WSJ Asia calls attention to Clinton’s rebuff of the US Religious Freedom Commission

In an important article in today’s Asian edition, the Wall Street Journal reported on President Clinton’s dismissive response to a 1 November letter from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s Chairman, Elliott Abrams. The contents of the President’s letter were first revealed publicly in a Casey Institute Perspective issued yesterday entitled "Clinton’s Parting Shot at International Religious Freedom" (No. 01-C 05).

The Bush-Cheney Administration should make it a matter of urgent priority to review — and reverse — President Clinton’s decision to allow the government of China and other dubious governments (e.g. Russia) to gain access to untold billions of American investors’ dollars via totally undisciplined and fundamentally non-transparent stock and bond offerings in the U.S. capital markets. After all, such funds could be utilized not only to underwrite the repression of religious freedom in China but other abuses of fundamental human rights, the PRC’s increasingly threatening military modernization program, its despoiling of the environment, its subjugation of Tibet and future aggression against Taiwan.

Clinton Declines to Halt Chinese Fund Raising
Religious-Rights Body Wants Capital Restriction

By Eduardo Lachica

The Asian Wall Street Journal, via Dow Jones

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Bill Clinton has rejected the use of capital restrictions as a means of influencing China’s human-rights policy. Mr. Clinton said that impeding China’s access to U.S. capital markets wouldn’t help advance religious freedoms or stop China from raising funds elsewhere. Responding to a query from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the president also warned that such restrictions might undermine "our commitment to the free flow of capital — with adverse consequences for our economy."

Mr. Clinton’s letter, which the commission made public Monday, could be the signal China needs to proceed with a $1 billion sovereign bond issue that was shelved in November because of unfavorable market conditions.

Mr. Clinton’s statement, however, doesn’t necessarily settle this issue. Lawrence Goodrich, spokesman for the congressionally created bipartisan commission, said the group would raise the issue with the incoming administration of George W. Bush, which may have a different strategy for dealing with China.

The commission, which makes recommendations but cannot enforce them, previously determined that the president is authorized to prohibit U.S. financial institutions from buying bonds from or providing credit to nations that are thought to practice or tolerate religious persecution.

Roger W. Robinson Jr., the organizer of a civic campaign for more disclosure by foreign bond and equity issuers with uncertain credentials, charged that Mr. Clinton’s letter was unduly "alarmist" in its choice of language and largely "unresponsive" to the commission’s effort to explore legal options.

The commission has a legitimate concern about Chinese sovereign bonds because they provide "undisciplined cash proceeds which could be used to fund religious persecution, national security abuses and other activities harmful to U.S. interests," said Mr. Robinson, a Washington activist who once served as the senior director for international economic affairs in the National Security Council during Ronald Reagan’s administration. He said the incoming Bush administration would be wise to seek strengthened national-security disclosure requirements from foreign seekers of capital or "risk an escalation of nongovernment activism in the capital markets."