[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 78 (Monday, May 14, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2637-S2638]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Trade with China

  Madam President, an area in which the President and I have mostly 
agreed is on trade with China. I have given him a pat on the back for 
his stance so far. I have praised the administration vocally and 
forcefully for its efforts in addressing China's intellectual property 
theft and extortion--its unwillingness to let our best products be sold 
in their country, in their huge market, unless we give them our family 
jewels, that of how we do things, of how we invent things.
  The President was right, and so many of us breathed a sigh of relief 
when he started an investigation into China's theft of our intellectual 
property. The administration was right to threaten tariffs and 
investment restrictions to get China to the negotiating table. Its 
reaction to what happened with the recent telecom company ZTE shows 
that when you are tough with China, it really reacts.
  China is rapacious about trade, particularly about intellectual 
property. To gain access to China's markets, American companies are 
forced by China's Government into deals in which they must turn over 
their most valuable job-creating intellectual property to Chinese 
competitors. China's state-backed companies try to steal intellectual 
property from American companies outright. It is wrong and is anathema 
to the American way.
  Four-star Gen. Keith Alexander, Retired, has said that China's theft 
of intellectual property has been the ``greatest transfer of wealth in 
history.'' That just eats at me. It eats at me. That is American jobs; 
that is American wealth, American innovation, of which we are all so 
proud, being stolen--there is no other word--by China, and it hurts us.
  There is one example that hits home to me. I was in Albany this 
morning. One of our biggest employers is GE, which makes steam 
turbines. GE employs thousands of people in good-paying jobs. It is one 
of the big manufacturing sites left in Schenectady. A few years back, 
it signed one of these 5149s. China wouldn't let it sell the turbines 
in China, and it is a huge market. So it signed one of these things to 
make them in China--a 5149 with a Chinese company that clearly the 
government's tentacles are in.
  It is great for GE's CEO. I liked him, and he was my friend, but I so 
objected to what he did here. GE makes good profits on those sales 
because it gets an exclusive contract on the right to sell for a few 
years, but then China will have stolen the amazing GE technology that 
allows its turbines to be the best in the world, to spin fast without 
overheating, and those jobs are gone. That story can be repeated over 
and over and over again.
  So I thought, good for President Trump for finally getting serious 
about this calamity. I noted that my views on China and how we deal 
with it economically are closer to President Trump's than to President 
Bush's or President Obama's, both of whom I thought were far too soft. 
He acknowledged that in a little note he sent to me because he saw it 
in one of the newspapers he reads. Yet, now, disappointingly--maybe not 
surprisingly--President Trump is backing off. Over the weekend, we saw 
two incredible examples of the President doing a 180 on China.
  First, Axios reported that the President is on the verge of a deal 
that would have China accelerate its purchases of U.S. goods, in the 
name of reducing our trade deficit with China, in exchange for our 
dropping the 301 tariffs that have been proposed to stop China from 
stealing our intellectual property specifically.
  Secondly and amazingly enough, when he finally took some strong 
action against China--his Commerce Department--the President backed 
off. He tweeted that he and President Xi are working together to give 
the massive Chinese phone company ZTE a way to get back into business 
fast because there had been ``too many jobs in China lost.'' What about 
jobs in America, Mr. President? What about the millions of jobs that 
are lost because of what China has done?

  The President was referring to the fact that ZTE had accepted a fine 
for selling its products in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran 
and North Korea and could be further restricted by a pending FCC 
proposal to ban U.S. telecom companies that receive Federal funds from 
purchasing mobile equipment or services from companies like ZTE. Why? 
Because ZTE poses a national security threat to U.S. communication 
networks. This President, who prides himself on keeping us secure, is 
going to let ZTE continue to do this despite what the experts say?
  Why on Earth would President Trump promise to help a Chinese telecom 
company that has flouted U.S. sanctions and whose trade practices are a 
risk to our national security? The thing that will move China most is 
taking tough action against actors like ZTE, but even before it is 
implemented the President backs off. Why on Earth

[[Page S2638]]

would the President retreat from cracking down on intellectual property 
theft--the thing China fears most, the thing that has hurt us the most 
and will hurt us even more in the future--losing millions, if not tens 
of millions, of American jobs in exchange for a few purchases of U.S. 
goods in the short term? That is a bad, lopsided deal if there ever was 
one. It would be like trading away your star player for the last-round 
draft pick. If President Trump makes that deal, President Xi of China 
will have made a fool of the President and will have shown that he does 
not know how to cut a deal.
  President Trump bemoans ``too many jobs in China lost.'' What about 
American jobs? What about job losses associated with the theft of 
intellectual property from China and ZTE, in particular? What happened 
to ``America First''? Being soft on trade puts China first. What 
happened to ``Make America Great Again''? That is how the President 
campaigned. That is, in good part, how he got elected, but, once again, 
the President talks the talk but refuses--is unable, is afraid--to walk 
the walk, and, once again, a foreign leader could well be playing our 
President for a chump.
  President Trump's latest about-face on trade policy will not make 
America great again; it will make China great again. The next 
generation of electric vehicles, telecom hardware, advanced aviation 
technology, and renewable energy should be made in America, not China. 
It will not happen if we allow China to continue to extort and steal 
our intellectual property and know-how, if we allow China to sell goods 
here at will but not allow us to sell our best products over there. 
Walking away from the negotiating table with anything less than an 
enforceable and verifiable commitment to protect our intellectual 
property would be a catastrophic failure and again show that President 
Xi has clearly outplayed President Trump. I pray that doesn't happen 
because we care about jobs for America.