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06/09/2005
More on China
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was in Singapore and had
the following to say about North Korea and China.
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Perhaps nowhere is the difference between freedom and tyranny
more vividly demonstrated than on the Korean peninsula.
I keep on my desk under a glass a satellite photograph of the
Korean peninsula taken at night. You can see very clearly that
light covers most, if not all, of the peninsula’s southern half,
below the demilitarized zone, reflecting a nation with energy, a
thriving economy and a vibrant democracy. And then you look
to the north of the demilitarized zone, where all you see is
darkness – except for a single pinprick of light in Pyongyang, the
capital. The same people in the north and the south. The same
resources in the north and the south. The difference is freedom –
political and economic freedom.
The contrast on the ground is even more vivid, and more
profound. The Republic of Korea is an example of the
dynamism of free people and free markets.
By comparison, consider North Korea’s Stalinist regime, where:
--The children and grandchildren of dissidents are pressed into
labor;
--Refugees who escape are kidnapped from foreign countries;
and
--Where starving citizens search barren fields for individual
grains.
A European doctor who spent many months treating children in
North Korea said: “There are two worlds in North Korea: one for
the senior military and the elite; and a living hell for the rest.”
Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions threaten the security and stability
of the region, and because of their record of proliferation, it
threatens the world. President Bush and the other four leaders
have urged the regime to return to the six-party talks.
The United States also urges the regime to embrace the openness
and freedom that have helped so many of its neighbors thrive.
One nation can make a notable contribution in persuading North
Korea to return to the six-party talks, and that is China.
The United States and many other nations in the region seek to
cooperate with China in many fields – diplomacy, economics,
global security. Many of our nations support the development of
Asia-Pacific structures that advance the goal of a region that is
peaceful, prosperous, and free. Multilateral engagement is vital.
China can be an important part of that cooperation .
Although the Cold War is over, this region, unfortunately, is still
burdened by some old rivalries; and military budgets are
escalating in some quarters. These are matters that should be of
concern.
China’s emergence is an important new reality in this era.
Indeed, the world would welcome a China committed to peaceful
solutions and whose industrious and well-educated people
contribute to international peace and mutual prosperity.
A candid discussion of China, however, cannot neglect to
mention areas of concern to the region.
The U.S. Congress requires that the U.S. Department of Defense
report annually on China’s perceived military strategy and its
military modernization. The Department’s 2005 report is
scheduled to be released soon.
Among other things, the report concludes that China’s defense
expenditures are much higher than Chinese officials have
published. It is estimated that China’s is the third largest military
budget in the world, and clearly the largest in Asia.
China appears to be expanding its missile forces, allowing them
to reach targets in many areas of the world, not just the Pacific
region, while also expanding its missile capabilities within this
region. China also is improving its ability to project power, and
developing advanced systems of military technology.
Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder:
--Why this growing investment?
--Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases?
--Why these continuing robust deployments?
Though China’s economic growth has kept pace with its military
spending, it is to be noted that a growth in political freedom has
not yet followed suit. With a system that encouraged enterprise
and free expression, China would appear more a welcome
partner and provide even greater economic opportunities for the
Chinese people.
China has important decisions to make about its goals and its
future. Ultimately, China likely will need to embrace some form
of a more open and representative government if it is to fully
achieve the political and economic benefits to which its people
aspire.
[Source: Department of Defense]
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Dr. Bortrum passed along a piece on China from the publication
Chemical & Engineering News. Recently a delegation from the
American Chemical Society traveled there and among the
items of interest from a report on the trip by Rudy Baum was the
following bit concerning the Internet and the government’s
ability to control the flow of information. For example, by one
estimate China has 50,000 workers monitoring the Web. Baum
writes:
“Late on our last night in Beijing, I conducted a sloppy
experiment that nevertheless had fascinating results. My hotel
room had high-speed Internet access for a fee, and I had been
using it throughout the week to keep up with e-mail and world
news via the New York Times and Yahoo. I had not perceived
any filtering of the content I had been accessing. In my
experiment, I logged on to Yahoo and searched on ‘Falun Gong,’
the Chinese religious movement that has been ruthlessly
suppressed by the authorities. After a longish wait, I was
informed ‘This page cannot be displayed,’ the standard page that
appears when a website is down or otherwise unavailable. I then
searched on ‘Tiananmen Square’ and got ‘This page cannot be
displayed.’ ‘Democracy movement in China’ and ‘democracy’
likewise could not be displayed.
“Then I searched on ‘Japanese aggression’ and got 1,090,000
hits. ‘American imperialism’ got 1,820,000 hits, and ‘chemistry’
got 34,700,000 hits. I tried searching on ‘Falun Gong’ again and,
again, got ‘This page cannot be displayed.’ ‘Chairman Mao,’
‘Mao Tse Tung,’ ‘Stalin,’ ‘Franklin Roosevelt,’ ‘Albert
Einstein,’ ‘Bill Clinton,’ ‘Charlie Chaplin,’ and ‘Nicole Kidman’
were likewise not available. In fact, after my second search on
‘Falun Gong,’ nothing was available; my Yahoo search engine
had been shut down.
“I logged off Yahoo and the Internet and logged back on again.
Here are the results of the next searches:
Albert Einstein 5,600,000
Nicole Kidman 4,070,000
Bill Clinton 46,600,000
Chairman Mao 423,000
Democracy in China 2,000,000
Falun Gong Page cannot be displayed
Chairman Mao Page cannot be displayed
“By this time it was 1 AM and I was tired so I terminated the
experiment. What appears to be happening is that a system has
been established that prevents accessing information on
particular search terms and modifies subsequent searches on the
basis of the banned search items .
“China seems in many ways like a typical developing country,
but it is not. For reasons that are not clear to me, we in the West
seem to ignore the fact that China remains a one-party
authoritarian state that controls the free flow of information and
arrests its citizens for practicing free speech and expressing their
religious beliefs. Yes, China is an enormous market, and the
world desperately wants to do business with it. Yes, China is
advancing rapidly in science and technology, and Western
scientists must engage their Chinese counterparts. But let’s not
delude ourselves and pretend that China is just like the U.S. or
Japan or a member of the European Union.”
[Footnote: This week the Chinese government ordered all China-
based Web sites and blogs to register with authorities or face
fines up to $120,000.]
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Hott Spotts will return June 16 Russia.
Brian Trumbore
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