Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!daemon From: chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (Bo Chi) Newsgroups: ut.chinese Subject: Dec. 19 (II), News Digest Message-ID: <8912192027.AA09902@vlsi.waterloo.edu> Date: 19 Dec 89 15:27:00 GMT Sender: Distribution: ut Lines: 167 Approved: nobody@csri.toronto.edu Original-To: china-distribution@cs.toronto.edu | +---------I __L__ ___- i \ ------I +----+----+ | ___\_\_ | \./ | | -----+- | | | | | __ \/ | --+-- |--- | |---| | I----+----I | I__J/\ | __|__ | | | |---| | | | _____ \ | /| \ | | | L__-| | I I---------J / J \/ | | V | _/ * C h i n a N e w s D i g e s t * (ND Canada Service) -- Dec. 19 (II), 1989 Table of Contents # of Lines 1. FCSSC Forum on Democracy Strategy and Work Plans .................... 30 2. Army Urged to Improve Public Image .................................. 71 3. Rumanian Protesters Were Shot ....................................... 20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. FCSSC Forum on Democratic Strategy and Work Plans -------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Xu Zhequn, on behalf of FCSSC FCSSC's forum on democratic strategy and work plans will be held at York University, Toronto on Jan. 13,1990. The forum is spon- sored by FCSSC with other pro-democracy organizations invited. The main objectives of the forum are: 1) Discuss and work out the democratic strategy and future work plans; 2) Promote the muture understanding among the students organizations and other pro- democracy organizations; 3) Discuss the possibility of establish- ment of a national pro-democracy coordinating committee. So far there are students representatives from over 20 universi- ties across Canada and Chinese Canadians representatives from over 7 pro-demo cracy organizations registering for the forum. The total number of participants is about 100. Three guest speakers, Mr.Liu Yongchuan of IFCSS; Mr.Cao Changqing of Press Freedom Herald and Mr.Xu Bantai of Chinese Alliance for Democracy will come as the quest speakers and address on the forum. Two of the quest speakers, Cao Changqing and Xu Bantai will also be invited to give speeches in a number of cities across Canada. The organizing committee include Democracy China-Ottawa and Chinese students from University of Western Ontario, York Univer- sity. From: IN%"FS300310@YUGemini" 17-DEC-1989 22:16:33.56 ------------------------------------------------------------ FCSSC == Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars, Canada == Quan Jia Xue Lian (2,1,2,2) (in Chinese) ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. ARMY URGED TO IMPROVE PUBLIC IMAGE ------------------------------------------------------------------ [South China Morning Post, Tuesday, December 19, 1989] [By Willy Wo-Lap Lam] hkucs!kwchan@uunet.uu.net A just concluded conference on political work in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has called for promoting ideological dis- cipline and improving relations between the Army and the popu- lace. While serving to build support for the leadership of party Gen- eral Secretary, Mr Jiang Zemin, who was elevated to Central Mili- tary Commission (CMC) chairman in early November, the seven-day CMC-sponsored conference also confirmed the growing clout of Gen- eral Yang Baibing, the commission's newly promoted general secre- tary. General Yang, brother of military strongman President, presided over the meeting and presented a paper entitled Issues Concerning Ways of Strengthening and Improving Army Political Work under New Circumstances. The document listed endeavours in ten areas to "guarantee the party's absolute control over the Army" and to ensure that the rank and file will rally around the "party centre with comrade Jiang Zemin as its core". The foremost task for the Army is to promote ideological indoc- trination - "the lifeline of the PLA" - to make sure that the Army "remain forever up to scratch in political matters". Aside from being obedient to party directives, the Army must heed the "Four Cardinal Principles" of Marxism and combat bour- geois liberalisation, Beijing's code word for Western influence. In future, officers will be promoted on the basis of "rectitude and ability". This, the document noted, is to ensure that "the gun is in the hands of people who are politically reliable". Among the most important recommendations in General Yang's report is to improve relations with the general populace. "We must insist on the principle of officers and soldiers stay- ing in unison and the military and the people staying in unison," the document said. "We must maintain and develop good internal and external relationships". Analysts say it is the first time that the PLA has admitted, albeit indirectly, in an official document that the Army's rela- tionship with the people has reached a crisis point. Following the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the prestige of the Army has fallen to a record low. Under military reforms introduced by ousted party chief, Mr Zhao Ziyang, who was also CMC first vice-chairman, the PLA has put professionalism and expertise ahead of ideological indoctrination. Analysts say the stress on political work will enable General Yang Baibing, who also doubles as Chief Political Commissar and member of the Communist Party secretariat, to grasp more power in both the army and party. In the meantime, the Army's status as China's most important organisation is underlined by a new draft law on the protection of military installations, which will be discussed at the 11th meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Commit- tee, scheduled to open tomorrow. A spokesman for the NPC standing committee's general office, Mr Zhang Husheng, said yesterday that since 1980, more that 90 NPC deputies have repeatedly proposed the drafting of such a law to help protect the country's military installations. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. RUMANIAN PROTESTERS SHOT ------------------------------------------------------------------ [Agence France Presse] [South China Morning Post, Tuesday, December 19, 1989] Anti-government protests over the weekend in the Rumanian city of Timisoara may have led to heavy casualties, with one report suggesting "at least 1,000 people were killed and 200 wounded" by gunfire. Two Wyrian medical students employed in a Timisoara hospital claimed to have counted the dead in the hospital morgue. "We saw at least 1,000 bodies during Sunday," one of the stu- dents said. They had all been shot, he added. The students spoke to Agence France Press after leaving Rumania for Yugoslavia, via the border town of Vatina. However, reports of the number killed varied widely and none could be confirmed. ... (detail please see original (very long report)). ================================================================= News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (or) -------------------- --------------------- Local Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------ .