It has been just over a quarter century since former President Bill Clinton signed legislation which granted China permanent normal trading relations (PNTR).

While Clinton and a number of experts promised that the move would "open opportunities at home," one senator says the evidence has exposed those claims as false.

PNTR had high-level support

That was the argument put forward by Indiana Republican Sen. Jim Banks in an op-ed piece published by Breitbart late last week.

Banks recalled how "the world's 'expert class' all predicted PNTR would be an economic gift for American workers and industry," with one example being former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

Summers told Capitol Hill lawmakers in May of 2000, "On this issue there has been only one answer: that welcoming China into the global economic system is right for the American economy and for the global economy."

That same month saw similar remarks from Gene Sperling, who would go on to become an economic adviser to Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Predications that China would open up failed to materialize

Sperling suggested in a speech to the Committee for Economic Development that more trade with China would lead to reforms in that country's authoritarian system.

"The question is whether passage of PNTR will make positive change in China more or less likely. We believe it will make positive change more likely," he declared.

Yet Banks pointed out how "China’s economy did not become freer" as "American companies that expanded their operations in China fell victim to rampant intellectual property theft, censorship, and oppressive regulation."

"China didn’t transform into that liberal democracy we were promised," the senator noted. "China's respect for human rights only worsened, America’s trade deficit exploded as China deepened its unfair trade practices."

China has risen as the U.S. manufacturing sector declined

What's more, Banks pointed to China's rise as an economic power even as America's manufacturing sector experienced decline.

"Nearly 25 years ago, China was responsible for roughly 8% of the world’s manufacturing output. But by 2020 that number had reached nearly 30 percent," the lawmaker wrote.

He also highlighted "[a]nalysis from the Coalition for a Prosperous America estimates that China’s unfair trade practices cost almost 80,000 manufacturing jobs in Indiana between 2001 and 2023."

"I’m glad that we finally have a president who is serious about putting an end to China’s free ride at the American worker’s expense," Banks wrote as he drew to a close, adding that President Donald Trump is "putting our country and workers first."