GOP Dances Around China as It Runs Down Clinton for Security Lapses

Republicans are continuing to try to make political hay out of the House report charging China with stealing U.S. nuclear weapon secrets, but, as Congress grapples with its response, the GOP is moving cautiously to avoid damaging America’s long-term relationship with Beijing.

Republican congressional leaders have pushed plans that are relatively small in scope and enjoy wide bipartisan support, such as tightening security at U.S. national laboratories, toughening restrictions on the export of sensitive technology to China and beefing up American counterintelligence efforts.

But the GOP is conspicuously avoiding actions that might anger Beijing and rupture U.S. economic and diplomatic relations with China--a development Republicans fear could hurt U.S. business interests and ultimately even propel the two countries into a cold war.

As a result, despite the rhetorical frenzy in GOP ranks, President Clinton’s annual request for continuation of normal trade relations with China seems likely to pass easily later this year.

“It’ll be dicier,” Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said at a recent meeting of business leaders here. “I think probably, before the year is out, [normal trade relations with China] . . . will be extended.”

GOP lawmakers also say that prospects for bringing China into the World Trade Organization are not dead.

Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and one of the most outspoken critics of the administration’s handling of the espionage problem, illustrates the GOP’s emerging position.

He openly derides Clinton’s 1998 speech declaring China a “strategic partner” of the United States--a bid by the president to help flatter Beijing into cooperating on key issues.

Shelby says that Washington needs a new, “more realistic” relationship with the Chinese.

But, he insists, “that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t trade with them” or that the United States should “isolate” China.

The Republicans’ tendency to aim their fire at counterespionage lapses here at home rather than at China gained momentum when a blue-ribbon White House panel last week recommended taking the U.S. nuclear weapon program out of the Energy Department.

Energy Department Security Tightened

Although Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has said that he will oppose any such move, Republicans plan to consider the proposal seriously later this summer. They have already begun tightening security measures within the beleaguered agency.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) pressed the Republican case on Saturday.

In the party’s weekly radio address, the senator argued that, despite obvious Energy Department security problems, the Clinton administration has been “slow to respond and slow to admit the need to work with Congress” on the issue.

Still, Kyl’s remarks contained no hint that Republicans plan to get tough with China on trade issues.

There are several reasons for the GOP’s overall response:

* The House report notes that the Chinese espionage problem dates back through the GOP administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush as well.

* The report tempers its allegations with hundreds of “coulds” and “may haves” that reflect an absence of hard evidence about how much the security lapses have damaged the United States.

* Republicans are under pressure from the business community not to disrupt trade and economic relations with China, whose huge population and fledgling economy make it a potentially lucrative market for U.S. firms.

Much of what Congress has enacted so far has duplicated policies that Richardson has put into effect. The House passed a modest package of amendments earlier this month on a vote of 428 to 0. The Senate enacted a scaled-down version the week before.

The Republican response has spurred some analysts to believe that the House report by a special committee chaired by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) is likely to end up generating more bark than bite.

“The day after the Cox report came out, my sense of this was this thing has peaked,” said William M. Arkin, a nuclear weapon expert who serves as a consultant on weapon issues. “Basically, this has become a partisan issue for the Year 2000 campaign.”

Republican strategists said that assessment may be too pat. While the proposals that lawmakers have passed so far may be relatively modest, they cover a range of concerns.

These include tightening rules for exchange visits by foreign scientists and giving the State Department a veto over which sensitive technology can be exported to China.

Clinton, Not China Targeted by GOP

The measures in the congressional pipelines are likely to stir more controversy--such as restructuring the Energy Department or stripping the agency of its role in developing nuclear weapons. But these, too, are targeted primarily at the Clinton administration and the Energy Department, not at China or its government.

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), one of the most vocal critics of the administration’s handling of the espionage issue, sees no inconsistency in the blame-Clinton-not-China approach.

“I don’t blame the Chinese for trying to steal our secrets,” Weldon said. “We do the same thing.”

Congress is also moving toward toughening penalties for private companies, such as U.S. satellite manufacturers, that are convicted of transferring U.S. technology to countries without government permission.

Lawmakers from both parties agreed that the United States must “reevaluate” its overall relationship with China, including trade rules. But congressional strategists said it is too early to tell just how that goal will be translated into concrete legislative proposals--or whether it ultimately will affect China’s admission into the World Trade Organization.

The WTO issue clearly is a difficult one for GOP lawmakers. Most Republicans want China to enter the Geneva-based global trade organization in hopes that it will move the country more rapidly toward a capitalist-style economy--and force it to follow international trading rules.

But WTO membership is a big enough plum that lawmakers of both parties want to make sure they can support it without sparking a backlash from voters. And that will require an improvement in political relations between the United States and China.

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* NUCLEAR SECURITY

Experts will review new security rules at UC-managed nuclear weapon labs. A16