Bush Vetoes Limits on China Trade : Foreign policy: The bill would tie renewed benefits to Beijing’s human rights record. Override is unlikely.

President Bush vetoed legislation Monday that would require China to improve its human rights policies and curb its exports of nuclear and missile technology if Beijing wants the United States to renew its most-favored-nation trade benefits next July.

“There is no doubt in my mind that if we present China’s leaders with an ultimatum on MFN, the result will be weakened ties to the West and further repression. . . ,” Bush declared in his written veto message. “We are making a difference in China by remaining engaged.”

Although Bush has been sparring with lawmakers on Capitol Hill for nearly two years over China’s trade benefits, this marks the first occasion in which legislation has been passed on the issue and Bush has vetoed it. The bill will now go back to Congress. But it appears to lack the two-thirds majority in the Senate that would be necessary to override Bush’s veto.

A country with most-favored-nation status has the right to export its goods to the United States under the same low-tariff rates enjoyed by most other nations. With these benefits, China last year amassed a $12.7-billion trade surplus with the United States, the largest of any country in the world except Japan.

This was Bush’s 25th veto since taking office; Congress so far has failed in all its attempts to override. One other of these vetoes involved his policy toward China: In 1989, the President rejected legislation guaranteeing Chinese students the right to stay on in this country indefinitely. While that veto was sustained in Congress, Bush later issued an executive order granting Chinese students most of the legal rights they would have obtained through the legislation.

Last week, the Senate passed the legislation to impose conditions on the renewal of China’s most-favored-nation trade benefits by a vote of 59 to 39--eight votes short of a two-thirds majority. The House had approved the same legislation last November by the overwhelming margin of 409 to 21.

China’s trade benefits come up for renewal each July. Under the legislation passed by Congress, an extension of the benefits for another year beginning this summer would be made conditional on China’s releasing all political prisoners and on certification by the President that China has improved its record on human rights, weapons proliferation and trade policies.

Congressional sources predicted Monday that the House probably will vote soon to override Bush’s veto--and that the Administration will avoid spending much effort on that skirmish. That will set the stage for a final, decisive vote in the Senate, probably early next month.

“I don’t think they (Administration officials) are going to try to win it here,” one House source said. “The Administration has only so much in the way of time and people to lobby this thing. To lobby 140 people in the House, when they know they have it in the Senate, is not a good use of resources.”

The only factor that could swing enough new votes in the Senate to override the President’s veto would be the discovery of some new effort by China to sell nuclear or missile technology overseas. In recent months, a number of senators have expressed concern about evidence that the Chinese have been transferring dangerous weapons or technology to Syria, Iran and Pakistan.