ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the ways that realist, utilitarian, and deontological modes of moral reasoning have affected the ebb and flow of the most favored nation (MFN) debate in the 1990s. Supporters of MFN status included most realists, a few utilitarians, and conservative deontologists. Social liberals such as Representative Nancy Pelosi doubt that increasing trade while merely voicing disapproval of China's human rights policy will do anything but convince China's rulers that trade is the only aspect of policy that really matters to the United States. Many values conservatives in Congress have concluded that the Chinese government must be put on notice to change its human rights policy. In the period from 1990 to 1993, the Senate was more willing than the House to accept President Bush's argument that ending MFN trade status for China would be ineffective in pushing the Chinese government to respect civil and political rights.
