[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5417]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



   CONGRESS SHOULD NOT APPROVE PERMANENT NORMAL TRADE STATUS FOR THE 
                       PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.


          In Support of Prescription Drug Coverage for Seniors

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to thank my very able colleague, 
the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Stabenow), for taking out this 
special order tonight on the important issue of prescription drugs. I 
would like to lend my verbal support and moral support to everything 
she is trying to do in taking on this great leadership challenge for 
our Nation.
  This past weekend I visited one of my dear friends back home who was 
denied coverage for prescription drugs, and was told that if he were to 
try to save his life in a cancer treatment, he and his wife would have 
to cough up $1,500 a week. How would Members like to have to face that 
decision as they are trying to save their lives, and their family is 
surrounding them at one of the most difficult times it has ever faced?
  So I am with the gentlewoman in her efforts here to do what is right 
for our senior citizens as well as our families. The people in the room 
in the hospital were from all ages, all the relatives. Here they had to 
contend with these insurance companies and all these prescription drug 
problems when they were trying to deal with a life and death situation.
  I thank the gentlewoman from Michigan. We admire the gentlewoman's 
work and she has our support.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to advise my colleagues about one more 
reason that this Congress should not approve a blank check that will be 
before us in about 5 weeks called ``Approving Permanent Normal Trade 
Status for the People's Republic of China.''
  I want Members to know, and I am placing in the Record the story of 
another one of my constituents from near Toledo, Ohio, in the village 
of White House. I hope the message I give tonight will reach the White 
House here in Washington.

                              {time}  1915

  This is the story of Ciping Huang, a Chinese American at the 
University of Toledo, married to a gentleman from my community. She has 
been harassed, detained, interrogated, and expelled from China because 
of her association as a member of the Independent Federation of Chinese 
Students and Scholars in our Nation. She has been refused reentry into 
China to visit her ill father who is suffering from cancer, and I can 
think of no better example of the callous disregard for human rights 
exhibited daily by the government of the People's Republic of China 
than her story. I will read her letter to you, and I hope to bring her 
to Washington as this debate ensues.
  She says, ``Dear Congresswoman, my name is Ciping Huang and I am a 
council member of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and 
Scholars in the United States.''
  She has been an elected officer in that organization, which was 
established in 1989, after the Tiananmen Square massacre.
  ``Unfortunately,'' she writes, ``our involvement, our association's 
involvement, in democracy and freedom for China has resulted in harsh 
treatment by the Chinese Communist government, in particular on our 
student members as they try to return to their homeland. Whether a 
Chinese citizen or an American citizen, our members can be harassed, 
detained, threatened or kicked out of China because of our activities. 
And what are our activities? Consistent delivery of overseas donations 
to the June 4 massacre victims and families from Tiananmen Square.

       We support and have supported conditional yearly renewal of 
     the most favored nation trade status for China, and because 
     we lobby the United States Congress to provide protection for 
     Chinese students and scholars from punishment by the Chinese 
     Government due to their roles in fighting for democracy since 
     1989.

  She says, ``Take my story as an example. In 1998, while I went home 
to visit my aging parents in China, I was taken away by the secret 
police for interrogation on many details related to our student 
association and the activities of other Chinese Democratic groups and 
organizations.

       For several days, they tried to force me to do things I did 
     not want to do, including signing a confession letter. On the 
     fifth day I was given 20 minutes to pack my luggage and say 
     good-bye to my scared parents and was forced into Hong Kong. 
     Still, the secret police told me they had treated me 
     leniently because I am married to an American.
       He had contacted his congressional representative, the 
     gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), in order to protect me. 
     The government told me I must cooperate with them afterwards 
     and do what they wanted me to do if I ever wanted to return 
     home to visit my parents again.
       Last September, I learned my father had a 102 degree fever 
     for several days and was diagnosed with cancer. I decided to 
     take a trip back home immediately. However, about 20 police 
     stopped me at the Shanghai International Airport. They 
     searched my luggage and would not let me make phone calls or 
     even go to the bathroom.
       In the airport I asked them to respect the United Nations 
     Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the Chinese 
     President had just signed, and let me go visit my ill father, 
     but my plea was simply ignored. I was put on the airplane 
     back to Tokyo, even though they knew that the hospital had 
     sent us a critical condition notice which stated that my 
     father could die any minute.
       In Tokyo, I repeatedly appealed to the Chinese authorities 
     to allow me into China for basic humanitarian reasons but to 
     no avail. Up until this day, I still have not been able to 
     visit my poor father.

  ``For a long time,'' she says,
       I have viewed America, its people and its government as the 
     ones who hold the moral flags high who would be willing to 
     help and sometimes sacrifice themselves for the people in the 
     rest of the world to gain their basic human rights and 
     dignity, and for humanitarian reasons.
       Now for this permanent normal trade status, as well as 
     admission to the WTO, the World Trade Organization, I wish 
     you could prove that again. I wish you could answer this 
     question correctly: Is business more important than the 
     principles we live by? Do we care about the human rights 
     condition of more than 1.2 billion human lives

  In the past, the annual congressional conditional renewal of most 
favored nation to China was able to provide some leverage for Chinese 
human rights improvement, such as the release of some political 
prisoners and the relaxation of the political atmosphere within China. 
Unfortunately, as you all know, without the attachment of the human 
rights improvement, conditions in China have deteriorated in the last 
few years.
  Mr. Speaker, at this point I would like to insert the remainder of 
this letter in the Record, and I will come to the floor again to read 
the conclusion.

       The Chinese Communist government has not and will not learn 
     democracy and respect human dignity from the PNTR. They would 
     only take its passage as an advantage and signal that it is 
     OK to continue their miserable, poor record on human rights 
     and democracy.
       But, if America could care less about people far away (look 
     at what they have done to FaLun Gong members and Taiwan 
     recently), I hope you do realize that the PNTR would do no 
     more benefit for American workers, especially those in the 
     trade Unions where people earn a living wage with health and 
     retirement benefits. In China, there are no real workers 
     unions; thus, it puts American workers in a much more 
     disadvantaged position to compete with.
       Let me stress, I wish that America will protect the human 
     rights of its own people. Furthermore, America should help to 
     protect the human rights of its own people by helping to 
     protect the human rights of the people in the other 
     countries. Only when these countries have human rights and 
     democracy, shall the world be in peace. And I wish we could 
     hold morality above money, but not the other way around. And 
     I wish none of us, including our democratic government, would 
     have to kneel in front of a dictatorial government for money, 
     or mercy, or the human rights we deserve to have. And 
     finally, with all of your conscience and help, I wish that in 
     the near future, I would be able to visit my ill father in my 
     homeland.
       Thank you all.
           Sincerely,
     Ciping Huang.

                          ____________________