Communist China’s 70th anniversary, with its spectacle of violence against demonstrators for democracy in Hong Kong, is a moment to mark a profound truth: There is no difference between political liberty and economic liberty. They cannot be separated, nor can one be put before the other. It turns out that economic liberty and political liberty are the same thing — warp and woof of the fabric of freedom.

This became evident in Asia in the 1970s, when our defeat in Vietnam ushered in an era in which the so-called non-aligned nations began to assert themselves. Their conceit was that communism and capitalism were both bad. So non-aligned countries set up authoritarian regimes pursuing Western style development by focusing on business. They delayed political freedom until, in theory, they could afford it.

That theory, though, was upended in those Asian lands where democracy managed to emerge — Japan, Free Korea, and the Free Chinese Republic on Taiwan. It wasn’t easy; real democracy almost got defeated in, say, South Korea and took some time to emerge in, say, Taiwan. Eventually, though, the countries that chose multiparty democracy, freedom of religion, and the rule of law emerged as winners.

This was always recognized in America — and not just by Republicans. One of the clearest expressions of it was given by President Carter. That was in May 1977, when he spoke at Notre Dame. Said the 39th President: “The great democracies are not free because we are strong and prosperous. I believe we are strong and influential and prosperous because we are free.”

By then, though, that truth was already being betrayed. That started in the United Nations. Free China was one of its founders and — with America, Russia, Britain, and Free France — a permanent member of the Security Council, with full veto powers. Yet on a motion of one of the world’s worst tyrannies, Albania, the UN in 1971 gave China’s seat to the communist camarilla.

Nixon’s trip to Peking followed. Then President Carter, at Free China’s expense, and with Congress providing the hechsher, formally recognized the communist regime. This was challenged in the Supreme Court by Senator Goldwater. The justices took the case, but refused to hear arguments, and ordered a lower court to dismiss Goldwater’s claim as non-justiciable.

There wasn’t a lot of dissent in our intelligentsia, either. (William F. Buckley and Robert Bartley, editors of the National Review and the Wall Street Journal respectively, were among the exceptions). The Chinese communist strongman, Deng Xiaping, made his visit to America in 1979. He received an ecstatic welcome. And China did allow a form of free enterprise, and has made great strides.

Yet China forsook freedom. Communist China may have an economy that is the world’s second largest. Yet it is not stable. Hong Kong marks that, as did Tiananmen Square. The regime in Beijing knows that were it to let freedom flourish at Hong Kong, China itself would tremble. The real Chinese economic miracle is on Taiwan, seat of China’s only democracy.

That this is broadly understood in the world is what we take from the findings of the latest Pew survey, which discovered how sharply the world’s view of China is turning negative. Claudia Rosett has a column out today on PJMedia about the Hong Kong anthem. It’s a stirring tune as one reflects on the tragedy that communism has wrought in the world’s largest country.