China's economic growth seems unstoppable, and Beijing will stop at nothing to secure stable energy supplies. Business means nothing but business. The Chinese waste no time with petite bourgeoisie concerns like human rights.

Referring to Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao's call to respect the sovereignty of Sudan, Sebastian Mallaby wrote correctly in his column in The Washington Post this past Monday that "in the Chinese view of the world, the principle of sovereignty trumps even the most appalling human rights abuses." Beijing safeguards the cardinal principle of sovereignty for one obvious reason: it doesn't want to be told by outsiders what to do either. Thus, Tiananmen Massacre was "none of your business—it's a domestic issue, and we do whatever we want" -- as Deng Xiaoping said to Brent Scowcroft. Thus, no one should say anything when the People's Liberation Army finally makes it across the Taiwan Strait.

No matter how imperfect the West has been in upholding human rights, at least there's a standard. The Chinese way of doing business, however, is anything goes. It's wishful thinking, indeed, to expect one of the worst offenders of human rights at home to pay attention to such abuses abroad.