A Pelosi-Evangelical Alliance?

One of the great shames of six years of GOP leadership is the free hand China has been given. Nothing is a greater telegraph signal that the GOP is not concerned about human rights than letting Beijing continue is repressive policies -- and get nothing but rewards for it.

Favored nation. Global warming forgiveness. International clout.

Until they respect the rights of their citizens -- who have no protections to speak of in the workplace, who still are the recipients of forced abortions, who are forced out of their ancient homes so government officials and their developer friends can get rich, who are killed or jailed for thinking outside party lines -- they should get nothing more than recognition as a global pariah.

Now as speculation that the dawn of Nov. 7 will see Nancy Pelosi as Speaker in Waiting, could things begin to change on our China policy? Tom Pate, writing in the Seattle Times, thinks so:

Politically, [Pelosi] is no knee-jerk leftist, and offers a wide range of nuanced views. One of the most interesting is her long-held perspective on China. She is rarely amused by Beijing, generally unforgiving and thoroughly skeptical in ways that link her directly to the human-rights wing of the Democratic Party.

Unlike fellow San Franciscan Dianne Feinstein, who has been California's senior representative in the U.S. Senate since 1992, Pelosi does not take a relaxed attitude toward China's intentions to execute its much-proclaimed "peaceful rise."

In a long conversation with her some years ago, I was struck by her firmly held view that China should get no free ride from the West simply because of its many problems, its titanic population and its tortured historic background. For sure, she argues, nothing can justify its many human-rights violations.

Pate deftly points out that there's one other group that is just as angry about China as the human rights wing of the Dems is: Conservative Christians. We don't like how they use near-slave labor, how they violently suppress Christianity, how they force abortions on their people.

Could James Dobson share a dias with Nancy Pelosi? For this purpose, yes, he should ... should the unthinkable Pelosi leadership become real. (Or how about even if it doesn't?) The dynamic tension between the allies on this matter would ensure a US policy towards China that is highly focused and carefully nuanced.

Hat-tip: Real Clear Politics

Related Tags: Pelosi, China, Human rights, Dobson