WASHINGTON—It all started when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), made a gaffe during a televised appearance, calling China’s top leader Hu Jintao a dictator.
During an interview with Jon Ralston on Face To Face, Reid had been discussing the tactics of bipartisan compromise that resulted in lawmakers extending the Bush-era tax cuts last December.
“Jon, I am going to go back to Washington tomorrow and meet with the president of China. He is a dictator,” Reid said. “He can do a lot of things through the form of government they have.”
Reid was comparing the sometimes messy politics of American democracy with the quick decision making achievable through one-party state rule, such as in China.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said dictator,” Reid said in retrospect. “But they have a different type of government than we have, and that is an understatement.”
The two most powerful legislators, Reid, and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), reportedly declined invitations from president Obama to attend the lavish state dinner honoring Hu Jintao on Wednesday night, opting for separate meetings with Hu on Thursday.
During a brief photo op when Reid met Hu just outside the Senate Chamber, CNN’s Dana Bash called out, “Sen. Reid, what do you expect to accomplish from the man you called a ‘dictator?’” reported Politico.
Neither Hu, nor Reid responded to the outburst. The media had been instructed not to ask questions, and that misbehaving would result in being forced to leave, Politico reported.
Newly elected Speaker Boehner, Eric Cantor (R-Va.), and others met with Hu on Thursday for breakfast. After the meeting, Boehner issued a statement highlighting human rights concerns he had raised with Hu.
“We raised our strong, ongoing concerns with reports of human rights violations in China, including the denial of religious freedom, and the use of coercive abortion as a consequence of the ‘one child’ policy,” according to a statement from Boehner’s office.
Reid’s office, on the other hand, played down human rights in favor of a host of issues from Chinese currency concerns to the importance of enhancing investment in tourism and energy in Reid’s home state of Nevada.
While administration officials exercise the careful and sensitive diplomacy of the U.S.-China relationship, Congress has a history of being much more vocal in criticizing and even condemning China on issues ranging from religious persecution to currency manipulation.
In March 2010, a resolution “recognizing the continued persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China ... and calling for an immediate end to the campaign to persecute, intimidate, imprison, and torture Falun Gong practitioners” passed with 412 Ayes and 1 Nay.
Falun Gong is a spiritual practice involving a teaching of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. Since 1999, the Chinese regime has carried out a systematic campaign to eliminate practitioners’ beliefs through force.
House lawmakers drew China’s ire in September when they passed with overwhelming support the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act, which threatened to impose tariffs on Chinese imports in retaliation for the unfair advantage they say China retains by keeping its currency undervalued.
The legislation died with the end of the last session of Congress, but Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) plan to offer similar legislation again this month.
A total of 84 lawmakers from both parties led by Mike Michaud (D-Maine) and Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-Mich.) also sent a letter to Obama on Tuesday expressing their view that “America’s patience is near an end and that we can no longer afford to tolerate China’s disregard for the binding commitments they agreed to as part of their accession to the WTO in 2001.”
“The PRC must stop cheating to compete and start playing by the rules of international commerce,” said McCotter in a statement.
In what surely represents the most strident criticism of the Chinese regime this week, Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said on CNN that Hu is a “gangster,” running a gangster and “ghoulish” government, and that the United States should stop “dealing with these people as if they are Englishmen or Belgians.”
“There has been no liberal reform in China at all,” said Rohrabacher, comparing the developing nation with Russia.
“There is no freedom of speech, there is no freedom of press. There is no freedom of assembly. Anyone that sticks their head up in China, is immediately thrown into prison.”
The congressman, who was also the primary sponsor of the Falun Gong resolution, said, “In China, what you have is an ongoing repression of religion.”
“People like the Falun Gong, who are nothing more than people who believe in yoga and meditation are being thrown into prison by the thousands, and there is all sorts of evidence suggesting that they are being beaten to death in order to steal their organs, and sell their organs.”
“Now it doesn’t get much more ghoulish than this,” he said.
During an interview with Jon Ralston on Face To Face, Reid had been discussing the tactics of bipartisan compromise that resulted in lawmakers extending the Bush-era tax cuts last December.
“Jon, I am going to go back to Washington tomorrow and meet with the president of China. He is a dictator,” Reid said. “He can do a lot of things through the form of government they have.”
Reid was comparing the sometimes messy politics of American democracy with the quick decision making achievable through one-party state rule, such as in China.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said dictator,” Reid said in retrospect. “But they have a different type of government than we have, and that is an understatement.”
The two most powerful legislators, Reid, and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), reportedly declined invitations from president Obama to attend the lavish state dinner honoring Hu Jintao on Wednesday night, opting for separate meetings with Hu on Thursday.
During a brief photo op when Reid met Hu just outside the Senate Chamber, CNN’s Dana Bash called out, “Sen. Reid, what do you expect to accomplish from the man you called a ‘dictator?’” reported Politico.
Neither Hu, nor Reid responded to the outburst. The media had been instructed not to ask questions, and that misbehaving would result in being forced to leave, Politico reported.
Newly elected Speaker Boehner, Eric Cantor (R-Va.), and others met with Hu on Thursday for breakfast. After the meeting, Boehner issued a statement highlighting human rights concerns he had raised with Hu.
“We raised our strong, ongoing concerns with reports of human rights violations in China, including the denial of religious freedom, and the use of coercive abortion as a consequence of the ‘one child’ policy,” according to a statement from Boehner’s office.
Reid’s office, on the other hand, played down human rights in favor of a host of issues from Chinese currency concerns to the importance of enhancing investment in tourism and energy in Reid’s home state of Nevada.
A History of Bold Statements
While administration officials exercise the careful and sensitive diplomacy of the U.S.-China relationship, Congress has a history of being much more vocal in criticizing and even condemning China on issues ranging from religious persecution to currency manipulation.
In March 2010, a resolution “recognizing the continued persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China ... and calling for an immediate end to the campaign to persecute, intimidate, imprison, and torture Falun Gong practitioners” passed with 412 Ayes and 1 Nay.
Falun Gong is a spiritual practice involving a teaching of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. Since 1999, the Chinese regime has carried out a systematic campaign to eliminate practitioners’ beliefs through force.
House lawmakers drew China’s ire in September when they passed with overwhelming support the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act, which threatened to impose tariffs on Chinese imports in retaliation for the unfair advantage they say China retains by keeping its currency undervalued.
The legislation died with the end of the last session of Congress, but Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) plan to offer similar legislation again this month.
A total of 84 lawmakers from both parties led by Mike Michaud (D-Maine) and Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-Mich.) also sent a letter to Obama on Tuesday expressing their view that “America’s patience is near an end and that we can no longer afford to tolerate China’s disregard for the binding commitments they agreed to as part of their accession to the WTO in 2001.”
“The PRC must stop cheating to compete and start playing by the rules of international commerce,” said McCotter in a statement.
Lawmaker: Stop Playing Nice with a Gangster Regime
In what surely represents the most strident criticism of the Chinese regime this week, Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said on CNN that Hu is a “gangster,” running a gangster and “ghoulish” government, and that the United States should stop “dealing with these people as if they are Englishmen or Belgians.”
“There has been no liberal reform in China at all,” said Rohrabacher, comparing the developing nation with Russia.
“There is no freedom of speech, there is no freedom of press. There is no freedom of assembly. Anyone that sticks their head up in China, is immediately thrown into prison.”
The congressman, who was also the primary sponsor of the Falun Gong resolution, said, “In China, what you have is an ongoing repression of religion.”
“People like the Falun Gong, who are nothing more than people who believe in yoga and meditation are being thrown into prison by the thousands, and there is all sorts of evidence suggesting that they are being beaten to death in order to steal their organs, and sell their organs.”
“Now it doesn’t get much more ghoulish than this,” he said.
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