For Chinese, Hard Questions About North Korea Hit Close to Home
And it’s dangerous for Chinese to ask hard questions that hit close to home. But why would Chinese find the nostalgia of visiting North Korea sufficiently rewarding to pay money for that dubious privilege? Maybe because human beings have a natural obsession with the things they fear the most, and because for many Chinese, the fear persists:
I have spoken with many of these Chinese travelers and have always been struck by how seldom their accounts dwell on the stark human costs of a system like North Korea’s, or on the political system that makes such extreme repression and deprivation possible on a national scale.
Xianhui Yang’s “Woman From Shanghai: Tales of Survival From a Chinese Labor Camp,” a newly translated collection of firsthand accounts that the publisher calls “fact-based fiction,” is about what might be called the Gulag Archipelago of China. Reading it, one begins to appreciate why travelers to North Korea are so reluctant to reflect on human suffering: the reality of North Korea today is too painfully close to a situation endured by the Chinese well within living memory. [Howard W. French, N.Y. Times]
Read the rest of French’s review to see how North Korea’s present ties into China’s past, although I doubt that even in China, all of that is completely in the past.
I sometimes wonder if China’s support for Kim Jong Il might have dropped away a decade ago had we made half as much effort to demonize China for its rape of North Korea as China has made at demonizing America, or demonizing Japan for its rape of China and Korea half a century ago. Not until now has an American administration made even a superficial effort to make Kim Jong Il into a diplomatic, moral, and historical liability for China.
The Chinese are holding our IOUs, and they are a beacon of hope to dictators who want to have prosperity without liberty. Prolly there’s a limit to how far we can push them.
True that, Sanity Inspector, but the Americans are not the only ones with their cojones in someone else’s hands. A lot of China’s rising prosperity depends on WalMart shoppers buying this cheap good or that. If that were threatened by a public with a rising sense of the harm China does to its people and its neighbors, there might be some impetus toward change. Might.
My fear on the home front, however, is that the public narrative about the dangers of feeding the PRC’s cruel prosperity would devolve into simple “Don’t buy Chinese” protectionism. It might also hurt Taiwanese goods, which still often carry “Republic of China” on them.
I sometimes wonder if China’s support for Kim Jong Il might have dropped away a decade ago had we made half as much effort to demonize China for its rape of North Korea as China has made at demonizing America, or demonizing Japan for its rape of China and Korea half a century ago.
I have never had that thought because Western governments and the media lost credibility with young, educated Chinese a long time ago, thanks to the Chinese government’s success in recasting Western criticism of China’s human rights as anti-Chinese. Remember that China is a country whose young people went around mindlessly chanting “Don’t be too CNN.” Harsh criticism of North Korea from Western governments or the media would probably arouse sympathy among the Chinese.
I think most Chinese do not ponder the human rights situation in North Korea because they are too preoccupied the problems of daily life in China and because the issue of human rights is associated with Western China-bashing. The Chinese goverment loves to shout about its legally enshrined policy of non-intervention (translation: we’ll look the other way while you abuse your people, and we expect you to do the same); most Chinese seem to believe that Chinese non-intervention is better than Western preaching about human rights. They correctly note that the West is more lenient with important allies like Saudi Arabia.
Nothing we say or do will make the Chinese come around to our way of thinking. I could say the same about the Russians, or the Muslims. If some day they start to think like us, fine. But we can’t can’t make them do it, we can’t even encourage them to do it. It’s up to them.
“Reading it, one begins to appreciate why travelers to North Korea are so reluctant to reflect on human suffering: the reality of North Korea today is too painfully close to a situation endured by the Chinese well within living memory.”
I agree with this.
My fear on the home front, however, is that the public narrative about the dangers of feeding the PRC’s cruel prosperity would devolve into simple “Don’t buy Chinese†protectionism. It might also hurt Taiwanese goods, which still often carry “Republic of China†on them.
But is that any worse than fretting over tainted products from China and then balking at any suggestion that we stop making products there, like I see many inconsistent pro-business people on the Right do?
Oh, and to Mr. Stanton, I posted a reply to your most recent entry about Laura Ling and Euna Lee.
Today’s South China Morning Post reports on another instance of pro-North Korean censorship in Shanghai. The Xuanchuanbu (propaganda department) is suppressing a new Chinese documentary about North Korea. It’s unfortunate, but given the circumstances where North Korea appears to finally be following Beijing’s “harmonious” directions, it makes sense from the CCP perspective. And, as befitting the monolithic narcissism of their political culture, the CCP is determined to exercise special control over the public narrative in the lead-up to the greatest party on earth, that is, the October 1 Tiananmen spectacle. Of course, if the North Koreans forget to extend their congratulations on that occasion, we will know that something is truly amiss.