House Supports China Students on 403-0 Vote

The House on Sunday night voted unanimously to allow more than 30,000 Chinese students to stay in the United States indefinitely, despite the strong opposition of the Bush Administration.

The Senate is expected to approve similar legislation this week. The 403-0 vote in the House could deter President Bush from vetoing the legislation, since it reflected a more lopsided sentiment than the two-thirds majority required to override a presidential veto.

Currently, the overwhelming majority of the Chinese students in the United States are required to return home for two years after they finish their studies here. The legislation, originally sponsored by California Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), is aimed at protecting students Congress fears might be punished by the Chinese regime for their support of the pro-democracy movement in China. The students also point out that their political activities here would be curtailed if students face a forced return to their homeland.

Many of the students actively participated in pro-democracy demonstrations in this country, both before and after the army’s massacre of unarmed protesters in the center of Beijing last June 3 and 4.

“Students are in great danger if they go back (to China) at this time,” California Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ojai) said Sunday.

The Bush Administration, however, appears to be reluctant to antagonize the Chinese regime. Administration officials argue that it is in the U.S. interest to have Chinese students return to China, thus providing a core of future leaders who understand this country. They also contend that if the Pelosi bill becomes law, China will retaliate by cutting off future educational exchange programs with the United States.

“We do not want to jeopardize the aspirations of tens of thousands of other scholars now in China to experience the American academic environment, or the desire of thousands of Americans to work and study in the People’s Republic of China,” said the State Department in a memo submitted to Congress last week.

China has reacted with harsh rhetoric to any moves that indicate criticism of the bloody crackdown against supporters of democratic reform. On Sunday, China expressed “utmost indignation” over U.S. sanctions approved last week by the House and Senate.

U.S. Ambassador James R. Lilley was summoned to the Chinese Foreign Ministry to receive the protest from Vice Foreign Minister Liu Huaqiu, U.S. diplomats said.

“Since the Chinese government put down the counterrevolutionary rebellion . . . the U.S. Congress has meddled in China’s internal affairs and stirred up an anti-China wave by adopting one resolution after another on this matter, which is purely the internal affairs of China,” Liu was quoted as saying in state-run media.

The sanctions approved by Congress represent “another escalation of action to further poison” relations between the United States and China, Liu said.

The congressional sanctions include bans on arms sales, police equipment and export of U.S.-made satellites for launch by Chinese rockets. The measures also would suspend nuclear cooperation, liberalization of high-technology exports and a U.S. investment insurance program.

The Bush Administration, which ordered a cutoff of most high-level official contact and suspended military sales to China just after the violent crackdown, originally opposed further sanctions. But it accepted the congressional sanctions after Congress added a clause that permits the President to lift the sanctions whenever he believes it is “in the national interest.”

Liu warned Sunday that if the sanctions bill is not killed, “only the U.S. government . . . will be held responsible for all the serious consequences arising therefrom.”

The bill to allow Chinese students to stay in the United States has also antagonized the Chinese. The bill would apply to all Chinese students who are classified by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service for visa purposes as having come to this country with the official sponsorship of the Chinese government.

About 80% of the 40,000 Chinese students in this country are classified by the INS as government-sponsored. This group includes some Chinese students who obtain tuition and financial help from universities or other private sources rather than the Chinese government, but who have been classified for visa purposes as government-sponsored.