The China Teaching Web

Hillary Clinton is a hypocrite on China. Plain and simple. These days, I try not to dabble with politics too much on the Vance Report but sometimes I just cannot help it. This is one of those situations.

Last week, on her first trip to Asia as Secretary of State, she made it abundantly clear that human rights in China was not going to be a priority for the Obama administration.

“Now, that doesn’t mean that questions of Taiwan, Tibet, human rights, the whole range of challenges that we often engage on with the Chinese, are not part of the agenda,” Clinton told told reporters in Seoul, “but we pretty much know what they are going to say”

She also stated that “we have to continue to press them but our pressing on those issues can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crises.” Basically, she was brushing off human rights in China as an issue to be dealt with only if time permitted.

Let’s rewind back to early April of last year, when the controversy surrounding the Summer Olympic Games in China was just beginning to boil over.

Hillary Clinton urged President Bush to boycott the Olympics citing concerns about the Tibetan uprising in China as well as human rights in general.

According to this article from Reuters, Clinton stated that “at this time, and in light of recent events, I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government.”

It was not too long after that Clinton was joined by her then Democratic rival Barack Obama who proclaimed in a statement that “if the Chinese do not take steps to help stop the genocide in Darfur and to respect the dignity, security and human rights of the Tibetan people, the president should boycott the opening ceremonies…”

Fortunately, President Bush chose to ignore those pleas and attended the opening ceremony anyway saying that he wanted to be a friend to the Chinese people.

I am somewhat surprised by how short Beijing’s memory seems to be on this issue. Or maybe they never really believed that Clinton and Obama, as it now appears, did actually care about human rights. It was all just about politics.

My suggestion to Secretary of State Clinton? Why don’t you scratch the “global climate change crisis” baloney out of your agenda and replace it with something that is far more realistic and important?  President Bush used every chance that he had, including his trip to Beijing last August, to pressure Beijing on its human rights policies and so should you. While the effects may not be tangible, our pressure on Beijing regarding human rights does make a difference.

Unfortunately, it appears that President Obama’s administration is far more concerned with ‘making friends’ and ‘being liked’ than it is with using America’s power to spread the ideals of freedom and equality around the world. Meanwhile, Beijing continues to persecute Christians, throw people in jail without probable cause, and go after its political opponents with a vengeance. Thank you very much, Washington. The CCP can breathe a little easier now.