[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6545-S6546]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
VISIT OF VICE PREMIER WU YI
Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I wish to comment on the visit of Chinese
Vice Premier Wu Yi to Washington. This visit comes at an important time
for the U.S.-China relationship and highlights the enormous stakes
involved.
As I have said in the past, China's rise offers great opportunity but
also poses serious challenges. It is critical the U.S. do all it can to
ensure that China's rise is peaceful and its trade practices fair, and
under those conditions, the United States should welcome China's
continuing emergence and prosperity.
At the same time, we must remain prepared to respond should China's
rise take a problematic turn. This means maintaining our military
presence in the Asia-Pacific region, strengthening our alliances, and
making clear to both Beijing and Taipei that a unilateral change in the
status quo in the Taiwan Strait is unacceptable. Also, though today
China's military spending is one-tenth of ours, we must monitor closely
China's strategic capabilities while also pushing for greater
transparency of its defense activities.
Although we must remain vigilant in monitoring these potential
developments, our two nations also should strive to build a
relationship that broadens areas of cooperation where we share mutual
interests, as we have done to respond to the nonproliferation challenge
posed by North Korea. And we should strengthen our ability to manage
our differences effectively. While we must never hesitate to be clear
and consistent with China where we disagree--whether on protection of
intellectual property rights, the manipulation of its currency, human
rights, or the right stance on Sudan and Iran--these differences, as a
general rule, should not prevent progress in areas where our interests
intersect.
Trade and economic issues, the subject of the upcoming Strategic
Economic Dialogue, are one crucial example of the significant
opportunities and challenges China's rise presents.
China is now the third largest economy in the world and is an
increasingly formidable commercial competitor. But China also is our
fastest growing overseas market, fueling over $50 billion in U.S.
exports that help support thousands of export-related jobs. Many
Americans also benefit from inexpensive Chinese products that keep down
our cost of living, and China is an important link in the global supply
chain that benefits U.S. commercial interests.
But none of that constitutes a reason to turn a blind eye to those
ares of the economic relationship that are troubling. China ran a trade
surplus with the United States of over $200 billion last year--the
largest ever between any two countries--accounting for nearly a third
of our total global trade deficit. Neither America nor the world can
accept such imbalances, and if they remain, it is inevitable that there
will be demands for protection in America and elsewhere.
I believe that the answer to the Chinese economic challenge is not to
build walls of protection but to knock down barriers, demand fair
treatment for our products and services, and increase our own
competitiveness.
Much of the hard work to be done lies at home. We must implement
policies to reduce our budget deficits and increase national savings--
in order to reduce our dependence on borrowing to finance our deficits.
We must ensure that our companies and workers have the tools they need
to compete in the global economy. Among other things, this means
stepping up our investments in education, training, and science and
technology. We must make sure those Americans whose livelihoods are
threatened by our changing economic relationship with China have access
to the resources and support they need.
But China must bear a substantial share of the responsibility for
restoring greater balance in its economic relations with the United
States and the rest of the world. Just as the United States cannot
unilaterally restore balance to China's economic relations, the United
States alone cannot mute protectionist demands. China must itself act
to bring greater balance in its global trade, so that all countries
benefit from its growth.
I commend Treasury Secretary Paulson for pursuing a strategic
economic dialogue with China, but it must produce meaningful and
lasting results. Even as we develop a better understanding of how
Chinese leaders view their own economic priorities, we need to confirm
that these same leaders understand how the policies they pursue affect
the United States and the global economy.
As a principal beneficiary of globalization, China needs to support
and strengthen the international economic system as well. For example,
it can and should take steps to increase consumption--drawing in more
imports and reducing dependence on exports for growth. China needs a
modem financial system to achieve this. American companies can help
develop such a system but not if the playing field is unfairly tilted
toward Chinese companies.
China can and should contribute to bolstering the world's economic
system by allowing its currency, the renminbi, to be determined by
market forces. Today, Beijing amasses as much as $20 billion a month in
foreign currency, with the effects of keeping the renminbi
substantially undervalued and giving China an undue advantage in trade.
The recent move to widen the currency trading band is useful, but China
must move more quickly toward a market-based currency.
China can and should contribute to the success of globalization by
providing stronger protection of intellectual property rights. The fact
that 80 percent of the pirated goods seized by U.S. Customs come from
China is unacceptable. It suggests just how much work needs to be done
in this area.
China can and should contribute to the world's economic health by
altering its energy policies--addressing the needs of its people at
home while not exacerbating problems abroad. Domestically, China's
priority should be to increase energy efficiency. A system
[[Page S6546]]
that requires twice as much energy as the United States to produce each
dollar of economic growth is problematic.
At the same time, China needs to find cleaner sources of energy.
Sixteen of the twenty cities with the worst air in the world are in
China, and China is poised to overtake the United States in greenhouse
gas emissions in 2 to 3 years. Just this week, a new report found that
worldwide carbon dioxide levels have accelerated rapidly since 2000, in
part because of China's reliance on coal.
China should rely on international energy markets to provide its oil
and gas imports and work with the United States and others to develop
common approaches to energy supplies and security. To continue seeking
privileged arrangements with countries such as Sudan and Iran--states
that commit gross human rights violations and that threaten to develop
weapons of mass destruction--is to dramatically complicate efforts of
the international community to address these questions and, in effect,
to ratify these deeply troubling practices.
I hope Treasury Secretary Paulson can persuade the Chinese to change
their practices. We will all be better off with a China whose emergence
strengthens the international system rather than disrupts it.
China's economic growth is a good thing for China's 1.3 billion
people, and can be a good thing for the United States. China is
increasingly a constructive participant in the international system,
and that trend should be supported and encouraged. But China cannot
expect the United States and its overseas partners to tolerate unfair
practices and glaring imbalances triggered by its rise. China needs to
take steps that not only benefit its people but sustain the
international system from which China itself benefits so greatly.
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