China in WTO Will Help More Than Just Trade

Many Americans find the glass-clinking over China’s all-but-assured accession to the World Trade Organization reprehensible. They point to the United States’ lack of response to the Chinese government’s crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement as evidence of a U.S. penchant for selling short its lofty principles in the face of big-business interests. This attitude illustrates an alarming misalignment of the American calculus.

Contrary to popular assumption, bringing China into the WTO will encourage social and political change in China and help promote reform of its egregious human rights behavior. China’s modernization has, until now, been greatly inspired and facilitated by interaction with the world community and will be greatly enhanced by WTO membership. The emergence of the Falun Gong movement illustrates that, with continued modernization, the Chinese government will continue to find its power circumscribed.

First, only with the proliferation of information technology (such as the Internet and the fax machine) could followers of Falun Gong have continued to secretly organize over the past four months despite the high-intensity government crackdown. Technology networks that serve to link the country internally and to the outside world have allowed Falun Gong to garner support and sustenance through cyberspace, despite government attempts to block access to movement-related Web sites. The impact of information technology on society and the life of the Chinese individual will become more pronounced. Consequently, the organizational capacity of groups and the potential for clandestine exchanges will expand, and the repressive controls of the government will diminish.

Second, the Falun Gong movement illustrates the emergence of another powerful force of social reform, namely, a modern legal system. The Falun Gong protests underscore the growing effect of codified law on contemporary Chinese society. First emerging from obscurity as they gathered in Beijing on April 25, the group’s adherents sought redress for what they interpreted as violation of their legal rights under the Chinese Constitution. Supporters have since decried the ensuing crackdowns as anti-constitutional and illegal. Thus, while the current legal system remains grossly inadequate, these murmurs of a budding legal consciousness in China represent a fundamental advance.

Both the expansion of information technology and the development of a modern legal structure in China have been largely facilitated by foreign trade. Until 1978, China’s limited telecommunications infrastructure increased at a meager pace, and other forms of information technology were all but absent. Since the resumption of U.S.-China trade in the late 1970s, foreign telecom firms have, in cooperation with Chinese companies, worked with breathtaking speed to cover China in networks.

International trade also has galvanized the development of a modern legal structure in China. Beginning in the late 1970s, the increased flow of commerce across China’s borders and the subsequent effects of this trade on Chinese society necessitated a renewed effort to create a viable legal system. U.S. business owners, demanding an effective rule of law to protect their investments, have, along with U.S. academics and politicians, worked to further China’s modern legal development.

Of course, China’s legal structure is still very much a work in progress, and there remains a critical gap between written law and implementation. Moreover, that the government has now ratified a law banning “cults” appears to support the argument that China is governed by a system of rule by law rather than rule of law. Nevertheless, the rhetoric and the actions of the Falun Gong followers show that “law building” has influenced Chinese popular consciousness. As a legal culture matures in China and as leaders seek to maintain popular support, government acts of indiscretion will be increasingly restricted.

China’s WTO accession will benefit the U.S. on several fronts. It would be a huge boon to U.S. industry. It also carries positive implications for a more constructive and stable U.S.-China relationship. Finally, it is likely to help drive domestic sociopolitical reform. As China’s economy increasingly is enmeshed in global markets, the legitimacy of the government will depend more and more on its ability to operate on par with world powers. Under these conditions, there is a good chance that China’s transition process will be peaceful and that change will eventually produce a more acceptable social and political environment.