The Senate last night put forward a new version of a bill targeting China's human rights record, which could provoke a showdown with the White House before President Jiang Zemin's state visit next month.
Senators from both parties introduced a bill which would increase funding for Radio Free Asia, ban some PLA corporations from doing business in the US, and bar certain Chinese officials from gaining US visas.
Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms backed the bill.
The new legislation brings together and softens similar earlier bills.
It gives the President the freedom to issue waivers for some Chinese officials who would be banned from entering the US because of their human rights record.
Allowing the President to skirt the most controversial element of the proposed law is seen as crucial to its passage in both houses.
