The adolescent apathy of Tiananmen at 16

It’s the 16th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and that defining incident is likely to continue sinking further back in the public consciousness as terrorism eclipses slow-burning human rights issues. Here’s a bit of my take:

For those who remember American foreign policy between the Berlin Wall’s fall and 9/11, there was a vigorous debate on how to handle a growing and increasingly prosperous China. George W. Bush, you might recall, leaned more toward the economic engagement strategy, counting on political freedom to follow higher standards of living. (Fairly typical among businessmen.) The neocon argument made the case that China would inevitably become a military challenge, if not precise threat, to America, and its bureaucracy had efficiently (for once) segregated relaxed economic controls from political liberalization. …

In an age of stateless terrorism that nevertheless depends on ad hoc cooperation with states to stay in hiding, that debate has quieted to a whisper. The economic liberalization school has pretty much won, mostly because China is more or less “our sonofabitch” – not great, but slowly improving, we think – when much worse regimes are in the public view.

I give some thoughts on how to focus more public attention on the soft news of human rights here.