By STEVEN ERLANGER

The New York Times, June 18, 1997

WASHINGTON -- An informal Republican task force appointed by House Speaker Newt Gingrich has agreed on legislation intended to push China toward democracy and human rights without resorting to economic or trade sanctions, congressional aides said Tuesday.

The legislation's proposals include increased financing for broadcasts to China and pro-democracy projects there, as well as publication of lists of companies doing business in the United States that are owned by China's military.

They could provide an alternative to the increasingly futile yearly debate over revoking normal trading status for China. The group is made up of prominent Republican legislators, including members of Congress on both sides of the issue.

The House is scheduled to vote June 25, a week before Hong Kong reverts to Chinese rule, on whether to revoke China's trading status, which is known as "most-favored nation" although it is provided to almost all nations, except those deemed to support terrorism.

Officials of both Congress and the Clinton administration say the threat of revocation is empty, because both houses of Congress will not be able to muster the two-thirds vote required to overturn a presidential veto, should one be necessary.

Still, President Clinton is scheduled to meet Thursday with 25 or so key House members to urge them not to revoke China's status and to discuss his China policy in general.

Clinton would like to see the revocation effort die in the House, as it did last year, and the White House is considering the wisdom of embracing some of the proposals of the Porter-Dreier group, like increased financing for Radio Free Asia and Voice of America broadcasts to China, or for pro-democracy projects.

Many members of the House who favor normal trade with China or who know it cannot be revoked still want some vehicle -- more effective than a symbolic vote to revoke China's trading status -- to register their displeasure with China's policies and with the administration's handling of its own policy of constructive engagement with China.

That is where the Republican task force, which is chaired by Rep. John Porter of Illinois and David Dreier of California, comes in. While some members, like Rep. Christopher Cox of California, want stronger trade sanctions against China, the group has agreed, as Gingrich asked, on a consensus of non-trade legislation.

The proposals are based on the kinds of activities Washington used to try to spread Western ideas through the Soviet Union and former Warsaw Pact nations.

The group has agreed, Porter and his staff say, on the following proposals:

-- Roughly $40 million more for the Voice of America and the year-old Radio Free Asia, to allow them to broadcast to China 24 hours a day in the country's four main languages, including Tibetan. That figure includes roughly $10 million to complete construction on a new transmitter. Currently, Cox says, Radio Free Asia broadcasts 5 hours a day in Mandarin and two hours a day in Tibetan, and is reportedly hard to hear, while Voice of America broadcasts 10 hours a day in Mandarin and 3.5 hours in Tibetan.

-- Between $5 million and $10 million more for the National Endowment for Democracy and its projects in China. These projects, performed by non-governmental organizations, promote democratization through work on areas like legal reform, legal education, and village elections.

-- An increase in public and private exchange visits between the United States and China.

-- A requirement that the State Department maintain a registry of political prisoners in China.

-- The publishing of a list of companies doing business in the United States that are affiliated with or owned by the Chinese military.

-- A denial of United States visas to Chinese officials who have committed human rights violations or who are involved in the spread of advanced weapons or other sensitive technologies.

-- A move to encourage U.S.-based companies to adopt a voluntary code of conduct to insure they are good corporate citizens in China.

Porter, at a House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade hearing Tuesday on China's trading status, said he and other members are eager "to move U.S.-China policy beyond the high-volume MFN debate toward something more productive for all concerned."

Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat and U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky urged renewal of China's trade status. "The vote on renewal of MFN is most assuredly not a vote endorsing China's policies," Eizenstat said. "This vote is about American national interests."

The task force also includes Reps. Douglas Bereuter of Nebraska, Matt Salmon of Arizona, Gerald Solomon and Benjamin Gilman, both of New York; Harold Rogers of Kentucky and Chris Smith of New Jersey.

Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company