Lawmakers Target China Trade Status

By CAROLYN SKORNECK, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - China's new normal trade status with the United States could be on the congressional chopping block as lawmakers vent their anger over China's refusal to free 24 crew members of a U.S. spy plane damaged in a collision with a Chinese jet fighter.

Lawmakers rejected either a violent confrontation or a U.S. apology for the incident - Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott dismissed the idea of an apology as ``absolutely ludicrous.''

But some in Congress may back out of a planned China trip scheduled to start Saturday. And the trade status was up for grabs.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (news - bio - voting record), R-Calif., who opposed granting China permanent normal trade relations last year, introduced a bill Wednesday to revoke it.

``A favored trading partner with our country would follow proper protocol and not continue to hold our service men and women, along with our equipment, after being asked for their return,'' said Hunter, who wrote the bill with Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo.

Chinese Ambassador Yang Jiechi said trade sanctions would hurt both countries, telling PBS' ``Newshour with Jim Lehrer'': ``Trade relations serve mutual interests. It's not a one-way street.''

Most of the Hunter bill's two dozen co-sponsors are Republican, and most voted last year against the law to end Congress' annual review of whether to extend China's normal trade status and to make it permanent instead.

Congress could end up dealing with the issue even if the repeal legislation goes nowhere. That's because the benefits flow to China only when it joins the World Trade Organization (news - web sites), and negotiations leading to that entry are bogged down.

If China isn't in the WTO by June, the Bush administration will have to decide whether to extend trade benefits for another year. That could trigger a battle in Congress.

``If the current situation continues much longer, I don't see how members of Congress could possibly vote to give China an extension of trade privileges,'' said Rep. Spencer Bachus (news - bio - voting record), R-Ala., a free-trade advocate who supported last year's law.

Meanwhile, nine senators and 13 House members planning to take an eight-day Aspen Institute trip to China may be reconsidering.

``I think everyone is weighing their options,'' said Sen. Patty Murray (news - bio - voting record), D-Wash., who met Wednesday with Ambassador Yang.

They met three years ago when Murray's father died while she was in China. Yang, then head of the foreign ministry's North American affairs bureau, came to her hotel room to express China's condolences. The personal relationship continues, she said.

``I told him that it was very important for all of us that our men and women be returned home'' to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in her state, she said.

Sen. Bob Graham (news - bio - voting record), D-Fla., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said despite numerous recent incidents, including China's detentions of scholars with U.S. ties, there appeared no likelihood the spy-plane impasse will go beyond diplomatic, and perhaps economic, pressure.

``We're not going to go to war over any of these instances,'' Graham said.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Answers

I am going to war!! Maybe not with WMD, but with my US$. DO NOT BUY CHINESE.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001