COLUMN: Misguided on China

From Seth Lasser's "For Mass Consumption," Fall '96 From Seth Lasser's "For Mass Consumption," Fall '96Protecting Taiwan from itsFrom Seth Lasser's "For Mass Consumption," Fall '96Protecting Taiwan from itsaggressive neighbor is notFrom Seth Lasser's "For Mass Consumption," Fall '96Protecting Taiwan from itsaggressive neighbor is notAmerica's business. From Seth Lasser's "For Mass Consumption," Fall '96Protecting Taiwan from itsaggressive neighbor is notAmerica's business.The events of the past few weeks in the Taiwan Straits have provoked an outpouring of commentary from people across the nation and around the world. A profoundly problematic situation had arisen, with the People's Republic of China holding military exercises and firing live missiles in a show of force near Taiwan. In the chess game that is international relations, the entrance of the American knight onto the board -- the movement of the Seventh Fleet into the East China Sea -- was an easily predictable move, intended to prevent the possible engagement of the Chinese queen. The American reaction to the perceived threat from the Chinese was the proper move -- the best move made with respect to China in a long time. Because of its overall lack of clear direction, America's China policy under President Clinton is in need of repair. Since the Nixon administration's breakthrough with China in 1972, and the subsequent establishment of American diplomatic relations with China, the United States has had economic and military relations of varying degrees of warmth with both sides. In the last few years, however, there has been a breakdown in the ties between mainland China and the United States. Some date the problems to 1989, when Chinese authorities perpetrated the violent dispersal of a peaceful student protest in Tiananmen Square. People across the world were angered by the malicious and seemingly unnecessary attack on the democratic yearnings of Chinese students, and many began to question America's ties to China. As a result, during his presidential campaign, then-candidate Clinton's platform included a more hard-line stance toward China. Others place the cause of the breakdown of U.S.-Chinese relations on China's increasingly militant posturing, including a series of military maneuvers across the region that pre-dates last month's missile firings. Attempts to place the blame for the weakened ties between the United States and China squarely on the shoulders of the People's Republic of China are misguided, and fail to examine the issue from both sides. The Chinese feel our policy toward their nation aims at constraining rather than engaging them. A number of American actions lend credence to this view. First, the United States recently established diplomatic relations with Vietnam, a neighbor and long-time nemesis of China. America has also worked toward the strengthening of an alliance of southeast Asian nations whose obvious purpose is to serve as a counterweight to the growing might of the Chinese military. Perhaps more significantly, American pressure on perceived human rights violations, nuclear and missile proliferation and copyright infringement issues has been intense. Like any other nation, China doesn't like to be told what to do. As opposed to other countries, however, China is enormously powerful -- and her leaders know she doesn't have to bend to general American pressure. Many American threats against China are disobeyed in an outlandishly defiant manner. Last year, an American official made it explicitly clear that the United States wanted a speedy resolution to the case against American citizen Harry Wu. The next day, China charged him with espionage -- a crime that carries a penalty of death. In this light, it becomes evident that the real problem with America's China policy is that it covers too many issues and chooses poorly which ones to focus on. Human rights violations are but one example of this point. China persistently defends itself against international critiques of abusing its own citizens not by denying their occurrence, but by declaring them non-issues. In essence, the Chinese say to outsiders: "This is none of your business." The United States cannot have an effect on the internal affairs of China, and wastes valuable political capital when it attempts to do so. China's human rights record is a problem; it is not a problem that the U.S. government can have influence on. There are, however, a number of issues that the United States could have an impact on. China has been caught -- red-handed, if you will -- selling missiles and nuclear technology to nations like Pakistan and Iran, in violation of a non-proliferation treaty whose terms China has pledged to uphold. The sale of military technology to so-called rogue nations is an act that could endanger the peace of the world, and is thus most certainly international in nature. Proof of these allegations is not lacking; the CIA and international monitoring organizations concluded a year ago that Pakistan and Iran have acquired ballistic missile parts from China. Alas, the Clinton administration has dragged its feet in responding to these violations, justifying its lack of action by declaring that relations between our two nations are already strained. The Clinton policy of "engagement not containment" has proven to be empty rhetoric. Though perhaps paranoid, the Chinese sense our attempts at containment; furthermore, the United States has failed to engage China in successful dialogue on the issues that matter. Easing up on counter-productive areas and utilizing the world community to firmly enforce international regulations on nuclear weapons proliferation is the direction in which the United States must turn. Most importantly, we must not use the recent events in Taiwan as an impetus for binding our country closer to Taiwan. Considering our own Monroe Doctrine, such action would be hypocritical; considering the current disposition of the Chinese, such a move would be foolhardy.