By Michael Laris
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 26, 1999; Page A23

BEIJING, May 25—China's government today said the release of a 700-page, bipartisan congressional report accusing China of stealing America's closely guarded nuclear secrets was meant to "disturb and destroy" Sino-American relations and to deflect attention from the U.S. bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said the select committee, headed by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), was "clinging to the Cold War mentality" and had produced a rumor-mongering report intended to advance "the theory of a China threat." Zhu repeated the government's long-standing denial that it stole any U.S. nuclear technology.

The spokesman also lashed out at a resolution introduced in both houses of Congress last week that assails Chinese human rights abuses and calls on Chinese authorities to launch an official inquiry into the military crackdown on democracy demonstrators near Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, in which hundreds died.

"The attempt of those anti-China U.S. congressmen to interfere in China's internal affairs under the pretext of human rights is doomed to failure," Zhu said.

China's reaction to the Cox report was consistent with its policy of denying any involvement in a variety of China-related scandals that have erupted in the United States. China has denied any knowledge of an alleged plot to funnel Chinese government funds to American political candidates. It has said it has not conducted any espionage operations in the United States and has not stolen nuclear-weapons related secrets.

Relations between the governments of the world's most powerful and most populous nations have dropped off precipitously since Premier Zhu Rongji visited the United States last month and charmed politicians and ordinary Americans alike. NATO's deadly attack on China's diplomatic compound in Yugoslavia on May 7 has thrown relations into crisis.

China has suspended military ties with the United States as well as its cooperation on nuclear proliferation issues. It has also temporarily banned U.S. warships from docking in Hong Kong's ports. [The Pentagon announced today that Secretary of State William S. Cohen has postponed a June visit to China because of the tensions.]

Chinese authorities have repeatedly asserted that the embassy attack was part of a deliberate strategy to keep China weak, and have dismissed the American explanation that the bombing was a "tragic accident."

Allegations that Chinese spies have, over the course of several decades, pilfered top secret design information about every one of the nuclear warheads in America's stockpile have angered many in Congress. The hardened political atmosphere in Washington comes just as Chinese officials have been demanding that the United States be more responsive to its concerns about the embassy bombing.

One official said that relations are unlikely to improve before a senior U.S. envoy is sent to Beijing to present the results of a U.S. investigation of the embassy bombing. The official said the Chinese government is expecting documentary evidence that might explain the specific circumstances, not a mere written explanation.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu said members of the Cox committee "harbor deep prejudice and hostility toward China. They have created a lot of rumors . . . to stir up anti-Chinese sentiment."