It is much easier to blame an out group personality than consider the self or more fundamental problems. A frequent refrain now is people criticizing Trump for not going far enough on human rights. I fully agree and would like to see Trump go further but let's provide 1/n
some perspective. First, Trump on global human rights is operating from a historically standard playbook. Anyone saying he is unprecedented doesn't know what they are talking about. Syrian red line? We know the issues with W. Rwanda? Trump is actually very precedented. 2/n
Second, people act in their own interest and with all the economic and financial links with China this impacts a lot of people's opinion REGARDLESS of human rights violations. Hollywood. Wall St. The list goes on. Take one simple recent example: boycott /divest Chinese 3/n
stocks listed in the US or in China. Rather than look at the actual law in the US or why US investors should invest in Chinese military stocks, many in the financial industry wrote poorly researched piece about portfolio diversification. I have yet to hear one reason 4/n
Why we should invest in Chinese concentration camp technology or firms with non-compliant financial statements. People listen to their checkbooks. Third, people gladly overlook the complexity in getting things done. Whether it is why a bill is held up in the senate or 5/n
or why senators from California (Hollywood), Washington (Boeing), and New York (Wall St) would object to specific proposals, policies and legislation are a lot tougher to get passed and adherence. Fourth, this is why you will hear me over and over say, until policy proposals 6/n
to deal with China have tangible costs associated with them, they are not worth anything. You cannot challenge China costlessly. This means cost in a very broad sense but it means very broad costs. This includes whether you want to challenge Chinese economic practices 7/n
or human rights behavior, you are not going change behavior unless you are ready to impose and accept the costs that come with that. It isn't just Trump. It isn't just Democrats. It is a whole of country issue. Done.
