Although President Bush cares about the political future of China and the safety of its people, his relations with leader Deng Xiao Ping after the Tiananmen Square massacre have proved unpopular with Chinese students and Americans, an authority on U.S.-Chinese relations said last night.

Mark Pratt, former U.S. Consul-General in Canton, China, spoke in the HUB Assembly Room about Bush's unpopular attempt to stabilize relations between the two countries in the face of China's fragile leadership balance.

"Bush may be given good marks for his intentions, but I'm not sure he should be given good marks for his actions," Pratt said. "He is working on perceptions, value judgements and knowledge he has from his own experiences."

Bush served for two years as head of the U.S. Liason Office in Beijing and understands China's problems and diplomatic contacts with the United States well, Pratt said.

The President vetoed a bill last month that would extend Chinese student visas in the United States to protect them from potential persecution upon return to their country, Pratt said. Congress, which had unanimously passed the proposal, is expected to vote on it again today.

China's hard-line policy makers are not likely to be influenced by harsh protest or economic sanction in retaliation for last spring's events, Pratt said. Realizing this, Bush has tried to find a common ground that would alienate neither side, he added.

But before the United States sees positive results from that lukewarm approach, a power struggle between China's aging leaders could change the hierarchical tables, Pratt said.

University History Professor William Duiker, a colleague and friend of Pratt's for more than 30 years, shared his views on United States' policy toward China.

"We can say (to China), 'Look, we'll do business with you, but we don't like what you're doing,' " Duiker said. "But there's not much the United State's can do to change the leadership's opinion in China."

While U.S.-China relations are important to many, the two nations are not on the top of each other's diplomatic agendas, Pratt said. While China is concerned mostly with its domestic affairs, the United States is giving priority to events in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, he said.

Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng determined that Universities in the United States are a bad influence on Chinese students and said the leader wants to cut off student exchanges altogether, Pratt said.

"As people are educated, they're going to be thinking for themselves," Pratt said. "And there's nothing you can do about that."