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October 25, 2007
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., on Wednesday said Gov. Phil Bredesen may want to tone down some of his enthusiasm for China and acknowledge its dismal record on human rights, foreign affairs, religious freedom and economic disparity.
"I wonder if maybe governors should receive national security briefings before traveling to places like China," Rep. Wamp wrote in a column titled "Free Trade with Free People."
"China continues to build up its military complex with unacceptable trade imbalances, exporting contaminated fish and defective toys (and) treating its citizens like third world people, while marketing itself as a showplace of the industrialized world," he wrote. "Respectfully, Gov. Bredesen, proceed with caution."
For the past week and a half, Gov. Bredesen, a Democrat, has led a 78-member state trade delegation to Japan and China, and he has written about his travels in mostly positive dispatches published by several state newspapers, including the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Among the delegation are Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey and Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce Vice President Trevor Hamilton.
Lydia Lenker, spokeswoman for Gov. Bredesen, referred questions directly to the governor, who was not immediately available due to the time difference in China.
The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce declined comment.
Rep. Wamp said he was particularly struck by one of the governor's dispatches from Shanghai, published Saturday, which marveled at the city's vibrant commercial district on the Huangpu River.
"China intends to be the richest country in the world someday," Gov. Bredesen wrote. "(I) had the fantasy for a moment that we could bring the whole Congress over here. ... I have enough faith to believe that they might go home and push down the gamesmanship that has taken over and start figuring out what to do about this."
In an interview, Rep. Wamp said China's transgressions in human rights, crackdown on political dissent, reluctance to pressure Sudan to end its Darfur genocide and saber-rattling toward Taiwan and Tibet make the country unworthy of its most-favored-nation trading status with the United States.
China recently criticized the United States for awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama.
"With all due respect to the governor, we need a balanced picture that casts in the proper terms where China is," Rep. Wamp said. "In my view, we need to demand more of China in human rights, individual liberty, freedom of the press. They've got a lot of questions to answer to the world if they want to be part of the world economy."
Though he has not visited China himself, Rep. Wamp said he has been extensively briefed about the country, and several of his staffers have visited.
"I think (China) wants all the benefits of capitalism but not the responsibility that goes with it," he said.
Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield, who has gone on trade missions to China on behalf of the city, acknowledged the challenges the country faces but said it is improving.
"China does continue to face some issues, such as the recent toy recall that Representative Wamp is referring to," Mr. Littlefield said. "But they are learning how to deal with these problems as they continue to emerge."
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