Distortions in the China Debate

American discussions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have been distorted by two interrelated developments: (1) attempts by some of the most vocal supporters and critics of Clinton’s approach to China, as well as the mainstream media covering their interchanges, to reduce complex choices to simple binary oppositions, and (2) moves by an odd alliance of former cold war hawks and people whose political affiliations are much harder to categorize (some tend toward the left on many issues) to convince us that the Beijing regime is as bad as any that has existed in modern times, and that anything short of an unqualified hard line toward it amounts to a willingness to “coddle” tyrants. Both of these should be a ca...