[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 104 (Tuesday, August 2, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 2, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1100
 
              REVOKE MOST-FAVORED-NATION STATUS FOR CHINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Deutsch). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of February 11, 1994, and June 10, 1994, the gentleman from 
Virginia, [Mr. Wolf] is recognized during the morning business for 4 
minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, Republicans, rightly so, like to remind 
America from time to time that we are the party of Lincoln, and we 
should, so we need to constantly check our compass on key defining 
issues to be sure that we continue to stand for people and for basic 
individual rights. Standing up for the people of China is such an 
issue. We will soon have a chance to vote on H.R. 4590, the Pelosi 
bill, which revokes most-favored-nation status only, and I stress to 
colleagues only, for those products produced and exported by the 
Chinese People's Liberation Army and certain goods from state-owned 
industries.
  Mr. Speaker, Lincoln, the President responsible for ending slavery in 
this country, would not have stood for the importation of goods made by 
slave labor in China, and that is exactly what the People's Liberation 
Army does.
  The party of Lincoln has at its heart a fundamental commitment to 
freedom from the tyranny of oppressive government. Today, what 
government is more oppressive to its own people than the ruthless 
Bejing regime and its brutal enforcement arm, the People's Liberation 
Army. Remember how proud we were when Ronald Reagan stood tall against 
an earlier oppressor, the Soviet Union? Remember when he named them the 
``evil empire?''
  Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are just words to the 
individual living in China. Theirs is a government which does not allow 
freedom to worship, freedom to speak out or even the freedom to have 
children. There is no right to due process. Punishment is swift. 
Penalties are harsh.
  Yet some would dismiss out of hand these boot-crushing acts.
  Some have said, Tiananmen is a long way behind us. We should avoid 
public pressure on human rights in China, moving forward through 
continued trade and quiet diplomacy.
  This sounds to me more like the policies of Clinton than the party of 
Lincoln. Tiananmen was 5 years ago. What, in the area of human rights 
has improved? What has trade and quite diplomacy accomplished since 
Tiananmen? The answer to both questions is too painfully obvious. 
Conditions grow worse every day for the Chinese populace. If we stand 
for the individual in China, where one-fifth of the world's population 
lives, do we not have to then vote for H.R. 4590 to target only those 
goods made by the Chinese People's Liberation Army and certain state-
run industries?
  Let me just cover some of the things the Chinese military have done.
  At Tiananmen Square 5 years ago, the Chinese military proved that it 
is an antidemocratic instrument of repression and the ultimate 
guarantor of Communist rule over the people of China.
  Two, the Chinese military is the occupying force in Tibet and 
threatens peace and stability in Southeast Asia.
  China is the only nation targeting the United States with nuclear 
weapons and the only nation still testing nuclear weapons. Do the 
Members of this body on both sides of the aisle want to continue to 
give the Chinese Liberation Army special trade preferences when they 
are targeting their nuclear weapons at the United States? Clearly, if 
my colleagues ask this at any town meeting, the American people, our 
constituents, will say absolutely not.
  Although China faces no external threat to its national security, it 
is engaged in a massive buildup of the most modern conventional and 
strategic forces, and, lastly, Mr. Speaker, with regard to the Chinese 
military companies. They are helping to finance the country's military 
buildup with arms sales to the Middle East and commercial product sales 
in the United States.
  That is correct. The Chinese military are selling arms to Iran. Many 
of the weapons used in Iraq came from China, and they are selling arms 
to countries like this, and so clearly, when we vote, we should 
strongly support this bill that the gentlewoman from California [Ms. 
Pelosi] has introduced.

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