Labor standards will likely trump human rights when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Beijing later this month, one analysis suggests. The communist authorities are unlikely to respond positively to criticisms of its recent clampdown on democratic dissidents and bloggers, particularly when the economic crisis is making party leaders jittery:
Beijing’s worst nightmare is that these economic woes could fuse with political grievances to create an explosive social cocktail. In times like these, the last thing the leadership wants is economic challenges and harangues from the US on its human-rights record.
Many observers believe US leverage over Beijing is limited, given Washington’s preoccupation with domestic priorities. But a contrarian argument has it that the crisis of US capitalism could generate greater freedom abroad:
The connection between democratic capitalists in the West and authoritarian capitalists halfway around the world is as surprising as it is immediate. As once free-spending Americans suddenly sit on their wallets, factories close in China. However unintentionally, American shoppers are weakening the Communist Party’s hold on power now, just as they strengthened it during the past decade with an insatiable appetite for Chinese-made goods.
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