WATCH THIS SPACE: CENTER’S SVEN KRAEMER WARNS SENATE AGAINST RENEWING M.F.N. FOR CHINA

(Washington, D.C.): The United States Congress will soon be
faced with a difficult and strategically complex question:
whether to support the Clinton Administration’s request for the
unconditional renewal of Most Favored Nation trading status for
communist China. This idea has garnered considerable support in
business and establishment foreign policy circles. Today,
however, the U.S. Senate was given a good reason to think
twice before supporting such a move.

In powerful testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, one of the Nation’s leading strategic thinkers — Sven
Kraemer, former Director of Arms Control for the
National Security Council and a long-time member of the Center
for Security Policy’s Board of Advisors — made the case that MFN
status for China must not be renewed in the context of current
U.S.-Chinese relations. Kraemer told the Committee that
China is not worthy of such trade status with the United States
when its dismal record of — among other things — human rights
abuses, piracy of American goods and intellectual property, arms
control violations, nuclear proliferation activities and
strategic modernization is taken into account. According to
Kraemer:

“An equal playing field for free trade can only be
assured by political freedoms backed by sound security
policies. Therefore, MFN and trade must always be
considered in the context of profound moral and strategic
questions involving human rights and security, not just
trade. Yesterday’s Tiananmen anniversary should
remind us that even more than trade, issues of human rights
and security are likely to determine China’s adoption or
rejection of the paths of democracy and peace and the
ultimate success or failure of America’s relationship with
China.” (Emphasis added.)

The Center for Security Policy believes that the Clinton
Administration’s willingness to renew China’s MFN status under
present circumstances threatens what little credibility still
attends stated U.S. commitments to non-proliferation, human
rights, fair trade practices, the rule of law, regional security,
etc. On issue after issue — from China’s “nuclear
blackmail” of Los Angeles as part of its anti-Taiwan
coercion campaign to its selling of thermonuclear and other
sensitive technology to such states as North Korea, Iran and
Pakistan to its record of forced labor, mandatory abortions,
brutal incarceration of political prisoners and murderous
orphanages to its officially sanctioned efforts to sell AK-47s
and ultimately tanks and man-portable anti-aircraft missiles to
American criminal gangs — the Clinton Administration has refused
to respond appropriately and surgically with tough targeted
sanctions or other nuanced policy measures. As a result,
the admittedly blunt instrument of withholding MFN is the only
means of leverage left to the United States if it wishes to
penalize unacceptable Chinese behavior and communicate a
principled policy position. Should the U.S. now fail to utilize
this measure of last resort, it can only be interpreted by
Beijing as a green light to proceed with its odious and
increasingly menacing activities.

The Center for Security Policy urges the United States Senate
to heed the wise advice provided by Sven Kraemer. href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=96-P_54at1″>Three pages of excerpts of his testimony
are attached and a full text
may be obtained by contacting the Center.