[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 45 (Thursday, March 28, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E482-E483]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                CLINTON'S DAMAGE TO U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

                                 ______


                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 28, 1996

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I insert for the record two articles which 
point out the depths to which the Clinton administration has brought 
U.S. foreign policy. The first is an oped by Charles Krauthammer, 
detailing the administration's obsequious appeasement of Communist 
China, which seems more like a parody with each passing day.
  The second is a Washington Times article revealing President 
Clinton's offer to help Boris Yeltsin get reelected in Russia, in 
exchange for Russia dropping a recent ban on United States chicken 
imports. Of course, this ban severely impacted some of President 
Clinton's friends back in Arkansas.
  What is so pathetic is that after Russia imposed this absurd chicken 
import ban, the Clinton administration's response was not to use our 
enormous leverage with Russia due to the fact that we provide them with 
billions of dollars of taxpayer aid. Instead, the President offered to 
help Yeltsin get reelected, which means making more concessions on 
matters of national security such as NATO expansion and missile 
defenses.
  Mr. Speaker, China and Russia are two nuclear armed giants that grow 
more adversarial by the day, and this administration is doing nothing 
about it. In fact, they are openly encouraging this dangerous trend, 
and voters should do something about it this November.

               [From the Washington Post, Mar. 22, 1996]

       China's Four Slaps--And the United States' Craven Response

                        (By Charles Krauthammer)

       The semi-communist rulers of China like to assign numbers 
     to things. They particularly like the number 4. There was the 
     Gang of Four. There were the Four Modernizations 
     (agriculture, industry, technology and national defense). And 
     now, I dare say, we have the Four Slaps: four dramatic 
     demonstrations of Chinese contempt for expressed American 
     interests and for the Clinton administration's ability to do 
     anything to defend them.
       (1) Proliferation. The Clinton administration makes clear 
     to China that it strongly objects to the export of nuclear 
     and other mass destruction military technology. What does 
     China do? Last month, reports the CIA, China secretly sent 
     5,000 ring magnets to Pakistan for nuclear bomb-making and 
     sent ready-made poison gas factories to Iran.
       (2) Human rights. Clinton comes into office chiding Bush 
     for ``coddling dictators.'' In March 1994, Secretary of State 
     Warren Christopher goes to China wagging his finger about 
     human rights. The Chinese respond by placing more than a 
     dozen dissidents under house arrest while Christopher is 
     there, then declare that human rights in China are none of 
     his business. Christopher slinks away.
       (3) Trade. The administration signs agreements with China 
     under which it pledges to halt its massive pirating of 
     American software and other intellectual property. China 
     doesn't just break the agreements, it flouts them. Two years 
     later the piracy thrives.
       (4) And now Taiwan. For a quarter-century, the United 
     States has insisted that the unification of Taiwan with China 
     must occur only peacefully. Yet for the last two weeks, China 
     has been conducting the most threatening military 
     demonstration against Taiwan in 40 years: firing M-9 
     surface-to-surface missiles within miles of the island, 
     holding huge live-fire war games with practice invasions, 
     closing shipping in the Taiwan Strait.
       Slap four is the logical outcome of the first three, each 
     of which was met with a supine American response, some 
     sputtering expression of concern backed by nothing. On 
     nuclear proliferation, for example, Clinton suspended 
     granting new loan guarantees for U.S. businesses in China--
     itself a risible sanction--for all of one month!
       ``Our policy is one of engagement, not containment,'' says 
     Winston Lord, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and 
     Pacific affairs. This is neither. This is encouragement.
       Two issues are a stake here. The first is the fate of 
     Taiwan and its democracy. Taiwan is important not just 
     because it is our

[[Page E483]]

     eighth-largest trading partner. With its presidential 
     elections tomorrow, Taiwan becomes the first Chinese state in 
     history to become a full-fledged democracy. It thus 
     constitutes the definitive rebuff to the claim of Asian 
     dictators from Beijing to Singapore that democracy is alien 
     to Confucian societies. Hence Beijing's furious bullying 
     response.
       The second issue has nothing to do with Taiwan. It is 
     freedom of the seas. As the world's major naval power, we 
     are, like 19th century Britain, its guarantor--and not from 
     altruism. Living on an island continent, America is a 
     maritime trading nation with allies and interests and 
     commerce across the seas. If the United States has any vital 
     interests at all--forget for the moment Taiwan or even 
     democracy--it is freedom of navigation.
       Chinese Premier Li Peng warns Washington not to make a show 
     of force--i.e., send our Navy--through the Taiwan Strait. 
     Secretary of Defense William Perry responds with a boast that 
     while the Chinese ``are a great military power, the premier--
     the strongest--military power in the Western Pacific in the 
     United States.''
       Fine words. But Perry has been keeping his Navy away from 
     the strait. This is to talk loudly and carry a twig. If we 
     have, in Perry's words, ``the best damned Navy in the 
     world,'' why are its movements being dictated by Li Peng? 
     The Taiwan Strait is not a Chinese lake. It is 
     indisputably international water and a vital shipping 
     lane. Send the fleet through it.
       And tell China that its continued flouting of the rules of 
     civil international conduct--everything from commercial 
     piracy to nuclear proliferation, culminating with its 
     intimidation of Taiwan--means the cancellation of most-
     favored-nation trading status with the United States.
       Yes, revoking MFN would hurt the United States somewhat. 
     But U.S.-China trade amounts to a mere two-thirds of one 
     percent of U.S. GDP. It amounts to fully 9 percent of Chinese 
     GDP. Revocation would be a major blow to China.
       Yet astonishingly, with live Chinese fire lighting up the 
     Taiwan Strait, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said Tuesday 
     that the Clinton administration supports continued MFN for 
     China. He did aver that Congress, angered by recent events, 
     would probably not go along.
       This is timorousness compounded. Revoking MFN is the least 
     we should do in response to China's provocations. Pointing to 
     Congress is a classic Clinton cop-out. The issue is not 
     Congress's zeal. It is Beijing's thuggery.
       Quiet diplomacy is one thing. But this is craven diplomacy. 
     What does it take to get this administration to act? The 
     actual invasion of Taiwan? you wait for war, you invite war.
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Times, Mar. 27, 1996]

 Clinton Vows Help for Yeltsin Campaign--Arkansas' Interest in Poultry 
               Dispute Discussed at Antiterrorism Summit

                            (By Bill Gertz)

       President Clinton, in a private meeting at the recent anti-
     terrorism summit, promised Boris Yeltsin he would back the 
     Russian president's re-election bid with ``positive'' U.S. 
     policies toward Russia.
       In exchange, Mr. Clinton asked for Mr. Yeltsin's help in 
     clearing up ``negative'' issues such as the poultry dispute 
     between the two countries, according to a classified State 
     Department record of the meeting obtained by The Washington 
     Times.
       Mr. Clinton told Mr. Yeltsin that ``this is a big issue, 
     especially since about 40 percent of U.S. poultry is produced 
     in Arkansas. An effort should be made to keep such things 
     from getting out of hand,'' the memo said.
       White House and State Department spokesmen confirmed the 
     authenticity of the memo but declined to comment on what they 
     acknowledged was an extremely sensitive exchange between the 
     two leaders.
       The memorandum on the March 13 talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, 
     Egypt, does not quote the two presidents directly but 
     paraphrases in detail their conversation.
       According to the classified memorandum, Mr. Yeltsin said 
     ``a leader of international stature such as President Clinton 
     should support Russia and that meant supporting Yeltsin. 
     Thought should be given to how to do that wisely.''
       The president replied that Secretary of State Warren 
     Christopher and Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov 
     ``would talk about that'' at a meeting in Moscow. The meeting 
     ended last week.
       Mr. Clinton told Mr. Yeltsin ``there was not much time'' 
     before the Russian elections and ``he wanted to make sure 
     that everything the United States did would have a positive 
     impact, and nothing should have a negative impact,'' the memo 
     said.
       ``The main thing is that the two sides not do anything that 
     would harm the other,'' Mr. Clinton said to Mr. Yeltsin. 
     ``Things could come up between now and the elections in 
     Russia or the United States which could cause conflicts.''
       The memorandum, contained in a cable sent Friday by Deputy 
     Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, was marked 
     ``confidential'' and was intended for the ``eyes only'' of 
     Thomas Pickering, U.S. ambassador to Russia, and James F. 
     Collins, the State Department's senior diplomat for the 
     former Soviet Union.
       The memo said Mr. Clinton suggested that the chicken 
     dispute and others like it could be made part of talks 
     between Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister 
     Victor Chernomyrdin.
       Mr. Gore announced Monday that Russia has lifted the ban on 
     U.S. chicken imports that had been imposed out of concern 
     that the chicken was tainted with bacteria.
       The Washington Times reported March 8 that Mr. Clinton 
     intervened personally in the poultry dispute late last month.
       The president's directives to his staff to solve the 
     problem right away benefited powerful Arkansas poultry 
     concerns. Among them is the nation's leading producer, Tyson 
     Foods Inc., whose owner, Don Tyson, has long been a major 
     contributor to Mr. Clinton's campaigns.
       U.S. poultry exports made up one-third of all U.S. exports 
     to Russia and are expected to total $700 million this year.
       Asked about the memo on the Clinton-Yeltsin meeting, White 
     House Press Secretary Michael McCurry said yesterday that it 
     is ``inaccurate'' to say Mr. Clinton promised to orient U.S. 
     policy toward helping the Russian leader's political 
     fortunes. Rather, he said, the president wanted to make sure 
     that issues in the two countries do not hamper good 
     relations. The poulty issue was raised in that context only, 
     the press secretary said.
       Mr. McCurry, who said he was present at the meeting, also 
     said the president was referring to ``positive relations'' 
     between the two countries and not political campaings.
       Those present at the meeting included Mr. Christopher, CIA 
     Director John Deutch, National Security adviser Anthony Lake 
     and, besides Mr. Yeltsin, four Russian officials, including 
     Mr. Primakov and Mikhail Barsukov, director of the Federal 
     Security Service.
       During the discussion, Mr. Yeltsin outlined his political 
     strategy for winning the June presidential elections and said 
     he still had doubts about running as late as last month.
       ``But after he saw the Communist platform, he decided to 
     run,'' the memo said. ``The Communists would destroy reform, 
     do away with privatization, nationalize production, 
     confiscate land and homes. They would even execute people. 
     This was in their blood.''
       Mr. Yeltsin said he will begin his campaign early next 
     month, traveling throughout Russia for two months to ``get 
     his message to every apartment, house and person'' about his 
     plan to strengthen democracy and reforms.
       ``The aim of Yeltsin and his supporters would be to 
     convince the candidates one by one to withdraw from the race 
     and to throw their support behind Yeltsin,'' the memo said.
       Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov is ``the 
     one candidate who would not do this'' because he is ``a die-
     hard communist,'' and Mr. Yeltsin noted that he ``would need 
     to do battle with him.''
       Mr. Yeltsin dismissed former Soviet President Mikhail 
     Gorbachev as ``not a serious candidate.''
       ``He had awaken one morning and decided to run and would 
     wake up another morning and decide to withdraw his 
     candidacy,'' Mr. Yeltsin said of his predecessor. ``This 
     would be better for him because he now had some standing and 
     if he participated in the elections, he would lose any 
     reputation he had left.''

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