forget about it. Just find somebody else. Frankly speaking, few chinese professor in Chinese universities are recognizable in US.A young assistant professor who got his or her phd in US will be more persuasive than an old so called professor. Do not worry about it. The recommendations from not-well-known professors are the same.They care more about your other qualifications.
Frankly, in US, if a professor refused to write you a reference, he/she was doing a favor to you. Coz the reason why he/she didn't want to write you a reference might be he/she couldn't write anything good of you. It's better not to write than write a "bad" reference.
以下是引用beingsilly在2006-9-29 15:57:00的发言: Frankly, in US, if a professor refused to write you a reference, he/she was doing a favor to you. Coz the reason why he/she didn't want to write you a reference might be he/she couldn't write anything good of you. It's better not to write than write a "bad" reference.