Monster Media 1994 #2/Monster Media No. 2 (Monster Media)(1994).ISO/magazine/wtn_0594.zip/WTN-0524.NWS

Text File | 1994-06-06 | 26KB | 437 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.
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Issue ID: 94/05/24 11:00 GMT                      Compiled by Conrad Richter

Contents
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1. Christopher Narrows Options on China Trade Ruling, May Recommend Renewal
2. Rep. Bonior Urges No MFN for China
3. Top Chinese Judge Warns of Serious Crime Problem in Rural Areas
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1. Christopher Narrows Options on China Trade Ruling, May Recommend Renewal
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     WASHINGTON, May 23, Reuter -- Secretary of State Warren Christopher
Monday sent President Clinton a report on China's human rights performance
that was seen as a signal he would recommend renewing Beijing's special
trading privileges, the New York Times reported in its Tuesday editions.
     Christopher told Clinton that China met two of seven human rights
conditions the president ordered Beijing must meet to have its Most Favoured
Nation trading status renewed, the Times reported.
     Christopher said China satisfied the conditions to cooperate on ending
the export of prison-made goods to the United States and to allow close
relatives of dissidents to leave the country. Those two conditions were the
only mandatory requirments of the seven, the Times reported.
     Under the outline Christopher handed Clinton, the president could certify
on narrow legal grounds that China has met the two mandatory conditions,
qualifying for MFN renewal, the paper reported.
     Christopher's presentation, although not a formal recommendation, was
seen as a signal that he would recommend renewal of the trade benefits, the
Times reported.
     Earlier Monday, Christopher consulted members on Congress on China's MFN
status. He must make a formal recommendation by June 3, when Clinton must
decide on Beijing's trade benefits.
     "I would describe him as at this point shaping the decisions that he will
recommend to the president, and I wouldn't want to speculate about when and
how he might deliver that to the president," State Department spokesman Mike
McCurry told Reuters.
     Under Clinton's executive order last year, Christopher has to weigh
China's performance on seven specific areas of human rights. Compliance on two
of the areas are mandatory.
     China must show "overall significant progress" on the other five, but
such progress is not essential for the extension of trade privileges.
     But with billions of dollars of trade at stake as well as U.S. access to
the world's most populous nation and fastest-growing market, few believe MFN
will be revoked.
     Some inside and outside the administration have been arguing that trade
benefits could be withdrawn selectively, either against products manufactured
by Chinese state-run industries or Chinese military products. But even this
might prove unworkable.
     A senior administration official said last week that China had virtually
fulfilled U.S. requirements on the two mandatory criteria -- free emigration
and stopping prison labour.
     But its performance on the other five -- respecting Tibet's culture,
allowing basic freedoms of expression, freeing ailing dissidents from jail,
allowing Red Cross visits to prison camps and stopping the jamming of Voice of
America broadcasts -- had been questionable.
     However, even members of Clinton's Cabinet have been lobbying in public
in favour of renewing MFN. On Monday, Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy said
China was one of the United States' most important agricultural markets and
should not be sacrificed.
     "If we rescind MFN to China, other countries will come in" and take
existing U.S. market share, he said. He said these concerns have been made
very clear to the White House but stressed that the decision on MFN was not
his to make.
     McCurry said Christopher's analysis of China's performance in each of the
seven areas was largely complete, although Chinese actions in the coming few
days could still have an impact on his conclusions.
     "He believes that more could be done," said McCurry.

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2. Rep. Bonior Urges No MFN for China
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By Mary Ann Akers
   WASHINGTON, May 23, UPI -- House Democratic Whip David Bonior, arguing that
the United States should not engage in "licensing torture, " urged President
Clinton Monday to revoke China's most-favored-nation trading status and set a
precedent for the world.
   Renewing MFN for China, Bonior said, would risk "sending a message to every
dictator around the world that not only will the U.S. look the other way while
you torture, abuse and murder your own people...but we'll even help subsidize
it."
   "The United States should not be in the business of licensing torture," he
said, speaking at a Capitol Hill news conference with representatives of about
a dozen labor and human rights groups.
   Bonior cited reports throughout China of the use of electric shock,
floggings, religious persecution in Tibet, political imprisonment, forced
sterilization and abortions, and prison slavery.
   President Clinton, who must decide by June 3 whether to extend
unconditionally Beijing's trade status, warned last year that unless China
showed significant improvements in its human rights record, MFN privileges
would be suspended.
   Bonior said China clearly has not met the conditions laid out in the
president's executive order, and groups like Human Rights Watch-Asia and
Amnesty International have documented hundreds of new cases of political
torture and abuse by the Chinese government.
   Criticizing supporters of MFN for China who claim revoking trade privileges
will cost American jobs, Bonior pointed to China's $30 billion trade surplus
with the United States, $27 billion of which he said comes from products made
at the factories and prisons of the Chinese army.
   "Why is this trade deficit a problem? Because trade deficits cost America
jobs," he said.
   While human rights advocates and others, including several U.S. lawmakers,
widely maintain Beijing has not met those conditions and does not deserve
preferential trading status, other politicians are urging the administration
not to link human rights to trade.
   One proposal from a bipartisan group of more than 100 House members,
including House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., would
be to unconditionally renew China's MFN status, but create a bilateral human
rights commission.
   Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who will send his recommendation on
China's MFN status to the president sometime next week, is expected to discuss
that and a range of other options at a meeting this week with Bonior and House
Democratic leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri.
   State Department spokesman Michael McCurry confirmed Monday that
Christopher has not yet sent his recommendation to Clinton but that he has "a
good sense of how the Chinese have performed" and his analysis is "largely
complete."
   U.S. officials have said China has failed to meet the criteria for full MFN
extension.
   Joining Bonior at the news conference, Michael Jendrzejczyk, the Washington
director for Human Rights Watch-Asia, said there has been "a clear, overall
deterioration in China's human rights situation" since Clinton issued the
executive order last May.
   Only about 30 political or religious prisoners have been released since
then, he said, and the number of known new arrests of peaceful political and
religious activists since last May "is well over 100 and growing."
   "The secretary of State should give President Clinton a clear and
forthright assessment to that effect," Jendrzejczyk said. "For him to do
anything less, would be a cynical betrayal of the truth."

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3. Top Chinese Judge Warns of Serious Crime Problem in Rural Areas
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Forwarded by: Lori Cayton <[e-mail]>
By Patrick E. Tyler

BEIJING, May 22, New York Times [May 23] -- China's top
judicial autority warnded today that "secruity problems are
escalating enormously" in rural parts of the country and that
they needed the urgent attention of Communist Party officials
to bring them under control.
  The warning came from Ren Jianxin, president of the Supreme
People's Court, at a Communist Party forum on "comprehensive
management of social security," of which he is chairman.
  "The security management situation remains extremely grim
nationwide this year," said Mr. Ren, whose remarks were
reported by the official People's Daily.  "We must never under-
estimate the affect of rural unrest on our national situation
and must understand these problems in terms of the overriding
interests of the party and the state.
  His warning came in the final days of a bid by Beijing to
influence the Clinton Administration's evaluation of China's
uneven record on human rights in the last 12 months.  Chinese
leaders have asked president Clinton to take into account
Beijing's need to maintain "social stability" in a period of
economic retrenchment, labor unrest and soaring crime.
  Mr. Ren's remarks may also have been intended as a general
warning before the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square
crackdown on June 4.

  - Many State Factories Close -
  With the country continuing its drive toward a market economy,
millions of Chinese workers have been idled by factory shutdowns
in China's state sector.  The Economic and Trade Minister, Wang
Zhongyu, said recently that a poll of state industries in 16
provinces showed that 10 percent were idle or operating under full
capacity and that 4 percent had stopped production.
  Economists say these figures indicate that tens of thousands of
state-owned factories are in financial trouble.  There are
327,000 state-owned enterprises nationwide, 11,000 of which are
classified as medium or large-sized.
  Mr. Clinton is to decide this week whether to extend China's
"most favored nation" trading privileges or impose some measure
of tariff penalties on the basis of Beijing's actions toward
"overall significant progress" on human rights, as stipulated
under his executive order of May 1993.
  Serious crime in China rose more than 23 percent in 1993.
Murder, theft and robbery, for instance, have made public
transport unsafe in many areas.  Official corruption remains
largely unabated and has inflamed attitudes toward the Communist
leadership.
  In addition, newly liberated economic incentives have prompted
local officials to loot state-owned factories of machinery and
raw materials.  Gang-related violence is up more than 50 percent,
and drug trafficking rose by more than 30 percent.
  Mr. Ren, who presides over a judicial system that last year
sentenced 2,564 people to death and executed 1,419, described
a situation in which law and order was deteriorating.  He
attributed this in part to the erosion of the Communist Party's
traditional control in villages, townships and cities at a time
when economic reforms are gaining ground.
  "The security problems are escalating enormously in some rural
areas, and the public reaction is intense," Mr. Ren said.  "All
official and legal organs must strengthen the force of their
blow and mercilessly attack serious criminal activities and
serious economic crimes."

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------------------------   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 94/05/24 GMT 16:40     Complied by Tseten Samdup
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Contents
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1) China using religion to divide Tibetans
2) Tibetans hold rally against Chinese "population transfer" to Tibet
3) Tibet CPPCC resolution broadcast on local television
4) Gyaincain Norbu announces measures to promote education
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1) Dalai Lama in Moscow supports referendum on future of Tibet
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ITAR-TASS news agency Moscow World Service in Russian 1838 gmt 20
May 94 BBC SWB 23 May 1994

Excerpts from report (FE/2003 G/2 141)

In an interview for ITAR-TASS today [20th May], the Tibetan
spiritual leader Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in the Indian city
of Dharmsala, expressed his hope that he would one day return to
his homeland. "I hope to return to Lhasa at some time, to the
Potala Palace, the residence of the Dalai Lamas," said the former
ruler of Tibet, who left Tibet after the bloody clashes between
the local population and the Chinese army in 1959.  The Dalai Lama
said that he "would find ways and channels in order to hold a
referendum on the future of Tibet". He said that in the referendum
the population would be given several alternatives. One of these
is supported by advocates of the "Middle Way", who do not demand
the complete separation and independence of Tibet from China. The
Dalai Lama himself is one of these. A different point of view is
held by many young Tibetans, who insist on complete independence
for Tibet. . .  The Dalai Lama stated that the unique Tibetan
culture was on the verge of disappearing. At the same time he
stressed his readiness to hold talks with Peking on the basis of
the principle which Deng Xiaoping, the architect of Chinese
reforms, put forward with regard to Taiwan and Hong Kong - "one
country, two systems"  extending it to the present Tibetan
autonomous region of the PRC...    On Saturday [21st May] the
Dalai Lama leaves for Delhi.  During his stay in Moscow, the PRC
embassy in Russia expressed "serious concern" about the activity
of the Tibetan spiritual leader, which was directed, in the
opinion of Chinese diplomats, "at splitting China".

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2) Tibetans hold rally against Chinese "population transfer" to
Tibet
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PTI news agency, New Delhi, in English 040 gmt 23 May 94 BBC SWB
23 May 1994 Text of report

About 1,000 Tibetans on Monday [23rd May] termed a "human chain"
here [New Delhi protesting against "destruction of Tibet's
national and cultural heritage by China by massive transfer of
Chinese civilians into Tibet" .  Carrying huge banners reading
"stop Chinese population transfer in Tibet" and "Tibet belongs to
Tibetans", they staged a peaceful march from Kotla ground to
Jantar Mantar in central Delhi.    Addressing the gathering,
Tsewang Phuntso, president of Tibetan Youth Congress, said that
the Tibetans were observing the international ' Quit Tibet Day" on
Monday to pressurize the Chinese authorities to abandon her policy
of "ethnic cleansing". "China's policy of population transfer in
Tibet have t:ar-reaching effect, not only for Tibetans in Tibet,
but also globally," he said. Phuntso said that the congress had
also received confirmation from 15 countries where such
demonstrations were being held on Monday. The movement has also
collected over 20,000 signatures from different parts of the world
to urge US President Bill Clinton to revoke the
Most-Favoured-Nation treatment to China.

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3) Tibet CPPCC resolution broadcast on local television
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Summary: Tibet CPPCC members have expressed concern at
"outstanding contradictions and problems, such as high price
rises, poor perfomance of state owned enterprises, low income of
peasants and herdsmen, disorderly cultural markets, inadequate
medical and health services in farming and pastoral areas,
corruption of all kinds and crimes in some localities", "They hope
the region(ll government will persist in the principle of
fostering both material progress and cultural and ideological
progress and attaching equal importance to both and adopt
effective measures to solve these problems' CPPCC session calls
for economic development, building of democracy and the legal
system and "socialist spiritual civilization", and says "We must
improve party style, promote a clean and honest government, launch
an in-depth struggle against splittism, safeguard the motherland's
unification, strengthen national unity, safeguard political
stability and promote the progress of society in all fields"; all
work must serve interests of reform, development and stability.
Tibet TV, Lhasa, in Standard Chinese 1200 gmt 21 May 94 BBC SWB 23
May 1994

Text of announcer-read report on political resolution adopted by
the second session of the sixth Tibet autonomous regional
committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference on 21st May 1994.  The second session of the sixth
Tibet autonomous regional committee of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference [CPPCC] Committee was held in
Lhasa from 13th through 21st May. It approved the government work
report delivered by regional Chairman Gyaincain Norbu; the report
on the implementation of the 1993 plan and on the 1994 draft plan
for economic and social development; the report on the
implementation of the 1993 budget plan and the 1994 draft budget
plan; and the work reports by the higher people's court and the
higher people's procuratorate. The session held that in the past
year, the people of all nationalities in Tibet, guided by Comrade
Deng Xiaoping's theory of building socialism with Chinese
characteristics and the party's basic line, earnestly implemented
the 14th Chinese Communist Party [CCP] National Congress
guidelines, and deepened reform and opening up wider in close
conjunction with the objective of establishing a socialist market
economic structure and of modernizing the region, thereby quicking
the pace of construction, promoting the development of productive
forces and scoring fresh achievements in all fields of endeavour.
The session held that the government work report has factually
summarized the work over the past year, objectively analysed the
existing problems and difficulties and explicitly put forth the
basic principles and fighting goals of the work in 1994. These
principles and goals are inspiring the people in their advancement
and can be accomplished through assiduous efforts by the people of
all nationalities throughout Tibet. Regional CPPCC committee
members have expressed concern over and made suggestions and
opinions on outstanding contradictions and problems, such as high
price rises, poor performance of state-owned enterprises, low
income of peasants and herdsmen, disorderly cultural markets,
inadequate medical and health services in farming and pastoral
areas, corruption of all kinds and crimes in some localities. They
hope the regional government will persist in the principle of
fostering both material progress and cultural and ideological
progress and attaching equal importance to both and adopt
effective measures to solve these problems.  The session held that
1994 is a crucial year for Tibet to carry out reform in an
all-round way, to launch package reform programmes, to achieve
breakthroughs in key areas and to accelerate the establishment of
a socialist market economy. We must steadfastly take Comrade Deng
Xiaoping's theory of building socialism with Chinese
characteristics and the party's basic guidelines as our guide; and
must comprehensively carry out the guidelines of the 14th CCP
National Congress and the third plenary session of the 14th CCP
Central Committee, as well as the guidelines of the fourth and
fifth enlarged plenary sessions of the fourth regional party
committee. We must expedite the establishment of a socialist
market economic structure and do everything we can to change
Tibet's backward transportation, energy supply and infrastructure.
We must turn our advantage in resources into an economic edge for
achieving a sustained, rapid and healthy development of the
regional economy. We must step up the building of democracy and
the legal system, as well as the building of socialist spiritual
civilization. We must improve party work style, promote a clean
and honest government, launch an in-depth struggle against
splittism, safeguard the motherland's unification, strengthen
national unity, safeguard political stability and promote the
progress of society in all fields. The work in all fields must
serve and be subordinate to the overall interests of grasping the
opportunity, deepening reform, opening up wider, promoting
development and maintaining stability; and must be conducive to
the proper handling of the relationship between reform,
development and stability.  The session called on CPPCC committees
at all levels and their members across Tibet to hold high the
banner of patriotism and socialism, to diligently study Volume 3
of the "Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping", to carry out earnestly
the guidelines of the current session, to bring into play their
talent to serve the central task of economic construction, to
conduct effective political consultation and democratic
supervision, to take an active part in the administration and
discussion of state aft:airs, to unite all forces that can be
united and mobilize all positive factors, to pool the efforts of
all and to make their share of contributions to the maintenance of
Tibet's political and social stability.  The session called on
CPPCC committees at all levels and their members across Tibet to
be led by the regional party committee, to rally still closer
around the party Central Committee with Comrade Jiang Zemin at the
core; to emancipate their minds; to heighten their spirits; and to
work hard and advance in a pioneering spirit in striving for new
victories in Tibet's reform and opening up as well as the building
of two civilizations.

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4) Gyaincain Norbu announces measures to promote education
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Zhongguo Xinwen She news agency, Beijing, in English 1454 gmt 20
May 94 BBC SWB 23 May 1994

Text of report

Lhasa, 20th May: The Tibet Autonomous Region has planned to
realize that every county in the region will at least have one
middle school and every township one higher primary school by the
end of this century and the school attendance rate of children of
school age will be up to 80 %, announced the Chairman of Tibet, Mr
Gyaincain Norbu, at the second session of the sixth regional
people's congress.  The chairman added that the region would
mobilize all forces from society to speed up the training of
technical personnel urgently needed in economic build up. He said
that in order to reach the above goal, the region would adopt five
effective measures.  First, the region will, in line with its
reality, intensify reform of education, readjust educational
structure and specialities establishment.  Second, it will
mobilize enthusiasm from various circles of the society to develop
vocational and professional education, adult education and social
education in a multi-form and multi-tier way.    Third, the
running of schools with funds collected from the society will be
encouraged while the running of schools by government will
maintain as the main way.  Fourth, the training of teachers will
be strengthened and the current teachers' rank must remain stable.
Fifth, the educational efficiency and quality will be raised
through strengthening administration over teachers.  The region
reached good achievements in this sector last year with 248 new
schools run in the year and the school attendance rate of children
of school age reaching 63.2%.

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