THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
July 19, 1991
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Dear Senator Baucus
I appreciated receiving your views on the importance of renewing China's most-favored-nation (MFN) trade status while also seeking to achieve progress with the Chinese on issues of vital concern to the American people. We clearly share the same goals. We want to see China return to the path of reform, show greater respect for human rights, adhere to international norms on waepons sales, and practice fair trade. China should contribute to international stability and not detract from it.
You rightly note that withdrawing MFN would hurt not only Americans but also the people of Hong Kong and the millions in China who are working for progressive change. Continuing MFN i essential to protect American consumers and exporters, and to support the economic forces that have been driving reform in China for more than a decade. It is no accident that the process of reform accelerated with the increase in foreign businesses operating in that nation. Those who would and political and @conomic reform in China have the most to gain if MFN were withdrawn. It is the economic forcas pressing for the loosening of state control and increased personal freedom that would suffer the most. Other losers would be the thousands of American workers and farmers who together produced in 1990 almost $5 billion in exports to China.
Since we started the process of normalizing contacts with China in the 1970s, there has been strong bipartisan support for the 0.5.-China relationship. Building on the three U.S.-China communiques, U.S. interaction with the government and people of
That interaction must China has produced demonstrable progress. continue despite the recent severe šatbacks. Nevertheless, I support the view that strong measures are needed to address our concerns in China and have not hesitated to use them in a targeted fashion. To underscore our deep dismay about human rights violations, I have kept in place a number of sanctions since the Tiananmen Square crackdown which have affected arms sales, high-level contacts, U.S. economic programs and U.S. support for multilateral development bank lending to China.
The U.S. is currently the only nation maintaining its Tiananmen sanctions and refusing to normalize relations until China makes substantial progress on human rights. For example, while all our allies and other world Sank members have supported virtually all of the last sixteen World Bank loans to China, we have declined
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