World Bank OKs $30-Million Quake Loan for China : Foreign aid: A second loan is shelved. U.S. says it would come too soon after the Beijing massacre.

The World Bank approved a $30-million earthquake relief loan to China on Thursday, the first loan it has made to that country since the Beijing massacre last June.

But the organization’s 22-member executive board postponed action on a second loan after the Bush Administration, facing criticism from Congress, complained that the bank was moving too rapidly to resume lending to China.

The bank’s action followed President Bush’s decision in January to relax a seven-month-old U.S. freeze on such lending. Bush said the United States now will support loans for “human needs” such as earthquake relief, but will continue to oppose those for broader development projects.

Responding to that policy shift, World Bank President Barber B. Conable had scheduled two loans for consideration at the bank’s executive board meeting: the quake aid and a companion $60-million loan intended to relieve poverty in rural Jiangxi province.

While the board approved the earthquake-relief loan unanimously, it deferred action on the Jiangxi loan until Feb. 27 after representatives of the seven major industrial nations complained that the bank was lifting its freeze too fast.

The World Bank is an international organization not required to follow U.S. policies, but officials acknowledged that Washington had orchestrated the lobbying campaign to persuade the bank to postpone action on the second loan.

The delay is expected to be short-lived, but U.S. officials argued that it is important for symbolic reasons--putting Beijing on notice that it is not yet off the hook for the bloody suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations at Tian An Men Square.

U.S. officials confirmed that the Treasury Department had lobbied “furiously” earlier this week to have the second loan postponed in an effort to “send a signal” to the World Bank’s bureaucracy that Washington wants to move slowly in easing the freeze.

“We don’t want them to look like they’re opening the floodgates,” one U.S. policy-maker said.

The World Bank has been pressing for months to resume lending to Beijing.

Now that Washington has made its point, officials said, the United States will support the second loan when it comes up for consideration Feb. 27. Representatives of the six other major industrial nations--Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada--also are expected to go along.

The World Bank has about $780-million in China loans pending, and about $7-billion worth of loan proposals for China in its pipeline. Thursday’s action indicates that most will remain frozen for the foreseeable future.

The bank’s action came as the Administration continued to face a battering in Congress over its China policy, with lawmakers from both parties openly attacking the President’s decision to send secret high-level missions to Beijing in July and December.

At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.) called the trips by Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft “one of the most misbegotten missions in contemporary American diplomacy.”

And Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), a conservative who traditionally supports the Administration on foreign policy issues, said the venture showed “tone-deafness toward the values and ideals this country stands for.”

The Administration has defended its policies, contending that Bush has been trying to steer a middle course that penalizes Beijing for the crackdown, yet maintains diplomatic contacts in hopes of retaining some influence with the Chinese government.

Eagleburger, appearing before the Foreign Affairs panel, argued that the only reason he and Scowcroft were sent to China was that the President wanted Chinese leaders to hear firsthand about his concern over human rights issues.

But many Democrats--and some Republicans--have refused to accept that explanation. Earlier this week, Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) accused Bush of having contracted “clientitis”--having become so close to China that he espouses Beijing’s interests rather than those of America.