Last week, as expected, the International Olympic Committee chose China as the host city for the 2008 Summer Olympiad. Also as expected, several U.S. lawmakers and policymakers immediately jumped on the anti-China bandwagon, emphasizing – mostly – China’s well-deserved record of poor human rights.
“This decision will allow the Chinese police state to bask in the reflected glory of the Olympic games despite having one of the most abominable human rights records in the world,” lamented Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif.
Rep. Christopher Smith, R-Calif., said giving Chinese the games while they “hold American citizens and permanent residents hostage is a disgrace. It sends a dangerous message to the communist leadership that their egregious violations of human rights, persecution of religious believers and harassment of American citizens may continue without any consequences.”
“We have just sent China one big wrong signal and that is that the civilized nations of the world are not really concerned enough about their human rights abuses and their militarism to treat them any differently than a democratic country,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, another California Republican.
“We should remember Hitler’s march into the Rhineland in 1935 and Brezhnev’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, both of which occurred just before both dictators hosted the Olympic Games,” said Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C.
OK, it is true that China has an abysmal civil rights record. It’s also true that China crushes dissent. And it’s true that China’s communist government is dictatorial in nature. Can’t deny any of this.
But come on – is there no limit to U.S. hypocrisy?
Why is it only OK to bitch about China’s “abysmal” human rights record when the China subject is about anything other than money?
How many times over the past decade have you heard most lawmakers say that China’s human rights record doesn’t or shouldn’t matter when, for instance, the debate turns to the annual approval process for China’s normal trade status?
When it comes to the twin issues of trade and moneymaking, U.S. leaders seem hasty to forget about China’s poor record of defending human rights. When it comes to ensuring that the interests of our lawmakers’ corporate benefactors are at stake, human rights in China – suddenly – isn’t a big deal anymore.
Chinese behavior, such as that which occurred at Tiananmen Square in 1989, is either an unfathomable act of cruelty or it’s not. It’s either a crushing example of anti-libertarian behavior all of the time or none of the time – not just when it’s politically convenient to point it out.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m proud to be an American and am trying to teach my children that they too should be proud to be Americans. None of us ever want to live in a country as oppressive as communist China.
Also, I’m a capitalist; I support genuinely free trade and corporate growth, because as our corporate and industrial economic base grows, our own people are enriched and jobs are created. That’s good.
But once – just once – I wish our leaders and policymakers would demonstrate a consistent and genuine courage of their own alleged convictions.
If an abysmal human rights record is a good enough reason to withhold the right to host the world’s premier sporting event, then it’s a good enough reason to withhold favorable trade status as well.
We can’t turn indignant only when it is cost-free.
Related offer:
Are the Chi-Coms using U.S.? In “Selling Out America,” Kenneth Timmerman explores America’s ties to Beijing. Available in WorldNetDaily’s online store.
The end of Obama – thankfully
Jack Cashill