All eyes on China

For at least two decades I’ve read conflicting arguments over the best approach to foreign relations with China. Will increased trade help bring about increased freedom for Chinese people, as they are exposed to Western ideas more and experience a taste of free choice at least in the area of buying and selling? Or is that just rewarding the authoritarian regime, allowing them improved status and power without their having to improve their record much if at all?

These questions have come up for a lot of discussion as the preparations for the Beijing Olympics have progressed. And they’re not any easier to answer. I know some people think it was a terrible mistake for the IOC to award the 2008 Summer games to Beijing. They think President Bush should boycott the games. Some of them will practice their own private boycott by not watching the games on TV.

I have little interest in watching the games themselves, but I’ve many times thought about whether or not it’s good to buy products made in China. Some products are made by slave labor, and others by people working in such awful conditions that it might as well be slave labor. Yet other companies in China provide decent working conditions, and offer new opportunities for prosperity, personal advancement, and contact with Western people and ideas, which bring many benefits to their workers and their families. Reducing trade with China would reduce both.

Reading: The Willow Pattern

The genres I like best for leisure reading are historical fiction and mysteries. So naturally I’m especially fond of historical mysteries. My all-time favorite series is the Brother Cadfael books by Ellis Peters, set in medieval England (another of my interests). And I’d be reading more of Robert Van Gulik’s Judge Dee novels, if our local library had any.

The first of Van Gulik’s books I read was The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, his translation of a Chinese detective novel, Dee Goong An. I was fascinated to find out that Judge Dee was a real person from history, a district magistrate from the time of the Tang dynasty. The fact that the story was a genuine Chinese detective story, translated to English, rather than a Western detective story set in ancient China, made it all the more interesting to me.

Spotlight on Beijing

To say I’m not interested in sports news is an understatement – my worst category in Trivial Pursuit is Sports & Leisure (though followed closely by Arts & Entertainment). But even I know what country is hosting the Olympics this summer. Of course, most of the news on that topic, for now, is more political than sports-related, as people argue over whether it was right to allow China to host the Olympics, and whether we should boycott the Games.

William McGurn had an interesting column about that question in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. “By agreeing to stage the Olympics, the [Chinese] government has also given a world stage to anyone with a grievance.” How much attention would people be giving the protesters if not for the backdrop of the Olympic Torch relay?  How many people who regularly buy items marked “made in China” without a second thought will reconsider, their awareness heightened by the frequent news stories – generally negative – about China?

Unfortunately the people of China, lacking the free flow of information we enjoy, may not know how much attention the fault of their leaders are getting.