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Jewish World Review April 20, 2001 / 27 Nissan, 5761
Michael Ledeen
But these talks are part of an enormously important process,
in which the survival of the United States may very well be at
stake, and we must hope that the new administration
appreciates their significance. For the first time, the Chinese
have confronted us directly, and we must finally deal with
China as a discrete problem. During the Cold War, we used
China as a counterweight to the Soviet Empire, and as a
vantage point from which to survey Soviet military
developments. The Chinese exploited this position as best
they could, but the relationship was defined by our mutual
concern about Soviet power, not by the basic issues between
us.
Not that we have not dealt with divisive and contentious
issues before, but these have concerned other countries and
peoples: Taiwan, Japan, North Korea, and India, among
others. The present talks are not about other countries; they
are about our relationship itself.
We are in a good position. Unlike the Clintons, our new
leaders owe nothing to Beijing. W.'s campaign was not
underwritten with Chinese money, and, unlike the Clintons,
W. has no ideological reflex that leads him to sympathize with
the Chinese tyrants. He can see China plain, with its
commercial allure and its military and political menace, and he
should be able to see that China is enormously vulnerable to
our most potent weapons, which are the unparalleled success
of American enterprise, and the irresistible appeal of the free
society that created it.
The chatterers are busily adding up the points in the current
debate over our surveillance flights, and have lost sight of the
fundamental, inescapable conflict that led to the current
situation: the conflict between freedom and slavery. The
Chinese tyrants hate us, and they are right to hate us, for our
very existence threatens their legitimacy. Do not think that
the Chinese are upset by our actions, which are no different
from their own (they routinely carry out surveillance flights
throughout the region); they are upset because they know we
are the inspiration of those who demand greater political
freedom within China itself. We have forgotten that the brave
Chinese democrats built a statue of liberty in Tiananmen
Square at the heart of Beijing; the rulers of the People's
Republic carry that wound within them. We listen attentively
to Chinese sermons on the historic importance of Taiwan to
the Chinese peoples, forgetting that Taiwan was part of
Chinese dominion for only a few years out of millennia. It is
not national pride that drives Beijing to demand the
annexation of Taiwan; it is the rulers' fear that the mainland
peoples will insist that they freely choose their own leaders,
as the Taiwanese do.
In order to keep their own peoples in line, the Chinese tyrants
must constantly demonstrate that the American dream is an
illusion, and that Chinese power is the dominant force in the
field. To that end, they arbitrarily arrest American scholars
on Chinese soil, and defy us to extend the realm of freedom
into the Inner Kingdom. In like manner, they denounce those
few American scholars who criticize the People's Republic,
and they refuse to grant them visas. Indeed, they even deny
tourist visas to their children, lest the message be
misunderstood.
The best way to deal with such people is to constantly remind
them of their vulnerability, to encourage them to change their
ways, and to denounce them when they refuse. We should
take every opportunity to demand the abolition of the vast
Chinese gulag of political prisoners and slave labor. We
should demand the release of the Americans they have
arrested. We should remind them that they are in violation of
the United Nations Charter when they suppress the free
practice of religion.
W. should tell his negotiators to use the talks to expand the
agenda. If the Chinese insist that they will only discuss the
question of surveillance, we should reply that we do not feel
the same need to carefully watch free peoples, and that such
problems are best solved by addressing the root cause of our
prudent watchfulness.
And, because we do live inside the Beltway, the White
House should remind the chatterers that we are the only truly
revolutionary society on earth, and that China's vaunted
sensitivity is no different from the "paranoia" of the other
tyrannies of the last century, all of whom were driven to
challenge America because they feared our revolution would
eventually lead to their own destruction.
As indeed it
04/11/00: EXAM TIME!
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