From: xu@hydra.maths.unsw.oz.au ()
Subject: CND-GLOBAL, December 23, 1992
Organization: school of Mathematics UNSW
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 01:04:33 GMT


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

                                (News Global)

                          Wednesday, December 23, 1992


Table of Contents                                                 # of Lines
============================================================================
1. News Brief (7 Items) ................................................. 74
2. Satellite Lost, While Celebration Went Ahead in China ................ 42
3. Educational Testing Service (ETS) Cancelled Scores of
   October GRE Physics and TOEFL/TSE Tests in China ..................... 38
4. Japanese Professor Worries About China's Naval Buildup ............... 36
============================================================================

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. News Brief (7 Items) ................................................. 74
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[DJ, 12/22/1992] WASHINGTON -- Bill Clinton said he hopes to narrow the U.S.
trade deficit with China, which is currently running at an annual rate of
about $15 billion. "We have shown good faith; we've bought $15 billion more
of their products than they've bought of ours," Clinton said during a press
conference. "That gives us some ground for serious discussion" on narrowing
the deficit, said the U.S. President-Elect.

"I will do my best to negotiate and to be firm and be moving forward," he
said. Clinton made his comments during an afternoon press conference after
he made several top appointments to his staff, including lawyer-diplomat
Warren Christopher as Secretary of State and veteran Rep. Les Aspin of
Wisconsin as Secretary of Defense. (Forwarded by: Liu Jian)
                                ___ ___ ___

SAN FRANCISCO -- A ship with a Japanese name (Manyoshi Maru) is waiting on
the INS to determine what to do with it. 165 male and 15 female Chinese-
speaking passengers who left Taiwan Nov. 4 are on board in a compartment
with no sanitation facilities for several weeks. They were living in their
own filth and human excrement strewn about the decks. The captain said it
was on its way to Canada. It sent out a distress signal last night and was
picked up by the US Coast Guards. No word on the nationality of the people
on board. (Forwarded by: Charles Mok from San Francisco radio, verified
later from San Jose Mercury News, 12/22/1992)
                                ___ ___ ___

[Los Angeles Times, 12/21] -- The weekly Literature and Art in Beijing
reported yesterday that He Jingzhi, acting minister of culture, has been
replaced by Liu Zhongde, deputy head of the propaganda department of the
Central Committee of the Party. His removal completes a reshuffling that
ousted hard-liners from three top ideological posts. People's Daily director
Gao Di and propaganda department head Wang Renzhi had been cleared out in
November and early December, respectively. There had been rumours of their
stepping down since last spring. (Forwarded by: Yuan Liu and Charles Mok)
                                ___ ___ ___

[AP-DJ, 12/22/1992] BEIJING -- Lu Ping on Tuesday called the British
colony's governor, Chris Patten, a bully and accused London of trying to
entrap Beijing. He made the remarks to Hong Kong reporters in Beijing after
a meeting with pro-Beijing Hong Kong legislators and community leaders. "It
doesn't matter whether or not Mr. Patten cooperates with us, because we can
either cooperate or fight," Lu was quoted as saying by a Hong Kong news
broadcast. He said, "I believe this bully has gone too far." (Liu Jian)
                                ___ ___ ___

[AT&T TODAY ASIA/PACIFIC, 12/15/1992] -- By the end of last month, the total
number of telephone subscribers in China reached almost 8.9 million, a 35.5
percent increase over the same period last year. In the first 11 months of
this year, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) hooked up
about 2.2 million new local telephone subscribers. Local telephone exchange
capacity increased by 21.6% and rose by 2.236 million lines. Long-distance
exchange capacity increased by 46.2% and grew by 132,000 lines; Rural areas
have now installed about 446,000 phones, bringing the total number of rural
telephone users to 2.189 million.
(Forwarded by: Duanfeng He <Duanfeng.He@AtlantaGa.NCR.com>)
                                ___ ___ ___

[AP-DJ, 12/22/1992] HONG KONG -- China has decided to set up courts in spe-
cial economic zones to handle the increasing number of business disputes,
according to Tuesday's China Daily. The move is aimed at better protecting
investors in the country's booming regions of Shenzhen, Xiamen, Zhuhai,
Hainan and Shantou along coastal China, but details of the rules governing
the establishment of the courts, however, are still being finalized, the
paper adds. (Forwarded by: Liu Jian)
                                ___ ___ ___

[China Radio International, 12/22/1992] -- South Korea and Vietnam are aim-
ing to establish diplomatic relations. Spokesmen from both countries con-
firmed this fact on Monday. South Korean Foreign Minister Lee Sang Ok began
his 3-day visit to Vietnam on the same day. He's the highest-ranking South
Korean minister to visit Vietnam in 17 years. (Forwarded by: Andrew Waldie
<awaldie@web.apc.org>)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Satellite Lost, But Celebration Went Ahead ........................... 42
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to a radio station in Australia, the Australian satellite launched
two days ago in Xichang is lost in space. The ground tracking station has so
far not received any signals from the satellite, which is believed to have
been damaged and lost. A small explosion in mid air during launch was
thought to be a fuel leakage but could be the cause for the satellite not
being put into orbit, or its electronic equipment being damaged. Although
the cost of the 250 million dollar satellite is insured and recoverable, it
will set back two years of time of Australia's pay TV industry. (Forwarded
by: XU Ming Yang and partially verified by the following report)

[DJ NEWS, 12/22/1992] BEIJING -- A telecommunications satellite launched by
China has disappeared and the Australian owners said Tuesday they have given
it up for lost.

China has refused to comment on the disappearance, which could set back
China's ambitions in the competitive international launch industry.

The launch company, China Great Wall Industry Corp., went ahead with a cele-
bration banquet Tuesday. Company officials made no mention of the
satellite's disappearance Monday in their speeches.

Officials from Optus Communications, which owns the satellite, and Hughes
Aircraft Corp. of Los Angeles, which made it, didn't attend.

"All we know is that we haven't been receiving ... any signals at all," said
David Foster, spokesman for Optus. "We can't track it."

"Nobody knows what's happened to it. We don't know whether it's a fault with
the rocket or the satellite or a combination of both," Foster said by tele-
phone from Sydney, Australia.

But Tao Li, spokeswoman for China Great Wall, said: "We have completed our
launch responsibilities. We had no problems." She refused to answer other
questions, and said they should be directed to Hughes. Hughes couldn't be
contacted immediately.

Foster said Optus was continuing to look for the satellite but there was
little hope of finding it in workable condition. (Forwarded by: Liu Jian)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Educational Testing Service (ETS) Cancelled Scores of
   October GRE Physics and TOEFL/TSE Tests in China ..................... 38
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forwarded by: Bo Xiong
Source: Educational Testing Service, U.S.A., 12/22/1992

[Editor's Note: The following is the full text of a letter that was posted
to the communication network of the National Association of Foreign Student
Advisors in the Unite States by the Educational Testing Service.]

Dear Colleagues:

Because of serious breaches in test security in the People's Republic of
China, the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) program and the Test of English
as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) program have found it necessary to cancel the
GRE Physics and the TOEFL/TSE test scores of all candidates tested in the
PRC in October. The scores from these test administrations in China will
not be released. The decision to cancel scores for the entire People's
Republic of China was based on the results of detailed analyses of examinee
performance and other information.

We realize that many will be inconvenienced by this action. It is our
intent to retest these candidates at future dates. The TOEFL program, in
cooperation with the China International Examinations Coordination Bureau
(CIECB) in Beijing, is working to establish a retest administration as early
as possible. This free retest will be open to all those who appeared for
the October 24 TOEFL. All examinees in China whose GRE Physics scores were
canceled will be given a test fee voucher to take the GRE Physics test free
of charge at the April, 1993 administration.

Educational Testing Service (ETS) reserves the right to cancel scores for
tests it administers whenever there is substantial basis for questioning the
validity of test scores. Although we recognize that not all examinees at
the test centers in question were involved, ETS has decided to cancel the
scores of all examinees in China in order to ensure the valildity of all GRE
and TOEFL scores and the fair treatment of all examinees. It is ETS policy
to do so when individuals with questionable scores may be indistiguishable
from others whose scores are valid.

                                                Sincerely,

                Charlotte V. Kuh                Russell Webster
                Executive Director              Executive Director
                Graduate Record                 International Testing
                Examination Program             and Training Programs

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Japanese Professor Worries About China's Naval Buildup ............... 36
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forwarded by: Jian Liu and Huijie
Source: JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE (J.E.N.), 12/22/1992

TOKYO -- "China intends to convert the South China Sea into the "All China
Sea," seeking hegemony in the region and filling the vacuum forming in the
wake of the end of the Cold War," said Shigeo Hiramatsu, professor at Kyorin
University.

"China's growing military presence is a potential threat to Japan, which
depends heavily on imports via the South China Sea," said Hiramatsu, an
expert on the Chinese navy.

A nuclear power with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), China has
56 destroyers and frigates and 94 submarines, five of which are nuclear-
powered, according to Military Balance 1991-92, compiled by the Interna-
tional Institute for Strategic Studies.

Two of the destroyers have helicopters and 26 are equipped with antisubma-
rine rockets. Asia's jitters about China filling a Pacific power vacuum
grow as forces of the former Soviet Union withdraw from Vietnam's Cam Ranh
Bay region and now the United States has closed its largest Asian naval base
in the Philippines.

Trouble is feared if China seeks to enforce a number of its territorial
claims, particularly over the Spratly Islands, scene of a 1988 flare-up with
Vietnam.

Hiramatsu, previously a researcher at the National Institute for Defense
Studies, warned armed conflict could break out if big oil deposits,
estimated at 500 million to one billion barrels, are indeed found in waters
around the islands -- all or partly claimed by five other countries.

In addition to the territorial concerns, Hiramatsu said Japan is seemingly
annoyed by China reportedly conducting oil exploration activities at the
edge of an international sea lane. The push by China into the South China
Sea which Hiramatsu said began in the 1970s, resulted in its occupation of
some of the Spratlys in 1988.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|            Executive Editor:     Xiaowen Li      (U.S.A.)                |
|         Coordinating Editor:     Zuofeng Li      (U.S.A.)                |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|   China News Digest (CND) offers the following services:                 |
|    (1) Global News (Daily)          (2) US Regional News                 |
|    (3) Canada Regional News         (4) Europe & Pacific Regional News   |
|    (5) Hua Xia Wen Zhai (Chinese Weekly Magazine)                        |
|    (6) Several Information Packages                                      |
|   For subscription information, mail to:    CND-INFO@LIBRARY.UTA.EDU     |
|   Please send news contributions to:        CND-EDITOR@SDSC.EDU          |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+