In 2001, a book was published titled, "IBM and the Holocaust." A New York Times book review describes how IBM had "global control of a technology that was enormously helpful, indeed indispensable, to the Nazi machinery of war and annihilation." The Times review quotes the author of the book as saying that many companies did what IBM did. They "refused to walk away from the extraordinary profits obtainable from trading with a pariah state..."
Arguably that assessment rings true today. Only the pariah state has changed.
Those in positions of leadership, be they in the private sector or in government, do our country a disservice when they gloss over or ignore the actions of the Chinese government. They put us squarely on the wrong side of history.
The Chinese government brutally represses its own people. It persecutes people of faith. It censors the Internet. It maintains labor camps.
The Chinese government actively engages in cyber-espionage. It steals state secrets. It aligns itself with countries directly at odds with U.S. interests. It supports genocidal governments and buttresses rogue regimes.
There's a legal term, "willful blindness," that aptly described our dealings to date with China. Faced with these painful truths, blindness is no longer an option.
In the words of British abolitionist, William Wilberforce, "Having heard all of this, you may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say that you did not know."
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