April 5, 1999
Get Tough With China
By PAUL WELLSTONE
ASHINGTON -- In 1994, when President Clinton formally separated China's
"most favored nation" trading
status from its human rights
record, he insisted that this did
not diminish our commitment
to pursuing a vigorous human rights
policy. The Administration even went
so far as to claim that economic
growth and liberalization in China,
fueled by increased trade with the
United States, would actually promote
political liberalization.
Five years down the road these
assurances have proved to be empty
rhetoric. Last fall the Chinese authorities undertook the toughest crackdown on dissidents since the Tiananmen Square massacre a decade ago.
The State Department's own human
rights report, released in February,
acknowledged that "China's human
rights record has deteriorated sharply
over the past year." As that record
has worsened, though, the 1994 "de-linkage" has turned into complete disassociation. Human rights and trade
are no longer parts of the same overall policy package but are proceeding
on completely separate tracks.
Two recent pronouncements dramatically demonstrate the contradictions -- if not downright schizophrenia
-- of the current American approach.
On the same day that Charlene Barshefsky, the United States trade representative, said she would travel to
China to try to close the deal on China's entrance into the World Trade
Organization, the State Department
announced that the United States
would sponsor a United Nations resolution condemning China's terrible human rights record.
While I welcome the decision on the
resolution, having been co-author of a
Senate resolution calling for just this
approach, I am dismayed that momentum toward W.T.O. membership
for China builds as if the human rights
situation there is irrelevant.
A return to a formal link between
trade and human rights policy is not in
the cards under this President. But we
should insure that the Chinese understand that commercial concerns alone
will not determine our policy.
As the Administration and Congress
consider China's request for W.T.O.
admission, we should insist that China,
at a minimum, take concrete steps to
establish an independent judiciary, a
free press and respect for the rule of
law. A government that routinely violates its own laws to crack down on
dissent is equally likely to cheat on
market access agreements, fail to
honor contracts or restrict the free
flow of business information from
abroad. Congress should insist on voting on whether the President should
support China's entry into the World
Trade Organization before the Administration signs off on a W.T.O. deal.
Next week Prime Minister Zhu
Rongji will pay an official visit to
Washington, the first by a Chinese
Premier in 15 years. This is an opportunity for the President to tell the
Chinese leader just why we are calling
for United Nations condemnation of
China's human rights abuses and signal to him that these abuses could
jeopardize any W.T.O. decision.
Since President Clinton's visit to
China last June, the Chinese Government has continued to commit abuses
and has taken actions that flagrantly
violate the commitments it has made
to respect internationally recognized
human rights. Restrictions on free expression have been tightened, including the adoption of strict regulations
on the formation of nongovernmental
political and social organizations and
the imposition of tough regulations
aimed at film directors, computer
software developers, artists and journalists who "endanger social order."
Based on this deplorable record, the
resolution we are sponsoring at the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights is clearly justified. But
simply introducing it is not enough.
The Administration must commit to
pushing for adoption, an effort that
must including having the President,
Vice President and members of the
Cabinet lobby other countries, particularly those in the European Union.
This will be an uphill battle because
China has a big head start in its own
lobbying, but it is preferable to sponsoring a resolution and then sitting on
our hands to watch it fail.
Even if the resolution is not adopted, simply having a debate on human
rights in China (and the related issue
of human rights in Tibet) will make a
difference. It is essential for the Administration to make clear that at this
moment in history the United States
stands with the courageous Chinese
who are struggling to achieve the
rights they deserve.
Paul Wellstone is a Democratic Senator from Minnesota.