From: gaojeng@durras.anu.edu.au (J. Gao)
Subject: China News Digest (Global), Mon, 10/5/1992
Summary: CND
Keywords: CND
              * * *  C h i n a   N e w s   D i g e s t  * * *
Organization: Computer Services Centre, Australian National University
Date:  5 Oct 92 07:23:52 GMT

                              (News Global)

                         Monday, October 5, 1992


Table of Contents                                                # of Lines
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1. News Brief (2 Items) .................................................19
2. Students in Beijing Demand Apology from Japanese Emperor Akihito .....67
3. Japan Attempts to Lay to Rest a Heavy Historical Burden ..............78
4. Chinese Newspaper Proposes to Taiwan a Joint Venture Magazine ........34
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1. News Brief (2 Items) .................................................19
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[Reuter, 10/1/92] TOKYO -- Veteran Chinese Communist leader Chen Yun is
unconscious and in critical condition, Japanese newspapers reported.
Quoting reliable Chinese sources in Beijing, the Tokyo Shimbun said Chen,
87, was dangerously ill and this news had been sent to leading officials in
the government, military and Communist Party. Tokyo Shimbun said it did not
know the nature of Chen's illness but said he had been repeatedly in and out
of hospital. (From: A CND Reader)
                               ___  ___  ___

[JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 10/4/92] BEIJING -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesman confirmed Sunday that China has recently conducted a underground
nuclear test. It was China's second nuclear test this year. The spokesman
made the confirmation after an inquiry from Kyodo News Service. An Indian
nuclear center earlier announced it detected a Chinese underground nuclear
test on the scale of a 15-kiloton TNT blast on September 25. Western
military sources in Beijing estimate that a May 11 nuclear test was a
strategic nuclear explosion of one-megaton and last month's test was a
tactical nuclear blast. (From: Liu Jian)

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2. Students in Beijing Demand Apology From Japanese Emperor Akihito .....67
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>From: A CND Reader
Source: South China Morning Post, 9/30/92
By: Willy Wo-Lap Lam

BEIJING -- College students in Beijing have marked the 20th anniversary of
the normalisation of Sino-Japanese relations by launching a signature
campaign demanding an "official apology" by Emperor Akihito. But both
governments yesterday celebrated the resumption of ties by expressing
optimism for friendship and co-operation into the next century.

A network of volunteers at Beijing University, People's University and
Beijing Normal University are collecting signatures from students who want
the emperor to deliver an apology over war-time atrocities and to promise
to pay full compensations.

The signatures, together with the petition, will be forwarded to the emperor
when he visits Beijing on October 23.

"We are optimistic that at least 50 per cent of students in the three
universities will put their names down," said organiser Mr Zhou Hu, who
stressed that the students were taking part in the campaign as individuals.
The petition would be the same as the letter that four students posted to
the emperor late last week.

"The emperor must in his official capacity and on a public occasion deliver
an unambiguous apology to the Chinese people", said Mr Zhou, a graduate law
student.

He added that the students were also pressing for war damages as well as
Tokyo's renunciation of sovereignty claims over the Diaoyutai, or Senkaku,
islands.

"If Akihito makes no clear-cut indications, we will take whatever actions
that are legal and reasonable," Mr Zhou said. "We will not just fade away".

Another organiser of the campaign, law student Mr Wang Zhongqiu, said the
students had held discussions with Communist Party officials at Beijing
University.

"The officials asked us to take a long-term perspective in evaluating
Sino-Japanese relations," Mr Wang said. "However, they did not persuade us
to call off the action".

Mr Wang, who denied reports in the Hongkong media that he had been detained
by police last week, said he had warned college authorities about
"restiveness" among students.

"The student body's feelings towards Japan are very volatile at the
moment," he said.  "If they disapprove of the emperor's conduct (during his
visit), there is no telling what actions they may take".

Other organisers of the campaign indicated that they had heard reports that
war victims or their relatives might stage protests during the imperial
visit.

An editorial marking the 20th anniversary of the normalisation of ties in
yesterday's People's Daily failed to mention the campaign by students and
war victims.

Prime Minister Mr Kiichi Miyazawa yesterday sent a telegram to premier Mr
Li Peng calling for continuation of friendly relations.

"Since pledging to move past our differences and develop friendly relations,
our two countries have achieved steady growth in all areas," Mr Miyazawa
said. "I would like to pledge, together with the honourable premier, that
we shall work to deepen these friendly relations as we approach the 21st
century."

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3. Japan Attempts to Lay to Rest a Heavy Historical Burden ..............78
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>From: <jhua@aol.com>
Source: IPS, 10/2/92

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA -- Japan's ties with its Asian neighbors have long
been burdened by the legacy of its wartime aggression, but it will have a
chance to lay down this historical load when Emperor Akihito visits China
this month.

China-Japan relations are at an all-time high with China isolated
diplomatically and needing especially high technology from Japan, said a
visiting Japanese political scientist.

The imperial visit would be a good time to "liquidate all the bad memories
of the war," Prof Tatsumi Okabe, a China expert at Tokyo Metropolitan
University, said in a speech this week at the Center for Japan Studies in
Kuala Lumpur.

Japan's political and economic role in the region continues to be a
sensitive issue, particularly for China and Korea, because of the atrocities
committed by the Japanese imperial army.

Although it is generally acknowledged that Japan should play a more active
political and security role in the world, Japanese intentions are still
regarded with suspicion in the region.

"Japan should genuinely demonstrate its regret for its past. Without this
it cannot be trusted to play a leadership role," said Jusuf Wanandi of the
Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.

Okabe says now is the best time "because China needs Japan most at the
moment and they will not be very severe in their demands."

What the Chinese would like to see, he said, is to what extent Japan has
reconsidered its past. An apology or something similar from the Emperor
might help end the "abnormal people-to-people relations between the two
countries," he added.

Better bilateral ties would end Japan's "cautiousness with China which is
excessive" and has led to "unequal and abnormal psychological relations,"
said Okabe.

For instance, Japan has been very careful not to criticize China, and
Beijing has used its renunciation of any claims against war reparations from
Tokyo to press for economic demands.

Although the present emperor has no personal responsibility for the war, he
is a symbol of Japan, said Okabe. "If the Chinese see that he is a very
ordinary person, they will see he is not a dictator to be feared," he said.

Japan was the first industrialized nation to lift sanctions imposed against
China after the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen
Square in 1989. Because of this, Beijing considers Tokyo a friendly country,
said Okabe.

Besides, China is trying to counter-balance the power of the United States
and Russia and for that it considers Japan important, he added.

Though Japanese trade and investments in China rank only third to the United
States and Hong Kong, China has the biggest share of Japanese credits, mostly
for building infrastructure.

The policy to continue aid was dictated by a fear of a massive exodus of
refugees into China's neighbors if its economy should fail.

"China is a big country, the flow of refugees would be catastrophic,
incomparable to Vietnam. Neighbor countries, including Japan, Korea and
South-east Asia, would suffer," said Okabe.

It could well be that a modernized China would pose a threat to Japan and
Asia someday, he said. This is the fear of many people both inside and
outside Japan.

For this reason, the U.S.-Japan alliance will remain vital to the region,
he said. Though the relationship is troubled by some economic conflicts,
this will not lead to the destruction of the partnership.

Said Okabe: "A U.S.-Japan alliance is the necessary condition for the
Japan-China friendship."

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4. Mainland Newspaper Proposes to Taiwan a Joint Venture Magazine .......34
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>From: Liu Jian
Source: DOW JONES INTERNATIONAL NEWS, 10/3/92

TAIPEI -- A Chinese Communist party newspaper based in Shanghai has proposed
setting up a joint venture monthly business magazine with a leading Taiwan
newspaper owned by a prominent Nationalist, the Taiwan paper's editor said
Saturday.

The joint venture, if it goes through, would represent a landmark deal
between two former enemies who have tip-toed around political conflicts to
forge closer trade, cultural and educational ties.

Huang Chao-sung, editor-in-chief of Taiwan's China Times, said the newspaper
is studying the proposal by Shanghai's Liberation Daily, a Chinese Communist
Party-owned newspaper which has advocated journalistic freedom.

"We found this an interesting idea," Huang said. "It should help promote
understanding' between Taiwan and China.

As proposed, the magazine would cover economic, financial and technological
information and might involve other investors in Hong Kong and Japan. Other
details, such as what the magazine would be called or where it would be based,
have yet to be discussed, Huang said.

The deal, if successful, would mark the first time the Nationalists would
be work with the Communists on a publishing deal since fleeing to Taiwan
following their defeat in a 1949 civil war.

But such a joint venture magazine will be technically illegal. Although
tensions have eased between the rival governments in recent years, Taiwanese
are only allowed to invest in several labor-intensive industries in China.

Huang said China Times is also concerned about the magazine's editorial
independence.

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