chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (Bo Chi) (02/12/90)
| +---------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 * (News General) -- Feb. 12 (I), 1990 Table of Contents # of Lines News Brief ............................................................ 30 1. China CPC's Meeting to React USSR's Reform ......................... 92 2. China Government's New Policy about Studying Abroad ................ 54 3. Wuer Kai Xi at U Toronto ............................................ 27 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Source: (AP) News From: chenh@ucs.indiana.edu --------------------------- WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 Kyodo - A World Bank affiliate said it is resuming economic aid to China, eight months after the military crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The International Development Association said it has approved a credit of 23.4 million special drawing rights to help China rebuild earthquake-ravaged areas in Shanxi and Hebei pro- vinces. ... (2) Source: (AP) News From: (Yagui Wei) yawei@ucs.indiana.edu --------------------------------------- The world's best-known political prisoner, the symbol of South Africa's unyielding black resistance to apartheid, Nelson Mandela, will be freed Sunday after more than 27 years in prison, President F.W. de Klerk announced Saturday. ... It came after years of international pressure, including economic, diplomatic and cultural sanctions, which have virtually isolated Pretoria's white- dominated government from the interna- tional community. ... World leaders welcomed South Africa's announcement Saturday of Nelson Mandela's impending release from prison. (3) Source: TIRANA, Albania (AP) February 08, 1990 BY: HUUHTANEN, MATTI; Associated Press Writer From: "Jian Ding" <IZZYQ00@OAC.UCLA.EDU> ----------------------------------------------- A leading government official said Thursday that Albania will remain unaffected by democratic reforms sweeping the Soviet bloc, but welcomes the superpowers' reduced role in Europe. The leader repeated Albanian rejections of the reform pro- cess gripping much of Eastern Europe, saying "the turmoil ... has been due to misguided socialism, bureaucracy and corrup- tion." "We do not have that here," he said. .... ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. China CPC's Meeting to React USSR's Reform ----------------------------------------------------------------- BY: SCHWEISBERG, DAVID R. Source: BEIJING (UPI) February 08, 1990 From: "Jian Ding" <IZZYQ00@OAC.UCLA.EDU> Chinese leaders, troubled by the latest stunning reforms in the Soviet Union, are expected to call a meeting of the Communist Party's ruling Politburo soon to devise a policy response, foreign diplomats said Thursday. The official Chinese reaction remained low key, with a Foreign Ministry spokesman refusing to comment on the Soviet Com- munist Party's dramatic move this week to abandon its constitu- tional monopoly on power. But in an editorial apparently in response, the Chinese Com- munist Party newspaper People's Daily warned Thursday that China would collapse without the party's leadership, saying "only socialism can save China." Diplomatic analysts said the editorial was aimed at dampening any spark for renewed political unrest in China. Chinese leaders have taken a conservative and increasingly isolated political stance since last June's crackdown on the pro-democracy movement. Despite the recent upheavals in Eastern Europe, which have concerned Chinese leaders, the analysts said China has been watching the Soviet Union more closely because the Soviet com- munist revolution, like that of China, was home-grown. "This latest has made them really afraid," said a veteran East-bloc diplomat. "They are worried that what has happened in the Soviet Union could cause a new challenge for them here." The state-run press has carried virtually nothing on this week's events in Moscow but Chinese are learning of them from an internal newspaper distributed widely to party members and from such foreign radio broadcasts as the Voice of America. Several diplomats said there were signs the ruling Politburo would call a meeting in a few days to map a policy response. The leadership held similar meetings after earlier upheavals in Eastern Europe. "They are going to have to find a way to defend themselves," a Western diplomat said. Chinese leaders have been sharply critical in private of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for unleashing the political changes, but have publicly maintained the pragmatic improvement in relations that has continued since the two countries normal- ized ties last year. In line with that, a Soviet government delegation arrived Thursday for talks on confidence-building measures on the border, including the reduction of military forces in border areas, East-bloc diplomats said. The People's Daily editorial was ostensibly directed at the release this week of a Chinese party document issued inter- nally last December that lauded China's "democratic parties," small political groups that are virtually powerless. But the editorial's shoring up of the Communist Party's importance to China, with reminders of the chaos the country faced before the 1949 revolution, appeared aimed at domestic reaction. "In China, without the strong leadership of the Commun- ist Party of China, new turmoil and wars would surely arise, the nation would be split, and the people, not to mention state con- struction, would suffer again," the People's Daily said. The editorial sharply criticized the "elite" meaning intel- lectuals and students who it said "stirred up the turmoil and counterrevolutionary rebellion in 1989," the official labels for last year's pro-democracy movement. It charged the democracy activists were "bent on depriving the Chinese Communist Party of the leading role ... and advocat- ing the introduction of a multi-party system similar to parliamentary democracy in Western countries. "The motive has been the dream of establishing a bourgeois republic in China," it added. Since the crushing of the democracy movement last June, Chinese leaders have fought to restore the party's sharply diminished prestige, but have faced many of the same criti- cisms that the Soviet party has, including nepotism and corrup- tion at the top. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. China Government's New Policy about Studying Abroad ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Jian Ding" <IZZYQ00@OAC.UCLA.EDU> Source: HONG KONG (AP) February 08, 1990 Chinese seeking to study overseas at their own expense will have to first work for several years in China or pay a large fee to the goernment, a pro-Beijing newspaper reported today. The new restrictions come from the State Education Commis- sion and take effect Saturday, the Chinese-language Ta Kung Pao said in an article from Beijing that quoted unnamed sources. Under the order, university and college graduates will have to "serve" China for three to five years before being allowed to study overseas at their own expense, the report said. It did not say precisely what type of work was expected. In addition, Chinese still in school will be allowed to apply to study overseas only after repaying the government for public money already spent on their education. Fees will range from 1,500 yuan ($318) per school year for students at professional training colleges to 6,000 yuan ($1,271) per school year for Chinese studying for a doctorate. The average annual urban wage in China is about $255. The newspaper said the money would be returned to students if they come back to China within eight years of going abroad. In explaining the reason for the new regulations, the article said only that they were drafted in the spirit of discussions held by the six-member Politburo Standing Committee of the ruling Communist Party. Fear of students not returning home, particularly after the brutal crackdown on the pro-democracy movement last year, is one reason for China's more stringent rules on study overseas. The government also is concerned that too many students are returning home with "anti-socialist" ideas that could undermine the Communist revolution. Sources in the education bureaucracy in Beijing had ear- lier told The Associated Press of regulations being circulated internally to bar anyone under 30 years of age or with less than five years of work experience from obtaining official sponsorship to study overseas. Other measures have made it more difficult for students to take tests for study abroad and to obtain passports without offi- cial sponsorship. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Wuer Kai Xi at U Toronto ----------------------------------------------------------------- Source: NEWS UTC From: ND special correspondent in Toronto Wuer Kai Xi, the famous former student leader at Tian Anmen Square, visited Univ. of Toronto on Feb.9 and collapsed during his lecture. His health was concerned by the people here. The scheduled public lecture was at 7:30pm in the convoca- tion Hall of the UT. The host of the lecture, Miss Melissa Young, the external commisioner of SAC (student's administrative coun- cil, UT), announced that Wuer collapsed in that afternoon and was unable to attend the lecture at that moment. At about 8:20pm, Wuer managed to show up and gave a speech to about 1,000 UT students there. His breath was heavy and looked very weak during the lecture. But his lecture was successful and full of humor. Wuer condemned the political system in China and talked about his own role in this democratic movement. After his speech, Wuer began to answer audience's ques- tions. Only after two questions answered, he fainted again and was sent to hospital escorted by UT police, the organizer and his friends. His health caused many students' concern and so far we do not know what happened later. Many audience were moved to tear and all stood up to send him away. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | China News Digest Subscription (Xinmeng Liao): xliao@ccm.umanitoba.ca | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | China News Digest Executive Editor: (Bo Chi) chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.edu | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Mon Feb 12 00:17:27 EST 1990