The US Congress was pressing ahead Tuesday with a call on Beijing to end "repression" in Tibet as China's foreign minister headed here in hopes of easing a spike in tensions.
The Pacific powers traded blame after a near clash in the South China Sea, with Washington accusing China of harassing a US surveillance ship in international waters and Beijing hitting back by saying the ship was engaged in illegal activities.
The incident underscored the fragility of US-China relations just as US President Barack Obama's administration has pledged a cooperative relationship with the rising Asian giant on the global economic crisis and other issues.
China protested the naval incident and called on the US Congress to drop its plans for a resolution on Tibet, which is marking 50 years since a bloody crackdown on an uprising that forced the Dalai Lama to go into exile.
But the House of Representatives placed on its voting agenda the resolution urging Beijing to "cease its repression of the Tibetan people, and to lift immediately the harsh policies imposed on Tibetans."
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said the United States "stood shoulder to shoulder with the Dalai Lama," who now lives in exile in India from where he has developed a global following and won the Nobel Peace Prize.
"How fitting it is that the foreign minister of China should be here in the United States this very week on an official visit," Ros-Lehtinen said.
She quoted a past statement by foreign minister Yang Jiechi accusing the Dalai Lama of being a separatist trying to divide China.
By passing the resolution, "the United States Congress will have an answer to the foreign minister of China," she told Tibetan supporters to thunderous applause.
Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-American and a Republican with outspoken anti-communist views, is backing the resolution along with leading members of Obama's Democratic Party, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu called on US lawmakers to halt the Tibet bill.
"We express serious concern over this ... we believe the US Congress resolution proposed by a few anti-China representatives disregards the history and reality of Tibet," Ma told reporters.
He also said Beijing had "made solemn representations to the United States," calling it to stop its "illegal" naval activities near China.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman rejected the call, telling reporters: "We are going to continue as we have to operate in international waters."
Yang was due to hold talks in Washington on Wednesday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who visited China last month as part of her first foreign trip since taking office.
Clinton unnerved human rights activists during her trip by saying that US concerns over Tibet and other rights issues would not impede the countries' cooperation on the economy, climate change and other issues.
Amnesty International USA executive director Larry Cox appealed to Clinton in an open letter to press Yang on China's "staggering" human rights abuses.
"Failure to discuss human rights abuses in a meaningful way would send the wrong signal about the seriousness with which the United States views the human rights situation in China and would diminish the experiences of those affected in the country," Cox said.
The Dalai Lama said Tuesday that China had brought "hell on earth" to Tibet and demanded "legitimate and meaningful autonomy" for the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan region.
