Published by: World Tibet Network News Tuesday, September 30, 1997

By Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press

WASHINGTON, September 30, 1997 (AP) A House panel voted Tuesday to bar Chinese officials who commit human rights violations from visiting the United States.

"We don't want the ghouls of the world to come here,'' said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., one of the co-sponsors.

Earlier Tuesday, the House urged the Clinton administration to supply Taiwan with the latest theater anti-ballistic missile system, if the government in Taiwan requests it.

"The only point we want to send to Beijing is: You mess around and we'll put some missiles in your back yard,'' said Rep. Donald Manzullo, R-Ill.

Combined with measures passed Monday and Friday, the legislation is part of an attempt by GOP conservatives to influence the agenda of the upcoming summit between President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

"The cumulative effect of these bills does a number of things: It points us in the direction of cutting off dialogue with China, in the direction of disengagement from China, in the direction of making China the enemy,'' said Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, the ranking Democrat on the International Relations Committee.

The visa bill also would exclude from admission into the United States leaders of China's government-sanctioned religious organizations. These include Buddhist, Taoist, Catholic, Protestant, and Islamic groups.

It is strongly opposed by the administration, which has said China could retaliate by denying visas to many Americans, including missionaries.

"We will end up with the Chinese government banning evangelists and others who now have visas to go and operate within China,'' said Rep. Sam Gejdenson, D-Conn.

State Department representatives opposed the nonbinding resolution to supply anti-missile systems to Taiwan, arguing that it was premature. The United States already has sold Taipei the latest version of the Patriot missiles used in the Gulf War.

Taiwan requested that weapon after China test-fired missiles into waters near the island in 1995 and 1996. China claims Taiwan as a renegade province. But Taipei has not asked for an upgraded version of the missile, which is still on the drawing boards.

"I think this measure will be viewed as taking China as an enemy, as a hostile measure,'' said Susan Shirk, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia. "It will cause some disruption in our plans for the summit.''

On Monday, the panel voted to increase funding for U.S. government-sponsored radio broadcasts to China and to improve monitoring of human rights violations by U.S. diplomatic posts there.

It authorized $2.2 billion for each of the next two years to pay for 10 to 20 additional officials in the embassy in Beijing and American consulates in Guangzshou, Shanghai, Shenyang, Chengdu and Hong Kong.

The committee also increased funding for Radio Free Asia from the present figure of $30 million to $40 million a year. Radio Free Asia was established last year to promote democracy in Asia's remaining authoritarian countries.

And on Friday, the committee urged the Clinton administration to punish China for selling naval cruise missiles to Iran.