April 5, 2001
Volume 3/ Number 11
Dear Colleague:
As American sailors are being held hostage for further American concessions, and their battered surveillance plane is being stripped on a Chinese runway, it is time that we abandoned the pretence of normal relations with China.
Steven W. Mosher
President
Time to Boycott Chinese Goods
Despite the claim of the pro-business types that democracy follows markets, China remains today a one-party dictatorship boasting one of the worst human rights records in the world. Their oppressive one-child policy, the genocide of the Tibetan people, and the persecution of Christians and Buddhists are only a few of the reasons why the Chinese Communists have become a byword for brutality.
Ruling by force and the threat of force, this government is almost by definition a danger to its own people and to the world. Now it is endangering our military personnel as well. How should we deal with this new hostage crisis?
I urge all Americans, of both political parties, to join together with Population Research Institute in a nationwide boycott of all Chinese-made goods.
China believes, as one Chinese official has said, that “business is business, and politics is politics.” That is, Chinese leaders believe that they can continue to hold our crew hostage and, at the same time, continue to rack up a hefty trade surplus of $83 billion a year, or $1 1/2 billion a week.
American consumers have to let China know that they are wrong. They have to say, “We will not spend one penny on Chinese-made goods as long as American military personnel are being held against their will.”
Chinese leaders may defy international law, they may ignore human rights, but they will surely take notice when their supply of U.S. dollars begins to trickle off.
Let us remember that this is not the first act of aggression by the Communist Chinese against the United States. Nor will it be the last. It is simply part of a greater plan to break the back of the United States in Asia. In its drive for hegemony in Asia and the rest of the world, China will continue its territorial expansion into the South China Sea and will increase its threats toward Taiwan. China is the only major country currently undertaking a significant military expansion. This does not bode well for China’s neighbors, nor for the United States.
The time to send a message is now: Don’t Buy Chinese goods.
