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AMERICANS have every reason to be glad that Harry Wu returned safely to his home in Milpitas, but his trip should make us reconsider the role of human rights issues in American policy toward China.
No one can blame Wu for wanting to expose the horrors of the Chinese gulag that destroyed 19 years of his life. His crusade, however, must be kept at a distance from American policy.
Criticizing Chinese repression and human rights abuses is not likely to make China's leadership change its political system. The United States has little influence over China's internal affairs, as demonstrated by six years of repression of dissidents since the Tiananmen massacre.
In the absence of another comparably dramatic event, the United States is unlikely to muster greater international pressure, because America's Western allies and Japan are noticeably much more restrained in their criticism of China on human rights issues.
Change in Chinese political institutions, including its jails, might come...