The Wrong Way to Challenge China - Jim Hoagland
From The Washington Post:
… But threats to disrupt the 2008 Olympics — particularly over issues not focused on human rights in China — may not turn out to be a useful tool for bringing new pressure to bear. This is the rare event that aligns the interests of the party with those of the Chinese people, who have endured centuries of misrule, corruption and humiliation at the hands of Chinese and foreign rulers.
China’s rulers will use any blatant foreign “obstructionism” to whip up nationalist fervor and to focus resentment not on the lack of democracy in China, where it belongs, but on outsiders who would supposedly deny the Chinese people a moment in the sun. A smarter approach may be to let the natural pressures for diversity and change, which the Games will bring on their own, assert themselves inside China. [Full Text]
