China Could Be Partisan Issue, Democrats Say

The Bush Administration is refusing to let any of its senior officials testify to Congress next week about its policy toward China, congressional Democrats complained Wednesday, raising the possibility that China could become a partisan issue for the first time in nearly a decade.

The Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Asia sought repeatedly to have an Administration witness appear at a hearing next week on U.S.-China relations. It was told that only a career State Department official, and no Administration policy-makers, would be available.

Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), the panel’s chairman, attacked the Administration’s effort to avoid testifying about China.

“I am concerned that traditional bipartisan support for U.S. policy toward China will be in danger if the Administration continues to refuse to testify,” Cranston said. “In President Bush’s press conference (Tuesday), he alluded to unspecified steps the Administration is considering in its policy toward China. We’d like to hear them.”

Bush Administration officials have said this fall that they hope to attract as little public attention as possible toward their China policies. Over the last few months, the Administration has begun to ease up on some of the sanctions that it imposed when the Chinese regime in June cracked down brutally on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing. Last month, for example, it permitted Chinese military officers to return to work on a major arms project in the United States.

A State Department spokesman asserted Wednesday that the problem with supplying an Administration witness was merely a matter of logistics.

“Given the schedules of senior State Department officials, the department is not able to provide a witness at every hearing at the level requested and often provides authoritative witnesses other than those specifically sought. This is a common practice,” the spokesman said.

The subcommittee originally had invited Richard H. Solomon, assistant secretary of state for Asia, to testify on China policy. But Cranston said that the panel would have been satisfied with any Administration policy-maker. The State Department said that the only available witness would be the Foreign Service officer in charge of the department’s China desk.