Pete Stark: “Mr. Speaker, the People's Republic of China routinely violates international trade laws, arms sales restrictions, human…”

“Mr. Speaker, the People's Republic of China routinely violates international trade laws, arms sales restrictions, human rights conventions. China continues to illegally export goods made by prison and child labor into the United States. China's domestic markets are effectively closed to our products, even as we open our doors wide for Chinese-made goods, many of them produced by United States companies that have moved jobs into the People's Republic. China is also one of the world's leading pirates of copyrighted software. Our trade deficit with China swelled from $10 billion in 1990 to $33 billion last year, projected to be $41 billion this year. That is more than half a million American jobs lost in their unfair trade practices. Some people call this policy constructive engagement. I call it appeasement. The aging dictators in Beijing know that they can count on our Government's spineless response to their provocations. They understand only too well how effectively their big corporate allies can influence our elected representatives. Our trade policy ought to work for American workers. Instead, the game has been rigged to benefit a new world order in which corporate investments and family-wage jobs flow downhill toward the world's lowest wages, worst working conditions and least restrictive environmental standards.”