CHINA will pour 470 billion yuan (US$56.4 billion) into technical
upgrading projects this year in a bid to uplift the quality of its
national economy and spur technological advancement, according to
official sources in Beijing.

The figure is an 83 billion yuan (US$10 billion) increase over last year.

Ten major products in nine key sectors will be targeted in the package:
metallurgy, non-ferrous metals, building materials, chemicals,
machine-building, electronics, automobiles, light industry and textiles,
an official with the State Economic and Trade Commission said.

Products expected to be given a major shot in the arm include those that
are strategically important to the national economy, technology
-intensive, energy-saving and popular with consumers.

China plans to launch more than 500 major technical upgrading projects
during the 1996-2000 period and develop 5,000 key technology-intensive
products.

Technical upgrading has been regarded as an important means of sharpening
the competitive edge of the nation's manufacturers. The central
government has vowed to give full play to the development of science and
education.

CHINA is planning to develop a 500-metre, aperture-active-spherical radio
telescope which can fill the geographic vacancy for global deep-space
exploration and international communication network.

The 500-metre-diameter telescope will be built in Karst Valley in
Southwest China's Guizhou Province, notes Professor Li Qibin, head of the
Beijing Astronomical Observatory (BAO).

Li, a senior astronomer, made the announcement during the third annual
meeting on Large Radio Telescopes during the weekend.

A group of small spherical pieces, which can be adjusted by computers,
will be placed in the valley to form a 300-metre effective aperture for
the telescope.

The telescope will have high sensitivity and resolution for China's
deep-space exploration project and will make up for the vacancy in
longitude between the current three deep-space exploration and sensing
stations, which are located in the United States, Spain and Australia.
The telescope will also complete a global, round-the-clock remote control
and communication service, Li said.

It will have a capacity 10 times stronger than the world's current
largest radio telescope, for observing faint and distant objects in
space. It will raise the ability of humans to search for
extraterrestrials in outer space, suggested Professor Nan Rendong,
deputy-director of BAO and project co-ordinator.

The 100-metre aperture telescope in Germany is now the largest active,
single-dish telescope in the world.

Studies on some key problems of astronomy, such as the evolution of stars
and galaxies and the exploration of "black holes," require large radio
telescopes with higher sensitivity and resolution, experts note.

NANCHANG (Xinhua) -- China's first self-controlled, pilotless plane for
meteorological observation has become operational in Nanchang, capital of
East China's Jiangxi Province.

The plane, a key State scientific research project, was developed by the
Jiangxi Research Institute of Meteorological Science.

Wu Wanyou, director of the institute, told Xinhua on Monday that the
plane is 1.8 metres long and 0.6 metre in height, and weighs 12 kilograms.

The mini-plane can carry 3 kilograms of payload. Its flying radius is 300
kilometres, and it can fly continuously for 4 -- 8 hours.

The plane has a global positioning system, and performs self-navigation
and self-piloting functions. It also has a digital exploratory apparatus
and a ground data receiving and processing device.

THE State published an updated guideline for China's science and
technology policy yesterday with the aim of directing scientific
development over the next few years.

The policy guideline -- a White Paper on Science and Technology, updated
by the Ministry of Science and Technology -- will make the public aware
of the central government's plans for science and technology development.
It will also enhance public consciousness of scientific knowledge, Xu
Guanhua, vice-minister of science and technology, said at a press
conference yesterday in Beijing.

The policy document outlined major scientific and technological projects
from the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000) to 2010.

It also elaborated strategies for developing agriculture, industry,
national defence, social benefits and services, theoretical research and
high technology.

Under the guideline, scientific departments across the country are
required to focus more on the following:

*increasing agricultural production through advanced technology;

*exploring technology for developing such fields as transportation,
telecommunications, energy, raw materials and water conservancy;

*fostering pillar industries including machinery, electronics,
petrochemicals and automobile manufacturing.

Agro-scientists are required to prepare technology support for an
adequate supply of major farm products, increasing farmers' incomes and
improving the ecosystem in the next century.

Scientists should also concentrate on developing high-speed passenger
trains, heavy-duty transport and computerized management systems to help
ease the country's railway bottlenecks.

In the preface to the document, Zhu Lilan, newly appointed minister of
science and technology, said the world is embracing a new scientific era
based on microelectronics technology development and other leading-edge
scientific fields.

She called on the country's scientists to reinforce technology to face up
to global challenges.

Vice-Minister Xu said his ministry has published seven policy guideline
papers since 1986. They have proved extremely helpful in providing
governments, scientists and the public with the latest information on the
country's scientific achievements and problems as well as worldwide
trends in scientific developments.

The ministry will publish up-to-date science and technology policy
guidelines each year. This will increase public understanding of the
country's scientific development, according to the ministry's Department
for Policy, Regulation and System Reform.

According to the ministry, China has made remarkable progress in
scientific development since the start of the Ninth Five-Year Plan.

Local governments have worked out strategies to revitalize provinces,
cities and economic sectors through science and technology.

China now averages 6,000 agro-technology research findings a year, and
most of these have been introduced into agricultural production.

Computer-based design, production and management methods are used in
major industrial sectors.

INTELLECTUAL property rights experts from China and France gathered
yesterday in Beijing to discuss enhancing bilateral co-operation for the
coming century.

Through exchanges of experience in intellectual property rights
achievements in the two countries, experts can draw up plans to improve
protection in the next century, said Vice-commissioner of China's new
State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) Ma Lianyuan.

He was addressing a symposium held by SIPO and France's National
Institute of Industrial Property.

During the two-day symposium, 160 participants are scheduled to discuss
such subjects as the situation and outlook for intellectual property
rights protection in the two countries, laws on anti-unfair competition
and intellectual property rights protection in China, development of
property rights on the Internet, and biotechnology patent protection in
China.

The two symposium sponsors exchanged a commemorative coin at yesterday's
opening to mark the 15th anniversary of bilateral co-operation on patents
protection.

China has made remarkable progress in patent law legislation and
enforcement since its Patent Law came into effect on April 1, 1985, said
Ma.

By the end of last year, the country had received 739,517 patent
applications, 15 per cent of them from abroad.

Foreign patent applicants came mainly from Japan, the United States,
Germany, South Korea, France, Switzerland, Britain, the Netherlands,
Italy and Sweden.

Ma said domestic and overseas patent applications are likely to increase
in the next few years.

Daniel Hangard, director of the French institute, said intellectual
property rights were a new concept in China 15 years ago when the two
countries started collaboration.

The ongoing Three Gorges project is expected to greatly benefit the
global ecological system and the natural and social environment, a senior
expert said.

The project, with its tremendous power-generating capacity, will help
curb the global greenhouse effect and thus contribute to environmental
protection, said Wei Tingcheng, a member of the State Council's Three
Gorges Project Construction Committee.

Wei is a veteran engineer in the field of water conservation. He had been
the leader of the Yangtze River Water Conservation Committee for 20 years.

The Three Gorges project, the world's largest, has an installed capacity
of 18,200 megawatts. It is expected to generate 84.7 billion kilowatt
hours annually, which should help ease the energy bottleneck in the
eastern, middle and southern regions of China.

If the project were replaced by coal-fired power facilities, about 50
million tons of coal would need to be burned to generate an equivalent
amount of power, Wei said.

In addition to the waste water and gas that using so much coal would
create, to burn that much coal would annually produce more than 100
million tons of carbon dioxide.

That level of CO2 production would aggravate the global greenhouse
effect. The more than 2 million tons of sulfur dioxide that would also be
created would fall back to earth as acid rain.

The Three Gorges reservoir has many other ecological benefits. It will
promote the growth of feed organisms and fish. The increased outflow from
the reservoir during dry seasons will dilute pollutants in the river
downstream of the dam, improving water quality and mitigating water
pollution. The reservoir will also mitigate salt water intrusion in the
river's estuary, improving the quality of Shanghai's water supply.

Wei said that the ecological disadvantages of the Three Gorges project,
such as accumulation of silt and the impact on rare plants and animals,
can be solved by specific measures.

BEIJING is striving to boost its high-tech industries to keep up with
the development of intellectual economies in developed countries.

These efforts will be assisted with the holding of the Beijing High-tech
Industry International Week, to be held from May 11 to 15.

The event is expected to provide strong impetus in upgrading Beijing's
economy and strengthening foreign co-operation, said Yao Wang,executive
vice-chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International
Trade Beijing Sub-council.

According to Yao, the high-tech industry week will include a large
exhibition, a series of special speeches, economic and trade negotiations
and on-the-spot visits to the Beijing Economic and Technology Development
Area, located in the eastern part of the city.

Hundreds of domestic and foreign institutes will take part in the
exhibition, which will be held in the National Agricultural Exhibition
Hall. The total exhibition area will cover 4,356 square metres.

Over 100 Beijing-based universities, colleges and research institutes
will display about 600 examples of their advanced technical research to
seek industrial co-operation, said Yuan Baorui, vice-director of the
Beijing Scientific and Technological Co-operation Centre.

In addition, 35 leading development zones in China will also join in the
event, according to Chen Lianlian, an official with the China Association
of Development Zones.Chinese officials and executives and experts from
multinational companies will present 23 reports on policies favourable to
international co-operation on high-tech industries, such as electronic
and information industries, as well as on topics concerning financial
affairs related to high-tech industries.

As a symbol of continuing efforts to boost the city's high-tech
industries, the Beijing High-tech Industry International Week will be
held yearly, Yao said.

CHINA is ready to expand its co-operation with the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) and patent offices of other countries, State
Councillor Wu Yi said on Wednesday.

In this way, the country can make its due contribution to world
intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, she said.

Wu made these remarks during a meeting with WIPO Deputy Director-General
Francois Curchod and other foreign visitors who are in Beijing to attend
the inaugural ceremony of the China Intellectual Property Training Centre
and the International Symposium on the Property Co-operation Treaty (PCT)
System in the 21st Century.

Wu said the WIPO has made an outstanding contribution to the cause of IPR
in all countries.

The WIPO and patent offices from other countries have provided great
assistance to China in its legislation and personnel training, and in the
expansion of its international influence in the field of IPR protection.

The introduction and constant improvement of the IPR system is an
important part of China's reform and opening up, and a requirement for
the creation of a socialist market economy in China, Wu Yi said.

The Chinese Government has changed the name of the former Patent Office
into the present State Intellectual Property Office in a move to enhance
co-operation with other countries in this area, she said. This fully
demonstrates the importance that the government attaches to the issue.

Curchod said co-operation with China has been a priority for the WIPO in
the past 20 years. His organization is pleased to help China institute a
modern intellectual property system.

To date, China has formulated many laws and regulations concerning intellectual property, and has made great progress in this regard, he
said. The WIPO and patent offices of other countries are ready to
co-operate further with China. (Xinhua)