Part of the reason is that the Clinton administration has preempted the discussion. China will enter the World Trade Organization regardless, the Clintonites say, so the question at hand is merely whether the United States will reap the benefits of the market liberalization that entrance requires. The opponents of PNTR say U.S. sanctions can push China toward democracy. Would that it were so. But America has had enough experience with sanctions to recognize the conditions under which they succeed, and China fulfills none of them.
Sanctions work when powerful countries band together to isolate a rogue government.
But Western Europe isn't even willing to condemn China in symbolic votes at the United Nations, let alone cut its lucrative economic ties. And sanctions work against regimes that are accountable to their people, because democratic governments, unlike authoritarian ones, cannot watch their citizens suffer and still remain in power. Sanctions also work, in a different sense, when they embolden dissidents in their internal struggle. But in China most dissidents seem to want more trade, not less. But if the argument for sanctions is weak and naive, the argument against them is weak and cynical.