Pete Stark: “Each year the President must seek a waiver from Congress to allow China to have most-favored-nation [MFN] status. Each…”

“Each year the President must seek a waiver from Congress to allow China to have most-favored-nation [MFN] status. Each year, China gives me at least one new reason to oppose normalized trade with China. China consistently and flagrantly violates our laws and repudiates our values. China was caught red-handed sending materials to create nuclear weapons--last year to Iran and this year to Pakistan. World peace threatened, just to make a buck. China's human rights violations have been a longstanding problem. Who among us could forget the sight of those tanks crushing students whose only crime was to meet publicly and peacefully to voice their opposition to their government? China still refuses its citizens the right to speak freely and to meet publicly. This year's transgressions implicate China's top government officials. A series of Chinese companies operated by the children of senior Chinese officials played a major role in the illicit copying of over $2 billion of United States commercial goods. Even worse, the son-in-law of China's top leader, Deng Shau Xiaoping, along with other relatives of top Chinese Government officials, has been implicated in the biggest seizure of illegal guns in our Nation's history. As you know, on May 22, 1996, U.S. customs officials intercepted $4 million worth of illegal AK-47 automatic weapons. The link between this illegal shipment and the Chinese Government is direct and indisputable.”