    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [May 9, 2000]
    [Pages 868-870]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Permanent Normal Trade Relations With China
    May 9, 2000

        Thank you very much, President Ford,
    President Carter, Mr. Vice President, Secretary Albright, Secretary Baker, Secretary
    Kissinger, all the distinguished people that
    the Vice President acknowledged. Many of you did not stand. We have so
    many distinguished leaders of Congress here. I would be remiss if I
    didn't thank our former Speaker, Tom Foley,
    and our former minority leader, Bob Michel,
    because they helped me pass NAFTA and the WTO, and I'm grateful to both
    of you. Thank you. We have former House Foreign Relations Chairman Lee
    Hamilton, former Senate Foreign Relations
    Committee Chairman Chuck Percy.
        There's one person in this room I have to introduce. I wish all of
    you could have been sitting where we were today, and I was scanning this
    room, realizing that through the lives of the people in this room, the
    last 50 years of America has unfolded. And we're a better country
    because of what you have all done, and it's a better world. And it is
    just profoundly humbling for me to look across this sea of faces who are
    here. I was so glad the Vice President said what he did about it. But
    there's one person here I want to recognize because I'm quite sure he is
    the senior statesman here, and through his life, most of the 20th
    century unfolded, former Ambassador and Senate Majority Leader Mike
    Mansfield. Thank you, sir, for being
    here. Thank you.
        You have already heard what needs to be said about this, so I'm
    going to try to abbreviate my remarks and focus on what is at issue
    here. If you look at the terms of this agreement on purely economic
    grounds, there's no question that Ambassador Barshefsky and Mr. Sperling did a
    great job. And if the Congress declines to approve this, I will not
    block China going into the WTO. So what will happen? The Europeans and
    the Japanese will get the benefits they negotiated under the rules.
        If you look at who's against this in America, it is truly ironic to
    look at who's against this in China. Nobody's really talked about that.
    Not everybody's for this in China. Who's against it in China? The people
    that run the state-owned industries and don't want to give up their
    control; the more conservative elements of the military, who would like
    to have greater tensions between ourselves and them, and between
    themselves and the people of Taiwan.
        It is truly ironic, when you look at who's against this in China, to
    see that some of the most progressive people in the United States are
    basically doing what they want them to do in opposing this agreement.
    And for me, it is very painful. And I was very proud of the history that
    President Ford gave us, of the last 50 years,
    and very proud of what President Carter said about how we feel about
    labor rights and human rights and the labor movement here in this
    country.
        But the people who are running China are not foolish people. They
    are highly intelligent. They know the decision they have made. They
    understand that they are unleashing forces of change which cannot be
    totally controlled in the system, which, as President Carter says, has
    dominated in China over the last 21 years since we normalized relations.
        Two years ago there were only 2 million Internet users in China.
    Last year there were

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    9 million. This year there will be over 20 million. At some point, there
    will be a critical mass reached, and when that happens, there will be a
    sea change.
        When Martin Lee was here the other day
    talking to people about this, he said, ``You know, I've led the
    democracy movement in Hong Kong for decades. I've never met Zhu
    Rongji. I can't even go to China. They won't let
    me go. But I'll tell you this: If you vote against this, the United
    States will have no influence on the human rights policies of the
    Chinese Government.''
        So why are we having this debate? Because people are anxiety-ridden
    about the forces of globalization, or they're frustrated over the human
    rights record of China, or they don't like all the procedures of the
    WTO. There are lots of things. Every one of you gets up every morning,
    there's something you don't like. That doesn't mean you should be
    against this agreement. But that's what has--this agreement has become
    like flypaper for the accumulated frustrations people have about things
    in the world that they don't like very much or that are spinning beyond
    their control or that they feel will have an uncertain result. And
    that's the world we're living in.
        But I will say this: You know, people ask me all the time, now that
    I've completed about over 90 percent of my term, ``Well, what have you
    learned about this, that, or the other thing? What have you learned
    about foreign policy?'' I've learned it's a lot more like real life than
    I thought it was when I showed up here. I read all Dr.
    Kissinger's books, and I was immensely
    enlightened by them. But what he said today is right. Normally, unless
    you have to fight with somebody, you do better with an outstretched hand
    than with a clenched fist. You want to have a strong defense. You want
    to be ready for the worst, but you've got to try to plan for the best
    and give people a chance to do the right thing.
        President Carter was talking about those 900,000 village elections.
    I went to some of those villages, and I met with some of those elected
    leaders. I think it would be a pretty good idea if they ran all of our
    campaign speeches back when we ran for reelection. [Laughter] Of course,
    I can say that since I'm not running anymore. [Laughter]
        But I just have to say, this is an enormously impressive meeting.
    But the vote is going to take place at the other end of Pennsylvania
    Avenue, and it's by far the most important national security vote that
    will be cast this year. It's an American vote. It unites Henry
    Kissinger and Andy Young and Jesse Ventura--and not
    at a wrestling match. [Laughter]
        I thank you for being here, sir. You
    didn't have to come today, and I really appreciate it.
        But I will say this: We have got to tell people. You know, it
    doesn't matter what the local political pressure is, and it doesn't
    matter what your anxiety is. The truth is, if we vote for this, 10 years
    from now we will wonder why it was a hard fight. And if the Congress
    votes against it, they will be kicking themselves in the rear 10 years
    from now, because America will be paying the price. And I believe the
    price will start to be paid not 10 years from now, not even 10 months
    from now, but immediately. That's why the President-elect of Taiwan wants us so badly to approve permanent normal
    trading relations. That's why most of the human rights activists do.
        And yes, it's an economic issue, and you all know I'm interested in
    economics. And it's about as much of an economic laydown as I've ever
    seen, because what we're giving is China membership in the WTO in return
    for greater access to their markets, the right to sell things there
    without having to manufacture things there, the right to sell things
    there without having a transfer of technology.
        It will help us, because then we'll at least have some demonstration
    of our good-faith commitment to the long-term decision they have made to
    try to be a more open society abiding by international rules of law.
    Then we'll at least have a way to continue this dialog and intensify it
    on religious rights, on political rights, on labor rights, on all human
    rights issues, on the environment, on missile and other technology
    proliferation, all these defense issues which have brought the former
    Chiefs of Staff and the former Defense Secretaries here and the former
    National Security Advisers here today.
        So what I would like to ask all of you to do when you leave here is
    to pick somebody you know in the Congress and call them and tell them
    what we're all saying to one another today. Of course we want the voice
    of this meeting to echo across the country and to embrace the Congress.
        I wish it weren't a fight, but it is. And I'd just like to say one
    thing in closing. If you

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    look at the whole sweep of American history, at critical periods, we've
    always been willing to redefine our responsibilities as a nation: first,
    in ways that brought us together as a people, in the 19th century and
    then all the way through the Great Depression and later through the
    civil rights revolution and the women's rights movement and the
    environmental movement; and second, in ways that recognized our unique
    responsibilities first to our neighbors and then to those across the
    globe as we became more and more blessed.
        One of the things I was thinking about in terms of our relationship
    with China is that President Nixon and President Carter and President
    Ford and even President Bush, for whose support we're very grateful for,
    they all faced a different world than we face here today. And frankly,
    they faced different challenges at home when they were making these
    tough decisions abroad.
        We haven't been in this kind of economic and social shape in America
    since the early 1960's. If we can't do this now, when in the wide world
    will we ever be able to do it? Why--what could we possibly be afraid of,
    based on the capacity of this country to grow its economy and improve
    its social condition? If we can't meet this kind of a challenge now, we
    are abandoning the legacy of the last 50 years, when previous Presidents
    and previous Congresses have done things harder to do than this in
    economic and social turbulence far greater than we face today.
        In fact, I almost think that these good times are some sort of a
    disability here because they encourage people to lose their focus, to
    lose their concentration, to sort of drift off and assume that there are
    no consequences to decisions that are not responsible. There are always
    consequences.
        And this country has never had a better chance to shape the world of
    the future for our children. We all know it's the right decision. And
    virtually 100 percent of the people at the other end of Pennsylvania
    Avenue know it's the right decision. We cannot allow our prosperity to
    lull us into self-indulgence.
        We have to use our prosperity to build the 21st century world that
    many of you fought in World War II for, Senator Mansfield fought in World War I for, that you served in the
    Government for, that you gave your lives to public service for, that you
    sustained our standard for freedom throughout the cold war for, that you
    supported all these other trade-opening measures for.
        And if we can't do it with the lowest unemployment in 30 years and
    21 million new jobs and the longest expansion in history, we'll never be
    able to explain it to our children and our grandchildren, and this place
    will not be nearly as happy a place to be for the next several years.
    But if we do it, one more time we will say, we kept faith in our time
    with America's eternal march.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

     Note:  The President spoke at 10:55 a.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Hong Kong Democratic Party Chair
    Martin Lee; Prime Minister Zhu Rongji of China; former U.S. Ambassador
    to the United Nations Andrew Young; Gov. Jesse Ventura of Minnesota;
    President-elect Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan; and former Senator Michael J.
    Mansfield. The transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary
    also included the remarks of Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright,
    former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and James A. Baker III,
    former Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter, and Vice President Al
    Gore.