From: gaojeng@durras.anu.edu.au (J. Gao)
Newsgroups: aus.culture.china
Subject: China News Digest (Global), Sat, 11/7/1992
Date: 7 Nov 92 08:00:19 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)

                         Saturday, November 7, 1992


Table of Contents                                                 # of Lines
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1. News Brief (2 Items) ................................................. 31
2. China Signs Deal to Buy Record Amount of U.S. Wheat .................. 25
3. Asian Development Bank Rates China Rising Asia-Pacific Economic Star . 34
4. Western Intelligence Sources Say China Ships Spare Parts to Iraq ..... 39
5. Diving Champion Gao Min to Auction Gold Medal for Beijing Olympic .... 21
6. China Lost to Japan 2-3 in Asian Cup Soccer Semi-final ............... 41
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1. News Brief (2 Items) ................................................. 31
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[AP-DJ, 11/5/1992] BEIJING -- Saudi Arabia's finance minister pressed China
to import more Saudi products as Riyadh faces its second straight annual
deficit in trade with China, an official newspaper reported Friday. The
China Daily said the deficit was dollars 176 million for the first eight
months of 1992, and dollars 248 million in 1991. Saudi Finance Minister 
Muhammad Aba Al-Khail urged Chinese officials to consider buying more Saudi 
chemicals and steel products, the newspaper said. He also signed pacts on 
trade, investment and technology designed to encourage more economic 
exchanges, the paper said. China exports mostly light industrial products, 
textiles and food to Saudi Arabia, and imports mainly oil and fertilizers. 
High tariffs on imports and intense promotion of exports have enabled China 
to rack up growing surpluses in world trade in recent years. The United 
States and European countries also have complained about imbalances. 
(Forwarded by: Liu Jian)
                             ___  ___  ___ 

[UPI, 11/6/1992] BOSTON -- A federal jury Thursday convicted a firearms
dealer of smuggling guns to communist China and handing them out to
high-ranking officials to "grease the skids" for larger shipments. Jurors
convicted Stephen Holmquist, 40, of sending arms to Beijing on three
separate occasions in 1989 and 1990, and of falsifying customs documents to
undervalue guns and ammunition he imported from China. Since the 1989
Tiananmen Square massacre, the United States has barred all firearms exports
to China. But evidence at Holmquist's trial showed he smuggled guns into the
Asian country in suitcases, distributing them to high-ranking government
officials at Beijing Airport's VIP lounge. U.S. Attorney John Pappalardo
said the guns represented gifts intended to -- in the suspect's words --
"grease the skids" for future deals. When airline-security agents discovered
guns during one of Holmquist's trips, the arms dealer falsely represented
himself as a police officer to get the weapons through. Holmquist faces up
to 30 years in prison and as much as $3 million in fines when U.S. District
Judge Robert Keeton sentences him on Jan. 12. He has been held without bail
since his October 1991 arrest. (Forwarded by: A CND reader)

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2. China Signs Deal to Buy Record Amount of U.S. Wheat .................. 25
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Forwarded by: Liu Jian
Source: JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 11/6/1992

BEIJING -- China has purchased two million tons of wheat from the United
States just two months after an official suggested ending such imports
unless Washington backed down on its decision to sell jet fighters to Taiwan,
a local report said Friday.

The deal was signed Tuesday and Wednesday by China's sole grain import
company, China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Import and Export 
Corp., the English-language China Daily reported.

China imports some four million to five million tons of wheat a year but
this week's deal is the largest ever involving U.S. wheat, it said, adding
that company officials declined to reveal the purchase price.

On September 10, a Chinese agricultural official had proposed ending U.S.
wheat imports entirely in retaliation for Washington's decision to sell 150
F-16 jet fighters to Taiwan.

Chinese officials decided to allow purchases of U.S. grain, however, despite
the official's argument that China only buys U.S. wheat to maintain and
develop close Sino-U.S. trade ties and can easily do without the American
grain.

Prof. Lu Shijian, an adviser to the State Planning Commission, told Kyodo
News Service on Wednesday that China is more likely to increase future
purchases from the U.S. in a bid to preempt possible protectionist moves by
U.S. President-elect Bill Clinton.

"The best way to woo Mr. Clinton is to keep striking business deals with
American companies," Prof. Lu said.

On Monday, Beijing Capital Iron and Steel Works announced the purchase of a
steel-making plant from the California Steel Co.

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3. Asian Development Bank Rates China Rising Asia-Pacific Economic Star . 34
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Forwarded by: Liu Jian
Source: JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 11/6/1992

MANILA -- The exceptional strength of China's economy this year is expected
to spur growth in the Asia-Pacific region to 7.1% from the 5.8% posted last
year, the Asian Development Bank said Friday.

The region's projected 1992 growth rate is substantially higher than the
average growth rate for all developing countries which is estimated at 4.8%,
the ADB said in a paper issued at the end of its fifth Asian Economic
Outlook Workshop.

"Much of Asia's improved performance in 1992 and 1993 is due to the
exceptional strength of the Chinese economy," the bank said. "Excluding
China, growth in 1992 would only be 5.5%, well below Asia's average growth
over the past two decades."

The bank projected China's GDP growth would sharply increase to 12.2% this
year compared to last year's 7.0%. Current projections for Asia's GDP in
1992 and 1993 are higher than earlier estimates "essentially because of a
sharp upward revision in China's growth rate," the bank said.
 
The bank credited China's accelerated economic growth to the new wave of
economic reforms and the austerity program started by Beijing's leaders in
1988.

According to the ADB report, China approved 13,047 new investment projects
worth 14.6 billion U.S. dollars during the first six months of 1992, more
than double the figure for 1991.

The rapid economic expansion has led to a doubling of China's inflation
rate, which hovers between 7 and 8%, but the ADB discounts a "reintroduction
of a strict austerity program" similar to what the government imposed in
1988. The ADB says China's external sector continued to lead growth but some
strengthening of domestic demand can be expected over the next two years.
Export growth is projected to rise 15-16% in 1992 to an estimated 83.8
billion dollars but imports will surge by some 20% to an estimated at 77.1
billion dollars. For 1993, investment, demand consumption, and exports will
mainly fuel China's economic growth with the gross national product
increasing by more than 10%, the bank said.

"The government will continue to focus on readjusting the economic structure
and improving economic efficiency as well as give (broader) rights to
enterprises to deal with the foreign markets directly," the ADB said.

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4. Western Intelligence Sources Say China Ships Spare Parts to Iraq ..... 39
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Forwarded by: Liu Jian
Source: DJ, 11/6/1992

AMMAN, Jordan -- Saddam Hussein is smuggling spare parts for his military
machine into Iraq, including at least two recent shipments from China,
Western intelligence sources say.

The sources said Iraq is upgrading weapons at secret installations. A source
identified one such installation as a military industrial complex near
Tharthar Lake, 60 miles northwest of Baghdad. The complex was a command
center during last year's Persian Gulf War. The source said the Iraqis had
tested rockets at the site in a continuing effort to upgrade their inventory
of conventional weapons.

Last year's U.N. cease-fire resolution ruled that Saddam's arsenal of
weapons of mass destruction must be destroyed, but didn't specifically order
Iraq to dismantle its armed forces or production facilities for conventional
weapons. Conventional weaponry, except for Scud missiles, is outside the
purview of the United Nations.

After 2 years of sanctions, including an arms sales ban, Saddam is
increasingly desperate for spare parts to maintain the combat capability of
his armed forces which survived Operation Desert Storm, the sources said.
Saddam funds his acquisitions with assets stashed away abroad before the
Gulf crisis erupted in August 1990, according to the sources.

The U.N. has frozen assets that investigators know of - but Saddam is
believed to have several billion dollars in bank accounts in Switzerland
and elsewhere. There is no estimate of how much he is spending in his
current buying spree.

While Saddam's offensive capability has been neutralized by the massive
losses he suffered last year, he needs to keep his slimmed-down 380,000-man
army in fighting condition to stay in power. The intelligence officials said
that at least two shipments of spares for T-72 tanks and long-range
artillery, as well as other material, reached Iraq earlier this year from
China, which uses similar weaponry. They said the consignments included
night-vision equipment similar to that used with such devastating effect by
U.S. and British armor in last year's allied blitzkrieg against Saddam's
army. Both shipments were funnelled through Jordan, the sources said.

One theory is that the spares were smuggled in Chinese diplomatic
consignments, which are immune from searches. The Chinese have embassies in
Amman and Baghdad and ship their diplomatic material through Jordan, Iraq's
main link to the outside world.

A Chinese diplomat in Amman denied China has provided military spares to
Iraq. Jordanian officials said they are investigating, but declined further
comment.

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5. Diving Champion Gao Min to Auction Gold Medal for Beijing Olympic .... 21
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Forwarded by: A CND reader
Source: UPI, 11/6/1992

BEIJING -- Chinese diving champion Gao Min, who has made a career of going
for the gold, is now planning to auction some off some of it.

The 22-year-old wants to sell the gold medal she won last January at the
world swimming and diving championships in Australia -- with the proceeds
going to Beijing's bidding campaign to host the 2000 Olympics, the state-run
China News Service reported Friday.

Gao, who also won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics in the 3-meter
springboard, told the news agency she wanted her Perth medal to go to a good
cause.

"Bonuses are given to me by others...(but) gold medal was won through my own
efforts," she said. "It will have more significance to donate my gold medal
than to donate my earnings."

China News Service said bidding on Gao's medal would start at $36,000.

Gao announced her retirement from sports after the Barcelona Games, and
recently married her longtime sweetheart. She is also considering going
abroad to study.

Chinese Olympic-medal winners came home to small fortunes in the form of
bonuses from the government and private companies.

But some athletes have recently complained of being deluged by charities,
needy cases and con artists, even though they have not yet received much of
their promised money.

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6. China Lost to Japan 2-3 in Asian Cup Soccer Semi-final ............... 41
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Forwarded by: Liu Jian
Source: JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 11/6/1992

HIROSHIMA -- Forward Saeed Owairan netted a goal in the second half to lead
two-time defending champion Saudi Arabia to a 2-0 win Friday over the United
Arab Emirates (UAE) in the semifinals of the Asian Cup soccer championship.

Saudi Arabia, which finished first in the Group B preliminaries, will face
host Japan, which came out on top in Group A, in the final on Sunday at
Hiroshima Park Main Stadium.

Owairan and midfielder Fahad Bishi scored in the 22nd and 26th minute of the
second half, respectively, while goalkeeper Shaker Shujaa demonstrated
skillful saving to shut out the UAE.

Earlier, in the other semifinal, Japan came from behind to edge China 3-2
and earn its first berth in the final of the eight-nation championship, held
every four years.

After a scoreless first half before 10,000 spectators at Hiroshima Stadium,
Saudi Arabia found its attacking rhythm about 20 minutes into the second
half and repeatedly threatened the UAE goal before taking a free kick right
outside the penalty area in the 22nd minute.

Midfielder Khalid Muwalldo pushed the free kick to the left, setting the
stage for Owairan, who drove in a 25-meter shot to the goal for the late
opener. Four minutes later, Bishi, after receiving a centering pass from
midfielder Hamzah Saeed Falatah on the right, booted the ball home for an
insurance goal.

The UAE counterattacked desperately and had scoring chances on shots by
forward Adnan Al Talyani and midfielder Bakhit Saad Mubarak, only to have
Saudi goalie Shujaa block all of them.

In the Japan-China semifinal played earlier at the same stadium, substitute
midfielder Masashi Nakayama headed a pass from midfielder Masahiro Fukuda
for a go-ahead goal with six minutes remaining in the match.

China had built an early 1-0 lead on a goal by midfielder Xie Yuxin only 30
seconds into the match.

Going into the second half, Japan, which beat China 2-0 in the Dynasty Cup
last August in Beijing, rebounded strongly and evened things up with
Fukuda's header in the third minute of the final half.

Nine minutes later, midfielder Tsuyoshi Kitazawa dribbled up deep on the
left side and booted a go-ahead goal.

China, however, took advantage of Japan goalkeeper Shigetatsu Matsunaga's
absence after he was sent off the field by the referee for violent play in
the 15th minute into the half. Li Xia pushed an equalizer after Japan's
substitute goalie Kazuya Maekawa fumbled a centering pass 10 minutes later.

However, the Japanese players, managed by Hans Ooft of the Netherlands, kept
their cool and Fukuda connected a pass to Nakayama from the right for the
game winning header.

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