Engaging with Beijing

The salient chapter in the State Department's latest human rights report is about China, and it makes grim reading. The Communist authorities have done nothing less than silence all public dissent. Some of this was done no doubt to keep control in choppy political waters. Another likely consideration was to show American critics that China does not shrink from sticking a finger in their eye. The "internationally accepted norms" that the United States calls on Beijing to stop violating are spurned by the Chinese.

The report led President Bill Clinton to acknowledge that his policy of "constructive engagement" had so far failed to bring progress on human rights. He was quick to add that social impulses, economic change and the availability of foreign information would "inevitably" increase the spirit of liberty over time. This is a reassuring theory, but it will take years to prove out. It carries the implication that outsiders can meanwhile back off from pressing human rights. This would be a mistake. The results of either engaging or retreating are hard to predict. No matter, Americans must be true to themselves. that need not mean neglecting every other consideration, but it does mean speaking out on things that matter. It is presumably what China-bound Secretary of State Madeleine Albright means when she says she will tell it like it is.

-- The Washington Post