[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 130 (Friday, September 25, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1811]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE WORLD IS WATCHING

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                          HON. JOE SCARBOROUGH

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 25, 1998

  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, the world watches while China begins 
her long march toward superpower status. Regrettably, the view is 
exceedingly grim for those concerned with the continued abuse of their 
citizen's most basic human rights.
  The current American administration has promised progress in China in 
return for more open markets. Of course we recognize that this 
administration, like so many others, is blinded by the vision of China 
as the next great export market. Further enticing the President is the 
realization that cheap Chinese imports fuel America's economy by 
driving inflation down. The sad truth that underlies this economic 
phenomenon is that Chinese slave labor is the economic engine that 
drives America's inflation downward.
  Will America conclude that such an economic truth is acceptable, or 
will it conclude instead that cheap goods paid with human blood is far 
too expensive for our taste. As America decides, the beast slouches 
toward Bethlehem.
  This past week, United Nations Commissioner Mary Robinson visited 
Communist China. The Washington Post reported that while entering her 
hotel, the wife of a jailed Chinese political leader was hauled off by 
Chinese security agents.
  During Ms. Robinson's visit, a veteran Chinese democratic activist 
was arrested for attempting to register a free party in China. In 
Shanghai, Yao Zhenxian was also arrested for discussing the formation 
of a party.
  A journalist was dragged from his home on September 5 for editing a 
group of essays on political reform written by government scholars and 
journalists, according to the Washington Post. Shi Binhai was arrested 
for nothing more than being a journalist reporting on his country's 
future.
  America remains silent.
  In his book on Robert F. Kennedy, Maxwell Kennedy introduces his work 
with a quote from his father's daybook. In that collection of quotes, 
Bobby Kennedy scribbled the following words: ``No one can usurp the 
height but those to whom the miseries of the world are a misery and 
will not let them rest.''
  In plain view of the butchering of Buddhist culture in Tibet, we 
quietly slumber. In clear view of Christian persecution in communist 
China, America sleeps peacefully. In plain view of the entire world, 
America slouches towards an economically rewarding relationship with 
China that, unchecked by Western values given to us first in ancient 
Greece, could rot our nation's soul.
  The whole world is watching. Chicago, 1968. . . . Washington, 1998.

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