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                 * C h i n a   N e w s   D i g e s t *

                             (News General)

                       -- Feb. 6 (I), 1990


Table of Contents
                                                                     # of Lines
Headline News ......................................................... 11  
1. Gorby Said Multi-party Now ......................................... 41
2. Brief Look At Soviet Central Committee ............................. 55
3. Brief Meeting Report `` On Road to Democracy'' ..................... 42 
4. Japanese Bank Joins Loan to China-Backed Firm ...................... 31
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Headline News
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I) From ND correspondent in Toronto

Wuer  Kai  Xi  Plans  to  speak  at U of Toronto. The title is ``
Remembering  Beijing''. Two  public events are expected  on Feb. 6
(in Chinese) and Feb. 9 (in English) in Toronto.

II) From: (Yagui Wei) yawei@ucs.indiana.edu
Source: (AP) SPECIAL REPORT

a. Eight Members of Opposition Join East German Cabinet.

b. Ethnic Albanians See No Hope Of Ending Yugoslavian Violence.

c. Another Member Resigns From Romanian Salvation Front.

d. Walesa Says He Likely Won't Seek Re-Election As Solidarity Boss.

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1. Gorby Said Multi-party Now 
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Source: (AP) News
From: (Yagui Wei) yawei@ucs.indiana.edu

   Gorbachev Urges Party Leaders       
     To End Monopoly On Power          
                 ---
    MOSCOW  -  Mikhail Gorbachev told the Communist Party leader-
ship  Monday the time has come to loosen the party's iron grip on
power.

    He  said  the  party should compete for the right to rule the
Soviet Union.

    Gorbachev's  landmark speech to the party's Central Committee
came  a day after perhaps the largest protest in Moscow since the
Bolshevik revolution.

...
    At  the opening session of a 2-day Central Committee meeting,
Gorbachev made essentially the same proposal.

    The party ''intends to struggle for the role of ruling party,
but  do  it  strictly in the framework of the democratic process,
rejecting  any  kind of legal or political advantage,'' Gorbachev
told the policy-making body.

...
    The party will ''present its own program, put it out for dis-
cussion,  cooperate  with  other  public-political  forces,'' the
Soviet  leader  said  in  remarks  distributed  by  the Tass news
agency.

...
    The Tass news agency said Gorba- chev urged the party to move
up the next party congress to late June.

    Tass  gave no reason for Gorbachev's proposal, but presumably
it  would  be  to allow him to choose a new Central Committee and
further advance radical reforms in the party.

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2. Brief Look At Soviet Central Committee 
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Source: (AP) News
From: (Yagui Wei) yawei@ucs.indiana.edu

                 ---
             COMPOSITION:

    The Central Committee is made up of leading members of the 20
million  member  Soviet  Communist  Party, which according to the
constitution is the leading and guiding force of Soviet society.

    In  most recent years, the Central Committee has been made up
of  about  300  members,  but last year the number was reduced to
251.

    Membership  includes  leading figures of the Soviet Communist
Party  from regional party organizations, the national government
and  party  organiza- tions, and other prominent figures from the
military, arts and sciences.

                POWERS:

    The Central Committee is the policy-making body of the party.
It  is  charged  with guiding the party's work between the larger
party  congresses,  held  every 5 years. Most major policy issues
are brought before the Central Committee for a policy directive.

    Between congresses, the Central Committee alone has the power
to  change the composition of the Politburo, which is responsible
for running the country on a day-to-day basis. It also may change
the party leader.

              SELECTION:

    The  Central Committee is chosen every 5 years by the Commun-
ist  Party  congress.  Between congresses, members can be retired
and non-voting members can be promoted to voting membership.  The
last  congress  was  held 4 years ago.  The next one is scheduled
for fall.

            WHAT'S AT STAKE:

    Perhaps the future direction of the nation. This Central Com-
mittee  meeting  is widely expected to become an intense struggle
between  hard-liners  who want to turn back the reforms of leader
Mikhail Gorbachev and progressives who want to acclerate them.
    Gorbachev reportedly will propose a multiparty political sys-
tem,  which would end the Communists exclusive claim to power for
the first time in 7 decades.

    Gorbachev also is expected to give tacit approval to the con-
cept of private property.
    The   meeting   may   represent   the  biggest  challenge  of
Gorbachev's 5 years in power.

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3. Brief Meeting Report `` On Road to Democracy''
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by  zgu@ists.ists.ca (Zhiqiang Gu)
York Univ. News Correspondence

The  public  discussion  on  "Road  To  Democracy",  organized by
Toronto  Association  For Democracy In China, was held at Toronto
Board  of  Education, 155 College St. About fifty people attended
the  meeting.   The local Chinese cable "China Vision" sent their
journalists  and cameramen to the meeting and met the two princi-
pal  speakers. The Singtao Daily journalist also showed up at the
meeting.

The first speaker is Dr. Wally Seccombe. Dr.Seccombe is an expert
on poltical blowing in the eastern bloc countries, and has a very
close  link  with  the  people  from  these  countries.  His talk
emphasized  what  already  took  place  in  the eastern bloc, and
focues on the two points:

(1)  why  the  change  is  so  astonishing; and (2) how/why these
regimes were overthrown. He reviewed the problems and the changes
prevailing  in  these  countries, and then summarized several key
ways  to  democracy  in the eastern bloc countries including: (1)
mass  participation;  (2)  people  choose freely and meaningfully
between  their  political  alternatives  without  force  etc. His
speech showed the view of a westerner on the communist world.

The second speaker, Dr. Xin-Min Hua, is from the Ontario's Insti-
tute of Space and Terrestrial Science. He shared some other feel-
ings  that most of the Chinese people have, and made a comparison
between the events happenning in China and the eastern bloc coun-
tries.  His  talk  revealed an important fact that Chinese people
are  never  alone  and never isolated from others in fighting for
democracy.  The  Ceausescu's downfall had the strongest impact on
the Chinese people as well as on the current China's leaders.


After  the two speeches, the meeting was led to a free discussion
on  related  topics  such as: how the conditions and elements for
democracy  in  China  can  be  established? what are internal and
external  conditions  and  elements  for  China? how to avoid the
repetition  of  another dictatorship in China? how to re-evaluate
the Chinese traditions? etc.

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4. Japanese Bank Joins Loan to China-Backed Firm
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From: (Yagui Wei) yawei@ucs.indiana.edu
Source:	AMBER::CHENH  "Huijie"  5-FEB-1990 
DJNEWS ON CHINA

                  ---
    HONG KONG, Feb. 5 Kyodo - An unnamed Japanese bank has joined
two  European  banks  in loaning China's private development cor-
poration  2  billion Hong Kong dollars to help it buy a 20% stake
in  Hong  Kong  Telecommunications,  according to the South China
Morning Post.

     The paper said the loan is part of a financing package worth
8  billion  Hong  Kong dollars being sought by the China Interna-
tional Trust and Investment Corp. (CITIC).

     It quoted a senior Japanese banker in Hong Kont as saying he
suspects  Japan's  Ministry  of  Finance already has approved the
deal.

     Such  approval  would mean the removal of the most important
obstacle  in the way of Japanese banks resuming lending to China,
analysts said. ...

     Meanwhile,  British-based  Lloyds  Bank  is  involved  in  a
dispute  with  a  wholly-owned  subsidiary of CITIC, according to
another South China Morning Post report. ...

     The  large  number  of  disputes  over unpaid credit between
Chinese and foreign banks reflects a severe funds shortage facing
China's financial institutions, analysts say.

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|  China News Digest Subscription: (Xinmeng Liao) xliao@ccm.umanitoba.ca  |
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|  China News Digest Executive Editor: (Bo Chi)   chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.edu  | 
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Tue Feb  6 09:01:16 EST 1990