America, Come Back
To Your Original
Calling!

By John Kusumi

(Introductory thank yous...)

...I might say, there are many in the American establishment who would agree that America should not be jacked around by communists.

Yet the massacre at Tiananmen Square reminds us how much worse it can be for Chinese who become jacked around by communists.

The violations and abuses of human rights from China have come faster and faster of late; the volume of reports has grown into a torrent, and the list of victims grows faster than their stories can be told, even at occasions of remembrance such as this one here today.

The abuses have picked up to such a pace, that we would be right to declare a state of emergency, and frankly admit, that these people are having a holocaust in China.

I feel it is fair to note that Nazi Germany rounded up one religion; communist China is rounding up all religions.

Now, as we look at the American response, there was none, from the government. I know I organized the China Support Network, but I'm not the government. With no government response, might the dissidents have expected better from the leader of the free world? If so, they were bitterly disappointed.

America has two options with China. One, is a path of weakness. The other is a path of strength.

China's democracy movement is that democracy movement which became "sold down the river," as America chose a path of weakness with China.

At the end of the cold war, it is as if America abandoned the truism that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

Many older Americans can remember growing up when Presidents were of the heroic World War II generation, and America stood against tyranny. And, older Americans know well, that a nuclear armed, communist superpower is a bad thing.

We can no longer remain spineless with communism. We oppose the free trade with China -- the measure called PNTR -- which is in fact "welfare for tyrants," and actually is the weaker path with China.

Americans who watch their government may have noticed, after the cold war, that the craft and practice of governing has been replaced with the craft and practice of commercialism.

America, come back to your original calling! For this one issue, put away the act of commercialism; bring back the act of leadership. The rights, the hopes, and the lives of 1.3 billion people deserve better than to be sold down the river.

The correct China policy is to "Save Democracy First." This is the path of strength, not of weakness. It was last seen when the heroic World War II generation ran Washington. It will be seen again, when Generation X holds sway in politics. (...I hope I haven't left anybody out of that statement...)

The American President needs to be on notice that the relationship with China, having its structural deficit, is today injuring our economy. It is too much in the way of welfare for tyrants, and it is unacceptable.

American businesses need to be on notice that their investments and assets in China may be at risk, or wasting assets. In the 1930s, there was also lots of trade with Nazi Germany. We should learn from that lesson, that trade did not bring freedom, and it did not stop the holocaust.

And lastly, China itself needs to be on notice, that China's future must include all of China's people; and indeed, that people are important. At Tiananmen Square, 13,000 people took a bullet, arrests were perhaps 50,000, and adding in parents, about 200,000 people had their lives torn by the event at Tiananmen Square. This is not how civilized or rational governments handle civil differences.

China can do better by its people, and America can do better by its values, its economy, and its responsibilities.

It is the job of dissidents and supporters of Chinese freedom and democracy, to also do better by this issue. Today we are strengthening our resolve, and reaffirming our commitment to this issue. We will strengthen, we will push, and we will prevail. For American supporters, we look forward to trading with a free and democratic China. We hope soon to welcome China as the newest member of the free world, as it rejoins the family of civilized nations. We look for these historic changes and until then, we will remember.

Together, we will all keep alive the hopes and the cause of the victims, who gave their lives for democracy at Tiananmen Square.

Thank you very much.

John Kusumi is Executive Director of the China Support Network.