Judges China

China's chief justice vowed to crack down on severe criminal offenders, blaming "the infiltration of decadent Western ideology and culture" for exacerbating the national crime rate. Ren Jianxin, president of the Supreme People's Court, resurrected the Marxist theory of class struggle to justify a harsh anti-crime campaign that sent hundreds to the execution grounds last year. Authorities have vowed to continue the crackdown.

Zhang Zixiang, a judge from the Henan province of China, wants the Far East and the West to find more common legal ground. So Zhang is heading a delegation of 17 Chinese judges on a two-week visit to the United States, intended to expose the group to the daily workings of the American legal system and to encourage the exchange of legal philosophies. "Good things can be learned from each country for the good of the people," Zhang said Tuesday during a tour of the Ventura County Courthouse.

Zhang Zixiang, a judge from the Henan province of China, wants the Far East and the West to find more common legal ground. So Zhang is heading a delegation of 17 Chinese judges on a two-week visit to the United States, intended to expose the group to the daily workings of the American legal system and to encourage the exchange of legal philosophies. "Good things can be learned from each country for the good of the people," Zhang said Tuesday during a tour of the Ventura County Courthouse.

China's chief justice vowed to crack down on severe criminal offenders, blaming "the infiltration of decadent Western ideology and culture" for exacerbating the national crime rate. Ren Jianxin, president of the Supreme People's Court, resurrected the Marxist theory of class struggle to justify a harsh anti-crime campaign that sent hundreds to the execution grounds last year. Authorities have vowed to continue the crackdown.

Mao Tse-tung's widow, Jiang Qing, has throat cancer but is refusing an operation because it would leave her voiceless, a pro-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong reported Saturday. Jiang, 74, was last seen in public Jan. 25, 1981, when a show trial ended and she was removed screaming from a Beijing courtroom, shouting revolutionary slogans and cursing her judges and China's current leaders as "fascists, renegades, traitors."

Issues related to law increasingly dominate U.S.-China relations. Unfortunately, U.S. impatience with the pace of China's efforts to establish a rule of law threatens to obscure what gains have been made. Furthermore, specific issues between the two nations, such as insistence that Beijing comply with bilateral agreements on intellectual property, textile labeling, export controls and restrictions on the use of nuclear technology should not be mixed up with demands by some U.S.

The 16 judges took their places at a horseshoe-shaped table in the boardroom of the State Bar Assn.'s Downtown offices. They had come to learn about L.A. law. They listened intently as a public defender, a deputy district attorney and a Superior Court judge explained such basic concepts as presumption of innocence, plea bargaining and right of appeal. And they were invited to ask questions. Surely, they would be eager for more details about the O.J. Simpson murder case. O.J. who ?

A kilogram of heroin sealed Ding Aguo's doom. On June 22, the 31-year-old woman was executed by firing squad here along with six other people convicted of drug trafficking. The next day, 11 drug dealers in the city of Chengdu were rounded up, paraded before a stadium of spectators, then led away to be shot. Within a single week, authorities put to death at least 48 people as part of an aggressive national anti-drug campaign.

Jiang Qing, widow of Mao Tse-tung and fiery leader of radical leftists during China's chaotic Cultural Revolution, committed suicide at home last month, the government announced Tuesday. Jiang, 77, nearly achieved supreme power in 1976 while Chairman Mao lay on his deathbed. But she was arrested by political rivals just one month after his death and never regained real freedom.