[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 66 (Monday, May 19, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2877-H2881]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 MOST-FAVORED TRADING STATUS FOR CHINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf] is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to bring to the attention of the body 
and of all Members an issue with regard to most-favored-nation trading 
status, and we just got a call from the White House saying that the 
President in what he called the opening firing shot is expected to 
announce today that they will renew favorable trade benefits for China, 
most-favored-nation trading status for China.
  Mr. Speaker, over the weekend I happened to have the opportunity, 
somebody gave me the film that was put out by the Boeing Co. showing 
their lobbying effort on this whole issue of MFN. After watching the 
film I was somewhat sickened to see that all the emphasis was on the 
question of dollars and selling things and no emphasis, not even a 
little bit, on the question of human rights and religious freedom. So 
today I am sending a letter, and I am going to read the letter that I 
am sending to the chairman and chief executive of the Boeing Corp., Mr. 
Philip Condit with regard to after watching the film that they are 
promoting around the country in support of MFN, and here is the letter 
that I am sending to Mr. Condit today.
  ``Dear Mr. Condit, I recently watched the Boeing video series on 
China which portrays the long and profitable relationship that your 
company has developed with the Chinese. As one who has, for years, been 
concerned about repressed people in countries around the world; from 
Romania to Russia, China, East Timor and others, urging their 
governments to adopt a policy of basic regard for human rights and 
individual freedom, I respectfully wish to comment on what I saw in the 
video.
  ``I mean no personal criticism in any of my comments. I strongly 
believe that you are a good and decent person as are your board members 
and top management. My purpose is not to condemn but only to present to 
you a different view of this issue--a look through the eyes of someone 
with a different perspective.
  ``As I watched in the video,'' put out by the Boeing Corp., ``some of 
the meetings and events which included Premier Li Peng, it was hard for 
me to forget that it was he,'' Li Peng, ``who ordered the 1989 brutal 
crackdown and arrest of the dissident students at Tiananmen Square, 
some of whom are imprisoned still today.''
  Parenthetically, I visited Beijing Prison No. 1 where I saw 40 
Tiananmen Square demonstrators who were arrested by Mr. Peng who are 
still in jail working on socks which were meant for export to the 
United States. I wondered if anyone from Boeing thought about that.
  As I watched former Secretary of State Kissinger in the film; Mr. 
Kissinger is speaking to a Chinese group in the film, ``As I watched 
former Secretary of State Kissinger address the group and observe that 
America's `national style' has a missionary aspect of which he did not 
favor, I thought he was, in a sense, apologizing for or even 
diminishing our Nation's zeal to secure basic human rights and freedoms 
for all men and women--to come to the defense of the little guy. 
Perhaps I misinterpreted his remarks, but that is

[[Page H2878]]

how they seemed to me. And I wondered if he or others listening 
remembered the Chinese Government's organ transplant program where 
prisoners are executed and their healthy organs are harvested for sale 
even before the bodies have time to cool.
  ``During the cruise down the Yangtze River,'' in the video again, 
``did anyone remember the Catholic bishops and priests imprisoned for 
decades simply for living their religion? Do you suppose the Chinese 
Government policy of slamming shut the doors of house churches came to 
mind? You do know that house churches crop up because free and open 
worship is banned. People come together to worship in secret because 
there is no other way.
  ``Was Harry Wu's name mentioned? Jailed for 17 years for exposing 
China's terrible human rights record, Mr. Wu was tossed out of the 
country. Later, as a U.S. citizen traveling on a U.S. passport, he was 
again jailed on specious charges. Was there concern over how American 
citizens can be treated by the Chinese Government--much less their own 
people?''
  And watching the video put out by Boeing, I note that there was a 
note of pride in Boeing's relating its company's efforts working with 
Li Peng, again who was the butcher of Beijing and his regime in 
securing 1996 most-favored-nation trading status for China.
  ``Could one sense a rush of confidence in the air as Boeing's plans 
for dealing with the new administration and the new Congress to again 
prevail on the question of 1997 MFN were unveiled.
  ``I personally,'' Mr. Condit, ``looked in vain for even a hint of 
embarrassment as your spokesman talked of Boeing, in order to bury 
those in the China MFN debate who wonder about human rights, again 
signing on with the same folks who tried to sell assault weapons and 
even shoulder held missiles to LA street gangs.
  ``And as Boeing informed the video audience,'' which was quite 
shocking when they said, and I quote, 737's, ``when their 737's, 747's, 
757's and 767's flew to China, they were just 'coming home,' because so 
much of each plane had been manufactured there, was I the only one who 
wondered about the American men and women--moms and dads--who no longer 
have a job and about the additional jobs that are going to be lost in 
the United States?
  ``I think it is good that Boeing has developed such a solid and 
profitable relationship with China. It certainly offers you an 
opportunity to address the concerns of the American people--indeed the 
concerns of all freedom loving people around the globe--in your 
meetings and gatherings with the Chinese. And I wonder, is there not an 
obligation for those of you who run Boeing to think about these things, 
and maybe to speak out?

  ``If, as so many who favor most-favored-nation trading status for 
China argue, free trade provides a forum for dialog and discussion for 
them to learn about democracy, self-determination and freedom, who is 
to conduct the dialog and discussion if not those involved in the 
trade?''
  That is Boeing.
  ``Reasonable men and women can differ over issues. My wish here has 
been to present a differing perspective for your consideration.''
  And then I close with this request, and, Mr. Condit, ``In our own 
country,'' Mr. Condit, ``as you drive past a church, I hope you will 
think about the Chinese Catholic bishops and priests and Protestant 
pastors who have been in prison and tortured for their faith. When you 
drive by a mosque, think about the Moslems who are being persecuted in 
the northwest part of China. When someone speaks of the beauty of 
Tibet, please think about the Buddhist monks and nuns who have been 
killed for their faith and their temples destroyed. When you hear of 
Solzhenitsyn's book, `Gulag Archipelago,' I hope you will remember the 
political and human rights activists such as Wei Jingsheng who languish 
in China's logai because of their desire for freedom and liberty that 
Thomas Jefferson wrote so eloquently on in our Declaration of 
Independence.
  ``Thank you. Best wishes to you, to Boeing and to your employees. 
Sincerely, Frank R. Wolf.''
  I hear all the companies and in the Boeing articles that I read, that 
I will submit in the Record of their major lobbying efforts. In fact, 
there was an article that I will submit for the Record entitled ``New 
China Lobby Is Big Business.''
  No one talks about human rights. In the video you never heard 
anything about human rights. In order to sensitize the Congress and not 
the American people because the Members should know that in the latest 
surveys done, the last two surveys on this issue, 60-some percent of 
the people of the United States felt that we should take away MFN and 
that human rights should be important, whereas only 21 percent thought 
of the other side.
  So the American people are where we always know they always have 
been, standing for freedom of religion and press and all those things. 
But where does the business community and where does Boeing stand?
  This picture here was presented in a testimony to a Senate committee, 
Foreign Relations, on May 13 of this year of 1997. This is a picture of 
a nun. Her name is Tsering Lhamo. This is a nun, the person testifying 
went on to say, who was tortured in Tibet when she was 19 years old. 
She took part in a nonviolent demonstration for Tibetan human rights in 
Llasa. She spent 3 years in a prison where she was repeatedly tortured, 
particularly with electric cattle prods, which are manufactured purely 
for human torture.
  I have seen those that have been smuggled out of Tibet and have held 
them in my hand, an American cattle prod that might be used by a 
rancher in the State of Montana, is this large, and this person 
indicated how large, and it is for whacking the back of a steer. These 
are about this big, and he again showed the size, and you can see that 
they are just used to torture human beings.

                              {time}  1415

  She was raped with a cattle prod, and she had it shoved in her mouth. 
She is now dying of the effects of the torture. And then it ends by 
saying, U.S. humanitarian aid has been brought in to help her and she 
is doing better.
  So when we talk in terms of MFN, which is most-favored-nation trading 
status for China, will the people of Boeing think in terms of the 
individuals that are being tortured in Tibet and the monks and the nuns 
that are being killed in Tibet and how many have been imprisoned? I 
hope so. I hope so. And I hope President Clinton will also think in 
terms of them as he makes the feeble argument for granting MFN again.
  I now put up another photo, and I would ask people that are 
supporting MFN to think in terms of this photo. In China, they have an 
organ donor program, or what they do is they take prisoners, some who 
have done bad things and others who have not, out and they shoot them. 
This is a picture of what they do. They tie them up, they shoot them, 
and after they die, they then take their kidneys out and they sell them 
for transplants. Doctors are there on the scene. The kidneys are 
immediately taken out, and we even have one report where kidneys were 
taken out even before the man died. They are then harvested for 
transplantation and for sale to those in the West.
  So when we think of MFN, most-favored-nation, trading status for 
China, think in terms of these men who are shot and then their kidneys 
are taken for sale for sometimes up to $35,000 to $50,000.
  This is a picture of a slave camp. I am sure everyone knows, but if 
they do not, the Members of this body should know that there are more 
gulags, slave camps in China than there were in the Soviet Union. Now, 
we all know, as I have referred to in the letter to Mr. Condit, that 
Solzhenitsyn wrote the book Gulag Archipelago, which is an amazing book 
that most Americans read, it sensitized to the United States, the 
people in the West, what was going on.
  Mr. Speaker, I have been to one of those gulags, the gentleman from 
New Jersey [Mr. Smith] and I visited Perm camp 35 in the foothills of 
the Ural Mountains during communism where we interviewed Scharansky's 
cellmate and many other people. It is a very unpleasant place. Well, we 
should know, all who favor granting MFN, that there are more gulags, 
slave camps, in China than there were in the Soviet Union. Of course, 
Ronald Reagan, to his credit,

[[Page H2879]]

and a bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats, did not give MFN 
to the Soviet Union because of what they were doing, but we are going 
to give it, some people hope, and I hope we do not, to China. But as we 
do, it says the slaves, in a chemical processing room of a hide and 
garment factory, and the chemical eats into their naked bodies.
  In fact, as there are people in the West, there are people that are 
watching this event who are wearing some clothing or have some item, 
they do not know about it, that has been made by slave labor and people 
that are in gulags. So as people are anxious to give MFN to China, they 
ought to think about the thousands, the millions, in the Chinese 
gulags.
  I have a book here that has just been published called ``In The 
Lion's Den'', a shocking account of the persecution and martyrdom of 
Christians today by Nina Shea. In it she documents a lot of the 
activities that are taking place in China. So as we are anxiously 
awaiting, the Clinton administration at 2:15 today and others in 
Congress that are going to give MFN to China, think about what this 
book said and what Nina Shea says. In China today there are more 
Christians in prison because of religious activities than in any other 
Nation in the world.
  Mr. Speaker, Protestants are arrested and tortured for holding prayer 
meetings, teaching and distributing Bibles without the state approval. 
Roman Catholic bishops and priests are in prison for celebrating mass 
and administrating the sacraments without official authorization.
  I would urge that, when Members in our country approach the communion 
table to take the sacraments, whether it be this Sunday or whatever 
Sunday it is or whatever opportunity, as they approach the communion 
table to take the bread and the wine in this country, they think in 
terms of the men, Catholic priests, Catholic bishops, Protestant 
pastors who have been in prison for serving holy communion in China; 
and then say, do we really want to give this country and this 
government the most-favored-nation trading status. Think of this when 
approaching the communion table, do we want to do it when there are 
priests and bishops and ministers in jail for trying to do the same 
thing that everyone in this country takes for granted.
  Nina Shea went on to say, while China's closed penal system makes it 
difficult to obtain accurate numbers, Freedom House has a list of names 
of about 200 Christian clergy and church leaders who are in prison or 
under some form of detention or restrictions in mid-1996 because of 
religious activities. There are thought to be thousands of Christians 
now in prison for their faith in China's religious gulag. In several 
recent dragnet operations, hundreds of Christians were arrested. Some 
are serving sentences up to 12 years or more for, quote, 
counterrevolutionary charges. But the fact is, they were incarcerated 
for practicing their faith.
  Many prisoners, she goes on to say, are forced to work in the laogai, 
that is the gulag, the reform labor camps where prisoners must toil and 
slave for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week in automotive and chemical 
factories, brick-making plants, mines, and on farms. According to 
American Christians working in China in 1996, 1996, last year, the 
record that we are basing whether we give MFN to China, according to 
most Americans, Christians working in China in 1996, it has been, and I 
quote, the most repressive period for Catholics and Protestants since 
the late 1970's.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not understand why. Why would we give most-favored-
nation trading status to China when it has been the most repressive 
period in 1996. It did not say 1976, it said 1996. That was last year. 
We did not grant it to the Soviet Union; we did not grant it to the 
Eastern Bloc nations. Ronald Reagan, God bless him, even signed a bill 
to take it away from Ceausescu in Romania, and the Clinton 
administration and some in Congress want to give it to China when it 
has been the most repressive year for Christians.
  Nina Shea went on to say, Catholics who choose to stay loyal to the 
Vatican and Protestant Christians who meet in unauthorized underground 
or house churches encounter severe persecution, including fines, 
arrest, and imprisonment. She says, one of the most well-known house 
churches in the country, that of pastor Allen Yuan, in Beijing was 
closed in the fall of 1996. The United States-based dissident journal 
China Focus quotes Pastor Yuan as saying, and I quote, we have only one 
room and we do not even have any property, but the authorities still 
look at us as if we are monsters. All they want is to control us.
  The popular pastor served 22 years in China's laogai for his faith. 
The Far Eastern Economic Review reported on June 6, 1996, that police 
have destroyed at least 15,000 unregistered temples, churches, and 
tombs between February and June 1996 in Zhejiang Province alone.

  Let me just go back so we can think in terms of that, when we all get 
so excited about MFN and the President rolls out the red carpet for the 
Chinese butchers who will be visiting the country later on, we will go 
slowly, now. He says that the police had destroyed at least 15,000 
unregistered temples and churches and tombs between February and June 
1996 in only one province. What is taking place in the other provinces?
  Victims of the crackdown are legion. At least three evangelicals were 
killed by Chinese authorities during the first quarter of 1996, 
according to reports from the Voice of America, and Compass Direct. One 
Zhang Xiuju, a 36-year-old woman, on the night of May 26, 1996, she was 
dragged out of her home by police in Hunan Province and beaten to 
death, beaten to death.
  Do we think Ronald Reagan would have given the Chinese MFN? I cannot 
say whether we would have or not, but I do know that Ronald Reagan, who 
gave the famous speech in Orlando, the Evil Empire speech where he 
denounced the Soviet Union and talked about spiritual values and stood 
on behalf of those who were being persecuted in the Soviet Union, those 
of the Jewish faith and many other faiths and those who were Jewish and 
wanted to emigrate, Ronald Reagan stood in solidarity for them. He made 
a difference. So I do not think he would have given MFN to China.
  I do know this. While I cannot say that he would not have given MFN 
to China, I do know that he signed the bill to take away MFN for 
Ceausescu and the brutal Romanian administration in 1987. So I 
personally do not think that Ronald Reagan would have.
  For those on my side of the aisle, we talk about our values and we 
talk about what do we want to stand for. The Republican Party ought not 
only be the party of free trade, and I am a free trader, I voted for 
NAFTA, the Republican Party not only should be an economic party, but 
we should be a party that cares about these fundamental values of human 
rights and religious freedom.
  Nina Shea goes on to say on page 62 of the book, In the Lion's Den, 
another brutal incident occurred in March 1996 when five evangelical 
women were arrested, it seems like evangelicals can just be the target 
around the world today. It almost seems that if one is an evangelical 
or Catholic priest or Catholic bishop, they can be the target and 
nobody will really care. In fact, I do remember during the debate last 
year when we extended it, people talked about we need engagement. After 
they got their MFN, there was no engagement at all, they continued to 
get their MFN and nobody did anything.
  Here are five evangelical women arrested and detained in western 
Xinjiang Province after a raid on a house church in a predominantly 
Muslim region. A total of 17 church members were initially arrested, 
and 12 were released when 5 women accepted responsibility for the 
gathering. Police severely beat several of the Christians, knocking out 
one woman's front tooth and poured scalding water on those who resisted 
orders. The five women were imprisoned.
  Catholics too have felt great pressure in 1996. Believers within the 
Roman Catholic Church are forced to affiliate with the government-
sanctioned Catholic Patriotic Church, which does not recognize the 
ultimate earthly authority of the Pope.
  She goes on to say, the Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation 
reports that security troops conducted a series of raids in spring 1996 
throughout the Baoding Diocese in Hebei Province which has a 
significant population. Priests, including two bishops, were arrested, 
churches were forced to register with the Catholic Patriotic 
Association, and at least 4,000 Catholics were forced to recant their 
faith publicly.

[[Page H2880]]

                              {time}  1430

  She goes on, and has a picture here of Bishop Su. The 64-year-old 
auxiliary bishop of Baoding was arrested in a series of raids against 
Catholics in Hebei Province in the spring of 1996. Bishop Su had 
already spent a total of 15 years in prison because of his religious 
activity.
  Once he was beaten by security police until the board they were using 
was reduced to splinters. Not satisfied, the police then dismantled a 
wooden door frame in order to continue the beatings, which soon 
splintered as well. On another occasion the bishop was bound by the 
wrists and suspended from the ceiling while beaten. His head received 
numerous blows, causing permanent loss of hearing.
  In still another prison episode, and what a man of faith Bishop Su 
is, he was placed in a closet-sized room filled with water at varying 
levels, from ankle deep to hip deep. He was left there for several 
days, unable to sit or sleep. We have films showing that it is a 
wonderful thing to give the most-favored-nation trading status to 
China.
  Let me read on a little bit more. In January 1996, Reverend Guo Bo 
Le, a Roman Catholic priest from Shanghai, was sentenced to 2 years of 
imprisonment at a ``reform through labor'' camp because of his illegal 
religious activities. He was arrested while celebrating mass on a boat 
for about 250 fishermen.
  Guo's other illegal activities included administering the Sacrament 
of the Sick, establishing underground evangelical church centers, 
organizing catechism institutes, teaching Bible classes, and boycotting 
the Catholic Patriotic Association, the nonrecognized church. Fifty-
eight-year-old Guo has already spent 30 years, over half of his life, 
in a Chinese prison camp because of his faith. Thirty years in a 
China's prison camp, and the Boeing Corp. cannot even speak out on 
these issues?
  As I maintained in the letter, reasonable men and women can differ on 
this issue, but those who said they wanted MFN said that this would 
enable us to engage, constructive engagement was their word, engage the 
Chinese. Well, would not the Chinese Government really listen to Boeing 
more than they would listen to me? I am against MFN. Boeing is for MFN. 
Would not the Chinese Government be more sympathetic to Boeing if 
Boeing were to speak out on behalf of this Roman Catholic priest?
  I just wonder if Boeing has in their files any letters that they have 
ever sent to Li Peng asking for the release of Catholic priests or the 
release of Catholic bishops, or the release of Buddhist monks or the 
release of Buddhist nuns or the release of Protestant pastors.
  I will end with the last comment she makes, and there are many, many 
more in the book, ``In the Lion's Den.'' She said another cause for 
religious persecution stems from China's draconian one-child-per-family 
and eugenics-based population control plan. Those defying the 
population controls, including Christians motivated by conscience, are 
harshly punished by torture, imprisonment, fines, and forcible 
abortions and sterilizations.
  This really is a pro-life issue, too. When the gentleman from New 
Jersey [Mr. Smith] and I were in China we talked to people and they 
told the stories of women in China who were tracked down by the Chinese 
Government officials in those villages and forced to have an abortion 
because they have the one-child policy. I am sure most people in this 
country would not want to have the one-child policy. They would be very 
upset with regard to that.
  Mr. Speaker, there is much, much more that I could say today on this 
issue. I would like to just close by reading a portion of Ronald 
Reagan's speech that he gave in Orlando, that wonderful speech in 1983. 
In the speech Ronald Reagan quoted from the famous author, C.S. Lewis. 
He said the following. He said, ``It was C.S. Lewis who, in his 
unforgettable Screwtape Letters, wrote `The greatest evil is not done 
now in those sordid dens of crime that Dickens loved to paint. It is 
not even done in concentration camps and labor camps. In those we see 
its final result. But it is conceived in order and moved and seconded 
and carried out in clear, carpeted, warm and well-lit offices by quiet 
men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who 
do not need to raise their voices.' ''
  He went on to say, ``Because these men do not raise their voices and 
because they sometimes speak in soothing tones of brotherhood and 
peace, because, like other dictators before them, they are always 
making `their final territorial demand,' some would have us accept them 
at their word and accommodate ourselves to their aggressive impulses.''
  But if history teaches anything, it teaches that ``the simple-minded 
appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly. It 
means the betrayal of our past and the squandering of our freedom,'' 
the betrayal of our past and the squandering of our freedom.
  What he meant is, when Ronald Reagan was very firm and we were in a 
bipartisan way on this issue, Ronald Reagan met with Gorbachev and 
Ronald Reagan met with Brezhnev, but he always raised the cases of the 
dissidents. Our Secretary of State, Jim Baker and Schultz and others, 
used to meet with the dissidents in the American Embassy as an act of 
solidarity, so they knew that we stood with them.
  The fact is in the 1980's 250,000 people rallied on the Mall one 
Sunday because of the persecution of those of the Jewish faith; 250,000 
people came from all over the country in solidarity of those who were 
being persecuted in the Soviet Union.
  How times have changed. Who says it does not make a difference who is 
in political office? Who says it does not make a difference what values 
they have? Now, after looking at what has taken place in China in 1996, 
not 1976 but in 1996, we still see those who continue to want to give 
MFN to the butchers who say that they are going to change or they are 
going to do this, but we also saw that even when the leaders of China 
say they are going to change, 1996 was the worst year since the 1970's. 
We know that when Andre Sakharov was under house arrest and Nathan 
Scharansky, that hero, so when he was released from Perm Camp 35, 
through the good effect of the Reagan administration when he came to 
the Glienicker Bridge in East Berlin to go into West Berlin, the 
communists told Scharansky to walk straight across the bridge, and 
Scharansky refused. When he broke loose from the Communist authorities 
he walked zig-zagged, this way and back, to defy them, to let them know 
that freedom was important, and he was a free man, that he did not have 
to do what they do.
  We need that same activism today. In fact, Scharansky said if it had 
not been for Ronald Reagan and the denial of MFN and the pressure that 
this Congress used to put on, he may never have gotten out of jail.
  So many hear the words that we will all hear again repeated over and 
over as we come to the July 4th period, the Declaration of 
Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson from the State of Virginia 
that I am proud to represent, where Thomas Jefferson said, ``We hold 
these truths to be self-evident, that all men,'' and women, ``are 
created equal, endowed by their creator with unalienable rights: Life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.''

  That was not only for the people in Charlottesville, he wrote it when 
he was actually in Philadelphia, it was not only for the people of 
Philadelphia and the United States, it was for all of the people of all 
the world.
  That is why the people in Tiananmen Square had the Statue of Liberty 
and quoted those words, and now they wonder, now they wonder, have we 
lost our will in the West? Has the Congress lost its will? Has a 
Republican Congress lost its will, the Republicans who used to boldly 
proclaim in the 1980's on these things, have we lost our will?
  I had an opportunity with the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith], 
when we visited Perm Camp 35, we brought a TV camera in and we 
interviewed some of these prisoners. Do Members know what they told us? 
Here we are in the Ural Mountains, under communism, in a brutal camp, 
they told us that they knew of the actions of the Reagan administration 
on behalf of human rights and religious freedom. They knew of the 
activities of the Congress.
  I remember hearing that when the Congress denied MFN by a vote in 
1987 and we took away MFN from Romania,

[[Page H2881]]

peasants in little villages and all through Romania heard of the fact 
that the people's House, the House of Representatives, had stood firm 
and had struck a blow for freedom by denying MFN, and they knew that 
someone in the West cared.
  Now what will they hear today? They will hear that Clinton has 
granted MFN again this year. They will see that maybe the Congress has 
not done anything, and that we do not really care and we do not really 
act.
  In closing, I would just urge all of my colleagues to be with the 
American people, be with the American people in the Harris-Teeter poll 
in the Wall Street Journal on May 1, 1997, which said as follows: that 
67 percent said they demand human rights policy changes, and 27 percent 
said to continue trade relations.
  The American people are where they always have been. The question is, 
will the Congress, will the Congress be with the American people?
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record an article from the Seattle 
Times of Monday, May 12, 1997.
  The article referred to is as follows:

                 [From the Seattle Times, May 12, 1997]

                    New China Lobby Is Big Business

                   (By Sara Fritz, Los Angeles Times)

       Washington.--Jolinda Resa, owner of Square Tool and Machine 
     in El Monte, Calif., was receptive last year when a Boeing 
     representative showed up at her plant with an unusual 
     request.
       The visitor asked Resa, whose company supplies Boeing with 
     machines for its manufacturing plants, if she would assist 
     the giant airplane manufacturer in a drive to urge Congress 
     to renew most-favored-nation trade status for China.
       Resa gladly agreed to contact her congressman, Rep. David 
     Dreier, R-Calif., and she arranged for local business leaders 
     to attend a luncheon with a speaker recommended by Boeing. 
     She did it, she says, because she realized that the future of 
     her company depends on Boeing orders from airplane sales to 
     China.
       ``In order to keep my 70 employees working,'' she 
     explained. ``I felt I should do everything I could.''
       Thus was the tiny Square Tool and Machine recruited into 
     what experts call ``the new China lobby''--a broad-based, 
     highly sophisticated army of U.S. corporate executives, 
     lobbyists and consultants who use their considerable economic 
     and political influence to press the U.S. government into 
     maintaining good trade relations with China, whose market is 
     the fastest growing in the world.


                      $20 million lobbying effort

       Last year, major U.S. corporations doing business with 
     China spent an estimated $20 million on a state-of-the-art 
     lobbying drive that relied heavily on small-business 
     suppliers such as Resa. Congress ultimately approved another 
     one-year renewal for China for the low tariffs and other 
     preferences for U.S. trading partners who have MFN status.
       This year, however, China's reliance on U.S. companies to 
     lobby on its behalf for another one-year MFN extension has 
     taken on a more sinister coloration as a result of 
     allegations that the Chinese may have made illegal donations 
     to the U.S. presidential campaign last year.
       Opponents of unfettered U.S.-China trade, including labor 
     unions, human-rights groups and conservative Christians, are 
     demanding to know why China seems to command more loyalty 
     from U.S. business than do other foreign countries.
       The Chinese government has made no secret in recent years 
     of its determination to influence U.S. government policy. 
     Among other things, it has established a Politburo-level 
     Working Committee on the U.S. Congress, which monitors 
     actions in Washington and regularly hosts U.S. lawmakers in 
     Beijing.
       American companies insist that they are representing their 
     own interests--not those of China--when they lobby for MFN 
     status. They note that the Chinese repeatedly have declared 
     that business with U.S. companies will be halted if MFN 
     status for China is revoked or if Congress makes it 
     contingent on democratic reforms in China.
       Cindy Smith, spokeswoman for Boeing, says the Chinese are 
     in no way directing, financing or influencing the pro-MFN 
     lobbying effort by big American companies. Yet she admits 
     that her company knows the Chinese are paying close attention 
     to Boeing's lobbying activities.
       ``Did (the Chinese) ask us to do it? Never!'' Smith said. 
     ``Are they happy and pleased? Of course.''


                          china is the future

       As Boeing officials explain it, big U.S. corporations 
     believe that their economic future depends on preserving 
     trade with China. Boeing estimates that China will buy 1,900 
     airplanes valued at $124 billion over the next 20 years--
     sales that will go to other countries if Congress raises 
     barriers to trade with China.
       Many American companies not only depend upon sales to 
     Beijing, but they also have made sizable investments in 
     Chinese plants. Motorola, for example, estimates that it has 
     invested at least $1 billion in China; making it the largest 
     U.S. investor.
       American companies are sensitive to criticism of their 
     lobbying expenditures on behalf of China, particularly since 
     the news media began reporting on possible illegal Chinese 
     donations to U.S. political candidates. As a result, these 
     companies refuse to discuss their lobbying activities in 
     detail or to disclose how much money they are spending on it.
       Nevertheless, experts say corporate lobbying expenditures 
     on MFN status far surpass the amount spent by business on any 
     other issue.
       Groups established to lobby for unrestricted U.S.-China 
     trade include the U.S.-China Business Council, made up of 300 
     corporations; the Emergency Committee for American Trade, a 
     group of 55 chief executives; the Business Coalition 
     for U.S.-China Trade, an organization of trade 
     associations; and the China Normalization Initiative, a 
     loosely organized state-by-state effort run by a few big 
     companies such as Boeing and Motorola.


                       MFN request due on June 3

       Although this year's political battle over MFN status may 
     not begin formally until June 3--the date by which President 
     Clinton must request renewal--all these groups are lobbying 
     hard. Top corporate executives have been calling on members 
     of Congress for several weeks, and the ``captains'' of more 
     than 30 state-level MFN campaigns were introduced to their 
     Congress members at a well-attended party on Capitol Hill 
     last week.
       By all accounts, the ability of major American corporations 
     to enlist their suppliers as lobbyists was seen as the secret 
     to their victory last year. Members of Congress respond more 
     readily to the concerns of small-business owners in their own 
     districts than to high-pressure pitches from big-business 
     lobbyists.
       PR Watch, a small newsletter that covers the lobbying and 
     public relations industries, recently published a secret map 
     that corporations used in last year's MFN campaign. It shows 
     how each big company in the coalition was assigned a state or 
     region of the country where it was expected to recruit small-
     business people to press for MFN status.
       Square Machine and Tool was part of the California 
     campaign, which the map shows to be the primary 
     responsibility of executives from IBM and TRW. Resa was one 
     of 1,200 Boeing suppliers across the nation who got involved 
     in the campaign, according to the company. For her effort, 
     she received a large framed photo of a Boeing 737 taking off 
     in a scenic area of China.
       Critics see problems with the corporate tactics.
       By enlisting small businesses to participate in the MFN 
     lobbying campaign, says Representative Nancy Pelosi, D-
     Calif., the big companies create a false appearance of 
     ``grass-roots'' support for MFN status when in fact the 
     support is more like ``Astroturf--the kind of grass that you 
     buy.''
       Pelosi and Fiedler, among others, demand that members of 
     the new China lobby disclose more details of their 
     legislative strategies and their sources of income.
       Registered foreign agents must file regular public reports. 
     But many of the high-profile companies and professional 
     consultants who represent Chinese interests in Washington--
     including former secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and 
     Alexander Haig--escape the requirement because they work for 
     companies that do business in China, not for the Chinese 
     government itself.
       Fiedler says some of the lobbyists have ``crossed the 
     line'' between representing their own business interests and 
     propagandizing on behalf of the Chinese government.


                          kissinger and boeing

       He cites a half-hour video titled ``China and Boeing 
     Working Together'' that the company distributes to the news 
     media. The video, replete with misty Chinese scenery and 
     sentimental music, records a speech in Beijing by Kissinger 
     defending the policies of the Chinese government and 
     condemning Americans who want to use trade sanctions to force 
     changes in China.
       Fiedler and other critics say these consultants are 
     intellectual hostages of the Beijing regime and speak out 
     favorably for China, to arrange meetings for their clients 
     with top leaders in Beijing.
       ``There is a direct quid pro quo in terms of access,'' 
     Pelosi said. ``They get access in exchange for speaking 
     out.''

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