The Kowtow Administration

The transplanted Chinese word "Kowtow" appears in American media from time to time. Last time the word was prevalent was when William Jefferson Clinton granted Commie China the MFN (most favorite Nation) status in the early 1990's. Even Nancy Pelosi was rightfully voted against it at that time. Now I just saw the word popped up again. An article in the latest "Weekly Standard" by Ethan Gutmann just used the title"The Administration Kowtows" with the byline "Are the Chinese people alone now?"

Here are the relevant points the author made:

On the mainland, the Obama administration is giving the party a free hand exactly when they need it. The party must keep disparate forces--labor groups, Falun Gong, Christians, democracy advocates--isolated from one another. The tool is surveillance--using the Internet, phones, indeed, any electronic device that can track humans. (Many of these technologies originally came from American companies.) Once dissenters are arrested, the party needs to squelch any legal defense. Dissident lawyer Gao Zhisheng, freshly out of detention after severe torture, recently disappeared again.

Organ harvesting--particularly if the liver, kidneys, and corneas are surgically removed while a prisoner is alive--creates a foreign currency stream for the military. For the Chinese state it also solves a problem: Approximately 100,000 incarcerated Falun Gong, and an unspecified number of Eastern Lightning (Christians) will not give up their beliefs. Release is impossible; they are dangerous enemies of the state. In the marriage of the New China's capitalism and the party's unchanging authoritarianism, organ harvesting has become a profitable form of barbarism.

The last time an administration gave such an explicit green light to the Chinese leadership was three weeks after the Tiananmen Square massacre. George H.W. Bush sent National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger to Beijing to reassure the Chinese. Again, the message was that human rights and democracy didn't really matter, only business, only partnership. (That Scowcroft had to deliver it in secret, though, is another sign of how far things have deteriorated.) When this became public some months later, many conservatives broke ranks and some liberals joined them in creating a firestorm of criticism for the administration's policy.

And today? Nancy Pelosi cut her teeth on China human rights, but she won't break ranks without sustained pressure. Amnesty International has made some noises about Clinton's comments. To a lesser extent, so have Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, and Human Rights Watch. But it's not nearly enough. And where are the AFL-CIO, the academy, and the sweatshop coalitions?

And his final point was a question:

Human rights in China. Democracy in China. These are things that the Obama administration wants nothing to do with. Are the Chinese people on their own now?

I guess the answer is clearly affirmative. I applaud the article makes the clear distinction between the commie government and the Chinese people. The Chinese people can see through the American politics and the covert or overt kowtows of the last four U.S. presidents, they know that they are on their own. They are going to vanquish the commie regime on their own sooner or later. One thing that the driveby zombi media never report to the American people is that there are thousands, may be tens or hundreds of thousands of protests around the mainland where unarmed people came up against the fully equipped Peoples Liberation Army daily. Most of the politicians and short-sighted people never comtemplate that the commie regime CAN collapse overnight sooner or later. Even being a septogenarian, I think I can see that happening in my life time!