A number of members of both houses of Congress (all of the Democratic Party persuasion) are quoted. All have nothing but nice things to say about China and the Gnomes of Beijing who run the place.
The WaPo grudgingly allows that this upbeat tone on the Hill does not reflect the views of the majority of Americans. The writer, John Promfit assigns this backwards attitude on the part of many in We the People to either China's Communist past or its record in the human rights department.
Duh!
Just how could so many otherwise sensible Americans be so wrong? How could affairs have come to such a sorry pass that We the People do not, as does one of the Congressional worthies notes, see "the Chinese as Chinese and not Communists?"
Guess it must be the sheer cussed reactionary nature of so many of us in the hoi polloi. Right, Senator Kerry? How else can it be that your wave of applause for the munificent and benevolent Chinese is not shared by every American who has not been duped by the barely concealed populist fascists of the Tea Party movement?
Or, to advance an alternative which is both more parsimonious and more rooted in the real world of evidence and behavior: The Americans who distrust the Chinese (even while buying the products of their factories and slave labor camps) have a far more accurate understanding of the Chinese government, its past and its future intentions than the assorted Democrats. Rather than irrational fear or the after effects of "a Cold War mentality," the distrust of China evinced in recent public opinion polls might be based on a coolly reasoned appraisal of the policies, actions, and rhetoric of the Chinese government.
While the Congresspeople and Senators may not know it, the only political party in the People's Republic of China is the Chinese Communist Party. (OK for you detail minded folks: There are another eight small parties, all controlled by the CCP.) This fact implies strongly that China is, in fact, a Communist country even though there is an obvious and large number of privately owned enterprises--all of which exist on government sufferance and will continue to operate only as long as it is the interests of the state and government.
Thus the distrust of Beijing because it is Communist is not a relic of the bad old days of the Cold War but a realistic appraisal of the current and future reality of China. Score one for the benighted American public.
While the Congresspeople and Senators may not know it, China is not, as one of the quoted Democrats averred, just like the UK, France, or Germany--but trying to play catchup in its lobbying activities. The UK, France, Germany may undertake a little discrete espionage against the US. Each of these long standing allies of the US may periodically undertake a bit of bash-on-Uncle-Sam.
China is in an entirely different category all together. Its espionage actions, including those of a cyber nature, far transcend in frequency, persistence, and breadth those of any other nation including the far-from-friendly Russia. On the diplomatic front China is normally opposed to any demarche at the UN and elsewhere which is supported by the US or its Western European associates. Whether the Iranian nuclear question, anthropogenic climate change, or any other matter of seemingly shared concerns, Beijing is always within the opposition.
The American hoi polloi is both aware of these facts and, unlike the aforementioned Democrats, factors its awareness into its appreciation of China's relation with the US both at the present and in the future. Score two for We the People.
Unmentioned in the encomiums flowing from the Democratic Party statesmen is the explosive growth of the Peoples Liberation Army. The Chinese possess a military capacity far surpassing any legitimate defense need. Further, all the straws in the defense wind indicate that the Chinese are neither slowing nor likely to slow the continued development of the PLA. Given the absence of any current or near-term threat to Chinese territory, the only plausible reason for the ongoing investment in the military is the utility of a large, modern and well equipped military as a diplomatic support instrument. (Whether a nation speaks loudly or softly it is more likely to be heard if it possesses a very big stick.
The American public is aware of this unmentioned T. rex at the dinner table even if the Deep Thinkers of the Democratic Party on the Hill are oblivious. Score three for We the People.
One fact of life mentioned by the Democrats is both real and very, very potent. China holds a lot of dollars and dollar denominated IOUs of American origin. This is the well known remember-boy-we-hold-your-note approach to life. The very fact that the Gnomes of Beijing hold multiple billions of our dollars and IOUs assures them of a quite respectful hearing on the Hill.
The attention and respect given to the needs, desires, and views of the Gnomes of Beijing grow in tandem with the Congressionally driven need to borrow ever increasing mountains of money to fund the dreams of the Progressive Caucus's (and President Obama's) Great Transformational Agenda. It may be mere coincidence but it is of more than passing interest that each and every of the quoted cheerleaders for China has voted for (1) TARP, (2) the stimulus bill, and (3) the most expensive of the health care overhaul measures (as well as other assorted "progressive" spending measures of dubious utility.
With the deficit already in numbers with which only astronomers are comfortable and the high probability it will go ever higher, the need for borrowing back more of the dollars spent by We the People on items of Chinese provenance comes more and more pressing. Since most if not all of the quoted Democrats are committed internationalists, the notion of exchanging diplomatic freedom as well as American national and strategic security for a large mess of potage is quite thinkable.
Perhaps the lure of more easily borrowed money is of such power that the assorted fine folks quoted can overlook such bagatelles as this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the midpoint of the Great Famine which accompanied the Chinese Great Leap Forward and cost, according to Chinese governmental figures, some fifty million Chinese lives. To this day the Beijing regime has never, never acknowledged the famine occurred as a result of state policy, state planning, state indifference, and state control of all aspects of Chinese life--and death.
Some of the people quoted in the WaPo article might be inclined to toss out that bit of critical history as irrelevant to today's world politics. Such cavalier dismissal of the greatest man-made famine in human history is, self-evidently, wrong.
Within today's Chinese senior leadership are to be found men who were present in junior roles during the two "Greats," the famine and the leap forward. They knew and know what happened and see no ethical problem. Instead they see lessons learned: Collectivism does not work, control, total control, of the media of communication, the writing of history, and the collective memory of the nation all work very well for regime maintenance.
Germany admitted its collective culpability for the Holocaust. The Soviet Union, long before its dissolution, acknowledged the central role played by both Stalin and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the vast famine in the Ukraine and elsewhere during its forced draft move to collectivize agriculture.
The Chinese government has never accepted the reality that its failed policy was the direct cause of the massive three year die-off of its own people. Nor is there any probability that Beijing will ever do so--even though the tail can be pinned on the dead donkey of Mao.
Compared to the Great Famine or the devastation brought by the Cultural Revolution, the more recent human rights abuses of the Beijing regime pale into virtual insignificance. This in no way downplays the responsibility of the Chinese government in its ongoing suppression of basic human rights. It in no way relieves the Gnomes of Beijing from their direct, personal guilt for the egregious violation of international conventions to which the regime has formally subscribed.
China is not like other countries. It is not like Germany, France, the UK or even Russia. It is not even in the same minor leagues of total disregard for basic human rights as the Saudis, the Egyptians, the Sudanese. It is one of a kind. A league of its own.
The American public--or at least a large portion of it--is evidently aware of this. The Democratic Party "China Lobby" is apparently not.
This degree of willful self-delusion must exist for a reason. There is a reason. It is to be found in that great nearly final line in the film Fargo. Perhaps you remember it--
"All of this. For a little bit of money."
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