Pushing Up Daisy

Monday, April 07, 2008

Clinton urges Bush boycott of Beijng Olympics

I find it so interesting that Hillary, on the campaign trail, is urging Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics due to human rights violations by the Chinese government. Looking back to 2000, it was her husband, then commander in chief, Slick Willie, who proudly signed a bill extending permanent, normal trade status to China

Bill Clinton and other supporters argued that bringing China into the global trade regime would help make Beijing a more responsible and accountable member of the world community.

"Of course, trade with China will not in and of itself lead China to make all the choices we believe it should," Clinton said. "But clearly, the more China opens its markets, the more it unleashes the power of economic freedom, the more likely it will be to liberate the human potential of its people."

8 years have gone by. Is China a better place now for its citizens? I know the WTO agreement hasn't been a good thing for the US citizens whose factory jobs are gone thanks to the cheap goods pouring in from China.

4 Comments:

  • At 12:30 AM, Blogger Len said…

    I liked Bill Clinton as a president for the most part. And at the time I thought free trade with China and NAFTA were good things. I thought free trade would be the way to help other people out, and that would be good for everyone. Now, I admit I was wrong. Free trade agreements have been a great way to stick it to the American worker, generally screw our economy, and bring us plenty of lead-filled products. And I don't think it helped the Chinese workers much either. We should call it a failed experiment and end it.

    Whatever she might say today, Hillary didn't do jack with China when Bill was the president. It was a bipartisan effort to send Levi's, Converse, and Maytag offshore, it will take a bipartisan effort to bring them back.

     
  • At 3:23 PM, Blogger Suzy Neal said…

    Yes, it will take bipartisan effort to get the economy back on track and Americans working again.

    What about getting the CCC going again? Would Americans go for that?

     
  • At 4:55 PM, Blogger Betsy said…

    I don't think it's fair to judge Hillary's comments on what Bill did as president. I don't always agree with my husband and odds are good she doesn't either!

    At any rate, boycotting the Olympics is a good idea all around. Whether the issue is trade or human rights, China hasn't really shown much indication that they're doing the right thing.

    And it's not just manufacturing going overseas. Anyone called tech support lately? Even the customer service line to set up a service appointment for your Kenmore appliance is in India now. Yikes.

     
  • At 4:01 PM, Blogger Suzy Neal said…

    True that, Betsy! She probably wasn't too excited with a lot that Bill said or did while he was in office!

    Come to think of it, yeah, tech support from overseas doesn't make sense, but we've talked to them too!!!

     

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