The Philippines: Chinese Homecoming

The trip was President Corazon Aquino's first outside the Philippines in almost a year and a half, and it was clearly a respite from troubles at home. There, rumors swirled of another coup attempt by Colonel Gregorio ("Gringo") Honasan. Though police last week arrested eight fugitive guards who had escaped with him from a prison ship two weeks earlier, Honasan remained at large. In her absence, Aquino named a military-dominated committee to run the government.

In Beijing, Aquino held discussions with Deng Xiaoping and General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. She also visited the southern village of Fujian, from which her great-great-grandfather emigrated 182 years ago. Aquino met some 50 relatives and paid homage to her forebears in the family's ancestral temple.