Seymour Backs Bush, Supports No-Strings China Trade Status

Ending weeks of indecision, Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) lined up Thursday behind President Bush in favor of unconditional renewal of most-favored-nation trading status for China.

Taking the Senate floor a day after the House voted 313 to 112 to renew MFN status for China next year only with severe restrictions, Seymour said such an approach would “cripple the cause of economic and political reform” in the communist nation.

The Senate may take up China’s MFN status next week. Bush has threatened to veto any legislation that would impose conditions on MFN renewal although the House bill passed with a veto-proof majority.

“To endanger or deny MFN status to this society will deny its most productive, market-oriented and democratic forces from moving China out from under the oppressive shadow of communism,” Seymour said.

“This policy will achieve none of the results that its proponents seek, and punish all the people that they hope to reward,” he added.

Seymour said he was deeply troubled by the action of Chinese leaders in recent years, including the massacre of student demonstrators at Tian An Men Square in 1989 and the sale of ballistic missiles to nations such as Syria, Libya and North Korea.

“I am not suggesting that we take no action to reduce the communist government’s ability to repress its own people,” he said.

“On the contrary, I am suggesting that we take every action to build economic institutions and political movements in China to divorce their citizens from their dependence on, and their fear of, the state. MFN status for China has clearly contributed to this goal.”

An aide said Seymour’s decision was heavily influenced by a recent meeting that he and President Bush had with Chinese students in Orange County who urged the United States to continue the MFN relationship with their homeland to assure their future.

In addition, Seymour said, normalized trade relations with China allowed the United States to export more than $5 billion worth of goods last year, with $550 million of that amount originating in California.

Critics of MFN status have said China has benefited far more, creating a $10-billion trade surplus by targeting textiles, toys and other exports to the U.S. market.