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CHINA SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry
of Science and Technology
People's Republic of
China
N0.286 February 20,2002
IN THIS ISSUE
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*
Regulations on Foreign Investment Orientation
* Sand
Control for Beijing and Tianjin Area
* The World
First Oral Insulin Spray
* Asia was Mammals' Eden
Garden
* 26 Cave Animals Discovered in
China
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SPECIAL
ISSUES
Regulations on
Foreign Investment Orientation
On Feb. 21,
2002, Zhu Rongji, Chinese Premier inked his signature on No.
346 Decree of the State Council, the People's Republic of
China, which enacted the Regulations on Foreign Investment
Orientation that would become effective on April 1st, 2002.
Article 1
Pursuant to the provisions on
foreign investment defined by relevant Chinese laws and
requirements of industrial policies, this Regulations is
enacted for the purpose of providing guidance for foreign
investment orientation so as to make such investment in line
with China's national economic and social development and
protect investors' legitimate interests.
Article 2
This by-law is applicable to
the projects sponsored by Chinese-foreign joint ventures,
Chinese-foreign cooperation businesses, and foreign invested
businesses (hereinafter referred to as foreign invested
businesses) on Chinese territories or foreign invested
projects in others forms (hereinafter referred to as foreign
invested projects).
Article 3
Guidance
Catalog on Industries for Foreign Investment and Catalog on
Priority Industries for Foreign Investment in Middle and
West Regions shall be jointly formulated by the State
Development Planning Commission, the State Economic and
Trade Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and
Economic Co-operation in collaboration with competent
agencies under the State Council, and be published upon the
approval of the State Council. Pursuant to actual
needs, the said catalog can be revised when necessary for
further publication jointly by the State Development
Planning Commission, the State Economic and Trade Commission
and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation
in collaboration with competent agencies under the State
Council.
Both Guidance Catalog on Industries
for Foreign Investment and Catalog on Priority Industries
for Foreign Investment in Middle and Western Regions are
policy basis for approving the establishment of foreign
invested projects and foreign invested businesses.
Article 4
Foreign invested projects are
classified into four categories: encouraged, allowed,
restricted and prohibited. Foreign invested projects that
fall into the categories of encouraged, restricted and
prohibited are listed in the Guidance Catalog on Industries
for Foreign Investment. Foreign invested projects that are
not classified as encouraged, restricted and prohibited are
the ones rated as allowed shall not be listed in the
Guidance Catalog on Industries for Foreign Investment.
Article 5
A project that serves for one
of the following purposes shall be classified as encouraged
foreign investment projects.
1) New agricultural
technologies, integrated agricultural development,
industries related to energy, transport and major raw
materials;
2) High technologies, advanced proven
technologies, new equipment and materials able to improve
products' performance and enterprises' technical and
economic benefits or those that domestic manufacturers
cannot have sufficient supply;
3) Meeting market
demands, upgrading products, creating new market or
enhancing international competitiveness;
4) New
technologies, new equipment, energy and raw material saving,
integrated utilization of resources and renewable resources,
and environmental pollution prevention;
5) Taking
advantage of manpower and resources strength of the middle
and the western regions in line with the state industrial
policies;
6) Other provisions defined by laws or
administrative by-laws.
Article 6
A project featured with one of the following
conditions shall be classified as restricted foreign
investment projects.
1) Using outdated technologies;
2) Unfavorable for resources efficiency and
ecological environment improvement;
3) Prospecting
and mining of special minerals under the state protection;
4) Belonging to industries scheduled for step-by-step
opening;
5) Other provisions defined by laws and
administrative by-laws.
Article 7
A
project featured with one of the following aspects shall be
classified as prohibited foreign investment projects.
1) Endangering national security or harmful to public
interests;
2) Causing pollution to environment,
damaging natural resources or harmful to human health;
3) Occupying extensive arable land, or unfavorable
for land resources protection and development;
4)
Endangering military facilities' security and effective
applications;
5) Manufacturing products with China's
unique techniques or technologies;
6) Related to
other provisions defined by laws and administrative by-laws.
Article 8
The Guidance Catalog on
Industries for Foreign Investment can make such provisions
as “only limited to joint ventures or cooperation
businesses”, “Chinese partner shall take a
majority equity” or “Chinese partner may take a
relative majority equity” for foreign invested
projects.
Here “only limited to joint ventures
or cooperation businesses” means only Chinese-foreign
joint ventures and Chinese-foreign cooperation
businesses are allowed; referring to Chinese partner taking
majority equity, it is defined that the total investment
made by the Chinese partner in a foreign invested project
shall be positioned at 51% or above; “Chinese partner
shall take a relative majority equity” means that the
total investment made by the Chinese partner in a foreign
invested project shall be larger than the proportion offered
by any foreign party in the investment.
Article 9
Foreign invested projects
falling into the category of encouraged, in addition to the
preferential treatment they may enjoy according to relevant
laws or administrative by-laws, may upon the approval,
expand their related business scopes, if they are the ones
featured with huge investment and long return period such as
construction activities related to energy, transportation,
urban infrastructure construction ( coal, petroleum, natural
gas, electric power, railways, highways, harbors, airports,
urban roads, sewage and garbage treatment).
Article 10
A foreign invested project
in the category of allowed, when all of its products are
exported, can be deemed as encouraged upon the approval of
the people's government at provincial, autonomous regional
and municipal (the cities under direct jurisdiction of the
Central Government) level or by the competent authorities
under the State Council; a foreign invested project in the
category of restricted can be deemed as allowed when its
products export volume reaches 70% or more of its total
products sales.
Article 11
A foreign
invested project in the category of allowed or restricted,
when proven of its role in taking advantage of the strength
of the middle and the western regions, can be duly granted
with more favorable conditions; when it occurs in the
Catalog on Priority Industries for Foreign Investment in
Middle and Western Regions, the project may enjoy the
preferential treatments entitled to the foreign invested
projects in the category of encouraged.
Article 12
Under the existing
authorized power of approval, a foreign invested project
shall be subject to the approval and put on records by
development planning authorities and economic and trade
authorities respectively in terms of the nature of the
project; a foreign invested business's contracts or
constitutions shall be approved by and recorded at the
authorities responsible for foreign economy and trade. Of
them, the ones falling into the category of restricted and
prohibited shall be subject to the approval of competent
authorities under the people's government at provincial,
autonomous regional and municipal (the cities under direct
jurisdiction of the Central Government) level before being
recorded at the upper level competent and sectional
authorities. The said approval power shall not be
decentralized. Foreign invested projects in the service and
trade sectors scheduled for step-by-step opening shall be
approved under relevant state regulations.
Foreign
invested projects involving quota or licensing shall file
quota or license applications at foreign economy and trade
authorities.
When provided otherwise, the procedures
and methods for approving foreign invested projects shall
observe existing laws and administrative by-laws.
Article 13
Superior approval
authorities shall revoke the approval and invalidate
associated contracts and constitutions within 30 work days
from the receipt of the project's on-record document if the
said foreign invested project runs counter against this
Regulations. In the meanwhile, industry registration agency
shall nullify the project registration and the Customs shall
not handle its import and export requirements.
Article 14
When the applicant of a
foreign invested project obtains its approval by unfair
means such as fraud, it shall bear legal liabilities in
terms of its violation; the approval authorities shall
invalidate its approval for the project and the violator
shall be punished by competent authorities according to the
law.
Article 15
When abusing or
neglecting his or her duties, the working staff of the
approval agency shall bear criminal liabilities in
accordance with the provisions on abusing and neglecting
duties in criminal laws; when such abusing or neglecting is
not serious enough for criminal liabilities, the person who
commits such act shall be recorded with a serious
administrative demerit.
Article 16
Investment projects sponsored by overseas Chinese or
by the investors from Hong Kong Special Administrative Zone,
Macao Special Administrative Zone and Taiwan area shall be
handled in accordance with this Regulations.
Article 17
The Regulations comes into
force on April 1st, 2002. The Interim Regulations
on Foreign Investment Orientation approved by the State
Council on June 7, 1995 and jointly published by the State
Planning Commission, the State Economic and Trade Commission
and the Ministry of Foreign Economy and Trade Co-operation
on June 20, 1995 shall be invalidated from the same day on.
Sand Control for Beijing and Tianjin Area
The so-called Plan for Wind and Sand Control
Projects in Beijing and Tianjin was recently approved by the
Chinese State Council. Being one of the six priority
forestry projects in the country, the Wind and Sand control
Project for Beijing and Tianjin will see full-fledged
implementation on the basis of its experiments made in the
past two years. The project is scheduled to be completed in
ten years, striving for the targets of increasing forest
coverage, control of desertified land, decreasing winds and
sands and associated severe weathers by applications of
different biological and engineering measures, eventually
reaching the face lifting goal for ecological conditions in
Beijing, Tianjin and adjacent areas and curbing further
expansion of desertification.
Beijing-Tianjin Winds
and Sands Control Project horizontally runs 700 km from
Damaoqi, Inner Mongolia in the west to A'luke'erqinqi in
Inner Mongolia in the east , and vertically 600 km from
Daixian county, Shanxi Province in the south to
Dongwuzhumuqinqi, Inner Mongolia in the north. The said
project covers an areas of 458,000 square kilometers
containing 75 counties or township under the
jurisdictions of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner
Mongolia. The control strategies are defined as: 1) protect
all existing woods in the area and forbid any wood felling
activities for business operation; 2) reclaim wooded land
from cultivated one over hilly areas in the valley; 3)
accelerate integrated control of soil erosions and reduce
sand sediments in water reservoirs; 4) grow multi-level
water keeping forests mixed with timbers and brushes over
waste mountains and lands; 5) relentlessly construct wind
break and sand fixation system made of woods; 6) readjust
domestic animal compositions and change irrational
production modes of animal husbandry, turning herding into
fenced breeding; 7) construct forest network interlaced
through farmland and the same over pasture land; 8)
ecological migration in the northern area of Beijing. As is
shown by the project schedule, during the period from 2001
to 2010, 39.44 million mu(1mu=0.0667ha.) of farmland shall
be reclaimed to be wooded land with 74.16 million mu under
afforestation and 159.42 million mu of pastureland will be
put under control. In addition, it is planned to build or
reconstruct 113,889 water irrigation infrastructure
facilities and place 23,445 square kilometers of small basin
under integrated control and migrate a population of 180,000
for ecological purpose.
RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT
The World First Oral Insulin Spray
Thanks to their 8-year painstaking efforts,
the scientists of Pharmaceutical Institute under Huazhong
Science and Technology University have recently completed
the clinic testing of its proprietary oral insulin spray.
Being the first of its kind in the world, the said result
puts an end to the history of 30 million Chinese diabetic
patients relying on insulin injection and ushers in a period
of more convenient, efficient and safer insulin.
Clinic testing has shown that after oral spraying
both blood insulin concentration and sugar reducing effect
in human body reach their peak values almost simultaneously,
which prove the sugar reducing effect brought by outside
insulin. Furthermore, scientists have found no difference in
statistics between oral spraying and hypodermic injection
nor damages to oral mucosa.
Asia was Mammals'
Eden Garden
A new research result jointly
worked out by Chinese and U.S. scientists has shown that
Asia used to be the Garden of Eden for some earlier mammals.
Some present mammals such as horse, goat, sheep, deer,
rhinoceros and hippo were originated from Asia though they
migrated to North America or Europe later. U.S. based
Science that was published on March 15, 2002 carried the
paper telling the discovery jointly made by Wang Yuanqing, a
research fellow of the Institute of Palaeovertebrate and
Palaeoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Science and
his U.S. counterpart.
Not long ago Chinese and U.S.
scientists unearthed fossils of some earlier mammals over
Hengyang Basin in Hunan Province, China. The analysis of
these fossils and associated sediment soil has proved that
their ages sit at the transitional period between Ancient
epoch and Eocene epoch. This is the first stratum so far
recorded with time demarcation between Ancient epoch and
Eocene epoch in Asia. The said discovery will make the
comparison of similar fossils discovered in Asia, North
America and Europe for the same period possible and provide
new evidence for animals' origins and migration in the said
period. At the same time the comparison proves that global
climatic upheaval has had a significant influence on Asia.
The research result worked out by both Chinese and US
scientists have not only confirmed the fact that ancient
carnivore mammals found their earliest origin in Asia before
migrating to North America but also make new time evidences
available for the Asian origins of major present-day
artiodactyl, perissodactyla and primates.
26
Cave Animals Discovered in China
China-foreign
joint scientific expedition team have recently discovered 26
animals in the underground river running in Niuping Cave on
the town outskirts in Leye County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region. It is believed that some of the discoveries can lead
to new species. So far scientists have confirmed that these
animals are mainly spiders, shrimps, fish and snail, though
not yet worked out the identification of families for some
of them. In addition, they discovered parasite animals on
catfish. These new discoveries need further studies and
confirmation. It is reported that it is currently a hot
topic to study ancient climate and environment by taking
advantage of cave environment. China is of great quantity of
caves and is naturally a hot spot for such studies. It is
reported that Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region alone has
claimed at least 100,000 caves over its
territories.
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