From Stark:
Chinese President Hu Jintao apparently got an earful from Congressional leaders of both parties during his visit to Washington D.C. Thursday, Jan. 20.
American political leaders are pressing China on nuts-and-bolts stuff like intellectual property law, access to Chinese consumer markets and currency policies. But both Nancy Pelosi and John McCain, among other notables, have also raised human rights concerns.
Does it accomplish anything when U.S. leaders lecture another country about human rights abuses? Do you think it’s likely to push the target country toward reform? Or will it only make matters worse? Are U.S. leaders pressing these issues out of real concern about human rights, or are they just posturing to impress their own constituents?
Posturing.
China is smart – we are dumb.
China invests in infrastructure both at home and abroad to the tune of over 15% of their GDP.
We invest in Hamid Karzai and the Iraqi-Irani coalition in the hope of a share in their oil development contracts.
We don’t put dissenters in prison,
but we imprison without charges or trials or sentences.
Maybe the Chinese would have a word about the soldier tortured in solitary for alleged WikiLeaks without a trial?
We don’t force workers to accept city life in lieu of building dams meant to flood their farms,
but we don’t execute profiteers that poison the food supply either even when deaths result.
China doesn’t make an industry out of demonizing half the planet,
they form partnerships that provide strength and economic stability even among those they might have disagreements with.
There are four times as many of them as there are of us,
yet we want them to copy our chaotic form of governance that sees a few succeed at the expense of the many?
The trouble with posturing is that after the photo-op,
the slouch is still apparent and predominates reality.
It make the suits we wear fit sloppily and the padding we need to stand erect look foolish.
“Are U.S. leaders pressing these issues out of real concern about human rights, or are they just posturing to impress their own constituents?”
Call me cynical, but I lost interest when I realized it was Chairman Hu and not Dr. Who that was coming to visit the U.S.
Boy Citizen hit it on the head on the infrastructure thing. They are killing us on that. We spend in the single digits on infrastructure.