A response to "What Should the Left Do About China?"
A response to David Klion's controversial piece in the Nation.
Recently Journalist David Klion wrote a piece in the Nation where he argued the left should take up the causes of human rights abuses in China while opposing a new cold war. In the article, he laments some large figures on the left for not talking about issues of China’s actions in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. I think this article is missing three main principles that any leftist should take up: focusing on your own state, not giving into interventionist narratives, and opposing sanctions and escalations.
Focus on your own government
As Noam Chomsky famously pointed out he focuses on criticizing the United States because he can actually do something about it. As he put it “….even if the United States were causing only a tiny fraction of the repression and violence in the world-which obviously is very far from the truth-that tiny fraction would still be what I'm responsible for, and what I should focus my efforts against” “…it's a very simple ethical point: you are responsible for the predictable consequences of your actions, you're not responsible for the predictable consequences of somebody else's actions”. This is a point Klion is missing in his piece, the United States cannot do anything about human rights abuses committed by China but they can do something about atrocities in Yemen and Gaza where their government is actively arming and funding the perpetrators of those massive human rights abuses (Saudi Arabia and Isreal). They can do something about sanctions starving people in countries such as Iran, Syria, and Venezuela. They can do something about drone strikes that kill thousands of civilians and regime-change operations such as those in Iraq and Lybia that destabilize entire countries. They can do something to try to stop the escalating new cold war with Russia and China. They can do something to scale back the 800 military bases around the world. They can affect the United States’ arming of extremist groups around the world such as Jihadists in Syria and Neo-Nazis in Ukraine and their support of coups against leftist governments such as those in Bolivia and Venezuela. And this is not even to mention the domestic issues in America such as Americans dying from lack of health insurance, mass incarceration of minorities, extreme poverty, abuse of immigrants, police brutality, and environmental pollution. And of course there is also the United States’ crackdown on dissident of all types: whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, Reality Winner, Chelsea Manning and Daniel Hale journalists like Jullian Assange and human rights lawyers like Steven Donzinger. To put it simply don’t throw stones in glass houses. The United States left has so much that needs to be changed about their own government that they do not have time nor the right to try to clean up or fix a government they have absolutely no control over.
Don’t give in to interventionist narratives
In Klion’s article, he argues that “but one danger of ceding criticism of China to the right is that the US response to a legitimate human rights crisis ends up being led by xenophobes and warmongers.” What Klion is missing here is that issues of human rights abuses in China are being cynically weaponized by xenophobes and warmongers to manipulate gullible liberals to support a new cold war with China. The mainstream media’s use of unreliable sources on Xinjiang such as far-right anti-semite Adrien Zenz or the military-industrial complex funded ASPI show the United States media is looking to paint as extreme a narrative as possible surrounding the situation. I am not an expert on the situation and I have no doubt there is repression against the Uyghur minority population, but the state departments own lawyers were not able to find evidence of Genocide, and a recent AP article reported that China has eased its policy in Xinjiang painting a much different picture from the United States’ accusation of genocide. But even if the harshes allegations of abuse in Xinjiang are true, is Klion’s memory so short that he has forgotten the “humanitarian intervention” argument made for the Gulf war which killed 200,000 people or the humanitarian argument for regime change in Lybia which resulted in that country becoming a failed state with open slave trade or the argument for humanitarian intervention in Syria that led to C.I.A. and pentagon to arm Jihadists and sanctions that have starved and killed Syrian civilians. Does Klion really not realize that the state department and neo-cons do not actually care about the human rights of Uygurs and are using them to justify more escalation with China.
What is the end Goal?
The question that needs to be posed to Klion is “what is the end goal?” of the left criticizing China. Right now both Democrats and Republicans seem hell-bent on a new cold war with China. Right-wing populists like Tucker Carlson and Saagar Enjenti use populist language to demonize China was liberals like Klion use humanitarian language to argue the left should be more anti-China. The end result of using this language will be more sanctions, tensions, and escalations with China. Most recently the United States passed a law banning imports from Xinjiang unless they can prove they are not using forced labor. But as journalist Anthony Omene pointed out on Twitter this will effectively result in companies not taking in any imports from Xinjiang because it is so hard to prove a negative leading to unemployment among Uyghur workers. The bill is trying to achieve a similar result that sanctions do: keep a population as miserable as possible to try to foment government resentment. These are the kind of policies that will be passed by the United States government if the anti-China rhetoric continues.
What Should the U.S. left’s position be on China?
The United States left’s position on China should be to oppose a new cold war. There are many problems with the Chinese government but they are not problems for Americans or Westerners to solve. At a time when the west is entering into a new cold war, the left’s main priority should be to stop this escalation and oppose war. David Klion once said that Russiagate was "the crime of the century" so he clearly is not good at seeing through state department propaganda. With his article “What Should the Left Do About China?" he is giving into exactly what the state department wants: the left to say bad things about official enemy countries. Declassified documents show that the F.B.I has previously infiltrated leftist groups to foster anti-Vietnam and Anti-soviet Union sentiment amongst them. The left should not fall into the state department’s trap with the New Cold war: the left’s position on China should be one of non-intervention full stop.