[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 165 (Tuesday, October 24, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15583-S15584]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             UNITED STATES POLICY ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, this week President Clinton will be 
meeting in New York with Chinese President Jiang Zemin. We can recall 
that about this time last year, in Indonesia, President Clinton also 
met with Jiang Zemin; going into that meeting the President declared: 
``the United States, perhaps more than any other country in the world, 
consistently and regularly raises human rights issues.'' I expect that 
in the reports coming out of this latest meeting we will hear that 
President Clinton once again took issue with the Chinese leadership for 
the egregious abuse of human rights in China.
  I only wish, Mr. President, that a result of these exchanges would be 
an improvement in China's human rights record. Unfortunately, there has 
been little change in Chinese behavior in this regard.
  We can begin by reading the administration's own State Department 
Human Rights Report, which acknowledges that in 1994 ``widespread and 
well-documented'' human rights abuses continued unabated and that in 
many respects the situation ``has deteriorated.'' We can recall the 
highly publicized case of American human rights activist Harry Wu, 
imprisoned by the Chinese Government only months after the November 
1994 Clinton-Jiang Zemin meeting. Wu, subsequently expelled by the 
Chinese Government, has worked for years to document and expose 
horrific practices such as the harvest of body parts from executed 
prisoners for use in transplants.
  If Wu--a citizen of the world's only remaining superpower and a 
country whose riches, technological expertise and markets are needed by 
the Chinese Government--could be treated with such impunity, how can it 
be for the Chinese human rights proponent who is laboring in relative 
anonymity? In the past year Human Rights Watch/Asia reports that 
several activists have disappeared, others sent into internal exile, 
and still others detained while their houses were ransacked for the 
simple crime of speaking out in favor of political openness. 
Furthermore, two prominent dissidents who were released just prior to 
the 1994 decision on MFN, Wei Jeisheing and Chen Zemin, are back in 
custody: at least, we assume Wei Jeisheing is in custody--he has been 
missing since April of this year.
  Mr. President, I believe that the lack of progress on human rights is 
attributed to the fact that U.S. actions have been inconsistent with 
the spoken principle. Rather than seek to impose a cost on China for 
its abuse, rewards are bestowed on the leadership. I refer, of course, 
of the renewal in June of most-favored-nation [MFN] status for China. 
The President's announcement continued what I believe to be an ill-
considered abandonment of a policy linking MFN status--or other 
economic benefit--for China to an improvement of its human rights 
situation. The administration argued that U.S. business investment and 
overall improved economic ties would lead the Chinese in the right 
direction on human rights. In fact, the Chinese leadership appears to 
have taken the exact opposite lesson: that the United States puts 
corporate interests, market access, and profits before fundamental 
rights.
  Mr. President, we have in MFN a weapon that the Chinese fear. 
Whenever it appears that its status is in question, they cancel high-
level official contacts. They threaten to limit the access of American 
corporations lusting after a potentially huge market. Why are the 
Chinese so visceral in their reaction? The $20 billion trade surplus 
China has with us, a surplus it uses to continue financing its economic 
development, might have something to do with it.
  It is clear that the Chinese care deeply about this trade 
relationship and the benefits it brings to their economy. We have 
leverage, and we should use it to oppose egregious human rights abuses, 


[[Page S 15584]]
such as slave labor, torture, and disappearances of Chinese citizens.
  President Clinton did this effectively earlier this year when, in 
response to flagrant Chinese piracy violations against United States 
companies, President Clinton threatened to slap $1.1 billion worth of 
trade sanctions on China. Rather than face economic retaliation, the 
Chinese immediately promised to make statutory changes to address this 
problem. I am proud that the United States was willing to stand up for 
our software industry; it should do the same for human beings.
  This is one of the reasons I introduced legislation in July to revoke 
MFN status from China because of its human rights record. We have had 
strong bipartisan support for linking MFN and human rights in the past. 
Taking that action will get Chinese attention in a concrete manner, in 
a way that words have not and cannot, and I renew my call to have such 
a resolution passed and supported by the administration.
  Alternatively, I would welcome another strategy the administration 
could put forth for how human rights can be more effectively protected 
and promoted in China. Clearly, raising the issue has not been 
successful. This week's meeting is an opportunity to pursue this issue 
more aggressively, and I would urge the President to do so.

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