From: gaojeng@durras.anu.edu.au (J. Gao)
Newsgroups: aus.culture.china
Subject: China News Digest (Global), Tue, 11/10/1992
Date: 10 Nov 92 11:01:02 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)

                         Tuesday, November 10, 1992


Table of Contents                                                 # of Lines
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1. News Brief (3 Items) ................................................. 34
2. Clinton Faces Difficult Decisions on Trade with China ................ 70
3. China Charges Critics Using Islands Dispute Against China ............ 23
4. Hong Kong Businessmen Oppose Patten's Plans for Democracy ............ 21
5. China Opens Its First Adoption Center ................................ 15
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1. News Brief (3 Items) ................................................. 34
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[AP-DJ, 11/8/1992] HONG KONG -- China International Trust and Investment
Corp. (CITIC) plans to spend 1 billion yuan to construct a development zone
on an island off the coast of Ningbo, about 200 kilometers south of
Shanghai, according to an official report. The state-owned overseas
investment group plans to build a deep-water harbor, property developments
and other facilities to turn Daxie Island into a trade and export zone,
China Daily reported. The project is to be modeled on efforts underway by
Kumagai Gumi (Hong Kong) Ltd. to create an industrial infrastructure in
Yangpu on Hainan Island. That project is expected to cost Kumagai about 18
billion HK dollars. CITIC plans to build an eight-kilometer railway and
higher bridge to the island and a seven-kilometer water pipeline, as well as
power facilities, roads and telecommunications facilities. (Forwarded by:
Liu Jian)
                             ___  ___  ___ 

[Xinhua, 11/7/1992] China has succeeded in transplanting animal bones into
human bodies for the first time in the world. The achievement was made by Hu
Yunyu, a female professor at the fourth military medical university, located
in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi province. After hundreds of
experiments over the past six years, Hu and her research group found a new
material which they call "re-organized hetero-bones". Since last year they
have transplanted cattle bones into human bodies to replace damaged tibia,
femur, phalanx and humerus bones. no immunological rejection has been
reported and all the patients recovered themselves within a month. 
(Forwarded by: Wenfeng)
                             ___  ___  ___ 

[DPA, 11/9/1992] A European consortium has agreed to provide 420 million
dollars of syndicated loans to finance the construction of what will be
China's biggest motor car factory, it was announced Monday. The loans have
been raised on the European capital markets by underwriting banks
Commerzbank AG of Frankfurt and the Hong Kong subsidiary of the Bank of
China in the biggest financing operation of its kind since the suppression
of the democracy demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. The
factory, a joint venture by China's First Automobile Works Ltd and
Volkswagen AG of Wolfsburg, Germany, will be built in the north-eastern
Chinese city of Changchung. It will have an annual capacity of 150,000 Jetta
or Golf cars and be finished by 1996. (Forwarded by: Wenfeng)

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2. Clinton Faces Difficult Decisions on Trade with China ................ 70
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Forwarded by: Chongyu Hua <cyuhua@ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Source: The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), 11/6/92
Written by: Robert Keatley, Staff Reporter of WSJ

WASHINGTON -- When Bill Clinton enters the White House and attempts to 
revive the sluggish U.S. economy, he seems destined to clash with China.

Both economies could suffer, to the advantage of U.S. trade rivals in Europe
and Asia.

At issue is the contradictory mix of morality and mammon that has marked 
relations between the U.S. and China since their earliest encounters. For
more than a century, Americans have trudged across China to dispense the 
Bible and high-minded principles in what they called a heathen culture. 
Others were driven by more secular visions of vast wealth from peddling
everything from opium to autos in a nation of boundless consumer needs.

These days the form is different but the contradiction remains. Many
Americans, including some Democratic politicians, want China's hard-line
rulers to ease off, especially on human rights issues, as the price of
continued good relations. Others, notably the U.S. business community,
contend that such pressure on Beijing would fail - and cost them money.

President Bush regularly vetoed congressional efforts to put conditions on
the China trade. Mr. Clinton seems unlikely to do the same.

"We want to use our relationship and influence to work with the Chinese for
a peaceful transition to democracy and the spread of free markets," he vowed
last month. "Our nation has a higher purpose than to coddle dictators."

If a Clinton administration demands that political prisoners be released, or 
other conditions be met, in return for smooth trade relations, the Chinese
promise to say no and retaliate. "There is no doubt about it," vows Tong
Zhiguang, vice minister of foreign economic relations.

Beijing suggests it might buy the European Airbus rather than more Boeing
Co. jets, Canadian or Australian grain rather than U.S., or shut U.S.
companies out of its exploding telecommunications markets. If that 
jeopardized the $34 billion U.S.-China trade, both sides would suffer.

For China, serious disputes could endanger its amazing growth rate - near
12% this year and averaging 8% a year since 1978. During that span, the
total value of goods and services produced in China has risen 250% and will
double again by the year 2000, giving China the world's third-largest
economy, the World Bank says. Exports are a driving force and the U.S. is
the main market, taking 26% of the total. China provides 60% of U.S. shoes
plus, among other things, many of its toys, textiles and simple appliances.         

But China's industry consists mainly of clunky state factories that survive 
by subsidy, plus small private ones that assemble imported parts for 
re-export. Though their products last year helped create trade surpluses of 
$16 billion with the U.S., $13 billion with the European Community and $6 
billion with Japan, only 5% to 20% of the added value actually occurs inside 
China. And most profits go to foreign investors, notably from Hong Kong and
Taiwan, who have global distribution links.

Losing the U.S. market would stall China's economy and create one of
Beijing's worst nightmares: jobless, disgruntled workers creating
instability in its cities. If so, Beijing is more likely to crack down than
to loosen controls, the opposite of the professed Clinton goal.

Americans, too, would lose. They would have to pay more for consumer goods
from jogging gear to hair dryers to Barbie dolls. And American exporters
could see sales dwindle even as China seeks more items like computers, 
vehicles and machine tools in its drive to modernize. For example, the
French telecommunication giant, Alcatel, says China will soon surpass the
U.S. as a market for switching gear.

Yet memories linger in the U.S. of the 1989 Tiananmen shootings, and Beijing
often maltreats those who challenge the Communist Party's right to rule; 
forced labor and torture are common. Thus, many lawmakers insist the U.S.
must use trade penalties to force change.

"A tougher policy toward China is appropriate," says William Reinsch, a
Senate staffer and trade specialist with ties to the Clinton camp, because
the U.S. "needs to deal with strength."

How tough Mr. Clinton will be remains unclear. He hasn't committed himself
to specifics and a Democratic Congress may be more flexible if he asks.
Indeed, much previous debate involved Bush-bashing. One theory is that
Congress will vote mild restrictions by June, when action is due about
extending most-favored-nation tariff treatment, then wait a year before
deciding whether to apply them.

Totally unacceptable, responds a Chinese official, who promises to match
any U.S. actions. If these are tough, one casualty could be Motorola Inc.
This year it hopes to sell 200,000 cellular phones in China, next year
700,000 and in five years, nine million. A trade war could derail that.

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3. China Charges Critics Using Islands Dispute Against China ............ 23
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Forwarded by: Liu Jian
Source: DJ, 11/9/1992

BEIJING -- Foreign critics are using a dispute over islands claimed by China
to spread fears that Beijing has expansionist aims in Southeast Asia, a
commentary in the Communist Party newspaper said Monday. 

The article in the People's Daily reflects China's sensitivity over criticism
of its recent moves to establish control over a string of uninhabited islands
in the South China Sea that are claimed by six countries. 

The Spratly islands extend from 250 miles east of southern Vietnam to about
100 miles north of Borneo. The dispute over the islands triggered concerns in
Asia and abroad that China wants to fill an emerging power vacuum in the
region following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the closing of U.S.
military bases in the Philippines. 

The commentary said China has no expansionist aims and remains committed to
a peaceful resolution of border disputes, including competing territorial
claims over the islands. 

The article was signed by Vice Foreign Minister Liu Huaqiu and Yang Chengxu,
director of the Foreign Ministry's policy research department. 

China, Vietnam and Taiwan claim all of the chain, while Malaysia, the
Philippines and Brunei claim parts. The islands are believed to lie over
large oil and natural gas fields. They also straddle vital sea lanes and
fishing grounds. 

China passed a law this year proclaiming the Spratlys as Chinese territory
and signed a contract with an American company to explore for oil and gas in
an area claimed by Vietnam, offering its navy as protection. 

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4. Hong Kong Businessmen Oppose Patten's Plans for Democracy ............ 21
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Forwarded by: Liu Jian
Source: AP-DJ, 11/9/1992

HONG KONG -- A group of powerful local businessmen on Monday said they
opposed Governor Chris Patten's plans to increase democracy in Hong Kong and
supported the status quo instead to facilitate the territory's reversion to
Chinese rule in 1997. 

"We are sure Mr. Patten has made his proposals with the best of intention
for what he believes is best of Hong Kong," said Vincent Lo, chairman of the
Business and Professionals Federation of Hong Kong. "But, to run the risk of
developing a political structure which will be dismantled in four-and-a-half
years' time is just not acceptable to us," Lo said at a press conference on
behalf of some of the territory's most influential tycoons. 

By throwing its weight behind Communist China instead of Chris Patten, the
business group threatens to dilute a local mandate for greater democracy in
the increasingly strident war of words between China and Britain over the
future of Hong Kong. 

Last month Patten unveiled a sweeping constitutional reform package to
increase voter participation for the colony's 1995 elections. Opinion polls
indicate that most of Hong Kong's 5.9 million residents support the plans;
most legislators have also backed the governor. 

But many businessmen, long accustomed to considerable leverage over the
colonial government, are wary of those plans because of their heavy
investments in China's increasingly market-oriented southern provinces. 

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5. China Opens Its First Adoption Center ................................ 15
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Forwarded by: Liu Jian
Source: JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 11/9/1992

BEIJING -- China has opened its first official adoption center to cope with
a rising interest from foreign couples to adopt Chinese children, the
official Xinhua news agency reported Monday.

The center, run by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, will safeguard the legal
interests of children up for adoption and handle the growing number of
applications from overseas, Xinhua said.

There are also plans to link with global adoption agencies and offer
consulting services to prospective parents, it said.

A rush of would-be parents has been reported in China since an adoption law
was introduced in April. At least 30 children under the age of 14 have been
adopted by foreign nationals under the law, Xinhua said. Most of the
children were girl orphans previously living in government-run welfare
institutions, it said.

More than 2,000 Chinese children are adopted each year by foreign nationals
and overseas Chinese from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao.

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