WORLD : Patience With Chinese Urged

WASHINGTON — The Bush Administration today urged Congress to be patient with Chinese leaders despite the “appalling tragedy” of their bloody crackdown last June on pro-democracy demonstrators.

Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Administration “knows that not enough has been done” to restore human rights in China.” But, he said, “we never expected to reverse events overnight.”

Defending the Administration’s rapprochement with Chinese leaders, Eagleburger said the crackdown on demonstrators in Beijing was “a tragic setback” in otherwise slow but steady progress toward reform.

“The China of the 1980s--despite the appalling tragedy of Tian An Men Square--has come a long way from the era of the Gang of Four” in the 1970s, Eagleburger said. He cited foreign investment, cultural and educational exchanges and openness to the news media.