Has China changed?

Davon Gray
Published: August 10, 2008

On Wednesday of last week the Olympic torch passed through Tiananmen Square. Can you remember the last time a torch was in that same location? 

The date was June of 1989 and Chinese students had crowded the square to demand economic and political reforms. 

Lit in the background among the protesters was a makeshift lady liberty holding a torch of freedom.

The student protest had ignited smaller protests throughout China and it looked like communism was teetering on collapse. But the Chinese Army ended any such naïve thoughts. Tanks and troops
moved in and hours later, Tiananmen Square became a ghost town.

The government crackdown left scores dead or injured. To this day the true number of dead and injured is unclear. Reports range from a couple hundred to a couple thousand. Meanwhile the only thing the
western world did was to condemn and vote in temporary sanctions. The Chinese government seemed to ignore that the incident ever happened.

What was clear then and is clear now is that China has not totally embraced change but has embraced the benefits of change, which has culminated in being awarded the Olympics. 

The interesting part is that we’ve helped them do that. Despite China’s world display of force in 1989, the world did little then and is doing even less now as they suppress political and social opposition,
not to mention international trade.

Last week, President Bush scolded China for its human rights record. He went down the usual list of needs for improvement: free trade, free press, release of political dissidents, etc.

His words were met with the usual by Chinese officials, “Stay out of our affairs.” 

Funny thing is China is right.  We should probably stay out of their business when it comes to the internal affairs of their government unless we are really willing to do something about it. After all, we
can’t exactly enforce very much except for a few sanctions here and there like we did in 1989. 

But the problem is China’s business is our business now.  Earlier this year the USA Today reported the U.S.-China trade deficit at around $237.5 billion and it is rising on average by $1 billion per day.
Most of that comes from unfair trade practices like a flood of cheaper Chinese goods. The result has been a loss of 3 million U.S. jobs since about 2000 and an increase in the amount of our debt owned
by the Chinese. There is a biblical proverb that says: the borrower is subject to the lender.

With China, that means we owe them too much to be influential.

As you can imagine, our government has complained about the trade deficit. 

China’s response has been to ignore this problem and act as though it doesn’t exist (sound familiar).

Undoubtedly as the Olympics take place in Beijing, the story will be the world’s athlete’s competing and it should. I have no doubt the people of China are gleaming with pride over their country hosting the
Olympics. I wish them all the success in doing so.

But the other story should be whether or not the Chinese Communist government has changed since June of 1989. 

Yes there is an emerging business and economic culture prospering there. But has the old suppressive strong-armed way of dealing with its own people and the outside world changed as well?

The symbolism of the Olympics would say yes but the realities of human rights and foreign trade makes the question worth asking.

Davon Gray works in Washington, D.C., and resides in Woodbridge. Contact him at .