[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 11, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3668]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        SAY NO TO MFN FOR CHINA

  (Mr. SANDERS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted that the House passed an 
amendment that I offered yesterday demanding that Ngawang Choephel, a 
young Tibetan who studied music at Middlebury College in Vermont, be 
released immediately from a Chinese jail where he is being held on 
trumped up charges.
  Unfortunately, however, Ngawang Choephel is not alone as a political 
prisoner in China. In fact, there are large numbers of them. According 
to the U.S. State Department's own human rights report released earlier 
this year:

       All public dissent against the party and government was 
     effectively silenced by intimidation, exile, and the 
     imposition of prison terms. No dissidents were known to be 
     active at year's end.

  Mr. Speaker, Congress should not be supporting most-favored-nation 
status with China when that country has absolutely no respect for civil 
liberties. Congress should not be supporting most-favored-nation status 
with China when we have a $39 billion trade deficit with them and when 
corporate America is throwing American workers out on the street as 
they move factories to China and hire workers there for 20 or 30 cents 
an hour.
  Let us say yes to the freedom of Ngawang Choephel and no to MFN with 
China.

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