Politics

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The Danger of Our Dependency on China



By The Editors



Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that the United States government can pat its head and rub its stomach at the same time. Otherwise, all the attention focused on terrorism and Islamofascism will leave us vulnerable to an assortment of other festering dangers worldwide. While the national security community within the United States, including the American military, is capable of phenomenal accomplishments, it cannot protect the American people without sufficient leadership. And right now, it looks like the American leadership is willing to keep busy with terrorism and the Middle East while letting the developing danger of China continue to fester.



While the Chinese government has long been in the grips of a totalitarian ideology similar to and as dangerous as that of the Soviet Union, it has never been confronted with the same hardheaded determination for victory that ultimately ended the Cold War. The United States has adopted a different policy with China, hoping that increased economic contacts would force a political liberalization. But while Gorbachev proved incapable of allowing political freedoms while maintaining economic control, the Chinese leaders are displaying a remarkable ability to accomplish the opposite. In the decades since American-Chinese business interests began, the Chinese economy has become the fastest growing in the world while the United States is increasingly dependent on Chinese production, and labor and Chinese businesses engage in unfair practices worldwide.



Yet the American government appears unwilling to confront the reality of an ascendant China. Official Chinese literature and statements as well as concrete policy objectives show an eagerness to regain the traditional hegemonic role China played in Asia, despite America’s long-term policy of encouraging a regional balance of power. China is developing unequally dependent relationships with all the countries along its borders that necessarily subvert the role of the United States in the region. It has made no effort to shy away from its “One China” policy that demands reincorporation of Taiwan into mainland China.



It denounces American efforts to promote democracy worldwide as it recognizes the inherent threat of this policy to its own regime as well as the threat of such efforts to its fragile repression of ethnic minorities in its own western regions. And it is pursuing increasingly aggressive energy policies worldwide to match the massive demand of its growing economy, policies that have contributed significantly to the rise in international oil prices in the past year. Any of these issues eventually could spark into the conflict that many observers have long predicted.



Still the American government seems to sleep. The sad reality is that the business lobby is strong enough to silence the voices of protest that occasionally arise throughout the foreign policy establishment. The economic arguments here are complex and largely reflect reality in a future of globalization. But the security argument is clear – when multinational corporations based in the United States become dependent on the cheap labor, resources, and production costs of China, they work vigorously to prevent any American efforts to encourage political liberalization or protect human rights.



Recently, some technological companies have displayed a blatant willingness to compromise American values in exchange for access to China’s untapped markets, censoring the results of their search engines to prevent Chinese citizens’ access to certain “dangerous” words, such as democracy, freedom, or human rights. One such company had previously been accused of complicity with the Chinese government when it turned over information that led to the imprisonment of a dissident journalist. Do these companies have the legal right to seek as much profit as possible? Of course. Should the United States government and the American people make their opinion of these policies known? You bet.



The disappointing point, however, is that they won’t. The American government will release occasional statements of displeasure and the occasional lawmaker or officeholder will stand up and denounce Chinese human rights oppressions, violations of international law, or subtly aggressive foreign policy. But the government as a whole faces a despicable predicament. If it stands up for American values and attempts to protect American futures, it faces the immediate condemnation of international business interests that fund campaigns and facilitate deals.



The system as a whole may be too broken to fix quickly. But Americans at least need to know that the threat to their security coming from the Middle East is not the only one they need to defend against.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/global.php?id=1384877