House Package Aims to Call China to Account

Brushing aside the opposition of the Clinton administration, the House approved the last in a series of nine bills Friday intended to punish China for human rights abuses and weapons proliferation.

California Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), the chief supporter of the bills, said the House action was intended to inject a note of reality into U.S.-China relations in the wake of the warm reception that Chinese President Jiang Zemin received last week in Washington and across the country.

“To the extent that the summit was meant to promote cordial relations between our two states and friendly dialogue, it was a success,” Cox said. “But there is more to our relationship than summitry and warm expressions of goodwill.

“We also must do the hard work of hammering out our differences on security issues, on the proliferation of technology for weapons of mass destruction and on human rights--all of which are of fundamental importance not just to the peoples of our countries but to the people of the whole world.”

The bills, debated for 16 hours over three days, were passed by overwhelming margins and sent to the Senate for consideration next year. The measures accuse China of religious persecution, forced abortions, suppression of democracy, unacceptable use of prison labor, industrial espionage and the sale of missiles to rogue states.

Although most of the bills commanded broad bipartisan support, some Democrats complained that the measures were nothing more than “Beijing bashing” that would damage U.S.-China relations without forcing China to change any of its policies.

“Our goal should be to help the president, not to make his job more difficult,” said Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.). “Diplomacy here has made some progress. I’m sure none of us want to take steps to make diplomacy more difficult.”

Senate sources said lawmakers in the upper house have not yet focused on the legislation, so it is impossible to gauge support for the measures there. President Clinton almost certainly would veto some of the bills--which he has said would interfere with his constitutional right to manage foreign policy--if they reached his desk.

Regardless of their practical impact, the bills are certain to be seen by China as major irritants.

Although the White House opposed many elements of the package, the administration does support one bill that would increase to 24 hours the daily broadcasts to China of Radio Free Asia, and it has only lukewarm objections to some of the others.

Some measures are primarily symbolic, criticizing China for practices that Americans find abhorrent but imposing sanctions that are unlikely to have much impact on the way Beijing does business.

For instance, one bill condemns China for forcing women to undergo abortions under Beijing’s one-child policy. But the only penalty under the legislation would bar officials responsible for the population-control measures from visiting the United States.

Another bill attacks China’s religious affairs policy, which, in effect, permits operation of only those churches registered with the government. China represses all other expressions of religious faith.

Under the legislation, the U.S. government could not pay for travel to this country of officials of the government-approved churches and would deny visas to Chinese bureaucrats responsible for religious persecution.

Also in the package is legislation that would force major changes in U.S. foreign policy; for that reason, it appears unlikely to become law. One bill requires the administration to develop plans for providing Taiwan with a missile defense system “as soon as reasonably possible.” That could produce a major crisis in U.S.-Chinese relations.

Other bills would assign more human rights monitors to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, increase customs scrutiny to prevent Chinese prison-made goods from entering the United States and declare that China’s sale of cruise missiles to Iran violates an existing law imposing sanctions on nations that sell missiles and other advanced weapons to rogue states.

Also this week, the House passed and sent to the White House a compromise version of an intelligence authorization bill that includes a measure requiring the CIA and FBI to report regularly to Congress on China’s political, military and economic espionage activities as well as Beijing’s efforts to gain influence in the U.S. political system through campaign contributions or other means.