From: xu@hydra.maths.unsw.oz.au ()
Subject: CND-Europe/Pacific, January 4, 1993
Organization: school of Mathematics UNSW
Distribution: aus
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 04:55:15 GMT

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===================  Europe / Pacific Section (CND-EP)  ===================
                             January 4, 1993

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

1. News Brief (2 Items) ................................................ 20

2. China Bars France from Subway Project to Avenge Jet Sale ............ 35

3. Russia Mulling Sale of Aircraft Carriers to China ................... 21

4. EC's "Walls" Come Tumbling Down as of Midnight Dec. 31, 1992
   whilst Europe Burns With Anticipation Of Continent Without Borders . 112

5. Czechs, Slovaks Ring in New Year as Separate Countries .............. 49

6. Growing Antiforeigner Sentiment in Germany .......................... 97
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1. News Brief (2 Items) ................................................ 20
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[China Radio International 12/29/92] China is to recognize the new Czech and
Slovak republics starting on January 1st next year.  [The] Chinese Assistant
Foreign Minister made the announcement Monday.  He said China will maintain
and further develop friendly and cooperative relations with the Czech and
Slovak republics on the basis of the five principles of peaceful
coexistence. The two republics have delivered messages to the Chinese side
that they will consider the government of the People's Republic of China as
the sole legal government of China and Taiwan as part of the Chinese
territory. (Forwarded by: Andrew Waldie)
                      ____  ____  ____  ____

[China Radio International 12/29/92] All Chinese students who have returned
from their overseas studies now have access to tax-free cars.  Returnees
begin to enjoy the privilege on Monday with a choice of 12 major
domestically-made brand names [three named].  There are between 3 000 and 5
000 return students in the country.  The offer of tax-free cars aims to help
improve these people's living and working conditions at home. Chinese auto
makers have produced a record output volume this year. More than 1.1 million
automobiles of various models have been produced, representing a 57%
increase over last year. (Forwarded by: Andrew Waldie)

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2. China Bars France from Subway Project to Avenge Jet Sale ............ 35
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Forwarded by: Jian
Source: DJ News 12/29/92

HONG KONG - China has decided to bar French companies from a project to
build a subway system in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in
retaliation for the sale of French jet fighters to Taipei, a Hong Kong daily
said Tuesday.

Wen Wei Po, a Chinese government-controlled paper in Hong Kong, reported
Beijing instructed the Guangzhou city authorities to bar French companies
from participating in bidding for the 6 billion yuan project.

The daily quoted Guangzhou Mayor Li Ziliu as saying the city authorities
were ordered to scrap a plan to purchase French subway cars and to use
French loans to partially finance the project in the province of Guangdong.

Li told the paper the decision to reject collaboration with the French
government and businesses would not undercut the project, as companies from
more than 30 other countries have indicated they will bid on the lucrative
project.

The paper quoted Li as saying the corporations wanting to bid on the project
come from such countries as Britain, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Germany and
the United States.

The decision to exclude French businesses came on the heels of a decision
last Wednesday to order the French government to shut down its consulate in
Guangzhou.

The French government angered Beijing in November when it approved the sale
of some 60 Mirage 2000-5 jet fighters manufactured by a French state-run
company to Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province.

Construction of the 18-kilometer subway system is to begin in 1993, with
completion scheduled for the end of 1998, it said.

The Chinese government plans to raise 1 billion yuan in 1993 to finance the
initial phase of the project, it added.

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3. Russia Mulling Sale of Aircraft Carriers to China ................... 21
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Forwarded by: Jian
Source: Japan Economic Newswire 12/23/92

MOSCOW - Talks are under way between Russia and China on the sale of two
Russian aircraft carriers to China, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper
reported Wednesday.

The Russian independent newspaper quoted the Postfactum news agency as
reporting that the Russian Pacific Fleet has confirmed it is negotiating
with China on the sale of the Minsk and the Novorossiysk, aircraft carriers
belonging to the fleet.

Russian government sources said that China has told Russia it is ready to
purchase at least one flattop from Moscow, according to the newspaper.

A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman told Kyodo News Service that the
ministry is not in charge of exporting weaponry and does not have
information on the matter.

Chinese President Yang Shangkun said in September that China will deploy
aircraft carriers by 1997.

Russia and China signed an agreement on military cooperation on December 18,
when President Boris Yeltsin was in Beijing on a three-day visit to China.

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4. EC's "Walls" Come Tumbling Down as of Midnight Dec. 31, 1992
   whilst Europe Burns With Anticipation Of Continent Without Borders . 112
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Forwarded by: Jian
Source: DJ NEWS 1/1/93

BRUSSELS - The grand opening of the EC's big, new marketplace has arrived.

As of midnight Thursday, Greek and Italian truckers are free to rumble
across Western Europe without stopping at frontiers.

German bargain-hunters can stock up on liquor in Luxembourg.

French bankers are allowed to offer savings accounts in Belgium.

After 7 years of bargaining, the 12 EC nations lowered many - but not all -
barriers to the free movement of goods, services, money and people.

In doing so, the trading bloc of 338 million people becomes more like the
U.S. marketplace.

The aim is to bring down costs for consumers through competition and produce
businesses as lean and mean as the Americans and Japanese.

But the optimism has been dampened somewhat by the derailing of plans for a
single currency for the community.

The landmark event passed almost unnoticed.

"It's not the sort of occasion where spectacular things happen," Leon
Brittan, EC vice president, said in an interview.

"You don't sort of suddenly wake up and see the world is different. It's a
process rather than sort of getting the horses in the starting gate."

Some market-opening laws were in effect before Friday. Agents have been able
to insure commercial fleets of cars and trucks across borders.

But other rules won't be on the books for years.

Most passport checks will remain because some nations fear a flood of
terrorists, drug traffickers and illegal immigrants with open borders.

Technically, the common market "will not be completed as scheduled by
January 1st," said Jan Rood of the Netherlands' Clingendael Institute for
International Affairs.

Yet, the EC nations have done more than most people thought possible not too
long ago.

"We've done remarkably well," said Zygmunt Tyszkiewicz, director of the
European employers' confederation known as UNICE. "Big companies have been
treating this as a single market for 6 or 7 years now."

The community has virtually finished a 1985 blueprint for tearing down
barriers to trade in goods and services among the peoples of Belgium,
Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

But Britain and Denmark have opted out of plans for a communitywide
currency, slowing the drive to adopt a common monetary system as well as a
unified foreign policy.

About 32 million consumers in neighboring Austria, Finland, Iceland,
Liechtenstein, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland also had been expected to join
the single market.

But Swiss voters rejected the plan in early December, forcing a delay for
all seven countries.
                        ____  ____  ____  ____

BRUSSELS - One thousand bonfires brightened the night skies across Europe
early Friday to augur in the long-elusive creation of a huge market- place
largely unimpeded by borders.

The fires were lit at midnight from Rhodes to the Azores as the 12-nation
European Community lowered many - but not all - barriers to the free
movement of goods, services, money and people.

The trading bloc of 338 million people was created after seven years of
bargaining to bring down costs for consumers through competition and produce
businesses as lean and mean as the Americans and Japanese.

Joining in the celebrations, a German airline cut fares to EC cities for two
weeks, a British phone company will lower rates to Europe and Belgian
customs agents have already wrapped up - literally - one of their
now-defunct border posts with the Netherlands.

"That's it. Thanks and good luck in 1993," border agents spray-painted on
the huge wrapper near Knokke, Belgium.

A special ferry left France's Calais for England's Dover across the time
zone for a double celebration and had French champagne and wines for sale to
mark the new customs freedom.

At the Goldene Bremm checkpoint on the Franco-German border, French and
German officials draped ivy over a roadblock to symbolize a "green" border.

A few minutes before midnight, Greece's deputy premier Tzannis Tzannetakis
launched the lighting of 700 bonfires in Britain and 300 across the rest of
Europe.

He lighted a torch on the hill where the Acropolis stands that was then
carried by Boy Scouts to a bonfire in the nearby National Gardens.

Two hours later, Prime Minister John Major lighted a bonfire in London, the
first in the chain of 700 across Britain, which held the EC presidency for
the latter part of 1992.

Although Friday marked a huge step for the trade bloc, the EC's executive
commission in Brussels wasn't active in the celebrations.

In Brussels, a huge bonfire, ringed by 12 small fires symbolizing the member
states, was lighted in front of the EC's headquarters.

But the EC's Executive Commission held back from other celebrations, citing
rising unemployment, economic hard times, the war in former Yugoslavia and
grueling negotiations surrounding the single market in 1992.

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5. Czechs, Slovaks Ring in New Year as Separate Countries .............. 49
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Forwarded by: Jian
Source: DJ News 1/1/93

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia - Czechs and Slovaks rang in the New Year in separate
nations Friday.

Bells tolled in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, and in Bratislava,
the Slovakia capital, at midnight to launch the two newest countries in
Europe.

The division of Czechoslovakia apparently came with a complete absence of
the violence.

The split after 74 years offered an alternative to the hatreds howling in
two other Slav-dominated federations, the former Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia.

"We did as best we could in the situation," Slovakia's Premier Vladimir
Meciar told reporters late Thursday. "We did it democratically and quietly."

He said Slovakia was prepared to be on its own and pledged there would be no
problems in its relation to the Czech Republic.

Defying the gray winter mist hugging Bratislava, low-key celebrations held
in the Slovak capital, included the raising of the new flag, songs, and
fireworks to commemorate the birth of an independent country of 5.2 million
people.

In Prague, separation seemed incidental to New Year's celebrations.

But many Slovaks welcomed the chance for independence after centuries of
playing second fiddle, first to Hungary, which ruled Slovaks until after
World War I, then to the Czechs.

Their happiness was tempered by worry over the 12% unemployment rate and the
fragile economy's dependence on Communist-era factories.

"The only thing I fear is that the nation will become nervous," said Ludovit
Cernak, the Slovak economics minister, in an interview published Thursday.

"If people massively begin to withdraw money from the banks and transfer it
to Czech banks, everything would fall like a house of cards," Cernak said.

The division of property - setting up embassies, border and customs posts
and separate currencies - was nearly complete. Many countries, including the
U.S., have consulates in Bratislava that could be upgraded to embassies.

The CTK news agency quoted Jan Klak, finance minister of the outgoing
federal government, as saying there would be no limit on the movement of
citizens for the time being, but 20 border crossings would operate Jan. 3.
The two sides agreed to keep a common currency until the middle of 1993.

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6. Growing Antiforeigner Sentiment in Germany .......................... 97
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Forwarded by: Jian
Source: Japan Economic Newswire 1/1/93
By: Anja Dellen

BONN - The infamous Nazi slogan "Heil Hitler" was part of the telephone
message firefighters heard when anonymous callers reported a fire in the
town of Moelln in northern Germany.

When members of the fire brigade arrived, they found a firebombing attack
that left two Turkish girls and a Turkish woman dead.

Several days later, police captured two teenage skinheads who confessed to
starting the fire but the Moelln attack continues to reverberate in problem
with right-wing violence directed at its foreign community.

About 1,800 incidents of arson, assault and other violence orchestrated by
right-wing racist gangs in Germany had been reported as of August 1992,
according to an Interior Ministry watchdog group that monitors terrorism and
extremist activities.

A ministry spokesman said that as of December, eight foreigners were killed
as a result of neo-Nazi attacks.

The Moelln attack, however, was the first known attack directed against
Germany's Turkish population, the largest foreign group at about 1.7
million.

The first incidents directed against foreigners were reported at the end of
1990, when skinheads in the former East German state of Brandenburg attacked
a discotheque and fatally wounded an Angolan.

In 1991, a group of right-wing teenagers attacked the home of asylum seekers
living in Hoyerswerda, Saxony State.  In November 1992, a similar incident
occurred in Rostock in the former East German state of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

In both cases, onlookers stood by and did not help the victims.

Right-wingers like those who displayed slogans like "Germany to the Germans"
and "foreigners out" on walls and banners cite many reasons for their
actions.

Many say they worry about the uncontrolled flow of asylum seekers, mostly
from third world and East European countries.

Under the liberal German Asylum Law, about 406,000 asylum seekers entered
the country in 1992, substantially more than the 256,000 who entered in 1991
and the 193,000 in 1990.

The asylum issue had been at the center of interparty confrontation in
Germany's Parliament until early December, when the issue appeared to be
settled as Chancellor Helmut Kohl's three-party coalition and the opposition
Social Democrats agreed to limit the nation's blanket granting of asylum
rights.

Lack of social security and dissatisfaction caused by economic slowdown,
accompanied by growing unemployment and lack of housing accommodations, are
other reasons cited for the growing antiforeigner sentiment that grips not
only Germany many other places in Europe.

"They are taking our jobs" and "they get homes we have long been waiting
for" are common complaints.

What makes Germany different from other European countries, however, is the
extent of the violence in the country as well as its fascist past.

Even though Germany has the richest economy in Europe, it has joined the
rest of the world in suffering the effects of global economic decline as
well and has had to face the unexpectedly high cost of unifying after the
fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.

Chancellor Kohl, in an address to parliament in early December, said
Germany, in light of its neo-Nazi past, has a special moral duty to suppress
rightists responsible for the terrifying increase in violence against
foreigners.

After increasing criticism saying the German government appears to be blind
in its right eye and does not take rightist attacks on foreigners serious
enough, Interior Minister Rudolph Seiters banned two fringe neo-Nazi parties
in November and December.

Massive antixenophobia protests, primarily after the Moelln incident,
brought out hundreds of thousands of people in German cities all over the
country.

Rock concerts with themes such as "Rock Versus Right Wing" and "Today Them,
Tomorrow You" were organized by well known German rock groups to demonstrate
solidarity with the six million foreigners in Germany, and universities held
"Action Weeks against Xenophobia" in the first half of December.

Germany's leading business and trade associations have launched public
relations campaigns against xenophobia and racism, emphasizing that
foreigners contributed a great deal to the rebuilding of Germany after World
War II and that the nation still needs foreigners for its economic welfare.

The international relief organizations Cap Anamur started a campaign calling
for volunteers to help rebuild one of the burned houses in Moelln.  The
money saved by using volunteer workers will be used to set up a
German-Turkish center in the back of the house.

A member of the organization said the rebuilding project is a demonstrative
action meant to do more than just talk.

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