[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 90 (Tuesday, June 18, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H6434]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         VOTING ``NO'' ON MOST-FAVORED-NATION STATUS FOR CHINA

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of June the President asked 
for a special waiver in order to grant most-favored-nation status to 
China. The House will soon be taking up this vote. In the past, since 
the Tiananmen Square massacre, I have worked with our colleagues to try 
to shape a compromise measure. The actions on the part of the Chinese 
Government in terms of violation of trade proliferation and human 
rights have been so extreme that this year I am forced to vote no on 
MFN for China.
  In terms of trade, the Chinese want favorable trade treatment for 
their products coming into the United States while having huge barriers 
to United States products going to China, to the tune of one-third of 
their exports coming to the United States and only 2 percent of United 
States exports being allowed into China.
  In terms of proliferation, the Chinese are proliferating chemical, 
nuclear, and missile technologies to unsafe guarded countries like Iran 
and Pakistan, and all this money they earn from their missile sales and 
trade consolidates their power to allow them to continue to repress 
their people. Some will say that economic reform will lead to political 
reform. This has not been the case, even according to the Clinton 
administration's own country report.

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