The Big Hope

The only hope of stopping the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and any other of their targets, is to convince China to stop it.

I read and heard the appeals to China to stop supporting Russia because if they don't, the U.S. and the free world will sanction them.

Sanctioning and military confrontation are the apparent negative approaches. What about incentives?

Trying the untried and conquering the impossible is needed to save humanity. What are the steps?

1. Develop a way ahead. 
2. Engage China with simple logic and reason.
3. Acknowledge China's great potential and its most significant challenges.
4. Define the changes necessary from the Chinese and Free-World viewpoints. 
5. Appeal to collaborate as partners in the process to turn the tide from war to peaceful coexistence.

Develop a Way Ahead

The U.S. and its allies have little success attempting to lecture China to change its policies. They believe the U.S. has a monopoly on writing the rules. While that thinking might have a ring of truth, it isn't helpful. According to Michael Schuman, "China wants to Rule the World by Controlling the Rules."

Here is where confrontation in the dispute is necessary as a starting point.

1. The Free World authored The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, our absolute starting position.
2. China has adopted a communist philosophy that subordinates individual rights to the greater good.

The facts are that individualism is compromised in the free world as the common good prevails. What is at issue is freedom of speech and expression without fear of retribution and suppression. 

China has a broad and rich history of cultural differences in its society, and those differences are appealing assets, not liabilities. Because China's population is enormous, governing and controlling have necessitated a degree of authoritarian control because there appeared to be no better option or out of desperation. The latter would be an insult. Needed is to address how China can better accommodate human rights for the common good. What can the free world do to make it worthwhile to make the changes?

The Global Innovation Policy Center