[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 86 (Monday, June 1, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H3632-H3634]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRADE PROMOTION AUTHORITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Russell) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. RUSSELL. Madam Speaker, with trade deals on the horizon, 
President Obama has asked Congress to grant him trade promotional 
authority, also called fast track, to ``write the rules for the world's 
economy.'' This measure would allow the President to pass sweeping 
trade partnerships without the input of the American people through 
their elected representatives in the normal process. Despite the 
various myths circulating about TPA, I sincerely believe that it is not 
in the best interest of our Nation, as written at this time.
  You have heard it said that a vote against TPA is a vote against 
international trade, but actually, a vote against TPA is a vote for a 
better construct and trade agreement.
  I am a strong supporter of trade when deals are negotiated 
strategically in the best interest of the United States economically, 
militarily, and diplomatically. With the President leaving office in 
just months, I have serious

[[Page H3633]]

concerns about the rapid pace and content of any deal that could have 
decades of implication.
  Many have said TPA will strengthen our international relationships, 
and that may be, but while TPA would fast-track the Trans-Pacific 
Partnership, in specific, currently being negotiated by the President 
with 11 other Pacific nations, I am not convinced that this is a 
partnership that must be done in haste before the President leaves 
office.
  We currently trade with 6 of the 11 other members. Our vital yet 
delicate relationship with China--a country not included in the Trans-
Pacific Partnership--would likely be damaged by a rivalry for economic 
influence in the region. The Trans-Pacific Partnership rewards nations 
with serious human rights violations while slighting our faithful trade 
partners with shared values in Europe. While I support the lifting of 
trade barriers and promoting better standards of living, I believe we 
must do the right track, not the fast track.
  Others have claimed TPA will strengthen national security. On this 
point we should take careful note. The President has used dangerous and 
isolating language regarding China, with words coming from the White 
House like ``hegemony'' and ``containment'' to ask for the TPA, or the 
trade promotional authority, but we must note that China is not our 
enemy. Therefore, we should not put it on the path to become one.
  By isolating China, we could easily transform our capabilities-based 
defense strategy to a threat-based one, with all of the implication and 
decades of effort that that would entail. It would affect all of our 
future defense spending and could even begin Cold War II. The trade 
promotional authority can be granted and trade agreements inked without 
making China excluded, or worse, our enemy. We need to use the next 20 
months to repair the relationships as we move towards better trade 
agreements.
  The trade promotional authority, some say, gives Congress a seat at 
the negotiating table. But the TPA allows Congress to set broad 
objectives for negotiation--and that comes at a high price. Under the 
trade promotional authority, Congress sacrifices its authority to make 
any changes on the final deal, and they are left with a simple ``yes'' 
or ``no'' vote.
  I believe the American people deserve their voice in trade agreements 
which impact all of our livelihoods and affect all of our families' 
finances. And while trade is vital to economic opportunity and our 
international friendships, I cannot support granting the President 
permission in light of these concerns with trade promotional authority.
  Madam Speaker, America has long been fascinated with China. From the 
time of Columbus, who sought to find a western approach to China and 
instead discovered America, we have been drawn to its ancient culture 
and its people. The earliest American vessel pulled into a Canton port 
in 1748. Forty years later, we began free trade with the Cantonese.
  The first mention of China obtaining a favored nation status was 
actually as early as 1844, when we signed the Treaty of Wanghia. The 
way seemed open to engage China and her market. But there were 
concerns. Wrote one negotiating diplomat regarding this treaty: ``It is 
the most uncivilized and remote of all nations . . . it is in an 
isolated place outside the pale, solitary, and ignorant. Not only are 
the people entirely unversed in the forms of edicts and laws, but if 
the meaning be rather deep, they would probably not even be able to 
comprehend. It would seem that we must make our words somewhat 
simple.''
  What is amusing is that the diplomat was Chinese, and his comments 
were directed toward the United States.
  China moved ahead slowly and cautiously with its relations with the 
West. The interplay of Western covetousness with Chinese reluctance 
kept the door to China at a mere crack. European attempts to force the 
crack with opium and acquisition of port cities broadened the natural 
distrust.
  Unlike demands of Europe, though, the United States wanted trade, not 
territory. U.S. Ambassador Burlingame was able to secure the first 
treaty that China ever made with any Western nation in 1861, and China 
was regarded as an equal. Chinese workers began to flock to the United 
States and literally began to move mountains in California as economic 
opportunity thrived.
  Unfortunately, the goodwill of Lincoln faded in just one generation. 
The plundering of Chinese port cities by European competitors changed 
how Americans began to view China. The flood of Chinese immigrants to 
California became an easy target for any setback on its economic 
ascent. Equals were now called coolies. Racism reached such a height 
that in 1882 the United States Congress--this body--passed and the 
President signed the first ever act that excluded a specific race on 
immigration. We did not even make any pretense about it, calling it the 
Chinese Exclusion Act. The provisions remained in effect for nearly 60 
years.
  As these events played out, Commodore Perry of the United States Navy 
entered Tokyo in 1850 and demanded that Japan ``open up.'' The Japanese 
obliged.
  Japan embarked on a stunning modernization program, where China was 
reluctant. In an incredible span of only 50 years, Japan adopted 
Western technology, governance, law, industry, and military doctrines. 
Her rise from mystic feudalism to world power alarmed the West. In 
response, the goodwill of Lincoln towards China would take hold again 
in the form of his youthful personal secretary, John Hay, now an older, 
wiser, and towering figure of respect serving as the Secretary of State 
in 1900.
  Hay saw the best way to compete with Japan would be to open up China 
to trade while protecting her territory. Hays' open-door policy was 
widely heralded across the globe as the solution to imperial Japanese 
ascendancy. This would have long-lasting implication, but one important 
side effect was to restore U.S.-Chinese relations. Hay even secured a 
guarantee from Japan in 1908 to respect China's ``open door,'' 
independence, and territory. It would last only 7 years.
  As China moved to become more enlightened to the West with Sun Yat-
sen's revolution in self-governance in China, Imperial Japan made what 
was known as the 21 Demands during World War I.
  Great Britain and U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan 
moved quickly to prevent Japan from attempting to make China its own 
protectorate. American-Chinese relations warmed even further when the 
United States declared China's right to autonomy with tariffs and trade 
in 1928.
  As once-warm Japanese relations with the United States turned sour 
over Imperial Japanese policy in China regarding Manchuria, America 
established what became the Stimson doctrine, which refused to 
recognize Japanese acquisitions in China and upheld China's rights to 
its own sovereignty.
  The 1930s saw a mercurial Imperial Japan plunder China, pull out of 
the League of Nations, and commit horrific atrocities in Nanking and 
Hong Kong. The U.S. responded by calling for a global quarantine 
against Japan in defense of China in 1937. China's own struggles 
internally with Mao Zedong's Communists paled in comparison to losing 
its industrial heart and its coast to the Imperial Japanese army.
  By 1941, America was sending lend-lease war material and economic aid 
to China in her defense. American volunteer pilots cut dashing figures 
as they flew American P-40 Warhawks for the Chinese Air Force as the 
famed Flying Tigers.
  Ultimately, America's defense of China led it to be attacked at Pearl 
Harbor and resulted in a brutal Pacific and Chinese theater of war 
during World War II.

                              {time}  2030

  The United States committed an entire effort in China, with ``Vinegar 
Joe'' Stilwell as the commanding general; the building of the Burma 
Road; and by training, equipping, and launching a Chinese Army to 
attack Japanese forces. Immigration restrictions that were imposed in 
1882 were now finally repealed. America had sympathy for China's 
struggle.
  By war's end, China was an important partner and ally. Her struggle 
did not end, however. Ripped again internally by civil war once the 
Japanese were defeated, China would be led by Mao Zedong and the 
Communist Party.
  The United States did not recognize Communist China, but neither did 
it

[[Page H3634]]

materially aid fleeing Nationalist Chinese on the continent. A period 
of isolation and strained relations with the United States began once 
again under Mao.
  In 1949, China began to arm Communists in French Indochina. The U.S. 
became embroiled in a deadly struggle with North Korea and countered 
her assault in the south with an attack that pushed them all the way 
north to the Yalu River on the Chinese border.
  Alarmed, China struck back. For the first time since 1900, Americans 
and Chinese were fighting each other. By 1953, an uneasy line had 
settled on the Korean Peninsula.
  Chinese relations remained cool with the West, but were not always 
promising with the Soviet Russia. When the U.S. fought in Vietnam, 
China continued to arm and send troops to the Communist government of 
Ho Chi Minh.
  Then a series of odd events from 1969 to 1971 brought Americans and 
Chinese back to warmer relations in the most unlikely way. When Soviet 
Russia attacked outposts on the northern border of China, Mao Zedong 
reassessed relationships with the United States.
  He reasoned that China could not be isolated by both world powers. 
Overtures from President Nixon in his inaugural address and a series of 
ping-pong matches created dialogue for the first time in decades.
  In 1971, Henry Kissinger went on a secret mission to China, opening 
the way for Nixon's visit with Mao. Who would have thought that the man 
that shunned the United States in favor of communism and the President 
that built his reputation on fighting communism would both come to 
realize that our nations, despite their differences, needed each other.
  Mainland China was now officially recognized by the United Nations. 
The U.S. set up diplomatic offices. Trade agreements opened. Relations 
warmed by the 1980s, with state visits from both countries. As the 
horizon brightened and the Chinese people hoped, the Chinese Government 
cracked down on dissidents in Tiananmen Square. The U.S., alarmed, 
imposed sanctions and restrictions.
  Tensions loomed through the 1990s, culminating with the U.S. bombing 
of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1999, during the Kosovo 
campaign.
  Calmer heads prevailed and tensions eased. By 2001, trade 
restrictions were loosened once again. China pledged a deep commitment 
to fight the war on terror and committed material aid in great amounts 
for the effort.
  By 2006, China-U.S. relations deepened under the strategic economic 
dialogue. Business in both countries increased as commerce offered 
great economic opportunity for both countries.
  On the verge of a bright future, we now see today with timidity and 
fear, where we should see opportunity and favor with regard to China.
  China needs us, and we need China; yet we see, in the last week, 
Madam Speaker, a week of a barrage of negative press on China, covering 
everything from hedging them on trade, to condemning them and their 
development of island outposts in the China Sea, to framing them up as 
the new military threat that must be checked by the United States.
  Dialogue and diplomacy are cheaper than tanks and tomahawks. Does the 
United States really wish to believe that we can leave a capabilities-
based military to create some new threat-based military and it would be 
in our favor?
  While China is not our enemy, we could certainly set the conditions 
to make them one in the future. It would be a tragic mistake. It would 
devour our diplomacy, drain our defense, and diminish our domestic 
priorities.
  Worse, it could set the course for some future horrific conflict 
between dozens of friendly nations that we currently trade with, 
including China--including China. Where is the dialogue on including 
China in the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
  I have not heard it from this Chamber or the White House. Sure, we 
claim they can join if they meet the standard, only after we use every 
anti-Chinese statement in trying to make the case for the trade 
promotion authority. That is not very reassuring.
  Some say we must not include China at all in the Trans-Pacific 
Partnership because of their human rights record. Others object because 
they are a Communist nation. Others cite the fact that China has been 
our former enemy.
  Well, here are some thoughts to ponder. If we can forgive Germany and 
Japan for horrific human rights violations in World War II, can we not 
reach out to China? If we can embrace former enemies who reformed their 
existing Communist governments, such as Vietnam, can we not reach out 
to China?
  If we can turn former enemies, such as Great Britain, Canada, Mexico, 
Spain, the Philippines, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Japan, and 
Vietnam, into our top trading partners, can we not also reach out to 
China?
  China needs petroleum and natural gas, and we have plenty of it. We 
have both ready to export. China wants to lay thousands of miles of 
road in ambitious projects for her commerce. We have the raw materials 
for asphalt, industry to make their road-paving machines, and colleges 
to educate their engineers.
  Madam Speaker, we need China; 3.8 million Chinese nationals live and 
work in the United States. That is more than the population of my home 
State of Oklahoma. China constitutes our greatest trading partner, 
working with thousands of businesses that bolster our economy and 
better our quality of life. Our peoples are historically and deeply 
intertwined. We must proceed with wisdom and caution.
  While we love trade and while we love economy, we can work out 
differences, rather than magnify them and deepen suspicion and concern. 
Instead, we can dialogue.
  The same standards that people often cite with regard to China and 
how she is stealing technologies or making shoddy goods were the same 
charges that we leveled against Japan in the 1960s and South Korea in 
the 1980s; yet we no longer have those concerns about those allies 
today with their incredible effort, economy, and technology.
  Our peoples are historically and deeply entwined, the United States 
and China, and we must work hard to maintain that.
  Madam Speaker, I would hope that our colleagues and our President 
would temper the rhetoric with regard to discussions on trade and using 
it as some new effort to hedge or contain China, rather than to embrace 
and trade with that nation.
  Whatever differences we may have can be worked out in the spirit and 
good will of Lincoln.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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