ECONOMIC AND OTHER
FORCED LABOR

Jane's Defence Weekly 9/23/98 "China's top military chief will be forced into retirement as he assumes responsibility for a series of economic-related scandals and disciplinary problems that have tarnished the People's Liberation Army (PLA) over the past year. Gen Zhang Wannian, the 71-year-old executive vice chairman of China's policy-setting Central Military Commission (CMC) and a member of the ruling Politburo, is due to step down at a plenary meeting of the Communist Party's Central Committee that is scheduled next month. He will be replaced by Gen Chi Haotian, currently defence minister and also a CMC vice chairman, Beijing-based sources told Jane's Defence Weekly.."

Reuters 11/18/98 ".Chinese President Jiang Zemin is expected to flex Beijing's diplomatic muscles during a visit to

Moscow next week, opposing U.S.-backed pressure on Iraq and strengthening the budding partnership between China and Russia, analysts said. Jiang is scheduled to travel to Russia from November 22 to 25 for a summit meeting with ailing President Boris Yeltsin. Jiang is also expected to meet Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov as well as leaders of the State Duma, or parliament. ."It seems that the main goal of the summit will be to simply oppose the U.S., especially on the issue of Iraq,'' said one source close to the Russian embassy.."

Asia Pacific Frontpage 12/4/98 Glenn Schloss ".Interests associated with mainland China have increased their stake in Hong Kong media with the strategic purchase of newspaper publisher Culturecom Holdings, which publishes the Chinese-language Tin Tin Daily News through an Australian listed company called ViaGold Capital. ViaGold's chairman is Chinese businessman Zhang Yonglingnr, who was previously a high-ranking red capitalist as director of neighboring Guangdong province's investment arm. Sing Tao Holdings, publisher of the English-language daily Hong Kong Standard and Chinese-language Sing Tao headed by Sally Aw Sian, whose father founded the popular Tiger Balm ointment products, has sold her 32 percent stake in Culturecom to ViaGold for $HK21 million. The sale comes as Aw, who has been named in a fraud case relating to inflated circulation figures at the Standard, continues to try sell part or all of her 50.04 percent holding in Sing Tao.."

London Daily Telegraph 2/2/99 David Rennie ".Violent protests are common in rural China as farmers demonstrate against local abuses of power, including illegal taxes and levies, confiscation of property and the issuing of IOUs instead of cash for crops bought by the state. Two of the blasts occurred in the southern Hunan province, scene of several large demonstrations this year reported to have involving thousands of angry farmers and hundreds of troops.."

Reuters AFP 2/10/99 ".The United Nations launched an international appeal on Wednesday for $46 million to help China rebuild schools, industry and agriculture in provinces devastated by massive floods last summer. ..Last September, the United Nations sought $139 million for emergency relief and initial rehabilitation for China flood victims.."

World Net Daily 3/11/99 Michael Dorgan "… The allure of selling anything to 1.2 billion Chinese is so great that China has found it easy to manipulate the profit-hungry multinationals knocking on its door. American companies have pumped billions of dollars into China in hopes of hitting a bonanza, or at least preventing their competitors from gaining an advantage. But a new Commerce Department report reveals that few U.S. companies are actually making a profit in China. Worse, the report says, many American companies may be trading away their futures by swapping advanced technology for a toehold in a market that may forever remain closed to them. …``Despite several years of high-level investment in China . . . survey data and press reports indicate that relatively few U.S. companies are realizing profits or even a return on their investments in China,'' said the report, published by the department's Bureau of Export Administration and released with little fanfare in January. ``The potential effects of this on the U.S. economy include loss of jobs (which in the high-technology sector are typically high-wage positions), loss of capital or revenue that could be reinvested in the United States, decline in or loss of basic industries critical to the U.S. defense industrial base, and the potential for creating or enhancing foreign competitors where they might not otherwise exist,'' says the 99-page report, titled ``U.S. Commercial Technology Transfers to the People's Republic of China.'' …``Although China lags behind its neighbors as well as the United States, there are indications that China is catching up in some electronics-related sectors as a result of technology transfers,'' it said. ``Most technology transfers are in the form of component co-production and assembly as well as access to 'soft' technologies (processes, management techniques, accounting methods) derived from foreign technical assistance and training.'' …The report arrives at a time when U.S. and Chinese officials often cite mutually beneficial business ties as a solid foundation for relations, even though the ballooning U.S. trade deficit with China -- about $57 billion last year -- is a growing concern on this side of the Pacific….."

FOX Newswire 3/11/99 Renee Schilhab "…"There's a shift taking place favoring a tougher policy toward China," Ted Carpenter, director of foreign policy at The Cato Institute, said Wednesday. "Republicans more and more are gravitating toward an anti-Chinese, hard-line position, with the Kissinger-led faction that advocates a policy of engagement growing weaker." …The incidents have prompted foreign policy experts to question whether the U.S. should penalize China when it discovers that the Chinese have benefited from the illegal transfer of weapons information. The Clinton administration in 1994 de-linked trade issues and human rights abuses in China. But the U.S. has no consistent policy for dealing with China on the leakage of secret American technology. The U.S. imposed and then Clinton waived sanctions on China for shipping 5,000 ring magnets to Pakistan in 1996. The magnets can be used in gas centrifuges to enrich uranium…."

Financial Times 3/13/99 Nancy Dunne "…Senator Jesse Helms, Republican chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, and Senator Ernest Hollings, the committee's senior Democrat, have circulated a letter urging that Congress "review any agreement, and all the surrounding negotiations to ensure that it reflects traditional American values while protecting American interests". Richard Gephardt, House minority leader, has already introduced a bill requiring congressional approval of a US-China WTO deal. Forty members have signed on thus far. This week it gained the support of Benjamin Gilman, chairman of the House foreign relations committee and a Republican moderate. The Senate letter comes in the wake of reports that a deal on the terms upon which the US would support China's WTO membership is close. Legislators appear to believe that by encouraging China's accession to the WTO, President Bill Clinton has taken a step too far at a time when US-Chinese relations are otherwise at a low point. Both Republicans and Democrats are angry over China's worsening human rights record, reports of spying to secure US missile technology, improper technology transfers, the infusion of Chinese money in last year's congressional elections and the growing bilateral trade deficit…."

Associated Press 3/12/99 John Leicester "…China's foreign trade minister urged the United States today to reconsider a decision to cancel the sale of a $450 million commercial satellite to a Chinese-controlled consortium. In one of China's strongest reactions so far against the canceled sale, Shi Guangsheng said U.S. restrictions on high-tech products were preventing American enterprises from tapping the Chinese market, and said other countries would be ready to fill the gap…. The Clinton administration said the decision to reject the sale was made after Asia Pacific Mobile Telecommunications, the Singapore-based consortium that was to purchase the satellite from Hughes Electronics, took on more Chinese investors with direct links to the Chinese military. The Chinese government has dismissed suspicions of military uses of the satellite as groundless…"

Drudge Report 3/15/99 Freeper Brian Mosely "…Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and Ernest Hollings, D-S.C. now say they will move to block any effort by the White House to help China become a member of the World Trade Organization this year, threatening the administration's leading diplomatic effort to improve the deteriorating relations with Beijing…."

Reuters 3/26/99 Donna Smith "…The White House said on Friday it will hold out for a ``good deal'' on China's bid to join the World Trade Organisation as negotiators press to close the gaps ahead of Premier Zhu Rongji's upcoming U.S. visit. Zhu is scheduled to meet President Bill Clinton on April 8 as part of an April 6-14 trip to the United States. A trade deal would be the highlight of the trip which is expected to be overshadowed by allegations that China stole secrets from a U.S. nuclear research facility and Congressional criticisms of Clinton's policy of engagement with China…… "

Inside China Today 3/30/99 Reuters "…Allegations that China stole U.S. nuclear technology have cast a cloud on American technology trade in China, Commerce Secretary William Daley said on Tuesday. "Because of the possible illicit transfer of technology, many Washington veterans have told me this is the worst climate for high-tech trade with China in 20 years," Daley told the Beijing-based U.S. business community. Daley said exporting high technology to China had been made more difficult by the furore in Washington over allegations China stole secrets from the U.S. national nuclear research laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico and used them to improve its military capabilities. He also indicated Washington was bracing for the release of findings by a U.S. House panel headed by Republican Christopher Cox that investigated the transfer of U.S. arms technology to China over the past two decades….."

Inside China Today..www.insidechina.com 3/30/99 AFP "…The United States and China have signed seven infrastructure accords to provide U.S. know-how for projects including the first onshore pipeline to be built on the mainland with a foreign company, a U.S. statement said Tuesday. Visiting U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley and State Councilor Wu Yi witnessed Monday's signing of the accords believed to be worth about $2 billion. "Each of the projects demonstrates the positive impact that U.S. technology, expertise and world class equipment will have on the development of China's infrastructure and overall economy," Daley said in the statement….. "

Reuters Scott Hillis 4/7/99 "…Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji flew to Washington on Wednesday on a major fence-mending mission as President Bill Clinton warned U.S. politicians not to turn China into a ``communist dragon'' and trigger a dangerous new Cold War… "

Reuters 4/7/99 "…U.S. Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott said on Wednesday China should be denied entry to the World Trade Organization, citing allegations of nuclear spying and human rights abuses by Beijing. ``Letting China into the WTO at this time shows how far this administration is willing to go in an effort to salvage its failed policy of strategic partnership with China,'' the Mississippi Republican said in a statement. ``This is the wrong decision at the wrong time.'' …."

Wall Street Journal 4/6/99 Freeper stoicmom "…Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, frustrated and irritated with China's critics in Washington, arrives in the U.S. today to take China's case for more cooperation directly to the American people. ..."We are this close" to a deal [for entry into the World Trade Organization], he says, holding his thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart. But, he complains, in recent days, "due to pressure from Congress," the Clinton administration has balked at closing that gap. Mr. Zhu, who is renowned in China for his blunt spoken manner, indicates that Americans will see the same during his nine-day, six-city U.S. saing. Smilingly describing himself as an "ordinary Chinese with a bad temper," he says, "When I go to the U.S. it's very possible I'll have arguments with you. So you should be prepared for that."…"

Washington Post 4/12/99 David Ignatius "...President Clinton did something so shortsighted and potentially costly last week in scuttling a trade deal with China that you begin to wonder if the Kosovo policy jinx is spreading to Asia. Some Clinton insiders just shake their heads in chagrin when asked to explain why the president backed away from a deal that would have opened Chinese markets as a condition for Chinese entry into the World Trade Organization. They concede that the reason for Clinton's last-minute reversal was entirely political: He wanted to appease protectionist congressional Democrats and avoid what might look to critics like an embarrassing concession to visiting Chinese leader Zhu Rongji. Clinton's flip-flop on the WTO sullies one of the few areas -- free trade -- where he reasonably can claim to have acted consistently on principle, rather than short-term politics. In that sense, it's a measure of just how weak Clinton has become -- that he would sabotage his legacy to gain a few weeks' respite from criticism. The administration is betting that it can tiptoe back to Beijing and salvage a WTO deal before Labor Day. ...."

4/8/99 Concord, NH "...Presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan today rejected President Clinton's assertion that a "healthy argument" about our China policy will "lead us toward a campaign-driven Cold War," calling it "a demagogic attempt to stifle legitimate debate." "President Clinton's claim that admitting China to the WTO is 'profoundly in our national interests' is flat out wrong. Today's New York Times reports that China stole American neutron bomb technology and that Mr. Clinton and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger were fully aware of this grave breach of our security," Mr. Buchanan said. "This latest evidence reconfirms the proven failure of the President's 'constructive engagement' policy, and it severely undermines the President's already crippled credibility." "China is not now and has never been America's 'strategic partner'," Mr. Buchanan said. "'Constructive engagement' has been a demonstrable failure and our commander in chief now wants to relinquish what remains of U.S. economic leverage over China's military buildup, human rights abuses, and threats against Taiwan." ....."

UPI Stock Smart 4/8/99 Freeper heyhub "...President Clinton said he and Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji discussed allegations of Chinese espionage and illegal campaign donations (Thursday) and despite Zhu's denial of wrongdoing, said the investigations into the charges should continue. ``Occasionally, things happen in this government that I'm not aware of, '' Clinton said, diplomatically, during a joint press conference with Zhu at the White House. Zhu said he would be ``happy to cooperate'' with the investigations...."

South China Morning Post 4/10/99 Jasper Becker Freeper Sakida "…Beijing's friendships in the Balkans are nothing if not flexible. These days Chinese sympathies are all with the plucky Serbs and the mainland media has been whipping up public support for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's heroic stand against the West. Little is said about the ethnic cleansing and the flight of the Albanian Kosovar refugees or their struggling hosts in Macedonia and Albania…."

New York Times 4/15/99 David Sanger "...It took a five-day roadtrip through America by a stalwart of the Chinese Communist Party, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, and the anger of a lot of American capitalists to force President Clinton, once again, to reverse his tactics in dealing with China. By Tuesday afternoon, a president who only a few days before had sounded in no particular rush to conclude a huge trade deal with China was suddenly in a big hurry..... Taking his case to American business interests, Zhu insisted that compromises allowing American telecommunications firms, farm products, banks and insurance companies into the Chinese market could all perish.

The president and Zhu talked for 20 minutes, during which Clinton offered to issue the third "joint statement" in five days, administration officials said, struggling to explain why one summit meeting needed three successive announcements. Clinton promised Zhu that the statement would reiterate that the United States was committed to getting China into the WTO this year, and said the negotiations could be resumed as soon as a team of American negotiators could travel to Beijing, officials said. When Zhu resumed his Waldorf meetings with New York investors and business executives Tuesday night, he confidently relayed that the deal was "99 percent done," the executives said. White House officials conceded on Wednesday that the turnabout occurred because they had misjudged the dynamics of the China summit. In the end, they had not only angered those in Congress who oppose any deal with China, but those who think one is essential...."

Email Yandaojie Middle School,Chengdu China 4/16/99 Freeper cyberaxe "...We have a popular saying here"IF you want to watch a bad news to entertain,go to watch CNN".We are behind you,but can we just do in our way to better our life.Why should we be like you and why should you want us be like you?? Look the CNN and BBC recently,they are eulogizing NATO and US aggression into a sovereign country,regardless of the homes for Serbs and Albanians being bombed.Did any bomb dropped in Yugoslavia helped a single fleeing ethnic Albanian????....We can wait 100 years for Britten to return HongKong back to us,why your president cannot wait for a few more weeks to find out better solutions to deal with the Kosovo crisis with peace? Yes,we know you have money and weapons to fight. Since Bill cannot wait to show off his high tech weapons,why he sing songs of world peace and freedom? You can fight to solve the Kosovo crisis,can we learn from you and fight to take back Taiwan back? We will not for we believe war only can worsen things and deepen hatred and widen the difference and increase confrantation. I hope you and other people who has prejudice upon China can use some of those money(waging wars)to come and see what we are doing here to better our life.Do not be fooled by those so-called Chinese dissidents who just want to please your government for a visa to US or a green card to stay in your country.I am a famouse dissident here and I am very critisizing my government,but I am doing so just to help my country not to please US government and other western anti-China organizations or governments..."

South China Morning Post 4/23/99 David Murphy "...To help celebrate 50 years of communist rule on October 1, some of the world's leading capitalists will join the party in Beijing. ...Gerald Levin, head of Time Warner, whose subsidiary, Fortune magazine, is organising the Shanghai event, and media magnate Ted Turner, are among those due to attend. Mr Levin will lead a group of Time Warner board members and, accompanied by other executives, they are expected to hold talks with Premier Zhu Rongji in Beijing. Among 300-odd foreign corporate leaders due to attend the Shanghai event are: Jack Welch of General Electric, Michael Dell of Dell Computers and the heads of Nokia, Sony, PepsiCo and Walt Disney..."

Wall Street Journal 4/20/99 Nicholas R. Lardy "...After 13 years of snail-paced negotiations to join the World Trade Organization, China offered the Clinton administration a trade-liberalization deal that can only be described as breathtaking. Unfortunately, the concessions came just before Premier Zhu Rongji's arrival in Washington, and the president, perhaps not having adequate time to evaluate fully the overwhelmingly favorable implications of Mr. Zhu's proposal, turned it down. In an attempt to repair the damage, Mr. Clinton called Mr. Zhu after the latter had left Washington and struck an agreement to renew the talks at an early date, with the expectation that a deal could be concluded by the end of the year. Although this now looks likely, significant risks remain. The U.S. would have been better off accepting the deal offered by China in the first place..."

Freeper Jolly reports on Reuters; American Investigator 4/15/99; 04/97 Jennifer Genevieve; China By Any Other "...Wang Jun and Li Ka Shing always seem to end up on top. Here is an interesting article show who stands to benifit the most when Chian gets WTO...China's entry into the World Trade Organisation may not be a done deal yet but investors in the Hong Kong stock market are already looking forward to the gains that lie ahead, particularly for ports and telecoms firms.... The question for investors is now ``when'' rather than ``if,'' analysts said. .....Goldman Sachs is predicting a jump in China trade flows to US$600 billion in five years from US$324 billion in 1998. ``Obvious beneficiaries are exporters and port companies,'' it said in a recent research report. ....Targeting that growth, analysts have singled out COSCO Pacific Ltd , China Merchants Holdings (International) Co Ltd , Wharf (Holdings) Ltd and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd as the main beneficiaries....China-backed banks such as CITIC Ka Wah Bank Ltd and Union Bank of Hong Kong Ltd would benefit through joint ventures with financial service subsidiaries of their China shareholders, DBS said in a report. ``Union Bank and CITIC Ka Wah are likely to accelerate their merger plans with their mainland sister banks,'' it added...."

Reuters 4/22/99 "...Chinese and US trade negotiators reopened talks on Thursday in a drive to put the finishing touches on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal that Premier Zhu Rongji narrowly missed clinching in Washington. US Assistant Trade Representative Robert Cassidy and China's top WTO negotiator, Long Yongtu, opened what were expected to be lengthy talks at 10.30am in Beijing. ''We are following the joint statement of President [Bill] Clinton and Premier Zhu,'' Mr Cassidy told reporters, referring to the two leaders' pledge in Washington to conclude talks on China's 13-year-old WTO bid this year...... The People's Daily made it clear Beijing expected Washington to deliver on its promise to support China's entry to the WTO. ''The US government has clearly pledged to firmly support China's entry to the WTO in 1999,'' the newspaper said in a front page editorial hailing Mr Zhu's North American tour. ''Both sides agreed to begin talks before the end of April to settle remaining issues to China's entry to the WTO.'' ...."

Reuters 4/26/99 Benjamin Kang Lim "...China said talks on Monday with the United States on nailing down a deal for entry into the World Trade Organisation had been "constructive" after earlier discussions yielded little progress...On Friday, Xinhua said two days of talks had ended with "no obvious results". It said Washington was "too demanding" and suggested the talks were over for the moment....But American head negotiator Robert Cassidy did not head home on Sunday as scheduled and the tone of Xinhua's brief report on Monday suggested progress was being made. U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment. A source familiar with the talks said Washington and Beijing had signed an agreement that China would not roll back concessions it had already made..... The source said the two countries were eager to wrap up negotiations tofacilitate similar talks with other countries...."

Far Eastern Economic Review 4/29/99 Susan V. Lawrence and Bruce GilleyFreeper Jolly "...China's top leader Jiang Zemin took one of the biggest gambles of his political career last July when he ordered the country's military to withdraw from all commercial activities. The idea was not a new one, and it was generally supported by the current top brass, who felt the corporate empire run by various branches of the People's Liberation Army was impairing the military's ability to fight wars. Still, in the nine months since Jiang announced the order, the divestiture has proven to be one of the most painful and acrimonious initiatives of his decade in power...."

Agence France-Presse 4/26/99 "...China will become a member of the World Trade Organisation before November, WTO director-general Renato Ruggerio told the International Herald Tribune daily in an interview published Monday. "I think that since the visit (to the United States) by China's prime minister there have been many encouraging signs, and I believe we can have China in the WTO before November when the WTO begins its next trade round in agriculture, services and electronic commerce," Ruggerio said. His comments came as US and European Union trade negotiators were in Beijing to discuss China's bid to join the WTO...."

4/27/99 Rep. Christopher Cox, R- Newport Beach "...AMERICAN POLICY toward the People's Republic of China should proceed from this central premise: It is our sincere hope for the Chinese people that they will no longer live under a communist government. To this end, America's -- and California's -- world leadership in high-tech enterprise promises far more than economic benefits. The export of these products to the Chinese people can be a great democratizing and liberating force. ...... The Clinton-Gore administration seems to place a higher priority on stopping the export of encryption software to the Chinese people than on preventing the theft of our nuclear weapons technology by the People's Liberation Army. This is exactly backward. Rather than control commercially available computers, software and technology, we should safeguard our most critical military secrets..... But some have inferred that this should mean clamping down on commercial exports. To the contrary: The committee found that the current export-licensing process is riddled with errors and plagued by delays. It often does very little to protect our national security -- while frequently doing a great deal to damage America's competitiveness in world markets. The committee has therefore recommended streamlining export rules. The United States should provide a new ``fast track'' for most items, while focusing greater resources and expertise on the limited targets that we know from our intelligence are the subject of specific collection efforts by the People's Republic of China and others. Trade in innovative technologies, goods and services can help undermine inefficient state-run industries and bring hope of a better life to the Chinese people. In areas like transportation, telecommunications and financial services, it is the means by which communist China -- whose economy is smaller on a per capita basis than Guatemala's -- can become a developed nation. In fields such as medicine, biotechnology and farming, U.S. trade offers hope for the desperately poor millions who are still China's majority that they will be able to eat and survive. Encouraging exports to China that promote individual freedom and well-being is in the United States' national security interest. For this reason, in addition to allowing the export of encryption software, U.S. policy should focus on unleashing the Internet as an engine of freedom in China....."

Far Eastern Economic Review 4/29/99 Susan V. Lawrence and Bruce Gilley ".... Still, despite the difficulties, Beijing has a big stake in a smooth withdrawal of the PLA from business. As with many past initiatives by Jiang, the PLA divestiture was supposed to set an example for other areas of the government and party to follow. Indeed, the order to the military to divest also included the paramilitary People's Armed Police, the judicial system and the police. The government has since announced that all government, party and legislative branches should give up their companies, too, starting this year. But by far the biggest issue for Beijing is loyalty of the PLA itself to the civilian leadership. Everyone agreed that the businesses were impairing the PLA's military capabilities--especially disrupting chains of command and training. Military involvement in smuggling, meanwhile, undercut civilian priorities. Goods were smuggled in, undermining the work of the customs administration and tax authorities, and arms were smuggled out, undermining the civilian leadership's foreign-policy goals. The business ban was just the latest in a series of moves by Beijing in recent years to improve accountability of the PLA, according to David Finkelstein of the Centre For Naval Analyses in Alexandria, Virginia, a federally funded research centre. "PLA businesses were a real threat to accountability," he says. Now, with so much acrimony swirling around the end of the business, Beijing may have removed one set of threats to PLA allegiance to Beijing, but in the process, given the PLA new reasons for disloyalty. Beijing must be wondering whether the effort was all worthwhile. "They knew it would be hard, that's why it took so long before they announced it," says Finkelstein. "But now it's proving to be a really gut-wrenching change."..."

http://www.nandotimes.com AP Charles Hutzler "...Chinese leaders are retreating from trade concessions the United States thought it won last month because of domestic resistance to opening China's markets, a senior EU official said Thursday. The assessment by European Commission Vice President Leon Brittan confirms that momentum for getting China into the World Trade Organization has slowed since President Clinton rejected broad market-opening offers Premier Zhu Rongji made in Washington. Since Zhu's return to China two weeks ago, opposition among protectionist officials has coalesced. A U.S. negotiating team came, but left after running into new obstacles. The powerful telecommunications minister tendered his resignation, partly in protest over the Washington concessions, Western diplomats and industry insiders said. Brittan reported that an EU trade negotiating team "made no new progress" in 10 days of talks with the Chinese. Brittan, who is the EU's acting trade minister, spent two days presenting EU demands to Chinese leaders....."

LAtimes.com 5/12/99 Jonathan Peterson "....S. Embassy officials in Beijing have quietly relayed word to Washington that some Chinese officials were saying they expected a continuation of the talks between Robert Cassidy, a U.S. trade negotiator, and Long Yongtu, his Chinese counterpart, perhaps as early as next week, as originally scheduled. "We've had some informal communications with the Chinese government in the last 24 hours, and at this point it's just as likely as not that we may actually reconvene the talks next week ," an optimistic U.S. trade official said Tuesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Resumption of the talks in the extremely chilly climate after the bombing would underscore the acute importance China places on joining the World Trade Organization and on forging broader economic ties with the outside world. Administration officials are resigned to the prospect that the military debacle will not only draw out the negotiating process, but also embolden opponents of a deal in Congress, which must approve any accord. ...."

The Economist 5/15-21/99 "...NATO's military planners have some rethinking to do. But so does China. Before the three bombs struck, the Chinese public had been told nothing of the plight of the 1m or more Kosovars driven from their homes by their Serb tormentors-and cared even less. NATO's bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, in an attempt to end the Serb atrocities there, had been portrayed by China as simply the mad maraudings of the neo-imperialist West. Little wonder, then, that many Chinese saw the attack on their embassy as a deliberate attempt to humiliate their country.... The barriers to China's early membership in the WTO-prejudice against foreign investors, protectionist rules and tariffs, import quotas, competition-stifling subsidies and poor contract enforcement-are restrictions that hurt China's economy as well as others'. And China needs America to take its exports if it is to grow fast enough to avoid social unrest at home..."

Asahi Evening News 5/14/99 TOSHIO JO "...China appears firmly on course to join the World Trade Organization this year despite tensions over the mistaken NATO bombing of its Belgrade embassy, after a ministerial meeting in Tokyo concluded Wednesday with a ringing declaration of "no linkage" between the two issues. However, the two-day meeting of trade ministers from Japan, the United States, Canada and the European Union (EU) yielded no agreement on how to run the next round of global trade negotiations scheduled to start in 2000...."

The Economist 5/15-21/99 "...Anger was first whipped up by state media that refused to countenance any interpretation of NATO's attack other than that of a deliberate act of aggression-a violent assault upon China's sovereignty designed to taunt and humiliate. Soon, students at Beijing University were given government permission to demonstrate; buses swiftly appeared, and extra transport was laid on when student numbers proved too large.... The government did not want emotions to run too high for too long. On May 11th, Bill Clinton's apologies were broadcast on state television, two days after they were first made, suggesting a tacit acceptance of them. Beijing University put up notices reproving students for some rowdy behaviour and ordering calm. By May 12th, when the ashes of the three journalist "martyrs" killed in the Belgrade bombing arrived home, the embassy area was entirely sealed off to ordinary Chinese. On television, workers have been parroting that the best way they can show their indignation is to increase production. Foreign investors, especially American ones, got calm reassurances that China is still open for business. ....Moderate members of the government think that calm is certainly needed to reassure foreign investors that China's economic development will continue apace. The crisis comes as foreign investment looks like slowing anyway....."

AP (FOX wire) 5/13/99 "...The rift from last week's mistaken bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia shouldn't delay China's entry into the World Trade Organization, a bipartisan group of 30 senators told President Clinton on Thursday. "Despite the events of this past week in Belgrade and China, it is critical that we focus on what is important to America's national interest,'' wrote the group, led by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.....Last month, during Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji's visit to Washington, both nations appeared close to announcing a deal after China made a series of economic concessions. But Clinton at the last minute rejected the deal, sending representatives back to the negotiating table....."

Casey Institute of the Center for Security Policy 5/13/99 "...While efforts in Congress and the press to uncover and comprehend the full magnitude of China's financial penetration of the American political and economic systems have revealed operations involving troubling infusions of hundreds of thousands and even tens of millions of dollars from the PRC, to date, they have not addressed a potentially more serious problem: The People's Liberation Army's successful initiative that is taking hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars out of the United States, thanks to Chinese fund-raising in the U.S. bond market.(1) As the attached article by William J. Casey Chair Roger W. Robinson, Jr. makes clear, there has been an estimated $10.5 billion in dollar-denominated bonds issued by China in the U.S. market since the early 1980s. Even a cursory review of this rapidly growing portfolio demonstrates that nearly 60% of this amount was raised by just three Chinese entities -- all of which should be viewed with concern: China International Trade and Investment Corporation (CITIC), chaired by China's most notorious arms dealer, Wang Jun (about $800 million); the Bank of China (over $2 billion); and the People's Republic of China, borrowing under its own name (an estimated $3.2 billion). It is entirely plausible, if not likely, that at least a portion of these funds raised from U.S. securities firms, pension and mutual funds, insurance companies and other newly recruited lenders were diverted to finance activities harmful to U.S. security interests -- a point that may be addressed in the long-awaited Cox Committee's report that will reportedly be released next week in an unclassified form. No less worrisome is the fact that these funds are creating financial vested interests on the part of these new politically-powerful U.S. constituencies to oppose economic sanctions and other penalties almost irrespective of the gravity of China's misdeeds (e.g., proliferation, human rights abuses, etc.)....

Bloomberg News 5/11/99 "...Motorola Inc. was allowed by U.S. President Bill Clinton to export two Iridium communication satellites to China for launching in early June on a China Long March IIC rocket, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.S. and Motorola said the approval was not a gesture to improve U.S. relations with China following the North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia, the newspaper reported. Meantime, U.S. trade officials are discussing with Chinese officials whether they should move the talks about China's entry into the World Trade Organization outside China, the Journal said...."

New York Times 5/11/99 David Sanger "...In the days just before NATO mistakenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, administration officials were already voicing fears that they might have missed their moment to strike a political deal to get China into the World Trade Organization. Such a deal has been the centerpiece of President Clinton's much-debated effort to build a "web of engagement" with Beijing. Now the hopes of patching it together in a few months are fading, and White House officials doubt that they will have the political opportunity to get it through Congress after that. The bombing has clearly fueled the nationalist sentiments that were forcing Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, China's leading economic reformer, to pull back some of the concessions he offered a month ago. That, in turn, creates a backlash here. Members of Congress who were wavering about whether to support the deal that Clinton nearly had in hand seem virtually certain to reject any accord with lesser concessions. But that is only the beginning of the problem. The images of Chinese tossing bricks at the U.S. Embassy may harden the views of powerful figures including Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the majority leader, who argue that the United States should not aid China's efforts to seek prestige through membership in the group that sets the rules of world trade. Lott has said he opposes China's entry because of Beijing's alleged espionage efforts and human rights abuses. For its part, the AFL-CIO has vowed to oppose the deal for fear that American jobs will be lost...."

Drudge 5/10/99 Freeper DonMorgan "...In Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen told the Russian President's special envoy for Yugoslavia Viktor Chernomyrdin that China and Russia share identical views on many issues including Kosovo, according to Chinese news reports. Views that were shared during a telephone call between the Chinese and Russian presidents. During his talks with Chernomyrdin, Qian said that Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Boris Yeltsin consulted each other on the Kosovo crisis on Monday during an "important telephone conversation". The telephone conversation between Zemin and Yeltsin showed "mutual trust, mutual understanding and mutual support" by the two countries in the Yugoslav crisis, the Chinese newswire XINUA reported overnight. Chernomyrdin called the telephone conversation between Yeltsin and Jiang "very important"...."

Manchester Union Leader 5/17/99 Richard Lessner "...The virulent anti-American reaction by the Communist government in Beijing to the mistaken bombing of the People's Republic embassy in Belgrade has laid bare the truth: China is not our friend or ally. Those in thrall to the commercial potential of the "Chinese market" plainly were stunned by the intensity of the government-orchestrated demonstrations. Day after day mobs hurled rocks and gasoline bombs at the U.S. embassy in Beijing with the obvious approval, if not outright instigation, of the Communist government..... Having stunned and shocked those who naively believed that the Communist Chinese were our friends, Beijing is demanding immediate membership in the World Trade Organization on its own terms, permanent most favored nation trade status, a U.S. pledge not to deploy anti-ballistic missile defenses in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, and a free hand to deal with Taiwan (meaning a repudiation of the Taiwan Relations Act with its mutual defense provisions). All this for the benefits of trade with China, which are vastly overblown by the pro-China claque. Our exports to tiny Belgium exceed those to Communist China. Trade with China is a one-way street, running in favor of the Communists to a total of almost $60 billion a year....."

Financial Times 5/27/99 Guy de Jonquières "...China said yesterday it would not resume negotiations with the US on joining the World Trade Organisation until it received a "thorough and complete" explanation of the Nato bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade earlier this month. Long Yongtu, vice-minister of foreign trade, also said China would reject any more demands to open its market wider, even if its refusal delayed its entry into the organisation. He said further negotiations could only focus on settling details of its membership terms...."

www.scmp.com 5/28/99 Agencies Freeper Thanatos "...US President Bill Clinton's engagement policy with China last night faced its most serious challenge to date. Lawmakers from both Republican and Democratic parties demanded a suspension of trade negotiations. The call was made necessary by recent events, wrote Jesse Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Benjamin Gilman, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, in a letter to Mr Clinton...."

Canadian Market News 5/17/99 "....Canadian Pacific Railway has signed a contract with China Ocean Shipping Company that firmly establishes the railway's Vancouver-Chicago corridor as the new competitive choice for shippers in the huge Midwest U.S. market for transPacific containers. COSCO will this month launch a new transPacific container service, and for the first time will use the Port of Vancouver as the gateway to U.S. destinations with CPR as the land carrier to Chicago. CPR is the only rail carrier that can move freight from the Port of Vancouver to Chicago over its own track. ..... CPR also recently completed a multi-year modernization of its Chicago-area yard, which includes a large intermodal terminal, to speed freight throughput in the Chicago hub. At the same time, the Port of Vancouver and its container terminal operators have expanded the capacity of their facilities....."

www.scmp.com 5/22/99 agencies "...Senator Lott warned that any trade deal with China - which he charged with improperly transferring technology and human rights violations - would need extensive monitoring and implementation. "I don't think we can trust the Chinese to live up to an agreement they make on trade," he said. "We should demand a good deal for us and, this is more important, that it be enforced." His comments came a day after Mr Cox briefed him and other senators on the contents of the report, the release of which has been delayed for months by fights between the Congress and President Bill Clinton's administration on what materials can safely be made public...."

6/1/99 Reuters [OL] via NewsEdge Corporation "...With hopes fading of an early agreement to bring China into the World Trade Organization, President Clinton is expected this week to ask Congress for a simple one-year extension of U.S. trading privileges for China. He is expected to ask Thursday for just a one-year renewal because negotiations on a broader deal with China have suffered a series of setbacks. These include the failure of Clinton to strike a deal with Chines Premier Zhu Rongji during his visit to the United States in April, the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade earlier this month and the release of a scathing report last week alleging Chinese nuclear spying. Even a scaled-down request for renewal of China's trade status -- once called Most Favored Nation (MFN) and now named Normal Trade Relations (NTR)-- for just one year will likely spark an intense battle in Congress, where China bashing is in vogue....."

6/2/99 AP Freeper Thanatos "...President Clinton will ask Congress to extend normal trade relations with China on Thursday, reigniting an annual debate that has been made even more emotional this year by spying accusations and an accidental bombing. U.S. relations with Beijing have been strained recently by the allegations that China stole nuclear secrets from U.S. research facilities and by NATO's mistaken bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. But Clinton remains convinced that engagement with China is key to improving relations and helping businesses in both nations. And, after some angry rhetoric, Congress is expected to go along with the one-year extension...."

Chattanooga Free Press 6/04/99 Editorial "...Mr. Clinton insists we need to continue "engagement" with the Communist regime. He is joined by many business people in the United States who want to expand their $21 billion in investments on the Chinese mainland and seek to increase their trade, even as Communist China sells far more in the United States than Americans sell in China. It is a disturbing contradiction to see Communists stealing nuclear missile technology to target us militarily while Mr. Clinton and other Americans target China for favors to gain perceived economic advantage. .... But it is highly distressing when dangerous espionage, unfriendly policy, political illegality and general arrogance on the part of Communist China are overlooked as the United States kowtows by offering special favors. The lone Chinese youth stood courageously in Tiananmen Square 10 years ago...."

www.whitehouse.gov 6/3/99 Bill Clinton "...Presidential Determination....MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE SUBJECT: Determination Under Subsection 402(d)(1) of the Trade Act of 1974, as Amended -- Continuation of Waiver Authority Pursuant to the authority vested in me under the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, Public Law 93-618, 88 Stat. 1978 (the "Act"), I determine, pursuant to subsection 402(d)(1) of the Act, 19 U.S.C. 2432(d)(1), that the further extension of the waiver authority granted by section 402 of the Act will sub-stantially promote the objectives of section 402 of the Act. I further determine that continuation of the waiver applicable to the People's Republic of China will substantially promote the objectives of section 402 of the Act. You are authorized and directed to publish this determination in the Federal Register...."

LA Times 6/3/99 Jonathan Peterson with Janet Hook "...Even in normal times, the annual debate over granting China routine trade privileges with the United States has been a rowdy exercise in free speech, as partisans point fingers, raise voices and claim the moral high ground...... "Just as the president's timing is sad, so too is his policy," maintained Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) in a statement. "This administration's China policy, like that of the administration before it, has not succeeded in making trade fairer, people freer or the world safer." She added in an interview: "This is a particularly poignant year. It's 10 years, and in 10 years that's enough time to see what kind of a difference this policy made." The concerns of Pelosi and others may be increasingly common in Congress. One lobbyist, who requested anonymity, maintained that a growing number of members "have just finally had it" with China over various issues, and predicted that the trade measure would be defeated in the House for the first time since the early 1990s, when memories of Tiananmen Square were fresh. ...."Most of the members feel that in the last analysis, we can't rupture trade relations with China," Matsui said Wednesday. "But some members will think that voting to allow China to join the WTO would be rewarding China--and that would be a much more tenuous vote." ..."

Investors Business Daily 6/4/99 Brian Mitchell "...The Clinton administration had sought a ''strategic partnership'' with China. But after revelations of Chinese espionage and NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, that partnership may be kaput. Officials now on both sides of the Pacific are wondering whether the U.S. and China are headed for trouble. Some fear a new cold war. ''We are headed toward fundamental conflict with China. That doesn't mean a war, but a fundamental conflict of interests,'' said Ross Munro, director of Asian studies at the Center for Security Studies and co-author with Richard Bernstein of ''The Coming Conflict with China'' (Vintage Books, 1998)...... The Clinton administration has downplayed revelations of Chinese espionage. Thursday, President Clinton asked Congress to renew China's Normal Trade Relation status, formerly called Most Favored Nation status. ...Thursday, Investor's Business Daily reported that China may have obtained classified Navy and possibly Air Force blueprints and technical specifications through an office at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Navy contracted with Los Alamos to store technical data from applications for arms export licenses. The responsible office at Los Alamos was headed by Steve K. Hue, a native of China....China's publicly announced military spending has more than quadrupled since 1986. The CIA believes the actual increase may be even greater. Exports to the U.S. have also nearly quadrupled. China's U.S. imports, however, have lagged far behind, barely doubling. In 1998, China enjoyed a $57 billion trade surplus with the U.S. ''Fast- growing countries pull in imports, but in China that's not happening,'' said Alan Tonelson of the U.S. Business and Industrial Council..... Analysts say much of China's trade surplus is being used to modernize its military..... 'There's a consensus (among Chinese leaders) that America in the long run is China's number one rival,'' Munro said. Munro says China also sees the U.S. as its leading source of technology and capital. The debate among leaders in China is about how to counter U.S. influence in Asia while still benefiting from U.S. contact, he says. The debate in the U.S. is more fundamental. On one hand, many policy-makers and business leaders still favor friendly relations with China. On the other hand, activists complain about China's human rights abuses and analysts warn of China's threat to U.S. friends in Asia....."

http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpin20.htm 6/9/99 AP Freeper Thanatos "...The annual debate over trade with China kicked off with congressional critics saying it was a mistake to have normal trade with a hostile, anti-democratic nation but acknowledging that once again they would lose the argument. The Clinton administration, at a hearing of the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee Tuesday, argued that lawmakers must not let the current bad blood with China get in the way of the long-term political and economic benefits of good trade relations...."

newsmax.com 6/9/99 Carl Limbacher and Caron Grich "...Getting Caspian oil to world markets may be a boon for another big player just now emerging on the world's economic stage. Here's how the Clinton Energy Department described China's oil needs just months before the Balkan War began: "China's economic growth has made it the second largest energy-consuming nation in the world. This rapid growth has outstripped China's domestic oil production and, in 1993, China became a net oil importer. Imports currently account for 15% of total consumption, but they are projected to increase to between 40 and 50% of China's consumption by 2020." China's demand for oil could have a major impact on world markets unless new reserves are tapped. U.S. oil and gas interests are now the largest investor in China's petroleum sector. The Clinton Energy and Commerce Departments have already begun talks in Beijing about new opportunities for oil exploration and development. Interestingly enough, Roger Tamraz, the oil pipeline gadfly who pushed the Clinton administration to get behind a Caspian route through Turkey, turned his sights eastward when those plans foundered. At last report, Tamraz has the support of the China National Petroleum Company in new efforts to help Beijing tap into the Caspian oil jackpot...."

Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk 6/7/99 "...Both the "fair traders" and the "subsidizers" now have a fantastic phantom upon which to justify their higher taxes and greater regulations: the Chinese spy scandal. This is a phantom for there is simply no connection between the spying and true free trade. In fact, it was the policy of subsidization and trade regulation, as well as generally lax security, which allowed the illegal transfers of technology. But to blame free trade, and then penalize average Americans, for the spying is the height of dishonesty. If we are to end trade with all nations which spy on us, or upon whom we spy, then we will quickly find far fewer products available at the supermarket, and much higher prices on everything...."

Wall St. Journal 6/17/99 Helene Cooper "....The Clinton administration, trying to boost U.S. exports to China, quietly offered to provide Beijing with $5 billion in export credits and loans to finance the purchase of U. S. environmental, health and safety products. But the offer, made by U.S. Export-Import Bank Chairman James Harmon during talks two months ago with Chen Yuan, head of the China Development Bank, is among a number of issues put on ice when the U.S. mistakenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.....The proposal is part of the Ex-Im Bank's attempt to re-establish good relations with China, which the Ex-Im Bank incensed in 1996, when it refused to provide "soft" financing, including export credits or loans, to U.S. companies seeking to take part in China's controversial Three Gorges Dam project. The $24 billion project includes a dam - the world's largest - to block the Yangtze River and flood the historic Three Gorges region of central China. Many environmentalists and human-rights activists opposed the project, which they said would cause environmental damage and dislocate thousands of people....He said the $5 billion loan proposal, if accepted by the Chinese, would help narrow the ever-expanding U.S. trade deficit with China, which for March stood at $4.14 billion...."

Reuters 6/18/99 David Storey "…Beijing's brusque rejection of Washington's explanation of the bombing of China's Belgrade embassy does not preclude resuming talks on China joining the World Trade Organisation soon, analysts said on Friday. But they said broader relations were still badly damaged and that both sides must be careful to avoid diplomatic mistakes that could sink chances of reviving the suspended WTO talks and securing agreement by a November deadline. ``They're doing a little dance here on both sides,'' said Patrick Cronin, Director of Research at the ..."…"

AFP Washington Post 6/21/99 "...BEIJING, June 21 (AFP) - An indirect subsidiary of China's state-owned news agency Xinhua has teamed up with a US company to match promising high-technology Chinese companies with venture capital firms overseas. Xinhua Financial Corporation joined hands with Bush Corporation to form Bush-Xinhua Financial Consulting Services, a joint news statement said. The firm will focus on smaller, mid-cap firms in high technology and emerging industries. "We are taking a page from the most successful IPO (initial public offering) markets in the world and Silicon Valley in California," said Dennis Pelino, Bush's chairman and co-founder. ....As much as three billion US dollars can be raised over the next three years to support Chinese enterprises, the statement said....."

International Herald Tribune 6/23/99 Evelyn Iritani "...The fragile independence of this Asian financial center from China is being threatened by fallout from the U.S.-China espionage scandal, officials here fear. A recent congressional report claiming that Hong Kong has become a major transshipment point for Chinese spies and smugglers has triggered calls for a review of U.S. policy that recognizes Hong Kong's unusual status as an independent territory within mainland China. Anyone selling to Hong Kong, may be selling to China's army, said Representative Christopher Cox, Republican of California, head of the bipartisan committee that released the report on Chinese espionage. ''Hong Kong is the whole ball game.'' Hong Kong hotly disputes those charges, and contends that its own export controls are tougher than those of the United States. The sanctity of its border is central to the terms under which the British territory was returned to Beijing's rule two years ago. That set up a ''one country, two systems'' agreement designed to protect Hong Kong's political and economic independence for 50 years. As a show of support prior to the handover, Congress passed a law agreeing to treat Hong Kong as a separate economic entity unless there was evidence that its borders with China were not being closely monitored..."

Reuters 6/24/99 "...China appears to still want to join the World Trade Organisation this year, despite political problems that have derailed negotiations with the United States, U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said on Thursday. ``They've continued to negotiate with other trading partners, the non-NATO countries, particularly Japan, Australia, Brazil and others,'' Barshefsky told reporters after a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on trade. ``I think that indicates they have still set their sights on entry in 1999,'' she added...."

Reuters 6/24/99 Mark Egan "...The World Bank tried on Thursday to defuse one of its most bitter disputes in years as it approved a $160 million loan to China that had angered its biggest shareholders and outraged Tibetan activists. The loan, to be used in part to resettle 58,000 poor Chinese farmers to an area where Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was born, put the bank at the centre of a political storm prompting myriad cries of foul. Among those who opposed the project in recent days were U.S. Treasury Secretary-designate Lawrence Summers, 60 members of Congress, Tibetan interest groups and, most surprisingly, almost half of the bank's 24-member strong board. The loan was approved Thursday against the votes of its first and third largest shareholders -- the United States and Germany -- despite claims the bank violated its own rules in processing the loan. The bank rarely approves loans against the U.S. vote and never on such a high-profile project. ..."

BBC 6/27/99 "....Asia's economic crisis has hit China's export trade hard. China has paid the price for not devaluing its currency, with export growth slowing to 0.5% year-on-year, the lowest annual rate for 15 years. Basing the figures on volume rather than price, exports actually declined. China will have to focur more on domestic spending In the past few years, Chinese exports have been growing fast. They improved 20% last year, but the decision to keep China's currency, the yuan, at the fixed rate of 8.28 to the dollar, made many of its products uncompetitive in Asia...... This year is likely to be different, and the lower priced goods from the rest of Asia are likely to hurt Chinese exports to the West even more. "We are still quite cautious if not negative on China's export outlook, particularly in the first half of the year," said Eddie Wong of ABN AMRO. One bright spot was exports by foreign-based companies in China, which saw exports grow by 8% to $81bn. These companies, which often export branded finished goods, are less vulnerable to competititon from lower-priced commodity exports from other Asian countries. Shanghai, which is one of the centres of foreign investment in China, also showed strong export growth of 12%...."

AP 6/25/99 "...Wanted: Healthy men under 60 willing to make donations to a sperm bank. Only college professors need apply. At the new ``Notables' Sperm Bank'' in southwestern China donors must have academic qualifications at least equal to an associate professor. The bank is run by the state family planning agency in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported late Thursday. It has received lots of phone calls and applications from prospective donors, mainly intellectuals, Xinhua cited the facility's manager, Huang Ping, as saying...."

Xinhua 6/24/99 "...The Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank, acting on the recommendation of President Tadao Chino, has reappointed Peter H. Sullivan as vice-president for a second five-year term beginning July 6, 1999.... A lawyer, Sullivan joined the bank in 1975 from the law firm of Sullivan and Cormwell in New York. ...."

Washington Times/London Daily Telegraph 7/2/99 David Rennie "..." China's commitment to free-market reforms has been cast deeper into doubt by an unexpectedly hard-line address from the leader of the Communist Party. In a speech to mark the party's 78th anniversary, President Jiang Zemin said socialism would defeat capitalism, there would be no all-out privatization of the state sector and China would continue to be guided by Marxism. China was doomed if party members ever lost faith in communism, he said. Meanwhile, China's stock markets fell Thursday after a second day of rumors that reformist Prime Minister Zhu Rongji had tried to resign...."

FoxNews 7/1/99 "...A powerful U.S. congressional committee Thursday backed President Clinton's decision to renew trade ties with China despite spying allegations and human rights concerns. The vote by the House Ways and Means Committee was a victory for Clinton, who is eager to renew Beijing's normal-trade-relations status for another year...."

South China Morning Post 7/1/99 Stephen Seawright "...Hong Kong stocks fell sharply in the last 15 minutes of trade yesterday, with investors pulling back ahead of today's public holiday amid concerns over United States interest rates and the strength of Premier Zhu Rongji's position...."

South China 7/1/99 Reuters "...China dismissed as groundless on Thursday speculation on Asian financial markets that Premier Zhu Rongji had offered to resign. "Such talk is a groundless rumor," said a spokeswoman at the Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet. Rumors that Zhu might step down swept through the region's financial markets on Wednesday and caused jitters in Hong Kong. Zhu has been accused by powerful domestic forces of selling out state enterprises and poor farmers in his eagerness to open China to outside competition by joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). His failure to nail down a WTO deal in Washington in April, even after offering concessions, undermined his position. ...."

5/11/99 Freeper ohmlaw98 on report by Kehong WEN "...The Chinese World Banking Association (CWBA), with 100 member institutions in 15 countries, has been established to help China's banks gain better access to international markets, an executive with the new group announced last Wednesday in Beijing, according to a report by AP-DJNews. CWBA will assist in finding international funding for infra-structure, telecommunications and environmental projects requiring investments between $100 million and $1 billion, said Philip Cavana, chairman of Asian Infrastructure Development Ltd. (A.I.D.)...... William Chang, vice president of Far East National Bank of the U.S., will serve as chairman of the CWBA. Chang also heads the Chinese American Industrial and Business Association, a California-based organization devoted to promoting trade and investment relations between U.S. businesses and their counterparts in Pacific Rim countries, said the report...."

Hong Kong Standard 7/11/99 "…Disney has signed a memorandum to build theme parks in both Hong Kong and Shanghai. Conditions in Shanghai in the coming decade will still not be suitable so, with its advantages, Hong Kong should be able to secure an agreement which will benefit the whole community…"

Washington Post 7/28/99 Paul Blustein "...The House voted yesterday to maintain normal trade relations with China for another year, rejecting emotional pleas from members of both parties to punish Beijing economically for its alleged spying and human rights violations. The 260-170 vote effectively ended this year's debate over whether to keep the U.S. market open to Chinese goods on the same low-tariff basis as other trading partners. Under a 25-year-old law, the trade status of communist countries must be reviewed annually, and President Clinton's recommendation last month to extend normal trade relations with Beijing -- it used to be called "most-favored-nation status" -- can be overturned only by the disapproval of both houses of Congress. The outcome was widely expected, but it set the stage for a much more intense congressional battle that is expected later this year over China's bid to join the World Trade Organization, the Geneva-based body that regulates global commerce...."

Reason website 7/28/99 Cox Reports Interviewed by Michael W. Lynch and Jeff A. Taylor 8/9 99 Reason: The PRC comingles its commerce and defense in order to obtain classified information. You're a supporter of normalizing trade relations with China. Explain why. Cox: I just mentioned that the hard currency surplus that the Communist Party can lay its hands on is a source of mischief. It's an attractive nuisance vis-à-vis Russia. It is used to purchase military equipment from Europe or Israel. The hard currency surplus is simply the other side of the equation from the trade deficit we hear so much about. If instead of them selling us four times more than we sell them, we were able to make some sales in China of couches, refrigerators, phones, and so on, then they would have a better merchandise balance and less of a hard currency surplus. That's in our national security interest..... Reason: So you see normalizing trade relations with them as a way for us to export them more real goods, and therefore less currency, and therefore serve our national security interests? Cox: After all, they are selling us Beanie Babies. They are not selling us nuclear weapons. A mutual trade relationship would have us selling nonthreatening things as well.

Stratfor.com Weekly Analysis 7/26/99 "...China's problem is this. Communism as an ideology is as dead as the Druids. The institutions created by communism (party, army, security apparatus, state industries, planning apparatus) continue to exist, but no one any longer takes the ideology itself seriously. Deng's justification for the regime was that it delivered economic growth. As with Suharto, this was a justification that did not require much discussion, so long as the growth was happening. Jiang's problem is that he does not have either a gripping ideology or economic growth to sustain him. He cannot seal China off from the world as Mao did, nor can he compete in that world as Deng did. At this moment, Beijing simply cannot justify itself and Jiang knows it. Jiang is relying on the brute force and presence of the regime to maintain authority. His ultimate claim to power is that he controls the instruments of power and that any resistance will be crushed. Having lost both the ideological and the pragmatic arguments, Jiang can only win by crushing those who disagree with him. Jiang must create a sense of dread inside China, on an ongoing basis, in order to forestall challenges to his regime. It also helps to create a sense of embattlement. This is why a confrontation with the United States is such a good idea right now. It allows Jiang to use the Maoist anti-imperial tradition because he can portray himself as protecting China from U.S. intrusions. If he can portray Falun Gong, Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan as part of a coherent U.S. strategy, he can at least adopt the mantle of nationalis m. Having achieved that, he might even be able to portray China's economic woes as the result..."

Washington Times 7/28/99 William Hawkins "...National security and the balance of power will loom large in 21st-century Asia. Nuclear and other espionage has given Beijing priceless weapons technology. The U.S. bombing of China's Embassy in Belgrade highlighted the two countries' conflicting views on world order. Beijing continues its weapons proliferation to rogue states and its aggressive behavior in the South China Sea. India has conducted nuclear tests to deter a China-Pakistan axis as Kashmir threatens to plunge the subcontinent into war. Yet those with private economic ties to China have managed to persuade Congress that trade and investment have no connection to national security issues. This was evident when the U.S. House of Representatives endorsed President Clinton's grant of normal trade privileges to Beijing Tuesday...China's rising strength is not just built on espionage and a few instances of negligence. It is the result of normal commerce - trade and investment which every day adds to the resources and capabilities of a brutal Beijing regime whose foreign policy agenda is at odds with U.S. interests......American trade and investment with China shifts the balance of power four ways: 1) China's trade surplus with the U.S. provides Beijing with the foreign exchange needed to buy foreign weapons and military technology. ....2) Enormous amounts of dual-use technology are transferred by American firms simply by doing business in China.... 3) China's aggressive export strategy, encouraged by easy access to the U.S. market, has undermined the economic stability of the Pacific Rim. China and the Pacific Rim are direct competitors of labor-intensive manufactured goods....4) As corporations form closer alliances with the Beijing regime, China gains a stronger voice in American politics...."

Investors Business Daily 7/29/99 Peter Cleary "...On Tuesday - the first time since lawmakers swapped the term Most Favored Nation (MFN) trading status for Normal Trade Relations (NTR) -the House considered a measure to deny preferred trade status for China. .... What's more, China may well be admitted to the World Trade Organization this year - a move that would effectively make its NTR status with the U.S. permanent. What happened? Free-traders were able to convince lawmakers that punitive measures against Chinese trade would hurt U.S. businesses and consumers more than they would harm Beijing. ..... Had China lost NTR, it would face tariff rates based on the Smoot-Hawley levels set in the 1930s, the Congressional Research Service reports. ''These tariffs would apply to over 90% of U.S. imports from China and increase the cost of Chinese goods an average of 33%,'' said Anita Donaldson, director of regulatory policy for Citizens for a Sound Economy. She says many goods would face tariff hikes of 65% or more. ''The effect would be to drive Chinese goods out of the American market altogether,'' Donaldson added. ''This would cost U.S. consumers as much as $29 billion per year, which is the equivalent of a $302 annual (per capita) tax on the American people.''..."

South China Morning Post 8/2/99 Willy Wo-Lap Lam "...Most leaders who have gathered for the series of meetings at the seaside resort of Beidaihe have recommended patching up ties with the United States. A Beijing source said yesterday that provided Washington did not make extra demands on the Chinese, it was likely agreement on China's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) would be reached when presidents Jiang Zemin and Bill Clinton met in New Zealand next month. Washington had satisfied the party leadership it held a properly contrite attitude towards Nato's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in May, the source said...."

EXPORT-IMPORT BANK 5/30/96 Press Conference "...Three Gorges Dam in China... MS. FLYNN: I introduce to you the Chairman and the President of the Ex-Im Bank Board, Mr. Martin Kamarck. MR. KAMARCK: Good afternoon. I have a statement to make, and then I'll be happy to take your questions. As you know, of course, the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank met this morning to consider requests from several U.S. exporters for the Bank to take the preliminary step of issuing letters of interest for the Three Gorges project in China. The Board has concluded that Ex-Im Bank cannot issue a letter of interest for this project at this time. The information received, though voluminous, fails to establish the project's consistency with the Bank's environmental guidelines. ..... American businesses in general and Ex-Im Bank in particular have had a healthy economic presence in China, and it is our hope that this mutually beneficial trading relationship will continue and grow over the long term. In fact, China is Ex-Im Bank's largest customer in Asia. And Ex-Im Bank has an aggressive outreach effort to support U.S. exporters doing business in China. Many Ex-Im Bank staff members have spent months analyzing information, meeting with interested parties, and working on the Board memorandum, which assisted the Board in making its decision. Ex-Im Bank is an independent government agency. The Bank's Board of Directors is mandated to make independent decisions about the appropriateness of providing financial support to export transactions which are determined to be financially, technically, and environmentally sound. .... MR. KAMARCK: Let me put it to you this way, there is nothing that would suggest to us in staff recommendations [inaudible] or in our discussion with the board meeting today that additional information that we would need to make a principled decision [inaudible] basis could not be forthcoming. MR. : [inaudible] do you anticipate that the additional information that you described as being necessary, would that information come from the Chinese manager of the project or the U.S. exporters who want to get Ex-Im Bank assistance? MR. KAMARCK: Typically our experience has been, in large and complicated projects, that we work in partnership with the exporters and the sponsors to develop the information we need to make our decision....."

The Herald (Everett, Seattle area) 8/6/99 AP "...China Airlines, the chief carrier for Taiwan, may cancel an order for 12 Boeing 777s in protest of the Clinton administration's mainland China policy. Boeing had been expecting the $2 billion deal to be formally announced at any time...."

Stratfor.Com 8/6/99 "...A rash of overnight shooting attacks on KFOR troops resulted in 16 arrests on August 6. Russian soldiers were fired upon at three of the seven KFOR checkpoints attacked overnight. In the last two months since the deployment of peacekeepers in Kosovo, NATO soldiers have come under attack approximately 30 times. ..."

NewsEdge Corp 8/6/99 XINHUA "... The United States electric appliance giant, General Electric, began construction of a jet- engine maintenance plant on Tuesday in this port city in east China's Fujian Province. GE will hold 60 percent of the new plant, which is its first investment in engine maintenance in China. The rest of the shares will be split between Xiamen Aviation Industries Co. and Xiamen Taeco Airplane Engineering Co.. The plant will cover 60,000 sq.m. in the Xiamen Aviation Industrial Zone and will be built at an initial cost of 29 million U.S. dollars...."

Freeper flanew 8/6/99 reports "...China National Petroleum (CNPC) is planning to go public through a stock offering. Five main parts

1-Daquing Petro

2-Liaoyang Chemical Fiber

3-Fushun Petro

4-Lazhou Petro

5-Jilin Chemical( HK Traded)

Total assest of CNPC $60 billion (USD)..."Dennis Bennet letter "...So China is providing arms and ammunition to Sudan, in return for future deliveries of oil (called "forward sales" in the oil business). It's a "win-win." Except that China must therefore keep the NIF in power in Sudan-else they'll never get the oil they want. Hence, they cannot afford or tolerate criticism of Sudan. And, if you like, the Clinton-Gore connection with both China and Sudan ensures that the current Administration will not do anything about this situation...... On the other hand-watch the fact that Talisman Energy (the Canadian oil company working in partnership with CNPC and Petronas) is traded on the NYSE and is owned by the states of New Jersey and Wisconsin (also documented on the www.vitrade.com) website. I'm a 20 year global banking veteran, so the research is solid. I'm also now working in South Sudan, and have personally held Chinese manufactured artillery shells captured from the GOS. Bottom Line-The South Sudan people are now fighting not only the GOS, but also the Chinese Gov't and the PLA (Chinese Army), for all intents and purposes (regardless of whether Chinese are flying planes or driving tanks or not)..."

Freeper india3/7 reports "...Enron has contracts with China National Petroleum. One of the contracts is a 30 YEAR production agreement and 100% interest.CNP is controlled by Bejing."--Flanew

"China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is a wholly state-owned enterprise...CNPC will continue to proceed from the State policy when accelerating oil & gas exploration and development, increasing its advantages, intensifying downstream activities and expanding cooperation with foreign counterparts. CNPC sincerely hopes that, on the basis of equality and mutual benefits, further friendly cooperation and exchanges with the world oil community will be conducted in the areas of oil & gas exploration and development, oil & gas utilization, oil & gas pipeline construction, petroleum machinery manufacturing, scientific research and staff training, etc."--Ma Fucai, President, China National Petroleum Company (from Flanew-provided link, this thread post #22) ...."

Far Eastern Economic Review 8/12/99 Walden Bello "...Asia's stockmarkets are soaring again. To some, that portends real economic recovery. To others, it is an ominous sign that the "Electronic Herd," as Thomas Friedman calls it, is back in its Asian grazing grounds, happily snapping up promising stocks and high-interest bonds now, but ready to move out tomorrow, perhaps in another furious stampede..."

China times 8/13/99 "...Business people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits are anxiously watching to see how events develop across the strait, and they agreed that if Taiwanese companies are forced to leave mainland China, the level and quality of economic growth on the mainland will take a turn for the worse, reported the Voice of America Wednesday. The US government-funded radio reported from Hong Kong that the rising tensions between Beijing and Taipei are putting billions of dollars in cross-strait trade and investment at risk, because Taiwan's role as a financial lifeline for mainland China could result in economic fall-out from the political conflict. In the two decades since Beijing began to reform its economy, Taiwanese businesses have invested more than US$30 billion in mainland China, according to the report...."

Investors Business Daily 8/13/99 "...LIKE A SPOILED CHILD, the communists in China want it all: perpetual apologies, changes in U.S. foreign policy, control of Taiwan, Western blindness to their treatment of dissidents and our nuclear secrets. It appears the White House is willing to accomodate China's goals. With relations strained by the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, China is still balking at joining the World Trade Organization. The Clinton admininstration won't give up its quest to wrestle China into the WTO. WHY? The U.S. is begging the Red Chinese to come back to the negotiating table -- even though it was the White House that backed away from a WTO deal last spring. Why did it back out? Because it couldn't get China to agree to concessions that it would shield some U.S. businesses from Chinese competition. Even so, Beijing should be pleading with the U.S. to enter the WTO, not the other way around. The People's Republic has somehow achieved a role reversal.... "

New York Times 8/14/99 Seth Faison "...In an atmosphere of crisis, Chinese President Jiang Zemin is fighting on several fronts at once, trying to exert his personal authority in new ways. Faced with an exceedingly difficult political challenge from Taiwan, where President Lee Tung-hui seems to be spoiling Beijing's dream of reunification, Jiang is not retreating, but is rather taking the offensive. At the same time that he threatens force against Taiwan, Jiang is conducting twin political campaigns: one against Falun Gong, the spiritual movement that was outlawed last month, and the other against laxness in the Communist Party apparatus. Friday, state media reported a major policy address by Jiang, his first since the leadership emerged from an annual summer conclave at the seaside resort of Beidaihe. Jiang spoke not about Taiwan or Falun Gong, or even about Communist Party discipline. Instead, he ventured into a fourth area where he would like to make a personal imprint: economic reform, in which he is exerting greater influence...."

China Times 8/14/99 AFP "...China has again eased its ban on US military aircraft landing in Hong Kong to allow a group of Congressmen to be picked up next week, the US consulate said Friday. "China has approved a landing at Hong Kong airport of a US military aircraft on August 18 to pick up a congressional delegation," said US consulate spokeswoman Barbara Zigli. The aircraft will leave the next day, she said, adding "it is only in transit." The approval came a week after Beijing barred a US military aircraft, reportedly a navy submarine-hunting aircraft, from landing in Hong Kong just days after giving agreement for an air force cargo plan to touch down. Since the May 7 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, which killed three Chinese nationals, China has prevented eight US military ships and two aircraft from visiting Hong Kong. Beijing has suspended military and security exchanges with Washington and put off negotiations on its accession to the World Trade Organization...."

South China Morning Post 8/14/99 VIVIEN PIK-KWAN CHAN "...The mainland faces mounting unemployment as an additional 20,000 have been added to the list of jobless each month since January, an official at the Ministry of Social Security revealed. "The unemployment situation has worsened as the country continued its economic restructuring," the official said. "In the past seven months, we've recorded an additional 20,000 jobless each month. This rising phenomenon has been consistent throughout the country," he said. According to official figures there were 5.7 million urban residents registered as unemployed. The mainland's official urban registered jobless rate was 3.1 per cent at the end of last year, but the official admitted that the actual rate would be far higher if laid-off workers - those who were sacked with minimal pay but who had yet to register as jobless - were taken into account. The number of workers falling into this category would rise by three million by the end of this year, the official said. Unemployment benefits had been extended to cover not only workers from state firms but also those from private and foreign-funded enterprises, some of whom had begun to shed jobs. ..."

The Economist 8/14-20/99 "...WHEN the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed by American aircraft on May 7th, China took umbrage in a big way. In particular, it broke off talks with the Americans over joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The row had the West worried, and the Chinese quickly noticed that, for once, westerners were more eager to have them at the bargaining table than they were to be there. Now, however, China seems to think it has had as many benefits as it will get from its huff. Its officials suggest, to western relief, that WTO talks may soon resume. Quite how soon is unclear. Some think later this month. Perhaps, say others, when Presidents Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin meet in New Zealand in September. In any event, few people doubt that whether China joins the WTO or not is essentially a political decision for the two sides, not an economic one. Last April in Washington, China's prime minister, Zhu Rongji, offered Mr Clinton market-opening measures, especially in telecoms and financial services-concessions the Chinese must have found hard to make. Mr Clinton said they were not enough. This, his advisers admit, was a mistake. If (a big if) China offers similar concessions again, the Americans can be expected to grab them...."

The Economist 8/14-20/99 "...FOR the past couple of years those teenage scribblers at Hong Kong's investment banks who have been predicting an imminent devaluation of China's currency, the yuan, have been left looking rather foolish. Still, even fools have their day. A devaluation is now increasingly likely: not this year, perhaps, but probably early next. Until now, this has been largely a political decision. After all, the yuan is fully convertible only on the trade account. And at the height of Asia's financial crisis, devaluation was an unpalatable option for China's leaders. A cheaper yuan threatened a chain of beggar-thy-neighbour devaluations in the region, undermining the supposed advantages for China's exports. More important to Beijing, Hong Kong's jittery markets might take a Chinese devaluation for a lack of commitment also to Hong Kong's peg to the American dollar. Besides, Zhu Rongji, China's prime minister since last year, realised that China's worst economic problem was not an uncompetitive currency that constrained export growth, but a lack of demand at home. The Chinese have reacted to the chill winds of state-sector reform, rising unemployment, and higher education and medical costs by squirreling away savings in banks, rather than spending their money...."

The Financial Times 8/18/99 James Kynge "…China yesterday said state funds amounting to about a fifth of annual central government revenues had been misused in the first half of this year, the most damning example yet of how corruption is eroding Beijing's power. The People's Daily newspaper, mouthpiece of the Communist party, said Rmb117.4bn (£8.8bn) had been misused in various ways. The amount exceeds the Rmb100bn that China raised by issuing special bonds for infrastructure projects last year. Central government revenues in 1998 amounted to Rmb548bn…."

South China Morning Post 8/12/99 Colin Galloway "…

Statfor.com 8/19/99 "…China has announced that it is placing caps on the production of a range of consumer goods, after price floors and export subsidies failed to halt plummeting prices. Plagued by declining consumer confidence and abysmal domestic demand, China is turning to ever more radical moves to battle its economic depression. It is running out of options. Devaluation is clearly next on the table, but beyond that there remains only the more draconian steps of direct state control, with the accompanying purge of "economic criminals." Analysis: In an effort to halt plummeting prices, China's State Economic and Trade Commission announced a ban on all new projects, involving the manufacture of a broad range of consumer products, Xinhua news agency reported on August 18. The ban would begin on September 1, and includes products ranging from video compact disk players, microwave ovens, refrigerators, and air conditioners, as well as bicycles, toothpaste, plastic bags, candy, salt, apple juice, and liquor. China's domestic market is stagnant, with citizens worried about looming unemployment stashing their money under mattresses rather than spending it. With a glutted market, China's producers are slashing prices, thus threatening to make those unemployment fears come true by driving themselves into bankruptcy. Beijing has already attempted to slow the deflationary spiral, imposing price floors on some products. China is stuck in a crisis of overproduction and underconsumption. …"

Reuters 8/18/99 "…China said on Thursday it was up to the United States to get talks restarted on Beijing's bid to join the World Trade Organisation. ``China-U.S. bilateral WTO talks are stalled and that is entirely the responsibility of the United States,'' Foreign Trade Ministry spokesman Hu Chusheng told a news conference. ``China hopes the United States will take more concrete actions to improve Sino-U.S. relations and allow the resumption of negotiations,'' he said. Beijing froze the talks, key to its accession to the WTO, after NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7, less than a month after U.S. President Bill Clinton baulked at a deal made possible by major Chinese concessions. …. Hu declined to comment when asked what concrete actions Beijing thought the United States should take to put relations, and the WTO talks, back on track. But he appeared to be referring to the Chinese demands, some of which remain unfulfilled. Beijing demanded an apology for the bombing, which it got, and compensation for the victims, which it also received. Talks with the United States are due later this month on compensation for the destruction of the embassy. China also demanded a satisfactory explanation for the bombing and the punishment of those responsible for what the United States called a mistake stemming from bad intelligence….."

Freeper Jolly 8/19/99 Lana Wong "…

South China Morning Post 8/18/99 Willy Wo-Lap Lam "…The crisis for Zhu Rongji is not over. This is despite the fact that to dispel rumours about the premier's resignation, the propaganda machinery arranged two high-profile trips for him earlier this month. During a one-day tour of the Kunming Horticultural Exposition last Wednesday, Mr Zhu hobnobbed with visiting foreign dignitaries. And while inspecting Shaanxi and Henan provinces, the economic tsar held forth on his favourite topic, reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Mainland papers gave top billing to a picture of a smiling Mr Zhu mixing with Shaanxi peasants, a photo reminiscent of Chairman Mao Zedong meeting the masses in the 1960s. The truth of the matter, however, is that Mr Zhu has failed to claw back territory he has lost during a relentless onslaught by conservatives since April. Moreover, the support that he got from President Jiang Zemin at the recent Beidaihe leadership meetings was hardly unqualified. While briefing cadres in Shaanxi and Henan, Mr Zhu confirmed that at Beidaihe, the zhonyang (central authorities) had taken "major steps" in economic work. He asked local officials to "further firm up their confidence, deepen enterprise reform, and change the mechanism of management". Uncharacteristically, however, Mr Zhu breathed no word on specific measures. …"

Freeper Jolly 8/19/99 Rowan Callick "…The extent of China's challenges as its economy treads water has been underlined by two new statistics which are untestable but strongly indicative. Moody's rating agency has estimated that bailing out China's banks could "easily reach" $180 billion. And the Auditor-General, Mr Li Jinhua, has announced that about $22 billion was stolen by party cadres and government bureaucrats in the first six months of 1999. The Moody's statement sets targets for the new asset-management companies being established for the country's four state-owned "pillar" banks, which will take responsibility for selling down the banks' bad loans, chiefly by issuing bonds. Moody's believes the recovery rate will be "extremely low", raising the spectre of failure at some stage of smaller finance houses from the knock-on effect. The agency praised the moves to restructure the sector as "the biggest, most aggressive attempt ever to overhaul the nation's deeply impaired financial system. However, these reform initiatives have failed to touch on many of the deeply entrenched structural impediments in the system" - including the requirement of banks to continue "policy loans" to struggling state companies. …"

AP 8/24/99 "…China joining the World Trade Organization would be "a great moment in world history," but it may not happen before the next world trade round starts in November, the WTO's incoming head said Tuesday. "China is an objective of mine, in my time," said Mike Moore just days ahead of taking up his three-year stint as the world trade regulator's director-general. "I'm going to try to do it, for the right reasons, no short cuts," he said. "I will be disappointed if we can't do it."…."

South China Morning Post 8/21/99 Jasper Becker "…Just how bad is corruption on the mainland? This week Auditor-General Li Jinhua said that a shocking 117.4 billion yuan (about HK$110 billion) of government funds had been misused in just the first half of this year. This is seven times the graft he found, or admitted to finding, in all of 1998. It is equivalent to a quarter of the central government's revenue and slightly more than the amount spent on last year's 100 million yuan fiscal stimulus package, launched amid much fanfare. Some Beijingers suspect it is a sign of desperation when the Communist Party is prepared to admit to corruption on such an unprecedented scale….."

Reuters 8/27/99 "…A trade pact with China could be finalised within weeks so long as Beijing sticks to the market-opening terms it proposed in April, US Commerce Secretary William Daley said. Assuming negotiations on China's bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will resume early next month, he said an agreement between Washington and Beijing could be reached in as little as two weeks' time, clearing the way for the US Congress to give its backing to the deal as early as October. But he said China had little to no chance of becoming a full-fledged member before the WTO's ministerial meeting in Seattle in late November, and warned that there could be a backlash from Washington should Beijing back away from previous concessions to reduce tariffs and open a wide range of Chinese markets to US businesses. To join the 134-member WTO, China must complete a series of trade agreements with individual countries that address specific market access and other trade concerns. …"

South China Morning Post 8/27/99 Jasper Becker "…Mainland experts may claim the economy has bottomed out but the China Economic Times says township and village enterprises are stumbling deeper into trouble. Once hailed as a key part of China's "economic miracle", such enterprises appeared to come out of nowhere and took off in the 1980s absorbing more than 80 million surplus rural labourers. By the early 1990s, they produced as big a share of industrial output as state-owned factories. But the bubble has burst over the past three years. "The growth rate of township and village enterprises keeps dropping" the China Economic Times, complained. In 1997, investment shrunk for the first time by a sizeable 5.6 per cent…."

The Australian Financial Review 8/27/98 Rowan Callick "…The major ratings agencies continue their bearish run of warnings over the slowing Chinese economy, Moody's estimating that bad loans of mainland banks could rise from today's 30 per cent to 50 per cent. This would be the result, says Moody's, of both the continued failure of government efforts to stimulate consumption - with deflation about to enter its third year - and of a tougher approach to the banking system, in which seven interest rate cuts in three years have eroded profit margins. The State Council, China's Cabinet, has proposed a bill for endorsement this week by the National People's Congress Standing Committee to increase the national debt for fixed-asset investment intended to boost growth. The Government owns all China's banks except one - which it nevertheless controls. And last August it halved the cut-off time for considering a loan "bad" from two years to one, ensuring at a stroke that the bad loan picture would take a turn for the worse…."

COMTEX Newswire 8/23/99 "…Beijing, China's capital, is welcoming more than 2,200 guests from over 200 countries and international organizations who are taking part in the 22nd Universal Postal Congress which opened here today. Meanwhile, more than 250 of the world's leading conglomerates have submitted applications to participate in the Fortune forum to be held in Shanghai next month. More than 20 years' opening up to the outside world has shaped a brand new image for China, attracting not only many international conferences, but also numerous business leaders from all over the world. Statistics show that up to 100 conglomerates have moved their regional headquarters to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and some other big Chinese cities….."

COMTEX Newswire 8/23/99 "…Deng Xiaoping's inspection tour of southern China in 1992 prompted further opening and reforms. During the tour he called for accelerated economic development and opening wider to the rest of the world. Following Deng's tour, the government declared the opening of the Yangtze River Valley, the economically vibrant heartland of China. Spearheading the move was the opening of Pudong in Shanghai. According to government plans, Pudong is expected to develop into a high-tech industrial zone and an international financial center. Out of the world's top 500 companies 98 have invested in Pudong, while 59 of the world's top 100 companies have set up business offices there…Retailing was once off limits to foreign investors. Now things have changed, an increasing number of big international retailers, including Wal Mart and Price Smart of the United States, Carrefour of France and Makro of the Netherlands, have now entered the largest Chinese cities. Carrefour alone is expected to have opened 20 stores in the country before the end of this year…."

COMTEX Newswire 8/23/99 "…The Chinese Government has recently approved the establishment of five Sino-foreign joint ventures that engage in foreign trade. Overseas funds are also welcomed in sectors previously thought crucial to the national economy and thus tightly controlled, such as docks, airports and railroads. The country's banking sector has also gradually opened up. By now overseas financial institutions have set up 191 operational units in China. With approval from the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, 19 overseas-funded banks in Shanghai and six in Shenzhen have been allowed to conduct banking business in the Chinese currency, the renminbi. According to official statistics, by the end of 1998, a total of 324,000 overseas-funded enterprises had been established in China, with their pledged investment hitting 573.2 billion U.S. dollars and an actual input reaching 265.6 billion U.S. dollars. …"

Comtex Newswire 8/22/99 "…Vice-premier Qian Qichen visited Shanghai on August 21 and 22 to get a look at preparations for the Fortune forum. Shanghai has increased its role as an international metropolis with modern buildings being built and new economic and social developments and Qian Qichen, who is a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, praised Shanghai when he visited various sites. Qian visited the Shanghai International Convention Center, which is being built at a cost of 800 million yuan (96 million U.S. dollars). The '99 Fortune Global Forum is scheduled to be held at the Convention Center for the end of September…."

South China Morning Post 8/28/99 "…More than 20,000 shops and 720 manufacturers have been punished for selling and producing shoddy construction materials. The State Quality and Technical Supervision Administration announced it had completed a three-month investigation into poor construction materials in a bid to force substandard products out of the market. Many shops and manufacturers had been fined, while some had their business permits confiscated. Inspectors seized more than 1.2 billion yuan (HK$1.1 billion) worth of fake and shoddy construction materials during the investigation. …"

Bloomberg 8/26/99 Heidi Przybyla "…The Clinton administration will keep confidential a long-awaited report exploring what impact China's membership in the World Trade Organization would have on the U.S. economy. That decision, coupled with the administration's moves to delay the report, underscores White House concern about airing any potential criticism of its push to get China into the Geneva-based trade body, policy experts say. The report may stoke criticism, since it will conclude that at least one U.S. industry -- textiles -- would ``clearly be hurt'' by China's WTO entry, according to an internal document from the author, the independent International Trade Commission, that was obtained by Bloomberg News. ``The administration is always very cautious that any kind of skeptical or realistic policy analysis could stir up opposition in Congress and undermine negotiations with the Chinese,'' said Greg Mastel of the Center for National Policy, a Washington think tank. …"

WorldNetDaily.com 8/31/99 Charles Smith "…According to a 1997 report on the Chinese defense industry by the Rand Corp., the Chinese communists "often reward themselves with large official and unofficial commissions. ... In the case of the ministry level receipts, these funds are believed to be used for a wide variety of legitimate and illegitimate purposes, ranging from modernization of industrial plants to the padding of the Swiss bank accounts of top ministry officials." Doing business with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is very profitable for the corrupt. It is no surprise that the Chinese army does its banking with the same firms who did Adolf Hitler's finances. The communist Chinese have come to accept Marxism and money. The curious mix of left wing politics and capitalist profits is not a new concept. The fall of old communism came during the 1980s with Premier Li Peng's order to "just go and make money." Li Peng's order has given rise to a new fascism. The central party and single power of the Chinese communists are not threatened with the advent of consumer goods. The PLA generals profit, the army profits and even the party profits. However, the massive giant of over a billion people cannot match the economic output and standard of living earned by a few million on the tiny island-nation of Taiwan. The People's Republic of China can not match Taiwan even after the jewel of Hong Kong was given away to the red overlords. Obviously, being able to choose which toothpaste to buy is not freedom….."

South China Morning Post 9/6/99 Mark O’Neill "…State companies think entry into the World Trade Organisation will be bad for them. Even the mighty tobacco industry fears an invasion of the market by hungry and powerful American, British and Japanese firms. This week, Beijing and Washington resume talks on the mainland's application for the first time since Beijing suspended them in anger after the Nato attack on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade on May 7. But a survey of 1,235 state companies published in the China Economic Times made clear the strength of opposition to WTO entry. Asked if entry would be good for them, 32.6 per cent said yes, 40.12 per cent said no and 27.23 per cent had no opinion….."

Investors Business Daily 9/7/99 John Berlau "…''The Calpers effect.'' It's a common term in the investment world, and it refers to the tremendous power the California Public Employees' Retirement System wields as the nation's largest public pension fund….. After Investors Business Daily reported the pension fund was investing millions of dollars in companies believed to have ties to the Chinese military or the mainland's intelligence networks, concerned lawmakers, national-security analysts and ordinary citizens began warning other states of potential bad actors in their portfolios. IBD has learned that public pension funds in at least two other states -Texas and Tennessee - have holdings in companies possibly linked to the Chinese military or Chinese espionage. Other such investments may be unearthed as state officials face heightened scrutiny from lawmakers and from employees vested in the funds……. On Aug. 2, Reps. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., and Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, cited the Calpers example in a mailing to all 50 state treasurers and attorneys general…… ''I appreciate your bringing this important matter to my attention,'' she wrote. But Calpers was not so appreciative about the attention brought to its pension-fund investments. In a July 27 press release, Calpers Investment Chairman Charles Valdes blasted the IBD article as ''inflammatory and inaccurate'' and ''McCarthyism at its worst.''…. ''If they're going to accuse anyone of (McCarthyism) they better get their facts straight, and this thing is rife with errors,'' said Edward Timperlake, a former national-security investigator for the House Rules Committee who helped set up the Cox committee. Timperlake and others took issue with Calpers' claim that the companies ''originated and have operated from Hong Kong for many years prior to the reunification of China.'' In fact, the companies are known as ''red chips,'' extensions of mainland China's state-owned enterprises that were first offered on the Hong Kong exchange in the 1980s to raise money for their parent companies. ''Most of the key decisions (of the subsidiaries) are still made in accordance with the wishes of controlling government bodies,'' notes ''Red Chips and the Globalisation of China's Enterprises,'' a 1998 book written by Charles de Trenck, a Hong Kong-based analyst for Credit Suisse First Boston, and four other financial analysts….."

Associated Press 9/8/99 "...Negotiations between China and the United States on China's bid to join the World Trade Organization have resumed, and the two sides will hold high-level talks on the matter in the coming days, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said Wednesday. U.S. Assistant Trade Representative Robert Cassidy met with China's top WTO negotiator in Beijing this week, embassy spokesman Bill Palmer said. Prior to Cassidy's visit, talks on China's 13-year campaign to join the world trade rules-making body were frozen because of the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia. ...."

The Australian Financial Review 9/7/99 Rowan Callick "…Fund manager Richard Tsiang, a Melburnian now based in Hong Kong, spends much of his life walking around grubby factories in China. His fund, Allard Asia, kept growing through the regional economic turmoil in part because it identified sound direct investment opportunities, including in China thanks in part to skills Tsiang learned from Alan Jackson when he worked for BTR. But Tsiang sees scores of companies before picking on a promising pearl. Almost all are State-owned enterprises (SOEs), which are especially ubiquitous in China's central heartland province, Sichuan. On a visit there earlier this year, when cash-starved SOEs were clamouring for his attention, he made one call that remains especially fixed in his memory. It was to China's National Erzhong Group Co, in Deyang…… While National Erzhong, and thousands of SOEs like it all over China say they are seeking foreign partners to restructure, Tsiang says in most cases the money will be absorbed by overwhelming welfare needs. "People desperate for working capital will lie through their back teeth to get it," he says….."

London Financial Times 9/6/99 James Kynge "…China yesterday announced extra spending of Rmb54bn (£4.1bn) this year on increased social security benefits or civil service salaries for 84m people. The move is aimed at reinvigorating consumer demand and easing deflationary pressures. State television said benefits for the unemployed, as well as for low- and middle-income families, would be raised by 30 per cent, backdated to July 1. Civil servants would receive an average Rmb120 wage supplement every month, also effective from July 1, and pensions would be increased by an unspecified amount, the television added. The measures highlight the mounting strain of China's economic reform process on state finances. The reforms have led to yawning gaps between rich and poor, swelling numbers of unemployed and fostering a general reluctance to spend because of uncertainty over the future…."

The Australian Financial Review 9/6/99 Rowan Callick "…China's economy has hit a Great Wall. That's not new. What's different this time, is that the Government has already tried most of the tricks in the economic text-books - Marxist and capitalist - to shift it, and nothing seems to work. This year's ever-accelerating trail of new policies, and of policy U-turns, gives an impression of dynamism but also hints at desperation. Growth has fallen throughout the '90s, deflation is about to enter its third year as inventories of unsaleable products pile up, foreign investment was down 10 per cent in the first seven months of 1999, with planned investment down twice as much, urban unemployment is soaring, capital is fleeing overseas, up to half all bank loans need to be written off, half of the 914 listed companies reported either losses or lower profits in the first half of 1999, and 47 per cent of foreign ventures in Shanghai reported losses for 1998. That context makes it a little less surprising that Australia sells more exports to Taiwan's 23 million people than to China's almost 1.3 billion…."

The New Australian 6/12/99 Peter Zhang "…Many American conservatives pay a great deal of attention to China's military ambitions and potential - and so they should. But to do so while ignoring China's economic situation is to show poor judgement. Beijing fully understands, if most of these conservatives do not, that to successfully wage full-scale war against a highly advanced economy requires an economy at a similar stage of development. President Jiang Zemin's support for increased expenditure on sophisticated weaponry to counter the American presence. His statement that we "should focus our limited funds on cutting-edge areas of military science and technology" will certainly alarm many. But the word "limited" should be carefully noted. China is still a very poor country by any measure….. Trade and foreign investment figures demonstrate that China's economic success has been greatly exaggerated. China accounts for less than 4 per cent of world GDP compared with about 25 per cent for America. The picture is even worse once we take in to account the fact that China's GDP has been inflated. She is responsible for only about 3 per cent of world trade, lagging behind Holland with a population of 22 million. Even China's volume of internal trade has fallen….."

China Times 9/9/99 "…Chinese President Jiang Zemin on Wednesday described US President Bill Clinton as an "old friend" and said talks over China's entry to the World Trade Organisation had already resumed. "Clinton is my old friend," he said at an unscheduled press conference in Canberra. "Since August I have heard regularly from the United States. There have been many occasions when America has expressed a wish to resume talks (on the WTO). "Clinton wrote me a letter in this regard and I replied so the talks have already resumed." Jiang said the WTO would be incomplete without China, the largest developed country in the world, but played down Beijing's eagerness. "I have read from some Western reports that China has been very eager to ask for resumption of the talks on China's membership of the WTO," he said…."

China Times AFP 9/12/99 "....US President Bill Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin began a summit here Saturday aimed at restoring cordial bilateral relations and spurring China's admission to the WTO. The encounter was the first for the two leaders since China angrily suspended official contacts with the United States to protest a US air attack on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade May 7. Beijing subsequently rejected Washington's explanation that the bombing, which killed three Chinese nationals, had been a mistake caused by faulty intelligence. In comments to reporters at the start of the summit, both presidents reiterated their positions on Taiwan. Jiang said Chinese military action remained an option if Taiwan declared independence. ...."

AFP 9/11/99 P Parameswaran "....Chinese President Jiang Zemin vowed Saturday to open China further to the outside world but warned that economic globalisation was a "double-edged sword." "We will as always firmly pursue the policy of reform and opening to the outside world," Jiang told a business dinner in New Zealand on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. "The future is bright for China's economic development and modernisation drive," the president said. But outside the convention centre where Jiang was speaking, scores of protesters from the Falungong semi-religious group banned by Chinese authorities were kept at bay by heavy security. They held up banners protesting arrests of their followers in China. "Release innocent Falungong members," read one sign. Jiang made no mention of the protesters and it was unclear whether he had even seen them. The Chinese leader warned that economic globalisation could be a "double-edged sword." While helping to open markets and improve efficiency, globalisation also "presents to all countries, the developing ones in particular, the new task of how to maintain their own economic security," he said....."

Wall Street Journal 9/11/99 Marcus Brauchli "...Erwin Engst was 27 and burning with admiration for Mao Tse-tung's communists when he traveled to Beijing in 1946. A lifetime in China later, his love of Mao's communism is undiminished. Yet the 80-year-old American's disillusionment with his adopted homeland runs deep.....That's because China no longer resembles much the communist state Mr. Engst spent his life building. Its communal farms have been splintered into a million private plots. Its five-year economic plans highlight the role of private capital, not the utopian vision of party elders, in shaping society. As many as one in ten of China's nearly 1.3 billion people are adrift, migrant workers seeking work along the country's long, flourishing coastline. They don't always find it, and so end up shadows of China's pre-communist past, homeless or begging on city streets.......The headlong rush to develop a modern, market-driven economy has become the defining characteristic of China today. And to a dwindling group of foreigners who volunteered their lives to the ruling Communist Party, that's a betrayal of what brought them here half a century ago. Seen through the eyes of this idealistic brigade, the essence of today's China is the erosion of its ideological foundations....."

The New Australian 9/13-19/99 Peter Zhang No. 133 ".... Beijing's economic woes are setting alarm bells ringing. Real investment is down, productivity is slipping, unemployment is rising, inventories are accumulating, state enterprises (an oxymoron if there ever was one) are bankrupt, and so on. Though growth figures were always exaggerated, though not exactly fraudulent, they did contain genuinely good news about economic progress. Now the figures are not only looking particularly sick no one even takes them seriously anymore. What's gone wrong, or going wrong? is a question I'm frequently asked. There is no answer from the Party machine and nothing from the papers. This is not because bad economic news is being censored - it's because the government does not honestly know why the economy is sliding. Things are now so desperate that Beijing is implementing Keynesian policies. That these policies will eventually worsen the situation is something beyond these officials experience and training. ..... Looking at the extremely poor pay of Chinese professionals tells us quite a bit about the state of the economy. In highly developed economies professionals are very well paid indeed, though few are prepared to admit it, and some are rather prone to complain that they are not paid enough. The reason they are paid so well is that their countries are capital rich while countries like China are capital poor. Being very capital poor means that per capita output will be at miserable levels. This means that though professionals will still have material advantages over most other workers their pay must nevertheless still be very low. Raising per capital investment increases the demand for labour and thus real wages. It therefore says a great deal about the Chinese economy that even first class surgeons would earn vastly more managing a McDonalds outlet. The only thing that usually keeps the lid on a situation like this is the expectations of rising living standards. Dash these expectations and the political situation could turn very nasty indeed. This is something of which the regime is fully aware. What is embittering opinion is the well-founded belief that sons and daughters of highly placed officials have been using their Party network to enrich themselves at the expense of others. Whichever way one looks at it, this amounts to grand larceny and corruption on a massive scale. Unfortunately, corruption is so entrenched and well organised it is highly unlikely that any member of the Party would ever be able to stamp it out. ....Unfortunately, the tendency is for the regime to respond to grievances in a brutal manner. But how do you arrest 1.2 billion people? The Party's grip in the countryside, where most people live, has never been more feeble. In the cities, it is largely treated with contempt and suspicion. Arresting members of the Falun Gong movement only brought derision on the Party. Bundling old men and women into buses was definitely not a smart move and only succeeded in discrediting the regime further while fueling popular resentment, of which the Falun Gong is in part a peaceful expression. What will happen? I don't really know. I do believe, however, that things cannot continue as they are. ..."

New York Times 9/15/99 Editorial "....Relations between the United States and China, which lurch from crisis to friendship to crisis, appear to be at least temporarily back on a positive footing. On Sunday President Clinton and Jiang Zemin, the Chinese President, gave a welcome nudge to negotiators to complete a broad agreement enabling China to enter the World Trade Organization, possibly before the organization's meeting in Seattle in November. It is not clear how quickly China wants to close a deal. But bringing China into the global trading community will yield big dividends, and the Administration should make a maximum effort to conclude an agreement. Arrangements for Chinese entry into the W.T.O. were supposed to have been announced in April during the American visit of Prime Minister Zhu Rongji. But because of last-minute political pressure from Congress, where antipathy toward China runs high, the Administration backed away. Its failure of nerve embarrassed the Chinese and proved costly. Valuable negotiating time was lost because China stopped its talks with the United States in protest over the accidental bombing of its embassy in Belgrade in May......"

South China Morning Post 9/10/99 Christine Chan "....Beijing has moved to bolster the mainland's flagging stock markets by allowing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to invest in shares on the secondary market. Yesterday's move was a timely shot in the arm for stock markets, ahead of the National Day holiday on October 1, which marks the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic, analysts said. Mainland shares have been on a roller-coaster ride in the past two months. They roared back to life yesterday following news of the government's move. Domestic A shares posted their biggest one-day gain in two months. In Shanghai, the A-share index surged 6.6 per cent yesterday to finish at 1,779.49 points, while the foreign B-share index rose 5.7 per cent to 47.09 points. The advances were mirrored in Shenzhen, where the A-share index jumped 6.02 per cent to 527.03 points and the B-share index climbed 6.97 per cent to 94.07 points. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said SOEs and listed companies would be allowed to buy or sell shares on the secondary market, but they must hold on to them for at least six months, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. The lock-up period is much longer than the market had expected....."

AP 9/17/99 "....Some 1,500 workers and laid-off employees from two textile factories in central China's Hubei province staged a protest on Friday demanding payment of two-years in back wages and pensions, a human rights group said Saturday. The protesters from the Huanggang City Wool Factory and a bedsheets factory blocked traffic in a main road of Huanggang from mid-morning until police dispersed them in the late afternoon, the Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China reported. ...."

COMTEX Newswire 9/21/99 Xinhua "....Zhao Qizheng, director of the State Council Information Office, said in today's People's Daily that the Fortune Forum to be held in Shanghai from September 27 to 29 has been well prepared. Zhao said that the decision by Time Warner to chose Shanghai as the host for the forum indicates that international financial circles are paying great attention to China's economic development. "It's was decision following careful consideration by Time Warner, rather than prompted by a sudden impulse, "said Zhao. Since China adopted its reform and opening up policy in 1978, the country has used foreign funds totaling 280 billion U.S. dollars, and become an important partner for many of the world's multinational corporations. Statistics show that some 80 to 90 firms of the first 100 in this year's Fortune top 500 list have invested in Shanghai. More than 800 participants, including presidents and representatives from multinational corporations from overseas as well as Chinese companies will attend the Forum whose theme is " China: The Next 50 Years." So far, more than 600 journalists have registered to cover the conference. The meeting will focus on business opportunities and challenges, economic issues, and practical realities related to conducting business in China today and in the 21st century....."

CNSNews.com 9/22/99 Susan Jones ".... The China National Petroleum Corporation -- the Chinese government's oil monopoly -- plans to hold an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange next month in the hope of raising $10 billion to invest in oil exploration projects. China National Petroleum and China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) are the two pillars of China's most strategic industry, and they are the major vehicles being used to raise billions of dollars from stock listings, a leading oil industry analyst told CNSNews.com. ...."

Reuters via Yahoo 9/21/99 Adam Entous "...The Republican majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives said Tuesday there was little chance China would win congressional support for its bid to join the World Trade Organization this year. The statement, by Republican Leader Dick Armey of Texas, was a blow to the Clinton administration, which resumed WTO negotiations with Beijing a week ago and hoped to convince the Republican-controlled Congress to back China's accession into the 134-member trade body by late November. As part of any WTO trade pact between the United States and China, the Clinton administration must persuade Congress to grant Beijing permanent most-favored nation status, which the United States now refers to as normal trade relations (NTR). Clinton will need the Republican leadership's support, since many Democrats will oppose China's accession to protest against Beijing's record on human rights, the environment and labor standards....."

Congressional Record, http://thomas.loc.gov 9/22/99 Rep Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) ".... What binds Americans together is our love of liberty and our love of justice and our love of freedom. That is the foundation, that is the basis of our country. How can we, if we believe that to be true, consider the world's worst human rights abuser as our strategic partner? Yes, having a trading relationship with a dictatorship such as China is wishful thinking. It is also exploitation on the part of various business interests in the United States, business interests that, I might add, could care less about the working people in our country, often closing up factories here in order to set up factories in China, in order to sell the products that were made in China back here in the United States because we have such a low tariff on Chinese goods, although the Chinese tariff on our goods is very high. But if we stand for freedom and justice, how can we have not just a trading relationship but a strategic partnership with Communist China? It is my contention, Mr. Speaker, that this nonsense, this almost surrealistic policy on the part of the Clinton administration, has already yielded a horrible bounty of threats and jeopardy to the United States of America. Let me make this very clear. The Clinton policy of treating Communist China as a friend, as a benevolent country, as a strategic partner, has resulted in putting the United States in grave danger......"

Wall Street Journal 9/23/99 Ian Johnson Helene Cooper "...China's trade minister and top trade negotiator are expected to fly to Washington on Saturday for talks with their U.S. counterparts, the first substantive negotiations about China's entry into the World Trade Organization in nearly six months. The Chinese officials -- Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng and his top trade negotiator, Long Yongtu -- are to begin meetings Monday with U.S. Trade Rep. Charlene Barshefsky and her chief China negotiator, Robert Cassidy. Talks between the two sides on the long-running WTO issue are expected to continue through Tuesday, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The talks come nearly two weeks after Presidents Clinton and Jiang Zemin agreed at a summit in New Zealand to restart negotiations aimed at getting China into the WTO before late November, when the trade body's members begin discussing new trade rules. Both countries' congresses must approve a pact, so a deal must be made by mid-October to meet legislative calendars..."

American Cause 9/10/99 William Hawkins "….The Clinton administration is pulling out all the stops to get China in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Last December Clinton had the U.S. Trade Representative ask the International Trade Commission (ITC) to prepare a study of the "benefits" the U.S. could expect from China joining the WTO. Clinton wanted data which would persuade Congress and the public that bringing the Beijing regime into the WTO was not just another act of appeasement, but something to benefit Americans…… The ITC report makes another amazing conclusion: The U.S. trade deficit with China would actually increase - exploding past the $57.4 billion reached last year. American exports would actually grow very little (about $2.7 billion), the report found. But Chinese exports would increase; particularly in textiles, with "adverse effects" on American firms and workers. Proponents of China WTO membership have argued that it would reduce the deficit by opening the China market. The ITC destroyed that notion. But admitting China into the WTO would be hazardous for reasons other than economics. Such a move would shift trade, money, and thus, power to China from South Korea, Taiwan, and Mexico -- China's commercial rivals but America's friends and allies. …."

South China Morning Post 10/2/99 Jasper Becker "....Foreign investment levels are falling in the mainland for the first time in 20 years and concern was expressed by some executives in Shanghai this week for the Fortune Global Forum that they would not pick up without reform or entry into the World Trade Organisation. "The China honeymoon is finished," said Ting Liu, chairman of Asialink Group, a consultancy for leading Western corporations. "And the government is very concerned about the foreign investment slowing." Uli Sigg, a former Swiss ambassador and chairman of the board of the Ringier conglomerate, believes the Beijing missed an opportunity to renew interest by announcing new measures to open the economy to investment. "I had expected there would be real news here and that a clear programme of SOE [state-owned enterprise] reform would be announced, I thought it had all been prepared, " he said. Other mainland-watchers in Shanghai believe nothing was decided because of a fierce conflict taking place behind closed doors between Premier Zhu Rongji and his predecessor, Li Peng, over the pace and scope of the privatisation process....."

Reuters 9/27/99 Adam Entous "....U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators held urgent talks on Monday as part of an uphill battle to bring Beijing into the World Trade Organization before the end of the year. The high-level negotiations were expected to last one day, rather than two as initially planned, and were not expected to produce a WTO deal. But U.S. officials and business leaders held out hope that Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and her Chinese counterpart, Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng, would narrow their differences over U.S. commercial access to Chinese markets. ``They met this morning and this afternoon the negotiators are going to meet again,'' a spokeswoman for Barshefsky said. Shi declined to comment at the start of the talks. Negotiators have no time to waste. The deadline for China's accession into the global trade body is widely seen as late November, when WTO ministers launch the next round of global trade talks in Seattle. Any delay could leave Beijing shut out of the global trading body for years. ...."

Techweb 10/1/99 Madeleine Acey ".... Sprint has been told it has to pull out of its Chinese telecom venture as China cracks down on foreign high-tech interests in the country. The company confirmed on Friday it was in negotiations to recoup its investment following talks that made it clear Sprint had little choice in the matter. In 1997, the U.S. telecom company entered a three-way consortium with state-owned China Unicom and Tianjin Communications Construction Investment to build and operate a fixed wire-line network for the city of Tianjin, serving 9 million people. ...... Fisher said he understood other foreign high-tech companies had been told to pull out. A newspaper report earlier on Friday said more than 20 companies, including NTT, France Telecom, Bell Canada, and Cable & Wireless HKT, had been told as of Friday, they could no longer receive income out of telecom interests in China. It was believed the Chinese authorities said the investments -- totaling more than $1.4 billion -- broke regulations banning foreign investment in the country's telecom infrastructure. ...."

ChinaOnline News 10/14/99 ".....In an effort to reverse a slump in foreign investment and exports, Beijing has opened its policy toolbox yet again and and rolled out another round of tax incentives for foreign firms and Chinese exporters. Under the new policies, foreign firms that buy domestically made equipment will receive a full value-added tax refund. In addition, qualifying Chinese exporters will be granted higher export tax rebates on their goods, according to the Oct. 14 Hong Kong Ming Pao. The policies Beijing cooked up this year to counter falling exports appear to be working. In September, exports rose more than 20% on-year; export growth for the Jan.-Sept. period clocked in at 2.1% on-year. But imports are also rising, up 19.3% in September and 32.5% for the first nine months of the year....."

Central News Agency (Taiwan) 10/16/99 "….Washington and Beijing still have not reached a concrete agreement on mainland China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), said US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Thursday…..Washington and Beijing failed to reach a concrete agreement on mainland China's entry into the WTO mainly because both sides still cannot reach a consensus on some important business issues, Albright said. She said leading mainland China to become a member of the world trade regulatory body is not only an important economic affair, but also will result in the introduction of democracy, open market economy, legal standard and peace into mainland China, thus making members of the whole of the international community get along more closely….."

Reuters 10/19/99 "....A Clinton administration official warned on Tuesday that China's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) was approaching the "midnight" hour and that it would be very difficult to reach a pact this year. "It's getting close to midnight now," U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce David Aaron told reporters. "It's very difficult." .....Aaron said there were no plans to boost Beijing's role in upcoming WTO talks if an agreement can't be reached. "I don't see that it (China) will play any role," beyond its current status as an observer, he said. To join the WTO, which sets global trading rules, China must reach market-opening agreements with the United States, the European Union and other WTO members....."

Miami Herald 10/22/99 Jim Mann "....A month ago, after President Clinton schmoozed his old friend Chinese President Jiang Zemin in New Zealand, it looked as though the way was being paved for a milestone WTO deal -- one that would integrate China into the global economy and make it easier for foreign firms to do business in China. But since then, silence. U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky pushed to complete a deal in New Zealand, to no avail. When another round of talks was held in Washington three weeks later, China sent only its tough trade minister, Shi Guangsheng, and not its chief WTO negotiator, Long Yongtu, who has handled most of the talks with the Americans. The negotiations broke off quickly. The Clinton administration has told China that if it wants to get into the WTO this year, time is getting short. Right now, China's answer seems to be, ``So what?''......"

Far Eastern Economic Review 10/28/99 Nayan Chanda, Susan V. Lawrence, Shada Islam ".....As the World Trade Organization's November ministerial meeting in Seattle nears, anxiety is growing over the fate of China's bid to join the trade body. Beijing appears to be working on a two-pronged strategy. One is to lobby the European Union to accept its membership, hoping that this will pressure Washington to do the same. The other involves an unusual offer made by U.S. President Bill Clinton in April. If accepted, China would be able to join the WTO--but would not enjoy WTO benefits in its trade with the United States until Congress agrees. According to a Chinese source who advises top leaders, including Premier Zhu Rongji, Chinese officials are reminding the U.S. that Clinton telephoned Zhu on April 13, after the Chinese leader had left Washington without a WTO deal, and asked him to return....."

UPI Wire 11/2/99 "....The Clinton administration has been working behind the scenes with China in recent weeks and hopes to close a deal shortly that will bring Beijing into the World Trade Organization. The New York Times said Tuesday that the details of the reported plan are not known, but some senior administration officials say the odds the deal will go through are 50-50. The latest effort to hammer out a deal reportedly started when President Clinton telephoned Chinese President Jiang Zemin on Oct. 16. The details of the conversation were not known. The Times said that what officials called an "intense set of interactions" resulted from the call, which the newspaper said indicated the president's deep desire to salvage the trade deal with China that Clinton walked away from in April, something Clinton aids said he deeply regrets. ...."

Enter Stage Right 11/1/99 Peter Zhang "….In some ways economic thinking is so bad in China that I'm trying to think of something funny to say about it. While the British seem to have a happy knack of making fun out of even the grimmest of situations, no such tradition exists in China. That's sad because I think we're going to need one. However, American conservatives can look on the bright side -- for the moment. While they are worrying about how to contain China's potential for creating military mischief Beijing is planning to implement economic policies that could cripple military expansion. Yep, life's full of ironies. While having clever young Chinese train in the West as engineers and scientists was a smart move, having some trained as economists was definitely dumb…… It was the State Development Planning Commission that forced me to consider the extent to which Lord Keynes' poisonous economic brew had become Beijing's economic panacea. The commission calculated that if each of the 85 million peasants who are to be moved off the land were to each spend 30,000 yuan this would expand the demand for residential housing by 2550 billion yuan. In addition, further spending of 400 billion yuan on consumer items like fridges, televisions, etc, would stimulate the economy and help absorb a glut of consumer goods. The fallacy here is the very old one of thinking that savings are a drain on an economy while consumption drives it. There is no general glut in China but there has been a massive misdirection of production….."

Weekly Standard 11/8/99 Greg Mastel "….The fate of China's effort to join the World Trade Organization is unclear; matters involving internal deliberations in Beijing usually are. There is always the possibility that China is waiting until the last minute to wrap up WTO negotiations, hoping that the Clinton administration's desire to build a record of achievement for its engagement policy will force Washington to lower the bar for WTO membership. The emerging consensus, however, seems to be that China is simply unwilling to tackle the domestic reforms that WTO membership requires. In the spirit of "If I don't win, I'll take my ball and go home," China is also insisting that if it cannot become a WTO member, Taiwan cannot be allowed to join either. Surprisingly, the United States seems willing to tolerate this Chinese petulance, though doing so runs directly counter to U.S. interests. The United States should press for Taiwan's membership in up coming WTO negotiations whether or not China is admitted. …."

International Herald Tribune 10/30/99 Douglas Paal "….Gloom prevails over prospects for agreement between the United States and China on terms for Beijing's entry into the World Trade Organization in time for the WTO ministerial meeting that opens in Seattle on Nov. 30. But China has preferred to make haste slowly. Prime Minister Zhu Rongji does not intend to close the deal until just before the Seattle meeting. He was deeply embarrassed when President Bill Clinton rejected his original offer in April to open China's markets. So this time he does not need the pain of a drawn-out renegotiation while his political enemies kibitz. After Mr. Clinton's rejection, a vote of the standing committee Communist Party's Politburo on a renewed offer to Washington was indecisive, with two members for, two against and three abstaining….."

Australia Financial Review 10/27/99 Rowan Callick "….A year ago, China's Premier, Mr Zhu Rongji, dropped a bombshell. He ordered the closure of failing Guangdong International Trust & Investment Corp (GITIC), telling its 320 creditors they would have to pursue their claims with the company itself, or through the courts. GITIC had defaulted on a $15 million half-year interest payment on a $340 million international bond placed privately in the United States, unprecedented in the history of the People's Republic. This was at first seen as bad news, confirmation of the extent of the problems endemic in China's ramshackle finance sector. In the latest of a series of reports to creditors, released last weekend, liquidators now estimate that of $3.5 billion assets, less than $1.5 billion is recoverable. ….."

REUTERS 11/8/99 ".....President Clinton sent his top trade negotiator and a key White House aide to China Monday to try to hammer out an agreement for Beijing to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), the White House said. The trip appears to be a last-ditch effort to reach an accord by the end of the month, when ministers from the 134 WTO members will gather in Seattle to launch a new round of world trade talks. Such an agreement, if it can be nailed down after months of halting negotiations that broke down entirely when NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7, would offer U.S. companies much broader access to the Chinese market - potentially the world's largest with 1.2 billion consumers....."

AP 11/6/99 "….German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder says an agreement to allow China to join the World Trade Organization is close, but Beijing must first agree to certain conditions….. One of those requirements includes tariff reductions. Chinese President Jiang Zemin said although Beijing is keen to enter WTO, there were limits to China's concessions. ``China is a developing country and the opening of the commodity and service markets will take time,'' the Chinese government's news agency Xinhua quoted Jiang as telling Schroeder. China's entry ``should be beneficial to the stability and development of the Chinese economy,'' he said. ……"

China Times 11/4/99 AFP "….China said Tuesday it was not at all relieved that US legislators had decided to postpone a vote on a controversial law that would strengthen Washington's military ties with Taiwan. Lu Shuning, minister counselor and spokesman for the Chinese embassy here, said China would stay "on alert" in opposing the Republican-sponsored Taiwan Security Enhancement Act which it says would severely damage US-China ties and raise tension in the Taiwan Strait. "We have noted the information that house Republicans have decided to delay the consideration of the act on the floor until next year, but still they have not done enough," Lu said. The Washington Post reported earlier Tuesday that leaders of the House of Representatives had decided to postpone the vote over concerns that its passage could interfere with negotiations over China's entry into the World Trade Organization…."

Australian Financial Review 11/17/99 Peter Brain "….China's agreement with the US for WTO entry is no surprise given the economic pressures on Beijing's economy. After all, the Chinese economy is probably stagnant despite the claim of a statistical GDP growth rate of around 7 per cent. The core factor driving the statistical growth rate has been public expenditures. A substantial part of this expenditure growth has in reality been high-cost social security transfers given the low quality of investment projects undertaken. On a year-on-year basis exports are stagnant, and the official unemployment rate has risen by two-thirds over the past year. Indeed, the real unemployment rate is up to 20 per cent in the cities. …."

Australian Financial Review 11/17/99 Claude Barfield Mark Groombridge "….As details unfold regarding the deal struck between Washington and Beijing on the terms of accession for Chinese membership into the World Trade Organisation, there is cause for rejoicing and cause for worry. Certainly, the market access provisions seem close to the liberal package to which China agreed in April and therefore are heartening. But on key issues, such as administered protection through the use of selective safeguards and anti-dumping actions and transparency (relating to commercial law and legal due process), the deal appears wanting and potentially retrograde. Finally, US negotiators have also missed an important opportunity to use the accession process to force the Chinese to introduce greater transparency in their commercial laws and administrative procedures as they affect foreign businesses and investors….."

Fox News Wire 11/16/99 Martin Crutsinger AP "….President Clinton is pledging an all-out effort to win congressional approval of a major market-opening trade agreement with China. Judging from the strong negative reaction from U.S. labor groups, he will have to make good on that promise. Teamsters union President James P. Hoffa denounced the pact as a "slap in the face not only to workers in America, but to their counterparts in China.'' AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called it a "grave mistake.'' "It is disgustingly hypocritical of the Clinton administration to pledge to 'put a human face on the global economy' while prostrating itself in pursuit of a trade deal with a rogue nation,'' Sweeney said in a statement. The American Textile Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group, estimated that the trade deal with China will cost 150,000 U.S. jobs in the textile and apparel industries, two sectors that face heavy competition from Chinese imports. ….."

CNN 11/15/99 "…..China cleared a major hurdle blocking its path into the World Trade Organization on Monday by signing a historic, market-opening pact with the United States. U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and Chinese trade minister Shi Guangsheng signed the agreement Monday to reduce trade barriers and move China closer to its goal of entering the WTO. The pact obligates China to cut tariffs an average of 23 percent and promises greater access for U.S. banks, insurers, telecommunications firms and Hollywood film exporters to Chinese markets, a U.S. Embassy statement confirmed...."

The New Australian 11/15/99 Peter Zhang "..... Against strong opposition in Beijing, Zhu Rongji makes the US an offer on a trade that is too good to refuse. What does Clinton do? He refuses it. This humiliated Zhu and strengthened the hand of his opponents and perhaps even marginalised him. Now this is what I call brilliant diplomacy. But why did Clinton do it, especially after he indicated to Barshefsky, the US negotiator, and Zhu that it was a done deal? The answer is Al Gore. Now that Gore has the support of the left-wing run AFL CIO he needs to placate its leaders who are screaming for protection. But before anyone nods in agreement let's not forget that Zhu's agreement, the breadth of which surprised many, would have seen China slashing industrial tariffs from an average of about 25 per cent to about 9 per cent. .....Don't get me wrong. I am not defending Beijing. My feelings about the regime have been made crystal clear in a number of articles. As I have already said elsewhere, it is utterly foolish to expect Beijing not to steal or buy American secrets if it gets the chance. The CIA would do the same to China - and rightly so. It is not Beijing that should be damned for spying but Clinton and his mates who sold their country out for campaign funds. Like I said, they are different issues and the Republican leadership knows it. Blaming the Republicans for Clinton's sell-out to Gore's left-wing union supporters is just another tactic to get Clinton off the hook. So what now? Zhu lurks on the outer, suffering much loss of face, while the gnome-like Jiang breaks open the champagne. Like I said, real clever, Bill. Nevertheless, there's always tomorrow. With the Chinese economy taking a turn for the worse, Jiang and his cronies might find the champers going rather flat, in which case we will, I think, being hearing more from Zhu - but not while Bill Clinton is still soiling the White House, I'll wager....."

The Times (UK) 11/16/99 Oliver August "....CHINA yesterday agreed a landmark deal with America that will lead to its membership of the World Trade Organisation and tear down commercial barriers in the world's most populous nation. The two countries concluded 13 years of negotiations during a six-day session after most experts had written off China's chances of joining the organisation before the trade summit in Seattle in two weeks' time. Chinese and American officials believe that a new era in Sino-US relations may now be about to start....."

Ming Pao 11/18/99 The Times of India News Service Harvey Stockwin "…..As the Sino-American agreement on China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been oversold, the many boosters of the incipient pact have consistently insisted that it was a "win-win deal"…… The "win-win" verdict was portentously used by China's Minister of Foreign Trade Shi Guangsheng at the signing ceremony on November 15th. Whether he devised that verdict, or the Clinton Administration had insinuated it, is not yet clear. But the main reason that the overuse of the "win-win" phrase plus all the other hype was basically unjustified is simple: there was no factual basis for it. The 14-page document placed on the Internet by the Clinton Administration last April, setting out the state of the Sino- American negotiations on WTO accession, and listing the concessions which Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji had offered on his visit to Washington, and which Clinton then felt unable to accept. Even the Clinton Administration should have recognized that Zhu, with negligible factional strength of his own, would not appreciate his secret negotiating hand being exposed so that his enemies, within the Chinese bureaucracy, could read it. Apart from that grave error, no equivalent document has been released since the negotiations finally concluded on November 15th….."

Time Magazine 11/22/99 Terry McCarthy "…. China's Jiang Zemin has dreams of becoming as immortal as Mao. World trade is a first step To be president of China's 1.3 billion people is already a management proposition from hell. But to become Emperor of China requires a mystical aura of power that can move mountains, change the weather and, these days at least, deal with pesky foreigners who want into your telecommunications market. Last week President Jiang Zemin made a grab for imperial status by inking a World Trade Organization deal with the U.S. that will open China to free international trade for the first time in history. Along the way, 73-year-old Jiang had to move mountains of conservative opposition at home, change the atmospherics between Beijing and Washington, and, yes, deal with 100 million tangled telephone lines. By any measure, it was a monumental deal for China. But for Jiang it was even more--a bid to boost his reputation from that of polished technocrat to the more mythical status of ideological leader. Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping--theirs is the kind of status Jiang is bidding for. ….Jiang played his WTO hand brilliantly, waiting for U.S. President Bill Clinton to call him--twice--before putting his weight behind the deal. Says Hong Kong-based Fred Hu, Goldman Sachs' chief China watcher: "That's called the Emperor mentality--you kowtow to me first." ….."

Associated Press 11/21/99 Martin Crutsinger "…..In terms of trade victories, it has been a long dry spell for President Clinton. Two big deals in his first two years in office, and then nothing for the past five years. But by resuscitating a major market-opening agreement with China that many had given up for dead, Clinton has provided himself one last chance to burnish his trade legacy. First, in his final year in office, he must get the measure through a Congress that in 2000 will be filled with members of his own party who have been extremely hostile to his centrist ``New Democrat'' message that protectionism is not the answer to America's economic problems in an era of increasing globalization. …."

THE ECONOMIST 11/20-26/99 "…. NO NATION was ever ruined by trade, wrote Benjamin Franklin. But what about an entire system of government? That is the big question raised by the trade deal signed by China and the United States this week, paving the way for China's entry into the World Trade Organisation. The deal raises plenty of other questions, too. Can Bill Clinton get the deal through Congress? If so, can China be made to play by the WTO's rules, or will its obstructionism pull the whole organisation apart? Does China really have the stomach to carry out its market-opening promises? Or will resistance from hardliners unseat the reformers, led by President Jiang Zemin and the prime minister, Zhu Rongji? Will the unsettling consequences of entry, indeed, be too much for ordinary Chinese, putting the spark to a social tinderbox? The central question, however, is whether Chinese Communism will be strengthened by membership of the WTO-as China's leaders must hope-or be ruined by it, as Benjamin Franklin surely would have wished. …."

New York Times 11/27/99 James Feinerman "…. It's usually smart to be wary of the hard sell. And the hard sell is what we will continue to hear from Seattle next week, as the World Trade Organization meets. The Clinton administration has been pushing for China's entry into the trade group, optimistically predicting immediate gains for American businesses. Markets will be opened; tariffs will be reduced; regulations will be loosened, we're told. W.T.O. membership, the administration claims, would transform China because its regulations, on trade and other matters, would become public and subject to foreign scrutiny. Here's the catch: It may take a decade or more to reach that rosy result, if at all……"

INSIGHT Magazine 12/29/99 Kenneth Timmerman "….. Communist China once again has succeeded at making U.S. appeasement appear like Chinese concessions, this time in the terms of agreement for China's admission into the World Trade Organization, or WTO. American business leaders and consumers would be advised to take a closer look at how China has exploited U.S. trade concessions in the past before they leap on the bandwagon of this latest agreement. In August, when it tested the DF-31, a new long-range intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, Beijing revealed just how successful free trade with American defense and high-tech firms has been -- not in expanding U.S. exports, but in advancing China's own strategic interests.. . . . Some experts believe the missile will be topped with a specially designed nose cone that will give China the ability to launch multiple nuclear warheads deep into the American heartland. Despite the fact that China developed the DF-31 with U.S. targets in mind, an investigation I conducted for Reader's Digest has discovered that both the missile as well as the warhead dispenser were developed with assistance from the U.S.-based companies -- and apparently, with the approval of the U.S. government. . . . . "Our factory was in trouble before I started working there," the Chinese scientist told me during the last six months. "Then we got a major contract from Motorola, and things took off." The sudden influx of hard currency "financed the DF-31 program," he said, as well as another, shorter-range missile, the DF-21, which will be used to target Japan……..

CNSNews.com 12/15/99 Jim Burns ".....Teamsters Union President James Hoffa, in the wake of violent demonstrations at the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle, put the Clinton administration on notice about granting "normal trading relations" to China. Speaking at a Washington news conference, Hoffa said, "We cannot and we will not allow the WTO and our political leaders to bow to the altar of free trade. We won't let them cater to corporate executives who shell out $250,000 a pop for a WTO reception but can't afford to provide their workers with decent wages and benefits. We won't let them trample on our jobs and our rights. And we won't let them jeopardize the health and welfare of our families." Hoffa had this message for the Clinton administration, "This administration is now on notice. The Teamsters Union will not accept mere promises to protect jobs, promises that time and time again have not come to fruition. I refuse to sit by on the sidelines while the gains that Teamsters have made and other organization labor unions have made at the bargaining tables are auctioned off to the highest corporate bidder." ...."From this day forward," Hoffa said, "our political leaders better know that if they continue to cut trade deals and put copyrights above workers rights and human rights, that there will be a heavy price to pay." .....The Teamsters protest in Seattle against the WTO was just the beginning, according to Hoffa. The union is now setting its right on what Hoffa called an "even bigger battle" in Washington....."

Associated Press 12/9/99 ".....Fattened by rising exports, China's foreign reserves increased to $152.5 billion by the end of October 1999, a senior official said Thursday. The figure means that China's stock of hard currency grew by $5.4 billion in the June-October period, more than double the rise in the first half of the year. A rebound in exports after a sluggish first half contributed to the sharp increase in foreign reserves, said Wang Yafan, director-general of the capital division at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange...."

Bloomberg.com 12/8/99 ".....U.S. labor unions, ``energized'' by their part in thwarting World Trade Organization talks in Seattle, are promising an all-out drive to block a U.S. accord clearing the way for China to join the WTO. ``We are planning a very vocal and very energetic'' campaign to oppose the agreement, said Thea Lee, trade policy director of the AFL-CIO union federation. That agreement, reached last month,is expected to come up for a congressional vote next year. Some U.S. Congress members, especially Democrats, say a full-throttle union campaign could make it difficult for them to vote in favor of the U.S.-China accord, which the Clinton administration considers a foreign policy priority....."

Associated Press 12/7/99 Kevin Galvin "….On the heels of the world trade talks' collapse in Seattle, White House officials began working with lawmakers Tuesday to win congressional approval for China's accession to the World Trade Organization. The meeting during congressional recess underscored the importance the Clinton administration places on the deal that would open China's vast market to U.S. goods and services. It also reflected concern over the strength WTO critics showed in organizing protests around a meeting of trade ministers last week. ``This agreement creates new opportunities in America while promoting reform in China,'' said White House spokesman Jake Siewert. ``It is critical to get an early start.'' …"

Hong Kong Standard 12/27/99 Pamela Pun "….BEIJING is considering putting a halt to spending huge sums of money to win over Taipei's diplomatic allies.Sources said Taipei would be expected to make similar moves.Mainland diplomatic sources said Beijing thought that winning diplomatic ties with countries based on financial aid or incentives was ``neither secure nor meaningful''.Through the upcoming ``truce in diplomatic battlefield'', the mainland hopes to warm relations across the straits, paving the way for the resumption of dialogue with its arch-rival in the near future...."

Washington Post 1/5/00 John Pomfret "….China announced today it plans to scrap all obstacles to developing the economy's private sector, giving one of its strongest endorsements ever to free enterprise in response to economic problems that the government said demand "urgent solutions." The announcement, made by State Development Planning Commission Chairman Zeng Peiyan, was a remarkable acknowledgment that China's multibillion-dollar effort to resuscitate its moribund state-run sector has failed...."

Yahoo Finance 1/19/2000 Reuters "….U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley said on Wednesday it was critical that Congress vote soon on a landmark trade agreement with China, warning the November election could jeopardize its chance of passage. ``Everyone seems to want it (the vote) sooner rather than later,'' Daley told reporters after a cabinet meeting with President Bill Clinton on trade and other issues. ``Every day that goes by and we get closer to a November election, it gets much more difficult, much more complicated.'' The White House said Clinton and his cabinet would launch a major campaign to convince Congress to approve permanent normal trade relations status for China, which would clear the way for China to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). …."

The China Daily 1/23/2000 "….General Electric established a joint venture in Shanghai yesterday, the largest foreign investment project approved by the municipal government so far this year. Of a total investment of US$25 million in the GE Toshiba Silicones Shanghai Co Ltd, 51 per cent is owned by GE and 49 per cent by Toshiba. It is GE's fourth investment in the city since last October. The new plant, located in the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone of the city's Pudong New Area, will produce a wide range of high-quality silicone products. These products will serve local markets like construction, personal care and electrical and electronic industries, according to Gregory Adams, president and CEO of GE Toshiba based in Tokyo. …."

New York Times 1/11/2000 Joseph Kahn "…. President Clinton promised today to wage an all-out campaign to get Congress to back a landmark trade deal with China, and administration officials have enlisted numerous corporate chief executives for what they describe as the most aggressive pro-trade lobbying effort since the United States opened its borders to free trade with Canada and Mexico seven years ago. The campaign will pit the administration and its business allies against a network of labor, environmental and consumer groups, which oppose the new trade agreement with China and are eager to test their strength after successfully mobilizing street demonstrations that helped to scuttle world trade talks in Seattle late last year. The vote concerns the November agreement between the United States and China that paves the way for China to enter the World Trade Organization……"

US Newswire 2/2/2000 Sandy Berger "..... Following is text of remarks on China as prepared for delivery by Samuel R. Berger, assistant to the president for national security affairs : The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars ...... Today, I want to talk about China. Since President Nixon went to China in 1972, the United States has sought to develop a constructive relationship with Beijing, initially as a counterweight to the Soviet Union and later in recognition of China's growing importance in its own right. We have worked for the emergence of a China that contributes to peace in Asia. A China with an economy that is open to American products, farmers, and businesses. A China whose people have access to ideas and information, that upholds the rule of law at home and adheres to global rules on everything from nuclear non-proliferation to human rights to trade. This year, we have an unprecedented opportunity to advance those goals. The opportunity is China's entry into the World Trade Organization....... Every debate on trade must first answer the threshold question: will our economy and our workforce benefit from the terms we've negotiated, or will they suffer? From an economic perspective, there is no denying that this agreement strongly benefits the United States. For years, China has had open access to our markets, while its markets have been in many ways closed to American products and services. This agreement requires China to make wide-ranging new concessions to open its market, while we have agreed only to maintain the market access policies we already apply to China. Denying China PNTR simply would deprive American companies and workers of the full benefits of China's concessions -- the favorable market access and dispute settlement that our European, Japanese, and other competitors will have. This agreement will dramatically reduce China's tariffs on everything from agricultural and industrial products to computers and semiconductors. It directly responds to concerns about unfair trade practices in China and allows our businesses to export to China from here at home, and have their own distribution network in China, rather than being forced to set up factories there to sell products through Chinese partners......"

CNNfn 2/1/2000 Reuters ".....U.S. Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott said Tuesday that Congress was likely to back a landmark trade agreement with China this year, but warned that tension between Beijing and Taiwan, and other thorny issues, could undermine support for the deal. "I think we're going to do it. I really think we're going to get it done this year, but it's going to be delicate and it's going to take a lot of work," he told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a group lobbying Congress to approve the trade agreement. Lott's comments came a day after the 13-million-member AFL-CIO labor federation urged Congress to reject the agreement with China, telling lawmakers in a letter that Beijing must do more to protect workers before joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). ....."

China Daily 1/28/2000 "…..China and Cuba yesterday signed a bilateral agreement in Beijing on China's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). Shi Guangsheng, minister of foreign trade and economic co-operation, and Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz signed the agreement. Also yesterday: In Geneva, China reached an agreement with Peru and Uruguay on its membership in the WTO. In Beijing, Endymion Wilkinson, ambassador of the European Union Commission Delegation to China, said hopes are high for the EU and China to reach an agreement on China's entry into the WTO. ..."

NewsMax.com 1/30/2000 UPI "….In a bid to boost his country's prospects of securing entry to the World Trade Organization, China's Vice Premier Wu Bangguo unveiled an ambitious economic outlook that projects a doubling of the national output by 2010 and the average annual growth rate of 7 percent. China projects its fixed asset investment will grow by 10 percent annually, and its total imports in the coming decade will exceed $2,000 billion, Wu told world political and corporate leaders attending the annual World Economic Forum here. WTO membership, said Wu, an engineer and former electronic company executive, would be good for China and for the world and would create more opportunities for businessmen to participate in China's reconstruction. He said that last November's Sino-US trade deal on China's WTO entry was "a big step forward" in the process of securing the necessary support. …."

Associated Press 1/25/2000 "….Two years into a three-year reform program, the Chinese government said Tuesday that this year marked a "decisive battle" in turning around ailing state enterprises, with more unemployment certain as firms lay off unneeded workers. Sheng Huaren, head of the commission overseeing the program, expressed confidence that the government would get most key state enterprises out of chronic debt and ready for the free market by early 2001. There were successes last year, including the reduction or elimination of losses at many enterprises, and a 70 percent rise in profits to $10.9 billion. The trends even held true for former loss-leaders, the northeast rust belt and the textile industry, both of which made money for the first time in six years….."

Associated Press 2/12/0 "….China is considering setting up a special armed police force to protect tax collectors and help curb rampant tax evasion, a state-run newspaper said Sunday. Since 1993, more than 20 tax officials have been killed and hundreds injured, with violence mainly occurring in rural areas where farmers are often heavily taxed. Tax evasion also is rampant, with more than $3.6 billion in back taxes owed at the end of last year, the China Daily said in its Business Weekly edition. The newspaper said the State Administration of Taxation, China's tax watchdog, is in talks with government ministries, including the national police, about how to staff a tax police force. The State Council, China's cabinet, also is considering setting up special tax courts and tax procurates, the newspaper said……"

Reuters 2/11/00 "…..China's ambassador to the United States said on Friday rejection by Congress of a U.S.-China trade deal would harm relations between the two countries. ``That would be pretty bad for our trade relationship,'' Li Zhaoxing told reporters after a meeting with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman to discuss farm trade issues. Congress is expected to vote this year on whether to approve permanent normal trade relations with China, as required under an agreement reached last year on China's entry into the World Trade Organization. Li also said that approval of the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act would have a ``disastrous'' impact on relations. ….."

The Wall Street Journal 2/9/00 Michael Phillips "….Top business executives are issuing a blunt warning to federal lawmakers: Vote against the trade deal with China, and we will hold it against you when writing campaign checks. Phil Condit, chairman of Boeing Co., and Robert N. Burt, chairman and chief executive of FMC Corp., said a coming vote to facilitate China's entry into the World Trade Organization will be a measure of every lawmaker's friendliness to business. "We aim our donations ... at people who support free enterprise and what we see as the free-enterprise system," Mr. Burt said. "Free trade is certainly one element that goes into that." With trade agreements under attack from environmentalists, human-rights activists, religious groups, labor unions and others, businesses are lining up their protrade forces. A critical test of their success will be their ability to win congressional approval of permanent normal trading relations with China, part of the China-WTO agreement the administration hammered out with Beijing last year. The vote hasn't been scheduled yet. …."

stratfor.com 2/16/00 "……The People's Liberation Army (PLA) continues to play an important role in Chinese business despite President Jiang Zemin's 18-month old ban on doing so. According to a Feb. 15 report by Reuters, the PLA has not only kept its stake in China Great Wall Communications, but has formed a new telecommunications company: Hebei Century Mobile Communications. By expanding into so-called CDMA, Code-Division Mulitiple Access cellular service like that used in the United States, the military is moving into a high profile, lucrative market. By doing so, the PLA can continue to fund itself independently of the central government in Beijing. In political terms, the military's newly revealed enterprise strongly suggests that Jiang is not firmly in control of the situation. Abroad, this development is a warning to foreign investors who are watching China's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). Largely untapped by foreign investors, China's cellular telephone market has tremendous growth possibilities. There are 40 million users, and the dominant company - state-run China Telecom - reports that its customer base has grown 44 percent per year……. The PLA's bid to provide American-style cellular service suggests two things. First, Jiang is unable to enforce his most important command to the military; the PLA continues to seek its own sources of funding and ultimately some degree of independence from Beijing. Second, Jiang may be unable to deliver the lucrative Chinese telecommunications market to foreigners, even though membership in the WTO requires it. ……"

Inside China Today 2/25/00 Reuters "……European demands for 51 percent foreign ownership rights in Red Chinese mobile phone networks was a key factor behind the failure of WTO talks between the European Union and Communist China, an EU source said on Thursday. Red Chinese negotiators refused to go beyond the 49 percent level agreed upon in a trade deal last November with the United States, the source said. "They considered it a closed issue," he said. ……"

Reuters 2/25/00 "……To protest a key pact with China, AFL-CIO labor federation President John Sweeney and two other union leaders resigned from a White House panel that advises President Clinton on trade policy, the group said on Friday. The move came before the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations was expected to endorse the trade agreement, which calls on Beijing to open a wide range of markets, from agriculture to telecommunications. The pact is a crucial step for China to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), which sets global trading rules. The AFL-CIO and other labor unions, traditionally allied with Clinton's Democratic Party, have singled out the landmark trade agreement for attack, demanding that China improve labor and human rights before joining the Geneva-based WTO. ….."

Reuters 2/24/00 "…..President Clinton on Thursday promised an all-out effort to win congressional approval of a trade deal with China, and urged corporate titans to join what he said would be a difficult battle. ``You'll get a full-court press from my administration,'' Clinton said in a speech to several dozen chief executives from major U.S. corporations. ``We can't underestimate how hard it will be'' to win congressional approval, he said. ..."

Reuters 2/24/00 Matt Pottinger "….China has inexplicably delayed the rollout of mobile phone networks that use technology owned by U.S.-based Qualcomm Inc, threatening one of China's largest ever stock listings, foreign executives said on Thursday. The hold-up came just one week after Qualcomm signed an agreement in Beijing paving the way for China's number two state carrier China Unicom to build a national network using the CDMA mobile standard. The CDMA networks are a cornerstone of China Unicom's plans for a multi-billion-dollar initial public offering planned for Hong Kong and possibly New York in May. Qualcomm owns the patents for CDMA, and would stand to earn hefty royalties from last week's licensing agreement with China Unicom. …."

Chicago Tribune 2/23/00 "….. Just when the United States seemed to be making significant progress engaging the People's Republic of China in trade talks and world markets, China has shown again what a dangerous customer it can be by issuing a pointed new military threat against Taiwan. A month before Taiwan's presidential elections, China on Monday released a government report that went beyond its longstanding policy of threatening war if Taiwan should ever take overt steps toward independence from the mainland. Now, according to China's new report, the Communist government in Beijing will "be forced to adopt all drastic measures possible, including the use of force" if Taiwan refuses indefinitely to pursue "the peaceful settlement of cross-strait reunification through negotiations." China thus has upped the ante by lowering the threshold for what it would consider a justified use of force against Taiwan. Now Taiwan not only must forego any move toward independence, but it must negotiate on Beijing's timetable. That's unacceptable. ….."

Reuters 2/23/00 "……Leaders of a powerful U.S. Senate committee said Wednesday a landmark trade agreement with China was in peril after Beijing threatened to attack Taiwan and Vice President Al Gore suggested he might renegotiate the pact. "You're going to lose this," the Senate Finance Committee's ranking Democrat, Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, told U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky at a hearing on President Clinton's market-opening pact with Beijing. Finance Committee Chairman William Roth, a Delaware Republican, said Senate support for the trade agreement was no longer "a foregone conclusion." In exchange for China's reduction of barriers in areas from agriculture to telecommunications, Clinton must convince the Republican-controlled Congress to grant Beijing favorable access to U.S. markets -- so-called permanent normal trade relations status. …."

Washington Post 2/18/00 Ceci Connolly "……The nation's top union leaders today papered over their split with Vice President Gore on trade with China even as they vowed to wage their most aggressive lobbying effort yet to prevent China's entry into the World Trade Organization. "Each of us knows where we stand," AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney said after Gore met privately with members of the union's executive council. Gore said he will continue to support the Clinton administration's push to permanently grant China normal trade status this year, which the AFL-CIO opposes, citing China's poor worker rights record. Sweeney promised to use every weapon available to simultaneously defeat the administration on normalizing trade relations with China and to put Gore in the White House next year. Despite some differences, Sweeney said Gore offers the best future for America's workers. "The vice president has committed himself to being stronger on core labor standards in future trade agreements when he is president," Sweeney said. ….."

United Press International 2/19/00 "…..President Clinton and Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono agreed on the need to involve Asian nations, including China, in the next economic summit of the world's seven leading democracies and Russia, U.S. and Japanese officials said. "We have to listen to whether China wishes to attend," said Yasuhisa Kawamura, a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman, referring to the Okinawa G-8 summit scheduled for July……. But China's status as a communist nation rather than a democracy poses problems. A democratic government is the lynchpin requirement for inclusion in the world's most powerful economic bloc. Any involvement by a communist government is likely to stir controversy among G-8 members and in the broader international community, where many economically powerful democracies already want G-8 access……"

South China Morning Post 2/17/00 "……US lawmakers overnight (HK time) proposed a special commission to review China's human rights record annually, in a move that could bolster support for President Bill Clinton's landmark trade deal with Beijing. The proposed commission may appeal to many Democrats and some Republicans who want a forum to air their concerns about human rights and labour abuses in China in exchange for supporting the market-opening trade agreement. ''The commission ... would place a permanent spotlight on China,'' said Representative Sander Levin, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee and sponsor of the proposal. ..."

Business/Economy News 2/17/00 Reuters Benjamin Kang Lim "…..World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Mike Moore said on Thursday he is helping facilitate China's 13-year bid to join the global trading body and was ``very hopeful'' of accession in the first half of this year. ``We can facilitate and encourage and, of course, we are doing that,'' Moore told reporters shortly after arriving in Beijing just days before China's key WTO talks with the European Union. Asked if China would be able to become a member in the first half, Moore said: ``We're very hopeful.'' ..."

Inside China Today 2/17/00 Reuters "…..The 13-million member AFL-CIO labor federation said on Wednesday it would launch a major television and radio advertising campaign against President Bill Clinton's trade agreement with China, putting pressure on congressional Democrats to scuttle the pact. The federation, allied with Clinton's Democratic party, also released the results of a national poll which found that a majority of Americans opposed granting permanent trade privileges to China. The market-opening trade agreement, hammered out by U.S. and Chinese negotiators last year, calls for China to open its markets and clears the way for Beijing to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), which sets global trade rules. In exchange for China's reduction of barriers in areas from agriculture to telecommunications, Clinton must convince the Republican-controlled Congress to grant Beijing favorable access to U.S. markets, so-called permanent normal trade relations status. Permanent NTR would guarantee Chinese goods the same low-tariff access to U.S. markets as products from nearly every other nation. China currently benefits from this status on a year-by-year basis. ….."

CNNfn 2/16/00 Don Tyler "….House Republican leaders say that putting trade relations with China on a permanent basis is at the top of their efforts this year to promote free trade policies. The GOP leaders, at a news conference Tuesday, said they also will move early this year on measures to open trade with sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean and to reassert the U.S. leadership role in the World Trade Organization. The administration, also gearing up for an expected summer vote on China, estimated that a U.S.-China agreement last November on opening Chinese markets could triple U.S. farm exports to $3 billion annually. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman told farm lobbyists they have to be "intent and focused" and he urged them to organize pressure on members of Congress by farmers and other constituents to win the China vote. ….."

New York Times 3/9/00 David Sanger "……President Clinton today sent Congress his bill to usher China into the World Trade Organization. He then opened a new front in the debate on the subject in his own party, arguing that opening China's markets will undermine Communist Party control. In a speech at the Johns Hopkins University's foreign affairs graduate school here, Mr. Clinton tried to float above the bitter economic debate in his party about the wisdom of the legislation, and he said little about Taiwan, whose relations with China have been flaring up. But he made an argument that opening up China's economy amounted to a poison pill for China's Communist leaders. "In the new century, liberty will spread by cell phone and cable modem," Mr. Clinton told a crowd that included students, lobbyists and many members of Mr. Clinton's cabinet, who are now calling members of Congress daily about the issue. ….."

Washington Times 3/10/00 Carter Dougherty "……Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao Thursday signaled in Beijing that American firms will be hit hard if Congress does not extend unconditional and permanent normal trade relations (NTR) to China. "If this issue cannot be thoroughly resolved, it will be detrimental to the interest of U.S. enterprises in China," Mr. Zhu said. The threats directed at American businesses highlighted the unusual political dynamic in the debate over NTR. The Chinese government has made little effort to be heard in Washington. Instead, the American business community, along with the Clinton administration, is doing the heavy lifting. Given the prize at stake -access to a market of 1.2 billion people - business needs little prodding, but the Chinese government does let U.S. companies know their lobbying services are appreciated……."

Los Angeles Times 3/8/00 Jonathan Peterson "…..As members of Congress prepare for what could be their major showdown of the year, the battle over granting China permanent normal trade ties is unfolding against an unusual backdrop: A recent deal that will transform Beijing's economic relationship with the United States remains secret from the general public. Lawmakers, senior staff and others with special security clearance are being allowed to review the document, which was negotiated last year and paves the way for China to become a member of the World Trade Organization. But they are legally restricted from copying or discussing the 2-inch-thick set of rules and details that are stamped "confidential" and bear the initials of U.S. and Chinese negotiators. As a result, critics complain, one of the biggest foreign policy decisions the nation has faced in years will be made with an extraordinary lack of public knowledge and informed discussion. ….."

Washington Times 3/8/00 Carter Dougherty "……The Clinton administration's refusal to make public the details of a landmark trade agreement with China is hampering efforts to win congressional approval for the deal, leading senators said. "I'm not sure the Finance Committee or the Congress is going to want to go forward [on a vote] without knowing exactly what we're doing here," Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, told U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky yesterday. At a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Mrs. Barshefsky countered that the administration has made a strong case for the deal and for approval of permanent normal trade relations (NTR) with China without releasing the details of the pact publicly. "We believe that Congress has before it all that is necessary to adequately provide China with permanent NTR," she told the committee. ……"

Reuters 3/2/00 "…….Nearly two-thirds of Democrats in the House of Representatives will oppose a landmark trade agreement with China, dimming prospects for its passage, a member of the Democratic leadership said Thursday. House Minority Whip David Bonior of Michigan, a vocal opponent of the trade agreement, said 128 of the House's 211 Democrats would oppose legislation granting China permanent trading privileges in the U.S. market, with only 83 Democratic voting in its favor. ….."

Reuters 2/29/00 "….. PetroChina Co. Ltd., China's largest producer of crude oil and natural gas, filed with U.S. securities regulators to go public and list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The company, a subsidiary of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., hopes to raise as much as $5 billion in the United States and Hong Kong although it did not state how many shares it plans to sell or for how much in the preliminary prospectus filed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. …."

Roll Call 3/2/00 Ethan Wallison "……. House Democrats are warning the business lobby that China trade legislation will likely die this year if the U.S. Chamber of Commerce follows through with plans to endorse the probable Republican opponent of vulnerable freshman Rep. Baron Hill (D-Ind.). But Chamber officials say they are sticking with the endorsement - approved by the group's board of directors but not yet made public - in spite of the possible cost, and in spite of the intense pressure to back down from a wide array of interests, including the White House and several of the group's most prominent member companies. The planned endorsement of Hill's challenger, Kevin Kellems (R), comes even as the business community revs up its most potent lobbying effort in years in a drive to win permanent normal trade relations status for China. Winning that trade concession, which must be made before China can be included in the World Trade Organization, is Big Business' number one goal in this Congress. ….."

Washington Times 3/1/00 Bill Gertz "…..Two senior congressional leaders said yesterday that China's threats against Taiwan are undermining support for passage of legislation that would boost trade between Washington and Beijing. "It's going to be tougher and tougher to get the votes [in the House] if China doesn't quit threatening Taiwan," said House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Texas Republican. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott also said Chinese threats have placed passage of China trade legislation in doubt. "The great danger with regard to China being admitted to [the World Trade Organization] and permanent trade status is China's conduct," Mr. Lott said. "They cannot be threatening their neighbors and participating in nuclear proliferation, and violating human rights, and participating in religious persecution and expect the representatives of the American people to say, 'Oh, well, yes, that's all bad, but . . .' " ….."

South China Morning Post 2/29/00 Reuters "….. The Clinton administration said overnight (HK time) it would rush legislation clearing the way for a congressional vote on its WTO deal with the mainland, after key lawmakers warned that time was running out for a vote this year. US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said the White House would submit legislation ''shortly'' asking Congress to provide China with permanent trading privileges with the United States. White House aides said the request could be made as early as this week. Ms Barshefsky also urged congressional leaders to schedule a vote on the pact as soon as possible, even before trade negotiations between China and the European Union wrap up. ''I don't think Congress should wait,'' she told reporters. ......"

Associated Press 4/13/00 David Ho "……A Republican opponent of permanent trade status for China has triggered an inquiry into whether the Clinton White House violated a law that prohibits using federal funds for lobbying. The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, is examining the administration's China Trade Relations Working Group, a White House command center dedicated to securing congressional approval for ''permanent normal trade relations'' status for China. In a letter to presidential aide Mark Lindsay dated April 11, the GAO requested interviews with White House officials, an array of documents and detailed explanations of how the administration didn't use federal funds for significant lobbying of Congress. Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-Va., said he requested the investigation after learning about the group's ''war room,'' a command center which could influence congressional debate before a House vote on China's trade status during the week of May 22. ……"

Business Wire 3/31/00 "………Rocky Mountain Ginseng, Inc. (Pink Sheets:RMGG) is pleased to announce that a formal vendors agreement between Wal-Mart China Ltd. and Rocky Mountain (Fuzhou) Drug Co. Ltd. was confirmed today in Shenzhen, China. Jiang Shao Shu, Rocky Mountain's vice-president of marketing, reported in Fuzhou that this agreement is a major breakthrough for the company in that it gives the company immediate access to the affluent and populous South China market. Wal-Mart has agreed to carry Rocky Mountain products in all of its stores in China and will also wholesale these products to other supermarket chains. Wal-Mart has initiated a major expansion program in China, Jiang stated, and Wal-Mart will automatically stock Rocky Mountain's products in its new stores……….Rocky Mountain Ginseng, Inc.'s head office is located in British Columbia, Canada. The company exports American ginseng to China as well as manufactures and processes America ginseng products in China. Rocky Mountain Ginseng, Inc. holds exclusive world processing and distribution rights to several innovative value added ginseng products developed in North America. ………"

Reuters 4/6/00 "…..U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley said he won a pledge from Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji on Thursday to try to kick-start the stalled roll-out of CDMA mobile phone technology in China. Daley raised the issue during broader talks with Chinese leaders aimed at underscoring White House determination to push through key trade legislation that supports Beijing's entry to the World Trade Organization. China agreed last year to roll out networks using CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) cellular standard, which was pioneered by U.S. company Qualcomm Inc But the plans were held up by industry regulators in Beijing just days after Qualcomm reached a patent licensing agreement with Chinese negotiators. ``Zhu promised that he would encourage the ministry to move forward,'' Daley told reporters. Qualcomm would earn licensing royalties from a CDMA roll-out, while North American telecoms manufactures such as Motorola Corp, Lucent Technologies Inc and Nortel Networks Corp. could win meaty contracts. Daley said some people believe China is stalling the roll-out to give domestic firms a chance to catch up on the technology and compete for contracts. ….."

Associated Press 3/30/00 Dunstan Prial "…..Organized labor and human rights activists have teamed up to try to dissuade potential investors from participating in a planned $3 billion initial public stock offering by a subsidiary of China's state-run oil company. Opponents said Wednesday that PetroChina's IPO is both risky for U.S. investors and morally unsound because the offering essentially raises money for the Chinese government, whose record on human rights has often been criticized. If completed as planned, the IPO would be one of the largest sales of public stock ever by a government-owned Chinese company. The AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor organization, has spearheaded the opposition, using its considerable influence to try to dampen demand for PetroChina shares. …."

Chicago Tribune via politicslive.com 3/30/00 Merrill Goozner "…… President Clinton sought to bolster the increasingly shaky congressional support for the U.S.-China trade agreement by trumpeting it Wednesday as a big victory for U.S. exporters who have been unable to penetrate the vast markets of the Chinese mainland. ``This is a 100-to-nothing deal for America when it comes to the economic consequences,'' Clinton said Wednesday. He said that if Congress balked, Europe and Japan would reap the benefits of increased trade with China. But trade experts who have analyzed the deal say the administration is overselling its benefits, which would largely open China to greater investment by U.S. multinational companies hoping to manufacture there. That would worsen the already massive trade imbalance between the two countries. Indeed, the experts warn that the agreement may be nothing more than the opening round of a drawn-out wrestling match with Beijing that will recall the U.S.-Japan trade disputes of the 1970s and `80s. There's little reason to believe Beijing will prove any more tractable on trade than Tokyo. ….."

L.A. Times 3/31/00 JONATHAN PETERSON and TYLER MARSHALL "…… In an effort to overcome congressional opposition to normalizing trade ties with China, the Clinton administration is signaling its willingness to back new ways of reviewing Beijing's conduct on human rights and other sources of friction between the U.S. and China. That approach, which runs the risk of antagonizing China, would subject Beijing to some form of ongoing scrutiny but eliminate the divisive annual debate now conducted as a condition of its having normal trade relations with Washington, U.S. officials said. In particular, the White House is prepared to support creation of a human rights watchdog group, modeled after the Helsinki Commission that monitored Soviet human rights behavior in Eastern Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, officials told The Times. The White House is also discussing ways to keep up pressure on China on workplace standards and trade commitments……."

Reuters 5/9/00 "……Key U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday said they had agreed on legislation to set up a commission to monitor Chinese human rights, boosting prospects for passage of President Clinton's landmark trade accord with Beijing. The White House sees the legislation, hammered out by Michigan Democratic Rep. Sander Levin and Nebraska Republican Rep. Doug Bereuter, as a way of reaching out to Democrats in the House of Representatives who want a forum to air their concerns about human rights and labor abuses in China in exchange for supporting the market-opening pact. ……"

Reuters 5/8/00 "…… President Clinton predicted on Monday that tensions between China and Taiwan would escalate ''exponentially'' if Congress refused to grant permanent trading privileges to China in a key vote this month. Former Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George Bush pressed Congress on Monday to support legislation that would extend permanent normal trade relations to China and ensure that U.S. companies benefit from Clinton's landmark trade agreement with Beijing. Clinton used a Democratic fund-raiser on Monday evening to press for the bill's passage, warning of dire consequences if the House of Representatives failed to approve it. ……. ``I think the chances that there will be trouble between China and Taiwan will go up exponentially if the United States says no,'' Clinton told a crowd at fund-raising event for Indiana Rep. Baron Hill. ……"

Reuters 4/23/00 Doug Palmer "……. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman will step to center stage this week as the Clinton administration begins a final month-long push to persuade hundreds of undecided members of the House of Representatives to support a landmark trade agreement with China. With Congress in recess, Glickman will lead a handful of House members on a six-day presidential mission to China, which hopes to join the World Trade Organization this year and normalize its trade relationship with the United States. The delegation leaves on Monday and will spend two days in Beijing before traveling to Shanghai and Hong Kong, where the trip concludes on April 30. Glickman, a former congressman from Kansas, was invited in February to visit China by Chinese Ambassador Li Zhaoxing. ….."

yahoo.com 5/28/00 Andrew Browne Reuters "……Chinese President Jiang Zemin thanked President Clinton in a phone call for pushing through a bill giving China permanent normal trade relations (PNR), Xinhua news agency reported on Monday. The personal message was a clear indication that passage of PNTR last week through the U.S. House of Representatives has had a warming effect on often turbulent China-U.S. ties. Xinhua said Jiang ``expressed his appreciation for the great efforts made by people of insight from all walks of life in the United States, including those in the Democratic and Republican parties, especially President Clinton, to realize permanent normal trade relations.''Clinton and Jiang were speaking on Sunday night via a ``hot line'' through which they occasionally communicate. ……"

WorldNetDaily 5/29/00 "…..Shortly after the House Republican leadership secured passage, 237 to 197, of President Clinton's proposal to grant Permanent Normal Trade Relations status to communist China and to endorse Chinese membership in the World Trade Organization, North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms swept aside the almost universal prediction that passage of the proposal was a done deal in the Senate and instead vowed to fight Clinton's policy every step of the way. "Before the communist leaders in Beijing, and their allies in the White House, start popping the champagne corks," said Helms, "they must be reminded: The debate now comes to the Senate." ….."

CBSNEWS.com 5/24/00 "…..In what one member dubbed "the most important vote that we cast in our congressional careers," the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday approved legislation normalizing trade relations with China. After an intense lobbying effort by big business-which argued the bill was key to opening Chinese markets and keeping America competitive-and opposition from organized labor and other groups who thought the bill put human rights and American jobs at risk, the measure passed by a measure of 237 to 197. Opponents of the measure had clung to hope that a last minute surge would save their cause, as it did last year, when Congress denied President Clinton the ability to negotiate trade treaties on a "fast track." ……"

Stratfor.com's Global Intelligence Update 5/22/00 Bob Evans "…..Most foreign policies are shaped by dire necessity. Intellectual and ideological considerations are luxuries. But in the American case, the luxury of intellectualization can be afforded; the country's extraordinary power allows it to frame policy in terms other than simple necessity. This phenomenon drives the rest of the world nuts, because it leads to strange and unpredictable action; the war over Kosovo was one. ……… Nevertheless, foreign policy - at this moment in history - is not a matter of national survival for the United States. The debate over China revolves around three issues: human rights, free trade and national security. Each cuts to the heart of American political culture and, in fact, across ideological grounds. And this image is a snapshot of the American moral dilemma. ….."

China News Agency 5/18/00 Nelson Chung "…….US Congressman Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) said Thursday that in view of the national security implications of granting permanent normal trade relations to mainland China, he has written to President Bill Clinton, asking him to immediately direct the Central Intelligence Agency to declassify key information about China. "I have received the CIA briefing about the national security risk that China poses to the US and I am deeply concerned about what I heard," Wolf wrote in the letter. "I think that Congress and the American people deserve to know the truth about the seriousness of this issue and how PNTR would affect our national security," he said. ….."

WorldNetDaily 5/19/00 Johnny Chung "…..My question is: If this deal is so sweet, why hasn't everyone come on board? Here it is, ladies and gentlemen -- this is what it's all about: Money talks and so do votes. Lobbyists who favor the deal are pressuring legislators by dangling donations in front of them, and union members who disapprove of it threaten to send their representatives packing at the ballot box. ……. Let's take a look at both sides of the issue. To approve or not to approve? I know of one sure-fire way to find the answer, and that is to follow the money. Who are the people approving this deal? China has a population of 1.2 billion. That's a huge market. American agricultural businessmen say their products -- soy beans, corn, apples, etc. -- will benefit greatly from that market and create a lot of job opportunities. …… American farmers say they will have more beef and pork exports to feed the huge country. Also, if each person in China eats two eggs a day, then we will need a lot of grain to feed the chickens that are laying the eggs. That means increased production, which means more work, which means more jobs. …."

WorldNetDaily 5/19/00 Johnny Chung "…..American businessmen should ask themselves, "If Johnny Chung, who speaks the language and knows the culture, was eaten alive by the Chinese, what will they do to Americans?" I'll tell you what they'll do: They will suck the life-blood out of you, eat you up, and not even leave the bones. …….. People who know China well disapprove of this deal. Yesterday, Chinese dissidents in the United States formed a human chain around the capitol building to send a message to our Congress: Do not approve this deal. ……A lot of people say a richer China will compromise American security. They will make money from us, and they will use it to buy more technology from us. What happened in 1996 in the Chinagate scandal, with Chinese officials trying to influence our elections and taking our nuclear secrets, was just the tip of the iceberg. There's an old Chinese saying, "If you want to defeat your enemy, show him you are weak, not strong." ……."

Stratfor.com 5/17/00 "…….As the U.S. Congress nears a historic vote on normalizing trade relations with China, Beijing appears to be engaged in a pattern of economic behavior at home that would undermine its credibility as a member of the World Trade Organization. There are increasing signs that economic reformers are losing the power struggle in Beijing. And in the midst of the debate in Washington, President Jiang Zemin himself is calling for the Communist Party to play a greater role in China's private businesses…….. But in the midst of these debates over free trade, the president of China himself has sounded a surprisingly discordant note. Speaking at a Communist Party conference in Shanghai on May 14, President Jiang Zemin, called for the party to take on a more powerful role within the country's private enterprises. In his speech, Jiang - who also serves as the party's general secretary - called private enterprises integral to the socialist market economy. ……"

Houston Chronicle 5/11/00 "……As one of China's most prominent dissidents -- enduring tapped phones, police surveillance and restrictions on everyday freedoms -- Bao Tong could be expected to urge a hard line against the government in Beijing. But Bao has this message for the U.S. Congress: Pass permanent normal trade relations with China. Do not use it as a lever to try to improve China's human rights situation. Hasten China's entry into the World Trade Organization. Pull China as much as possible into international regimes that over time, Bao believes, will force it to adhere to standards that it has long finessed by arguing that China is exceptional. Bao is not alone. A broad array of dissidents, environmentalists and labor activists in China appeared united in their support of passage of the legislation. ……. "I appreciate the efforts of friends and colleagues to help our human rights situation," Bao said, "but it doesn't make sense to use trade as a lever. It just doesn't work." ….."

Associated Press Writer 5/10/00 David Ho "…….Providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a White House campaign, congressional auditors have found the Clinton administration has used about 150 staffers and has taken or planned about 40 trips in their efforts to win permanent trade status for China. The General Accounting Office examined the administration's China Trade Relations Working Group, a White House command center with members from several government agencies that is dedicated to securing congressional approval for "permanent normal trade relations" status for China. After being repeatedly blocked from obtaining the "fast track" negotiating authority needed to strike new trade agreements, the Clinton administration has been pushing hard to get permanent trade status for China. ….."

Chinatimes 5/12/00 "…..Defense Secretary William Cohen urged Congress Wednesday to approve permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with China, warning that rejection of the measure would have "serious strategic implications." "How we treat China, how we relate to them, will be critically important in terms of the path they will take in the future," Cohen said in a speech here to the Asia Society. Responding to concerns among US conservatives that China represents a growing threat, he warned that "if you go looking for enemies, you will find them." "We're not looking for enemies, we're looking for friends," he said. Himself a former Republican senator, Cohen implored his former colleagues to vote in favor of PNTR. Cohen was the latest senior administration official to weigh in on the debate over PNTR for China, which has been hotly contested by a loose coalition of Republicans and liberal Democrats. ….."

AP Martin Crutsinger "……. The administration's point man on China bluntly warned Republicans on Thursday that they will have to accept a human rights monitoring panel to win passage of landmark trade legislation. Commerce Secretary William Daley said he believed that chances for congressional approval of permanent normal trade relations with China were ''slim to none'' without legislation to create a congressional-executive commission to monitor China's human rights performance....."

WorldNetDaily 5/31/00 David Bresnahan "…..The FBI was quick to respond to a WorldNetDaily report that questioned whether there had been an attempt to bribe members of Congress to change their vote on the bill to grant Permanent Normal Trade Relations status to China -- approved by the House last week. ……The FBI showed up at the office of Rep. Merrill Cook, R-Utah, first thing last Thursday morning, just hours after the publication of an exclusive WorldNetDaily story, "China-trade vote: The bribes have it? The Congressman says he rejected $200,000 to change his stance." Cook made the claim that multinational corporations tried to influence him to vote for Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China, which he opposes. ….. Cook told WorldNetDaily he didn't know whether similar attempts have been made to influence other congressmen on the issue as well. ….."We've been trading with China for 30 years, yet they remain the most repressive government in the world. U.S. companies may prosper, Chinese government officials may prosper and even some of the Chinese people may be better off economically. But money cannot replace freedom or justice or security," said Cook. ….."

South China Morning Post 7/3/00 Xiao Yu "…. XIAO YU Beijing says it has completed its programme of removing thousands of firms from ownership by the military and judicial departments, in an effort to cut corruption. Figures now made available, although incomplete, show that the PLA and departments of the judiciary used to own 37,670 businesses. By April, 19,459 - 52 per cent - had been disbanded. Of these, 3,928 belonged to the PLA and 15,531 to judicial bodies. …….. The PLA has kept 1,346 business enterprises under its wings and judicial bodies have retained 4,757 ventures. The PLA includes not just the military but also the armed police forces. Similarly, judicial bodies cover the police, prosecutors and courts. ……"

Chinatimes 6/30/00 "…..A leading US Senator warned Tuesday he would risk further delaying a vote on China's trade status if his bid to force an annual review of Beijing's record on alleged missile proliferation is blocked. Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee has crafted a measure which would require the US president to conduct a yearly study of what Beijing's critics here claim is its habit of funelling weapons to US enemies. If China is judged to have transgressed, it would face economic sanctions, which for the first time would stop its firms from raising funds on US markets. Thompson's initiative is thought unlikely to pass, but there is concern the move could further delay the bill granting Permanent Normal Trading Relations (PNTR) to China which has been sucked into a Senate legislative logjam. ……"

reuters.com 6/23/00 Robert Evans "…..A senior Chinese official declared on Friday that his country could make no more concessions on opening up markets for goods and services in its bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO). China's lead WTO negotiator, vice-minister for foreign trade Long Yongtu, issued his warning at a formal meeting of diplomats from most of the body's 137 member states who are working to wrap up the terms of Beijing's entry...."

The Associated Press 6/24/00 "…..China has cautioned World Trade Organization members against making "unrealistic requests" to Beijing as negotiations for its entry to the global body near conclusion. China's chief WTO negotiator, Long Yongtu, said Friday he was concerned about requests from a few members and urged those "whose priority interests have already been satisfied in bilateral negotiations not to raise unrealistic requests at this final stage." ……. "We will never accept further requests that China should undertake obligations exceeding those for ordinary WTO members, nor will we allow the rights that we should enjoy to be impaired or even deprived," he said in an address to the WTO working group on Chinese entry. Long later declined to give details of the countries or requests involved. …..China has already secured crucial agreements with the United States and the European Union on joining the 137-member organization that sets world trade rules. ……"

6/19/00 Reuters "…… U.S. lawmakers Monday stepped up pressure on China to live up to the terms of a trade agreement with the United States, asking Congress' General Accounting Office to conduct an annual review of Beijing's compliance. The Senate Finance Committee asked the General Accounting Office to issue its first report on China's conduct no more than 10 months after Beijing becomes a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The congressional watchdog agency would conduct similar reviews on an annual basis. China is expected to join the WTO later this year. ……"

Reuters via wired.com 8/16/00 "……Using bare-knuckle business tactics, state-owned giant China Telecom is gobbling up a mobile phone market it was never supposed to enter. In Lanzhou, the biggest city in western China, its ultra-cheap mobile service is pulling in subscribers faster than its stunned competitors China Mobile and China Unicom can dial for help. Similar networks operated by China Telecom, which officially has only a fixed-line franchise, are popping up across the country with nearly one million subscribers. Built on the sly, they have emerged as a major challenge to the two licensed mobile operators in the world's fastest-growing telecoms market. By some estimates, China Telecom has enough network capacity to take 10 percent of the national wireless market. "It's an assault on our business," said Chen Chang, the deputy to the chairman of China Unicom in Lanzhou. ….."

China Online "...... Multinational companies have set up about 100 high-tech research and development centers in China, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) announced on Sept. 10. ..... This demonstrates that there is a surge of foreign investment in China's high-tech industry, according to the Sept. 11 Zhongguo Zhengquan Bao (China Securities). Over a dozen nations including the United States, Japan, Germany and France have set up research and development centers, 30 of which are large in scale and a few of them well-known. These include the Microsoft China Research & Development Center, Intel China Research Center, Lucent China Laboratory, Hewlett-Packard Technological Center of Digital Signal Processing, and the Sino-European Research Institute of High-Performance Textile Products. ....."

China Online 9/15/00 "..... U.S.-based Sun Microsystems recently established the first bonded warehouse in China in Shanghai's Pudong Waigaoqiao Bonded Zone. Sun Microsystem's warehouse will provide comprehensive technologies and services to help Chinese enterprises go online and develop their e-commerce business, the Sept. 6 Tongxin Chanye Bao (Communications Weekly) reported. ..... It features a SunEnterPrise 10000 (Starfire) server and Sun StorEdge T3, an advanced memory device. ......"

China Online 9/15/00 "...... (GE)U.S. corporate giant General Electric is the first foreign company to receive certified permission from the Chinese government to establish an official China branch specializing in purchasing and exporting products from China. GE made the announcement Sept. 8 at the China Xiamen Investment and Trade Talks. The business activities of the new unit, which will be called the GE (China) Purchasing and Exporting Co., include providing purchasing and exporting services to GE, GE worldwide subsidiaries and to Chinese suppliers, as well as providing services concerning improvements to quality, technology and processes, and technological consultations to Chinese suppliers, reported the Sept. 9 Zhongguo Xinxi Bao (China Information News)......."

Reuters 9/10/00 Adam Entous "……President Clinton's historic trade pact with China is headed for final passage in the U.S. Senate, supporters say, despite a last ditch offensive by critics of Beijing's record on human rights and alleged role in weapons proliferation. After months of delay, Senate leaders said they expected a final vote by Friday on legislation that would grant permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to China. Clinton's allies predicted it would pass by a large margin. ……."

Newsmax.com 9/13/00 Steve Farrell "……Back on May 24 the US House of Representatives, thanks to its Republican majority, issued a thumbs-up to HR 4444, the US China Relations Act. This week, the US Senate Republican majority is set to do the same. After that, the bill will be sent on to President Clinton for his signature in what appears to be a parting gesture of good will for his 8 years of unfailing devotion to the US Constitution. Needless to say, minority conservative Republicans have another opinion of that kind of a gesture. Congressmen like Ron Paul of Texas, and Merrill Cook of Utah, have cynically called the whole package a sellout: a sellout to Clinton, to Communist China, and to the international corporations who carry the campaign costs of many party favorites. But, the Republican Party leadership disagree. This is not a concession, they contend, but a win-win deal for everyone involved. And maybe their right. After all, the theory of free trade does have a few good selling points. Denise Froning, Trade Policy Analyst in the Center for International Trade and Economics at the Republican think tank, the Heritage Foundation, in her August 25 piece "The Benefits of Free Trade: A Guide for Policymakers," gave free trade a four star rating. …."

Associated Press 10/00 Deb Riechmann "…….President Clinton signed the China trade bill Tuesday, a hard-fought victory for the White House that promises to open markets in the communist country to billions of dollars in U.S. goods and services. Even as he signed the bill, the president was dispatching U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky to Beijing Tuesday night to nudge the Chinese to complete its agreements to join the World Trade Organization. Talks are stalled as China backpedals on details of its trade accords with the United States and other nations. "Our work is not over when I sign the bill. China still must complete its WTO accession agreements," Clinton said. "But when it happens, China will open its markets to American products from wheat to cars to consulting services, and our companies will be far more able to sell goods without moving facilities or investments there." ……"

BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE 10/2/00 Dexter Roberts Aaron Bernstein "....... Wal-Mart's self-policing in the Chun Si factory was a disaster........ Liu quickly realized that the factory was even worse than its reputation. Chun Si, owned by Chun Kwan, a Macau businessman, charged workers $15 a month for food and lodging in a crowded dorm--a crushing sum given the $22 Liu cleared his first month. What's more, the factory gave Liu an expired temporary-resident permit; and in return, Liu had to hand over his personal identification card. This left him a virtual captive. Only the local police near the factory knew that Chun Si issued expired cards, Liu says, so workers risked arrest if they ventured out of the immediate neighborhood......HALF A CENT. Liu also found that Chun Si's 900 workers were locked in the walled factory compound for all but a total of 60 minutes a day for meals. Guards regularly punched and hit workers for talking back to managers or even for walking too fast, he says. And they fined them up to $1 for infractions such as taking too long in the bathroom. Liu left the factory for good in December, after he and about 60 other workers descended on the local labor office to protest Chun Si's latest offenses: requiring cash payments for dinner and a phony factory it set up to dupe Wal-Mart's auditors. In his pocket was a total of $6 for three months of 90-hour weeks--an average of about one-half cent an hour. ''Workers there face a life of fines and beating,'' says Liu. Chun Kwan couldn't be reached, but his daughter, Selina Chun, one of the factory managers, says ''this is not true, none of this.'' She concedes that Chun Si did not pay overtime but says few other factories do, either. In a face-to-face interview in August, she also admitted that workers have tried to sue Chun Si........"

Yahoo 9/19/00 Reuters "......The U.S. Senate on Tuesday gave final approval to a bitterly contested bill granting permanent normal trade relations to China, in a victory for President Clinton (news - web sites) and big business that could transform Sino-U.S. relations. One of Clinton's top foreign policy objectives for his final year in office, the legislation ends the 20-year-old annual ritual of reviewing China's trade status and guarantees Chinese goods the same low-tariff access to the U.S. market as products from nearly every other nation. The legislation was approved by the House of Representatives in May after an intense lobbying campaign by business groups eager to tap the vast Chinese marketplace, potentially the world's largest with 1.3 billion consumers. ......"

NY Stock Exchange Website 10/18/00 "……China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (NYSE - Listed SNP) lists on the NYSE. To celebrate, Wang Jiming, President, rings the Opening Bell. China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (aka Sinopec) is the largest petroleum and petrochemical company in China and one of the largest in Asia. Sinopec is the largest refiner, distributor and marketer of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and most other major refined products in China and in Asia..."

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST 10/14/00 "……The United States' top trade negotiator headed for Beijing yesterday to urge the mainland to stick to concessions Washington thought it had already won over China's entry to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Charlene Barshefsky set out on the hastily arranged trip shortly after President Bill Clinton signed into law a bill to normalise permanent trade relations with China. China appeared to back away from some promises last month, stalling final negotiations on its WTO membership in Geneva. While China is redrafting rules to comply with WTO, it is loathe to abolish agencies that have institutionalised discriminatory treatment against foreign companies, diplomats said. ……."

With the 1932 Amendment to the Tariff Act of 1930, the U.S. has legislatively banned imports of products made by "convict and/or forced labor." Before 1991, the U.S. twice banned products; once from the Soviet Gulag and another from a Mexican Prison. Since September 1991, the US has banned over 24 Laogai products, but has only taken legal action in 3 or 4 cases. During the Bush Administration, 20 detention orders were issued, in the first 3 years of the Clinton Administration 8 detention orders were issued.

WorldNetDaily 9/8/98 Charles Smith "It may shock America to find out that slavery still exists. Today thousands of children work inside Chinese prison labor camps making exports for America. The children are separated from their parents by a brutal communist state and exploited as cheap labor. They work seven days a week for no pay, under horrific conditions. The output of their enslavement is sold openly and proudly in almost every major shopping mall in America. Prison-made goods have been sold by Chinese officials for inclusion in the ever popular fast food children's meals. They have appeared as plastic monsters based on the latest movie blockbuster, hats for professional basketball teams and cartoon favorites from TV."

Laogai Research Foundation 6/30/99 "...The Laogai Research Foundation today released a study of Dun & Bradstreet's China business directories published in English which reveal detailed financial information on ninety-nine (99) forced labor camp enterprises having total annual sales of $842.7 million. The camps include those where the famous dissidents Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan were held until recently. Commenting on the inclusion of his former place of imprisonment, Nanbao Salt Works, in the D&B list, Wei stated, "At Nanbao, political criminals and other criminals labor as slaves--with no income, no job safety--and make this enterprise one of the largest salt chemical factories in Asia. Every year, millions of yuan in profit from this industry contribute to the Chinese government's efforts to oppress its own people," said Wei. Despite denials by Chinese government officials and in direct violation of bilateral agreements, products from China's forced labor camps--the Laogai--have time and again been found to be available in the international market. "The Chinese government has lied repeatedly about the exportation of forced labor products. The listing of these camps in Dun & Bradstreet shows that Laogai industries continue to search for international markets," said Laogai Research Foundation Executive Director Harry Wu. ..."

Conservative News Service (CNS) 8/2/99 Lawrence Morahan "…In what is seen as a major victory for pro-democracy forces in China, a U.S. district judge has given the go-ahead for discovery in a lawsuit that alleges U.S. companies are profiting from slave-made goods from China...."