There’s no question that economic issues are crucial. China is a major trading partner and investment destination for the U.S. For lack of other viable alternatives, China also buys massive amounts of Treasury Bills. Fine. The problem is not the Chinese share of our debt, but the debt itself -- which is truly alarming.
Still, it’s Pollyanna-ish to assume that China’s economic growth alone will inevitably lead to improvements in its human rights record. After all, we’ve been waiting decades for that to happen, and our diplomats admit there isn’t even a glimmer of hope on the horizon.
“The verdict is still out on whether prosperity ultimately leads to political freedom,” Lohman writes. “Nothing in the interim results has yet confirmed such a connection. And the payoff on the much better bet of economic freedom leading to political freedom has been delayed by the stalling of Chinese economic reforms short of true liberalization.”
It’s time for the administration to act, by making human rights once more a major concern of American diplomacy. The State Department reports offer excellent insights about human rights abuses around the world. The next step is to set human rights benchmarks and exercise diplomatic pressure to move offending regimes to meet them.
By holding Chinese officials to higher standards, our government can improve lives in China even more quickly than its growing economy has.