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The China syndrome
If Beijing can put a man in orbit, it doesn't need our aid money
The Ottawa Citizen
Friday, October 17, 2003
We congratulate China's first taikonaut and the scientists and technicians who made his trip to outer space happen. But we're not very happy with his government for sending Yang Liwei into space. Or with our own for aiding in this adventure.
China is only the third country to put a human in space, after the United States and the now-defunct Soviet Union. The American effort has involved triumph, tragedy and not a little boredom, but at least it was affordable. The Soviet space program, and the massive military effort of which it was a part, exceeded the resources of the government that mounted it and the society it exploited. And the Chinese program looks, if anything, worse.
China is a poor country even compared to the former Soviet Union, let alone the United States. Its people are not well off even when they are not actually hungry, which many in rural areas are. And the spurt of growth it has experienced since abandoning the madder extremes of Maoism has created a huge environmental problem that ought to command whatever spare money the Chinese government has. So why is it putting a man in space?
Unfortunately, the answer seems to be one part vanity and three parts belligerence. Although the Chinese government has on the whole been less aggressive than the Soviet one was, in part because it was engaged in a tense staring contest with the Soviets, it still dreams imperial dreams -- at least within Asia -- and is gearing up to pursue them. It has brutally occupied Tibet for half a century, it has just retaken Hong Kong and Macau, and it has its eye on Taiwan on the apparent grounds that all Chinese should be ruled by one government because they are Chinese. And it is hiking defence spending relentlessly.
China has also been reasonably restrained in foreign policy because its military reach has been short. It was badly bloodied in the Korean War, humiliated when it invaded Vietnam in 1979, and is clearly in no position yet to storm across the Taiwan Strait in the face of determined high-tech American opposition. But the Chinese military has identified the U.S. as a major strategic enemy and is pursuing the capacity to challenge American supremacy in command-and-control, including the U.S. use of satellites to co-ordinate its forces. Persons of goodwill would not wish to encourage, let alone help, in this effort.
So why does Canada give China $65 million a year in aid? That its people are in want is unquestioned. But the aid we furnish makes it easier, not harder, for the Chinese government to misbehave, at home and abroad. Even if all our aid money went to the poor, it would free up resources for the Chinese authorities to pursue other purposes.
We may talk a good environmental story, yet we still give aid to a government that built the massive Three Gorges Dam, devastating the environment and displacing villagers. Now our prime minister is off to China to make muted comments about the human rights we claim to support in the hope of selling China some of our nuclear technology -- using Canadian subsidies as a lure. And our aid money has helped, albeit indirectly, China's vainglorious, militarily motivated space adventure. Surely among all the world's poor countries, there are ones whose governments would make better use of aid money.
So we congratulate Mr. Yang and the technical people, but not the government that sponsored them, nor the one that helped pay for the ride.
© Copyright 2003 The Ottawa Citizen
The China syndrome
If Beijing can put a man in orbit, it doesn't need our aid money
The Ottawa Citizen
Friday, October 17, 2003
We congratulate China's first taikonaut and the scientists and technicians who made his trip to outer space happen. But we're not very happy with his government for sending Yang Liwei into space. Or with our own for aiding in this adventure.
China is only the third country to put a human in space, after the United States and the now-defunct Soviet Union. The American effort has involved triumph, tragedy and not a little boredom, but at least it was affordable. The Soviet space program, and the massive military effort of which it was a part, exceeded the resources of the government that mounted it and the society it exploited. And the Chinese program looks, if anything, worse.
China is a poor country even compared to the former Soviet Union, let alone the United States. Its people are not well off even when they are not actually hungry, which many in rural areas are. And the spurt of growth it has experienced since abandoning the madder extremes of Maoism has created a huge environmental problem that ought to command whatever spare money the Chinese government has. So why is it putting a man in space?
Unfortunately, the answer seems to be one part vanity and three parts belligerence. Although the Chinese government has on the whole been less aggressive than the Soviet one was, in part because it was engaged in a tense staring contest with the Soviets, it still dreams imperial dreams -- at least within Asia -- and is gearing up to pursue them. It has brutally occupied Tibet for half a century, it has just retaken Hong Kong and Macau, and it has its eye on Taiwan on the apparent grounds that all Chinese should be ruled by one government because they are Chinese. And it is hiking defence spending relentlessly.
China has also been reasonably restrained in foreign policy because its military reach has been short. It was badly bloodied in the Korean War, humiliated when it invaded Vietnam in 1979, and is clearly in no position yet to storm across the Taiwan Strait in the face of determined high-tech American opposition. But the Chinese military has identified the U.S. as a major strategic enemy and is pursuing the capacity to challenge American supremacy in command-and-control, including the U.S. use of satellites to co-ordinate its forces. Persons of goodwill would not wish to encourage, let alone help, in this effort.
So why does Canada give China $65 million a year in aid? That its people are in want is unquestioned. But the aid we furnish makes it easier, not harder, for the Chinese government to misbehave, at home and abroad. Even if all our aid money went to the poor, it would free up resources for the Chinese authorities to pursue other purposes.
We may talk a good environmental story, yet we still give aid to a government that built the massive Three Gorges Dam, devastating the environment and displacing villagers. Now our prime minister is off to China to make muted comments about the human rights we claim to support in the hope of selling China some of our nuclear technology -- using Canadian subsidies as a lure. And our aid money has helped, albeit indirectly, China's vainglorious, militarily motivated space adventure. Surely among all the world's poor countries, there are ones whose governments would make better use of aid money.
So we congratulate Mr. Yang and the technical people, but not the government that sponsored them, nor the one that helped pay for the ride.
© Copyright 2003 The Ottawa Citizen
