China and freedom
For all of you who think that it is inevitable that freedom will follow free trade into china read about how American news on google is being blocked by China. At the same time the entire world gets to see the state run Chinese news, which acts as propaganda to promote China and harass the West. Ignoring the lack of freedoms the whole world is now giving China a free pass and letting it continue its policies of suppressing freedoms in Tibet, Hong-Kong, and other regions (especially Western). Now Europe is even thinking of lifting a fifteen year weapons sale ban on China, which was imposed after the Tienaman Square massacre.
posted by Aleksandr at 8:35 AM
2 Comments:
It is inevitable that freedom will follow China's prosperity.
The economic freedom that is capitalism leads to the political freedom that is democracy.
Freedom is, after all, freedom.
The key to China's growth is foreign investment. Foreigners do not invest unless they can get good information from China's government: they need employment data, income data, growth data. You make these numbers up and you won't be trusted. Investors do not throw money away - they need to trust. They will demand that companies manage books in accordance with general accounting practices. Patents need to be issued and defended. The Chinese will want to know how good their schools are or how safe their homes are. As people get more wealth, they demand more information and power - particularly about how their tax money is spent, and who it is spent on.
You think this is a fiction? Name one country in the world that is rich and oppressed.
There are none.
And there is a reason for that: it's impossible.
Freedom of information is linked to growth, and if China ever wants to move out of the Third World and into the Information Economy (it isn't anywhere close yet), it will have to play by the rules of the global economy - just like any other rich nation.
China's leaders will be given a choice: stay closed and stagnate, or open up and grow.
They will choose what is best for China, and Americans will welcome the Chinese into the Free World.
There are a few nations that are rich and were rich historically while they were controlled by an oppressive regime: all the Arabian Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, the former Soviet Union pre 1980's, and of course how can we forget Hitler's Germany, which was booming economically before it entered into War. All these countries are or were very rich the only problem is that in most of these examples the wealth does not rich the people.
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