[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 97 (Thursday, June 27, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7067-S7069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SYMPATHIES TO THE FAMILIES OF UNITED STATES SERVICE PERSONNEL IN SAUDI 
                                 ARABIA

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, let me just take this opportunity to 
extend to the families of the young men and women who lost their lives, 
and who were injured in Saudi Arabia a few days ago, my heartfelt 
thoughts and prayers.
  It is certainly our duty to protect those who we send overseas to 
protect us, and we cannot allow terrorist activities to threaten the 
lives of our young Americans.
  I really want to commend the President this morning for his strong 
and swift action, and again extend my deepest sympathies to those 
families.

[[Page S7068]]



                       MFN TRADE STATUS FOR CHINA

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to discuss 
most-favored-nation trade status for the People's Republic of China. 
The Congress is set to begin the sixth annual review of China's trade 
status. In my mind, this is one of the most important issues, one of 
the most important debates the U.S. Senate will undertake this year. 
This is the first in a series of remarks I will make regarding the 
importance of United States-China relations. It is my hope that the 
Congress and this country can begin to view our China relations in the 
broadest possible terms. Whether we like it or not, our future 
interests are intertwined with China. And today's choices will greatly 
influence whether our interests coincide or collide.
  This month many Americans took time to remember the Tiananmen Square 
massacre and the horrible events of 7 years ago. Tiananmen Square 
forever changed the China debate in the Congress and in this country. 
This year, on June 4, a young woman was dragged from Tiananmen Square 
by the police for placing a bouquet of yellow chrysanthemums near the 
Memorial to the People's Heroes. To this day, the Chinese leaders fail 
to recognize that actions like this only serve to remind the 
international community of the ongoing struggle for personal and 
political freedom in China. The promotion of human rights will always 
be a fundamental element of my work on China, indeed, human rights 
should always be a priority for United States policymakers.
  When this issue is considered by the Senate later this summer, I will 
vote again to renew China's MFN status. I will vote to renew MFN 
because it is immensely important to every corner of Washington State--
where thousands of current jobs rely on China trade and where thousands 
of new jobs stand to be created as China integrates into the world 
economy. Having acknowledged the economic importance of this issue to 
Washington State, I want to stress and demonstrate that MFN for China 
is in our national interest.
  One in five people on Earth live in China. More than 1.5 billion 
people speak a Chinese dialect. More than one-half of the world's 
population lives within 5-hour flight radius of Hong Kong on China's 
southern border. It is an immense population that impacts us all in so 
many ways--the world's food supply, pollution problems, and the use of 
natural resources to name a few. Thanks to technology--in 
communications and in travel--the world is shrinking. Neither the 
United States nor China can hide from the fact that we are being drawn 
closer together each and every day. The United States has the ability 
to cooperatively influence China's development; we must not shy from 
this opportunity to aid both the American and the Chinese people.
  China's military presence in Asia is increasing; as demonstrated in 
the Taiwan Straits and in the Spratly Islands. China is a nuclear power 
and maintains a permanent seat on the U.S. Security Council. The 
prospect of China assuming the leadership role in Asia has the entire 
region rattled. Most events in Asia--including North Korea, the 
expansion of ASEAN, and talk of Japan forming an Army--are all related 
to and impacted by China. Asia is looking for signs that the United 
States will remain an active and engaged player in the region. The 
United States role in Asia remains fundamental to United States 
strategic and economic security; we are a stabilizing force in Asia and 
we must continue this peaceful role.
  Some in this country, as a result of China's military expansion and 
belligerent threats against Taiwan, argue that the United States should 
take a more adversarial, confrontational approach to China. We borrowed 
and spent several trillion dollars to win the cold war. I think it is 
foolish to listen to those who preach another cold war for this 
country. We owe our children, indeed the children of the world, more 
than a second cold war confrontation that will take valuable and 
limited resources away from food and shelter, education, health care, 
and the opportunity to prosper in peace.
  Rather than view China as a threat to the United Stats, we must view 
China as a challenge and an opportunity to shape the world of the 21st 
century. China's evolution from isolation to world player cannot be 
stopped or contained, our task is to work with the world to integrate 
the giant as she awakes.
  China's economy is now the third largest in the world currently 
growing at an annual rate of 10 percent. It will become the world's 
largest economy shortly after the turn of the century. China wants to 
join the World Trade Organization and is currently negotiating with the 
United States over accession terms. We have a responsibility to bring 
China into the global trade community and to ensure that China plays by 
the accepted rules.
  I believe the annual congressional MFN exercise for China has 
outlived its usefulness. The annual review, in my mind, encourages 
uncertainty and inconsistency and may actually harm, not help, United 
States interests. Each year, as the MFN debate approaches, the 
administration and the Chinese engage in a chest thumping nationalistic 
exercise; each side claims to have coerced and resisted the other. The 
Result is every summer the United States-China relationship is put on 
hold or setback for many months. During this period, all constructive 
engagement with the Chinese is slowed or halted--CD's continue to be 
pirated, activists continue to be arrested, and United States jobs are 
lost as trade opportunities go elsewhere.
  One of my greatest frustrations with the annual MFN exercise is our 
failure in Congress to realize that we are changing China, we are 
having an impact on China today. The next generation of Chinese leaders 
will not be Soviet trained engineers like the current leaders. Rather, 
they will be American and Western educated; familiar with the United 
States and receptive to the ideals we preach. Each year, thousands of 
Chinese university students experience America. Every major university 
in this country is engaged in a quiet diplomacy that will pay 
democratic dividends for decades.
  U.S. law enforcement personnel, judges and legal scholars are aiding 
in the development of the rule of law in China. United States Customs 
personnel are assisting the Chinese to implement accepted international 
trade norms. American students and university professors are scattered 
throughout China interacting with fellow students and academics, local 
government leaders, and the business community. Cultural, athletic, 
military, and scientific exchanges are all quietly opening China up to 
the world.
  I recently had a young man from China visit my office. He graduated 
from a Chinese university in 1980 and was assigned to a work unit as a 
teacher. As Deng's economic reforms began, this young man was one of 
the first Chinese nationals to leave his work unit for employment with 
a foreign investor. Today, he owns an apartment many times the size of 
his childhood home. When we talked about his 6-year-old daughter, I 
could see he has aspirations for her that were alien to Chinese thought 
just a few years ago.
  These types of successes are difficult for the Congress to factor 
into the MFN debate because they carry no organized constituency, and 
they rarely make headlines. But they are happening.
  As the Senate turns to MFN for China I am encouraged that so many of 
my colleagues--Democrat and Republican--have indicated their strong 
support for renewal. Many distinguished Senators from all regions of 
the country have spoken on the floor and this issue clearly enjoys 
bipartisan support. In a year filled with partisan Presidential 
rhetoric, it is truly noteworthy that so many public officials 
including both Presidential candidates are speaking out in favor of MFN 
renewal.
  Next year, I intend to urge the administration and Congress to end 
the annual MFN renewal debate for China. Some may consider this an 
optimistic view, but I genuinely believe that we will make more 
progress on human rights, on trade matters, and on Asia security if we 
move away from the annual review of MFN.
  Instead of the annual MFN vote, I intend to urge the administration, 
regardless of political party, to take China relations to the next 
important level. This has to include a state visit to China by the 
President and a reciprocal visit to Washington by China's President 
Jiang Zemin. A regular dialog between our two leaders can make

[[Page S7069]]

a significant difference in our efforts to engage China on all of the 
issues of importance to the United States.
  I do not suggest that Congress cede all interest in China to the 
administration. Rather, Congress and the administration have to work 
together to deploy all of our policy and legal tools to influence 
Chinese behavior. It is time for the Congress to trade in the annual 
summer verdict on China for a more activist, longer term approach to 
China and the important Asia Pacific region.
  The administration's intellectual property rights dispute with China 
is one example of United States interests working cooperatively on a 
specific China problem. Congress backed the administration throughout 
this process, and as a result we had a widely supported, justifiable 
response to Chinese piracy. The Chinese knew the seriousness with which 
the United States viewed this issue, and there is no doubt in the 
United States resolve. United States negotiators were invited by the 
Chinese back to the negotiating table, and as a result an agreement was 
reached. China has taken or agreed to a number of important steps to 
address our concerns.
  These Chinese actions include the confirmed closing of 15 factories 
that were pirating our technologies, a sustained police crackdown in 
regions where piracy is rampant, and closer cooperation with United 
States and Hong Kong custom officials to stop these pirated exports.
  I want to take this opportunity to commend Charlene Barshefsky, our 
acting U.S. Trade Representative, and her negotiating team. Ambassador 
Barshefsky, I am convinced, will be a spectacular Trade Representative, 
and I am anxious for the Senate to begin her confirmation process.
  I believe the IPR example serves as a useful model to move our China 
relationship forward. Our relationship with China is our most complex 
and our most difficult. Our successes are hard to measure and our 
frustrations with them are difficult and easily recognized.
  Before concluding, let me restate my purpose in speaking this 
morning. The United States and China are at a crucial moment in time. 
Our interests today and into the next century are linked. They cannot 
be separated or ignored. As policymakers, what we do in this Chamber 
will go a long way towards determining whether those shared interests 
coincide to the mutual benefit of the American and the Chinese people 
or whether those interests collide and create an adversarial 
relationship clouded by suspicions.
  I believe we have to engage the Chinese side--on all of the issues of 
importance to the American people--and in the coming days I look 
forward to engaging my colleagues in greater discussion about the 
importance of United States-China relations.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  Mr. LEAHY addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Burns). The Senator from Vermont, Mr. 
Leahy, is recognized for the next 15 minutes.
  Mr. LEAHY. I thank the Chair.

                          ____________________