China, The United States,and Human Rights
Hoffmann, Stanley
The editors' statement raises three questions. First, should the United States practice an active policy for the defense of human rights abroad? The answer, in my view, is yes. It would be...
...Third, what about the argument that Chinese participation in the global free market will be the most effective agent of change...
...We should make it crystal clear to the present rulers of China that good relations with us, which they claim to desire, depend on their willingness to treat dissidents fairly, to move away from repression and coercion, to respect democratic institutions in Hong Kong...
...No dot matrix submissions, please...
...As long as we remain passive, they have no incentive to alter them...
...It is also a fact that we have an interest not to turn a potential great power into an enemy...
...Capitalism and human rights are not synonymous...
...Morally, the defense of the fundamental rights of human beings does not stop at one's nation's border...
...We will not consider manuscripts submitted simultaneously to several publications...
...5) We're usually quick in giving editorial decisions...
...6) Please bear with us—we have accumulated quite a backlog of material, and you may have to wait for a few issues before you see your article in print...
...An active human rights policy by the United States would gradually force China's rulers to choose between the (controlled) insertion into the world economy they seek and need, and change in their political practices...
...As long as the Chinese regime remains what it is, it will do its best to limit the effects of the economic "opening" of China, so as not to be endangered by it...
...Politically, murderous states are powderkegs likely to explode into civil or interstate wars...
...It would be best if such a policy were multilateral, and enlisted other liberal democracies, so that the frequently heard accusation of neo-imperialism aimed at the United States would lose any semblance of plausibility...
...An international order of murderers would not be orderly for long...
...As we're not an academic journal, we prefer that they, wherever possible, be dropped altogether or worked into the text...
...Economic opening to the West plus the Helsinki Accords provided the mix of carrots and sticks that led to the rise of Gorbachev...
...If you are submitting to Dissent electronically, our email address is dissent@igc.apc.org . (4) Notes and footnotes should also be typed double-spaced, on a separate sheet...
...We may complicate relations with the present Chinese leaders...
...A certain degree of penetration by modern technology and of participation To Our Contributors A few suggestions: (1) Be sure to keep a copy of your manuscript...
...There is an inextricable mix of moral and practical reasons for such a policy...
...If there's a delay, it's because a few editors are reading your article...
...Use WordPerfect 5.1 or standard text ASCII format, and send us the disk...
...Or take a chance and send us your article...
...THE EDITORS q SPRING • 1997 • 9 Human Nights and China in transnational economic undertakings may help erode rigidly bureaucratic institutions...
...And please remember that we can't return articles unless they're accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope...
...Those who have rights also have obligations—contemporary American liberals emphasize rights more than duties, which is a moral error...
...10 • DISSENT...
...There is a whole range of measures available to us...
...But the Chinese leadership of the future may well be grateful...
...Check all your figures, dates, names, etc.—they're the author's responsibility...
...But this is perfectly compatible with an energetic human rights policy...
...But in the absence of support by our allies and friends, the United States should be ready to act by itself: those who can, should—indeed, they must...
...To be sure, we cannot deal with every conceivable violation of human rights...
...3) Type your ms double-spaced, with wide margins...
...I see it as a very thin justification for greed...
...2) Please don't write to ask whether we're interested in such and such an article—it makes for useless correspondence...
...Each nation, each culture, may have its own traditions, but there is a common humanity that has to be preserved...
...It is a sad fact that we have been more eager to act for human rights when the violators were small countries not allied to or protected by the United States: Haiti (recently...
...China needs access to American markets far more than we need to penetrate and invest in China's: our increasing deficit in trade with China provides us with a weapon...
...Look at our last few issues to see if your idea fits in...
...Loss of the most-favored nation status may not be the most effective...
...Both types have proved to be quite evenly corruptible...
...not Guatemala (until recently), Burma (weakly), not Indonesia...
...Second, should the United States use its economic power to sanction China's violations of human rights...
...But there is a minimum that needs to be assured and protected, and it consists of a mixture of political and economic rights: the right to life—to be safeguarded from political oppression and from deliberate starvation, the right to one's physical integrity, the right to express one's ideas and grievances and to assemble in their defense8 • DISSENT Human Rights and China even in the absence of full-scale democracy, the elimination of all modern forms of slavery, including forced labor and especially child labor...
...Capitalists like order and stability, and don't care whether it is provided by liberal institutions or by authoritarian ones...
...Please use inclusive language so that we don't have to make adjustments during editing...
...But strategic and economic interests in "engagement" become far too easily excuses for passivity on human rights...
...But we can refuse to buy goods produced by that (vast) part of the Chinese economy that is still under state and military control, and goods fabricated with the "help" of coerced and child labor...
Vol. 44 • April 1997 • No. 2
