By Larry Marsh, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist

Hillary Clinton's China trip again raises concerns about democracy and freedom in China. To figure out whether the Obama administration's position on this makes sense, we need to revisit history.

World history has displayed two different freedoms: external freedom (freedom from foreign domination) and internal freedom (democracy).

People tend to sacrifice internal freedom whenever they are subjected to external threats. Dictators and quasi-dictators from Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez to Kim Jong Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have thrived on this effect.

Even in the United States after 9/11 we allowed more surveillance including government wire-tapping and data collection when we felt threatened. We did this in spite of the fact that since our revolution we have never been subjected to foreign domination.

China has a different history. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, key parts of China were subjugated by a variety of colonial powers.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s China suffered enormously under brutal domination by the Japanese military.

Do we really want to be viewed as just another country trying to bully China by telling it what to do?

During World War II Chinese peasants rescued our pilots at the expense of entire Chinese villages being wiped out by the Japanese military in retaliation. We needed each other's friendship then, and we need it now.

Just last week a Russian warship sank a Chinese cargo ship after a disagreement over a rice shipment. Eight Chinese crewmen are missing and presumed dead.

China could have taken the money earned by selling us their products at a discount (favorable exchange rate) and used it to build lots of warships and armaments. Instead it reinvested most of that money back into America via its sovereign wealth funds.

When the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine needed a 750-foot, 28,000-ton dry dock for building our most advanced guided missile destroyers, China's Jiangdu Yuchai Shipbuilding Company built it for us for $27 million.

Some commentators have referred to our interdependent economies as Chimerica. We need to continue building a strong partnership with China and not foolishly undermine it.

Internally China went through the trauma of the Cultural Revolution. Chairman Mao incited young people to rise up against all educated people. Many Chinese leaders today have parents, grandparents or other relatives who were abused, tortured or murdered. Some are survivors of imprisonment and abuse themselves.

Fear of foreign domination and internal turmoil is not just a concern of the new Chinese leaders but of the Chinese people themselves.

Last November we were able to completely overthrow our own government via the ballot box. We were able to change presidents without spilling even a few crumbs at the pre-inaugural White House coffee.

Not every country is so fortunate. Widespread riots and turmoil in China are in no one's interest.

China may not be a democracy in the European or American sense, but it is not a brutal dictatorship.

No doubt people have been held without a fair trial as we have done at Guantánamo. No doubt some have been abused as we did at Abu Ghraib.

The best thing we can do to encourage other countries to respect human rights is to actually respect human rights ourselves.

Ultimately the Chinese people will determine in their own way if and when they are ready for a democracy as we know it.

If our government tries to force its own views on China, it will only rally the Chinese people around their government and motivate them to sacrifice more internal freedom to maintain their external independence.

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Also see:

H-1B visas, highly skilled immigrants, knowledge economy.

Cheap Chinese tires challenge Obama trade strategy.

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