| By: Times Wang & Jianli Yang | Oct 23, 2020 |
| As the U.S. election enters its closing stages, both campaigns have been relatively silent about the main foreign policy question facing the country: the People’s Republic of China (PRC). One reason is, of course, that there is a remarkable degree of consensus that it was a bipartisan fantasy to believe that, as the PRC integrated into the global economy, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would naturally loosen its grip on power. Now, leaders in both parties — indeed, leaders in democratic countries the world over — seem to agree a change in approach is needed. And, regardless of the election’s outcome, we urge everyone who cares about democratic values to deepen that sense of solidarity in the months and years to come. By now, the need for principled solidarity should be obvious. Standing alone, even the United States has difficulty preventing the PRC from eroding democratic values. Dependence on the PRC, combined with financial incentives, bends everything – from domestic policymaking, to the behavior of private institutions like Disney or the NBA, to the tenor of discussions occurring in American universities – away from democratic principles… [Continue Reading] Source: https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/its-time-for-an-international-human-rights-alliance-to-defend-democracy/ |