I want to begin by thanking the Chairman and the Committee on Foreign Relations for this opportunity to testify on one of the most critical questions of public policy facing the United States today. Indeed, if the U.S.-Soviet relationship did a great deal to define the last half of the twentieth century, it is quite possible that the relationship between the United States and China will more than any other define the first half of the next century. What is at stake for the United States is extraordinary in its scale and diversity. More generally, the United States has a clear interest in seeing the emergence of a China that is prepared to act with restraint, both beyond its borders and toward its own citizens.
History suggests that the emergence of such a China is anything but automatic.
It is possible that the United States might find itself in the position of one day having to contain an expansionist, hostile China. If this happens, so be it. But containing China would surely be costly and dangerous, and vastly inferior to a China that was more responsible and a U.S.-China relationship that was more cooperative. This should be our goal. With only a few exceptions, this legislation appears unlikely to promote what I have presented as U.S. interests and goals.