-Caveat Lector- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25559
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! China boycott, round three ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com Picking up where we left off … Don't buy. Judging by the avalanche of e-mail in support of boycotting Chinese-made goods after last week's column – from the pastor in Iowa to the American import-export businessman who is cutting off Beijing – a great many people not only don't buy, they haven't bought for years. Some first balked at "Made in China" after Tiananmen Square. Some started after a senior Chinese official spoke of being able to hit Los Angeles with nuclear missiles. Others joined over western corporations' headlong plunge into the China market. Still others fell in step after reports of Chinese gun-shipments to U.S. gangland criminals, China control of the Panama Canal, the environmental horror being wreaked by the Three Gorges Dam and, of course, the spy plane incident earlier this year. Now, a great many seem to be joining up following news of officially sanctioned Chinese videos and DVDs celebrating the attacks on the United States (described in the past two "Retorts.") One reader forwarded last week's column to 14,000 people. Welcome. Avoiding China products is not merely a principled act of patriotism, in the wake of the anti-U.S. videos. There are a great many reasons to boycott. There is the country's audacious insistence that Taiwan is a "renegade province," plus the constant bullying and threatening of the stalwart little democracy. (Please see my column, "The House Around The Corner.") There is the tyrannical control of Tibet and promotion of a puppet high lama as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. There is Beijing's persecution and murder of its own people, from the visionary students crushed by tanks in Tiananmen Square to the peaceful Falun Gong sect. There is the shipment of death technology to nations that support and/or sponsor terrorism. Then there is the amoral rush by corporation after corporation to China – egged on by the Clinton adminstration's rationale that capitalist values might foment democratic ideals. While this notion could prove true eventually, it seems utterly stifled by Beijing's grip on Chinese public opinion through such propaganda devices as the recent "Attack America" video. Do corporations care? Apparently not. Profit margins know little patriotism or principle. Thus has Wal-Mart effectively become Wong-Mart. "Do you know what's really sad?" wrote reader Damon Wolf. "I was in the toy store the other day looking at Radio Flyer wagons. That is, until I saw the familiar 'Made in China' stamp. This is supposed to be 'An American legend since 1917!'" Don't buy. Here are the two most thought-provoking pieces of e-mail received after last week's column: one from a supporter, and one from a detractor. Both make valid points. Readers who doubt the effect one person might have should pay attention to Steve Aukstakalnis: "When I first learned of the video, I was outraged. It was then that I made up my mind to cease doing business (in China)," wrote Aukstakalnis, "a patriotic American" managing director of Two Tigers – an import-export business with many clients in China. Not only is Aukstakalnis cutting off the Big Dragon, but he is also urging his "large client firms" to move to other Asian countries – "notably Taiwan – a democratic country with free elections and a generous, compassionate people." And this is not being done over the video/DVD matter alone: "Out of the 56 countries I have visited in this world," said Aukstakalnis, who speaks fluent Mandarin, "China can be found at the bottom of the list in all respects. From the overall lack of the sanctity of life (in part a result of a dense, under-educated population), to the slimy nature of the business practices, the corruption, the outright, in-your-face arrogance, the deceit, yada, yada, the place leaves much to be desired. I completely agree with the call for a boycott, even at the expense of this business I have busted my backside to build." Now the equally impassioned words of a dissenter from Britain: "A boycott on all Chinese goods – would not harm the government of China one iota," wrote Richard Boardman. "The people who are likely to gain from the sales of these goods abroad and locally are the ordinary people of China … the people who go to work every day to produce these goods. These are the people who would be harmed by a boycott – individuals, families, good people." Boardman is right. Poor moms and kids slaving away at 18-hour-days to make Disney "action figures" and Chanukah lights and Frosty the Snowman potholders would suffer in a far-reaching boycott, and this is utterly heartbreaking. But what to do? Take no action at all? Stand by and let Beijing continue to bully, murder, pillage, threaten and play its underhanded, bellicose games? Let corporations go their wanton ways? Complex situations sometimes call for decisive action – otherwise, all is compromised into ambiguity and inertia. Any action that threatens the economy of China also threatens the policies of Beijing. In the long run, this is good for all people – including the quasi-slave laborers turning out Radio Flyer red wagons. Don't buy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Rip Rense is a writer and columnist whose work has appeared in many newspapers and magazines, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Emmy Magazine, TV Guide, and Free China Review. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! Write to same address to be off lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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