Haley Stevens: “Dear Colleague: When the Senate returns to consideration of the DOD Authorization bill, S. 2057, we expect a series of…”

“Dear Colleague: When the Senate returns to consideration of the DOD Authorization bill, S. 2057, we expect a series of amendments to be offered concerning the People's Republic of China. These amendments, if accepted, would do serious damage to our bilateral relationship and halt a decade of U.S. efforts to encourage greater Chinese adherence to international norms in such areas as nonproliferation, human rights, and trade. In relative terms, in the last year China has shown improvement in several areas which the U.S. has specifically indicated are important to us. Relations with Taiwan have stabilized, several prominent dissents have been released from prison, enforcement of or agreements on intellectual property rights have been stepped up, the revision of Hong Kong has gone smoothly, and China's agreement not to devalue its currency helped stabilize Asia's economic crisis. Has this been enough change? Clearly not. But the question is: how do we best encourage more change in China?”