Editorial Testing China and us
Steinfels, Margaret O'Brien
Testing China...and us The Chinese government is invading Hong Kong. In preparation for its July 1 takeover, Beijing has stationed there a forty-man contingent of the Red Army. True, the troops are...
...it too has colonized other countries and brutalized their people: Tibet is only the most glaring and recent example...
...Please send a cover letter, resume, and samples of work projects to the Editor, Commonweal, 15 Dutch St., New York, N.Y...
...It is up to our government to support them through diplomatic means, and when necessary through economic and political pressures...
...Constitutional limits placed on the power of government and constitutional protections of individual liberty are not imperialism by other means, but the best way to foster both human flourishing and a well-ordered society...
...But the peremptory character of these actions demonstrates, if demonstration were necessary, that Beijing has an attitude problem...
...But the fact is that human rights, however they may be constitutionally construed and codified, have their basis in the fundamental dignity of each individual person...
...Nonetheless, distinctions can and should still be made...
...That understanding of the sanctity of human life, which is largely a modern and Western achievement but can also find support within Chinese culture (especially in Buddhism), is slowly but surely seeping into every nook and cranny of the world...
...Leverage in dealing with the Chinese is limited, not least because there is little international willingness to bring concerted pressure on China to improve its sorry record on human and political rights...
...The production editor works closely with the editors, business manager, and graphics designer on a variety of production and promotion tasks...
...Very clearly the people of Hong Kong will bear the brunt of this bullying and arrogant reassertion of political control while being expected to maintain the territory's level of economic performance...
...A diplomatic show is hardly out of order, but the more important question is whether such gestures will be anywhere near enough to signal U.S...
...The people of Hong Kong know this and have much to teach the rest of China about how democracy works...
...Four-day work week...
...Among them: preparing copy, selecting illustrations, and creating promotional material...
...The position requires knowledge of word processing and page composition using Microsoft Word, QuarkXPress, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop for Macintosh...
...For reasons of solidarity, it is important for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to be present at the July 1 turning-over ceremonies-and important for her to be seen to be in attendance at the behest of democratic activists in Hong Kong, who appealed directly to her to attend...
...The Chinese actions are perfectly legal under the terms of its treaty with Britain...
...If the Clinton administration hesitates to act, then the rest of us must take up the slack through the power of protest and persuasion, and the power of the purse...
...Familiarity with PCs, translating and archiving software, and networking is necessary...
...according to plan, the Chinese commander was correctly greeted by his British counterpart...
...It is true that abuses practiced and tolerated by Western nations in their colonial heyday-not least in China itself-hardly offer an unblemished example...
...Benefits...
...10038...
...No nation or civilization is exempt from such failings...
...But this is disingenuous...
...Beijing points to China's five thousand years of civilization as proof that it has nothing to learn about human rights from the West or from its own domestic critics...
...He or she should be organized, flexible, and able to handle details under deadline...
...Like all "great" civilizations, the Chinese one has its dark ages-at some periods as brutal as anything perpetrated by the West...
...China remains an increasingly anachronistic exception to this development...
...interest in the future welfare of Hong Kong's citizens...
...Production Editors Commonweal seeks a new production editor to begin work in mid-June...
...It wants its territory returned, it wants to reassert political and cultural control, yet it wants the wealth, the energy, and the business acumen of Hong Kong...
...True, the troops are unarmed and their numbers are hardly a threat...
...The Clinton administration has had its own leverage problems, now further complicated by both the shadow of a fund-raising scandal that may involve the Chinese government and by Vice-President Al Gore's sorry performance during his recent visit to Beijing...
...And recognizing China's territorial integrity, at least in this case, may be an important step in normalizing its place in a postcolonial world...
...Experience with printers helpful...
...China too is an imperial power...
...But this, added to the Chinese government's repeal of certain civil liberties recognized under Hong Kong's 1992 Basic Law and Beijing's summary and undemocratic formation of a new legislature, sounds another somber note in what is coming to seem a triumphalist march to reclaim the colony...
Vol. 124 • May 1997 • No. 9
