EDINBURGH District Council will decide next week whether to break off
links with Xi'an, its twin city in China, after receiving a hard-line
response from the authorities in Xi'an to Edinburgh's condemnation of
the ''savage repression'' of the students in June.
Councillor Mark Lazarowicz, leader of the Labour administration, said:
''We have just received a reply to our telex in June and in it Xi'an's
authorities clearly back up the official line in China. We now have two
options: to break off relations entirely or put it in cold storage until
there are changes in the situation.''
Edinburgh councillors telexed concern over the fate of 12 Edinburgh
University students in Xi'an at the time of the unrest and condemned the
Government repression, expressing the hope that no-one in Xi'an took
part in it or supported the Government's decision.
However the reply Edinburgh received from Xi'an, signed by Deng
Youmin, director of foreign affairs, describes Edinburgh's telex as
''groundless accusations against quelling the counter-revolution''.
Deng Youmin added: ''The rebellion was stirred up by a small handful
of evil doers trying to overthrow the leadership of the Chinese
Communist Party and subvert the Socialist People's Republic of China.''
He went on to defend the Chinese Government's action as ''putting down
the riot according to the Chinese constitution and laws and was in
keeping with the fundamental interests of the Chinese people''.
Whereas Xi'an still wants to maintain the link with Edinburgh,
established four years ago, Councillor Lazarowicz said: ''Although it
has been very useful we cannot countenance links with what is very
clearly a repressive regime.''
The twinning link originally got off to a highly successful start when
Edinburgh held the Emperor's Warriors exhibition which attracted 220,000
visitors for three months in autumn 1985. The warriors were part of the
vast army of terracotta figures discovered, buried underground, near
Xi'an in 1974.
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