And it showed how a couple of American companies went ahead with questionable deals without getting approvals from the U.S. government. Maybe the most interesting aspect of the report, though, is its effect on America's wider policies toward China. Nothing much has changed. The disclosures could derail China's effort to join the World Trade Organization because the effort requires American support. But that idea is in for rough sledding in any case.
Analysts expect it to be approved.
Well, for one thing, China is too big to ignore. For another, an American trade feud with China hurts American interests more than it does Chinese. Competitors to American businesses would gladly fill any commercial gaps such a dispute created. All of that suggests that it's in our interest to continue some form of the Clinton administration's policy of engagement with China. Engagement doesn't mean, after all, that the United States gives up its security interests for the sake of trade relations or any other kind of relations with China.