These are our great business partners. Mr. Speaker, in 1994, President Clinton decided to conduct an experiment. He decided to delink most favored nation status for China with human rights on the theory that more trade and investment with the United States would be the quickest way to persuade the government of China to treat its own people as human beings. At the same time, the Clinton administration gave up its power to use even the threat of the loss of MFN as a lever against Beijing's military aggression against Taiwan and other neighboring countries, and its military threats against the United States as well. Mr. Speaker, we are now 6 years into these two risky experiments with the lives of 1.2 billion people who are unfortunate enough to live under a cruel dictatorship and with the national security of the U.S. and the whole free world hanging in the balance.
Nobody can seriously argue that either experiment has been a success.
Instead, it has brought the people of China 6 more years of torture, forced labor, forced abortion, and sterilization, the crushing of the free trade unions, the denial of fundamental rights of freedom of religion, of expression of assembly, and of the press. The Chinese Communist regime is not only threatening to invade Taiwan, its senior military leaders have also threatened to attack the United States of America. These are our great business partners. When international pressure was high, the number of dissidents sent to prison declined drastically and prison conditions for political prisoners somewhat improved. In 1998, condemnation of China's position was abandoned entirely.