Political Quotes

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of House Resolution 484, a bipartisan resolution of Loretta Sanchez, a bill of which I am a cosponsor. This resolution calls on the Vietnamese authorities to ``respect basic human rights and cease abusing vague national security provisions such as articles 79 and 88 of the Vietnamese penal code.'' These draconian legal measures are often used to arrest and detain citizens who peacefully advocate for political and religious freedom. When the Bush administration signed the bilateral trade agreement with Vietnam in the year 2006, which paved the way for Vietnam joining the World Trade Organization the next year, the Congress was assured that trade liberalization with Hanoi would lead, inevitably, to political liberalization. This proved, however, to be as spurious a promise as one made by the Clinton administration, which vowed that the liberalization of trade would open the door to democracy and human rights in China. The siren song that trade is the panacea for ending totalitarian oppression is directly contradicted by reports of deteriorating human rights conditions in both Vietnam and China. As Hanoi comes increasingly to Washington seeking strategic support for its dispute with the Chinese in the South China Sea, one can only ask, why are we not using Hanoi's concerns in the South China Sea as leverage to win greater concessions on the dismal human rights conditions in Vietnam?…”