American politicos who read this post will immediately think of Hillary Clinton, because some years ago she published a book titled, "It takes a village."
Well, that's no excuse for U.S.-China policy. That operation has been run, not by a village, but by criminals such as George H. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton.
I am not the only one who feels similar sentiments about U.S.-China policy.
On Friday, October 8, 2010, Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize and now the world has learned the story that Liu is still in jail, now being a political prisoner for the third time since the Tiananmen crackdown began.
At the moment, Liu Xiaobo may be experiencing so much world attention that he is "China's most famous dissident."
But, the long time holder of the title, "China's most famous dissident" is Wei Jingsheng, someone who fills a role for China analogous to Lech Walesa of Poland, who ran the Solidarity movement against the Communist government (back when Poland had a Communist government; Walesa and the freedom fighters won).
Wei referred to Hillary Clinton last week, in a TV broadcast that was beamed into China by Voice of America. Let's look carefully at Wei's words:
Currently, because of China's economic development, international society is hot on China's economic growth, and therefore grants political concessions to the Chinese authorities. Human rights gradually evolved into a political deal. Nowadays, both the West and China are too lazy even to do a deal. Little has improved on human rights in China, with more and more international concessions. Human rights are put aside. Even the newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State equivocated with "human rights are not our main topic" during her visit to China. Reduced pressure from the international community has made it more difficult for the Chinese people to realize their hope for democracy.
Wei used carefully-chosen words. He referred to "the newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State," and "her visit to China." It was 2009 when Hillary Clinton was new in that job, and when she made her first visit to China and made her remark, downplaying human rights. That remark infuriated the human rights community, and led to my call from here for Hillary Clinton to resign.
Last week, in response to news of the Nobel Peace Prize going to Liu Xiaobo, I was highly critical of the U.S. news media, saying:
As they jumped on a bandwagon called free trade--which gutted the U.S. economy--they decided that human rights issues inconvenienced free trade. They have now delivered 10 years of one-sided news; they've been largely silent about human rights abuses in China.
Wei and I were really going to the same topic in the same week. He criticized Clinton; I criticized the media. But the bottom line in both cases is really the same. It was well stated by Wei Jingsheng:
Reduced pressure from the international community has made it more difficult for the Chinese people to realize their hope for democracy.
In sum, the bought-off leadership of the West is making it harder for us to do our job. By now, mine is a long standing call, which I can repeat at any time:
Hillary Clinton, resign!
:-)
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