Subject: CND-EP Weekly Posting, January 30, 1991

From: CND-EP <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 91 01:10:00 -0500

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

=====================  Europe / Pacific Section (CND-EP)  =====================
			       January 30, 1991
 
---------------------------- Table of Contents ---------------------------
No. Subject                                                     # of Lines

1. From Chinese Students in Germany:
   An Open Letter to the Intermediate People's Court of Beijing.........25

2. Chinese Student Organization in Germany Held 3rd Congress.............5

3. Hong Kong Protest of China Trials....................................20

4. Hong Kong Takes '97 Reservations.....................................15

5. No Fanfare For Britain's 150-year Rule In Hong Kong..................45
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1. From Chinese Students in Germany:
   An Open Letter to the Intermediate People's Court of Beijing
====================================================================(25 lines)
>From: [email-masked] (Liu Yan, LS VI)
Source: soc.culture.china   Date: 25 Jan 91 16:01:55 GMT

	An Open Letter to the Intermediate People's Court of Beijing

		    ( the short version )

						Chinese Students in FRG
						Jan. 23. 1991

    According to German medium, Mr. Wang Dan, a student of Beijing University,
is now being prosecuted with the so-called "conterrevolution" crime after a
detention of more than one year and facing the posibility of death penality.

    We, overseas students in FRG, express our greatest consternation over this
development!   We are extremly concerned with this trial and court sentence.
This is not just a matter for Wang Dan himself. It concerns every Chines
student and citizen.

    Mr. Wang Dan is innocent! We are in full conviction that what he engaged
in is in full accordance with the Constitution of the People's republic of
China which guarantees the freedom of organisation and demonstration for all
citizens. His words and deeds are unmistable reflection of this consciousness
of the responsibility of a citizen and the patriotic enthusiasm of all young
students.

    The charge of "conterrevolution" against him is totally without basis. We
strongly demand the immediate release of Mr. Wang Dan with an acknowlegement
of his innocence.
==============================================================================

2. Chinese Student Organization in Germany Held 3rd Congress
=====================================================================(5 lines)
>From: [email-masked]
Date:	  01/26/91 , 16:48:44

The "Fedration of Chinese Students and Scholors in Germany" (Quande Xuelian)
held its 3rd Congress in Koenigswinter near Bonn from Jan. 12, to 13, 1991.
Mr. Qiang Yuejun was reelected FCSSG chairman. The Chinese embassy failed
their trying to disturb the conference. 43 of 57 local assosiations of Chinese
students have sent their representives to the FCSSG conference.
==============================================================================

3. Hong Kong Protest of China Trials
====================================================================(20 lines)
>From: CND Correspondent Charles P. Mok  <[email-masked]>
Source: World Report, San Francisco Chronicles, January 28, 1991

Hong Kong - About 1,000 people demonstrated yesterday outside the offices of
China's official news agency to protest sentencing of Wang Dan, a student
leader of the 1989 pro-democracy movement.

The demonstrators, some of whom wore white sheets and headbands as a sign of
mourning, shouted slogans demanding the release of Wang and other dissidents,
but no violence was reported during the three-hour protest at the office of
the Xinhua News Agency, which serves as Beijing's de facto diplomatic mission
in the territory.  Hong Kong recerts to Chinese rule in 1997.

Some of the protestors carried posters of Wang, 23, a Beijing University
student who was sentenced Saturday to four years in prison.  He was one of
eight dissidents who were convicted of "counterrevolutionary propaganda and
incitement" and sentenced to prison for their role in the democracy movement,
which was crushed by Chinese troops.

Ren Wanding, 46, China's leading human rights advocate, was sentenced to seven
years.  Another student leader, Guo Haifeng, was sentenced to four years.  Bao
Zunxin, a historian, was sentenced to five years.
==============================================================================

4. Hong Kong Takes '97 Reservations
====================================================================(15 lines)
>From: CND Correspondent Charles P. Mok <[email-masked]>
Source: The Sunday San Jose Mercury News, Travel section. Janaury 27, 1990.

Not everyone is fleeing Great Britain's last great Asian colony, Hong Kong.
By treaty, on June 30, 1997, ownership of Hong Kong reverts back to the
People's Republic of China, a move that has caused a certain amount of panic
in the highly capitalist colony.

Some Hong Kong businesses are planning to cash in on the moment, however. The
Excelsior Hotel (Causeway Bay; telephone 894-8888) is offering a two-day,
one-night package, with a guarantee rate of 1997 Hong Kong dollars - about
$225 - single or double, and a champagne party to toast the end of British
rule. The hotel overlooks Victoria Harbor.

The more central Hong Kong Hilton (2 Queen's Road; 523-3111) has accepted 67
reservations for the transfer date for rooms with a view of Statue Square and
Government House, where, old Asia hands are betting, the ceremony will take
place.
==============================================================================

5. No Fanfare For Britain's 150-year Rule In Hong Kong
====================================================================(45 lines)
>From: CND Correspondent Wu, Fang <[email-masked]>
BY: WONG SAU-YING
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS       DATE: January 25, 1991

This financial center at the tip of south China marked 150 years of British
rule today without any fanfare, aware that it returns to Chinese rule in less
than seven years.

China ceded Hong Kong island to Britain in 1841 after losing a battle to
British forces.  The British at the time described the island as a ''barren
rock'' with a tiny population of 5,650, half of them fishermen and pirates.

In 1860, the British acquired Kowloon peninsula, across the harbor from Hong
Kong island, and 38 years later China leased the area north of Kowloon to
London for 99 years.

Under a pact signed between Communist China and Britain in 1984, Hong Kong
reverts to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, coinciding with the expiration of the
lease.

Hong Kong's Chinese-language newspapers barely mentioned the anniversary,
apart from a historic account of the territory's early colonial rule published
in the independent Ming Pao Daily News.

But the colony's two English-language newspapers, the Hongkong Standard and
the South China Morning Post, turned out a special 16-page supplement on Hong
Kong's history to mark the occasion.

''The British government in the United Kingdom does not plan to do anything
about Hong Kong's 150th birthday,'' said Chris Osborne, British Foreign Office
spokesman in the territory.

Hong Kong government spokesman Mark Pinkstone said there had been talks about
staging a festival to mark the anniversary, but it was decided the money could
be better used elsewhere.

Kam Chung, editor of Open Magazine, said any celebration would be an
embarrassment to both Beijing and London.

''What is the point of celebrating something that you're going to give up?''
Kam said.

Since the June, 1989 military crackdown on the student-led democracy movement
in China, Hong Kong residents have become more concerned about their
conditions after 1997.

Many fear China will back away from its promise to allow the territory a high
degree of autonomy after the British pull out.

''I am too worried about the future to reflect on the past,'' said Tang
Chi-fung, an accountant.
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