Writing

WHERE DOES AMERICA STAND?
July 31, 2001
MARINA DEL REY, CA--Before leaving China Gao Zhan was warned by Chinese officials not to talk about her arrest, imprisonment, and trial for espionage. But in America, she held a press conference and defied these warnings. With America standing behind me...I'm not scared. Here I can breathe freely, and now speak freely, declared Gao.
Unfortunately, said Rob Tracinski, columnist for Creators Syndicate and senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute, she overestimates the support she can expect from the leaders of her adopted country. The twin pillars of the Bush/Powell China policy have been appeasement and evasion. Tracinski noted, for example, that the recent Chinese knockdown of our surveillance plane was another act of aggression for which Bush and Powell caved in to China's demands and offered an appeasing apology. Later they avoided opposing Beijing's successful bid for the 2008 Olympics. Most important, they evade the lessons of history, which demonstrate that an aggressor who is not punished will be emboldened.
Gao Zhan will soon be sworn in as a U.S. citizen--but with this kind of courage, this proud defiance of tyranny, she is already an American in spirit, said Tracinski. Gao deserves to see her courage matched by the courage of her new country's leaders and representatives. She deserves to know that they do, in fact, stand behind her and the other Chinese dissidents engaged in a desperate struggle for freedom.
Ayn Rand Institute senior writer Rob Tracinski is available for interviews on this topic.

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