Ed Markey: “I believe in the New Economy, but I believe in a New Economy with Old Values. I believe in full commerce with China, but…”

“I believe in the New Economy, but I believe in a New Economy with Old Values. I believe in full commerce with China, but I believe in commerce with a conscience. I rise in opposition to permanent normal trade relations with China. We should vote ``yes'' on full trade with China. But Congress should keep its ability to check on our relations with a police state. And as long as China remains a police state, we must never have relations with China which are permanent, which are normal, or which are insulated from moral concerns. Until China has proven itself a full member of the moral citizenship of the world, we should play the moral role of keeping a check upon them while having full trade relations. Under the 1979 bilateral agreement with China, which they cannot get out of, we get most of the benefits of WTO, almost all of them. That is really not in dispute. But if we break the link with human rights, with forced labor, with religious repression, with nuclear proliferation, we will break faith with 200 years of American leadership in the world; we will dim the beacon of freedom and diminish America in the eyes of those who yearn for the simple right to live without fear of a police raid in the night. This vote may be about stock values; yes, but it is also about human values.”