chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (Bo Chi) (02/01/90)
| +---------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) -- Feb. 1 (I), 1990 Table of Contents No. of Lines News Brief: Gorbachev says he is not quitting, etc.....................25 1. China reportedly giving more jail visits to protesters..............20 2. University President, synpathetic to students, is to be replaced....65 3. New Year celebrations mark upsurge of Army role.....................64 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- News Brief ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fang Lizhi couple have left for Australia [World Journal/simone@nyspi.bitnet J. Yang] Chinese diplomats in the U.S. disclosed that Mr. and Mrs. Fang Lizhi had left China for Australia on Jan. 26. U.S. State Department makes no comment on it so far but source in D.C. confirmed that the Fangs had left China last Friday. Gorbachev denies report that he is quitting [AP/yawei@aqua.bacs.indiana.edu] President Mikhail Gorbachev Wednesday denied a U.S. broadcast report that he is considering resigning his post as Communist Party chief. ''No one has said this, and I certainly didn't make any such statement, Any such suggestions are groundless,'' he said. The Soviet leader made the comment before meeting with President-elect Fernando Collor de Mello of Brazil. Mainland model disappeared in Hong Kong [South China Morning Post/kwchan@hkucs.UUCP] A mainland Chinese model, Ms. Zhu Wei, 22, who was flown in for the Hongkong Trade Development Council fashion show which ended on Saturday, is believed to have gone into hidding instead of returning home. It is believed that she may have decided to defect, which could cause some embarrassment to local autho- rities. Sino-Hongkong relations are only just recovering from the furore over the defection of Chinese swimmer, Yang Yang. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. China reportedly giving more jail visits to protesters ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Associated Press/lin@Neon.Stanford.EDU Fangzhen Lin] Chinese authorities have recently allowed a large number of imprisoned pro- democracy activists to receive visits from their relatives, a pro-Beijing newspaper reported today. Wang Dan, the movement's top student leader, and Liu Xiaobo, a teacher and one of the last hunger strikers, were among those visited, according to the Hong Kong-based pro-China newspaper Wen Wei Po. The paper quoted unidentified sources as saying both Wang and Liu were in relatively good health and spirits. Liu has been incarcerated since June. On June 4, Liu and three other hunger strikers led several thousand students from Tiananmen Square after soldiers killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pro-democracy protesters in other parts of Beijing. The pro-Communist paper said the decision to allow the visits was made in tandem with the ending of martial law in Beijing. It said both moves indicate that China's political situation is ''daily becoming more stable.'' ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. University President, synpathetic to students, to be replaced ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Associated Press/izzyq00@oac.ucla.edu] Authorities are preparing to replace the president of one of China's leading law schools for being overly sympathetic to his students during last spring's protest movement, Chinese and Western sources said Tuesday. Jiang Ping, the liberal president of China Politics and Law University in Beijing, had originally expressed a wish to leave his post last summer but was persuaded not to by students, the sources said. They said conservative ideologues are critical of Jiang for being too lenient with many students who demonstrated in last spring's huge protests. The university, one of five law schools formed in the 1950s under the Ministry of Justice, played a leading role in the student-led pro-democracy movement. At the height of the protests, young teachers from Politics and Law University staged a hunger strike in front of Zhongnanhai, the vast housing compound for top Chinese leaders. Students at Politics and Law say they hold Jiang in high regard for trying to protect them during continuing investigations in connection with the protests. A member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, the 60-year-old Jiang also co-chairs the congress's Legislative Affairs Commission and has spoken out in favor of legal reform. Two days before the army's bloody June 4 crackdown on pro-democracy pro- testers, Jiang published an article in the state-run Legal Daily newspaper calling for a review of the concept of "counterrevolutionary" crimes. Tantamount to treason, charges of counterrevolution are punishable in China by life imprisonment or even death. The term has reappeared with a vengeance since June. After the military crackdown, the Ministry of Public Security issued a public arrest warrant for 21 university students accused of being ringleaders of a "counterrevolutionary" organization. At least eight of the students were arrested and remain incarcerated in Beijing's northern Qincheng Prison, but one of two Politics and Law students on the list, Zhang Zhiqing, is said by classmates to have escaped to the West with his wife. Several young teachers from Politics and Law were arrested for taking part in the protests, and some formerly active students still undergo occasional police interrogations. Students at Politics and Law said they suspected Jiang would be replaced after he gave a speech at the university recently urging them to "keep cool heads." The sources also said that while Beijing's Politics and Law University has only come under partial investigation in connection with last spring's protests, other legal studies institutes are undergoing thorough purges. The East China Institute of Politics and Law in Shanghai and the Legal Research Institute in Beijing are reportedly "in a lot of trouble." Both were active last spring. The Legal Research Institute is a branch of the China Academy of Social Sciences, administered by the State Council. Members of the Academy of Social Sciences festooned their building in central Beijing last spring with slogans supporting demonstrating students. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. New Year celebrations mark upsurge of army role ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [South China Morning Post/kwchan@hkucs.UUCP (Chan Ki Wa)] The incrased role of the military in national politics is evident from the prominence the army has enjoyed during celebrations of the Lunar New Year. The party chief, Mr Jiang Zemin, in his capacity as chairman of the Central Military Commission, personally delivered his New Year greetings to soldiers billeted in the Beijing area. Breaking from past customs, many major New Year parties in Beijing as well as provincial capitals were jointly hosted by civilian and military units. The Year of the Horse also marked the reappearance of several Long March veterans, supposedly retired generals who still play influential roles. Chinese newspapers yesterday reported that during the New Year period a number of "veteran Chinese proletarian revolutionaries" wrote inscriptions for youngsters. They included retired Marshal Nie Rongzhen and two vice-chairmen of the Central Advisory Commission, Bo Yibo and General Song Renqiong. General Song, who was reported to have been killed in a Shanghai fire in mid-January, called on his "young friends" to "constantly enhance idological and political consciousness and moral self-cultivation". Other leftist generals and Mao-affiliated elders who wrote inscriptions included Li Desheng, Geng Biao, Ye Fei and Chen Xilian. Chinese analysts have attributed their reappearance to a combined wave of "militarism" and Maoism sweeping the country. Accompanied by General Yang Baibing, the fast-rising Secretary-General of the CMC, General Jiang Zemin, called on the No 1 Machine Gun Company in the Beijing military region yesterday. The army chief asked members of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to "arm themselves with Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong thought" and to ensure that "the army must always be under the absolute command of the party". "Chairman Mao once said that workers, farmers, and soldiers are the pillars of the Chinese revolutions," said an Asian diplomat. "However, given the fact that the party is relying on the army to maintain law and order, the military has emerged as the most powerful force in Chinese society." In a much more lavish way than before, regional leaders have made available special supplies of meal and liquor to soldiers to salute their "special contributions" to stability and prosperity. The party and Govenment authorities of Guangdong went so far as to express their appreciation to the army in an open letter. The leadership thanked soldiers and the People's Armed Police for "prote- cting the pride of the motherland, maintaining social peace, and supporting local economic construction". The national media have called for beefing up the army's share of national resources. In a commentary, the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily said that "without a strong national defence and a strong army, there will not be any guarantee for economic development and prosperity". +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Executive Editor: yawei@rose.bacs.indiana.edu or yawei@iubacs.bitnet | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | China News Digest Subscription: Xinmeng Liao xliao@ccm.umanitoba.ca | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | NDCadada Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Thu Feb 1 12:44:22 EST 1990