From: xc17@cicero.spc.uchicago.edu ()
Subject: CND-EP, December 13, 1992
Keywords: CND-EP, December 13, 1992
Organization: U of Chicago, SSPPCC
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 05:54:43 GMT
Summary: CND-EP, December 13, 1992
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===================  Europe / Pacific Section (CND-EP)  ===================
                            December 13, 1992

---------------------------- Table of Contents ----------------------------
No. Subject                                                      # of Lines

1. U.S. Groups Says Asian Governments Fuel Human Rights Abuses ......... 69

2. Honecker Dismisses Shoot-to-Kill Order at Trial ..................... 33

3. Government Shows Eagerness to Reverse Brain Drain ............... ... 94

4. A Dream Holiday in China - Travel Stories by a CND Reader (5) ...... 140
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1. U.S. Groups Says Asian Governments Fuel Human Rights Abuses ......... 69
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Forwarded by: Jian Liu
Source: Japan Economic Newswire 12/92/92
By: Antonio Kamiya

A U.S. human rights group accused Asian governments and businesses Wednesday
of fueling human rights abuses through arms deals, trade, or political
pressure.

The complicity of Asian governments in human rights abuses in places beyond
their own borders "gave a new twist" to the human rights picture in the
region, Human Rights Watch said in a report.

The privately funded group said most of the human rights problems in Asia
otherwise remained largely the same as in 1991.

The report cited continued harassment of dissidents in China, political
persecution of ethnic minorities in Myanmar, and alleged repression by the
Indonesian government in East Timor as among the major features of human
rights abuses in the region.

The fall of President Najibullah in Afghanistan in March threw the country
into a state of chaos and factional fighting, raising the specter of an
"Asian Somalia," the report said.

One bright spot was Taiwan, where it said there is "continued progress
toward a more open society."

The group said many of Asia's human rights problems involve more than one
Asian government.

By way of example, it accused China and Thailand of compounding human rights
abuses in Myanmar, where it said the military government is "kept afloat" by
trade with the two countries.

Arms sales from China also help prop up the ruling State Law and Order
Restoration Council in Myanmar, the report said.

It criticized Japan for taking a largely hands-off stance on human rights
abuses in Asia by not flexing its economic muscle.

"Japan, as the region's largest donor and investor, had enormous financial
interests in countries with the worst human rights records in Asia, but it
chose not to exert its economic leverage," the report said.

Investors from South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were also faulted.  It
cited reports that workers' rights were particularly abused in Indonesia in
plants owned or managed by South Koreans.

The group said similar allegations were made about ill treatment of workers
in factories in China that were financed with Hong Kong or Taiwanese
capital.

Hong Kong is itself a victim of "cross-border" political pressure in its
exercise of human rights as China attempts to prevent democratization in the
British colony before its return to Chinese rule in 1997, the report said.

Apart from the involvement of governments and business in human rights
problems in the region, it said 1992 was marked by a growing trend in Asia
to set up formal human rights bodies.

Cited as examples were moves within the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) to set up a governmental human rights forum for the region,
and the establishment of a parliamentary committee on human rights in
Indonesia.

Dismissing such moves as largely cosmetic, the report said they "appeared to
be more an effort to fend off international criticism than a genuine attempt
to ameliorate human rights abuses."

In 1992, "the underlying message of Asian governments was that while
discussion of human rights issues was legitimate, control over the
interpretation and implementation of international human rights standards
should rest with the governments in question," it said.

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2. Honecker Dismisses Shoot-to-Kill Order at Trial ..................... 33
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Forwarded by: A CND Reader
Source: UPI 12/10/92

BERLIN  -- Former East German leader Erich Honecker, on trial for Berlin
Wall shootings, on Thursday dismissed a shoot-to-kill directive he signed
for border guards seeking to stem the flow of escapees to the West.

"That does not affect me," said Honecker, as the court was shown a document
bearing his signature which ordered border guards to "use weapons against
traitors and people violating the border."

Honecker is on trial with three other top former East German Communists
charged with 13 counts of manslaughter for allegedly giving the
"shoot-to-kill" order at the Berlin Wall and former inner-German border.

About 350 people were killed trying to escape from East Germany to the West
between Aug. 13, 1961, when the Berlin Wall was built and Nov. 9, 1989 when
it was opened.

Last week Honecker admitted responsibility for the Berlin Wall but rejected
all guilt linked to the Wall shootings.

Despite the document shown in court, co-defendant Heinz Kessler, 72, a
former East German defense minister, insisted there had never been a
shoot-to-kill order.

"I do not know of any order to shoot," Kessler said.

Honecker, 80, suffers from liver cancer and his lawyers hope he will be
excused from the trial on health grounds as early as next week.

Doctors will present a medical report on Honecker to the court next Monday.

Honecker lawyer Nicolas Becker said he had "no comment" on reports that the
tumor in Honecker's liver had grown by over 25 percent over the last two
months.

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3. Government Shows Eagerness to Reverse Brain Drain ............... ... 94
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Forwarded by: Zhao Hua
Source: The Associated Press 12/8/92

If Li Gang, a physicist, were back in his native China, he probably would
bicycle to an assigned job, live in a two-room apartment and not be able to
do the advanced research he enjoys.

Those are some of the reasons why, when he finished his doctorate in the
United States in 1989, Li stayed there to do semiconductor research.

He now has a three-bedroom house in Atlanta and two cars. Most important, he
is free to plan his career and say what he likes.

"I see no future if I come back to China," Li, 32, said in a telephone
interview.

Recent government efforts to lure Chinese talent home won't change his mind,
Li said. He does not plan to come home until China has a democratic
government.

About 110,000 Chinese students have failed to return from foreign studies
two-thirds of 170,000 who have gone abroad since 1978.

After years of denying the brain drain was a problem, the government has
begun an all-out drive to bring back its best-educated citizens, who could
be crucial to its ambitious modernization program.

Senior leader Deng Xiaoping, who went to France to study in the 1920s,
launched the effort early this year by promising that returned students
would not be punished for political views expressed overseas.

Soon afterward, the government pledged that returned students would no
longer have to go back to their old jobs, which often failed to use their
new skills.

Dr. Zhang Deli, a heart specialist, exemplified the anguish caused by the
old policy. He left West Germany a decade ago and wept when he was forced to
return to a remote rural hospital, Science and Technology Daily recounted
recently.

Now, authorities promise, returning students will be allowed to bring in
more duty-free goods, be promoted speedily and even receive free household
furnishings.

Delegations have gone abroad to recruit Chinese students for jobs at home.

In a front-page appeal published in June, the People's Daily said: "Half of
success is grabbing opportunity. China is full of virgin lands. All you
ambitious, creative people who aren't jumping in now, what are you waiting
for?"

Many, like Li, remain unmoved, noting that the changed policies still cannot
bring working conditions for intellectuals up to Western levels.

Also, they have become accustomed to speaking their minds and exercising
other personal freedoms. Many said television images of tanks rolling down
Beijing streets in June 1989 to crush the student-led democracy movement
were a major factor in their decision to stay abroad.

"After the June 4th affair, the Tiananmen massacre, I decided I would not go
back to China, at least not in the near future," Li said. "Before that, it
was an open question."

Many students took part in anti-government protests abroad in 1989 and
feared punishment upon return.

The recent arrest and deportation of Shen Tong revived those fears. Shen
fled China after the collapse of the 1989 demonstrations he helped lead, but
returned in August to continue pro-democracy activities.

Most Western governments have been willing to let Chinese students stay in
their countries. President Bush signed a law in October that virtually
guarantees permanent residence to the 70,000 who were in the United States
between June 4, 1989 and April 11, 1990. Not all Chinese students have taken
advantage of the offers. Approximately 60,000 have returned since 1978, but
they tend to be older and have degrees in law, politics or other social
sciences. Fewer jobs are available to them in the West, and language and
culture are bigger barriers.

Yang Yang, a former government employee who earned a master's degree in
public administration at Harvard University, said he did not want to start
his career all over again in the United States in his late 30s.

"If I should start somewhere in the U.S. from the bottom up, climbing the
ladder, competing with young Americans 25 years old, to me it's not
acceptable psychologically," he said.

When he got home in 1990, Yang returned to his old job, but was able to
leave it and now is vice president of China International Intelletech Co.,
which helps foreign companies find Chinese managers and technical personnel.

He and other returnees say the political climate will improve with time, and
that students who stay abroad are missing an exciting period of China's
development.

"If they delay for three or five years, they will be outsiders," Yang said.

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4. A Dream Holiday in China - Travel Stories by a CND Reader (5) ...... 140
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Forwarded by: Kangmei Wang
Written by: A. Qu (psp1wl@central.surrey.ac.uk)
Abridged and edited by CND

BOTTOMS UP (GAN BEI) WHEN THE RED CURTAIN DREW UP

On the evening of the day when the red curtain of the long-awaited 14th
Congress of CCP drew up, I was at a dinner table, accompanied by a dozen of
officials, clinking our glasses. It was not a celebration to the party
congress. They were entertaining a potential "foreign investor". I
enjoyed the feast : river crabs, turtle soup, steamed fish etc. During the
dinner, I was told that their unit alone would spend about 200,000 yuan on
the dinner table. Most business was settled over the dinner table, not in
the conference room. I truly had a feeling that if you wanted to be somewhat
successful in business or other aspects, you had to smoke, drink and even
play majiang. My eldest brother is the headmaster of my former school. He
does not like smoking. But in order to be sociable, he carries cigarettes
with him and smokes when necessary. I had always hated smoking. However, my
brother almost silently changed my attitude. During a visit to my former
school, my brother gave me a packet of cigarettes and asked me to give them
to the teachers. From then on, I was picking up smoking and wherever I went, 
I carried a packet of cigarettes. I gradually felt the power of cigarettes. I
thought to myself, if I was ever going to do business in China, the first 
thing I needed to learn was smoking, why not start from now? Some weeks 
later, when I met with one of my closest friends, he praised my change of 
attitude towards smoking. 

To many, the 14th Party Congress was a signal for a large scale price rise.
But it did not come fortunately. A friend of mine, a professor in economics,
told me her views about the congress. The policies were good, but came too
late. The central government was not leading, but was rather lacking behind.
For example, limited companies appeared several years ago. They were
only affirmed now. Policies about stock exchange and private businesses
were still not clear. Many provincial or municipal government work in their
own ways, while at the grass-root level, things were even worse. It seems
to me, the party is firmly in control of their power, but losing control
over economics. You can do almost anything, except overthrowing the
government - that's my impression. People have fair freedom to do business.
Making money is no problem. Even party officials are encouraged towards (at
least not barred from) money-making in legal ways.

But who knows. Time is money, and power means more money. One of my school
mates is now a village party leader. He is also the chief manager of the
village enterprises. He has a car for his personal use and a motorcycle of
his own (it is very difficult in Shanghai to get a private vehicle license).
One day, he invited me and some other school mates for dinner at his home.
During the meal, one of us asked the host why we had not dined out
somewhere. He answered that it was "cleaner" at home and it was not too
expensive. He hinted that if we had dined out somewhere, the bill would be
paid by some other means. After dinner, we were planning to organize a
dinner on a larger scale for some later year. When I volunteered to foot the
bill, one of us pointed to my school mate and hinted that he could foot the
bill, but it would have to be before he gave up his post.

Another party official publicly advised me that it was good time to do
business in China. It is easier to make money out of the Communist Party's
pocket than a capitalist boss's. The key is tax-avoidance. A village factory
was in business for 4 years without profit. Is it true?  No. When the profit
margin is within some 3%, all the pre-paid tax can be reclaimed. So how do
they balance the books? The boss sets a target and then lets the accountants
meet it. After 4 years, it is no longer possible to cheat again. There is
another way, changing the company name. The same facility, the same
business, but it is now a joint venture with foreign investment - 2 years
tax free and 3 years at half tax. This gave me a good idea. If I should open
a business, I would have the first 5 years as a joint venture. Then I would
change the name and claim it as a hi-tech company which would have the same
benefit. In this way, I could have 10 years of easy life. Just to end, here
is another story for your eyes. An assistant town leader had a dog. In the
summer, he used an electric fan to cool the dog while playing the music of
"Go with Your Feeling". Unfortunately, the dog caught a cold. He asked
someone to take the dog to a hospital, and instructed a nurse to look after
the dog. When paying the bill, he filled in his name and naturally the cost
was met by the public medical fund.

TIAN'ANMEN SQUARE REVISITED

Before I came back to the UK, I spent 3 days in Beijing. The day when I
arrived in Beijing, it was cold and sleet was falling. I could not get a
taxi as I was only going to a place that was less than 1 km away. A man
in rain coat approached me and asked me if I wanted a tricycle. He knew my
destination already and offered a price of 10 yuan. I boarded his coach
which was covered with canvas with a tiny window through which you could
peek at the outside world. He peddled to the west through a narrow street
and then turned right at Chongwenmen Street towards the north. We passed
under the footbridge where the body of a soldier had been hung after the
June 4th military crack down. That reminded me my last terrifying trip to
Beijing on the very morning of June 4th to get my visa. I arrived from
Shanghai at about 10 o'clock. When I got out of the station, I found it was
absolutely deserted. I walked to the main street in front of the station. A
coach (Banche) came towards me at high speed and stopped suddenly in front
of me. "Where do you want to go?", the man asked. "Mashenmiao", I said. "40
yuan", he offered without thinking. It was certainly too expensive to me.
But he explained "There has been shooting all night. Where else can you get
taxis or buses? Nowhere! I am risking my life."  On an earlier trip for an
interview in the British Embassy, I visited Tian'anmen Square and took some
pictures of the demonstrators. This time, I dared not go since I could hear
the gun fire at distance.

How was Tian'anmen Square now? It appeared the same as before. But I was eager
to have a walk and to refresh my memory of my last visit. The Square looked
clean everywhere. Not many visitors at this time of the year. The queue to
Chairman Mao's Memorial was not long, compared with the time when I
previously visited it. There was now no charge to see Chairman Mao, but
inside, no bags or cameras were allowed. There were about 10 baggage deposit
counters. The fees vary from 0.6 yuan to 2 yuan, depending on the item. It
is said that this business could make several thousand yuan a day. Then, of
course, there were the gift shops.

My second stop was Wangfujing which was as busy as before. Here and there, I
could see small booths or stands selling lottery tickets. Being a bookworm,
I spent a good hour in Wangfujing Bookstore. To my surprise, the price of
some of the hardback books were in the order of 50 yuan. I personally had
never seen books with such prices in China. Computer books are now very
popular. Among the other popular books were business management,
accounting, car repair, English, electric appliance repair etc. Mathematics,
physics and chemistry were no longer popular.

My last stop were the Asian Game Village and the adjacent National Olympic
Centre. I was very much impressed by its scale, architecture and modernness.
It was the most beautiful cluster of buildings I had ever seen in China. It
was certain that the city and the country benefited from the Game. I wish
the Olympic Game of Year 2000 could be held in Beijing so that it could
further improve Beijing's appearance.

EPILOGUE

Seeing is believing. My story can in no way replace a personal trip.
Therefore, if you have been away from China for some time, it is good time
now to go back and visit. The changes have been dramatic. Travel regulations
have also been simplified. For a short visit, no exit visa, no medical exam,
no blood test are needed (but as always, the policies change from time to
time. I heard that in middle of this year, a blood test was required). If you
should decide to go, we'll be waiting to hear from you next time.

Finally, I wish to thank the CND editors for accepting my stories and
polishing my poor English and Pinyin. I also wish to thank Kangmei Wang for
her forwarding the stories to CND. My appreciation also goes to the readers,
in particular those who have forwarded their favourable comments to me.

[Editor's Note: We extend our sincere appreciation and thanks to Andrew Qu
for writing such a good, objective and entertaining travel story. It has a
personal touch that most of Chinese students and scholars can relate to. CND
welcomes similar stories from our readers to share our experience]

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