chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (Bo Chi) (12/16/89)
| +---------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. 16 (I), 1989 Table of Contents # of Lines 1) China Praised Bush's Initiative ............................. 27 2) EC Drops Stance Against Export Credits To China ............ 25 3) Beijing Hints At 'SOLUTION' To Fang Issue .................. 20 4) Jail Terms For Two Dissidents .............................. 27 5) Hunt For Most Wanted Student Is Stepped Up ................. 58 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. China Praised Bush's Initiative --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: IZZYQ00@UCLAMVS.BITNET "J. Ding" Source: BEIJING (UPI) December 14, 1989 China Thursday praised President Bush's initiative to improve relations as "constructive and useful," maintaining the conciliatory tone it has adopted since its surprise weekend agreement with the United States. Bush's decision to send national security adviser Brent Scowcroft on a sudden visit to China Sunday "will serve to promote mutual understanding, overcome difficulties, and is conducive to the gradual restoration of Sino-U.S. relations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jin Guihua said at a weekly news briefing. "Under the current situation in which the international situation is undergoing the most profound changes since the end of World War II, contacts between the United States and China are both useful and beneficial," Jin said. Conspicuously avoiding the accusatory tone that characterized previous government statements about the United States, Jin said that while differences between the two sides remain, "China and the United States have major mutual interests in a wide range of areas." One official explanation for Bush's decision has been that the administration felt it was dangerous to further isolate China in light of recent liberalizations in Eastern Europe. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. EC Drops Stance Against Export Credits To China --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: tang@ssurf.ucsd.edu (Sanyee Tang) Source: Wall Street Journal, 12/15/89 The European Community has withdrawn its recommendation that member countries suspend new export credits to China, a decision that will aid trade and smaller loan projects but isn't likely help most major project financings. The decision was reached at last weekend's summit in Strasbourg, France. A resumption of export credits from European governments would help European companies that trade with China. It also would smooth the way for the resumption of some commercial lending to projects that are funded by European export credits. Many smaller projects depend on the export credits, which charge the Chinese borrower a below-market rate of 8.3%. Bigger projects, however, aren't likely to be affected. Their financing packages contain commercial loans and export credits but usually hinge on loans granted by European government at concessional rates. The EC hasn't lifted its freeze on such soft loans to China. Also unlikely to be affected are syndicated loans by commercial banks. The banks are still waiting for such multilateral institutions as the World Bank to lift their lending freezes. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Beijing Hints At 'SOLUTION' To Fang Issue --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: hkucs!kwchan@uunet.UU.net Source : South China Morning Post, Friday, December 15, 1989 [From John Kohut in Beijing and agencies] China hinted yesterday for the for the first time it might compromise with the United States over the issue of Fang Lizhi, the dissident astrophysicist whose six-month refuge in the US Embassy in Beijing has been at the core of strained relations between the two countries. Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Jin Guihua, in a weekly briefing devoid of the anti-American rhetoric common in recent months, thanked President George Bush for sending a special envoy to Beijing and said he hoped Sino-US ties could be normalised soon. Mr Jin, however, declined to say whether China would make any concessions or changes its policies as a result of the weekend visit by National Security Adviser, Mr Brent Scowcroft, the first senior American official to visit China since Mr Bush banned high level exchanges after the June crackdown. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Jail Terms For Two Dissidents --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: hkucs!kwchan@uunet.UU.net Source : South China Morning Post, Friday, December 15, 1989 Two Chinese "counter-revolutionaries" have been sentenced to unspecified prison terms by a people's court in Beijing, notices posted outside the court announced. The two, Wang Jiaxiang and Wang Zhaoming had been accused of spreading "counter-revolutionary propaganda" and of having "incited" rebellion, the court notices said on Wednesday, without fiving any other details. The sentences were passed on December 7, the same day that two other "counter-revolutionaries", Meng Duo and Zhou Jiguo, were sentenced to death for taking part in the mob lynching of a soldier during the night of June 3-4, when the Chinese Army launched its bloody crackdown on the pro- democracy protests. Another "counter-revolutionary", Chen Yong, received a life sentence. A court in a southern Chinese city has sentenced three Chinese to jail, two for being in an outlawed union during the spring unrest, the official Hunan Daily said. The newspaper said the prison terms, ranging from three to 13 years, were handed down by the intermediate court in the provincial capital Changsha last Friday. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Hunt For Most Wanted Student Is Stepped Up --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: hkucs!kwchan@uunet.UU.net Source : South China Morning Post, Friday, December 15, 1989 Security officials in Guangdong province recently conducted an extensive search for the nation's most wanted student leader, Miss Chai Ling. Miss Chai was the former "commander general" of the Tiananmen Square protesters. She is reported to be pregnant and in hiding in the province. Sources in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai told The Hongkong Standard yesterday security authorities on the three cities had conducted sudden searches for Miss Chai in late November and early this month. They were acting on orders from the Public Security Ministry in Beijing, the sources said. Miss Chai is believed to be in hiding with her husband, Feng Chongde, who is also one of the 21 fugitives wanted by the authorities. A source close to the "underground network" through which Chinese dissidents were smuggled to the West via Hongkong, said that Miss Chai had taken refuge in a "highly protected and secret" place where nobody could reach her. "Chai Ling is very safe at the moment and she's still on the mainland," the source said. Yesterday, Hongkong's Sing Tao Wan Pao reported that the Public Security Ministry had issued an urgent directive to aurhorities in Guangdong informing them the wanted couple was in the province. A number of top fugitives, including Professor Yan Jiaqi and student leader Wu'er Kaixi, fled the mainland to Hongkong following the June 4 Beijing incident. "The notice points out that Chai Ling, who is pregnant, must find a safe place to stay for some time," the newspaper said. A souce in Zhuhai said the Municipal Public Security Bureau there had conducted city-wide inspections last Friday in a bid to locate the couple. "Public security guards were mobilised to check on suspicious people at border checkpoints, major traffic intersections and hotels," the source said. Sources in Shenzhen said security checks in the city that borders Hongkong had been tightened up recently. Meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry spokesman described Wu'er Kaixi and other fugitive dissidents as "criminals wanted by the Public Security Bureau for engineering and staging a counter-revolutionary rebellion". "I am surprised the remarks he made in Japan against the Chinese governemnt should even receive attention," the spokesman said at a regular press briefing. "We regret the action of the Japanese government in permitting Wu'er Kaixi and the like to be allowed into the country for such activities," he said. +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Executive Editor: Yaxiong Lin E_mail: aoyxl@asuacvax.bitnet | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ========================================================================== News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (or) -------------------- --------------------- Local Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sat Dec 16 11:30:07 EST 1989
chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (Bo Chi) (12/17/89)
| +---------I __L__ ___- i \ ------I +----+----+ | ___\_\_ | \./ | | -----+- | | | | | __ \/ | --+-- |--- | |---| | I----+----I | I__J/\ | __|__ | | | |---| | | | _____ \ | /| \ | | | L__-| | I I---------J / J \/ | | V | _/ * C h i n a N e w s D i g e s t * (ND Canada Service) -- Dec. 16 (II), 1989 Table of Contents # of Lines 1) The Sky Isn't Falling ............................................. 90 2) Foreign Students in US ............................................. 26 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Sky Isn't Falling -------------------------------------------------------------------------- source: by Jan Wong, The Globe and Mail From: pyan@violet.waterloo.edu (random walker), Date: 16 Dec 89 Newsgroups: soc.culture.china The world is coming to an end. An asteroid is hurtling toward Earth and could kill half the population. You haven't heard? It's all over the Chinese press. Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, said "scientists are right now trying to find a way to avoid this disaster." The asteroid, it said, is 1000 kilometers in diameter and will hit Earth "with a force 7.7 million times as distructive as the atom bomb that devastated Hiroshima." It cited as its source the Associated Press. "If it is true, I'm going to take the rest of the day off," said James Abrahams, AP's Beijing bureau chief. After queries from mystified AP staff in Beijing, Xinhua attributed the story to a translation error. But some Chinese and foreign observers believe the false story was a domestic hoax embarrass the official press. Yesterday, the earth-shattering news panicked many Chinese. It was picked up by Centrial People's Radio and at least half a dozen government newspapers. "It's going to hit us any day now," said a worried cook, who heard it on the morning news. "We are all going to die," said a Chinese woman cyclist. The AP Beijing bureau only became aware of the story after half a dozen worried Chinese phoned to confirm the report. AP called its Asia headquarters in Tokyo, which failed to find a trace of the doomsday story. AP then called its head office in New York, which also came up empty. Finally, AP called Xinhua. An hour later, Xinhua, which has often accused the foreign media, including AP, of "rumor mongering," said the story was the result of a translation error that would be corrected. "It's clearly not a translation error," said an American who has lived in China for 15 years. "It might be a practical joke. There may be someone who wants to make papers look like fools." Four hours after Xinhua acknowledged that the AP story was in error, the nationally televised evening news continued to reprot the story as if it were true. It ran an interview with astrono- mers at the Nanjing Observatory who told viewers the chance of an asteroid's hitting a heavily populated area is minuscule. "We haven't got any news that an asteroid is coming," one said. " Nobody should panic." Given the low credibility of the Chinese media, the vehement denials might only strengthen people's feeling of danger. One foreign political scientist said some Chinese might interpret the news as a portent that the current leadership has lost the mandate of Heaven. As part of the crackdown on pro-reform demonstrators, Chinese leaders recently ordered newspapers to publish only positive news. Since martial law was imposed over most of Beijing in May, some key media, including the People's Daily, Centrial Radio, and Centrial Television, are under military control. Attributing the Xinhua story to a U.S. news agency enhanced its credibility. The three-paragragh item gave specific, hor- rific details. "At present the asteroid is 800000 kilometers from the Earth," it said, and only can be nudged from its des- tructive path if scientists "fire special rockets ot a nuclear bomb at it." By late yesterday afternoon, AP tracked down an item it thought might be the source of the incorrect Xinhua story. An AP story last weekend described a San Francisco meeting of the Amer- ican Geophysical Union that proposed a program to keep the Earth from being hit by huge asteroids. The AP story said such an event happens once every 3000000 years. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Foreign Students in US ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: liao@oahu.cs.ucla.edu Source: Institute of International Education It is on the U.S. News and World Report, Dec. 18, 1989. In 1988-1989 academic year, there are totally 366,000 foreign students in the United States. The top 10 countries are Country of Origin Students in U.S. Universities China 29,040 Taiwan 28,760 Japan 24,000 India 23,350 Korean 20,610 Malaysia 16,170 Canada 16,030 Hong Kong 10,560 Iran 8,950 Indonesia 8,720 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (or) -------------------- --------------------- Local Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sat Dec 16 21:00:02 EST 1989