Yang Shangkun

China has accused the Soviet Union of massing 1 million troops along the Sino-Soviet frontier, issuing the protest just days before Chinese officials are to fly to Moscow to sign a major trade pact. China has cut the number of its frontier guards "in sharp contrast to a superpower's deploying a million troops along the Chinese border," the official New China News Agency quoted top Chinese Army leader Yang Shangkun as saying today.

Chinese President Yang Shangkun is among dignitaries traveling to the North Korean capital for President Kim Il Sung's 80th birthday celebration on Wednesday. While no one expects Kim to give up real power as long as he remains healthy, there has been speculation that the occasion may be used to transfer additional authority to his son and designated successor, Kim Jong Il.

U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger met today with Chinese military leaders, and the official New China News Agency said he called for continued growth in U.S.-Chinese military relations. Weinberger met with Yang Shangkun, secretary general of the Communist Party Central Military Commission; Yang Dezhi, chief of the People's Liberation Army general staff, and other military officials at the Great Hall of the People.

China, in a national day message to Vietnam, has called for the "early restoration" of relations with its former Communist ally, the official Vietnam News Agency reported. "China and Vietnam are two close neighbors, and their two peoples have had time-honored friendship," the agency quoted a message from Chinese President Yang Shangkun as saying.

Newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Beijing James Lilley formally assumed his post today, handing his credentials to Chinese President Yang Shangkun. Lilley, 61, a China-born diplomat, was accredited in a brief ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing. Lilley is a former ambassador to South Korea and head of Washington's unofficial agency in Taiwan. He also served as aide to President Bush in the mid-1970s when Bush was American envoy in Beijing. Lilley fills a post vacated by Winston Lord, who ended a three-year tour last month.

China's rubber-stamp legislature, the National People's Congress, opens its annual two-week session Monday. The congress is expected to approve a number of predetermined shifts in high government positions. President Yang Shangkun, 85, is due to step down. Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin is widely expected to replace him while continuing to serve concurrently as party chief.

China's Defense Ministry on Friday denied a Western report that Defense Minister Qin Jiwei had been detained by troops loyal to the president. "It's pure rumor-mongering," a ministry official said when asked to comment on the report from Hong Kong by a Western news agency. The agency said that Qin was seized at his Beijing residence Wednesday evening as a result of a struggle with President Yang Shangkun for control over China's military.

JAPAN welcomed the cease-fire and promised to step up economic aid to needy Middle East and South Asian countries affected by the war. The lower house of Parliament approved $9 billion to finance Tokyo's contribution to the U.S.-led forces fighting Iraq. The bill is expected to pass the upper house next week. CHINA congratulated Kuwait's emir on restoration of his nation's territorial sovereignty.

Chinese President Yang Shangkun is in the hospital with acute appendicitis, the official New China News Agency said today. The 83-year-old president failed to attend a welcoming ceremony for President Hissene Habre of Chad, it said, adding that Vice President Wang Zhen took his place. The agency did not describe Yang's condition, saying only that he entered the hospital Monday.

An unsigned poster mocking deposed Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu and China's hard-line leaders went up at Beijing University, birthplace of China's spring democracy movement, a source said today. "Lost dog," read the poster, which was put up over the weekend--after Ceausescu's flight from his palace in Bucharest and before his arrest and execution.