Communism China

President Bush and the U.S. Congress, while seeming to disagree on China policy, are actually united in an attempt to bring about the collapse of Chinese communism, asserts an internal party analysis leaked to reporters here Tuesday. To hold on to power in the face of such Western pressure, the document says, the Communist Party must enforce its dictatorship and fight internal supporters of democratic socialism.

The streets were cleared of cars and thousands of people peered curiously at Venezuela's controversial president whizzing through Shanghai on a trip Sunday to drum up business for his nation's ailing economy. President Hugo Chavez, a former army paratrooper who has been raising the role of the military in Venezuelan society, referred repeatedly to Chinese revolutionary Mao Tse-tung during his meetings with Chinese officials.

China's new hard-line leadership, consolidating its crackdown on pro-democracy activists, has issued sweeping orders adding political crimes to legal violations and specifying punishments from imprisonment to execution. The orders, in a circular issued over the weekend by the Communist Party Politburo and the State Council, China's Cabinet, are seen as preparation for tough legal action against thousands of people being rounded up nationwide by security forces.

What are the big questions facing America as it seeks to come to grips with China's growing economic and military power? What are the choices for the long term? Forget about the day-to-day worries. Put aside the brouhahas that have dominated the headlines and consumed much of the time of policy-makers in Washington over the past few years--such as what to do about China's most-favored-nation trade benefits or about Beijing's continuing export of dangerous missiles and nuclear technology.

Chinese exiles meeting in Paris chose former government official Yan Jiaqi and student protest leader Wuer Kaixi to lead an international movement to end Communist rule in their country. On the final day of a three-day inaugural meeting of the Federation of Democracy in China, delegates elected Yan as chairman and Wuer as vice chairman.

When exiled Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi showed up in Taiwan last week on his first visit to that anti-Communist stronghold, he wasted no time in verbally skewering the aging ideologues of Beijing. Noting that the Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag would soon come down for the last time, Fang told a Taipei news conference: "Such great changes taking place during these two years place immense psychological pressure on the Chinese Communist leadership. . . .

What are the big questions facing America as it seeks to come to grips with China's growing economic and military power? What are the choices for the long term? Forget about the day-to-day worries. Put aside the brouhahas that have dominated the headlines and consumed much of the time of policy-makers in Washington over the past few years--such as what to do about China's most-favored-nation trade benefits or about Beijing's continuing export of dangerous missiles and nuclear technology.

The streets were cleared of cars and thousands of people peered curiously at Venezuela's controversial president whizzing through Shanghai on a trip Sunday to drum up business for his nation's ailing economy. President Hugo Chavez, a former army paratrooper who has been raising the role of the military in Venezuelan society, referred repeatedly to Chinese revolutionary Mao Tse-tung during his meetings with Chinese officials.

Re "Don't Buy the 'Peace and Love' Party Line," Opinion, May 22: Shintaro Ishihara's article on China is bigoted and unfair, as evidenced by a number of his statements and omissions. He absurdly states, for example, "It is a historical fact that before communism, mainland China lacked a civil society." What is "civil" or not depends entirely on a particular worldview and perspective (civil by whose standards?), so it cannot, by definition, be a "fact" of any kind. Also, during certain eras of China's long history (say, the Han dynasty of 2,000 years ago, certainly "before communism")

I ENJOYED David Sarno's Web Scout column [" 'Great Firewall' Stands Despite Beijing's Vows," Aug. 6] because it demonstrated that liberal journalists have learned nothing from the history of the 20th century, it seems. Journalists seem shocked that the Chinese government was lying when it promised free and open Internet access during the Olympic Games. Well, what did you guys expect? China is a dictatorship. It's a totalitarian government. Of course they lied. Did you actually think that they would let the Internet be completely accessible during the Games?

When exiled Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi showed up in Taiwan last week on his first visit to that anti-Communist stronghold, he wasted no time in verbally skewering the aging ideologues of Beijing. Noting that the Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag would soon come down for the last time, Fang told a Taipei news conference: "Such great changes taking place during these two years place immense psychological pressure on the Chinese Communist leadership. . . .

President Bush and the U.S. Congress, while seeming to disagree on China policy, are actually united in an attempt to bring about the collapse of Chinese communism, asserts an internal party analysis leaked to reporters here Tuesday. To hold on to power in the face of such Western pressure, the document says, the Communist Party must enforce its dictatorship and fight internal supporters of democratic socialism.

Chinese exiles meeting in Paris chose former government official Yan Jiaqi and student protest leader Wuer Kaixi to lead an international movement to end Communist rule in their country. On the final day of a three-day inaugural meeting of the Federation of Democracy in China, delegates elected Yan as chairman and Wuer as vice chairman.

China's new hard-line leadership, consolidating its crackdown on pro-democracy activists, has issued sweeping orders adding political crimes to legal violations and specifying punishments from imprisonment to execution. The orders, in a circular issued over the weekend by the Communist Party Politburo and the State Council, China's Cabinet, are seen as preparation for tough legal action against thousands of people being rounded up nationwide by security forces.

John Lone--who's worked only sporadically since starring in the 1987 Academy Award-winning "The Last Emperor"--will return to the screen in "Shanghai 1920," starring as an Asian underworld crime lord opposite a yet-to-be-cast American actor. The epic, English-language gangster drama spans the years 1910 to 1936, which encompassed the beginnings of Communism in China, as well as warfare with the Japanese.