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

                             (News General)

                       -- Feb. 22 (II), 1990


Table of Contents
                                                                     # of Lines
1. (US) Chinese Students Organize Visiting Delegation .................... 61
2. US State Department Criticizes China Government -- Massacre ........... 91
3. China Law School President Forced to Resign ........................... 82
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1. (US) Chinese Students Organize Visiting Delegation
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From: "Jian Ding" <IZZYQ00@OAC.UCLA.EDU>
BY: LOCKE, MICHELLE ;  Associated Press Writer
Source: AMHERST, Mass. (AP)   February 21, 1990

  An   organizer  hopes  to  lead  the first announced delegation
of  Chinese  students  to return home since the killing of scores
of people in Tiananmen Square.

   "I   believe   that  this  is the right cause. We have to open
the  door to interaction.  Without  interaction we can do nothing
with  the movement back home,"  said  Matthew  Huang,  the leader
of  the  proposed  delegation  by the Independent  Federation  of
Chinese  Students  and  Scholars in the United States.

    The   federation   recently  voted  to  seek  permission  for
a visiting delegation.

    Letters  have been sent to the Chinese Embassy in Washington,
D.C.,  but there  has  been  no response so far. Huang, a student
at  the  University  of  Massachusetts,   said  it's possible the
government will refuse to allow the students to return.

    "We  do  want to go back and we think someone should take the
risk,"  said  Shen  Tong, one of the leaders in the pro-democracy
movement  in  Beijing  who  eluded capture and is now studying at
Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.

    He said Wednesday he was willing to take that risk.

    "This   kind   of   open  attitude  can  basically  challenge
the Chinese government's  closed-door  policy,"  he  said.  "It's
also  for  the  American  government.   We  want to show the Bush
administration we didn't give up our struggle."

    The   administration,  asserting  that  it  is  important  to
maintain  a  dialogue   with   China to encourage liberalization,
last  month  vetoed a bill protecting  Chinese  students  against
deportation.   Bush   has   twice  sent  high-level emissaries to
China since last summer's bloody suppression.

    A  statement  by  the  student  federation  said  reasons for
its visit include  investigating  what  happened  to those killed
when  soldiers moved into  Beijing's  Tiananmen  Square  on  June
4, as well as seeing "the real China, normal or not."

    Huang,   a   27-year-old  biology  student,  said he's scared
about what may happen on a trip home.

    "We   will   try  our  best to go back and maybe we will face
some  danger,"  Huang said. "One thing is for certain is we won't
trade our principles.'

    Officials   at   the   Chinese   Embassy  in  Washington  did
not return a telephone call on Wednesday.

    The  crackdown  of the pro-democracy movement was followed by

an  outcry  by   Chinese  students studying in the United States.
Many  were  colleagues  of  the  students leading the movement in
China.

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2. US State Department Criticizes China Government -- Massacre
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From: "Jian Ding" <IZZYQ00@OAC.UCLA.EDU>
BY: ANDERSON, JIM
Source: WASHINGTON (UPI)   February 21, 1990

  The   State  Department's annual report on human rights sharply
criticized the  Chinese  government  Wednesday  for  the  "massa-
cre"   of  hundreds and possibly  thousands of pro-democracy pro-
testers  in  Tiananmen Square and the later execution of at least
20 more pro-Democracy activists.

   The    Chinese   government  has  denied  the  executions  and
has   never  officially   acknowledged  any  widespread  killings
occurred  when  tanks and troops were called in to crush the pro-
democracy movement last June.

    The   harsh   words   by   the  State Department Human Rights
bureau, in its annual  "Country  Reports,"  was  in  direct  con-
trast   to   the  much  milder  language   used   by   the   Bush
administration  in  recent  comments  on the situation in China.
    "The human rights climate in China deterioriated dramatically
in 1989," the State Department report concluded.

    The   account,   based   on  reports  from U.S. diplomats and
other  sources, said  "at  least  several  hundred,  and possibly
thousands, of people were killed in Beijing on June 3-4."

    "The   Beijing  massacre,"  the report said, "was followed by
a  drastic,  country-wide  crackdown  on  participants,  support-
ers,   and   sympathizers.  Thousands  were  arrested and about a
score are known to have been executed following trials which fell
far short of international standards."

    The   State  Department  placed  the  blame  for the killings
squarely  at  the  feet  of  the  Chinese  leadership:  "Credible
evidence  indicates  that  the  leadership  deliberately  ordered
the   use   of   lethal   force  to suppress peaceful  demonstra-
tions.   The   excessive  force  employed  resulted in the deaths
of many unarmed civilians."

    Senate   Democratic   leader   George   Mitchell   said   the
report   "is   a  devastating   indictment  of  human  rights  in
China.  It  is  an  equally devastating  indictment  of  the pol-
icies of the Bush administration toward China."

    Mitchell said the report shows that China pursues a policy of
violating  the   rights   of   its citizens "in a way that should
shock the conscience of the world."

    "It   does  shock the conscience of Americans. Unfortunately,
it  does  not  shock the executive branch of the American govern-
ment," Mitchell said.

    White   House   press   secretary   Marlin Fitzwater insisted
there  was  "no inconsistency"  between the report's findings and
Bush's  decision to try to keep open lines of diplomatic communi-
cation between Washington and Beijing.


    And  at  the  House  Foreign Affairs Committee's human rights
subcommittee,  members   praised   the   candid   nature  of  the
report by Richard Schifter, assistant  secretary  of  states  for
human  rights,  but  criticized  the administration's position on
China.

    Subcommittee  Chairman  Gus Yatron, D-Pa., told Schifter that
while  the  report  "pulls  no punches," that current U.S. policy
toward  China  and  also toward  Iraq "leaves the impression that
the  United  States has placed human rights on the back burner of
American foreign policy."

    And   Rep.   Tom   Lantos,  D-Calif., said, "Perhaps the most
disappointing  aspect   of   the  report  are its best pages, the
report  on  China,  because the human  rights  report  on  China,
which   I   commend and applaud, reflect a schizophrenic approach
on the part of this amdinistration to China."

    But   Schifter   said  that  U.S. human rights goals "are not
advanced  by  cutting all ties" with countries that violate human
rights. -

    Elsewhere,  the report said 1989 "may well go down in history
books  as a watershed year regarding the worldwide cause of human
rights," particularly in Eastern Europe.

    Regarding  the  Soviet  Union,  the report commented, "Though
reformers  strengthened   their   hold  on the top echelon of the
Soviet  government,  'new  thinking' has failed to penetrate many
parts of the Soviet bureaucracy."
    ... ...
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3. China Law School President Forced to Resign
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From: "Jian Ding" <IZZYQ00@OAC.UCLA.EDU>
BY: LUBMAN, SARAH
Source: BEIJING (UPI)   February 21, 1990

  The  president  of  a  leading  law school was forced to resign
for  being  overly   sympathetic   to  his  students  during last
spring's  protest  movement,  Chinese  and  Western  sources said
Wednesday.

   Jiang   Ping,  the liberal president of China Politics and Law
University in Beijing, was ordered to resign last week. Jiang had
originally  expressed  a  wish  to  quit his post last summer but
was persuaded by his students to stay on, the sources said.

    Conservative   ideologues   criticized  Jiang,  60, for being
too lenient with  many students who demonstrated in last spring's
massive pro-democracy protests, the sources said.

    Politics   and   Law   University,   one  of five law schools
formed  in  the 1950s  under  the  Ministry  of  Justice,  played
a  leading  role  in the student-led pro-democracy movement.

    At   the  height  of  the protests, young teachers from Poli-
tics  and  Law  staged   a  hunger  strike  in  front  of  Zhong-
nanhai,  China's  leadership compound.

    Several teachers from the university were arrested during the
crackdown  that   followed   the  army's  bloody  suppression  of
the  protests,  and  some previously  active  students  say  they
still  undergo  occasional  police interrogations.

    Jiang   was   told   to   step   down  by Ministry of Justice
officials, but sources   said   the   officials  apparently  were
pressured   from   higher  authorities,  possibly  the  Communist
Party's Political and Legal Leading Group headed by ruling Polit-
buro member Qiao Shi.

    The  Political  and  Legal Group has no direct authority over
the  Ministry of  Justice, which is supervised by the State Coun-
cil,  China's  Cabinet. But the  party's  legal group counts Jus-
tice Minister Cai Cheng among its seven members.
    Students   at  Politics  and  Law say they hold Jiang in high
regard  for  trying  to protect them during continuing investiga-
tions in connection with the protests.

    Sources  said  authorities  appeared  to  have  timed Jiang's
ouster  to  coincide  with  the last week of the lunar New Year's
academic break so as to avoid campus unrest.

    "They're   being  careful  about  Jiang Ping," said a foreign
legal expert.  "They don't want any problems with the students."

    Jiang,   who  has  spoken  in  favor  of  legal  reform, will
retain  his  positions   as   standing  committee  member  of the
National  People's  Congress,  China's  rubber-stamp  Parliament,
and co-chairman of the NPC's legislative affairs commission.


    He   will  also  continue to teach graduate and undergraduate
classes at Politics and Law, sources said.

    Jiang,   a  Communist Party member educated in Moscow, shared
the fate of hundreds of thousands of Chinese intellectuals in the
late  1950s. Branded a "rightist"  in  1957,  he  spent two years
in a labor camp, where he lost a leg.

    He  was  fully  rehabilitated in 1979 and was later appointed
president  of  Politics  and  Law  University,  formerly known as
the Beijing Institute of Political Science and Law.

    Sources   say  the  university has not yet replaced Jiang and
the  search  for a suitable president will probably take "several
months."

    "They   can't  find the appropriate person. They need someone
acceptable  to the Ministry of Justice," said a source, who asked
not to be identified.

    A  university  spokesman  contacted  by  telephone  said exe-
cutive  vice  president  Chen  Guangzhong  is  temporarily  over-
seeing  day-to-day campus administration.

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|  China News Digest Executive Editor: (Bo Chi)   chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.edu  |
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Thu Feb 22 14:48:08 EST 1990