[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 180 (Tuesday, November 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6501-S6503]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 China

  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, I am here today to talk about an 
important vote that I took 19 years ago, a vote about free trade from 
China. Now, you might say it is a little out of character, coming down 
to the floor and talking about free trade and China, because normally I 
am down here talking about how China is investing in their military at 
unprecedented rates or how they are passing us up in terms of our 
military, which we saw in the last administration.
  The reality is that when it comes to China--which is entirely 
controlled by a tyrannical Communist party--you cannot separate their 
trade behavior from their military like you can in a democratic 
government. China asserts its power both economically and militarily to 
the detriment of the free world.
  So 19 years ago, I came down to the Senate floor and took a stand 
against the tyrannical regime in China. The vote was on whether or not 
to allow the Chinese Government normalized trade relationships with the 
United States that would pave the way for China to join the World Trade 
Organization.
  At that time, it was not popular--it was not popular for any Member 
of the Senate who stood in the way of free trade agreements, much less 
a Republican. But as I saw it then, the vote did much more than open up 
trade. It granted favors to an authoritarian regime, despite their 
openly predatory actions, without demanding concessions in return. My 
colleagues claimed that opening China to free trade would cause China 
to change their behavior. Clearly, that did not happen, but I will get 
to that in a minute.
  Filled with the false hope and empty promises, the trade agreement 
sailed through the Senate, 83 to 15, and was signed by then-President 
Clinton. Now, I am the only one of those 15 ``no'' votes still serving 
in the United States Senate. Today, 19 years later, we have seen the 
reality of what I thought would happen. At the time, I said--and I am 
quoting from my speech 19 years ago--``We cannot allow the pursuit of 
dollars to blind us to certain realities about the ruling communist 
regime in China, including''--keep in mind, I am going to read all 
eight of these that I had mentioned 19 years ago--``repeated threats 
against the United States and Taiwan''--still going on today; ``massive 
military modernization and buildup''--still going on; ``proliferation 
of dangerous weapons to rogue states. Theft of U.S. nuclear secrets''--
still going on; ``demonstrated strategy to exploit commercial 
relationships to acquire advanced military technology,'' that is still 
going on today; ``attempts to corrupt the U.S. political system. 
Violation of international agreements. Brutal repression of 
dissidents.'' We know that is happening.
  I continued: ``To ignore these actions in the belief that they can be 
separated from what we do in our trading relationship is dangerously 
misguided. China's trade surpluses are helping to finance the regime's 
military buildup and aggressive foreign policy, while strengthening its 
hold on economic and political power.''
  I do not take any pride in being right, because the outcome has been 
devastating for the American workers. China has stolen our technology 
and personnel secrets and taken millions of U.S. jobs over the past two 
decades. The facts today show it.
  Let's go through quickly a few of what we predicted two decades ago 
and see where we are today. First, the threats against the United 
States and Taiwan, that is pretty clear. Just look at China's reaction 
to the recent routine arms sale to Taiwan of tanks and Stinger 
missiles. Keep in mind, China has known since 1979 that we sell arms to 
Taiwan to aid in their self-defense. Everyone knows that.
  They threatened that they were prepared to go to war to defend their 
``unity and territorial integrity''--over a routine arms sale. In the 
past year alone, Beijing has frequently threatened to use force against 
any who opposed the Communist Party's designs on Taiwan, so despite 
free trade, China has not stopped their threatening behavior toward the 
United States and Taiwan.
  Secondly, massive military modernization and buildup. We know that is 
still going on. It is obvious to everyone that China has not changed 
their behavior on this because of free trade. It has emboldened them. 
China has become more aggressive as our free trade system has 
subsidized their economy.
  Some key facts: Over the last decade, the Chinese Government has 
grown their military spending--look at the chart when I read this--has 
grown their

[[Page S6502]]

military spending by 83 percent. That is over the last decade. 
Meanwhile, during the last 5 years of the Obama administration, we 
decreased our military spending by 25 percent. We decreased our 
military spending while China had increased theirs by 83 percent.
  That is why, today, China is able to build ships at a faster rate 
than we are and is on pace to surpass the number of vessels by 2030. 
That is why China is investing heavily in cyber capabilities, aviation, 
artillery, and hypersonic weapons--hypersonic weapons, the most 
sophisticated new weapons they have, the weapons that move at five 
times the speed of sound. Actually, before the Obama administration, we 
were ahead of both China and Russia. At the end of that administration, 
we are behind them, and we are catching up now. Each capability, if not 
superior to ours, has the potential to do us significant harm.
  In 2018, I visited our allies in Southeast Asia, where I saw the 
Chinese military buildup in the South China Sea for myself.
  You remember the islands they created. This is not taking over 
territory; it is creating territory because those islands weren't 
there. They have islands in the South China Sea. The Chinese, at last 
count, I believe, were at seven islands. When you go in and look at it, 
you become convinced they are preparing for a world war III.
  China, prior to that time--this is only 3 years ago--had always done 
their military in their home territory. It has always been in China 
until they went in Djibouti--that is the northern part of Africa--and 
they started their own activity there. Now they are all the way down to 
Tanzania, in that part of the world.
  The Department of Defense official expects the Chinese to open more 
bases, too, in the Middle East, in China, in Southeast Asia, and in the 
Pacific. They are all strategically important locations.
  When I talked to our allies in the Pacific, they are concerned, and 
many are beginning to hedge their bets because they see what China is 
doing. We are talking about the South China Sea. We are talking about 
our own allies who have historically been our allies. All of a sudden, 
they are starting to have second thoughts. They are seeing what China 
is doing, but they don't see us doing anything. After 8 years of 
President Obama's weak leadership, it is getting more difficult for us 
to prove to them that we are actually interested in standing up to 
China's aggression.
  Third, the theft of U.S. secrets--we know about that. There is an old 
saying: What China doesn't have, it steals. That is even more apparent 
today than it was in 2000. China is still actively pursuing and 
stealing some of our most valuable military secrets. Just last year, 
China hacked a Navy contractor and stole massive amounts of classified 
data. That practice isn't new, but it is still having serious impacts 
on our ability to get ahead of China's militarily.
  We are seeing an alarming rise in how China steals industrial 
secrets. They do it out in the open--for example, by forcing any 
American business that wants to operate in China to form a partnership 
with a Chinese business. They have been doing that for a long period of 
time, and we have been going along with it. Sadly, these partnerships 
are nothing more than a way for the Chinese Communist Party to access 
and steal proprietary ideas and technology.
  They also do it in nefarious ways--through exploiting educational 
relationships on college campuses or stealing biomedical research 
during the peer-review process.
  This is no small thing. One in five American companies has been a 
victim of Chinese intellectual property theft. That matters because 
nearly 80 percent of our economy is based on intangibles--the very 
things the Chinese are stealing.
  It is safe to say that this is another area where the regime in 
Beijing has been emboldened by free trade at the expense of American 
innovation and economic growth.
  China hasn't changed its position on exploiting commercial 
relationships either. For the past two decades, China has taken 
advantage of countries--weaponizing their debt and working to control 
ports, infrastructure, and other territory, posing a very real threat 
to U.S. interests. There is no place where this is more apparent than 
in Africa, where I keep hearing: ``America will tell you what you need; 
China will build it for you.'' Of course, they don't follow through and 
talk about how they use all Chinese resources to do this. They use 
Chinese labor. But it is of no value to Africa.
  I have been to Africa probably more than any other Member, as I have 
been very active in that area and have seen some of the threats that 
face us on that continent, and I have seen the Chinese debt trap hobble 
more promising governments.
  But it goes far beyond the developing world and extends right into 
our own backyard. Just look at the recent issue with the NBA, where the 
general manager of the Houston Rockets tweeted a message in support of 
the Hong Kong protesters. The backlash was swift. China stopped airing 
Rockets games or streaming them online, and their online retailers 
pulled merchandise from online stores.
  We have also seen U.S. hotels, aviation companies--even the Gap--
being forced to edit and self-censor to remove any reference that even 
tangentially refers to Taiwan, Tibet, or Hong Kong not being a part of 
the People's Republic China, all to appease the Communist Party. The 
jewelry company Tiffany was pressured to remove an advertisement of a 
woman covering her eye because images of a protester in Hong Kong with 
a wounded eye got international attention.
  We live in a democracy, and we don't dictate to private businesses 
what they should or should not do. This is not the case in China. Yet, 
if we continue down the road of self-censorship, the party's demands 
will escalate, and it will be harder and harder to exercise freedom of 
expression.
  Fourth, lastly, brutal repression of dissidents--that was true 19 
years ago, and it is true today. More than anything, I would like to 
say this was an area where free trade had forced the Chinese Communist 
Party to change its behavior. That is what we were all told would 
happen, but it didn't happen. We know it is not true.

  We all know about the atrocities that are going on in Xinjiang 
Province, where the government is forcing a Muslim minority into 
concentration camps, although they call them reeducation centers. We 
all know what is going on in Hong Kong, where Beijing is repressing a 
democratic demonstration with brutal tactics. I remember being in Hong 
Kong at the time China reasserted what they call their leadership, 
their ownership, to Hong Kong. It has been on and off all these years. 
Right now, that effort--disagreement is still taking place.
  Outside of the areas that, despite China's best efforts, have 
attracted international attention, we still know about the atrocities 
the Chinese Communist Party quietly inflicts on journalists and 
Christian minorities in house churches and in communities across China 
every day.
  I have just painted a very bleak picture of U.S.-China relations and 
how unrestricted trade didn't force the ruling party in Beijing to 
change its behavior, but the good news is, help is finally on the way. 
After the trade deal was enacted--I am talking about President Trump's 
trade deal--I kept speaking out against the Chinese Communist Party, 
calling attention to their human rights abuses, their military buildup, 
their manipulative trade tactics, and their economic bullying. I pushed 
every President until now to stand up to the economic powerhouse before 
it was too late and they outmatched us. I tried that with Republicans 
and Democrats alike, and it didn't work.
  Now we have the first President since 2000 to take China seriously. 
President Trump is clear-eyed about the regime in Beijing. He knows 
that our trade relations have been unfair and imbalanced, and he 
understands that we need real and permanent fixes in order to have any 
long-term stability. This is something that has been going on for a 
long period of time, and he is now changing this. He is getting 
criticized, obviously.
  I have to say this: It hurts our farmers in the State of Oklahoma. 
However, I would say that they are very understanding that someone is 
finally willing to take on China.

[[Page S6503]]

  He has effectively applied tariffs, both to punish the Chinese 
Government for its manipulative trade practices and also to support 
critical industries in the United States.
  The result: China's economy has slowed to its lowest point since 
1992--and that is if you believe their official numbers. These are 
their numbers. It has slowed down their economy. That has not happened 
before.
  The economic pressure brought them to the table, ready to make a real 
deal--one that is fair and accountable. So far, we have gotten phase 
1--a preliminary first deal--and the outcome is good for farmers in 
Oklahoma and across the country. For the first time, China has agreed 
to purchase $40 billion to $50 billion worth of American agricultural 
goods. That would be the highest level since 2012. That is a good 
start.
  The fight against China's economic manipulation and influence is not 
over. It can't just be limited to shrinking the trade deficit through 
greater purchases of American goods. Future parts of any agreement need 
to be sure to address the concerns that Presidents of both parties 
neglected for decades, including theft of intellectual property and 
industrial secrets, forced technology transfer, reciprocal access to 
markets, and subsidies to China's state-owned enterprises.
  All of this needs to be placed into the proper context of the 
Communist Party's ambitions on the world stage: to rewrite the rules of 
the international system, to make the world safe for authorities to 
suppress democracy and abuse human rights, and to achieve global 
military superiority by midcentury.
  President Trump's stand against China on trade has provoked a lot of 
discussion about our competition with China. We have to remember that 
this is not a competition against China but a competition for 
influence--the kind of influence that decides what kind of world our 
kids and grandkids are going to live in. Next week, my wife and I will 
be celebrating our 60th wedding anniversary. We have 20 kids and 
grandkids. They are the ones who will be living in that world I just 
described.
  In this competition, we can't afford to be naive. The Chinese 
Communist Party has a very different version of the world it would like 
to create, so even as we keep talking about the tariffs, we have to 
remember that our values are still America's most precious commodity. 
It is our values--free people and truly free markets--that must guide 
us in the competition ahead.
  Every part of this speech I gave on the Senate floor 19 years ago has 
become a reality, and President Trump knows this. Maybe we better 
listen to him.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, I am going to yield the floor.

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