Bill Clinton's policy of cozying up to Communist China
by granting Most Favored Nation (MFN) status is in
shambles. The question of the moment is, will Bob
Dole let Clinton dangle on the limb of his own mistake
or save him from embarrassment by agreeing with this
shameful policy?
It was all so inconvenient. The Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms (otherwise known as BATF, the
agency that played a fatal game of cops and robbers
against Americans at Waco and Ruby Ridge) finally did
something useful. They arrested Chinese Communist
agents for smuggling 2,000 AK-47 automatic assault
rifles into the United States.
The Clinton Administration has such peculiar biases.
The Administration engaged in hear-no-evil, see-no-evil as long as the Chinese Communists merely forced
women to undergo late-term abortions, locked up
citizens who dared to speak out for freedom, stole
billions (not just millions) of dollars worth of U.S.
intellectual property, thumbed their noses at signed
trade agreements, and sold our weapons technology to
rogue dictators. But when China violated our gun-control laws, that was just too much for the liberals!
The BATF arrest of seven persons in the San Francisco
Bay area stopped a very profitable Chinese business of
selling weapons at a 400 percent mark-up to U.S. big-city gangs that want to wipe out their rivals. It was
a sophisticated worldwide operation that must have
enjoyed the complicity of the Chinese government.
Those arrested have direct links to China's
Defense Ministry and Deng Xiaoping's son-in-law. To
conceal the source of the weapons, the money was
laundered through Beijing's state-run bank in Hong
Kong.
In the 18-month U.S. sting operation, the Chinese
discussed with our undercover agents the future sale
of explosives, anti-tank rockets, and shoulder-fired
anti-aircraft systems capable of knocking planes out
of the sky. One Chinese boasted he could bring
300,000 AK-47s into the U.S.
Selling all kinds of weapons is big business for
Communist China. It has sold missiles to Iran and
nuclear reactor technology and materials to make
enriched uranium to Pakistan.
China's expanding economy is financed by a $34 billion
trade surplus with the United States that has cost
Americans 700,000 jobs. This trade surplus is
partially based on stealing our products (computer
software, video films, musical recordings, compact
disks, other intellectual property, books, etc.)
instead of buying them.
Pirated CDs and CD-ROMs are made in China in an
estimated 31 government-licensed plants. China itself
can use only about two percent of the CDs produced, so
the rest go into the international market and cheat
U.S. companies out of sales.
China signed an agreement to stop this theft in
February 1995, but nothing has changed. China simply
thumbs its nose at the whole concept of copyrights and
trademarks.
China has made so much money from U.S. trade that it
is now trying to buy SS-18 strategic missiles,
components and technology from Russia or Ukraine. For
those who've forgotten our worries of the Cold War,
the SS-18s are the biggies that can reach the United
States from a launch on the other side of the world.
China continues to persecute Tibet, use slave labor to
produce goods for export, and show contempt toward any
self-government for Hong Kong. China tried to
threaten Taiwan's democratic election process by
firing rockets at the island.
U.S. big businesses, which want MFN because they lust
after so-called "free trade" with China, should wake
up and taste the chop suey that China served the
McDonnell Douglas Corporation. Douglas pursued
China's aviation market with the passion and naivete
of a teenage suitor, but ended up (in the word of one
Douglas executive) being "betrayed."
Over a costly 15-year courtship, Douglas gave China 80
years of accumulated aircraft-manufacturing
experience. That was the largest technology transfer
in history. Douglas taught China how to build
commercial planes, trained Chinese engineers, and even
turned over powerful weapons-producing technology.
Like classic con men, Chinese officials schmoozed
Douglas by dangling the prospect of multi-billion-dollar aircraft purchases. Then China turned around
and gave its juicy contract to Europe's Airbus.
Hypocrisy about the demands for MFN status has reached
new heights on both sides. In America, the
internationalist claque that continually calls for
"free trade" ignores the fact that China has slapped a
30 percent tariff on goods it imports from the United
States. In China, the ruling clique threatens to
"punish" U.S. companies if we dare to criticize the $2
billion piracy of our intellectual property.
It is ridiculous to allow Communist China to enjoy the
same trading privileges with the United States markets
that friendly countries have. Congress should reject
Most Favored Nation status for Communist China, and
Bob Dole should show leadership in calling for that
rejection.
Eagle Forum
