DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON
SECTION: CHINA
SUBSECTION: ECONOMY
Revised 8/20/99
ECONOMIC AND OTHER
FORCED LABOR
ECONOMIC AND OTHER
Jane's Defence Weekly 9/23/98 "China's top military chief will be forced into retirement as he assumes responsibility for a series of economic-related scandals and disciplinary problems that have tarnished the People's Liberation Army (PLA) over the past year. Gen Zhang Wannian, the 71-year-old executive vice chairman of China's policy-setting Central Military Commission (CMC) and a member of the ruling Politburo, is due to step down at a plenary meeting of the Communist Party's Central Committee that is scheduled next month. He will be replaced by Gen Chi Haotian, currently defence minister and also a CMC vice chairman, Beijing-based sources told Jane's Defence Weekly.."
Reuters 11/18/98 ".Chinese President Jiang Zemin is expected to flex Beijing's diplomatic muscles during a visit to
Moscow next week, opposing U.S.-backed pressure on Iraq and strengthening the budding partnership between China and Russia, analysts said. Jiang is scheduled to travel to Russia from November 22 to 25 for a summit meeting with ailing President Boris Yeltsin. Jiang is also expected to meet Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov as well as leaders of the State Duma, or parliament. ."It seems that the main goal of the summit will be to simply oppose the U.S., especially on the issue of Iraq,'' said one source close to the Russian embassy.."
Asia Pacific Frontpage 12/4/98 Glenn Schloss ".Interests associated with mainland China have increased their stake in Hong Kong media with the strategic purchase of newspaper publisher Culturecom Holdings, which publishes the Chinese-language Tin Tin Daily News through an Australian listed company called ViaGold Capital. ViaGold's chairman is Chinese businessman Zhang Yonglingnr, who was previously a high-ranking red capitalist as director of neighboring Guangdong province's investment arm. Sing Tao Holdings, publisher of the English-language daily Hong Kong Standard and Chinese-language Sing Tao headed by Sally Aw Sian, whose father founded the popular Tiger Balm ointment products, has sold her 32 percent stake in Culturecom to ViaGold for $HK21 million. The sale comes as Aw, who has been named in a fraud case relating to inflated circulation figures at the Standard, continues to try sell part or all of her 50.04 percent holding in Sing Tao.."
London Daily Telegraph 2/2/99 David Rennie ".Violent protests are common in rural China as farmers demonstrate against local abuses of power, including illegal taxes and levies, confiscation of property and the issuing of IOUs instead of cash for crops bought by the state. Two of the blasts occurred in the southern Hunan province, scene of several large demonstrations this year reported to have involving thousands of angry farmers and hundreds of troops.."
Reuters AFP 2/10/99 ".The United Nations launched an international appeal on Wednesday for $46 million to help China rebuild schools, industry and agriculture in provinces devastated by massive floods last summer. ..Last September, the United Nations sought $139 million for emergency relief and initial rehabilitation for China flood victims.."
World Net Daily 3/11/99 Michael Dorgan "… The allure of selling anything to 1.2 billion Chinese is so great that China has found it easy to manipulate the profit-hungry multinationals knocking on its door. American companies have pumped billions of dollars into China in hopes of hitting a bonanza, or at least preventing their competitors from gaining an advantage. But a new Commerce Department report reveals that few U.S. companies are actually making a profit in China. Worse, the report says, many American companies may be trading away their futures by swapping advanced technology for a toehold in a market that may forever remain closed to them. …``Despite several years of high-level investment in China . . . survey data and press reports indicate that relatively few U.S. companies are realizing profits or even a return on their investments in China,'' said the report, published by the department's Bureau of Export Administration and released with little fanfare in January. ``The potential effects of this on the U.S. economy include loss of jobs (which in the high-technology sector are typically high-wage positions), loss of capital or revenue that could be reinvested in the United States, decline in or loss of basic industries critical to the U.S. defense industrial base, and the potential for creating or enhancing foreign competitors where they might not otherwise exist,'' says the 99-page report, titled ``U.S. Commercial Technology Transfers to the People's Republic of China.'' …``Although China lags behind its neighbors as well as the United States, there are indications that China is catching up in some electronics-related sectors as a result of technology transfers,'' it said. ``Most technology transfers are in the form of component co-production and assembly as well as access to 'soft' technologies (processes, management techniques, accounting methods) derived from foreign technical assistance and training.'' …The report arrives at a time when U.S. and Chinese officials often cite mutually beneficial business ties as a solid foundation for relations, even though the ballooning U.S. trade deficit with China -- about $57 billion last year -- is a growing concern on this side of the Pacific….."
FOX Newswire 3/11/99 Renee Schilhab "…"There's a shift taking place favoring a tougher policy toward China," Ted Carpenter, director of foreign policy at The Cato Institute, said Wednesday. "Republicans more and more are gravitating toward an anti-Chinese, hard-line position, with the Kissinger-led faction that advocates a policy of engagement growing weaker." …The incidents have prompted foreign policy experts to question whether the U.S. should penalize China when it discovers that the Chinese have benefited from the illegal transfer of weapons information. The Clinton administration in 1994 de-linked trade issues and human rights abuses in China. But the U.S. has no consistent policy for dealing with China on the leakage of secret American technology. The U.S. imposed and then Clinton waived sanctions on China for shipping 5,000 ring magnets to Pakistan in 1996. The magnets can be used in gas centrifuges to enrich uranium…."
Financial Times 3/13/99 Nancy Dunne "…Senator Jesse Helms, Republican chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, and Senator Ernest Hollings, the committee's senior Democrat, have circulated a letter urging that Congress "review any agreement, and all the surrounding negotiations to ensure that it reflects traditional American values while protecting American interests". Richard Gephardt, House minority leader, has already introduced a bill requiring congressional approval of a US-China WTO deal. Forty members have signed on thus far. This week it gained the support of Benjamin Gilman, chairman of the House foreign relations committee and a Republican moderate. The Senate letter comes in the wake of reports that a deal on the terms upon which the US would support China's WTO membership is close. Legislators appear to believe that by encouraging China's accession to the WTO, President Bill Clinton has taken a step too far at a time when US-Chinese relations are otherwise at a low point. Both Republicans and Democrats are angry over China's worsening human rights record, reports of spying to secure US missile technology, improper technology transfers, the infusion of Chinese money in last year's congressional elections and the growing bilateral trade deficit…."
Associated Press 3/12/99 John Leicester "…China's foreign trade minister urged the United States today to reconsider a decision to cancel the sale of a $450 million commercial satellite to a Chinese-controlled consortium. In one of China's strongest reactions so far against the canceled sale, Shi Guangsheng said U.S. restrictions on high-tech products were preventing American enterprises from tapping the Chinese market, and said other countries would be ready to fill the gap…. The Clinton administration said the decision to reject the sale was made after Asia Pacific Mobile Telecommunications, the Singapore-based consortium that was to purchase the satellite from Hughes Electronics, took on more Chinese investors with direct links to the Chinese military. The Chinese government has dismissed suspicions of military uses of the satellite as groundless…"
Drudge Report 3/15/99 Freeper Brian Mosely "…Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and Ernest Hollings, D-S.C. now say they will move to block any effort by the White House to help China become a member of the World Trade Organization this year, threatening the administration's leading diplomatic effort to improve the deteriorating relations with Beijing…."
Reuters 3/26/99 Donna Smith "…The White House said on Friday it will hold out for a ``good deal'' on China's bid to join the World Trade Organisation as negotiators press to close the gaps ahead of Premier Zhu Rongji's upcoming U.S. visit. Zhu is scheduled to meet President Bill Clinton on April 8 as part of an April 6-14 trip to the United States. A trade deal would be the highlight of the trip which is expected to be overshadowed by allegations that China stole secrets from a U.S. nuclear research facility and Congressional criticisms of Clinton's policy of engagement with China…… "
Inside China Today 3/30/99 Reuters "…Allegations that China stole U.S. nuclear technology have cast a cloud on American technology trade in China, Commerce Secretary William Daley said on Tuesday. "Because of the possible illicit transfer of technology, many Washington veterans have told me this is the worst climate for high-tech trade with China in 20 years," Daley told the Beijing-based U.S. business community. Daley said exporting high technology to China had been made more difficult by the furore in Washington over allegations China stole secrets from the U.S. national nuclear research laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico and used them to improve its military capabilities. He also indicated Washington was bracing for the release of findings by a U.S. House panel headed by Republican Christopher Cox that investigated the transfer of U.S. arms technology to China over the past two decades….."
Inside China Today..www.insidechina.com 3/30/99 AFP "…The United States and China have signed seven infrastructure accords to provide U.S. know-how for projects including the first onshore pipeline to be built on the mainland with a foreign company, a U.S. statement said Tuesday. Visiting U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley and State Councilor Wu Yi witnessed Monday's signing of the accords believed to be worth about $2 billion. "Each of the projects demonstrates the positive impact that U.S. technology, expertise and world class equipment will have on the development of China's infrastructure and overall economy," Daley said in the statement….. "
Reuters Scott Hillis 4/7/99 "…Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji flew to Washington on Wednesday on a major fence-mending mission as President Bill Clinton warned U.S. politicians not to turn China into a ``communist dragon'' and trigger a dangerous new Cold War… "
Reuters 4/7/99 "…U.S. Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott said on Wednesday China should be denied entry to the World Trade Organization, citing allegations of nuclear spying and human rights abuses by Beijing. ``Letting China into the WTO at this time shows how far this administration is willing to go in an effort to salvage its failed policy of strategic partnership with China,'' the Mississippi Republican said in a statement. ``This is the wrong decision at the wrong time.'' …."
Wall Street Journal 4/6/99 Freeper stoicmom "…Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, frustrated and irritated with China's critics in Washington, arrives in the U.S. today to take China's case for more cooperation directly to the American people. ..."We are this close" to a deal [for entry into the World Trade Organization], he says, holding his thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart. But, he complains, in recent days, "due to pressure from Congress," the Clinton administration has balked at closing that gap. Mr. Zhu, who is renowned in China for his blunt spoken manner, indicates that Americans will see the same during his nine-day, six-city U.S. saing. Smilingly describing himself as an "ordinary Chinese with a bad temper," he says, "When I go to the U.S. it's very possible I'll have arguments with you. So you should be prepared for that."…"
Washington Post 4/12/99 David Ignatius "...President Clinton did something so shortsighted and potentially costly last week in scuttling a trade deal with China that you begin to wonder if the Kosovo policy jinx is spreading to Asia. Some Clinton insiders just shake their heads in chagrin when asked to explain why the president backed away from a deal that would have opened Chinese markets as a condition for Chinese entry into the World Trade Organization. They concede that the reason for Clinton's last-minute reversal was entirely political: He wanted to appease protectionist congressional Democrats and avoid what might look to critics like an embarrassing concession to visiting Chinese leader Zhu Rongji. Clinton's flip-flop on the WTO sullies one of the few areas -- free trade -- where he reasonably can claim to have acted consistently on principle, rather than short-term politics. In that sense, it's a measure of just how weak Clinton has become -- that he would sabotage his legacy to gain a few weeks' respite from criticism. The administration is betting that it can tiptoe back to Beijing and salvage a WTO deal before Labor Day. ...."
4/8/99 Concord, NH "...Presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan today rejected President Clinton's assertion that a "healthy argument" about our China policy will "lead us toward a campaign-driven Cold War," calling it "a demagogic attempt to stifle legitimate debate." "President Clinton's claim that admitting China to the WTO is 'profoundly in our national interests' is flat out wrong. Today's New York Times reports that China stole American neutron bomb technology and that Mr. Clinton and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger were fully aware of this grave breach of our security," Mr. Buchanan said. "This latest evidence reconfirms the proven failure of the President's 'constructive engagement' policy, and it severely undermines the President's already crippled credibility." "China is not now and has never been America's 'strategic partner'," Mr. Buchanan said. "'Constructive engagement' has been a demonstrable failure and our commander in chief now wants to relinquish what remains of U.S. economic leverage over China's military buildup, human rights abuses, and threats against Taiwan." ....."
UPI Stock Smart 4/8/99 Freeper heyhub "...President Clinton said he and Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji discussed allegations of Chinese espionage and illegal campaign donations (Thursday) and despite Zhu's denial of wrongdoing, said the investigations into the charges should continue. ``Occasionally, things happen in this government that I'm not aware of, '' Clinton said, diplomatically, during a joint press conference with Zhu at the White House. Zhu said he would be ``happy to cooperate'' with the investigations...."
South China Morning Post 4/10/99 Jasper Becker Freeper Sakida "…Beijing's friendships in the Balkans are nothing if not flexible. These days Chinese sympathies are all with the plucky Serbs and the mainland media has been whipping up public support for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's heroic stand against the West. Little is said about the ethnic cleansing and the flight of the Albanian Kosovar refugees or their struggling hosts in Macedonia and Albania…."
New York Times 4/15/99 David Sanger "...It took a five-day roadtrip through America by a stalwart of the Chinese Communist Party, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, and the anger of a lot of American capitalists to force President Clinton, once again, to reverse his tactics in dealing with China. By Tuesday afternoon, a president who only a few days before had sounded in no particular rush to conclude a huge trade deal with China was suddenly in a big hurry..... Taking his case to American business interests, Zhu insisted that compromises allowing American telecommunications firms, farm products, banks and insurance companies into the Chinese market could all perish.
The president and Zhu talked for 20 minutes, during which Clinton offered to issue the third "joint statement" in five days, administration officials said, struggling to explain why one summit meeting needed three successive announcements. Clinton promised Zhu that the statement would reiterate that the United States was committed to getting China into the WTO this year, and said the negotiations could be resumed as soon as a team of American negotiators could travel to Beijing, officials said. When Zhu resumed his Waldorf meetings with New York investors and business executives Tuesday night, he confidently relayed that the deal was "99 percent done," the executives said. White House officials conceded on Wednesday that the turnabout occurred because they had misjudged the dynamics of the China summit. In the end, they had not only angered those in Congress who oppose any deal with China, but those who think one is essential...."
Email Yandaojie Middle School,Chengdu China 4/16/99 Freeper cyberaxe "...We have a popular saying here"IF you want to watch a bad news to entertain,go to watch CNN".We are behind you,but can we just do in our way to better our life.Why should we be like you and why should you want us be like you?? Look the CNN and BBC recently,they are eulogizing NATO and US aggression into a sovereign country,regardless of the homes for Serbs and Albanians being bombed.Did any bomb dropped in Yugoslavia helped a single fleeing ethnic Albanian????....We can wait 100 years for Britten to return HongKong back to us,why your president cannot wait for a few more weeks to find out better solutions to deal with the Kosovo crisis with peace? Yes,we know you have money and weapons to fight. Since Bill cannot wait to show off his high tech weapons,why he sing songs of world peace and freedom? You can fight to solve the Kosovo crisis,can we learn from you and fight to take back Taiwan back? We will not for we believe war only can worsen things and deepen hatred and widen the difference and increase confrantation. I hope you and other people who has prejudice upon China can use some of those money(waging wars)to come and see what we are doing here to better our life.Do not be fooled by those so-called Chinese dissidents who just want to please your government for a visa to US or a green card to stay in your country.I am a famouse dissident here and I am very critisizing my government,but I am doing so just to help my country not to please US government and other western anti-China organizations or governments..."
South China Morning Post 4/23/99 David Murphy "...To help celebrate 50 years of communist rule on October 1, some of the world's leading capitalists will join the party in Beijing. ...Gerald Levin, head of Time Warner, whose subsidiary, Fortune magazine, is organising the Shanghai event, and media magnate Ted Turner, are among those due to attend. Mr Levin will lead a group of Time Warner board members and, accompanied by other executives, they are expected to hold talks with Premier Zhu Rongji in Beijing. Among 300-odd foreign corporate leaders due to attend the Shanghai event are: Jack Welch of General Electric, Michael Dell of Dell Computers and the heads of Nokia, Sony, PepsiCo and Walt Disney..."
Xinhua 4/22/99 "…One of the key points of the strategy will be new missions for the alliance [NATO] -- involving military operations outside the alliance territory, or interfering in the internal affairs of the non-NATO countries….Analysts believe that NATO's new strategy is the principal part of the U.S. global strategy, which is to keep its dominance and build a single-polar world order in the 21st century…..Running against the international norms and the charter of the United Nations, NATO's new strategy, which was manipulated by the U.S., poses great threat to the world peace and serious challenges to the United Nations. It will certainly meet opposition from
peace-loving countries, analysts say…."
Wall Street Journal 4/20/99 Nicholas R. Lardy "...After 13 years of snail-paced negotiations to join the World Trade Organization, China offered the Clinton administration a trade-liberalization deal that can only be described as breathtaking. Unfortunately, the concessions came just before Premier Zhu Rongji's arrival in Washington, and the president, perhaps not having adequate time to evaluate fully the overwhelmingly favorable implications of Mr. Zhu's proposal, turned it down. In an attempt to repair the damage, Mr. Clinton called Mr. Zhu after the latter had left Washington and struck an agreement to renew the talks at an early date, with the expectation that a deal could be concluded by the end of the year. Although this now looks likely, significant risks remain. The U.S. would have been better off accepting the deal offered by China in the first place..."
Freeper Jolly reports on Reuters; American Investigator 4/15/99; 04/97 Jennifer Genevieve; China By Any Other "...Wang Jun and Li Ka Shing always seem to end up on top. Here is an interesting article show who stands to benifit the most when Chian gets WTO...China's entry into the World Trade Organisation may not be a done deal yet but investors in the Hong Kong stock market are already looking forward to the gains that lie ahead, particularly for ports and telecoms firms.... The question for investors is now ``when'' rather than ``if,'' analysts said. .....Goldman Sachs is predicting a jump in China trade flows to US$600 billion in five years from US$324 billion in 1998. ``Obvious beneficiaries are exporters and port companies,'' it said in a recent research report. ....Targeting that growth, analysts have singled out COSCO Pacific Ltd , China Merchants Holdings (International) Co Ltd , Wharf (Holdings) Ltd and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd as the main beneficiaries....China-backed banks such as CITIC Ka Wah Bank Ltd and Union Bank of Hong Kong Ltd would benefit through joint ventures with financial service subsidiaries of their China shareholders, DBS said in a report. ``Union Bank and CITIC Ka Wah are likely to accelerate their merger plans with their mainland sister banks,'' it added...."
Reuters 4/22/99 "...Chinese and US trade negotiators reopened talks on Thursday in a drive to put the finishing touches on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal that Premier Zhu Rongji narrowly missed clinching in Washington. US Assistant Trade Representative Robert Cassidy and China's top WTO negotiator, Long Yongtu, opened what were expected to be lengthy talks at 10.30am in Beijing. ''We are following the joint statement of President [Bill] Clinton and Premier Zhu,'' Mr Cassidy told reporters, referring to the two leaders' pledge in Washington to conclude talks on China's 13-year-old WTO bid this year...... The People's Daily made it clear Beijing expected Washington to deliver on its promise to support China's entry to the WTO. ''The US government has clearly pledged to firmly support China's entry to the WTO in 1999,'' the newspaper said in a front page editorial hailing Mr Zhu's North American tour. ''Both sides agreed to begin talks before the end of April to settle remaining issues to China's entry to the WTO.'' ...."
Reuters 4/26/99 Benjamin Kang Lim "...China said talks on Monday with the United States on nailing down a deal for entry into the World Trade Organisation had been "constructive" after earlier discussions yielded little progress...On Friday, Xinhua said two days of talks had ended with "no obvious results". It said Washington was "too demanding" and suggested the talks were over for the moment....But American head negotiator Robert Cassidy did not head home on Sunday as scheduled and the tone of Xinhua's brief report on Monday suggested progress was being made. U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment. A source familiar with the talks said Washington and Beijing had signed an agreement that China would not roll back concessions it had already made..... The source said the two countries were eager to wrap up negotiations tofacilitate similar talks with other countries...."
Far Eastern Economic Review 4/29/99 Susan V. Lawrence and Bruce GilleyFreeper Jolly "...China's top leader Jiang Zemin took one of the biggest gambles of his political career last July when he ordered the country's military to withdraw from all commercial activities. The idea was not a new one, and it was generally supported by the current top brass, who felt the corporate empire run by various branches of the People's Liberation Army was impairing the military's ability to fight wars. Still, in the nine months since Jiang announced the order, the divestiture has proven to be one of the most painful and acrimonious initiatives of his decade in power...."
Agence France-Presse 4/26/99 "...China will become a member of the World Trade Organisation before November, WTO director-general Renato Ruggerio told the International Herald Tribune daily in an interview published Monday. "I think that since the visit (to the United States) by China's prime minister there have been many encouraging signs, and I believe we can have China in the WTO before November when the WTO begins its next trade round in agriculture, services and electronic commerce," Ruggerio said. His comments came as US and European Union trade negotiators were in Beijing to discuss China's bid to join the WTO...."
4/27/99 Rep. Christopher Cox, R- Newport Beach "...AMERICAN POLICY toward the People's Republic of China should proceed from this central premise: It is our sincere hope for the Chinese people that they will no longer live under a communist government. To this end, America's -- and California's -- world leadership in high-tech enterprise promises far more than economic benefits. The export of these products to the Chinese people can be a great democratizing and liberating force. ...... The Clinton-Gore administration seems to place a higher priority on stopping the export of encryption software to the Chinese people than on preventing the theft of our nuclear weapons technology by the People's Liberation Army. This is exactly backward. Rather than control commercially available computers, software and technology, we should safeguard our most critical military secrets..... But some have inferred that this should mean clamping down on commercial exports. To the contrary: The committee found that the current export-licensing process is riddled with errors and plagued by delays. It often does very little to protect our national security -- while frequently doing a great deal to damage America's competitiveness in world markets. The committee has therefore recommended streamlining export rules. The United States should provide a new ``fast track'' for most items, while focusing greater resources and expertise on the limited targets that we know from our intelligence are the subject of specific collection efforts by the People's Republic of China and others. Trade in innovative technologies, goods and services can help undermine inefficient state-run industries and bring hope of a better life to the Chinese people. In areas like transportation, telecommunications and financial services, it is the means by which communist China -- whose economy is smaller on a per capita basis than Guatemala's -- can become a developed nation. In fields such as medicine, biotechnology and farming, U.S. trade offers hope for the desperately poor millions who are still China's majority that they will be able to eat and survive. Encouraging exports to China that promote individual freedom and well-being is in the United States' national security interest. For this reason, in addition to allowing the export of encryption software, U.S. policy should focus on unleashing the Internet as an engine of freedom in China....."
Far Eastern Economic Review 4/29/99 Susan V. Lawrence and Bruce Gilley ".... Still, despite the difficulties, Beijing has a big stake in a smooth withdrawal of the PLA from business. As with many past initiatives by Jiang, the PLA divestiture was supposed to set an example for other areas of the government and party to follow. Indeed, the order to the military to divest also included the paramilitary People's Armed Police, the judicial system and the police. The government has since announced that all government, party and legislative branches should give up their companies, too, starting this year. But by far the biggest issue for Beijing is loyalty of the PLA itself to the civilian leadership. Everyone agreed that the businesses were impairing the PLA's military capabilities--especially disrupting chains of command and training. Military involvement in smuggling, meanwhile, undercut civilian priorities. Goods were smuggled in, undermining the work of the customs administration and tax authorities, and arms were smuggled out, undermining the civilian leadership's foreign-policy goals. The business ban was just the latest in a series of moves by Beijing in recent years to improve accountability of the PLA, according to David Finkelstein of the Centre For Naval Analyses in Alexandria, Virginia, a federally funded research centre. "PLA businesses were a real threat to accountability," he says. Now, with so much acrimony swirling around the end of the business, Beijing may have removed one set of threats to PLA allegiance to Beijing, but in the process, given the PLA new reasons for disloyalty. Beijing must be wondering whether the effort was all worthwhile. "They knew it would be hard, that's why it took so long before they announced it," says Finkelstein. "But now it's proving to be a really gut-wrenching change."..."
http://www.nandotimes.com AP Charles Hutzler "...Chinese leaders are retreating from trade concessions the United States thought it won last month because of domestic resistance to opening China's markets, a senior EU official said Thursday. The assessment by European Commission Vice President Leon Brittan confirms that momentum for getting China into the World Trade Organization has slowed since President Clinton rejected broad market-opening offers Premier Zhu Rongji made in Washington. Since Zhu's return to China two weeks ago, opposition among protectionist officials has coalesced. A U.S. negotiating team came, but left after running into new obstacles. The powerful telecommunications minister tendered his resignation, partly in protest over the Washington concessions, Western diplomats and industry insiders said. Brittan reported that an EU trade negotiating team "made no new progress" in 10 days of talks with the Chinese. Brittan, who is the EU's acting trade minister, spent two days presenting EU demands to Chinese leaders....."
LAtimes.com 5/12/99 Jonathan Peterson "....S. Embassy officials in Beijing have quietly relayed word to Washington that some Chinese officials were saying they expected a continuation of the talks between Robert Cassidy, a U.S. trade negotiator, and Long Yongtu, his Chinese counterpart, perhaps as early as next week, as originally scheduled. "We've had some informal communications with the Chinese government in the last 24 hours, and at this point it's just as likely as not that we may actually reconvene the talks next week ," an optimistic U.S. trade official said Tuesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Resumption of the talks in the extremely chilly climate after the bombing would underscore the acute importance China places on joining the World Trade Organization and on forging broader economic ties with the outside world. Administration officials are resigned to the prospect that the military debacle will not only draw out the negotiating process, but also embolden opponents of a deal in Congress, which must approve any accord. ...."
The Economist 5/15-21/99 "...NATO's military planners have some rethinking to do. But so does China. Before the three bombs struck, the Chinese public had been told nothing of the plight of the 1m or more Kosovars driven from their homes by their Serb tormentors-and cared even less. NATO's bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, in an attempt to end the Serb atrocities there, had been portrayed by China as simply the mad maraudings of the neo-imperialist West. Little wonder, then, that many Chinese saw the attack on their embassy as a deliberate attempt to humiliate their country.... The barriers to China's early membership in the WTO-prejudice against foreign investors, protectionist rules and tariffs, import quotas, competition-stifling subsidies and poor contract enforcement-are restrictions that hurt China's economy as well as others'. And China needs America to take its exports if it is to grow fast enough to avoid social unrest at home..."
Asahi Evening News 5/14/99 TOSHIO JO "...China appears firmly on course to join the World Trade Organization this year despite tensions over the mistaken NATO bombing of its Belgrade embassy, after a ministerial meeting in Tokyo concluded Wednesday with a ringing declaration of "no linkage" between the two issues. However, the two-day meeting of trade ministers from Japan, the United States, Canada and the European Union (EU) yielded no agreement on how to run the next round of global trade negotiations scheduled to start in 2000...."
The Economist 5/15-21/99 "...Anger was first whipped up by state media that refused to countenance any interpretation of NATO's attack other than that of a deliberate act of aggression-a violent assault upon China's sovereignty designed to taunt and humiliate. Soon, students at Beijing University were given government permission to demonstrate; buses swiftly appeared, and extra transport was laid on when student numbers proved too large.... The government did not want emotions to run too high for too long. On May 11th, Bill Clinton's apologies were broadcast on state television, two days after they were first made, suggesting a tacit acceptance of them. Beijing University put up notices reproving students for some rowdy behaviour and ordering calm. By May 12th, when the ashes of the three journalist "martyrs" killed in the Belgrade bombing arrived home, the embassy area was entirely sealed off to ordinary Chinese. On television, workers have been parroting that the best way they can show their indignation is to increase production. Foreign investors, especially American ones, got calm reassurances that China is still open for business. ....Moderate members of the government think that calm is certainly needed to reassure foreign investors that China's economic development will continue apace. The crisis comes as foreign investment looks like slowing anyway....."
AP (FOX wire) 5/13/99 "...The rift from last week's mistaken bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia shouldn't delay China's entry into the World Trade Organization, a bipartisan group of 30 senators told President Clinton on Thursday. "Despite the events of this past week in Belgrade and China, it is critical that we focus on what is important to America's national interest,'' wrote the group, led by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.....Last month, during Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji's visit to Washington, both nations appeared close to announcing a deal after China made a series of economic concessions. But Clinton at the last minute rejected the deal, sending representatives back to the negotiating table....."
Casey Institute of the Center for Security Policy 5/13/99 "...While efforts in Congress and the press to uncover and comprehend the full magnitude of China's financial penetration of the American political and economic systems have revealed operations involving troubling infusions of hundreds of thousands and even tens of millions of dollars from the PRC, to date, they have not addressed a potentially more serious problem: The People's Liberation Army's successful initiative that is taking hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars out of the United States, thanks to Chinese fund-raising in the U.S. bond market.(1) As the attached article by William J. Casey Chair Roger W. Robinson, Jr. makes clear, there has been an estimated $10.5 billion in dollar-denominated bonds issued by China in the U.S. market since the early 1980s. Even a cursory review of this rapidly growing portfolio demonstrates that nearly 60% of this amount was raised by just three Chinese entities -- all of which should be viewed with concern: China International Trade and Investment Corporation (CITIC), chaired by China's most notorious arms dealer, Wang Jun (about $800 million); the Bank of China (over $2 billion); and the People's Republic of China, borrowing under its own name (an estimated $3.2 billion). It is entirely plausible, if not likely, that at least a portion of these funds raised from U.S. securities firms, pension and mutual funds, insurance companies and other newly recruited lenders were diverted to finance activities harmful to U.S. security interests -- a point that may be addressed in the long-awaited Cox Committee's report that will reportedly be released next week in an unclassified form. No less worrisome is the fact that these funds are creating financial vested interests on the part of these new politically-powerful U.S. constituencies to oppose economic sanctions and other penalties almost irrespective of the gravity of China's misdeeds (e.g., proliferation, human rights abuses, etc.)....
Bloomberg News 5/11/99 "...Motorola Inc. was allowed by U.S. President Bill Clinton to export two Iridium communication satellites to China for launching in early June on a China Long March IIC rocket, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.S. and Motorola said the approval was not a gesture to improve U.S. relations with China following the North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia, the newspaper reported. Meantime, U.S. trade officials are discussing with Chinese officials whether they should move the talks about China's entry into the World Trade Organization outside China, the Journal said...."
New York Times 5/11/99 David Sanger "...In the days just before NATO mistakenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, administration officials were already voicing fears that they might have missed their moment to strike a political deal to get China into the World Trade Organization. Such a deal has been the centerpiece of President Clinton's much-debated effort to build a "web of engagement" with Beijing. Now the hopes of patching it together in a few months are fading, and White House officials doubt that they will have the political opportunity to get it through Congress after that. The bombing has clearly fueled the nationalist sentiments that were forcing Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, China's leading economic reformer, to pull back some of the concessions he offered a month ago. That, in turn, creates a backlash here. Members of Congress who were wavering about whether to support the deal that Clinton nearly had in hand seem virtually certain to reject any accord with lesser concessions. But that is only the beginning of the problem. The images of Chinese tossing bricks at the U.S. Embassy may harden the views of powerful figures including Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the majority leader, who argue that the United States should not aid China's efforts to seek prestige through membership in the group that sets the rules of world trade. Lott has said he opposes China's entry because of Beijing's alleged espionage efforts and human rights abuses. For its part, the AFL-CIO has vowed to oppose the deal for fear that American jobs will be lost...."
Drudge 5/10/99 Freeper DonMorgan "...In Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen told the Russian President's special envoy for Yugoslavia Viktor Chernomyrdin that China and Russia share identical views on many issues including Kosovo, according to Chinese news reports. Views that were shared during a telephone call between the Chinese and Russian presidents. During his talks with Chernomyrdin, Qian said that Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Boris Yeltsin consulted each other on the Kosovo crisis on Monday during an "important telephone conversation". The telephone conversation between Zemin and Yeltsin showed "mutual trust, mutual understanding and mutual support" by the two countries in the Yugoslav crisis, the Chinese newswire XINUA reported overnight. Chernomyrdin called the telephone conversation between Yeltsin and Jiang "very important"...."
Manchester Union Leader 5/17/99 Richard Lessner "...The virulent anti-American reaction by the Communist government in Beijing to the mistaken bombing of the People's Republic embassy in Belgrade has laid bare the truth: China is not our friend or ally. Those in thrall to the commercial potential of the "Chinese market" plainly were stunned by the intensity of the government-orchestrated demonstrations. Day after day mobs hurled rocks and gasoline bombs at the U.S. embassy in Beijing with the obvious approval, if not outright instigation, of the Communist government..... Having stunned and shocked those who naively believed that the Communist Chinese were our friends, Beijing is demanding immediate membership in the World Trade Organization on its own terms, permanent most favored nation trade status, a U.S. pledge not to deploy anti-ballistic missile defenses in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, and a free hand to deal with Taiwan (meaning a repudiation of the Taiwan Relations Act with its mutual defense provisions). All this for the benefits of trade with China, which are vastly overblown by the pro-China claque. Our exports to tiny Belgium exceed those to Communist China. Trade with China is a one-way street, running in favor of the Communists to a total of almost $60 billion a year....."
Financial Times 5/27/99 Guy de Jonquières "...China said yesterday it would not resume negotiations with the US on joining the World Trade Organisation until it received a "thorough and complete" explanation of the Nato bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade earlier this month. Long Yongtu, vice-minister of foreign trade, also said China would reject any more demands to open its market wider, even if its refusal delayed its entry into the organisation. He said further negotiations could only focus on settling details of its membership terms...."
www.scmp.com 5/28/99 Agencies Freeper Thanatos "...US President Bill Clinton's engagement policy with China last night faced its most serious challenge to date. Lawmakers from both Republican and Democratic parties demanded a suspension of trade negotiations. The call was made necessary by recent events, wrote Jesse Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Benjamin Gilman, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, in a letter to Mr Clinton...."
Canadian Market News 5/17/99 "....Canadian Pacific Railway has signed a contract with China Ocean Shipping Company that firmly establishes the railway's Vancouver-Chicago corridor as the new competitive choice for shippers in the huge Midwest U.S. market for transPacific containers. COSCO will this month launch a new transPacific container service, and for the first time will use the Port of Vancouver as the gateway to U.S. destinations with CPR as the land carrier to Chicago. CPR is the only rail carrier that can move freight from the Port of Vancouver to Chicago over its own track. ..... CPR also recently completed a multi-year modernization of its Chicago-area yard, which includes a large intermodal terminal, to speed freight throughput in the Chicago hub. At the same time, the Port of Vancouver and its container terminal operators have expanded the capacity of their facilities....."
www.scmp.com 5/22/99 agencies "...Senator Lott warned that any trade deal with China - which he charged with improperly transferring technology and human rights violations - would need extensive monitoring and implementation. "I don't think we can trust the Chinese to live up to an agreement they make on trade," he said. "We should demand a good deal for us and, this is more important, that it be enforced." His comments came a day after Mr Cox briefed him and other senators on the contents of the report, the release of which has been delayed for months by fights between the Congress and President Bill Clinton's administration on what materials can safely be made public...."
6/1/99 Reuters [OL] via NewsEdge Corporation "...With hopes fading of an early agreement to bring China into the World Trade Organization, President Clinton is expected this week to ask Congress for a simple one-year extension of U.S. trading privileges for China. He is expected to ask Thursday for just a one-year renewal because negotiations on a broader deal with China have suffered a series of setbacks. These include the failure of Clinton to strike a deal with Chines Premier Zhu Rongji during his visit to the United States in April, the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade earlier this month and the release of a scathing report last week alleging Chinese nuclear spying. Even a scaled-down request for renewal of China's trade status -- once called Most Favored Nation (MFN) and now named Normal Trade Relations (NTR)-- for just one year will likely spark an intense battle in Congress, where China bashing is in vogue....."
6/2/99 AP Freeper Thanatos "...President Clinton will ask Congress to extend normal trade relations with China on Thursday, reigniting an annual debate that has been made even more emotional this year by spying accusations and an accidental bombing. U.S. relations with Beijing have been strained recently by the allegations that China stole nuclear secrets from U.S. research facilities and by NATO's mistaken bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. But Clinton remains convinced that engagement with China is key to improving relations and helping businesses in both nations. And, after some angry rhetoric, Congress is expected to go along with the one-year extension...."
Chattanooga Free Press 6/04/99 Editorial "...Mr. Clinton insists we need to continue "engagement" with the Communist regime. He is joined by many business people in the United States who want to expand their $21 billion in investments on the Chinese mainland and seek to increase their trade, even as Communist China sells far more in the United States than Americans sell in China. It is a disturbing contradiction to see Communists stealing nuclear missile technology to target us militarily while Mr. Clinton and other Americans target China for favors to gain perceived economic advantage. .... But it is highly distressing when dangerous espionage, unfriendly policy, political illegality and general arrogance on the part of Communist China are overlooked as the United States kowtows by offering special favors. The lone Chinese youth stood courageously in Tiananmen Square 10 years ago...."
www.whitehouse.gov 6/3/99 Bill Clinton "...Presidential Determination....MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE SUBJECT: Determination Under Subsection 402(d)(1) of the Trade Act of 1974, as Amended -- Continuation of Waiver Authority Pursuant to the authority vested in me under the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, Public Law 93-618, 88 Stat. 1978 (the "Act"), I determine, pursuant to subsection 402(d)(1) of the Act, 19 U.S.C. 2432(d)(1), that the further extension of the waiver authority granted by section 402 of the Act will sub-stantially promote the objectives of section 402 of the Act. I further determine that continuation of the waiver applicable to the People's Republic of China will substantially promote the objectives of section 402 of the Act. You are authorized and directed to publish this determination in the Federal Register...."
LA Times 6/3/99 Jonathan Peterson with Janet Hook "...Even in normal times, the annual debate over granting China routine trade privileges with the United States has been a rowdy exercise in free speech, as partisans point fingers, raise voices and claim the moral high ground...... "Just as the president's timing is sad, so too is his policy," maintained Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) in a statement. "This administration's China policy, like that of the administration before it, has not succeeded in making trade fairer, people freer or the world safer." She added in an interview: "This is a particularly poignant year. It's 10 years, and in 10 years that's enough time to see what kind of a difference this policy made." The concerns of Pelosi and others may be increasingly common in Congress. One lobbyist, who requested anonymity, maintained that a growing number of members "have just finally had it" with China over various issues, and predicted that the trade measure would be defeated in the House for the first time since the early 1990s, when memories of Tiananmen Square were fresh. ...."Most of the members feel that in the last analysis, we can't rupture trade relations with China," Matsui said Wednesday. "But some members will think that voting to allow China to join the WTO would be rewarding China--and that would be a much more tenuous vote." ..."
Investors Business Daily 6/4/99 Brian Mitchell "...The Clinton administration had sought a ''strategic partnership'' with China. But after revelations of Chinese espionage and NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, that partnership may be kaput. Officials now on both sides of the Pacific are wondering whether the U.S. and China are headed for trouble. Some fear a new cold war. ''We are headed toward fundamental conflict with China. That doesn't mean a war, but a fundamental conflict of interests,'' said Ross Munro, director of Asian studies at the Center for Security Studies and co-author with Richard Bernstein of ''The Coming Conflict with China'' (Vintage Books, 1998)...... The Clinton administration has downplayed revelations of Chinese espionage. Thursday, President Clinton asked Congress to renew China's Normal Trade Relation status, formerly called Most Favored Nation status. ...Thursday, Investor's Business Daily reported that China may have obtained classified Navy and possibly Air Force blueprints and technical specifications through an office at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Navy contracted with Los Alamos to store technical data from applications for arms export licenses. The responsible office at Los Alamos was headed by Steve K. Hue, a native of China....China's publicly announced military spending has more than quadrupled since 1986. The CIA believes the actual increase may be even greater. Exports to the U.S. have also nearly quadrupled. China's U.S. imports, however, have lagged far behind, barely doubling. In 1998, China enjoyed a $57 billion trade surplus with the U.S. ''Fast- growing countries pull in imports, but in China that's not happening,'' said Alan Tonelson of the U.S. Business and Industrial Council..... Analysts say much of China's trade surplus is being used to modernize its military..... 'There's a consensus (among Chinese leaders) that America in the long run is China's number one rival,'' Munro said. Munro says China also sees the U.S. as its leading source of technology and capital. The debate among leaders in China is about how to counter U.S. influence in Asia while still benefiting from U.S. contact, he says. The debate in the U.S. is more fundamental. On one hand, many policy-makers and business leaders still favor friendly relations with China. On the other hand, activists complain about China's human rights abuses and analysts warn of China's threat to U.S. friends in Asia....."
http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpin20.htm 6/9/99 AP Freeper Thanatos "...The annual debate over trade with China kicked off with congressional critics saying it was a mistake to have normal trade with a hostile, anti-democratic nation but acknowledging that once again they would lose the argument. The Clinton administration, at a hearing of the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee Tuesday, argued that lawmakers must not let the current bad blood with China get in the way of the long-term political and economic benefits of good trade relations...."
newsmax.com 6/9/99 Carl Limbacher and Caron Grich "...Getting Caspian oil to world markets may be a boon for another big player just now emerging on the world's economic stage. Here's how the Clinton Energy Department described China's oil needs just months before the Balkan War began: "China's economic growth has made it the second largest energy-consuming nation in the world. This rapid growth has outstripped China's domestic oil production and, in 1993, China became a net oil importer. Imports currently account for 15% of total consumption, but they are projected to increase to between 40 and 50% of China's consumption by 2020." China's demand for oil could have a major impact on world markets unless new reserves are tapped. U.S. oil and gas interests are now the largest investor in China's petroleum sector. The Clinton Energy and Commerce Departments have already begun talks in Beijing about new opportunities for oil exploration and development. Interestingly enough, Roger Tamraz, the oil pipeline gadfly who pushed the Clinton administration to get behind a Caspian route through Turkey, turned his sights eastward when those plans foundered. At last report, Tamraz has the support of the China National Petroleum Company in new efforts to help Beijing tap into the Caspian oil jackpot...."
Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk 6/7/99 "...Both the "fair traders" and the "subsidizers" now have a fantastic phantom upon which to justify their higher taxes and greater regulations: the Chinese spy scandal. This is a phantom for there is simply no connection between the spying and true free trade. In fact, it was the policy of subsidization and trade regulation, as well as generally lax security, which allowed the illegal transfers of technology. But to blame free trade, and then penalize average Americans, for the spying is the height of dishonesty. If we are to end trade with all nations which spy on us, or upon whom we spy, then we will quickly find far fewer products available at the supermarket, and much higher prices on everything...."
Wall St. Journal 6/17/99 Helene Cooper "....The Clinton administration, trying to boost U.S. exports to China, quietly offered to provide Beijing with $5 billion in export credits and loans to finance the purchase of U. S. environmental, health and safety products. But the offer, made by U.S. Export-Import Bank Chairman James Harmon during talks two months ago with Chen Yuan, head of the China Development Bank, is among a number of issues put on ice when the U.S. mistakenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.....The proposal is part of the Ex-Im Bank's attempt to re-establish good relations with China, which the Ex-Im Bank incensed in 1996, when it refused to provide "soft" financing, including export credits or loans, to U.S. companies seeking to take part in China's controversial Three Gorges Dam project. The $24 billion project includes a dam - the world's largest - to block the Yangtze River and flood the historic Three Gorges region of central China. Many environmentalists and human-rights activists opposed the project, which they said would cause environmental damage and dislocate thousands of people....He said the $5 billion loan proposal, if accepted by the Chinese, would help narrow the ever-expanding U.S. trade deficit with China, which for March stood at $4.14 billion...."
Reuters 6/18/99 David Storey "…Beijing's brusque rejection of Washington's explanation of the bombing of China's Belgrade embassy does not preclude resuming talks on China joining the World Trade Organisation soon, analysts said on Friday. But they said broader relations were still badly damaged and that both sides must be careful to avoid diplomatic mistakes that could sink chances of reviving the suspended WTO talks and securing agreement by a November deadline. ``They're doing a little dance here on both sides,'' said Patrick Cronin, Director of Research at the ..."…"
AFP Washington Post 6/21/99 "...BEIJING, June 21 (AFP) - An indirect subsidiary of China's state-owned news agency Xinhua has teamed up with a US company to match promising high-technology Chinese companies with venture capital firms overseas. Xinhua Financial Corporation joined hands with Bush Corporation to form Bush-Xinhua Financial Consulting Services, a joint news statement said. The firm will focus on smaller, mid-cap firms in high technology and emerging industries. "We are taking a page from the most successful IPO (initial public offering) markets in the world and Silicon Valley in California," said Dennis Pelino, Bush's chairman and co-founder. ....As much as three billion US dollars can be raised over the next three years to support Chinese enterprises, the statement said....."
International Herald Tribune 6/23/99 Evelyn Iritani "...The fragile independence of this Asian financial center from China is being threatened by fallout from the U.S.-China espionage scandal, officials here fear. A recent congressional report claiming that Hong Kong has become a major transshipment point for Chinese spies and smugglers has triggered calls for a review of U.S. policy that recognizes Hong Kong's unusual status as an independent territory within mainland China. Anyone selling to Hong Kong, may be selling to China's army, said Representative Christopher Cox, Republican of California, head of the bipartisan committee that released the report on Chinese espionage. ''Hong Kong is the whole ball game.'' Hong Kong hotly disputes those charges, and contends that its own export controls are tougher than those of the United States. The sanctity of its border is central to the terms under which the British territory was returned to Beijing's rule two years ago. That set up a ''one country, two systems'' agreement designed to protect Hong Kong's political and economic independence for 50 years. As a show of support prior to the handover, Congress passed a law agreeing to treat Hong Kong as a separate economic entity unless there was evidence that its borders with China were not being closely monitored..."
Reuters 6/24/99 "...China appears to still want to join the World Trade Organisation this year, despite political problems that have derailed negotiations with the United States, U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said on Thursday. ``They've continued to negotiate with other trading partners, the non-NATO countries, particularly Japan, Australia, Brazil and others,'' Barshefsky told reporters after a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on trade. ``I think that indicates they have still set their sights on entry in 1999,'' she added...."
Reuters 6/24/99 Mark Egan "...The World Bank tried on Thursday to defuse one of its most bitter disputes in years as it approved a $160 million loan to China that had angered its biggest shareholders and outraged Tibetan activists. The loan, to be used in part to resettle 58,000 poor Chinese farmers to an area where Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was born, put the bank at the centre of a political storm prompting myriad cries of foul. Among those who opposed the project in recent days were U.S. Treasury Secretary-designate Lawrence Summers, 60 members of Congress, Tibetan interest groups and, most surprisingly, almost half of the bank's 24-member strong board. The loan was approved Thursday against the votes of its first and third largest shareholders -- the United States and Germany -- despite claims the bank violated its own rules in processing the loan. The bank rarely approves loans against the U.S. vote and never on such a high-profile project. ..."
BBC 6/27/99 "....Asia's economic crisis has hit China's export trade hard. China has paid the price for not devaluing its currency, with export growth slowing to 0.5% year-on-year, the lowest annual rate for 15 years. Basing the figures on volume rather than price, exports actually declined. China will have to focur more on domestic spending In the past few years, Chinese exports have been growing fast. They improved 20% last year, but the decision to keep China's currency, the yuan, at the fixed rate of 8.28 to the dollar, made many of its products uncompetitive in Asia...... This year is likely to be different, and the lower priced goods from the rest of Asia are likely to hurt Chinese exports to the West even more. "We are still quite cautious if not negative on China's export outlook, particularly in the first half of the year," said Eddie Wong of ABN AMRO. One bright spot was exports by foreign-based companies in China, which saw exports grow by 8% to $81bn. These companies, which often export branded finished goods, are less vulnerable to competititon from lower-priced commodity exports from other Asian countries. Shanghai, which is one of the centres of foreign investment in China, also showed strong export growth of 12%...."
AP 6/25/99 "...Wanted: Healthy men under 60 willing to make donations to a sperm bank. Only college professors need apply. At the new ``Notables' Sperm Bank'' in southwestern China donors must have academic qualifications at least equal to an associate professor. The bank is run by the state family planning agency in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported late Thursday. It has received lots of phone calls and applications from prospective donors, mainly intellectuals, Xinhua cited the facility's manager, Huang Ping, as saying...."
Xinhua 6/24/99 "...The Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank, acting on the recommendation of President Tadao Chino, has reappointed Peter H. Sullivan as vice-president for a second five-year term beginning July 6, 1999.... A lawyer, Sullivan joined the bank in 1975 from the law firm of Sullivan and Cormwell in New York. ...."
Washington Times/London Daily Telegraph 7/2/99 David Rennie "..." China's commitment to free-market reforms has been cast deeper into doubt by an unexpectedly hard-line address from the leader of the Communist Party. In a speech to mark the party's 78th anniversary, President Jiang Zemin said socialism would defeat capitalism, there would be no all-out privatization of the state sector and China would continue to be guided by Marxism. China was doomed if party members ever lost faith in communism, he said. Meanwhile, China's stock markets fell Thursday after a second day of rumors that reformist Prime Minister Zhu Rongji had tried to resign...."
FoxNews 7/1/99 "...A powerful U.S. congressional committee Thursday backed President Clinton's decision to renew trade ties with China despite spying allegations and human rights concerns. The vote by the House Ways and Means Committee was a victory for Clinton, who is eager to renew Beijing's normal-trade-relations status for another year...."
South China Morning Post 7/1/99 Stephen Seawright "...Hong Kong stocks fell sharply in the last 15 minutes of trade yesterday, with investors pulling back ahead of today's public holiday amid concerns over United States interest rates and the strength of Premier Zhu Rongji's position...."
South China 7/1/99 Reuters "...China dismissed as groundless on Thursday speculation on Asian financial markets that Premier Zhu Rongji had offered to resign. "Such talk is a groundless rumor," said a spokeswoman at the Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet. Rumors that Zhu might step down swept through the region's financial markets on Wednesday and caused jitters in Hong Kong. Zhu has been accused by powerful domestic forces of selling out state enterprises and poor farmers in his eagerness to open China to outside competition by joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). His failure to nail down a WTO deal in Washington in April, even after offering concessions, undermined his position. ...."
5/11/99 Freeper ohmlaw98 on report by Kehong WEN "...The Chinese World Banking Association (CWBA), with 100 member institutions in 15 countries, has been established to help China's banks gain better access to international markets, an executive with the new group announced last Wednesday in Beijing, according to a report by AP-DJNews. CWBA will assist in finding international funding for infra-structure, telecommunications and environmental projects requiring investments between $100 million and $1 billion, said Philip Cavana, chairman of Asian Infrastructure Development Ltd. (A.I.D.)...... William Chang, vice president of Far East National Bank of the U.S., will serve as chairman of the CWBA. Chang also heads the Chinese American Industrial and Business Association, a California-based organization devoted to promoting trade and investment relations between U.S. businesses and their counterparts in Pacific Rim countries, said the report...."
Hong Kong Standard 7/11/99 "…Disney has signed a memorandum to build theme parks in both Hong Kong and Shanghai. Conditions in Shanghai in the coming decade will still not be suitable so, with its advantages, Hong Kong should be able to secure an agreement which will benefit the whole community…"
Washington Post 7/28/99 Paul Blustein "...The House voted yesterday to maintain normal trade relations with China for another year, rejecting emotional pleas from members of both parties to punish Beijing economically for its alleged spying and human rights violations. The 260-170 vote effectively ended this year's debate over whether to keep the U.S. market open to Chinese goods on the same low-tariff basis as other trading partners. Under a 25-year-old law, the trade status of communist countries must be reviewed annually, and President Clinton's recommendation last month to extend normal trade relations with Beijing -- it used to be called "most-favored-nation status" -- can be overturned only by the disapproval of both houses of Congress. The outcome was widely expected, but it set the stage for a much more intense congressional battle that is expected later this year over China's bid to join the World Trade Organization, the Geneva-based body that regulates global commerce...."
Reason website 7/28/99 Cox Reports Interviewed by Michael W. Lynch and Jeff A. Taylor 8/9 99 Reason: The PRC comingles its commerce and defense in order to obtain classified information. You're a supporter of normalizing trade relations with China. Explain why. Cox: I just mentioned that the hard currency surplus that the Communist Party can lay its hands on is a source of mischief. It's an attractive nuisance vis-à-vis Russia. It is used to purchase military equipment from Europe or Israel. The hard currency surplus is simply the other side of the equation from the trade deficit we hear so much about. If instead of them selling us four times more than we sell them, we were able to make some sales in China of couches, refrigerators, phones, and so on, then they would have a better merchandise balance and less of a hard currency surplus. That's in our national security interest..... Reason: So you see normalizing trade relations with them as a way for us to export them more real goods, and therefore less currency, and therefore serve our national security interests? Cox: After all, they are selling us Beanie Babies. They are not selling us nuclear weapons. A mutual trade relationship would have us selling nonthreatening things as well.
Stratfor.com Weekly Analysis 7/26/99 "...China's problem is this. Communism as an ideology is as dead as the Druids. The institutions created by communism (party, army, security apparatus, state industries, planning apparatus) continue to exist, but no one any longer takes the ideology itself seriously. Deng's justification for the regime was that it delivered economic growth. As with Suharto, this was a justification that did not require much discussion, so long as the growth was happening. Jiang's problem is that he does not have either a gripping ideology or economic growth to sustain him. He cannot seal China off from the world as Mao did, nor can he compete in that world as Deng did. At this moment, Beijing simply cannot justify itself and Jiang knows it. Jiang is relying on the brute force and presence of the regime to maintain authority. His ultimate claim to power is that he controls the instruments of power and that any resistance will be crushed. Having lost both the ideological and the pragmatic arguments, Jiang can only win by crushing those who disagree with him. Jiang must create a sense of dread inside China, on an ongoing basis, in order to forestall challenges to his regime. It also helps to create a sense of embattlement. This is why a confrontation with the United States is such a good idea right now. It allows Jiang to use the Maoist anti-imperial tradition because he can portray himself as protecting China from U.S. intrusions. If he can portray Falun Gong, Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan as part of a coherent U.S. strategy, he can at least adopt the mantle of nationalis m. Having achieved that, he might even be able to portray China's economic woes as the result..."
Washington Times 7/28/99 William Hawkins "...National security and the balance of power will loom large in 21st-century Asia. Nuclear and other espionage has given Beijing priceless weapons technology. The U.S. bombing of China's Embassy in Belgrade highlighted the two countries' conflicting views on world order. Beijing continues its weapons proliferation to rogue states and its aggressive behavior in the South China Sea. India has conducted nuclear tests to deter a China-Pakistan axis as Kashmir threatens to plunge the subcontinent into war. Yet those with private economic ties to China have managed to persuade Congress that trade and investment have no connection to national security issues. This was evident when the U.S. House of Representatives endorsed President Clinton's grant of normal trade privileges to Beijing Tuesday...China's rising strength is not just built on espionage and a few instances of negligence. It is the result of normal commerce - trade and investment which every day adds to the resources and capabilities of a brutal Beijing regime whose foreign policy agenda is at odds with U.S. interests......American trade and investment with China shifts the balance of power four ways: 1) China's trade surplus with the U.S. provides Beijing with the foreign exchange needed to buy foreign weapons and military technology. ....2) Enormous amounts of dual-use technology are transferred by American firms simply by doing business in China.... 3) China's aggressive export strategy, encouraged by easy access to the U.S. market, has undermined the economic stability of the Pacific Rim. China and the Pacific Rim are direct competitors of labor-intensive manufactured goods....4) As corporations form closer alliances with the Beijing regime, China gains a stronger voice in American politics...."
Investors Business Daily 7/29/99 Peter Cleary "...On Tuesday - the first time since lawmakers swapped the term Most Favored Nation (MFN) trading status for Normal Trade Relations (NTR) -the House considered a measure to deny preferred trade status for China. .... What's more, China may well be admitted to the World Trade Organization this year - a move that would effectively make its NTR status with the U.S. permanent. What happened? Free-traders were able to convince lawmakers that punitive measures against Chinese trade would hurt U.S. businesses and consumers more than they would harm Beijing. ..... Had China lost NTR, it would face tariff rates based on the Smoot-Hawley levels set in the 1930s, the Congressional Research Service reports. ''These tariffs would apply to over 90% of U.S. imports from China and increase the cost of Chinese goods an average of 33%,'' said Anita Donaldson, director of regulatory policy for Citizens for a Sound Economy. She says many goods would face tariff hikes of 65% or more. ''The effect would be to drive Chinese goods out of the American market altogether,'' Donaldson added. ''This would cost U.S. consumers as much as $29 billion per year, which is the equivalent of a $302 annual (per capita) tax on the American people.''..."
South China Morning Post 8/2/99 Willy Wo-Lap Lam "...Most leaders who have gathered for the series of meetings at the seaside resort of Beidaihe have recommended patching up ties with the United States. A Beijing source said yesterday that provided Washington did not make extra demands on the Chinese, it was likely agreement on China's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) would be reached when presidents Jiang Zemin and Bill Clinton met in New Zealand next month. Washington had satisfied the party leadership it held a properly contrite attitude towards Nato's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in May, the source said...."
EXPORT-IMPORT BANK 5/30/96 Press Conference "...Three Gorges Dam in China... MS. FLYNN: I introduce to you the Chairman and the President of the Ex-Im Bank Board, Mr. Martin Kamarck. MR. KAMARCK: Good afternoon. I have a statement to make, and then I'll be happy to take your questions. As you know, of course, the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank met this morning to consider requests from several U.S. exporters for the Bank to take the preliminary step of issuing letters of interest for the Three Gorges project in China. The Board has concluded that Ex-Im Bank cannot issue a letter of interest for this project at this time. The information received, though voluminous, fails to establish the project's consistency with the Bank's environmental guidelines. ..... American businesses in general and Ex-Im Bank in particular have had a healthy economic presence in China, and it is our hope that this mutually beneficial trading relationship will continue and grow over the long term. In fact, China is Ex-Im Bank's largest customer in Asia. And Ex-Im Bank has an aggressive outreach effort to support U.S. exporters doing business in China. Many Ex-Im Bank staff members have spent months analyzing information, meeting with interested parties, and working on the Board memorandum, which assisted the Board in making its decision. Ex-Im Bank is an independent government agency. The Bank's Board of Directors is mandated to make independent decisions about the appropriateness of providing financial support to export transactions which are determined to be financially, technically, and environmentally sound. .... MR. KAMARCK: Let me put it to you this way, there is nothing that would suggest to us in staff recommendations [inaudible] or in our discussion with the board meeting today that additional information that we would need to make a principled decision [inaudible] basis could not be forthcoming. MR. : [inaudible] do you anticipate that the additional information that you described as being necessary, would that information come from the Chinese manager of the project or the U.S. exporters who want to get Ex-Im Bank assistance? MR. KAMARCK: Typically our experience has been, in large and complicated projects, that we work in partnership with the exporters and the sponsors to develop the information we need to make our decision....."
The Herald (Everett, Seattle area) 8/6/99 AP "...China Airlines, the chief carrier for Taiwan, may cancel an order for 12 Boeing 777s in protest of the Clinton administration's mainland China policy. Boeing had been expecting the $2 billion deal to be formally announced at any time...."
Stratfor.Com 8/6/99 "...A rash of overnight shooting attacks on KFOR troops resulted in 16 arrests on August 6. Russian soldiers were fired upon at three of the seven KFOR checkpoints attacked overnight. In the last two months since the deployment of peacekeepers in Kosovo, NATO soldiers have come under attack approximately 30 times. ..."
NewsEdge Corp 8/6/99 XINHUA "... The United States electric appliance giant, General Electric, began construction of a jet- engine maintenance plant on Tuesday in this port city in east China's Fujian Province. GE will hold 60 percent of the new plant, which is its first investment in engine maintenance in China. The rest of the shares will be split between Xiamen Aviation Industries Co. and Xiamen Taeco Airplane Engineering Co.. The plant will cover 60,000 sq.m. in the Xiamen Aviation Industrial Zone and will be built at an initial cost of 29 million U.S. dollars...."
Freeper flanew 8/6/99 reports "...China National Petroleum (CNPC) is planning to go public through a stock offering. Five main parts
1-Daquing Petro
2-Liaoyang Chemical Fiber
3-Fushun Petro
4-Lazhou Petro
5-Jilin Chemical( HK Traded)
Total assest of CNPC $60 billion (USD)..."Dennis Bennet letter "...So China is providing arms and ammunition to Sudan, in return for future deliveries of oil (called "forward sales" in the oil business). It's a "win-win." Except that China must therefore keep the NIF in power in Sudan-else they'll never get the oil they want. Hence, they cannot afford or tolerate criticism of Sudan. And, if you like, the Clinton-Gore connection with both China and Sudan ensures that the current Administration will not do anything about this situation...... On the other hand-watch the fact that Talisman Energy (the Canadian oil company working in partnership with CNPC and Petronas) is traded on the NYSE and is owned by the states of New Jersey and Wisconsin (also documented on the www.vitrade.com) website. I'm a 20 year global banking veteran, so the research is solid. I'm also now working in South Sudan, and have personally held Chinese manufactured artillery shells captured from the GOS. Bottom Line-The South Sudan people are now fighting not only the GOS, but also the Chinese Gov't and the PLA (Chinese Army), for all intents and purposes (regardless of whether Chinese are flying planes or driving tanks or not)..."
Freeper india3/7 reports "...Enron has contracts with China National Petroleum. One of the contracts is a 30 YEAR production agreement and 100% interest.CNP is controlled by Bejing."--Flanew
"China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is a wholly state-owned enterprise...CNPC will continue to proceed from the State policy when accelerating oil & gas exploration and development, increasing its advantages, intensifying downstream activities and expanding cooperation with foreign counterparts. CNPC sincerely hopes that, on the basis of equality and mutual benefits, further friendly cooperation and exchanges with the world oil community will be conducted in the areas of oil & gas exploration and development, oil & gas utilization, oil & gas pipeline construction, petroleum machinery manufacturing, scientific research and staff training, etc."--Ma Fucai, President, China National Petroleum Company (from Flanew-provided link, this thread post #22) ...."
Far Eastern Economic Review 8/12/99 Walden Bello "...Asia's stockmarkets are soaring again. To some, that portends real economic recovery. To others, it is an ominous sign that the "Electronic Herd," as Thomas Friedman calls it, is back in its Asian grazing grounds, happily snapping up promising stocks and high-interest bonds now, but ready to move out tomorrow, perhaps in another furious stampede..."
China times 8/13/99 "...Business people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits are anxiously watching to see how events develop across the strait, and they agreed that if Taiwanese companies are forced to leave mainland China, the level and quality of economic growth on the mainland will take a turn for the worse, reported the Voice of America Wednesday. The US government-funded radio reported from Hong Kong that the rising tensions between Beijing and Taipei are putting billions of dollars in cross-strait trade and investment at risk, because Taiwan's role as a financial lifeline for mainland China could result in economic fall-out from the political conflict. In the two decades since Beijing began to reform its economy, Taiwanese businesses have invested more than US$30 billion in mainland China, according to the report...."
Investors Business Daily 8/13/99 "...LIKE A SPOILED CHILD, the communists in China want it all: perpetual apologies, changes in U.S. foreign policy, control of Taiwan, Western blindness to their treatment of dissidents and our nuclear secrets. It appears the White House is willing to accomodate China's goals. With relations strained by the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, China is still balking at joining the World Trade Organization. The Clinton admininstration won't give up its quest to wrestle China into the WTO. WHY? The U.S. is begging the Red Chinese to come back to the negotiating table -- even though it was the White House that backed away from a WTO deal last spring. Why did it back out? Because it couldn't get China to agree to concessions that it would shield some U.S. businesses from Chinese competition. Even so, Beijing should be pleading with the U.S. to enter the WTO, not the other way around. The People's Republic has somehow achieved a role reversal.... "
New York Times 8/14/99 Seth Faison "...In an atmosphere of crisis, Chinese President Jiang Zemin is fighting on several fronts at once, trying to exert his personal authority in new ways. Faced with an exceedingly difficult political challenge from Taiwan, where President Lee Tung-hui seems to be spoiling Beijing's dream of reunification, Jiang is not retreating, but is rather taking the offensive. At the same time that he threatens force against Taiwan, Jiang is conducting twin political campaigns: one against Falun Gong, the spiritual movement that was outlawed last month, and the other against laxness in the Communist Party apparatus. Friday, state media reported a major policy address by Jiang, his first since the leadership emerged from an annual summer conclave at the seaside resort of Beidaihe. Jiang spoke not about Taiwan or Falun Gong, or even about Communist Party discipline. Instead, he ventured into a fourth area where he would like to make a personal imprint: economic reform, in which he is exerting greater influence...."
China Times 8/14/99 AFP "...China has again eased its ban on US military aircraft landing in Hong Kong to allow a group of Congressmen to be picked up next week, the US consulate said Friday. "China has approved a landing at Hong Kong airport of a US military aircraft on August 18 to pick up a congressional delegation," said US consulate spokeswoman Barbara Zigli. The aircraft will leave the next day, she said, adding "it is only in transit." The approval came a week after Beijing barred a US military aircraft, reportedly a navy submarine-hunting aircraft, from landing in Hong Kong just days after giving agreement for an air force cargo plan to touch down. Since the May 7 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, which killed three Chinese nationals, China has prevented eight US military ships and two aircraft from visiting Hong Kong. Beijing has suspended military and security exchanges with Washington and put off negotiations on its accession to the World Trade Organization...."
South China Morning Post 8/14/99 VIVIEN PIK-KWAN CHAN "...The mainland faces mounting unemployment as an additional 20,000 have been added to the list of jobless each month since January, an official at the Ministry of Social Security revealed. "The unemployment situation has worsened as the country continued its economic restructuring," the official said. "In the past seven months, we've recorded an additional 20,000 jobless each month. This rising phenomenon has been consistent throughout the country," he said. According to official figures there were 5.7 million urban residents registered as unemployed. The mainland's official urban registered jobless rate was 3.1 per cent at the end of last year, but the official admitted that the actual rate would be far higher if laid-off workers - those who were sacked with minimal pay but who had yet to register as jobless - were taken into account. The number of workers falling into this category would rise by three million by the end of this year, the official said. Unemployment benefits had been extended to cover not only workers from state firms but also those from private and foreign-funded enterprises, some of whom had begun to shed jobs. ..."
The Economist 8/14-20/99 "...WHEN the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed by American aircraft on May 7th, China took umbrage in a big way. In particular, it broke off talks with the Americans over joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The row had the West worried, and the Chinese quickly noticed that, for once, westerners were more eager to have them at the bargaining table than they were to be there. Now, however, China seems to think it has had as many benefits as it will get from its huff. Its officials suggest, to western relief, that WTO talks may soon resume. Quite how soon is unclear. Some think later this month. Perhaps, say others, when Presidents Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin meet in New Zealand in September. In any event, few people doubt that whether China joins the WTO or not is essentially a political decision for the two sides, not an economic one. Last April in Washington, China's prime minister, Zhu Rongji, offered Mr Clinton market-opening measures, especially in telecoms and financial services-concessions the Chinese must have found hard to make. Mr Clinton said they were not enough. This, his advisers admit, was a mistake. If (a big if) China offers similar concessions again, the Americans can be expected to grab them...."
The Economist 8/14-20/99 "...FOR the past couple of years those teenage scribblers at Hong Kong's investment banks who have been predicting an imminent devaluation of China's currency, the yuan, have been left looking rather foolish. Still, even fools have their day. A devaluation is now increasingly likely: not this year, perhaps, but probably early next. Until now, this has been largely a political decision. After all, the yuan is fully convertible only on the trade account. And at the height of Asia's financial crisis, devaluation was an unpalatable option for China's leaders. A cheaper yuan threatened a chain of beggar-thy-neighbour devaluations in the region, undermining the supposed advantages for China's exports. More important to Beijing, Hong Kong's jittery markets might take a Chinese devaluation for a lack of commitment also to Hong Kong's peg to the American dollar. Besides, Zhu Rongji, China's prime minister since last year, realised that China's worst economic problem was not an uncompetitive currency that constrained export growth, but a lack of demand at home. The Chinese have reacted to the chill winds of state-sector reform, rising unemployment, and higher education and medical costs by squirreling away savings in banks, rather than spending their money...."
The Financial Times 8/18/99 James Kynge "…China yesterday said state funds amounting to about a fifth of annual central government revenues had been misused in the first half of this year, the most damning example yet of how corruption is eroding Beijing's power. The People's Daily newspaper, mouthpiece of the Communist party, said Rmb117.4bn (£8.8bn) had been misused in various ways. The amount exceeds the Rmb100bn that China raised by issuing special bonds for infrastructure projects last year. Central government revenues in 1998 amounted to Rmb548bn…."
South China Morning Post 8/12/99 Colin Galloway "…
Statfor.com 8/19/99 "…China has announced that it is placing caps on the production of a range of consumer goods, after price floors and export subsidies failed to halt plummeting prices. Plagued by declining consumer confidence and abysmal domestic demand, China is turning to ever more radical moves to battle its economic depression. It is running out of options. Devaluation is clearly next on the table, but beyond that there remains only the more draconian steps of direct state control, with the accompanying purge of "economic criminals." Analysis: In an effort to halt plummeting prices, China's State Economic and Trade Commission announced a ban on all new projects, involving the manufacture of a broad range of consumer products, Xinhua news agency reported on August 18. The ban would begin on September 1, and includes products ranging from video compact disk players, microwave ovens, refrigerators, and air conditioners, as well as bicycles, toothpaste, plastic bags, candy, salt, apple juice, and liquor. China's domestic market is stagnant, with citizens worried about looming unemployment stashing their money under mattresses rather than spending it. With a glutted market, China's producers are slashing prices, thus threatening to make those unemployment fears come true by driving themselves into bankruptcy. Beijing has already attempted to slow the deflationary spiral, imposing price floors on some products. China is stuck in a crisis of overproduction and underconsumption. …"
Reuters 8/18/99 "…China said on Thursday it was up to the United States to get talks restarted on Beijing's bid to join the World Trade Organisation. ``China-U.S. bilateral WTO talks are stalled and that is entirely the responsibility of the United States,'' Foreign Trade Ministry spokesman Hu Chusheng told a news conference. ``China hopes the United States will take more concrete actions to improve Sino-U.S. relations and allow the resumption of negotiations,'' he said. Beijing froze the talks, key to its accession to the WTO, after NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7, less than a month after U.S. President Bill Clinton baulked at a deal made possible by major Chinese concessions. …. Hu declined to comment when asked what concrete actions Beijing thought the United States should take to put relations, and the WTO talks, back on track. But he appeared to be referring to the Chinese demands, some of which remain unfulfilled. Beijing demanded an apology for the bombing, which it got, and compensation for the victims, which it also received. Talks with the United States are due later this month on compensation for the destruction of the embassy. China also demanded a satisfactory explanation for the bombing and the punishment of those responsible for what the United States called a mistake stemming from bad intelligence….."
Freeper Jolly 8/19/99 Lana Wong "…
South China Morning Post 8/18/99 Willy Wo-Lap Lam "…The crisis for Zhu Rongji is not over. This is despite the fact that to dispel rumours about the premier's resignation, the propaganda machinery arranged two high-profile trips for him earlier this month. During a one-day tour of the Kunming Horticultural Exposition last Wednesday, Mr Zhu hobnobbed with visiting foreign dignitaries. And while inspecting Shaanxi and Henan provinces, the economic tsar held forth on his favourite topic, reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Mainland papers gave top billing to a picture of a smiling Mr Zhu mixing with Shaanxi peasants, a photo reminiscent of Chairman Mao Zedong meeting the masses in the 1960s. The truth of the matter, however, is that Mr Zhu has failed to claw back territory he has lost during a relentless onslaught by conservatives since April. Moreover, the support that he got from President Jiang Zemin at the recent Beidaihe leadership meetings was hardly unqualified. While briefing cadres in Shaanxi and Henan, Mr Zhu confirmed that at Beidaihe, the zhonyang (central authorities) had taken "major steps" in economic work. He asked local officials to "further firm up their confidence, deepen enterprise reform, and change the mechanism of management". Uncharacteristically, however, Mr Zhu breathed no word on specific measures. …"
Freeper Jolly 8/19/99 Rowan Callick "…The extent of China's challenges as its economy treads water has been underlined by two new statistics which are untestable but strongly indicative. Moody's rating agency has estimated that bailing out China's banks could "easily reach" $180 billion. And the Auditor-General, Mr Li Jinhua, has announced that about $22 billion was stolen by party cadres and government bureaucrats in the first six months of 1999. The Moody's statement sets targets for the new asset-management companies being established for the country's four state-owned "pillar" banks, which will take responsibility for selling down the banks' bad loans, chiefly by issuing bonds. Moody's believes the recovery rate will be "extremely low", raising the spectre of failure at some stage of smaller finance houses from the knock-on effect. The agency praised the moves to restructure the sector as "the biggest, most aggressive attempt ever to overhaul the nation's deeply impaired financial system. However, these reform initiatives have failed to touch on many of the deeply entrenched structural impediments in the system" - including the requirement of banks to continue "policy loans" to struggling state companies. …"
FORCED LABOR
With the 1932 Amendment to the Tariff Act of 1930, the U.S. has legislatively banned imports of products made by "convict and/or forced labor." Before 1991, the U.S. twice banned products; once from the Soviet Gulag and another from a Mexican Prison. Since September 1991, the US has banned over 24 Laogai products, but has only taken legal action in 3 or 4 cases. During the Bush Administration, 20 detention orders were issued, in the first 3 years of the Clinton Administration 8 detention orders were issued.
WorldNetDaily 9/8/98 Charles Smith "It may shock America to find out that slavery still exists. Today thousands of children work inside Chinese prison labor camps making exports for America. The children are separated from their parents by a brutal communist state and exploited as cheap labor. They work seven days a week for no pay, under horrific conditions. The output of their enslavement is sold openly and proudly in almost every major shopping mall in America. Prison-made goods have been sold by Chinese officials for inclusion in the ever popular fast food children's meals. They have appeared as plastic monsters based on the latest movie blockbuster, hats for professional basketball teams and cartoon favorites from TV."
Laogai Research Foundation 6/30/99 "...The Laogai Research Foundation today released a study of Dun & Bradstreet's China business directories published in English which reveal detailed financial information on ninety-nine (99) forced labor camp enterprises having total annual sales of $842.7 million. The camps include those where the famous dissidents Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan were held until recently. Commenting on the inclusion of his former place of imprisonment, Nanbao Salt Works, in the D&B list, Wei stated, "At Nanbao, political criminals and other criminals labor as slaves--with no income, no job safety--and make this enterprise one of the largest salt chemical factories in Asia. Every year, millions of yuan in profit from this industry contribute to the Chinese government's efforts to oppress its own people," said Wei. Despite denials by Chinese government officials and in direct violation of bilateral agreements, products from China's forced labor camps--the Laogai--have time and again been found to be available in the international market. "The Chinese government has lied repeatedly about the exportation of forced labor products. The listing of these camps in Dun & Bradstreet shows that Laogai industries continue to search for international markets," said Laogai Research Foundation Executive Director Harry Wu. ..."
Conservative News Service (CNS) 8/2/99 Lawrence Morahan "…In what is seen as a major victory for pro-democracy forces in China, a U.S. district judge has given the go-ahead for discovery in a lawsuit that alleges U.S. companies are profiting from slave-made goods from China...."