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Containment is not a cold war invention. It is a principle of power politics going back centuries. After the Napoleonic wars, the Congress of Vienna created a system of alliances designed to contain a too dynamic France. In our time the Atlantic Alliance contained an aggressive Soviet Union. In between, the West failed to contain an emergent Germany. The result was two world wars. We cannot let that happen with the emerging giant of the 21st century.
But containing China is not enough. Even more important is what Gingrich found himself unable to advocate clearly: undermining its aggressively dictatorial regime.
Undermining begins with unwavering support of such dissidents as Harry Wu, now imprisoned in China on charges of espionage for his human-rights work. The moral reasons are obvious. But beyond the moral is the political. America contained the Soviet Union, but it was dissidents like Solzhenitsyn, Sharansky and Sakharov who brought down the Soviet system from within. Wu and the unnamed thousands he speaks for represent the ultimate threat to the Chinese dictatorship, which is why it reacts to him with ultimate ferocity. And why we need to stand by him steadfastly.
Economic sanctions will not work. They would be even more useless against China's robust economy than they once were against the weaker Soviet economy. Better to wage the human-rights fight in the public arena. Denying Beijing the 2000 Olympics was a serious blow. So is keeping China from joining the World Trade Organization on the terms it desires. Next, Hillary Clinton should respond to the pleas of Wu's wife and lead an ostentatious U.S. boycott of the U.N.'s World Conference on Women, scheduled for Beijing in September. Regimes like China's crave the legitimacy such events confer. Denying them sends a serious message: Liberalize or be ostracized. It should be a lodestar of our policy to grant such public perks only in exchange for signs of toleration and democratization.
Containment aims to prevent war. But a change in regime to a tolerant, democratic China is the better guarantee of peace. Time to apply the pressure and keep it on.