LETTERS: TRADE WITH CHINA IS BAD POLICY

To the editor:

There are a great number of people who oppose unlimited trade with China. They have various reasons for this, and any reason is valid. But I can't help thinking that the prevailing reason may be the wrong one. Most people use human rights as their objection. When you give it more thought, you will see that the Chinese government's murder of protesting citizens in Tiananmen Square is exactly like our government's actions in Waco, Ruby Ridge and several more less-publicized ones. So maybe we should turn our energies toward stopping these human rights violations in our own country before telling some other country they should stop theirs.

The main reasons that I can see for stopping senseless trade with China:

No. 1: The balance-of-trade deficit. This figure is approaching $60 billion with China. That means that $60 billion has left the United States and wound up in the pockets of the Chinese. Our total balance of payments with all our so-called trading partners is around $200 billion. With all the homeless and hungry people here in our country, I think the $200 billion could be better spent at home.

No. 2: China is buying ware materiel and technology that will enable it to produce its own. In return, we are getting from them mostly cheap junk that will hardly last any longer than it takes to get it home. We should learn a lesson from World War II. The United States furnished Japan with the materiel to build up its war machine so it could attack us and kill thousands of U.S. soldiers with weapons that had been furnished to them by greedy American traders. The same thing will happen with China. It is said that only fools make the same mistake twice.

No. 3: Last, but not least, it's the rich who are benefiting from this trade, and it is the working people who are losing. The rich have plenty of advantages over the poor that they don't need government help to get richer while the poor get poorer. Every member of Congress who voted for a most-favored-nation status as a trading partner for China should be replaced by someone who will be more responsive to the well-being of the majority of our citizens.

RAY UMBDENSTOCK

Cape Girardeau