[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 4, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H2558]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CHINA WANTS ACCESSION INTO THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION, BUT WITHOUT 
                          PLAYING BY THE RULES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I would like to associate myself also 
with the remarks of the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula), the gentleman 
from West Virginia (Mr. Wise), the gentleman from New York (Mr. Quinn) 
and the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry) in imploring the ITC to 
rule for the United States steel industry.
  There is another trade issue that soon will be in front of Congress. 
Corporate jets are starting to land at National Airport one after 
another after another, filled with CEOs coming, descending on Capitol 
Hill to lobby on behalf of the Chinese Communist Government's accession 
to the World Trade Organization.
  One prominent Chinese dissident who had spent many years in a Chinese 
jail simply for exercising what he considered his right to speak out 
about oppression and speak out against the Chinese Government and its 
policies, this dissident said that American corporate executives were 
in the vanguard of the Chinese Communist Party revolution, arguing in 
this body for special trade advantages, so-called Most Favored Nation 
status for China, arguing in this body that China should be admitted to 
the World Trade Organization.
  Let us step back for a moment, Mr. Speaker, and look at a little bit 
of the history of China's attempt to join this world trade body and 
play by the rules that the United States and other countries around the 
world play by.
  For 5 years, the People's Republic of China has courted the United 
States, trying to convince the United States that China, the Chinese 
Communist Government, should be admitted, acceded into the World Trade 
Organization, but look what they have done in those 5 years as they in 
a sense have been courting the United States: illegal sales of nuclear 
technology to Pakistan; smuggling of AK-47s into the harbor at San 
Francisco; child labor; slave labor; shooting missiles into the Straits 
of Taiwan when Taiwan was holding its first free election, something 
that the People's Republic of China is very unfamiliar with.
  As China has been courting the United States, this is the way they 
have been acting. They have violated every norm, every reasonable 
standard that is accepted in the international community, standards 
that our country lives by, standards that the great majority of 
countries around the world live by.
  China, while she has been courting the United States, has acted this 
way, yet they want accession into the World Trade Organization.
  At the same time, China has exported last year $75 billion worth of 
goods to the United States. We have sold to China, exported to China, 
only about $12 billion worth of goods. We sell to Belgium more than we 
do to China, because China simply will not let most of our goods and 
services in their country.
  China takes that $60 billion trade deficit, that surplus for them, in 
a sense that gift of $60 billion, turns around and buys more or less 
$60 billion worth of goods from Western Europe; generally, our western 
European allies. Then when we have a problem with China, when there is 
a human rights violation or some sort of theft of property rights or 
something that clearly China has acted not according to the rules of 
international trade, those European countries never are on our side in 
those trade disputes because they are such a big customer for China.
  Understand that China has a $60 billion trade surplus with us. They 
make $60 billion in goods and services from us, turn around and spend 
that $60 billion in Western Europe; in a sense, buying allies in their 
quest around the world in the trade arena.

                              {time}  1300

  Mr. Speaker, what we need to do before granting China World Trade 
Organization is not listen to what they say, because they always make 
promise after promise after promise saying that they will behave, that 
they will play fair, they will stop the human rights abuses, they will 
stop the forced abortions, they will stop the religious discrimination, 
they will stop their war against the Tibetans, they will stop what they 
do against Taiwan, they will stop the child labor, their slave labor.
  They promise that every year. Every year this country gives them 
Most-Favored-Nation status. Every year they break those promises. Mao 
Zedong Dong liked to quote his ideological communist mentor, Vladimir 
Lenin, the Soviet leader. He said, promises are like pie crust, they 
are made to be broken. That is what has happened with China as they 
have courted the United States to join the World Trade Organization.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask the administration, I ask the President, I ask 
Republican leadership in this body, I ask the American business 
community, which is so strongly supportive of World Trade Organization 
entry for China immediately, I ask them to step back and let us see if 
China can behave for one year, if it can stop the human rights abuses, 
stop the slave labor and the child labor, can stop shooting missiles at 
Taiwan, can stop the nuclear sales to Pakistan, can stop the human 
rights violations.
  Let us see if China can stop for 1 year and join the community of 
nations in its behavior for 1 year. Then let us talk about World Trade 
Organization accession. Do not let them in based on their promises, let 
them in based on their actions.

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