[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 77 (Monday, June 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H4565-H4566]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       U.S. POLICY TOWARDS CHINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, this weekend the communist government 
of China instructed its official news agency to issue the following 
statement in regard to its option to use force to conquer the Republic 
of China on Taiwan:
  ``Every sovereign state has the right to take all means it deems 
essential, including military means, to safeguard its territorial 
integrity.''
  Mr. Speaker, this is a rejection by Communist China of the 
commitments that its government has made to the United States in the 
past concerning the use of force in the Taiwan Straits. Supposedly we 
have an understanding with the communists that they will not use force 
if we recognize China under what is called the one China policy. This 
statement by the Communist Chinese, coming right before the President's 
visit, is a warning bell.
  Some people in the United States are closing their eyes to the brutal 
suppression of human rights and the increase in military spending by 
the Communist Chinese government and thinking that will have no effect 
and that, instead, deals will be made with the communists and the past 
deals we made with them will suffice to maintain peace in that region.
  Well, with their increased military power, the Communist Chinese are 
not only being belligerent to their neighbors, but seem now to be 
challenging the fundamental agreements that have served as the basis 
for peace between our countries. This is something the President must 
bring up, and this is one reason why this body last week passed a 
resolution insisting that this administration reaffirm that the United 
States is committed to oppose any violence in the Taiwan Straits and 
any use of force by the Communist Chinese to solve their differences 
with the Taiwanese.
  This contempt for peaceful resolution of the tension in the Taiwan 
Straits coincides with the White House abandoning its plan to encourage 
the Communist Chinese to agree to an agreement to control the export of 
weapons of mass destruction, this during the upcoming Tiananmen Square 
summit. The President has abandoned the idea altogether of trying to 
get them to sign an agreement. The Communist Chinese leaders rejected 
the idea for a second time last week, this in the face of reports that 
the Communist Chinese continue to send technology to different 
countries that expands those countries' ability to produce nuclear and 
other weapons of mass destruction.
  The President is insisting on going to Communist China anyway. The 
symbolism of this visit could not be worse. At a time when they seem to 
be reneging, with these statements we just heard, when they are sending 
weapons of mass destruction and the technology of weapons of mass 
destruction elsewhere, with the continuing massive violations of human 
rights on mainland China and Tibet and the belligerence the Chinese are 
showing, this could not be a worse time for the President to just go as 
``Johnny Sunshine" representing whatever to the people of China. In 
fact, the oppressors in Beijing will laugh at the President, because 
they realize his presence there

[[Page H4566]]

and in Tiananmen Square makes a mockery of this country's commitment to 
human rights and makes a mockery of our commitment to nonproliferation 
of weapons of mass destruction.
  What it does in terms of to the oppressor, it encourages them to 
believe we are not serious about these things, to the oppressed it is 
even worse. A mother of a 17-year-old boy who was killed in the 
Tiananmen Square massacre recently courageously made a public statement 
in Beijing urging President Clinton not to go to Tiananmen Square:
  ``I can't understand why he chooses this inappropriate time,'' ten 
years, almost ten years to the day, after the massacre, ``this 
inappropriate time and place,'' this woman says, ``to conduct the 
visit. To Chinese people the month of June means bloodshed and killing, 
so why choose June,'' this lady, this mother of the slain human rights 
activist, states.
  Again I quote: ``The red carpet he will walk on is soaked with the 
blood of our relatives. Of course, the state leaders of other countries 
get the same reception there, but the United States is different as it 
is a superpower of the free world and it is supposed to uphold 
justice.''
  I call on the President, as many in this body do, to reconsider this 
trip and to stand for freedom in Tibet and human rights on the mainland 
of China. Those stands will bring a better chance for peace in the 
world.

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