Published by: World Tibet Network News, 96/03/31

BEIJING, March 30 (AP) -- China today warned of "serious damage" to U.S.-China relations if President Clinton doesn't veto a bill that would strengthen ties with Taiwan and increase pressure on Beijing to improve human rights.

The measures are included in the State Department authorization bill, which the Senate passed Thursday and the House of Representatives approved earlier. Clinton has promised to veto the bill.

Its provisions include inviting the president of Taiwan to the United States, increasing other ties with the island, toughening human rights pressure on China, naming a special envoy to Tibet and setting up Radio Free Asia broadcasts into China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang said the "anti-China" clauses "ignore the basic norms of international relations ... (and) represent a gross encroachment on China's sovereignty and wanton interference in China's internal affairs." His remarks were carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.

He said the bill was passed "in disregard of repeated, solemn representations and strong opposition by the Chinese side." Noting Clinton's pledge to veto the bill, Shen urged the administration to "proceed from the interest of overall Sino-U.S. relations ... and turn its own promises into practical actions so as to forestall more serious damage to Sino-U.S. relations."

When Congress deliberated the bill, anti-China sentiment was running high because Chinese troops were staging war games and launching missiles in the Taiwan Strait in an effort to intimidate Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province.

China's show of military power was designed to weaken support for Taiwan's president, Lee Teng-hui, in elections last week, but the plan backfired: Lee won a landslide victory in the island's first direct presidential vote.

China believes Lee wants Taiwan to be independent and has given up the goal of reunification that Beijing's Communists and Taipei's Nationalists share.

Fueling anti-China feelings in Washington are an investigation into whether China sold nuclear technology to Pakistan in violation of U.S. law, lingering trade disputes over intellectual property rights and China's bid to enter the World Trade Organization.

A State Department report recently concluded that China's human rights situation deteriorated last year, when authorities silenced all public dissent.