[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 27, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S1499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 China

  Now, Mr. President, the same situation is playing out in China. After 
starting down the right path, press reports indicate that President 
Trump appears to accept something far short of his initial aims. 
President Trump has already started promoting a ``signing summit'' at 
Mar-a-Lago before an agreement has even been inked. Just imagine how 
that undercuts our negotiators--to say already he is going to sign 
something when we are eyeball to eyeball with the Chinese. That is not 
the art of the deal. That is the art of capitulation.
  As the Times reported this morning, ``Mr. Trump has grown impatient 
with the talks, and a consensus is growing in Washington that Mr. Trump 
will ultimately accept a weak deal.'' Shame on him if he does.
  China is robbing and stealing our family jewels: American industrial 
know-how, American information technology, Americans' ability to do 
things.
  When we are good at it, China doesn't let us in and compete, unless 
we give them all of the knowledge of how to do it themselves, and China 
steals our intellectual property. Just 2 weeks ago, there was another 
hacking--and now we are going to capitulate?
  What the Times goes on to say is that ``the Chinese have so far 
declined to make concrete commitments to reform their economy that the 
administration has demanded''--these are the words of the New York 
Times--``including ending China's practice of subsidizing companies, 
engaging in cyber-theft and forcing American companies to hand over 
intellectual property to Chinese partners in order to do business 
there.''
  Even our business community does not want the President to 
capitulate. I met with a bunch of them. They want him to stay strong. 
Everyone wants him to stay strong. Now he is caving.

  This President cannot take a policy and pursue it to its end. His 
attention span is so small, his desire for immediate gratification 
seems to be so large that the American worker loses. If we capitulate 
to China, that American worker will lose for decades. That American 
worker's children will lose.
  So I say to President Trump, it would be a momentous failure if you 
relent now and don't receive meaningful, enforceable, and verifiable 
commitments on structural reforms to China's unfair trade policy. 
Simply buying more soybeans or buying more materials or planes is not 
going to solve the structural problem, and in a few months China will 
continue to unfairly gain on us--not right.
  So, I wonder, where are all the supposed hawks? Where is Secretary 
Pompeo on China and North Korea? Where is Ambassador Bolton? Do they 
feel they can argue internally with the President and he overrules them 
and that is that? What good is it for them to be there? Oh, yes, they 
can say: It would have been even worse if we weren't there. That is no 
way to do policy when either American safety, in regard to North Korea, 
or American economic prosperity in the future, in regard to China, is 
at stake.
  I believe Ambassador Lighthizer has made a sincere effort to do the 
right thing on China, but his efforts are constrained by a President 
who seems intent on weakening his hand every few weeks. Again, where is 
Bolton? Where is Pompeo? Where are they? They have been hawks on these 
two issues their whole lives. Now they get in the administration; they 
just go along, when they were among the loudest critics of President 
Obama and President Clinton? Not right. Not good for America.
  It just so happens that two of President Trump's signature foreign 
policy issues will come to a head at roughly the same time. There are 
historic opportunities here to make America safe by removing nuclear 
weapons from a rogue regime and to end two decades of rapacious Chinese 
trade policy. We can finally put American companies on a level playing 
field with our largest competitor. If the President, having brought the 
Chinese to the table with tough sanctions and tariffs, takes 10 percent 
or 20 percent of what we can get, that would be very bad for this 
country, American workers, and American incomes. As they continue to 
stay flat or decline, one of the main reasons is unfair trade practices 
by China. We have to be strong and tough. We can win this fight if we 
can stay strong.
  The bottom line is this. If over the course of the 1 month President 
Trump capitulates to both Beijing and Pyongyang, the foreign policy of 
his Presidency will be in shambles. It will zig and zag to no real 
accomplishment. More importantly, the national security and economic 
security of the American people will greatly suffer as a consequence.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority whip is recognized.