Roscoe Bartlett: “Mr. Chairman, when I came here several years ago, I bought the argument that if we engage with China that they would…”

“Mr. Chairman, when I came here several years ago, I bought the argument that if we engage with China that they would change and so I voted for most-favored-nation trading status. Well, China did change. They got worse. Our own State Department says that their already poor human rights record deteriorated markedly throughout the last year as the government intensified efforts to suppress dissent, particularly organized dissent. Documented human rights abuses include extrajudicial killings, torture and mistreatment of prisoners, forced detentions, arbitrary arrest and detention, lengthy incommunicado detention and denial of due process. They continue to steal our intellectual property rights as they ignore copyrights and patents. Slave labor goes on, perhaps intensified. I am particularly concerned about the theft of technology. They have stolen our missile secrets. They have stolen our bomb secrets. Contrary to our Constitution and in violation of our laws, they sought to and perhaps were successful in buying the last presidential election. They threatened to nuke us if we object to their intentions with Taiwan. It is simplistic and naive to believe that either the PNTR or membership in WTO will move China toward international development, as President Clinton says, in the right direction.”