CHINA’S HUMAN RIGHTS FOR SALE

 by Dr. David B. Axelrod

 Recently a Chinese friend of mine, a naturalized U.S.citizen, received a call that one of his cousins back in China had disappeared. He risked his own safety by traveling back to Chinato try and help his family. It seems the cousin had been picked up by the authorities and no further word on his whereabouts or status with the law was forthcoming. Once again, the tyranny which is Chinais apparent to all those who care to see. There is no freedom, no rule of law. 

As a founder and the Vice President of a not-for-profit organization promoting Chinese-American understanding, I hear such stories regularly. I lived inChinain the 90’s and have visited back a number of times. While our leaders might say otherwise, anyone who assessesChinahonestly must conclude that, for all the talk of democratization,China’s increasing economic power has done little to improve the human rights of its nearly 1.3 billion citizens. There is little resembling a “rule of law.” People are still unable to speak freely, let alone publish their ideas in print or on-line. They can not gather in any numbers. They are unable to practice their religion except within strict dictates of their government. They are restricted in nearly every way that we Americans would expect, ourselves, to be free.

Yet, our own official foreign policy is to ignore, or worse, lie about the conditions in China. Our leaders foster the belief that with economic growth,China will also see the virtues of democracy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The danger of such dreaming is that China is increasingly able to control us, limiting our options to reign in the tyranny China represents a major threat to our own freedom here in the U.S.. No, not a military but an economic threat just as real and potentially devastating to our way of life.

Nothing could be more indicative of the growing “Red Menace” than U.S.relations with Taiwan. It isn’t bad enough that the U.S.and its mass media now refer to those in Tibet who want to restore their independence as “separatists” or worse, terrorists. Now, the U.S. is trying to tell Taiwan’s President, Chen Shui-bian, that he should do nothing to arouse China’s  government, lest he provoke their military wrath. President Chen had the nerve to suggest that his people could vote in a referendum on whether to officially protest China’s growing number of missiles and military build-up being directed at Taiwan. Clearly, such a vote is a not-so-subtle statement that Taiwan wishes to be independent of the mainland.

President Bush cautioned that such a referendum would upset the status-quo. Clearly we’ve drifted ever so far from the rallying cries to defend Quemoy and Matsu (islands claimed by both Taiwanand the mainland) in the 50’s and 60’s. Now we have not only pledged ourselves to the mainland, we are joining the campaign to intimidate and silence the entire Taiwan. It can’t be long before we acquiesce to mainland wishes that Taiwan be subdued. After all, the British left Hong Kong to the grinding wheels of tyranny. The U.S., never to be outdone, would therefore have to take an active hand in the destruction of Taiwanese democracy.

Just after the British surrender of Hong Kong, characteristic propaganda slogans began appearing in large, colorful letters on walls and in public places of the City, touting how important it was to “work for the public good.” School books were changed to present a message that not only promoted obedience but denigrated individualism. Beijing continues to chip away at democracy, as likely maddened by the slow pace that public opinion seems to require.

The Taiwanese will probably not fare so well. An invasion may not be imminent, but it seems likely that U.S. and other countries’ singular desire to trade with China will embolden the mainland tyrants to tighten their control of Taiwan. Democracy will fall far faster in Taiwan than the graceful lowering of the British flag over the Governor’s mansion in Hong Kong. As for the U.S., if we were to come to our senses, it is probably already too late to change course. China’s surging economy has become a better weapon than anything nuclear.

As surely as China’s soaring  hydrocarbons emissions and ecological havoc are not, after all, so blatant as a nuclear attack, the strangulation of freedom within China and its neighbors now passes for “free trade.” What a misnomer that is! The ultimate consequence of the U.S. sell-out of human rights in other countries is that our own freedoms are inevitably going to be sacrificed to China’s ever-growing demands.