Published by: World Tibet Network Monday - May 12, 1997

WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuter) - An influential House Republican leader urged

President Clinton Monday to revoke China's so-called trade privileges,

citing Beijing's record on human rights, weapons sales and trade.

In a two-page letter to Clinton, Rep. Bill Paxon of New York, who chairs

meetings of the Republican House leadership team, said current U.S. policy

had yielded only "a Chinese regime which thumbs its nose at the United

States and places its heal on the neck of freedom."

A close ally of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Paxon said that denying

most-favored-nation trade status "would send a message to China that the

United States believes in something more than the blind pursuit of trade."

On Sunday, Gingrich, Republican of Georgia, predicted "a weaker vote than

it was a year ago" when the House voted 286 to 141 to back Clinton's

renewal of China's trade status.

In a television interview, Gingrich said Clinton would be "well-served to

look for a signal of flexibility to send to the Chinese that he is

concerned about human rights, that he is paying attention to Hong Kong"

which reverts to China July 1.

But Gingrich did not make his own position entirely clear. At one point, he

noted that Hong Kong's government, including pro-democracy leaders, were

pushing for MFN renewal for at least a full year.

"And it's a little much for us to say, we're more in favor of Hong Kong

than the people of Hong Kong. So there's a powerful countervailing argument

that the people of Hong Kong themselves want economic stability as they go

through this transition," he said.

Paxon, former chairman of the House Republican Campaign Committee, has been

a supporter of renewing China's MFN status since Clinton severed its link

in 1994 to China's human rights record.

But he said Clinton's "constructive engagement" policy had done little or

nothing to improve Beijing's performance on human rights, arms

proliferation and trade.

"To the extent maintaining normal trading relations with China could

facilitate improvements on all three, I stood with the proponents of MFN.

Today, with little or no progress on any of these issues, I will vote to

revoke," he said.

Paxon charged that 27 "new production lines" capable of producing 150

million pirated Compact Disks annually had popped up late last year. He

said evidence suggests China may be using forced labor on a large scale,

contrary to signed agreements.

Although he did not specifically cite it as a cause of his decision,

Paxon's letter also referred to a Justice Department probe of charges that

Beijing illegally sought to buy influence with U.S. politicians. In

addition, he cited concerns over Chinese policy toward Hong Kong, Taiwan

and Tibet.

The administration supports extending China's MFN renewal for another year.

"Our view is that MFN should continue, that the best way to deal with China

is to engage it, not to isolate it," Bill Richardson, the U.S. ambassador

to the United Nations, said Sunday.

Clinton must inform Congress formally by June 3 of his decision to extend

MFN, which contrary to what its name implies is normal trade status for all

but a handful of nations such as Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea.

To reverse such a presidential recommendation, the House and Senate must

pass a joint resolution disapproving it by Aug. 31. And if Clinton would

veto such a measure as expected, both chambers then would have to approve

the resolution by a two-thirds margin.