DP Tool Club 15/CD_ASCQ_15_070894.iso/vrac/wtn_0594.zip/WTN-0521.NWS

Text File | 1994-06-06 | 18KB | 309 lines

------------------------   World Tibet Network News   ----------------------
   Published by:     The Canada-Tibet Committee
   Editorial Board:  Brian Given <[e-mail]>
                     Nima Dorjee <[e-mail]>
                     Conrad Richter <[e-mail]>
                     Tseten Samdup <[e-mail]>
   Submissions and subscriptions to:
                     [e-mail]
                     or fax to: [phone]  (U.K.)
   Send us your comments, announcements, news or items for discussion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue ID: 94/05/21 14:30 GMT                      Compiled by Conrad Richter

Contents
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1. China Warns Contact with Dalai Lama Will Damage Russian Chinese Relations
2. Pressures Rise over China's Trade Status
3. On My Mind: License for Torture
4. Review: Children's Books on Buddhism; Ling Rinpoche
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1. China Warns Contact with Dalai Lama Will Damage Russian Chinese Relations
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   MOSCOW, May 20, AP -- The Chinese Embassy expressed concern over the Dalai
Lama's trip to Russia, warning Friday that any official contacts with the
Tibetan spiritual leader would jeopardize Russian-Chinese relations.
   Zhang Zhiming, the embassy spokesman, said China is watching "attentively
and with great concern" as the exiled Buddhist leader makes his four-day
visit, which began Wednesday.
   "If he holds meetings with any officials this may result in complications,"
Zhang told the ITAR-Tass news agency.
   Russian authorities have said they consider the Dalai Lama's trip a private
visit and would not arrange talks with any government officials.
   However, he spoke to members of the State Duma, the lower house of
parliament, on Thursday. He said he hoped the world would persuade China to
negotiate over its 35-year occupation of Tibet.
   The Dalai Lama also said at a news conference that he wanted to meet with
President Boris Yeltsin, but only if it "does not create inconveniences." He
said he understood "such powerful countries as Russia and China should have
good relations."

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2. Pressures Rise over China's Trade Status
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By Elaine Sciolino
  WASHINGTON, May 19, New York Times [May 20] -- As President
Clinton nears a decision on whether to renew China's trading
benefits, human rights groups have mounted a campaign to
persuade him to revoke them, while key lawmakers in both
parties have begun to come out strongly in favor of keeping them.
  In a 60-page report released today, Human Rights Watch/Asia
documented nearly 500 previously unknown cases of political
prisoners arrested after the 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen
Square.  "Significant progress" by China in accounting for
political prisoners was one of seven human rights demands
President Clinton defined a year ago as his condition for
renewing most-favored-nation trade benefits.
  The report also described in graphic detail "elaborate
preparations" made by the Chinese authorities to deceive
the International Committee of the Red Cross before an
anticipated visit last january that never took place.  The
Chinese transferred sick and "unattractive" prisoners, closed
punishment cells, printed phony menus, provided new towels
and bed sheets that the prisoners had to pay for and then
were not allowed to use and allowed the first hot-water
shower that prisoners had had in over a year, the report said.
  An Administration official who closely monitors China
acknowledged that the arrests described in the report had
been "unknown to us, too," and added, "The organization is
very good, very professional, and we're reading the report
with interest and seeing if we can get independent information."

  'Embarrassing for China'
  Asked whether the report was embarrassing for Mr. Clinton, the
official said, "It's embarrassing for the Chinese."
  The report -- and its timing -- illustrates the pressure
building on the White House as the June 3 deadline approaches
for determining whether China had made enough progress on
improving human rights to meet the conditions the President set
in 1993 when he extended its trading privileges for one year.
Mr. Clinton is expected to make his decision next week, before
he heads to Europe on June 1 for D-Day celebrations.
  On Wednesday a bipartisan group of lawmakers endorsed a report
and videotape by Hongda harry Wu, a former Chinese prisoner, who
recently visited China, where he found evidence that China is
still exporting goods made by prisoners to the United States.
  Senator George J. Mitchell, the Senate Majority leader, and
Representative Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat, who
forged a compromise with the White House last year, are preparing
legislation to revoke at least some trade privileges if Mr.
Clinton does not do so himslef.  Administration officials have
hinted in recent weeks that they favor renewing the benefits
while attaching some conditions.
  But in recent days, key lawmakers have declared in public
statements or in speeches that Mr. Clinton should essentially
set aside his 1993 executive order, which required human rights
improvements in exchange for an extension of the low tariffs
that most other countries enjoy with the United States.
  In a news conference on Wednesday, House Speaker Thomas S.
Foley said the withdrawal of trade benefits would cause "a trade
disruption" and would make the United States "less influential,
not more influential" with the Chinese on human rights.  And
in a speech to the SEnate on Wednesday, Senator Bill Bradley,
the New Jersey Democrat, called the link between human rights
and trade privileges "cold war old-think."
  One hundred and six other House members, including Representa-
tive Lee H. Hamilton, the Indiana Democrat, and the two top
House Republicans, Robert H. Michel of Illinois, the minority
leader, and Newt Gingrich of Georgia, the minority whip, signed
a letter earlier this week urging unconditional renewal of
China's most-favored nation trade status and the creation of a
bilateral commission to deal with human rights issues.
  At the same time, American companies and thier lobbyists have
stepped up their own campaign to persuade Mr. Clinton to renew
China's trade benefits and separate the issue from human rights
concerns.  Nearly 800 major companies have written Mr. Clinton
stating that depriving China of the benefits would cost them
billions of dollars in business, eliminate tens of thousands
of jobs for Americans and hurt the cause of human rights.
  In a joint news conference with Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha
Rao of India, Mr. Clinton said he still had not made a decision,
adding, "The reason that I have not made my statement yet is
that we have not concluded our discussions with the Chinese."

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3. On My Mind: License for Torture
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Forwarded by: Lori Cayton <[e-mail]>
By A.M. Rosenthal
  NEW YORK, May 20, New York Times -- Finally and with startling
clarity, the Chinese Communist dictatorship is sending its core
message to the United States: Nationwide repression by arrest of
dissenters will not only continue but widen.
  By June 3, President Clinton will decide whether to live
up to his executive order to remove China's low-tariff
privileges unless it makes significant progress toward giving
the Chinese and Tibetan people some relief from such
instruments of government as political arrests, forced labor
and torture boards.
  No longer is there any possible doubt that the Communists
have failed to do that -- and will not unless economic pressure
is applied.  The Communist regime is working with some
American officials and businessmen to dredge up a few fringe
human rights crumbs that Mr. Clinton can call "progress" if he
decides to betray his word and the cause of human rights.
  But Beijing is increasingly terrified of human rights.  It
is increasingly unsure of its hold on the Chinese people.  Now
it tells diplomats and American business executives that the
right to dissent without being arrested would bring instability.
  To dictatorships, "instability" is a synonym for weakening
their police-terror control in any way.
  So even as it makes a public-relations release of a prisoner
or two, Beijing carries out more political arrests.  And at least
500 political prisoners, previously unknown to the West, have been
added to the list of thousands of others, by Human Rights Watch/
Asia.  In China, of course, arrest means electric shock, iron
rods, floggings and deprivation of food, visits and shower
water.
  In its renewed insistence on smashing dissidence and dissidents,
Beijing demolishes the arguments of the U.S. China-trade lobby
and its servants in Congress, the Treasury, the National Economic
Council and the Commerce Department.  These fellows campaign
openly against the president's own human rights policy.  He
does not shut them up.
  For years now the China lobby has been peddling the line that
economic growth in China would bring political liberty.  That
propaganda is a perversion of history, an insult to all who
died under Hitler and Japan's dictatorship during their
economic surge.
  The lobby preaches also that removing low-tariff privileges
will somehow hurt the U.S. more that China.  But as the deadline
approaches, Beijing istself drops that economic bluster and
admits its fear of losing those privileges.  Thanks to the
low tariffs and to slave-wage labor costs, China has built a $30
billion annual trade advantage over Uncle Sucker.
  Billions of that export profit come from products made in
the factories and prisons of the Chinese Army -- rifles and
assault weapons by the boatload, plus furniture, toys, tools,
machinery.  Other forced-labor prisons export pumps, carpets,
clothes, machinery -- dozens of products undercutting American
labor.
  China lobby propaganda about Great China slamming its market
shut on America is ludicrous.  That market sells us four times
as much as it buys and would keep exporting even with higher
tariffs.
  The lobby's little secret is that the Chinese Communists
have shown themselves susceptible to economic pressure -- so
important to them is their huge rake-in from the U.S. and
American investment.
  Revocation of low tariffs stands much greater chance of
freeing prisoners chained to torture boards than have the
fruitless years of American appeasement.
  Some members of Congress have surrendered to the lobby,
become defectors from the human rights cause they once backed.
But a strong group of human rights supporters remains --
people like Representatives David E. Bonior of Michigan,
Richard Gephardt of Missouri, Tom Lantos of California,
Frank Wolf of New Jersey and, of course, San Francisco's
gift to American and the people in the prison cells, Nancy
Pelosi, a Democrat and supporter of Mr. Clinton.
  "I still believe in Hope," she says.
  If Mr. Clinton does wald out on his executive order of
weasels it down to a mockery, he will be giving the Chinese
Communists the special license they now ask for.
  A license for more repression, more arrests, more torture
cells, all handsomely subsidized by the United States of
America.

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4. Review: Children's Books on Buddhism; Ling Rinpoche
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By JANET McCONNAUGHEY
   May 20, AP -- The eyes rejoice at Susan L. Roth's "Buddha" ($15.95), a May
release from Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers.
   Vivid collages cut from handmade paper illustrate her retelling of the
story of Siddhartha, the sheltered prince who forsook beauty, riches, wife and
infant son to search for holy wisdom.
   She writes in a one-page afterword that she studied more than 100 books to
prepare to write the book, and found a Buddhist manuscript especially
inspirational for the illustrations.
   The story is aimed at ages 5 to 9, but anyone would love the art.

  -`The Little Lama of Tibet'-
   One of the Buddha's youngest and highest priests is the subject of Lois
Raimondo's "The Little Lama of Tibet" ($15.95, Scholastic Books) also written
for ages 5-9.
   The book is a portrait in words and photographs of Ling Rinpoche, a jug-
eared 6-year-old and the next Dalai Lama.
   The text tells how he was recognized as the reincarnation of a previous
Ling Rinpoche when he was a baby in an orphanage, and how the young monk
spends his time -- much of it in study, prayer and blessings.
   "Since most visitors cannot speak Tibetan, Rinpoche is also learning how to
speak English and Hindi. When he gets older, he will use these languages when
he travels the world to teach."
   "Playing with toys is fun," says Rinpoche, "but studying hard is much more
important. I already know many things, but people need so many different
advices, I must learn more."
   The photographs add greatly to the text, showing the collection of teddy
bears in Rinpoche's prayer room, the loving smiles of the adults who care for
him -- he is separated from the world, and other children, to avoid bad habits
-- and his sparkling grin as he fences with a wooden sword.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------   World Tibet Network News   ----------------------
   Published by:     The Canada-Tibet Committee
   Editorial Board:  Brian Given <[e-mail]>
                     Nima Dorjee <[e-mail]>
                     Conrad Richter <[e-mail]>
                     Tseten Samdup <[e-mail]>
   Submissions and subscriptions to:
                     [e-mail]
                     or fax to: [phone]  (U.K.)
   Send us your comments, announcements, news or items for discussion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue ID 94/05/20 GMT 18:100    Complied by Tseten Samdup
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Content
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1) Russia, to appease China, calls Dalai's visit private
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BY RAJIV TIWARI
Iinter Press Service

Moscow, May 20: Tibetan leader Dalai Lama's visit to Russia has been described
as a private trip by foreign ministry officials here who are anxious not to
spoil relations with China.
Russia's official Itar-tass news agency on Thursday quoted foreign ministry
sources as saying: "we have no affairs with the Dalai Lama because we believe
Tibet is an integral part of China and treasure relations with Beijing.'' Tass
also reported that the sources had expressed the hope that all the Dalai Lama's
contacts in Moscow would be unofficial. "the Dalai Lama will have no official
contact with the government," the foreign ministry sources added.
The Dalai Lama, here on an invitation from the Russian academy of sciences, on
Thursday met lawmakers in the Russian parliament where he outlined his vision of
"universal responsibility". At a press conference, the 59-year old spiritual and
temporal head of Tibet also stressed the private nature of his visit to Moscow,
glossing over a possible meeting with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
"Wherever I go, I always avoid inconveniencing government officials as much as
possible. But I am always very happy to meet leaders," the Dalai Lama said.
Replying to question on the role Moscow could play in helping secure greater
Tibetan autonomy from China, he added, "there are age-old traditional contacts
between Russia and Tibet. In Russia there are many Buddhist communities. That's
why there is a moral obligation and Russia can help."
Chinese troops entered Tibet in 1959 forcing the Dalai Lama and hundreds of
thousands of Tibetan refugees to flee to India where a government-in-exile in
Dharamshala.  Asked to comment about recent reports indicating shifting the
headquarters to the south Indian city of Bangalore after violent clashes between
Tibetan refugees and local hill communities in Dharamshala, the Dalai Lama said
he had not yet made up his mind but indicated he was thinking of moving several
offices closer to the Indian capital of New Delhi. Such a proposed move may
cause some anxiety to the Indian government, which like Russia, is trying to
mend relations with Beijing which were frozen for decades after a 1962 border
war.  Relations between Russian and China have been on the mend since the
break-up of the Soviet Union with Russian parliament speaker Ivan Rybkin this
week visiting Beijing and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin due to travel to
China later this year.  Russian support for Chinese integ!
ration of Tibet comes at a time when Beijing faces trade sanctions by the US.
Speaking before reporters, the Dalai Lama appeared to be scoring some sharp
political points when he called on global leaders to adopt perspectives when
dealing with conflicts.

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