A Schizophrenic Approach to China

The Nobel Peace Prize 2010 was awarded to Liu Xiaobo "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China". Liu is now imprisoned in China for "inciting subversion of state power", and Chinese government has seen this award as a western attack to their regime and way of living.

China adopted some free market institutions as a tool to overpass underdevelopment after the failure of the Cultural Revolution in times of Mao. The adoption of economic reforms was defined as a shortcut to Communism, rather than a recognition of the bankruptcy of the old system. For western people is misleading to believe that China has changed its values by adopting market institutions, as its leaders see them just in a pragmatic way, without the intention of changing the basement of the system. Western democracy is not a goal in the eyes of Chinese rulers.

The violation of human rights has lead many democratic governments to produce sanctions against dictatorships. Indeed this is not valid when the country we are talking about is a world economic leader. We want to make democracy and human rights respect a must, but we are not prompt to lose both the market for our goods in the most populated country of the world, and the financial source to balance the deficit of western economies. Is this wrong? 

China will be the real test for the validity of human rights as absolute values. Its economy is leading the recovery of the world after 2008 recession, and continues growing vigorously. Millions Chinese people are getting into the market economy every year, running out of underdeveloped agricultural structures in the country midlands. The government keeps, indeed, a strong control of the political arena. Open economy is making lots of rich Chinese people and enlarging, year after year, the middle class. Having this people fulfilled their basic needs; they will go for higher aspirations. Within those higher level needs, political rights will be eventually asked for a larger majority. Tiananmen events were just the prologue of what will come in the future. 

Surely this is not the point of view of Communist Party in China. Political control in order to reach communism is a must in its standpoint. Market economy and capitalism are still controlled in many aspects, and the rulers believe that they can change the direction of the vessel just moving the wheel. But as Chinese people get wealthier, underlying forces will make impossible to turn round. This will be the real test for human rights.

In the midterm, democratic countries should take a schizophrenic approach to China. They must allow the time for change to come, accepting the ruling authorities, but they should also demonstrate the importance of human rights as often as they can. Western extreme pressure will not produce changes. On the contrary, Chinese authorities may feel threatened their positions and take backwards steps. But an absence of concern about human rights will lead Chinese democrats alone, allowing for further prosecutions against them. 

Cynicism is an essential part of politics and, with regards to China, must be with us for a long while.