China Rebukes House for Voting to Override, Warns of Possible Impact

China rebuked the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday for voting to override President Bush’s veto of legislation to protect Chinese students in the United States and warned that Sino-American relations would suffer if the bill became law.

“We express great indignation and strongly condemn this hegemonic act by the U.S. House of Representatives,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Jin Guihua told reporters. Jin met with the press before the Senate voted Thursday to uphold the veto.

China’s leaders have permitted Chinese students to travel to the United States to study, even after the army crushed last year’s student-led democracy movement, which was supported by many of the 40,000 Chinese students in the United States.

Jin accused the House of supporting “reactionary” dissident groups like the New York-based Chinese Democratic Alliance. His words echoed Chinese statements of last June, issued after the United States imposed economic sanctions.

Congress, in approving the sanctions, condemned China for the crackdown on students, which Western military analysts said had left hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people dead and effectively crushed a movement for political reform.

Chinese authorities, who insist that only a few hundred “hooligans” and “criminals” and bystanders were killed, said at the time that the sanctions amounted to interference in China’s internal affairs.

But recently, after a visit to Beijing by National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, Chinese authorities toned down their anti-American rhetoric.