President Bush’s Policy on China

In connection with your editorial “Bush’s Very Fragile China Policy” (Jan. 26), allow me to make an observation about our Constitution. The vote in the Senate, in which 37 senators upheld the President’s veto, showed up a constitutional dilemma, I believe.

For all our talk about “democracy” in the wake of the democratization of Eastern Europe, we still do not honor majority rule in this country. No wonder some 40,000 Chinese students are puzzled! They must wonder, along with others, how one individual--the President--can defy an entire Senate and win with a minority .

How can one man insist that his policy is correct and 67 senators’ policy is wrong, they may wonder? Isn’t this a dictatorship rather than a democracy?

No wonder Europeans refer to the American system of government as presidential ! After all, Bush has something in common with those we call dictators. Actually, Bush has more power than Mikhail Gorbachev--especially in the field of foreign policy.

But such dictatorial behavior defies the will of the people. The vast majority of Americans favored the law the House so overwhelmingly adopted. Naturally, they had expected the Senate to follow suit. But they were wrong. We were all wrong. One man had his way.

Maybe the time has come to consider and do something about this anomaly in our Constitution.

AKE SANDLER

Los Angeles