Tibet Burns and the World Still Kowtows to China the Cause of it All

Tuesday March 18, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Tibet burns; Tibetans suffer and die. Why? Tibetans want the right to self-determination. It is only natural; it is human nature. They want freedom and self determination. All men are created equal with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it seems to me I have heard words like that somewhere else. And yet the panda huggers in the USA and around the world so desire cheap poisoned toothpaste, cheap poisoned dog food, cheap poisoned toys for their children etc. that they choose to ignore the Tibetans plight.

What are the panda huggers afraid of? They say that opposition to this would provoke China and lead to war. War? When the USA faced Russia in the Cold War, Russia had much more destructive power at its disposal than China and yet the USA did not kowtow to Russia to avoid war. So why does it kowtow to China? Similarly the USA did not seek cheap poisoned consumer goods from Russia and so the USA won the Cold War. That strategy was successful and since it was so successful one would think that the US State Department would employ it again. Not so, the State Department jettisoned its successful strategy and done the opposite with China. It is called engagement.

The USA and the world choose to let China dictate the terms of engagement; they never did that with Russia. But with Russia the world was successful; so now they better let China dictate the terms. Somehow this is supposed to make it easier to watch Tiananmen Square, Tibet and all the other human rights violations that happen.

A second matter in this regard is Taiwan, a vibrant democracy. It is treated as a stepchild because the world does not want to offend the dictators in China. Instead of risking a so-called war with China, to support Taiwan's strong democracy, the USA chose to enter a costly and deadly war in Iraq to try and create a weak, democracy. That makes sense doesn't it? Or does it?

The world feared war with Russia, but that did not mean that they would let Russia dictate the terms. Why fear war with China? War with China would be easy to win. The USA would not have to land troops in China; it would not have to get in a quagmire like it has in Iraq. No all the USA would have to do is destroy key sources of water, energy, and infrastructure and stall China's economy and let China self-destruct. The only thing keeping the controlling cabal of dictators in China in control is the fact that they can still provide an economy with doctored figures of 10% growth. Take that away and chaos will reign.

There would be sacrifice; yes the world would have to pay perhaps a higher price for some consumer goods. But new factories could easily be established in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, etc., countries that are far less belligerent than China. Countries that have a better human rights record to boot. But yes, there would be a price; the world would have to give up all that cheap poisoned toothpaste, that cheap poisoned dog food; that cheap poisoned toys for children. Yes these things would have to be given up but somehow I feel the human rights and freedoms of other people are worth that.