The China bully
When President Franklin Roosevelt was scolded for aiding
the Caribbean dictatorship of "that s.o.b." Generalissimo Rafael
Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, FDR replied, "He may be an s.o.b.,
but he’s OUR s.o.b."
But brutal masters of mainland China don’t even meet
that dubious test of international political pragmatism.
The People’s Republic of China is a rogue. It refuses to
submit to even basic laws of civilized behavior. And when confronted with
objections from benefactors, it responds with more bellicose behavior.
China’s sheer size¾ 1.3 billion people¾ makes it an
indisputable plum for industries seeking new export markets, and therein
lies the nexus of Washington’s shameless, wimpy policies.
Even after crewmen of the downed U.S. surveillance plane
were grilled into exhaustion; even after the Chinese have refused to
return the aircraft; even after Beijing has threatened the United States
if it supplies exotic defensive arms to tiny Taiwan, and even after China’s
human rights abuses are eloquently documented, Washington cowers to China’s
bullying, even benignly characterizing it as a "partner."
Appeasement doesn’t work. One European state after
another learned that bloody lesson by giving Adolph Hitler his way.
Is it too much to expect U.S. policymakers to muster the
courage to treat China with the same sanctions used against China’s
pipsqueak Marxist soul mate, Cuba, whose abuses are petty compared to
China’s gross crimes?
Or, does U.S. policy accommodate American industry’s
expectations of windfall profits from a regime that butchers its own
people and rejects global rules of conduct?
