THE WAGGING FINGER OF THE CHINA SUPPORT NETWORK
The entire U.S. establishment -- officials, candidates, media, and Wall Street -- deserves correction from the China Support Network in the following way. They have complained bitterly and given great attention to the matter of China's currency manipulation, which indeed needs correction. When the value of the Yuan / Renminbi is held down, it is tantamount to an export subsidy. The overall logic says that China is practicing economic dirty pool and is tilting or rigging the playing field for its exporters. --By the same overall logic, the application of slave labor is economic dirty pool, and it tilts or rigs the playing field in favor of its exporters. Indeed, the United States removed the economic implications of slave labor in the 1800s by adopting the Emancipation Proclamation. After that, the U.S. had a domestic market that was free of the influence and implications of slavery -- until more recently. The embrace of Communist China as a trading partner abrogates the Emancipation Proclamation in its economic dimension and spirit. This matter is just as foul, economically, as currency manipulation.
--So, why the double standard? As we see above, two presidential candidates have currency manipulation as matters with top of mind awareness. China's practice of applying slave labor is another violation of free market economics, equally hurtful to America, and deserves equally as much to have top of mind billing.
In my view, the U.S. establishment reveals a dark heart on this issue. Currency manipulation is an economic issue. Slave labor is an economic issue, but it is also a human rights violation. Those who are mean-spirited in the U.S. establishment too often COVER UP human rights violations, perhaps thinking that "hey -- if it lowers costs, it adds to the bottom line, right?" There are K-Street lobbyists and news executives who will snarl derisively at any mention of labor issues or human rights issues. When there is deprivation and human suffering, it seems to be to the merriment of such K-Street lobbyists and news executives -- are they taking pleasure at the expense of others, while they write, promote, and pass trade deals that give short shrift to these issues? They perhaps assume that history is written by the winners -- hence, as long as their side wins, "Who cares about underlying truths, or outcomes on the ground?" That suggests a false sense of impunity. For them to continue to "look good" in light of their actions, it requires their assumption to be correct.
The U.S. establishment has a double standard. Currency manipulation is an economic issue, and it has become popular for politicos to decry. Slave labor is an economic issue, and it has languished in the basement where the establishment keeps the issues it won't address. (We should admit, that the China Support Network writes from that basement, "under the rug" of the establishment. The basement is shared with the likes of Ralph Nader, consumer safety, America's spine with communism, national security, and of course those like us, who want "a level playing field" as a matter of practice, not platitude.) They are two economic issues, both pertinent to a level playing field; and, they have achieved different levels of popularity and response from the decision makers.
Hillary Clinton and Duncan Hunter, while they get credit for raising some China issues, cannot receive "three cheers" from the China Support Network until they raise and address the issue of slave labor as employed by Communist China. (There is another double standard of the establishment: The administration opposes trade with Communist Cuba, because it "helps the regime." If it is bad with Cuba, then why does the establishment pretend like it is good with Communist China? The China Support Network can see right through the kabuki dances that U.S. politicians employ with the China issue.)
As was noted in my earlier article, 'A Clear Head In The China Debate,' to correctly handle the currency issue requires a corrective tariff, and to correctly handle the slave labor issue requires another corrective tariff, which is additive or cumulative, over and above the first corrective tariff. Better still would be to throw the whole WTO out the window and begin anew with writing trade policy. Tariffs are a step in the right direction, to the best interests of America and its people. As a cheerleader for tariffs, I should pick up a bullhorn and say, "Give me a 'T'!...." :-)
Published May 19, 2007 by the China Support Network (CSN). Begun as the American response group in 1989, CSN represents Americans who are "on the side" of the students in Tiananmen Square -- standing for democratic reform, human rights, and freedom in China. For dissident news; to support a stronger China policy; or get more information, see http://www.chinasupport.net/.
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