Tiananmen anniversary

China’s leaders could hardly have failed to learn in the 10 years since the protestors of Tiananmen Square stood against, then fell to, the tanks of their own government that economic integration is not enough. Without improvements in human rights, Beijing will remain isolated and friendless, even if a U.S. president has dropped by to pay homage to its economic potential.

Ten years ago the students and workers who gathered in the square began their protest with an appeal for human dignity and the right to hold the Chinese government accountable for its actions. The protest grew into a demand for sweeping democratic reforms, free speech, free press, free association, public scrutiny of the incomes of senior party members, an upgrading of the pay and status of academics and a general attack on government corruption. The protest ended, of course, in bloodshed.

In the decade since, China has made a show of both its human-rights progress and its trials and inevitable imprisonment of democracy-minded dissidents. The U.S. Congress has made a show of debating most-favored-nation trading status for China, which it approved as routinely as China locked up human-rights advocates. Some might argue that 10 years is not a long time to measure cultural change in China — the May Fourth movement gathered in Tiananmen Square 70 years ago to demand democracy — but it is more than enough time for countries such as the United States to resolve to encourage China’s democracy movement at every turn.

Instead, it has waffled, or perhaps simply forgotten. State Department reports on human-rights abuses that are widespread and well-documented are weighed against the trade potential of a billion-plus population. Certainly, Washington should not cut off communication with Beijing pending rights progress, but clear policies and rewards that supported democratic ideals in China would put the trade question in its proper perspective.

It would also build a relationship with the world’s most populous nation based on something more than the chance to get rich. If nothing else, that would be a fitting tribute to the protesters who lost their lives in Tiananmen Square.