From: gaojeng@durras.anu.edu.au (J. Gao)
Subject: China News Digest (Global), Sat, 9/26/1992
Summary: CND
Keywords: CND
Organization: Computer Services Centre, Australian National University
Date: 26 Sep 92 06:46:25 GMT

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

                              (News Global)

                       Saturday, September 26, 1992

Table of Contents                                                # of Lines
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1. News Brief (4 Items) .................................................35
2. Zhu Rongji Warns of Inflation ........................................31
3. Vice Premier Wu Xueqian Predicts Measures to Boost Economic Growth ...37
4. Report on Deng's Health Triggers Shanghai Stock Market Rise ..........25
5. Filipino "Comfort Woman" Retraces Her Painful Past ...................63
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1. News Brief (4 Items) .................................................35
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[UPI, 9/25/92] BEIJING -- A Chinese senior trade official said he expected
China to re-join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade early next year,
according to the English-language China Daily on Friday.  Li Zhongzhou, a
Foreign Economic Relations and Trade official charged with overseeing China's
GATT readmittance dismissed U.S threats to block China's re-entry, saying
"China has done what it can" to resolve ongoing market-access disputes
between the two countries. (From: Hua, Chongyu <cyuhua@ncsa.uiuc.edu>)
                               ___  ___  ___

[AP-DJ, 9/25/92] TAIPEI -- Taiwan's indirect trade with China via Hong Kong
gained 33% to 4.06 billion U.S. dlrs in the first seven months of 1992 from
the same period a year ago, the Board of Foreign Trade (BOFT) reported Friday.
In the same period, Taiwan-China trade accounted for 4.6% of Taiwan's total
foreign trade of 88.2 billion U.S. dlrs. Indirect exports to the mainland
China made up 7.3% of Taiwan's total exports. Imports from China made up
1.6% of Taiwan's total imports. The most popular items in China, which
accounted for 69% of Taiwan's exports to the mainland, included manmade
fibers, machinery equipment, electric and electronic parts and components,
and plastics materials. Herbal medicines retained the largest share amid
Taiwan's imports. (From: Huijie)
                               ___  ___  ___

[UPI, 9/24/92] MANILA -- The Asian Development Bank approved Thursday
$107.6 million in loans and technical assistance to China for an energy
conservation and environment protection program. The project aims to
improve the efficiency of the country's cement, fertilizer and steel
industries through an energy and environmental management system. The loan
is payable in 20 years. (From: Hua, Chongyu <cyuhua@ncsa.uiuc.edu>)
			       ___  ___  ___

[AP-DJ, 9/25/92] SEOUL -- North Korea will complete a blueprint by the end
of September on building a special economic zone to accommodate foreign
firms using capitalist management, a senior economic official said.
Kim Jung U, vice chief of North Korea's trade office said his country is
ready to establish joint-venture plants with South Korean firms "in any
places of our country without restrictions." The economic zone, to be built
along its northeastern border with China and Russia, can accommodate up to
one million North Korean workers, he said. (From: Huijie)

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2. Zhu Rongji Warns of Inflation ........................................31
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From: Jian
Source: KYODO, 9/25/92

HONG KONG -- The rapid expansion of bank credit in China may spur inflation
if it is not controlled, Chinese Deputy Premier Zhu Rongji said recently,
the semiofficial Hong Kong China News Service (HKCNA) reported.

Bank lending over the first five months of 1992 totalled 86 billion yuan,
compared with a target figure of 62 billion yuan, the Chinese-language
HKCNA reported Zhu as saying.

Bank lending could exceed 400 billion yuan by year-end if lending was not
brought under control, Zhu was quoted as saying.

Zhu said that during the first half of 1992, China saw rapid growth in the
national economy, industrial production, fixed capital investments, imports,
and bank lending.

Fixed capital investment increased by 32.5% over the same period last year,
HKCNA quoted Zhu as saying.

Imports jumped 40% in the first half of 1992 over the same period last year,
Zhu also said.

Although exports were still strong, Zhu indicated that a stagnation in
exports could incur a reduction in foreign exchange reserves and lead to
difficulty in attracting foreign capital.

The Chinese deputy premier noted that agricultural production, retail sales,
consumer prices, exports, and the supply of major raw materials were all
"stable."

He described the situation for rail transport, however, as "tight," and the
level of economic efficiency in China as "low."

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3. Vice Premier Wu Xueqian Predicts Measures to Boost Economic Growth ...37
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From: Chongyu Hua, <cyuhua@ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Source: UPI, 9/25/92

TOKYO -- Chinese Vice Premier Wu Xueqian, signaling China's determination
to accelerate market-style reforms, predicted Thursday the Communist Party
will agree to boost its annual economic growth target to 8 or 9 percent at
next month's congress.

During a call on Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, Wu also requested greater
economic cooperation from Japan's private sector, a Foreign Ministry
official said.

Wu welcomed Japanese collaboration in major economic development projects
such as the Tarim petroleum operation in the northwest region, the official
said. The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous area is believed to contain 140 to 200
billion barrels of oil, one of the world's largest undeveloped oilfields.

"The 14th Communist Party Congress will wrangle over how fast to promote
reforms and openness," Wu was quoted as saying. He predicted the current
6 percent annual economic growth target would be increased to 8 or 9 percent.

Miyazawa praised China's economic liberalization policies, and called for
extending the principles of open trade from the coastal areas to the
interior.  He also welcomed Sino-Japanese joint ventures, but made no
specific commitments.

Miyazawa advised China to consider the environmental consequences of the
Three Gorges Project in planning construction of a two-kilometer-wide dam
in the Yangtze River.

Environmentalists have blasted the controversial hydroelectric and flood
control project, which Chinese planners estimate would displace some
725,000 people.

The National People's Congress passed a bill endorsing the project earlier
this year.

The party begins a crucial congress Oct. 12 to endorse senior leader Deng
Xiaoping's dramatic plans for economic reform and set the country's course
for the next five years, the official Xinhua news agency said Tuesday.

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4. Report on Deng's Health Triggers Shanghai Stock Market Rise ..........25
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From: Chongyu Hua, <cyuhua@ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Source: UPI, 9/25/92

BEIJING -- Comments from senior leader Deng Xiaoping's children saying their
88-year old father enjoys "excellent" health boosted the fortunes of the
sagging Shanghai stock market, an official report said Friday.

"My father is in excellent health. He even went swimming this summer,
sometimes swimming for as long as 50 or 60 minutes," Deng's daughter Deng
Lin told reporters in Shanghai, according to the official China News Service.

The comments by Deng Lin and son Deng Pufang triggered "an immediate
response on the Shanghai stock market," the report said.

"Dozens of stocks trading on the market stopped declining and went up today,"
the report said.

Rumors of his death have in the past sent stock markets plunging in China
and in the China-dependent British colony of Hong Kong.

In the run-up to the Communist Party's secretive 14th Congress, a key
meeting in October where many top personnel changes will take place,
speculation about the patriarch's health has increased.

In the closest thing China has to elections, Deng is reported to have
succeeded in placing many members of his reformist faction into positions
of power and to have enshrined bolder economic reform in the party's policy
platform.

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5. Filipino "Comfort Woman" Retraces Her Painful Past ...................63
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From: Huijie
Source: KYODO, 9/24/92

ANGELES, Philippines -- The 65-year-old great grandmother clutched her chest
and closed her eyes as the car she was riding in passed an ornate mansion
which had been used as a camp by Japanese soldiers during World War II.

"I feel weak inside.  My heart is pounding," Rosa Henson said after pointing
to the mansion where one night in 1944 she and six other so-called "comfort
women" were herded in a small truck, to be sexually abused by 18 Japanese
soldiers.

>From the mansion, located near the heart of this city some 80 kilometers
north of Manila, Henson took lawyers and reporters with her on a journey
back to a painful past.

The first Filipina to step forward and identify herself as among thousands
of Asian women forced by the Japanese Imperial Army to serve as "comfort
women," also located the site of a hospital where Japanese soldiers manning
a checkpoint picked her up one day in April 1943.

A hardware store now sits on the site formerly occupied by the hospital
where she and six other women were locked up for three months, serving up
to 20 Japanese soldiers a night in small cubicles.

"We were allowed to rest only when we had our (menstrual) periods, but at
that time I had not yet reached puberty, so I did not have any rest," Henson
said.

"Each soldier was allowed to stay in our room for only about five minutes
and we were given only five minutes to clean up, then the next soldier was
called in," she said.

"I almost lost my mind," she said.

>From the hospital, Henson said she and the other women were brought to a
rice mill several blocks away, to be locked up there for six more months.
An optical shop now stands on the busy street corner, which used to be the
entrance to the rice mill.

"I could not forget this place. We were locked up like prisoners in small
rooms inside the rice mill, which had a high ceiling made of iron sheets.
We were not allowed to talk to each other so I did not even know the names
of the other women," Henson recalled.

Henson, an illegitimate daughter of a rich landowner, also recalled with
pain how one night she was able to enter her father's mansion for the first
time.  The mansion had been turned into a camp by Japanese soldiers, two of
whom abused her that night.

Asked how she felt, remembering her past, Henson said, "I feel like gasping
for breath."

Henson and women's rights advocates who have taken up her case are demanding
a formal apology and compensation from Japan.

The trip to this city was made so lawyers could verify Henson's story and
gather more evidence and witnesses to back up a case in court.

Henson's counsel, Romeo Capulong, said earlier he plans to file a case
before a Japanese court and the United Nations.  A class suit will be
pursued if other Philippine comfort women would come forward.

Japanese historians estimate some 100,000 to 200,000 Asian women, housed in
frontline brothels run by the Japanese, were forced to provide sexual
services for Japanese soldiers from 1942 to 1945.

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