From: xu@hydra.maths.unsw.oz.au
Newsgroups: aus.culture.china
Subject: CND-Global, January 21, 1993
Date: 21 Jan 93 05:51:05 GMT
Distribution: aus
Organization: school of Mathematics UNSW


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

                                (News Global)

                          Thursday, January 21, 1993


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1. News Brief (3 Items) ................................................. 25
2. Liu Xiaobo Allowed to Leave China for Australia ...................... 29
3. Few Surprises in Annual U.S. Human Rights Report ..................... 66
4. China Says U.S. Trade Figures Are "Impossible" ....................... 36
============================================================================

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1. News Brief (3 Items) ................................................. 25
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[China Radio International, 1/20/1993] -- State-run enterprises in China are
urged to compete for survival as the country gradually turns to a more mar-
ket-oriented economy.  A senior government official said that by the end of
this year most state-owned enterprises will have to take care of themselves
rather than depend on the government.  He says 1993 is crucial for China's
ongoing programme to establish a socialist market economy. A new government
policy gives state-run enterprises autonomy in 14 areas that were controlled
by the government. (Forwarded by: Andrew Waldie <awaldie@web.apc.org>)
                                ___ ___ ___

[China Radio International, 1/20/1993] -- The Chinese State Commission for
restructuring the economy has put forth a six-point proposal for building
the socialist market economy.  Xinhua reports that the propositions include
the establishment of a fair and efficient ownership system with public ow-
ner ship dominant and self-employed and foreign-funded sectors as the sup-
plement. The government will be separated from enterprises which will be
responsible for their own losses and gains.
(Forwarded by: Andrew Waldie <awaldie@web.apc.org>)
                                ___ ___ ___

[UPI, 1/20/1993] BEIJING -- The Chinese government aired rare footage Wed-
nesday of two frail Chinese leaders as they received respects from top gov-
ernment and Communist Party leaders in advance of the traditional Chinese
New Year. The state-run evening television news showed a hospitalized Peng
Zhen, 91, and a sickly Chen Yun, 88, two of the seven remaining "eight im-
mortals." Rumors about the declining health of Deng, Chen, Peng and the
other four remaining "immortals" are constantly circulating among Chinese
political analysts and the Hong Kong press, and often affect the Hong Kong
stock market. (Forwarded by: A CND Reader)

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2. Liu Xiaobo Allowed to Leave China for Australia ...................... 29
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Forwarded by: A CND Reader
Source: UPI, 1/20/1993

BEIJING -- The government is allowing an iconoclastic social commentator who
is one of its fiercest critics to leave China on Friday, one of several
high-profile dissidents who are making their way out of the country.

Liu Xiaobo, 37, who has spent the year and a half since his release from
prison openly publishing his critiques abroad and living in Beijing in de-
fiance of government orders, will leave the country for Australia, he told
United Press International Wednesday.

In the first interview with a foreign reporter since he was imprisoned for
"counter-revolutionary agitation" in 1989, Liu said he will take up a three-
month residency at Australian National University in Canberra to complete
his latest book.

But he vowed to return "step by step if necessary," saying "I do not want
to leave China for a long time. There is so much interesting stuff going on
here now."

"The (government) knows it is wasting its time, energy and money on me,"
he said with a chuckle. "It is really idiotic."

Undercover agents who monitored Liu's every move after his release from
prison have in recent months stopped their close watch, he said. Police
have approached him only once recently, to complain about the contents of
his most recent book, a political and social commentary published in Taiwan.

"They were really inquisitive about what was in the book, since they had not
read it," he chuckled.

And while police forced him to wait months for his passport, Liu believes
they have changed their policy towards him and other high-profile dissidents.

While the government has allowed erstwhile political prisoners who have name
recognition in Western countries to trickle out of the country, the coun-
try's icy political climate has not changed.

One of China's most outspoken critics and sharpest social commentators, Liu
regularly slams the Communist Party's harsh political and cultural policies.

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3. Few Surprises in Annual U.S. Human Rights Report ..................... 66
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Forwarded by: A CND Reader
Source: UPI, 1/19/1993

WASHINGTON -- Serbian abuses of Muslims and to a lesser degree Croats in
Bosnia-Herzegovina have been carried out on a scale that "dwarfs anything
seen in Europe since Nazi times," the administration said Tuesday in its
annual human rights report.

The report said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's "abysmal record on human
rights continued without improvement in 1992," Cuba still "sharply restricts
all basic human rights," and China's "human rights practices have remained
repressive."

But allies with questionable human rights records were tread upon lightly.

The State Department did not harshly criticize Israel for the deportation of
415 Palestinians living in the occupied territories or Syria, a new yet key
Washington ally in the volatile Middle East that has been found to support
terrorism and narcotics trafficking.

As a measure of just how much the international landscape has changed since
the end of the Cold War, the administration praised Russia for making "sub-
stantial progress toward democratic change, the reform of its political and
economic systems and the dismantling of the remnants of the former Soviet
state."

"These country reports show that despite the advancement of human rights'
policy evident by the worlds response to Somaliia, the balance sheet of
human rights practices had unfortunately many negative entries during the
past year," Diaz Dennis Patricia, assistant secretary for Human Rights,
told reporters.

"The hope for more widespread respect for human rights, which was but-
tressed in previous years by the demise of the former Soviet Union and by
democratic transformations elsewhere in the world, was grossly undercut by
horrific abuses of the most fundamental rights."

The 1,950 page report on 189 nations says:

--Serb President Slobodan Milosevic and the former Yugoslav national army
"armed and abetted" Serb paramilitary forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina in their
"vile" ethnic cleansing campaign, which included the "massive systematic
rape" of as many as 50,000 Bosnian women and children.

--Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein continued with "mass executions of poli-
tical opponents, widespread use of torture, extreme repression of ethnic
groups, disappearances, denial of due process and arbitrary detention."

--Cuban authorities deny their citizens such basic human rights as "freedom
of expression, association, assembly and movement as well as the right to
privacy, the right of citizens to change their government and worker
rights."

--China's human rights practices, which include unwarranted detentions,
censorship of the media and denial of due process, fall "far short of
internationally accepted norms."

--Israel does not have sovereignty over the West Bank, Gaza Strip or East
Jerusalem despite the Jewish nation's claims to the contrary. The report
said there "were some improvements in the human rights picture in the
occupied territories," but Israel continued to punish security offenders by
demolishing their homes, detaining and interrogating them without legal
counsel and using live rounds rather than rubber bullets to suppress
Palestinian protestors.

Although Israel's summary deportation of 415 Palestinians suspected of
terrorist activities has been condemned by the United Nations, the
administration report merely notes the act without comment.

--Syria's 30-year-old state of emergency, a result of its war-like rela-
tions with Israel, does not justify "severe human rights violations" by
security forces.

--Russian leaders "continued to implement the human rights gains of recent
years despite the state of flux in the political and economic arena." But,
Diaz Dennis said, "in several of the countries of the former Soviet Union
the process of democratic transformation stalled."

--In India, politically motivated "killing by both militant and government
forces continued at an alarming rate, particularly in the states of Punjab,
Jammu and Kashmir." Those states have been in the throes of bloody
separatist revolts for more than five years.

--Haitians were the victims of such human rights abuses as "extrajudicial
killings by security forces, disappearances, beatings and other
mistreatment of detainees and prisoners."

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4. China Says U.S. Trade Figures Are "Impossible" ....................... 36
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Forwarded by: A CND Reader
Source: UPI, 1/20/1993

BEIJING -- A Chinese trade official Wednesday dismissed as "impossible" U.S.
government figures showing China is running a large and increasing trade
surplus with the United States.

Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade spokesman Zhou Jie, at a
news briefing, said that China had an overall trade surplus of $4.37 billion
last year, about one-quarter the figure Washington claims.

U.S. Commerce Department figures showed the United States had a $13 billion
trade deficit with China in 1991. The 1992 deficit is estimated to have
swelled to between $15 billion and $18 billion.

"This figure is impossible," Zhou said.

However, China runs trade deficits with several nations that contribute to
its overall relatively low surplus and, in trade with the United States,
counts only goods exported directly.

The United States includes Chinese products exported through Hong Kong,
which account for several billion dollars annually. The dispute over the
figures has plagued bilateral trade negotiations.

The trade imbalance is expected to be of major concern to Bill Clinton after
officially becomes president Wednesday. U.S. Secretary of State-designate
Warren Christopher has already warned that the imbalance with China "cries
out for correction."

Zhou, however, called for Washington's understanding over the issue and said
China, the United States and Hong Kong authorities should hold talks to work
out commonly acceptable accounting standards.

"Although we have different opinions on these statistics, this issue should
not be an obstacle to (our) bilateral trade relationship," he said.

In an open message to Clinton, Zhou called on the new president to protect
China's Most Favored Nation trading status, saying MFN was the cornerstone
of Sino-U.S. trade which needed "the efforts of both sides to protect this
arrangement."

"We congratulate Mr. Clinton on being elected as the president of the United
States," he said. "We hope the Clinton administration will make constructive
efforts to maintain and develop Sino-U.S. economic relationships."

Alarm in the Congress over China's ballooning trade surplus is likely to
increase pressure on Clinton to adopt punitive measures against Beijing, in-
cluding attaching conditions to China's MFN status, to force China to open
its markets further to U.S. goods.

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