By Bryan Sierra

WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- The House slapped China's wrist Thursday for its human rights record and imprisonment of American Harry Wu, but declined to vote on a proposal to revoke Beijing's most-favored-nation trading status. The House approved the China Policy Act, 416-10, calling for President Clinton to urge China to release Wu immediately, improve human rights, adhere to nuclear non-proliferation agreements and curb its military aspirations.

The bill also calls for China to stop exporting products to the United States made with forced labor, respect the rights of Tibetans and other ethnic minorities, and reduce tensions with Taiwan. In addition, the president would be required to report to Congress every six months on the progress of human rights in China. The bill also authorizes the establishment of Radio Free Asia, which would transmit broadcasts into China within three months.

Nearly every congressman involved in the debate lashed out at reports of Chinese human rights violations, including forced labor prisons, forced abortions and sterilization procedures, arbitrary detention and torture, and a trampling of freedom of speech and religion.

The bill's author, Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., said that while he was appalled by the reports, his measure was not intended to punish China. "What we do here today should not aim to isolate or demonize China or foster the idea that China is an enemy," Bereuter said. "They are not an enemy." The House International Relations Committee chairman, Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., said the bill was meant to send a message to the State Department, as well as Beijing. Some members argued that the bill was meaningless, and would not force China to make any improvements.

China's imprisonment of Wu last month was a driving force behind a measure to revoke China's most-favored-nation trading status, which Clinton extended last month. The measure's sponsor, Rep. Frank Wolf, blasted Wu's imprisonment, but nonetheless offered to table his bill because of an apparent lack of support. Wolf and other House members wore yellow ribbons on their lapels in support of Wu, who the congressman had brought to Capitol Hill in the past to testify about China's human rights violations. "I feel in some ways responsible for Harry being taken away," Wolf said. "They're killing people in China 25 and under and using their kidneys for transplant. We know that because of Harry."

The House action Thursday, which follows several visits to Washington by Wu's wife, Ching-Lee Chen, is unlikely to have any impact on Wu's imprisonment. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger testified before a Senate panel last week that during a visit to China and a meeting with the Chinese premier a week before, he was told Wu would not be released any time soon. Kissinger urged Congress to hold back on any punitive action and wait and see whether messages between Washington and Beijing have any impact. Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen agreed this week to meet at an Asian economic meeting in Brunei in August.

Meanwhile, Wu's congressman, Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., nominated the activist for the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize. "Mr. Wu is a human rights crusader whose continual search for the truth makes him worthy of international recognition in the great Nobel Prize tradition of Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi and Andrei Sakharov, " Stark said.