Software piracy in China cost U.S. manufacturers $1.4 billion in 1997 -- double the losses from 1996, the Far Eastern Economic Review reports. In addition, abuses of U.S. patents continue to be permitted by Chinese officials. The Review cites a failed bid by Eli Lilley Company to protect its patent on the antidepressant drug Prozac. The Beijing Municipal People's High Court upheld a lower court decision that Prozac was not protected by patent law.

China's outstanding foreign debt at the end of 1997 totaled $131 billion, up 13 percent from the previous year. The Beijing Review cites newly added debt in 1997 at $43 billion, up 39 percent from the previous year.

The United States ranks first among overseas investors in China, the Beijing Review reports. Through May 1998, there were 25,184 U.S.-funded projects in China. With combined contractual investment totaling $41.5 billion, and paid-in capital of $18.4 billion.

The Chinese government will have to introduce political reforms before the systematic problem of rampant corruption among government officials can be effectively eradicated, states anti-graft expert Chen Fang in the Hong Kong Standard. "There are no checks and balances in the current [communist] system," says Chen, author of The Wrath of Heaven and the Resentment of People, "People from at all levels of government are tempted to corrupt as there exists an absolute power [the communist party]." The Standard adds, although The Wrath of Heaven, the story of the jailed Beijing communist party secretary Chen Xitong, is acclaimed abroad, is effectively banned in mainland China. Mr. Chen claims that the former communist politburo member's corruption conviction is "only the tip of the iceberg," of pervasive graft and abuses by party officials.

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has begun a formal inquiry into claims by U.S. shippers and the Departments of State. Commerce and Transportation that China is unfairly restricting foreign access to its ports, the Washington Times reports. The U.S. agencies found that China makes it difficult for foreign cargo ships to move from one port to another, as well as restricts ground transportation to inland customers. U.S. shippers and Senator Ernest Hollings have complained that while the state-owned China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) has free access to U.S. ports -- including a potential long term lease of Long Beach, California port -- it does not provide the same benefits in its owned ports to U.S. shippers.

The Times adds, last December, U.S. and Chinese negotiators agreed to improve port access, but U.S. officials say that deal had broken down. 

[Editor: The imbalance in shipping access has been a factor in China's trade surplus over the US surging to $60 billion in 1998, up from $40 billion in 1996.]

Copyright © 2000, American Foreign Policy Council.
All Rights Reserved.

The American Foreign Policy Council
1521 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036 Email: afpc@afpc.org Phone: 202-462-6055 Fax: 202-462-6045
	Copyright © 2000, American Foreign Policy Council. All Rights Reserved.
Site Designed and developed by pshWizards