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 | Thursday, April 13, 2000, updated at 09:13(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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China Opposes Any Linkages to PNTR, Ambassador Li SaysChina, despite its efforts for joining in the World Trade Organization, is strongly opposed to linking its trade status with such issues as cross-strait relations, human rights and arms proliferation, said Li Zhao-xing, Chinese Ambassador to the United States."The agreement on China's accession to the WTO reached by China and the United States is really a win-win situation. It is good for both countries. It is also good for the rest of the world and for the WTO itself," Li told a AmCham China Washington Doorknock delegation here in the Chinese Embassy on Tuesday. Ambassador Li said that granting normal trade status with each other should be taken for granted as an obligation among the WTO members, and therefore the United States should in no way regard PNTR as a favor bestowed to China. China's entry into the WTO serves the interests of the United States and China. "However, America may forgo possible benefits if there is no PNTR (for China)," Ambassador Li told the 30 delegates from over 20 American enterprises now functioning in China. The AmCham China delegates, who arrived here in the past few days, have started a week-long uphill battle in lobbying on the Capitol Hill for granting China PNTR. Ambassador Li pointed out that some Americans have been trying to link PNTR with such issues as Taiwan, human rights and proliferation. These things are "irrelevant" to China's trade status, and it is "groundless" to mix them up, Li said. Ambassador Li said that the recent election in Taiwan has neither altered the fact that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China, nor that Taiwan issue is the internal affair of China which brooks no foreign interference. He criticized "a handful of American politicians" for making use of PNTR to press China into concessions on the Taiwan issue. " This is an interference with China's internal affairs, and the Chinese people will never bow to the pressure," he said. Timothy P. Stratford, Chairman of AmCham China, told reporters that China's entry into the WTO will provide American businesses with a rare chance to further open the largest potential market in the world, and bring about a greater mount of jobs for American workers. He dismissed any linkage between PNTR and such issues as Taiwan, human rights and proliferation as "unwise," because if the PNTR bill fails to pass Congress, America will not be able to benefit from China's further opening of its market, and its own national interests will be undermined. James Patrick Gradoville, VP and Regional Director of Asia/ Pacific Government Relations of Motorola, said, "we have been talking with members of Congress about the importance of having a clean bill, a bill that does not add any conditions at all to China's entry into the WTO." Gradoville predicted "a close vote" on PNTR in Congress, which is scheduled to take place in the week of May 22. "We have to be confident," and "I think it (the PNTR bill) will pass if we work very, very hard," he said.
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