on morality and china

Seth Levine pointed me to a Tony Perkins column on the "moral view" of China in which Perkins tries to have his cake and eat it on the issue of the morality of investing in China.

The thrust of his moralistic tone is that of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity during the 20th Century (in the name of Marxism), only the CCP still remains in power. He then runs through a litany of their current "sins": "[the CCP] still denies basic human rights, abuses its environment, enforces abortions, and outlaws religion." And he decries the fact that "this is also a China that the entire capitalist world -- especially Silicon Valley -- is embracing in a gigantic money-fisted hug."

Perkins goes on to justify his rejection of the moderate view (China is liberalizing) and the Realpolitik view (the deeper our ties to China the more we constrain its future hostility):

I take the moral view. After all, a free society -- which includes human rights for all, the rule of law, and the method of persuasion and consent in politics -- is based on moral principles. Sadly, the Communist Party of China still violates every one of these moral principles.

Ergo his prescription:

So my advice to the youth of China is to revolt... Use your mobile phones and computers... The road to change is starting conversations via e-mail, SMS, and instant messaging...

So Silicon Valley is greedily embracing/exploiting China, but the road to "a free society" is information technology? Er, um, don't you see how the Valley might maybe be a part of the road crew paving that road?

I don't mean to be flip. China has a lot to answer for in its (recent) past, and certainly these are issues that have a place in the dynamics of the changing relationships between China and the rest of the world and the Chinese government and its citizens, but I think it's clear what "view" I've taken... "living, working, investing in China."