the Supreme Court on a host of issues where it has usurped individual, family, and local rights. They battled the real enemy: their own government, which has subsidized cultural breakdown and suppressed religious freedom at every turn. What s happened? Did they get bored with the fight that really matters? Certainly it s easier, and much more respectable within the beltway, to fight real and alleged infractions halfway around the globe than to face the awful reality of Leviathan here at home. But it sa grave error that can only lead to political and economic disaster. Are there no prisoners of conscience in US jails that merit attention? Is it not slave labor that Americans are forced to work half the year to pay the tax bill before they can begin providing for their families? Are no religious rights being violated when a distant central government prevents a local school choir from singing carols at the school play? Is religious liberty secure when an unconstitutional national police force torches and murders an entire religious community, and then jails the few survivors for 40 years? Tragedy is this: by focusing on distant crimes we can not prevent, while ignoring those at home we can stop, we play right into the hands of big government. Punishing China with embargoes and trade restrictions does nothing to improve life in China, even while it strengthens the hand of government here at home. We put the real enemy of liberty in charge of telling American producers and consumers what they can and can not buy from abroad, and at what prices. Further, the anti-China crowd is proposing to punish the Chinese people for the infractions of the Chinese government. The stakes are huge. US and Chinese corporations are in the process of developing joint ventures to open up new and hugely profitable shipping lanes from California to the northern regions of China that have not yet benefitted from the economic boom. If a trade war breaks out, as the actual isolationists would like, all of this would be lost, and millions of people would be condemned to continued poverty. How can the anti-China protectionists live with this on their consciences? Raquo; s fashionable these days to disparage people s desire for consumer goods obtained through international trade. American consumers who don t want to pay higher prices or join the trade war are said to be greedy and materialistic, putting Tickle-Me-Elmo dolls ahead of human rights. Similarly, we are encouraged to curl our lips at the idea that the Chinese people want to gain access to fast-food hamburgers - which we take for granted but which would be a dream-come-true for people who have lived under the communist yoke for so long. If we believe in liberty, we must understand that economic liberty is the most important kind. It is what touches our lives in the fullest possible way. What is the alleged right to vote compared with the real right to start a business, draw wages according to our productivity, keep the fruits of our labor, feed our family, save for the future, create a civilization? These are all components of capitalism, the only system truly compatible with the first and most important of human rights: the right to own and control what is yours.old classical liberals linked trade and peace because people with a commercial interest in good relations are likely to urge their own governments not to pursue the path of destruction and barriers. It s true in the Chinese case too. Disparage international business if you want, but as a lobbying force, we have it to thank for dousing the flames of war that labor unions, domestic bomb makers, and national socialists keep trying to fan. Raquo; sa small step from advocating blockades with a country to urging full-scale military attack. Mr. Hawkins warns that the US needs to hobble China. Laquo; How? By using America s current advantage in economic and military strength to fortify its preeminence in Asia. Laquo; US preeminence in Asia" ? Can we imagine Washington or Jefferson talking that way? Why don t we just set up a world government and run the entire planet while we re at it? If that s what the US has in mind, it sa recipe for global tyranny. It would bankrupt this country. It would make the US Constitution - already ignored - a permanent dead letter. It would keep Leviathan s grip fastened on the American people until the end of time. It would lead to perpetual war in the name of perpetual human rights.
China bashing and protectionist thinking is not kid s play. Because the US government uses it to its own advantage, it represents a real threat to our liberty and property. We ve lived through a hellish century of protectionism, war, socialism, and mass destruction, with governments holding the world's civilian population as hostages in their evil political games. Our choice today is what it has always been: peace and free trade with all, or trade w...
