Monster Media 1994 #2/Monster Media No. 2 (Monster Media)(1994).ISO/magazine/wtn_0594.zip/WTN-0526.NWS

Text File | 1994-06-06 | 39KB | 710 lines

------------------------   World Tibet Network News   ----------------------
   Published by:     The Canada-Tibet Committee
   Editorial Board:  Brian Given <[e-mail]>
                     Nima Dorjee <[e-mail]>
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                     Tseten Samdup <[e-mail]>
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   Send us your comments, announcements, news or items for discussion.
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Issue ID: 94/05/26 13:00 GMT                      Compiled by Conrad Richter

Contents
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1. China Urges Clinton to Renew MFN Status
2. Clinton Ready to Extend MFN without Conditions
3. Russia to Expand Cooperation with China
4. Christopher Feels Heat over China; Attacks from Two Sides on Capitol
   Hill Visit
5. Beijing's Fading Clout
6. Trade, the Real Engine of Democracy
7. Review: An All-American Boy Who Just May be a Buddha
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1. China Urges Clinton to Renew MFN Status
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By RUTH YOUNGBLOOD
   BEIJING, May 26, UPI -- China urged U.S. President Bill Clinton to  "make a
sensible decision" Thursday and renew its most-favored-nation trading status
without any strings attached.
   With top aides maintaining Clinton will likely renew the low-tariff
privileges with weaker sanctions against China for human rights abuses,
Foreign Ministry spokesman Wu Jianmin told a news conference, "The attaching
of conditions will be unacceptable to the Chinese side."
   Further underscoring Beijing's tough stance was Wu's defense of the June 4,
1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square where troops fired on unarmed pro-democracy
demonstrators, killing hundreds.
   With the fifth anniversary of Tiananmen upcoming, Wu said, "The best judge
of an event is history itself." During four of the past five years, China has
enjoyed improved living standards, stability and economic development.
   Reiterating President Jiang Zemin's statement May 12, Wu said, "If the
Chinese side hadn't taken resolute measures, we would not enjoy the stability
we are enjoying today."
   Last May, Clinton warned China that its trade privileges would not be
renewed without significant progress in human rights. Ahead of the decision
expected as early as Thursday, administration officials said the goal was to
find a "middle ground" demonstrating Clinton's human rights concerns with
little or no damage to trade.
   China exports goods worth nearly $30 billion a year to the United States,
which in turn sells China about $9 billion.
   U.S. business leaders fear limited sanctions will spark as much retaliation
from China as outright MFN refusal -- the loss of a multi- billion dollar
market and thousands of U.S. jobs.
   "We are still awaiting (Clinton's) decision," Wu said. "We hope the U.S.
president will make a sensible decision."
   "The Chinese side has never stood for linking MFN status with issues
irrelevant to trade," Wu said. "China has trade relations with over 200
countries and the issue does not exist."
   "We are not in favor of interfering in the internal affairs of other
countries," Wu added.
   U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher informed Clinton that China has
complied with two conditions the administration said were mandatory to retain
its MFN designation -- halting the export of goods to the United States made
by prison labor and opening emigration for families of exiled dissidents.
   China was also to show progress in five other areas; accounting for
political prisoners, allowing Red Cross visits to prisons, easing repression
in Tibet, adhering to the International Declartion of Human Rights, and ending
the jamming of the Voice of America.
   While independent human rights groups maintain conditions have worsened,
Clinton was reportedly only considering a ban on imports of guns and
ammunition.
   "Exerting of pressure is not in conformity with international practices,"
Wu said. "Such a decision would be unwise."

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2. Clinton Ready to Extend MFN without Conditions
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By DONALD M. ROTHBERG
   WASHINGTON, May 26, AP -- President Clinton is ready to extend trade
privileges for China once again and is considering no longer making renewal
subject to human rights improvements, a senior adminstration official said.
   The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday that
Clinton was questioning whether trade was the most effective way to pressure
China to improve human rights practices.
   A decision to end the linkage would be a clear retreat from his executive
order of a year ago in which he said renewal of most-favored-nation trade
status would depend on "overall, significant progress" on human rights.
   Ending linkage would certainly face a strong challenge in Congress where
advocates of sanctions include Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell,
D-Maine.
   Administration and congressional sources cautioned that Clinton had not
made a final decision on linkage.
   Secretary of State Warren Christopher was directed to present Clinton with
a recommendation on whether China had met the conditions for renewal.
   Christopher was believed ready to recommend that Clinton couple renewal
with a ban on importation of Chinese manufactured guns and ammunition.
   But the senior official said the president began asking if it was time to
"find some better ways of advancing human rights concerns."
   When the question of the ban on guns and ammunition came up during a
meeting with Christopher and national security adviser Anthony Lake, Clinton
questioned whether to do that.
   "The question is, to what degree do you continue to apply sanctions in
pursuit of human rights goals or should you begin to delink this issue of
trade sanctions?" the official said.
   Alternative proposals discussed were creation of a presidential commission
to monitor human rights progress in China, pressing the issue in international
forums and asking U.S. companies doing business in China to come up with
voluntary standards of conduct.
   "There are a variety of things looked at as ways you could advance human
rights concerns short of applying trade sanctions," said the official.
   Clinton could ban importation of guns and ammunition under federal law not
related to human rights practices.
   Mitchell and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., were collaborating on legislation
that would impose broad sanctions on China, targeting products manufactured by
the Chinese military and other state-run industries.
   At stake is billions of dollars in trade between the two countries as well
as access for U.S. firms to the rapidly expanding Chinese market.
   The potential economic impact of a trade rupture between the United States
and China energized the business community to wage an intense campaign to end
the annual linkage between trade and human rights.
   In his executive order a year ago, Clinton said that MFN would not be
renewed unless Christopher determined that the Beijing government was
permitting freedom of emigration and was complying with an agreement
permitting U.S. verification that Chinese exports to the United States were
not produced by prison labor.
   In addition, the order required "overall, significant progress" adhering to
the universal declaration on human rights, accounting for an release of
political prisoners, a halt to suppression of religious freedom in Tibet and a
stop to the jamming of Voice of America broadcasts.
   In the weeks leading up to the June 3 deadline for Clinton's decision on
MFN, China granted visas to some people trying to emigrate and also released
some political prisoners. The communist government also invited the
administration to send a team of specialists to Beijing to discuss the VOA.
   The administration has contended China has largely complied with the
requirements of freedom of emigration and prison labor.
   However, Pelosi issued a statement saying that "there is ample
documentation ... that China has not complied" with the agreement on use of
prison labor.
   "It is a terrible mistake to give credit for progress where credit is not
due," she said.

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3. Russia to Expand Cooperation with China
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   MOSCOW, May 25, UPI -- Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin called
for a more "brotherly" relationship between Russia and China on Wednesday,
and said there were many areas of cooperation waiting to be exploited by the
two countries.
   "I think there are great possibilities in the sphere of military and
technical cooperation," Chernomyrdin was quoted by the Interfax news agency as
saying.
   He said that while many of Russia's military-industrial facilities were
currently being converted to meet civilian needs, conversion should not rule
out continued production of military hardware for export to countries such as
China.
   During his upcoming four-day visit to China, Chernomyrdin expects to sign
major agreements in the fields of agriculture, tax coordination,
communications and shipping.
   Agreements are also expected on environmental questions, including the
protection of the Amur and Ussuri rivers near the Sino-Russian border.
   Chernomyrdin admitted that one of the most contentious issues between
Moscow and Beijing remains the question of demarcating the 3,750 mile (6,000
km) common border between Russia and China.
   Recalling cooperation between Beijing and Moscow during the Soviet era,
Chernomyrdin said "good neighborly relations" were needed to ensure calm in
border regions.
   Chernomyrdin said another problem to be addressed was the prevalence of
barter trade, which accounted for one-third of transactions between cash-
starved China and Russia. He called for payments to replace bartering.
   Chernomyrdin trumpeted the fact that the value of trade between Russia and
China had risen 30 percent in 1993 to $8 billion, following several years of
decline.
   However, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Shokhin, already in
Beijing for the second session of the Sino-Russian Joint Commission on
Economic, Trade and Technical Cooperation, told the Itar-Tass news agency that
the volume of trade between the two countries for the first two months of 1994
had shown a significant dip.
   In the Thursday edition of the Russian daily Izvestia, the drop was
estimated at 50 percent. The article quoted the Chinese state news agency
Xinhua as blaming the fall on Moscow's new import tariffs.
   Chernomyrdin plans to meet his Chinese counterpart Li Peng, who last month
secured several major trade deals during a tour of the former Soviet Central
Asian republics which lie between Russia and China: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
   The Russia prime minister plans to visit the Shanghai industrial center and
the seaport of Dalyan in northeast China.
   Chernomyrdin's trip is seen as a further step toward warming the
traditionally hot and cold relationship between Russia and China.
   The recent thaw in relations was initiated by President Boris Yeltsin's
visit to Beijing in December 1992, the first by a Russian leader since the
breakup of the Soviet Union.
   However, the delicate state of rapport was highlighted by last week's
Kremlin snub delivered to the dalai lama, the Buddhist spiritual leader who
has attracted world attention to alleged human rights abuses by the Chinese
authorities in the northern Chinese province of Tibet.
   The Russian Foreign Ministry and the Chinese Embassy in Moscow separately
cautioned Russian officials against meeting the visiting Tibetan leader.

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4. Christopher Feels Heat over China; Attacks from Two Sides on Capitol
   Hill Visit
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Forwarded by: Lori Cayton <[e-mail]>
By Steven Greenhouse
  WASHINGTON, May 24, New York Times -- Secretary of State Warren
Christopher came uner fire today both by lawmakers who oppose
sanctions against China over its human rights record and those who
favor tough measures to pressure Beijing.
  In a visit to Capitol Hill, Mr. Christopher indicated that
President Clinton would adopt a middle-of-the-road approach,
signaling that the Administration would renew China's favorable
trade status, while at the same time pinning some lesser
sanctions on China.
  At a meeting with Senator Max Baucus of Montana and other
opponents of trade sanctions, Mr. Christopher was urged not
even to impose partial trade sanctions, such as denying
favorable tariffs to products made by state-owned companies.
  After the meeting, Mr. Baucus and several other legislators
sent a letter to Mr. Clinton asserting that partial sanctions
were "likely to prove unworkable."
  Last June Mr. Clinton issued an executive order saying that
China's most favored nation trading status would be renewed
only if Beijing made substantial overall progress on human rights.
  In his letter, Mr. Baucus said that revoking the specila trade
benefits "for goods produced by 'state enterprises' does not
seem even theoretically possible," adding: "China has no sharp
distinctions between 'public' and 'private' sectors.
  "We hope you will avoid a political compromise that is very
likely to prove unworkable."
  The letter was also signed by Senator John Danforth, a
Missouri Republican, Representative Robert Matsui, a California
Democrat, and Representative Jim Kolbe, an Arizona Republican.
  Mr. Christopher also met with Representative Nancy Pelosi,
a California Democrat, and others who support strong measures
to pressure China to improve its human rights performance.
  In an interview, Ms. Pelosi said she told Mr. Christopher,
"China has not made overall significant progress and therefore
hasn't complied with the President's executive order."
  She said it would be wholly inadequate for Mr. Clinton to
punish China, as some lawmakers have suggested, by only
banning sales of Chinese handguns or semiautomatic weapons.
  "That wouldn't be sufficient, not even close," she said.
"Let's get real about this.  It is important for us to have
sanctions that are real and that pressure the Chinese."
  She said she supported partial sanctions that would end
favorable tariffs for China's state-owned industries or those
run by the Chinese military.
  Late this afternoon Mr. Clinton's top foreign policy and
economic advisers met to discuss what decision to make on China.
Some Administration officials say he will announce his decision
in the next few days.
  At a news conference today, Mr. Clinton said he had an idea
where his China decision was going, but added "there are a
number of things that still have to be resolved."

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5. Beijing's Fading Clout
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Forwarded by: Lori Cayton <[e-mail]>
By Gerald Segal
  LONDON, May 25, New York Times -- As President Clinton
approaches a decision on extending "most favored nation"
trading status to China, the debate has, properly, moved
away from bashing Beijing and toward selecting specific
targets for sanctions.
  The main problem in Washington is an assumption that
Beijing controls China's economy -- which may be on the
verge of becoming the world's largest -- and that if only
America can persuade it to chante its mind, an improvement
in human rights will follow.
  Beijing's control of the economy and society is rapidly
fading.  Government leaders are trying ever more frantically
to regain control, but the more they try to manipulate the
economy and fail, the more their authority is undermined.
Beijing pretends to rule the provinces, and the provinces
pretend to be ruled by Beijing.  But leaders of the Government
openly admit that its share of both total investment and the
total tax take is shrinking.
  Most investors now ignore Beijing and strike local deals.
The provinces, expecially the richer ones on the coast,
increasingly ignore Beijing and geton with their own
business.  The World Bank has found that trade between the
provinces is falling, compared with trade between the
provinces and the outside world.
  The Government has lost authority over the society.  Some
130 million people have left the rural economy and not yet
found a place to live in the cities; a similar number are
about to join that floating population, the World Bank says.
One result of the large-scale social problems is the flight
of more than 100,000 Chinese every year.  There are 200,000
illegal immigrants in the U.S. and the same number in Europe.
  China's problems include a sharp rise in crime, the drug
trade, gun-running and piracy along the coast.  The International
Maritime Organization blames Beijing for the piracy because
the military is involved in the piracy, but the reality is that
Beijing no longer firmly controls its armed forces.
  The West cannot solve these problems by talking with the
authorities in Beijing.  The decay of central authority, the
centrifugal pull of the regions, requires a very different
strategy.  If the main purpose of restricting trade benefits
is to improve human rights in China, the Clinton Administration
needs to focus on the sectors of the economy that have the
most influence.
  If we want to affect what goes on in prisons controlled by the
central authorities, we need to focus on large state industries
still run by Beijing. But if we are more concerned about
Dickensian practives -- child labor, dangerous working conditions
-- the target should be private industries in coastal China.
  Such conditions often occur precisely in sectors we praise
for introducing capitalist enterprise.  But the human rights
record in such sectors is usually worse than that of the
state-owned industry.  Besides, the main violators of inter-
national copyright accords are small entrepreneurs along the
coast.
  If the U.Sl wants China to meet the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade's standards on trade barriers, on stopping
subsidies to export industries and on intellectual-property
rights, we need to hit the twonship and village enterprises
and provincially supported companies that break the rules.
  If we want China to clean up its act on environmental
pollution, the U.Sl needs to squeeze not only heavy state
industries but also private industries that indiscriminately
pour wastesinto the air and water.
  All of this will require far more knowledge about local
enterprises.  That means spending more on consulates and
trade offices around China.  It also means training more
specialists who are not just experts on what goes on in Beijing.
  Factors beyond Beijing's reach -- rapid growth of commerce,
decisions by regional and local figures -- will change the
way China is governed and how the world interacts with it
in the 21st century.
  The challenge to the U.S. is to adopt a sophisticated
negotiating strategy to reach out to local leaders.  Establish-
ment of a binational commission on rights, which has been
suggested in Washington, would be cosmetic unless it included
local leaders with regional clout.
  In the end, the only way to weave realistic webs of
interdependence is to weave them where it counts -- beyond the
reach of Beijing.

[Gerald Segal is a senior fellow at the International Institute
for Strategic Studies.  This is adapted from an article in the
May issue of Foreign Affairs.]

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6. Trade, the Real Engine of Democracy
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Forwarded by: Lori Cayton <[e-mail]>
By Bill Bradley
  WASHINGTON, May 25, New York Times -- The mandatory linkage
between trade privileges and human rights is obsolete.  President
Clinton and Congress need to replace this cold war relic with a
new approach that broadly engages China on human rights while
promoting our strategic and economic interests.
  U.S.-China relaitons are shackled by the linkage, which
embodies two aspects of old-think that should join the era that
spawned them on the dust heap of history.
  First, the yearly "most favored nation" requirement -- for
waivers from high U.S. tariffs on imports from Communist
countries -- dates from the bygone era of U.S.-Soviet
competition.  Under the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment, China
may retain lower tariffs only if the President certifies that
such benefits facilitate emigration.  (China's current trade
benefits expire July 3 unless Mr. Clinton announces by June 3
that he intends to extend them.)
  Second, the new conditions for an extension that Mr. Clinton
set last year -- such as adherence to the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and protection of Tibet's cultural heritage --
originated in Congressional opposition to George Bush's
precipitous re-engagement with Beijing after the Tiananmen
Square massacre of 1989.  These and the other demands are
legitimate, but they can't be achieved by the linkage  Administration
is said to be considering, would no work.  For example,
targeting goods produced by military-woned factories would
invite retaliation against our exports and antagonize a key
actor in china's succession struggle without advancing
human rights.
  Our task is to foster the emergence of a responsible,
outward-looking China as a force for stability in Asia.  We
cannot do so if we hold the U.S.-China relationship hostage
to an annual "most favored nation" review.
  America's interests require a multifaceted engagement with
China.  With its nuclear arsenal, growing military strength,
unresolved border issues  and permanent seat on the United
Nations Security Council, China must be reckoned with.
America's strategic agenda in Asia (such as controlling
North Korean nuclear proliferation) requires cooperation
with China.
  With a large economy that is growing by more than 10 percent
a year, China is an engine for global growth.  Our exports
to China rose more than 18 percent last year and have tripled
in the last decade.  America companies have committed billions
of dollars in vestment.
  Obviously, we have a strong interest in improving the live
of China's 1.2. billion people.  Today's linkage between
trade benefits and human rights is simply too narrow to do
the job.  To be truly effective, our human rights policy
must go hand in hand with the forces of economic growth that
are remaking China:  information, investment and goods, which
are flowing in and out of China in an unprecedented volume.
  Beijing's centralized control over the provinces has
loosened.  The rigor of law is slowly replacing the whim of
the Communist Party in many economic sectors.  Individuals
now have personal freedom that, while inadequate, is unparal-
leled in modern Chinese history.
  The first element of an effective human rights policy lies
in further increasing China's exposure to the outside world.
Beijing has agreed to discuss the jamming of our radio
broadcasts; we must use those discussions to insist upon
meaningful expansion of unjammed Voice of America and Radio
Free Asia programs.  We should also increase the number of
educaitonal and cultural exchanges that expose young Chinese
to our multi-ethnic democracy.
  The second element is an expansion of trade, which is the
motive for China's opening outward.  I support China's member-
ship in the world Trade Organization, which will be the
successor of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Membership would require adherence to legal standards.  For
example, Beijing would have to accept disput-resolution
procedures and disclose rules governing state enterprises.
  Growth alone will not democratize China.  But it does creat
a fluid political and social environment and the emergence
of a class of prosperous Chinese -- all of which fuel
democratization and improved human rights practices.  Evidence
from South Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere shows that prosperity
breaks down old controls and generates demands for improved
political and social conditions.
  A third feature of a beneficial human rights policy is genuine
dialogue on human rights.  All too often, the U.S.-China
"dialogue" consists of American officials' presenting their
Chinese counterparts with a list of demands.  China responds
that Western human rights standards are not applicable in Asia.
The result:  an empty exchange of monologues.
  The alternative is a genuine exchange of views.  while we
will not agree that human rights are relative, we can listen to
the Chinese with the aim of finding common ground on which to
build.  For example, helping the Government strengthen the rule
of law will advance human rights by reducing arbitrary
interference with people's lives, while also improving Beijing's
ability to govern a vast and diverse country.
  Fourth, as we wait for Mao Zedong's Long March generation
to leave the scene, we must continue our efforts to protect
individual dissidents by raising their cases at every opportunity.
Once we are talking effectively with the Chinese, appeals on
behalf of such dissidents will have a greater impact.
  there are many ways to institutionalize this dialogue -- for
example, by creating a binational human rights commission
or exchanging parliamentary delegations to investigate
human rights practices, as China now does with Australia.  (Yes
the Chinese would be free to come to the U.s. for this purpose.)
Once the Chinese stop viewing human rights as a weapon deployed
against them, they will be willing to have a systematic dialogue.
  Fifth, China's craving for international legitimacy gives us
additional leverage.  We must make it clear that so long as
China does not uphold basic human rights standards, we will
continue to work to deny China such symbols of legitimacy as
playing host to the Olympics and international meetings.
  Sixth, we must ask business to help by supporting voluntary
ethical investor principles as part of an Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum investment code.  I have in mind
adherence to such principles as safe working conditions and
a prohibition against the export of goods produced by forced
labor.
  To revoke or to place conditions on China's trade status
would be a historic blunder.  Unlike 1949, when America could
ignore Red China, in the Asia of 1994 we would isolate
ourselves from the world's most dynamic region.  The cold war
is over.  Let us delink most-favored-nation status from human
rights and begin to realize the full potential of the U.S.-
China relationship.

[Bill Bradley, a Democrat, is senior Senator from New Jersey.]

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7. Review: An All-American Boy Who Just May be a Buddha
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forwarded by: Lori Cayton <[e-mail]>
By Janet Maslin
  May 25, New York Times -- Living in pre-Industrial Light and
Magic times, the Buddha attained spirtual enlightenment the
old-fashioned way:  sitting beneath a bodhi tree until he
arrived at perfect knowledge. But in Bernardo Bertolucci's
"LIttle Buddha," a rapturous $35 million epic about rejecting
worldly excess to embrace simpler values, there is a better way.
  Or at least a bigger one.  And so, as Prince Siddhartha
(Keanu Reeves), who will evolve into the Buddha beneath the
tree during this film's most staggering sequence, all the
wonders of the special-effects world are unleashed to convey
his visions.  If this dazzling mixture of Buddhist thought and
cinematic fireworks had been possible a couple decades ago, it
would have prompted the "Oh, wow" heard round the world.  Even
today, in less giddy times, it makes for a gorgeous, grandly
presumptous spectacle that really deserves to be seen.
  "Little Buddha," a crazily mesmerizing pop artifict that
ranks alongside Herman hesses's novel "Siddhartha" in terms
of extreme earnestness and quasi-religious entertainment value,
finds Mr. Bertolucci working in an uncharacteristic vein.  For
all its obvious seriousness, "Little Buddha" has a naive,
miracle-gazing intensity that turns it into Mr. Bertolucci's
first Spielberg movie, complete with awestruck faces and
intimations of higher knowledge.  This is also the film maker's
first close encounter with visual tricks like morphing, which
makes for religious experience of another kind.
  "Little Buddha" also has a greater visual sophistication that
echoes some of Mr. Bertolucci's own wide-screen exoticism, as
captured most recently by "The Last Emperor" and "The Sheltering
Sky."  Photographed stunningly by Vittorio Storaro, accompanied
by Ryuichi Sakamoto's powerfully insinuating score, this film
rises above its own obviousness to work in genuinely mysterious
ways.  At his best, Mr. Bertolucci can present an image of cars
on a highway and still suggest something of the unknown.
  Once again following his own compass to extraordinarily
beautiful places (in Bhutan, in Katmandu and even in Seattle),
Mr. Bertolucci tells a two-tiered story.  This film's means of
approaching the tale of Prince Siddhartha, the young Buddha, is
by means of the Conrad family of Seattle and a group of Tibetan
monks.  Led by Lama Norbu (played with courtly distinction by
Ying Ruocheng), the monks seek out the Conrads for a reason.
They reveal to Lisa Conrad (Bridget Fonda) and her husband,
Dean (Chris Isaak), that they think the couple's 9-year-old
son, Jesse (Alex Wiesendanger), is the reincarnation of a
Tibetan lama.  Lisa and Dean are sufficiently open-minded to
take this news in stride.
  Whenever "Little Buddha" explains a basic Buddhist tenet like
reincarnation, it takes pains to find some kind of visual
correlative.  when Jesse is told that meditation can make bad
thought seem like passing clouds, for instance, he is in an
airplane and there are passing clouds outside the window.  This
didacticism would be more tedious if it were not presented so
avidly, and if the other half of "LIttle Buddha" were not so
splashy.  If movies experienced reincarnation, then the
pageantry-filled early scenes of Prince Siddhartha's story
probably had an earlier life as "The Ten Commandments."
  Bronzed, painted and bejeweled, with a head covered with
luxuriant ringlets, Mr. Reeves is truly a thing of beauty.
That's not the same as being a plausible stand-in for one
whose teachings have so profoundly influenced life on this
planet, but for the purposes of this film, it works.  Despite
the fact that Mr. Reeves' voice sounds oddly reprocessed, and
that he retains traces of surfer-boy body language at the
most unexpected moments, he more than commands interest
during those sections of the film that depict Siddhartha's
evolution.  When a huge cobra magically appears to shield
Siddharth from rain, for instance, Mr. Reeves need only sit
in meditation and look serene.  That he can do.
  The screenplay, by Mark Peploe and Rudy Wurlitzer from a
story by Mr. Bertolucci, is free to take liberties, since so
little is actually known about Siddhartha's early life.  They
fare more successfully in these religious sections than in
the ordinary business of understanding the Conrads, despite
the airy, affirmative quality both Ms. Fonda and Mr. Isaak
bring to the film.  And the screenplay also pales when it
reveals that two other children are candidates for being the
reincarnated lama.  Although the word candidate is used, the
idea of competition is meaningless to "Little Buddha," since
the film strives for such a beautific mood.  That attitude is
admirable, but it also serves to put a damper on the film's
dramatic possibilities.
  Despite the screenplay's stray anachronisms (Siddhartha uses
words like "ego" and "architect"), the writers succeed in
giving a story-book tone to much of this material.  In fact,
an actual storybook is used to ease transitions back to the
siddhartha tale, in a stroke of simplicity that communicates
the film's overall sweetness.  In this, "Little Buddha" displays
a deliberate innocence that suits its subject, even if it
contrasts so markedly with much of Mr. Bertolucci's moodier,
more unsettling work.  "Lama, what's impermanence?" Jesse asks
in one scene.  For one example, his teacher could point to
"Little Buddha" and its untroubled inner peace.

"Little Buddha" is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested).  It
includes mild profanity.

[Photo of the two principles bowing down in an authentic
Tibetan temple with authentic Tibetan monks looking on reads:
Alex Wiesendanger, left, and Ying Ruocheng in Bernardo
Bertolucci's $35 million film "LIttle Buddha." -LC]

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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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WTN 94/05/26 18:30 GMT                          Compiled by Nima Dorjee
==================================================================
1. China Attacks report on Prisons by Human Rights Watch
2.  Clinton to Announce Decision on MFN to China
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1. China Attacks report on Prisons by Human Rights Watch
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Forwarded by: Debra Guzman ([e-mail])
Source: Voice of America

DATE=5/25/94
TITLE=CHINA PRISONS (L)
BYLINE=DAVID DYAR
DATELINE=BEIJING

INTRO:  FOR THE PAST SEVERAL DAYS, CHINESE OFFICIALS HAVE MOUNTED
A MEDIA CAMPAIGN TO COUNTER ALLEGATIONS FROM HUMAN-RIGHTS GROUPS
ABOUT ALLEGED ABUSE OF PRISONERS.  V-O-A CORRESPONDENT DAVID DYAR
REPORTS FROM BEIJING.

TEXT:  THE CAMPAIGN BEGAN FOLLOWING THE PUBLICATION OF A REPORT
BY THE AMERICAN-BASED ORGANIZATION HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH-ASIA.

THE GROUP SAYS IT HAS DISCOVERED HUNDREDS OF PREVIOUSLY UNNOTED
PRISONERS DETAINED FOR INVOLVEMENT IN THE DEMOCRACY PROTESTS AT
TIANANMAN SQUARE, FIVE YEARS AGO.

CHINA'S MEDIA QUOTES OFFICIALS AS SAYING THE ALLEGATIONS WERE
SHEER FABRICATIONS WITH ULTERIOR MOTIVES.

THE MEDIA CAMPAIGN ALSO INCLUDED STORIES ON WHAT AUTHORITIES CALL
SUCCESSES IN THEIR PRISON PROCEDURES.  AN ARTICLE IN THE "CHINA
DAILY" NEWSPAPER WEDNESDAY SAYS THE COUNTRY'S POLICY OF USING
PRISON LABOR HAS REDUCED THE RATE OF REPEAT OFFENDERS TO EIGHT
PERCENT.

THE ARTICLE SAYS THE POLICY HAS ALLOWED CHINA TO INCREASE THE
PERCENTAGE OF INMATES WHO HAVE HAD THEIR SENTENCES REDUCED OR WHO
HAVE BEEN PAROLED FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR.  IT SAYS, IN RECENT YEARS,
22 PERCENT OF CHINA'S PRISONERS ARE ALLOWED TO LEAVE EARLY.

ONE OF THE CHARGES AGAINST CHINA MADE BY THE HUMAN-RIGHTS GROUP
INVOLVES NEW ALLEGATIONS OF CHINESE PRISONERS BEING FORCED TO
PRODUCE GOODS FOR EXPORT.

PRISONERS ARE ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN FORCED TO INSPECT LATEX GLOVES
FOR EXPORT.  A JUSTICE MINISTRY OFFICIAL MONDAY SAID AN
INVESTIGATION SHOWED THERE WERE NO SUCH EXPORTS ALTHOUGH THE
PRISON DID FORCE INMATES TO INSPECT THE GLOVES FOR DOMESTIC USE.

THE PUBLIC-RELATIONS CAMPAIGN COMES AS PRESIDENT CLINTON IS
MAKING HIS DECISION ON WHETHER TO RENEW CHINA'S FAVORED TRADE
PRIVILEGES WITH THE UNITED STATES.  ONE OF THE CONDITIONS HE HAS
SET FOR RENEWING THE PRIVILEGES IS TO ENSURE THE HUMAN TREATMENT
OF PRISONERS.

THE CHINESE MEDIA REPORT WEDNESDAY TRIED TO PAINT A PICTURE OF AN
IDYLLIC LIFESTYLE FOR CHINESE PRISONERS,  WHO IT SAYS CAN SING
AND DANCE IN KARAOKE BARS, ENJOY LIBRARIES AND RECEIVE VOCATIONAL
TRAINING.  (SIGNED)

NEB/ FA / WOD

25-May-94 7:08 AM EDT (1108 UTC)
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2.  Clinton to Announce Decision on MFN to China
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Forwarded by: [e-mail]

SOURCE: Voice of America
5/25/94
BYLINE=BORGIDA
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE

INTRO:   PRESIDENT CLINTON WILL REPORTEDLY ANNOUNCE HIS DECISION
TO RENEW MOST FAVORED NATION TRADING STATUS TO CHINA AS EARLY AS
TODAY (THURSDAY.)  V-O-A'S WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT DAVID
BORGIDA REPORTS.

TEXT:   EARLIER THIS WEEK, THE PRESIDENT SAID HE WOULD ANNOUNCE
HIS DECISION BEFORE LEAVING FOR EUROPE AND D-DAY FIFTIETH
ANNIVERSARY ACTIVITIES WEDNESDAY.  THE DEADLINE FOR HIS DECISION
IS FRIDAY, JUNE THIRD.

NOW NEWS REPORTS SAY THAT DECISION --TO RENEW M-F-N--WILL BE MADE
AS EARLY AS THURSDAY, POSSIBLY FRIDAY.  THERE HAD BEEN CONCERN
AMONG SOME OFFICIALS HERE THAT ANNOUNCING THE DECISION NEXT WEEK
WOULD INTRUDE UPON THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE D-DAY COMMEMORATION.
SOME ALSO WANTED THE ANNOUNCEMENT TO BE MADE BEFORE CONGRESS
BEGINS A LONG MEMORIAL DAY RECESS.

NEWS REPORTS DID NOT SAY IF THE PRESIDENT WILL ATTACH CONDITIONS
BEIJING MUST MEET IN ORDER TO RECEIVE THE FAVORABLE TRADING
STATUS.

THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION HAS BEEN NEGOTIATING WITH CHINESE
OFFICIALS OVER THE EXTENT TO WHICH BEIJING HAS MET PRESCRIBED U-S
HUMAN RIGHTS CRITERIA, AS SET OUT BY PRESIDENT CLINTON LAST YEAR
IN AN EXECUTIVE ORDER.  ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS HAVE SAID THEY
BELIEVE BEIJING HAS MET TWO MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS, BUT THERE ARE
SOME DOUBTS ABOUT OTHERS.

THE U-S BUSINESS COMMUNITY HAS BEEN APPLYING HEAVY PRESSURE ON
THE PRESIDENT TO RENEW M-F-N, FEARING CHINA WOULD RETALIATE
SHOULD M-F-N BE REVOKED. (SIGNED)

25-May-94 6:51 PM EDT (2251 UTC)

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