Let’s Stop Making Excuses for China : U.S. must use trade status as a lever for change

Every year since the bloody 1989 crackdown against demonstrators in Tian An Men Square, President Bush has granted China an unconditional extension of trading privileges. This year is no different. Last Tuesday, a day dominated by California primary election news, the President quietly moved to once again renew most-favored-nation trading status for China.

In doing so he brushed aside suggestions that he make the one-year extension conditional on China improving its policies on human rights, arms sales and trade. That was a mistake. This year, Bush should not have renewed MFN status, which exempts China from certain U.S. tariffs, without sending a clear signal of displeasure to Beijing. For the last two years, in fact, Congress has voted to impose conditions, though it failed to override presidential vetoes.

The Times has supported unconditional MFN in the past but believes now that a stricter policy is required. Time and again Chinese authorities have tested America’s patience. China continues to violate human rights; many pro-democracy demonstrators remain unaccounted for. China continues to peddle missile and nuclear technology to Third World countries, breaking its promises that it would stop fueling the arms race. It still exploits prison labor in producing cheap exports and limits U.S. access to its domestic market.

This month, on the third anniversary of the Tian An Men massacre, Chinese authorities harassed foreign journalists visiting the square. China detonated a powerful nuclear bomb in an underground test recently. And Beijing turned down requests by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Claiborne Pell and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman David L. Boren to visit China.

U.S. law requires that, as a communist country, China must secure an annual extension of its most-favored-nation privileges. The Administration’s position has been that unconditional MFN status helps to keep the Chinese people from becoming isolated and gives Washington political leverage with Beijing. However, after three years, trading privileges have not produced a profoundly more cooperative Beijing. Indeed, the U.S.-China relationship has become more strained.

A more productive approach to MFN might be to gradually increase tariff rates on goods made by state enterprises but maintain low tariff privileges on goods exported by private industries or entrepreneurs. This would help private enterprise while sending a clear political message to the Beijing leadership.