Transcript: Rep. Chris Smith Decries Persecution in China
(Smith backed failed bid to deny China annual NTR status)The United States has followed a policy that has failed to improve the human rights situation in China, and failed to curb Chinese belligerence, according to Representative Chris Smith (Republican of New Jersey).
The critique of the Clinton Administration's China policy came amid debate July 18 in the House of Representatives on House Joint Resolution 103, which would have denied authority to President Clinton to waive parts of the Trade Act of 1974 with regard to China. The resolution was defeated by a vote of 147 to 281 on July 18.
De-linking trade and human rights, along with surrendering the right to annually review China's trade status with the United States, "has brought the people of China six more years of torture, forced labor, forced abortion, and sterilization, the crushing of the free trade unions, the denial of fundamental rights of freedom of religion, of expression of assembly, and of the press," Smith said.
Beijing, Smith said, "is not only threatening to invade Taiwan, its senior military leaders have also threatened to attack the United States of America. These are our great business partners."
Following is a transcript of Smith's remarks:
(begin transcript)
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, in 1994, President Clinton decided to conduct an experiment. He decided to delink most favored nation status for China with human rights on the theory that more trade and investment with the United States would be the quickest way to persuade the government of China to treat its own people as human beings. At the same time, the Clinton administration gave up its power to use even the threat of the loss of MFN as a lever against Beijing's military aggression against Taiwan and other neighboring countries, and its military threats against the United States as well. Mr. Speaker, we are now 6 years into these two risky experiments with the lives of 1.2 billion people who are unfortunate enough to live under a cruel dictatorship and with the national security of the U.S. and the whole free world hanging in the balance. Nobody can seriously argue that either experiment has been a success. Instead, it has brought the people of China 6 more years of torture, forced labor, forced abortion, and sterilization, the crushing of the free trade unions, the denial of fundamental rights of freedom of religion, of expression of assembly, and of the press.
The Chinese Communist regime is not only threatening to invade Taiwan, its senior military leaders have also threatened to attack the United States of America. These are our great business partners.
Mr. Speaker, here is what Wei Jingsheng, the father of the Chinese democracy movement and long-time prisoner of conscience said in 1999 about the practical effects of MFN on the everyday lives of political and religious prisoners in China:
`The attitude of prison authorities toward political prisoners is directly related to the amount of pressure being exerted by the international community. When international pressure was high, the number of dissidents sent to prison declined drastically and prison conditions for political prisoners somewhat improved. In 1998, condemnation of China's position was abandoned entirely. The direct consequence of this easing of pressure was that, not only did the government crack down on activists attempting to organize an opposition party, but they also cruelly suppressed nonviolent demonstrations by ordinary people.'
Mr. Speaker, that is not me talking, that is Wei Jingsheng. When the U.S. turns up the economic pressure of Beijing, the beatings and the torture are less severe and are imposed on fewer people. When the pressure lets up, the repression gets worse.
But, Mr. Speaker, Members do not have to take Wei's word for the fact that Beijing responds to strength rather than weakness. All we have to do is watch what happens when Beijing does something that the Clinton administration and big business really hate, such as tolerating software piracy.
When that happens, Mr. Speaker, do the constructive engagers follow their own advice? Do they decide to just grin and bear it, go on trading and investing in China in the hope that eventually the Chinese Government will see the light? No, they do not. Instead, they threaten to impose trade sanctions, the very sanctions they say are inappropriate or ineffective when it comes to stopping torture and other human rights abuses. Talk about misplaced priorities.
Mr. Speaker, the threat to withhold trade privileges works to persuade Beijing to respect international copyrights because the Chinese dictatorship values the U.S. as a market for their expanding economy. So when we threaten their access to our market, they respond by respecting international copyrights. Why should that not also work when it comes to stopping or at least mitigating torture of religious prisoners and political prisoners?
Maybe there is a reason, Mr. Speaker. Maybe the Chinese Government is more attached to torture than they are to software piracy, but maybe not.
Let us try and do an experiment, a more promising one than the failed experiment of delinkage. Let us hold out the hand of friendship to Beijing, as Ronald Reagan did to Gorbachev, but make it clear that American friendship and American largesse are conditional on Beijing's observing certain minimum standards of human decency. Let us convince them that good things will flow to them from the United States if and only if they stop threatening to invade Taiwan and to shoot missiles at Los Angeles.
Mr. Speaker, the constructive engagers continually want us to give up our power and try any strategy except their own 6-year-old experiment which is looking more and more like a miserable failure. Since our May vote on PNTR, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has reported that the Beijing regime has intensified its repression of Uighur Muslims, the Tibetan Buddhists. It has intensified its crackdown on Falun Gong as well as to Catholic and Protestant leaders.
Mr. Speaker, I urge a yes vote on the measure offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher).
(end transcript)
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