Stop Deluding Ourselves About China

May 2, 2011


After nine years working with Chinese human rights activists, Kate Krauss of the AIDS Policy Project has come to the following important conclusion in The Washington Post:

Chinese leaders have been in power so long that we may forget that no one elected them. Their regime is no more legitimate than those of Libya or Yemen. If elections were held tomorrow, the leaders might all be swept away. But there are no elections on the horizon. For decades, the U.S. government has aided the regime by supporting China's economic aspirations, including permanent normalized trade relations, which have allowed it to reap huge profits — enriching the Central Committee and the unelected elite.

Many observers believe that China is becoming an economic powerhouse that has no intention of becoming a democracy. In 20 years, China may be emboldened even further to violently repress its own people.

Given this record, at what point do we stop seeing China as a flawed but dynamic nation on the road to democracy and start seeing the Chinese government as a violent, destabilizing, and autocratic regime on the order of, say, Iran?

Where do we, the American people, draw the line?

We have to stop deluding ourselves. China is governed by a violently repressive regime. And the United States, through its economic policies, is helping it stay that way.