Bush to Act on Protections for China Students : Exiles: Executive order will allow them to remain in the U.S. until at least 1994.

WASHINGTON —  President Bush, seeking to avoid renewed controversy over his policy toward China, announced Friday that he will formalize and expand the protections reluctantly given four months ago to Chinese students in the United States.

The President told the American Society of Newspaper Editors that he will issue a formal executive order guaranteeing that more than 40,000 Chinese students at American universities will be able to remain in this country at least until 1994.

Bush had taken similar action last December through written instructions to the Justice Department. However, the President acknowledged Friday that in public and in talks with members of Congress, he had subsequently described his action as an “executive order,” an action that has somewhat greater legal validity.

Bush said that when he issues the executive order, he will add some new protections that ensure that Chinese students in the United States may travel abroad and that make it clear that the students may hold jobs in this country. A group of Chinese students had sought such protections in meetings with White House and State Department officials last week.

“We don’t want to take a chance on somebody being mistreated, brutalized if you will,” Bush explained during a question-and-answer session with the newspaper editors.

Liu Yongchuan, the president of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars, which represents Chinese students in this country, said Friday, “We really appreciate President Bush’s help.” A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said there would be no comment on Bush’s action.

Until last year, most of the Chinese students in this country were subject to an immigration law requiring that they return to China for a period of two years after completing their studies.

Last summer, in the wake of the Chinese government’s violent crackdown against the pro-democracy demonstrations at Tian An Men Square, several members of Congress, led by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), introduced legislation that would have lifted this requirement. Sponsors of the legislation said the Chinese students would be subjected to intense political repression if they were forced to go home.

For months, the Bush Administration strongly opposed Pelosi’s bill, arguing that its enactment would threaten future educational exchanges between the United States and China. Administration officials also contended that it was in the United States’ interest to have students who were educated in the United States return to China, where they might serve as a force for change.

After Congress passed the Pelosi bill, Bush vetoed the measure. At the same time, the President directed the Justice Department to change the immigration rules to grant Chinese students many of the same protections that had been contained in the legislation.

Congress tried but failed to override Bush’s veto. On Jan. 24, on the eve of the vote in Congress on the override, the President told a White House press conference: “The (Pelosi) bill is totally unnecessary. . . . We’ve got to look at policy, and we’ve got to be fair in what has already been accomplished by executive order.”

Bush, however, did not issue any formal executive order before his announcement Friday.