wallstreetjournaleurope_20170111_The_Wall_Street_Journal___Europe

A6| Wednesday, January 11, 2017 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

cally dangerous” to equate

China’s current policy of in-

tervening to defend its ex-

change rate with interven-

tions to devalue the yuan to

gain an unfair advantage in

trade, a charge made repeat-

edly during the 2016 cam-

paign by Mr. Trump and his

advisers.

The departing Treasury

secretary further warned

against steps that would

prompt China to withdraw its

support for tougher sanctions

against North Korea. “If you

want economic pressure to

work on North Korea, China’s

cooperation is a key part of it.

The alternative to economic

pressure can get pretty scary,”

he said.

Mr. Lew said Chinese offi-

cials have been frequently

swayed by legitimate criticism

of their economic policy, in-

cluding his sharp critique of

the way Beijing communicated

an exchange-rate-policy

change that allowed the yuan

to depreciate by nearly 2% in

August 2015.

“They respect candid and

intellectually sound criticism.

Where I think they bridle is

when they feel that they’re be-

ing caricatured or where facts

are being ignored,” said Mr.

Lew, who will conclude a four-

year term as Treasury secre-

tary on Jan. 20.

He said the administration’s

recognition that China isn’t in-

tervening to devalue its cur-

rency but rather to defend its

exchange rate has boosted

Washington’s credibility to

push China to address other

trade concerns, including ex-

cess steel capacity and access

to foreign investment.

“We used language describ-

ing China that was pretty

tough in our currency reports

and have been careful to mod-

ulate it as their behavior has

changed,” he said.

WASHINGTON—Treasury

Secretary Jacob Lew warned

that ignoring recent steps by

Beijing to liberalize its econ-

omy would endanger Chinese

cooperation on other major

geopolitical issues, particu-

larly containing North Korea’s

nuclear program.

President-elect Donald

Trump has promised to de-

clare China a currency manip-

ulator when the Treasury De-

partment issues its next

semiannual foreign-exchange

report in April, which would

be the first of several steps for

the administration to slap

China with many tariffs.

Mr. Trump, a Republican,

has already drawn complaints

from Chinese officials by

breaching diplomatic protocol

when he spoke with the Tai-

wanese president, a step that

also broke with the tradition

of a hands-off role for the in-

coming president on foreign

policy.

In an interview with The

Wall Street Journal, Mr. Lew

said China’s steps to defend its

currency over the past 18

months show Beijing has

moved away from using its

currency to seek an unfair

trading advantage. The Trea-

sury’s most recent currency

report, issued in October,

sharply toned down its criti-

cism of China and other Asian

export giants.

While the yuan has depreci-

ated over the past year

against the dollar as its econ-

omy has slowed, Beijing has

spent heavily to prevent the

currency from falling further.

China’s steady appreciation of

the yuan over the last decade

has pushed it to levels the In-

ternational Monetary Fund

said are generally in line with

market fundamentals.

Mr. Lew said it is “analyti-

BYNICKTIMIRAOS

Treasury Chief Urges

Prudent Policy on China

Former Sen. Dan Coats donated $25,000 to five members of the panel weighing his nomination.

ALBIN LOHR-JONES/CNP/ZUMA PRESS

International Airport, Gen.

Kelly could also face questions

about security in open areas of

airports, including baggage

claims.

Gen. Kelly’s last job was as

chief of the U.S. Southern

Command, the division of the

Armed Forces that oversees

activities south of Mexico, in-

cluding Central America, South

America and the Caribbean.

The post involved monitor-

ing drug trafficking and other

illicit smuggling activity.

He also oversaw operations

at the detention center at

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and

commanded U.S. troops in

Iraq.

self at the forefront of efforts

to deport illegal immigrants

from Mexico and block the en-

try of some Mideast refugees,

should Mr. Trump act on

pledges he made during the

campaign.

Mr. Kelly could face ques-

tions about a possible shift by

DHS under Mr. Trump to a

tougher strategy from its cur-

rent approach to counterter-

rorism, which includes devel-

oping close relationships with

leaders of Muslim communi-

ties and other immigrant

groups in an effort to deter do-

mestic threats.

After last week’s shooting

at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood

has support from both parties.

“My impression with him

when I met with him is, this is

somebody who wants to serve

the public and who is apolitical

and not an ideologue, and that

was reassuring to me,” said

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.),

the top Democrat on the

Homeland Security and Gov-

ernmental Affairs panel, which

is considering Gen. Kelly’s

nomination.

The Department of Home-

land Security includes the two

main agencies focusing on im-

migration—Immigration and

Customs Enforcement (ICE)

and Customs and Border Pro-

tection. So DHS could find it-

A Senate panel was set to
consider the nomination of re-
tired Marine Gen. John Kelly
to run the Department of
Homeland Security , a hearing
expected to focus on how he
would approach one of Presi-
dent-elect Donald Trump’s sig-
nature platforms—securing
the U.S.-Mexico border.
Gen. Kelly is one of more
than a half-dozen nominees to
be considered by Senate com-
mittees Tuesday and Wednes-
day. Democrats are planning to
mount strong opposition to
many of Mr. Trump’s nomi-
nees, but Mr. Kelly generally

BYARUNAVISWANATHA

Senate to Hear DHS Nominee Kelly

tions of a colleague who has

served alongside us in the Sen-

ate for 20 years,” Mr. Grassley

said. “We know him well.”

Sarah Isgur Flores, a

spokeswoman for Mr. Sessions,

said the senator has long sup-

ported the Republican Party.

“So it’s no surprise that he has

supported his Republican col-

leagues on the committee that

he chaired and has served on

for two decades,” she said.

Mr. Coats—Mr. Trump’s

nominee for director of na-

tional intelligence who retired

from the Senate this year—

through his leadership PAC has

donated $25,000 to five mem-

bers of the Senate Select Com-

mittee on Intelligence, which

will conduct his confirmation

hearing.

Spokesmen for Messrs.

Coats, Price, Pompeo and Mul-

vaney didn’t immediately re-

spond to requests for com-

ment.

“When you give, they do

whatever the hell you want

them to do,” Mr. Trump said of

politicians in an interview

with The Wall Street Journal

in July 2015.

His nominees collectively

gave more than $10.5 million

to his campaign and allied su-

per PACs during the election.

Mr. Sessions, Mr. Trump’s

nominee for attorney general,

through his leadership PAC has

donated $42,500 to seven of

the eight Republican senators

on the Senate Judiciary Com-

mittee. Before his nomination,

Mr. Sessions had long sat on

the committee.

In the 2016 election cycle,

Mr. Sessions directed $7,500 to

the committee’s chairman,

Sen. Charles Grassley (R.,

Iowa), who opened Tues-

day’s hearing by acknowledg-

ing the existing relationships.

“We’re here today to review

the character and qualifica-

to think that the Senate con-

firmation hearings are about

truly determining whether

these people are qualified for

the job, not just about reward-

ing contributors.”

The donations to committee

members aren’t confined to

Mr. Trump’s nominees who

have served in Congress.

Betsy DeVos, Mr. Trump’s

pick for education secretary,

has together with her relatives

in the past two cycles donated

more than $220,000 to five

senators on the Committee on

Health, Education, Labor and

Pensions, which will conduct

her confirmation hearing, ac-

cording to campaign financial

disclosure records.

Mr. Trump has drawn criti-

cism for nominating to serve

in his administration several

top donors to his own cam-

paign, after saying that as

president he wouldn’t be be-

holden to wealthy backers.

odically interrupting the pro-

ceedings, shouting, “No

Trump! No KKK!” They were

each soon escorted out by

Capitol Police.

Mr. Sessions said allega-

tions that he is sympathetic to

groups such as the Ku Klux

Klan or is otherwise racially

biased are “damnably false.”

The issue of race has hovered

over the selection of Mr. Ses-

sions to be the nation’s top

law-enforcement officer, in

part because his 1986 nomina-

tion to be a federal judge was

rejected amid racial concerns.

Mr. Sessions, 70 years old,

said in his opening remarks

that as a prosecutor he had

forcefully pushed the prosecu-

tion of KKK members accused

of killing a young black man,

successfully advocating the

death penalty for one of them.

The KKK has been an issue for

Mr. Sessions because at his

1986 hearing, he was asked

about allegations that he had

told a black federal prosecutor

in Alabama who had worked

for him that the group “was

O.K. until I found out they

smoked pot.”

Mr. Sessions suggested at

that 1986 hearing that his

comment wasn’t meant to be

taken seriously and that it was

“ludicrous” to think he sup-

ported the group.

In Tuesday’s hearing, re-

sponding to another allegation

that has been made, Mr. Ses-

sions said he had never de-

clared that the NAACP was un-

American. He said he was

simply warning that the group

could be perceived that way,

given its support for Latin

American communist groups.

Mr. Sessions also faced a

contentious exchange with

Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.)

who suggested the nominee

exaggerated the degree to

which he worked on some sig-

U.S. NEWS

nificant prosecutions of civil-

rights cases, based on what

some lawyers in those cases

have said. “Our country needs

an attorney general who

doesn’t misrepresent or in-

flate,” Mr. Franken said.

Mr. Sessions reiterated that

he played a major role in

those cases.

The senator, who has been

one of the chamber’s loudest

critics of illegal immigration,

said that Mr. Trump no longer

wants a ban on all Muslims

but that “the focus should be

on individuals coming from

countries that have a history

of terrorism.”

“I do not support the idea

that Muslims as a religious

group should be denied admis-

sion to the United States,” Mr.

Sessions said.

Mr. Sessions cited as a rea-

son he wouldn’t take part in

any further action against

Mrs. Clinton some of his com-

ments during the campaign.

The federal probe into her use

of a private email server while

secretary of state was closed

last year, though James

Comey, the head of the Federal

Bureau of Investigation, has

said the FBI would consider

any new information that sur-

faced.

Within the FBI, some

agents also have spent more

than a year probing the finan-

cial relationships of the Clin-

ton Foundation charity, to see

if donations were tied to influ-

ence-peddling while Mrs. Clin-

ton was secretary of state, but

Justice Department officials

rebuffed their efforts to ex-

pand that investigation.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, the nom-
inee to be U.S. attorney gen-
eral, forcefully rejected accu-
sations that he has racist
views, and he departed from
several of President-elect Don-
ald Trump’s campaign stances
during a Senate confirmation
hearing that drew tough ques-
tioning from Democrats.
Mr. Sessions, a Republican
from Alabama, said he doesn’t
support a ban on Muslims
from entering the U.S., as Mr.
Trump once proposed, and
that the use of waterboarding
was illegal under current law.
The president-elect has advo-
cated using that practice more
frequently on terror suspects.
The nominee also said he
wouldn’t serve as a rubber
stamp for the incoming ad-
ministration and would recuse
himself on any pending inves-
tigation into Mr. Trump’s op-
ponent from the campaign,
Democrat Hillary Clinton. “You
have to say ‘no’ some-
times...for the good of the
country,” Mr. Sessions said at
the start of the hearing on
Tuesday, which is set to ele-
vate one of the most conserva-
tive members of Congress to
run the Justice Department.
Issues of race frequently
came up during the morning
session, with protesters peri-

BYARUNAVISWANATHA
ANDDEVLINBARRETT

Sessions Denies He Has Racist Views

In U.S. Senate hearing,

nominee for attorney

general departs from

some Trump stances

Sen. Jeff Sessions testifies during his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday. He was one first lawmakers to endorse Donald Trump.

CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES

President-elect Donald
Trump’s cabinet nominees in-
clude several who have finan-
cially backed the same people
now charged with determining
if they are qualified for their
new posts.
Five of Mr. Trump’s nomi-
nees—Sen. Jeff Sessions, Reps.
Tom Price, Mike Pompeo and
Mick Mulvaney, and former
Sen. Dan Coats—have collec-
tively donated about $106,
to senators sitting on the com-
mittees conducting their con-
firmation hearings, according
to a Wall Street Journal analy-
sis of Federal Election Com-
mission data for the past six
years.
The donations were made
through the lawmakers’ lead-
ership PACs, committees cre-
ated most often by current and
former members of Congress
to help them raise their pro-
files and curry favor with their
colleagues.
The donations aren’t with-
out precedent—John Kerry,
President Barack Obama’s
nominee for secretary of state
in 2013, had previously chaired
the Senate committee tasked
with confirming him and do-
nated to its members. Still,
they show the potential for
conflicts as confirmation hear-
ings begin.
“We have a president-elect
who talked about understand-
ing that contributions buy
something,” said Larry Noble,
general counsel with the Cam-
paign Legal Center, which ad-
vocates for reducing the influ-
ence of money in politics. “So
it’s disturbing that you then
have people being nominated
for these high-level cabinet
positions who have made con-
tributions to senators who
have to confirm them.”
Mr. Noble added: “You want

BYREBECCABALLHAUS

Nominees Contributed to Senators

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Beijing respects candid criticism.

SHAWN THEW/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

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