[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 39 (Thursday, March 11, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E404]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    EXPRESS YOUR CONCERN ABOUT CHINA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN E. SWEENEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 11, 1999

  Mr. SWEENEY. Mr. Speaker, I would respectfully request all of my 
colleagues to join me in signing a letter requesting the President to 
use the upcoming visit with China's Premier Zhu Rongji to express our 
profound concern regarding several issues, including: Human rights 
violations in China and Tibet; China's ongoing public vilification 
against Japan; China's deployment of several hundred missiles against 
Taiwan; China's buildup of their nuclear strike capability; China's 
clandestine efforts to acquire secret United States military 
technologies; China's assistance to the development of the North Korea 
missile program; and China's sales of missile and nuclear technologies 
to terrorist states.
  If you agree with me that the time has come for some truth and 
realism to be put back into our relations with the People's Republic of 
China please join in signing the letter I have submitted into the 
Record by contacting my office.


       Dear Mr. President: We are taking this opportunity, in 
     advance of Premier Zhu Rongji's visit, to express our 
     profound concern about several issues involving the People's 
     Republic of China.
       Since 1994 the P.R.C. has been constructing military 
     facilities in the Spratly Islands. The size and nature of 
     these facilities suggest that the P.R.C. is attempting to 
     establish a permanent strategic presence in the area, from 
     which it could patrol the sea lanes in the South China Sea, 
     the waterway through which one sixth of the world's trade is 
     shipped.
       The military buildup in the Spratly Islands has been 
     accompanied by an ever more strident campaign of public 
     vilification against Japan, a treaty ally of the United 
     States and the base for 50,000 United States troops, the 
     largest single concentration of United States military forces 
     abroad. In another strategic concern, in March 1997 a Chinese 
     controlled company was able to obtain, from Panama, the 
     rights to the port facilities that flank the canal zone.
       Then there is the matter of the democratic nation of 
     Taiwan. The P.R.C.'s 1995 military exercises and 1996 missile 
     firings in the Taiwan Strait have been followed by an 
     offensive military buildup on the Chinese mainland itself 
     that includes tripling the number of missiles (to more than 
     100) already deployed against Taiwan. With several hundred 
     more missiles expected for similar deployment, the recent 
     Defense Department study on the military balance in the 
     Taiwan Strait describes an ``overwhelming advantage in 
     offensive missiles which Bejing is projected to possess in 
     2005.''
       These developments are all the more alarming when seen 
     against the backdrop of (1) China's overall military 
     modernization, its abandonment of a traditional, land-based 
     ``people's army'' in favor a comprehensive strategic and 
     nuclear strike capability by land, sea, and air; (2) China's 
     clandestine efforts to acquire the most secret and sensitive 
     of United States military technologies, including the know-
     how to replicate the W 88 warhead, the most dangerous 
     security breach in 50 years; and (3) allegations that China 
     has assisted the North Korean missile program, on top of its 
     known and suspected sales of missile and nuclear technologies 
     to terrorist states.
       Mr. President, with respect to China, our country has 
     looked the other way for too long. And we have tolerated a 
     ballooning trade deficit for too long. We request that you 
     make it emphatically clear to Premier Zhu that the United 
     States has legal and moral obligations to our allies that we 
     will honor. And if that means, as we believe it does, a land 
     or sea based missile defense in the Western Pacific--then so 
     be it.
       Mr. President, we would also request that you emphasize the 
     P.R.C.'s worsening record regarding human rights violations 
     in China and Tibet. Among these violations are the recent 
     excessive jail and labor camp sentences for pro-democracy 
     activists, Xu Wenli, Qin Yongmin, Wang Youcai, and Zhang 
     Shanguang, the latter for allegedly ``providing intelligence 
     to hostile foreign organizations'' while giving an interview 
     on Radio Free Asia regarding farmer protests.
       And as for Taiwan, now is the time to remind Beijing that 
     the Taiwan Relations Act--the law of the United States--
     mandates the United States to ``make available to Taiwan such 
     defense articles in such quantity as may be necessary to 
     enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense 
     capability. That is our law, period. And that same law 
     mandates that the determination of what Taiwan needs will be 
     made by ``the President and the Congress.''
       Mr. President, the United States policy toward the P.R.C. 
     has been based on wishful thinking for far too long. Policy 
     makers in the Administration of both parties have time and 
     time again been willing to give Chinese leaders the benefits 
     of the doubt only to be consistently let down. The occasion 
     of Premier Zhu's visit provides a timely opportunity to put 
     some truth and realism back into this relationship. It will 
     take the same kind of resolution you showed by sending 
     aircraft carriers into the Taiwan Strait in 1996. We 
     applauded you then, and we will support you now in taking the 
     necessary steps to protect the United States interests and 
     our allies in the region.

     

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