From: gaojeng@durras.anu.edu.au (J. Gao)
Newsgroups: aus.culture.china
Subject: China News Digest (Global), Mon, 11/16/1992
Date: 16 Nov 92 07:25:41 GMT
Organization: Australian National University
NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.22.8
Summary: CND
Keywords: CND

	       * * *  C h i n a   N e w s   D i g e s t  * * *
 
				(News Global)
 
			 Monday, November 16, 1992

  
Table of Contents                                                 # of Lines
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1. News Brief (2 Items).................................................. 16
2. Taipei to Turn Parts of Jinmen into a National Park and War Memorial.. 25
3. Beijing Eases Restrictions on Visiting Hong Kong Journalists.......... 27
4. Journalists' Rights Lawsuit Stirs Controversy......................... 63
5. China Travel International Soars in Start of Trading.................. 19
6. Chilean President Urges More Economic Ties with China................. 21
7. Chinese Confined Aboard Fishing Boat Allowed to Disembark............. 21
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1. News Brief (2 items).................................................. 16
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[AP-DJ, 11/16/92] BEIJING -- China's Labor Ministry has reported that 14,686 
people were killed, and 10,809 people were seriously injured, in industrial 
accidents during 1991, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday. 
Xinhua said it was the first time the Labor Ministry released figures on
deaths and injuries in industrial accidents. The ministry plans to release
such figures regularly to draw attention to safety concerns, Xinhua said. 
The report said there were fewer deaths and injuries at Chinese industries
last year than in 1990. It did not give figures for 1990. 
(Forwarded by: Huijie)
                           ___ ___ ___
 
[AP-DJ, 11/16/92] BEIJING -- Nearly 10,000 people died in mining accidents 
in China in 1991, most of them in small, rural mines, an official report 
said Saturday. The Xinhua News Agency cited figures from the Ministry of 
Labor that put 1991's death toll at 9,819, down 10.8% from 1990, but 
previous official reports said 8,410 died in mining accidents in 1990. 
The report said mining deaths account for nearly 67% of all deaths caused 
by industrial accidents in the nation. (Forwarded by: Huijie)
 
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2. Taipei to Turn Parts of Jinmen into a National Park and War Memorial.. 25
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Forwarded by: A CND Reader
Source: UPI, 11/14/92. Edited by CND.
 
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The government is drawing up plans to turn portions of 
Jinmen (Kinmen) island, the last battleground in China's civil war, into a 
national park and war memorial, the China Times reported Sunday.
 
The Interior Ministry, which oversees Taiwan's park system, has commissioned 
scholars to assess the practicality of a national park and monument on Jinmen 
island, 180 miles southwest of Taipei, the newspaper said.
 
The park would preserve traditional cultural sites as well as portions of 
a military garrison used to defend Kinmen against repeated Communist attack, 
the report said.
 
Jinmen, located 130 miles west of Taiwan and just 1.4 miles from China, has 
been a front-line Nationalist outpost since Communist armies forced Chiang 
Kai-shek's government into exile on Taiwan in 1949.
 
In 1958, China launched a full-scale military assault on Jinmen and Mazu, 
a second Nationalist stronghold, prompting U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower 
to dispatch American warships into the Taiwan Strait.
 
This confrontation, known as the Quemoy Crisis, was the last major battle of 
the Chinese civil war.
 
China routinely shelled Nationalist position on Jinmen and Mazu until 
Communist leader Deng Xiaoping ordered the firing stopped in 1979.
 
Last week Taiwan lifted martial law on both islands, ending four decades of 
military rule.
 
Taiwan authorities say the return to civilian administration will make 
Jinmen, which has a civilian population of 50,000, a popular tourist 
destination.
 
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3. Beijing Eases Restrictions on Visiting Hong Kong Journalists.......... 27
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Forwarded by: Tina M. Tong <ttong@attmail.com>
Source: Kyodo News Service, 11/13/92
 
BEIJING -- China on Friday revoked a rule requiring Hong Kong and Macao-
based journalists to give 15 days advance notice before entering the
mainland to cover stories, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
 
Journalists may now file applications with the Hong Kong or Macao branches 
of Xinhua and come to China at any time, provided their applications are 
approved, Xinhua quoted a spokesman for the State Council's Hong Kong and
Macao Affairs Office as saying.
 
Xinhua did not, however, reveal the conditions for approval and refrained 
from saying how long the application process will take under the new system.
 
Nevertheless, observers say the move is surprising, given recent tensions 
between China and Hong Kong.
 
The decision comes just two weeks after the Beijing authorities expelled a 
woman Hong Kong journalists for allegedly stealing state secrets and bribing
government officials.
 
China is also embroiled in a public slanging match with Hong Kong Gov. Chris 
Patten over his plan to introduce greater democracy in the colony before it 
reverts to Chinese rule in 1997.
 
Xinhua said the decision will help enhance the reporters' understanding of 
the Chinese mainland.
 
"The Chinese Government will do everything to facilitate their activities 
provided they observe the laws of the mainland," it said.
 
China keeps a tight watch on Beijing-based foreign jounralists who work 
under the assumption that their homes and offices are bugged.
 
But Hong Kong and Macao journalists give the security forces more problems 
since they blend in easily with the local population and can often break 
through the public's reticence to speak to foreign reporters.
 
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4. Journalists' Rights Lawsuit Stirs Controversy......................... 63
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Forwarded by: Zhao Hua
Source: AP, 11/11/92
Written by: Kathy Wilhem
 
BEIJING -- Newspaper editor Ji Anguo, author of a rare lawsuit on behalf of
journalists' rights, got a measure of his own notoriety Wednesday and of the
widespread hopes that hang on his daring.
 
The South China Morning Post of Hong Kong had just published an article 
saying authorities ordered Ji to drop the lawsuit or be fired. Ji was 
bombarded with telephone calls asking if the report was true.
 
"It's not true," Ji said a bit testily to one caller. Asked if he would drop
the case, he said, "Absolutely not."
 
"Journalists also are citizens. The law should protect our basic rights," he
said.
 
Ji should know. He is both a lawyer and editor-in-chief of the Shanghai
Legal News, which reports primarily about law and order in China's largest
city. The paper, like most in China, is government-run.
 
In July, it sent reporter Li Zhigang to cover a court case in the central 
Chinese city of Nanyang in Henan province. Li snapped a photograph of the 
courtroom before the judges came in.
 
Court security officers allegedly dragged Li out of the courtroom, exposed 
his film and seized his journalist credentials, without which he cannot 
work.
 
The Shanghai Legal News filed a lawsuit in the Henan Supreme Court against 
the Nanyang court, accusing it of violating the law. It said the "Rules of 
Conduct in People's Courts" allow journalists to record and photograph 
court proceedings.
 
The newspaper asked for an apology, the return of its reporter's credentials 
and financial compensation.
 
The Henan court refused to touch the case, so Ji appealed to the national 
Supreme People's Court, which has yet to respond.
 
Chinese observers, who say it's the only known instance of a newspaper suing 
a court, regard the case as a barometer of the Communist Party's commitment 
to rule of law.
 
Authorities often comment on the importance of a modern legal system to 
economic modernization, but they also insist that the courts must remain 
instruments of party policy.
 
Chinese reporters have not rebelled against tight party controls since their 
ranks were purged of those who joined the 1989 democracy movement, but some 
seem to regard this as a good time to press for slightly more freedom.
 
Like other intellectuals, they are hoping that the party's decision this
year to liberalize the economic arena will trickle over into the ideological
realm.
 
Other Shanghai newspapers reported sympathetically about the Legal News' 
lawsuit. Newspapers in several cities have held symposiums recently to 
discuss the importance of "public supervision" of government by a 
vigilant press.
 
Even the generally conservative People's Daily last week quoted an official 
of the All-China Journalists Association, Tang Fei, as saying that clear 
rules were needed to stop too frequent infringement of reporters' rights.
 
Without precedents, the outcome of the Legal News case is hard to predict. 
When individuals, mostly dissidents, have tried to sue government or party 
organs, courts have refused to take the cases.
 
The Legal News' suit also stands out because it was filed by one member of
the official establishment against another. Normally, intra-establishment
quarrels are settled behind the scenes by relative power, not legal
principles.
 
The South China Morning Post article, attributed to unidentified Chinese
sources, alleged that backstage power plays were being made in the Legal
News case. It claimed that the president of the Supreme Court, Ren Jianxin,
ordered the newspaper to drop the case.
 
Ji said this was not true. He said the paper was just waiting to hear from
the Supreme Court, and had no idea when a response might come.
 
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5. China Travel International Soars in Start of Trading.................. 19
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Forwarded by: Huijie
Source: WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/12/92
 
HONG KONG -- A unit of China's state-run China Travel Service Group shot up
nearly threefold on its first day of trading in Hong Kong.
 
China Travel International Investment Hong Kong Ltd. soared to 2.85 Hong
Kong dollars (36.9 U.S. cents) from its offer price of HK$1. The stock was 
the most active, with 251.2 million shares traded.
 
The offering of 400 million shares, backed by Peregine Capital Ltd. and
China Development Finance Co. (H.K.) Ltd., is considered the most successful
new issue in the territory's history. Investors submitted a record HK$150
billion in applications for the shares.
 
The enormous amount of funds chasing the shares resulted in a windfall for
the freight and transportation services company, because the company 
collected interest on all funds submitted for its shares before returning 
checks to unsuccessful applicants a week later. According to an analyst 
familiar with the offer, the interest totaled about HK$90 million, which is 
equal to around 30% of the company's total revenue for 1991.
 
Explaining the interest of investors, one broker said parent company China
Travel Service, the tourism monopoly of China, has a high profile in Hong
Kong. Still, he believes the shares now are overpriced.
 
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6. Chilean President Urges More Economic Ties with China................. 21
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Forwarded by: Jian
Source: DOW JONES INTERNATIONAL NEWS, 11/14/92
 
BEIJING -- Visiting Chilean President Patricio Aylwin urged an expansion of
bilateral economic cooperation in talks Saturday with his Chinese
counterpart and businessmen from both sides.
 
Aylwin told President Yang Shangkun that China's new economic reform drive
this year offers more opportunities for cooperation and exchanges between
their two countries, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
 
Yang noted that Chile-China trade has increased rapidly in recent years, but
said there was still great potential because the output of the two countries
are mutually complementary. 
 
"China is willing to make efforts together with the Chilean government to
push bilateral relations to a new level and further expand bilateral and
friendly cooperation and contacts," said Yang, who visited Chile in 1990. 
  
After his morning meeting with Yang, Aylwin addressed a seminar on bilateral
economic and trade relations attended by 40 Chilean business leaders and 
more than 100 their Chinese counterparts. 
  
Bilateral trade last year totalled 174 million dlrs and by June this year
stood at 190 million dlrs. China's most important exports have been fuel 
and textiles, while Chile's are wood pulp, copper and fishmeal. 
  
During Aylwin's four-day stay in China, the two sides are to sign an
agreement for scientific cooperation to facilitate cooperation in gold 
mining, and a document allowing exports of fresh fruit from Chile to China. 
 
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7. Chinese Confined Aboard Fishing Boat Allowed to Disembark............. 21
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Forwarded by: Huijie
Source: JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 11/16/92
 
YOKOHAMA -- Maritime Safety Agency officials on Monday morning started
transfering a 142-member Chinese group confined aboard a small Taiwanese
fishing boat in Yokohama port to a nearby storehouse, some 22 days after the
vessel was escorted to Yokohama by a Japanese fishing boat.
 
The passengers, including 17 women, say they are from China's Fujian
Province and were on their way to the United States.  Only two of them are in
possession of passports, agency officials said.
 
As the Chinese on board the fishing boat are suspected of having left China
illegally, they had so far been refused permission to disembark from the
186-ton fishing boat.
 
The Justice Ministry and Foreign Ministry are still holding discussions on
how the group should be handled, the officials said.
 
The Maritime Safety Agency said the removal of the Chinese from the vessel
was "a temporary humanitarian measure."
 
The ship developed engine trouble on October 23 in the Pacific Ocean and was
escorted by a Japanese fishing boat to Yokohama Port on October 25.
 
On Sunday, one of the Chinese group went missing after jumping overboard
following a clash between about 40 people on the boat and Maritime Safety
 
Agency officials, agency sources said.  Altogether, three people jumped into
the sea, but two of them were soon rescued, the sources said.
 
The agency and the police are searching for the missing person.
  
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