New Guide Calls for Technology Progress The State Economic and Trade Commission on November 8 in Beijing published a guide for developing State-level key technologies during the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000).

The guide includes 166 technologies which have good market prospects and
are expected to have great impact on the national economy.

These technologies involve 18 industrial sectors such as power, petroleum
and natural gas, coal, railway, transportation, telecommunications, iron
and steel, nonferrous metals and chemistry.

Other sectors are petrochemistry, building materials, electronics,
machinery, shipping, light industry, textile, construction and medicines.

The technological development capacity is the key element for keeping
enterprises vigorous, commission Vice-Minister Li Rongrong said on
November 18 after the guide was released.

The sales volume of the world's top 500 companies are backed by
technological development.

Li said investment in research and technological development at Ford
Motor Co in 1996 hit $ 7 billion, bigger than such investments in all
Chinese large and medium enterprises.

" If our enterprises want to take part in global competition, we must
strengthen the work of technological development and take the work as an
important development strategy of enterprises," Li said.

The document aims at guiding China's enterprises, especially State-owned
large and medium enterprises, to conduct their technological development
in accordance with the country's industrial policy.

Enterprises are encouraged to transfer technologies into products
suitable to market needs and improve their market competitiveness.

Li said his commission has selected six famous brands as priority
companies and is giving 20 million yuan ($ 2.4 million) to each one to
develop new technologies.

They are Baoshan Iron and Steel Corp, electrical appliance producer Haier
company, computer giant Founder Group, Jiangnan Ship Building company and
TV manufacturer Changhong firm.

These enterprises as well as local governments are also urged to pour at
least a sum equal to the allocated money into their technological
development.

China's technological development witnessed some progress in past years,
according to material released by the commission.

Last year, 1,384 key new products were developed and sales volume is
expected to reach 180 billion yuan ($ 21 billion) in the period of trial
production.

In the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1991-1995), more than 30,000 key new
products were developed across the country and 80 per cent of them have
been put into production.

China is carrying out an ambitious project to train an elite group of
experts who will lend impetus to the country's scientific and
technological development in the 21st century, said Xu Songtao,
vice-minister of personnel, at forum on talent training in Beijing
recently.

Xu said 683 sci-tech personnel, all under 45, have passed a nationwide
selection process to enter the project, jointly initiated two years ago
by his ministry and six other State departments.

The project, included in the national plan for scientific and
technological development, aims to attract a number of outstanding
scientists with worldwide prestige by the end of this century, he said.

"We also want to prepare a group of academic and technical researchers
who can lead the country in their own fields for the coming century," he
said.

The talents chosen will be given preferential treatment for academic or
scientific research funds, acquisition of professional titles, job
changes and living conditions. Statistics show that more than 60 million
yuan ($ 7 million) have been devoted to the project.

The seven departments will continue the annual selection process for two
more years, and introduce a competitive mechanism into the management of
those people who are chosen, while eliminating those no longer qualified
for the project.

A new revolution of agricultural sciences and technologies is essential
for China to feed its 1.6 billion people in the next century, said Dai
Xiaofeng, a researcher with the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences
(CAAS).

To facilitate the revolution, he added, China should carry out all-round
co-operation with the Consultative Group of International Agricultural
Researchers (CGIAR), an international agricultural research organization.

The co-operation will begin with this month's landmark conference, the
first CGIAR conference held in China, Dai said.

He noted that growing population, decreasing arable land and rapidly
developing economy in China will impose an ever increasing pressure on
its agriculture in the next century.

If the Chinese population increases at the currently growth rate, China
will have about 1.6 billion people by 2030.

To support so many people, China's annual grain output by 2030 should hit
640 million tons, which demands an increase of 180 million tons of grain
in the following 33 years, Dai said.

However, the arable land during the same period is likely to dwindle from
the present 132 million hectares to 124 million hectares, according to
Mei Fangquan, another CAAS researcher.

Therefore, China should adopt a new development mode, that is, to
increase its labour productivity, unit production and natural resources
use with advanced technologies, Dai said.

China's present agricultural development mode should be abandoned.
Agricultural output is increased at the expense of wasting a lot of
natural resources. Only 30 percent of China's arable land is fertilized
and systematically irrigated, the researcher said.

If China fails to increase its grain output with advanced technology by
2030 and turns to the world market, chances would be slim that an
adequate grain supply would be available for it to purchase, Dai
predicted.

As the trend of more people and less land spreads globally, an annual
transaction volume of 200 million tons of grain on the international
market will not be able to meet the demand of such major grain importers
as Japan and Cuba, not to mention China.

The country's trade liberalization process also demands competitiveness
from Chinese agricultural products, the researcher pointed out.

In the 1988-1997 period, China has reduced tariffs by large margins on a
wide range of agricultural products. As a result, little leeway has been
left for hikes in the prices of major grain and oil products.

To compete with imported agricultural products after China enters the
World Trade Organization, production costs of produce will have to be
reduced on the strength of the new agricultural scientific revolution,
Dai said.

However, the overall level of China's agricultural sciences and
technologies lags behind that of the developed countries by 10 to 15
years' development.

The State is planning to give more attention to quality supervision of
the production of energy-saving lights to ensure the full success of the
country's "green-lighting project."

The project, which has experienced steady progress since its introduction
last year, aims at saving energy and protecting the environment through
promoting the use of high-efficiency energy-saving lights.

"The green-lighting project is of great significance for China in helping
enhance its drive to save energy and protect the environment," said Li
Rongrong, vice-minister of the State Economic and Trade Commission at a
news conference on October 29.

He noted that efforts to seek high quality lanterns should be of top
concern for the future production of energy-saving lamps and the
implementation of the energy and environment friendly project.

Many developed nations are promoting the green-lighting project.

In the United States, for instance, the amount of production and use of
energy-saving lamps and lanterns equals 50 per cent of the country's
total production every year.

But in China, a country suffering from a serious shortage of electrical
resources, the production and use of energy-saving lanterns only makes up
10 per cent of the annual production, which reached 4.5 billion lanterns
last year.

"The result of a recent inspection of the country's 133 major producers of
energy-saving lanterns indicated unsatisfactory quality. Only 73.8 per
cent of the lantern samples met the standard," said Xuan Xiang, and
official in charge of quality inspection with the State Bureau of
Technical Supervision (SBTS). The organization conducted the inspection
with the China National Council of Light Industry.

He said the common problems with home-made energy-saving lanterns include
poor luminous flux, short life span, low lumen-keeping rate, poor
heat-resistance ability and substandard product labelling.

"Energy-saving lanterns and lamps are the basis for the implementation of
the green-lighting project and key to the success of the project to some
extent. But the current production of energy-saving lights is still in
disorder," said Li Zhonghai, deputy director of SBTS.

"The State has approved two sets of standards for lantern production
which will become effective next May," Li said.

"Another two sets of national standards are being drafted and a
conformity committee has been established with State approval to promote
production of quality energy-saving lamps," the official said.



RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Chinese scientists recently obtained the second-generation seeds of a
popular Chinese medicinal herb after exposure to radiation in outer space.

Experts said it is the first time in the world that Chinese medicinal
herb seeds treated in a retrievable satellite resulted in better quality
seeds.

The space breeding of the seeds is of epoch-making importance, experts
said, and the next step involves production of medicinal herbs in other
countries.

Liu Zhongshen, director of the Biological Medicine Centre of Heilongjiang
University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said the space-treated seeds
of Huangqin or bailkal skullcap root, are apparently different from
ordinary ones.

He said the germination period of the space-treated seeds is much shorter
than that of the ordinary ones and that the space seeds have longer and
stronger roots and the stems are taller.

The Huangqin root seeds were carried by China's JB retrievable satellite
for a 15-day space journey. Scientists said the chromosome distortion of
the space seeds make their quality much better.

Chinese herbal medicines have been used for treating a variety of
diseases for about 2,500 years. The Huangqin is one of the most commonly
used herbal medicines among 400 similar kinds.

Doctors practicing traditional Chinese medicine said Huangqin effectively
clears away heat and toxins. It is being used in more than 40 per cent of
traditional Chinese medical prescriptions.

It can be used for the treatment of pneumonia, infection of the
respiratory tract, hypertension, nephritis and hepatitis.

The medicinal herb could be harvested after three or four years; the wild
ones have become scarce due to overpicking.

The Huangqin space seed project is expected to take four years to
complete.

So far, China has successfully launched space-seed breeding projects
involving 51 varieties of crops.

China is now among the world's leaders in biological medical research.

The country, next to the United States, Germany and Japan, is now the
fourth in the world to have succeeded in recombining through gene cloning
technology, a human hormone for booting growth of red blood cells.

The Institute for Military Medical Science Research of the Nanjing
Military Command has developed a "recombinant human Erythropoietin"
(rhEPO) injection which is effective in treating anaemia resulting from
kidney failure.

The medicine, having been approved for trial production by the Ministry
of Health recently, puts an end to dependency on imported products and is
much cheaper in price, meaning that more and more Chinese patients may
have access to this world top-grade technical product and lead a fuller
life as a result, said Ma Yonghua, an official with the Administration
Office on Research and Development of New Drugs of the State Science and
Technology Commission.

Erythropoietin (EPO), produced by the kidneys, is an important human
hormone that adjusts the differentiation, proliferation and maturity of
red blood cells.

EPO levels are reduced when people suffer kidney failure and this results
in anaemia.

Statistics suggest that the incidence rate of chronic nephritis is about
2.5 of 1,000 people each year in China, and that a majority of them will
develop kidney failure.

There are currently 1 million kidney failure patients in the country,
most of them also suffering anaemia.

Regular blood dialysis and blood transfusion are common therapies for
such anaemia cases, which are expensive and take time. Only few patients
may afford and continue the treatment.

Also, blood transfusion may expose the patients to the risk of hepatitis
or even HIV/AIDS infection, said Li Xuewang a professor treating kidney
diseases in the Beijing Union Medical College Hospital.

According to Li who has participated in the clinical testing and trial
use of this Ninghongxinbrand rhEPO medicine, the quality of the Chinese
product is up to international standards, but the price is only half that
of foreign medicines.

With a total investment of 60 million yuan ($ 7.2 million), the 70-member
Institute for Military Medical Science Research of Nanjing Military
Command spent six years in developing the medicine.

The medicine has passed two phases of clinical experiments in some major
hospitals in Beijing, including the Beijing Union Medical College
Hospital and the Sino-Japanese Friend ship Hospital, and has registered
an effective cure rate of 88.5 per cent.

The research was listed as one of the 10 major medical science successes
of 1994 by the Ministry of Health and won support from the State Science
and Technology Commission as a State-level key research project the same
year.