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

• Torch Plan Contributes to Economic Growth

• New Measures to Aid High-tech Ventures

• Mystery of Plateau Salt Lake Discovered

• High Definition TV Systen in China

• Chinese and Foreign Experts Discussing the Development of S&T Centers

• China's Remarkable Success for Intellectual Property Rights Protection

      The State will give more policy support to developing high-tech industries as the backbone of a knowledge-based economy in the next century, Vice-Premier Li Lanqing said recently.

        Worldwide economic growth in the future will depend more on knowledge development and popularization. This will bring a challenge and opportunity for China to advance its science and technology, Li said at a national conference marking the  10th anniversary of the Torch Programme.

        The Torch Programme is a national plan that was implemented in August 1988 with the State Councils approval. It aims to propel regional economic growth through developing high-tech industries.

        The programme has made great contributions to national economic growth, high-tech industry development, traditional industry improvement and industrial restructuring, Li said.

        It also helped cultivate thousands of high-tech firms and 53 high-tech zones, and develop patented products which have reached world advanced levels, Li said at the conference.

        Li encouraged regional departments, while developing high-tech industries, to create more employment opportunities.

   New Measures to Aid
High-tech Ventures

      The government is to work out finance, taxation and trade regulations to support the development of small and medium-sized high-tech firms, according to a senior scientific official.

       World-famous companies such as Microsoft, Siemens and Phillips all emerged from cottage industries, Xu said.

        Some small firms and township enterprises in coastal areas of China have started to turn away from traditional industries towards high-tech production in a bid to compete in today's fierce markets.

        High-tech industries in China are still in their infancy; it took 10-15 years for scientific and technological parks to flourish in developed countries.

         High-tech zones should accelerate the improvement of property rights and share holding systems to attract more funds for small enterprises, said Xu.

        China's electronic switchboard market was dominated by overseas products six years ago due to the country's lack of competitive technology.

         But today domestically made switchboards account for 30 per cent of the country's market thanks to the efforts of several small domestic firms, said Xu.

        The output of the Beijing high-tech zone accounts for 10 per cent of the city's total industrial output, and that ratio is expected to rise in the future, Xu said.

Mystery of Plateau Salt
Lake Discovered

           Long term observation station of Salt Lake Center of Chinese Academy of Geology, the highest scientific observation station in the world sitting on a plateau at 4422 meter above sea level, has collected scientific data on Zhabuye Salt Lake for 8 consecutive years and conducted related scientific experiments and research. It discovered for the first time in the world natural lithium carbonate and new family of lithium muscovite and lithium deposit resources in the lake worth 150 billion yuan. Their discoveries and research has provided scientific evidence for the development of new type lithium in the salt lake, an international frontier challenge and addressing the "water system of eight bittern elements". In early August 1998, the station has extracted 30 tons of mixed salt with 9% lithium carbonate content, which marked a major breakthrough in China's salt field technology.

        This long term observation station situated on a wild island in the middle of Zhabuye Salt Lake is missioned to carry out experiment and research on salt lake r esources and environment, salt lake biology and earth chemistry so as to promote the development of edge cutting research on salt field. Assigned with a research topic "long term observation and research in pre-development stage of Zhabuye Lake", it has collected weather, water and evaporation data about the lake for almost 9 consecutive years. It has improved its understanding of the chemical process of crystal bittern rich in lithium and poor in SO₄ in winter. With the support of the state and Tibet Autonomous Region, Mr. Zheng Mianping, Director of the Salt Lake Center and an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering has led pre-study of extended comprehensive development of lithium, baron and potassium and official experiment lasted for 16 years. So far they have established Salt Lake Extended Experiment Base consisting of 6000 m² multi-level salt field, laboratory, floating selection workshop and dormitory. last year, they have expanded research forces by organizing technicians in the fields of chemistry, ore screening, geology and materialization to work on field bittern evaporation experiment and mixed salt screening experiment. They also carried out the experiment on hundred-ton inexpensive lithium content salt floating selecting and obtained refined ores of 37% lithium carbonate content. On August 2, 1998, they successfully acquired 30 tons of mixed salt with 9% lithium carbonate.

         What surprised people is the station's observations has proved the fact that Zhabuye salt Lake is one of the super salt lakes of million tons deposit in the world. Furthermore, the Lake is ranked in the first place in the world for its lithium deposit and the second place for its lithium quality. It is also of unique resources of solid natural lithium carbonate and excellent water chemical characteristics favored for economic abstraction of lithium, baron and potassium from salt lake. All these efforts have led to the discovery of the mystery of a salt lake with lithium existence.