chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (Bo Chi) (11/30/89)
| +---------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) -- Nov. 30 (I), 1989 Table of Contents # of Lines Headline News .................................................. 23 1) About Wu Wentai's Visit to UCLA ............................. 45 2) Prominent columnist denounced possible Bush veto ............ 54 3) Chinese-Owned Steel Plant Is Accused of Bias in Hiring ...... 28 4) East European Reaction to Tienanmen ......................... 94 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Headline News --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The government of New Zealand has made a new restriction against foreign applicants for going school there. An official said that many of the 12-week language school students are actually taking illega employment. About 10,000 Chinese applicants will be affected by the new policy. From: simone@nyspi.bitnet (J. Yang) Source: World Journal, 11/28/89 Chinsee party chief Jiang Zemin interviewed 100 general prosecutors who are attending national general prosecutor meeting in Beijing. There are 160 thousands prosecutors in China, 70.1% of them are CCP members and those who have 2-year college or higher only take 25.7% of the total, according to 'China Daily'. From: simone@nyspi.bitnet. (J. Yang) Source: World Journal, 11/28/89 There will be 50 thousands CCP members been purged out of the party in Beijing's another wave of purging campaign. Beijing's mayor and party chief also require to control business executives to attend the party. From: simone@nyspi.bitnet. (J. Yang) Source: World Journal, 11/28/89 PRAGUE - Sirens howled and church bells rang Monday as millions of Czechoslovakians observed a symbolic 2-hour general strike. They filled streets and city squares in the largest demonstration so far against Communist rule. Trying to avert the strike, seen as a referendum on demands to oust them, Communist leaders Monday dumped three more Politburo hard-liners. From: yawei@rose.bacs.indiana.edu Source: AP --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. About Wu Wentai's Visit - by ND correspondent from UCLA, US --------------------------------------------------------------------------- While the Chinese students successed in lobbying the HR2712 bill, the harassment from the Chinese consulate has escalated. On November 18, Wu Wentai, one of the education consuls from the Chinese consulate at Los Angeles visited UCLA. He of course would not contact the CSSA UCLA because of his obvious political bias against us. Instead, he visited the sponsor of CSSA, the China Exchange Program. It is UCLA's policy that every student organization must have a sponsor in order to formally register and become a member of the Graduate Student Association. Our sponsor has been very supportive in the past five years espe- cially after the June 4th massacre. In his talking to our sponsoring person, Wu Wentai mentioned Ding Jian and Wu Fang's names (who are the president and vice- president of CSSA UCLA). He said that the CSSA now is under the control of these two and some other students' hands. They organ- ize anti-party and anti-government activities here in the United States. They did not want to go back to China in the first place when they came. Wu Wentai urged the sponsor not to support CSSA's activity any more. After talking to our sponsor, Wu Wen- tai also visited the Office of International Students and Scho- lars of UCLA. Our attitute toward this incident is: it is not a personal attack to Ding Jian or any other student. It is a challenge to CSSA UCLA and a threat to all of our fellow students. The board of our CSSA was elected by our members. We believe what we have done so far can represent the interest of the majority of the Chinese students here at UCLA. In attacking the presidents of the organization, Wu Wentai has put all our members who are active into the same category: counter-revolutionary, which is not acceptable. We have already seen that some students are intimidated. But the strongest reaction to this is anger toward the consulate, which Wu Wentai probably did not expect. We believe that Wu's behavior is not appropriate as an education consul. Unfortunately, there is one thing that Wu Wentai has forgotten. He has provided a vivid example of how the Chinese government restlessly harasses Chinese students here in the United States in contrast to what the government had promissed to the American government and us. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Prominent columnist denounced possible Bush veto --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: yawei@rose.bacs.indiana.edu (ND Correspondent) "Pressure from Peking may prompt Bush veto", this is a prominent headline in many of the country's newspapers today. This is the title of today's column of Mr. William Buckley, a conservative Catholic columnist. His columns typically speak for the far-right wing of the American political spectrum, which is a significant portion of President Bush's constituents. His syndicated column is carried by many newspapers nationwide. "Now hear this," his column begins, "The State Department bureaucracy is attempting to get Secretary of State James Baker personally to intercede with the White House to get President Bush to veto a particular bill. Why? Because Peking wants that veto and wants it in the worst way. Here is the story. "After the suppression of the democratic movement in Tiananmen Square on June 4, the Chinese hard-liners, as we all know, began to execute student leaders associated with the drive for democracy. Moreover, the Chinese government began to stress the responsibility of 'foreign elements' for the uprising. And conspicuous among these foreign elements, of course, were Chinese students who were studying abroad and being corrupted by bourgeois addictions to democracy and due process. "Meanwhile, every month, student visas were expiring, requiring Chinese students to return. Under their visas (J-1), these students are not free, in the normal course, to apply to stay on in America to take work, let alone to immigrate. On the other hand, many of those whose visas were expiring have been afraid to return to China lest they arrive to find themselves on a list to be (a) sent to a communist training center, (b) imprisoned or (c) shot." The column went on to describe how the bill passed the Congress without dissent, and how the Chinese government had threatened to end exchange programs should the legislation be enacted. "Although it is true that it has been an objective of U.S. policy to assist the Chinese in technological advancement, any unnecessary delays in economic progress are going to hurt the Chinese government much more than they are going to hurt the U.S. government. In short, Senator Armstrong thinks it (the Chinese protest) was a bluff. Perhaps the freeze would last a few months, as these things tend to do; then the students would begin reappearing", he wrote. The column specifically mentioned the leadership of Senator Armstrong, R- Colo., for his effort in passing the bill and including the clause which permits Chinese couples to seek sanctuary in America if they fear persecution for their "procreative activities while in the United States." However, the leadership of many Democrat law-makers, such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and their efforts in passing the legislation was not mentioned. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Chinese-Owned Steel Plant Is Accused of Bias in Hiring --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: yjj@sirius.ctr.columbia.edu Source: The New York Times, Nov. 28, 1989, Tue., page A16 [By Martin Tolchin] Washinton, Nov. 27 - The general consel of the National Labor Relations Board today accused a Chinese-owned steel plant in Delaware of unfair labor practices after the steelworkers union charged China with "suppressing workers" in the United States. The company,CitiSteel USA Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of the China Internation Trust and Investment Corporation, an agency of the Chinese government. CitiSteel's chairman, Ming Lu, who is Chinese, maintains his office at the plant in Claymont, Del. Peter W. Hirsch, the labor board's regional director in Philadelphia, said he was authorized to issue a complaint against CitiSteel charging that the company unlawfully refused to recognize and bargain with the steelworkers union. In an open letter to the chinese government, the union said: " How ironic, hte People's Republic of China, which professes to be a workers' government in their own land, is guilty of suppressing workers in ours." "CitiSteel may like to call itself a 'Socialist Conglomerate,' but when it comes to worker issues, it acts just like the worst capitalist," the letter said. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. East European Reaction to Tienanmen --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dennis Kriz <kriz@SKAT.USC.EDU> Source: East European Reporter [Spring/Summer 1989] [The EER is a London based publication that is dedicated to providing English language translations of proclamations and documents issued by the various opposition groups in the countries of Eastern Europe.] China: 'A Common Struggle for Common Aims' ----------------------------------------- "1953 -- Berlin 1956 -- Budapest 1968 -- Praga 1981 -- Varso 1989 -- Beijing" -- a placard posted by the Chinese Embassy in Budapest, Hungary The struggle of the Chinese pro-democracy movement was followed closely and with obvius sympathy by independent groups throughout Eastern Europe which had no problems in recognising a partner in a common struggle for common aims, a partner which even adopted similar slogans and used similar ethical arguments for the need to conduct public affairs in a democratic manner. The inspirational force of some of the ideas, voiced earilir by radical young people in Eastern Europe, was unmistakable. In turn, some of the East European governments, especially those of the German Democratic Republic and of Czechoslovakia, watched the unfolding events in Beijing with the growing fear that the success of the Chinese students might inspire the increasingly restive young people in their own countries. Eventually the hardliners were able to rejoice, at lesat for the time being, though only the East German authorities dared to openly welcome the bloody supression of a movement for change with truly unashamed enthusiasm. Independent groups in many countries protested and expressed their deeply felt solidarity with the Chinese students. In early June in Hungary about 1500 marched with bloodied effigies of the Chinese Statue of Liberty (see photograph). In numerous church meetings and various demonstrations in the GDR, activists protested against their regime's support for the Chinese dictators. In Poland demonstrations took place in front of the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw where a group of young people staged a hunger strike calling upon the Polish government "to condemn unequivocally the Chinese leaders who are responsible for the massacre... Indifference in the face of mass murder infringes the basic moral values of our civilisation. C onsent to barbarity is barbarity itself!" Further demonstrations took place at the University of Krakow and protest statements were issued by numerous Polish groups, including the Polish Helsinki Committee, Fighting Solidarity, the Polish Socialist Party, the Independent Student Association (NZS) and the Peace and Freedom movement. A week of solidarity with the Chinese students was organised by independent groups in Czechoslovakia. Despite harrassment and the occassional short-term arrests of some peace activists, demonstration took place every day outside the Chinese Embassy and especially on the Charles Brigde in the heart of medieval Prague [poster's note, the Charles Bridge in Prague is kind of a Czechoslovakian equivalent to the Arbat in Moscow, a place of greater artistic and intellecetual expression]. A smaller demonstration also took place in Brno. Well over a thousand people signed a protest petition. As an illustration of some of the statements went to the Chinese embassies in Eastern Europe we reprint the Charter 77 letter issued in Prague on June 5, 1989: "On 28 May 1989, we sent a message to the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Prague in which we expressed our solidarity with the demands of the Chinese students demonstrating [in Tienanmen Square], and in which we exhorted the Chinese leadership to show prudence and restraint. We expressed our fears that blood might be shed. A week later, the world learnt with horror of the tragedy which began over the weekend in the streets of Beijing. Troops armed with machine guns, tanks and armoured transporters, massacred thousands of unarmed, predominantly young people who were guilty of nothing more than patiently and quietly demanding respect for basic human rights in their country. We are alarmed and horrified. A regime which, in order to preserve its power, does not hesitate to employ a fully-armed army against its own people and permits it to shoot at them, should be judged publicly throughout the world. We protest against the brutal liquidation of the peaceful gathering in Beijing! At the same time, we bow down with respect to the Chinese students who draw their inspiration from the same sources as the democratic movements in Central and Eastern Europe. We express our deepest sympathy toward all the victims and survivors" CHARTER 77 SPOKESPERSONS: Tomas Hradilek, Dana Nemcova, and Sasa Vondra. [poster's note. Charter 77 has been the standard bearer of the dissident movement in Czechoslovakia since its inception in 1977. In that year several hundred leading intellectuals in the country issued the Charter in which they called on the government to simply follow its own laws. Dana Nemcova has been one of the most visible leaders of the movement which included the most famous Czechoslovak dissident, Vaclav Havel. The intellectuals who signed the document included artists, scientists, and writers as well as leading communists who were expelled from the Communist Party after the Soviet invasion in 1968]. +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Executive Editor: Yaxiong Lin E_mail: aoyxl@asuacvax.bitnet | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ =========================================================================== News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (or) -------------------- --------------------- Local Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thu Nov 30 10:07:49 EST 1989