November 5, 2001

MEMORANDUM TO: OPINION LEADERS

FROM: GARY SCHMITT

SUBJECT: China

For more than a decade, American proponents of a policy of engagement towards China have argued that it would lead to greater political liberalization inside China and more responsible Chinese behavior internationally. However, there is precious little evidence that the policy has delivered either. Yesterday, two newspaper stories highlighted just how empty engagement’s promises have become.

In the first, Erik Eckholm reports (“China’s Villagers Vote, But Its Party Rules,” New York Times) on Potemkin Village-like character of the much ballyhooed Chinese system of village elections. In case after case, party officials still dominate the elections and, in the rare occasion when they don’t, higher-echelon party officials simply step in and reaffirm their authority to control village decisions of any consequence. And, if there were any doubt about the Chinese Communist Party’s commitment to continuing its rule, Eckholm also reports that the party’s central committee issued a directive this past summer forbidding any efforts to expand elections to the next level of government.

In the second news story, Damien McElroy of the London Sunday Telegraph reports (“Beijing Produces Videos Glorifying Terrorist Attacks on ‘Arrogant’ US”) on how the PRC’s own government-controlled media have been mass producing DVDs, books and video games which celebrate the attacks of September 11. For example, according to McElroy, in the DVDs, “scenes from Hollywood films have been spliced between shots of the [attacks], including footage from the 1998 remake of Godzilla, in which a monster destroys New York buildings” and, over which, the Chinese narrator proclaims: “This is the America the whole world has wanted to see. Blood debts have been repaid in blood.”

Enough said.