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Despite repeated assurances in recent weeks by Eagleburger and other Bush administration officials, two other key congressional committees voted to impose strict conditions on extending MFN treatment to China. President Bush has vowed to veto any bill that imposed such conditions, and China has said that it will accept no conditions.
"The United States today remains alone among Western democracies in maintaining its Tiananmen sanctions against China and in refusing to restore normal relations until China makes substantial progress in addressing our human rights concerns," Eagleburger told the Senate Foreign Relations. Committee. "Without question, we have taken the strongest measures against China of any country in the world."
Eagleburger was referring to trade sanctions imposed against China two years ago following that government's violent repression of pro-democracy student demonstrations in Peking's Tiananmen Square. He said the following sanctions remain in effect:
Cessation of all but the most essential bilateral visits by senior U.S. and Chinese officials;
-- Termination of U.S. military relations with China, including stopping work on all weapons programs, cutting off all high-level military exchanges and denying export licenses for equipment intended for use by the Chinese military or police;
--Curtailment of multilateral development bank loans to China, except for those that provide for the basic human needs of the Chinese people;
-- Suspension of all grants from the U.S. Trade Development Program and all loans, grants and investment insurance activities of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation;
- U.S. opposition to restarting talks within COCOM (the Coordinating Committee for strategic exports by Western nations) on liberalizing controls on high-technology exports to China.
Eagleburger acknowledged that human rights is only one of the primary issues of concern to the Bush administration and Congress in U.S. relations with China. Of equal importance, he said, are Chinese sales of nuclear and chemical weapons to other countries -- particularly those in the Middle East and unfair trading practices that have increased the U.S. trade deficit with China to more than $10,000 million a year.
"Each of these issues goes beyond the legal standard for determining MFN eligibility," he said. "The United States is aggressively addressing these issues, and we believe it is counterproductive to link them to the MFN decision."
The deputy secretary said that China appears to be in full compliance with the only legal requirement for granting MFN treatment - allowing the free emigration and travel of its citizens.
"In our view, there is simply no doubt that China's emigration policy meets the objective of the law on MFN status," he said.
"Therefore, we firmly believe that renewing China's MFN waiver without conditions -- provides our best instrument for promoting positive change and U.S. interests in China," he concluded.
President Bush had informed Congress of his intent to extend MFN treatment to China prior to the June 3 notification deadline set by law. Congress has 90 days from that date in which to act on the president's request.
The two main congressional measures that impose conditions on extension are expected to be hotly debated on the floors of the House and Senate beginning next month.
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