From: gaojeng@durras.anu.edu.au (J. Gao)
Newsgroups: aus.culture.china
Subject: China News Digest (Global), Thu, 11/19/1992
Date: 19 Nov 92 05:41:54 GMT
Organization: Australian National University
NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.22.8
Summary: CND
Keywords: CND


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

                                (News Global)

                         Thursday, November 19, 1992


Table of Contents                                                 # of Lines
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1. News Brief (5 Items) ................................................. 30
2. Chinese Universities Told to Adapt to Market Economy ................. 47
3. Prices up 10.6% in China's 35 Largest Cities in 1st 10 Months ........ 12
4. China to Open Tibet to Foreign Tourists .............................. 70
5. Beijing to Buy $2 Billion of Chip-Making Equipment from U.S. ......... 18
============================================================================

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1. News Brief (5 Items) ................................................. 35
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[JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 11/18/92] MOSCOW -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin
is likely to make an official visit to China on December 17, Interfax news
agency reported Wednesday. It said Yeltsin will discuss arrangements for the
visit with Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen when Qian visits Moscow on
November 24 and it is likely to take place December 17 or later.
(Forwarded by: Huijie)
                           ___ ___ ___

[UPI, 11/18/92] TAIPEI -- Taiwan defense officials and French aircraft maker
Dassault Aviation on Wednesday signed a formal contract for the sale to
Taiwan of 60 Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets and 1000 MICA air-to-air missiles,
an arms package valued at $2.6 billion, the China Times Express report said.
The contract calls for delivery of the warplanes in 1995 and stipulates that
neither France nor Taiwan will comment publicly on the sale, said the report,
which cited unnamed sources.
(Forwarded by: Chongyu Hua <cyuhua@ncsa.uiuc.edu>)
                           ___ ___ ___

[DJ, 11/18/92] HONG KONG -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide an
85-million-dollar loan and technical assistance of 1.2 million dollars to
China for building the Yangpu Bridge in Shanghai, said Wednesday's China
Daily. (Forwarded by: Huijie)
                           ___ ___ ___

[DJ, 11/18/92] WASHINGTON -- The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC)
has reversed its dumping ruling against manmade fiber sweaters from Hong
Kong, Korea and Taiwan, it said Wednesday. By ruling that U.S. industry
isn't injured, the ITC bars the U.S. from levying anti-dumping tariffs
against manmade fiber sweater imports from the three nations.
(Forwarded by: Huijie)
                           ___ ___ ___

[DJ, 11/18/92] WASHINGTON -- The World Bank has approved two loans totaling
360 million dollars to fund improvements in the road systems of China's
Henan and Guangdong provinces. (Forwarded by: Huijie)

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2. Chinese Universities Told to Adapt to Market Economy ................. 47
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Forwarded by: Chongyu Hua <cyuhua@ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Source: UPI, 11/18/92
Written by: John Leicester

BEIJING -- The Chinese government called Wednesday for the nation's
universities to adapt to a market economy and implement radical reforms,
including a U.S.-style pay-to-study system, the government-run news agency
said.

The shake-up of China's outmoded university system is aimed at training more
students in economic-based subjects, bringing Chinese universities in line
with recent government endorsements of capitalist-style market reforms, the
Xinhua news agency said.

It said the new education policy will allow the establishment of private
universities, encourage foreign investment in higher education, give
universities greater independence and make students pay tuition fees.

Xinhua said State Education Minister Li Tieying called on Chinese
universities to absorb and learn "some good educational administrative
experience as well as teaching contents and methods from throughout the
world, including capitalist countries."

The government closed universities as "bastions of capitalism" and told
students to work as peasants during the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution
because then-Chairman Mao Tse-tung said, "Learning from books leads to
stupidity."

Universities reopened after the Cultural Revolution but have remained firmly
under state control. Educational standards have suffered because of lack of
funds.

Li announced the reforms at a national educational work conference which
ended Wednesday. State television, which reported on the conference, quoted
a conference delegate as saying the reforms would lead to the development of
"an education market" in China.

The English-language China Daily said, "There are not enough colleges and
universities to meet demands." It accused the government of failing "to
provide professional talent urgently needed by township enterprises."

The development of rural enterprises and the growth of foreign and
joint-venture firms in China has strained demands for and led to a shortage
of qualified experts, the China Daily said.

Xinhua said China only had 1,075 universities and 2.05 million students, or
less than 1 percent of China's 1.1 billion total population.

Xinhua said the reforms will focus on developing about 100 "key
universities" and said "several universities will be updated to the world
level by the end of the century."

The China Daily said reforms would "treat teachers as scholars, not as
state cadres" and would reform teachers salaries.

Teachers salaries have remained low, about $37 per month, and have become
increasingly worthless against rising inflation, forcing many teachers to
take on second jobs or find work outside of education.

Xinhua also said restrictions on state-funded students, who must work for
five years in state firms or offices after graduation, will be eased,
allowing students to find their own jobs or go abroad to work.

The rule was implemented after the 1989 pro-democracy protests, and is
bitterly resented by Chinese students.

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3. Prices up 10.6% in China's 35 Largest Cities in 1st 10 Months ........ 12
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Forwarded by: Huijie
Source: DOW JONES INTERNATIONAL NEWS, 11/18/92

BEIJING -- Prices rose 10.6% in China's 35 largest cities in the first 10
months, raising fears of an overheated economy, an official newspaper
reported Wednesday.

Industrial production was up 19.7% in the first 10 months, posing a threat
to the tightening supply of resources and swelling demand of money, the
China Daily reported, citing figures from the State Statistical Bureau.

The paper did not give the national inflation rate, which in the first nine
months was 4.8%. It maintained that the annual inflation rate would be kept
under the planned 6%.

The paper said the inflation rate showed that the economy is still too weak
to sustain price increases, and said the statistical bureau was worried the
economy was in danger of becoming overheated again.

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4. China to Open Tibet to Foreign Tourists .............................. 70
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Forwarded by: Chongyu Hua <cyuhua@ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Source: UPI, 11/18/92
Written by: John Leicester

BEIJING -- Cloaked in mystery and shrouded by clouds in the oxygen-parched
Himalayas, Tibet is preparing to make it easier for foreign tourists to
ascend to the "Roof of the World."

The mountainous region has remained largely cut off from the tourist boom
sweeping other parts of China because of years of strife between the
communist-ruled government and Tibetans seeking independence and because
of woefully inadequate tourist services.

But tourism officials say this is set to change.

"The whole world is open now," explains Cao Xiaoyu, director of the Tibet
Tourism Bureau's new Beijing office, which opened this summer to deal with
what officials hope will be a flood of tourists into the region. "No area
can be kept closed up."

Her optimism stems from a recent government announcement that Tibet will
undergo "an all-round opening to the outside world," sparking visions of
one of the world's last frontiers unfurling like the embroidered tapestries
Tibetan monks unroll on the hills around Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, at New
Year.

But fears remain the Chinese government's motives behind an "open" Tibet
may not be pure.

Tibetans in exile say the new development drive, including opening to more
tourists, is aimed at diluting Tibetan culture and protecting "the unity of
the motherland" -- Chinese codewords for defeating Tibetan attempts to break
free of Chinese rule.

Even before the announcement, which offered investment, freer travel and
greater access in the region, tourist numbers had been creeping up, from
10,000 in 1990 to 14,000 in 1991.

This year the increase has continued with 6,000 tourists visiting from
January to June, a 40 percent jump over the same period last year. This has
led tourism officials to predict some 75,000 tourists a year will flood
Tibet by 1996.

Opening up, however, will be strictly controlled. All travelers must have
special permits and join officially organized groups for travel into Tibet.

Some do forego permits, hitch-hiking and dodging police on an overland route
from Golmud in Qinghai Province bordering Tibet into Lhasa, but risk fines
and expulsion from China if caught.

One traveler who recently risked the route said that in the Golmud Hotel, an
earlier traveler carved a map in the wood of a toilet door marking police
checkpoints and showing where travelers without permits are turned back.

At present, legal tourists are limited to essentially fixed itineraries in
and around Lhasa, including three-day tours to Shigatse and Gyantse -- some
225 miles from Lhasa.

But Tibet authorities expect Beijing's approval for a string of new, open
areas "probably this year," says Cao Xiaoyu, who has a large map of Tibet
with areas set to open on her cramped office walls.

New areas will include Yadong, Tibet's oldest frontier post bordering Sikkim
and Bhutan, as well as the heavily forested areas around Nyingchi and
Mainling, about 185 miles east of Lhasa.

Plans also are under way to open Burang, bordering Nepal in west Tibet.
Burang, a crossing point for Indian pilgrims traveling to sacred Mount
Kailash, has been open since 1986, but has remained largely inaccessible
because of poor roads.

As elsewhere in China, poor infrastructure and lack of airplanes remain the
biggest obstacles to tourist growth.

Tibet's boom-bust tourist cycle, which leaves Lhasa hotels overbooked in
summer but deserted in winter, also has dissuaded Chinese airlines from
carrying out promises to increase air links into the region, including
routes linking Lhasa and Hong Kong.

"They think that if they open up the route, there won't be enough customers
and they'll lose money," Cao explained.

Foreign travel agents also accuse Chinese tourism agencies, which have a
monopoly on permits and organizing groups to Tibet, of restricting growth by
charging exorbitant prices -- as much as $1,142 per person for a high-season
tour, airfare extra.

But Chinese officials say China's recent switch toward the market system
will force down prices by opening competition among the dozen or so Chinese
agencies operating tours to Tibet.

"Tourism used to be part of the planned economy, but I think that as from
next year we'll also move toward the market," said Cao. "This should help
resolve the problems of high expense."

Foreign travel agents, however, say changes are likely to be slow.

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5. Beijing to Buy $2 Billion of Chip-Making Equipment from U.S .......... 18
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Forwarded by: Huijie
Source: AP-DJ, 11/18/92

WASHINGTON -- China plans to buy up to two billion dollars of U.S. equipment
to manufacture computer chips over the next two to three years, according to
a report in the Washington Post.

The newspaper, citing industry sources, said in Wednesday's editions that
high-ranking Chinese officials had raised the purchase possibility in a
meeting with U.S. business executives in Beijing in May and reconfirmed it at
a semiconductor convention in Austin, Texas, last week.

Semiconductors, or chips, are the basic components in all modern electronic
gear, and the Post said the Chinese decision appears to signal Beijing's
intention to become a power in the computer industry.

Until many U.S. restrictions were relaxed last year, the sale of most such
equipment had been banned for export to communist countries.

Chinese officials indicated they did not want to rely on Japan for a key
technology and instead were offering their business to the United States,
which controls just over half of the world market for chip-making equipment.

"The Chinese really made it clear that they want to work with U.S. companies
as opposed to other nations," Peter Younger, general manager of the
semiconductor equipment division of Eaton Corp., told the Post.

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