By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 -- The House voted overwhelmingly today to expand military ties between Taiwan and the United States, a move that China and the Clinton administration warned could aggravate regional tensions and jeopardize a landmark trade agreement.
The bill, approved by a bipartisan vote of 341 to 70, calls for the United States to establish direct military communications between Washington and Taipei, expand American training of Taiwan military officers and conduct an annual review on threats to Taiwan's security.

While the provisions of the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act are more symbolic than substantive -- American administrations have been empowered to give Taiwan military aid for more than two decades -- moving toward more formal military relations could have damaging diplomatic consequences with China.
If enacted, critics said, the bill would upset Washington's deliberately ambiguous "one China" policy, which treats Taiwan as a part of China and recognizes Beijing as China's capital, but also allows the United States to provide Taiwan with defensive weaponry.

"It would bring about very serious damage to China-U.S. relations," Yu Shuning, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy here, said in a telephone interview. Beijing, which has regarded Taiwan as a renegade province since the defeated Chinese Nationalists fled there in 1949, has not renounced the use of force to achieve eventual reunification.

But senior Republicans, led by Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the powerful majority whip, chose the security measure as the first major bill for floor consideration this year precisely because it would challenge China.  The measure marked the opening salvo in what is likely to be a contentious series of votes involving China in this campaign-compressed year. It was a popular bill with Mr. DeLay's conservative base as well as with many Democrats. And it sought to paint Republicans as champions of democratic Taiwan, while leaving the administration to appear more interested in trade benefits with rival China.
Opposition from Democrats and some Republicans last fall had forced the bill's sponsors to strip out its most contentious language, including authorization to sell Taiwan specific weapons like missile defenses, air-to-air missiles and diesel-powered submarines.

With those changes in mind, 140 Democrats felt free today to join 200 Republicans and 1 independent in saluting Taiwan's democratic government and its formidable lobby here.  "This is far less confrontational than the original legislation," said Representative Sam Gejdenson of Connecticut, the senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee.  Administration officials said they were saving their lobbying fire for the Senate, where the watered-down version still faces stiff opposition and possible defeat.  Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, the majority leader, who is a strong supporter of Taiwan, urged caution against complicating United States-China relations. "We should proceed with due diligence," he said.

President Clinton's national security aides have advised him to veto the measure if Congress approves it, arguing that it goes well beyond the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. That measure allows the United States to arm Taiwan with defensive weapons and implicitly commits Washington to defend Taiwan against attack.
The administration had backed up its commitment to Taiwan in recent years. The Pentagon dispatched two aircraft carrier battle groups toward the region in 1996 after China fired missiles near Taiwan. Between 1994 and 1998 alone, Mr. Gejdenson said, the United States approved $2 billion in arms to Taipei.
But the timing of the bill is a major headache for the administration, especially as American officials have tried to mend relations with China since the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia last May.

"This bill would mandate a number of new security and military arrangements with Taiwan that could create dangerous, false and inaccurate expectations on both sides of the Taiwan Straits," said an administration policy statement.   But an influential Taiwanese lobbyist said the vote would play well among the candidates in the presidential elections in Taiwan next month, although security as taken a back seat in the campaign to other issues like coruption.  "Symbolically, Congress has sent a very strong signal to the people of Taiwan that the U.S. is committed to their security," said Wenyen Chen, president of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, a lobbying group for Taiwan.

The vote followed nearly two hours of sometimes sharp debate on the House floor. Supporters, led by Mr. DeLay, said the measure clarified and reaffirmed Washington's commitment to Taiwan's security in the face of a Chinese military buildup.  "Given the volatility of the situation in the Taiwan Straits, any mixed signals by our government can easily be read by the Communist Chinese as complacency," Mr. DeLay said.  But critics said the bill was unnecessary and counterproductive, and could create a new barrier to a vote later this year on granting China permanent trade benefits.   "It will do nothing -- repeat, nothing -- to enhance Taiwan's security," said Representative Tom Lantos, a California Democrat. "It will stir up a hornet's nest in the region."

Supporters of the Taiwan bill disputed fears by some lawmakers that the measure could imperil the vote on China's trade benefits, a step American and Chinese negotiators agreed to last November that cleared the way for China's entry into the World Trade Organization.  "Friends of Taiwan should have no fear of our greater trade with China, just as those who want more trade with China should not object to us helping Taiwan," said Representative Dick Armey of Texas, the majority leader.   Even before the vote today, trade was on the minds of Congressional leaders who met with Mr. Clinton to discuss the budget. Mr. Armey said Republicans and Democrats agreed to hold the China vote as early as possible, before election politics gets in the way.
"Probably it would be more difficult later in the year because politics gets more intense later in the year," Mr. Armey said at his weekly news conference.
But Congressional leaders said that it may be difficult to call up the bill before May because of continuing trade negotiations between the European Union and China, and because Congress will have to hold hearings on the issue before it votes.

Senior Republicans stressed to Mr. Clinton that he needed to step up his efforts to persuade House Democrats to vote for the measure if he wants to see China become a member of the World Trade Organization. Supporters are trying to muster at least 100 votes among the 211 House Democrats.  Jake Siewert, a White House spokesman, said Mr. Clinton has already started working to win the trade vote. In addition, the business community has started its own $6 million lobbying campaign to get the measure approved.  Earlier in the day, Senator Lott predicted that the trade measure would pass if conditions were right.
"I think we're going to do it," Mr. Lott said at a United States Chamber of Commerce breakfast. "But China's going to have to watch its conduct.
And the president's going to have to weigh in aggressively with the Democratic leadership."