The AFL-CIO, leading the charge against the legislation, asserts that it would cost U.S. jobs and that China has violated previous agreements. The union federation also demands that PNTR be conditioned on labor rights for Chinese workers as a way of narrowing the huge gap in labor costs. The State Department's 1999 human rights report seems to bolster organized labor's argument. It notes that independent unions are illegal in China and labor activists are being arrested or detained. The State Department reports that civil liberties have deteriorated during the past year.
China flatly refuses to accept human-rights and other links to the trade agreement.
In the past, economic pressure on authoritarian governments to ease repression has been largely unsuccessful. The Soviet Union, for example, continued to suppress freedom of expression, emigration and independent unions despite years of U.S. pressure. South Africa is an exception, but in that case most of the world community united to tighten the screws. Today, few countries would link human rights to China trade. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has a different perspective.