\n\n“That Merkel is simply misguided on the threat China poses, as Fulda believes, is certainly possible. However, given the political climate, there is likely a graver impulse behind Merkel\u2019s placating remarks: fear of retribution. After all, Merkel is far from the only prominent politician to skirt the issue of the CCP\u2019s atrocious human-rights record \u2014 far from the only politician to pretend that the Chinese government is a fair party on which one can count to honor its agreements and to act with benevolence.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last month, representatives of Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Poland, and the Czech Republic on the U.N. Human Rights Council, among others, refused to condemn China<\/a> for its encroachment on Hong Kong\u2019s autonomy \u2014 a serious blow to a unified Western countermovement against the CCP\u2019s actions. In all, just 27 governments expressed criticism of China\u2019s oppression law, with 53 in favor and the rest staying silent. Just as it is hard to believe that Angela Merkel is oblivious to the crimes China is committing, it is hard to believe that only 27 governments actually found fault with an effective ban on free expression and self-determination for Hong Kongers. (Granted, fewer governments around the world are democratic than one accustomed to Western laws might believe.) Rather, history has likely taught many nations that it is more expedient to keep their mouth shut than to take a firm stance on the global superpower with the world\u2019s second-largest economy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It is difficult to summon the moral courage to openly condemn a global superpower such as China, especially when large GDP growth and stable diplomatic relations are on the line. In any case, it would appear that the United States, in enacting sanctions<\/a> against Chinese officials for abusing Uighur Muslims, terminating trade benefits for now-CCP-controlled Hong Kong, closing the Chinese consulate in Houston, and imposing export controls on corporations enabling China\u2019s activity, stands virtually alone on China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be sure, there is an occasional discontinuity between the Trump administration\u2019s official policy and the president\u2019s rhetoric. As Trump himself has admitted<\/a>, he had little desire to press China on its treatment of Uighur Muslims in the middle of trade negotiations with the nation in late 2018, even though top White House officials were already viewing the situation with concern. And as late as February 29, weeks after the CIA had already warned<\/a> that China had vastly underreported its coronavirus infections and that its information was unreliable, Trump stated<\/a> in a COVID-19 briefing: \u201cChina seems to be making tremendous progress. Their numbers are way down. . . . I think our relationship with China is very good. We just did a big trade deal. We\u2019re starting on another trade deal with China \u2014 a very big one. And we\u2019ve been working very closely. They\u2019ve been talking to our people, we\u2019ve been talking to their people, having to do with the virus.\u201d But despite occasional confusion, the commitment to a solidly anti-Beijing foreign policy has been perhaps clearer in the Trump administration than in the government of any other country besides India and Taiwan. This is reflected not only in the U.S.\u2019s recent policies but in Secretary of State Mike Pompeo\u2019s denunciation of Xi<\/a>, last week, as a \u201ctrue believer in a bankrupt, totalitarian ideology\u201d and in his insistence that the United States \u201cinduce China to change\u201d lest Communist China \u201csurely change us.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “barring a massive change in European attitudes and in the fragile economic positions of nations such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, the United States will not have many reliable allies in the fight against China\u2019s most egregious abuses. The courageous pro-democracy residents of Hong Kong, as well as a few nations including Taiwan, India, and Israel, are notable but rare exceptions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n