Why We Won't Boycott the Beijing Olympics

I used to work for a Fortune 500 company which did an enormous amount of manufacturing business in China, from raw materials all the way up through finished goods.

You might recall an incident where the United States accidentally hit a Chinese embassy with a cruise missile a few years ago. In the aftermath, EVERY ONE of our Chinese suppliers refused to ship material to us. When asked, they all said the same thing: "We'll start shipping when you stop bombing our embassies." It was like dealing with the Borg.

We won't boycott the Beijing Olympics for this very reason: the moment we do so, the Chinese government will order Chinese companies to cease shipments to the U.S. That in turn will have a strong negative impact on our manufacturing sector, which in turn would likely throw us into a recession.

That's the calculus which has come about by the neocon position on free trade with our enemies. We have handed them an economic weapon to use against us in order to achieve their political goals. They have not hesitated to use it in the past, and will not in the present or future.