Clinton’s China problem

The Clinton administration’s second attempt to craft a major trade deal with China shows once again how badly U.S. corporations want access to the communist country and how badly this nation’s core beliefs are assaulted with each new round of talks. President Clinton’s policy of economic engagement with China has been a failure because he has yet to find a reason besides business profits for pursuing it.

Beijing latest attack on democracy was its show trial last week of four members of the China Democratic Party. Their crime was to advocate for greater openness in China’s political system, including opposing parties. The trial followed months-long harassment of the religious sect Falun Gong, based on the traditional Chinese religions of Buddhism and Taoism. The Chinese government has worked hard to wipe out all religion, but seems especially concerned about Falun Gong because it is based beyond the government’s reach.

So having stifled freedom of speech and freedom of religion, Beijing presents itself to the Clinton administration, looking for a quick way into the World Trade Organization. The administration, having come close in April to radically altering America’s trade position toward China, is eager to help. The administration’s problem is that the deal is met with suspicion in Congress, which is mirroring the public’s uncertainty about this exchange of money for morals.

The WTO meeting later this month in Seattle will host not only the 135 members of the organization but tens of thousands of protesters fed up with the lack of consideration given to labor and environmental standards and human rights. It is the Clinton administration’s China dilemma writ large. For all the benefits free trade and engagement bring, it is inescapable that they also present vexing problems in these areas that are always going to be solved sometime in the future, yet rarely are.