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No.236

 
 
 


CHINA  SCIENCE  AND  TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry of Science and Technology
People's Republic of China



N0.236 September 30,2000
 
IN THIS ISSUE
      
    * China's Four Major Sectors Encourage Overseas Wooing
    * China's First financial Assets Open for International Bidding
    * China's World Advanced Biotechnology
    * Genetically Restructured Insulin Successfully Developed
    * Harbin Robots Broke International Monopoly
    * Major Breakthroughs in Nanometer Applications
    * China's New Calcium Testing Technique

 
INVESTMENT AND COOPERATION

China's Four Major Sectors Encourage Overseas Wooing

The spokespersons of China's four major sensitive sectors: information, machinery, light industry and petrochemicals to be hit most fiercely by China's entranceinto WTO expressed at the 4th China Investment Trade Fairs held on September 10, 2000 in Xia'men that China welcomes foreign investment and encourages foreign investors to transplant or transform Chinese businesses for concerted cooperation and competition.

The spokesperson of Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom Industries expressed that China encourages foreign investment in information industry, hoping foreign investors aiming at Chinese information industry will further upgrade their technical level and expand their investment scale.

The spokesperson from State Machinery Industry Bureau said China's machinery industry will further enhance its utilization of foreign capital, upgrade its national machinery industries with the help of foreign funds, and improve its operation and management and establish new operational mechanisms through the collaboration with renowned overseas companies. In the meanwhile, it will expand the export of Chinese made machinery products of competitiveness and encourage enterprises of strength to run businesses abroad.

The spokesperson of State Light Industry Bureau said the priority of China's light industry in the future is accelerate the pace of restructuring. Accelerating the development of paper making and light industry equipments will come in the first place followed by the development of emerging industries such as household electric
appliances and plastics and the development of new products. The third priority
will be the transformation of traditional sectors such as food and leather industries. He added that China welcomes foreign investment in these sectors and will strengthen its cooperation with foreign investors and encourage their participation in the restructuring and transformation of state owned enterprises.

The spokesperson of State Petrochemical Industry Bureau said China will set its future priority on the development of chemical products of agricultural applications, petrochemicals related supporting industries, energy efficient and environment friendly industries and petrochemical industries in the west. China welcomes foreign investment in these industries.

China's First financial Assets Open
for International Bidding

At China Investment Trading Talks held not long ago in Xiamen, China Xinda Assets Management Corporation announced to the public its first group of financial assets (38 in number) to be restructured or disposed. China Xinda welcomes the involvement of overseas investors in the restructuring or disposal of these Chinese financial assets and in the transformation of state owned enterprises. This is the first time for China to announce the information on restructuring and disposal of financial assets to investors multi-national companies included both at home and abroad through a large international meeting.

The said financial assets have involved massive equity assets such as Guangxi Luzhai 240,000-ton phosphamidon project, a national major project, Zhangjiakou Ceramic Materials Factory, China's largest alumina dust manufacturer and Yalujiang Paper Mill, one of the major nine paper manufacturers in the country. Tian Guoli, Vice President, China Xinda expressed that China welcomes overseas investors to take their share in the disposal of these projects through assets and liability transferring or restructuring and it will offer the maximum policy support to the investors within its capacity.
 

China's Special Policies for Foreign Investment in West

Zhao Ai, Vice Chairman of Comprehensive Planning Group, West Development Office,
State Council said on September 10, 2000 that China welcomes foreign investors
to pour their money into the project of delivering the natural gas in the west to the east. The foreign investors will be allowed to take the killing equity in the project. While asked to brief the representatives of transnationals, he said
this is a special policy encouraging the foreign investment in the west development.

Zhao Ai added that being a special policy, the construction of urban natural gaspipelines has also been included in the cooperation fields opened to the outside world. He expressed that while investing in the project of delivering the natural gas in the west to the east, the investors will enjoy preferential policies offered
by the state on infrastructures constructions such as roads and energy and other
preferential policies for west development.

The socalled delivering the natural gas in the west to the east project is an effort to tap up the rich natural gas resources from China's west section such as Talimu Basin, Zhunge'er Basin and Tuha Basin in Xinjiang, Shaanxi-Gansu-Ninxia Basin,
Sichuan Basin and Caidamu Basin for the sake of alleviating the energy stress in the east.
 
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

China's World Advanced Biotechnology

The high intensity focusing supersonic cancer treatment system (HIFU) recently applauding for its successful design and development by Chongqing Medical University has for the first time in the country realized the original invention of large medical instruments with Chinese own independent intellectual property rights and at world advanced level. Able to provide safe and efficient treatment for cancer patients, the said system will play an important role in promoting the development of human cancer treatment technologies. Granted with a number of national
invention patents and having passed the approval check for a national major project during the 9th Five-Year Plan period, the instrument has been allowed by the State
Drugs Supervision and Management Bureau access into the markets in Chongqing, Chengdu, Beijing and Nanjing for the socalled no-wound treatment.

Dr. Wang Zhibiao, a major developer of the system said that up to date, the system has treated 600 and more patients attacked by different cancers such as breast, osteosarcoma, liver, soft tissue sarcoma and kidney, and realized keeping the breast for breast cancer patient, avoiding amputation for osteosarcoma patient and saving the organs and their functions for patients attacked by liver and kidney cancers.

The result has caused a stir among and attracted great attention of their international counterparts. As a result, it is decided to convene the first international workshop on HIFU technology and its medical applications in Chongqing in May, 2001. Wang Zhibiao has been appointed Chairman of this meeting. It is disclosed that Chongqing Medical University has signed an agreement with UK based UTL, making UTL the international agent for HIFU equipment. In addition, UTL will finance HIFU to obtain the approval of FDA and EEC. At the end of this year, the first HIFU bought by UTL will be installed in Churchill Hospital of Oxford University for clinical applications, which will end up the history that China has nolarge medical instruments exported.

Genetically Restructured Insulin Successfully Developed

Genetically restructured insulin a major S&T project under the governmental support during the 9th Five-Year Plan period has witnessed its success at Jilin Tonghua Dongbao Pharmaceuticals Ltd.. The development has made China the third country in the world able to manufacture and sell genetically restructured insulin.

By taking advantage of genetically restructuring techniques, scientists with Tonghua Dongbao have successfully developed human insulin on colibacillus carriers with its effects and safety better than animal insulin. As shown by the clinic reports issued by Beijing Concord Hospital, its purity, cost/effect and the result of blood sugar
lowering are the same against the similar products manufactured in US while with
only a one-third the price of the latter. Its manufacturing techniques have recently applied for international patent right.

Experts of the State Drugs Supervision and Management Bureau believe that the successful development of genetically restructured human insulin have not only putaperiod behind the history deploring for Chinese diabetes patients' dependence
on imported human insulin but also demonstrated China's world advanced level in
biotechnological engineering.

Harbin Robots Broke International Monopoly

Robot Packaging and Piling Assembly Line, a major project for National 863 Program undertaken by Harbin Polytech University has recently passed the approval check
organized by the Joint Office of National 863 Program. It is reported that the
assembly line has up 50% of the domestic market and effectively broken the
monopoly taken by Japanese, US and German manufacturers.

It is reported that the said assembly line is able to provide a full automatic process from dust or grain product filling to wrapping and piling up, especially good for stones, building materials and medical industries. The said system has weighing accuracy of plus or minus 2% with great speed, weighing capacity of 1200 times per hour, automatic filling speed of 800 bags per hour and piling capacity of 1200 bags per hour. It is reported that Harbin Polytechnic University has established Harbin Boshi Automation Co. Ltd. so as to realize the industrialization of the result. Now the new company is ready for manufacturing robot packaging line for grain and patch shaped and chemical fiber products.

Success in Super Hybrid Rice Studies

Under the guidance of Yuan Longping, academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering,
and in collaboration with the Research Center for National Hybrid Rice Engineering Technology and Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the super hybrid rice has registered a joyful record of 700 kilos per mu (1mu=00667ha.) over the super hybrid rice demonstration plots consisting of a thousand mu of paddy fields in Longshan county, Hunan Province. This marks that China has succeeded in developing super hybrid rice.
 
In 1996, super hybrid rice was listed under National 863 Program with the direct support from Premier Funds for two sessions in a row. As defined by the yield indicators regulated by Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, the yield of 700 kilos per mu over a hundred mu of paddy fields for two consecutive years marks the success of China's super hybrid rice studies. In this context, China Biotechnological Engineering Center under Ministry of Science and Technology, Specialists Committee on Biology under National 863 Program and Dept. of Science and Technology, Ministry of Agriculture jointly organized the verification and approval checks on the super hybrid rice demonstration plots consisting of a thousand mu of paddy fields in Longshan county, Hunan Province. The results have shown that the yield of 1075 mu of demonstration plots on a weighted average reached 703.5 kilos. On August 25, 2000, the experts panel conducted the on-the-spot approval check over "hundred-mu super hybrid rice demonstration" in Chenzhou and results have shown the yield of 141.5 mu on a weighted average reached 777.8 kilos. The success of super hybrid rice studies will play a big role in increasing the grain yield in the country. Calculating on a planting area of 200 million mu and an increased yield by 150 kilos per mu, China will see grain yield increase by 30 billion kilos each year, which are able to feed 70 million people a year.
 

World First Microwave Tail Gas Purifier

The study team chaired by Zhang Jinsong, a research fellow of Chinese Academy of
Sciences have developed the world first vehicle based microwave tail gas purifier as the result of their three-year efforts. The purifying effect of the said system has not only reached Europe II standards for automobile tail gas exhaustion (to be applied compulsively in China in 4 years) but also approached the Europe Ⅲ standards set for autos of the next generation.

As briefed by Zhang Jinsong, China's existing auto tail purifying technology still sees large gaps from those of developed countries such as US, Germany and Japan. At present, the domestic automobile manufacturers are using US or German made purifiers to meet the domestic demand for implementing Europe I standard for tail gas emission. As a result, the current domestic tail gas purification market is monopolized by foreign made products and technologies.

While working on the national anguish, the study group has also invented electric heating purifying technique for auto tail gas emission with its own original intellectual property right. The experimental results have shown that electric heating technique is able to improve the existing tail gas purifying techniques and make the exhaust air up to Europe II standards and quite close to Europe III.

Zhang added that the successful development of the said technologies has made China possess the patented technologies capable of meeting the high tail emission standards for the next generation autos. He disclosed that the above mentioned two technologies have been granted with patent rights and will soon be used by China First Auto Group and others.

Major Breakthroughs in Nanometer Applications

Under the push of normal electric pressure, a hundred million carbon nanometer tubes lined up on a square centimeter of silicon chip emit electrons on a continuous basis. The electronic blast shaped the word CHINA clearly on the screen. This is
what the new generation monitor with carbon nanometer tube developed by a Chinese study team performed not long ago.

Up to the date, the monitor has worked for 1600 hours without failure and any trace of degradation of its quality and performance. Experts believed that this has marked a major breakthrough in China's carbon nanometer application and China's advanced position in the wold in the field of carbon nanometer tube transmission, which created a new approach to the development of plane monitors.

Chinese scientists have worked on carbon nanometer tubes for many years and reaped a breakthrough last July. With the help of new technical approaches the study group headed by Prof. Zhu Changchun, Xi'an Jiaotong University grew the carbon nanometer tubes on electrified silicon base in an orderly and directional manner and eventually worked out the full-functioned picture element tube of field transmission. The field transmission has been greatly enhanced due to high purity and fine sequencing, which renders a unique contribution to the practical application of the carbon nanometer tube in plane monitors.

In comparison to the conventional monitor, the carbon nanometer monitor is not only smaller in both size and weight with less power consumption and higher displaying quality, but also offers a response interval of only a few microseconds. In addition, it is able to work in a temperature environment ranging from 45 degree
below zero to 85 degree centigrade. Therefore, it is of an extremely wide market perspective.

China's New Calcium Testing Technique

 
Chinese scientists have developed a new agent capable of telling the calcium demand of human body by testing one drop of blood. It is briefed that BAP is one of the biological indicators reflecting the bone metabolism. Its concentration is of important value to judging and diagnosing the calcium caused malnutrition suffered by infants and pregnant women and infant rickets and osteoporosis. Unfortunately,
it has long been difficult to judge and determine BAP concentration until the mid-1980s when a clinically applicable agent was eventually developed. Up to date,
only Germany, US and Denmark are producing the said agent products. On the basis of extensive investigations, Chinese scientists have successfully developed animmunity experiment device which is able to separate blood automatically in order to measuring BAP concentration in the blood.

It is reported that Wu Lebin, Deputy Director, Institute of Biophysiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences announced not long ago that Chinese experts had successfully developed a new approach to measuring and determining the calcium level in human
bodies on the basis of their three-year painstaking studies. With the techniques, scientists are able to tell the three BAP levels in human bodies, normal, preventive and treatment. It is also briefed that scientists of the Institute are now working on the portable instrument for further diffusion of the said techniques.


       Comments or inquiries on editorial matters or Newsletter content should be directed to:Mr. Dong Jianlong, Department of International Cooperation, MOST 15B, Fuxing Road Beijing 100862, PR China  Tel: (8610)68512650 Fax: (8610) 68512594, or Mr. Wang Jianping, Editor,NEWSLETTER, 15 Fuxing Road Beijing 100038, PR China, Tel:(8610) 68515544 Ext. 2580

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