From: cnd-editor@sdsc.edu
Subject: CND-Global, August 22, 1992
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 01:37:48 GMT

              * * *  C h i n a   N e w s   D i g e s t  * * *

                              (News Global)

                        Saturday, August 22, 1992

Table of Contents                                                # of Lines
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1. News Brief (4 Items) ................................................ 40
2. Han Dongfang to Leave China for U.S. Through Kong Kong .............. 44
3. Taiwan, Chinese Banks "Cooperate" in Funding Project ................ 35
4. U.S. to Begin Retaliatory Trade Step against China .................. 65
5. China to Crack down on Quack Medical Claims ......................... 45
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[CND's Note: Due to computer system problem, the Hua Xia Wen Zhai #73 (Aug.
             21 issue) has not reached readers since it's posted at Aug. 20
             night.  It is now available by ftp at <ahkcus.org> and it will
             reach readers when the computer system backs to normal       ]

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1. News Brief (4 Items) ................................................ 40
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[AP 8/21/92] SEOUL - Another political barrier of the Cold War fell Saturday
with the announcement that South Korea and China plan to establish diplomatic
ties.  A statement issued in Beijing and Seoul said Foreign Minister Lee
Sang-ock and his Chinese counterpart, Qian Qichen, would meet Monday in
Beijing.  It said the two will discuss the normalization of relations.
Seoul also said it would downgrade relations to a non-offical level with
its longtime ally Taiwan. Diplomats said Taipei was expected to sever ties
with South Korea within 24 hours.  The Taiwan Embassy compound in central
Seoul would be turned over to China, said Kim Suk-woo, a director-general of
the foreign ministry.  (From: Huijie)
                        ____  ____  ____  ____

[UPI 8/21/92] BEIJING (UPI) -- China's foreign debt at the end of 1991
totaled $60.56 billion, up 15.2 percent over the previous year. The
increase included a sharp jump in short-term obligations, the government
said Friday.  The State Administration of Exchange Control said in a
statement the government accounted for 24 percent of the country's foreign
debt and financial organizations 52 percent. Domestic enterprises accounted
for 15 percent of foreign debt and foreign-funded organizations 9 percent.
Of the total, $10.3 billion, or 17 percent, was short-term debt, up $3.53
billion, or 52.1 percent, over 1990, the government said. Medium and
long-term obligations accounted for the rest. (From: Charles P. Mok)
                        ____  ____  ____  ____

[AP 8/21/92] BEIJING -- Typhoon Mark pounded the southern coast of China
with torrential rains, causing two deaths and heavy damage, news reports
said Friday.  The China Daily said losses, including destroyed homes and
damaged farmland, were estimated at $12 million.  Twenty inches of rain
fell on Chaozhou, Shantou and communities in Guangdong province Wednesday.
(From: Huijie)
                        ____  ____  ____  ____

[AP 8/20/92] BEIJING -- Returning students will not be investigated or
prosecuted for their political activities abroad, according to a new
government policy released Thursday.  The circular issued by the State
Council, or China's Cabinet, reflects the government's worries about a
brain drain that may hurt modernization.  Only a third of the 150,000
Chinese students who have gone abroad to study since 1978 have returned.
(From: <izzyhc1@mvs.oac.ucla.edu>)

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2. Han Dongfang to Leave China for U.S. Through Kong Kong .............. 44
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>From: Charles P. Mok
Source: UPI 8/20/92

China's leading dissident labor activist has been granted a passport to
leave for the United States, but may be forced to transit through Hong Kong
under a secret diplomatic arrangement, Chinese and diplomatic sources said
Thursday.

Han Dongfang, who was imprisoned for nearly two years for his role in the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests, has been the subject of delicate
negotiations in recent weeks involving China, the United States and Hong
Kong, said sources familiar with the case.

The negotiations were forced to save potential embarrassment for the U.S.
government, which after pressing China to allow Han to leave the country
discovered that U.S. immigration laws might bar his entry because he
suffers from tuberculosis.

Han, 29, contracted the disease in prison and was freed in April 1991 when
Chinese authorities feared he might die. In an interview this week, Han
said he had received his Chinese passport on Monday, a year after he first
asked to emigrate.

"After I get to the states, I am not going to do any politics," said Han,
who is expected to be accompanied by his pregnant wife, Chen Jingyun. "The
sole purpose of this trip is to treat my disease."

Han said he might be able to leave during the next two weeks, and could go
directly to the United States under a new medical certification that
indicates his tuberculosis is not contagious.

But the diplomatic sources said they were unaware of any change in the
secret deal negotiated to route Han first to Hong Kong for examination and
possible treatment to ensure he is not contagious.

According to the sources, U.S. officials were forced to ask the British
Hong Kong government to allow Han to transit through the territory after
noting airline regulations and U.S. immigration laws that bar someone known
to have a contagious disease.

The U.S. regulations posed a potential source of embarrassment, since it
was Secretary of State James Baker who began last November during a visit
to Beijing to press China to allow Han and several other dissidents to
leave the country.

Hong Kong officials had agreed to permit Han to travel from Beijing to the
British colony by train and remain until his health is adequate, the
sources said.

"The point is to get him out of the country, and that's what this is all
about," said one source. "And it's not entirely over yet."

During the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, Han, a former railway
worker, founded China's first independent workers' union since the 1949
communist revolution. His group joined the student protesters to demand
more freedom from the government.

He has continued to speak out since his release from prison, and this year
police detained him without charge on the June 3 anniversary of the
Tiananmen crackdown.

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3. Taiwan, Chinese Banks "Cooperate" in Funding Project ................ 35
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~From: A CND Reader
Source: AP-DJ 8/20/92

HONG KONG -- A floating-rate note issue arranged for a Thai borrower
brought together government-owned banks from both sides of the Taiwan
Strait for the first time, The Asian Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Both Bank of China and Bank of Kaohsiung are rare participants in regional
syndicated facilities. But both banks were among the 20 participants
subscribing to the 121.5 million dlrs offering by Thai Farmers Bank,
according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the merchant-banking arm of
Sanwa Bank Ltd. in Hong Kong, a lead manager of the facility. Bank of China
took up 3 million dlrs and Bank of Kaohsiung 5 million dlrs of the issue.

The transaction marked the first time a Taiwan bank "cooperated" with a
Chinese bank in funding the same project, bankers say.

Under existing rules, the Ministry of Finance prohibits all Taiwanese banks
from engaging in business directly with mainland Chinese financial
institutions. Joining a loan syndicate alongside a mainland bank has been
widely interpreted by Taiwanese bankers as coming close to breaching those
rules.

The development came amid signs that the ministry is relaxing these
restrictions. Last week, it proposed regulations to allow overseas branches
of Taiwanese banks to negotiate letters of credit and foreign remittances
with Chinese banks. Currently, these transactions are being handled through
intermediaries in Hong Kong.

The ministry's move last week was foreshadowed by its decision in May to
grant approval to Hua Nan Commercial Bank Ltd. to upgrade its
representative office in Hong Kong to a branch. In doing so, the ministry
had given tacit approval to overseas branches of Taiwan banks to forge some
kind of business links with their mainland counterparts, an inevitable
development given their big presence in Hong Kong.

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4. U.S. to Begin Retaliatory Trade Step against China .................. 65
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>From: Huijie
Source: UPI 8/21/92

BEIJING -- The United States is taking a first step toward retaliation
against China after their latest trade talks failed to make progress,
targeting an unprecedented $3.9 billion in Chinese goods for punitive
tariffs, a senior U.S. official said Friday.

Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Ira Wolf, after five days of talks
between U.S. and Chinese officials, said the hit list of Chinese exports
to the United States would be published later Friday in Washington in the
so-called "market access" dispute.

The U.S. negotiators are seeking an end to Chinese import bans, quotas and
other restrictions that effectively keep American products off the Chinese
market, contributing to a U.S. trade deficit with China expected to reach
$15 billion this year.

"Our market is open, and theirs is closed," Wolf said.  "This is
unacceptable to us."

He said some progress had been made during the talks this week, but that
"significant differences remain between the two sides."

The Bush administration has threatened to slap tariffs of up to 100 percent
on Chinese exports to the United States after an Oct. 10 deadline for U.S.
Trade Representative Carla Hills to determine if the Chinese are engaging
in practices that harm U.S. commerce.

The publishing of the hit list is the first step under Section 301 of the
U.S. trade law that could lead to the punitive duties.

Wolf said the list would cover $3.9 billion of a range of Chinese products,
accounting for about a fifth of total Chinese exports to the U.S. market
last year. He said the initial list was the largest ever published in such
a dispute with another country.

Wolf said talks would continue next month in Beijing and Washington in a
bid to avert the sanctions, but said China would not be allowed to "play
by its own rules."

"We will try to minimize the negative impact on U.S. consumers," as well
as on American and Hong Kong companies involved in China trade, Wolf said.
But he added the U.S. government "is prepared to take appropriate action."

Under the law, the Bush administration could delay actually imposing the
higher tariffs for up to seven months after the Oct. 10 deadline, but Wolf
said action would be taken much sooner. He said he remained "hopeful" an
agreement could be reached.

The deadline would put the administration in the position of possibly
firing the first shot in a trade war with China just before President Bush
faces a tough re-election fight in November.

Wolf would not detail the continuing differences in the talks, but said
U.S. officials were still demanding an end to secret import regulations,
unreasonable technical standards, restrictive import licensing and quotas
or bans that keep out U.S. products.

China has already granted concessions in agreeing not to enforce any
unpublished import regulations and in furnishing a list of government
import bans, restrictions and quotas, saying it would reduce or eliminate
those restrictions over time.

U.S. officials say the easing of the restrictions would likely benefit
American exporters of aircraft, computers, industrial machines, precision
instruments and agribusiness products.

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5. China to Crack down on Quack Medical Claims ......................... 45
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~From: Charles P. Mok
Source: UPI 8/20/92

BEIJING -- Wild claims of cures for baldness, cancer and other medical
quackery will come under closer scrutiny as China imposes stricter
regulations this fall on medical advertising, a state-run newspaper
reported Friday.

The new regulations were announced by the State Administration for
Industry and Commerce and the State Pharmaceutical Administration. They
will take effect Oct. 1 to control false or misleading advertising, the
English-language China Daily said.

"According to the new rules, no advertising in the name of experts,
doctors, patients, persons under age, institutions and hospitals will be
allowed," the newspaper said.

"Wording, pictures and images which give readers or viewers the impression
of a cure-all or guarantee of cure after use of the products is banned in
advertising," it said.

Many Chinese medicine and medical instruments manufacturers have in recent
years been ridiculed for making wild advertising claims of cures for
everything from baldness and obesity to cancer and AIDS.

The ads are often accompanied by photographs and testimonials of doctors or
purportedly satisfied patients, but rarely are supported by any documented
scientific research.

The regulations will cover all advertising of medical apparatus,
instruments and other materials used to treat or diagnose illness, the
China Daily said.

"All advertising should be true, accurate and scientific," said Liu Minxue,
director of the industry and commerce administration. "No false and
unhealthy publication is allowed."

The newspaper noted that China's medical instrument industry has boomed,
with more than 13,000 kinds of apparatus and appliances on the market made
by more than 1,000 companies.

"As a result, some fake advertisements have appeared, which have not only
brought economic loss to consumers but were harmful to their health," the
newspaper added.

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