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 | Monday, April 17, 2000, updated at 15:20(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Chinese-Americans Urge Congressmen Supporting PNTR For ChinaRepresentatives from more than 100 Chinese organizations in Southern California Sunday strongly urged U.S. Congressmen to vote for permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status for China next month.The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on China's PNTR status on May 22 and the Senate will do the same later. Some Congressmen are under pressure from human right, environmental and union groups, who threaten that, in November, they will vote against those who support for China's PNTR status in May. At a press conference in Los Angels, the Chinese-Americans voiced counter threats that, in November, they will vote for those Congressmen if they support China's PNTR status in may, and vote against those Congressmen if they vote against China's PNTR status. "As ordinary Americans, we are deeply concerned about this issue which is critical to us, our families, our businesses, and our very future," the Chinese-Americans explained in a open letter to U.S. senators and house of representatives. "We trust that your wisdom and foresight will guide you to support and vote to grant PNTR status to China. We simply cannot afford to miss this great opportunity," said the letter. Also on Sunday, the Chinese-Americans launched a 10-day campaign for collecting signatures from Chinese communities in Southern California, appealing to the U.S. Congress to approve the bill. The organizers said they are confident to collect more than 10, 000 signatures before April 25 and will send them, along with the open letter, to the Capital Hill in Washington D.C. as soon as possible. "Without PNTR for China, American companies and their workers will be denied their great opportunities to prosper and profit from China's booming economy, and American industrial and agricultural products and services will be substantially excluding from China's huge market," said Yuan Chen, one of the organizers whose company is doing business across Pacific. Last fall, the U.S. and Chinese governments successfully negotiated the provisions related to China's entry into the World Trade organization (WTO). Most Chinese-Americans believe that the U.S.-China WTO agreement represents a historic opportunity to expand U.S.-China trade in the new century. As the most populous country in the world, China has sustained continued high rate economic growth in recent years and is by far the world's biggest and most important emerging market. "China's open-market policy and WTO membership will create spectacular new opportunities for American companies, workers, farmers, and consumers," said Jie Win, another organizer, who asked the Congressmen to take the advantage for the benefit of ordinary Americans in their respected constituents.
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