III

105TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. RES. 242

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President should not go to

China until certain aspects of United States policy toward China in

the areas of national security, trade, and human rights have been clarified and outstanding questions surrounding the export of United States

satellite and missile technology have been answered.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JUNE 4 (legislative day, JUNE 2), 1998

Mr. ASHCROFT (for himself and Mr. HUTCHINSON) submitted the following

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President should

not go to China until certain aspects of United States

policy toward China in the areas of national security,

trade, and human rights have been clarified and outstanding questions surrounding the export of United

States satellite and missile technology have been answered.

Whereas the President has pledged that the United States

‘‘must remain a champion’’ of the liberties of the Chinese

people;

Whereas two of the most notable Chinese dissidents, Wang

Dan and Wei Jingsheng, effectively have been exiled from

their country;
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Whereas thousands of other individuals remain imprisoned in

China and Tibet for peacefully expressing their beliefs

and exercising their inalienable rights, including freedom

of association, freedom of speech, and freedom of conscience;

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China

routinely, systematically, and massively continues to commit widespread human rights abuses in Tibet, including

instances of death in detention, torture, arbitrary arrest,

imprisonment for the peaceful expression of religious and

political views, and intensified controls on the freedom of

speech and the press, particularly for ethnic Tibetans;

Whereas China has taken extraordinary steps to avoid the

condemnation of the United Nations Commission on

Human Rights;

Whereas the President has failed to press China aggressively

to protect the civil liberties of the Chinese people and

failed even to sponsor a resolution at the meeting of the

United Nations Commission on Human Rights condemning China’s human rights violations, which include forced

abortion, summary execution, arbitrary imprisonment,

and persecution of religious minorities;

Whereas since November 1994, the President has declared

annually a national emergency regarding the proliferation

of weapons of mass destruction and stated that such proliferation poses ‘‘an unusual and extraordinary threat to

the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the

United States’’;

Whereas, in a June 1997 report on proliferation activity, the

Central Intelligence Agency identified China as ‘‘the most

significant supplier of weapons of mass destruction-relat-
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ed goods and technology’’, including missile, nuclear, and

chemical weapons technology to rogue states such as

Iran;

Whereas United States satellite cooperation with China has

benefited China’s intercontinental ballistic missile program—missiles with nuclear warheads pointed at the

United States, and the Department of Justice is investigating possible missile technology transfers to China resulting from United States-Chinese satellite cooperation;

Whereas the President’s decision to waive restrictions on the

export to China of missile technology similar to that

under investigation by the Department of Justice, and

the President’s efforts to lift the requirements for launch

waivers altogether, undermine the present Justice Department investigation and threatens United States national security;

Whereas the Department of Justice is investigating possible

campaign contributions from the People’s Liberation

Army to the Democratic National Committee through

contributions from an executive at China Aerospace

International Holdings, an affiliate of China Aerospace

Corporation, the firm which oversees China’s missile development and space programs;

Whereas China made written commitments to the United

States during the October 1997 summit to terminate nuclear cooperation with Iran and was later reported to be

violating that pledge by attempting to provide Iran with

hundreds of tons of anhydrous hydrogen fluoride, a material for use in Iran’s nuclear weapons complex to enrich

uranium to weapons grade;
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Whereas the President, in allowing nuclear cooperation to

proceed with China, certified that ‘‘the People’s Republic

of China has provided clear and unequivocal assurances

to the United States that it is not assisting and will not

assist any nonnuclear-weapon state, either directly or indirectly, in acquiring nuclear explosive devices or the material and components for such devices’’;

Whereas the credibility of this certification is undermined by

China’s continuing proliferation activity, including efforts

to assist Iran’s nuclear weapons program;

Whereas since the United States normalized trade relations

with China in 1979, China has risen from the 57th to

4th largest supplier of United States imports;

Whereas China’s trade and investment practices have resulted in a 1997 trade deficit of $49,700,000,000, an imbalance more than 2.5 times larger than the United

States trade deficit with all European countries, and accounting for one-fourth of the United States trade deficit

with the entire world;

Whereas in the Executive branch’s 1997 National Trade Estimate on Foreign Trade Barriers, China’s trade regime

was identified as ‘‘political’’, ‘‘severely restricted’’, ‘‘prohibitive’’, ‘‘unpredictable’’, ‘‘preferential’’, ‘‘de facto’’,

‘‘unpublished’’, ‘‘vague’’, ‘‘inaccessible’’, ‘‘inconsistent’’,

and ‘‘noncompetitive’’;

Whereas facing Congress’s near withdrawal of most-favored

nation (MFN) status in 1991 and President Bush’s

threat of sanctions, China, in order to keep MFN status

and have the United States support its accession to the

World Trade Organization (WTO), agreed that it would

allow the United States automobile sector to compete
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freely in the Chinese market and that, by December 31,

1997, it would eliminate significant trade barriers to

United States agricultural exports;

Whereas China’s trade liberalization commitments in 1991

have not been honored, yet the Executive branch is moving forward in negotiations for China to accede to the

WTO;

Whereas concessions made by China in negotiations to accede

to the WTO have been piecemeal, inconsistent, and deficient, and thus limit the economic opportunity of United

States businesses and workers;

Whereas Taiwan serves as an example of democratic governance to China and the authoritarian Chinese communist

party;

Whereas the People’s Republic of China carried out missile

exercises in 1995 and 1996 intended to intimidate the

people of Taiwan, continues a military buildup directed at

the island, refuses to renounce the use of force against

Taiwan, and consistently seeks to isolate Taipei from

membership in international organizations and general

relations with other countries;

Whereas the Chinese communist party has undermined the

institutions of democratic government in Hong Kong by

abolishing Hong Kong’s elected legislature, designing a

framework for legislative elections that severely limits

representative democracy, and passing retroactive legislation exempting Chinese entities from a host of Hong

Kong’s laws; and

Whereas the Democratic Party of Hong Kong won every seat

elected by direct ballot in Hong Kong, garnering over 60

percent of the popular vote, yet President Clinton has de-
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clined to meet individually with the leadership of the

Democratic Party of Hong Kong: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved, That, in the interest of improving United

2 States-China relations, it is the sense of the Senate that—

3 (1) a healthy and stable relationship with China

4 is in the national interests of the United States;

5 (2) the Chinese people should be allowed to

6 freely exercise their unalienable rights, including the

7 rights to freedom of speech, of religion, and of asso8 ciation;

9 (3) efforts by the Chinese government to re10 strict those liberties pose a threat to a stable China

11 and a positive long-term relationship with the United

12 States;

13 (4) the President should submit a report to

14 Congress as soon as possible after the proposed

15 summit in China concerning his progress in securing

16 the release of persons remaining imprisoned in

17 China and Tibet and other significant steps to im18 prove human rights;

19 (5) China’s proliferation of weapons of mass de20 struction technology poses an unusual threat to the

21 national security of the United States;

22 (6) the President has failed to confront China’s

23 proliferation of weapons of mass destruction tech24 nology, proliferation that is directly responsible for
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1 contributing to an escalating nuclear arms race be2 tween India and Pakistan;

3 (7) the trustworthiness of the Chinese govern4 ment is undermined when nonproliferation and trade

5 commitments of Chinese officials are repeatedly bro6 ken;

7 (8) the President, in addition to applauding

8 narrow trade concessions from China, should ensure

9 that the highest levels of diplomacy are used to open

10 the entire Chinese market to United States trade

11 and investment;

12 (9) China’s accession to the World Trade Orga13 nization (WTO) should be conditioned on China’s

14 compliance with past market access commitments

15 and further steps to open China’s market to United

16 States investment and trade in goods and services;

17 (10) the United States should not jeopardize

18 cooperation with and assistance to the democratic

19 government of Taiwan to appease the Chinese gov20 ernment but instead should maintain unambiguously

21 its legal commitments to help maintain Taiwan’s ca22 pacity for self-defense while calling upon the Chinese

23 government to renounce the use of force against the

24 people of Taiwan;
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1 (11) the preservation of democratic government

2 and rule of law in Hong Kong is an obligation of the

3 Chinese government and failure to honor that obliga4 tion will have a negative effect on United States pol5 icy toward China;

6 (12) China is resisting the spread of democracy

7 in Asia, which is occurring from South Korea to In8 donesia, and the failure of President Clinton to meet

9 with the leaders of the Democratic Party of Hong

10 Kong undermines his statement to President Jiang

11 that China’s repressive government is ‘‘on the wrong

12 side of history’’; and

13 (13) the President should not go to China to at14 tend a summit with President Jiang until—

15 (A) the President has provided a full dis16 closure to Congress concerning the transfer of

17 United States satellite and missile technology to

18 China; and

19 (B) United States policy toward China in

20 general has been formulated more effectively to

21 protect United States national security, eco22 nomic, and human rights interests.

23 SEC. 2. The Secretary of the Senate shall transmit

24 a copy of this resolution to the President.

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