Vigil Sends the Message: No Blank Check for China!

On the eve of the most important trade vote this Congress will cast—whether to grant China permanent Normal Trade Relations (NTR) and eliminate annual U.S. review of China's human and workers' rights record—more than 500 trade unionists, environmentalists, human rights activists, people of faith and members of Congress rallied Tuesday on the East steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. They had a simple message for the U.S. House of Representatives: "No Blank Check for China."

"Ours is a stand for principle, a stand for human rights around the world, a stand for good jobs and a stand to make the global economy work just as well for working families as it does for major corporations and capital," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told the crowd.

Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.), House minority whip and one of the leading critics of permanent NTR, told rally participants that the grassroots movement they have built was close to achieving victory.

"It's common knowledge that, over these past few weeks, powerful corporate interests have spent a king's ransom in hopes of passing their trade deal with China. And yet, at this moment, only hours before the vote, we are within striking distance of defeating it," he said.

Former Chinese political prisoner Harry Wu, a committed human rights activist, urged congressional members to "vote your conscience, not just for profit." When Chinese workers are allowed to organize their unions and speak freely, he said, then—and only then—should the United States normalize trade relations with China.

China's continued brutal repression of religious freedom should convince wavering House members to vote no on permanent NTR, said Dr. Thom White Wolfe Fassett, general secretary of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church.

"The government of the People's Republic of China and its ruling Communist party continue to discriminate against, harass, jail and torture people on the basis of their religious belief," he said.

The great majority of Americans oppose permanent NTR for China without the annual congressional review of human rights, according to a recent survey by Harris Interactive for Business Week and a Peter D. Hart Research Associates survey for the AFL-CIO. Steelworkers President George Becker told activists at the vigil, "If they [Congress] would vote what their constituents want, there would be no doubt about the outcome."

Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), an AFT member, had words of advice for the Chinese government: "If they want normal trade relations, let them treat their people normally."

"We cannot relinquish our only economic leverage against a country that offers up its people as sacrifices to multinational corporations, then persecutes them, puts them in prison and even puts them to death when they protest," Sweeney said.