[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 83 (Monday, June 16, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5652-S5653]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              REGARDING MFN TO CHINA AND MILITARY BUILDUP

  Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. President, as the House of Representatives begins 
the process of MFN disapproval today, I rise to once again voice my own 
strong opposition to the administration's proposed renewal of most 
favored nation status to China. The United States Ambassador to China, 
James Sasser, has recently stated--and of course Ambassador Sasser is a 
proponent, as a member of the administration, and he has favored MFN--
but Ambassador Sasser said China's defense budget is growing. The 
Chinese themselves have announced an increase in that budget which will 
bring total defense outlays next year to $10 billion and he says some 
suggest the amount is really closer to $40 billion.
  So there is nothing at all theoretical about China's military 
buildup. Even the administration, even those who are saying we should 
continue most-favored-nation status trading status for China, will 
admit that there is a dramatic and drastic buildup of military 
capability in China.
  Here is what we know about the Chinese military and its potential, 
based on the United States Government's own official estimates. The 
1997 report by the Office of Naval Intelligence, entitled ``Worldwide 
Challenges to Naval Strike Warfare 1997,'' is devoted almost entirely 
to rapid increases in Chinese capabilities with Iraq, North Korea, and 
Libyan capabilities covered almost as an afterthought. China, it 
informs us ``is working on the development of at least six new tactical 
aircraft at a time when most nations are finding it difficult to 
finance even one.'' It continues, ``Overall, the Chinese hope to `leap' 
generations of technology with large investments in new air defense 
capability.''
  Mr. President, from Beijing, the words of China's military planners 
themselves, such as this analysis from a paper prepared for senior 
Chinese officials titled ``Can the Chinese Army Win the Next War?'' 
``While the conflict of strategic interests between China and the 
United States was overshadowed for a time by the tripartite great power 
relationship, it is now surfacing steadily since the breakup of the 
Soviet Union. China and the United States, focused on their respective 
economic and political interests in the Asia-Pacific region, will 
remain in a sustained state of confrontation.''
  That is coming from the Chinese Government, predicting a sustained 
state of confrontation. The evidence concerning a Chinese military 
buildup is clear, it is crystal clear. Whether this evidence comes 
straight from the administration that would renew MFN to China or from 
Beijing, how can we reward this regime with a most-favored-nation 
status? Many who regard themselves as free traders and who argue 
against linkage of trade through human rights or any other domestic 
circumstance would admit that when our own national security is 
involved, when national security is raised to an issue, then trading is 
a legitimate leverage and a legitimate tool for us to use as a Nation.
  So apart from the abysmal human rights record, apart from the 
deplorable human rights conditions in China today, apart from the fact 
that human rights conditions in China have deteriorated over the last 5 
years, in spite of all of that, we could look alone at the military 
buildup in China today and justify denial of most-favored-nation status 
for China.
  I believe that China's chemical and nuclear exports are the most 
serious proliferation threat in the world today, and China has held 
that title at least for the past decade and a half. Since 1980, China 
has supplied billions of dollars worth of nuclear and missile 
technology to South Asia, South Africa, South America, and the Middle 
East. China has done so, Mr. President, in the teeth of United States 
protests and despite repeated promises that they would stop.
  The chemical and nuclear exports continue, and while they do, they 
make it impossible for the United States and the West to halt the 
spread of weapons of mass destruction, a trend that endangers everyone.
  Mr. President, China has been the leading proliferator of nuclear 
weapons in the world. China gave Pakistan nearly everything it needed 
to make its first atomic bomb. In the early 1980's, China gave Pakistan 
a tested nuclear weapon design and enough high-enriched uranium to fuel 
it. Mr. President, this has to be one of the most egregious acts of 
nuclear proliferation in history. Then China helped Pakistan produce 
high-enriched uranium with gas centrifuges. Now, Mr. President, China 
is helping Pakistan build a reactor to produce plutonium for nuclear 
weapons, and helping Pakistan increase the number of its centrifuges so 
it can boost its production of high-enriched uranium.
  If we grant MFN trading to China, we tacitly endorse the weapons of 
mass destruction, we support our enemies in their own military buildup, 
and last Mr. President we set a poor example as the leader of the free 
world.
  This administration continues to forgive and to forget China for the 
abuse, the persecution, and the military buildup that it is continuing 
to employ. There is no reason to think that China's nuclear and 
chemical export patterns will change. I know the Presiding Officer is 
well aware of those trends and those practices in China today, but 
there is no evidence that those patterns will change as long as the 
United States follows its current policy of MFN trade status for China. 
China is now saying explicitly that it will not even talk to us about 
missile and chemical proliferation.
  As I have stated before, Mr. President, on this floor, there must be 
some things more important than expanded trade opportunities, some 
things more important than the almighty dollar. Today, as the House 
begins the process of marking up most-favored-nation status disapproval 
resolution, I think it is the time for this institution to say we will 
not continue business as usual with China. The administration's 
lobbying efforts to grant MFN trading status to China will most 
assuredly intensify in coming days. We as a country and we as an 
institution must set an example for the world to follow. If we grant 
this regime MFN, we set, I think, a continued example only of 
appeasement.
  Mr. President, I want to make one last point. The repressive Chinese 
Communist regime has established a blood-stained record of 
discrimination, detention, and death. The reeducation through labor 
camps are really no different at all from the old concentration

[[Page S5653]]

camps or the gulag. But people seem to know less, they seem to care 
less, in the case of China. Let this institution show that it, in fact, 
knows, and it, in fact, cares.
  In my closing remarks I quote from an editorial that appeared in my 
hometown newspaper in Bentonville, AR, last week. The closing words of 
the editorial said this: ``Every time you buy a product labeled Made in 
China, send up a prayer for Chinese Christians who must live each and 
every day in fear that their long-suffering faith will cost them their 
families and their lives.''
  Mr. President, I suggest it is past time that we stood as a Nation 
against the intolerable human rights record of the nation of China.
  I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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