WASHINGTON-President Clinton last week renewed favorable trade status for China, while under fire from Republicans and Democrats over allegations linking illegal Democratic campaign contributions to technology transfers from U.S. wireless companies to China that some believe threaten U.S. security and have contributed to the Asian arms buildup.
The coming debate in Congress, which has 90 days to reject the most-favored-nation trade status, comes as Clinton prepares to visit the world’s most populous country later this month.
Despite the heightened controversy, many observers believe Congress will approve MFN renewal for China. Even if Congress were to vote against China MFN status, it is highly unlikely it could muster a two-thirds majority to overturn a presidential veto.
Some Republican leaders have urged the president to postpone his trip in view of new evidence that Communist China may have funneled money illegally to Democrats to influence U.S. elections in 1996, and that large campaign donations to Clinton-Gore from Loral Corp., a satellite phone licensee with major business interests in China, led Clinton to grant waivers for satellite exports to China.
Clinton denies any quid pro quo, while Loral denies any wrongdoing. The Justice Department and several congressional committees have launched investigations into alleged technology transfers to China.
“Mr. President, this trip is not in the American interest,” said Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.). “It sends the wrong message.”
In the years following the bloody massacre of pro-democracy activists by the Chinese government in Tiananmen Square in 1989, the MFN debate in Congress has centered around China’s sordid record on human rights and religious freedom.
Lawmakers, outraged initially about plans for Clinton to be received in Tiananmen Square, forced the White House to get Beijing to modify protocol so the president will be received just outside Tiananmen Square.
Clinton has continued a policy inherited from President Bush that delinks human rights from U.S.-Sino trade policy. All presidents since 1980 have extended MFN status to China. Most U.S. trading partners have that status.
The wireless industry and other U.S. business sectors strongly back “constructive engagement” with China, given that it represents potentially the largest emerging market in the world for exports of pagers, mobile phones and wireless infrastructure.
Today, the United States and China do about $80 billion of trade, with China getting the best of that relationship.
The White House still believes engaging China economically is the best way to improve human rights and to discourage nuclear proliferation.
“Not to renew would be to sever our economic and, to a large measure, our strategic relationship with China, turning our back on a fourth of the world at a time when our cooperation for world peace and security is especially important, in light of the recent events in South Asia,” said Clinton.
