Extracts. China Protests Against US Over Military Plane Issue China has made solemn representations with and protested against the US side on US military plane's bumping into and damaging a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea Sunday, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Assistant Foreign Minister Zhou Wenzhong made the representations and protests during a meeting with US Ambassador to China Joseph Prueher Sunday night. Sunday morning, a US military surveillance plane approached China's airspace south-east of the island province of Hainan, and two Chinese military jets scrambled to track it. At 9:07 a.m., 104 km south-east of Hainan Island, the US plane suddenly turned towards the Chinese jets, resulting in its bumping into and damaging, and crashing one of the two Chinese jet. The Chinese side is very much concerned about the missing Chinese pilot from the crashed jet, and is busy searching for his whereabouts. Without permission from the Chinese side, the US surveillance plane intruded into China's airspace and made an emergency landing at Lingshui Airport on Hainan Island at 9:33 a.m. Zhou pointed out that it was normal and in accordance with international practice for Chinese military jets to track the US surveillance plane over China's water areas. The direct cause of the damage and crash of the Chinese jet was that the US plane suddenly veered into the Chinese jet, which was against flight rule. Therefore, the US side should bear all the responsibility arising therefrom, Zhou said. He noted that the Chinese people are demanding an explanation from the US on the following questions -- Why the US military plane approached to a place so close to China? Why the US plane took a sudden turn, then bumped into and damaged the Chinese jet? Zhou reiterated that the US plane's intrusion into China's airspace and its emergency landing without permission from the Chinese side had constituted a gross violation against China's national sovereignty. China reserves its right to further negotiate with the US side on both the losses resulted from the incident, and the US plane's intrusion into China's airspace and landing at Chinese airport without permission, Zhou said. According to the Foreign Ministry, Chinese Ambassador to the US Yang Jiechi met with relevant officials from the US Department of State the same day and made solemn representations and protests to the US side over the issue. Searching for Missing Chinese Pilot Continuing The searching and rescuing efforts are intensely underway for the missing pilot of the Chinese fighter, which was bumped into and damaged by the US military surveillance plane Sunday morning, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi Monday evening. Till 16:00 Tuesday local time since the incident, altogether 11 ships and over 20 planes have been sent by both the army and the local government to the site of the water area where the incident took place, Sun said. However, after rigorous searching a day and night, the whereabouts of the pilot is still unknown. Sun said that leaders of the Party and government and army are very much concerned about the security of the pilot and have made instructions to relevant departments to go all out to organize the searching and rescuing work. People throughout the country have also expressed their special concern through various ways, he added. According to the spokesman, the Chinese navy sent navy vessels and the Guangzhou salvaging bureau sent rescuing ships to the incident water area for searching and rescuing the pilot immediately after the incident took place. **** Urgent Need to Guarantee Normal Economic Operation In recent years, incidents of manufacturing and selling counterfeit products that seriously endanger the security of people's lives are horrible to people's minds, law-breaking criminal activities such as smuggling and trafficking in smuggled goods, tax evasion and tax fraud and illegal arbitrage of foreign exchange that disrupt social and economic order are really shocking. People loudly appeal: Great efforts must be made to solve the outstanding problem regarding rectification of the chaotic market order.. HALT BE PUT to CHAOTIC ORDER Law-abiding and faith-keeping enterprises are victimized by the rampage of faked and shoddy products. A survey by the department concerned shows that among the enterprises surveyed, at least 34.76 percent have seen their rights being infringed by counterfeit products. Gao Yuwen, board chairman of the Xinghuacun Fenjiu (a kind of spirit distilled in Fengyang) Group Company in Shanxi, told this reporter that in 1998, the Shuozhou fake liquor case caused great suffering to Shanxi's brewing industry, that year his company alone suffered a loss of over 100 million yuan of profit and tax. The huge amount, multiple variety and wide scope of fake goods have seriously tarnished market reputation. Lu Guanqiu, board chairman of Wanxiang Group, said that in its frequent contacts with clients, big and small, in many countries around the world, for more than two decades, almost no contract dispute has ever occurred between Wanxiang and its clients, the various fraudulent conducts by domestic enterprises has caused his company tens of million yuan worth of economic loss. An expert working in the financial field said that the "Zheng Baiwen incident" was not an individual phenomenon. The announcement on an accounting information quality sample survey recently published by the Ministry of Finance shows 155 of the 157 enterprises surveyed had the problem of false report on their profits. It is thus clear how serious the case of false figures and information is. Breaking faith entails endless woe. Insufficient faith or credit crisis has become a big obstacle to China's current economic development. According to the analysis made by Zhao Haikuan, honorary director of the Financial Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, the serious deterioration of social credit has brought at least three negative effects on China's economic development: Firstly, making it impossible for the normal proceeding of the enterprise's commodity production and exchange. Secondly, credit deterioration makes it impossible for the normal progress of banking business. Without credit, it is impossible for the generation and development of fictitious capital and for the market economy to advance to a higher stage. When the case of cheating of export tax refund was serious last year, the department concerned had to temporarily suspend the issuance of export tax rebate, to some extent this affected China's export growth. The problem of confused economic order has also damaged the country's prestige and the image of reform and opening and thus directly affected the attraction of foreign capital. STRIKING at ACTS of DISRUPTING MARKET ORDER The Party Central Committee and the State Council pay high attention to the rectification of market order. In his report to the Fourth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), Premier Zhu Rongji put the vigorous rectification and standardization of the market order in an important position, he called for "vigorous promotion of honest and faith-keeping professional ethics and accelerating the establishment of a sound social credit system". This is an urgent, as well as a long-term, task. It is the view of the department concerned that current rectification and standardization of market order should be carried out at least in the following eight aspects: 1. Persisting in striking at the manufacturing and selling of fake and shoddy products, tax evasion and tax fraud, illegal arbitrage of foreign exchange, smuggling and other criminal activities. 2. Rectifying the non-standard practice of the construction market. 3. Rectifying and standardizing financial order. 4. Enforcing strict financial and economic discipline. 5. Strengthening auditing supervision work. 6. Intensifying safety production management and safety supervision. 7. Attacking local acts of protectionism. And 8. Breaking departmental and professional monopoly and regional blockade. Establishing at the quickest possible speed a sound, nationally unified, standard and orderly market system featuring fair competition. Experts have pointed out that rectifying and standardizing market order cannot be accomplished at one stroke, we must first tackle problems which the masses strongly complain about and which is most harmful to the country, and treating both its principal and secondary aspects, this should be carried out step by step. It should be said that there are many-sided reasons for the poor credit state, there are both macro and micro factors, both the unsound and imperfect aspects of system and mechanism, and loopholes in the management and operation of enterprises; there are both the international problems of enterprises and the problems of external environment. Solutions of these problems need comprehensive analyses and overall treatment. Some far-sighted entrepreneurs have pointed out that the key to establishing a sound social credit lies in the self-discipline of enterprises. It is necessary to overcome short-term actions and give thought to the long-range development of enterprises. Liu Yonghai, vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, said during the "two sessions" that credit has to be accumulated bit by bit, people and enterprises who keep good faith will be successful in the end. Experts have pointed out that it is necessary to deal heavy blows to criminal acts of disrupting market order. It is imperative to rely on the rule of law to create a desirable market economic order. In the link of legislation, it is essential to establish and perfect a legal system for the socialist market economy, set up standard for inflicting heavier punishment, so that there is law to abide by when meting out severe blows; the link of law enforcement should also be conscientiously strengthened, particularly it is necessary to solve the problem regarding the weak and feeble administrative law enforcement and the replacement of control with fine. To rectify and standardize market order, it is also necessary to make institutional explorations. It is necessary to further expedite reform of the administrative examination and approval system, change government functions, improve government management and service, intensify the exercise of administration according to law and make administrative affairs known to the public. Doing so is conducive both to improving work efficiency and reducing unreasonable intervention in the market by government departments. Rectification and standardization of market order affects the fundamental interests of the people, the sound development of the socialist market economy, the implementation of the "10th Five-year Plan and the attainment of objectives. At the beginning of the new century, we should step up efforts to do the work of rectifying and standardizing market order well and take a solid step toward the establishment of a nationally unified, fair competition, standard and orderly market system. This is one of the commentaries written by Our Staff Reporter Wang Yantian on the rectification and standardization of market order. It is carried on the front page of People's Daily, April 2. **** President Jiang Meets Qatar Prime Minister President Jiang Zemin meets Tuesday with visiting Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Khalifa Al-Thani of the State of Qatar. This is Abdullah's first China trip since he became prime minister. **** Survey: Students in US Have Access to Guns Nearly half of the U.S. high school students have easy access to guns, and more than one in five high school boys have taken a weapon to school in the last year, according to a survey released Sunday. Forty-seven percent of high school students said they could obtain a gun if they wanted to, while 22% of middle school students said they could get a firearm, according to a nationwide survey conducted last year by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Josephson Institute of Ethics, based in Marina del Rey, Calif. "The seeds of violence can be found in schools all over America," said Michael Josephson, the institute's president. "Today's teens, especially boys, have a high propensity to use violence when they are angry, they have easy access to guns, drugs and alcohol, and a disturbing number take weapons to school." Students who use drugs and alcohol at school are even more likely to obtain and carry weapons, the survey of about 15,800 high school and middle school students revealed. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The study revealed that 19% of high school boys and 9% of middle school boys admitted to being drunk at school within the last year, compared to 12% of high school girls and 5% of middle school girls. While 14% of high school students and 11% of middle school students reported bringing a weapon to school within the last twelve months, 48% of high school students and 57% of middle school students who admitted coming to school drunk said they brought a weapon to school during that period. The prevalence of weapons in schools and a cavalier attitude toward violence has taken its toll on students' peace of mind, the survey showed. More than one in three high school students surveyed said they don't feel safe at school. **** China to Launch Rural Education Campaign China's Vice-President Hu Jintao <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/leaders/vpresident.html> has announced that the country will launch a campaign to educate rural officials to protect farmers' interests and promote agricultural efficiency. Hu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said in a keynote speech here that the two-year movement will center on the study of President Jiang Zemin <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/leaders/jzm/jzmhome.htm> 's instruction on the Party's leadership. "It will promote the rural economy and overall social advancement," he stressed. Jiang's important instruction stresses that the CPC earnestly represents the development requirements of China's advanced forces of social production, the progressive course of China's advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. Hu said that the campaign will improve the cohesion of the grass-roots Party organizations and the Party's leadership in the rural areas. Party committees at all levels should understand how to make proper arrangements for carrying out the campaign, Hu urged. China's grain output rose from 113 million tons in 1949 to 508 million tons in 1999, ranking the first in volume in the world. However, as China has 1.3 billion people, its agriculture sector is still in an unsatisfactory situation. There is an over-supply of agricultural products, while farmers ' incomes have been steadily decreasing, the agricultural structure is irrational and the production efficiency is low. Therefore, the increase of farmers' incomes and the promotion of agricultural restructuring is the centerpiece of the Party's current work. However, a number of village- or township-level officials lack a proper awareness of the situation and the Party's task. This is why the Party has decided to start this campaign, according to Hu. He said that the farmers shoulder excessive burdens because of illegal fee collections and fund raising, and other problems. In addition, the farmers' cultural level is low, cults are rampant in the countryside, and violent crimes occur constantly there. Hu also criticized rural officials who show indifference to the farmers' sufferings, and who even go so far as to take bribes and collude with local gangsters. The grass-roots cadres in the rural areas must have an attitude of serving the farmers wholeheartedly, and improve their democratic and legal awareness through the campaign, Hu said. The campaign will be carried out mainly through self-education, by combining such education with the rur **** S.Korean 2d Reshuffle Sweeps Out 21 of 41 Vice Ministers South Korean President Kim Dae-jung replaced 21 vice minister-level officials among 41 on Sunday, including those at the ministries of unification, foreign affairs and trade and defense, completing the formation of a new foreign affairs and security team. Mr. Kim promoted Kim Hyung-ki, chief of the policy planning bureau at the Ministry of Unification as vice minister; appointed Choi Sung-hong, ambassador to Britain, as vice foreign minister; and replaced the vice defense minister with Kwon Young-ho, head of the procurement bureau. The replacement of vice ministers in the three ministries following the March 26 cabinet shakeup marks a new line-up in the government's diplomatic and security team characterized by a functional support to complement the newly-appointed ministers. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
