[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 27 (Friday, March 11, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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         COMMENTING ON THE SECRETARY OF STATE'S VISIT TO CHINA

 Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the 
Secretary of State's upcoming visit to China.
  I am shocked that the Secretary will visit Beijing for the purpose of 
presenting the administration's case for China to improve its human 
rights practices, and not visit with Chinese dissidents. What could he 
be thinking?
  What better message could the United States send than for the 
Secretary to meet with Chinese dissidents? If, as the press reports 
state, the administration is fearful of endangering other dissidents, 
this kowtowing to the Chinese will only encourage them to hold firm.
  When the United States was trying to persuade the Soviet Union to 
improve its human rights practices, we made every attempt to 
communicate and meet with Soviet dissidents to show the Soviets that we 
were not forgetting about these unfortunate victims of the Soviet 
system. Why should our human rights agenda be any different with the 
Chinese?
  Mr. President, it is bad enough for the administration to go back on 
its campaign pledge and grant MFN to China, as it did last year, but 
for it to pull this latest move is adding insult to injury. This is 
shameful and a sellout of these innocent victims of the harsh, 
tyrannical system that operates in China. The administration and the 
State Department should be ashamed of itself. Mr. Secretary, meet with 
Chinese dissidents and show our support for their plight.

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