From: gaojeng@durras.anu.edu.au (J. Gao)
Subject: China News Digest (Europe/Pacific), Fri, 10/2/1992
Summary: CND
Keywords: CND
Organization: Computer Services Centre, Australian National University
Date:  2 Oct 92 00:14:39 GMT

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===================  Europe / Pacific Section (CND-EP)  ===================
                              October 2, 1992

---------------------------- Table of Contents ----------------------------
No. Subject                                                      # of Lines

1. News Brief (3 items) ................................................ 32

2. Japan Bigger Threat Than China, Malaysian General Says .............. 58

3. Phone Interview with PRC Osaka Consulate on Passport Policy ......... 40

4. Lee Kuan Yew Speaks on China's Economic Policy and Overseas CSS ..... 95
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1. News Brief (2 items) ................................................ 19
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[Kyoto News 9/24/92] Kyoto -- (1) Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xu Dunxin
said he has failed to persuade the Khmer Rouge to disarm and rejoin the U.N.
peace process in Cambodia, U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia sources
said. (2) The planned visit by Hong Kong Gov. Christopher Patten to Beijing
has been rescheduled to October 21-23, a government official said. (3)
China's 14th Communist Party Congress will convene on October 12 to consider
senior leader Deng Xiaoping's economic blueprint for reform, Xinhua news
agency said. (4) Nelson Mandela, head of the African National Congress, has
said he will visit China in early October, according to a Xinhua news agency
report monitored by Radiopress. (From: Jian Liu)
                                 ___ ___ ___

[AP-DJ, 9/28/92] BEIJING -- Construction and equipment installation at
China's Daya Bay Nuclear Plant near Hong Kong have been completed and
technicians are conducting tests, Xinhua News Service said on Tuesday. It
did not say what the plant's start-up plans are. At least one of Daya Bay's
two 900-megawatt reactors was to have been operating this year, but work was
delayed by a mistake in building the foundation. Daya Bay will be China's
second nuclear power plant. A 300-megawatt plant farther north in Zhejiang
province started trial operation nine months ago. (From: Jian Liu)

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2. Japan Bigger Threat Than China, Malaysian General Says .............. 58
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From: Huijie
Source:  KYODO 9/22/92

SINGAPORE -- Japan is a bigger threat to Southeast Asia than China is, due
to its heavy reliance on other countries for raw materials and its potential
to boost its military capability quickly, Malaysia's defense chief said.

"If you put the two together, there is a greater possibility of Japan being
a threat to the region than China," Defense Forces chief Gen. Yaacob Zain
told a news conference.

As a nation more reliant on other countries for its supply of raw materials,
Japan "would be more concerned than China on these needs," he said.

"If Japan does decide to embark on defense development, I don't think it
will take very long.  Japan has the potential," Yaacob said.

"Japan has had a history of being aggressive," he added, referring to
Japan's invasion and occupation of much of Asia earlier this century, which
continues to fuel worries in the region of Japan's military resurgence.

Yaacob was in Singapore to attend a biennial conference of defense chiefs
from member countries of the Five Power Defense Arrangements.

At the conference earlier in the day, Britain pledged its commitment to the
group, quelling worries that it would reduce its participation after
returning Hong Kong to Beijing in 1997, Yaacob said.

The defense grouping, established in 1971, is concerned solely with the
defense of Singapore and Malaysia and requires the members -- Singapore,
Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Britain -- to consult each other should
Malaysia and Singapore be attacked by an external power.

On a thorny regional dispute over the Spratly Islands in the South China
Sea, Yaacob said that unless oil or other rich mineral resources were
discovered in the territory, he does not foresee the claimants resorting to
armed conflict in the short to medium term.

"Certainly Malaysia does not advocate those kinds of measures. We believe in
negotiations," he said. "We believe the problems can be resolved."

Believed to be rich in oil and natural gas reserves, the Spratlys are
claimed in whole or in part by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia,
Brunei and Taiwan.

"We believe that the abundance of economic gains in the area should be
shared between the claimant states," Yaacob said.

On China, he said recent measures by Beijing, such as passing a law to
reassert its claim on the Spratlys, contradict its pledges of peaceful
intentions in the region.

With the rapid pace of Chinese economic development, Yaacob expressed
confidence that "within five years, China would be a major arms salesman in
the region."

But he said he does not think there is now a regional arms race, despite
increased purchases of new military equipment in recent years.

Countries in Southeast Asia are "buying equipment to meet our basic
requirements and to replenish our old and aging equipments."

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3. Phone Interview with PRC Osaka Consulate on Passport Policy ......... 40
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From: Gang Xu, Japan, 9/28/92

On Sept. 28, 1992, CND Correspondent Gang Xu called the Education Section of
PRC Consulate General in Osaka. Mr. Liang answered questions about the
Chinese government's policy about passport extension and passport change. 

Q. Nihao. According to Renmin Ribao of Aug 21, 1992, Chinese students and
scholars can extend their passports and change public-affairs passports to
private-affairs ones. Could you tell me about the implementation details?

A. Yes. For those who want to stay here for a short time after their
graduation, we can immediately extend their public-affairs passports. But
for those who have no intention of going back to serve China in the near
future, we would ask them to change their public-affairs passports to
private-affairs ones. 

Q. What is required to change from public-affairs passports to
private-affairs ones? 

A. You have to return the money you received from the government. We asked 
for immediate and complete lump sum return before the new policy. But
now we ask the students to submit a concrete plan as to when and how
much in repayment. Then we can issue new (private-affairs) passports.

Q. How long can the total period be?

A. In the order of two years or so. There has been nobody here who has asked 
for passport change applying this rule.

Q. Is this policy common to all PRC Consulates in Japan? 

A. Yes. We have this same policy.

Q. I heard that PRC consulates in different countries have different
policies. 

A. No. The policy should be the same. Representatives from all countries
just had a gathering in Beijing to discuss how to implement the new policy. 

Q. Can I tell what you have told me to other Chinese students?

A. Yes. You are welcome to do so.

Q. Thanks.

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4. Lee Kuan Yew Speaks on China's Economic Policy and Overseas CSS ..... 95
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From: Gang Xu, Japan
Source: The Straits Times, and Lian He Zhao Bao

Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the Senior Minister and former Prime Minister of Singapore
(Li Guang Yao), yesterday offered Chinese leaders some practical points on
how China can make further economic advances on the road to becoming a
"giant dragon".

Speaking at an international economic forum in Beijing which is organised by
the China International Trust and Investment Corporation (Citic), Mr Lee
said these measures are necessary to win the confidence of foreign investors.

After giving an update on China's economic reforms and pointing out the
shortcomings, Mr Lee gave some advices to China's policy-makers. The
following is quoted from his speech.

-- In the next 25 years, the main cities in China can become nearly as well
equipped in infrastructure as Hongkong, and be nearly as efficient in
running them.  Then growth will speed up and spread throughout China,
wherever express ways or high-speed railways go.

This is within the capabilities of the Chinese people.  There is enough
strength in Chinese culture and social structures to take the stresses of
such a rapid transformation.

What is holding back China is the lack of officials with the necessary
expertise.  Cadres or officers who have to implement policies and projects
have to be fully trained and qualified up to the standards found in the
advanced industrial countries.

Cadres should be like the governors and mayors whom I met in my visits in
1988 and 1990.  They were young men in their 40's and 50's, well-educated,
well-travelled, outward-looking and capable.

They gave investors confidence in continuation of the open door policies.
What China must ensure is that besides being party stalwarts, they must have
sufficient exposure to how things are done in the world outside.  They have
to become experts with the knowledge of how to manage economic development,
how to tap capital, technology, know-how and other resources of industrial
countries.

In order to get qualified experts on economic development management,
Singapore sends her best officers to the US and Europe (like World Bank and
Asia Development Bank) to receive training and renew their knowledge.  They
must have the same level of knowledge as officials of Japan and European
countries.  Therefore, the 50,000 Chinese scholars who currently stay in the
US and Europe are precious resources of China.  When the reform and open
door reaches to such a situation that provides the opportunity to use their
talent, many of them will come back to China, joining the research or
business.  To the future of China, these people are of great value.  After
staying in the Western countries for a long time, they have learned the
Western technology and have built up good relationships with people in those
countries.  These will help China to develop their country to the biggest
limit.

Technology has changed the world.  Lester Thurow, Professor at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, summarised it thus:

Traditionally there have been four ways to become rich as an individual,
successful as a company and generate a high standard of living as a country:

  1. Have more natural resources;
  2. Have more capital;
  3. Have better technology;
  4. Have a more skilled work force.

Because technology has substantially altered this traditional formula,
Thurow concluded that human resource development will be the key factor in
determining who becomes rich or remains rich in the 21st century.

This turn of events has favoured East Asians.  The same point on the quality
of human resources was made by Professor Derek Leebaert of Georgetown
University's Graduate School of Business.

He said in Tokyo recently that "talented people are a more important
resource than any man-made device or corporate strategy".

When the age of technology so clearly favours countries with good human
resources, and when there are the examples of Taiwan, Hongkong and Singapore
to show how ethnic Chinese have modernised, China cannot fail to modernise.
Shenzhen has demonstrated what can be done in just over 10 years.

It is a pity for China to waste any more time arguing the merits between the
economics of the free market and central planning.  The answers are found in
the successful countries around China.  What they have done China can do.
The only questions are how soon and how much better.

To do it fast, China has to match their flexibility which they have because
of their smaller size.  China has to achieve flexibility through delegating
or developing more powers for economic development to lower levels.

When China has built the express ways and high speed railways from the main
coastal and riverine city ports into the interior, and the input of capital
and know-how reaches them, there will be an explosion of growth.

This will be a powerful and prolonged stimulus to the economies of East Asia
and indeed also to the industrial countries of the world.

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