Chris Smith: “Mr. Speaker, the Clinton administrations absolute delinking of trade from human rights in 1994 was a betrayal of an…”

“Mr. Speaker, the Clinton administrations absolute delinking of trade from human rights in 1994 was a betrayal of an oppressed people of breathtaking proportions. The Clinton administration flip-flopped on promoting human rights in China. After issuing a comprehensive Executive order that laid out a number of threshold items that had to be reached in order to confer MFN on China. The bottom line was performance--``significant progress in human rights'' was the clear standard that had to be met. When the Chinese regressed and human rights violations increased, the President turned tail and backed down. The dictatorship won. And the courageous Chinese democracy advocates were sold out and abandoned. I led a human rights trip to China midway through the Executive order review period and met with numerous leaders of the dissident community. I met with business leaders. I met with high government officials. And every single Chinese Government official told me and our delegation that human rights would be delinked from trade. It was astonishing. They believed the Clinton order to be bogus. They were totally cynical about it and viewed it as a joke.”