chengpi@ecf.toronto.edu (CHENG) (10/17/89)
* N e w s D i g e s t *
(ND Canada Service)
-- Oct. 16, 1989
Table of Contents
# of Lines
1) An Excerpt about Current Policy of P.R. Applications .......... 29
2) Recent Situations in China Universities ........................ 94
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. An Excerpt about Current Policy of P.R. Applications
from CBIE file, released on Oct. 4, 1989
(CBIE: Canadian Bureau for International Education)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(page 1)
A. Immigration: Claims for Permanent Residence
There have been rumours of a change in governmental policy on permanent
residency (H & C) claims.
The following is a clarification of the current situation.
1. Policy
There is no change in the law. The section of the Immigration Act dealing
^^
with policy on P.R. (H & C) applications remains the same. This policy states
that all individuals have a right to apply. Thus, all P.R.C. citizens in
Canada may continue to make application for Permanent Residence in Canada;
the date of arrival in Canada is not relevant.
2. Special Measures re: processing of Claims
..... details please see the FILE in local LYHs or ask related people.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Recent Situations in China Universities
BY: WILHELM, KATHY ; Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: BEIJING (AP) October 14, 1989
-- via: "J. Ding" <IZZYQ00@OAC.UCLA.EDU>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
China's most prestigious universiy opened Saturday for the first time
since soldiers crushed the massive pro-democracy protests its students
helped lead.
Students gathered to buy books at the center of the Beijing University
campus near a long red banner that urged them to uphold Marxist principles
and take a clear stand against Western capitalist values.
Few were willing to talk about the protests that ended in gunfire and
triggered a hard-line backlash in which Communist Party General Secretary
Zhao Ziyang was ousted and thousands were arrested.
"Most students have become more realistic about the situation and now
they want to study," said one. But they reported that among themselves, and
on other Beijing campuses, students have taken to sarcastically singing the
jingle from a pesticide commercial that goes, "We are the harmful insects."
Students were noticeably fewer than usual. The 750-member freshman
class down from about 2,100 last year will be absent all year to undergo
military and political training at an army academy outside the capital.
Their dormitories were empty.
Authorities announced after the protests that freshmen for the first
time would spend a year at a military academy, but they insisted it was not
punishment for the pro-democracy protests.
The reduction in the freshman class was part of a nationwide cut in
first-year students from about 640,000 to 610,000.
Beijing University has been particularly hard-hit, partly because it is
mainly a liberal arts school and liberal arts are losing the most new
students. The university played a leading role in the demonstrations, but
authorities claim the enrollment reductions had nothing to do with that.
The school has an enrollment of about 10,000, but students said some
upperclassmen failed to show up, fearing investigations of their roles in
the protests.
Other colleges are still continuing such investigations two months
after reopening, with special teams pressuring teachers and students who
were heavily involved to write fuller "self-criticisms," or confessions.
An official notice posted in several places at Beijing University said
the government would be lenient toward those who "turn themselves in,
confess or render meritorious service" which it explained meant reporting
the crimes of others or providing evidence.
Other schools reopened early, in August, to complete the spring
semester's unfinished work and hold special political ideology classes. But
Beijing University's opening was delayed until after the Oct. 1 anniversary
of 40 years of Communist Party rule, apparently for fear its students would
disrupt the festivities. The day passed peacefully.
The party newspaper, the People's Daily, said Friday that Beijing
University was a "major disaster zone" during the protests.
It called for strengthening school management, saying that people with
bourgeois liberal, or anti-socialist, views took advantage of its past free
atmosphere.
"Bourgeois liberals will always try by hook or by crook to meddle in
Beijing University" because of its tradition as China's most prestigious
school, it warned.
But university President Wu Shuqing, a Marxist economist who replaced
the relatively liberal Ding Shisun after the protests, said in an interview
last week that he was confident the students would be "more healthy" this
year.
"The university will help the students to understand how to advance the
nation's economic and political reforms according to China's actual
problems and sticking to a socialist orientation," he said.
Wu said the school's goal was to train students to be both "red and
expert."
Beijing University traditionally has led other schools in political
activism, dating back to its leadership in the 1919 "May Fourth Movement,"
a student-led protest movement against German concessions.
Although most students in Beijing and other cities have predicted there
will be no big protests this year, there have already been individual acts
of defiance. One student at a technical college wrote "Down with (Premier)
Li Peng" on a blackboard. He was tracked down and arrested.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
===========================================================================
News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (in Canada)
-------------------- ---------------------
Local Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu (outside)
.chengpi@ecf.toronto.edu (CHENG) (10/17/89)
* N e w s D i g e s t *
(ND Canada Service)
-- Oct. 17 (I), 1989
Table of Contents
# of Lines
1) Students in China Learn About Power of The State ................. 198
2) China CCP Steps Up "Purifying Party Organization" ................. 94
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Students in China learn about power of the state
By Vernon Loeb
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
-- via ND special correspondent in Montreal
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shanghai
His summer holiday was just beginning when a letter arrived
from his university. Return to Shanghai at once, it said.
He knew what it was all about.
His father made the trip back with him, hoping that 30 years
in the Chinese Communist Party would win some consideration for his
son, a student leader.
A bushy-haired 21-year-old with a preference for jeans and
flannel shirts, the son was "invited" to talk to the Shanghai
police upon his return, but told them nothing at first. He soon
discovered that other students had not been so "strong-minded".
Eventually, he had no choice but to tell them everything - how
he had made fiery speeches on a Shanghai campus during last
spring's democracy movement, how he had gone to factories in
Shanghai to try to organize stony-faced workers.
ON FILE FOR LIFE
All of it was typed up and put in his file by police, where
he assumes it will stay for the rest of his life.
Later in the summer there were more confessions to be made -
this time around, during two weeks of mandatory political
indoctrination at his university.
He and other troublemakers read an "important" speech by
Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping condemning the student movement over
and over and watched videotapes of the "counter-revolutionary
rebellion" - scenes of "hooligans" burning tanks and beating up
soldiers who were showing "maximum restraint" toward civilians.
At one point, the student leader said, he stood up and
delivered a ringing denunciation of the movement, only to be told
that he had "changed too fast".
Now he fully appreciates the awesome hold the state and the
party have over his life - and how they are tightening their grip
to crush all vestiges of the student democracy movement.
"I am not sure what my fortunes will be," said the student
leader, now back in school for his senior year.
At Fudan University in Shanghai, in a back booth of a dimly
lit campus coffeehouse, three undergraduates sit drinking Shanghai
Dark beer, chain-smoking American cigarettes and exchanging furtive
words about the future.
LEFT IN LIMBO
They are not sure they have one.
They are among several dozen student activists at this
prestigious university who have been "registered" by police, a fate
somewhere between having a confession put in your police file and
being arrested outright. Call it an official state of limbo.
Across town, at East China Normal University, a large
teachers' college, the president has been sent to Beijing for
renewed political studies, the school's chief party official has
been replaced, 10 teachers have been suspended pending political
re-education, and the vice-chairman of the economics department,
two members of the Chinese department, a party official assigned
to the history department and a graduate student have all been
arrested.
One Western diplomat called the arrests "disturbing" and said
that the fall registration of students at Fudan was "a form of
persecution without even the legal line of trial, rebuttals and
sentencing - it's the worst of Chinese justice to have this hanging
over these kids' heads".
Having said that, the diplomat pointed out that the crackdown
was harsher still in Beijing, the centre of the democracy movement.
What the party is calling "turmoil" in Shanghai, he said, is
officially "counter_revolutionary rebellion" in Beijing - a much
higher crime.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed in Beijing last June
3-4 as soldiers shot their way into the capital to clear Tiananmen
Square of student demonstrators for the first time since April.
An official news broadcast over the summer reported more that
3,500 arrests in June in Beijing alone, and diplomats now say that
as many as 10,000 may have been arrested nationwide for their roles
in the democracy movement.
While most of those arrested have been workers, a significant
number of students and intellectuals have been jailed as well - and
the arrests continue, along with some releases from jail.
Student leader Wang Dan, a key figure in the democracy
movement, is from Beijing University, the most prestigious school
in the nation.
He remains in prison and the university's freshman class of
800 has been sent to a military college outside Beijing for a year
of political indoctrination by the People's Liberation Army.
START OF CLASSES DELAYED
The start of classes at the university has been delayed until
today. The first order of business will be a week of political
indoctrination- standard fare this fall at universities nationwide.
"I'm not looking forward to classes starting," said one
graduate student in computer science. "I just want to go to the
United States as quickly as possible. I want to study in a safe
environment. This is not a safe environment."
A first-year grad student in physics said he and his
classmates were made to write essays about their roles in the
movement during examinations over the summer. The student admits
going to Tiananmen Square once and demonstrating.
From a bench where the student sits, reading a book in
English, he can see a slogan strung across a shady lane on campus.
It says,"Stand firm against capitalism."
Nearby, at People's University, another hotbed of student
activism, a slogan of a different sort went up secretly last month
to mark the 100th day since the killing of students on Tiananmen
Square. Six students from the school are thought to have been
killed.
In commemorating the dead, the handwritten poster said that
"the second independent student union has been formed to direct the
future movement."
Authorities ripped the poster down immediately and started an
investigation.
"You must be very daring to even put up a poster saying
something," said one student in Beijing. "Anybody who actually
comes up and shows himself demonstrating - that is suicidal".
More that a few students at his university remain equally
defiant, at least in private. In another dorm room down a bare,
dank corridor of unfinished concrete, a student has written the
words of poet Allen Ginsburg above his desk:"Because I am open, I
am vulnerable; because I am open, I am free."
There are other students who took part in the movement and now
want nothing more than to forget about it.
"I've had graduate students say to me, 'That was my first
involvement with politics, and I never want anything to do with it
again,'" said a professor at East China Normal. "'I just want to
lead my life and be done with it.'"
TEARS WELLED UP
The student leader whose father is in the party was in his
dorm room in Shanghai recently when a friend from Beijing gave him
a spent shell casing picked up from the streets on June 4.
Holding the shell between his thumb and index finger a few
inches from his face, the student leader was stunned. Tears welled
up in his eyes.
When he regained his composure a few minutes later, he said
his friend would never know how much that shell meant to him.
"I imagine I'll have to spend the rest of my life trying to
make myself worthy of the students who were killed," he said, "But
I have no regrets - none.
"As Hemingway once said, a man can be destroyed, but never
defeated."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. China CCP Step Up "Purifying Party Organization"
BY: WILHELM, KATHY ; Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: BEIJING (AP) October 15, 1989
-- From: "Jian Ding" <IZZYQ00@OAC.UCLA.EDU>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leaders in the Beijing Communist Party voted Sunday to purge the party of
"hostile and anti-party elements' and wealthy private businessmen, whom
they called exploiters.
The decision, reported by the official Xinhua News Agency, indicated
that the harsh crackdown triggered by student protests in June is not
winding down after nearly five months, but rather will be intensified.
Also Sunday, an official report said lawmakers have proposed banning
Hong Kong residents from anti-government activities after the colony
reverts to Chinese rule in 1997.
Xinhua said the Beijing party committee, which has led the nation in
hard-line rhetoric, approved a resolution to "purify the party
organizations" by requiring all members in the city to reregister during
the coming year.
Only those who meet party qualifications will be retained, it said.
"A drive will be conducted to examine and investigate how party
members, especially officials with a party membership, behaved in ending
the national turmoil and quelling the anti-government rioting," it said,
referring to pro-democracy protests that the army crushed in June.
"The overwhelming majority of the party members will be united and
educated and a very small number of hostile and anti-party elements will be
resolutely purged from the party," it said.
It did not say how many of Beijing's 10 million residents are party
members or how many are expected to survive the examination. So far, only a
few expulsions from the party have been announced, including that of Yan
Jiaqi, a political scientist who fled to the West in June and is working to
organize an opposition from overseas.
Former party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, ousted for allegedly
supporting the student protests, has been allowed to keep his party
membership, but some top officials are believed to be pressing for his
expulsion. He already has lost all his party posts.
Leading targets of the party purge include private businessmen, whom
the resolution referred to as "exploiters."
"The resolution stipulated that exploiters cannot be admitted into the
party, and those who have already been party members must adhere to the
party's ideals," it said.
"Besides getting their own due pay, they should spend their post-tax
profits on production and public welfare and should not use them for their
own private needs. If they fail to do so, they can no longer be party
members," it said.
Private businessmen were commonly described as "exploiters" during the
first three decades of Communist rule, but after senior leader Deng
Xiaoping began reforming the centralized economy a decade ago, they were
embraced as partners in China's modernization. At least one millionaire has
been admitted to the party.
Since the June crackdown on the student movement, however, hard-line
policies have made a comeback in all areas. The slogan of Deng's early
reforms, "To get rich is glorious," has been dropped, and party leaders
have begun criticizing private businessmen for becoming wealthy.
Some cities have put limits on how much self-employed businessmen can
pay themselves, and tax officials have been ordered to make sure private
businessmen pay what they owe.
Many private clothing sellers and bar owners in Beijing have said they
want to sell their businesses.
The resolution also said the party will examine officials at all levels
and make any changes it considers necessary.
"Political integrity will be emphasized in choosing and appointing
officials in the future," it said.
The Beijing party committee has heard a series of hard-line speeches in
the past few days from its head, Li Ximing, including a call Thursday for
direct party decision-making in universities and at the most local level of
government.
The Hong Kong proposal, the latest in a series of statements by the
government about its future rule there, was likely to add to fears that
have caused tens of thousands of residents to flee the British colony.
The legislators, members of the Standing Committee of China's National
People's Congress, also reiterated the government position that China will
have the right to station troops in Hong Kong and declare a state of
emergency there.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's Note: Dear friend, if you feel like to recommend articles that
carry China current situations, you are more than welcome
to send the News to this account. I sincerely thank you for
for your great effort helping China.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (or)
-------------------- ---------------------
Local Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu
.chengpi@ecf.toronto.edu (CHENG) (10/21/89)
* C h i n a N e w s D i g e s t *
(ND Canada Service)
-- Oct. 20 (I), 1989
Table of Contents
# of Lines
1) Headline News ...................................................... 50
2) Earthquake hit rural area in Northern China ........................ 43
3) East Germany's hard-line leader stripped of power .................. 59
4) Hungary approves Multiparty System ................................. 40
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Headline News
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) The Chinese governmet threatened the Norwagian government that if any
government officials attend the peace prize ceremony for Dalai in Dec.,
they will break economic relationship with Norway. The Norway President
replied to that by saying that they do not have intention to break
their tradition.
[From: simone@nyspi.bitnet (J. Yang)]
[Source: World Journal]
(2) The Chinese government is taking actions to further restrict students
in China going abroad. A document circulating among Chinese officials
claims that students, after graduation, must work as many as 7 years
before they can go abroad. According to Chinese officals that it is not
a regulation but a principle which to be controled by individual unit.
[From: simone@nyspi.bitnet (J. Yang)]
[Source: The New York Times]
(3) It is reported that the Guangdong provice governor Yie Xianpeng has
refused the central governmet's requirement which forces people to buy
the government bond. The London Finance Times also reports that Yie
told the reporters that he would not allow political ideology to
interfere with business management in Guangdong. Yie has refused to
take a position in Beijing.
[From: simone@nyspi.bitnet (J. Yang)]
[Source: World Journal]
(4) Those once ingored political books now become hot again in China.In the
"National Book Market", those books are merchandized everyday by a many
units and individuals. it shows that under the pressure of enforced
political study, people are looking for self protection.
[From: simone@nyspi.bitnet (J. Yang)]
[Source: World Journal]
(5) The official newspaper "The Farmer's Daily" strongly critisized
religion worshiping. The artice blamed religion as source of the lose
of ideology in rural area and said feudalist religions are still
poisoning farmers. The article also urged the farmers to stop praying
lord but turn to study Party chief Jiang's 9/29 speech.
[From: simone@nyspi.bitnet (J. Yang)]
[Source: The Farmer Daily]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Earthquake hit rural area in Northern China
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: yawei@aqua.bacs.indiana.edu (G. Ya)
[Source: Associated Press, 10/19/89]
BEIJING - A series of major earthquakes shook a largely rural area of
northern China before dawn Thursday.
The temblors killed at least 18 people and flattened about 8,000 homes.
Officials of the State Seismo-logical Bureau said the quakes injured at
least 28 people.
They struck less than 24 hours after the devastating quake in northern
California.
The temblors - registering between 5.0 and 6.0 on the Richter scale - hit
an area along the Shanxi-Hebei provincial border.
At least one was felt in Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted
the bureau as saying.
The stricken area is a flat and dusty region about 135 miles west of the
capital where farmers grow wheat and other grains and many live in one-story
unfired clay-brick homes with dirt floors that easily collapse in major
quakes.
Shanxi is also China's major coal-producing province and the stark brown
land is pocked with coal mines.
The first quake, measuring 5.7, shook areas of Shanxi and Hebei provinces
late Wednesday. It was felt in the capital, but there were no reports of
damage and the bureau said there was no need to take safety measures in the
city.
There were at least four other quakes registering 5 or above in the next
six hours, including one of 6.0 magnitude.
Such tremors are capable of doing major damage in a populated area.
Bureau officials said at least 300 small quakes were recorded, but there
were no major aftershocks after dawn.
The officials said there was still relatively little information about
the extent of the damage. Xinhua said the casualty figures of 18 dead and 28
injured were "preliminary."
The stricken area is not open to foreign reporters and efforts to reach
it by telephone were not successful.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. East Germany's hard-line leader stripped of power
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: yawei@aqua.bacs.indiana.edu (G. Ya)
[From: Associated Press, 10/18/89]
BERLIN - East German leader Erich Honecker was stripped of power Wednes-
day, ending 18 years of his rule, as the government grapples with growing
public demands for a freer society.
State news media said the Communist Party hierarchy replaced its 77-year-
old leader with Egon Krenz, a Honecker protege.
Krenz is the youngest member of the ruling Politburo.
Honecker, who directed the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, also will
be relieved of his largely ceremonial post as head of state and as chief of
the military, the government-run news agency ADN said.
ADN said Krenz, 52, in charge of security issues and government-run youth
groups, already had taken over as the party chief.
It said he will be recommended for the posts as military chief and head
of state.
The latter two posts require the approval of the nation's Parliament, and
that is guaranteed by the strong central control of the government.
Krenz, who was in charge of security issues and government-run youth
groups, is considered a Communist hard-liner like Honecker.
However, he signaled a softer stance when he reportedly urged police to
stop their harsh crackdown on the thousands of people who have been staging
protests in recent weeks.
Two other key members of the ruling Politburo lost their positions.
Politburo member Joachim Herrmann, 60, who was in charge of the nation's
media, and Guenter Mittag, 63, the architect of East Germany's economic
policy, "were relieved of their functions," ADN reported.
ADN said both men had also lost their posts on the Communist Party's 163-
member Central Committee and 21-member Politburo, and Mittag will be relieved
of his duties as deputy head of state.
The move was an apparent attempt to placate growing public demands for a
freer press and economic reforms.
The change in leadership comes as East Germany is still reeling from the
exodus in recent months of tens of thousands of its citizens seeking better
wages and more freedoms in the West. The flight has been followed by public
dissent unprecedented under in this Communist country.
In Washington, President Bush said Krenz's rise to power was unlikely to
signal fundamental change.
"Whether that reflects a change in East-West relations, I don't think
so," Bush said. "Mr. Krentz has been very much in accord with the policies of
Honecker. So it's too early to say."
But his administration challenged the new party leadership to make an
effort in that direction.
In Bonn, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl welcomed the leadership
change and said he hoped Krenz would "make the way free" for a better life
for East Germans.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Hungary approves Multiparty System
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: yawei@aqua.bacs.indiana.edu (G. Ya)
[Source: Associated Press, 10/18/89]
BUDAPEST - Parliament Wednesday overwhelmingly approved constitutional
amendments.
The changes transform Communist Hungary into a multiparty democracy.
Among the 94 changes passed by the 380-member Parliament were amendments
eliminating all references to the leading role of the newly dissolved
Communist Party.
Justice Minister Kalman Kulcsar said they effectively end one-party rule
in the East bloc nation.
The country's formal name also was changed from People's Republic of
Hungary to Republic of Hungary to re-flect a break with the Communist past.
Another change in the 1949 Constitution abolishes the 21-person
collective presidency and replaces it with the office of the president. The
powers of president, will be assumed by Parliament Speaker Matyas Szueros
until elections are held next year.
The president also is commander-in-chief of the armed forces and wields
other authority.
One amendment states that "political parties may be freely established
and may freely function providing that they respect the Constitution and the
laws."
Another declares that the "leading role of the Marxist-Leninist party of
the working class ... has been outdated. Instead the necessary legal
framework of a multiparty system must be stated."
The historic voting came on the heels of another landmark decision - the
dissolution last week of the Communist Party and its replacement by the
Hungarian Socialist Party.
Unlike its monolithic, Marxist-Leninist predecessor, the new party
created last week professes commitment to multiparty democracy and market
forces in the economy.
The moves are the latest in Hungary's moves in the past year to break
with its past by establishing democratic economic and social reforms.
=============================================================================
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Executive Editor: Deming Tang E_mail: Tang@ALISUVAX.bitnet |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
=============================================================================
News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (or)
-------------------- ---------------------
Local Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu
.chengpi@ecf.toronto.edu (CHENG) (10/24/89)
* C h i n a N e w s D i g e s t *
(ND Canada Service)
-- Oct. 23 (I), 1989
Table of Contents
# of Lines
1) Wang Ruowang Will be Punished for
"Polluting the Thinking of Youth" .............................. 28
2) Three Pro-democracy demonstrators are allowed to stay in Taiwan ..... 53
3) China Totters on the Brink of Recession ............................. 45
4) China Opposes Taiwan to Be Admitted into GATT ....................... 15
5) CCP -- Rewriting History ALL the Time ............................... 56
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Wang Ruowang Will be Punished for "Polluting the Thinking of Youth"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAWEI%AQUA.DECnet@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (mr. yawei)
[Source: Associated Press, 10/22/89]
BEIJING(AP) - An official newspaper accused a well-known Shanghai writer
and dissident of "polluting the thinking of youth" by taking part in the
spring pro-democracy movement.
It said he will be punished.
The blistering commentary, which was published Friday and seen in Beijing
Sunday, was the first public attack on 71-year-old Wang Ruowang, a prolific
essayist.
Wang was put under house arrest in June.
"Wang is a writer in name, but his fame comes not from some outstand-ing
writing but from some people calling him a 'democracy fighter,'" the
Shanghai-based newspaper Wen Hui Bao said in a half-page commentary.
"He even attacked Comrade Deng Xiaoping, calling him a 'power behind the
throne,' and saying that 'the days when 1.1 billion people will submit to a
monarch are over.'"
An unknown number of students, professors, writers and other
intellectuals have been jailed since the army crushed the democracy movement
in June.
Hong Kong papers since have reported Wang was taken into custody, but
efforts to telephone his home for confirmation were unsuccessful.
Wen Hui Bao did not say where Wang was but said: "In the end he will be
punished according to the law," indicating he faces trial.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Three Pro-democracy demonstrators are allowed to stay in Taiwan
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: IZZYQ00@UCLAMVS.BITNET (Jian Ding)
[Source: Associated Press, 10/21/89]
By: Annie Huang
TAIPEI(AP) - A Chinese man and two women who fled China to aoid arrest
for involvement in June's pro-democracy protests have secretly arrived for
resettlement, officials said today.
Government officials said the three, identified as Tien Hsin-jen, 43,
Bai Hsueh, 26, and Chin Chin, 27, are the first Chinese involved in the
pro-democracy movement to receive permission to settle in Taiwan.
Seven others were expected to arrive later, the officials said.
The three attended a news conference today arranged by the
semi-official Free China Relief Association, but they continually used
magazines to shield their faces from photographers.
They said they feared Communist authorities might identify them from
the photographs and persecute their relatives in China.
Officials declined to say whether the three were using pseudonyms and
refused to disclose how they escaped from China before arriving in Taiwan
from undisclosed European countries earlier this week.
A number of pro-democracy demonstrators, including student leaders,
have fled China to escape arrest since June when Chinese troops rolled into
Beijing's Tiananmen Square to suppress the movement. Hundreds and perhaps
thousands of people died in the crackdown.
Tien, who said he taught Russian in Beijing, said the three fled China
through an "underground railroad" with the help of friends.
He declined to elaborate, explaining: "Many other Chinese activists are
still stranded in China or Hong Kong. We have just escaped danger ourselves
and don't want to put others in danger."
Ms. Bai, who said she was a high school teacher, said she helped
organize anti-government demonstrations in the southern port of Fuzhou. She
said her husband was arrested for helping her escape but he has since been
released.
Ms. Chin, who said she once worked as an art designer at Beijing's
Central Television Station, declined to provide details of her involvement
in the pro-democracy movement, explaining: "They (the Chinese) would know
who I am if I told you what I did."
Tien said he helped rush the injured to hospitals on June 4 when
Chinese troops opened fire on demonstrators in Beijing.
"I believe mainland China can gradually move toward a society of
democracy and freedom although this would take a long and difficult
process," Tien said. "More exchanges across the Taiwan Strait can help the
mainland to achieve this purpose sooner."
Vice Interior Minister Chang Lung-sheng told reporters the government
is reviewing the resettlement applications of 91 other Chinese who said
they were involved in the pro-democracy movement.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. China Totters on the Brink of Recession
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tang@ssurf.ucsd.edu (Sanyee Tang)
[Source: Wall Street Journal, 10/20/89]
by Adi Ignatius
Beijing -- China's slide toward recession is beginning to look like a
free fall.
In a report on China's foundering economy, the official State Statistical
Bureau disclosed that industrial output last month rose 0.9% from a year
earlier -- the lowest growth rate in a decade for September. Retail sales
are plummeting, while consumer prices still are rising.
Chinese and foreign economists now predict a prolonged stagflation: low
growth and high inflation. "The economy is crashing hard," says an Asian
economist in Beijing. "The slowdown is taking hold a lot more quickly and
devastating than anyone had expected."
A lengthy recession, if it materializes, would drain state and create
severe hardships for urban workers. Experts predict the coming year will be
characterized by flat or negative industrial growth, rising unemployment and
a widening budget deficit. Unless the government suddenly reverses course,
wages for most workers won't keep pace with inflation, creating a potential
source of urban unrest.
In Western, market-driven countries, recession often have a bright side:
prodding the economy to greater efficiency. In China, however, there isn't
likely to be any silver lining because the economy remains guided primarily
by the state.
Instead, China is likely to shell out ever-greater subsidies to its
coddled state-run enterprises, which ate up $18 billion in bailouts last
year. Nor are any of these inefficient monoliths likely to be allowed to go
bankrupt. Rather, the brunt of the slowdown will be felt in the fast-growing
private and semi-private "township" enterprises, which have fallen into
disfavor as China's leaders reemphasize an orthodox Marxist preference for
public ownership.
"when the going gets tough, China penalizes the efficient and rewards the
incompetent," says a Western economist.
The statistical bureau's report, cited in China Daily, notes that
industrial output in September totaled $29.4 billion, a rise of just 0.9%
from a year earlier. Output declined in several provinces, including Jiansu
and Zhejiang, two key coastal areas, and Sichuan, the nation's agricultural
breadbasket. Production in Shanghai, China's industrial powerhouse and the
largest source of tax revenue for the central government, fell 1.8% for the
month.
Nationwide, output of light industrial products declined 1.8% -- "the
first decline in ten years," a bureau spokesman told China Daily.
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4. China Opposes Taiwan to Be Admitted into GATT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tang@ssurf.ucsd.edu (Sanyee Tang)
[Source: Wall Street Journal, 10/20/89]
China said the question of Taiwan's membership in the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade should be considered only after China's own membership
in the 97-nation organization is restored.
Both China and Taiwan are seeking seats in GATT, which sponsors trade
liberalizing agreements and sets world-commerce rules. "As one of China's
provinces, Taiwan has no right to join GATT on its own," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Li Zhaoxing said.
China, under Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek, was a founding
member of GATT in 1947. The nationalists withdrew in 1950, after their
flight to Taiwn, and the Communist government in Beijing, applied for
restoration of China's membership in July 1986.
The U.S. has voiced opposition to China's bid for GATT membership, saying
China has yet to undertake needed economic reforms.
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5. CCP -- Rewriting History ALL the Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sl185003@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (Y S Tang)
[Source: soc.culture.china, 10/22/89]
In the October issue of "Nineties", a Hong Kong "counter-revolutionary"
magazine, a few photos were published:
1,2) Two versions of the painting "Ceremony of the Foundation of the
People's Republic". In the painting standing behind Mao Tze-tung are Chou En-
lai, Chu T'eh, Liu Shao-ch'i, Soong Ch'ing-ling, Lee Chi4-shen1, Chang1 Lan2
and Kao1 Kang3; Kao Kang vanished in the second version as he had been
charged as the leader of an anti-Party clique (together with Jao2 Su4-Shih2
in the 1950's).
3) In 1958, the CCP government launched lots of high yield "satellites"
[means a harvest record rises as high as a satellite] in agriculture. The
photo was originally published in "People's Pictorial." It showed three kids
standing on the top of rice stems in a farming field. The caption was like
this: "The First Chien4 Kuo2 Farm in Ma2 Ch'eng2 County of Hu2 Pei3 Province
sets a high yield record of 36,956 chin1 per mu3 in their 1,016 mu of spring
rice field. Look! What the density of the rice plants! Standing on them, the
children feel like standing on a very soft sofa." (For your reference,
normally in my uncle's field we have about 800 chin1 of rice per mu3.)
4,5) In 1958, the Ming Tomb Reservoir was being built. Mao Tze-tung,
P'eng2 Chen1 (then the Mayor of Peking) and others went there to
"voluntarily" contribute their labor. P'eng Chen was ousted during the
"Cultural Revolution". When Mao died in 1976, the authority published the
same photo again, but with P'eng Chen vanished. (The people behind P'eng
were skillfully recovered.)
6,7) The peak time of the "Cultural Revolution", 1968. Mao Tze-tung and
his "Intimate Co-fighter (ch'in1 mi4 chan4-you3)" Lin Piao were sitting
together in the 12th Plenum of the 8th CCP Central Committee. After the "Lin
Piao Incident", again in the official photos published after Mao died, Lin
Piao and his chair both disappeared in that photo. (The curtain behind him
was recovered. Not much skill required though.)
8,9) The CCP VIPs in the front row in the memorial service for Mao in
1976, the "Gang of Four" Wang2 Hung2-wen2, Chang1 Ch'un1-ch'iao2, Chiang1
Ch'ing1, and Yao2 Wen2-yuuen2 were standing in the noticeable positions in
8). Same photo 9) was published in "People's Pictorial" after the "Gang" was
crushed, and they were gone (leaving several empty spots and something used
to be behind them being revealed. Amazing modern technology, says Yaun2 Mu4),
however, in the caption (to indicate there used to be someone there) their
names were replaced by X's.
10) In April 1980, Beijing held the Army's Political Work Meeting, Deng
Xiaoping led other CCP leaders to attend the closing ceremony. Then Hu2 Yao4-
pang1, Chao4 Tze3-yang2, Lee Hsian1-nien4, Hua4 Kuo2-feng1 were not present.
But they were added in this photo. However, their heights were not on the
real scale: comparing with others, Hu Yao-pang looked remarkably tall.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Executive Editor: Deming Tang E_mail: Tang@ALISUVAX.bitnet |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
=============================================================================
News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (or)
-------------------- ---------------------
Local Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu
.
chengpi@ecf.toronto.edu (CHENG) (10/26/89)
| +---------I __L__ ___- i \ ------I +----+----+ | ___\_\_ | \./ | | -----+- | | | | | / \/ | --+-- |--- | |---| | I----+----I | /__\/\ | __|__ | | | |---| | | | _____ \ | /| \ | | | L__-| | I I---------J / J \/ | | V | _/ * C h i n a N e w s D i g e s t * (ND Canada Service) -- Oct. 25 (I), 1989 Table of Contents # of Lines 0) Headline News ....................................................... 13 1) Beijing Set up Watchdog over China-backed Companies in Hong Kong .... 44 2) NCNA Officer Returns to China After Failure to Seek Asylum .......... 47 3) Chai Ling might still be in hiding, Wang Dan may soon appear on TV ................................. 28 4) People's Daily Attacks Head of Nobel Prize Committee ................ 50 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Headline News ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Hungary declared itself a democracy on Monday, Oct 23, 1989, 33 years after Soviet troops crushed an anti-Stalinist uprising. Chants of "Russians go home!" and "Communism no more!" rose from a crowd of 100,000. Acting President Matyas Szueroes formally declared Hungary a democracy after 41 years of communist rule. He said:" The Republic of Hungary has become a state governed by law, where the values of ... democracy and democratic socialism are equally valid. Two weeks ago, the ruling Communist Party dissolved itself in favor of a successor Socialist Party favoring democratic ideals and multiparty elections. The party issued a statement Friday rejecting the Soviet invation of 1956. [From: Tang@alisuvax.bitnet (D. Tang)] [Source: Des Moines Register (AP News), 10/24/89] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Beijing Set up Watchdog over China-backed Companies in Hong Kong ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: hkucs!kwchan@uunet.UU.net (Chan Ki Wa) [Source: South China Morning Post, 10/24/89] By Lulu Yu Beijing has set up a special watchdog within the New China News Agency (NCNA) to ensure China-backed companies in Hongkong do not deviate from the Communist Party line. The move is part of the Chinese Government's drive to clamp down on what they consider to be "subversive activities" in the aftermath of events in Tiananmen Square. It coincides with the appointment of a senior Beijing official, Mr Pan Zengxi, as vice-director of the NCNA, China's de facto mission in Hongkong. It is believed that the 60-year-old Mr Pan, who was Vice-Minister of the Central Government's Ministry of Transport and Communications until last year, will play a key role. His portfolio includes economic affairs, currently the main responsibility of NCNA's most senior vice-director, Mr Zheng Hua. Other vice-directors under the leadership of Mr Xu Jiatun are Mr Qiao Zong-huai, Mr Zhang Junsheng, Mr Mao Junnian and Mr She Mengxiao. Little is known about Mr Pan, who is currently on an official trip to Beijing with Mr Zheng Hua, although he has been here for a year. His appointment is expected to be announced within a few days. Chinese sources said that with the establishment of the watchdog, Beijing would be better able to keep track of the activities of leftist firms, organisations and even individuals. A number of China-funded companies such as the controversial Wen Wei Po newspaper, are known to have adopted an anti-government stance in support of dissidents in the wake of the June 4 crackdown. Others are believed to be on the side of liberal political groups which championed democratic reforms disliked by China. In an environment where the community is increasingly split between the liberal and the pro-China conservative camps, Beijing wants to ensure that all its representatives in the territory are sympathetic towards official Chinese policies. One method of whipping companies into line is by controlling their purse strings through the NCNA watchdog. More than 2,000 companies here will be under surveillance. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. NCNA Officer Returns to China After Failure to Seek Asylum ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: hkucs!kwchan@uunet.UU.net (Chan Ki Wa) [Source: South China Morning Post, 10/24/89] By David Chen Xu Haining, the maverick former researcher of the New China News Agency's (NCNA) Hongkong branch who demonstrated for the pro-democracy movement and later sought asylum in Britain, has returned to his home-town of Hangzhou, as an officer in a research institute. Chinese sources said at one time it was being considered whether to send Mr Xu back to Hongkong to work, but it was decided he would do better being with his mother who also worked in Hangzhou. Mr Xu, 27, came into prominence briefly in May when he and other NCNA members demonstrated outside the news agency headquarters in Queen's Road East in sympathy for the pro-democracy movement in Beijing. Later he disappeared, and in an open letter said he had formed a movement with more than 170 signatures from the local NCNA staff. He then approached several consulates in search of political asylum. Two months ago, he quietly flew to London with the British making all the arrangements. There he would have faded from the public eye - but for two considerations. After "debriefing" Mr Xu, the British found he had little to offer them as he was only a junior official who knew little of what was going on in China or in Hongkong. He was put up in a refugee camp where he led a meagre existence with few friends to talk to. Then he came across a newspaper report saying that his chief, Mr Xu Jiatun, Hongkong director of the NCNA, had promised that those wayward dissidents, including the young researcher, would not be punished. Regretting that he had made the move to Britain, Mr Xu approached Chinese Embassy in London. Embassy officials were taken aback and had to seek instructions from Beijing, so Mr Xu was told to return in a few days. But he did not do so, as the British had by then discovered his move. He was put up in a safe house, but later returned to the Chinese Embassy. This time the embassy staff refused to let him go. On the day of his departure he met an impartial observer confirming he wanted to go back home. He returned and after a period of rest, went back to work. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Chai Ling might still be in hiding, Wang Dan may soon appear on TV ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: hkucs!kwchan@uunet.UU.net (Chan Ki Wa) [Source: South China Morning Post, 10/24/89] Meanwhile sources have said that Chai Ling, the girl who was a leader of the hunger strike at the height of the Tiananmen Square movement and now wanted for counter-revolutionary activities, is still in hiding somewhere in China. The source indicated she might be at an embassy, taking refuge like dissident astrophysicist Professor Fang Lizhi and his wife, Ms Li Shuxian. Other sources have said Wang Dan, the Beijing University student leader who was foremost in the democracy movement together with Wu'erkaixi, might soon appear on television to tell his story, in the same way as four other hunger-strikers, including the famous Taiwan composer Hou Dejian, had done about a month ago. There have also been allegations that Mr Wang's background was not as straightforward as it had appeared during the spring protests. Sources said Mr Wang might have other connections which would put him in a more favourable position to give information to the Government. In the retreat from Tiananmen Square on that fateful morning of June 4, the students lost contact with him. He did not surface until two months later when he appealed to a Taipei reporter, Huang Tei-pei, who had returned to Beijing only a day earlier seek help for his escape. The escape bid was foiled and Mr Wang was said to have fallen into the hands of the public security. An analyst said: "The sequence of incidents is far too coincidental and we need more information to reassess Wang's role in the student movement." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. People's Daily Attacks Head of Nobel Prize Committee ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: hkucs!kwchan@uunet.UU.net (Chan Ki Wa) [Source: Associated Press] China yesterday launched a bitter personal attack on the head of the Nobel prize committee, accusing him of supporting Tibetan separatists and tarnishing Beijing's reputation. The official People's Daily said Mr Egil Aarvik had outrageously likened China's response to the granting of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, to Adolf Hitler's protest against the decision to give the award to a German journalist in 1935. In a commentary headlined "Aarvik's Absurd Logic", the newspaper said: "The Chinese people believe the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Dalai Lama is an unfriendly act. "The committee under Aarvik's leadership had given support to the Dalai Lama who want to split the motherland and dreams of restoring feudalism to Tibet. "Instead of showing regret fro the serious impact of this erroneous decision, Aarvik has flown into a rage and made vicious attacks on China. His attitude had been crude and unreasonable." China has formally protested to Norway over the decision to award the prize to the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader who fled Tibet after an abortive uprising in 1959. Norwegian state television has reported that Beijing threatened to break all economic ties with Norway if a government representative or King Olav attend the award ceremony for the Dalai Lama in December. "Even more intolerable is that in order to smear and distort China's image Aarvik absurdly compared China's criticism of the granting of the prize to the Dalai Lama to Hitler's opposition to the award of the prize to a German journalist in 1935," the newspaper. Mr Aarvik said last week that Beijing's response mirrored that of Hitler when Carl von Ossietzky won the award in 1935. Hitler barred the journalist, then an inmate in a concentration camp, from collecting his prize. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama said yesterday that he would remain "a simple Buddhist monk" despite winning the Nobel Peace Prize. But he said the award would heighten world awareness of Tibet's struggle against Chinese rule. "I will not be a different person," the Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader said at his first public address since returning to his exile home in Dharamsala after winning the prize. He told a crowd of 4,000 Tibetans celebrating the 29th anniversary of the Tibetan Children's Village that the Nobel prize would make the Tibetan cause better known. +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Executive Editor: Deming Tang E_mail: Tang@ALISUVAX.bitnet | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Note: Following this package is the News Digest introduction. Your suggestion is welcome. ============================================================================= News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (or) -------------------- --------------------- Local Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu .
chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (Bo Chi) (02/04/90)
| +---------I __L__ ___/ \ -------I +----+----+ | ___\_\_ | \./ | | -----+- | | | | | __ \/ | --+-- |--- | |---| | I----+----I | I__J/\ | __|__ | | | |---| | | | _____ \ | /| \ | | | L__-| | I I---------J / J \/ | | V | J Saturday, February 3, 1990 No. Subject # of Lines 0. Brief News: Chinese students among Nobel nominees...................61 1. U.S. report details human right crimes by China ....................28 2. China protests new sanctions approved by U.S. Congress..............54 3. Gorbachev to propose multiparty system for Soviet Union.............30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Brief News ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chinese students among Nobel nominees [Associated Press 2-1-90/izzyq00@oac.ucla.edu] Nominations for the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize closed Thursday. The Norwegian Nobel Institute reveals only that 80 valid nominations had been received for 56 individuals and 24 organizations. The list of candidates reportedly included Chinese students and their leader Chai Ling, whose pro-democracy demonstrations were crushed in June. The other candidates are Gorbachev, Czech President Havel, Nelson Mandela, Ronald Reagan, and Czechoslovak students who demostrated agaist the toppled hard-line regime. Dalia Lama arrived in Czechoslovakia [UPI 2-2-90/izzyq00@oac.ucla.edu] The Dalai Lama of Tibet, last year's Nobel Peace prize winner, arrived in Prague Friday on a five-day visit at the personal invitation of President Vaclav Havel. A Foreign Ministry source said the visit brought "a rather sharp protest" from the Chinese ambassador. In Beijing, the Czechoslovak ambassador to China was summoned to the Foreign Ministry. Ferry sank on Yangtze River [AP/lin@Neon.Stanford.EDU Fangzhen Lin] A ferry sank after being struck by an oil tanker on the Yangtze River in central China, killing 70 people and leaving 43 others missing, according the the Thursday edition of the Shanghai newspaper Liberation Daily. It said the accident occurred near Anqing in Anhui province. The report gave no details on the collision. Chinese Ambassador visited Nixon [Washington Post 2-1-90/simone@nyspi.bitnet J. Yang] Chinese ambassador Zhu Qizhen visited former president Nixon to exppress appreciations for his support for President Bush's anti-veto battle. Mr. Bush also called his old superior to say thank-you's. Before the vote Mr. Nixon called five Republican senators asking them to support Bush. Israeli presence in PRC [AP/izzyq00@oac.ucla.edu] An Israeli scientific academy will open an office in Beijing next month, establishing the Jewish state's first presence in the Chinese capital, an Israeli diplomatic source said today. "We think ... academic cooperation is a good start," the diplomat said. "It is a nice way for two ancient civili- zations to meet after 4,000 years." China and Israel do not have formal relations. Beijing has said it will not normalize ties until Israel returns land seized from Arab countries in 1967. Dukakis offers help to Chinese students [The Boston Globe 2-1-90/mok@hdsrus.enet.dec.com] Gov. Dukakis yesterday offered support to Chinese students while meeting Chinese students from Boston College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston, Harvard and Brandeis universities. Dukakis said that he would strive to ensure that no Chinese students living and working in Massachusetts would be subject to any harassment or intimidation by Chinese officials and that he would work with federal lawmakers seeking to turn Bush's executive order into law. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. U.S. report details human right crimes by China ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Associated Press 2-2-90/izzyq00@oac.ucla.edu] The State Department's annual human rights report "describes every human rights crime you can think of" on the part of the Chinese government, a congressional source who has seen the unreleased document said Friday night. The source said, "It describes every human rights crime you can think of: murders, disappearances, executions, suppression of labor rights, religious persecution of Catholics and Buddhists, slave labor camps in western China you name it, it's in there." Another source said the document avoided high-temperature rhetoric, confining itself to "factual and accurate" statements. The two sources were confirming a report about the document broadcast Friday evening by NBC News. The network quoted from the document: "As of year's end, there were continuing reliable reports of beatings of political, detainees in the Beijing area by security forces... prisoners, both criminal and political, are subjected to severe psychological pressure to confess." Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger is scheduled to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on successive days next week. The two congressional sources said he was sure to be questioned about the document. The annual report is given to the House or Senate committees in alternate years, and had not been scheduled for release until Feb. 21 by the House committee. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. China protests new sanctions approved by U.S. Congress ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Associated Press/yawei@ucs.indiana.edu] China Friday strongly protested U.S. legislation imposing trade sanctions on China. It said Congress had ''willfully trampled on the basic norms governing international relations.'' Separately, President Bush, citing national security grounds, is ordering a Chinese-owned corporation to sell its interest in a Seattle aircraft parts company, administration sources said. Bush's order for the divestiture of the Mamco Manufacturing Co., is the first time he has taken such action under trade legislation enacted in 1988. An inter-agency review panel had recommended that China's 1988 purchase of the company be overturned, according to administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The panel found that the company was involved with sensitive materials that could have military applications. Meanwhile, China's protest against new sanctions was lodged by Vice Foreign Minister Liu Huaqiu in a meeting with U.S. Ambassador James Lilley, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Liu said he had been instructed to ''express our utmost indignation and lodge a strong protest'' against the ''hegemonist act of the U.S. Congress, which, basing its legislation on rumors, has willfully trampled on the basic norms governing international relations and wantonly interfered in China's internal affairs.'' The sanctions bill was passed Wednesday by a 98-0 vote in the Senate after earlier approval by the House. It was expected to be signed into law by President Bush. But the legislation is largely symbolic, reflecting actions Bush took following the military crackdown of the student-led prodemocracy movement in China last year. The bill gives the president the power to waive the measures if he deems it in the national interest or if he can show Congress there have been human rights improvements in China. The sanctions suspend financial underwriting for U.S. companies investing in China and aid under the Trade and Development Program. Sales of military and crime control equipment are stopped and controls are put on export of U.S.-built satellites and nuclear cooperation. The legislation also calls for a review of China's most favored nation trading status if repression against political dissidents continues. Bush has already eased some sanctions. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Gorbachev to propose multiparty system for Soviet Union ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Associated Press/yawei@ucs.indiana.edu] President Mikhail Gorbachev will ask the Communist Party leadership to break its 7-decade hammerlock on power, a Soviet news agency said Saturday Gorbachev will ask the Party to accept the possibility of competing political parties, it said. The report also said the Soviet leader would propose a complete change in the party structure. It also said Gorbachev would tacitly endorse the concept of private ownership. The stunning disclosures came just 2 days before a party Central Committee meeting that is expected to be a forum on the future course of the nation and probably the most crucial test of Gorbachev's five years in power. If Gorbachev does indeed ask the party to break its monopoly on power, and the increasingly splintered party leadership agrees, it could thrust the superpower into a cycle of change. Such reform already is being played out on a smaller scale throughout the East bloc. A bitter fight over reform is expected at the closed-door Central Committee meeting Monday and Tuesday. Progressives are calling for a multiparty system and a virtual apology for decades of dictatorship. Diehard Communists want to retain their lock on power and keep central planning and collective farming, which have brought the country to economic ruin. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Executive Editor: yawei@rose.bacs.indiana.edu or yawei@iubacs.bitnet | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | China News Digest Subscription (Canada): xliao@ccm.umanitoba.ca | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | NDCanada Editor: (Bo Chi) chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.edu | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+