Power Over China -

I believe that there are only 3 ways to deal with others. The first - is from a position of mutual respect. The second is from a position of power me over them; and the third from a position of power them over me. I always like to begin with the first, I sometimes have to lapse into the second, and I hope I never have to succumb to the third.

When it comes to China mutual respect is clearly not at the table. The government of China is about as duplicitous as they get. As an example: they make their money selling their goods to the West and then they use that wealth and resulting power to support horribly oppressive regimes like Zimbabwe, Myanmar and North Korea.

Furthermore they often use their UN Security Council veto to impede the already minimal effectiveness of that body against the world’s worst offenders.

They have shown that they do not keep their promises. As an example, in order to get the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China pledged t allow open media access, and ease up on human rights violations. We all remember that those pledges were not kept.

So now comes another example of China’s duplicitous attitudes.

A few weeks ago, the US imposed import duties on Chinese made tires, and the Chinese decried such a move. But shortly thereafter China rejected a request from the EU and the US to eliminate import duties on chemical imports into China. As to their explanation (and I quote) “..it would be very difficult for us to try and persuade our industries to accept this…” Really! Talk about disingenuous. Such a statement might play in a democracy - where the administration was up for re-election. But this is China so who are they kidding. If they run protestors over with tanks, kill or imprison rebellious Tibetan monks or relocate millions to make way for the Olympics or any other project they choose do they really expect us to buy this “it would be difficult for us to persuade our industries” argument?

So we conclude that if we cannot deal with China from a position of mutual respect, we have to deal with them from a position of power. And rest assured WE… HAVE… THAT… POWER. We are their largest market. We can do without their cheap goods, but their industries need our markets to survive.

While China has no qualms about closing its borders to imported goods, it’s a shame our leaders are too afraid to exercise the real power we have.