THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 19, 1996 TAG: 9605170022
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
China has about worn out its welcome. Americans were prepared to deal with the world's largest communist state when it was viewed as a counterweight to the Soviet Union. A lot of bad behavior was also overlooked when China began to free up its markets.
But the crackdown in Tiananmen Square turned stomachs. Forced family planning is repugnant. Human-rights abuses are rife. Selling arms to pariah states and pirating intellectual property violate international agreements. Threats to Taiwan are a red flag.
So, why have we continued to put up with the kind of provocation we wouldn't tolerate from Libya or Uruguay? In part because China is so big. We don't really want to get into a conflict with a country with millions of troops under arms. We don't really want to lose access to 1.2 billion consumers either.
But the Chinese have repeatedly demonstrated that if you give them an inch, they'll take an all-expense-paid trip around the world. They refuse to play by rules observed by other trading partners, and cavalierly refuse to honor international agreements they've freely entered into.
The issue of intellectual-property theft is currently on the front burner. We negotiated an agreement with China that it has ignored. We're not talking about somebody making bootleg tapes in their basement either. We're talking about huge dollars due to industrial-strength theft.
According to recent estimates, as many as 30 factories in China produce 100 million copies of pirated software a year. The loss to U.S. business is at least $500 million in computer programs, $1.5 billion in entertainent software. Of every 50 computer programs in use in China, 49 are illegal.
There's now talk of serious sanctions on billions in Chinese exports, including tariffs on textiles and toys by way of retaliation. But some warn of a boomerang effect. If we punish software piracy, the Chinese will punish us by not buying Boeing jets or GM cars.
That's not a happy prospect, but the alternative to entering into such a tit for tat is to sit still for theft as a state policy, to ignore illicit-weapons sales, to tolerate saber rattling or, worse, to overlook human-rights abuses. That may work in the short run, but sooner or later China is going to have to learn to accept the limits of the international game or be barred from playing.
Now would be a good time to start. President Clinton came into office criticizing the Bush administration for coddling the Chinese but has emulated his predecessor. Instead, the United States must insist that the Chinese live up to their agreements or pay a price. Other Asian powers and trading partners of the Chinese who suffer from the abuses should be encouraged to join a united front. by CNB