Six years ago, at least one thousand Chinese demonstrating for democratic reforms were killed in Beijing by the People’s Liberation Army. Another 300 were killed in Chengdu. Prior to these instances, nearly one million Chinese were killed at the hands of mobs incited by Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution.

Sentencing without trial, execution without appeal, forced labor and the extraction of confessions by torture have been and still are common in the P.R.C. (People’s Republic of China). It is denied by the P.R.C. that it punishes people for their political beliefs. Rather, it punishes “counter-revolutionaries.”

Even greater crimes have been committed by the P.R.C. against the people of Tibet. Since its crackdown on the occupied nation of Tibet in 1959, the P.R.C. has killed more than one million Tibetans via warfare, execution and starvation. This constitutes a significant proportion of Tibet’s small population.

Attempts by the P.R.C. to free Tibet of the allegedly oppressive influence of Buddhism have resulted in the destruction of more than 6,000 monasteries. The killing of these monks and nuns is more heinous than the killing of civilians, or even pacifists. Fundamental to the religious life of the Buddhist monk or nun is the moral precept that they are not to take life, even animal life, even in self-defense.

These abuses continue today, and the United States is doing almost nothing to bring them to an end.

When Clinton came into power, it seemed possible the U.S. would reverse the amoral policy of the Bush Administration which saw trade with the P.R.C. as more important than the lives and freedoms of the Chinese and Tibetan people.

Clinton quickly threatened that the most-favored-nation trade status of the P.R.C. would not be renewed unless there were significant improvements in its human rights practices. In May of 1994, with

the deadline approaching for a

decision regarding the trade status of the P.R.C., two human rights organizations released reports documenting nearly 500 previously unknown cases of imprisonment resulting from the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Under pressure from U.S. businesses, as well as from legislators like Jim Ross Lightfoot [R-IA] and Jim Leach [R-IA], Clinton decided that the trade status of the P.R.C. should not be made contingent upon improvements in its human rights practices. In February of this year, the U.S. State Department released a report concluding that no progress in human rights practices had been made by the P.R.C. in 1994.

It has often been argued that free trade between the U.S. and the P.R.C. is the best way to facilitate greater human rights in China and Tibet. However, recent reports by

a number of human rights organizations have demonstrated that, after nearly two decades of such free trade, human rights violations against Chinese and Tibetans have not decreased. The U.S. has pursued two different avenues in its attempts to stop the oppression of South Africa and the P.R.C. As a result,

the people of South Africa are now free, while Chinese and Tibetans

are not.

Given these considerations, the U.S. should revoke the MFN trade status of the P.R.C. until there is a significant improvement in its human rights practices. The U.S. should also recognize Tibet, which it has never done, as an “occupied sovereign country.”

In the meantime, we should all avoid buying products which have been made in China. It is very likely that a number of these products are made by the forced labor of political prisoners, including those being held for demonstrating in favor of democratic reforms. We should also avoid purchasing merchandise from stores like Jim Lane Leathers (located in North Grand Mall), the majority of whose inventory is imported from the P.R.C.

Tyler Roach is senior in English, philosophy and religious studies from Des Moines.