Word: mfn
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...will have occasion to be reminded that America's commitment to human rights is not just some kind of unfortunate national twitch: we can't turn away from the wish for freedom from authoritarianism because that wish is our country's fundament. The problem is that the hammer of MFN, rather than beating China into submission on human rights (not likely in any case), could deal a serious blow to its movement toward democracy. That fact is hard to face in light of such events as the detention last week of dissident Wei Jingsheng, but it is nevertheless a fact...
...should not link irrelevant issues to trade because in the long run it might harm the U.S. MFN is the basis for normal trade between our countries. Should there be problems with that, it would mean a great retrogression in our relations. It would also mean that the U.S. does not care about sacrificing its position in the China market, perhaps permanently. Supposedly a government should represent the interests of the American business community as well as the American people...
...Chinese have always bristled at Washington's threat of revoking MFN, but last week Beijing insisted more emphatically than before that it did not care . if the U.S. used trade as a weapon. Beijing contended that the entire human- rights argument was an unjust cultural ploy to put China on the defensive. Said a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry: "The Chinese government cares deeply about human rights. There are no saviors on the question of human rights. The Chinese people will save themselves." The Americans disagreed. "It's not a matter of talking about American values or Chinese values...
...visit, but they went ahead anyway. The Secretary of State arrived in Beijing Friday night with an unequivocal message: China must improve its human-rights record or lose the low-tariff benefits of most-favored-nation trading status. President Bill Clinton had vowed that he would not renew MFN -- a boon that allowed China to roll up a $23 billion trade surplus with the U.S. last year -- if Beijing did not demonstrate tangible improvement by June, when the decision on extending MFN comes due. Nor did roundups like those of last week help China's fading prospects for support...
Some Western analysts believed that Beijing would come down hard on the resurgent activists only to relent by the June deadline to demonstrate enough improvement to merit renewal of MFN. Or, the experts said, the tough old communists expect Clinton to back down and compromise. Either way, they are making it extremely difficult for themselves to meet the U.S. demand for % "overall significant progress." Last week they were not even trying...