Grading Reform (in Syria) and Engagement (with China)

APRIL 29, 2011


For years, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has been lauded internationally as a "reformer."

So how are his "reforms" coming along?

From the AP:

Falling back on the tactics that have kept his family in power for more than 40 years, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad is gambling that fear — not reform — will break the popular revolt against his autocratic rule.

Al Assad's initial reaction to the uprising that began last month was to couple dry promises of reform with force to quell the discontent and keep his grip on power.

But when protests only grew, he turned to his overwhelming military power, intimidation, and terror — methods perfected by his late father, Hafez, who crushed an uprising in 1982 by shelling the town of Hama. Amnesty International has claimed that 10,000-25,000 were killed, though conflicting figures exist and the Syrian government has made no official estimate.

Meanwhile, China has been praised as a model for engagement (or "business first") with dictators.

So how is engagement influencing its human rights behavior?

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Australia's human rights dialogue with China has achieved little, with Chinese officials laughing off Australian concerns and exhaustively questioning Australia's own human rights performance, according to confidential US diplomatic cables [...]

Australian diplomats said the Chinese employed two tactics: ''First, [Assistant Foreign Minister] He and other Chinese officials would employ the 'You-don't-understand-China' laugh and dismiss Australian information as inaccurate. Second, the Chinese delegation would frequently try to run down the clock with long monologues.''

As a matter of fact, China's regime is currently undertaking one of its harshest crackdown on dissent since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

This has led The Economist to begrudgingly conclude:

"In the short term at least, these troubling developments undermine the comforting idea that economic openness necessarily leads to the political sort."

Final Grade: F on both fronts.

UPDATE from today's New York Times:

U.S. Envoy Sees ‘Backsliding’ of Human Rights in China

The chief United States representative to human rights discussions with China offered a cheerless portrait of those talks after their conclusion on Thursday, saying the United States was worried by “a serious backsliding” of freedoms in China and at loggerheads with Beijing officials over many aspects of the issue.