NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/aus/culture/china/831

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-20 | 15.5 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!munnari.oz.au!manuel.anu.edu.au!durras!gaojeng
From: [e-mail] (J. Gao)
Newsgroups: aus.culture.china
Subject: China News Digest (Global), Sat, 11/21/1992
Date: 21 Nov 92 07:02:59 GMT
Organization: Australian National University
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Message-ID: <gaojeng.722329379@durras>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.22.8
Summary: CND
Keywords: CND

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

                                (News Global)

                         Saturday, November 21, 1992


Table of Contents                                                 # of Lines
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1. News Brief (4 Items) ................................................. 30
2. China Warns Hong Kong Democrats Not to Stir up Street Protest ........ 30
3. China Continues Attacking Patten and Western Countries on HK Issue ... 37
4. China Says No New Stock Markets for at Least Three Years ............. 37
5. Traders from Asia Flock to Wisconsin, U.S., Seeking Ginseng .......... 48
============================================================================

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1. News Brief (4 Items) ................................................. 23
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[South China Morning Post, 11/17/92] BEIJING -- The homeless wife of a
prominent jailed Chinese dissident disappeared yesterday (11/16/92) within
hours of launching a protest outside a police station in Beijing. Ms Zhang
Fengying, the wife of veteran human rights activist Ren Wanding, and her
15-year-old daughter were seen dumping all their possessions in front of the
police station in charge of monitoring dissidents in the afternoon. But by
mid-evening, both Ms Zhang, 44, and her daughter had disappeared. Friends of
hers said they did not know what had happened to the pair. Earlier, Ms Zhang
had threatened to camp outside the police station until she was given
adequate housing. (Forwarded by: A CND Reader)
                           ___ ___ ___

[JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 11/20/92] TOKYO -- German Economics Minister
Juergen Moellemann said here Friday that his visit to Taiwan at the
beginning of this week, the first official one by a German Minister, did
not mean a change in Germany's one-China policy. "We follow the 'one-China
policy,' and I have told the Taiwanese government we won't change that," he
said at a press conference concluding a two-day visit to Japan. He said the
visit was aimed at promoting bilateral economic relations and that economic
contacts should be intensified in the future. A spokeswoman for the
economics minister said that Beijing had not voiced any objections to
Moellemann's Taiwan visit. (Forwarded by: Huijie)
                           ___ ___ ___

[JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE, 11/20/92] TOBA, Japan -- Toba police in Mie
Prefecture arrested four more Chinese men Friday night, bringing to 46 the
number of Chinese who tried to illegally enter Japan by boat. Police were
still searching for 11 more Chinese they suspect entered the country aboard
the same boat, police officials said. The arrested Chinese told police there
had been 57 men aboard a 20-ton wooden fishing boat which left Fujian on
November 11. The Chinese under arrest told police they came to seek jobs.
(Forwarded by: Huijie)
                           ___ ___ ___

[DJ, 11/19/92] SEOUL -- Russia and South Korea on Friday signed a protocol
on military cooperation calling for exchange visits of high-level defense
officials and naval fleets. The protocol, signed by Defense Ministers Pavel
Grachev of Russia and Choi Sae-chang of South Korea is the first military
document binding the two former enemies. (Forwarded by: Huijie)

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2. China Warns Hong Kong Democrats Not to Stir up Street Protest ........ 30
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Forwarded by: Tina M. Tong <[e-mail]>
Source: Agence France Presse, 11/20/92

A Chinese agency Friday warned of "rioting and bloody confrontation" if a
leading pro-democracy party went ahead with a street campaign to support
Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten's proposals for broader democratization in
the territory.

The plan by the United Democrats of Hong Kong, the territory's first
political party set up last year, to hold signature campaigns and street
protests to support Patten's political reform could be "very dangerous,"
said the semi-official Hong Kong China News Service in a signed commentary.

"Such a move could lead Hong Kong into a dangerous situation," that could
jeopardize the smooth transition to 1997, the agency said of the Democrats'
campaign.

"People should maintain high vigilance as such street resistance comes
almost at the same time as the rising escalation of challenges by the
British side," which has also backed Patten's political reforms, it said.

The commentor said that "looking back at the dirty history" of British
colonized countries and regions, it was easy to find case where their rulers
meticulously directed local people into polarization that resulted in
"rioting and bloody confrontation" through those who called themselves
"democracy fighters".

Earlier reports said the United Democrats of Hong Kong planned to stage a
signature campaign and street protests, but a spokesman for the political
group which holds most of the 18 directly-elected seats in the local
legislature refused to comfirm if such a campaign was planned.

China has already called the United Democrats a "subversive organisation"
but the spokesman would not comment on the latest attack.

The Sino-British row was further escalated Wednesday when the Hong Kong
government decided to go ahead with the preparatory project for the
multi-billion dollar new airport despite  China's  opposition.

China  fears that the huge airport cost could bankrupt the territory after
1997.

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3. China Continues Attacking Patten and Western Countries on HK Issue ... 37
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Forwarded by: Chongyu Hua <[e-mail]>
Source: UPI, 11/20/92
Written by: Nick Driver

BEIJING -- China leveled another blistering attack Friday on Hong Kong Gov.
Chris Patten's plans to further democratize the territory, accusing him of
conspiring with western countries against China and warning the strategy was
doomed to fail.

The overseas edition of the official People's Daily attempted to lay the
growing controversy over Hong Kong's future entirely on an "anti-China
chorus" of people and Western governments who were simply trying to cover
up problems in their own countries.

"Of course there will always be people who hope that China will not unite,
who are afraid that China will become powerful," the signed commentary said.

Patten has called for increased popular representation in the ruling
Legislative Council in the runup to 1997, when Hong Kong is scheduled to
revert to Chinese rule.

Despite popular support for the plan in Hong Kong, the Chinese government
has opposed the moves, and has threatened to tear up any changes to Hong
Kong's constitution.

"China is no longer 'the sick man of Asia' -- whoever misjudges the era,
misjudges their opponent and whoever wants to pull history backwards will
definitely crush his own feet while moving the rock," the commentary said.

The newspaper also criticized the United States and other Western
governments for interfering in an internal matter between Britain and China
and charged them with criticizing China to avoid their own domestic problems.

"What qualifications do a few Western countries, faced with a pile of
difficult internal problems such as economic contraction, minority and
racial disputes, discontent among their people and a decline in prestige
have to interfere in other people's matters?" the commentary said.

The commentary accused Patten and his international allies of disrupting
Hong Kong's financial markets and inciting fear in the hearts of citizens
there, and predicted that if unchecked, economic disruption could also
spread to other countries.

"Patten's political policies have created division and opposition,
endangering Hong Kong's normally steadiness and financial stability," the
commentary said.

"Causing chaos in Hong Kong will not only affect Hong Kong people, but will
also harm the interests of investors the world over," it said.

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4. China Says No New Stock Markets for at Least Three Years ............. 37
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Forwarded by: Chongyu Hua <[e-mail]>
Source: UPI, 11/20/92
Written by: John Leicester

BEIJING -- The Chinese government has said it will allow no new stock
markets for at least three years, citing fears of chaos if new exchanges
are set up before stock laws are strengthened, an official newspaper said
Friday.

The ban on new stock markets came despite economists' warnings that China's
present two fledgling stock markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen, near Hong
Kong, can no longer cope with huge investor demand.

"The two exchanges are obviously unable to stand the strain," the state-run
China Daily quoted economists as saying.

Economists and market experts also warned that limiting exchanges to
Shanghai and Shenzhen had drained funds from elsewhere in China and "will
widen the gap between the economies of the south and the north," the
newspaper said.

"It is necessary to establish a bourse in each economic region by the end of
the century," it quoted one economist as saying.

But the government, still unnerved after frustrated would-be investors
rioted in Shenzhen in August, stated no new market will open until laws
governing stock markets are strengthened and will "refuse to open a new
stock market for at least three years," the China Daily said.

"The need to guarantee the health of the experiment became obvious after the
Shenzhen stock riot," the newspaper said.

The argument about the future of China's stock market experiment strikes the
heart of a debate about the speed at which recent calls for capitalist-style
market reforms can be carried out.

Local governments want to make use of new economic freedoms and use stocks
to raise capital for investment, but have been refused by Beijing for fear
of chaos if stock markets are not kept under central control.

Local governments, like freewheeling Hainan province in south China, that
tried to set up stock exchanges without government approval were quickly
reprimanded and had their markets shut down.

Foreign experts agreed with government statements that stock laws and
company regulations must first be strengthened and say running China's
existing exchanges more efficiently would remove the need for new stock
markets.

"I'm not sure it makes sense for a country to have four or five stock
markets," said one Beijing-based economist. "Most countries only have one."

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5. Traders from Asia Flock to Wisconsin, U.S., Seeking Ginseng .......... 48
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Forwarded by: Huijie
Source: WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/20/92
Written by: Bruce Ingersoll

MARATHON CITY, Wis. -- A special kind of Orient Express is roaring through
this farming community.

Buyers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and points east speed down country roads in
big vans, speaking Chinese into cellular telephones, leaving swirls of
leaves and snowflakes behind. The sellers dry their crop in kilns, waiting
for a vanload of buyers to swing into the drive.

What's up? It's the ginseng rush, an annual rite here in Marathon County,
which -- by quirk of climate and commerce -- is the world's third largest
exporter of ginseng, The Wall Street Journal reported. Yes, ginseng, the
wonder root revered by the Chinese for centuries, said to cure every malady:
from anemia to insomnia, from a flagging libido to a failing memory. It is
Geritol for China's gerontocracy. Soviet cosmonauts, when in orbit, used to
take it. For thousands of Americans, it is Mother Nature's antidote to jet
lag and job stress.

To U.S. medical experts, ginseng is just an overrated carrot. To ginseng
growers and traders, it's 24-karat gold. With millions of Asians craving it,
Wisconsin ginseng ranks as one of America's most lucrative legal crops,
bringing $38 to $52 a pound this fall. Established growers reap as much as
$100,000 an acre.

A few German-American farmers pioneered ginseng cultivation here in the
early 1900s. Whatever the early growers learned, they passed on to their
children, to be guarded like trade secrets. Their grandchildren are just as
secretive today. "They don't want anybody else to grow ginseng," says
Kenneth Barnett, a county agricultural agent. "They don't want to ruin a
good thing."

Last year the U.S. exported 1,289,000 pounds of cultivated ginseng, valued
at $62 million; almost 90% came from Marathon County. The crop is so
valuable, and theft is so prevalent, that many growers sleep with loaded
shotguns or automatic weapons. Some camp out in their gardens until harvest
crews can help dig up their crop.

Ginseng is also one of the few U.S. crops that involves door-to-door buying.
Instead of the farmer taking his crop to market, "we bang on his door and
write him a check," says Paul Hsu, a major Taiwan-born buyer who lives here
and has been buying ginseng for years -- usually from the same growers. "You
go through the checkbook like crazy."

Because of high start-up costs, it takes growers five to 10 years to break
even. An outbreak of root rot can turn ginseng into library paste in a week.
"It's a risky business," says grower Lyn Heise.

Many botanists doubt there is any appreciable biochemical difference between
Asia's Panax ginseng and North America's Panax quinquefolius. What's more,
the herb seems to have opposite effects on people. For some, it's a
tranquilizer; for others, it's a stimulant. Ginseng also has been found to
raise -- or lower -- blood-sugar levels and to rev up -- or slow down -- the
heartbeat.

Norman R. Farnsworth, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago
who studies the natural origins of drugs, hazards only this: Ginseng is
probably an anti-stress compound, or "adaptogen." Pharmacologist Stephen
Fulder calls ginseng "a natural alternative" to caffeine or amphetamines,
ideal for cramming for exams or getting stoked for a big game.

But more extravagant claims for ginseng abound. James Duke, a U.S.
Agriculture Department botanist, has collected folk remedies -- including a
Chinese treatment for breast cancer.

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