"Rapprochement" - U.S. and P.R.C.

The admission of the Chinese President a few days ago that human rights in P.R.C. need to be more closely looked at is a sign of hope that “capitalism with Chinese characteristics” has an official aim, at least in part in its attempts at attaining primacy in world society, of giving lip service to such issues and their importance within the P.R.C. and its international position as well.  The intent of the statement on human rights by Chinese officials to pay more attention to human rights might just be to assuage the egos of western officials who see many faults in the Chinese regime, as well as its competitive successes as facilitated by opprobrium of anyone within its territory espousing western ideas and political doctrines, or other “counter – revolutionary” principles.  It is entirely possible an additional legacy of Mao has been to keep the country on a commercial footing with military discipline and military sanctions that the great helmsman believed would realize the dreams of many Chinese cadres to demand and command more respect in the world and at home.  The Asiatic approach to capitalism that calls for many constraints on the lives of workers and industrial managers, and this without necessarily rewarding everyone for their work as they would be rewarded in the West, is a matter that remains to be resolved, in its justification and implementation within China itself.  Coolie and other types of labor have always been relatively cheap in P.R.C. and previously in imperial China, and this has long been perceived as perilous to western business, and even more so now that Chinese goods are produced at a discount to production in alternative areas and apparently with the same quality as they might be, for example, in U.K., or even other Asian countries. 

The human rights issue has in all appearances found linkage with commercial and business issues, as Chinese officials mentioned human rights in a dialogue with U.S. officials, including the U.S. President, connected to trade and technology issues, that without a doubt included renewed discussion of intellectual property.  Unrelated to the human rights discussion as viewed by the press, was probably some discussion around abating software piracy in China where most of the software from western countries, including that of large and important software developers, is illegally copied.  The tone of the human rights announcement also makes obvious the compromises P.R.C. has made in furthering its economic interests and the necessarily public “sturm und drang” of Chinese international relations with the West and the compromises it has for both East and West.  It becomes clear that P.R.C., as it produces many discounted goods sold in other countries throughout the world, in fact as the largest Asian economic “Tiger,” does have the perception still that its exports have not made as many consumers as dependent upon Chinese goods as it would wish.  The Great Helmsman would view this as unfortunate as discounted Chinese products truly have saturated international markets, and P.R.C. is a large emitter of carbon and hydrocarbon gases along with its industrial might for consumer goods production.  The statement about human rights as linked to commercial talks with the U.S. might be an indirect admission the aim of the P.R.C. to get a grip on the western consumer has not worked so well, and that some giving – in has to take place in order to prime up additional demand for Chinese goods – one of the apparent promises of the P.R.C. – form of capitalism.  

THS