Bo Chi <chi@vlsi> (02/05/91)
* C h i n a N e w s D i g e s t *
(News General)
February 4, 1990
Table of Contents # of Lines
News Briefs ................................................................16
1. Soviet Communist Party Warns "Danger Limit" of the Country ..............35
2. Two More Dissidents Tried in China ......................................70
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News Briefs ................................................................16
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From: chenh@ucs.indiana.edu
Source: DJ News, AP News
-British forces in the Gulf region are warned that Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein has authorized front-line commanders to use chemical weapons at their
discretion, the London newspaper Sunday Times reports.
- Allied warplanes pounded Baghdad before dawn Monday. Witnesses said
communication centers, government offices and industrial installations were
hit - some of them for the second and third times since the war began nearly
3 weeks ago.
- A U.S. Marine UH-1 Huey utility helicopter crashed Sunday, killing all
four crew members. The Pentagon said the crash in eastern Saudi Arabia didn't
appear to be combat-related.
- An Air Force B-52 bomber crashed Sunday in the Indian Ocean, apparently
because of a mechanical problem. Three crewmen were rescued; three were
missing.
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1. Soviet Communist Party Warns "Danger Limit" of the Country ..............35
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From: zuofeng@pollux.wustl.edu (Zuofeng Li)
Source: UPI, 2/3/91
MOSCOW (UPI) -- The Communist Party said in a statement Sunday the social
crisis in the country has reached ``the danger limit'' beyond which looms
social upheaval.
The statement, issued after a plenum of the Central Committee last Thursday
and published Sunday, said anarchy already reigned in some areas.
``The social crisis in the country has reached the danger limit, beyond which
destructive social upheavals are possible,'' the statement said.
It charged the leaders of some republics striving for independence are
``nationalist totalitarian regimes proclaiming a mythical supremacy of the
nation's rights over the world's universally recognized rights of the
individual and citizens.''
Although it expressed sorrow over the army killings of 14 Lithuanians on Jan.
13, the statement indicated that republics' ``anti-constitutional acts'' led
to the misfortune.
Although the Communist Party surrendered its constitutional guarantee of one-
party rule last year, it still controls all the levers of economic authority.
Headed by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as general secretary, the party
retains enormous political clout as the most organized political body in the
country.
Although its candidates suffered heavy defeats in last spring's elections for
local governments, the party has been making a comeback by standing for law
and order -- a theme it continued in the political statement.
``Civil peace and countrywide concord are what the country is now in need of
most of all,'' the document said.
It called for Soviet citizens to vote for preservation of the Soviet Union in
a referendum on the union that is scheduled for March 17.
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2. Two More Dissidents Tried in China ......................................70
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>From: Zuofeng Li < zuofeng@pollux.wustl.edu >
Source: UPI, Feb. 4, 1991
By SARAH LUBMAN
BEIJING -- A Chinese court Monday announced the trials of two more dissidents
charged with ``counterrevolution,'' bringing to at least 30 the number of
people tried for political crimes linked to the 1989 pro-democracy movement.
The two dissidents, Chen Yanlin and Zhang Yawei, are scheduled to stand trial
Feb. 5 for the vaguely defined crimes of ``inciting counterrevolutionary
propaganda'' and leading and organizing a counterrevolutionary group,
according to a brief notice posted outside the Beijing Intermediate Court.
Backgrounds of the two dissidents are not known. Their names do not appear on
lists of known Chinese democracy activists compiled by Western human rights
organizations, leading one Western diplomat to speculate they may be workers
who could face stiff prison sentences.
The more serious crime of organizing and leading a counter-revolutionary group
is punishable by a minimum of five years in prison, according to Article 98
of China's criminal code.
China's state-run media have announced what they call ``lenient'' sentences
for prominent students and intellectuals, but have omitted mention of
punishment for lesser-known workers tried for their actions during the 1989
Tiananmen Spring democracy protests.
There has been no official word on the fate of Liu Zihou, a 34-year-old
worker, for example.
Liu's name was posted outside the court along with those of five student
leaders and intellectuals who were sentenced to up to seven years in prison
on Jan. 26, but there was no mention of his case in the official Xinhua news
agency account of the sentencing.
A court spokeswoman contacted by telephone rebuffed inquiries into Liu's case,
saying only that Liu had received a ``relatively lenient sentence of several
years in prison.''
China's public announcements of light sentences for intellectuals are intended
to make them feel ``grateful'' and discourage them from future activism,
according to a government source who requested anonymity.
``The government wants to make intellectuals feel indebted to it, and be
thankful they weren't shut up in prison for life,'' the source said.
Workers, on the other hand, have been dealt with swiftly and silently. Many
are believed to have been sent without trial to ``reeducation-through-labor''
camps for up to three years, a punishment administered in China by police.
The U.S. State Department's latest human rights report on China, released over
the weekend, estimates the number of 1989 democracy demonstrators assigned to
reeducation-through-labor camps at ``hundreds, if not thousands.''
An unknown number of dissidents still await trial behind bars, among them
several prominent intellectuals.
Chinese sources said the trial of Liu Gang, one of four dissidents known to
have been charged with the serious political crime of plotting to subvert the
government, is expected to begin as early as this week.
Formal notice of the charges against Liu Gang have already been sent to the
court, indicating that authorities are ready to begin the trial, one source
said.
Liu, 29, is a graduate student in physics at Beijing University with a history
of political activism. His name appeared on a government most-wanted list of
student leaders issued after the June 4, 1989, crackdown. He was arrested two
weeks later.
The trials of three other activists also charged with sedition -- Chen Ziming,
Wang Juntao and Chen Xiaoping -- are also expected to begin shortly, despite
Wang's current hospitalization for hepatitis, according to Chinese sources
familiar with the proceedings.
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