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CHINA SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry
of Science and Technology
People's Republic of China
N0.269 August 30,2001
IN THIS ISSUE
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*
China Import and Export Trade Opened
* China's
Information Process Indicator System
* China's Marine
S and T Targets for the New Century
* China
Reclaiming Forests and Grassland from Farming Land
*
Major Progress in Sophisticated Laser Studies
* Robot
Performing Surgical Operation
* Chinese Scientists
Obtained Mountain Ice
Core
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SPECIAL
ISSUES
China Import and Export Trade
Opened
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade
and Economic Co-operation has recently issued a Circular in
which new provisions were made on import and export
enterprises' qualification management. According to the
Circular, the previous approval system on import and export
licensing shall be outdated and a so-called registration and
verification system will be introduced, though the new
provision is not applicable to foreign invested business.
The new rule indicates the complete outdating of
the accession restriction imposed on the non-public owned
economy in foreign trade activities.
The Circular
provides that the enterprises who are qualified to apply for
the operational right of foreign trade circulation shall
have a registered capital no less than RMB 5 million ( no
less than RMB 3 million for the businesses in the middle and
west regions of the country) and other required
qualifications. The manufacturing enterprises including the
individual funded enterprises and partnership enterprises,
when applying for import and export right for their own
manufactured goods before the provincial or municipal
foreign trade authorities delegated by the Ministry of
Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation, shall have a
registration capital no less than RMB 3 million (at least
RMB 2 million for the middle and west regions and ethnic
group areas, and no less than RMB 1 million for the research
institutes, high tech enterprises and machinery and
electronic products manufacturers) and other required
qualifications. The competent authorities in
charge of certificate issuance shall make the decision on
registration allowance within ten working days from receipt
of the applications.
The Circular also provides that
pursuant to the principle of independent application, open
and transparent, unified standards and supervision according
to law, the import and export qualification of enterprises
in different ownerships (not including foreign invested
enterprises, commercial goods supply, supply co-op and
enterprises, border trade business in small volume,
enterprises stationed in special economic zones and Pudong
new zone) shall be entitled and managed under a unified
standards and management rules. The Ministry of Foreign
Trade and Economic Co-operation has authorized the foreign
economic and trade authorities in provinces, autonomous
regions, municipalities under direct jurisdiction of the
Central Government and Ha'erbin, Changchun, Shenyang, Xi'an,
Chengdu, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Shantou and
Xinjiang Construction Corps to handle the registration of
import and export operation and issue the certificate on
import and export of the People's Republic of China.
Before the publication of the said Circular, the
Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation had
twice loosened its restrictions on the import and export
qualifications of privately owned enterprises on January
1st, 1999 and January 1st, 2000 respectively , then 1,000
and more enterprises were granted with import and export
certificate. The outdating of the previous approval system
on import and export operation qualification and the
establishment of the registration and verification system
have literally eliminated the restrictions on the accession
of non-public owned economies to foreign trade.
China's Information Process Indicator System
On July 29, 2001, the Chinese Ministry of
Information Technology and Telecom Industries made its
national information process indicator composition system
known to the public. The system is composed of 20 indicators
as follows: per-thousand-person radio and TV broadcast time,
per capita band width possession, per capita telephone
on-call times, the length of long distance optic cables, the
number of microwave channels, the number of satellite
receiving stations, per-hundred-person telephone line
possession, the number of cable TV stations for per thousand
persons, the number of Internet subscribers for per million
persons, the number of computers for per thousand persons,
the number of TV sets for per hundred households, the total
volume of network resources and data base, e-commerce
transaction volume, the proportion of the fixed investment
in industrial information technology in the total fixed
assets investment in the same period, the proportion of the
added values of information industry in GDP, the direct
contribution of information industry to the GDP growth, the
proportion of R and D budget of information industry in the
nation's total R and D budget, the proportion of the
investment in the information industrial infrastructure
construction in the nation's total investment in
infrastructure construction, and the proportion of college
graduate per thousand persons and the information index
etc..
China's Marine S and T Targets for the
New Century
It is reported from the sources of
the Chinese State Marine Bureau that the guiding principle
of "rights and interests, fortune, health, security and
S and T' has been finalized for China's future marine S and
T activities on the basis of the careful and painstaking
studies of experts. In the first five years of the new
century, 12 development projects will enjoy the priority
support.
These projects are: marine environment
resources survey; construction of 2-3 national key labs and
engineering centers so as to institute a basic 3-dimentional
marine environment monitoring operation system for offshore
areas; realizing the prediction for wind storm evading
seashores, offshore sea wave forecasting and sea surface
temperature forecasting; establishing basic marine
geographic information system of medium scale; establishing
ecological environment restoration demonstration zone and
China's basic marine environmental protection information
system; nurturing and breeding 10 species of fine quality,
high yield and adversity resistance and 10 marine drugs and
bioproducts of high added values; and developing technology
series for prospecting continental offshore areas.
The Ministry of Science and Technology and the State
Marine Bureau will work together to make China's marine R
and D reach the level of the developed nations's in their
mid 1990s in a period of five years with some of its areas
approaching the internationally advanced level.
ECOLOGICAL PROTECTION
Top Priority for Sand Control
Chinese State Forestry Bureau recently
expressed that China has positioned desertification
prevention and control on the top of the priorities for
ecological reconstruction and accordingly worked out its
strategic deployment for the combat against desertification.
According to the characteristics of its land
desertification process, China's desertification areas were
divided into five major types: dry desert brims and oasis,
semi arid and semi moist sand area, cold plateau desertified
land area, semi moist and moist sand lands over Yellow River
and Huaihe River plains and moist sand land over the south.
Aiming at the different desertification processes in
different regions and associated damages thus caused and
their development trend, and on the basis of general
requirements of China's national economic development for
the construction of ecological environment, the projects on
land desertification prevention and control are ranked at
national priority and regional and local demonstration
levels. The national priority projects include the ones for
curbing the desertification process over Beijing area and
Phase 4 project of 'Three-North" forest wind breaks,
while the regional projects cover some local efforts such as
desertification prevention and control project for Lhasa and
its adjacent areas and the cleaning project for the ancient
river routes of Yellow River.
Through the
construction of the above mentioned projects, China will
basically curb the expansion tendency of its land
desertification processes by 2010 and realize the zero
growth of desertification. By 2030, 60% of the sand land
that can be controlled will receive effective treatment. By
2050, all the controllable sand land will basically be put
under control except the original deserts and Gobi, and a
relatively complete ecological system in the desertified
areas will be established. Thus the coordinated economic,
social and ecological development will go harmoniously.
China Reclaiming Forests and Grassland from
Farming Land
As shown by the statistics, there
are 91 million mu(1mu=0.0667ha.) of slope farming land at 25
degrees in China with 70% of them sitting in the west. As
the result of destroying forests and pastures for farm land
and farming over slopes, the middle and upper reaches of the
Yangtze River and the Yellow River areas have become one of
the areas in the world suffering from the most serious soil
erosion with the sand and mud washed into the Yangtze River
and the Yellow river amounted to 2 billion and more tons
each year, two thirds of which originated from the slope
farming land.
China started its reclaiming efforts in
Sichuan, Shaan'xi and Gansu Provinces in 1999. In 2000,
China made the same efforts an important activity in the
west development with pilot efforts spreading to 188
counties in 17 provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities. And also in the same year, 5.791 million mu
of land were reclaimed which takes up 102.5% of the
scheduled tasks. In the meanwhile, 7.17 million mu of the
wild land were planted with trees and grasses, 102.2% of the
schedule tasks. In 2001, China once again included more
areas suffering serious winds and sands into the pilot
experiment list and expanded the reclaiming efforts to 224
counties in 20 provinces and autonomous regions and
municipalities in the middle and the west sections.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Major
Progress in Sophisticated Laser Studies
Shanghai Institute of Sophisticated Optic
Machinery under the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced
recently that they have obtained an electric power of
15×10(12) watts (15 terawatts) in a very short split
second (35 flying seconds) on an optic platform of less than
10 square meters. The intensity of the said power is equal
to several times that of the total sum of the grid power in
the world.
Since 1996, the Open Optics Lab of the
Institute has achieved steady progress in the super strong
and short laser studies with the shortened time scale from
46 flying seconds to 35 flying seconds and the output
intensity from 2.8 terawatts up to 15 terawatts. At present
the Institute has become one of the few bases in the world
possessing the first class experimental devices and is now
working on the studies of several important cutting edge
issues on super strong and short laser science under the
national 973 Program.
China's Another New
Super Hybrid Rice
On the basis of their more
than two years' efforts, Chinese scientists announced on
August 10, 2001 that they have bred out another new 'super
rice'. It is briefed that its extensive growing
will eventually free super hybrid rice from chemicals '920',
and reach the desirable objectives of reduced cost, stable
increasing yield and less pollution.
Starting from
the year 1997, Prof. Yang Rencui, Director of the Institute
of Genetic Seeds Breeding under Fujian Agriculture
University has been working on direct mutagenesis of the
species to be improved with the combined applications of
nuclear radiation and regular biological seeds breeding
techniques so as to obtain a gene called eui that may
genetically release the wrapped spike and enhance the
physiological function of the paddy rice. On the said basis,
he developed high stalk recessive hybrid rice, or named it
e-hybrid rice, of apparent advantages. When applying the
said technology into the super rice, he successfully turned
out a new species.
China Discovers Gastrula of
Ancient Animals
It was revealed recently from
the sources of Chinese Academy of Geology that its Cambrian
study group had discovered a gastrula fossil of phosphate
among the phosphorous rocks on Mount Weng'andoushan, Guizhou
Province. The discovery has secured a further confirmation
on the controversial animal fetus fossils unearthed over the
area and provided very valuable fossil evidence for studying
the kinship among relevant fossils. The phosphorous rock
layer of the area has instituted extremely fine conditions
for the preservation of fossils. As a result, the fossils of
living creatures in the area have not only been kept intact
but of diversity characteristics, which make the site a
desirable natural fossils bank for studying earlier life
evolution.
Robot Performing Surgical Operation
A long robot arm planted a tiny surgical
needle into the target spot on the head of a brain tumor
patient and it took out the complete affected tissues in 20
minutes. The said description illustrated the scene using a
robot to perform the distant brain surgery for the first
time in the country.
Not long ago, the medical robot
of the Navy General Hospital successfully performed the
brain surgical operation at the operation theater, though
the experts who sent the operation command to the robot were
physically located in another building about a thousand
meters away from the theater. The said medical robot for
distant operation were jointly developed by the Robot
Institute of Beijing Aviation and Space University and the
Navy General Hospital.
President for
the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences
has recently announced its plan for the recruitment of its
president in public. Eleven position seekers have
responded to the recruitment. Among the said 11 candidates,
there are domestically renowned atmospheric experts as well
as research fellows who are working abroad in the capacity
of visiting scholar. One of them has obtained Swedish
nationality and two others have stayed abroad for a long
time. Most of the candidates were born in the 1960s with the
youngest interviewee being only 36 years old. Crowned with
the titles of doctorate or research fellows, all of them are
the experts enjoying high academic reputation in the fields
of atmospheric sciences, thunder and lightening
applications, remote sensing applications and related
disciplines. At the interview meeting, the position seekers
were asked to make a 20-minute presentation before answering
the questions raised by the judge panel consisting of
academicians of both Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese
Academy of Engineering. It is briefed that the recruitment
result will be publicized in late August 2001.
Chinese Scientists Obtained Mountain Ice Core
The Mushigeta Glacier Expedition Team of
Chinese Academy of Sciences has recently drilled out an ice
core bar of 70 meters long at a site of 6300 m above sea
level on Mushigeta Peak, which is nicknamed "father of
glacier mountain". It is briefed that it is the first
time that Chinese scientists independently drilled out a
mountain ice core and the ice core obtained is of the best
quality in the world for it was obtained from a mountain
located at middle and lower latitude, which is of precious
academic value to studying the climate variations over the
middle and lower latitude areas. Contained in an ice box,
the said ice core will be delivered to Lanzhou for further
studies. It is believed that the findings of the researches
on the ice core will be of great importance to understanding
the relationship between greenhouse gases and climate
changes, glacier moisture resources, and the relationship
between glacier shrinking and desertification. The
obtaining of the said ice core marks a major progress
achieved by the Chinese scientists in the field of ice core
studies.
It is reported that the ice core drilled out
by the expedition team at heavy crystal belt is of high
fidelity for greenhouse gases and climate data thus
retained. Scientists may measure the concentration of
greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen
oxide, etc for different historical stages. The said ice
core is the only medium at present through which the
historical evolution relationship between greenhouse gases
and temperature variations can be directly deducted. In the
meanwhile, Chinese scientists will be working on the
extraction of DNA of the ancient microbes from the ice core
and conduct a series of studies on heavy metals and organic
matters in the ice core.
Genome Experimental
Platform
On June 26, 2000, the international
genome community published its human genome working map
which included the contribution of the Chinese scientists.
Now China's portion of the final map of this
"moon-climbing life project" has been completed
ahead of schedule and will soon be evaluated by the
scientists from both home and abroad in August 2001. The
data gathered from China's three research institutes
involved in the project are in the final stage of
consolidation and completion. Compared with the previously
published working charts, the finished map will raise the
human genome coverage from 90% to 100% and accuracy from 99%
to 99.99%. As briefed by experts, the finished map will
provide more accurate genome data for follow-up studies and
applications.
It is briefed that the Chinese
Institute of High Energy Physics under the Chinese Academy
of Sciences is constructing China's first and the largest
molecule experiment station that will open to the domestic
biological R and D clients and provide them with
experimental platform of internationally advanced level.
Experts expressed that the post genome studies
would face more extensive data studies while the progress of
these studies would mainly depend on the sophistication of R
and D facilities. With numerous merits such as high purity,
accurate calculation and fine stability, the synchronous
radiation device has been extensively employed by the
developed nations in their post genome studies, with which
the molecule composition studies that usually should take 27
years to complete now only need one day.
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