Will Human Rights Be Thrown Overboard At Malta?

While speculation abounds over the agenda items for this weekend’s meeting near Malta between President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev near Malta, it now appears one thing will be in the President’s pocket: his veto of a bill that would protect over 40,000 Chinese students studying in this country who fear severe persecution if forced to return to China following the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

"The unmistakable message conveyed by the President’s ‘pocket veto’ of this legislation is that the United States will stand with those who oppose freedom rather than those who seek it," said Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., director of the Center for Security Policy.

Gaffney added, "This action will only compound the impression conveyed by the Bush Administration’s earlier opposition to meaningful sanctions against the Chinese government — namely, that the United States government will do everything possible to minimize the costs associated with crackdowns by totalitarian regimes. President Bush will be giving Mr. Gorbachev the ‘advance understanding’ he seeks on crackdowns in the Baltics, with striking miners, or elsewhere."

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was adopted 403-0 in the House on November 19th and by a unanimous voice vote in the Senate on the following day. The bill waives the current requirement that Chinese students must return home for at least two years when their temporary student visas expire.

The Chinese government has formally protested passage of the legislation as interference in the PRC’s domestic affairs. Accordingly, the Bush Administration has opposed the Pelosi bill on grounds that such action might provoke retaliation and jeopardize future student exchanges between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.

The Center for Security Policy urges President Bush not to exercise his pocket veto by signing the Pelosi legislation prior to midnight Saturday. It also calls upon him to match this action with strong words at the summit: There will be real costs to the Soviet Union if Moscow engages in repression against its restive republics, ethnic minorities, workers, journalists and others. Moreover, U.S. economic, financial and technological assistance to the Soviet Union in the future shall be predicated on real and tangible progress toward the institutionalization of political and structural reforms that will make such crackdowns impossible.