What are you saying we should do? Nuke Them Because They Are Bad?
Are you suggesting that what happened at Tiananmen justifies blowing up the Chinese embassy?
The point that those of us you call apologists are trying to make - which you have not responded to in any coherent form - is that US policy toward China is not and should not be based on classifying the Chinese Government as "good" or "bad". It is a question of encouraging a transition which is already in progress, and maneuvering to strengthen the hand of the more moderate elements within the Chinese system. Taking a hostile and truculent stance will achieve the opposite of this goal, strengthening the hand of the hardliners and pushing China back toward Cold-War-Enemy status. Is that what we want? Some people do seem lonely without an enemy, but that hardly seems a reason to go around making them.
Let's show a wee bit of pragmatism, please. China has made very real progress in opening their economy in the last ten years. Economic liberalization inevitably leads to political liberalization; if they are moving on the economic front, it makes perfect sense to encourage them there.
The spying issue has been blown way out of proportion for purely political reasons. Everybody spies on everybody, all the time, and everybody knows it. Domestic counterespionage is not the job of the President or "the Administration", it is handled by career employees at the FBI and the agencies in question. It is convenient and fun to blame everything on a deservedly unpopular President, but roasting the delicate evolution of our relations with China with no reason beyond a desire to find one more cause for embarrassment is just plain silly.
If the Republicans are seriously interested in winning the upcoming election, they should be spending as much energy in defining their own policies as they are in attacking Clinton, who will not even be running. Maybe you should take the same route. We all know what you think policy toward China should not be. What do you think it should be, and why? What do you think the short, medium, and long-term objectives should be, and how do you think they should be pursued? |
