[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

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                       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.

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