Bush Urges Renewal of China Trade Ties

President Bush on Friday said that extending normal trade relations with China for another year would signal U.S. desire to help the Chinese join the international trading system, boost economic development and gain greater freedom.

The president sent the China trade measure to Congress on Friday, moving to keep relations with Beijing on an even keel. He had announced his decision to extend the trade provision in a speech Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) said he would seek to overturn the extension through a congressional vote. Congress has 60 days to reject the trade status. Bush had until Sunday to tell Congress whether he would seek renewal.

The trade provision gives China the same access to the U.S. market, in terms of lowered tariffs for its products, as most other nations. The exceptions to the normal trade status include Vietnam, Cuba, North Korea and Afghanistan.

A year ago, Congress voted to make the normal trade status permanent for China. But that does not take effect until China joins the World Trade Organization. Negotiations to complete that move are still underway.

In a written statement, Bush said the trade measure would work in the “economic and security interests of the American people.”

At the same time, he said, it “sends a clear but simple message to the people of China: The United States is committed to helping China become part of the new international trading system so that the Chinese people can enjoy the better life that comes from economic choice and freedom.”

“Fair trade is essential not only to improving living standards for Americans but also for a strong and productive relationship with China,” Bush said.

The decision, despite the vote a year ago, is controversial, particularly in light of the recently rocky state of U.S.-Chinese relations.

Although there was no suggestion that Bush would not extend the trade status, the decision followed China’s recent announcement that it was conducting war games across from Taiwan. In April, a U.S. spy plane made an emergency landing on China’s Hainan island after colliding with a Chinese jet fighter. The Chinese pilot was killed, and the American crew was held on the island for nearly two weeks.

Seeking to smooth over likely opposition, Bush sought to remind critics of the importance that an economically powerful China can hold in relation to the United States, even as he acknowledged that the relationship has been troubled.

“The United States has a huge stake in the emergence of an economically open, politically stable and secure China,” the president said. “Recent events have shown not only that we need to speak frankly and directly about our differences, but that we also need to maintain dialogue and cooperate with one another on those areas where we have common interests.”

Outlining the administration’s argument, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell portrayed the decision as one that would pressure China to change “for the better.” At the same time, American exporters would be able to maintain normal ties with Chinese purchasers of their products.

“The president’s decision is not an endorsement of China’s policies, some of which clearly conflict with America’s views and values,” Powell said in an opinion column written for the Washington Post. “Rather, we believe that extension of normal trade relations with China again this year is clearly in America’s interest.”

China’s response focused on the mutual benefit from the two nations’ trade relationship, emphasizing that U.S. companies benefited from it.

“This is a two-way reciprocal trade arrangement between two nations and absolutely not a favor granted by one country to another,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao.

In the past, the prospect of normal trade ties with China has brought vociferous opposition. Labor unions have objected, arguing that the ties suggest acquiescence to low pay and harsh treatment of workers in China.

Others, including conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, have built their objections around China’s human rights record, arguing that the U.S. should use economic pressure to encourage Beijing to increase democratic freedoms.