China forcibly aborts pregnant women, flouts international human rights and labor conventions, beggars its trading partners by artificially devaluing its currency, and threatens to undermine the peace of the Asian-Pacific. And all the Obama administration can think to do is fete the Chinese Communist Party’s heir apparent.
The Obama administration seems to have a new motto: “don’t
bite the hand that feeds you.” Or maybe that has been their
motto all along.
Either way, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to
the United States only solidified this impression. The Politburo of
the Chinese Communist Party has selected Xi to become China’s next
president, to help them maintain their stranglehold on the world’s
second-largest economy and most populous country.
Did the Obama administration take this opportunity to reaffirm
American principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
Did they seize the moment to put pressure on China’s
dictator-in-waiting to correct his Party’s wrongheaded persecution
of political dissidents, Catholic believers, pregnant women, ethnic
minorities, etc. Did they bring up any of the myriad human rights
abuses that his Party commits against the Chinese people?
Not really. They mainly just talked about money.
Britain’s The
Telegraph summed it up nicely when it referred to the visit as
a “carefully choreographed” state event that
represented little more than a “‘relationship-building
exercise’ before Mr Xi takes the reins of power in Beijing this
autumn.” Let all make nice, in other words.
A look
at Obama’s
own remarks make this even clearer. His speech focused almost
entirely on the economic ties between China and the United States.
He praised what he called the “very extensive strategic and
economic dialogues between our two countries,” without
mentioning that these talks have produced very little of value.
Astonishingly, he claimed that a “strong and prosperous China
is one that can help to bring stability and prosperity to the
region and to the world,” without mentioning that China’s
growing economic and military might is a threat not only to its
neighbors, but to the existing world order dominated by the United
States.
Obama had virtually nothing to say on the entire area of human
rights. At one point, glancing airily away from Xi, he said that
the United States would always stress the “importance of
recognizing the aspirations and rights of all people,” a
comment so vague as to be meaningless. What aspirations? What
rights? What people? Obama does not say.
In fact, Obama said very little of substance about anything
(something that he excels at). He did not even bring up China’s
blatant manipulation of its currency, which is costing the U.S.
hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade deficits. All he
said about China’s unfair trade practices in general was that
“we want to work with China to make sure that everybody is
working by the same rules of the road when it comes to the world
economic system.” This is like witnessing an armed robbery in
progress and merely shaking a finger at the gunman: “You
really should play by the same rules as everyone else.”
Vice President
Biden, in his commentary, did manage to bring up the question
of human rights, although he was hopelessly vague on specifics.
Advocacy for human rights is “a fundamental aspect of
[American] foreign policy,” he said. America has been
“clear about our concern over the areas in which from our
perspective conditions in China have deteriorated and about the
plight of several very prominent individuals.” He came off
sounding apologetic for even bringing up the subject. Moreover, it
is perfectly clear to everyone with more than two neurons to rub
together that China is becoming more and more of a police state,
and that the Obama administration has been mostly silent as Vice
President Xi and his partners in crime continue to ruthlessly crush
all dissent.
But the emphasis on money über alles went far
beyond the repeated — and deferential — mention of
America’s trade relationship with China. Xi was taken on
a tour of farming facilities in Iowa, before being whisked away to
Hollywood to talk to prominent figures in the film, business, and
sports industries. The message in the bottle? Please buy our
agricultural products and, by the way, please don’t forget to pay
royalties on our intellectual property.
China, Inc. pirates billions of dollars in American movies,
songs, and software every year. Senior Chinese officials profit
from this illicit trade, while the Obama administration mumbles
platitudes.
China is a rich nation as a result of its “beggar thy
neighbor” policies, and is growing richer every year. Cheap
money, cheap labor, and willingness to violate international
agreements gives them an unbeatable advantage in the
marketplace.
Meanwhile, we continue to spend ourselves into poverty and are
reduced to begging this band of thugs to buy our debt. Hillary
Clinton set the tone of this administration in 2009 when
she famously
assured China that human rights concerns would take a backseat
to financial considerations.
Even as the organized crime syndicate that controls China
continues to pick our pockets.
