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April 20, 2004

US Expects Trade Concessions from China

A nice headline from the New York Times, so you'd expect the discussion was about China dumping cheap goods in the US based on its slave labor.

But no-- China's destruction of free trade unions and violations of the International Labor Organization standards are not even being discussed.

The "trade discussion" will center on China failing to enforce copyright and other technology laws.

Yes, Chinese workers are being imprisoned in mental hospitals for daring to challenge the government, but the US thinks illegal DVD copying is the main issue on which we should be pressuring China.

It's really hard to take Bush's Iraq rhetoric about "democracy" seriously when he obviously only cares about corporate profits when talking with China.

Posted by Nathan at April 20, 2004 06:40 AM