In a lengthy conversation with the national correspondent of Atlantic Monthly, Jeffrey Goldberg, during a trip to the Middle East in March, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked about China’s frightened reaction to the Arab Spring. She called into question not just Beijing’s dismal human rights record, but the future of the Chinese regime itself.
“The Obama Administration,” Goldberg reports, “has been ratcheting-up the rhetoric on China’s human rights record lately, especially since the arrest of the dissident Ai Weiwei. But Secretary Clinton, in our interview, went much further, questioning the long-term viability of the one-party system. After she referred to China’s human rights record as “deplorable” (itself a ratcheting-up of the rhetoric), I noted that the Chinese government seemed scared of the Arab rising. To which she responded: “Well, they are. They’re worried, and they are trying to stop history, which is a fool’s errand. They cannot do it. But they’re going to hold it off as long as possible.”
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Interesting that Hillary should be a Marxist, as though history were unfolding. Neither she, nor anyone else, understands the ‘Arab spring’ yet. China is, like all empires, frightened of (uncontrolled) change (I think that’s in the history as well). Ceaucescu and Salizar kept their countries (Romania and Portugal) backward to minimize change and ease control. As for the US and human rights ………..
Naurally, when you’re in power – whatever your ideology – you don’t like change. You are right: we don’t understand as yet the Arab Spring in its many manifestations, and we were definitely wrong about Libya. But surely Hillary is right to believe that, on the whole, liberation is a step in the right direction.