[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 19 (Monday, May 15, 2000)]
[Pages 1036-1039]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Permanent Normal Trade Relations Status for 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

[[Page 1037]]

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 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

[[Page 1038]]

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 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 be 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

[[Page 1039]]

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 Ford and Jimmy Carter, 
and Vice President Al Gore.