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

                             (News General)

                       -- Feb. 26 (II), 1990


Table of Contents
                                                                     # of Lines
News Brief  ............................................................ 15
1. New Rules to Keep Students at Home ................................. 126
2. Chinese Province Restricts Marriages Of Handicapped ................. 35

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News Brief
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From: Fangzhen Lin <lin@Neon.Stanford.EDU> 24/2/90
Source: AP news

    BEIJING (AP) - An American jet caught fire while landing at a
Chinese airport during a demonstration flight, but all seven crew
members  escaped  uninjured,  the  official  Xinhua  News  Agency
reported Saturday.

    Xinhua  said  the  Lear-31 was owned by the Lear Jet Corp. It
was landing in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, 255 miles
southwest of Beijing, when the accident occurred Friday.

    Chinese  aviation authorities were investigating the cause of
the  accident, Xinhua said. It did not say why Lear conducted the
demonstration or for whom.

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1. New Rules to Keep  Students at Home
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From: kwchan@hkucs.UUCP (Chan Ki Wa)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Date: 19 Feb 90 20:55:47 GMT
Source : South China Morning Post
By Willy Wo-lap Lam

The Chinese Government has made an all-out effort to restrict the
number of students studying abroad.

In  the  past fornight, the State Education Commission has circu-
lated  a  new  regulation stipulating that college graduates must
work for at least five years before they can apply to go overseas
for studies.

Chinese sources say, however, that there is also a body of unpub-
lished rules that clamp down on overseas scholarship.

Even  before the Tiananmen Square crackdown, Beijing had tried to
limit  scholars  going  to  Western  countries,  particularly the
United  States,  which  currently  plays host to more than 40,000
Chinese students.

Other  "disincentives"  included not granting exit permits to the
spouse and children of overseas scholars.

Since  June  4,  the quota of students permitted to go to Western
countries  has  been  further  constricted, say Chinese eductaion
sources.

Beijing  seems  specially  anxious to block the way for students,
specialising in the arts and social sciences.

"Beijing  is  giving priority to sending student who major in the
sciences,  engineering  and other technological subjects," said a
Beijning professor.

"At  the  same time, it prefers short-term courses - for scholars
as well as for officials - to full-term degree programmes."

Since  the  restrictions  apply  equally  to students who finance
their own studies, monetary considerations are not a major reason
for the draconian rules.

Western  diplomats  say  that  Beijing  fears  a worsening of its
brain-drain  problem,  specially  among Chinese students in First
World, Western countries.

An estimated 90 per cent of Chinese scholars in the US have found
ways and means to stay on after graduation.

The  Chinese  government  said  the  problem has been exacerbated
after  President  George  Bush signed an executive order allowing
Chinese students to overstay in America.


Yet an even more pressing reason for Beijing to close the door is
fear  that  Chinese  studying  overseas  will form anti-communist
organisations to promote political liberalisation back at home.

For  example, the banned Federation of Democracy in China - which
was  set  up by exiled leaders of the pro-democracy movement last
spring - has branches in the US and Western Europe.

The State Education Commission's (SEC) lastest move against over-
seas   scholarship  has  caused  particular  resentiment  because
leaders  including  Education Minister Li Tieying have repeatedly
pledged  that  Beijing's  policy toward sending students overseas
remains unchanged.

"The Government will improve the mechanism by which it sends stu-
dents  abroad  on  public funds and will continue to give support
and  guidance to those who study abroad at their own expense," Mr
Li, also a politburo member, said last month.

Before  the  spate  of political liberalisation in Eastern Europe
and  the Soviet Union in the past two months, Beijing had planned
to dispatch more students to the East Bloc.

"The  education authorities are in a quandary as to where to send
their students now," said a Western diplomat.

"It  seems  that  as much as in the US or Western Europe, Chinese
scholars  in  East  Germany  and  the USSR will be exposed to the
'peaceful evolution' tactics of the capitalistic West."

Analysts  expect  Chinese embassies worldwide to boost their sur-
veillance  of  the  political activities of overseas Chinese stu-
dents.

In spite of the restrictions, however, the urge to study overseas
will not diminish among China's youth.

For  the  bulk  of students and intellectuals disheartened by the
June  4  Tiananmen Square massacre and the ensuing persecution of
"dissidents", overseas studies is a legitimate escape route.

Aside from restrictions imposed by Beijing, the would-be scholars
are  also  hampered  by tightened quotas imposed by foreign coun-
tries,  some  of  which  have  apparently  buckled under pressure
exerted by the Chinese government.

Since  June 4, long lines have appeared outside the embassies and
consulates  of  countries  that are the favourite destinations of
Chinese students.

Sit-ins  and  other types of demonstrations have taken place out-
side Australian missions in Beijing and Australia by Chinese stu-
dents  who complain that Canberra has promulgated unfair restric-
tions on students who want to study in that country.

Such  massive frustration has spawned opportunities for unscrupu-
lous  merchants,  who  promise  would-be  students visas and even
foreign passports for a huge fee.

According  to Chinese statistics, since the beginning of the Open
Door  policy in 1979, more than 80,000 Chinese students have gone
abroad to study.

The bulk of the these have paid their way through college by tak-
ing up temporary jobs overseas.

In  spite of promises by Beijing that returned scholars will have
"priority  treatment"  in  the allocation of jobs, few among this
huge talent pool are expected to return.

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2. Chinese Province Restricts Marriages Of Handicapped
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From: (Yagui Wei) yawei@ucs.indiana.edu
Source: (AP) News 2/24/90

    BEIJING - A northeastern province has barred people with phy-
sical or mental disabilities from marrying or giving birth, offi-
cial reports said Saturday.

    It was the second Chinese province to pass such laws.

    The reports said the legislature in Liaoning enacted the laws
to prevent women from giving birth to babies with mental and phy-
sical defects.

    It said the law would improve the quality of the population.

    The  law, which takes effect July 1, also forbids close rela-
tives from marrying.

    Gansu   province,  in  China's  remote  and  poverty-stricken
northwest,  passed  a  law in 1988 ordering all mentally retarded
people  who  married  to  be sterilized and all mentally retarded
women to have abortions if they became pregnant.

    The  China  Daily newspaper said the Liaoning regulations ban
marriages  between directly related members of one's family, col-
lateral  relatives  within  three generations and individuals not
confirmed to have recovered from veneral disease and other infec-
tious diseases.

    The  newspaper  did  not  say if mentally handicapped couples
would be subject to sterilization.

    Officials  contacted  in Liaoning by telephone could not pro-
vide additional details of the regulations.

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|  China News Digest Executive Editor: (Bo Chi)   chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.edu  |
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Mon Feb 26 13:31:20 EST 1990