House Hits China With New Tariffs : Trade: Members vote to punish Beijing for last year’s crackdown on democracy, despite an expected Bush veto.

The House voted today to punish China for crushing its pro-democracy movement last year by raising tariffs on Chinese clothing, toys and shoes by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Then, anticipating a certain veto from President Bush, the House also prepared to approve a backup, contradictory measure that would condition continuing open trade with China upon improvements in human rights.

Bush, a former envoy to China, has indicated, however, that he is prepared to veto both, particularly if the milder version is amended later today to require the release of all protesters arrested after the military suppressed the student-led Tian An Men Square democracy movement in June, 1989.

The United States imposed several sanctions against China for what the State Department estimates as “several hundred and possibly thousands” of deaths of students and others in the military crackdown.

But Bush decided in May to continue for another year the lower tariffs that China has enjoyed as a “most-favored nation” since 1980. Raising them, he said, “would only hurt the Chinese people themselves.”

The resolution disapproving Bush’s continuation of the lower tariffs was approved on a vote of 247 to 174. It now goes to the Senate, where Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.), has introduced a similar measure.

Under a new trade law enacted in August, overturning Bush’s decision requires a majority vote of both the House and Senate before Saturday.