# Posted 8:17 AM by Ariel David Adesnik  

MIRROR IMAGES: Since 1776, Americans have known that "because we are free, we cannot be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere." The question remains, however, whether we can best share our freedom by serving as a model for others to emulate or, instead, by investing our wealth and power in the active promotion of freedom.

Often, American statesmen have sought to reconcile this contradiction between emulation and activism by asserting that freedom is a natural consequence of prosperity and that, therefore, trading with dictatorships will gradually result in the liberation of their subject-citizens.

Sadly, history has provided little validation for this optimistic belief. Instead, it is being challenged by one nation -- the People's Republic of China -- that is committed to demonstrating that the benefits of propserity and modernity can be enjoyed despite the total absence of political freedom.

While the dramatic growth of the Chinese economy has given substance to such assertions, there is not much reason to believe that the Chinese will be successful in the long run. However, rather than economic growth serving as a foundation for political freedom, I suspect that the absence of political freedom will ultimately undermine China's economic growth.

Perhaps the oligarchs in Beijing will be fortunate to stabilize the economy at a half-way point that provides their subjects with a decent way of life but no political freedom. What is more likely, I suspect, is that the Chinese state will come crashing down amidst the corruption, inefficiency and violence bred by the presence of dictatorship.

As such, the United States cannot afford to remain passive and look on as a spectator while the Chinese government conducts the most ambitious experiment in the history of social science. While the use of force is not possible, we must constantly speak out on behalf of freedom.

Thus, at this moment, if we are to celebrate this Day of Independence with a clear conscience, we must remember that as we speak, the Beijing dictatorship has begun to crush the freedom of that small outpost of civil liberty known as Hong Kong.

And so it must, because freedom cannot be contained. If Hong Kong lives free, the rest of China will demand nothing less. It is not prosperity that spreads freedom, but rather the exhiliration of knowing that others are free and prosperous. (0) opinions -- Add your opinion