Patten meets a stone wall on China

THE Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, appears to be fighting a losing battle against the imposition of human rights conditions on China's trade with the United States, a move which he argues would be disastrous for Hong Kong's economy.

After meeting the House and Senate co-sponsors of a bill seeking drastic changes in Chinese policies in exchange for the renewal of Peking's most favoured nation (MFN) trading status, Mr Patten conceded yesterday that he had failed to change their minds. Asked whether he should accept that some conditions were inevitable and seek to limit the damage they might cause, he said it would be 'unwise', both in principle and from a tactical point of view.

But the Governor argued that there were other ways to achieve the improvements in China's record that its US critics were demanding. Other countries, including Britain, had sought to establish a dialogue with Peking on human rights, while legislation already existed to deal with the two other main areas of concern: weapons proliferation and unfair trade practices.

President Bill Clinton has until 3 June to decide whether to renew China's trading status for another year. The congressional bill, co-sponsored by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and the Senate majority leader, George Mitchell, sets a long list of conditions - labelled unacceptable by China - for renewal in 1994, but one of its aims is to put pressure on the White House not to give unconditional approval to MFN this time. One indication of the way the debate is going was this week's announcement by Levi Strauss, the jeans manufacturer, that it was ending some dollars 50m ( pounds 32m) of contracts in China because of its human rights record.

On Monday Mr Patten sought to convince the President that withdrawal of China's trading privileges would halve Hong Kong's economic growth, projected at 5.5 per cent this year, and cost the colony 70,000 jobs. Yesterday he said that, after his meetings with administration officials and members of Congress, it was clear that 'things are not the same as last year'. President George Bush, who vetoed similar MFN bills three years running, had stood ready to repel his critics, but now a consensus was being sought beween the new administration and Congress.

Yesterday the Governor met one of his few unqualified supporters in Congress, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, whose law governing future US relations with Hong Kong has been welcomed by the colony and Britain, but attacked by China. Senator McConnell praised Mr Patten's democracy initiative in Hong Kong and called for the unconditional renewal of MFN. Asked how much support there was for these views in Congress, he said: 'It's hard to predict what's going to happen. The President called for conditions during the campaign, but I hope he will modify his position in office, as he has on other issues, and recognise that what is good rhetoric is not good policy.'