Against MFN status for China

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

This letter appeared in the Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) on 6 June 1996.

This item may be cited as M. R. Franks, Letter to the Editor: Against MFN status for China, Baton Rouge Advocate, June 6, 1996, at 8B.

Dear Editor:

Once again China has come begging to the United States, its little tin cup in hand, asking for "most favored nation" (MFN) trade privileges.

China's outstretched hand is bloody. Only a few days ago, several Chinese were caught red-handed, allegedly smuggling fully automatic (not semiautomatic) AK-47 assault weapons into the United States. Two thousand machine guns were earmarked to enable street gangs the better to menace law-abiding Americans. The weapons in question were manufactured in Chinese state-owned factories, and it was none other than Deng Xiaoping's son-in-law allegedly masterminding the deal.

In the past, Louisiana senators and congressmen willingly have turned a blind eye to China's appalling human rights record: intentional starvation of children in Chinese orphanages, forced abortions for married women and rape of female political prisoners.

Two thousand Chinese were executed last year alone! Apparently some members of Congress have been more interested in exporting computers than in stopping torture of Chinese dissidents.

If human rights abuses are ignored, and if Chinese piracy of American artistic and intellectual property counts for naught, surely this latest outrage must come as the last straw. China's bold attempt to smuggle instruments of terror and violence onto American streets ought to open even the blindest congressional eye.

After the latest events, any senator or congressman who truly has the interests of America at heart will manifest the courage necessary to just say "no" to MFN treatment for China.

M. R. Franks
2 Swan St.
Baton Rouge

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