From: gaojeng@durras.anu.edu.au (J. Gao)
Subject: CND-Global, Wed, September 2, 1992
Summary: CND
Keywords: CND
Organization: Computer Services Centre, Australian National University
Date:  2 Sep 92 04:34:40 GMT

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

                              (News Global)

                       Wednesday, September 2, 1992

Table of Contents                                                # of Lines
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1. News Brief (1 Item) ...................................................6
2. China to Free Price Controls on Production Materials .................60
3. China Lauds "Dictatorship" to Crack down on Activists and Crime.......47
4. United States: Democrat Presidential Candidate Al Gore
   Faults Bush Administration on Trade Relations with China .............30
5. US Embassy Protests Arrest of Prominent Chinese Dissident ............27
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1. News Brief (1 Item) ...................................................6
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[DJ, 9/01/92] WASHINGTON - President Bush is expected to announce an end to
a decade-old ban on the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan while on a
campaign swing through Texas on Wednesday, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen said. The
decision could save 3,000 of the 5,800 jobs General Dynamics Corp.  planned
to pare from its Fort Worth division by 1995, layoffs attributed partly to
dwindling F-16 sales. (From: Jian Liu)

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2. China to Free Price Controls on Production Materials .................60
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From: Jian Liu
Source: AP-DJ 9/01/92

BEIJING -- In a bold reform of its price system, China announced Tuesday
it would liberalize prices for 593 production materials to give market
forces more influence in the economy.

The decision was announced on the nationally televised evening news and
reported by the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Xinhua said the government would guard against any attempts by profiteers
who might try to take advantage of the lifting of price controls to monopolize
some products. Anyone involved in hoarding or speculation will be severely
punished, the government announcement said.

'The central government will step in when prices fluctuate too much because
of the imbalance between demand and supply,' an unidentified official with the
State Price Bureau was quoted as saying.

The official said lifting price controls was an important part of China's
ongoing market-style reforms, Xinhua reported.

The official said that effective Tuesday, market demand would determine
prices for 571 items used in producing goods. Prices for 22 other kinds of
production goods will be determined by local governments, the report said.

It said the price liberalization would include petroleum asphalt, black
lead, oils used as raw materials, some steel products, and most machinery and
electronic products.

Later the government lifted crude oil ceilings. The change has cut the
number of goods with prices set by the central government to 89, from
the list of 737 controlled by the state at the end of 1991, the
official said.

The report said the government plans to lift controls on the remaining 89
kinds of goods when the economy develops further.

The government also decided to remove price ceilings on other key raw
materials when state quotas of those goods are fulfilled, Xinhua reported. It
said those goods include crude oil, refined oil, steel, iron, copper and
aluminum.

The changes are part of the government's efforts to gradually dismantle a
two-tier price structure established in the late 1980s to combine central
planning with free markets.

Under the system, most raw materials remained under state control at
artificially low prices, but small amounts were available for sale at
free-market prices.

The system led to a black market in raw materials becuase factory managers
found they could make a profit by reselling their state allocation of
low-priced raw materials.

Because of widespread shortages of materials, the State Planning Commission
in 1988 tightened its control over allocation of some materials to ensure
supplies for key projects.

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3. China Lauds "Dictatorship" to Crack down on Activists and Crime.......47
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From: A CND Reader
Source: UPI, 9/01/92

BEIJING -- China's chief judge, in an unusually hard-line commentary, warned
Tuesday of the need to guard against "enemy activists" and crack down hard
on increasing criminal activity.  In a book review of recently published
writings by the conservative party elder Peng Zhen, Ren Jianxin, president
of the Supreme People's Court, encouraged legal and political workers to
employ "dictatorial methods" to control rising crime.

"Under the present reform conditions and because of the influence of all
sorts of negative factors, illegal activities which seriously threaten
public order and seriously damage the economic order have began to exist
again in large numbers," Ren warned.

The article, which appeared in the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily,
said legal and political organs must respond by using "dictatorial methods
to crack down on all damaging activities by enemy activists."

The piece, recalling Ren's part in drafting China's counter-revolution laws
and reminiscing how he "frequently lectured cadres and police in the law
courts on Marxist philosophy," alos borrowed terms from the 1966-76 Cultural
Revolution to warn of the need to "clearly distinguish and correctly handle
enemies among the people."

"If we fail to ... exert dictatorship over the enemies of the people, then
the political power of the people will not be consolidated and the fruits of
the revolution will be lost," the article stressed, adding that to show
leniency to criminals would be "cruelty against the people."

The dispatch, couched in orthodox Party terms, was significant for its
hardline stance -- unusual at a time when most official publications are
promoting recent calls by senior leader Deng Xiaoping to speed up the pace
of Chinese reform.

But Ren's article made only passing reference to reform efforts, and focused
on the need to "grab the reforms with one hand and crack down on all types
of criminal activity with the other" -- language Deng has used to signal
there will be no political change.

Also, unlike recent calls by reformists within the party to adopt capitalism
to invigorate flagging state-enterprises, Ren's article emphatically
rejected capitalism."It is inevitable that socialism will replace
capitalism," the piece stated.

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4. United States: Democrat Presidential Candidate Al Gore
   Faults Bush Administration on Trade Relations with China .............30
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From: izzyhcl@ucla.edu
Source: AP, 8/31/92
By: Robert Naylor Jr.

Democrat Al Gore on Monday faulted the Bush administration for offering
favorable trade status to China when the country has "a record of human
rights violations as long as your arm."

The Democratic vice presidential candidate said he and Clinton "disagree
with Bush and Quayle when they continue to grant most-favored-nation status
to one of the worst communist dictatorships still in the world with a record
of human rights violations as long as your arm."

Congressional Democrats are nearing a showdown with the White House over
China's trade status. Products from nations with most-favored-nation status
are assessed the lowest possible tariffs, and the designation is normally
given only to the best trading partners.

The House last month approved legislation to deny MFN status to China and
passed a separate bill to require that Bush certify significant progress in
the human rights, trade and weapons areas before granting normal trade
status and the lower tariffs it confers.

The Senate has yet to act on the legislation, but has passed similar bills
before. However, Bush has vetoed every one of the measures and Congress has
yet to muster the two-thirds majority needed to overturn a Bush veto.

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5. US Embassy Protests Arrest Of Prominent Chinese Dissident ............27
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From: Jian Liu
Source: AP-DJ, 9/01/92

BEIJING -- The U.S. Embassy expressed concern over the arrest of Chinese
dissident Shen Tong following his rerturn from the U.S., and an outcry was
expected from U.S. legislators who know him from his lobbying activities to
direct attention to Chinese human rights abuses.

"You can expect ripples in U.S.-China relations if he is held long or
treated harshly," said Ross Terrill, a U.S. sinologist and friend of Shen
who was in Beijing.

Prosecuting or expelling Shen also could seriously harm the Chinese
government's recent efforts to persuade Chinese abroad to return.

Shen, 24, helped lead student protests during the massive 1989 democracy
movement. When it was crushed by the army, he fled to the U.S. and founded a
human rights group, the Democracy for China Fund.

As reported, he was arrested before dawn Tuesday at his mother's Beijing
home while preparing to announce the establishment of a Beijing branch of
the fund. Two Chinese associates were arrested with him.

Two French journalists who had been traveling with Shen were detained and
deported to Hong Kong.

Police confiscated computer disks and printed materials from the home.

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