chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (Bo Chi) (12/26/89)
| +---------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) -- Dec. 26 (I), 1989 Table of Contents # of Lines Brief News .......................................................... 17 1. Large Crowds Flock to Church for Christmas Services .............. 38 2. Workers Told to Tighten Belts .................................... 33 3. Ceausescu Was Executed, And Army Looks in Control ................ 59 4. Developments in EE and SU: Opposition Leader Behind Ovethrow ..... 42 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brief News ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: tang@ssurf.ucsd.edu Source: San Diego Union, Chinese Daily News (World Journal), 12/23-24/89 Nicolae Ceausescu had already fled a popular uprising at home when thousands of miles away in China, television still carried his last speech as if nothing happened. Ceausescu's sudden fall from power clearly took Chinese officials by surprise. The Foreign Ministry took more than 24 hours to issue a substansive comment, and then said simply that it was fiollowing developments with interest and hoped to continue friendly relations with Romania. PRC will issue a 16-digit "social security number" to every resident. Meanwile, every unit will get a 7-digit code. These numbers will be used in registration, banking, tax, statistics and so on. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Large Crowds Flock to Church for Christmas Services ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: tang@ssurf.ucsd.edu Source: Los Angeles Times, 12/25/89 United Press International Beijing -- Thousands of Chinese packed churches Christmas Eve to pray and sing joyfully hymns once banned, and church officials said their congrega- tions have grown since last June's crackdown on the pro-democracy movement. Large crowds of worshipers and the merely curious jammed into Beijing's churches for evening Protestant services and midnight Mass at Catholic churches. Some services were so crowded that many worshipers were forced to wait outside in frigid weather. Uniformed and plainclothes police were out in force at the churches and security precautions were substantially strengthened from last year, but there were no reported incident. From stooped grannies with head scarfs to toddlers in bright padded jackets, Chinese Christians joined singing renditions of "Silent Night" and the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's "Messiah." Clergy at several churches said the number of worshipers has increased since the military crackdown on the pro-democracy demonstrations last June, with many appearing to seek some form of spiritual comfort. A young railroad worker said he joined a Protestant church last fall be- cause "I was looking for something to believe in." Beijing now has about 40,000 practicing Catholics and a dozen Catholic churches, and more than 5,000 Protestants with 10 churches. Still, there are periodic crackdowns on underground "house churches," often run by Catholics who have refused to renounce links with the Vatican. Several elderly priests remain in prison for refusing to renounce Rome. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Workers Told to Tighten Belts ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: kwchan@hkucs.UUCP (Chan Ki Wa) Source: South China Morning Post, 12/23/89 The Chinese leadership is raising the socio-political status of the working class while asking labourers to tighten their belts in anticipation of hard times. The leaders' message that workers must prepare themselves for a period of economic hardship was sent to participants of the second meeting of the Executive Committtee of the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), which ends today. In a talk to the union leaders, the General-Secretary, Mr Jiang Zemin, urged trade unions to tell workers the difficulties and problems in the economy had accumulated over the past few years and they should understand the necessity of the current austerity drive. He emphasised that next year was a time of vital importance. "If the working class remains steady and the country's economy develops in a con- tinuous, stable and harmonious way, we will fear nothing whatsoever." he said. Analysts say that given the bulging budget deficits, Beijing will be hard put to raise the morale of workers, many of whom are forcesd to draw up to a third of their salaries in government bonds. The ACFTU chairman, Mr Ni Zhifu, promised workers that the disparity of income between management and labourers would be curtailed. He said that in future, the earnings of factory directors should at most be three times that of ordinary workers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Ceausescu Was Executed, And Army Looks in Control ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: yawei@aqua.bacs.indiana.edu and tang@ssurf.ucsd.edu Source: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, 12/24-25/89 Bucharest -- The Provisional Government announced that Ceausescu and his wife were executed on Monday, after a secret trial. Buildings burned and bodies littered the capital Sunday as citizens and allied soldiers battled secret police units loyal to deposed President Nicolae Ceausescu. The fighting has been some of Europe's most brutal since World War II. Romanian radio, in the hands of the revolutionaries, called a cease-fire, but heavy fighting continued in the center of the city and at the airport. Romanian radio said Sunday soldiers had found a vast network of safe houses and secret tunnels criss-crossing the city that Ceausescu forces stocked with arms, ammunition and monitoring equipment in recent years. The tunnels run for miles, linking Ceausescu's palace with party head- quarters and extending as far as a lake in the northern part of the city, said the radio. The revolutionary coalition ordered a cease-fire and told all non-army personnel to turn in their weapons by Monday at 5 p.m. local time. The group is trying to halt the anarchy in the streets and disarm civilians as well as Ceausescu loyalists. People violating the cease-fire "are committing crimes against the Romanian people and will receive the strictest punhishment," said the Na- tional Salvation Committee decree. Ceausescu's security forces are elite, heavily armed police who are essentially fighting for their lives. The revolutionaries have vowed revenge for the massacres of unarmed ci- tizens during the massive pro-reform protests. The French offered to send a brigade of volunteers to fight on the side of the National Salvation Committee, if military help was asked. Meanwhile, the first convoy of outside medical aid began to reach the capital in the afternoon. Crowds cheered as the first such parade of trucks arrived. The convoy had started out from the Bulgaria border town of Ruse, carry- ing 21 doctors and 15 nurses from French civil defense forces as well as others from the Paris-based humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders. Arab citizens receiving guerrilla training in Romanina may be taking part in the fighting for Ceausescu. Bucharest radio said the army took prisoner several "Arabs," while killing others in recent fightings. A Syri- an diplomat in Budapest said Sunday he didn't exclude that "Syrian citizens (students) were involved in the fight." Romania has been home to 10,000 Arab students, some of whom attended special courses in terrorist training in two traning camps near the capital. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Developments in EE and SU: Opposition Leader Behind Ovethrow ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: kwchan@hkucs.UUCP (Chan Ki Wa) Source: South China Morning Post, 12/23/89 Agence France Presse Paris -- Mr Corneliu Manescu, 73, the head of the National Salvation Front, which seized power in Rumania yesterday, is one of the leaders of the oppo- sition movement against Mr Nicolae Ceaucescu, according to Western diplomats in Bucharest. A former foreign minister and the first communist president of the United Nations General Assembly, he has been under house arrest since April for criticising the regime. In March, he and five other former members of the party leadership signed an open letter to Mr Ceaucescu, which was published in the West, giv- ing a damning account of the situation in the country. They denounced the Government as incompetent and accused Mr Ceaucescu of discrediting socialism, isolating Rumania within Europe, violating the con- stitution and the Helsinki Final Act on human rights. Mr Manescu was put under house arrest in an agro-industrial complex at Chitila, near Bucharest, in primitive conditions -- without running water -- and was refused medical treatment despite poor health. A militant anti-fascist during World War II, he became chief of the pol- itical department in the armed forces in 1945. He was named deputy defence minister in 1948 and deputy chairman of the state planning committee in 1955. After serving as ambassador to Budapest in 1960, he bacame foreign minister in 1961, a post he held for the next 11 years. In 1967 he was elected president of the 22nd session of the UN General Assembly. NOTE OF EDITOR: An English translation of the open letter aforementioned was published on The New York Review of Books, April 27, 1989, with an informative commen- tary of Willian Pfaff. In last August, Ceaucescu told Newsweek, in an in- terview, that among the six signers, "one is an agent of the Soviet Union, one of an agent of the United Stats, one of the Great Britain, one of France." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Executive Editor: Sanyee Tang, tang@ssurf.ucsd.edu | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (or) ----------------------- --------------------- NDCadada Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tue Dec 26 12:40:55 EST 1989
chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (Bo Chi) (12/26/89)
* C h i n a N e w s D i g e s t *
(ND Canada Service)
-- Dec. 26 (II), 1989
Table of Contents
# of Lines
1. UCLA CSSA donation to Romanian Relief ........................ 53
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1. UCLA CSSA donation to Romanian Relief
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From: "Wu, Fang"
<@ksuvxa.kent-state.edu:INT3FWU@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Merry Christmas and Happy new year! We went to the Los
Angeles local station of Romania Relief and donated $1000 to
them for the medical and food supplies for Romanian people. I
feel our IFCSS should do the same thing and our fellow CSSA's in
other school should also do the same thing to support Romanian
people. May be you could distribute the following message to our
netters and urge them do whatever they can to help. Romania's
today may be China's tomorrow, we have the same goal to accom-
plish, and we are fighting for the same reason--FREEDOM.
Support Romanian People is to Support Our Country
Romania is in civil war. It is a war between freedom and
dictatorship. It is a war between brave people and a bloody
regim. What a coincidence, that we saw exactly a copy of Tianmen
Square tragedy happened once again in Romania, however with a
different ending. Can't we learn some thing from the Romanian
people? Don't we feel being encouraged by watching what is going
on all around the world? There is still hope for our China!
Freedom and justice will win!
Now it is time to think about what we can do to help
Romanian people. The UCLA CSSA has learned from the Romanian
Relief in local Los Angeles that there is large shortage of every
thing in Romania now--food, warm cloth, shelter, medical sup-
plies, and so on. The war is going on. Houses are destroyed.
People are in the street while the temperature is below zero. No
enough food for children. Water are suspected to be poisoned.
About 500,000 are wounded and 80,000 are dead. They need surgi-
cal equipments. They need volunteer to go to Romania to save
lives. Any kind of donation is very much welcome. The UCLA CSSA
immidiately donated $1,000 to the Romanian Relief and made the
commitment of providing more help whenever needed.
As a member of the IFCSS, we, the UCLA CSSA urge all of our
fellow organizations immidiately take action to support the
Romanian people. We can donate money, collect warm clothes and
blankets, non-perishable canned food, and medical supplies to the
local Romanian Relief organization or the Red Cross in addition
to give our moral support to the Romanian people. We must keep
this in our mind: Freedom and human rights are the universal
truth. Race, nationality, culture, or religion will not separate
us from other group of people. Victory belongs to us, to the
people who are hand in hand to fight for their basic rights.
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News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (or)
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NDCadada Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu
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Tue Dec 26 14:58:53 EST 1989