THE STEVENSON REPORT - MARCH 04, 2008

When Silence is not Golden, But Yellow

The illusion that trade is just trade has taken a serious blow. The Family Research Council (FRC) has written to the State Department criticizing its silence regarding Communist China’s continued repression of religious rights. China’s government has arrested hundreds of Christian church leaders. In China, it is illegal for churches to meet in homes. Such restrictions on the free practice of religion are incompatible with our country’s founding documents.

Twenty-one of those arrested were sent to “reeducation” camps. That leaves no doubt that China is no freer when it comes to questions of religion than it ever was. In spite of the appearance of widespread capitalism, China is indeed still a totalitarian country.

The State Department has ignored the FRC’s letter. There is no particular surprise there. But a coalition of 28 members of Congress also wrote to the State Department asking the same question. They have received the same silence.

We have to wonder what’s wrong with the State Department. Most likely, their silence is a reaction of the fear of China. China possesses a weapon of mass destruction. It’s not a weapon of physical destruction, but a weapon of financial destruction. China has an enormous reserve of dollars. That reserve is a direct result of the one-sided trade engendered by China currency value manipulation and its border tax rebate scheme. If China dumped the reserve dollars it holds onto the market, it would generate an unacceptable level of inflation. The State Department, and probably the whole administration, fears that scenario.

America was once able to use the bully pulpit of its economic prowess to shame nations around the world into doing what was right toward their own citizenry. Now, it seems, that if we speak out, it will cost us dearly. While the citizens of China pay a high price for the exercise of their rights, America has sacrificed its courage on the altar of cheap imports.