Op-Ed Surprise: Europe Should Oppose China's Excesses

Well, well, well! Take a look at this interesting little op-ed piece.

Take a look:

China is run by a brutal, authoritarian government that lends active support to some of the world's most odious regimes. It is also the fourth biggest - and fastest-growing - economy on earth. Its spectacular commercial success will be paraded before the world when Beijing hosts the Olympic Games this summer.

Given China's economic clout, it is not surprising that Western governments tread carefully when dealing with the question of political freedom. It is not that they ignore the human rights issue, it is that they downgrade it in their diplomacy, for fear of giving offence and being singled out for economic reprisal. So Beijing feels secure in the belief that domestic repression bears no relationship to successful global economic integration.

. . . In the long run, that is bad for China. Enforced political conformity will eventually show up in a less-innovative, less-efficient economy and a more brittle state, prone to unrest in the event of a downturn.

But Chinese authoritarianism is also bad for the world.

China is now the planet's largest emitter of carbon dioxide thanks to a poisonous power-generation programme. Censorship also makes it harder to check the spread of contagious disease and harder to expose the regulatory corruption that means unsafe goods find their way on to global markets.

Last week, the official Communist party organ, the Peoples' Daily, anticipating increased scrutiny ahead of the Olympics, attacked China's critics on the now familiar grounds that the country has the right to pursue economic progress on its own terms. But as China's power goes global, its methods become ever more the legitimate business of the international community. Besides, China needs global economic partnership.

Alone, Britain has little leverage over Beijing, but as part of the European Union, the world's largest single market, London has a powerful voice. Co-ordinated European action could force China to modify its stance as, indeed, it has done to a degree by cooling its support for the governments of Sudan and Burma. The Chinese government is not immune to pressure. It respects economic power. It does not heed its internal critics because they are commercially irrelevant. The EU is not. It must use the power that wealth brings to speak up for those in China who have been silenced.

OK, so I'm not personally that convinced about the EU being able or even willing to do anything. I still remember voices in the EU wanting to lift the ban on selling arms to Beijing (*MM still mad about that, BTW*) . Still, at least somebody out there in Euroland has sense enough to say that China's autocratic nature and behavior is bad for everyone and that the free West should do more.