Vol. 28, No. IJING A CHINESE WEEKLY OF REVIEW NEWS AND VIEWS alent Dealing With Divorce Nantong — A Port City

A view of Nantong harbour. _

Machine tools exported by the Nantong Machine-Tools Plant are well-received abroad.

Workers keep busy at the Nantong Shoe Plant, a joint venture run by Nantong and a Japanese company.

The Notong No. 1 Cotton Mill SPOTLIQHT utilizes imported equipment.

Workers at the Nantong Hat Factory perform quality control inspections. BEIIING REVIEW HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK

Vol. 28, No. 5 February 4, 1985

China Welcomes Foreign Talents CONTENTS To bring in knowledge and talented people from abroad is NOTES FROM THE EDITORS 4 an important aspect of China's open policy, declared Party Rural Economy No Longer Just General Secretary Hu Yaobang in one of his recent speeches Farming (p. 6). LETTERS 5 EVENTS & TRENDS 6-10 Deng Calls "One Country, Two Systems" Realistic Foreign Talents Welcomed Taiwan Terrorism Condemned The "one country, two systems" concept paved the way to Trade Balance Dips Into the Red the peaceful solution of the Hongkong issue to the satisfaction Modern Methods Boost Ag Har• of all parties concerned. Deng Xiaoping says that born of vest Women Reject Return to Home Chinese realities, this concept is also applicable to many other Retarded Children Need More international disputes (p. 15). Schools INTERNATIONAL 11-14 New Agrotechniques Lead to Top Harvest Japan: Nakasone Offers Pacific Prosperity Last year's record harvest was spurred along by modern Lebanon: Israel Moves to With• agricultural techniques such as the use of rare-earth fertilizers draw Its Troops and an increase in the use of machinery. Fair weather also New Caledonia; Riots Erupt Over Independence Plan helped bring about China's first grain surplus (p. 7). London: Many Factors Prompt Pound's Fall A Major Port City Rising in the East What Deng Says (II): 'One Country, Two Systems' Born of Reality 15 A mixture of ancient culture and modern industry, Nantong My Heart Remains Young in China 16 is quickly transforming from a small east China city into a How Does China Deal With Divorce? 18 modern industrial centre. If that rate of development is main• Port City Profiles: Nantong: tained, it will sooner or later take its place among the major • Smooth Sailing to Industrial Boom port cities in the East (p. 22). Robust Vitality, High Promise 22 Native Products — Source of How Does China Deal With Divorce? Pride 23 Chorminq Land, Full-Grown Cul• An investigative report gives the reasons for the rise of ture 27 divorce in China during the last few years and outlines the way FROM THE CHINESE PRESS 28-29 divorce is handled under Chinese law (p. 18). BUSINESS « TRADE 30-31 CULTURE & SCIENCE 32 Return to Kitchen Rejected by Women SPORTS 33 BOOKS 34 Faced with pressure from housework and unemployment, some have suggested that working women return home to COVER: With their defty hands Nan- handle the house-keeping and to leave more jobs open for men. tional art to national prominence. But most people think the problems should be solved by develop• Photo by Xue Chao ing the service trades instead of sacrificing women's jobs (p. 9).

Published every AAondoy by [distributed by China International Book Subscription prices (1 year): BEIJING REVIEW Tradins Corporation (GUOJI SHUDIAN), Australia A.$14.00 USA US$18.00 24 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing P.O. Box 399, Beijing, China New Zealand... NZ.S18.00 UK...... £S.OO The People's Republic of China Canada Can. S15.00 NOTES FROM THE EDITORS

Rural Economy No Longer Just Farming

All this has prompted the gov• husbandry, sideline occupations by WANG DACHENG ernment to abolish the state mo• and fishing and co-ordinating the Economic Editor nopoly of grain purchases and to management of agriculture, indus• 1984 was the sixth consecutive institute a buying-according-to-plan try and commerce. Beginning from year of rich harvest since China system, so that the peasants can this year, the rural reform will be started the rural reform in 1978. gear grain production to market focused on adjusting the economic The output of grain, cotton, ani• needs. Under the new system, the structure according to market mal by-products and aquatic prod• peasants will, before the sowing needs and natural conditions. The ucts hit an all-time high, bringing season begins each year, sign con• main guidelines are: in its wake better living conditions tracts on the amount of grain they • First, sparing no effort to do for the peasants. will sell to the State. They may sell a good job in grain production where the land is suitable, while With the problem of food and The solution for the rural returning the rest of the grain plots clothing basically solved, the peas• economy lies in the to forestry, animal husbandry and ants have set their eyes on a more establishment of a rational fishing. For example, mountain affluent future. And to achieve economic setup aimed at slopes with a grade of more than that they have pumped more la• 25 degrees are inappropriate for bour and money into a wide range achieving an all-round development of farming, grain production and should be of endeavours, such as farm and used to grow forage grass or trees. sideline product processing, com• forestry, animal The state will help farmers to over• merce, transportation and service husbandry, sideline come the grain shortage thus trades. occupations and fishing caused. and co-ordinating the Rural enterprises are mushroom• management of • Second, developing traditional ing. In 1984 they grossed an es• agriculture, industry and cash crops in coastal areas and the timated 150 billion yuan in output commerce. suburbs of big and medium-sized value, up 23 percent from the pre• cities. The peasants of these areas vious year.- Today 100 million peo• will be encouraged to speed up ple in the countryside are engaged their excess grain on the rural farm modernization by using ad• in non-agricultural undertakings. market. vanced agricultural expertise im• But such heartening changes can This new system will help alle• ported with foreign capital or co• be marred if the problems which viate the peasants' difficulties in operating with other areas or arise in the course of shifting a selling surplus grain. But what trades. self-supporting (in some cases semi- about the more fundamental prob• • Third, encouraging the peas• supporting) economy into a com• lem behind the whole matter — ants to combine management of modity economy are not properly the lopsided rural economic struc• agriculture, industry and com• handled. The bumper harvest, for ture? In the current structure, merce. Grain, in particular, will example, has made it hard for there is too much grain and not yield greater value if it is process• peasants to sell and store surplus enough cash crops; farm produc• tion keeps growing while forestry, ed into finished products. The grain. There are simply not rural people should be encouraged enough granaries for excess grain. animal husbandry and fishing lag behind; and industry, commerce, to open foodstuff factories and Officials in Jilin Province are hard stores. put to find a market for their 6.5 transportation and service trades million tons of surplus grain, while remain underdeveloped. • Fourth, diverting more of the in Henan 7 million tons of grain The solution for the rural econ• farm labour force into other en• is waiting to be shipped out. One omy lies in the establishment of deavours, such as transportation, more headache: grain stockpiling a rational economic setup aimed at mining and constmction. The has considerably slowed the cir• achieving an all-round develop• peasants will gain a free hand in culation of funds. ment of farming, forestry, animal running fodder and foodstuff pro-

4 Beijing Review, No. 5 LETTERS Open Cities Repetitive do no harm to others, and so are worthy of praise. It is exciting to I am extremely interested in the read your magazine even without reports on the open cities. Their the photos to decorate it. clear descriptions, maps and photos, are popular. You make it But, with regard to your layout, very easy for your readers to under• I think it would be better to print cessing, building material manufac• stand what is going on in the open an article on consecutive pages. turing and other enterprises using cities. Please don't cut it and then con• local raw materials. Where pos• tinue after many pages. However, these kinds of reports sible, they will be encouraged to also have some problems. They I know readers, including my• run industries now seen only in tend to be repetitive. Comparing self, are too exacting. Sometimes cities, such as light industry, tex• all the articles published on the their demands are beyond your tiles, electric motor factories and open cities, the problem can be range. But you must know that we chemical plants. That is the ideal easily foiind. You tend to be re• make these suggestions because we way to quicken the spread of ur• peating the information about pref• appreciate your magazine. Our ban industry to rural areas. erential terms. Whether or not the feelings are deep. The People's Re• China will take a different path preferential terms are the same for public of China is undertaking a than the capitalist countries of every open city needs to be explain• great task. We can say with confi• yore, where industrialization was ed more clearly. In this way, I can dence that you will come out in accomplished by forcing large compare each city with the others. front in the world in the not too numbers of farmers into bank• distant future. I would like to know how things ruptcy and leaving them no Maurice Jaillet are going in the open cities and choice but to enter the cities and Louhans, France special economic zones. I have no become factory workers. In con• idea about their progress. You trast, China's peasants are becom• Reprint Articles seem to begin each report by saying ing factory workers by choice. Just that the open cities are developing 1 enjoy reading the "Interna• as a fiangsu county Party commit• rapidly. Is it true? tional" column. The interesting tee secretary said, they are being reports on international events converted into workers in happi• I hope to be able to read articles make me feel concerned about the ness. Why? Because instead of on the open cities every week. fate of all human beings. It would going bankrupt, the Chinese peas• MikJo Sudo be better if you could run some ants will become better off through Kamagaya, Japan pictures on those pages. I sug• the transition. Most of them will gest that you reprint some articles enter factories without leaving on anthropology and archaeology their home villages. And besides Responding to Criticisms from the magazine El Correo de la factory jobs, there are other profes• 1 am very satisfied with your UNESCO. You can also publish sions they can turn to. response to your readers' criticisms some analyses and reviews from and suggestions. Moreover, the cities will not ex• the Foro del Desarrollo. All these ploit the countryside in the process. In the first issue of 1985 you ful• articles can attract readers. On the contrary, they will always filled one frequent request and Flora Gonzales de S. support each other. published colour photos of the Goteborg, Sweden Uygur and Kazakh people in the •I really appreciate the article centrefold pages. written by Li Yimang (No. 32, 1984) about safeguarding world On the whole, your magazine peace. basically deals with Chinese and global economics and politics. Your 1 also feel that you should carry editors on these subjects have a an article on stamp collecting. good command of our language Some new stamps coirid be shown. and your approach towards events Colin Emmannel is very fair and reasonable. You Rumerange, Luxembourg

February 4. 19S5 5 EVENTS AND TRENDS

and factory modernization pro• grammes. "We would be happy if Foreign Talents Welcomed they would bring their families and we would do everything we can to China is seeking foreign knowl• or after the founding of the Peo• make their stay here pleasant," edge and talented people to boost ple's Republic, and whether the said Zhang. its modernization programme, said circumstances were favourable or Chinese Communist Party General unfavourable, we have always Secretary Hu Yaobang. He stressed been keenly aware of the sense Taiwan Terrorism the key role of such co-operation of devotion and heroic spirit of at a January 18 reception marking defying extreme hardship and dif• Condemned the 75th birthday of Michael ficulties displayed by our friends A Chinese Foreign Ministry Shapiro, a British journalist who from other lands who fought as spokesman January 23 strongly has worked at the Xinhua News members of our own ranks," said condemned the Taiwan intelli• Agency since 1950 when he, at the Hu. gence department's involvement in invitation of the Chinese Commu• He said that many foreign the murder of Chinese-American nist Party Central Committee, was writer Henry Liu (Liu Yiliang). sent to work in China by the friends fought to their last breath chairman of the British Commu• and dedicated their lives to the Speaking at a weekly news brief• nist Party, together with three other Chinese people's cause of libera• ing, the spokesman said, "All British Communists. tion. "We will always be grateful honest people are shocked and in• to them and remember them dignant at the involvement of the "It is an important part of our forever," he said. intelligence department of Taiwan Party's open policy as well in plotting the murder of the Chi• as a firm principle to boldly bring Since New China was born in nese-American Liu Yiliang. We in knowledge and able people from 1949, Hu continued, tens of strongly condemn this mean con• abroad," said Hu. "With our coun• thousands of friends from some 50 duct of terrorism. According to try now in a new historical period countries have come to take part our knowledge, Mr. Liu's relatives of concentrating on the four mod• in the Chinese people's cause of on China's mainland have once ernizations, it is more than ever revolution and construction. "The again urged the US government to imperative for us to seek knowl• work they have done and the make a thorough investigation into edge and friendship. Since we are energies they have spent have been the case and make sure that the as• aware that we are still backward a tremendous support to the cause sassins are severely punished and economically and culturally and of the Chinese people," the general justice is done." that our lack of knowledge is in secretary said. sharp conflict with our task of The Wuhan Diesel Engine Trade Balance Dips modernization, why shouldn't we Factory in central China recently learn with an open mind from all hired an engineer from the Federal Into the Red friends who have knowledge of Republic of Germany, Werner current science and technology?" Gerich, as its director. Zhu Shou- After three consecutive years of Hu added. zhi, vice-chairman of Wuhan's trade surplus, China's foreign trade Economic Commission, said that balance dipped into the red in Since the founding of the Party hiring Gerich is an experiment. 1984, with a deficit amounting to in 1921, Hu recalled, the Chinese But he believes the practice will US$1.1 billion. Communist Party and people have spread. The trade imbalance resulted always enjoyed the support of from China's gigantic move friends from other lands. "Whether The idea of hiring foreign indus• towards modernization, according it was during the period when our trial specialists from developed to a spokesman from the Ministry Party was founded, during the first countries was first brought up in of Foreign Economic Relations or second revolutionary civil war, public by State Councillor Zhang and Trade. the war against Japanese aggres• Jingfu when he said that specialists Imports were stepped up dra• sion, or the third revolutionary from abroad are welcome to help matically in the country's foreign civil war, whether it was before manage China's new projects technology purchasing spree to

6 Beijing Review, No. 5 speed up construction of key pro• billion, an increase of 27.7 per• jects, revamp aging enterprises and cent; and trade volume with the Modern Methods expand the special economic zones, United States reached a record the ministry spokesman added. US$6.06 billion, up 50.6 percent. Boost Ag Harvest China's 1984 foreign trade level China had a deficit of US$1.73 Advanced farming techniques hit a record high of US$49.97 bil• billion in trade with Japan and a were described as "agricultural lion, up 22.7 percent from the 1983 US$1.5 billion deficit with the deities" by Chinese peasants when total of US$40.14 billion. The United States. they helped bring about last year's export value reached US$24.44 unprecedented harvest. The renewed Sino-Soviet trade billion, up 10.1 percent over 1983. grew to US$1.16 billion last year, In 1984 China's farmers reaped The increase in the 1984 export compared with US$647 million in 400 million tons of grain, 12.5 mil• volume, however, was dwarfed by 1983. In view of the "economic lion tons more than in 1983. They the spiralling volume of imports, visit" made last December by Ivan also harvested 5.5 million tons of which totalled US$25.53 billion, Arkhipov, vice-chairman of the cotton, an increase of about 20 or 37.8 percent more than the pre• Soviet Council of Ministers, trade percent over the year before. between the two countries is ex• vious year. Much of the credit for the good pected to continue its quick The US$1.1 billion deficit in year has been given to new scien• growth. The ministry spokesman foreign trade is in sharp contrast tific farming methods. The Jiaxiang predicted a 36 percent increase in to the situation which prevailed County Science and Technology the coming year. from 1981 to 1983, when China Association in Shandong Province, recorded a foreign trade surplus While most trade grew, trade for instance, introduced to local for three straight years. The trade with the European Economic Com• peasants new cotton strains, crop surplus in 1983 was US$3.86 munity countries dropped last rotation schemes for wheat and billion. year; Exports fell from US$2.21 cotton, and scientific methods of billion in 1983 to US$2.09 billion raising chickens. The new tech• The ministry spokesman attri• last year, while imports dipped niques resulted in 90 million yuan buted the 1984 deficit to the coun• slightly from US$3.47 billion to a year in added income. The try's efforts to upgrade itself, add• US$3.36. figure is about 30 percent of the ing, "With the fast development of county's total agricultural output In the future China will open the country's modernization pro• value. gramme, the demand for certain all the coastal areas to foreign in• goods on the domestic market has vestment and trade, and Chen Mu- There are now more than grown considerably." hua, minister of Foreign Economic 110,000 rural organizations spread• Relations and Trade, said the ing the word about modern agricul• In 1984 China opened 14 coas• country will make further efforts tural techniques across the country• tal cities to foreign investment and to "use foreign funds and import side. And by the end of 1984, trade. This brings the number of technology." A booming foreign 2,277 counties, about 93 percent of open cities and regions to 19, in• trade is therefore anticipated. the country's total, had established cluding the four special economic zones and Hainan Island. More than 700 joint ventures were approved last year. The foreign investment involved total• led US$1.1 billion. The number of joint ventures exceeded the total that had been approved in the previous five years. Foreign Trade Relations. China maintained trade relations with more than 170 countries and re• gions during 1984. The nation's 1984 volume of trade with Japan climbed to US$12.37 billion, an increase of 36.3 percent over 1983; volume of trade with Hongkong was US$8.54

February 4, 1985 science and technology associa• ery. Last year the total horsepower WEWS IN BRIEF tions. A nationwide rural network of China's agricultural machinery has been formed, with 3.5 million increased by 8 percent over 1983. peasants belonging to science as• Tractors, combines, and trucks Construction has recently sociations, said Bao Yishan, a used for farm purposes increased begun on a 300,000-kw nu• member of the secretariat of the by 16 percent, 4 percent and 32.3 clear plant in Haiyan Coun• China Association for Science and percent respectively. "The positive ty, Zhejiang Province. Named Technology. effects all these machines brought after the Qinshan Moun• about are obvious," said Wu. tain, the plant is the first By using rare-earth fertilizers, of its kind designed and built the state farms in Heilongjiang For Chinese farmers, heaven is entirely by the Chinese. Province increased their yield on still a very important factor in * » * 22,300 hectares of spring wheat by farming. Many recite the proverb, 9 peccent in 1984. The higher "Man proposes, God disposes." It Cooking gas will soon yield boosted their output value by is common that some farmers, es• reach 200.,0i)0 Beijing house• 15 million yuan. pecially the elders, pray to the holds through a pipeline Research on the use of rare-earth gods at mountain temples, asking from the Huabei (North Chi• elements in fertilizers started in that the harvest be good. Wu ac• na) Oilfield's gas treatment 1972 and was listed as one of the knowledged that "one of the very centre in Yongqing County. key research projects for the Sixth important reasons for the good Hebei Province. Five-Year Plan period (1981-85). harvest last year was the satisfac• The .70-km pipeline will tory climate," but he did not think send 400,000 cubic metres of Last year some 250 tons of rare- the good weather should be attrib• natural gas a day and supply earth fertilizer was used on uted to prayer. about two-thirds of the city's 340,000 hectares of farmland, re• daily gas consumption. The sulting in an increase of 50,000 In 1984, said Wu, there was no city plans to provide gas tons of grain and an income hike widespread and enduring drought hookups to all Beijing kit• of 20 million yuan. and floods, windstorms, hailstorms chens by 1990. and freezes were minimal. Insect Meanwhile, modern agricultural pests were also less troublesome * « » machinery is finding favour with than the year before. The total China plans to set up six farmers, said Wu Yadong, an of• area plagued by disasters in 1984 special institutes to promote ficial of the Ministry of Agricul• was 4.6 million hectares less than the mental, physical and in• ture, Animal Husbandry and Fish• in 1983. tellectual development of the 330 million children aged 14 Experimental corn strains raised by agronomist Li Suisheng in the and under. suburbs of Beijing are coming along fine. These institutes will spe• cialize in child psychology and physiology research and will search for ways to im• prove children's education, diet and toys. * * * The China International Conference Certtre for Science and Technology was recently opened in Beijmg. The centre will organize, at the request of both do• mestic and foreign organiza• tions, academic symposia, conferences, lectures and scientific exhibitions.

8 Beijing Review, No. 5 Women Reject Return to Home Though some people have suggested that vyomen should return to housework in order to leave more and better jobs for men, the idea has been rejected by both women and men in public opinion polls. Lately some union officials have suggested that too many women are employed in types of work more suitable to men and that women should step aside to make way for unemployed or under• employed young men. They argue that women — especially women in their child-bearing years —• actual• ly hinder economic development and result in lower productivity, poor quality and inefficiency. Icy Fun in Harbin Women first began moving out Harbin's annual Ice and Snow Festival is under way In the cold of the house and into the work• northern capital of Heilongjiang Province. The festival, famous for its ice lonterns and ice sculptures, also Includes action on the ice. Women force after the idea was put forth hockey players from the hometown are pictured here. Other Ice sports during the May 4th Movement in featured include winter swimming matches and sledding. More than 1919, the first democratic mass 100,000 people attended the opening ceremony for the festival on January 5. The crowd included 100 guests from Japan, the United States, movement in the history of modem France, Denmark and other countries and 500 from Hongkong and Macao. China. But the idea was not The icy festivities continue through February, realized until the 1950s, when mil• lions of Chinese women began to women, not all, stay at home, while the city's Womeii's Federa• go to work. giving their husbands or brothers tion, that most people reject In 1949 women made up only double wages. They argue that the idea of women returning 7.5 percent of all workers in state- under this circumstances, families home. "The idea reflects the owned enterprises. The percentage would retain their same level of feudalistic ideology that women rose to 21 percent in 1965 and 36 income, and women could run the are inferior to men and incapable percent in 1983. In addition, one- house and raise children much of performing work that requires third of China's scientists are better. high intelligence or an aggressive women and women have begun to The suggestion is flatly rejected manner. Women's liberation take leadership roles in a number by 9 out of 10 people polled. In depends, in the final analysis, on of fields. Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, 100 economic status," said Bi. But some have begun to suggest persons were randomly ques• However, the status of women that there are too many women tioned last summer. Among 50 is not only reflected in the employ• in the workforce today. Xing Hua, women, 46 said they were unwill• ment rate, said union official Xing. an official of the Beijing Trade ing to leave their jobs, no matter She published her own opinion Union, said, "It is because a what the situation. The other four poll last year, indicating that woman is naturally more adept at said they would like to return home 64 percent of the women workers housekeeping than a man that she if their jobs could be taken by their at the Beijing Da Hua Shirt should carry more of the family sons or daughters. Of 50 men Factory favour her "phased em• burden. But they must be worn polled, only six said they would ployment" theory. The theory sug• out if they at the same time go to like to see their wives resign their gests that a woman worker take work. How can we say women arc jobs, if it meant higher wages for leave from her job when she is liberated under such a situation?" themselves! . seven months pregnant and stay To solve the problem, some have This proves, said pollsters Bi off the job until her baby reaches suggested that some working Bingsheng and Fu Zhihong of the age of 3. Xing suggests that

February 4, 1985 9 women on leave receive 75 percent Municipal Education Bureau is of their normal salary and be considering the establishment of allowed to return to work after more such classes this year. The the three-year period. "This will effort is focused on seven suburban Around the Globe benefit children, women, their fam• counties which at present have no Ministry to Consider ilies and our society,'' said Xing. classes for retarded children, ac• Bandung invitation cording to Zhou Zheng, deputy Some of those polled, both The 30th anniversary of head of the bureau. women and men, felt the idea is the Asian-African Bandung a good one. It definitely seems to Zhou said that more than 200 Conference will be celebrated be more acceptable than the sug• teachers are working at the 26 this April in Indonesia. A gestion that women return to the special classes and two special Chinese Foreign Ministry home for ever. schools in the city's urban and rural spokesman said that China areas. will "give a positive consid• It seems the vast majority are in eration"; ^-J,^ an invitation favour of women playing a major Most of the children when enter• when offered by Indonesia. role in modernization. However, ing the special classes were indif• It has been reported that In- said Zheng Zhaohong, a staff of ferent and aloof because they had donesm : FOreigii Minister the All-China Women's Federa• long suffered discrimination from Mochiar Kusumaatmadja tion, the debate is beneficial. the public and even from their said China will bo invited to It urges us to solve our social prob• families, Zhou said. Many know send delegates. lems, especially the time-consum• nothing about how to deal with ing housework that takes up most daily life and some could not even of our spare time, she said. But dress themselves. Support for Kampuchea housekeeping problems should not Reaffirmed by Chino "Now they are different. They be solved at the cost of women's are becoming more confident and Democratic Kampuchcan jobs. Instead, said Zheng, house• they are aware of the need to help leader Samdcch Norodom work should be reduced by one another," Zhou said. Sihanouk, in a January 24 developing the service trades and meeting with- Chinese Com• socializing, modernizing and pro• "Compared with the work in munist Party General Secre• fessionalizing housekeeping. developed countries, ours is noth• tary Hu Yaobanji. said, ing to be proud of," said Zhou, "Viet Nam said it [planned who was impressed with the work 10 pull out of Kampuchea in Retarded Children he saw done for retarded children 6 (o 10 years. But I think in Japan during a visit in 1983. one year, is^ ettough/* He Need More Schools then said that Viet Nam is Beijing has at least 4,000 retard• [buying time to "Vietnamize" Special classes for retarded chil• ed children of school age, 80 per• Kampitcheav Hu reaffinncd dren are in urgent demand in China cent of whom have slight mental China's support lor Kam• because most of the estimated 1 problems, a recent sample survey puchea and .said that one million retarded children through• in the city showed. year is enough time for Viet out the country find it hard to re• China also has more than 70 Nam to complete a pullout. ceive proper education. homes for physically and mentally There are now only a few more handicapped children. Beijing Welcomes than 100 special classes in the Arms Reduction Talks entire country, a number that falls More than 100 primary schools China welcomes arms re• far short of the need. and classes for mentally retarded children will inaugurate vocational duction talks between the US Teachers, specialists, classrooms education courses next year to help and the USSR and hopes that and teaching aids for retarded chil• the youngsters learn skills so that an agreement can be reached, dren are also in short supply. they can earn a living. said Foreign Minister Wu Plans to improve the situation Xueqian January 26 while But, said Zhou, "rapid expansion are being drawn up and efforts to visiting Sri Lanka. Rut he of the special education programme enrol more retarded children in added that China opposes for retarded children is held back school are being stepped up, partic• Soviet deployment of SS-20 due to financial reasons." And ularly in Beijing. missiles in the Far East. it is hard to find "experienced Nearly 500 students are attend• teachers because the programme is ing special classes in Beijing. The something new in China," he said.

10 Beijing Review, No. 5 INTERNATIONAL

Japan Prime Minister Bob Hawke, the Japanese prime minister put for• ward "Nakasone's four prin• Nakasone Offers Pacific Prosperity ciples." They are: promoting non- miUtary and non-political co-opera• Japan has made the first step towards broad Pacific co• tion in economic, cultural and operation, but the South Pacific countries are still some• technical spheres; encouraging what cool to the proposal. people-to-people exchanges as the main form of regional co-opera• by XIAO ZHOU trade with Australia and strength• tion; formulating an open and ex• ening fishing co-operation with clusive regional co-operation; and New Zealand. Japan will also pro• respecting the initiative of the APAN is determined to promote vide interest-free loans worth 1 Association of Southeast Asian J a "Pacific Economic Zone" that billion yen (US$3.9 million) for Nations (ASEAN) and South will usher in an era of growth and Fiji to establish hospitals and train Pacific countries. The aim of the prosperity in the Asia-Pacific re• personnel. It will also loan some four principles is to promote co• gion. With this grand aim, Ja• 5.7 billion yen (US$27.6 million) operation and to melt away the panese Prime Minister Yasuhiro to Papua New Guinea to build distrust of Japan in the oceanic Nakasone recently visited Fiji, roads and power stations. countries. Papua New Guinea, Australia and Since Japan's plans to dump New Zealand. His week-long tour During his South Pacific tour, low-level nuclear waste into the ended January 20. Nakasone repeatedly stated Japan, ocean have met opposition from learning from the bitter lessons of The Pacific rim is the most Pacific islanders, Nakasone made World War II, is forever com• economically dynamic and fastest assurances that Japan will not mitted to peace and will never developing region in today's world. ignore the concerns of the region. again become a military threat to The combined gross national prod• The plan, in fact, is frozen, the its neighbours. In regard to a pre• uct of the nations bordering the Japanese prime minister said. vious Japanese proposal for safe• Pacific makes up 60 percent of the For 20 years Japan has repeated• guarding 1,000 sea miles of marine world total. Because Japan is in ly suggested that a "Pacific Eco• passage, Nakasone assured regional urgent need of developing nomic Zone" be established. But leaders that the marine passage economic exchanges, it has a because of the shadow which will not reach the ASEAN region. special role to play in the Pacific remains from Japan's aggression The trip demonstrated to the region. during World War II, many coun• world that Japan is attaching great tries in the region distrust Japan. importance to Asia and the Pacific A recurring subject in high-level Japan must eliminate the lingering in its foreign policy. But it is re• talks between Nakasone and the doubts and fears before it can set ported that "Pacific co-operation" leaders of the four countries was in motion its plan for regional'co• is still in the planning stages and the need to strengthen economic operation. that the South Pacific countries are and cultural co-operation and not nearly as eager as Japan. personnel exchanges. Japan is During talks with Australian already the region's biggest trading partner. Between July 1983 and Lebanon June 1984 trade between Japan and Australia reached $A11.9 Israel Moves to Withdraw Its Troops billion (US$9.7 billion), more than that between the United States To end the dilemma in Lebanon, the Israeli cabinet decid• and Australia. Japan is, in fact, ed January 14 to withdraw its troops. But when the with• Australia's biggest trading partner. drawal will be completed is still uncertain. Japan tallied NZ$3 billion from south Lebanon, with the first (US$1.4 billion) in trade with New by REN YAN Zealand, which also makes Japan stage beginning January 20. This New Zealand's most important HE Israeli cabinet January 14 is a major step for Israel to extri• trading partner. During his visit, T approved by a 16-6 vote a cate itself from a predicament in Nakasone proposed increasing three-phase troop withdrawal plan Lebanon.

February 4, 1985 11 Israel in June 1982 invaded Lebanon has been roundly con• withdrawal will be decided by the Lebanon, claiming the Palestinian demned by the Arab nations and Israeli government in light of the armed forces' bases in Lebanon many other countries. Pressure future Situation. This is seen as constituted a threat to the, security for a withdrawal became harder an indication of Israel's intention of Israel's northern territory. After and harder to resist. Egypt, for to retain some kind of control over the armed forces of the Palestine instance, called for withdrawal Lebanese territory. Liberation Organization (PLO) from south Lebanon as one of the The Israeli government has time evacuated from Beirut, Israel put preconditions for a thaw in its and again demanded that the forward unreasonable demands, relations with Israel. border area vacated by Israeli including establishment of normal troops be placed under the control relations with Lebanon, opening Even the United States, practi• of the pro-Israeli "south Lebanon trade ports, setting up a diplomatic cally the lone staunch supporter of army" as one of the "security representative in Lebanon and re• Israel, wanted Israel to pull out. arrangements." It has also claimed fusing to withdraw its troops. US diplomats hope the gesture to "the freedom of intervention" in With mediation by the United the Arabs might help revive which Israeli troops may cross the States, Lebanon and Israel con• Washington's "peace process" in border and wipe out any force that ducted long and repeated negotia• the Middle East. threatens its "security." tions from December 1982 to April Third, Israel wants to create a 1983 and signed an accord on troop Public opinion in the Arab world vacuum in the Saida (Sidon) region withdrawal on May 17, 1983. has noted that the settlement of with its withdrawal and thereby After signing this accord, Israel the Lebanese question is the first sharpen the factional strife there continued to delay its troop with• step in defusing the present situa• and undercut resistance. drawal. Because of a series of tion in the Middle East. But perfidious act? by the Israelis, the Although Israel has begun to whether Israel will completely Lebanese government flatly witTidraw its first batch of troops, withdraw its troops from Lebanon rescinded the Lebanese-Israeli ac• it refused to provide a pull out is still uncertain. It will be decided cord on March 5, 1984. timetable during the 13th round by the outcome of the trials of of talks at Naqoura on January 22. strength and struggle between the With the long occupation of The next two stages of troop parties concerned. south Lebanon, Israel has been forced to support an increasingly r heavy burden, so it decided to get New Caledonia out of Lebanon unilaterally. First, Israel's economy is in dire straits, mainly as a result of its reckless Riots Erupt Over Independence Plan pursuit of the policy of expan• sionism and aggression in the past Natives and European settlers cannot agree on the future few years. of their tiny island, as Mitterrand urges peaceful Official statistics place the in• discussion. flation rate last year at 1,200 per• The pro-independence Kanak cent, the highest in the world. And by Yl QUAN the country of 4 million people has Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) responded with road• incurred an aggregate indebtedness RENCH President Francois blocks and violent confrontations of US$24.8 billion. Two-thirds of Mitterrand hurried to New F with police. the nationar budget since 1982 has Caledonia on January 18 to try to gone to military spending and quench some of the fires burning On December 1 the FLNKS servicing of debts. The occupation over the issue of independence for raised a Kanak flag in front of a forces in south Lebanon alone cost the French Pacific territory. police station and declared itself well over US.fl million a day. "the provisional government of the A long history of racial conflicts Kanak Republic." Exasperated by this desperate between the indigenous Kanaks and situation, the Israeli people have European settlers flared up again New Caledonia is a South Pacif• been pressing for a troop with• after elections last November, ic island of about 19,000 square drawal from Lebanon. Prime widely boycotted by the Kanaks, kilometres, with a population of Minister Shimon Peres admitted gave the anti-independence New 145,000. About 37 percent are that his country was in the throes Caledonian Republic Guard Union Europeans, 42 percent Melanesians of a crisis of alarming proportions. 70 percent of the seats in the Ter• or Kanaks, and the rest Asians, Second, the occupation of south ritorial Assembly. mostly from other French territo-

12 Beijing Review, No. 5 complete sovereignty immediately, and the Europeans, who wish to remain part of France. And while Pisani insisted that only indepen• dence "can maintain the internal peace and security," he also said, "France's presence on the island is necessary because France must look after its lawful interests."

The violence continued as Kanak protesters trespassing on a white- owned farm killed one of the in• habitants on January 11. The next day Eloi Machoro, one of FLNKS leaders, was shot by French gendar• mes during a stand-off with police. To quell the ensuing riots, a state of emergency was declared.

Many feared that Machoro's death would bring an end to ries. In the middle of the 19th Pisani also said the French gov• Pisani's plan. Mitterrand rushed in century, French colonists estab• ernment fully recognizes New Ca• to save it, and ended his 14-hour lished their first settlement in Nou• ledonia's legal right to indepen• visit by saying, "The line that we mea, now the island capita!. In dence, and pushed up the schedule feared might be broken has been 1885 it was declared a French from 1989 to 1986. An island-wide mended, and dialogue continues." territory. referendum was promised for July 1985. Mitterrand met with leaders of The European immigrants and all political parties and assured the Kanaks have formed two dis• Pisani's plan, which Mitterrand them that every item in Pisani's tinct social communities. Neither is firmly sticking too, calls for an plan "has room for discussion." makes up quite half the population, independent New Caledonia still The president said the plan was but the assorted Asians, mostly connected with France in much the meant as "a compromise of in• Polynesians, were encouraged by same way as Monaco. France terests between all social com• the French to settle on New Cale• would retain control of defence munities on the island and France." donia mainly to thwart Kanak and internal security and would moves for independence. have rights and duties concerning But Mitterrand's hopes for con• In the face of just such a declara• currency, credit, the courts, interna• tinued dialogue and a peaceful solu• tion on December 1, Mitterrand tional transportation, communica• tion may be thwarted on this tiny summoned the first special council tions and broadcasting. But this en• island, where tensions still run meeting ever since he took office. raged FLNKS supporters who want high. New Caledonia is a sensitive area, and developments there are likely to affect neighbouring Polynesia — London the French base for Pacific nuclear testing. Many Factors Prompt Pound's Fall ' While the French National As• The pound's slump reflects the economic reality in sembly heatedly debated the prob• lem three days later, former Britain. It seems that the days of the strong pound are French Minister of Agriculture gone for ever. Edgard Pisani arrived in Noumea as a special high commis• mary currency for international by Yl MING sioner. While the parliament re• Beijing Review News Analyst exchange. But now, as the day jected calls for a military crack• when one pound equals one US down and for immediate indepen• HE pound sterling has been dollar approaches, a shadow has dence, Pisani persuaded the T Britain's virility symbol for been cast on the once proud sym• FLNKS to dismantle the road- decades. In the past its strength bol. On January 14 the pound hit blcfcks. was unquestioned, as it was the pri- a record low against the dollar in

February 4, 1985 15 trading, dropping to 1.110 in Lon• committee last year estimated that US government, large amounts of don and 1.102 in Asia. After the the sterling was overvalued by 10 idle money have been funneled into Bank of England reinstituted its percent. Chancellor of the Ex• the United States. This flow of minimum lending rates as a guide chequer Nigel Lawson refused to cash exerts tremendous pressure on on January 14 and set it at 12 per• comment on the report. He stead• the pound sterling. In addition, cent (it was the second base rate fastly insisted that the exchange, the 11-month-old miners' strike and rise, the first one being proclaimed rate of the sterling cannot be artifi• other labour stoppages in Britain on January 11), the sterling re• cially fixed, but should be decided have exacerbated the situation. bounded slightly to 1.124. by the market supply and demand. British investors worry that Britain Last month's Bank of England is no longer a safe and profitable When Prime Minister Margaret move to boost interest rates was investment environment. Thatcher first won election in 1979, the first time the British govern• the value of the pound was much ment had attempted to stabilize the Another external factor directly higher. One pound sold for more price of the pound since August affecting the pound is the decline than US$2. Between November 1981. Over the past three years, of oil prices. The oil glut has 1980 and today the sterling ex• the Bank of England had not taken caused the price to slide. And be• change rate against the dollar any action to institute official base cause North Sea oil is Britain's dropped 55 percent, and between lending rates. The government's at• biggest export earner, slipping oil February 1984 and last month it titude has been to leave it to the prices batter the pound sterling. fell 26 percent. At the same time, money market to-decide the rates. There has been much talk in eco• the pound's value against other nomic circles about the devaluation West European currencies also It is reported that Lawson may of the pound sterling. Some ex• dwindled. actually be welcoming the sterling perts contend that the devalued decline. According to such ac• pound will not harm the economy. In recent years the sterling has counts, Lawson is well aware that Others hold that the sterling's crisis become one of the weakest curren• the pound's plummet has resulted is an expression of the people's cies in the West. Its woes reflect in the value of North Sea oil in• lack of confidence in their govern• two facts of the reality in Britain: creasing from 9.6 billion pounds to ment. They charge that the gov• one is the economy's slow growth 12 billion pounds because crude ernment has done too little too late. and the other is the pound's his• prices are in US dollars and the toric overvaluation. The problems North Sea oil field is producing The government's move to raise are made obvious by the poor per• record yields. In addition, the interest rates is a psychological formance of British goods on the sterling's fall has attracted tourists ploy to reduce worries in business world market. in record numbers, as American and financial and monetary circles. visitors increased from 2 million in Moreover, the government fears Britain's economy has picked up 1983 to 2.6 million in 1984. Ameri• that further devaluation may make since Thatcher's policies were im• can visitors rushed to enjoy low- imports too costly. This would plemented. The economy's growth price accommodations and to pur• probably aggravate the inflation rate registered a rise of 2.3-2.5 per• rate. cent in 1984, and the inflation rate chase cheap British commodities. fell to 5 percent. However, manu• Owing to the devaluation of the But government intervention facturing, Britain's economic main• sterling, Britain's exports to the only stopped the pound's slump stay, has not developed satisfactori• United States grew 19 percent, temporarily. The pound did not ly. As a result, British trade with reaching 8,150 million pounds in rally back to strength. It v/ill be other countries, with the exception the first 10 months of 1984. much more difficult for the govern• of oil and oil products, has suf• Therefore, the sterling's low ment to bolster the pound signif• fered. Besides, the unemployment exchange rate may actually icantly. The government's gold situation has deteriorated. There strengthen the competitive power and foreign exchange reserves are are more than 3 million unemploy• of British goods on the world limited, only US$15.7 billion last ed workers in the country, with one market, helping industry to ex• year. And if interest rates are of every eight out of work. The pand exports and providing an im• hiked dramatically, economic unemployment rate stood at 13.4 petus to economic recovery. This growth could be choked off. So, percent in 1984, much higher than is why the British government with the prospect of higher oil the 7 percent figure in 1980, and hesitated to rescue the pound. prices unlikely in the near future the rate is the highest among the and the US budget deficit and in• West European countries. The strong US dollar is one of terest rates remaining high, the US the main external factors prompt• dollar will continue to flex its As for the value of the pound, ing the sag of the sterling. Due to muscles and the pound will con• a report issued by a parliament high interest rates instituted by the tinue to weaken. 14 Beijing Review, No. 5 W/?ot Deng Says (II) 'One Country, Two Systems' Born of Reality

China stands for peace and hopes to solve disputes by peaceful means. The policy of "one country, two systems" could be adopted in some cases and the policy of "joint development" in others.

HE policy of "one country, two systems." We would have an alter• country, two systems." It also rep• T systems" has been adopted out native in "joint development." We resents the result of the combined of consideration for China's reali• Chinese stand for peace and hope efforts of the Chinese and British ties. China is faced with the prob• to solve disputes by peaceful governments. lems of Hongkong and Taiwan. means. What kind of peaceful The resolution of the Hongkong There are only two ways to solve means? "One country, two sys• question has a direct impact on the them. One is through negotiation tems" and "joint development." Taiwan question. The Taiwan and the other is by force. To solve Everyone says this is a new and authorities should be able to accept the problem by peaceful negotia• very interesting idea. the "one country, two systems" tion requires that the terms be ac• concept. ceptable to all parties. The solu• The resolution of the Hongkong Is it realistic of Chiang Ching- tion to the Hongkong question, for question was not due to any special kuo to propose unifying China instance, should be acceptable to feats on the part of our negotiators, under the "Three People's Prin• China. Britain and the people of as much as to the fact that China ciples"? His "Three People's Prin• Hongkong. has been progressing rapidly. In recent years, it has been thriving ciples" were practised in China for What will they accept? A social• and growing powerful and is trust• 22 years — from 1927 to 1949. ist transformation of Hongkong worthy. We mean.what we say What became of China? When did would not be acceptable to all par• and keep our word. the Chinese people stand, up, so to ties. In my talks with foreign speak? In 1949. guests, I proposed that new solu• Since the fall of the gang of It was socialism and the Com• tions to international disputes be four, and especially since the Third munist Party that made the Chinese devised to meet new situations and Plenary Session of the Party's people stand up. Isn't "one coun• new problems. The "one country, 11th Central Committee, highly try, two systems," where you won't two systems" concept was proposed favourable changes have taken swallow us up and we won't swal• on the basis of Chinese realities, place in China. Its image has im• low you up, a better solution? Re• but this idea could also be applied proved. The past five years have cently, a foreigner asked me to international problems. Inter• witnessed great changes. Our own whether we would adopt a similar national disputes that are not people have seen this and so have policy towards Taiwan. I said that, handled right can reach the flash people from other countries. in Taiwan's case, we would adopt point. an even more flexible policy. By We can be proud of this. Of more flexible we meant that, in ad• I asked them whether the policy course, there is a difference be• dition to the policies used to solve of "one country, two systems" tween pride and conceit. We the Hongkong question, we would could be adopted in some cases should not be conceited or boastftil, allow Taiwan to maintain its own and the policy of "joint develop• because we are still economically armed forces. ment" in others. In this way we backward. But recent develop• would not be confined to just one ments, the resolution of the Hong• A couple of days ago, I discussed approach, the "one country, two kong question for instance, demon• Taiwan with another foreign visi• strate our good prospects as a na• tor. I said we would strive to solve tion. the Taiwan question by peaceful This is part of a speech made by means but we could not possibly Deng Xiaoping at the Third Plenary We resolved the Hongkong ques• rule out the use of non-peaceful Session of the Central Advisory Com• mission on October 22, 1984. The tion by adopting a fundamentally means to reunify Taiwan and the title is Beijing Review's. correct policy or strategy of "one mainland. •

February 4, 1985 15 * General Secretary Hu Vaobang expresses congratulations to Michael Shapiro for his 75th birthday.

My Heart Remains Young in Chino

"My heart remains young in China." wrote Michael Shapiro, a ing at my door late at night to Brhish journalist, who has worked in China for 35 years, in an article in give me articles to check, I felt "Renmin Ribao" (People's Daily) shortly before his 75th birthday. In very excited at being able to share the article, he explained why China had become his second home and in their work. In a very short why he was not bitter after liis traumatic experiences during the "cul• period of time, they began to call tural revolution,"-—Ed. me just "Michael," and I took this as a sign that I was accepted as What was it that made rne de• by MICHAEL SHAPIRO cide to take China as my sec• one of them. ond home and devote my life to When I first arrived in China, I N 1950, at the invitation of the her? was able to visit many places. At I Central Committee of the Chi• On arrival, I was assigned to that time, the whole country was nese Communist Party, I was sent work in Xinhua News Agency. recovering from the ravages of war to work in China by the chairman When the Chinese comrades ex• and poverty. Yet, I saw joy on the of the British Communist Party, to• plained how simple their equip• gether with three other British faces of the workers and peasants, ment was and how poor the work• Communists. As a Party worker their eyes shining with happiness. ing conditions were, I, for my part, Although their lives were hard, and journalist who joined the observed the revolutionary spirit of they were working in their own Party in 1934, 1 had read many these plainly clothed and low-paid factories and on their own land. books about China and had long comrades. Many had been soldiers I had been born in a poor family sympathized with the revolution• during the war years, and now they ary struggle of the Chinese people. worked hard, as if they were still and I had been involved in the Therefore, 1 gladly started my fighting to finish their task and to workers movement for many years, journey to China. At that time, improve their skills. I had been a so I knew what that meant. When even I did not imagine that 1 journalist for many years, so I the people became inasters of their would fight and work alongside knew that this spirit could never own fate and of the state, the the Chinese people for all these have been bought with money. power released can never be over• years and even forever. When they apologized for knock- estimated.

?6 Beijing Review, No. 5 During these visits I got to know arrival in China. These leaders news of reform from all over the a peasant family on the outskirts gave me confidence and strength. country is most exciting and en• of Beijing. They told me about The confidence and strength, couraging. My peasant "relatives" the great changes they witnessed which 1 received from the people are now specializing in growing in the simplest words. Later, at as well as the leaders, gave me the vegetables and flowers. Their the time of the Spring Festival, I'd courage to endure those terrible village is prosperous, providing go to greet them. They always years. In 1973 I was released from Beijing with fresh flowers and made me feel at home and told me prison, thanks to the direct inter• green vegetables. Many new with joy about their good harvest vention of Premier Zhou Enlai. houses have been built and modern and plans for the next year. Some• Now I only want to say that so electric appliances can be seen in times, they'd visit me in Beijing. long as a party and a country can nearly every household. The So we came to treat each other as publicly acknowledge its errors widespread and great changes relatives. What they told me en• and rectify them, it shows that it taking place in China today show riched the content of my articles is following the genuine Marxist me the power and concrete results and the figures they gave provided approach of seeking truth from produced by combining Marxism me some of the statistics I used. facts. It also shows that this party with China's reality. In my re• I could also see for myself the and this country are politically maining years, I see New China's changes taking place. Naturally I mature and strong. Such a party rapid development. How can my was delighted and also had much can be trusted. After sharing the heart not feel young? to reflect on. Every reflection joys and sufferings of the Chinese gives further and deeper thoughts people, I have become increasingly As a British citizen, I love my and it makes me feel younger in close to them. country. Over the past 35 years, my heart. I was wrongly regarded as a trai• Soon after I arrived in China, tor by Britain, and then throN^fn Yet it would be untruthful if I I married. My wife, Liu Jinghe, is into prison by the gang of four. said everything 1 ever witnessed in a firm and gentle Chinese woman. Now, because of my poor health, I China was wonderful. During the We and our children have lived am not able to return to my native "cultural revolution," when mil• happily together over the years. land. Of the four British comrades lions upon millions of innocent Marshal Chen Yi, China's late who came to China all those years people suffered. I was also jailed as minister of foreign affairs, called ago, only I have remained. It is my sincere hope that Britain and an international spy. 1 recalled me China's "half son," saying that China draw closer in ties of friend• how I had my British passport con• 1 was the son-in-law of China. And ship now that a satisfactory agree• fiscated on charges of "betraying I felt very happy with that rela• ment has been signed on the issue my country," when I went to tionship. Korea with the Chinese People's of Hongkong, setting a good ex• Volunteers to serve as a war cor• Finally, I want to say that it ample in settling international dis• respondent during the Korean would be impossible for me to be putes through negotiations and War, to work among the British alive today without the care and contributing to world peace. This and US POWs and to report to concern of the Chinese leaders and event especially gave me joy as one the whole world the true situation. the doctors and medical staff who who spent the first half of his life have treated me. During the "cul• in Britain and the second in China. This made me think even harder. tural revolution," I contracted 1 sincerely wish that Britain and 1 thought of my hard-working Chi• Parkinson's disease with several China will always remain on very nese colleagues, who were labelled other complications. During the close, friendly terms, that there will with all kinds of derogatory des• last few years, I was in a critical be peace in the world, that the peo• ple's cause will ever prosper, and criptions, my peasant "relatives." condition on at least 20 occasions. the book — Changing China — New China will make even greater Since my release from prison, the which 1 wrote to introduce New- progress in her heroic effort to Chinese leaders have shown great China to the world, and my pleas• modernize. • concern for me and 1 have had ure in helping with the translation the best medical treatment. In my of the second to fourth volumes of blood flows the blood of the Chi• Collected Works of Mao Zedong. nese people. I remembered in particular the cordial meetings granted by Chair• Because of my illness, I now man Mao Zedong and Premier cannot work as before with my Zhou Enlai to our British comrades Chinese comrades. However, since and the banquets we took part at the Third Plenary Session of the Zhongnanhai not long after our llth Parly Central Committee,

February 4, 1985 17 How Does China Deal With Divorce?

In issue No. 12, 1984, we published a letter from a Nepalese reader, In 1954, it began to come down, who expressed his opinion about a divorce case we reported. He wrote and, in the years that followed, it that he would like to read more articles about Chinese family life and stayed right at around 6,000 (see social ethics. The following article explores how Chinese law deals with Table 1). divorce. — Ed. Over time, the area under the jurisdiction of Beijing was expand• men and women and protection of LI NING ed. The city's population increas• the rights of women and children. Our Correspondent ed from some 2 million in 1949 to The implementation of the mar• more than 6.5 million in the mid IVORCE in China has been riage law helped dismantle the 1960s. In 1959, the number of di• D on the rise since the adoption feudalist marriage system left over vorce cases handled by the courts of a new marriage law in 1981, from the old society. increased to 7,237. It remained but, with about 500,000 divorces During the 10-year turmoil of around 7,000 until 1966, when the granted each year, China's divorce the "cultural revolution" (1966- disruption of the "cultural revolu• rate is still far below that in most 76), the legal system in China was tion" reduced the number during Western countries. seriously undermined and political the next 10 years. . In the first 12 months after the life in the whole society was ab• Table II shows the number of new law took effect on January 1, normal. Citizens could not enjoy divorce cases handled by the Bei• 1981, the people's courts at differ• their lawful rights, including the jing courts in the years just before ent levels handled 340,000 divorce right to divorce. Lower-level and after the promulgation of the cases (resulted in about 300,000 courts did not even accept divorce new marriage law. divorces) and civil affairs depart• cases. Hence, the number of di• From the table, we can see that ments approved another 200,000 vorces dwindled. So when the new the fluctuations in the period are negotiated divorces. The 1981 marriage law was publicized in not as big as those in the 1950s. divorce case-load was 27.2 percent September 1980, people's courts This is mainly because the victory higher than in 1980 and 64.6 per• all over the country began to see of the revolution in 1949 and so• cent above 1979. In 1982 and a big upsurge in divorce filings. cial progress made since thert have 1983, the courts handled 370,000 The annual total, however, is still made the women able to enjoy divorce cases each year and the below the average over the past 30 equal rights with men politically, civil affairs departments continued years. economically, socially and in fam• to grant about 200,000 negotiated ily life. The feudal marriage sys• divorces a year. Take Beijing for example. It tem has been destroyed at large Though the number of divorce has a population of more than 9 cases in 1981 through 1983 was million. And much higher than in the preceding in the munici] years, it was not out of line with those all over the historical level of divorces in China. According to statistics from When the pasopua (uaiuXod Q the Supreme People's Court, the was promulga average number of divorce cases saw a sharp ri heard between 1950 and 1980 was divorce cases. 400,000. And in 1953, following ed its peak le\ wide publicity about the 1950 mar• Table I riage law, the divorce cases reach• sssjp ed a record 1.17 million. The primary purpose of the 1950 Number of Div Cases in Beijinj marriage law was to abolish arbi• (saidos) -a6Dn6uD| trary and compulsoiy marriages, Table 11 and the feudal ideas about men being superior to women. The Jd^us marriage law outla^wed bigamy, uoi;du3sqns Xiu asoi concubinage and child betrothal. It encouraged freedom of mar• Number of Div riage, monogamy, equal rights for Cases in Beijing

18 in the early 1980s, most people The marriage law clearly stipu• divorce certificate is issued, the under 40 actually did not have a lates that everyone enjoys the free• marriage comes to an end. proper understanding of the mar• dom of marriage, which includes Mediated divorce. When only one riage law and did not know how obviously, the freedom to divorce. party insists on a divorce, he or she to take the legal procedures to get may appeal directly to the people's a divorce. After the new marriage Forms of Divorce court. In dealing with the case, law was promulgated, governments At present, there are several the court (usually at the grass• at various levels made great efforts forms of divorce: roots level) initially tries to bring to publicize the process. As a re• Negotiated divorce. Article 24 of about reconciliation. sult, many couples who had long the marriage law stipulates: "Di• THe mediation effort may have been married in name began to ap• vorce is granted when husband and two results. If the dispute between peal for divorce. wife both desire it. Both parties the husband and wife is alleviated, — During the 10 years of the should apply for divorce to the they willingly withdraw their di• "cultural revolution," some feudal marriage registration office. The vorce request. If the mediation habits came back to life and cases marriage registration office, after fails, a mediated divorce is then of arranged and compulsory mar• clearly establishing that divorce is granted. The procedures for a riages and wife abuse went up. desired by both parties and that mediated divorce are the same as There was at that time a curious appropriate measures have been negotiated divorce. The only dif• contradiction: On the one hand, taken for the care of any children ference is that it is granted by the there were a few people obsessed and property, should issue the di• people's court. by the unhealthy ideas of casual vorce certificate without delay." A mediated divorce is granted sex; while on the other, many peo• The marriage registration office when the court issues a mediated ple clung to the feudal idea that is usually incorporated in a subdis- divorce certificate. The certificate divorce was a bad thing no matter trict office (an agency of the dis• carries the legal weight of a ver• how bad the marriage. After the trict government) in the cities and dict. new marriage law took effect, in the township government in Divorce by court verdict. When many people, especially women, rural areas. It is staffed by cadres the court establishes that a husband who dared not appeal for divorce in charge of civil affairs or judicial and wife have lost affection for before, began to seek dissolutions matters who take care of routine each other and their relations of their marriages. And divorces procedures regarding marriage, have deteriorated beyond repair, it were granted in cases that should divorce and remarriage. should pass a verdict to end the have been handled long before. The prerequisite for the mar• marriage relations between them. — In previous years, some riage registration office to grant a courts were too reluctant to grant divorce is that "husband and wife Reasons for Divorce divorce verdicts. When the new both desire it." However, it often The marriage law stipulates that marriage law was announced, takes time for investigation and China's marriage system is based some people who had unsuccessful• mediation before the divorce is on the free choice of partners, mo• ly sought divorce in the past lodg• granted. nogamy and equal rights for men ed their appeals again. According to the marriage law, and women. All men reaching the — Some couples misunderstood the husband and wife must reach age of 22 years and women reach• the new marriage law. They an agreement regarding the cus• ing the age of 20 have the right to thought the government had relax• tody of their child or children and enter marriage and dissolve that ed all restrictions on divorce. So division of community property. bond if the marriage fails. they filed for divorce just because The agreement must specify which Since many of the feudal blocks they had minor quarrels, without spouse will be the guardian of the to happy marriage have been re• sufficient consideration as to child or children, the amount of moved, social observers have whether they had lost affection for child support the other party wondered why some marriages still each other. should supply and the duration of don't make it. According to a na• According to Ma Yuan, deputy the support payments. tional symposium on family life presiding judge of the civil division The marriage registration office sponsored last May by Family, a under the Supreme People's Court, must withdraw the marriage certi• journal in Guangzhou, the main the number of divorce cases has ficate and issue a divorce certifi• causes of divorce today include: increased, but not at an alarmingly cate if it establishes that the di• lack of love between husband and rate. On the whole, it can be said vorce application is justified and wife because of a rash marriage; that family life in China is quite the agreement reached between the conflict between lust for material stable. husband and wife is fair. Once the comforts and life's realities; lack February 4, 1985 19 of moral values; interference from ed divorce, a mediated divorce or spouse to people's courts. Practice third parties; and abuse of women a divorce by court verdict. The has shown that mediation can sim• who give birth to girls by men who stipulations in the new and old ultaneously reduce the number still hold old feudal ideas about marriage laws are basically the of divorces and the number of di• male superiority. same. There are only a few minor vorce appeals to courts. According In addition, the vicissitudes in differences. For instance, the old to statistics released by the Beijing the country's political and econom• marriage law stipulated: "In the Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, ic life have also been reflected in event of either the husband or the marriage registration offices in the the reasons for divorce. In the wife alone insisting upon divorce, city accepted a total of 8,409 di• past, due to the influence of "left" it may be granted only when me• vorce cases in the three years be• ideas, one spouse sometimes asked diation by the district people's gov• tween 1981 and 1983. Of the for divorce because the marriage ernment and the judicial organ has total, 2,610 were cancelled partner was being persecuted in a failed to bring about a reconcilia• after mediation, accounting for poHtical movement. And since the tion." The new marriage law stip• 31.4 percent. The number of production responsibility system ulates: "In cases of complete negotiated divorces was 4,821. In was introduced in rural areas, a alienation of mutual affection, and only 978 cases did mediation fail new marriage problem has appear• when mediation has failed, divorce and appeals have to be lodged in ed. Some people seek divorce be• should be granted." The stipula• couftsi In addition, court media• cause their spouses are lazy or tion in the new marriage law is tion also cuts down on the number gluttonous and are no good in eco• better suited to the actual condi• of court verdict divorces. Some• nomic affairs. tions in China. times, it even convinces people to withdraw their appeals and come It is usually the wife who seeks The Chinese people have always to good terms. divorce. Across the country, some taken divorce very seriously and 70 percent of the divorce filings they treat it as "an important event Table III illustrates the first are made by women. More di• in their lives." This is a fine na• hearing results of divorce cases vorces occur in the countryside tional tradition. Based on the ex• handled by people's courts in Bei• than in the cities, but, of course, perience gained in many years of jing during 1983. this is partly due to the fact that judicial practice, the stipulations of Judging from the table, it is over 80, percent of China's popula• China's marriage law have careful• clear that mediation is vitally im• tion is rural. Divorces caused by ly balanced both '"ensuring the portant in dealing with divorce remaining feudal ideas account for freedom of marriage and prevent• cases. Earnest mediation can pre• about one-third of the total. ing rash divorces," The freedom of marriage is also reflected in the vent the disintegration of families, In terms of age distribution, legal procedures for divorce. Those and is conducive to the healthy young and middle-aged people who actually handle divorce cases growth of children and to social make up the overwhelming major• never give permission hastily. Each stability. ity of those who have divorced. case is carefully considered espe• The basis for mediation is to see For instance, the Qianmen Sub- cially those cases which seem to whether the husband and wife in• district Office in Beijing (a neigh• be filed without merit. volving in a divorce case have bourhood government office which really lost their affection for each has jurisdiction over 16,000 fam• Befcfre approving a divorce, the other. To judge whether they ilies, about 60,000 people) handled officials always try mediation, just have truly lost affection, considera• eight negotiated divorces in 1983. as in dealing with other civil dis• tion is given to the following Of them, four involved couples putes and cases. Mediation means factors: who had been married only one giving counsel to the couple and year. The average age of those making sure their differences are The foundation of marriage. four couples was 25.5 years. irreconcilable. Mediators tell both Mediators seek to determine wheth• The major reasons given by the parties the advantages and disad• er the husband and wife really young people for their break-ups vantages involved in divorce and loved each other before their were rash marriages and lack of ask them to cool down. Mediation marriage — did they get married fove between the husbands and can often convince people who voluntarily, or rashly in pursuit of wives. have rashly asked for divorce to money, one-time pleasure or settle their differences and remain houses (in some units, houses are Principles for Granting married. first distributed to those who are Divorces At present, mediation is tried married)? There are also some Divorce is granted according to for divorce applications filed joint• who have dishonest purposes for set principles of the marriage law, ly by husband and wife and for getting married. For instance, no matter whether it is a negotiat• divorce appeals lodged by a single some people want to live in the

20 Beijing Review, No. 5 Tabic III While Li doesn't think it should be condemned, he hopes people Result Number Percentage of won't adopt a reckless attitude to• the Total wards divorce. More often than Divorces allowed by court 822 10.5 not, he said, rash divorce brings Divorces not allowed by court 425 5.4 not only misery to both the hus• Negotiated divorces 3.035 38.6 band and wife, but disaster to the Reconciliations after mediation 1,327 16.9 whole family. Without the support Cases handed over to other of both parents, some youngsters judicial bodies 67 0.8 become unstable and commit Appeals withdrawn 2,096 26.6 crimes. They lose the stability of Cases terminated 92 1-2 family and face discrimination in Total 7,864 100 society. This has become a social problem which cannot be ignored, said Li. big cities, so they marry a city per• the disadvantages of strained fam• son and use the marriage as a ily life. There was such a case. Judge Li said studies of law springboard. The husband and wife were both and judicial practice have shown state cadres. For a long time, the Relations after marriage. Media• that people should not judge the husband was unfaithful to his wife, tors study the relations between level of social progress and the sta• having conducted three illicit af• the husband and wife during their bility of family relations by divorce fairs. He brought up the question whole married life, including their rate alone. In dealing with di• of divorce. To strike back at him, habits, behaviour, interests, hob• vorce cases, he said, we should op• the wife refused: to consent to a bies and political views, as well as pose feudal moral values and bour• divorce for more than 10 years. As their relations with other family geois liberalism, while simul• a result, the couple lived a terrible members. taneously protecting the people's existence for more than a decade. right of freedom of divorce and Reasons for divorce. Some peo• Finally, the court persuaded her to lawful marriages and families. This ple make up high-sounding excuses divorce her indecent husband. is in line with socialist and com• to cover up their real reasons for munist ethics, because the con• seeking divorce. For instance, Words of a Presiding stancy and endurance of love are some spouses have affairs, and, in Judge concrete manifestations of com• order to marry their lover, they munist ethics. fabricate all sorts of excuses to get Li Cheng is the presiding judge rid of their legally wed partners of the civil division of the Beijing 1 Of course, many marriages in and children. There are even some Municipal Supreme People's Court. real life are not blissful. In a husbands and wives who join Judge Li said that many people survey of China's young marrieds, hands to cheat the government and mistakenly consider divorce an un- pollsters found that 60 percent of create false divorces for personal thinkably bad thing. This is ac• those questioned lacked "real and gains, such as moving from rural tually a manifestation of lingering spontaneous" love for their life to urban areas. In dealing with feudal ethics and the low level of partners. They said they had mar• such cases, the courts conduct care• China's economic and cultural de• ried just because they thought they ful investigations to determine the velopment. "reached the age," "someone in• truth behind the divorce appeal. troduced them girl or boy friends," Li said people should not think or "one had to be married sooner The possibility of coming to of divorce as the cause of disinte• or later." good terms again. If it is possible gration of families, but as a real• for the husband and wife to re• istic acceptance of reality. Actual• "We know that this is-not a nor• concile their differences after med• ly, he said, in most cases the total mal condition," Li said. "But, we iation, perinission for divorce will alienation of affection has existed are convinced that with the steady not be granted hastily. If recon• for a long time and the families development of China's socialist ciliation looks impossible, the have long been broken. Under politics and economics, and with court should not postpone indefin• such circumstances, divorce is the improvement of the people's itely its ruling because a long delay nothing but a recognition of the sit• education and the social morality, is harmful to both the husband and uation, said Li. Therefore, free• the number of happy families will wife, as well as to society. Some• dom of divorce will not bring increase. Divorce, as a social times, when the defendant feels about the disintegration of family phenomenon, will continue to wronged and will not consent to relations. On the contrary, it will exist. But it will be kept at a the divorce, the court point out consolidate such relations. relatively low level. •

February 4, 1985 21 SPECIAL REPORT

Port City Profiles Nantong: Smooth Sailing to Industrial Boom Changjiang (Yangtze) River from its rapid industrial and agricultural by ZHOU ZHENG Shanghai. A few freighters were growth, which has brought forth Our Correspondent moored in the middle of the river. an impressive array of quality The undulating hills, faintly visible products and reduced unemploy• IT was in the small hours of the in the twilight, were the only sign ment. morning when a group of Bei• that their ship was approaching jing journalists arrived in Nantong the bank. The river was so wide after a seven-hour journey up the one felt as if lost on a vast ocean. A New Orleans in the East In terms of its geographical con• Robust Vitality, High Promise ditions, Nantong compares fa• vourably with Rotterdam in the S OON hovercraft and hydrofoils ern town," for its ideal navigation Netherlands and New Orleans in will be shuttling between Nan• conditions. Nestled along the the United States. tong and Shanghai, China's leading northern bank of the lower reaches industrial metropolis 128 km away. of the Changjiang River, Nantong They all have one thing in A long-desolate airport not far borders on the Yellow Sea to the comrnon. "The world's largest port from Nantong's city proper was east and its northern sections are cities are all located on river recently refurbished to receive heli• linked by four canals, the Grand estuaries," said Li Haitao, 45, copters on a trial run from Shang• Canal included. director of Nantong's Harbour hai. All this indicates that this Administrative Bureau. Rotterdam small east China city is on the The city has two districts and is situated at the estuary of the verge of an economic takeoff. Yet, six counties under its jurisdiction, Rhine, while New Orleans stands for the time being, steamboats re• totalling 8,000 square kilometres where the Mississippi empties into main Nantong's major means of in territory, and only 390,000 of the Gulf of Mexico. London is at transportation. its 7.41 million residents live in the estuary of the River Thames, the 121-square-kilometre city and Shanghai is situated where the The city earned its name, which proper. In recent years, Nantong Huangpu joins the Changjiang. means "a readily accessible south• has leaped into national notice for "The construction of a harbour is so much cheaper in places between Nantong harbour receives vessels from 32 other ports in 20-odd countries the ocean and a river and it yields and regions including Japan, the Soviet Union and Greece. higher economic returns because it combines the beauties of maritime and inland shipping," said Li. Nantong harbour is blessed with a smooth, deepwater shipping frontage along a 26-km stretch of the Changjiang River, which runs 8-16 km wide and 11-20 metres deep. Ice- and silt-free and pro• tected from the brunt of typhoons, the harbour operates year round. Nantong's Tiansheng port was built in 1904, but after 80 years it remains 14-16 metres deep. Two more ports — Nantong and Langshan — were added to Tian-

22 Beijing Review, No. 5 sheng after liberation to form today's Nantong harbour. The whole establishment has three deepwater berths capable of ac• commodating ships at the 10,000- 25,000-ton class and 10 herths for ships at the 3,000-5,000-ton class. There are also 11 platforms built in the middle of the river, where 24 oceangoing ships can have their cargo unloaded onto barges.

Langshan port has a 6,500- square-metre operation zone, which is virtually a labyrinth of water lanes and canals reaching into the northern Jiangsu inland navigation network.

The outstanding shipping condi• tions enable the city's steamboats Yugoslavia and Thailand. It has That is a far cry from Shanghai to sail up the Changjiang and its also established shipping links with harbour, just 100 km away, where tributaries to other provinces such 36 overseas ports. the shipping frontage is packed to as Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei overflowing, leaving many ships The harbour handled 6.25 mil• and Sichuan, or down the river to waiting impatiently at Wusongkou, lion tons of freight in 1983, 164 the sea. where the Changjiang empties into times as much as in 1949. Last the sea. Steps are being taken to Since May 1983 when the city year the figure topped 8 million lure more ships to Nantong har• opened its doors to the world, Nan• tons. Despite such impressive bour to ease the burden on tong harbour has received 50 ships development, the harbour's capac• Shanghai. from 22 countries and regions, in• ity is far from fully tapped. cluding Panama, Greece, Japan, Traffic on the Changjiang is An embankment is being con• Britain, the United States, Indo• sparse, and many wharves are run• structed to make room for the con• nesia, the Soviet Union, Cuba, ning under capacity. struction of three deepwater berths

goat skin products are now sold Native Products-Source of Pride in Japan, Italy, Spain and Hong• Menthol Crystals. Extracted styles of intricate, colourful kong. from choice peppermint, Bai- blankets. These blankets sell xiong (White Bear) brand men• briskly in 37 countries and re• Clams. Known as the "most thol crystals have won state gold gions in Asia, Europe and the delicious food under heaven," medals for years running. With United States. Nantong clams have nutritious, superb quality, they are known tender meat encased in beautiful Bundle-Dyed Cloth. Over the around the world as the "Fra• shells. last 1,000 years and more, the grance of Asia." Nantong people have developed Anchovies. Processed with Citric Acid. Citric acid is wide• a special dyeing technique. elaborate methods, Nantong's ly used in the foodstuff, chem• They bundle silk or cotton cloth nutritious canned anchovies ical, pharmaceutical and build• in prescribed patterns before were cited as a top product at ing industries. In 1983 Nan- dyeing it. This produces an un• a national quality appraisal con• tong's Baihe (White Crane) matched artistic effect. ference. brand citric acid was cited as Goat Skins. Nantong goat All these products are market• the best of its kind at a national skins are choice material for ed by the Nantong Foreign quality appraisal conference. It making shoes, garments, hats, Trade Company (Address — is now sold all over the world. gloves and bags. They can also Yejiaqiao, Nantong; telephone Silk Blankets. Nantong artists serve as oil filters needed in in• number — 2859; manager — can hand-weave silk into 60 dustrial processes. Nantong Mao Yuqi).

February 4. 1985 23 out 6,500 products of 15 varieties of textile fabrics, including chemi• cal fibres, wool, jute and silk. Nearly 100 of these products are exported to' 60 countries and re• gions. Light industry and textiles con• stitute the mainstay of Nantong's comprehensive industrial setup. The machine-building, electronics, chemical, pharmaceutical, building materials and foodstuff industries are also well-developed. The city's 5,100 factories yielded a total in• dustrial output value of 6 billion yuan in 1983 and an estimated 6.8 billion yuan in 1984. Located on the alluvial plain of the Changjiang River basin, Nan• tong has fertile land and a mild climate. It is one of the country's major cotton producers. Pepper• mint, spearmint and jute abound as well. High-yield long-fibre Nan• tong cotton is a choice material for spinning fine yarn and weaving quality cloth. The city also enjoys rich supplies of goat skins, silk• worm cocoons and marine and freshwater products. large enough for 10,000-tonners. Cotton Mill. Erected by the pa• Peasant-run factories have By 1990 the harbour will have 10 triotic Qing Dynasty entrepreneur sprung up like mushrooms in re• more deepwater berths for ships at Zhang Jian (1853-1926), it is the cent years. Accounting for one- or above the 10,000-ton class, 14 birthmark of Nantong's modern third of Nantong's total industrial more berths for transferring cargo industry. output value, they have become a from ocean ships to river vessels, major new economic force. 16 more inland waterway berths The local people began growing and two more mid-river unloading cotton and weaving as early as the A case in point is the Chuan- platforms. All these will combine 13th century. In 1895 Zhang es• gang Electrical Motor Factory, to raise the harbour's freight to tablished one of China's first which had only a dozen repairmen 35 million tons by the end of the modern textile mills, the Dasheng a decade ago. Today it has 1,100 century. Cotton Mill of Nantong. Since workers and staff members and then Nantong has gradually has become a major producer in Nantong's 20-km Changjiang evolved into one of China's textile the machine-building industry and frontage is long enough to accom• bases. the electronics industry. Chuan- modate 100 berths for 10,000-ton gang Electrical's Taohua-brand vessels, and the river itself is wide The local textile industry electric fans, which have won enough for 100-200 mid-river plat• developed rapidly during the 35 quality awards from the Ministry forms. Sooner or later, Nantong years since liberation. The city of the Machine-Building Industry, will emerge as the New Orleans now has 48,000 . cotton yarn not only enjoy brisk sales on the of the East, handling 100 million spindles. 26,000 weavers. 28,000 domestic market but have also sold tons of cargo a year. woollen textile spindles and a well in Southeast Asia. Liu Bo- printing and dyeing capacity of xun. the factory's shrewd, ambi• industry and Resources 200 million metres of fabric a year. tious 44-year-old peasant-turned- An ancient-style clock towers In the past, only cotton goods were manager, was packing for a busi• over the gate of Nantong's No. 3 produced, but today the city turns ness trip overseas. He said he 24 Beijing Review, No. 5 planned to buy advaticed tech• wide range of endeavours and will well in Hongkong and Western nology and equipment to change introduce diverse forms of co• Europe. his factory into an electrical appli• operation. Twenty-seven of them The city's synthetic fibre factory ances manufacturing giant. are joint ventures. began operating long-fibre poly• The affluent life in the villages Nantong was one of the first ester production equipment only around the city of Nantong is the Chinese cities, to begin absorbing 10 months after purchasing it from envy of most ]iangsu peasants. foreign capital and importing West Germany and Britain for Take, for example, Zhongxing Vil• advanced technology. From the US$20 million. The loans were lage in the southeastern suburbs. beginning of 1976 to the end of repaid in just 18 months. The 800 villagers in 275 families 1983, the city undertook 92 pro• Co-operation between the Nan• operate a fishing fleet, a refri• jects in such forms as the use of tong Machine Tools Plant and the gerated storage facility and five foreign exchange loans, joint ven• US Tree Machine Tool Co. Inc. factories making hydraulic devices tures, co-operative management, proved highly rewarding to both and household electrical appli• compensatory trade and property sides. The two companies met for ances. In 1983 Zhongxing grossed leases. Some of the projects are negotiations in March 1981, and 5.25 million yuan from its in• designed to process or assemble five months later they signed a dustrial and agricultural en• materials and components supplied five-year trade agreement. Accord• deavours, 6.85 times more than by foreign businesses. Sixty-eight ingly, the American firm supplied five years ago. Many women projects have gone into operation, blueprints, some components and operate machine tools right at achieving marked economic re• digital-control devices needed by home, processing components for turns. the Nantong factory to produce the village factories while tending three varieties of digital-control to family chores. No longer shy The city has emphasized the boring machines. The Chinese fac• about showing off their riches, the technical transformation of its tory, on its part, was committed to textile industry. In 1979 the No. 3 sell at least 600 machines to the villagers are proud to have guests Cotton Mill used a short-term loan in their spick-and-span houses, American partner. Today, the con• of US$3.18 million to import tract is befng carried out smoothly, which are usually furnished with weaving equipment. The equip• colour TVs, refrigerators and up• and many machines have already ment was put into production the been shipped to the United States. holstered chairs. Seeking to year it was imported and paid for further improve their lot, 248 fam• itself within 30 months. This has Nantong benefits from a contin• ilies recently formed a joint-stock enabled the milt to turn out prod• gent of sagacious, enterprising company, which is selling shares ucts that are highly competitive on officials well-versed in their pro• for 500 yuan apiece. the worl^. market. Its terelyene fessions — mayors, foreign trade Between January and October cotton cloth and other fabrics sell company managers and factory last year Nantong received 300 groups of businessmen and bank• The Nantong Artistic Dyeing Factory produces kimonos, ties and scarves, ers and signed contracts on 40 co• which are sold to Japan. operative projects. Equipment has been shipped in to prepare for some of these projects, while others have already begun trial operation. Negotiations are still in progress on more such co-opera• tive ventures. At a symposium on investment in China's open cities held in Hongkong last November, the Nantong delegation met with more than 300 groups of overseas busi• ness representatives and signed agreements, letters of intent or memoranda on 60 of the 150 pro• jects discussed. Involving a total investment of more than US$300 million, these 60 projects cover a

February 4. 1985 25 directors. Many of them are young in profit. What accounted building, electronics, chemical, and aggressive. This, no doubt, is for the success? Junichi Kanda, pharmaceutical, building material a Nantong asset no less valuable the company's Japanese technical and shipbuilding industries. When than its superb geographical condi• adviser, said, "The Chinese possible, new industries, such as tions and bountiful natural re• officials here all know what they high-tech electronics firms and bio• sources. are doing. That enables the work logical engineering companies, will There are many success stories to go smoothly. Besides, the many be set up. Scientific research and in Nantong's business world. There textile mills in Nantong have en• higher education, too, will be is, for example, the joint venture sured a constant supply of cotton, developed. which accounts for 60 percent of between the Nantong Acoustics Farming and sideline production our raw materials." Kanda had Plant and a Hongkong company. will be modernized with the help only one complaint which he The two partners came into con• of foreign investment, advanced hopes will soon be addressed, "Life tact at the end of October 198.3, technology and improved seed here is a bit too dull." signed a letter of intent on strains. Farm and sideline product November 11, and concluded an processing, aquicullure and fishing official agreement on December 7. Co-operation: Broad Vistas will be boosted and the sea In what looked like a blitz, they shallows will be developed into Zhang Youcai, Nantong's 43- set up a board of directors in April highly productive > aquiculture year-old mayor, is a graduate of 1984, put the products onto the centres. nijarket in only five months and the Nanjing College of Chemical began to reap profits six weeks Engineering. He is full of ideas In transportation and communi• later. about how to attract more foreign cations, foreign capital and exper• investment and technology. The China Nantong Rikio Co. tise will be used to transform and Ltd. is another success story. A Like other open cities in China, expand Nantong harbour and to joint venture between China and Nantong will continue to em• increase the number of ships so as Japan, the company produces phasize utilizing foreign capital to improve transportation along Japanese-style steel-toed work shoes. and importing advanced tech• the Changjiang and on the sea. At Established in February 1982, the nology. That is geared to the im• the same time, industries, com• joint venture began constructing its mediate task of technically re• merce and service trades that factory buildings in .\pril, com• vamping the old enterprises and serve the harbour will also be pleted the construction seven undertaking medium-sized and developed. small projects vital to the four months later and went into produc• Nantong has marked off a 4.62- modernizations. The technical tion in February 1983. The com• square-kilometre economic and transformation will involve all the pany had anticipated a loss of technical development area at Fu- US$116,000 at the beginning: light industrial enterprises as well min port, which is situated about instead, it netted 450,000 yuan as the textile, foodstuff, machine- 10 km to the southeast of the city proper. Skirted by rivers and link• ed to the city by a bridge, Fumin Workers at the Rikio Co. Ltd. put the finishing touches on Japonese-style port is an ideal location for setting work shoes. up joint ventures and wholly own• ed foreign enterprises.

Construction is afoot every• where in Nantong. The aim is to provide a convenient and comfort• able investment environment. Hotels are being expanded or built, and no effort is being spared to improve transportation and tele• communications. While waterway and air shipping conditions be• tween Nantong and Shanghai are being improved, motor vehicle ferry crossings have also been built to facilitate highway traffic. A microwave telecommunications station linking the city with Shang-

26 Beijing Review, No. 5 Nantong Museum. Nestled among green trees, golden-roofed pavilions and zigzag corridors on the bank of the Haohe River, the museum was established in 1905 as a local history and natural history mu• seum. It is a small affair by today's standard, but it is unique in its own way: It was China's first museum.

Tongzhou Normal School. Found• ed in 1902, this was China's first institution for training teachers at the secondary level. Since its es• tablishment it has trained 15,000 teachers, who today are found around the world. Nantong Museum, the oldest museum in China. Embroidery Institute. Set up in hai has been built and will soon "We will strictly act according to 1914, the Nantong Embroidery be comnnissioned. When a new the state regulations." (See "Gu Training School was one of China s telecommunications building is Mu On Policies for Coastal Cities," earliest vocational training schools. completed, the city will import a issue No. 50, 1984.) Shen Shou (1847-1921), a celebrat• digital-controlled switchboard ca• The mayor is confident that so ed expert in embroidery, once pable of handling 10,000 lines. For long as the city's people work with taught there and trained many skill• the time being, 1,000 telephones one mind to implement the state's ed artists (see "Virtuoso's Embroi• are being installed to alleviate the policy of opening to the world and dery Lives On" in this issue's acute shortage of telephone serv• enlivening the domestic economy. "Culture and Science" column). ices. Nantong will surely become an im• Known today as the Nantong With the changes taking place, portant trade and transportation Arts and Crafts Research In• city officials feel Nantong will hub on the Changjiang, a modern stitute, the school has produced attract investors, and they are able textile and light industrial base and^ many award-winning masterpieces to offer the preferential treatment a major export commodity pro• in embroidery. One of them. The that investors receive in all the ducer where foreign capital and Great Wall of China, is now dis• open cities. Said Mayor Zhang, expertise will be put to good use. played in the Beijing Hotel.

The Nantong people credit much of their rich cultural tradition to Charming Land, Full-Grown Culture textile entrepreneur Zhang fian (see main story). And indeed he Haohe River. The willow tree- Monastery, built during the Tang deserves the honour. During the flanked Haohe River encircles the Dynasty (618-907), is more than days when xenophobia was preva• city of Nantong like a green belt. 1,000 years old. For this the Lang• lent, Zhang was one of the few The bridges, pavilions and pagodas shan Hill ranks among the nation's who launched China's modern in• are frequented by the residents eight minor Buddhist sanctuaries. dustry. And he never hesitated to seeking a quiet place to unwind The Faru Monastery at the foot of draw on the strengths of Western after a tiring day's work. Boating the hill houses a porcelain mural educational system. along the river is also a popular of 18 famous monks. Cast in life• pastime in the city. like images, the paintings were The city now has 4,200 schools done by Fan Zeng, a Nantong na• Langshan Hill. Standing 106 of all kinds, 10 institutes of higher tive and a famous contemporary metres tall, the Langshan Hill is learning and 40 scientific research traditional Chinese painter. one of five hills that rise above the institutes. Indeed, it is this well- Changjiang River in the southern Nantong has a cherished tradi• developed educational system that suburbs. The picturesque land• tion in culture and education. In has made Nantong what it is today, scape is studded with scenic spots fact, the city features quite a num• a rising industrial city in east and historical sites. The Guangjiao ber of "firsts" in the country. China. •

February 4, 1985 27 FROM THE CHINESE PRESS

Zhou contends that persons sent Research Suffers From 'Inbreeding* abroad to study should not be con• fined to fresh college graduates. to other institutes to receive dif• from "GUANGMING RIBAO" ferent academic views and co• He urges that young scientific re• (Guangming Daily) operate with people from a dif• searchers who have earned their HOU Guangzhao, a noted Chi• ferent background. With a more doctorates and have worked for Z nese physicist and deputy- diverse background, they can blaze some time should also go abroad director of the Chinese Academy of new research trails. for advanced studies. Sciences, argued that "inbreeding" in academic research is the cause for the scarcity of "top-notch" Good Party Member Poll scientific research personnel in China. three times won an artillery com• from "RENMIN RIBAO" mand competition. Zhou said that "inbreeding" in (People's Daily) 3. They admire the Party academic research results from ECENTLY, soldiers in' two member who quietly immerse teachers keeping on their students companies under the Jinan himself in hard work and is adept as assistants. When the assistants Military Unit answered a poll at using his head. Squad leader become teachers, they, too, hire entitled "What kind of Com• Wang Fuhua, said the soldiers, their students. This practice breeds munist Party member do you makes a reasonable division of identical views, methods and re• admire in your company?" The labour in construction and stands search subjects in academia. Stu• soldiers listed five main qualities: among the best of the company in dents of such "inbred" teachers progress and quality. have a narrow train of thought and 1. They admire the Party lack the spirit to blaze new trails. member who seeks truth from 4. They admire the Party They either believe that their facts and gives no thought to member who seeks no personal , teachers' views are perfectly cor• undeserved reputation. Of the 51 gain and works for the interests rect, or, in other cases, they may soldiers polled in Company No. of the masses. Yan Qiaolin, have their own thoughts, but they 9, 40 spoke highly of company another squad leader, took re• dare not challenge their teachers. commander Ren Zhuanlong. In sponsibility for raising pigs and his reports to his superiors, he thus improved the supply of pork Today there are very few out• never deceives others and reports for the company's meals. Al• standing middle-aged research per• the company's actions factually. together 37 soldiers in Yan's com• sonnel, and this "inbreeding" is pany admire him. one of the main reasons. When 2. They admire the Party veteran scientists retire, there are member who has advanced 5. They admire the Party often no celebrated and influential thoughts, higher educational level member who cares for others and middle-aged researchers to take and professional ability. Most of possesses a communist style. their places. A task of top priority the members of the two com• Squal leader Weng Yongping was is to bring into full play the initia• panies admired 11 Party members cited as being conscientious in his tive of the 45- to 55-year-old re• who have good political charac• work and concerned about others. searchers. Those who have made teristics, high educational levels Of 52 soldiers polled in the No. 1 great achievements and are at and strong professional abilities. battery company, 36 admire this a high academic level should be Guo Huaiyu, a squad leader. kind of Party member. promoted to become senior re• searchers .who have earned their formal qualifications and seniority. News Conference for the Masses Zhou stresses that young scientif• from "ZHONGGUO Shenzhen's Shekou Industrial Dis• ic research personnel should be QINGNIAN BAG" trict. The participants are not re• trained in new ways. Universities (China Youth News) porters but ordinary people. These and research institutes should not, conferences are held twice a month in general, hire on their graduates. N entirely new kind of news for two- and- a half hours in the They should be allowed to transfer A conference has appeared in evening. Before each meeting pos-

28 Beijing Review, No. 5 Sometimes the chairman solicits learning that Liu's mother will opinions about projects to be built. mark her 90th birthday, Hu gave Then the people express their views Liu a big basket of oranges and and ask any questions they like of four boxes of pastry as they were the leaders of 13 departments re• leaving. sponsible for the work at Shekou. In a later letter Hu told his old These leaders must either offer a classmate, "The specific historical serious answer on the spot or else conditions have given me great re• bring one the next meeting.' sponsibility. That is to say, I'm not The range of questions covers the worthy of the post I am taking. district building plan, reform of the ... So. I hope all my friends will wage system, appointments and dis• not lavish any praise on me, which missals, kindergartens and many does not conform to the reality." other subjects. The atmosphere at these meetings is serious but cordial. S-Year-Old Goes Cartooned by Cui Jianhua These news conferences have three merits. There is full commu• To College nication between the higher and ters are put up welcoming people lower levels. The people have a to participate. sense of being the masters of their fronr'^AN<3NriN To begin each meeting, the chair• own affairs. The leaders at all (Guangming Daily) man reports on important news in levels accept supervision by the IU Xiaobin, a boy of 5 and a the district and the work situation. masses. L half, was enrolled as a proba• tionary student in the early teen• ager class of the China University Party Secretary and His Classmate of Science and Technology. He has already mastered Chinese, mathe• In the primary school Hu was matics, physics and chemistry to the from "BAXIAOSHI YIWAI among the best of the 50 success• level of junior middle school gra• (Leisure Times) ful ones who were selected from duate. more than 200 candidates. Soon Liu is a native of Donghai PRIMARY school classmate after he entered the school he be• County in Jiangsu Province. His A of Hu Yaobang wrote a story came known as a topnotch student. father is the headmaster of a pri• recalling his reunion with Hu. Hu's family was very poor then mary scfiool and his mother teaches After the Spring Festival in 1983 and his father, tightening his belt, Chinese in a primary school. Liu Shaoxi went to Yueyang, borrowed money to pay the en• When he was only two and a Hunan Province, to visit his rela• trance fee. half, Liu began learning Chinese tives. During his stay there Liu Liu was deeply touched when characters with the help of his was really shocked by a telegram he found the Party General Secre• father. The boy took only three which urged him to catch a train tary knew more about their old days to learn 293 characters — the up to the provincial capital Chang- classmates than he did. Hu once first volume of a primary school sha to see a classmate of his from offered his money to help one of textbook. After four months of Beijing. He knew he had just one his classmates who was ill. He study he had a good command of classmate in Beijing — Party Gen• also helped a classmate's child 3,600 characters and would make eral Secretary Hu Yaobang. In a pay the tuition to go to school. Al• phrases and sentences. letter to Liu, Hu had once pro• though they are no more than pri• mised to look him up. Now he took mary school classmates, Hu's sin• Liu began studying mathematics time out from his busy schedule to cerity proves he has never forgot• at 4 years old. He spent six nights invite this ordinary retired worker. finishing the first volume of the ten them, even after dozens of primary school textbook on mathe• At the gate of Hu's residence Liu years of separation and vastly dif• matics. He studied mathematics, and his wife, sister and niece were ferent social positions. physics and chemistry at the junior given a cordial welcome. Looking Without realizing it, they talked middle school level at the same over his long-parted classmate, until evening. Hu asked Liu to speed, and did exceedingly well in many memories flooded Liu. have supper with him. Upon his studies.

February 4, 1985 29 BUSINESS AND TRADE

More Money to Import Technology

"The state funds set aside to im• tory (Equipment from other coun• Law of the People's Republic of port technology and equipment in tries. China. Regulations on technolog• the first half of 1985 will very like• ical imports are being drawn up by After 1979 the state readjusted ly equal or exceed the total amount the Technological Import and Ex• the proportions of imports, shifting allocated last year," Cao Jiarui, port Department. They are ex• its focus to upgrading existing deputy director of the Tech• pected to be published this year. enterprises. More small and me• nological Import and Export De• A confidential clause stipulating dium-sized sets of equipment have partment of the Ministry of Foreign that the importer must commit been imported. China is also in• Economic Relations and Trade, himself not to divulge or spread terested in the licensing trade and said in an interview. any technological secrets to any in importing manufacturing and third party in China or abroad "We predict that the state funds processing technology. within a period agreed upon be• used this year for this purpose will Under the licensing contracts, the tween the two parties will be add• be double those of last year," Cao number of machines imported and ed to the regulations. said. the amount of money spent in• The economic situation in the Cao said that not long ago a creased by 11 times in the period Asia-Pacific region is the most contract was signed between China from 1979-84 over those imported promising in the world, Cao said. and West Germany on importing and spent in 1973-78. China's untapped market has a complete set of hot-rolling equip• China is willing to import ad• attracted many business representa• ment for the Baoshan Iran and vanced technologies which are tives. Cao said he hopes more in• Steel Complex. This contract used in other countries and are dustrial, commercial and trade alone. Cao said, involves US$470 suitable to China's conditions, be• representatives will come for close million. cause technological imports help co-operation with China. Since China adopted the policy push China's socialist moderniza• The Technological Import and of opening to the world in 1979, tion programme forward, Cao said. Export Department was established much advanced technology and He added that many foreigners in September 1979. Its aim is to equipment has been imported, the are concerned about their, patented organize technology imports deputy director said (see table). technology and this has invited the throughout the country and to Prior to 1979 China usually im• attention of Chinese government create better conditions for con• ported complete sets of large departments concerned. On Jan• tacts among business representa• equipment. For example, during uary 25 the China Patent Bureau tives at home and abroad. that period China bought 13 com• published Detailed Regulations for plete sets of chemical fertilizer fac• the Implementation of the Patent China Petroleum Engineering Con• struction Corp. (CPECC). "The secret of our success is that the No. of Value Growth Rate personnel of CPECC are extremely Projects (US$ millions) (%) efficient and well-disciplined," said Kang Weiping, vice-president of 1979 95 2,484 — CPECC. CPECC has constructed 1980 115 1,980 -20.29 two refineries, 20 sets of oil-pro• cessing installations and three large 1981 73 107 -94.6 oil depots in five European and 1982 102 362 +238.6 Asian countries. It has also con• 1983 212 570 +57.3 structed 180 oil and gas fields, 30 1984 336 1,000 +75.4 large and medium-sized refineries, petrochemical works and dozens of oil depots and laid some 20,000 Note: Figures refeij only to planned state funds and bank credits. They do km of pipelines. Therefore, said not include funds used by local authorities.

30 Beijing Review, No. 5 Bank of China issued 20,000 mil• lion Japanese yen in public bonds last November in Japan. This is the second time the bank has issu• ed public bonds since its founding.

News In Brief • The Complexe Sucrier de Lotokila, a sugar refinery in Zaire built with China's assistance, recently began trial operations. The refinery is Zaire's third and has a designed capacity of press• ing 1,000 tons of sugarcane daily. It can also turn out 1,200 litres of alcohol per day.

The completion of the sugar re• CPECC workers build an oil tank. finery will help end a sugar short• age in Haut-Zaire and provide job Kang, the corporation has rich ex• CPECC can undertake a whole pro• opportunities for the local people. perience in building oilfields and ject or do just one part, including • The breeding of 3,000 Chinese developing the petrochemical in• surveying, designing, construction, freshwater fish has caused a sen• dustry. installation, trial-run and personnel training. The corporation can also sation in the Central African Re• CPECC has done remarkably offer labour or technical services. public. The newly hatched fish well in the Middle East. On last It is willing to go into business were sent to the Central African November 4 the Al-Yakdha Trad• with foreign firms by setting up Republic by air in accordance with ing and Electro-Mechanical Con• joint ventures. The corporation a 1976 economic co-operation tracting Establishment in Wafra, has opened offices in Kuwait and agreement between the Chinese Kuwait, presented a certificate to Iraq. government and the African coun• CPECC officials expressing their try. The survival rate of the fry complete satisfaction with the qua• Zhang Wenbin, chairman of the reached 99.5 percent. Fry of 1- lity of tanks installed by CPECC. board of directors 2cm length grew to 250-gramme Shan Yongfu, president fish in just four months. CPECC-constructed buildings Address: Liu Pu Kang, Beijing, covering a total floor space of The Central African Republic China 130,000 square metres in the Jahala is among the richest water re• Telephone: 444404 II region were praised by a local sources countries in the world, but newspaper as a "good example of Cable: 3111 Beijing the local people have never raised housing construction in Jahala." Telex: 20047 CPECC CN fish. Republic President Andre « * * Kolingba said the successful breed• Founded in June 1980, ing of Chinese fry is of great CPECC is a state-run, comprehen• More Public Bonds to Be Issued. historic significance and fish breed• sive enterprise undertaking petro• A Bank of China spokesman said ing method will be popularized leum exploration, drilling and the bank will issue another set of throughout the country. engineering construction for public bonds worth 20,000 million foreign countries. Its staff includes Japanese yen this March. • The Investment Bank of China 12,000 engineers, technicians and The Nomura Securities Co. Ltd. will continue to use funds extend• managerial personnel and 122,000 of Japan will act as the represen• ed by the World Bank this year skilled workers. Its business scope tative underwriter and the Bank of and, at the same time, will adopt includes drilling engineering, lay• Tokyo will handle the sale of the multifarious ways of raising funds ing of gas and oil pipelines, and bonds. from abroad so as to expand its construction of oil and gas fields, scope of loans. By the end of 1984, refineries, petrochemical works, The Bank of China specializes foreign currency funds borrowed chemical fertihzer plants, synthetic in handling foreign currency in from other countries by the Invest• fibre, natural gas processing plants, China. It has been accredited by ment Bank of China had reached civil engineering and other projects. Japanese credit organizations. The US$245 million.

February 4. 1985 31 CULTURE AND SCIENCE

Virtuoso's Embroidery Lives On

Nantong embroiderers owe much class award for her embroidered of their achievement in fangzheng• portrait of Jesus Christ. Her swan xiu and other schools of embroi• song, a picture of a famous Ameri• dery to Shen Shou (1874-1921), a can singer, surprised art lovers with needlework virtuoso whose diligent its superb craftsmanship. When the work helped propel Nantong em• work was shown in the United broidery to national prominence. States, the singer tried to buy it Small wonder praises were lavish• for USS5,000. But to her disap• ed on Shen not long ago, when the pointment, the offer was turned Two attractive young women, city commemorated her 110thdow n flat. smiling angelically, are so vividly birthday. portrayed they seem ready to step Shen worked for a while as a off the picture (see above) at one's Born into an educated yet poor teacher in the imperial embroidery call. family, Shen developed a penchant school. Later she was invited by Zhang Jian, a famous patriotic en• The stunning lifelike quality was for embroidery as a young girl. trepreneur, to preside over the achieved through the skilled hands While learning how to read and Nantong Embroidery Training of embroiderers in the northern write from her father, she sold her School. Zhang regarded Shen's Jiangsu city of Nantong. Known as embroidery works to help defray works of Jesus Christ and the caijingxiu, or "many-coloured need• family expenses. American singer as invaluable lework," this form of art is a new Her life took a drastic turn when museum pieces, which could be chapter in traditional Chinese she married a rich, successful Qing admired but never sold. Unfortuna• embroidery. Viewed from a dis• Dynasty scholar who was also an tely both pieces were lost during tance, the landscape and images art lover. With her husband's sup• the wars which followed. shine dazzlingly. And at close port, she turned embroidery from scrutiny, one sees elaborate floral a mere means of living into a Once a master of art dies, more motifs wrought in coloured silks branch of art. Improving and re• often than not, his or- her skills within equally fine floral patterns, fining the art was her crusade for also vanish. But that is not the giving a decorative style which the rest of her life. case with Shen. She passed her never fails to draw oohs and aahs expertise to many students, and from art lovers. Shen's good fortune continued in what was more, during her last 1904, when the Empress Dowager, But caijingxiu is not the only days she dictated all her experi• pleased with Shen's gift for her valuable branch of Nantong em• ences to Zhang. The result was a 70th birthday. Birthday Greetings broidery. Even more prestigeous manual of embroidery, which has from the Eight Immortals, arrang• is fangzhengxiu, meaning "true-to- been dearly treasured by posterity. ed a visit to Japan for Shen and her life embroidery." In this school, husband. That tour proved an stitches are executed in close-laid immensely rewarding experience, rounds to form smooth, bright sur• enabling Shen to draw on the light• faces. Figures thus portrayed bear ing and colouring techniques from a close resemblance to real-life peo• Western sketches, oil paintings and ple in everything from skin colour photography to found a new school to facial expression. Different of Chinese embroidery. methods are used with fluidity and freedom to reproduce the images In 1906, Shen's embroidered pic• of animals. When it comes to ture of an Italian empress won a landscapes, the colouring changes prize for outstanding work at a CORRECTION: In Issue No. 4, the second paragraph in the third column as if by magic, its richness gradual• world's fair held in Turin, Italy. on page 8 should read: "A Chinese ly fading into nothingness to bring Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Later the Qing court presented this January 17 that China is paying close out the subtlety and depth of the masterpiece to the Italian emperor. attention to the case." scenery. Nine years later she won a first-

32 Beijing Review, No. 5 SPORTS China's Badminton Battlers Flex Muscles

Chinese shuttlers cemented their image as badminton powers when they collected three out of the five titles up for grabs at the Hong• kong Open Badminton Champion• ship last month'. China's Yang Yang' outplayed 1984 Grand Prix champion Mor• ten Frost of Denmark, 15-10, 15- 11, in the finals to win the men's 'singles title. With the victory, Yang takes the lead in the competi• tion for this year's 18-leg Grand Prix championship, of which the Hongkong tourney was the opener. Han Aiping and Zheng Yuli of China finished one-two in the women's singles event. And Han and her teammate Xu Rong paired off to win the women's doubles title by defeating Chinese team• mates Wu Dixi and Lin Ying. • Men's doubles and mixed doubles titles went to the Danes most seeded players were playing gles champion Li Lingwei, last and the British respectively. neck-and-neck games, with only week participated in the Japan Denmark's Frost dominating his Open Badminton Championship, China's women's badminton matches. the Yonex Cup. team was the team to beat in the The squad faces a full schedule 12 international tourneys last year In the wake of their Thomas this year. This month they will in which it participated. The Cup loss to the Indonesians last compete in the Malaysian Asian women players displayed better May, the Chinese men have been Intercity Badminton Champion• stamina, speed, footwork and training hard to ready their young ship. They then travel to West skills. They won 11 of the 12 reserves, especially in the men's Germany, Denmark and Sweden women's singles titles and top play• doubles event. They are empha• to tune up for the annual All-Eng• ers Lin'Ying and Wu Dixi never sizing basic strokes and fast and land Championship in March. lost a match. China entered its aggressive tactics. The team's up- Other outings will include the women's team in the Uber Cup and-coming shuttlers are fleet- Asian Badminton Championship championship for the first time in footed, hard-smashing and versa• in Malaysia in April; the bi-annual 1984 and they easily breezed tile. World Badminton Championship through the tournament, taking Yang, who finished second in in Canada in June; the interna• the cup without losing a single last year's Thomas Cup men's tional open championships in match. singles event, and Scottish Open Malaysia and Indonesia in July; champion Zhao fianhua will pose In comparison. China's ' men's the fifth World Cup Badminton threats ' against top-ranked Frost, team is still building. The squad Championship in September; the while the Indonesians are riot to is in a period of transition, as Scandinavia Open and the British be dismissed as top challengers. veterans bow out and greenhorns Grand Prix in October; the Poland ready themselves for big-time con• Chinese players from the Hong• international tourney in November tests. Last year's major interna• kong tournament, joined by last and the 1985 Grand Prix finale in tional badminton clashes proved year's All-England women's sin• December.

February 4, 1985 53 BOOKS

Blind Author Writes With Clear Vision

To write a novel is hard work, and kindness win the heart of Lin who died for the revolution. He even for a seasoned writer. What lu, his teacher's daughter. They names the boy Lu Yuchun. For the enormous difficulties then would get married, and soon a child is sake of the child's health, Lu gives a blind person have to overcome expected. most of his meagre food to the boy. to write a novel? It is hard to Soon his health breaks down and Later, Zhang Feihu, a local imagine. he goes blind again. villain, has Lu's teacher murdered The Story of "Pipa" (in Chinese) and then takes Lin Ju away by After the label of "rightist" is is the first novel of Zheng Rong• force. Left by himself, Lu throws removed, Lu returns to Tianjin chen, a blind man living in Tianjin. himself into a river. But he is where he works in a factory for Though unable to see, Zheng shows saved by an old worker who is an the blind. From time to time the his readers a moving, dramatic underground Communist Party image of Lin Ju flashes across his world, vividly described. member. Lu joins the revolution. heart. He heard that Lin had hung The novel recounts the life of a herself after she was taken away. After liberation, with the con• blind tTiusician, Lu Yang, son of But in fact, Lin is still alive. She cern of the Party, Lu receives med• a poor teacher. He loses his eye• escaped with her daughter, Xiao ical treatment and his vision is sight as a child because his father Ju, to her hometown in the south restored. The Party sends him to does not have the money to take and has lived there since. a music institute. Upon graduation him to a doctor when Lu falls ill. he is made head of the traditional After the "cultural revolution" It is before liberation. With the Chinese music department. breaks out in 1966, Xiao Ju is sent t help of his father and friends, Lu to work in Heilongjiang Province. Because his views differ from grows into a simple, intelligent, There she meets Lu Yuchun, Lu's those of the Party general branch good-hearted young man. adopted son. Similar experiences secretary, Lu is designated a "right• Determined to devote himself to and interests bring them together. ist" during the anti-rightist cam• music, he puts all his efforts into They fall in love and give each paign in 1957 and is sent to a learning the pipa (a plucked string other a gift. Lu Yuchun gives mountain village to do manual instrument with a fretted finger• Xiao Ju a small pipa made of jade, labour. board) and the techniques of folk which she later brings home with singing and storytelling. His talent Lu also adopts the son of a man her. When her mother sees the small pipa, she is overwhelmed by 4- Zheng Rongchen (left) with Deng Pufong, deputy director of the China her feelings. Welfare Fund for the Handicapped. Later, as the young couple get Q happily married, Lu and Lin are also reunited after 30 years of suf• fering. A The author expresses the deep ft feelings of two generations of t characters through the pipa. This literary device, is a traditional Chinese technique applied in many classical novels. I must confess that 1 was com• t. pletely overwhelmed by the novel when I read it. I burned with anger, rejoiced and was choked with tears. And that a blind man could make me see so much makes it all the more wonderful. — by Wang Hongmo

54 Beijing Review, No. 5 Give Up Smoking, Dear Friends. W/ELCOWE jieyanbapengyou jieyanbapengyou

Welcome to Shanghai for Economic Co-operation.

China's Picture Posters With various artistic techniques, China's posters carry strong themes through ingenious images. Viewers are immediately impressed by their visual impact. jie SHu ling ren tong xIn de fen li ju mian

Protect Endangered Wildlife.

ART PAQE= jie Shu ling ren tong xin de fen li ju mian Put an End to the Long and Painful Separation. Coming Out Soont

Two Volumes of Current Interest

The Hongkong Solution (No. 6 of the "China & the World" series) will help readers understand the "one country, two systems" concept and its application to Hongkong. In addition to the full text of the Joint Declaration of the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the Question of Hongkong, the book includes the elaboration by the Chinese government on its basic policies regarding Hongkong and speeches made by the Chinese and British heads of government. It also contains talks end articles by Chinese leaders and famous experts on the "one country, two systems" concept, on the establishment of the Hongkong Administrative Region and maintenance of Hongkong's economic prosperity and social stability. Background information about the region is also given. A second book Open Policy at Work (No. 10 of the "China Today" series) will feature speeches by Chinese leaders and carry articles by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade about principles and policies on use of foreign funds, technology import, contracting foreign projects, providing labour services, extending aid to foreign countries and accepting international aid. The book will feature background materials and regulations relevant to economic relations with other countries.

Edited and published by BEIJING REVIEW

Distributed by the CHINA INTERNATIONAL BOOK TRADING CORP. (GUOJI SHUDIAN), P.O. Box 399, Beijing, China