chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (Bo Chi) (11/09/89)
| +---------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. 9 (III), 1989 Table of Contents # of Lines 1) China Closes Private Firms, Collectives ............................. 42 2) Bush Meets Nixon To Discuss His China Trip .......................... 20 3) Black Markets Shut down in Beijing .................................. 36 4) Kissinger Urge China And U.S. To Repair Relations ................... 66 5) Congress to probe mail delays to China .............................. 12 6) The Life around ``Chairman Mao''s Grandson .......................... 76 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. China Closes Private Firms, Collectives ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: IZZYQ00@UCLAMVS.BITNET (J. Ding) [Source: Associated Press, 11/06/89] BEIJING -- About 1 million rural factories, one of the great success stories of China's past decade of reforms, have shut down this year because of government austerity policies. Hundreds of thousands of other rural enterpriss either stopped production or shifted to making other goods since the year began, the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday, quoting Agriculture Ministry officials. The China Daily said in a related report that the number of private business people in China fell from 14.5 million at the end of 1988 to 12.3 million now as a result of the economic slowdown and Beijing's determination to tighten controls over the private sector. Xinhua did not say how many people lost their jobs as a result, and the government has not addressed the issue of rising rural unemployment. Government officials have said unemployment will double from 2 percent on Jan. 1, 1989, to 4 percent on Dec. 31, but those figures refer only to urban workers. Laid-off rural workers can return to farming, the government says. Fast-growing rural enterprises and private business have made major contributions in the past decade, by providing services and goods the inefficient state-run economy can't handle and by providing millions of jobs for surplus farm workers. At the end of 1988, China had 18.8 million rural enterprises employing nearly 100 million people. Total output value last year was $175 billion, up about 40 percent from 1987, exceeding the nation's agricultural output value and accounting for a quarter of that of the entire country. The China Daily said that despite the sharp drop in private entrepreneurs, the government stands by its policy of encouraging supervised growth of the private sector and allowing some people to "become prosperous first through honest labor and lawful dealings." It quoted a government official as saying the state wants the private sector involved in food and drink, repair work, handicraft and service industries that are not profitable for state and collective enterprises. Most private business people now are involved in commerce. Only 15.5 percent are in service and food industries. The official said tax collection on individual incomes must be improved to "readjust the staggering profits some private entrepreneurs make and to hold back upstarts." Tax evasion is pandemic, with 90 percent of Shanghai's private entrepreneurs not paying taxes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Bush Meets Nixon To Discuss His China Trip ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: IZZYQ00@UCLAMVS.BITNET (J. Ding) [Source: Associated Press, 11/06/89] President Bush had dinnerwith former President Nixon at Sunday to hear a report on Nixon's just-concluded trip to China, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said today. During his trip, Nixon had urged the United States and China to put aside differences and resume normal relations despite lingering tensions from the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy forces. "The president (Bush) found those views quite interesting and productive but our general policy has not changed," Fitzwater told reporters. "We do want to preserve the relationship and ... as events proceed we will continue to consider possible actions that would change our relationship." The White House dinner had not been announced in advance. After the meeting, Nixon returned to New York. Other dinner guests included Vice President Dan Quayle, Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, deputy national security adviser Robert Gates, CIA Director William Webster, White House chief of staff John Sununu and Michel Oksenberg, a China scholar and a member of Nixon's entourage. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Black Markets Shut down in Beijing ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: IZZYQ00@UCLAMVS.BITNET (J. Ding) [Source: Associated Press, 11/06/89] BEIJING -- Authorities have shut down dozens of black markets in the capital, exposed thousands of illega street traders and confiscated thousands of pornographic books in a 100-day campaign, a newspaper said Monday. The campaign unearthed 110,000 unlawful businesses and gained the government $567,000 in taxes and fines, the newspaper said. It said 36 black markets were closed down and 500 "unlawful cliques," many dealing in fake or inferior goods, were disbanded. Among the main targets of the cleanup were privately owned hair salons, bars, cigarette booths, street billiard operators, black market money- changers and unlicensed street traders. The paper said the campaign, part of a nationwide drive against pornography, netted 820,000 copies of books, magazines and albums. It also appeared linked to moves initiated by the government's current conservative leadership to control private enterprise. Authorities stress that private enterprise will continue to play a supplementary role in China's socialist economy, but since the June crackdown on the pro-democracy movement and subsequent purge of reformers, advocates of market-oriented private trade have been on the defensive. Many private businesses or small collectives have halted operations because of increased taxes or inability to get credit, energy or raw materials because the government now gives priority to state-run enterprises. Before the campaign, Beijing officials had expressed concern over what they described as a rampant increase in unlicensed business activities. The report also said officials had persuaded 80,000 rural laborers, who operate many of the free market street stalls, to return to their hometowns. It said similar campaigns will be repeated to provide a "clean and fresh atmosphere" for the Asian Games in Beijing next September and October. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Kissinger Urge China And U.S. To Repair Relations ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: IZZYQ00@UCLAMVS.BITNET (J. Ding) [Source: UPI, 11/06/89] By Gary Aderman HONGKONG -- Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger Monday urged China and the United States to repair relations "on the basis of mutual respect" and said Beijing must resume its economic decentralization plan to build a modern society. Kissinger also said the United States should not allow China's brutal crackdown on democracy protesters in June to completely disrupt relations between the two nations. "If America cuts itself off from China, it will affect all American relations in Asia," said Kissinger, who served in the administration of President Nixon, who just completed a visit to China. "It is imperative, in my view, that a dialogue resume on the basis of mutual respect," Kissinger told a seminar on "The Future of Asia-Pacific Economic Relations." The United States imposed an arms embargo on China following Beijing's use of troops against the unarmed demonstrators at Tiananmen Square and has severely restricted the flow of high-technology equipment. Kissinger also said ties between the United States and China will play a key role in future contacts between America and former archenemy Vietnam, whose active solicitation of Western trade and aid has attracted the rest of U.S. business. "I believe that even without confrontation, especially without confrontation, Chinese good sense plus the stated objectives of the most important leaders will return it to the course of decentralization," Kissinger said. The dilution of central government control in favor of greater autonomy for China's provinces and cities a cornerstone of the modernization policy of senior leader Deng Xiaoping has fallen out of favor in Beijing and is blamed for triggering inflation and scarcity of goods. "If (China) chooses the route of modernization, it will have to implement what it has stated as its own conviction the idea of decentralization, of greater emphasis on markets, of greater responsibility to (private) enterprises and more education for its citizens," he said. Kissinger qualified his remarks by pointing out China's unpredictability. "So far as I know, very few China watchers had predicted any of the events since I first got to know China in 1971," he said. "I have seen Chairman Deng come and go, twice, totally unexpectedly." Deng was purged twice during the tumultuous 1966-76 Cultural Revolution instigated by the late Chairman Mao Tse-tung, yet ultimately prevailed to push China's opening to the West. There is, however, a risk China will isolate itself from the rest of the world and live on its own resources, something it has done periodically. Such a move would cause it to fall behind its neighbors in development, Kissinger said. He said better U.S.-China relations should take precedence over improved ties between the United States and Vietnam, indicating the latter would anger the Chinese. "I believe it is very important for the United States at some early point to resume our strategic dialogue with Beijing and I would be very careful during a period of tension with Beijing to engage in acts that may appear to Beijing as if we are attempting to encircle it," Kissinger said. Vietnam, which borders southeast China, has been soliciting trade with the West for the last two years despite a U.S. trade boycott. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Congress to probe mail delays to China ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: yawei@rose.bacs.indiana.edu (Mr. Yawei) [Source: Herld-Times (Bloomington, IN), 11/08/89] U.S. Rep. Frank McCloskey, D-Ind., has scheduled a committee hearing for Thursday on why U.S. mail to the PRC is being delivered after long delays, if at all, since the June protests. McClosky chairs the House Post Office and Civil Service Subcommittee, which he will convene in Washington Thursday to look into the issue. The committee also will look at ways to improve delivery of mail from the US to the Soviet Union. A 1988 hearing on limitations on incoming mail by Soviet Union brought to light a list of items classified as non-mailable to the Soviet Union from the US. Since then the US has worked to persuade Soviet officials to change the policies. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Life around ``Chairman Mao''s Grandson From: <IZZYQ00@OAC.UCLA.EDU> (J. Ding) [source: AP, by Jones, Terril] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mao Xinyu tries to lead a quiet life at a prestigious Beijing university despite being the grandson of Mao Tse-tung, the revolutionary founder of communist hina. "I'm just an ordinary student," says the shy, chubby sophomore, who wears patched clothes and canvas army shoes. "I have 20 classes a week, and play badminton and Chinese chess with classmates." The 19-year-old history major at People's University has seven roommates in a cramped first-floor dorm room where he sleeps on a bottom bunk and is known simply as "Sixth Brother." Yet, on Saturdays, a black military limousine glides up to take the grandson of the Great Helmsman to an expensive health club, where he enjoys the sauna. On Wednesdays, when he doesn't have class, the limo takes Mao home, where he has his clothes washed and an army cook prepares "good food." And mail pours in from people across the country nostalgic about Chairman Mao, who was virtually deified as a living god by millions of adoring Chinese during his lifetime, and curious about his grandson. Mao Xinyu is the only child of Mao's second son, Mao Anqing, a retired Russian translator for the People's Liberation Army, and novelist Chen Raohua, who wrote under the pen name Shao Hua. His home, where his parents and grandmother live, is near the Summer Palace in northwestern Beijing. "I can't tell you more than that," he says with a chuckle. "It's a state military secret." His favorite class is the history of Sino-U.S. relations, and he spoke excitedly about the recent visit to Beijing by former President Nixon, who paved the way to normalizing ties between Washington and Beijing in 1972 with his historic meeting with Mao Tse-tung. Not that the elder Mao's place in history is entirely glorious. Western and Chinese historians alike credit him with the abortive "Great Leap Forward" of 1958-59, a drive to increase production that ultimately plunged China into widespread starvation and poverty. He was also behind the disastrous 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, during which intellectuals and merchants were reviled, schools closed and Red Guards spouting Mao slogans went on a nationwide revolutionary rampage. "History will judge him as a great man, a leader of great ability, who made great contributions," Mao Xinyu says. "But he had some faults." Despite his interest in politics, Mao declines to discuss the pro-democracy protests that rocked China this spring, other than to say "of course" he did not participate in the marches and demonstrations. He does say, however, that vandals' splattering of the portrait of Mao overlooking Tiananmen Square on May 23 "made me mad. It made all Chinese mad. It was just a couple of guys trying to attract attention." Mao attracts plenty of attention of his own, receiving bundles of unsolicited mail. "Ordinary people, students, intellectuals, they all write," he says. "Mostly they're nostalgic about Chairman Mao. But a lot of them say they're very happy I've gone on to college." Some are girls who "just want to be friends." Mao says someday he'd like to visit the hometown of Abraham Lincoln and see the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. "Lincoln was a progressive capitalist revolutionary, uniting the North and South in the civil war," he said. Mao also takes some philosophy courses. Asked who his favorite philosophers are, he replies, "Marx. And my grandfather." ============================================================================= +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Executive Editor: Deming Tang E_mail: Tang@ALISUVAX.bitnet | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ============================================================================= News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (or) -------------------- --------------------- Local Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu .