Peach County and the Tibet Situation

It was simply a matter of bad timing that an entourage from Peach County and the state of Georgia arrived in China at the same time that country’s government began another brutal crackdown on protesters in Tibet.  That entourage included County Commission Chairman James Khoury, Peach Festival Chairman Rich Bennett and Development Authority Director Charles Sims, along with members of the Bliss and Feet dance studio and various entertainers and state officials.  They were to attend the annual peach festival in Chengdu, in Longquan Province, as part of a developing relationship between that community and Peach County.

In an email to Khoury’s “Spamination Society” email newsletter, Peach County Assistant District Attorney Cliff Woody was the sole critical voice; everyone else was impressed by previously posted colorful photographs and accounts of Khoury’s second trip to China.  Woody wrote:

How many Tibetans were killed by the Chinese government while you were in China?  I hope you said a prayer for them while you had such a good time.  Did you get to visit the Labor Camp in Chengdu?  I pray that God will forgive Peach County for signing a Sister City agreement with an Ungodly, Communist City.

The questions inevitably arise when dealing with China and other undemocratic nations with bad human rights records: Should we do business with them?  Does doing business with them reward their reprehensible policies?

There is no simple answer to such questions.  The federal government, as well as state and local governments, and American companies, do business with all kinds of nations that don’t meet our ideals.  We deal with Pakistan.  We deal with Saudi Arabia.  We’re dealing with China.

Woody’s righteous indignation is entirely justified, and I share it, but aimed at the wrong target.  Liittle Peach County can’t possibly have any influence on China’s Tibet policy.  Peach County continues its relationship with Chengdu, or cuts it off — it won’t effect things in Tibet.   Neither will Peach County have influence on any labor camps anywhere in China.  In that context, Peach County or anyone else isn’t rewarding China for its bad behavior, and there is no real punishment, either.   What’s more, the Chinese don’t respond favorably to in-your-face confrontation anyway.  “Bad China!  We’re taking our peaches away,” would not only be pointless, it might, if the national government noticed at all, be counter-productive and encourage greater intransigence.  All the recent protests to date have had no visible effect on China’s actions in Tibet, and the government is counterattacking on the PR front.

Now let’s turn it around: Could Peach County’s relationship with Chengdu and Longquan have a positive impact?  Look at how different China has become in the few decades since Richard Nixon’s bold move to open up U.S. relations with China.  The nation itself, once virtually closed to Western  nations, has opened up.  We visit China, Chinese people visit us.  Our ideas and ideals are reaching the Chinese people, over here and over there, despite their government’s attempts to control the flow.  No, China isn’t democratic, and its policies in Tibet and other ethnic regions are a disgrace, but as far as Peach County is concerned, engagement benefits us and them. 

It could take a long time, but I believe the more we expose China to freedom and openness, the freer and more open that nation will become.  Multiracial groups of visitors from Peach County and elsewhere in America send a powerful message that will penetrate China, even if too slowly for some.  As for Tibet, we can and should pray for the nation and the people, since the answer to that nation’s suffering is not in Peach County’s hands.