Political Quotes

“For over three decades post- Tiananmen Square massacre, Congress was deeply divided; not between Republican and Democrat, but among the majority here and in the Senate who favored unfettered engagement and trade without serious human rights conditionality. Indeed, President Clinton delinked human rights in trade on May 26, 1994. I went up there and gave a press conference. I was joined by a few others saying how serious that was to give up on human rights and allow profits to trump human rights. We have seen the brutal nature of the Communist regime, especially under Xi Jinping, and the Chinese Communist Party's ultimate desire to seek hegemony. Over the years, I have chaired 76 congressional hearings on China and authored several pieces of legislation, including the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, and was the Republican sponsor of Jim McGovern's Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. We now have to make sure those laws are being faithfully implemented. Mr. Speaker, 20 years ago when China became a member of the WTO, most Members of Congress, and certainly in the business and community on foreign policy establishment, bought into what James Mann rightfully called ``the China fantasy.'' In other words, if you just trade more with a dictatorship, somehow they will matriculate into a democracy. That fantasy has been shown to be demonstrably naive, at best.…”