In 2000, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to grant China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status, with a vote of 237 to 197, but the move was hotly contested by some lawmakers, including Nancy Pelosi, whose impassioned speech surfaced recently.
This decision was influenced by the high-technology industry’s strong support, as both the Bush and Clinton administrations advocated for the move.
President Clinton, in his final State of the Union address on January 27, 2000, stated, “Our markets are already open to China. This agreement will open China’s markets to us. And it will advance the cause of peace in Asia and promote the cause of change in China.”
Opposition came from several quarters, including members of both parties concerned about China’s human rights record and national security implications.
House Republicans who voted against PNTR included Representatives Dana Rohrabacher (California), Dan Burton (Indiana), and Joe Scarborough (Florida), who now hosts MSNBC’s morning show. Democratic opponents were Representatives Nancy Pelosi (California), Cynthia McKinney (Georgia), and Pete Stark (California).
New Jersey’s Representatives Frank Pallone and Chris Smith also voted against the measure and they continue to represent New Jersey’s 6th and 4th congressional districts, respectively.
Among current members of Congress who were serving in the House at the time of the 2000 vote, Representative Nancy Pelosi is now the Speaker Emerita of the House.
Joe Scarborough, who served as a Republican Representative from Florida, is no longer in Congress and is known for hosting MSNBC’s morning show. Cynthia McKinney, who represented Georgia’s 4th congressional district, is no longer serving in Congress. Dan Burton (Indiana) and Pete Stark (California) have also left Congress. Representatives Dana Rohrabacher (California) and Chris Smith (New Jersey) are still serving in the House.
In the Senate, the measure passed with a vote of 83 in favor, 15 against, and 2 not voting.
At that time, current Senators Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) and Chuck Grassley (Iowa) were serving in the House and both voted for granting China the status.
In a pointed speech before the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi delivered a strong critique of the Republican-led push to grant China “Most Favored Nation” status, a move that was backed by many neoliberal Democrats but fiercely opposed by the party’s rank-and-file working-class base.
Pelosi, representing the growing concerns of blue-collar Americans who had borne the brunt of job losses and wage stagnation, warned that the economic consequences of such a decision would be devastating for American workers.
At the heart of the debate was a $34 billion trade deficit with China, a number that had risen sharply in just a few years and threatened to spiral further out of control if the Republicans and their corporate allies in Congress had their way. The U.S. goods trade deficit with China was $295.4 billion in 2024
Pelosi pointed to this imbalance as an unmistakable indicator that granting China such privileges was not only bad for American workers, but also a betrayal of the very principles of fair trade.
Pelosi was unambiguous about the motivations behind the push for more trade with China. For Republicans, the allure of expanding business opportunities in one of the world’s largest markets was too tempting to resist.
In their eyes, more trade meant more profits, and the free-market philosophy that guided their policies was built on the idea that opening markets—no matter how unfair—would lead to greater prosperity for all.
Neoliberal Democrats, eager to maintain an image of economic progressivism, joined this chorus, arguing that deeper economic integration with China would eventually lead to positive change in the country’s repressive system, despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
But for Pelosi, this view ignored the real-world consequences of trade with a regime that not only violated the human rights of its own people, but also undermined U.S. industries with predatory economic practices.
It was not just the loss of manufacturing jobs that should have raised alarms—it was the systematic exploitation of American intellectual property, the forced technology transfers, and the near-impossible conditions for U.S. businesses trying to operate in China.
Pelosi’s sharpest criticisms were directed at those in power who seemed willing to turn a blind eye to the brutal repression of political dissidents and the growing evidence of China’s involvement in the proliferation of dangerous technologies.
“How much more repression, how much more job loss, and how much more danger from nuclear proliferation do we have to tolerate before we say enough?” Pelosi asked, echoing the frustration of working-class Americans who were being sold out by an economic elite that prioritized corporate profits over the well-being of ordinary people.
The real divide in this debate, Pelosi pointed out, was not simply between Republicans and Democrats—it was between the corporate class and the working class, between those who stood to profit from expanded trade with China and those who had already seen the devastating effects of such policies.
She railed against the trade deficit, which she argued was growing not because of a lack of American exports to China, but because China had been allowed to flood U.S. markets with cheap, often substandard goods while closing its own doors to American products.
Pelosi pointed out that China’s tariffs on American goods were 35%, compared to a minuscule 2% tariff on Chinese imports to the U.S., a situation that was nothing short of a one-way street for trade.
The rank-and-file Democrats, many of whom came from industrial regions devastated by factory closures and outsourcing, saw through the rhetoric of free trade. They knew that China’s economic rise came at the expense of their jobs, their communities, and their future. Pelosi voiced their concerns loud and clear, framing the issue as one of fairness and national security.
“If we’re exporting technology to China, we’re not just exporting goods—we’re exporting jobs, and we’re exporting our future,” she warned. The economic harm was not limited to the loss of jobs; the U.S. was losing its technological edge to a country that was shamelessly pilfering American innovation and using it to bolster its own economy, often in industries like aerospace and automotive manufacturing.
For Pelosi, this was not just a matter of economics—it was a matter of principle.
She stressed that the United States should not be in the business of rewarding a regime that brutally repressed its own people and engaged in rampant intellectual property theft. She decried the notion that economic ties could somehow improve China’s human rights record or that trade with such a regime could ever be considered “fair.”
As she noted, when it came to China, the deck was stacked against American workers: U.S. factories were forced to build operations in China where workers were paid pennies a day, only for their technologies to be stolen and used against them.
In this context, Pelosi warned that the push to grant China Most Favored Nation status was not just bad economics—it was a fundamental betrayal of American workers and the values they held dear. It was a decision driven by corporate interests and a blind faith in the free-market ideology, but it was a decision that had already caused immense harm to the American middle class.
Her speech was a direct challenge to those in power who were so eager to expand trade with China without regard for the human costs, or the toll on American workers who were already struggling to make ends meet. Pelosi made it clear: the working-class base of the Democratic Party would not stand for it, and neither should the rest of the nation.