+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ C h i n a N e w s D i g e s t +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ===================== Europe / Pacific Section (CND-EP) ===================== April 21, 1990 ---------------------------- Table of Contents --------------------------- No. Subject # of Lines 1. (AP) Heavy Security in China on the Anniversary of Democracy.........40 2. Mongolia: Gengis Khan's Descendents Calling for Unity................12 3. Hong Kong: Few Expected to Join HK's Political Parties (Excerpt).....30 4. News Abstracts Of This Week (Twelve Pieces) (Mainland China: 6; Taiwan: 1; Hong Kong: 2; Europe: 3).............105 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Editor's note: CND-EP (normally broadcast weekly or biweekly), is a supplement to daily CND-General and it has basically no overlap with CND- General. To receive comprehensive China-related news, please subscribe to CND-G from the addresses at the end of this news. 1. (AP) Heavy Security in China on the Anniversary of Democracy ===================================================================(40 lines) >From: CHENH%AMBER.DECNET@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu Source: soc.culture.china Date: 16 Apr 90 18:17:43 GMT BEIJING - Hundreds of police, some in riot gear, took to the streets of China's capital Sunday to prevent unrest on the anniversary of the start of last spring's democracy movement. They succeeded. A lone protester was arrested. Other expressions of dissent were discouraged by the police presence. Former Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang died a year ago Sunday. Hu was ousted from power in 1987 for failing to stop student demonstra- tions. Students mourning his death used the occassion to criticize China's leadership and push for democratic reform and an end to official corruption. For 7 weeks, Beijing streets were filled with up to 1 million people demanding the resignation of unpopular leaders and more say in how they live their lives. It all ended when troops invaded the city June 3-4. The troops killed hundreds of demonstrators and drove students from Tiananmen Square, China's symbolic seat of power. This spring, Beijing is a different city. Students say protests are unlikely because of heavy police surveillance and the certainty that anyone who tries to organize a demonstration will be arrested. In addition, thousands of people who took part in last year's protests are thought to still be in jail. Some protest leaders have fled the country. In anticipation of Sunday's anniversary, police set up checkpoints at intersections near the university area in northwestern Beijing, and armed officers patrolled the square. The square was open Sunday, unlike April 1 and 5 when police sealed it to block feared protests. As usual, almost all the people on the square were from outside Beijing: workers in blue Mao jackets and rubber-soled slippers, sunburned farmers in ill-fitting suits and honeymooners posing for pictures. Students and young workers have been warned by authorities to stay away from Tiananmen this spring and were told they face expulsion or banishment to a countryside job if they are involved in protests. Surprisingly, security was only marginally increased at the university campuses in northwestern Beijing that were hotbeds of dissent last spring. Students appeared more concerned with making the most of Sunday's sunshine and warm temperatures than with marking the anniversary. ============================================================================== 2. Mongolia: Gengis Khan's Descendents Calling for Unity ====================================================================(12 lines) From: Zhiyong Source: L'Express correspondent, Ulan Bator (23 mars 1990) The free election in Mongolia is likely to lead to a regime influenced by the traditional nationalism. The country of 2 million inhabitants has not forgotten the cavaliers that established the largest empire of the world extending all the way to the Danube. "Heart of the Mongols", an organization formed in Ulan Bator, sent a message to the Mogolian Diaspora, of whom 3.5 million are in China. The message said: "We should guard the memory of our ancestors since the great Gengis Khan." =============================================================================== 3. Hong Kong: Few Expected to Join HK's Political Parties (Excerpt) =====================================================================(30 lines) >From: "Charles P. Mok 18-Apr-1990 1307" Source: Mainichi Daily News (Japan), April 12, 1990 By Peter Lim, AFP-Fiji HONG KONG - Hong Kong is likely to see the creation of several new political parties as the 1997 takeover by China approaches, but analysts predict they will attract few members because residents still seem more interested in money than politics. The territory's first political party, the United Democrats of Hong Kong (UDHK), officially came into being over the weekend. Joseph Cheng of the Open Learning Institute here said he thought many others would follow over the next year to field candidates for the Legislative Council, the local legislature, in the September 1991 election, the first direct poll in Hong Kong's 150 years of colonial rule. .... "The average Hong Kong resident is politically apathetic and mainly interest- ed in making money," he said. Wan Fai, editor of the China-watching magazine Cheng Ming, said the presence of millions of residents last year at mass rallies supporting Beijing's de- mocracy movement does not mean political awareness had come to Hong Kong. It was mainly an emotional response to the June 4 massacre.... "But it is encouraging to note that some people have taken the initiative to form a political party," he said. "It's a sign of improvement." .... ============================================================================= 4) News Abstracts Of This Week (Twelve Pieces) ===================================================================(105 lines) >From: "J.Ding" Source: AP News 1) Group Says China Pressuring Governments To Halt Pro-Democracy Ship --------------------------------------------------------------------- A radio ship headed to the Far East to transmit pro-democracy broadcasts into China has been the target of surveillance and harassment by Chinese officials since it left France, its sponsors said Monday. A coalition of sponsoring groups, headed by the French magazine Actuel, said China has tried to pressure various foreign governments in an effort to undermine the ''Boat For China'' operation. 2) China's Interest Rates Reduced --------------------------------- Interest rates on bank deposits were reduced by 1.26 percentage points in a move aimed at stimulating China's sluggish economy. The People's Bank of China said Sunday the new rates would apply to deposits by individuals, enterprises and institutions, the official press reported. 3) Education Leaders Call for More Emphasis on Ideology ------------------------------------------------------- The Communist Party's main newspaper said today that Chinese students must be better-girded ideologically to battle ''foreign hostile forces.'' In an editorial one year after the beginning of a seven-week pro-democracy movement that was crushed by tanks last June, the People's Daily said party committees should exercise more power in higher education. 4) Gov't Wins Passage of Bill Making Hong Kong Residents Citizens ----------------------------------------------------------------- The government won a surprisingly easy victory Thursday night (April 19) in a crucial vote on a bill to give British passports and citizenship to an estimated 225,000 Hong Kong residents. The 650-seat House of Commons approved the measure by a vote of 313-216 despite rare opposition from both right-wingers in the governing Conservative Party opposed to increased immigration and from the socialist Labor Party, which called the bill elitist. The measure now goes to committee for possible amendments and then back to the House of Commons where political observers say its passage is virtually assured. It then must pass the unelected House of Lords. >From: kwchan@csd.hku.hk Source : South China Morning Post 5) Security on border tightened ------------------------------- China increased security along its border region with the Soviet Union over the weekend, warning that it would take further action against Muslim separatists whom it accused of threatening the country's stability. The threat followed days of unrest in the northwest province of Xinjiang in which up to 50 people died. A local communist leader said "negative factors" would be "resolutely eliminated". after June 4 massacre.] 6) Li Peng's trip to USSR date set ---------------------------------- China's Premier, Mr Li Peng, will visit the Soviet Union from April 23 to 26, the most senior Chinese leader to go to Moscow since 1964, the New China News AGency said yesterday. 7) Beijing steps up campus surveillance --------------------------------------- China's security forces have stepped up the surveillance and arrests of suspected student dissidents to avert anti-government protests and crush a nascent underground democracy movement, sources say. Police in the capital have been reinforced over the past weeks and a small army of undercover agents has infiltrated university campuses. 8) China launches fresh attack on passports scheme -------------------------------------------------- China yesterday (April 14) launched another attack on Britain over attempts to persuade other European countries to offer passports to Hongkong citizens, insisting that the mainland alone should have the right to determine the nationality of Chinese within the territory. A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry called the move to obtain European help for the nationality scheme "a flagrant violation" of existing agreements. "This is totally unacceptable to China," Ms Li Jinhua said at a weekly briefing. 9) Burglars hit pro-dissident magazine -------------------------------------- The Paris offices of a French magazine backing exiled Chinese dissidents were burgled at the weekend and documents on last year's pro-democracy movement in Beijing removed, the publishers said yesterday. The radical monthly Actuel said its editorial department had been ransacked. Intruders removed a computer belonging to a journalist, Christophe Nick, outspoken in support of the Paris-based Federation for Democracy in China. "All computer disks containing nine months of work on China were removed," Actuel said. >From: yawei@ucs.indiana.edu Date: 16 Apr 90 19:14:00 EST 10) Non Communism Coalition Elected in Yugoslavia ------------------------------------------------- LJUBLJANA, Yugoslavia - A center right coalition won a majority in Slovenia's free parliamentary elections, according to official results released Monday. The coalition will form the first non-Communist regional government in Yugoslavia in 45 years. >From: zhiyong 11) Czechoslovakia and ROC to establish semi-official trade ----------------------------------------------------------- Voice of Free China (4/19/90) Semi-official trade missions will be set up both in Taipei and Prague soon. This will be the second trade tie of ROC with an Eastern European nation after it exchanged trade missions with Hungary. Talks are also underway with Poland for establishing the same relations. An 11-member Czechoslovakian delegation arrived in Taipei to explore opportunities of expanding the trade between the two nations. >From: yjj@SIRIUS.CTR.COLUMBIA.EDU Source: soc.culture.china 12) Mongolian Officials cast doult on Lin Biao's death ------------------------------------------------------ According to the New York Times, 4/19/90, two Mongolian officers said that Mongolian investigators did not find any body that could be indentified with Lin Biao among the wreckage. The is the first time that Chinese official version of Lin Biao's death is doulted. +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Editor/Sender of this Issue: Bo Xiong in Chicago, U. S. 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