From: xc17@cicero.spc.uchicago.edu ()
Subject: CND-Global, December 17, 1992
Keywords: CND-Global, December 17, 1992
Organization: U of Chicago, SSPPCC
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 08:42:13 GMT
Summary: CND-Global, December 17, 1992
X-Posted-From: cicero.spc.uchicago.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

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

                                (News Global)

                          Thursday, December 17, 1992


Table of Contents                                                 # of Lines
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1. News Brief (6 Items) ................................................. 68
2. Qian Qichen Acknowledges Clinton Assurance on MFN Trade Status ....... 17
3. Yeltsin's Visit to Focus on Economics ................................ 42
4. U.S. Commerce Secretary Arrives in Beijing ........................... 32
5. China to Cut Tariff to Meet GATT Requirements ........................ 32
6. Zhang Weiguo Is Heading to Berkeley .................................. 19
7. CND Announcement: CND Changes Back Issue Archival Site ............... 14
============================================================================

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1. News Brief (6 Items) ................................................. 68
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[UPI, 12/16/1992] BEIJING -- Qian Qichen said Wednesday China would not back
down in its rejection of Hong Kong Governor Patten's proposed democratic re-
forms, and compared Patten to a lame duck still running for office.

"Hong Kong is not his constituency, and he does not need to do a lot of work
for election," Qian said to the laughter of the audience. Qian said the dis-
pute over Hong Kong has "a direct fundamental bearing on China's national
interests, and we cannot make concessions." (Forwarded by: a CND reader)
                                ___ ___ ___

[UPI, 12/16/1992] BEIJING -- In the first meeting of its kind, China recent-
ly invited foreign legal experts to Beijing to consider revisions to the
nation's constitution, the semi-official China News Service said Wednesday.

International experts, Chinese scholars and government officials discussed
"democratic politics" and how to adapt the constitution to China's recent
moves toward capitalist-style market reforms. The Communist Party's recent
switch to market economics has made redundant parts of China's present con-
stitution, which was drafted in 1982, includig largely ignored references
to citizens' rights to freedom of speech, freedom of political expression
and freedom of religious belief. (Forwarded by: a CND reader)
                                ___ ___ ___

[DOW JONES INTERNATIONAL NEWS, 12/16/1992] TAIPEI -- Protesters clashed
with policemen Wednesday when opposition candidates demonstrated outside
the headquarters of Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party to demand the re-
turn of government property. Two opposition members, identified as driver
Lu Shu-jen and campaign official Liu Chih-chang, were injured during the
confrontation with about 300 policemen guarding the building of KMT.

The scuffle began when four candidates from the opposition DPP, accom-
panied by 100 supporters, tried to display a yellow banner saying
"Sequester KMT -- Thief of Government Land." (Forwarded by: Liu Jian)
                                ___ ___ ___

[AP-DJ, 12/16/1992] -- China expects at least 130 million laborers to join
the urban work force in the next three years, according to Wednesday's
China Daily.  While 100 million rural workers have to be transferred into
the non-agricultural sector in the coming years as China continues its
industrial development in various parts of the country, 20 million urban
workers will enter the work force plus 10 million currently employed in
state-owned enterprises will need more work to do, China Daily quoted the
Minister of Labor Ruan Chongwu as saying.

Nevertheless, the Ministry hopes to maintain the country's unemployment
rate at about 2.3% this year, the paper says.It doesn't project a jobless
rate for the next three years though. (Forwarded by: Liu Jian)
                                ___ ___ ___

[JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 12/15/1992] -- North Korea looks set to undergo
a power struggle after a potentially "difficult" father-to-son transfer of
power, CIA Director Robert Gates predicted Tuesday.

On China, Gates said the Beijing government faces "an uncertain political
future" despite the nation's economic growth. "Closer integration of the
Chinese economy into the global marketplace increases public awareness of
Western political ideas -- and is slowly undermining communist control,"
he said. "Hard-line opposition to political liberalization will ensure
continuing turbulence." (Forwarded by: Liu Jian)
                                ___ ___ ___

[JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 12/16/1992] TOKYO -- Taiwan's official represen-
tative in Japan on Wednesday called for an early visit by International Trade
and Industry Minister Yoshiro Mori or other economic ministers to avoid a
rift over Taiwan's increasing trade deficit with Japan.

Taiwan has on several occasions voiced interest in a visit by the MITI
minister, but former MITI Minister Kozo Watanabe did not respond.
(Forwarded by: Liu Jian)

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2. Qian Qichen Acknowledges Clinton Assurance on MFN Trade Status ....... 17
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Forwarded by: Liu Jian and a CND Reader
Source: JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE and USA Today, 12/16/1992

BEIJING -- Qian Qichen said Wednesday U.S. President-elect Bill Clinton is
right to assume Washington has no need to revoke Beijing's preferential
trading status. "MFN trading status is a reciprocal and mutually beneficial
arrangement between China and the United States, Qian said. "It is indispen-
sable for trade relations between the two countries."

But Qian's comments, made at a year-end reception for Beijing-based foreign
diplomats and journalists, fell short of welcoming Clinton's suggestion that
MFN status need not be revoked provided China continues to cooperate on trade
and human rights issues.

"I think the remarks by Mr. Clinton square with the facts," he said.

President-elect Clinton said Monday he won't revoke MFN trading status for
China if it continues to make progress on human rights and other issues.
Clinton said the Chinese had agreed to stop exporting products made by
prison labor to the USA and to open Chinese markets to some U.S. products.

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3. Yeltsin's Visit to Focus on Economics ................................ 42
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Forwarded by: Liu Jian
Source: JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 12/16/1992

BEIJING -- When Boris Yeltsin arrives in China on Thursday, he will be em-
barking on a three-day tour which will focus on economic issues, having made
sure to leave all his political baggage in Moscow.

Confirmation that the whistle-stop visit is largely an economic affair came
when Yeltsin asked to conclude the trip with an inspection tour of Shenzhen,
China's southern showcase city of quasi-capitalist market reforms.

Yeltsin's request underlines the fact that economic ties now dominate
Sino-Russian relations since ideological differences are no longer an issue.

Diplomatic sources agree that Yeltsin will spend much of his time listening
to Chinese leaders, who enjoy explaining Beijing's successful 14-year economic
reform drive to all and sundry.

Yeltsin is scheduled to meet President Yang Shangkun, Premier Li Peng and
Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin before flying to Shenzhen on
Saturday. "Some 12-14 bilateral agreements will be signed on Friday afternoon
including several economic accords and the all-important joint declaration on
bilateral ties," a diplomatic source said.

"China will also offer Russia commodity credits worth between 100 and 200
million yuan (about 17-34 million dollars)," the source said, a relatively
small amount compared with the 1.8 billion Swiss franc equivalent in credits
that Beijing agreed to lend former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev when
Jiang Zemin visited Moscow last year.

The two sides are also expected to sign a nuclear power plant agreement
whereby Russia will help China build one facility in northeast Liaoning
Province and another in the southern province of Guangdong, informed sources
said.

Analysts say Yeltsin's visit will also emphasize Moscow's willingness to
conduct a broad foreign policy to counter charges from domestic critics that
he has already thrown in Russia's lot exclusively with the West.  Russian
Ambassador to Beijing Igor Rogachev said relations with China are a top
priority of Russia's new balanced foreign policy, a point taken up more
forcefully by one of his colleagues.

"Suffice it to say that after Yeltsin's visit, China will clearly be the No.
1 priority for Moscow," the diplomat said.

Yeltsin himself noted the importance Moscow attaches to Asia-Pacific
relations in general during his visit to Seoul last month, suggesting the
establishment of a multilateral forum to forestall regional conflicts.

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4. U.S. Commerce Secretary Arrives in Beijing ........................... 32
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Forwarded by: A CND reader and Liu Jian
Source: Compiled from UPI and DJ News Services, 12/16/1992

BEIJING -- U.S. Commerce Secretary Barbara H. Franklin arrived Wednesday on
the first high-level U.S. economic mission to China since the TAMS crackdown
in 1989, hoping to push China to trim its trade surplus with the U.S.A and
shrugging off criticism of her trip.

The six-day trip has been preceded by controversy over its timing and cost,
coming a month before the change of administrations in Washington. Franklin
is accompanied by a large delegation, including her husband, and is travel-
ing on a special government plane. The group is the first Cabinet-level
economic mission to China since June 1989.

Franklin flew into Beijing at midday and toured Chrysler Corp.'s Beijing Jeep
factory, a joint venture that manufactures Cherokee and army-style jeeps. She
will meet Thursday and Friday with Chinese officials, including Li Peng.

Aides said she would reconvene with China's trade minister the Cabinet-level
meetings suspended after 1989, as well as press the Chinese to open their
market and buy more American-made goods.

"Our hope is that there is more and more business and trade between our two
countries," Franklin told reporters at the auto plant. "And of course we
would especially like more American products to come to China." Franklin's
visit has been portrayed by China as a diplomatic victory, ending U.S. eco-
nomic sanctions. However, it comes a month before President-elect Bill Clin-
ton, who may take a tougher line toward Beijing, takes office. Asked whether
her visit could send the Chinese the wrong signal, Franklin simply said "no"
and was swiftly hustled away by aides.

A 700-million-dlr sale was announced as Franklin began a fence-mending visit
to China to promote U.S. business interests. A contract was expected to be
signed Thursday, her aides said.

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5. China to Cut Tariff to Meet GATT Requirements ........................ 32
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Forwarded by: Stephen Kam-Cheung Ng <skn1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Source: Agence France Presse, 12/15/1992

BEIJING -- China will make its broadest tariff cuts ever, lower import
licensing requirements and increase transparency in its trade regime in an
allout bid to re-enter the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT),
official press reports said Tuesday. "All the measures are aimed at making
China's foreign trade system conform with the international conventions
related to GATT," the Xinhua news agency said. The government will cut
tariffs on 3,371 kinds of commodities from December 31 in the broadest
reductions ever made, the reports said. The imports affected will include
chocolates, industrial chemicals, construction materials and large airplanes
and were selected because they are raw materials needed in China over the
long-term, cannot be made in China, come from developing countries, or are
goods with competitive Chinese equivalents. Some emerging industries, not
specified, will continue to require protection through high tariffs, the
Economic Daily reported.

China expects its application to GATT to be approved next year and has pro-
mised to cut its overall tariff level to 15 percent, comparable to that of
other developing countries in the world trade body. Other measures the
country is taking to ensure a successful bid are reducing the need for
licenses on two-thirds of imports within two years, according to Tong Zhi-
guang, vice minister of foreign economic relations and trade.

In response to complaints from foreign businessmen that the authorities
often enforce regulations that are unpublished or "internal," Tong pledged
that all documents on trade management would be made public in a year.
After that, the government will implement only laws and regulations that
are on public record, he said. The press reports said the reforms are in
line with the communist party's decision to eliminate central planning and
to introduce market economics. Requirements such as import and export
licensing and limitations on companies' trading scope will be phased out
in favor of macroeconomic mechanisms such as tariff and exchange rate
adjustments, they said.

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6. Zhang Weiguo Is Heading to Berkeley .................................. 19
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Forwarded by: Stephen Kam-Cheung Ng <skn1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Source: Christian Science Monitor, 12/15/1992

After months under the constant eye of security police, outspoken journalist
Zhang Weiguo said last week that he is being allowed to leave China for the
United States. Mr. Zhang, former Beijing correspondent of the banned World
Economic Herald of Shanghai, told the Monitor in a telephone interview that
he has been invited to be a research fellow at the University of California
at Berkeley. He plans to focus on human rights and development of news media
in China since economic reforms were launched in 1978.

Although he expects to receive his passport by Dec. 25, Zhang said he will
postpone departure until January for health reasons. He intends to return to
China.

Yet while Beijing frees or expels some troublesome dissidents, the Communist
dictatorship is not lifting its lid on political expression, Western and
Chinese observers say.

In recent weeks, Chinese secret police have detained several dissidents
linked to the return this year of pro-democracy activist Shen Tong.

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7. CND Announcement: CND Changes Back Issue Archival Site ............... 14
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CND back issues are now available via anonymous ftp on the site "ifcss.org"
(IP number 129.107.1.155). Readers on the Internet may use the ftp service
to obtain the back issues. Back issues are organized by CND's sectional
services (CND-G, CND-EP, CND-US, and HXWZ) in the "cnd" directory on
ifcss.org. To use the anonymous ftp service, readers need to enter
"anonymous" in response to the "Name:" prompt, and enter their email
address in response to the "Password:" prompt.

CND back issues, except HuaXiaWenZhai, are no longer available on the site
"ahkcus.org."

CND wishes to express its thanks to the Independent Federation of Chinese
Students and Scholars in the U.S. for providing the ftp archival facility,
and to the Alliance of Hong Kong Chinese in the U.S. for its accomodation
of CND archival files on ahkcus.org in the years past.

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