Okay, so here’s an interesting ethical question to wrap your head around.
Let’s say you’re the US Secretary of State and you’re visiting China. Let’s also say your visit comes at a time when America is facing a serious recession and so desperately needs China to keep buying American debt. Do you:
a) Engage in a forceful dialogue with China over the many human rights abuses it either carries out itself or supports around the world via its financial dealings, even though this might sour China’s commitment to buying up US debt and thus further destabilise – or even crash – the entire global economy? Or…
b) Decide that the stability of America’s economy is the first priority given the current global economic crisis, even though this lets China off the hook for its horrendous human rights record?
Not easy, is it?
Well that’s the position Hillary Clinton was in this weekend as she concluded her first diplomatic tour as Secretary of State by visiting China. As for the two choices, Clinton opted for b), angering human rights groups in the process. Her statements on the matter were, if nothing else, remarkably candid, as rather than pretend to have it both ways she freely admitted her priority. The money quote:
“We pretty much know what they are going to say” on human rights issues such as greater freedoms for Tibet, Clinton told reporters traveling with her on a tour of Asia. “We have to continue to press them. But our pressing on those issues can’t interfere” with dialogue on other crucial topics.
Is she correct? On the one hand, there is nothing quite so urgent as the current near-collapse of the world’s economy and China’s continuing purchase of US treasury bonds is vital to America’s economic survival. It’s also worth remembering that engaging China on climate issues – another declared aim of Clinton’s visit – is key to tackling global warming and can’t be achieved if China is sulking over attacks on its human rights record. However, the flip side of the coin is that what we are talking about here is a massive world superpower getting a free pass for not only enabling, through its business dealings, many terrible regimes around the world – including Burma and Sudan - but for some pretty bad domestic crimes as well. For example, at the exact same time as Clinton was talking to Chinese leaders, security agents had put under virtual house arrest dozens of dissidents who support “charter 08″ – a new manifesto for Chinese democracy.
While you’re struggling for an answer to this moral puzzle, it’s worth keeping in mind the absurdity of the situation: The US, having lorded it over China throughout the 90s, nevertheless allowed it to almost singlehandedly buy up American debt, thus condemning itself to walking on diplomatic tiptoes for the near future. If this was any other country, it would merely be a bad joke. But it isn’t any other country: China is a serial human rights abuser protected by the patina of legitimacy and its emerging status as the world’s new superpower.
Have you come up with the right answer yet? No, neither have I.
