Human Rights and China

In his 1997 inauguration speech President Bill Clinton said: “Our hopes, our hearts, our hands are with those on every continent who are build- ing democracy and freedom. Their cause is America’s cause.” That, unfortunately, is not true. The despots who rule the world’s most populous nation have found, in the Clinton administration and the American business community, powerful allies in their effort to suppress human rights.

What accounts for the Clinton administration’s appeasement of China? Is it based on a belief that our relations with China should not, as Madeleine Albright recently said, be held “hostage to one issue, whether it be human rights or trade”? Is it because the administra...