Thoughts after watching I Was There: Kate Adie on Tiananmen Square.
Deepest gratitude for all these courageous journalists. Their work to spread the news is the beacon of hope for humanity.
The free world has made many problematic political decisions on China. The world should not have normalised trade relations with China. Three reasons, I believe, drove the rapprochement. First, the huge market of a billion people is tempting. Second, there is a flawed assumption that when the Chinese economy improves, the standard of living of the Chinese will improved; this improvement will in turn lead to liberalisation, reform and eventually democratisation. Third, the Chinese tyranny's policies are confined to China, so they dont affect the rest of the world.
All these mindsets are utterly naive and wrong.
The huge market remains difficult to access, now 23 years and counting, after China joined WTO in 2001. And Chinese factories often disregard intellectual property rights and produce dirt cheap counterfeit which destroy your original products' market share.
Chinese government's oppressive policies ultimately spill over and lead to problems everywhere, including but not limited to the global epidemic, exacerbating climate change, monetary and material supply to the Russian regime and its war, dumping of cheap low-quality goods via small parcels, air pollution, overfishing around the world... All because China's government has unrestrained power in everything and can do whatever it wants to do.
Growth in wealth also doesnt benefit most Chinese because it's concentrated in the handful of people who are deeply connected with the regime. There is always an unrelenting sense of insecurity among ordinary Chinese people, stemming from the lack of social welfare, healthcare, fair opportunities, etc.
If the world didnt normalise trade and diplomatic relations with China, the regime would not have gained all the resources and power from the money brought by the trade. Collapse and dissolution of the Chinese state would be imminent. Instead we now live in this world dominated by this giant blob of savages.
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