cattan2011 / CC
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – “Realpolitik” is the-situation-on-the-ground. It’s reality, not the way someone wishes it was.
If I walked through the south side of Chicago after dark with a moneybag, I’d be robbed. Someone might claim that there are police to protect me. Realpolitik is that lawless gangs own the streets.
China claims that Taiwan is a renegade province that is actually part of their country. China claims that Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities are attending job training programs in the northwestern part of their country.
Realpolitik tells a much different story. Taiwan, at least for now, is an independent nation. It elects its own president and parliament. It has its own, separate economy. And it is bullied by it’s larger and militarily stronger Chinese communist neighbors.
Realpolitik tells us that China operates a massive detention and reeducation gulag where ethnic minorities are stripped of the culture and are taught to be more like Han Chinese.
And to demonstrate their power over us, China insists that we ignore reality. The price for having diplomatic relations with Beijing is to pretend that Taiwan doesn’t exist, and to pretend that China isn’t operating a network of concentration camps.
China telling our political leaders where they can and can’t go was a bridge too far. Nancy Pelosi had to visit Taiwan once news of a possible visit became public. Realpolitik also tells us that China could attack Taiwan and take over and control its territory. It would be exactly what it is; an invasion of an independent nation. The Pentagon has conducted multiple war simulations. The ‘defend Taiwan’ team always loses.
What would a realpolitik foreign policy towards China look like?
- We don’t trade with a country that imprisons millions of its own citizens. Your detention camps are not an internal matter.
- Technology that you steal – solar panels, electronics, etc – won’t be sold overseas. We’ll have special tariff protocols to price industrial espionage out of the world market.
- We will no longer pretend that the world is as it is not. We support Taiwan, the democracy, over you, the communists.
And yet, China knows we do not practice realpolitiks. China promised to leave Hong Kong as-is until 2047 after the British turned over the former colony. After just 23 years, China’s takeover is complete. The world kept silent.
Chris Conley.
Comments