China Lashes at U.S. Economic Sanctions

China on Friday strongly condemned recent approval by the U.S. Congress of economic sanctions against Beijing, lodging a formal protest with U.S. Ambassador James Lilley, according to the official New China News Agency.

“The U.S. Congress . . . has willfully trampled on the basic norms governing international relations and wantonly interfered in China’s internal affairs,” Vice Foreign Minister Liu Huaqiu said in the protest, the news agency reported.

Liu declared that “certain U.S. congressmen, addicted to bias and disregarding the realities, have readopted the amendment on sanctions against China. This can only reveal their stubborn anti-China position.”

Legislation calling for economic sanctions in response to Beijing’s bloody suppression of last spring’s pro-democracy protests originally was approved in November. But the wide-ranging bill containing the sanctions was vetoed by President Bush for reasons unrelated to China, and the sanctions were approved again in legislation passed Tuesday.

The legislation blocks the export of military and crime-control equipment, suspends nuclear energy cooperation and imposes certain restrictions on trade and economic relations. Bush already had imposed similar economic sanctions last June, some of which he has since eased. The new legislation is largely symbolic, because it allows Bush to waive sanctions if he deems it in the national interest.

The Chinese protest, while described by Liu as an expression of “utmost indignation,” also declared that the sanctions would fail.

“The Chinese people highly value their hard-won independence and sovereignty and have never yielded to any outside pressure,” Liu told Lilley, according to the news agency. “They have withstood economic blockades, overcome numerous difficulties and found and kept to a road of development suited to the actual conditions of their country. . . .

“Facts will prove that those members of the U.S. Congress, by their anti-China actions, are just like lifting a rock only to drop it on their own feet. In the end, it is the interests of the United States itself that will be harmed.”

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing declined to comment. But in Washington, a State Department spokesman expressed no sympathy with the Chinese protest.

“Statements such as this make it more difficult to solve the issues we face,” the spokesman said. “We hope the Chinese will work with us in a positive manner and take steps to improve the relationship.

“The sentiments expressed in the U.S. Congress as well as by the Administration are a reaction to events in China. They are not part of a campaign against China. The President has made clear his desire for improved relations with China.”

Liu said that although the Bush Administration has expressed hope for restorating Sino-U.S. relations to a “positive track,” it still bears “an unshirkable responsibility for the unbridled anti-China waves stirred up by the U.S. Congress.

“To lift the sanctions by the United States against China is a necessary condition for the return to normal of bilateral relations,” Liu said.

“China urges the U.S. government to truly honor its commitments and, proceeding from the overall interests of maintaining Sino-U.S. relations and the long-term interests of the two peoples . . . take effective measures to lift its sanctions against China as soon as possible.”

CHINA SALE VOIDED--President Bush ordered a Chinese government enterprise to divest itself of a U.S. aircraft-parts manufacturer it bought in November. D1