Clinton Begins Fight Over China Trade Status

President Clinton announced Monday that he will renew China’s trading privileges despite its human rights abuses, opening what promises to be a fractious, summer-long fight in Congress complicated by campaign fund-raising improprieties and the impending Chinese takeover of Hong Kong.

The annual decision to extend most favored nation status to the world’s last major Communist power has provoked heated debate in Washington for years, but it appears exceptionally volatile this year amid increasingly vocal opposition.

Even Clinton acknowledged that the matter has become more controversial. He predicted “a big debate in the Congress,” where critics will try to overrule the president’s determination.

Although he has Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., on his side, Clinton is in danger of losing the House, according to several key members in both camps, throwing the issue to the Senate, where the sentiment in past years has favored trade with China.

In the end, few believe China’s critics will be able to muster the two-thirds majorities needed to override a certain Clinton veto, but the White House wants to avoid having such a bill reach the president’s desk in the first place. By sticking with China, Clinton opens himself to criticism that Chinese campaign money may be influencing U.S. policy.