President Bush is expected to sign legislation that provides for trade sanctions against China, but allows the president to suspend them if he finds it is in the national interest. The Senate voted 98-0 late Tuesday for the measure, which was passed by the House in November before Congress' two-month holiday break. Prompted by Beijing's crackdown last June on pro-democracy demonstrators, the sanctions are part of a $9.7 billion measure authorizing activities of the State Department for the 1990 and 1991 fiscal years. The legislation would suspend: _Financial underwriting through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation for U.S. companies doing business in China; _Aid under the Trade and Development Program; _Issuing licenses for controlled munitions or crime control and detection equipment; _Export of U.S.-built satellites, certain bilateral nuclear cooperation and liberalization of multilateral export controls. Most of the sanctions reflect actions Bush himself had already taken in the wake of the bloody suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing on June 4, and their place in the bill is regarded as mostly symbolic. The administration already has begun to lift some of those sanctions, including the one barring export of satellites, citing improved conditions in China. The bill approved Tuesday would permit Bush to terminate any of the sanctions if significant political reform occurs in China or if Bush finds waiver of the sanctions is ``in the national interest'' of the United States. There was almost no debate on the bill, in contrast to the showdown last week over whether to uphold Bush's veto of a measure that would have protected Chinese students in the United States from deportation. The Senate narrowly upheld the veto after the White House waged an all-out campaign to pressure Republican senators to back the president. An administration official described the fight as ``not a battle over how to handle China, but a battle over who should be handling China.'' Democrats used the occasion to again accuse Bush of too-cozy relations with a regime that has done little to adhere to U.S. human rights standards. The largest amounts in the bill _ $3.3 billion this year and $3.7 billion next year _ are for the State Department, primarily for salaries and the expenses of running embassies and consulates around the world. Also included are about $2 billion over two years for the U.S. Information Agency and $600 million for the Board for International Broadcasting, which runs Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Not voting were Sens. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyo.
