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Former U.S. Presidents Join Clinton in Urging Congress to Approve PNTR
Former U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford Tuesday joined President Bill Clinton with scores of former top officials at the White House in urging Congress to approve a legislation that grants China the permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status.
Clinton asked the former government officials, academics and business leaders to tell the congressmen they know to vote for the PNTR, stressing that it is in the political, economic and security interests of the United States.
"What I would like to ask all of you to do when you leave is to pick somebody you know in the Congress and call them and tell them what we're all saying to one another today," Clinton told the event in the East Room of the White House. "Of course we want the voice of this meeting to echo across the country and to embrace the Congress. I wish it weren't a fight, but it is," he added.
The distinguished guests include former secretaries of state, Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Alexander Haig and Warren Christopher and former defense secretaries, Robert McNamara, James Schlesinger and other senior former officials.
Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other members of the cabinet also attended the event. Clinton noted that a negative vote of Congress for the PNTR legislation will cause severe immediate consequences for the United States.
"If the Congress votes against it, they'll be kicking themselves in the rear 10 years from now because America will be paying the price, and I believe the price will start to be paid not 10 years from now, not even 10 months from now, but immediately," Clinton said.
"We all know it's the right decision, and virtually 100 percent of the people at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue know it's the right decision," he added.
Expressing his support for the legislation, Ford said bipartisan "comparable cooperation" is "absolutely mandatory" in case of the PNTR legislation.
"I am highly honored to join President Clinton, Carter and other distinguished individuals urging very strongly affirmative action in the Congress on PNTR," Ford said.
"The facts are, a negative vote in the House and or the Senate would be catastrophic, disastrous, to American agriculture, in electronics, telecommunications, autos and countless other products and services," Ford noted.
The U.S. national security and foreign policy interests are enhanced by "increased interaction" with China, he added. Carter, under whose administration the United States and China established official diplomatic relationship in 1979, also urged congressmen who care about the human rights in China to vote for the legislation.
"There's no doubt in my mind that a negative vote on this issue in the Congress will be a serious setback and impediment for the further democratization, freedom and human rights in China," Carter said.
Also addressing the meeting, Kissinger stressed that "cooperative relations with China are in the American national interests." "Every president for 30 years has come to that conclusion."
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