Let the People Change China From Within

Congressional opponents are getting ready to do battle with President Clinton over his intention, announced Monday, to extend most-favored-nation trade status to China for one more year.

Ever since the bloody massacre in 1989 at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, a yearly debate has raged over whether to extend MFN or penalize China for its abysmal human rights record. Congressional opponents now have last year’s intimidation of Taiwan, allegations of Chinese government involvement in the Democratic Party’s fund-raising scandal and signs that China may withdraw political rights from Hong Kong after the July handover to add to the reasons for revoking the trade status.

There are many who, for sincerely held moral and religious reasons, wish to isolate China economically, as if this will force its leaders to renounce repressive political policies. While taking this principled stand may be morally satisfying, it will achieve little or nothing for the cause of freedom. And it might even do that cause damage.

I share a desire for a China that observes the rule of law, respects political, religious and economic liberty and honors the rights of the individual. And I believe U.S. leaders should speak out forthrightly on behalf of freedom in China. As President Reagan said at Shanghai’s Fudan University in 1984, “Our entire system is founded on an appreciation of the special genius of each individual, and of his special right to make his own decisions and lead his own life.”

But this is precisely the reason why I favor renewal of MFN status for China.

What ultimately undermined and destroyed the Soviet Union’s communist regime was not so much our protests against its policies as the view its people gained over time of the superiority of our economic system. That critique eventually became so devastating that even top Soviet leaders became cynical, ceasing to believe in communism, unwilling to do what was necessary to preserve it.

A similar process is taking place in China, but with a difference. Its leaders, trying to avoid the Soviet fate, have allowed a measure of economic freedom for its people, hoping that this would pacify their desire for political change. Instead, the communist leaders find they have let the Trojan horse of free-market capitalism into their midst. Its foot soldiers are busy tearing up the network of economic and social interaction put into place by the communists and replacing it with a new, free kind of thinking that is eating up the system from within.

Of course, China’s leaders respond with repression; what else can they do? But when the new China finally emerges, it won’t have to undergo Russia’s painful transition to free-market economics. China is making that transition now.

Revocation of MFN would only slow down this process. There are better ways to pressure China. The administration should push for a strong resolution condemning China’s human rights practices at the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

America’s leaders should express strong support for those in China who share our values. We should make it clear that we support human rights and self-determination in greater China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan.

America should insist that China live up to all agreements it has signed, from the nuclear nonproliferation treaty to laws protecting intellectual property rights. The Clinton administration has avoided imposing sanctions for violations of the nonproliferation treaty.

The White House should bar all Chinese companies affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army from doing business in the United States until the treaty violations end; cut off all Export-lmport Bank financing for projects involving government-owned companies suspected of violations; and increase funding for FBI and National Security Agency monitoring of Chinese intelligence activities in the U.S. and the activities of PLA-affiliated businesses and subsidiaries. Congress also should pass “Know Your Trading Partner” legislation, which would require the administration to identify all Chinese Army-related companies and products.

When sanctions are used, they should target the communist leadership and the sources of the leadership’s power and influence, not the Chinese people.

Unfortunately, revoking the trade status would mostly punish the people we want to help, including the real pioneers of Chinese freedom in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Most-favored-nation status alone will not bring freedom to China. But it will help advance freedom in all its forms. Throughout Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, tyrannies have been replaced by democracies.

China is not so unique that it is immune to these same forces.