Vol. 28, No. 25 June 24, 1985 A CHINESE WEEKLY OF REVIEW NEWS AND VIEWS 'eace A New Step in Rural Reform P Awardfig Inventions Workers put the finishing touches on a silk carpet. Designers paint on silk. Famous Nanchong Silk 5POTLIQHT The silk industry is thriving in Nanchong in Sichuan Province. The city's 46 silk factories produce more than 200 designs in over 2,000 colours. Nanchong is one of China's major silk exporters. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK Vol. 28, No. 25 June 24, 1985 China Makes a Major Move for Peace CONTENTS China will cut its troop strength by 1 million men over the NOTES FROM THE EDITORS 4 . next two years, a move designed to increase the PLA's military Troop Cuts: A Major Move on and political quality, better defend the country andl its mod• Peace ernization drive, and aid the cause of world peace (p. 4). LETTERS 5 EVENTS & TRENDS 6-10 Rural Economic Reform Enters 2nd Stage Friendship, Optimism in Zhao's Bonn Visit While rural economic reform has paid off in increased Flat Sales Cure Housing production and income, the second stage of the plan will focus Headaches Birth Drop 'Groys' China's Popu• on the farm produce circulation system. Further changes will lation result in a market-regulated rural economy guided by the social• Technology Foir Gets Results ist planning system (p. 15). Surly Sales Clerks Dis-serving People INTERNATIONAL 11-14 Reward System for Inventions Re-established US-USSR: SALT ll's Future in Doubt The policy of rewarding inventions and research achieve• Pakistan: Protesting Afghan ments, suspended during the 1966-76 "cultural revolution," was Border Raids re-established in 1979 to aid the country's modernization pro• Israel: Aim of Troop Pullout Delay Sudan: New Leader Forges New gramme. Since then, more than 900 inventions have been Ties cited (p. 18). Africa: Obstacles Block Economic Growth Second-Stage Rural Structural Re• Work for the Benefit of Handicapped form 15 Inventors Encouraged to Aid Econ• China's handicapped enjoy full state care. About 300 omy 18 special schools for the blind and deaf-mute, and more than Work tor the Benefit of Handi• 20,000 welfare undertakings and production units, have been capped 20 set up across the country. The China Welfare Fund for the Modern Literature Reflects Chinese Handicapped has also been established. For all these achieve• Life 23 ments, however, problems still remain, especially in education Economist On Socialist Commodity Economy 26 and employment (p. 20). FROM THE CHINESE PRESS 27-28 BUSINESS 8. TRADE 29-30 Rebirth of Contemporary Chinese Literature CULTURE & SCIENCE 31-32 SPORTS 33 After experiencing many twists and turns since the BOOKS 34 country's liberation in 1949, contemporary Chinese literature COVER: Professor LI Jingxiong is o has recently made significant advances in both form and con• specialist in corn breeding. He and tent. Realistically depicting the lives and attitudes of the his assistants won a first-class prize in 1984 for the hybrid corn they de• Chinese people, the works produced in this new period have veloped. gradually expanded writers' horizons to include a wide variety Photo by Yang Wumin of styles and points of view (p. 23). Published every Monday by Distribution and subscriptions handled by Subscription prices (1 year): BEIJING REVIEW China International Book Trading Australia A.S 14.00 USA USSI8.00 24 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing Corporation (GUOJI SHUDIAN), New Zealand NZ. SI 8.00 UK .... ts.oo The People's Republic of China P.O. Box 399, Beijing, China Canada Can. SI 5.00 NOTES FROM THE EDITORS Troop Cuts: Major Move on Peace by AN ZHIGUO ploded its first atom bomb in 1964, tween the two superpowers esca• Political Editor the Chinese government solemnly lates. But the people want peace, declared that at no time, and under and the forces in favour of world no circumstances, would China be peace will undoubtedly overcome Deng Xiaoping, chairman of the the first to use nuclear weapons, the forces for war. With the forces Central Military Commission, an• nor would it use nuclear weapons of peace growing worldwide, it is nounced on )une 4 that the Peo• against non-nuclear countries. possible to prevent a large-scale ple's Liberation Army will be cut Since then, China has reiterated conflict for a long time to come. by 1 million men over the next two this policy while calling for the years. The decision, made at a time complete prohibition and destruc• The troop cuts are also based when the two superpowers are bog• tion of all nuclear weapons, the on a realistic assessment of China's ged down in their marathon dis• reduction of conventional weapons defence capabilities. The decision armament talks while intensifying and the peaceful settlement of in• itself shows mature self-confidence their arms race, shows the Chinese ternational disputes. on the part of the Chinese govern• government's willingness to contri• ment and people. bute to disarmament and world The Chinese people are apply• peace not with words, but with ing their energies to achieving deeds. The troop cuts enable the socialist modernization centred on China constitutes an important PLA to increase its military economic development. Their aims factor in the defence of world and political quality and are to quadruple the country's gross national output by the end of the peace. The Chinese people suf• therefore to better defend fered a century of imperialist ag• century, secure well-to-do lives and gression and oppression; they have the country, the catch up with the developed na• had their fill of war. They there• modernization drive and tions in another 30-50 years. To fore treasure peace dearly — espe• world peace. gain time for this, China hopes cially because it contributes to their there will be ne war — not only current modernization drive. in this century, but also in future centuries. The threat of a new world war comes mainly from the superpow• As things stand today, it is nec• Socialist economic development ers' rivalry for world hegemony. essary for a country to build up is China's major task representing In order to maintain world peace, its military strength. But China the Chinese people's fundamental China has unswervingly opposed maintains this buildup should be interests. National defence should hegemonism, followed an indepen• kept within clearly defined limits, therefore be brought within this dent foreign policy and sided firm• and for defence purposes alone. framework so that our financial ly with the forces of peace. China Judged against the size of China's and material resources can be will not join any military bloc, nor population, the PLA is the smallest channelled into economic construc• will it enter into alliance with any of the world's major armed forces. tion. A sound economy will provide big powers. Still less will it estab• And its only objective is to help a solid foundation for national de• lish strategic relations with them. the country' defend itself. fence. China has no military bases in The decision to reduce the size other countries, nor has it station• The troop reductions also enable of the PLA is based on an objec- ed a single soldier abroad or oc• the People's Liberation Army to •tive analysis of the current world cupied a single inch of any other increase its military and political situation. True, the danger of a nation's territory. quality — and therefore to better world war still exists and will con• defend the country, the moderniza• When China successfully ex• tinue to grow as the arms race be• tion drive and world peace. 4 Beijing Review. No. 25 LETTERS Why Do i Appreciate Jews in China work. Should it take 15 more "Beijing Review?" years to achieve this? I suspect you had no idea how As a European reader, 1 offensive parts of your article on Then, after consideration. 1 appreciate Beijing Review for two Chinese Jews (April 8) would be realized there might be some reasons. to foreign Jews. The point of the exceptions. 1 remembered the article is, as its title sums up, report in issue No. 4 ("Govern• First, your articles on interna• "China's Jews Found Harmony." ment Aids Poor Farmers" — Ed.), tional developments are written But according to the article, the which said: In the countryside, from the point of view of the third Chinese )ews also found extinc• tens of millions of peasants still world and are impartial on the tion. They lost their religious tra• worry about their food and two superpowers. Although never ditions and became "no different clothing although their living strident, they are often penetrating from the Chinese." standards have improved remark• and contrast informatively with ably compared with the past. publications in this country. To foreign Jews, and 1 believe to members of any ethnic or relig• That was what Deng Xiaoping Second, it is clear that China is ious minority proud of itself, the said. No doubt Deng is a prac• in the process of a great social story of the Chinese Jews is quite tical person and knows the current experiment: How to unleash the lamentable. One of the reasons situation very well. Wang Dacheng initiative of each of its thousand Jews are persecuted around the may be a person full of confidence. million people within an overall world is for our insistence on socialist plan; and how to combine I suppose "tens ,of millions" retaining our distinctive customs. a thriving, diverse commodity may mean 70 million or 80 million A happy story would be one in economy with a strong spirit of or even 90 million.