(1) You are right to point out there is a difference between postponed v. canceled. Here the meeting was postponed until Obama gets back from China. But the reason why it was postponed remains, it was to placate China.

(2) I understand the Obama administration is implementing a new policy towards China, one referred to as 'strategic reassurance.' In this new policy, human rights abuses are to be placed on the back burner, along with China's financial dealings. The reason given is that these issues would affect Chinese cooperation when dealing with the global economic crisis, global climate change, and global security issues, specifically nuclear weapon proliferation in North Korea and Iran.

I would beg to differ. I believe the moral high ground is the greatest strength any nation can bring to the negotiating table. America was always held in the highest regard , not because of its wealth or military power, but because it was a shining beacon of hope for the worlds oppressed, embodied in the words of Emma Lazarus "...Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp...give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door...'

We have been slowly but surely surrendering our moral clarity, with each rendition carried out, with each person tortured, with each War Criminal our leaders allow into this country, with each unjustified war we embrace, with each person we imprison and deny legal representation to, with each treaty/protocol of the Geneva Conventions we fail to live up to.

Human rights are not something to be swept aside. They should be defended at all costs. If we fail to defend the very principles on which this nation was founded, we would have already lost.