[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 67 (Thursday, May 25, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E846]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  AUTHORIZING EXTENSION OF NON-DISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT (NORMAL TRADE 
           RELATIONS TREATMENT) TO PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. PATSY T. MINK

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 24, 2000

  Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 4444.
  Giving China permanent normal trade relations with the United States 
gives up a valuable tool for protecting the human rights in China. It 
assures China that it can take American jobs through low wages and 
forced labor.
  In the auto industry GM has admitted that GM plans to increase its 
use of China-made parts in its Shanghai facility from 40 to 80 percent. 
Those parts will replace parts made in America. The manufacturing jobs 
will move from the U.S. to China.
  REI announced this month that it is closing its Seattle clothing 
plant to open a plant in Mexico. REI credits NAFTA for the move. As a 
result of NAFTA 325 jobs have now moved to Mexico for a simple reason: 
The Mexican workers will be paid $50 per week. This is a foretaste of 
what is to come with PNTR especially with Chinese workers earning 25 
cents per hour.
  Chinese workers have little in the way of rights. Chinese workers are 
prohibited from freely organizing labor unions and any signs of 
discontent are punished.
  A demonstration last week in Liaoning by 5,000 workers and retirees 
over unpaid wages and pensions was met by 1,000 police who forcefully 
broke up the demonstration, beat 50 people and arrested the organizers. 
That is the usual Chinese government reaction to workers seeking 
justice.
  The Chinese government operates 1,100 factories, farms and other 
facilities which use forced labor. U.S. law prohibits the importation 
of goods made by forced Labor, but the goods are widely believed to 
enter this country. Harry Wu, who spent 19 years in the forced labor 
system, has brought 28 complaints about these imports. The State 
Department's Report on Human Rights for 1999 states that whenever the 
U.S. Customs has identified illegal goods, China simply ignores or 
denies the allegation. We cannot expect any U.S. firm to be able to 
compete against manufacturers using forced labor.
  Increased trade has not helped improve human rights in China. 
According to the State Department's Human Rights Report for 1999 
released in February, 2000, ``A crackdown against a fledgling 
opposition party, which began in the fall of 1998, broadened and 
intensified''; ``tens of thousands of members of the Falun Gong 
spiritual movement were detained. . . . several leaders . . . were 
sentenced to long prison terms . . . and hundreds of others were 
sentenced to reeducation through labor''; ``child labor persists''; and 
``poor enforcement of occupational health and safety regulations 
continues to put workers' lives at risk.'' A single sentence in the 
Report sums up China's human rights record: ``Abuses included instances 
of extrajudicial killings, torture and mistreatment of prisoners, 
forced confessions, arbitrary arrest and detention, lengthy 
incommunicado detention, and denial of due process.''
  H.R. 4444 is indeed a trade bill. It trades American jobs and Chinese 
human rights for a chance for profits from China. That is a trade I am 
not willing to make, and urge Members to vote against the bill.

                          ____________________