The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“CONSTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENT OR APPEASEMENT” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H6433 on June 18, 1996.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
CONSTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENT OR APPEASEMENT
(Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, we are told that the United States of America is engaged in a policy of constructive engagement with the gerontocracy that runs China. We have just completed our second annual negotiations to allow the Chinese to continue to pirate over $2 billion a year in intellectual property rights from American companies. There is no change; they are still producing those disks today.
Yes, there was a little show of closing down a few, but that will not last. We are going to run a $41 billion deficit with China, the most unfair trading nation on Earth, the most protectionist society on Earth. That means, according to our own Commerce Department's numbers we are going to lose 800,000 jobs to the unfair trade practices of the People's Republic of China.
At some point the policy of constructive engagement starts to look an awful lot like appeasement, and we all know how effective the policy of appeasement was in dealing with Hitler's Third Reich.
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