What will we be ashamed of when China cracks down?

One European Union official now believes that Europe for too long chose stability over democracy in the Arab world: EU commissioner Stefan Fuele has offered an unprecedented mea culpa for Europe’s history of support for dictators across north Africa. Criticising what he called the view of a "rather offensive ‘Arab exception’ towards democracy", he told ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

One European Union official now believes that Europe for too long chose stability over democracy in the Arab world:

One European Union official now believes that Europe for too long chose stability over democracy in the Arab world:

EU commissioner Stefan Fuele has offered an unprecedented mea culpa for Europe’s history of support for dictators across north Africa.

Criticising what he called the view of a "rather offensive ‘Arab exception’ towards democracy", he told MEPs in Brussels on Monday (28 February): "We must show humility about the past. Europe was not vocal enough in defending human rights and local democratic forces in the region."

I’ve argued before that engaging in this kind of ritualistic self-flaggelation regarding the Arab world is easy enough now. With protesters on the streets and dictators clinging to power, it’s not really that tough to choose democracy over stability, since there’s precious little of the latter remaining. But what about when the protesters are hidden away or effectively contained and when there actually is a hard choice?

I’ll believe that the folks now loudly lamenting past policy mistakes (including many in the journalist ranks) are genuine when they advocate vigorous official support for democracy–even at the cost of stability and short-term interests–in a place like China. We’ve heard plenty in the last month about the arms deals that shouldn’t have been made, the tear gas that shouldn’t have been sold, and the hands that shouldn’t have been shaken in the Arab world.   So what will we be ashamed of when Beijing cracks down on a popular uprising?  

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

Tag: China

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