Handball, Asia Games on Track, Chinese Say

KUWAIT —  The president of the Chinese Olympic Committee assured his Asian counterparts today that the situation in his country is stabilizing and that Beijing will be hosting all Asian sports events as scheduled.

COC President He Zhenliang, in a telex to President Sheik Fahad al Sabah of the Olympic Council of Asia, said the recent turmoil in Beijing has ebbed and “the public life has returned to normal and everything (is) in good order.”

The first upcoming event to be hosted by Beijing will be the Asian Handball Championships in August for which preparations are “in full swing,” said the telex.

The 11th Asian Games scheduled for 1990 “will be held without any hindrance and all preparations are going on smoothly,” the COC president said.

Contents of the telex to Fahad, a member of the ruling family of Kuwait, were relayed through a press release given to the Associated Press in Kuwait.

The statement from Fahad’s office said the telex was in reply to one that he had sent the COC president “expressing his concern over the situation in China since he had received a number of inquiries from various OCA member countries and international sports federations.”

Fahad also had inquired whether it would be possible for China to hold both the Asian Handball Championships in August and the Asian Games in 1990 under the present situation there, the statement said.

Thousands of people were killed or wounded on the streets of Beijing when army troops stormed the city to crush a pro-democracy movement spearheaded by students.

“In his telex, Zhenliang thanked Sheik Fahad for his concern for the sports situation in China and welcomed him to Beijing for the Asian Handball Championships,” the statement added.