Twenty-one National Security Leaders Urge Rejection of PNTR

(Washington, D.C.): On the eve the House of Representatives vote on granting the People’s Republic of China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status the Center for Security Policy released an Open Letter to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (see the attached). This letter, which was signed by over twenty of the Nation’s most eminent security policy practitioners and retired military officers, argues forcefully that the granting China PNTR would harm U.S. national security.

This letter comes on the heels of numerous appeals by the Nation’s largest veterans and military service organizations who have expressed their opposition to rewarding China’s threatening rhetoric and behavior by removing the yearly review of China’s trading status. These groups, including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Reserve Officers Association of the United States, the Warrant Officers Association, the Fleet Reserve Association, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, AMVETS, the Naval Reserve Association and the Naval Enlisted Reserve Association and the signatories of today’s letter should be commended for their defense of America’s security and principles.

The Open Letter’s signatories include: three former Commandants of the U.S. Marine Corps (General Robert H. Barrow, General Carl Mundy and General Louis H. Wilson); seven retired four-staff general officers (former Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, General J.B. Davis, USAF; former Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic, Admiral Leon ‘Bud’ Edney, USN; former Director, Naval Nuclear Propulsion, Admiral Kinnaird McKee, USN (Ret.); former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Army, Europe, General Glenn K. Otis, USA (Ret.); former Commander, U.S. Space Command and Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force, General John L. Piotrowski USAF (Ret.); former Commander, U.S. Army Readiness Command, General Donn A. Starry, USA (Ret.); and former Assistant Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps, General Joseph J. Went, USMC (Ret.)); former Secretary of the Navy, James H. Webb, Jr.; former Science Advisor to President Reagan, William R. Graham; and former Chairman of the House Rules Committee, Gerald B. H. Solomon.

The Open Letter reads in part:

[T]he Chinese today, like the Japanese sixty years ago, put great faith in the ability of a materially weaker challenger to defeat a major power which looks stronger, but which they believe has become decadent and irresolute in the use of power. If Beijing is poised to make the same mistake that Tokyo made in 1941, it would cost this country dearly to prove them wrong should it come to a war the Chinese apparently expect and for which they are preparing. A firm American stand now would likely avoid miscalculation later, boost deterrence and, therefore, promote peace in the Western Pacific and East Asia. Toward that end, we believe that the annual debate on our China policy mandated by current law should not be eliminated at present. It should, instead, be expanded to place international economic ties in the larger context of American national security policy and interests in Asia.

The Center urges Congress to weigh carefully the arguments of these highly respected and accomplished authorities and, in so doing, to discount dubious appeals for granting China PNTR on national security grounds.