The United States, China and Human Rights

This paper examines the conflict in relations between the United States and China over the issues of trade versus human rights. Human rights activists have amassed ample evidence to show China's abysmal record regarding such activities as persecution of Tibetans, use of slave labor in manufacturing, arbitrary detention and mistreatment dissidents, and religious persecution. The Chinese government has argued that practices which seem cruel and unusual to observers from other countries are justifiable because China is a different culture, with different societal expectations and behaviors. Human rights activists have sharply criticized the Clinton administration's policy of renewing most-favored nation (MFN) status to the Chinese government, which protects and encourages trade despite China's record of abuse. They have found surprising allies among staunch conservatives, such as Pat Buchanan and Jesse Helms, who contend that MFN renewal amounts to coddling a dictatorship and allows China to continue to grow economically at the expense of the United States. Clinton and MFN-renewal supporters counter with the argument that returning to an isolationist policy with China will be likely to increase human rights abuses, since the publicity given to these abuses is the best weapon against them. Relations between the United States and China have been problematic throughout history. The debate over trade and human rights issues continues to make the situation complicated.

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eir own preferences of behavior. Whether or not this has proved effective in China is a matter of wide disagreement. The essential question is whether or not withholding MFN status or other economic benefits will encourage Chinese officials to work at eliminating abuses in order to receive commercial advantages. The secondary question is whether either economic isolation or economic impunity will lead to greater human rights abuses on the part of the Chinese government. Economic sanctions have been effective elsewhere in bringing an end to practices and policies considered abhorrent by the international community, most notably in eliminating apartheid in South Africa. However, China's sheer size gives it advantages that make its case unique. Physics professor and noted dissident Fang Lizhi believes that political pressure and economic benefits are interrelated in crucial ways: "Without the annual review of most-favored-nation status, the Chinese government's behavior in the past four years would have been far worse" (Schell, 1994, p. 427). Nevertheless, 1989 proved a critical year for debaters on both sides of the issue. This was the year in which thousands of Chinese students convened on Tianenman Square in a historic c

Category: History - T