Center For Security Policy Calls For Real Sanctions On China

(Washington, D.C.): The Center for Security Policy today advocated the application of additional U.S. sanctions in response to the continuing, brutal repression in China. In a paper entitled Building Democracy in China: the U.S. Role, the Center recommends the urgent adoption of 17 additional measures.

In releasing the Center’s recommendations, its director, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. said, "The United States has not, thus far, taken steps that impose real penalties on the PRC for the atrocities committed against those seeking basic human freedoms and political rights." Noting that the bulk of the arms sales targeted in the President’s package are not scheduled for delivery until 1991, Gaffney added, "Unless additional measures are adopted promptly, the authorities in Beijing — and possibly communist leaders facing similar demands elsewhere — may conclude that they can act with impunity against their people and fear no serious economic and financial repercussions from the West."

Included in the list of 17 additional measures are:

• suspending China’s MFN status and preferential U.S.-PRC trading arrangements on textiles;

 

• a tightening of export control restrictions;

 

• suspending U.S. Eximbank and OPIC programs for the PRC;

 

• suspending or withdrawing the participation of U.S. companies in ventures involving Chinese commercial space launch vehicles;

 

• encouraging Britain to reconsider the return of Hong Kong;

 

• providing financial, technical and, as appropriate, other support to the pro-democratic movement — including identifying means whereby assistance can be selectively supplied in the event the situation deteriorates further into full-scale civil war.

"We are not calling for a total trade embargo, disinvestment, or the freezing of assets; however, the scale of brutality wrought on the Chinese people calls for more than symbolic gestures," said Gaffney. "The United States should be prepared to improve economic ties in exchange for the demonstrated expansion of democratic institutions and free enterprise but be willing to initiate powerful disincentives to further totalitarian control and denial of popular aspirations for individual freedoms."