Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!daemon Date: Thu, 18 Jan 90 05:17:07 EST Sender: From: chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (Bo Chi) Message-ID: <9001181517.AA02785@vlsi.waterloo.edu> Original-To: china-distribution@cs.toronto.edu Subject: Jan. 18 (I), News Digest Newsgroups: ut.chinese Distribution: ut Sender: list-admin@csri.toronto.edu Approved: nobody@csri.toronto.edu | +---------I __L__ ___/ \ -------I +----+----+ | ___\_\_ | \./ | | -----+- | | | | | __ \/ | --+-- |--- | |---| | I----+----I | I__J/\ | __|__ | | | |---| | | | _____ \ | /| \ | | | L__-| | I I---------J / J \/ | | V | J * C h i n a N e w s D i g e s t * (ND Canada Service) -- Jan. 18 (I), 1990 Table of Contents No. of Lines Brief News: China restricts contacts with foreigners, etc............ 40 1. Chronology of an American Betrayal................................ 100 2. East Block News: Mongolians in democracy rally.................... 39 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brief News ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [South China Morning Post/kwchan@hkucs.UUCP] A new Communist Party document has instructed all Chinese that meetings between Chinese and foreigners must be reported to the authorities and a full, written account of the conversation submitted. New regulations are also being prepared to restrict the activities of foreign journalists. Foreign journalists are expected to face the same restraints that existed under martial law. The new rules have turned the trumpeted lifting of martial law into a farce. [South China Morning Post/kwchan@hkucs.UUCP] Mr. Yan Mingfu, the liberal official who lost his party secretariat job after the June 4 Tiananmen Square crackdown, appears to have been relieved of all his party functions. Mr. Yan, director of the party's United Front Works Department, was absent from a nationwide conference organised by the department, judging from New China News Agency reports. Mr. Ding Guan'gen, reputedly a bridge partner of Mr. Deng Xiaoping, is likely to replace Mr. Yan. [South China Morning Post 1.1.90/kwchan@hkucs.UUCP] The General Secretary, Mr. Jiang Zemin is planning a trip to North Korea in the spring, possibly in late March. Diplomatic sources say Mr. Jiang will hold extensive talks with the North Korean leader, Mr. Kim Il-sung, over the rapid changes in Eastern Europe, especially the fall of the Ceaucescu regime. The Chinese leadership is also anxious to meet Mr. Kim because of his rapidly declining health. Last month, North Korean officials said the "Great Leader" had given up smoking because of health reasons. [Fortune magazine/ccoleman@gmuvax2.gmu.edu] Governments and investors in Asia privately lauded the initiative [of Bush's sending Scowcroft to China]. Bush's overture has already prompted others to ease pressure on China. Japan will invite Chinese officials to visit Tokyo soon. The World Bank said it hopes to resume lending to the PRC. And France has signaled its willingness to help finance a joint venture. [South China Morning Post/kwchan@hkucs.UUCP] More than 100 managers in China's southern province of Hunan have resigned recently because of economic difficulties, Beijing's anti-corruption drive or problems with the communist Party. Among the main reasons cited for the resignations were a lack of capital and a fall in rpoduction and profits, it said. Since an austerity programme was instituted in September 1988, many factories in China have found themselves short of raw materials, spare parts and electricity, and some have been unable to honour contracts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Chronology of an American Betrayal ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [New York Times 1.14.90 A.M.Rosenthal/antolovi@aqua.bacs.indiana.edu] This is the chronology of the American betrayal of the struggle for freedom in China. It is worth studying. There is still a chance to recover some of America's honor. June 4., 1989: The Communist rulers of China order military troops to shoot down students and workers peacefully demonstrating for a taste of freedom. Hundreds, possibly thousands, die. In the weeks that follow thousands are arrested; most are still in jail. June 20: President Bush orders some mild sanctions against China. He says any high-level contacts with the murderers of Beijing are suspended until they acknowledge the validity of the demonstrators' aspirations. Early July: Exact date still secret. Mr. Bush sends a high-level mission to China but keeps that fact hidden. July-November: More executions. New waves of arrests, closing in tighter on student leaders who had escaped; purging of officials who had shown any sympathy with them. November 30: Mr. Bush vetoes an act of Congress, passed without opposition in the House and Senate, to guarantee that Chinese students now in this country would not be forced to return to China as long as they were in danger. December 9: A top-level mission is sent publicly to Beijing. Warm exchanges of toasts with the men who ordered the murders. Administration refuses to say whether other secret missions were sent to China. December 10-24: Mr. Bush says some sanctions will be lifted. Brushes aside protests from Republican and Democratic members of Congress. Administration makes it plain that it expects gestures from Chinese Communists before Congress reconvenes to try to override the President's veto. January 2-8, 1990: American organizations like the International League for Human Rights provide information detailing arrests and executions, which have continued since the June murders. Chinese students say at least 10,000 demonstrators are still in jail, beg Mr. Bush to demand their release. Chinese Communists denounce Eastern European revolutions, show even stronger determination not to loosen their own control. January 10: Chinese Communists, as predicted, announce lifting of martial law in Beijing - not in any other place where it was imposed publicly or secretly. Many soldiers transferred to police force, which now numbers more than 1.5 million in addition to army about twice that size. Laws allowing arrests without explanation, secret trials, executions, indefinite detention without trial, forced labor, press control, brutal student "re-education" camps - all still on the books and recently made even harsher. Denunciation of "lifting" of martial law as meaningless cosmetic trick comes from all over the world. In Washington, the President orders steps to permit World Bank loans to Chinese Communists. January 11: Mr. Bush hails the Chinese Communists for taking a "very sound step". Washington reports possible repeals of other sanctions. That is the chronology so far. In the last days of the 1980's the Bush Administration deserted the struggle for freedom in China. Whatever the reasons - outdated, stale geopolitics and Mr. Bush's misplaced confidence that he really "knows" China best - the Administration picked the wrong China, the China of the oppressors over the China of the oppressed. In the first days of 1990's it did something almost as bad - it made a fool of itself. It said that a contemptuous piece of cynical playacting by the murderers of Beijing was a step toward freedom. Now here is a date for the future: On January 24., the day after it reconvenes, Congress will try to override Mr. Bush's veto of the bill to protect Chinese students in the United States. This was always important, to help the students. Now it has taken on profound political significance. An override would signal to the entire world that at least the legislative branch of the United States Government remains on the side of the freedom fighters of China. It would be an act of hope and loyalty for the Chinese and the freedom movements still struggling in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Override of a veto requires a two-thirds majority. The White House is working hard to persuade Republicans who voted for the bill to vote against an override. Between today and the date of that vote, every American can get in touch with his or her representative and senator and urge them to vote against the veto and for the people of China. This will give us all a chance to take part in the chronology of Chinese- American history and wipe away part of the stain. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. East Block News: Mongolians in democracy rally ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [South China Morning Post 1.16.90/Agence France Presse/kwchan@hkucs.UUCP] About 5,000 demonstrators braved temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator to demand democracy and the trial of a former Communist Party chief, witnesses said yesterday. The protest on Sunday was the third since mid-December in Mongolia, the second- oldest socialist repblic after the Soviet Union. Like the previous demonstrations, it was organised by the Mongolian Democratic Union (MDU), created last month by intellectuals and young people. Witnesses reached by telephone from Beijing said the protest was larger and more daring than the others, and although demonstrators challenged the Government there was no intervention by the authorities. Banners reading "Down with bureaucracy" and "Speed up democratisation" were unfurled, diplomats in Beijing said, adding that such slogans were unprecedented in Mongolia. Some speakers publicly questioned the political system "inherited from Stalin", criticised the dominant role of the communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. The denunciation came despite the party's secretary-general, Mr Jambyn Bathmounkh, being seen as an advocate of "il tod" - the local version of the Soviet policy of glasnost. The protesters demanded removal of a bronze statue of a very Napoleonic- looking Stalin that has gazed over the heart of the capital since the People's Republic of Mongolia was formed in 1921. Another demand was the formation of a multi-party system as well as the trial of Yumjagin Tsedenbal, who has been living in Moscow since being removed from office in 1984. He has been held responsible for the country's 32-year stagnation, earning the sobriquet of "Mongol Brezhnev". The MDU has demanded free elections, greater respect for human rights, an end to privileges and the holding of a referendum on the introduction of market reforms in the economy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Executive Editor: yawei@rose.bacs.indiana.edu or yawei@iubacs.bitnet | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (or) ----------------------- --------------------- NDCadada Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thu Jan 18 10:14:03 EST 1990