Every year, China issues a report on human rights in the United States. Most view the report as something of a joke. It was originally created as China's response to the US's "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," in which China is frequently and harshly criticized. This is just China's way of turning the tables.
In their desire to strike back at the US for its arrogance, however, the Chinese have given us an opportunity. China is not likely to ever make unilateral concessions on human rights or democracy. As a rule, unilateral concessions of any kind are bad diplomatic practice. That means that any improvement of human rights in China will have to be part of a bilateral agreement. So, what if we chose to take the Chinese human rights report seriously? What if Obama called for a large-scale human rights conference for the US and China to work on a plan to improve human rights in both countries? Even if the Chinese originally meant their report as a joke, they would be forced to act as though it were serious in order to save face.
Besides, the Chinese human rights report makes some good points. If they can help us reduce violent crime, corruption, drug abuse, prison overcrowding, disease, government wiretapping, poverty, and other such problems in our country, that would be good for everybody.
2 comments:
You're right, I do view this as an opportunity. If they want to point fingers maybe we should come together and work things out and try to get both sides to do better.
Also yes, we Americans are a little too arrogant at times. We're a great country but nobody is perfect Perhaps if we were humble we could learn something from the Chinese.
Lastsly, I have several people from China working with me. (Physics is full of Chinese scientists.) More than one has told me wealth and education has increased sharply in China and with that wealth and education has come a demand for better rights. Their point is, though China is still guilty of many problems, in their view the people are demanding the government treat them better.
We will see if it works or if it is all in these academic's heads.
Rising income and liberalization do tend to go together, it's true. But the likelihood of civil war dramatically decreases as income rises, so at this point I don't think we can expect change to be effected by a popular uprising or anything. If China changes, it will have to be from the top down. Popular pressure can play a role in motivating leaders to make a change, but international bargaining helps too. At the very least, it gives them an excuse to make changes they know in their hearts they want to make anyway! ;)
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