Human Rights Watch today expressed disappointment over the U.S. Senate's vote to grant permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to China without any human rights conditions attached.
Congress and the administration should have used the PNTR leverage to get some human rights improvements first, before giving up the annual review process," said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington director for Asia at Human Rights Watch. "The timing of the PNTR vote is particularly unfortunate, just as human rights conditions are worsening. Beijing is closing down all channels of political dissent -- including on the Internet -- even while it's opening up its economy."
In Congressional testimony earlier this year, Human Rights Watch had urged the Congress to attach concrete, realistic human rights conditions that the president must certify China has met before Beijing receives PNTR. Human Rights Watch also supported creating a new mechanism to replace the annual trade review, such as the special Executive-Congressional commission established by the PNTR bill adopted today.
However, to give the commission teeth, its annual report should include U.S. policy recommendations for specific bilateral and multilateral intiaitives to promote human rights and labor rights, with a clear requirement that Congress debate and vote on them each year. Otherwise, there is a risk that human rights concerns will be marginalized on the agenda of the new adminstration and Congress, as they focus on pushing China to comply with its trade obligations.
"We hope the Congress will strengthen the commission when it allocates funds for it during the appropriations process over the next few weeks," Jendrzejczyk said. "Once President Clinton signs this bill and China gets PNTR, what incentive will China have to make meaningful human rights progress?"
