You know, there are some days when I just hate China. Not real China (Taiwan), but Communist China. And not the people of Communist China, but its repressive government. The Associated Press has an article this morning entitled "Bush's plan to award Dalai Lama angers China." The article says the following:
"While the Dalai Lama is lauded in much of the world as a figure of moral authority, Beijing reviles the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and claims he seeks to destroy China's sovereignty by pushing for independence for Tibet, where the Dalai Lama is considered a god-king. China warns that a planned White House meeting Tuesday between Bush and the Dalai Lama and a public ceremony Wednesday to award the spiritual leader the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal are bad for U.S.-Chinese ties."
An independent Tibet destroys Chinese sovereignty? How so? We're not talking about the U.S. invading and destroying China. The issue is an independent Tibet.
China has pulled these stunts before. When Ronald Reagan was asked if he favored "official relations" with Taiwan, he replied, "I guess I'd say yes." Immediately, Red China's government responded that Reagan had just insulted millions of Chinese people. Wrong! Reagan insulted a repressive Chinese dictatorship, which killed millions of Chinese people. Unfortunately, if memory serves me correctly, Reagan retracted his statement. Where was Mr. "Tear Down This Wall" then?
Even fiction has reflected China's attempts to intimidate us. I remember an episode of The West Wing in which a Senator was urging the U.S. to support Taiwan. The Chinese delegation met with the President's people and threw a fit. I vaguely recall that the President backed down.
Both the Left and the Right have appeased this dictatorship. In the 1960's, it was the Left that supported Communist China, whereas the Right opposed it. You had Martin Luther King, Jr. saying that Red China should have a seat in the UN, while right-wing activist Carl McIntire protested the Chinese table tennis delegation with a placard saying, "Mao killed more Chinese than Hitler killed Jews." Good point, Carl! And, regarding King, how could someone who fought for freedom at home be so callous to freedom abroad? I mean, would King have supported letting Nazi Germany have a seat in the UN, if it were still around in the 1960's? What makes Communist China any different? In the past, the Left has been pretty selective about the human rights abuses it has criticized. It supported giving Red China a seat in the UN, yet it demanded that the world punish and isolate South Africa. Go figure!
Today, ironically, the Right supports Red China, while the Left opposes it. The Right favors free trade with China, whereas concerns about Chinese human rights abuses are more likely to come from the Left. (At long last, the Left opposes communism! Where was it during the Cold War?) And, over the years, under Republican auspices, the U.S. has come to depend on China for a variety of things. We benefit from the cheap Chinese goods that enter this country (not counting the poison toys). The Bush Administration allowed China to buy out our debt. And China has played a huge role in Bush's North Korea policy. Can China seriously hurt us if we tick it off? Is that why U.S. leaders back down from it all the time?
I hope that we haven't given up the store, and that China needs us as much as we need it. Does China benefit from free trade the same way that we do? Is China also afraid of a nuclear North Korea? Would China be reluctant to hurt us economically, since it needs our business? I certainly hope so! Otherwise, China will continue to push us around.
For the record, I actually support free trade with China. I think that the way to bring freedom to that country is to offer it a taste of what we have, and that can occur through trade. Giving the Chinese a chance to buy our goods and to make choices as consumers is making them freer. And many Chinese people hate their government. They want to be like us. I hope this means that their dictatorship is beginning to crumble. How to deal with China's economic shenanigans and unfair trade practices, I do not know. And, as far as I could see, the Republican free traders running for President have offered no solutions either (unfortunately).
As far as China and North Korea are concerned, we must get to the point where a nuclear North Korea (or any nation) cannot hurt us. That's why we desperately need a missile defense system. Do we have the technology for that yet? Putin of Russia doesn't want such a system to protect Europe, so maybe the technology does exist. Bush should move beyond talking about it and start putting it in place. Then, we wouldn't depend on China as much for our security.
I'm not a foreign policy expert, but these are my views on China. We shouldn't isolate it, but we should respect human rights. We also should support people in Tibet and Taiwan who want to be free from this repressive dictatorship. Tibet desires independence, and Taiwan simply wants to be left alone. Hopefully, we still have leverage, and Bush continues his plan to honor the Dalai Lama.