This is historical material, "frozen in time." The web site is no longer updated and links to external web sites and some internal pages will not work.
The U.S.-China WTO Agreement Will Help Promote
Reform, Accountability, and Openness in China
March 8, 2000
China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) will help
promote reform, accountability, and openness in China. Voting to enact
permanent Normal Trade Relations (NTR) with China is the most
significant immediate action we can take to move China in the right
direction.
China's accession agreement will deepen and help to lock in market
reforms -- and empower those in China's leadership who want their
country to move further and faster toward economic freedom. In opening
China's telecommunications market, including to Internet and satellite
services, the agreement will expose the Chinese people to information,
ideas, and debate from around the world. And China's accession to the
WTO will help strengthen the rule of law in China and increase the
likelihood that it will play by global rules. Many human rights
activists and members of the foreign policy community agree that
bringing China into the WTO will help move China in the right direction:
DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
Martin Lee, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong: "The
participation of China in the WTO would not only have economic and
political benefits, but would serve to bolster those in China who
understand that the country must embrace the rule of law, which of
course is a key principle underlying active membership in global trade
organizations... For those of us who have long pressed for vigorous
adherence to the rule of law in China, it is encouraging that so many
Chinese officials support the nation's entry into groups such as the
WTO." [Letter to President Clinton, 11/14/99]
Ren Wanding, Leader of the 1978 Democracy Wall Movement in China:
"Before the sky was black. Now there is a light -- This can be a new
beginning." [Washington Post, 11/18/99]
Xu Youyu, Prominent Chinese Philosopher: Xu said the decision to
join the WTO marked "the first time in a long time that there seems to
be a real direction" in China's government. "People always say China
can never go back, but over the last 20 years, and even during the last
year, we've taken a lot of detours. Now we have a clear direction -- in
the long run it will help." [Washington Post, 11/18/99]
Li Ke, Former Chinese Editor of the Democratic Journal Fangfa:
"For so many years of China's reform and opening, these areas couldn't
be opened up and remained state monopolies. But if economic monopolies
can be broken, controls in other areas can have breakthroughs as well.
These breakthroughs won't necessarily happen soon. But in the final
analysis, in the minds of ordinary people, it will show that
breakthroughs that were impossible in the past are indeed possible."
China's upcoming entry into the WTO is "a New Year's gift for China as
it enters 2000. It's a gift we never, ever thought we could get."
[Washington Post, 11/18/99]
Wang Shan, Chinese Liberal Political Scientist: "Undoubtedly, [the
China WTO agreement] will push political reform." [The Boston Globe,
11/28/99]
Randy Tate, Co-Chair of Working Families for Free Trade, and Former
Executive Director of the Christian Coalition: "An isolated China will
resist change at home and be likely to behave more aggressively towards
its regional neighbors. None of that serves American interests.
Admitting China into the WTO may not cause it to shed dictatorship for
democracy. But it's the right step toward realizing that goal."
[Washington Times, 11/29/99]
FOREIGN POLICY COMMUNITY
Nicholas Lardy, Brookings Institution: "The authoritarian basis of
the [Chinese Communist] regime is gradually eroding, and if successfully
implemented, this agreement will contribute to that." [U.S. News & World
Report, 11/29/99]
Jacob Fisch, Council on Foreign Relations: "Bringing China into
the WTO will encourage social and political change in China and help
promote reform of its egregious human rights behavior. China's
modernization has, until now, been greatly inspired and facilitated by
interaction with the world community and will be greatly enhanced by WTO
membership". The impact of information technology on society and the
life of the Chinese individual will become more pronounced". The
organizational capacity of groups and the potential for clandestine
exchanges will expand, and the repressive controls of the government
will diminish." [Los Angeles Times, 11/26/99]
David Lampton, Director of China Studies at Johns Hopkins' School
of Advanced International Studies: "The bottom line [is] that foreign
involvement in China's economy inherently promotes better worker rights
through dispute resolution in the factory, through involving workers
more in management, through better working conditions, and so on. And
so just the mere fact that the world is going to be more involved in the
Chinese economy, I think, promotes human rights in both the broad sense
and the specific sense." [National Public Radio, 11/16/99]