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- <text id=90TT0428>
- <title>
- Feb. 19, 1990: World Notes:China
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Feb. 19, 1990 Starting Over
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 47
- World Notes
- CHINA
- An Enemy of The People
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> As tokens of a return to "normality," Beijing last month
- lifted martial law and released a few detainees. But has China
- had a change of heart? Not according to two human-rights
- reports circulated last week.
- </p>
- <p> In a 164-page paper, Asia Watch, a New York City-based
- human-rights organization, called Beijing's justice system
- "essentially pre-modern." The government's crimes include the
- shooting of students who tried to spread word of the Beijing
- massacre, arrest without trial of 10,000 to 30,000 people,
- solitary confinement for detainees and torture by electric
- cattle prod. Says Asia Watch: "There is simply no rule of law
- in China worth mentioning."
- </p>
- <p> In Washington an equally critical State Department document
- concurred with some of the Asia Watch claims and listed still
- more abuses, such as raids on universities, loyalty tests and
- a "massive" disinformation campaign. Asked how the State
- Department report squared with the Administration's
- conciliatory approach to Beijing, a White House official said,
- "The President has often expressed his concern about human
- rights in China."
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-