Veto by Bush Alarms Chinese Students : Legislation: The President’s compromise solution--killing a congressional bill but promising protections to visitors enrolled in studies--creates confusion on campuses.

UC Irvine officials and Chinese university students in Orange County and much of the Southland reacted with surprise and alarm Friday to President Bush’s veto of a bill that would have waived the mandatory return of Chinese students to their country after studies in the United States.

UC Irvine Chancellor Jack W. Peltason and the eight other chancellors in the University of California system on Wednesday fired off a letter to the White House protesting the anticipated veto, warning of dire repercussions for any Chinese students who are forced to return to the hard-line regime of their native land.

“As you are aware, many of these visitors feel apprehensive, indeed personally at risk, as they contemplate a return home,” the letter signed by Peltason and the other UC chancellors read. About 1,500 Chinese students are enrolled in the UC system, including 110 at UC Irvine.

“These are our students and faculty colleagues. . . . We feel a special responsibility for their well-being as well as for their education.”

The chancellors’ letter implored the President, if he did veto the legislation, to consider alternative action that would protect the students.

Bush did. Although he refused to sign the bill Thursday, saying he was opposed to “congressional micromanagement of foreign policy,” he announced as a compromise that he would grant the students many of the same protections the bill offered. Specifically, students would no longer be required to return to China after completing their studies.

Therein lies the confusion. For some, the protection offered by the President’s move is a welcome relief. But others worry that the lack of ironclad legislation leaves their future just as cloudy as before.

UC Irvine officials said Friday that UC chancellors still oppose the President’s actions. And Jeff Ge, president of UC Irvine’s Assn. of Chinese Students and Scholars from the People’s Republic of China, said he and fellow Chinese students are worried that the protection may not last.

“We don’t feel really safe,” Ge said. “Bush was pressured by the Chinese government not to sign the (Chinese immigration) bill. And he may yield to the pressure again.”

Ge, a third-year engineering student with one more year of study, said he would almost certainly face repercussions at home because he spoke out against the Chinese government’s June 4 massacre of students in Beijing.

“I would probably be thrown in jail,” he said.

Dan P. Danilov, a Seattle immigration attorney who has represented a number of Chinese student cases in the Orange County-Los Angeles area, said the President’s action has created anxiety for most of the estimated 40,000 Chinese students and scholars in this country. By far the largest group of students from any foreign country, about 70% to 80% of the Chinese students have come with visas that require them to return home for at least two years after their studies are completed.

“Now they are very apprehensive that they may have to return to China,” Danilov said.

Danilov added that the veto is not a “catastrophe” because Bush is directing the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to give special attention to each Chinese request for a “green card.”

At Caltech in Pasadena, graduate student Liu Gang, who would have had to return home next year, said: “If I think about just myself, I am actually pretty happy. I am grateful he didn’t just veto the bill.”

But, he added, unlike a law, Bush’s promise could be revoked at any time. “All these things are promises,” Gang said. “It’s better than nothing, but how long will it last? What if he changes his mind?”

Wang Youqi, another Caltech graduate student, said that many Chinese students, despite the protection of Bush’s administrative action, are outraged at the veto. The perception among many students, he said, is that Bush killed the legislation because of pressure from the Chinese government to return the students.

“It’s very scary,” Wang said. “Students here have been intimidated by the mainland Chinese government. Now they see the Bush Administration intimidated too.”

“If he really wanted to help us, why didn’t he just sign the bill?” Wang asked. “It’s that simple. Now it’s like something hanging over your head, and you don’t know when it’s going to drop.”

Feng Hui, a graduate student at UCLA, said the veto has already had a chilling effect on the efforts of Chinese students in the United States to support the democracy movement in China. He said one woman has already resigned from a UCLA Chinese student group because of fear that she may have to return to China when her studies are over.

“Everyone is going to be silent,” he said. “Who will speak out when they don’t know what will happen in the future?”

Liu Yongchuan, the president of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars, the national student group that spearheaded the lobbying effort to pass the bill, said only legislation will be able to provide a real guarantee of protection for these Chinese students.

Liu said he was disappointed at the veto of the bill but is confident that Congress will either override Bush’s veto or send another version to the President in the next session.

“We’ll try it again,” Liu said. “We have no confidence in Bush now. He always wants to satisfy the Chinese government.”

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), was unanimously approved in the House and passed by voice vote in the Senate. And in addition to messages of support from other cities, Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo on Friday sent telegrams to congressional leaders condemning Bush’s veto and urging legislators to take up the issue again.