Never give apology to China

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

This letter appeared in the Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) on 10 April 2001.

This item may be cited as M. R. Franks, Letter to the Editor: Never give apology to China, Baton Rouge Advocate, April 10, 2001, at 6B.

Dear Editor:

Apologize to China? Never. Continue trading with communist dictators? Let's hope not.

Twice in these columns I have implored our Louisiana congressional delegation to say "no" to most-favored nation trade status for China. In my letter of June 6, 1996 (The Advocate, page 8B), I tried to tell our elected representatives that China's outstretched hand is bloody: intentional starvation of children in Chinese orphanages, forced abortions for married women and rape of female political prisoners.

In my letter to the editor April 9, 1997 (The Advocate, page 8B), I commented on Congress' indifference to China's piracy of American literary and artistic property. I puzzled why Congress rewarded China with most-favored nation trade status after Deng Xiaoping's son-in-law smuggled 2,000 AK-47 machine guns into the United States, earmarked to enable street gangs the better to menace law-abiding citizens.

Yet our Louisiana congressional delegation again turned a blind eye to these abuses when it approved "permanent normal trade relations" with China. Perhaps our representatives were distracted by their own hands outstretched to foreign campaign contributors. Recall that money-laden arms smugglers were welcomed at the former administration's White House alongside drug dealers. Senators and congressmen, both Democratic and Republican, cheered China while failing to notice just how naked and ugly that emperor really is.

It's time we learn who our friends are, time we stop sleeping with the enemy. Our friends, of course, are countries not guilty of human-rights abuses, countries that don't harass our military flying in international airspace, countries that don't knock our planes from the skies, and countries that don't hold our air crews hostage. They, not China, deserve our billions in foreign trade.

Members of the House and Senate who voted to "normalize" trade with these thugs should hang their heads in shame. They owe the American people an apology for their ill-considered action. Congress needs to undo "permanent normal trade relations" with that dictatorship and put an immediate stop to this national disgrace and humiliation. Apologize to China? Never!

M. R. Franks
2 Swan St.
Baton Rouge

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