Mr. Lampton also argued that PNTR and China s entry into WTO will help promote positive social and political change in China. He cited a recent book, Dragon in a Three-Piece Suit by China scholar Doug Guthrie. Mr. Guthrie, who surveyed industrial firms in the Shanghai area, concludes that the more foreign involvement there is in a company through direct investment or joint venture arrangements the better human rights and labor conditions are in that firm. The development of a middle, Mr. Lampton said, is the most important developmental change taking place class in China. James Schlesinger, who visited China several times in the 1970s, said human rights have vastly improved since Deng Xiaoping initiated economic reforms in 1978.
China is no longer a totalitarian society.
Public opinion polls, he said, consistently show that the American people put U.S. national security ahead of all other interests but often have a harder time deciding between trade and human rights. America Does Deputy Treasury Secretary Eizenstat outlined the many economic benefits of the bilateral trade deal with China, including a drop in the PRC s average industrial tariffs from 25 percent to 9.4 percent by 2005. Eizenstat also stressed the benefits of PNTR and WTO for further integrating China into the world system. Stuart Eizenstat emphasized that, contrary to the arguments of PNTR opponents, the U.S. cannot enjoy the benefits of China s WTO accession with the 1979 trade agreement that was signed when diplomatic ties were normalized. Secretary Eizenstat, who worked in the Carter White House at the time, noted that the 1979 agreement only covers goods for import and that it does not cover key market access concessions, trade in services, or U.S. safeguards for preventing dumping and import surges.