UNITED States Attorney-General Janet Reno has reaffirmed the administration's stance that people fleeing China's one-child policy have no guaranteed right to asylum in America.
Her latest ruling, a reflection of the White House's tough line on illegal immigrants, could clear the way for thousands of Chinese aliens to be deported back to China.
Most of the passengers who arrived in the US this year aboard the ill-fated Golden Venture and several other smuggling ships have based their asylum claims on the fear of persecution from China's forced family planning programme.
Ms Reno's ruling came after the Immigration Board of Appeals asked her to decide whether asylum should be granted in such cases.
Two Chinese men, who claim they or their wives were threatened with forced sterilisation after having a second child, were the subjects of the ruling, and will now be subject to deportation orders. They both arrived before this year's influx of boat people caused the administration to adopt the tough new approach on asylum claims.
The policy of President Bill Clinton, newly affirmed by Ms Reno, is an about turn on that of the previous administration under George Bush, which ruled, after the 1989 crackdown, that forced abortion or sterilisation were good grounds for considering an asylum claim.
