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CHINA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry of Science and Technology
People's Republic of China
N0.281
December 30,2001
IN THIS ISSUE
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*
Full-Fledged Implementation of the 10th S and T Plan
* China's S and T Papers in 8th Place
*
Foreign Medicine Wholesaler and Retailers into China 2003
* Favorable Changes for Foreign Banking Institutions
in China
* China Stocks Exchange Promises for WTO
* World Thinnest Motor
* China's Sonic
Suspension
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SPECIAL
ISSUES
Full-Fledged Implementation
of the 10th S and T Plan
Along with the final
dishing-out of major priority projects for the National 863
Program and the Key Technologies R and D Program in the 10th
Five-Year Plan period(2001-2005), the implementation of
different national S and T programs has entered a full
fledged stage. According to the National S and T Development
Plan approved by the State Council for the 10th Five-Year
Plan period, China's S and T activities in the next five
years will focus on two areas: promoting industrial
technical upgrading and enhancing sustainable R and D
innovation capacity.
The National 863 Program
will pay its major attention to six fields such as
information, biology, modern agriculture, new materials,
advanced manufacturing and automation, energy, resources and
environment and it will organize the implementation on a
classified basis in line with priorities and subjects. 55%
of its budget will be used to support major projects. The
first group of the so-called major projects will include
super large-scale IC, electricity auto, innovative drugs and
associated industrialization among many others.
The
National Key Technologies R and D Program is composed of
major projects, priority projects and guiding projects with
60% of its budget supporting major projects. The first 29
major projects thus far defined have covered a number of
important fields such as information security and electronic
administrative affairs, banking information process, deep
processing of major agricultural produce, modernization of
Chinese Traditional Medicine industry, food security and
others.
It is reported that during the 10th Five-Year
Plan period, the budgeting of different S and T programs has
seen some increase against that in the 9th period. For
example, the budget for the national 863 program has been
raised from RMB 5.9 billion allocated by the state in the
past 15 years to RMB 15 billion for the following 5 years.
Though the National Key Technologies R and D Program is only
of a budget amounting to RMB 5 billion for the 10th period,
the estimated investment intensity will see great increase
as the result of increasing industrial R and D input in the
Program.
China's S and T Papers in 8th Place
Institute of Scientific and Technical
Information of China announced on December 3, 2001 that in
the previous year China maintained its 8th place in the
number of its S and T papers published internationally
(excluding the ones by scientists from Hong Kong, Macao and
Taiwan). The total number goes up by 7.6% in comparison with
that of the year before.
Statistics have shown
that in 2000 China's S and T papers maintained its increase
in number with improved quality. Chinese scientists
published 49,678 papers internationally including the ones
collected by SCI and ISTP, or 3,490 papers more than the
previous year, higher than the world average growth with a
percentage of 3.55% of the world total. As far as China's S
and T papers' ranking is concerned, China has maintained its
8th place followed by Russia with its betters as US, Japan,
UK, Germany, France, Italy and Canada. In the meanwhile, the
number of Chinese S and T papers quoted also went up from
13,024 in the previous year to 15,733 in 2000, and the times
quoted from 25,173 to 31,354, landing a respective increase
by 20.8% and 24.6%, which demonstrated the improvement of
China's international papers both in quality and in
influence.
LAWS AND REGULATIONS
Foreign Medicine Wholesaler and Retailers into
China 2003
As disclosed by the State Economic
and Trade Commission, China will open its medicine
distribution market to foreign wholesalers and retailers
from January 2003. In the year before such all-around
opening, China will allow selected foreign businesses to
enter its market on an experimental basis. The State
Economic and Trade Commission and Ministry of Foreign Trade
and Economic Co-operation have defined the following
qualifications for candidate foreign businesses:
1.
Upon approval, foreign businesses will be allowed to
establish joint ventures or cooperative businesses with
Chinese businesses on the Chinese territories for medicine
retailing transactions.
2. The foreign partner for
the aforesaid retail joint ventures shall be the one who has
an average annual sale volume above USD 2 billion in the
previous three years before the application and its total
assets shall reach USD 0.2 billion or above in the previous
year before the application.
3. The Chinese partner
shall be the circulating business of required strength and
operation capacity with its total assets reaching RMB 50
million in the previous year before application ( or RMB 30
million for the middle and the west regions) and its average
annual sale volume in the previous three years before the
application reaching RMB 300 million (or RMB 200 million in
the middle and the west regions). When the Chines partner is
a foreign trade business, its import and export volume in
the previous three years before the application shall be USD
50 million with its export volume not lower than USD 30
million. When establishing a joint medicine wholesaler
business, the equity of the Chinese partner shall not be
less than 51%.
No Solely Foreign Funded
Medical Businesses in China
The Chinese
Ministry of Health announced on December 10, 2001 that due
to the special nature of health and medical industries,
China will not allow opening solely foreign funded medical
institutions in China even though China has now become a
member of WTO. The said practice is believed in line with
acknowledged international norms.
Since the
publication of Interim Rules on the Management of
China-Foreign Joint Venture and Cooperative Medical
Institutions on July 1st, 2000, China has approved the
establishment of 23 joint-venture medical institutions in
2001, a most gracious gesture shown for foreign investment
in the sector in the past years. As indicated by the
statistics provided by the Ministry of Health, China now has
300,000 and more medical institutions at different levels,
of which 130,000 and more are non-publicly owned businesses.
China-foreign joint-venture medical institutions officially
approved by the Ministry of Health have reached 200 and more
in number, of which joint-venture clinics have taken a
proportion of 50% or more.
When being admitted into
WTO, China has promised to allow foreign investors to open
China-foreign joint-venture medical institutions in the
country provided that the institutions, working staff,
technologies and major facilities and instruments are in
agreement with relevant requirements. Such opening practice
can only be seen in three or five countries in the world. In
this sense, China has made a great step in opening its
medical market especially in comparison with other
countries.
Favorable Changes for Foreign
Banking Institutions in China
On December 9,
2001, the People's Bank of China publicized its
changed policies in favor of foreign banking institutions on
the eve of China's accession to WTO.
It is reported
that starting from December 11, 2001 China will annul its
target clients restrictions imposed on foreign banking
institutions for their foreign exchange transactions. As a
result, foreign banking institutions may extend their
foreign exchange services to all the institutions or
individuals on the Chinese territories, though they are
required to increase their matching operational funds or
capitals and have their old banking business license or
banking legal person permit updated. From December 11, 2001
on, foreign banking institutions physically located in
Shanghai and Shenzhen are allowed to run their transactions
in RMB and foreign banking institutions stationed in Tianjin
and Dalian may apply for business transactions in RMB.
From the same date on, foreign funded non-banking
institutions may, in accordance with the relevant management
rules soon to be published by the People's Bank of China,
apply for independently or jointly funded automobile banking
service firms, providing auto consumers' credit services.
From December 11, 2001 on, foreign investors may,
in accordance with the Methods on Banking Leasing Firms
Management published by the People's Bank of China, apply
for the incorporation of independently or jointly funded
banking and leasing firms, providing banking and leasing
services. The People's Bank of China will, in accordance
with revised by-laws such as “PRC Rules on Foreign
Funded Banking Institutions Management” and “PRC
Implementation Rules on Foreign Funded Banking Institutions
Management”, handle the said applications filed by
foreign banking institutions. The applications for
incorporation previously filed by foreign banking
institutions with the People's Bank of China are still
valid, though the applicants are required to submit
supplementary materials as required by the revised by-laws.
China Stocks Exchange Promises for WTO
On December 11, 2001, the Chinese Stocks
Exchange Watchdog Committee publicized its major promises
upon China's accession to WTO. These promises will
bring the following new hopes for foreign investors: 1.
foreign stock exchange institutions may directly engage in
B-share trading without going through Chinese brokerage
firms; 2. representative offices of foreign stock exchange
institutions will be allowed to be special members of
China's stock exchange system; 3. foreign institutions will
be allowed to establish their joint-venture firms engaging
in domestic security and investment funds management with
the proportion of foreign equity not exceeding 33% or not
exceeding 49% within the first three years after China's
accession to WTO; 4. within 3 years after China's accession
to WTO, foreign stock exchanges will be allowed to establish
their joint-venture firms in China with the proportion of
foreign equity not exceeding the one third. The
joint-venture firms can be selected as A-share undertaking
agent, or undertaking agent for B-share, H-share,
governmental and corporate bonds or as the sponsor for the
establishment of a fund.
On the basis of the above
mentioned promises, Chinese stock exchange system will soon
start to accept the applications filed by foreign stock
exchange firms for direct B-share trading, or for making
their representative office in China special members of
Chinese stock exchange system. In the meanwhile, the by-laws
on incorporation of joint ventures for the businesses of
securities investment and IPO undertaking have also seen the
finalization and the Chinese Stocks Exchange Watchdog
Committee is expected to accept applications in the near
future. China has imposed no restrictions on the
incorporation of joint ventures by overseas stock exchange
firms whether in terms of quantity or geographic regions.
Market accessibility will be mainly determined by the
prudent practices based on market economy. China will keep
its promise for its accession to WTO and faithfully fulfill
its obligations in accordance with the provisions regulated
in the agreement on service trade.
The Watchdog
Committee stressed that opening of stock exchange sector and
opening of stock exchange market are two totally different
concepts. The former means allowing foreign service provider
to be part of China's domestic stock exchange businesses, as
regulated by WTO on service trade. Specifically
speaking, it means it should allow overseas service provider
to have the access to Chinese market and provide brokerage
service for Chinese citizens for their investment in
domestic stock exchanges in Chinese currency, while not
incurring any transboundary capital flow (registered capital
is not included). The latter implies allowing foreign
investors to trade China's domestic stocks on a free basis,
which could lead to the transboundary flow of capital and is
not within the agreement with WTO as it is a capital item in
nature.
Major Breakthroughs in
Palaeo-geomagnetism Studies
Physically located
in the northern section of Hebei Province and 150 km away
from Beijing, Xiaochangliang cultural relics in
the east of Nihewan Basin has been acknowledged as one of
the oldest basin based stone age relics. The measurement of
its age will provide important evidence for the
palaeoanthropological studies.
Zhu Rixiang, a
research fellow of the Institute of Geology and Earth
Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and his
collaborators have created a unique palaeo-geomagnetism lab
which improves the related experimental equipment,
techniques and methods. They have spent three years on the
detailed lithomagnetism and geomagnetism studies of 1600 and
more palaeo-geomagnetism samples collected for the purpose,
and eventually identified the age of Xiaochangliang Stone
Layer as 1.36 million years old through calculating sediment
rate and vertical position of the relic stone layer.
Zhu and his collaborator’s paper on the finding
was published in Nature on September 27, 2001. On the
following day, a US anthropologist who used to work on
Nihewan project published his comments on the finding in
Science. Geologists from Utah University believed that the
most distinctiveness of the finding is that it has applied a
very good and clear method to determining the year of
indisputable artificial stone rather than a natural one, and
it is a new breakthrough in basin age determination.
World Thinnest Motor
Tsinghua
University has recently worked out the thinnest motor in the
world. With a diameter of 1mm, a length of 5 mm and a weight
of 36 mg, the said motor is literally a vertical cylinder in
shape. When driven by surrounding cables, its head may make
even circulation with its bottom producing rhythmic
vibration. The miracle power it produces may drive
mini-robots to move freely in man's blood vessels.
Made of piezoelectricity ceramics, the motor body has
to be surfaced with silver and then evenly divided into four
parts with tiny space kept among them. Its polarization is
made under high pressure so that silver matter can be made
to penetrate into the ceramics.
Thanks to its
capacity for driving mini-machinery to change direction and
position freely, the said motor is of broad application
perspectives in the field of biology, medical treatment and
national defense. At present, scientists of Tsinghua
University are working on super mini-motor with a diameter
of only 0.5mm.
NEWS BRIEFS
China's Sonic Suspension
Prof.
Wei Bingbo, in the Dept. of Applied Physics, China Northwest
Polytechnic University and his collaborators have made
materials suspended in the air by taking advantage of
supersonic technique. Prof. Wei and others developed a
single axle device able to improve the said suspension and
associated stability and realized for the first time in the
world the suspension of metal tungsten cake in the air with
supersonic waves. In addition, they have created a detailed
theoretical model for the said study with the result of the
theoretical analysis identical to that from experiments. The
finding is of great importance to research and development
of new materials. Both the technical memorandum of US NASA
and UK based journal Nature think highly of the
result.
Superconductor Production Line
China's first production line able to annually
produce 200km of bismuth series high-temperature
superconductor materials was recently put into operation.
Developed by Beijing Innar Superconductor Technology Co.
Ltd., the said production line has successfully produced a
number of 1000-meter-long, high-temperature superconductor
materials during its trial production stage with each of
them able to bear an electric current of 43 amperes and an
engineering critical current density as high as 6000 amperes
per square centimeters or more. The manufacturer is planning
within two years' time to create a bismuth series
high-temperature superconductor material production base of
an annual capacity for 1000 km, so as to provide key raw
materials needed by China's high temperature superconductor
research and development applications.
China's
Electric Autos
The full electricity powered
sedan car developed by Anhui Zhaocheng Electric Vehicle Tech
Co. Ltd. has recently passed its testing running for 25,000
km with its major technical indicators such as consecutive
running distance, hourly speed, slope climbing capacity, per
hundred electricity consumption exceeding the national
standards and that of its overseas counterparts. The said
electric sedan car may house 4 people with a normal running
speed at 70 km for 220 km consecutive run, power consumption
15kwh per hundred kilometers, slope climbing capability 18
degrees, maximum hourly speed 80 km and maximum non-stop
running range 273 km. Basically it can meet the requirements
of urban traffic system and short haul running.
It is reported that the market pricing of the
said electric auto is currently sitting at RMB 110,000, and
can be reduced to around RMB 90,000 when going into mass
production, a price similar to that of internal combustion
sedan cars.
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