President Bush’s Policy on China

If I hear one more person (politician, journalist, commentator) say we should trust President George Bush’s instincts on China because he lived there for a couple of years back in the 1970s, I am going to scream. What arrogance! What ignorance! I was born a Chinese, brought up in a traditional Chinese family, knowledgeable in its history and culture, and I don’t claim to understand its leaders. After all, what acceptable explanation can there be for a government to order the wholesale massacre of its own people?

I have lived in America for 17 years, and I certainly don’t claim to understand its leaders. I hear endless rhetoric on freedom and democracy, then see the President use all the power and prestige of his office to crush the spirit of Chinese students who are risking their lives for those same principles. I see the President sacrifice American and Panamanian lives to capture Manuel Noriega, but send National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft to toast the butchers of Beijing. In classic “Alice in Wonderland” logic, Bush maintains that the 1 billion Chinese are so important that he would not risk isolating them, but apparently the lives of thousands of Chinese students slaughtered at Tian An Men Square are worth so little to him that he’s willing to let the Chinese leaders get away with murder.

There is a lot of talk on what messages are sent by the Senate sustaining the President’s veto. I don’t know how the old men in China interpret it, but to me, it’s loud and clear: Next time George Bush and those Republican senators who betrayed the students lecture someone on democracy and human rights, I will just tell them, “Oh, just shut up, it’s all politics to you!”

AGNES LEUNG-RUST

Claremont