From: gaojeng@durras.anu.edu.au (J. Gao)
Subject: CND 26-7-92 SUN
Summary: CND
Keywords: CND
Organization: Computer Services Centre, Australian National University
Date: 26 Jul 92 04:37:55 GMT

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

                             (News Global)

                         Sunday, July 26, 1992

Table of Contents                                               # of Lines
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1. News Brief (3 Items).................................................25
2. China Plans to Lower Taxes on State Companies........................31
3. No Other Gods Before Mao.............................................26
4. Sport Hot Shots: Huang Zhihong......................................109
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1. News Brief (3 Items).................................................25
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[AP-DJ, 7/25] BEIJING -- Four tons of explosives blew  up  at  a  chemical
factory,  killing 22 people, when a worker tried to weld a piece of broken
equipment, an official Chinese newspaper reported.  Three people were  in-
jured  and  $92,400  in damage was caused to the factory in Exi in central
China's Hubei province, according to the Thursday edition of the  People's
Security News, seen in Beijing Saturday.  The accident occurred on June 27
but hadn't been previously reported. (From: Huijie)
                      ____  ____  ____  ____

[BBC Monitoring Service, 7/23] Beijing is expecting President  Yeltsin  to
make  an  official  visit to China before the end of the year according to
the Chinese foreign minister, ITAR-TASS reported from Manila on 22nd July.
Qian  Qichen  will  travel to Moscow in October to prepare for the summit.
The minister and his Russian counterpart Kozyrev had a meeting on the 22nd
while in Manila to attend an ASEAN meeting. (From: A CND Reader)
                      ____  ____  ____  ____

[Reuter, 7/22] BEIJING -- China plans "very bold" steps to  open  its  oil
industry to more international cooperation, saying no nation could develop
the industry by itself, the official New China News  Agency  (NCNA)  said.
Zhang  Yongyi,  vice  president  of the China National Oil and Natural Gas
Corp, told the agency that Chinese oil officials were developing a plan to
expand access for foreign companies.  NCNA said Zhang declined to give de-
tails of the plan to promote more cooperation, but quoted other sources as
saying the moves would be "very bold." (From: A CND Reader)

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2. China Plans to Lower Taxes on State Companies........................31
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From:    Jian Liu
Source:  AP-DJ, 7/24/92

BEIJING -- The Chinese government will lower its taxes on state-owned com-
panies  as part of its effort to make them economically independent, offi-
cial news reports said Saturday.

The China Daily newspaper quoted Jin  Xin,  head  of  the  State  Taxation
Bureau, as saying the plan calls for all domestic companies to face a uni-
form income tax rate of 33%.

In the past, state-owned  companies  paid  55%  and  collectives-companies
owned by local governments or neighborhood organizations-paid 33%.

The state companies in turn received preferential treatment in getting raw
material  supplies, loans and government investment funds. But the govern-
ment is trying to wean the state companies away from this close  relation-
ship and make them operationally independent.

The government has not set a date for implementing the new system, details
of which are still being debated.

The China Daily quoted Jin as saying that one question is whether  to  tax
domestic  and  foreign-funded  companies  at the same rate. Foreign-funded
companies, including joint ventures, are taxed at widely  differing  rates
depending  on their location and size of investment, but the level is gen-
erally lower than for domestic companies.

Domestic companies have complained that joint ventures'  superior  perfor-
mance is due to their lower tax rate, not better management.

Local governments also have used tax breaks to compete against each  other
in  attracting  foreign investment. Jin called for an end to the practice,
saying it violates state policy.

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3. No Other Gods Before Mao.............................................26
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From:    Charles P. Mok
Source:  Christianity Today, 7/20/92

Just before Christmas 1990, Chinese authorities arrested over  60  Cathol-
ics,  including priests and bishops, in Heibei province.  The arrests came
as part of a widespread crackdown against Catholics who  remain  loyal  to
the Vatican and refuse to join the government-sponsored Catholic Patriotic
Association.

One of those arrested, 51-year-old Zhang Weiming, worked as  a  translator
in a factory in Baoding city and was an active member of the Roman Cathol-
ic community there.  On December 14, he and his wife, Hou  Chongyan,  were
walking along a street in Baoding when plainclothes city officials bundled
them into a car - without explanation or display of detention  or  arrests
warrants.  Two days later plainclothes police officers reportedly searched
their flat without a warrant and confiscated books and personal documents.
After  the  two  were  held in "boarding houses" for two months, Weiming's
wife was released without explanation  and  Zhang  was  transferred  to  a
detention center.  He is still being held there without charge.

Zhang is reported to have had a heart attack in  detention,  where  he  is
also  suffering from arthritis and enteritis.  He has been held incommuni-
cado for over a year, and his family has  been  denied  accesses  the  him
since  his  arrest.  They may not send him medicine or food, nor have they
have been informed of the reasons for, or the place of, his detention.

Amnesty International calls his arrest arbitrary and illegal, and is  cal-
ling  on  the  Chinese authorities to release him immediately and uncondi-
tionally.

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4. Sport Hot Shots: Huang Zhihong......................................109
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From:    Charles P. Mok
Source:  Sports Illustrated, 7/22/92
By:      Franz Lidz

Huang Zhihong speaks spontaneously, like somebody  just  out  of  solitary
confinement.   She  sings  spontaneously,  too.   Huang, the women's world
champion in the shot put, did some extemporaneous crooning last fall at  a
Karaoke  songathon  attended  by  nearly 10,000 of the People's Republic's
people.

"She had the worst voice,  positively,"  says  Yang  Yingming,  a  Chinese
sports editor. "But everyone liked her the best."

"I sound like a cow," offers Huang, through a translator.

"Not a cow," corrects Yang. "Like every barnyard animal combined."

Huang laughs.  She's a splendidly ample woman - 220 pounds on a 5'7" frame
- with a good, strong face: smooth, clear skin; lively, vivid eyes.

Called Lao Huang (Old Huang) because she's still competing at the  ancient
age  of  27, she is, according to one Chinese sports official, "remarkable
for her harmonious movements, strength and swift throws."  Swift and  very
long  throws,  actually.  At the 1989 World Cup in Barcelona, her heave of
68'1/4" earned her a gold medal, the first ever by an Asian in a World Cup
track and field event, and she struck gold again with a throw of 68'4 1/4"
at last years world championships in Tokyo.  And though  she  has  a  good
chance to become the first Chinese track and field athlete to win an Olym-
pic gold medal, her coach, Kan Fulin, says, "Neither Huang  nor  I  places
much  importance in winning the gold. We believe victory in competition is
the reward for difficult training, much like a farmer reaps a good harvest
after a year's hard work in the field."

Huang  takes  an  equally  Maoist  approach  toward  her  accomplishments.
"Results  are  results," she says. "What I have done is no more newsworthy
than if I had swallowed 500 eels."

As a kid, Huang used to get teased about her weight. "What kind of athlete
are you?" classmates would ask.

"I'm a marathoner," she would say.

"How can that be?"

"I never win," she would crack. "I just run slowly."

"Huang is a woman completely at ease with herself.   "If  you  don't  care
about  being  fat, you'll feel happy," she says. "If you do care, you will
be unhappy. Me?  I don't care.  I have always been very big."

The elder of two children, Huang  grew  up  in  the  eastern  province  of
Zhejiang. Her parents worked in a textile factory.  At 13, she was spotted
by a prominent javelin coach and enrolled in a provincial  sports  school.
She  tried  javelin but "felt too clumsy."  She tried the discus but "felt
too dizzy."  Finally, she tried the shot put.  "I felt  just  right,"  she
says.   By  1985, at age 20, she was ranked No. 2 in the country.  In '86,
she won the title at the 10th Asian Games.

Early on, Huang realized something many athletes don't find out until they
hit  30  or  40  -  that there are all sorts of interesting things in life
apart from sports.  She design clothes, she reads historical  novels,  and
she  is  studying  English.   Instead  of displaying her trophies and gold
medals on the mantel, Huang chucks them under her  bed.   "They're  fake,"
she  says,  jokingly.   Huang  ought  to know.  After winning a medal, she
chomps on it, hoping thereby to determine - somehow  -  its  authenticity.
"Fake, fake, every one fake," she says, ruefully.

Huang is an emancipated woman.  "She doesn't like to be told  to  do  any-
thing,"  says  Kan.  "Ask  most  Chinese athletes to win a gold medal, and
they'll say, 'If you want me to, I will.'  Huang says, 'Don't pressure me.
I  already  intend to win.'"  Her attitude mirrors the spirit of the times
in her country.  "The slogan in today's China is, Don't discuss  what  be-
longs  to  capitalism  or socialism - just do it," Yang says. "We got that
from our leader, Deng Xiaoping."  Who may have gotten it from a Nike ad.

Huang practices doing it in the weight room of the Chinese Sports Training
Center.  "What do I like about the shot put?" she says, smiling. "I do not
like anything about it.  What is there to like about those heavy lumps  of
metal?   If  I  had  known the lumps would make me fat, I never would have
taken up the sport."

Huang's rapid release may be the most explosive in  women's  shot-putting.
"She's  got  the  most  rip,  the  most pop by far," says Art Venegas, the
throwing coach at UCLA. "The speed with which she rotates her  hips  gives
her  throws  incredible  thrust,  and the shot literally bursts out of her
hand.  She has the balance, agility and brute  force  of  a  great  middle
linebacker."

Despite it all, Huang placed a disappointing eighth in the Seoul Olympics.
But she rebounded quickly, winning the silver at the 1989 World Indoors in
Budapest.  What impressed Kan most was not  Huang's  performance  but  the
self-critique she wrote afterward.  He quotes it from memory: "Nerves were
the reason for my defeat at the Olympics.  Being too nervous.  I could not
control myself, and the result was that I relied on sheer force at the ex-
pense of technique.  To keep a cool head at all times is of  great  impor-
tance.   Only  in  this  way can one be in good form and give full play to
one's skills."

As Kan recites, Huang chugs around the track.  "She has slow feet," he ob-
serves, "but a very fast mouth."

He remembers once sitting  next  to  Huang  on  a  long  train  ride  from
Qinhuangdao  to Beijing.  "No matter how many times I asked, she would not
stop yakking," he says.

Finally, Kan said,  "Huang  Zhihong,  could  you  keep  quiet  just  three
minutes?"   When  she  shook her head, Kan grabbed her hand.  "If you open
your mouth in the next three minutes," he said, "I'll pinch your fingers."

Huang shut up.  "I held words as long as I  could,"  she  recalls.   Which
turned out to be a minute and 40 seconds.

"Maybe not a national record," says Kan. "But still, a personal best."

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