[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 68 (Thursday, May 26, 1994)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov] [Congressional Record: May 26, 1994] From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] PRESIDENT CLINTON ONCE AGAIN TURNS HIS BACK ON CAMPAIGN PROMISES ______ HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH of new jersey in the house of representatives Thursday, May 26, 1994 Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, he's done it again. The President of the United States a few minutes ago--after delivering a tough trade/human rights ultimatum to the Chinese dictatorship in Beijing 1 year ago, has not only shied away from adhering to his own Executive order but has turned his back on the oppressed in China. In a test of wills with Beijing, Mr. Clinton not only blinked but he closed his eyes to the pain and suffering of millions of people. By delinking human rights and trade, Mr. Clinton is signaling surrender to the hardliners. Mr. Speaker, for the past year his administration has been like the Tower of Babel, speaking with many tongues, sending mixed messages, floating trial balloons and suggesting that a whitewash or reversal was being cooked up. As a candidate, Mr. Clinton chided the Bush administration for its policy toward China--saying that ``our Nation has a higher purpose than to coddle dictators.'' As president, and with great bravado, Mr. Clinton conditioned the renewal of MFN on clear, internationally accepted human rights standards. Mr. Clinton once said that in foreign policy, one had to have ``great personal strength to make the right decision.'' However, it takes little personal strength to turn you back on millions of prisoners forced into slave labor. It takes little personal strength to close your eyes to the millions of women and children victimized by draconian population control policies which include forced abortion and sterilization, and the brutal murders of babies who are born but don't meet standards of health, ability, or are just not the right sex. It takes little personal strength to ignore the millions who are denied the right to practice their faith freely and are detained, imprisoned, tortured and even put to death. It takes little personal strength to not hear the cries of those who support democratic reform and languish in the prisons for expressing their opposition to a government who would resort to anything to stay in power. It takes little personal strength to watch while the cultural heritage of millions in Tibet is being destroyed and relegated to history. What does take great personal strength? To stand up to the repressive Chinese Government which victimizes millions of its people each day in order to retain control and profit at their expense. Reports from human rights groups and from people who have recently been to China are filled with the cases of people of great personal strength. Just last week, Harry Wu returned from China with documentation about the continued use of prison labor used to manufacture products for export--much of it for export to the United States. The 1992 MOU, a flawed agreement from the beginning, calls for prompt investigation of any claims that forced labor products were being exported to the United States. Customs and State Department officials have said that the Chinese have done nothing promptly. A new agreement, signed in March, allows the Chinese a full 60 days from the time the United States asks for an investigation to allowing an investigation. That is enough time not only to clean up the prisons but to outfit them with karaoke nightclubs. Who are the Chinese trying to fool? Well, they fooled Mr. Clinton who today has suggested that sufficient progress has been made in this area. What nonsense. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Puebla Institute have all issued reports in the last month detailing the renewed repression of religion, listing priests, ministers, monks, and nuns who are imprisoned or under some other type of detention. All of them have said that religious repression has gotten worse in this past year, and especially since January. Just 3 days ago a 30-year-old Catholic priest was arrested for administering sacraments to an elderly priest. Of the nearly 1,500 prisoners of conscience listed by Human Rights Watch, only a small fraction have been released, and little new information has been obtained. And this list of 1,500 prisoners is probably only a fraction of those who are victims of the Chinese prison system. China has not made significant progress in any condition outlined in the Executive order. To reward them now is a scandal. To say now that there is overall significant progress or to take an action that can be construed to suggest this, is a whitewash. Mr. Clinton has succeeded once again in turning away from his campaign promises, turning his back on the victims of repression, and this time--not just coddling dictators--but kneeling down with the Beijing dictators in worship of the almighty dollar. What President Clinton has done is to invite every regime in the world to test our world and to call our bluff. This is scary. ____________________