Bush vectors In on Red China

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Dec 20, 1999 | by J. Michael Waller

America's place in the world isn't as a petri dish for one-world government nor as an insular Paraguay with nukes. Its 21st-century global mission, as Texas Gov. George W. Bush put it, is to protect the homeland, preserve the freedom of its allies and friends and expand freedom's frontiers, what the Republican presidential front-runner calls "a distinctly American internationalism."

Bush detailed that mission Nov. 19 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. He seemed to pick up where Reagan, who defeated the Soviet Union, left off: Stick by our traditional allies, recover freedom's lost gains in Russia and spread the revolution to Communist China. Said the governor:

"The conduct of China's government can be alarming abroad and appalling at home. Beijing has been investing its growing wealth in strategic nuclear weapons ... new ballistic missiles ... a blue-water navy and a long-range air force. It is an espionage threat to our country" warned the candidate. "China's government is an enemy of religious freedom and a sponsor of forced abortion -- policies without reason and without mercy."

Alarming. Appalling. Threat. Enemy. The very words Ronald Reagan used to alert the public to the dangers of the USSR and to bring down its tyrannical system. There's more:

"All of these facts must be squarely faced. China is a competitor, not a strategic partner" said Bush. "We must deal with China without ill will -- but without illusions."

The vision thing: George W. looks like he has it. That vision, freedom for the people of the world, not only escaped the foreign-policy leaders in his father's administration, but mortified them. "America, by decision and destiny, promotes political freedom -- and gains most when democracy advances," said Bush. Americans, he reiterated, are "defenders of freedom."

"The Empire has passed," proclaimed the governor. "But evil remains."

Good vs. evil. The speech wasn't simply the product of Bush's talented conservative speechwriters; it was vetted and finessed by the candidate's foreign-policy team. To his credit, Bush acknowledges that he's far from a foreignpolicy expert and often points with affection and confidence to his diverse circle of advisers, led by former Stanford University provost Condoleezza Rice. Some conservatives have expressed nervousness about Rice, who was "discovered" by President Bush's National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and became head of Soviet and East European affairs on the NSC team just as the Evil Empire imploded a decade ago.

Gov. Bush's Reagan Library speech, following his defense speech at The Citadel, brings into sharper focus the worldview of the candidate and the inner workings of his team. If Scowcroft ever did good deeds in his public life before retiring to his Washington influence-peddling firm, one of those might have been discovering Rice.

Unlike her mentor, Rice isn't embarrassed by Ronald Reagan. She doesn't cringe from the idea of spreading freedom while calling evil by its name. Bush has shown that he doesn't, either. He jabbed at those on the right who would withdraw America from the world but kept the tone positive, saving his ire for the Clinton-Gore axis that has allowed the United States to be manipulated "by our adversaries or the crises of the moment."

The candidate no doubt disappointed many conservatives by welcoming Beijing's entry into the World Trade Organization, but he qualified his support by saying, "Given China's poor record in honoring agreements, it will take a strong administration to hold them to their word." An understatement, but on the right track.

Meanwhile, he painted the Beijing-Firsters into a box by smashing the taboos and calling for Taiwan to join the WTO as well. And he reiterated his commitment to the defense of Taiwan: "We deny the right of Beijing to impose their rule on a free people. And as I've said before, we will help Taiwan defend itself."

But that wasn't all. Bush vectored in on Beijing from other angles, demanding that Washington stand by and strengthen its allies in Australia, the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea and Japan, decrying U.S. neglect of "democratic India's arrival as a force in the world" and urging the United States to pay more attention as India, an archrival of China, debates its future and pursues its strategic path.

Mainland China, Bush pronounced, "will find itself respected as a great power but in a region of strong democratic alliances. It will be unthreatened but not unchecked." He almost called for a democratic revolution in China. Taken to its logical course, that would mean the end of Chinese communism and its People's Liberation Army, or PLA.

Kissinger and Associates can't be expected to take all this talk sitting down. Bush and his team will find themselves under intense pressure from the Red China lobby, through the chief executive officers and retired generals who sold their souls to the PLA and the lesser agents of influence who dole out endorsements and campaign donations. Some are trying to worm their way into his inner circle.