Web Letters | The Nation

Corporate complicity

Mr. Dreyfuss, thank you for two very insightful articles on China. We need more such balanced reporting regarding that country. Three issues need to be addressed in further depth, to my mind: a better analysis of how the mostly American corporations do their almost laissez-faire transactions in China, with the complicity of the US and Chinese governments, e.g., what perks do they get, who gets paid off, what are the actual numbers involved in terms of environmental degradation in China, exploitative work conditions there, the number of jobs lost here in the West as a result of this shareholder run economy. Another issue is human rights, with the fascist military dictatorship running the so-called autonomous regions of Tibet and the Uighur regions, the atrocious policy of capital punishment as well as the mass unprecedented displacement of hundreds of millions of people. To say they're being forcibly evicted into a better life is like saying it was good to invade Iraq and Afghanistan because it would force them into democracy. Sorry, doesn't wash. I am mostly interested in the issue of American corporate complicity in China's affairs. This is where the depth and virulence of the abscess needs to be probed and exploded.