Empty Protocol Rhetoric

Chinese President Hu Jintao admitted to President Barack Obama that China still had much to do in the matter of human rights in his country. But both men know the issue won’t get beyond the talking stage.

Hu Jintao wanted to show China to the world as America’s equal, and Barack Obama wanted contracts for his country’s corporations. Both got what they wanted. The American president served up lobster with onion rings deep-fried in buttermilk batter, and Hu dutifully placed orders for American airplanes and turbines.

And, yes, they did bring up the subject of human rights, and Obama did offer his frank opinion that there was a definite scarcity of human rights in China. Hu agreed with that assessment saying, “A lot still needs to be done in China in terms of human rights.”

But will Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo be released from prison? Or will China stop all its theatrics every time the Dalai Lama is received by some government? Probably not.

Publicly accepting criticism of China’s human rights record was just the bitter medicine Hu had to swallow to be received as a global statesman. Both he and Obama know that it won’t get beyond rhetoric, because China is far and away too important and too powerful for the United States. Didn’t Hillary Clinton once say that it’s difficult to criticize your banker?*

*Editor’s Note: This quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified. However, during the 2008 presidential campaign, President Obama said, “It’s very hard to tell your banker that he’s wrong, all right?”