[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 187 (Wednesday, November 28, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7149-S7150]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               G20 Summit

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, this weekend President Trump will head to 
Argentina for the G20 summit, where he is expected to meet with 
President Xi of China to discuss our trading relationship.
  Now, I have opposed the President on most things. That is hardly a 
secret. But we agree--we actually agree--on the issue of China. In 
fact, I agree more with President Trump's views on China than I did 
with either President Bush or Obama, and I have been supportive of the 
administration's aggressive course of action on China.
  China must be made to understand that we are dead serious about 
changing its behavior on trade: to allow foreign companies to compete 
in its markets, to end illegal dumping of cheap goods into our markets, 
and, most importantly, to end the abusive practice of technology 
transfers and trade espionage that threatens our intellectual property 
and know-how. These things don't just threaten our intellectual 
property, an abstract concept. They threaten good-paying jobs--millions 
of them--and wealth, billions and trillions of dollars that China has 
stolen, literally and figuratively, through its unfair practices.
  When we have a good product, you can't sell it in China unless you 
transfer the technology, but they sell tons of things here.
  My father-in-law--my late father-in-law--a New York City cabdriver, 
sometimes said: We are not Uncle Sam; we are Uncle Sap.
  Well, in the case of China, that has been the case for too long, and 
President Trump, to his credit, is beginning to reverse that. Yet 
despite an initial wave of tariffs, China has not offered meaningful 
concessions on any of the items I have mentioned.
  Ambassador Lighthizer recently put out a report concluding that China 
is still rapaciously stealing American intellectual property. In fact, 
the number of Chinese state-sponsored cyber attacks has been rising. So 
we need to stay the course until China feels the heat.
  That is why I was deeply disturbed--very disturbed--to read this 
morning in the New York Times that President Trump and his advisers--at 
least some of them--are already considering backing down on further 
action against

[[Page S7150]]

China in order to reach an agreement at the G20.
  Let me be clear to the President. Backing off on China for some quick 
handshake agreement without substantive--real, deep, substantive--
commitments, will be seen as a victory by no one. It will be seen as 
capitulation. It will be seen as weak to cave on tariffs this early 
before China starts to feel the real pressure and come to a real, deep, 
and long-lasting agreement that is worth having.
  So, Mr. President, don't back down on China. American jobs and 
American wealth are at stake. You have headed out on a correct course, 
but you have to follow through. All too often this administration 
starts out doing something and then backs off. It cannot happen.
  I am worried--deeply worried--because I love America and I want us to 
be No. 1 economically, as well as in every other way. I fear that 
Trump's eagerness to make a deal--any deal, just like he did with North 
Korea in Singapore--will be devastating to the long-term interests of 
the United States. Now that we are finally putting the screws to China, 
we cannot relent for the sake of a photo-op at the G20.
  Yes, our actions will cause some pain, but in the long term, there is 
much more gain than pain. If we ever needed to do something, it is now. 
I don't agree with treating Canada or Europe the same as China. That is 
for sure. But China is a different, different breed of economic cat, 
and they are robbing us, stealing from us, doing everything they can to 
become No. 1 economically at our expense, not in a fair competitive way 
but in a way that is one-sided.
  So today, I will be sending a letter to President Trump with some 
colleagues laying out this position, saying to the President: Please, 
don't back off on China. American jobs and American wealth depend on 
it.