[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 34 (Monday, February 25, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1413-S1414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 CHINA

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, in a similar vein, on China, President 
Trump announced he would be delaying the imposition of higher tariffs 
on March 1, in the hopes of coming to a larger trade agreement. This is 
all well and good if the Trump administration ultimately achieves a 
strong deal that makes progress on China's rapacious trade policies. 
But we are not there yet, and my message to President Trump is don't 
back down.
  The President has shown the right instincts on China many times. I 
give him credit for that. I have praised him publicly for that, but at 
other times, I believe his eagerness for the appearance of 
accomplishment gets the best of him. Recent history has taught us that 
when President Trump makes unilateral concessions to China--as he did 
when he interfered in the sanctions against ZTE--China does very little 
for us in return.
  President Trump must not make the same mistake again, whether by 
interfering in the U.S. criminal charges brought against Huawei or 
otherwise decreasing our leverage, until and unless China makes 
meaningful, enforceable, and verifiable agreements to end its theft of 
American intellectual property and other trade abuses.
  Hopefully, that is where the negotiations are headed. If the 
President does

[[Page S1414]]

a good job, I will be the first to praise him. If he backs off or takes 
some temporary measure in decreasing the balance of trade but doesn't 
change China's structural rapaciousness against the United States and 
our intellectual property and our industrial know-how, he will be 
criticized by me and many others on both sides of the aisle.

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