Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, international condemnation of the war has been scathing and economic retribution awe-inspiring. This is the correct, moral response. But what about China?
China continues to be Vladimir Putin’s closest friend on the world stage. At the beginning of February, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a far-reaching partnership between the two countries on trade. Putin waited for the Beijing Winter Olympics to conclude before launching his Ukraine war; the Chinese subsequently abstained from the U.N. resolution condemning the invasion.
Beyond its complicity in Russia’s misdeeds, China’s human rights abuses are rampant. The Chinese Communist Party routinely violates religious liberty by harassing and imprisoning Catholic and Protestant clergy, Tibetan Buddhist monks, and Falun Gong practitioners. The government and state-owned enterprises use what is functionally slave labor.
Most infamously, China is carrying out a genocide against the Uyghur Muslims, placing more than a million in detention centers and subjecting them to torture, rape and sterilization in pursuit of an ethnostate. The regime took Hong Kong and now eyes Taiwan greedily, and it will surely attempt to annex the island nation at some point.
The contrast between the West’s righteous wrath at Russia and its apathy about China’s atrocities is saddening. Why does this gap exist? There are many reasons, but one big reason is the increasingly corrupt ties that some corporations and D.C. groups have with China.
Many former U.S. senators, members of Congress, diplomats and D.C. firms that have been enriching themselves by lobbying for Chinese interests. This trend began in the 1990s, fueled by the false hope that as China opened up economically, it would become a healthy constitutional republic. This did not happen. Under China’s model of state capitalism, the party controls businesses through the carrot of monopoly privileges and the stick of state coercion.
The path to China’s corporations runs through the Communist Party for foreign investors. A good relationship with party members means booming business. A few law firms, lobbying groups and dozens of corporations have gotten in on the act. Some firms are registered with the Justice Department as foreign agents due to their relationships with the Chinese government.
Many Chinese state-owned enterprises with whom former American decision-makers partner actively help the regime to surveil citizens and suppress groups like the Uyghurs. Ex-officials have shilled for special interests before, but now these interests are not domestic but foreign. Indeed, they increasingly represent the interests of America’s greatest geopolitical adversary.
Conversely, criticizing the regime hurts business. This fact has led corporations and Washington to minimize or ignore human rights violations in China. The energy of Washington’s reaction to Russia only throws into stark relief its tepid response to China. The reactions are different partly because powerful people and corporations are financially invested in China to the extent that demands silence to atrocity. They should divest from China as they have from Russia.
We have taken a noble stance against Russia, but we fail to denounce China because it is more difficult. We must act. Former members of Congress, high-ranking officials and Washington public relations firms should not be allowed to represent China and Chinese companies involved with and complicit in human rights violations.
To their credit, many firms have dropped Russia as a client. This is the correct response and one I hope expands to China. Additionally, current members of Congress should refuse meetings with groups that continue to represent Chinese interests in Washington. The Communist Party should not have an ear or seat at the table on Capitol Hill, no matter how much they are willing to pay for it.
The 18th-century British statesman William Wilberforce told his countrymen about the evils of the slave trade: “You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you do not know.” We know that China has an undue influence on Washington. We know that Xi Jinping supports Putin’s murderous regime, even as China perpetrates genocide at home. We know that selective outrage over the predations of Russia but not of their chief accomplice is hypocritical.
Will this entire city prize American interests, moral courage and human rights over financial gain? We must decouple before it is too late.
