China looks like the world's biggest economic opportunity in the first half of the 21st century; for America to distance itself from that goldmine looks utterly foolish to most businessmen.

But we think America would be foolish to stay too close to the Chinese government.

In our Inperson interview last week, China expert Steve Mosher gave us an idea of China's mindset. “In China, you name a human right and the government of China is abusing it — freedom of the press, freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience, freedom to practice one's faith — these are all forbidden to the Chinese people,” he said.

“China persecutes not only Christians, but minorities such as the Uigers in the West, Mongols and Manchus in the North, and Tibetans in the South. While some countries violate some human rights, China has the distinction of violating all human rights regularly.”

So why is the United States suddenly so willing have a close relationship with a nation like that?

Perhaps it's because Americans have always had a quiet (and appropriate) reverence for Chinese culture.

From The King and I to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon our popular entertainment has envied primal Eastern civilization. From Pearl S. Buck to Amy Tan, our fiction has explored the country's villages and introduced us to its people. We take-out Chinese when we're dating and we buy China when we get engaged. We are charmed by fortune cookies and entranced by The Last Emperor.

There is certainly great beauty in the Chinese culture and its people. But that shouldn't make us forget the great threat of China's geopolitical ambitions.

China's self-concept is one that can be frighteningly familiar to the post-World War II West. China is very aware of sheer size and the power that its mammoth population gives it. Chinese elite call the country Tian-Xia, which means “All Under Heaven.” The government seems to operate under the assumption that it is a master race.

China isn't a benign player on the world scene; it's a monster. It is a regime controlled by a frightening ideology who are bent on taking over the world.

When we trade with China, we're thinking in economic terms. But what are the Chinese elite thinking? We speak of how our trade with China will open the country to Western ideas of freedom, justice and democracy. But how likely is it that “All Under Heaven” will undergo a political metanoia just because its sweatshops are churning out Happy Meal toys?

And in America's present-day culture-of-death phase, is our command of freedom, justice and democracy great enough to attract converts in the East anyway?

Chances are, the opposite is true. Over the past 20 years of trade with China, we have become much more like them than they have become like us. Our family sizes have shrunk almost to their government-imposed one-child limit. Abortion has become as important a value to many of our politicians as it is for theirs. And while China's abuse of religious rights hasn't abated, our commitment to religious freedom has, from crèches in public places to the dismantling of the conscience rights of doctors.

In classical literature, weak people always deal with dragons the same way: by appeasing them. That plan always works to the benefit of the dragon, not the villagers (or its maidens), and America should reject that strategy.

Rather, President Bush is being called by Providence to do to China what Ronald Reagan did in the Soviet Union.

America should have a zero-tolerance rule toward China's abuses. Our military should be as wary of Beijing as it was of Moscow. No Olympics should be held in China under its current regime. Trade should be curtailed, starting with companies in any way associated with the military (and that's a long list). Finally, the disastrous sharing of technology with the Peoples’ Liberation Army that started under the Clinton administration must certainly stop.

Is it a hopeless situation? Certainly not. Greater things have happened against greater odds. Just look at the empty tomb.