Published by: World Tibet Network News Friday, November 7, 1997

By Tom Carter

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

espite the red-carpet treatment, a 21-gun salute and a warm welcome given Chinese President Jiang Zemin by President Clinton last week, the House and Senate Thursday expressed concern about China's commercial activities in the United States and its treatment of religious minorities.

. . . . In hearings on Tibet in the House, irate congressmen denounced Mr. Clinton and his policy toward China as one of "appeasement."

. . . . And the State Department's new "special coordinator" for Tibet, Gregory Craig, told a Senate hearing that China's policy toward Tibet is "repressive" and "harsh."

. . . . The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing about the Chinese army and its web of commercial enterprises, which sell American consumers everything from fish fillets to ski gear and Christmas toys.

. . . . The House, continuing a debate begun Wednesday, took up seven China bills that criticize forced abortion, expand Radio Free Asia, monitor the commercial activities of the Chinese army and denounce the lack of religious freedom in China.

. . . . Taken together, U.S.-China relations suffered a rhetorical beating.

. . . . "Some of the sentiment up here is genuine, some of it is just politics," said Rep. James P. Moran, Virginia Democrat and one of a handful of members who voted against some of the bills.

. . . . "I think it is anti-China. It's 'Let's-take-a-few-licks-at-China' before we go home," he said, referring to the imminent adjournment of Congress.

. . . . Rep. Doug Bereuter, Nebraska Republican, said it remains to be seen if the China legislation in what is called the "Policy for Freedom" package, most of which was expected to pass with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, will be anything more than an expression of concern.

. . . . "Some of the rhetoric is inflammatory, and will upset China," said Mr. Bereuter, who is also chairman of the House International Relations Committee subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. "But it is appropriate for the American people to express their concern on human rights and slave labor."

. . . . He acknowledged that the Senate is not likely to take up these bills before next year, if at all.

. . . . A bill aimed at curbing Chinese missile-technology transfers to Iran passed 414-8. A bill to deny visas to Chinese officials involved in the persecution of Christians, Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists passed 366-54.

. . . . "The tabulation is a message to the Chinese government," said Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican, in urging the passage of the religion bill.

. . . . Earlier, the State Department's Mr. Craig, defended the administration's China policy on Tibet in testimony before the House International Relations Committee. China occupied Tibet 1950.

. . . . A separate sanctions bill, approved 415-1, would deny U.S. entry to Chinese officials who demand abortions for population control, a practice Mr.

Jiang denies is part of China's stated one-child-per-couple policy.

. . . . The House, on a 414-8 vote, also urged the Clinton administration to enforce a 1992 law that restricts the sale of advanced cruise missiles to Iran by China and Russia. The measure also bans U.S. entry to Chinese arms dealers.

. . . . On a 301-116 vote, the House approved a Taiwan measure that would require a U.S. study of providing a missile-defense system for Taipei.

. . . . In the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, witnesses at a hearing on commercial activities of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) said it was operating a network of companies in the United States.

. . . . Representatives from the State Department and the Pentagon said several PLA-affiliated companies were being monitored and that when U.S. laws are violated, they are being enforced.=20

. . . . Jeffrey Fiedler, president of the AFL-CIO Food and Allied Service Trades Department, gestured angrily and disagreed with the government's testimony.