The San Francisco Guardian Monday, May 22, 2000
CHINA CRISIS: YES VOTE ON TRADE IS HORRIBLE FOR US, CHINA, AND THE WORLD
by Ralph Nader
The China lobby is on the march =AD and posing serious problems to
citizens in the United States and China alike.
Big business is pulling out all the stops to encourage Congress to
grant China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR, formerly known
as Permanent Most Favored Nation) status.
The many corporations that have endorsed PNTR are primarily interested
not in making goods in the United States for export but in investing
in China, where they can sell services to the Chinese and make
goods for the Chinese and U.S. markets.
Of course, U.S. companies are already moving to China in large
numbers. But the investor guarantees connected to a PNTR deal would
speed the migration =AD and the migration of well-paying factory
jobs.
It is true, as PNTR proponents argue, that much of this investment=
=AD especially by financial and service companies =AD will be to
serve the Chinese market. But it is equally true that these
investments will do almost nothing to create jobs in the United
States. New Citigroup branches in Shanghai, or Aetna's expanded
ability to insure businesses in China, will do very little to create
jobs in New York or Connecticut.
Much of the investment will shift jobs from the United States to
China, especially in the manufacture of goods like clothing, auto
parts, and consumer electronics. PNTR will exacerbate the trend of
U.S.
factories shutting down, moving to China, and then exporting their
goods back to the United States.
Why does this happen? The story is familiar. U.S. businesses, or
their contractors, can pay dramatically lower wages and get away
with far inferior working and environmental conditions in China
than they can in the United States.
How big are the savings? Here are some wage figures recently
published by the New York City-based National Labor Committee:
Workers making Kathie Lee handbags for Wal-Mart in China are earning
3=A2 an hour. Nike contract workers putting in 11 to 15 hours a
day are earning 20=A2 to 22=A2 an hour. Some women sewing Nike bags
are making as little as 8=A2 an hour. Workers making Huffy bikes,
Timberland shoes, Alpine car stereos, and RCA televisions are
earning as little as 22=A2 to 27=A2 an hour =AD well below a living
wage.
Before the PNTR vote, corporations should be asked to release their
plans for new factories in China so the public and Congress can
consider the PNTR issue with full knowledge of the consequences of
passage.
If the Chinese were to benefit from PNTR, the issue might be more
complicated. But it is not the case that further opening to the
United States and the West will bring prosperity and good times to
China.
The phase-out of price supports and protections for farmers will
throw 10 million peasants off the land, according to Chinese
government estimates. Competition from foreign businesses will
likely lead to a wave of state company layoffs, downsizing, and
bankruptcies, throwing millions more out of work and undermining
the social protections that many Chinese companies now provide to
their employees.
Passage of PNTR will also eliminate a crucial lever in the advancement
of democracy and human rights in China. Wei Jingsheng, one of
China's leading democracy activists, explains that the annual
congressional review of China's human rights record plays an
absolutely crucial role in restraining the Beijing government from
committing even more egregious human rights abuses.
Listening to Wei should put to rest the fallacious claims of PNTR
proponents that removing pressure on the Chinese government will
somehow improve its human rights practices.
Many of these basic facts are not in dispute.
If PNTR passes Congress, it will not be because of proponents'
substantive arguments. It will be because the Chamber of Commerce,
the National Association of Manufacturers, the Business Roundtable,
the insurance industry, the auto makers, and many other groups that
donated enough money, hired enough lobbyists, paid for enough
advertising, and =AD in combination with the Republican congressional
leadership and the Clinton White House =AD twisted enough arms and
cut enough deals.
If PNTR is defeated, as it should be, it will be because labor,
consumer, environmental, human rights, and other citizen groups
joined together to refuse to let the China lobby steamroll Congress.
The key vote in the House of Representatives may be as early as
May 25. To see how you can help stop PNTR, see www.tradewatch.org.
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