New measures by the Chinese government to address the worsening economic downturn can deteriorate into long-term restrictions on foreign business, while there is no guarantee of assured success, the Financial Times reports. "It is entirely possible that the pendulum could swing toward political conservatism," claims a senior Western diplomat. Some of the changes to China's economic regime that trouble foreign business people include:

*Instructing Chinese banks not to provide local-currency loans to foreign companies that want to use the loans to pay off foreign currency debts before maturity. This prevents foreign firms from hedging against possible devaluation.

*Ordering domestic price controls on some important products such as cars and machinery.

*Closing the only channels by which foreign companies can invest in the local telecommunications services market. This curb jeopardizes $1.4 billion in investment.

Anti-pornography officials throughout the mainland are seizing a Chinese version of the Starr Report as an "illicit publication" for its graphic details of sex between President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, Xinhua news agency reports. While state newspapers have given only terse information on the White House scandal, tabloids and talk shows are "having a field day" with the story, Reuters observes. More than a dozen publishing houses have ignored the ban with separate translations. "I've had no problem selling between 100 to 200 copies a day," said a vendor in Beijing. Many Beijing residents are discussing a tabloid story that Lewinsky was sent to the US as an infant by the Soviet KGB to try to entrap a future president.

Chinese leaders hosted 3,000 guests and journalists at the Great Hall of the People, a venue usually given for major political events, for the premier of a new film, The First Emperor, Agence France-Presse reports. The violent historical epic, directed by Qin Shiahuang, is set in the time of the first emperor to unify China, Qin Shihuang, who ruled from 259 - 210 BC. The film's producers from China, Japan and France, claim the production budget was around $300 million. "Chairman Mao greatly admired the First Emperor's creation of a strong authoritarian state," they said in a publicity statement, describing Qin's reign as one of "unparalleled terror and brutality." During Qin's reign, 15 percent of the population was press-ganged into building the beginnings of the Great Wall and Grand Canal. The political significance of the release, AFP adds, will not be lost on an audience familiar with the plans of China's current leaders to reunify with Hong Kong, Macau and - their primary target - Taiwan.

Chinese police plan to formally arrest detained dissident Liu Junfeng for trying to find an overseas publishers for his memoir, "I am in Prison," depicting life in a lao gai prison labor camp, Deutche Presse-Agentur reports. Liu, 47, has spent a total of 15 years in prison for "counter- revolutionary crimes," including taking part in the 1970s Democracy Wall Movement.

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