Congressional Calls for Trade Sanctions Protested by China
The Foreign Ministry called in the U.S. ambassador today and accused Congress of deliberately trying to undermine relations with China by calling for new trade sanctions.
The official New China News Agency said Liu Huaqiu, an assistant to Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, expressed China’s indignation and delivered a strong protest to Ambassador James Lilley.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, issued a separate protest charging that Congress “willfully distorted the facts about China’s efforts to put an end to turmoil and quell the counterrevolutionary rebellion in Beijing.”
The House of Representatives and the Senate separately approved legislative amendments calling for a range of sanctions in addition to President Bush’s previous halt to military sales and high-level exchanges.
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