With three hundred thousand troops around and enforced security forces within the city. the lifting of martial law in Beijing is a big joke aimed only at fooling foreign media and luring foreign investment. Professor Ye reminds us that the "most recent response to the olive branch offered to the Beijing regime by President Bush was that 9 Chinese Catholic ministers and 30 priests in Hebei province were arrested in late December. among whom 8 are at this moment still in prison." Chillingly. Professor Ye says that despite the claims of the administration that its veto of the visa extension bill will have no effect on Chinese students now is this country. (alt least two Chinese students that I know * 0 1 were recently denied extension of their passport by the Chinese consulates in the United States. presumably because of their activities in support of the democracy movement in China. These students and others in their position must wonder at the depth of American commitment to human rights. so long as our Government speaks in one way but acts in another. It is not enough for the Presidents press secretary to say. as he recently did. that "human rights are universal and our duty to comment on them is great." We have an obligation to do more than comment.