There are a few things in this world that warrant jeopardizing lucrative trade deals and access to a market of 1.2 billion people. Flagrant, frequent, unrepentant human rights violations are foremost among those reasons. Initiating periodic United Nations censures against China’s communist government is not enough. The U.S. must take a tougher stance on China and human rights. China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization (WTO) should be conditional on a tangible improvement in the respect of human and minority rights. A U.N. monitoring team must also be allowed into Xinjiang and Tibet to ensure that separatists and protesters are treated fairly. Admittedly, China will not be happy about such conditions. But WTO access is worth more to China than having the freedom to torture its people. The U.S. government ought to use its leverage to help China’s leaders understand this.

Of course, there are many people who still share the Clinton administration’s naïve view that the more we integrate China into the global economy, the more influence the West will have on China’s policies. To continue to advance this view is to turn a blind eye to the reality of decades of rapprochement with the Beijing government. To argue for “trade first, democracy later” is to forget June 4, 1989. At a time when China was opening up its economy to the West with alarming swiftness, the world watched in horror as tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square and the Chinese army murdered peaceful demonstrators. The world was outraged, but after the dust had cleared, trade negotiations quickly resumed. Twelve years after Tiananmen, China has not begun to improve its record on human rights.

So forgive me if I do not grieve for our “heroic” spyplane crew, nor for our plane. When it comes to China, getting back a damaged aircraft ought to be the least of our concerns. If you want to denounce China’s oppressive oligarchic regime, then do it—but do it for the right reasons.

Nader R. Hasan ’02 is a government concentrator in Lowell House. His column appears on alternate Wednesdays.