My feelings toward Hillary Clinton and her campaign couldn’t be a lot dimmer, but I have to credit her for an anti-China line so firm that it caused one of her advisors to quit. Richard Baum of UCLA’s Center for Chinese Studies accuses Hillary of taking “the low road” on the issue, but she’s done exactly the opposite.
On the question of human rights, Baum said he and others in the advisory group believe the Chinese leaders respond better to persistent advice than “self-righteous finger-pointing aimed at publicly shaming and humiliating them.”
This is the biggest line of bullshit in international relations today. The Chinese government doesn’t respond better to gentle “advice” — it just doesn’t respond.
But more to the point, wonks like Baum don’t mean what they say. Their goal isn’t to apply the most effective pressure to China, it’s to remove the pressure altogether. As Ian Buruma just wrote in The New Yorker: “Who wouldn’t prefer to make deals in a country without independent trade unions? Who would turn down the chance to redesign entire cities without public interference?” That’s what lies between the lines of comments like Baum’s. The purpose is not to guide China as gently as possible toward democracy; it’s to prolong the anti-democratic status quo for the benefit of corporations.
China, to recap, funds political murder in Sudan, Burma, Zimbabwe, Tibet and elsewhere and puts people in jail for the crime of blogging. Heaven forbid we should “publicly shame and humiliate” leaders like these.
Spielberg pulled out of his creative-consultant role in the Olympics; Quincy Jones has not. “I care too much about Darfur and China, and if I can stay in the game with others like us, I feel we can make a difference,” says Q. I respect the man, but he’ll make no difference at all. More dissidents will be jailed, more people displaced. Making a difference is exactly what the Games will prevent.
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