started this forenoon when I went to a talk about the Darfur Conflict (which was aggravating in and of itself – 2 million people have died, and except for the US and Germany, no one has declared this genocide. This is bigger than Rwanda, Cosovo, and Chechnya put together). One of the more interesting points I heard at the talk was this: the Janjaweed people are able to kill and rape everyone else in Darfur because they are being armed by foreign countries. Chief among them – China and Pakistan, who also happen to own 70% of the oil in Sudan. Pakistan has a lot of issues, so while I do not condone this, I am at least able to half-understand where they’re coming from. China however, has gone one step further – it has been using its clout in the UN to impede peace-keeping missions, sanctions, and other ways to stop the killings.
This evening, on the front page of Slashdot, I find this story. It’s advice for people going to China, telling them how to maintain their privacy. As far as I can tell (for example, from this comment), there is no privacy at all. There are police everywhere with automatic rifles, making sure that no one steps out of line.
And yet the Bush administration, along with what seems like everyone else, loves China. Is it because they are huge? Trading with them will only reinforce the government, which will lead to more censorship and oppression. Are people afraid of them? Better to head off problems now than ignore them until they get out of hand. What is going on here? I don’t understand.
1/ The culture is rich and exotic. People seem to be fascinated by such things like the food, the architecture, the history, etc. Not to mention the martial arts movies.
2/ China was our ally against the USSR. China and the USSR, despite being both Communist, were not happy campers. There was a very strong fear of war with the USSR and many troops were deployed along that border. Sino-Soviet relations started out nicely, though turned sour.
3/ China is Communist? ROTFL! China may be Communist by name, but it is definitely a free-wheeling market economy, complete with the big corporations and robber barons that dominated the USA at the turn of the start of the 20th Century. Health care is being dismantled; people have to buy health insurance instead of receiving free health care. Unemployment benefits are slim to none. There are layoffs everywhere. There really isn’t a welfare infrastructure in place any more. Etc.
4/ The USA cares about human rights? Heck no. The USA is more concerned about political capital than about lofty goals of human rights. Looks at the installation of facist governments by the USA for the purpose of “stopping the spread of Communism.” We have had no qualms with installing a terrible non-human-rights government in countries where democratic elections installed leftist governments. That having been said, the USA constantly criticizes China for its human rights record, but really, the Chinese human rights record really isn’t that bad. Or at least, not as bad as it used to be. Those in power in China are more concerned these days with material riches (hence the high level of corruption in the government there) than with political power.
5/ US policy towards China is governed by all this. China is peaceful. They have no desire to spread the Gospel of Communism around the world like the USSR did. They have no desire to spread their sphere of influence. They are perfectly content with staying isolated within their borders pursuing whatever domestic policy they want. The Chinese army, though huge, is pathetic and is designed more for security than for conquest. And the only place China even has a desire to conquer is Taiwan, and and that’s a special case because Taiwan in Chinese (whereas the USSR wanted to dominate over non-Russian areas like Eastern Europe). They are not viewed as a threat to the USA. Furthermore, they are a strong economic partner. And as much as liberals love to complain about how free trade with China is bad for us, the bottom line is that free trade with China is excellent not only for the Chinese economy, but for ours as well. Sure, our manufacturing sector gets screwed, but manufacturing is a dying sector in the USA anyway and accounts for only a small portion of the economy (though the drunk-on-power labor unions would have you believe otherwise), and in all, trade with China was greatly enriched the USA as a whole.