MARINA DEL REY, CA -- Coming on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, China's theft of U.S. nuclear secrets makes President Clinton's continued "engagement" policy with China even more of a sickening spectacle, said a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute.
     "Clinton's one unchanging rule is never to 'endanger our relationship' with China -- which means: to appease its dictators at every turn," said Robert Tracinski. "Instead of morally condemning China, Clinton holds, we must develop a 'partnership' with it -- a partnership developed by our conferring on China the benefits of trade, technology and cooperation."
     Tracinski said that a partnership with China is impossible because it would be like a policeman forming a "partnership" with a criminal.
     "There should be no doubt that the Chinese rulers are criminals," he said. "Their standard method of dealing with enemies, whether foreign or domestic, is brutal force. China's recent record includes violations of rights ranging from the massacre of protesters in Tiananmen Square 10 years ago, to the continuing imprisonment and torture of political dissidents, to the widespread use of slave labor. China's foreign policy includes the threats of nuclear aggression against Taiwan and the sale of weaponry to terrorist Iran."
     Tracinski said that while the Clinton Administration appeases China by heaping benefits such as "Most Favored Nation" on it, Chinese missiles are being aimed at the one country the dictatorship regards as its greatest enemy: the United States.
     "By appeasing China, America gains only the illusion that these benefits give us 'leverage' over the Chinese rulers," he said. "The American people must reject Clinton's policy of appeasement and recognize that we have no "common interests" with a nation bent on destroying freedom -- any more than law-abiding citizens have a 'common interest' with criminals. We can't pretend that China is a normal, civilized country."

Robert W. Tracinski was a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute between 1997 and 2004.