Tibet to Tiananmen: Chinese Human Rights and United States Foreign Policy

The roof of the world, land of the snows, alleged home of the Abominable Snowman, and place for the timeless meeting of mountain and sky--these are the Western visions of Tibet.\u27 Most Americans know little else about this strange and exotic land shrouded in historical obscurity. Modern Tibet is a curious stockpot of native Tibetans and immigrant Chinese, which until recently was seasoned with increasing numbers of Western tourists, backpackers of all ages, vagabonds,and visitors from neighboring Nepal.\u27On June 4, 1989, China\u27s 27th Army brutally crushed democracy demonstrations that had extended for seven weeks in Beijing and other Chinese cities. This crackdown, which came to be known as the Beijing Massacre, was viewed with revulsion by the free world and resulted in economic sanctions by the United States, Japan, and Western Europe. In contrast, China\u27s activities in Tibet, which also have serious human rights implications, have received very little attention outside the United States. Most countries remained quiet about human rights violations in March 1989, when Beijing imposed martial law in Tibet and reportedly shot and executed protesters.\u27 The United States Congress, however, has been openly critical of China\u27s Tibetan policies

Perestroika and Market Socialism: The Effects of Communism\u27s Slow Thaw on East-West Economic Relations

The United States post-war foreign policy towards the East has been dominated by a strategic-military orientation. This Perspective will examine East-West relations from a new perspective, one in which an improved climate of economic relations, based upon mutually beneficial trade and investment contacts between the United States and the major communist nations, provides a complement for diplomatic efforts to reduce global military tensions. The threshold analytical premise of this study is that United States foreign policy must be addressed as a comprehensive whole, and that foreign economic, human rights, political and geostrategic policies are not only interdependent, but indivisible. Decisions about United States foreign economic policy therefore must of necessity flow from an initial assessment of the geopolitical milieu in which strategic issues arise. A gradual shift from a strategic-military orientation to a strategic-economic orientation in United States foreign policy may now be possible because of contemporary changes in the Soviet Union and the People\u27s Republic of China (China). These two communist nations will provide the principal case studies for analysis herein of recent reforms in communist countries and their implications for East-West relations

Thailand\u27s Labor and Employment Law: Balancing the Demands of a Newly Industrializing State

This article provides a comparative overview of Thailand\u27s labor law, one of the principal considerations for prospective investors. The legal system is analyzed from the perspective of a U.S. investor; to provide a familiar frame of reference, comparisons are made throughout the analysis to labor law in the United States. Observations also are offered on the important extra-legal aspects of employment in Thailand, such as the implications of Thai culture for the employer-employee relationship