House Grants China Permanent Normal Trading Status
By JONAH GREENBERG and ALEXA OLESEN
(Washington, May 24) After a five-hour Congressional debate of unusual eloquence and passion, the House of Representatives passed a bill today granting China permanent normal trading status.
The vote ended 20 years of annual renewals of trade relations with China and marked a possible turn for the better in expanding U.S.-China trade relations.
The bill passed by 237 to 197, with 218 votes needed for passage. In recent days, an intense lobbying effort from pro-PNTR business forces on one side, and anti-PNTR labor forces on the other, fought fiercely and expensively to win over undecided Congressmen.
"I don't remember anything being lobbied so hard by the Administration, the unions, the Congress, and its constituents," said Rep. Charles Rangel, Democrat from New York.
Today's vote followed one of the most eloquent and soul-searching Congressional debates in recent times. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers frequently cited examples from American history, saying they had looked to their conscience before deciding whether to extend equal trading rights to a country still under Communist rule.
"American values are not to be bought and sold," said Representative Gene Green, a Democrat of Texas, quoting the Democratic orator and lawyer William Jennings Bryan.
Statesmanlike Speeches
House members abandoned traditional party loyalties during the debate, instead invoking a wide range of concerns raised by the bill including national security, human rights, jobs for American workers, environmental concerns, religious freedom, and market access in China for U.S. companies.
"At the core of this decision was the recognition that nothing was being accomplished by the annual renewal of 'most favored nation' status," said Elizabeth Economy, Senior Fellow for the China program at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Many House members felt today's legislation "was the chance to do something very positive for Sino-American relations," Economy said.
Minority leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri compared the debate to great Congressional debates of the past and commended the statesmanlike presentations of House members in favor of the measure, although he opposed it himself.
"This debate is testament to everything that makes the United States the best country in the world: freedom of expression," Gephardt said, adding that open legislative debate would not be allowed in China. Gephardt pointed to the fall of apartheid in South Africa as an example of America's success in enacting political change abroad through sustained economic pressure.
Fence-Sitters
As debate on the house floor progressed throughout the afternoon, feverish last-minute deal making took place in hallways and in the lawmaker's offices. The prominent former Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng was on hand throughout the day to meet with both Democratic and Republican Congressmen who were wavering on the issue. Wei, who was jailed for 17 years in China for his pro-Democracy activism, strongly opposed PNTR.
Christopher Cox, a Republican from California and a longtime opponent of engagement with China, declared he was in favor of the bill, but in his statement he tried to assuage concerns that a pro-trade vote would compromise American values and concern for human rights abuses in China.
"We will not throw out the human rights baby with the big business bath water," Cox said.
"Human rights will continue to be an issue for American policy-makers because the human rights situation is not going to be improved overnight," said Dr. Chi Wang, professor of history and U.S.-China relations at Georgetown University, reacting to Wednesday's vote. "This trade bill will only help china improve its human rights record."
Scathing Language
Wang added that increased interaction with American business people will help China's leaders to understand how Americans do business and how they treat their citizens.
Sander Levin, Democrat from Michigan, who co-authored side legislation that calls for establishing a special human rights commission that will serve as a substitute for Congress' annual review of China's human rights, called for engagement as the most effective way to combat human rights abuses in China.
"We should not isolate China, nor should we isolate ourselves from pressing China to move in the right direction," Levin said.
Democratic Representative David Bonior, of Michigan, introduced a motion late in the afternoon that would have automatically revoked PNTR in the event that China "invades, attacks, or blockades Taiwan." The vote was voted down.
Many opponents of the bill, such as Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, used scathing language to characterize the Chinese government.
Money for Rope
"Communist Chinese will never be our friends," Graham thundered. "You can never be America's friend when you murder people under government authority." Graham was referring to the killing of student demonstrators during the Tiananmen demonstration in Beijing in 1989. "These people are not our friends. They are the enemy of every freedom-loving people in the world."
Rep. Dan Burton, Republican of Indiana, used especially vivid language when he said the bill would give the Chinese "more money to buy rope to hang us with."
Many Republicans and Democrats who spoke in support of the bill referred to increased market access that will be good for American products ranging from corn and soybeans grown in the Great Plains, to airplanes made in Seattle, WA.
The debate on Wednesday opened with Representative David Dreier (Rep-Cal.), one of the most vocal supporters of the bill, making the case for passage.
"Trade with China is good for the Chinese people, good for human rights, good for Democratic reform, good for national security and for American values," he said. "This bill is key to spreading the Internet across China. China is in the midst of great and dynamic change, and free market reform is the primary engine pushing that change. It's the most positive force in the 5000 year history of China."
A Complex Issue
Representative Joe Moakley (D-Maine), was the first to rise in opposition.
"If we grant PNTR we will be giving away what little chance we have to bring about change in China, and China needs to change," he said. He cited such "horrible practices" in China as selling weapons to North Korea and Iraq, slave labor camps, ignoring workers rights, trade in endangered species, and the killing of protestors in Tienanmen Square in 1989.
The bill would accord China permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) and put an end to the contentious annual Congressional debate over China's human rights violations. Since 1980, when the annual renewal process began, Congress has always voted to extend trading rights to China for another year.
Yesterday, about a dozen Democratic congressmen who had previously been undecided or against the bill announced their support for its passage.
Democratic Congressman Mike Thompson of California is one of those who announced their support of the bill yesterday.
"This is such a complex issue," said Ed Mitovic, a spokesperson for Thompson of California. "But in the end, an act of engagement rather than isolation would probably sow the seeds of change." Phone calls, letters, and e-mails from constituents and lobbyists were evenly split, according to Mitovic.
A More Stable Relationship
Other Democrats who announced their support of the bill Tuesday were Robert "Bud" Cramer from Alabama, Allen Boyd from Florida, Gregory Meeks from New York, and Ruben Hinojosa, Solomon Oritz, and Silvestre Reyes and Jim Turner from Texas.
Rep. Boyd expressed his confidence in the positive influence that commercial engagement with China will have on human rights practices in China.
"Consistent exposure to American customs will help to secure a more stable relationship with China, better standards of living and treatment of human rights, and inevitably the Democratization of China," said Mark Daley, a spokesperson from Boyd's office.
Jim Turner from Texas pointed out that last year's trade agreement between the U.S. and China calls for reduction of tariffs in China without obligating any change in current imports to the U.S.
"Unlike the NAFTA agreement in which the U.S. had to eliminate its own tariff barriers, China has agreed to greatly reduce its tariffs on American goods, while the United States does not lower any tariffs," Turner said. "If we reject this one-sided deal, businesses and farmers in East Texas would be at an overwhelming disadvantage against Japanese and European firms when selling goods in China."
A Fierce Campaign
Today's vote will allow U.S. companies to reap the full benefits of a far-reaching bilateral trade agreement reached last year between the U.S. and China. In that agreement, signed in November, the U.S. agreed to endorse China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) in return for trade concessions in many areas.
Labor unions around the country, including the AFL-CIO, joined with human rights groups in a fierce lobbying campaign to kill the bill. Most Democrats, elected to Congress with strong labor support, initially had either announced against the PNTR bill or been very reluctant to announce their support of it. |
