[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 23 (Monday, March 7, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                               CHINA MFN

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                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 7, 1994

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, let the record show that the Clinton 
administration is already trying to wiggle out of its commitment to cut 
off MFN for China 3 months before the deadline. Already twice this 
week, the administration has signaled that it is willing to abandon its 
own conditions that it imposed on China last year.
  First the administration said that it is willing to consider 
multiyear extensions of MFN if China meets the conditions. But as this 
Washington Post article shows, now the administration is willing to 
accept words, not deeds, from the Chinese Government. Unfortunately, 
this was predictable, and I did just that last year upon the issuance 
of the President's Executive order. The administration is obviously 
desperate to continue MFN.
  Mr. Speaker, this administration's foreign policy has reached 
pathetic depths. Time and again, on issue after issue, we see that the 
Clinton administration simply does not have the will to stand up for 
American interests. They are simply terrified of ruffling even a single 
feather in any other nation.
  This is not the kind of leadership that won the cold war, Mr. 
Speaker. And it is not the kind of solidarity that the slaves who are 
the Chinese people expect from America.
  I would like to submit the Washington Post article for the Record.

               U.S. Shifts Benchmarks for Rights in China

                            (By Lena H. Sun)

       Beijing, March 2--The United States has told China that 
     Beijing may be able to show some of the human rights progress 
     needed to retain its nonrestrictive trading status with 
     Washington through pledges rather than specific actions, a 
     senior U.S. official said today.
       The development comes as the annual debate over China's 
     most-favored-nation trading status is beginning in Congress. 
     Secretary of State Warren Christopher is to come here next 
     week for further discussions.
       In Washington, Christopher suggested that the United States 
     might be willing to consider future multi-year extensions of 
     trade benefits if Beijing improves human rights in the next 
     few months.
       Both sides are trying to find a way for Washington to renew 
     Beijing's trading privileges critical for both countries, 
     while promoting human rights in China. Most-favored-nation 
     status grants a country trading privileges equal to those 
     granted all other trade partners not being subjected to 
     punitive treatment.
       While John Shattuck, assistant secretary of state for human 
     rights, was talking with Chinese officials, visiting 
     Undersecretary of Commerce Jeffrey Garten told reporters that 
     China is the world's biggest emerging market and that he has 
     been lobbying on behalf of American companies for projects 
     valued at about $6 billion.
       Last year, President Clinton made extension of China's 
     trade status conditional on ``significant, overall progress'' 
     in several human rights areas. Administration officials have 
     not disclosed how progress is to be measured, but in his two 
     days of ``very detailed and very precise'' talks here, 
     Shattuck said, he outlined a bottom line for his Chinese 
     counterparts.
       Shattuck, who is on his second trip here, declined to 
     characterize China's position on further human rights 
     gestures.
       According to a senior U.S. official, the gestures the 
     Americans are looking for include:
       A public commitment by China to subscribe to the Universal 
     Declaration of Human Rights;
       A public commitment to ensure humane treatment of prisoners 
     by allowing access to prisons by international humanitarian 
     organizations such as the International Committee of the Red 
     Cross. China is having discussions with the Red Cross about 
     prison visits, but the U.S. official said it would be 
     ``unreasonable'' to expect any visits to take place before 
     June 3, when Clinton must make his trade-status decision;
       A public commitment by Beijing for high-level discussions 
     between Chinese authorities and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual 
     leader of Tibet.
       In addition, Washington also wants to see China take 
     concrete steps to ban exports to the United States of goods 
     made with prison labor; stop jamming Voice of America 
     broadcasts; allow free emigration; account for more than 300 
     political and religious prisoners; and release an estimated 
     20 ill detainees whom the United States considers ``priority 
     cases.''

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