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No.130

第130期


SPECIAL ISSUES


Key State Projects Gains Fruitful Result
A little more than two years after China began
six key State projects in the high-technology
industry,the results are remarkable, officials
and experts announced.

The six projects were launched in late 1994 by the State Science and
Technology Commission (SSTC), the Ministry of Radio, Film and
Television, the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of the
Machinery Industry.

They include the application of high performance computers;
development of a digital audio broadcasting (DAB) system; high-
definition television (HDTV); electronic motor vehicle development;
comfortable housing construction in urban and rural areas for the
year 2000; and a pilot project to make industrialized agriculture
highly efficient.

The above ministries have implemented 77 programmes for these
projects. And 47 (61 per cent) of the 77 programmes have been in full
swing with regional governmental departments, Li Maoming, deputy
secretary-general of the SSTC, said at a press conference on August
21, 1997 in Beijing.

The six projects are expected to become new pillar industries by 2000
and help develop new high-tech products, Li said.

The Ministry of Construction approved 69 pilot zones in cities and
towns nationwide in early 1995, focusing on building better housing
as well as improved telecommunications, environmental protection,
drinking water and garbage treatment facilities.

Currently, 12 of the 69 pilot zones have completed such housing
construction, and residents in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang
provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have moved into new
houses, Vice-Minister of Construction Ye Rutang said at press
conference. The State started the DAB project last year in Guangdong
Province. This is the third generation of broadcasting technology
boasting better sound quality, stronger anti-noise capability, and
better receiving power compared with current broadcasting techniques.

So far, a trial DAB station has been set up in Guangdong covering the
Pearl River Delta area and Hong Kong and Macao, said He Dongcai,
Vice-Minister of Radio, Film and Television.

The State is likely to set up a trial DAB station in Beijing and
Tianjin in the next two years, He added.

According to Ji Fusheng, director of the High Technology Department
under the SSTC, China started research on HDTV, the third generation
of television following black-and-white and colour TVs which boasts
clearer pictures and more information data than present TVs.

The State will test the operation of an HDTV digital prototype in
July next year, Ji revealed.

The State piloted an industrialized agriculture project early last
year in Beijing, Shanghai, and Liaoning, Zhejiang and Guangdong
provinces to increase the country's agricultural production in the
future.

Experts have exploited soilless growing techniques for vegetables,
fruit and crops in these areas, said shen Maoxiang, vice-director of
the Technology Department for Rural Areas under the SSTC.

Relevant departments are also making efforts to develop electronic
motors to expand their use nationwide in the future to reduce air
pollution, said Lu Fuyuan, Vice-Minister of the Machinery Industry.

Science stress Significant to Grain Supply


China intends to make agri-science support its growing population
early in the next century, a senior official from the Ministry of
Agriculture said.

The country will have nearly 1.6 billion people by 2030 and will need
640 million tons of grain a year.

The grain output last year was a record high of 490 million tons.
"Although we can increase 50 million tons of grain by 2000 with
available technology, we cannot secure another 150 million tons from
2000 to 2030 without new breakthroughs", the official said.

In the first 30 years of the next century, China has to increase
grain production capacity by 50 million tons every 10 years, to feed
a growing population, the official said.

As the world's most populous nation, China has endless difficulties
expanding arable land. "Science is the key", she said. "The only way
out for China's agriculture is a scientific revolution."

Science constitutes 39 per cent of China's grain output. She said the
proportion would be 50 per cent by 2000.

In developed countries, 70 or 80 per cent of grain production results
from scientific progress.

The main task until 2000 will be to spread current agriculture
technology. From 2000 to 2020, China should strive to make
breakthroughs in the cultivation of super breeds of rice, corn and
wheat , as well as use water, fertilizer and soil resources more
efficiently. By 2030, China will have to make breakthroughs in
biological technology to sustain agricultural growth.

The official said China was accelerating research of high-yield rice
breeds, planting corn in the south, improving wheat quality and
spreading winter wheat to the north.

A super rice breed is being developed, but will not be applied
nationwide until for several years, she said.

Although the new rice is yet to benefit China, hybrid rice has
affected the whole country.

Over the past few years, China has increased its grain output by 20
million tons a year because of increased cultivation of hybrid rice.

By the end of 1996, China increased grain output by 280 million tons
through hybrid rice planting, the highest in the world.

Corn, planted mainly in the north, is ready to go south. If this goes
well, China would substantially increase the supply of animal feed,
which would bolster cattle and poultry breeding, she said.

That would increase the supply of meat, milk and eggs, which will
help improve Chinese people's diets. Their diets previously consisted
of a lot of grain.

As for wheat, China plans to produce more high-protein and high-
lysine strains, the official said.

Meanwhile, plans are being made to extend the planting of winter
wheat in the north and west. "In this regard, we must develop our own
technology as well as introduce foreign advanced ones," the official
said.

As for breakthroughs in biological technology, efforts will be made
to transcend the difference between human, animal and plant genes and
cells to create new breeds for farming, she said.

Laws to Guide Tech Progress


A leading Chinese lawmaker called last recently for greater efforts
to step up reform and macro-controls to legally ensure scientific and
technological progress.

Fei Xiaotong, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National
People's Congress (NPC), told a national conference on the
surveillance of law enforcement that the entire national should
sharpen its awareness of the need to promote scientific progress in
accordance with law.

In mid-August, the NPC Standing Committee sent three groups on a 10-
day fact-finding tour to inspect the enforcement of laws instituted
to guide scientific and technological progress, in Shandong, Liaoning,
Sichuan, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces.

In addition, the standing committees of local people's congresses in
provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities throughout the
nation will undertake internal investigations.

These investigations will focus on the reform of organizations
related to science and their input into scientific progress. This
round of investigations will be the fourth large-scale investigative
tour the NPC Standing Committee has organized since the beginning of
this year. The previous three tours covered law enforcement in the
forestry, food hygiene and product quality sectors.

Fei noted that China has recorded great achievements in scientific
and technological progress since the promulgation of the Law on
Scientific and Technological Progress in July 1993. Some 20 provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities have adopted their own rules
and regulations for the implementation of the Law, he said.

A recent report by the State Science and Technology Commission shows
that promulgation of the Law on Scientific and Technological Progress
has enabled China to introduce successful and effective practices in
advancing its reform of scientific and technological systems in
conjunction with economic restructuring.

The technology market has emerged as an important market for
essential production factors, according to the report.

The number of technological contracts concluded in 1996 reached
220,000, with a total turnover of 30 billion yuan ($ 3.6 billion).

Some 600 research institutes now serve as major technological
developers for enterprises, while another 500 institutions have
entered into some form of co-operative work with enterprises.

The industrial output value of the country's 52 national-level
development zones for high-tech industries hit 210 billion yuan ($ 25
billion) in 1996. The zones earned $ 2.9 billion in foreign exchange
from exports and generated 17.6 billion yuan ($ 2.1 billion) in
profits and taxes.

The over 50,000 high-tech non-State enterprises established as a
result of the reform have developed into a major force in the
country's economic development.

The report points out that technological development in agriculture,
animal husbandry and fisheries, contributed greatly to this year's
good grain harvest and increased meat and fish production last year.

This indicates that China has recorded remarkable progress in basic
scientific research and high-tech development.

Pioneer Garden Created By Returned Overseas Students


Not long ago, a formal contract on co-establishing Beijing Pioneer
Garden of Returned Oversees Students was signed by Beijing Overseas
Students Service Center and Pioneering Service Center of Beijing
Haidian New Technology Industry Development and Experimental Zones.
As stipulated in the contract, a so-called incubation fund of 2
million yuan will be established to support returned overseas
students to create their own high and new tech businesses in the
garden. The enterprises created by returned overseas students will
enjoy free rental for space in the garden for the first year and be
asked to pay only 40% and 70% for the second and the third years
respectively. The garden will also provide business and legal
consultation service on relevant issues.

Ever since China opened to the world and reform started, the country
has sent a great number of capable people to study abroad through
different channels. By the end of last year, there are 270,000
Chinese students in total studying abroad, of whom more than 90,000
were sent by the institutions subordinated to the Beijing Municipal
Government. Beijing has not only become the city in the country
enjoying the most overseas students but also their returned service.

To attract returned service of its overseas students in creating
enterprises, Beijing is in urgent need of explicit and concrete
policy guidance. The establishment of the pioneering garden will
facilitate addressing the difficulties encountered in developing
their own businesses when returned to China and paved a new way to
attract talented people and new technologies.

Creating enterprises garden for returned overseas students is an
internationally common practice to utilize resources of overseas
students. Haidian Pioneering Garden is the second of its kind in the
country following its first model in Shanghai. It will provide fine
environment for overseas students to commercialize their research
findings and results and create their own S&T businesses.

Located on the incubation site of Shangdi Information Industry Base,
the pioneering garden will be see the completion of its interior
finishing on August 5, 1997. By that time, the first group of
enterprises will find their space in 35 incubation units.



NEWS REPORTS

High-Tech Grotto Protection


The nearly 1,700-year-old Dunhuang Grottoes are taking a giant leap
into the high-tech age.

The caves, in northwestern Gansu Province, are going to be protected
by laser technology and infrared photography.

Dunhuang Grottoes have been known for their collection of murals and
colour statues since AD 366, which depict fairy tales and Buddhist
legends.

Dunhuang Research Institute will implement various projects --sand-
proofing, computer inputting of frescoes, restoration of the
frescoes' original colours and biological protection research.

Li Shi, deputy director of an institute assisting Dunhuang project
workers, said more than 3,000 metres of sand-proof shields have been
built atop the Grottoes.

These shields, Li said, are reducing sandfalls in front of the caves
by 70 per cent.

Shifting sand on the top of the caves is a new problem, forcing
Chinese and US researchers to improve the sand-proofing system, Li
said.

Infrared photographic techniques will also be used to restore the
original colours of the murals.

Moulding is seriously eroding the murals, Li said, adding his
institute will find a way to protect them.

To permanently protect the murals, several research institutions are
inputting the frescoes into computers, Li added.


Chinese Rotating Gamma Slicer Allowed into US Market


The rotating gamma slicer, the first of its kind in the world,
developed by Shenzhen Aowo International S&T Development Co. Ltd. has
recently been approved by US FDA for its entrance into international
market. This materialized China's objective of competing with
international community in manufacturing large medical equipment.

Shenzhen Aowo International S&T Development Co. Ltd. started to
develop the new rotating gamma slicer by using its patented
technology from the beginning of the 1990s. The development was
listed as one of major national S&T projects.

On the principle of rotating focusing, the slicer is able to destroy
diseased tissues once and for all by accurately focusing 30 gamma
rays onto one spot. The prototype has been tested by a number of
authoritative institutions for 8 months on animals. It was granted
with application certificate by the National Drug Administration.
Applied in more than one hundred medical cases for one year, it has
been proved safe, reliable and efficient.

Shenzhen Aowo was granted with the approval for its appearance in US
market within 90 days after its application to US FDA in last
Feburary.