From: gaojeng@durras.anu.edu.au (J. Gao)
Newsgroups: aus.culture.china
Subject: CND-Global, Sun, August 30, 1992
Summary: CND
Keywords: CND
Date: 30 Aug 92 05:50:14 GMT
Organization: Computer Services Centre, Australian National University


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

                              (News Global)

                         Sunday, August 30, 1992

Table of Contents                                                # of Lines
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1. News Brief (4 Items) ................................................ 39
2. China Expresses Concern Over Allied "No-Fly" Zone in Iraq ........... 32
3. China Auctions off Bankrupt Joint Venture for First Time ............ 28
4. Hail to the Chef: World's Top Cooks Congregate in Beijing ........... 37
5. China Tries to Counter Human Rights Criticism
   by Issuing Information on Political Prisoners ....................... 65
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1. News Brief (4 Items) ................................................ 39
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[AP-DJ 8/29/92] BEIJING -- China has agreed to give Bangladesh an interest-
free loan of 30 million yuan to set up Sino-Bangladeshi joint ventures in
Bangladesh, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday. The
agreement was signed Saturday by Tong Zhiguang, Chinese vice minister of
Foreign Economic Relations and Trade, and A. Chaudhury, secretary of the
economic affairs division of Bangladesh's Finance Ministry, Xinhua said.
The loan is part of China's effort to increase cooperation with other
developing countries, the report said. (From: Huijie)
                        ____  ____  ____  ____

{AP 8/28/92] BEIJING -- Premier Li Peng told four U.S. lawmakers today that
China values good relations with the United States and wants to prevent
further strains. "It is against the fundamental interests of the two peoples
if Sino-U.S. relations suffer setbacks," Li was quoted as saying by the
Xinhua News Agency. Li made his comments during a meeting with a U.S.
congressional delegation led by Rep. Robert Roe, a New Jersey Democrat.
(From: <izzyhc1@ucla.edu>)
                        ____  ____  ____  ____
 
[UPI 8/27/92] BEIJING -- Authorities in  central China arrested eight high-
ranking officials and fired 64 factory managers for bribery, corruption and
poor management, the People's Daily said. The officials, some of whom were
Communist Party members, in Xiangfan city in Hubei province had abused
increased freedoms given to firms under China's economic reforms by taking
kickbacks and bribes. Xiangfan authorities blamed heavy losses incurred by
109 indebted firms in the city on the corrupt factory leaders who were
"lining their pockets while their enterprises were falling apart," the
newspaper said. (From: <izzyhc1@ucla.edu>)
                        ____  ____  ____  ____

[AP 8/28/92] BEIJING -- Thirty-two people were killed and more than 30
others injured when a truck carrying Communist Party members to a meeting
blew a tire and plunged into a valley in southeast China, an official report
said Friday. The Shanghai Wen Hui Bao said the truck, carrying 65 people,
overturned near Lizhixi in Hunan Province on Aug. 17 and fell 66 feet into a
valley. The report said the tire burst because the truck was overloaded. No
details were given about the conditions of the injured passengers. (From:
<izzyhc1@ucla.edu>)

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2. China Expresses Concern Over Allied "No-Fly" Zone in Iraq ........... 32
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~From: Huijie
Source: AP-DJ 8/29/92
 
BEIJING -- China expressed serious concern Saturday over the 'no-fly' zone 
a U.S. coalition has declared in southern Iraq to protect Shiites, official
media reported.

"The Chinese government believes that no step to be taken in that regard
should jeopardize Iraq's unification and territorial integrity," an
unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the
state-run Xinhua News Agency.

It was China's first official statement on the coalition's order banning
Iraqi civilian and military flights over southern Iraq.

However, the secretary-general of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council,
Abdullah Bishara, said Thursday in Beijing that Chinese officials had
expressed concern in private talks that the declaration could lead to the
fragmentation of Iraq.

The Foreign Ministry statement said all U.N. resolutions concerning the gulf
crisis must be fully implemented. It said that would be in the interests of
the Iraqi people and in ensuring stability in the region.

But it did not say what measures China supported to force Iraqi compliance
and did not make clear if Beijing opposed the "no-fly" zone.

China was the only permanent member of the U.N. Security Council that did
not support using military force to dislodge Iraqi troops from Kuwait. But
it allowed the measure to pass in the Security Council, choosing to abstain
on the vote rather than using its veto authority.
 
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3. China Auctions off Bankrupt Joint Venture for First Time ............ 28
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~From: Huijie
Source: AP-DJ 8/29/92 
 
BEIJING -- Authorities have auctioned off a bankrupt joint-venture company
for the first time in Communist China, an official newspaper reported
Saturday, reflecting the government's refusal to keep bailing out failing
businesses.

The bankrupt Chinese-Australian company Tianjin Xinpusen Household
Electrical Appliances Co. Ltd. was bought Friday by the Bank of China in the
northern city of Tianjin, the People's Daily reported.

According to the newspaper, the company was set up in July 1987 with a total
investment of 3.6 million dlrs by Australia's Household Electrical
Appliances Co. Ltd., a Tianjin electronics company and the Bank of China
Tianjin Trust and Consultancy Corp.

No details were provided as to how much the company owes or how many
employees it has. But the report attributed the firm's debts to "limited
stock capitalization, high production costs, poor management and a changing
marketplace."

The auction follows the first-ever sale in June of a bankrupt state-owned
company, the Guangdong Color Printing Equipment Co. Ltd. in southern China's
Shenzhen special economic zone.

In the first half of this year, 66 factories in China have declared
bankruptcy, including 15 state-owned ones.

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4. Hail to the Chef: World's Top Cooks Congregate in Beijing ........... 37
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~From: <izzyhc1@ucla.edu>
Source: AP 8/28/92
 
BEIJING -- It was hail to the chef Friday as the cooks who feed some of the
world's top leaders put on a show of chopping and stir-frying for Chinese
officials and foreign guests.
 
The 30 chefs from 26 countries are in Beijing for a week for the 15th annual
meeting of the Club des Chefs, whose members prepare the meals eaten by the
leaders of the United States, China, Britain, France, Germany and other
nations.
 
It is the first time Beijing has played host to the chefs, who included one
woman, a Pole.
 
During a two-hour cooking demonstration, the chefs whipped up salmon,
chicken salad, curry and an assortment of other dishes before an
appreciative crowd of several hundred Chinese officials and foreign
dignitaries.
 
Only a handful of people actually sampled any of the dishes, however. One
woman who tasted a chicken and mushroom dish declared: "It's very good!
It's very good!"
 
Delicious aromas drifted through the corridors of the Great Banquet Hall of
the Great Hall of the People, where Chinese state dinners are usually held.
Chinese musicians performed traditional dances and sang patriotic songs.

Many of the visiting chefs said they have picked up tips on preparing 
Chinese cuisine. "Chinese food is very nutritious food; you do not overcook
it," said Bernd Rathe, who cooks for German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
 
Hans Raffert, executive chef for U.S. presidents since Richard Nixon,
agreed.  "I've been watching the Chinese chefs make the gongbao jiding
(chicken with cashew nuts). The other recipes I have to sort out,'' he said.
Raffert said his current boss, President Bush, still hates broccoli, but
the chef still gets lots of recipes for the vegetable.

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5. China Tries to Counter Human Rights Criticism
   by Issuing Information on Political Prisoners ....................... 65
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~From: Tina Tong <ttong@attmail.com>
Source: Washington Post 8/27/1992
By: Lena H. Sun
 
Beijing -- Chinese authorities have provided new details about political
and religious prisoners in what appears to be part of a more sophisticated
strategy to counter Western criticism of China's human rights record, a
human rights lobbyist said today.

John Kamm, a Hong Kong-based American businessman who visits Beijing
regularly to discuss human rights with Chinese officials, was given
photographs of one prominent jailed dissident and was told by authorities
they plan to show a videotape of him and others to the U.N. Human Rights
Commission in Geneva within the next week.
 
Authorities gave Kamm details on all 23 individuals whose cases he raised,
including information about recent releases of three political dissidents
and two Protestant preachers.  Until the last few years, Chinese officials
almost never supplied information about such prisoners.
 
However, officials from the Justice and Foreign ministries and the State
Council Information Office told Kamm that "they have reached the conclusion
that the provision of information can be as important as actually releasing
people."
 
Kamm said officials told him that the videotape to be released in Geneva
will show three of China's most famous political prisoners.  They are Wang
Dan, the student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement who
is serving a four-year sentence; Xu Wenli, 49, a railroad electrician-
turned-editor who has role in the Democracy Wall movement of 1979-80; and
Ren Wanding, 48, another veteran democracy activist from that period who is
serving seven years for his role in the 1989 movement.
 
Authorities gave Kamm photographs they said were of Xu taken in May at
Beijing's No. 1 Prison.
 
In the past year, Chinese authorities have released videotapes and
photographs of prominent political prisoners in an effort to discredit
reports by human rights groups about their condition and treatment. The
U.S.-based organization Asia Watch said several photographs released so far
have been carefully staged and highly deceptive.
 
Both Ren and Xu have been said by family members and friends to be in
poor health.  Ren is reportedly in danger of losing the sight in one eye.
 
Xu, who has refused to admit guilt since his arrest in 1981, was kept for
3 1/2 years in a cell so small he could not stand up.  His wife said most
of his teeth have fallen out from malnutrition, and that a half-dozen lumps
on his neck are sings of lymphatic tuberculosis.  According to human rights
sources, his hair has turned white.
 
One photo that authorities say is of Xu shows a pale, black-haired man
smiling with a few teeth missing.  In the other, his is playing in a
badminton competition in which he finished second, authorities told Kamm.
 
"If they [the Chinese officials] are trying to suggest that Xu has been
treated humanely, that is propaganda of the most cynical and unconscionable
kind," said Robin Munro, head of Asia Watch's Hong Kong Office.  He said Xu
has been solitary confinement and was "called out suddenly" to play in the
badminton match.  Xu was aware he was being photographed, Munro said.
 
Kamm also discussed the possible establishment of a joing human rights
commission with the United States.  The idea has been endorsed by senior
members of Congress, and President Bush has asked the State Department to
draft a formal proposal.  The Chinese reaction, he said, was "lukewarm."

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