Asa Hutchinson: “I offer amendment No. 890 to the foreign operations appropriations bill. This amendment which is a sense of the Senate…”

“I offer amendment No. 890 to the foreign operations appropriations bill. This amendment which is a sense of the Senate, would disapprove the MFN status, most-favored-nation status, to the nation of China. I have opposed the renewal of MFN to China. On June 3 of this year I became an original cosponsor of Senate Joint Resolution 31, the legislation disapproving the extension of MFN. Unfortunately, because of the joint resolution of disapproval in the House, which failed to pass the House of Representatives on June 24, as in past years or at least recent years, the Senate has not considered and has not had the opportunity to weigh in on and to voice its concern about the conditions in China, and particularly to cast a vote on the MFN status for China. Today we will have that opportunity with this sense of the Senate. It has been almost 4 years, Mr. President, since the United States formally delinked the issues of trade and human rights with regard to China. Four years ago when we delinked, when we embarked upon our policy of constructive engagement, the logic was that greater trade, greater economic expansion within China itself, would result in political freedom, greater political freedom, less repression, more opportunity for the people of China. The fact is, by every measure, the record of the Chinese Government on human rights has worsened since the time that we embarked upon this policy delinking trade and human rights.”