From: gaojeng@durras.anu.edu.au (J. Gao)
Subject: CND 29-7-92 WED
Summary: CND
Keywords: CND
Organization: Computer Services Centre, Australian National University
Date: 29 Jul 92 07:37:55 GMT

             * * *  C h i n a   N e w s   D i g e s t  * * *

                             (News Global)

                        Wednesday, July 29, 1992

[Editor's Note: for Barcelona Olympics news, please read CND Oplympics
                Special issue dated July 28, 1992]

Table of Contents                                               # of Lines
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1. News Brief (2 Items).................................................18
2. Chinese Leaders Seen to Give Reformists More Power...................49
3. China Opens Sites to Foreign Archeologists...........................27
4. UK Foreign Secretary Warns China Over Airport Dispute................31
5. Did Chinese Post Office Issue Cryptic Protest Cry?...................52
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1. News Brief (2 Items).................................................18
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[The Wall Street Journal, 7/28] China has leased a state-owned factory  to
a  foreign  company for the first time in four decades, as part of efforts
to turn around unprofitable socialist industry.  Under the 15-year,  $11.5
million  lease  of a bus-making plant in southwestern China's Sichuan pro-
vince, Tai Bing Co. of Hong Kong will  invest  $20  million  to  modernize
technology,  and  will have management independence.  The factory can pro-
duce 800 Emei Mountain buses a year, of which about 30% are to be  export-
ed.  (From: Charles P. Mok)
                        ____  ____  ____  ____

[Reuter, 7/20] BEIJING -- China is to build  a  three-billion-yuan  ($554-
million)  hot  spring  resort in the north for convalescents and tourists,
the official New China News Agency said on Monday.  The spa town will cov-
er eight sq km (three sq miles) of Hebei province's Baiyangdian region, an
area surrounded by 143 lakes and known for its  underground  geysers,  the
agency said.  The resort, due for completion in 1995, will be developed by
southern China's Zhuhai special economic zone  in  a  joint  venture  with
Hebei's Baoding prefecture, the agency said. (From: A CND Reader)

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2. Chinese Leaders Seen to Give Reformists More Power...................49
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>From:    Huijie
Source:  KYODO, 07/27/92

BEIDAIHE, China -- The Chinese Communist Party will reshuffle its  leader-
ship  in  favor  of  the reform-minded at its meeting that opens soon, in-
formed sources said.

The preparatory talks for the 14th party  convention  scheduled  for  this
fall  will  be  the first in four years since the summer of 1988, when the
brakes were put on the reform drive spearheaded by the former  party  gen-
eral secretary, Zhao Ziyang.

Local officials said  government  and  party  leaders  began  arriving  at
Beidaihe,  where  they keep summer villas, earlier this month.  Among them
are paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, President Yang Shangkun, and  Wan  Li,
chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

The sources said the meeting will decide whether Communist  Party  General
Secretary  Jiang  Zemin, who replaced the disgraced Zhao in 1989 following
the military massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators at Beijing's  Tianan-
men Square, will remain at the helm of the party.

As Politburo Standing Committee members Yao Yilin and Song Ping are retir-
ing,  three of the five vice premiers, Zhu Rongji, Zou Jiahua and Tian Ju-
yun, will be promoted at the meeting  to  committee  member  status,  they
said.

Political analysts said the promotion of Zhu, who is reportedly favored by
Deng, is regarded as a prelude to his replacement of Li Peng as premier at
the National People's Congress session next spring.

However, the analysts said it is possible Li will remain in office, or the
dovish  Vice Premier Tian will instead take his place on grounds Zhu faces
resistance from bureaucrats for his coercive approach in seeking reform.

It is unclear whether Li, if  forced  out  of  office,  would  assume  the
presidency  in  place of the outgoing Yang, with some observers predicting
he will become chairman of the largely powerless Chinese People's  Politi-
cal Consultative Conference, vacant since the death of former President Li
Xiannian.

Li Xiannian, a hard-line behind-the-scenes power broker,  died  at  83  in
June.

With reformists taking up most of the Politburo Standing  Committee  posts
when  Yao and Song retire at the party convention in fall, Zhao could find
his lost power restored, political analysts said.

The sources said  conservative  patriarchs,  Chen  Yun,  chairman  of  the
party's Central Advisory Commission, and Vice President Wang Zhen, are re-
ported not to be participating in the Beidaihe  meeting  because  of  poor
health.

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3. China Opens Sites to Foreign Archeologists...........................27
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>From:    Chongyu Hua <cyuhua@ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Source:  UPI, 7/26/92

BEIJING -- Chinese authorities are to allow more teams of foreign archeol-
ogists  to excavate ancient sites in China, an official newspaper reported
Sunday.

The China Daily said the State Bureau of Cultural  Property  has  approved
applications  for  a French team to carry out research in western Xinjiang
province and for a Canadian museum group to conduct archeological digs  in
northern Heilongjiang province.

A bureau official, Wang Limei, told the newspaper that a record number  of
applications  for  joint  archeological  activities had been received from
researchers in the United States, Japan, Britain,  France,  Australia  and
Belgium.

New regulations passed in 1989 opened the way for Chinese archeologists to
enlist outside help to uncover and research ancient sites in China.

Foreign archeologists have been at times accused by Chinese authorities of
having looted ancient relics and historical artifacts while excavating old
sites.

Foreign archeologists were active in China before the  communist  takeover
in 1949 and many shipped Chinese artifacts to museums abroad.

"China is particularly interested in foreign funding of the protection  of
Chinese  cultural  relics  and  providing advanced technologies and equip-
ment," the newspaper said.

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4. UK Foreign Secretary Warns China Over Airport Dispute................31
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>From:    Jian Liu
Source:  AP-DJ, 7/27/92

HONG KONG -- British foreign secretary Douglas Hurd on Monday warned China
not  to  use  the current dispute over the financing of Hong Kong's multi-
billion dollar airport as a lever to limit democratization efforts in this
British colony.

"It's important to make it clear that in our view, that is  not  the  best
way  to  tackle  matters," Hurd told a news conference after meeting local
lawmakers and community leaders.

"There are proposals, there are counter-proposals. Let us settle  this  on
its  merits  and  not  try  even  in  some vague way to link it with other
matters. That won't work," he said.

Though Hurd said he was confident the disagreements  would  eventually  be
ironed  out,  his  statement was just the latest salvo in the war of words
between Britain and China over the future of Hong Kong, which  reverts  to
Chinese rule in 1997.

As reported, eighteen members of the  colony's  60-seat  legislature  were
elected  directly  for the first time last year. China has agreed to allow
two more directly elected representatives in the 1995 elections, but  many
Hong Kong residents would like to vote for more.

Since Britain and China signed a Memorandum  of  Understanding  last  Sep-
tember  on  the building of the new 16.2-billion-U.S.-dlr airport project,
China has been bickering with Hong Kong  over  the  colonial  government's
financing package for the project.

The Chinese have expressed concern over cost  overruns,  particularly  for
the proposed 34-kilometer (21-mile) airport railway, whose cost has soared
to 2.8 billion U.S. dlrs.

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5. Did Chinese Post Office Issue Cryptic Protest Cry?...................52
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>From:    J.Y. Wang <JWANG@UMRVMB.UMR.EDU> and Gao Jie
Source:  Reuter, 7/28/92

Chinese stamp dealers think they have spotted a daring  political  protest
in a Barcelona Olympics commemorative issue.

Even without a  magnifying  glass,  philatelists  have  noticed  that  the
numbers  pinned  to  the  shirts of 3 marathon runners depicted on 1 stamp
match the date of the Tiananmen Square massacre: June 4, 1989.

Whether deliberate, or just a strange coincidence, the newly-minted  stamp
has shot up in value.

Ahead of the pack, a marathon runner is tagged "64," a shorthand  used  by
virtually  all Chinese to refer to the date--the 4th day of the 6th month-
-when troops and tanks fired on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's main
square.

The runner next to him is #9, and to his left is #17.   Dealers  excitedly
point  out that 1 plus 7 equal 8. By a leap of logic, the numbers identify
the year--1989.

None of the other runners have numbers.

"It's June 4. Get it?" said a young dealer on a street corner  just  south
of Tiananmen Square. He was touting the stamp, issued last Saturday with a
face value of 5 yuan (about $1), for 20 yuan ($3.70).

Thousands of people lined up at post offices in Hong Kong to buy  the  is-
sue.   The British colony, which reverts to Chinese rule in 1997, saw huge
anti-government protests after the Tiananmen crackdown.

Chinese are constantly on the lookout for devious  messages  of  political
dissent.

The most cunning in recent times was  a  poem  printed  in  the  Communist
Party's  main  newspaper.  Read  diagonally, the Chinese characters of the
verse called on Premier Li Peng to step  down  "to  assuage  the  people's
wrath."

Red-faced editors admitted they had been fooled by the literary assault on
Li, one of the architects of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

So far there has been no official comment on the marathon stamp,  1  in  a
series  of 5 that also depicts weight-lifting, diving, basketball and gym-
nastics.

The latest edition of the Nanfang Weekly newspaper  identified  the  stamp
designer as Yin Huili, the younger brother of Chinese singing star Yin Xi-
umei, famous for her hit single, Oh Communist Party,  You  Are  My  Loving
Mother.

Commenting on his Olympic stamps before the controversy broke,  Yin  Huili
said:  "I  strived  to  find  a  new language of design in an eye-catching
modern style."

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