WASHINGTON - Gary Bauer, former Republican presidential candidate and Campaign for Working Families founder, today delivered a major speech on China policy to the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Excerpts of the speech follow. The full text of the speech is available by contacting the Bauer press office at 202-479-9696.
"…The Communist government of China has a well-deserved reputation as one of the most coercive and repressive regimes on earth. Hundreds of thousands of people languish in Communist jails and prison camps merely because they dared to practice their Christian, Buddhist or Islamic faith. International human rights organizations have documented hundreds of thousands of cases of arbitrary imprisonment, torture, house arrest or death at the hands of this Communist government…"
"…even as the Clinton administration continues to pursue a policy of so-called "constructive engagement," the President's own State Department reports that all public dissent against the party and government has been effectively silenced by threats, intimidation, exile, house arrest, imprisonment. Ten years after Tiananmen Square, the State Department could not identify a single active political dissident in a country of 1.2 billion people. In this year's annual report on human rights, the State Department concluded that China's 'poor human rights record deteriorated markedly throughout the year.'
"Yet the proponents of "constructive engagement" accuse critics of China's dismal human rights record of being hopelessly naïve moralists, of lacking a hardheaded, pragmatic realism. We are all too familiar with the main argument of corporate America and the China lobby: that trade with China will change China, that international commerce will inevitably result in political liberalization - that the internet, computers and cell phones will bring freedom.
"What is needed here is a little 'constructive clarity,' rather than 'constructive engagement,' for it is the supposed realists who are hopelessly deluded as to the true nature of the Communist regime in China.
"The Communist autocrats in Beijing are practicing a kind of "market Maoism." They are perfectly content to pursue a "selective engagement" on the economic side, exploiting trade and gullible American businessmen to advance their national strategic goals, while maintaining an oppressive one-party political control. Trade alone will no more resolve the great contest between freedom and oppression in China than it did in the Europe of the 1930s or in the Soviet Union in the détente era of the 1970s. The Communist Chinese are proving that it is possible to have at once a limited market economy and political dictatorship. The private owners of web sites in China have been barred from documenting foreign news. And just this Friday a new government agency was set up in China to stamp out "harmful information" on the Internet. Trade with China isn't changing them nearly as much as it is changing us - making us forget who we are and what we stand for in the world.
"In our foreign relations, we need a policy that embraces our most cherished values -- values that include basic human rights as well as commerce and free trade. Our foreign policy must have a greater moral purpose than the corporate bottom line. It is imperative that U.S. policy toward China first be based on a realistic assessment of the nature of Chinese Communism…"
"…Ultimately, the China debate is not about China -- it is about us. What kind of a people are we? This is the fundamental question posed by our current policy toward China. Are we willfully subsidizing China's arms race? Can we in good conscience buy goods produced by slave labor? Can we invest in companies intimately bound to a dictatorial government that inflicts terror on its own people? Have we put our most cherished ideals on the auction block?"
"…China's military leadership is preparing for war with the United States. That is an uncontradicted reality. Such a terrible war is not inevitable however - not over Taiwan or any other issue if Washington wisely manages relations between the two powers. The present policy of trade at any price -- evidenced by President Clinton's drive for speedy congressional approval of permanent normal trade relations and WTO membership for China -- is little better than appeasement and it will lead to disaster."
"…Although China is secretive to the point of paranoia about its military capabilities, the objectives of its planning are obvious to American intelligence agencies and the Pentagon. America's power in the Pacific is sea-based. Consequently, China is frantically acquiring the means to neutralize American maritime power."
"It is buying nuclear submarines and nuclear guided missile destroyers from Russia, along with advanced anti-aircraft, radar and command and control fire systems. China's engineers are adept at turning dual-use technologies acquired through trade with the West to military applications. China has reverse-engineered Exocet anti-ship missiles, and purchased Russian SSN-22 "Sunburn" supersonic anti-ship missiles and S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. Beijing recently concluded a deal with Moscow to produce the latest Russian jet fighters as platforms for its growing missile capability…"
"…Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the Communist Chinese arms race is that we are subsidizing it by our one-sided trade policy that has provided Beijing the hard currency to pay for its missile program. And because of this administration's gross inattention to our secrets and security interests, China has been able to steal what it could not simply buy on the open market. The bipartisan congressional Cox Report detailed the scale and seriousness of China's espionage and its legal acquisition of military technology from a slumbering America…."
"…Congress needs to open an immediate investigation into China's penetration of the U.S. bond market, as relying on the politicized Clinton Justice Department to do the job is simply a waste of time. As we have seen time and again with the campaign contribution and Chinese espionage scandals, this administration simply refuses to investigate anything that might prove embarrassing to the White House or the President. The rule of law itself is being undermined by our craven policy toward China…"
"…The United States should make it unambiguously clear to China that it will use any and all means necessary to help Taiwan defend itself against Communist aggression. This was the policy of every American President, Republican and Democrat, before Bill Clinton. The Clinton administration believes it useful to pursue a policy of "strategic ambiguity," to keep China guessing, in other words, what the U.S. would do in the event of a military attack on Taiwan. The administration has tilted dangerously toward China and against Taiwan…"
"…I would pursue a two-track approach to China."
"First, I would ensure that we have the military means to defend America, our troops overseas and our allies. To checkmate China's growing missile threat we need to deploy an anti-missile defense system to protect our soldiers, sailors and airmen stationed in the Pacific. This defensive umbrella should include our friends in the region -- Japan, South Korea, Taiwan. We have the technical means to do this today. All that we lack is the political will."
"We must announce our intention to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the now-defunct Soviet Union. The ABM Treaty is a relic of the Cold War. It is obsolete and prevents us from protecting America and its allies against missile attack…"
"…Second, we must pursue a policy of 'democratic engagement' with China. Our policy should be based on America's historical principles and ideals, and not just corporate greed.
"A country, like an individual, must have integrity. A great nation cannot live a double life, affirming justice at home while tolerating evil abroad. We cannot be loyal to our principles at home and unfaithful to them abroad. We must have the moral integrity to remain true to our democratic principles everywhere in the world. Freedom belongs to the Chinese people no less than it does to Americans. Our Founders proclaimed to the world universal truths, that all men are created equal and endowed by the Creator with unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
"For China, this means that trade and commercial concessions must be conditional -- conditioned upon minimum standards of civilized behavior toward its own people and its neighbors in Asia. Chinese investment in the U.S. should be strictly monitored and severely limited. No more doing business with Chinese corporations that are fronts for the People's Liberation Army. Most Favored Nation trade status is our high card, our most powerful leverage over China's Communist leaders. Yet we are prepared to throw it away without obtaining anything from China in return…" |
