Word: hu
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Tennis Star Hu Na gains asylum and strains U.S.-Chinese ties
...supporters the issue was one of political persecution. Reacting to what she viewed as ominous pressure to join the Communist Party, 19-year-old Chinese Tennis Star Hu Na one night last July slipped out of a California hotel during a tennis tour and went into hiding at a friend's home. But to Peking the issue was a critical test of Chinese-American relations. Worried that Washington might grant Hu Na political asylum, ViceChairman Deng Xiaoping urged the U.S. last August to consider "the greater interests of the relations between the two countries...
...more than eight months, the U.S. agonized over the decision. At the State Department, the Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs argued in favor of granting Hu asylum; its China desk, fearing further deterioration of ties with Peking, disagreed on legal grounds. In the end, the department sent the Immigration and Naturalization Service a weakly worded recommendation in Hu's favor. INS then stalled on her request. But last week, after political pressure began to build, the Justice Department made the final announcement: Justice prevailed. Hu was granted asylum...
...Social contacts with American diplomats in China were instantly chilled, and cultural and athletic exchange programs were suspended for the rest of the year, the first official downgrading of ties by Peking since diplomatic relations between the two countries were formally restored in January 1979. At the minimum, the Hu Na incident symbolized the growing tensions between the Reagan Administration and the People's Republic. "The U.S. Government has kept doing things that infringe on China's sovereignty, interfere in its internal affairs and hurt the feelings of the Chinese people," read Peking's protest. In fact...
...effect of the Hu Na decision was to underscore far deeper strains...