From: gaojeng@durras.anu.edu.au (J. Gao)
Newsgroups: aus.culture.china
Subject: China News Digest (Global), Tue, 11/17/1992
Date: 17 Nov 92 06:27:12 GMT
Organization: Australian National University
NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.22.8
Summary: CND
Keywords: CND

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

				(News Global)

			 Tuesday, November 17, 1992


Table of Contents                                                 # of Lines
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1. News Brief (3 Items).................................................. 22
2. Amnesty International Reports Repression of Muslims in Xinjiang....... 53
3. London Backs Hong Kong Reforms; Zhu Rongji Warns of Trouble........... 26
4. Public Security Ministry Issues New Car Seat Belt Regulations......... 16
5. Beijing Set to Decentralize Movie Distribution System................. 20
============================================================================

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1. News Brief (3 items).................................................. 22
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[UPI, 11/16/92] BEIJING -- A man in central China who allegedly lynched his 
son for playing hooky from school said he did it "for his own good," an 
official newspaper said Monday. In rare official recognition of child abuse 
in China, the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily said 5-year-old Xia 
Hui suffocated to death after his father hanged him from the rafter of their 
house with a nylon rope as punishment for missing school. The People's Daily 
quoted the boy's father Xia Lihan, a worker from Wuhan city, as saying "I've 
committed a crime. I abused him to death. But I did it for his own good."
(Forwarded by: A CND Reader)
                             ___ ___ ___

[JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 11/16/92] BEIJING -- China has accused Hong Kong 
Governor Chris Patten of challenging Chinese sovereignty by meeting with a 
senior Taiwanese official earlier this month. This new charge is the latest 
salvo in the Chinese media's almost daily barrage against Patten over his 
plans to introduce greater democracy to Hong Kong before it reverts to 
Chinese rule in 1997. (Forwarded by: Huijie)
                             ___ ___ ___

[JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 11/16/19] TOKYO -- A group of 33 Chinese people 
of Japanese origin will arrive in Japan on November 24 to look for their 
parents and relatives more than 45 years after being separated from them 
in northeastern China in the closing days of World War II, Japanese 
government officials said Monday. This will be the 23rd such group to come 
to Japan since March 1981 in the hope of being reunited with their parents 
or other relatives, the officials said. (Forwarded by: Huijie)

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2. Amnesty International Reports Repression of Muslims in Xinjiang....... 53
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Forwarded by: Charles P. Mok
Source: Amnesty International <aiusala@igc.apc.org> via Soc.Human.Rights,
	11/13/92 

Amnesty International today (13 November 1992) criticised a pattern of
human rights violations, including killings and imprisonment, which it said
had emerged since 1989 in the Chinese central Asian Autonomous Region of
Xinjiang.

"Government authorities have detained and imprisoned dissidents for
peacefully demanding political independence or protesting against curbs on
religious activities," said the international human rights movement. "They
also oppose attempts by Xinjiang people to report independently on human
rights violations." Political prisoners are held in incommunicado detention,
without trial, in harsh conditions, Amnesty International said.

Based on official Chinese documents and interviews with members of the
largely Muslim ethnic groups which form the majority of Xinjiang's 
population, Amnesty International's report details a pattern of human rights 
violations which has developed as the authorities have sought to restrict 
the religious activities of Muslims in Xinjiang and suppress public 
demonstrations and other peaceful expressions of political views.

Among cases detailed in the report are those of a teacher and school
administrator who was reportedly detained in 1990 because he was suspected 
of writing to the United Nations to denounce human rights violations in 
Xinjiang. He is said to have been completely cut off from the outside world 
ever since. Taxi drivers who in 1991 organized a peaceful demonstration in 
Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, are serving terms of administrative 
detention of up to three years. Dissidents were imprisoned in 1990 and early 
1992, apparently because they criticized curbs on religious activities 
imposed by the Xinjiang authorities.

Amnesty International's report also says that as many as 50 civilians
may have been killed when the authorities used force to confront a protest 
by members of the Uighur "national minority" in the rural district of Baren 
in April 1990. Official accounts described the incident as a "counter-
revolutionary rebellion" and stated that a total of 22 people, including 
seven members of the security forces, had died in the various disturbances. 
Amnesty International is concerned by unofficial reports that many more may 
have been killed, including some who may have been victims of extra-judicial 
executions - deliberate killings by government forces acting outside the law.

Hundreds of people, possibly thousands, were detained after this incident
and many are reported to have been severely ill-treated in detention.  An
unknown number of alleged organizers of the protest have been tried and
sentenced to imprisonment or death. To Amnesty International's knowledge,
the names of those sentenced or executed have never been made public by the
authorities.

Amnesty International is urging the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang to
release all prisoners held solely for the non-violent expression of their
political views or religious beliefs; to investigate reports that security
forces committed extra-judicial executions in Baren county in April 1990;
and to make public the names, trial circumstances and current whereabouts of
all those who have been tried and sentenced to imprisonment or death as a
result of their alleged participation in the Baren incident. Amnesty
International also calls on the Xinjiang authorities to implement
international safeguards for fair trial for political prisoners, and to take
steps to end the use of the death penalty.

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3. London Backs Hong Kong Reforms; Zhu Rongji Warns of Trouble........... 26
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Forwarded by: Huijie
Source: DOW JONES INTERNATIONAL NEWS, 11/16/92

LONDON -- The British government on Monday endorsed Hong Kong governor Chris 
Patten's plan to broaden democracy in the colony before Britain turns it 
over to Beijing in 1997. 

After a meeting with Patten at the Foreign Office, Foreign Secretary Douglas
Hurd said the governor's "skilful" reform package has "our full support."

But Zhu Rongji, the most senior of China's vice-premiers, who is on a visit
to London, hinted Monday his government's agreements with Britain over Hong
Kong now may have "gone with the wind" over the Patten plan. 

"We cannot but ask whether we still have to stick to the Joint Declaration
that Britain signed in 1984," Zhu told members of the Royal Institute of
International Affairs at Chatham House. 

China contends the Patten proposals violate Chinese-British agreements and
go beyond the spirit of the 1984 Joint Declaration, under which Hong Kong 
will be handed back to China. 

But Hurd said Patten's proposals "fit precisely into the framework agreed 
in 1984." The colony's Legislative Council has backed the plan. 

Under Patten's plan, the number of legislators directly elected would be
increased from the current 18 to at least 20. Patten also has proposed that
voters choose an electoral commission that would in turn elect 10 more
legislators.

China's Communist government fears that greater freedoms in the British
colony will only raise the expectations of people on the mainland.

Chinese officials have said that if Patten proceeds with his plans without
Beijing's approval, China will replace the colony's government despite
promising Hong Kong "a high degree of autonomy" for at least 50 years after
the takeover.
				
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4. Public Security Ministry Issues New Car Seat Belt Regulations......... 16
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Forwarded by: Huijie
Source: JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 11/16/92

BEIJING -- China has decided to make the wearing of car seat belts mandatory
from July next year in an attempt to reverse a rapid rise in traffic
accident fatalities, major state-run newspapers reported Monday.

Drivers and front-seat passengers in cars, jeeps, minibuses, and vans
shorter than six meters long will be legally required to wear seat belts
starting July 1, 1993, according to a public notice issued Sunday by the
Public Security Ministry.

All such vehicles, either in use or still in production, must install safety
belts by that date in order to obtain a road license, the notice said.

The regulations are immediately effective for those people traveling in
vehicles which already have seat belts, it said.

Traffic accidents are on the increase in China and many people blame the
rise on the growing number of private cars taking to the streets.

Last week, the Beijing Daily newspaper said the capital's privately-owned
cars are 10 times more likely to cause fatal accidents and injuries than 
other vehicles.

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5. Beijing Set to Decentralize Movie Distribution System................. 20
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Forwarded by: Huijie
Source: JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 11/16/92

BEIJING -- China has decided to decentralize its movie distribution system
in an attempt to rescue the nation's ailing film industry from financial
ruin, Chinese film sources said Monday.

Under the new system, the country's 16 feature film studios will be
empowered to market and sell their own productions both at home and abroad,
the sources said.

Film distribution is currently monopolized by a state-run company, the China
Film Import and Export Corp. (China Film), which purchases film copies for a
nominal fee and then pockets the domestic box-office receipts and a large
percentage of any foreign sales.

Film industry officials privately admit that the decision to decentralize is
a politically sensitive move born of economic necessity.

But political concerns have not been totally abandoned, since China Film
will continue to distribute documentary and scientific films and retain
absolute control over film imports from foreign countries.

Contacted by telephone, a spokesman for the Film Bureau which oversees
censorship confirmed there will no relaxation of China's strict censorship
laws.

"While we all support the goal of reform, there are no plans to alter the
central censorship system," he said.

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