News from China - Volume 2 No. 2
* BEIJING MAY LOSE MCDONALD'S
McDonald's Corporation has asked the Chinese government
for information about rumors that it might have to
close its restaurant off Tienanman square. According
to the rumors, which were reported by international
media, the Chinese government planned to ask McDonald's
to close the restaurant to make way for a commercial
and residential complex to be built by Hong Kong businessman
Li Ka-Shing. McDonald's says it will not move.
* CHINA'S STUDENTS ARE NUMBER ONE
The top ten countries sending international students
to the U.S. are China (42,940 students), Japan (40,700),
Taiwan (35,550), India (32,530), South Korea (25,920),
Canada (19,190), Hong Kong (13,190), Malaysia (12,650),
Indonesia (10,250), and Pakistan (8,120). More than
25% of the 420,000 international students in the U.S.
are Chinese (includes students from China, Taiwan,
Hong Kong, and Malaysia). (Chronicle of Higher Education)
* CHINA ATTRACTING INVESTMENT
China will overtake the U.S. as the world's top investment
destination by the end of this century and itself become
an increasingly larger investor abroad, according to
some international analysts. Edward Chen of the University
of Hong Kong said China in 1993 attracted $26 billion
in foreign direct investment, ranking second to the
U.S. with $32 billion and accounting for one-third
of all such investment in developing countries.
(Orlando Sentinel)
* WESTERN DISEASE INVADES CHINA
Diseases that have become part of everyday life in the
West are now rapidly increasing in China. Newly-affluent
city dwellers are replacing the traditional modest,
rice-based meal with Western-style fast-food and lavish
Chinese banquets. Expensive cigarettes and alcohol
have become everyday status symbols. The result is
an alarming increase in high blood pressure, heart
disease and obesity. One Chinese in nine suffers from
high blood pressure. One million die from strokes each
year. Sixty percent of men over 15 years old are smokers.
More than one in ten people are heavy drinkers. (The
Independent)
* NUMBER OF TVs INCREASES
The percentage of Chinese homes receiving foreign television
broadcasts has increased - in Guangzhou, from 49 to
55 percent; in Beijing, from 9 to 13 percent. Last
year the government made private ownership of satellite
dishes illegal. But one Western diplomat told The New
York Times: "The Chinese government has decided
that it really can't shut out satellite television
entirely. We're not talking about a few dissidents
here. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese have now invested
their life savings in these dishes, and there would
be a nasty public uproar if the government really forced
the dishes down." (Pulse)
* FLYING TO CHINA
United Airlines is negotiating to acquire a stake in
China Southern airlines, according to David Solloway,
United Airlines' general manager for China, Hong Kong,
and Macao. Solloway said that China Southern has welcomed
the interest.
(Orlando Sentinel)
* RISE IN SUPERSTITIOUS ACTIVITIES
Two editorials in the People's Daily have decried the
rise in superstitious activity, including fengshui
(geomancy),incense burning, building temples to worship
different deities (such as the earth god, mountain
god, and city god), and sales of "bank of Hell"
notes, which are burned by relatives for deceased loved
ones to use in the nether world.
The newspaper printed letters to the editor, including one from a reader in Changsha who said that following development of the market economy a great change occurred in Chinese society. Some of those who have become rich, he said, have been unable to find spiritual satisfaction. They have asked, "What does man live for?" and have ended up believing in supernatural powers. (People's Daily)
* ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEX
MGM Grand has an exclusive six-month agreement to explore
development of two entertainment-oriented resorts in
Hainan, China's largest free trade zone. The memorandum
of understanding would allow MGM Grand to build two
resorts in Hainan. There was no announcement on whether
casino gambling would be included.
(Orlando Sentinel)
* MAO WORSHIP
Visitors to the birthplace of Mao Zedong, a small village
in Hunan Province called Shaoshan, are burning incense
and fake money and kowtowing before a large statue
of the leader that was erected in December 1993 to
mark the centenary of his birth. Almost 500 such worshipers
visited the site in less than one half-hour period.
Ironically, Mao was a die-hard opponent of superstition
throughout his life. (China Women's News, China News
and Church Report)
* TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOOM
China has adopted a bold blueprint for dramatically
expanding the country's telecommunications system to
make it the third largest in the world by the year
2000. The government approved the start-up of Liantong
Communications Company, which has the backing of three
powerful government ministries (industry, power, and
railways) and is also financed by some of the country's
largest and most influential government enterprises.
It plans to set up mobile, satellite, and computer-integrated
telecommunications networks. (China News and Church
Report, China Daily, South China Morning Post.)
* CHINA WELCOMES
CANADIAN TRADE MISSION
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien led a 300-member
trade delegation to Beijing to meet with leaders and
sign agreements on nuclear power and friendly aid.
President and Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin told
Chretien that the sheer size of the Canadian entourage
demonstrated the "sound foundation and bright
prospects" of bilateral ties. Among those in the
trade mission were top executives from 250 Canadian
companies. (Xinhua)
* REDUCING POLLUTION
According to the head of China's State Environmental
Protection Bureau (SEPB), the government is preparing
legislation focusing on reducing industrial pollution
rather than simply cleaning it up. SEPB will examine
not only whether industrial waste is within legal concentration
limits, but will also start considering the quantity
of waste being produced. New measures will also improve
coordination between government departments involved
in enforcing environmental regulations. (South China
Morning Post)
* TEXTBOOK OMISSION
Hong Kong's Director of Education, Dominic Wong, caused
a furor when he ordered removal of a short and neutral
reference to the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident from
textbooks on the grounds that history should be limited
to events that took place more than 20 years ago. He
later retracted the order in the face of a public outcry.
(South China Morning Post)
* AIDS RISK
China held its first national AIDS conference in Beijing,
signaling that it no longer considers AIDS to be just
a "foreigner's disease" but a serious public
health issue in China. Officially, only 1,159 people
have been infected, but health workers say the true
figure could be 10 or even 100 times higher. China
could "at a very conservative estimate" have
266,000 HIV cases by the year 2000, according to one
Chinese professor. (South China Morning Post)
* HERBAL MEDICINE FIGHTS MALARIA
The World Health Organization has described as "encouraging"
tests of a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, artemisinin
(qinghaosu) to cure malaria. It can reduce the mortality
rate by up to five times. About 500 million people
in the world still suffer from malaria. (South China
Morning Post)
* WHO IS INFERIOR?
China has shelved its controversial eugenics law, which
would have legalized abortions of "inferior births."
However, some provinces such as Gansu have already
sterilized more than 1,000 "congenitally retarded"
people. (South China Morning Post)
* DISCOUNT STORES IN CHINA
Wal-Mart and Hong Kong-based Ek Chor Distribution System
have signed an agreement to open stores in China and
Hong Kong. The joint venture will open stores in Shanghai
and Shenzhen, similar to U.S. Wal-Mart discount stores
and Sam's Clubs. (Orlando Sentinel)
* BICYCLES ARE TOPS
Five bicycle makers dominate the National Light Industry
Council's annual list of the top 10 companies in China.
Four major liquor distilleries also made the top ten;
bottled spirits are attracting consumers' expanding
expendable income and spawning huge profits for distilleries.
Other leading factories include an air conditioner
plant and a soda-pop maker in Guangzhou and a cigarette
factory in southern Yunan. (People's Daily)
* MAGAZINE FOR RICH
Avenue, a glossy monthly magazine that documents New
York's high society, is publishing a Chinese edition.
The first issue, published in October, contained stories
in both Chinese and English on an Italian designer,
golfing in Bali, and "power portraits" of
multinational executives in China. Nearly every major
international publisher is studying ways to enter the
Chinese market.
McGraw-Hill publishes a Chinese edition of Business Week. Forbes' Chinese edition is published by Hong Kong's Capital Communications. Walt Disney produces a monthly comic book in Chinese. (Wall Street Journal)
* MEETING AND EATING
New restaurants in Beijing, such as Lao San Jie, My
Generation, and Black Earth, cater to the generation
of Chinese youth who were sent to the countryside during
the Cultural Revolution. The restaurants are crowded
with Chinese in their 40s who spent the Cultural Revolution
working on farms in northern China. The walls are decorated
with newspaper articles from the 1960s. One headline
proclaims, "We want to go to the country to raise
food ourselves." One dish is called the "educated
youths' reunion platter." (Washington Post)
* BACK IN BUSINESS
A Christian suspended from work in July by the Sino-American
Beijing Jeep Corporation after he missed a month's
work while in political detention was allowed to resume
work in August. The decision to reinstate Gao Feng,
a 26-year-old production line worker who is affiliated
with China's unofficial house church movement, follows
international condemnation of the corporation's handling
of the case. (NNI)
* THREE VIEWS OF CHINA
According to U.S. News & World Report, Chinese authorities
are concerned that "a new generation of well-educated,
high-tech dissidents poses an increasing danger to
the existing order." Says Business Week, "An
explosion of information technology ... has allowed
the Chinese to link up to the world with fax machines,
telephone lines, satellite dishes, and personal computers.
Thanks to market-oriented reforms, millions of Chinese
can now decide where to work and live instead of being
told." The Wall Street Journal sees unrest as
increasingly likely because working conditions are
so bad in some areas, such as Guangdong. (Pulse)
* MARRIAGES DISSOLVING
The number of divorces in China continues to rise steadily
as wide-ranging economic reform has brought about changes
in society and in people's thinking. In 1993, 9.1 million
couples married while 909,000 divorced. Beijing, Shanghai,
and Guangzhou had the highest rate of divorce in 1993.
(China News Digest and China News and Church Report)
* ALL THE NEWS
More than 2,000 newspapers have begun publication in
China in the last two years. Most reach specialized
audiences, such as members of trade unions or employees
of large manufacturers, but some are sold on the streets
for general distribution. (Xinhua)
* FEES FOR MIGRANT WORKERS
Reacting to a flood of migrant workers, Beijing's municipal
authorities have imposed fees for those who want to
live in the capital, starting November 1. The fee structure
would charge companies doing business in Beijing $11,600
for each migrant worker hired to live in the city.
Individuals covering the fees themselves pay half the
corporate rate. (New China News Agency)
* CHINA'S BACHELOR ARMY
China has 16 times more single men than single women,
and the country's "bachelor army" will grow
as more men approach middle age without partners. Already,
China's ratio of newborn boys to girls is seriously
tilted toward boys. Popularization of such techniques
as ultrasound, which can determine a fetus' sex and
open the door to gender-based abortion, may skew it
further.
(China Information, Reuters)
* MATERIALISM IN HIGH SCHOOL
Young people in China are becoming increasingly materialistic,
according to a report. In Beijing, the average high
school student spends 227 RMB per month and owns 820
RMB of expensive consumer goods. (Wen Wei Bao)
* HOSPITAL OFFICIAL EXECUTED
A hospital official in charge of "family planning"
was executed for taking bribes for false certificates
of sterilization. Yu Jianan, vice director of a rural
hospital in Henan province, issued 448 phony certificates
used as proof of sterilization.
(China Youth Daily)
* NO VISAS NEEDED
The central government has approved the request of Guangdong
Provincial Tourist Bureau to allow foreigners to make
a three-day visa-free trip to the province. The new
policy applies only to groups of ten or more foreigners
going through travel agencies recognized by the Chinese
government. It will go into effect first in Shenzhen,
and if successful, in other parts of the province.
(Ming Bao)
* STUDENTS CAN STAY
Despite protests from the Chinese government, New Zealand
has allowed 600 Chinese students to remain in New Zealand.
They fear retribution if they return home. (South China
Morning Post)
* LOVE YOUR DOG?
A proposed law would require dog owners in Beijing to
pay the equivalent of $700 a year to register each
of their pets. The law would also banish dogs from
Beijing's streets between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. (China
Daily)
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