==+==+==+== C h i n e s e C o m m u n i t y F o r u m ==+==+==+=== Tuesday, November 9, 1993 (Issue No. 9312) +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Chinese Community Forum (CCF) is a journal published on China-Net. CCF is dedicated to the discussion and debate on the issues related to the Chinese community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the Editorial Board of CCF. Contributions to the discussions and suggestions of new topics are very much appreciated. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Table of Contents Author | # of Lines ============================================================================ 1. Pravda Ban Lifted, Returns as Angry Anti-Yeltsin Voice.................68 2. Yeltsin Acts to Ensure Civil Liberties.................................56 3. Russian Central Bank Criticized on Licensing...........................57 4. Ukraine Reverts to Soviet-style Economic Controls......................52 5. Polish Economist Warns about Economic Catastrophe......................31 6. Czechs Fear Chaos amid Pressure to Accelerate Bankuptcy................33 7. Czechs to Privatize Big Automotive Company and Part of State Oil.......33 ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== From The Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- In coming issues, CCF is planning to focus on such topics as: the November APEC summit in Seattle, the interactions between China's ecomonical developments and political changes, and so on. Contributions to these topics and suggested new topics are welcome. ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 1. Pravda Ban Lifted, Returns as Angry Anti-Yeltsin Voice.................68 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOSCOW (UPI) [Wed, 3 Nov 93] -- Pravda returned to the newstands Tuesday, ending a one-month ban, and angry as ever at President Boris Yeltsin and his political and economic reforms. ``We return,'' proclaimed a headline on the first issue of the left-wing warhorse that Yeltsin suspended following the armed uprising last month led by militant communists and nationalists. Pravda and other papers were banished as punishment for lending support to the insurgents in Parliament who sought to seize power. ``Let it be clear to everybody,'' said Pravda, ``we do not change our convictions. We remain loyal to the best traditions of Pravda and socialist values.'' When the government suspended the publication of Pravda and a dozen other opposition newspapers -- banning a handful of them permanently -- it gave Pravda an ultimatum: fire its editor, change its name, reregister as a new publication and reorient its political content. When Pravda balked, the state stepped in and fired editor Gennady Seleznev. The staff elevated his deputy, Viktor Linnik, formerly a correspondent in New York, to editor. The changes stopped there: Pravda kept its name, which means truth in Russian, and its return issue showed it in a feisty mood of continuing opposition to the government. ``Pravda (The Truth) might be shut down, but the truth will never be,'' said the paper founded in 1912 by Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin. Pravda became the official Soviet Communist Party organ and was required reading for millions of party members. Following the failed August 1991 hard-line communist coup, Pravda was temporarily suspended and the party that backed it was banned, starting Pravda's fall. Since then it has struggled to stay alive in a market economy while becoming one of the leading voices of left-wing opposition. Another newspaper yearning for the Soviet past, Sovetskaya Rossiya, remains suspended. Pravda's comeback issue is filled with critical comment about the political and economic changes that have occurred during its 30-day forced silence since Yeltsin crushed the uprising headquartered in the Russian Parliament building. Yeltsin dissolved Parliament Sept. 21, used force to disband the violent parliamentary resistance Oct. 4, and scheduled new legislative elections for Dec. 12. Leaders of the uprising, including Yeltsin's Vice President Alexander Rutskoi -- who was often featured favorably in Pravda -- were jailed. In dissolving Parliament, Yeltsin accused it of blocking the country's post-Soviet reforms. Pravda's retort upon its return: ``Why do you think the reforms are stuck? Because of Rutskoi? No, it has been a secret, silent and persistent resistance of the people.'' Pravda said the resistance represented a ``new Russian underground.'' Despite attacking the government on everything including next month's election, Pravda told its readers to vote. ``It is clear that it is immoral to call the upcoming elections legitimate and constitutional,'' Pravda said, adding, ``It is necessary to go to the polls.'' Hard-line parties have been prohibited from fielding candidates, but the government lifted its ban of the Communist Party. Pravda, back as the election campaign shifts into high gear, credited its return to ``thousands of letters and calls which bombarded the Ministry of Press and Information.'' ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 2. Yeltsin Acts to Ensure Civil Liberties.................................56 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOSCOW (UPI) [Wed, 3 Nov 93] -- President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree Tuesday setting up a state human rights panel charged with monitoring and ensuring the civil liberties of Russian citizens. The broad order gives the commission power to demand documents from any state agency, a provision which seems designed to place Russia's state bureaucracy and law enforcement agencies under tighter civilian control. Russian human rights activists have campaigned for years to put tougher curbs on the country's security services, after decades during which the Soviet Union's infamous KGB spy network was both the chief keeper of state secrets and the primary violator of civil liberties. The decree calls on the panel to make regular reports on human rights, to improve legal guarantees of rights and freedoms, to make recommendations to legislative bodies and to demand explanations of court or government decisions affecting citizens' liberties. But the Kremlin decree also names the president as the guarantor of civil liberties and personal freedoms in Russia, with the panel reporting directly to him. By creating a new body that is answerable to the president alone, Yeltsin immediately raises questions about the role of the panel, its independence and its credibility -- especially coming at a time when Yeltsin has come under fire for curbing the press, banning extremist parties on the right and left, restricting opposition street demonstrations and otherwise limiting certain basic freedoms under a recently lifted state of emergency imposed during a rightist rebellion last month. However, some of the restrictions on freedoms have been applauded, even by Yeltsin's democratic supporters, who want the most strident opposition movements muzzled and back the banning of communist rallies on the Bolshevik revolution anniversary Sunday. Polls have shown widespread popular support for empowering the police with extra authority on the streets to stop people at random, conduct document checks without cause and otherwise clamp down on a population sick and tired of rising crime and willing to sacrfice certain civil liberties in exchange for law and order. The Kremlin decree skirts these topical issues while portraying the president as the protector of Russian citizens' rights at a time when his image has been tarnished by earlier decrees cracking down on the opposition. The decree also is in stark contrast to the Kremlin history of paying lip- service to human rights while trampling all over basic freedoms under the Soviets. Yeltsin named a Soviet dissident and former prisoner of conscience, Sergei Kovalev, to head the panel. Kovalev also chaired the disbanded Parliament's legislative committee on human rights. Among the other presidential appointees on the 14-person panel is Yelena Bonner, whose late husband, Andrei Sakharov was one of the Soviet Union's most prominent dissidents and civil rights activists. ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 3. Russian Central Bank Criticized on Licensing...........................57 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOSCOW (UPI) [5 Nov 93] -- Two top Russian officials attacked the Central Bank Friday for issuing new licenses to five foreign banks -- a move the pair claimed might harm Russia's fledgling domestic banking industry. Deputy Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar told the newspaper Izvestia that any haste in issuing such licenses ``could have dangerous and far-reaching consequences,'' while Finance Minister Boris Fyodorov said his agency might tighten restrictions and limit the number of licenses the Central Bank can issue. At the same time, Izvestia reported that up to 500 Russian banks have begun preparing to protest the Central Bank's decision and demand greater protection from foreign competitors. The reactions reflected growing fear among Russian bankers that they will prove unable to compete with the big Western financial institutions now moving in on the Russian market. Gaidar said that during Russia's difficult transition to a market economy, the government might have to impose tougher controls on foreign banks. There are currently 12 such banks operating in Russia -- five of which received licenses late last month, including U.S.-based Citibank and Chase Manhattan, Dutch ABN AMRO and two joint Russian-Turkish banks. Two years ago, Credit Lyonnais became the first foreign bank allowed to open in Russia -- and it still is the only one actually up and running in the nation. Last year, authorities also granted licenses to Austria's Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich, Dutch-based International Nederlande Bank, France's Banque Societe Generale, the Bank of China and a joint French-German bank operated by Dresdner Bank AG and Banque Nationale de Paris. Despite the foreigners' incursions, Russia's domestic banking industry remains protected by a law stipulating overseas institutions cannot collectively hold more than 12 percent of the total charter capital of all Russia's commercial banks. Currently, the foreigners' share stands at 5 percent. Friday's dispute comes against a backdrop of near-continuous sniping between Fyodorov and Central Bank chief Viktor Gerashchenko, a conservative that government radical reformers accuse of impeding economic changes. Gaidar told Izvestia that Gerashchenko had not consulted with government officials before issuing the five new bank licenses, warning that the current policy could lead to a ``precipitous slump in the domestic banking sector.'' Gerashchenko defended his decision earlier this week, saying some of the foreign banks already had a presence in Russia for more than 20 years and ``enjoyed an excellent reputation.'' He said the institutions would help improve Russia's trade ties with the West, attract foreign investment and force the nation's newer commercial banks to compete more effectively. ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 4. Ukraine Reverts to Soviet-style Economic Controls......................52 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- KIEV, Ukraine (UPI) [Wed, 3 Nov 93]-- Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk has issued a special decree that throws the country back into the old state order and contract system, according to terms of the presidential order issued Tuesday. The decree, signed Oct. 28 but only made public Tuesday, requires most Ukrainian enterprises to sell a portion of their production to the government at state-set prices -- a clear throwback to the Soviet way of doing business. Kravchuk's presidential decree affects firms that have become private as well as the majority that are continuing to operate under state control. The businesses have the choice of either signing a contract with the state and funding the production themselves, or simply filling state orders with funding for the production right out of the government budget. The decree, which takes effect in January, cites the collapse of the country's economy as the reason for the reversion. Since independence in 1991, Ukraine has been in a kind of limbo between the old centrally planned economy and a market system. As a result, its economy is in ruins. Last month's inflation hit 70 percent and production is down 10 percent from last year. Without any market reforms, Ukrainian experts say the type of control the decree envisages is necessary to save the country's economy from total destruction. ``Because we don't have any market reforms here, then we really need state ordering to a certain extent,'' said Vladimir Cherniak, a leading economist at Ukraine's Institute of Economics. ``Look at the agricultural industry. Producers were hoarding the products and refusing to sell them to the state at low prices. Yet there wasn't enough demand for it on the small market that existed and thus the population wasn't getting its hands on it.'' Cherniak warned, however, that the decree should be considered a temporary move and should not take the place of true market reform. ``To a certain extent it's a move that can be used during the transition period, when we don't have real market reform. But we must implement this market reform and not sacrifice it to go back to a state ordering system.'' The decree includes all state businesses in the areas of agriculture, the military sector and consumer production. Even if such businesses are privatized during 1994, they must continue fulfilling state orders. Most other businesses are exempt from the decree, but may sign a contract with the state on a voluntary basis. ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 5. Polish Economist Warns about Economic Catastrophe......................31 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARSAW, Poland (UPI) [Wed, 3 Nov 93] -- Poland's representative in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development resigned Tuesday to protest the economic policy of the post-communist government coalition. Jan Winiecki, who is on the board of directors of the EBRD in London, told United Press International in a telephone interview that the new government economic program is a ``long list of wishes'' which cannot be implemented. The post-communist Democratic Left Alliance, or SLD, and the Peasant Party, also with communist roots, formed the ruling coalition after their win in the Sept. 19 parliamentary elections. ``The program says who should be given money but does not say how to get the money,'' he said. ``I think that the government will lead Poland to economic catastrophe.'' The coalition is led by Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak, the Peasant Party leader, and has 303 seats in the 460-member Sejm, or the lower house of Parliament. During the election campaign, the leftist parties promised higher pensions and wage increases for health-sector workers. The government has suggested it may increase the budget deficit from the current 5 percent of the gross domestic product to as much as 6 percent, to finance expenditures. According to Winiecki, this kind of policy will result in an economic crisis within as soon as 18 months. ``It will be very difficult to pull out from such a disaster,'' he said. ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 6. Czechs Fear Chaos amid Pressure to Accelerate Bankuptcy................33 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRAGUE, Czech Republic (UPI) [Wed, 3 Nov 93] -- Former Czech Industrial Minister Miroslav Gregr warned Tuesday that starting a process of bankruptcies would cause ``an irreversible chain reaction'' that would destroy Czech industry's reputation for efficient low-wage production. Gregr, speaking at a news conference arranged by the Social Democratic Party, blamed Czech banks for handicapping industry by refusing to extend short-term credits to many companies. But many bankers and financial advisers say the Czech economy only can hope for long-term stability by forcing deficit-ridden companies to clear their books of red ink through liquidation. Government planners fear that forcing insolvent companies into bankruptcy, where they would be reorganized or sold to pay off their creditors, would cripple economic growth by unleashing a wave of job losses, inflation and social unrest. The government instead has continued to subsidize the companies. Some 12,000 Czech and Slovak firms have been involved in a government- sponsored scheme to solve some of these debt problems. Already, some 24 billion crowns ($850 million) in debt has been resolved. But press reports suggest Czech and Slovak companies owe each other 10 times that amount, about $8.5 billion. Since a new bankruptcy law came into force in April, only 20 companies have been put out of business. Before then, 10 others had been sold off and parceled out to creditors, Prague's Hospodarske Noviny newspaper reported. The new bankruptcy courts appear to be doing their best to prevent foreclosure. In the last 11 months, the newspaper said, 401 of nearly 1,000 creditors' claims were dismissed by the court. ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 7. Czechs to Privatize Big Automotive Company and Part of State Oil.......33 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRAGUE, Czech Republic (UPI) [5 Nov 93] -- Czech officials announced plans Friday to partly privatize state petrochemical monopoly Benzina S.P. and fully privatize government-owned Mototechna, the nation's largest automaker. Under the plan, the government will next year let Czech citizens buy shares in four oil-refinery companies that control 1.2 billion crowns ($41.4 million) of Benzina's assets, including 250 retail filling station and part of the company's storage facilities. However, a new state-owned company will retain a 4 billion crown ($137.9 million) ``strategic materials reserve,'' including Benzina's pipelines, refineries and some filling stations, the Czech News Agency reported. As for Mototechna, officials plan to break the company down into component units, privatizing factories, dealerships and parts shops through direct sale or auction. Prior to communism's collapse, Mototechna had a near monopoly on car parts and new car sales, including exports of Czech passenger cars. But Economic-Competition Minister Stanislav Belohradek said the breakup will benefit Czech consumers. ``It should happen that spare parts for automobiles will be sold in different shops at different prices, and the customers' needs will be better satisfied,'' Belohradek told local media. The Czech Republic, formed through the breakup of former Czechoslovakia, has been moving toward a market economy in recent years. In the energy sector, several foreign gasoline retailers -- including Italy's Agip and Austria's OMV -- already have minor toeholds in the Czech market. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++ + Executive Editor: Shusheng Luan Executive Moderator: Tong Shen + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + For subscription: mail "SUB CHINA-NT Your-First-Name Your-Last-Name" + + to LISTSERV@UGA (bitnet) or listserv@uga.cc.uga.edu (internet) + + For back issues of CCF: + + anonymous ftp to cnd.org[132.249.229.100]:pub/community/CCF + + For contribution and inquiry: mail to ccf-editor@ifcss.org + +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++