On
his way to China to attend the opening ceremonies at the 2008 Olympics,
President George W. Bush was under pressure to justify his trip to the
Communist dictatorship for an event being used to bolster the regime’s
legitimacy as it shows off its rising power. The symbolism that
attended the raising of the Olympic flag was most revealing and
disturbing. The flag was turned over to an honor guard of People’s
Liberation Army soldiers, who then goose-stepped past the crowd. The
scene had to remind anyone with a sense of history of the 1936 Olympics
held in Nazi Germany.  

In
Thailand, Bush defended his record, “I have spoken clearly and candidly
and consistently with China’s leaders about our deep concerns over
religious freedom and human rights. I have met repeatedly with Chinese
dissidents and religious believers. The United States believes the
people of China deserve the fundamental liberty that is the natural
right of all human beings. So America stands in firm opposition to
China’s detention of political dissidents and human rights advocates
and religious activists.”  

The
Beijing regime rejects such discussions as interference in its internal
affairs. But the problem with Chinese policy is not just at home.
Beijing offers strong support to dictatorships in other parts of the
world whose crimes destabilize entire regions. That support even
clouded the Olympics. The Chinese government revoked a visa for U.S.
Olympic gold medalist speed-skater Joey Cheek: This was not because
Cheek protested Chinese human rights abuses or called for the
independence of Tibet or Taiwan. It was because Cheek was a co-founder
of Team Darfur, a group of more than 75 Olympic athletes who call
attention to the genocide taking place in the Sudan. Beijing is the
principle supporter of the Khartoum regime.  

The
Bush administration did not force Beijing to reinstate Cheek’s visa,
despite calls from Congress to do so. However, the U.S. flag-bearer on
opening day was Lopez Lomong, a refugee from Sudan who had been rescued
from a Kenyan camp by the UN and sent to live with a family in upstate
New York. He became an American citizen last year and his Olympic
teammates elected him to carry their flag.  

On
June 5th, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court, briefed the UN Security Council on his Darfur
investigation. He spoke of massive atrocities being committed there and
warned, “The entire Darfur region is a crime scene.” Islamic militia
groups, in league with the Sudan government, are raiding Darfur’s
African farmers. According to the Prosecutor’s evidence, the militias
commit mass rapes, killings, torture, and loot residences and shops.
According to UN sources, at least 200,000 people have been killed and
more than 2 million (half of Darfur’s population) have been displaced
as result of the violence. On July 14th, the ICC charged Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, for ordering war crimes in Darfur.  

Chinese
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Qin Gang commented on Moreno-Ocampo’s
report the day after it was made, “China supports the proper resolution
of the Darfur issue through dialogue and consultation based on
respecting Sudan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We have made
proactive efforts to this end, including sending a peacekeeping
engineering unit to the Darfur region.” The unit mentioned is from the
People’s Liberation Army. Its mission is to confound the efforts of
other peacekeeping units and protect the regime from outside
intervention.  

Beijing’s
support for Khartoum is rooted in its trade and investment policies.
Sudan’s large oil reserves are needed by Chinese industry. China has
invested over $10 billion in Sudan. State-owned China National
Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) owns the largest share (40%) in the Great Nile
Petroleum Operating Co. (GNPOC). State-owned China Petroleum
Engineering & Construction (CPEC) has built a pipeline from the
GNPOC fields to the Red Sea, and a refinery complex outside Khartoum.  

CNPC
owns most of a field in Darfur and 41% of a field in the Melut Basin.
Another Chinese state firm, Sinopec, is building a pipeline to Port
Sudan on the Red Sea, where CPEC is building a tanker terminal. About
70% of Sudan’s oil exports go to China, and account for 10% of China’s
oil imports. The oil facilities are staffed and operated by Chinese
“guest workers” who assure Beijing’s control. David Blair, a reporter
for the London Telegraph has reported seeing “Freshly painted
billboards in Khartoum that carry pictures of smiling Chinese oil
workers and the slogan: ‘CNPC – Your close friend and faithful
partner.”  

In
exchange for oil, Beijing provides weapons and diplomatic support.
China has supplied Sudan with tanks, artillery, helicopters, and combat
aircraft. Darfur has been saturated with Chinese landmines. Beijing has
helped Sudan build its own factories to manufacture small arms and
ammunition, the real weapons of mass destruction in Khartoum’s campaign
of ethnic cleansing. It is estimated that as much as 80% of Sudan’s oil
revenue go to the purchase of weapons, while the general population
remains one of the poorest in the world.  

Unfortunately,
before President Bush got to the part of his speech in Bangkok about
Chinese human rights, he spent much more time talking about the
U.S.-Chinese partnership, mainly in economic terms. This priority of
investment and trade with China, much of it to replace American
production, was carried over from the Clinton administration into the
Bush era. Former Clinton Undersecretary of Commerce Jeffrey Garten
recounts in his 1997 book The Big Ten how the transnational
business community persuaded President Clinton to abandon his worries
about the Chinese dictatorship, “I saw no issue which raised more
concern and emotion in the business community than the tying of trade
to human rights in China.”   

Partnerships
with China are always bad for the people in the subordinate country.
Though not involving the overt violence used in Sudan, Beijing has
inflicted losses on America as it has “reformed” its economic policy
from Marxism to fascism. A study released July 30th by the Economic
Policy Institute detailed the impact that the growing U.S. trade
deficit with China is having on American jobs, wages and key
industries. “Between 2001 and 2007, 2.3 million American jobs were lost
due to the China trade gap, including 366,000 last year” reports EPI.
Those displaced workers lost an average of $8,146 in wages last year, a
total of $19.4 billion, as they were only able to find lower-paying
jobs. Economic pressure can be just as unrelenting as militia groups in
its ability to dislocate people and destroy communities.  

Beyond
the negative economic effects of the trade deficit with China ($256
billion last year), the flow of hard currency, investment capital and
advanced technology is expanding Chinese industrial capacity and
financial clout. Beijing’s new economic strength is used to support a
military buildup and diplomatic initiatives aimed at undermining
American influence and interests in every corner of the globe.  

It
is disconcerting how many people do not understand Samuel P.
Huntington’s warning, “that economic activity is a source of power as
well as well-being.” Consider reactions to a new forecast that China
could overtake the United States as the world’s largest producer of
manufactured goods next year. John Engler, president of the National
Association of Manufacturers, told The Financial Times (August
10th) it was “inevitable” that China would take over on account of its
size. “This should be a wholesome development for the U.S., for it
promises both political stability for the world’s largest country and
continuing opportunities for the U.S. to export to, and invest in, the
world’s fastest-growing economy.” Yet, it is American corporate
investment that is helping China grow, and U.S. exports are dwarfed by
what China sells in the American market. The result is a shifting
balance of power. Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations noted
that “The wealth of a neighboring nation, however, though dangerous in
war and politics, is certainly advantageous in trade.” Engler’s group
is dominated by transnational trading firms whose narrow focus is
divorced from any regard for national life. His desire to gain private
profit by helping China rise as a rival to the United States is
disgraceful.  

Whether
it is in Khartoum or Washington, the Beijing regime corrupts everything
it touches. It does no good to talk about China’s problematic behavior
when American actions work to strengthen the Beijing regime. U.S.
policy must change to redress the dangerous imbalance in economic
relations with China that has been allowed to develop.  

China’s
export-led growth is not just based on cheap labor, especially as it
expands into strategic and high-tech sectors of its economy. Subsidies,
currency manipulation, and the theft of intellectual property are all
part of Beijing’s game plan to dominate global industrial markets.
These tactics are, however, all open to countermeasures by properly
drafted and enforced domestic U.S. trade laws. While some of these
Chinese offenses have been challenged by U.S. cases at the World Trade
Organization, that route is long and uncertain. Congress has repeated
passed bi-partisan resolutions defending the sovereign right to use
American trade laws independent of any WTO action. The next president
needs to enforce existing laws more forcefully and against a broader
sweep of the economy than either the Clinton or Bush administrations
have done. China cannot be allowed to take larger market shares away
from American producers.  

New
laws will also have to enacted, especially against China’s manipulation
of its currency to gain a competitive price advantage. The modest
proposal of allowing American firms to petition for countervailing
duties against Beijing for setting its currency value by fiat would be
a start. There is a push by the China Currency Coalition, a an alliance of industry, agriculture, services, and worker organizations devoted to supporting the American economy, to add such legislative language to H.R. 6530, the Trade Enforcement Act of 2008.  

Licensing
of technology for use in China needs to be significantly tightened, and
many more Federal resources need to be devoted to policing any licenses
granted to prevent technology from reaching the Chinese military and
defense industry. Indeed, with Chinese theft of intellectual property
so pervasive, the general rule should be to allow nothing of value to
reach China, as it is certain to end up in the wrong hands.  

Finally,
as a result of transferring over a $1 trillion to China via the trade
deficit this decade, safeguards must be established to prevent Beijing
from using this horde of cash to buy strategic American assets and
spread its influence deeper into the U.S. economy and politics. The
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States should treat all
Chinese investments as being under the control of the Beijing regime,
and inherently a threat to national security if used to acquire access
to manufacturing, technology, infrastructure, natural resources or
financial institutions. CFIUS has the power to block all such
acquisitions and should not hesitate to do so.  

A
dramatic scaling back of trade with China is only part of the program
needed to maintain U.S. preeminence. Americans need to produce more,
develop new technology, increase capital formation, and become less
dependent on foreign sources for energy and other inputs vital to a
growing economy. Contests at the Olympics are decided by competition,
but so are contests in the international economy and the world at
large. 

Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.

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About the author

William R. Hawkins
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor William R. Hawkins is a consultant specializing in international economic and national security issues. He is a former economics professor and Republican Congressional staff member.

4 Comments for Olympics Highlights Beijing’s Corrupting Influence

JWS

The Beijing Olympics are a sports event and lets leave it at that. Why do we have to look for something behind everything to make the hosts look bad? I do not agree with what they do but it is their country and changes will have to come from within if it is going to happen at all. I have been going to China for 30 years and have seen tremendous changes and when the time is right, they might even change to something closer to what we have. Talking about Darfur, what are we doing about it, very little. Let the games pass and bring the rest up again at that time. It is not like we would never do anything to make us look good.

MLW

Dear JWS,
You may want to actually “READ” the article then rethink you pedestrian comment.  By virtue of the lack of wisdom you’ve displayed in you response, the ease by which you have discounted the facts, your inability to connect the dots all filtered through your ‘hate America’ attitude you are obviously a product of our liberal public school system. How sad and unfortunate for this great country that your indoctrination has been such an overwhelming success.  Which also suggests that you are voting for Barack ‘the anointed one’ Hussein ‘change & hope’ Obama.  The consequences of your thought processes are dangerous at the least, deadly at the worst.

JWS

Dear MLW,
Where is your decency? By the way, I am a Republican and even if I were not, your comments are uncalled for. I do not hate America but I do not hate China either. My visits to China over the 30 years have been to sell our American produced machinery. As for my education at least I have two Ph.D’s and no, I am not a liberal. Before you are attacking somebody you don’t know, learn your manners. It is people like you we can do without.

JWS

Dear MLW;
I do have to make a few more comments if you allow me to.The article was written on Aug. 19 and mine was the only comment until yours on Aug. 31.It looks like not too many people have read the piece or if they did, they showed very little interest in it.I have made it very clear in my original comment that I do not agree with what the Chinese government is doing but that the changes would have to come from within instead of us trying to meddle in every bodies affairs.We get very upset when others try to tell us what we need to do.
I wonder if you have ever been any place outside the USA or do you take everything you read as the gospel. Just look at how biased the drive by media is in this country.
My comments were an opinion based on personal knowledge and experience and were not intended to offend anybody,however, in contrast, your posting is mean spirited and meant to hurt and to me that was uncalled for. People like you think you are better then the rest of us but you are not. Common courtesy would never let me make comments like yours.