The Legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrat• Chapter I: General Principles Ive Region
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A CHINESI WEEKLY OF NEWS AND VIEWS • Rev Vol. 32, No. IJ.^ March 131 -On Nogotiationa^rp With the Dalai The sound of a suona horn reverberates from theWess plateau. Photo by Shi Li BEIJING REVIEW VOL. 32, NO. 11 MARC&13-19, 1989 CONTENTS On Negotiations with the Dalai Lama • Observers here see that there still is a gap to cover NOTES FROM THE EDITORS 4 between the Dalai Lama and the central government Countering the Surge in before negotiations can begin. The Dalai Lama insisted Population on basing the nagotiations on his "new proposal" made last June, which claimed that Tibet had been an indepen• dent country; and the central government's position is EVENTS/TRENDS 5-8 that anything is negotiable except the independence of Forest Areas Shrink Sharply Tibet (p. 24). Waste Threatens Water Supply Lhasa Riot Causes Deaths Sending Students Overseas One Million Job Seekers • Yu Fuzeng, director of the State Education Commis• Huan Xiang Passes Away sion's Foreign Affairs Bureau, discusses the develop• Weekly Chronicle ment of China's overseas study prograinme with our staff (Feb. 26-Mar.4) reporter Wei Liming. As China opens its doors wider, he suggests national policy on sending students abroad will INTERNATIONAL grow increasingly liberal until it matches that of other Namibia; Independence in Sight 9 countries (p. 15). Also printed is a report on the role returned students play in China's socialist construction CHINA (P.19). Overseas Students: the World of Education 15 Population Landmark Serves as Warning Better Conditions for Returned • Since China first introduced family planning in the Students 19 1970s, an estimated 200 million births have been prev• On Negotiations With the Dalai ented. But with the population set to hit 1.1 billion this Lama 24 month and a birth rate on the rise since 1986, efforts A Village by the Lhasa River (I) must be redoubled if the country wants to keep within 26 its target of around 1.2 billion people by the year 2000 (p. 4). DOCUMENTS (Centrefold) Dwindling Forest Resources Arouse Nationwide Basic Law of HKSAR, PRC (Draft) Concern (Adopted by the Standing • China is a country poor in forests, and it's forest area Committee of the National per person is numbered 121st in the world. Yet, such People's Congress on February small resource is still reducing sharply. Experts urge to 21, 1989) take measures to control the situation. The Afforestation Committee set a medal system, encouraging people to make greater efforts in the country's afforestation cam• BUSINESS/TRADE 29-31 paign (p. 5). CULTURE/SCIENCE 32-34 Namibian Independence COVER: Dr. Chen Zhangliang, aged • On April 1, after two centuries of colonization, Nami• 27, is an associate professor at Bei• bia is due to become the last African country to secure jing University and head of the its independence. However, once the initial euphoria of nationhood has passed, Namibians face a series of severe State Plant Genetics Work Office. challenges, particularly over relations with South Africa Chen Zonglie (p. 9). Unless written by Beijing Review staff, ttie opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily reflect \he view of the Beijing Review editorial board. Director/Editor-in-Cfiief: Wang Youfen Published every Monday by Subscription rates (1 year): Tel; 893363 BEIJING REVIEW Australia A.$ 29.00 TLX: 222374 FLPDA CN 24 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing 100037 New Zealand NZ.$39.00 FAX: 8314318 The People's Republic of China UK C14.50 Distributed by China International Book General Editorial Office Tel: 8314318 USA US$29.00 Trading Corporation (GUOJI SHUDIAN) Englistt Dept Tel: 8315599 Ext. 546 P,0.*Box 399, Beijing, China Canada Can.$25.00 THEIEDITORS Countering the Surge in Population by Yang Xiaobing uring the first quarter of 1989, China its vast population, its per-capita GNP lags far faces the grim prospect of its population behind the world average. Its grain production D hitting 1.1 billion. In response, a new is also high at 400 billion kg a year, but divided family planning publicity campaign is being among the population, this leaves just 370 kg launched across the country. per head. Similarly, the per-capita share of Chi• Since China first introduced its family plan• na's huge natural resources is small, and the ning programme in the early 1970s, an estimat• per-capita area of cultivated land, forest, grass• ed 200 million births have been prevented—a lands and water resources is not only beneath major contribution towards curbing the rapidly the world average but is continuing to drop. increasing population of Asia and the world. Under these circumstances, unless population But the future now looks none too optimistic. growth is curbed, China's increase in wealth Since 1986, China's birth rate has been rising. will be offset by the ever-larger number of peo• Last year, a sample survey put the figure at ple who have to share it. Simultaneously, as the 23.26 per thousand for 1987, and 20.78 per contradiction between population and resources thousand for 1988. Annually, the population grows, environmental deterioration will follow. has been growing by around 15 million people. If this happens, it will prove impossible to in• Originally China had planned to keep its po• crease national strength and difficult to raise pulation below 1.2 billion by the year 2000. living standards. Subsequently this was amended to around 1.2 To curb the rise in the birth rate, the state has billion. But even meeting this target will be no reaffirmed its current family planning policies: easy task, given the population growth of recent marriage and birth at a mature age, the one years. child family, and with fewer births, better China is now experiencing its third baby healthcare. Rural families facing genuine diffi• boom since 1949. The principal reason for the culties (including households with a single girl) rise in the birth rate is that 11-13 million wom• are permitted to have a second child after an en are reaching child-bearing age annually. interval of several years. But in no circumst• This peak will not decline until 1995. ances will a third be allowed. Family planning In addition, the implementation of family is also being encouraged among national minor• planning policies across China has been unev• ities, but with greater latitude and after paying en. In many places, particularly culturally due attention to local conditions and customs. and economically backward rural areas, deep- The government has stressed that the rele• rooted traditional ideas remain stubbornly en• vant departments must strengthen their public• trenched—especially the notion that "the more ity and educational work, and that campaigns sons, the more blessings." Some local authori• should be conducted patiently, painstakingly ties have also failed to take their family plan• and continually, especially in rural areas. ning responsibilities sufficiently seriously, and To control births among the floating popula• others have even adopted a "laissez-faire" atti• tion, the State Family Planning Commission, tude. the State Administration for Industry and Furthermore, since China began invigorating Commerce, and the Self-Employed Workers' its economy, the floating population has risen Association have joined forces to draw up a to around 50 million. And w.ith the difficulties series of measures which are now being tested of monitoring this group and effectively imple• in several localities. menting family planning, they have produced a Civil affairs departments are now starting to large number of over-large familes. check up on illegal marriages across the coun• A recent study revealed that some 3 million try, punishing people who have married and babies born in 1987 were unauthorized third or given birth under age. fourth children and around 2.5 million people Medical and health departments are expand• married below the legal age, putting them in the ing technical guidance on birth control into a position to give birth earlier than they should. wider area, as well as looking for simpler, safer, Although China's gross national product more effective and cheaper means of contracep• (GNP) has doubled over the past decade, with tion. • BEIJING REVIEW, MARCH 13-19, 1989 EVENTS/TRENDS t the Seventh Represen• and potassium lost with the er• —Alert the whole nation tative Conference of the oded soil each year is equiva• and all of society to the crisis A Chinese Association of lent to one year's supply of and let them know the value of Forestry in January this year, fertilizer used by the country. forests. Since 1949, the value more than 200 experts put for• Because of excessive lumber• of consumed timber tallies 800 ward a suggestion that govern• ing and a subsequent decrease billion yuan while the funds ments at all levels and relevant in water conservation, an av• seeding forests is somewhat departments of society take erage of 31.3 million hectares less than one-tenth the immediate measures to control throughout the country in the amount. So, the state should the sharp reduction of China's past 10 years have suffered carry out a policy of support• forest resources. ing forestry and China is a coun• help this construc• try poor in forests. Forest Areas Shrink Sharply tive investment Its forest area per obtain the funds deserved. person is so small that it —Measures should be ranks 121st in the world. taken to synthesize ad• According to statistics of ministration, economy the past 10 years, the and law for the protec• state-owned forest area tion of old forests in the has shrunk 23.1 percent, northeast and the south• and usable reserves, 22 west.