On the most recent H…

On the most recent Homespun Bloggers Radio show, I discussed with Bill Bennett my concern about holding China’s feet to the fire on human rights issues. Supposedly we can use our trade relationship to influence them, but I wonder if it’ll work that way. If we threaten to cut off or curtail trade as a bargaining tool, it’ll be American businesses that lobby against that, claiming it’ll hurt American jobs. And if China knows this, as I’m sure they would, they’d realize they are in the driver’s seat and wouldn’t have to change anything.

One thing I mentioned to Dr. Bennett was that there are people on both sides of this issue whose opinions I respect, so it’s not entirely answered in my mind. My blogger-in-law Jim Jewell gives a good argument for keeping the trade avenue open, because it’s been the open door for Christian evangelism. China is one of the fastest growing mission fields in the world–the people there have been starved spiritually because of communism’s official atheist stance–and so having this opened up via trade is a huge benefit to the Chinese people. A good point, and thus a tough choice.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!