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The major economic issue at the turn of the century in China is the fate of the old, large
"state owned enterprises," a legacy of the Soviet system adopted in China in the early 1950's.
The gradual dismantling of these inefficiently run industries has led to an alarming growth in
unemployment and underemployment with all their associated social problems.
In 2000, China's economy continued to grow at rates better than expected - as much as 8.2 % per
year.But as the Far Eastern Economic Review points at, China had better grow at that rate.
"A growth rate of 8% is the threshold Beijing feels is a minimum needed to create enough new
jobs for China's swelling ranks of unemployed."
Click here for my report from Shanghai of October 3, 1998 on China's "Unemployment Chills."
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Essential for China growth, essential to stave off the specter of massively growing unemployment
is foreign investment. China figures importantly in the international planning of many U-S
corporations. China's "one billion customers" remains an attraction hard to overlook.
Yet since China opened its doors to foreign investment in the late 1970's, few foreign companies
have made big money. Most have struggled.
In the 1980's, my friend and colleague James Mann chronicled the trials of the American Motors
Corporation in China in his book "Beijing Jeep."
In June 1998, companies like Quaker Oats and General Motors were still facing formidable
challenges in China.
Click here for my dispatch from Shanghai, June 29, 1998, "Investor Trouble in China"
Footnotes to this story:
In late 2000, General Motors announced what was apparently a better move all along, that they
would move in 2001 from big car manufacture to small car production, better suited to the roads
and pocket books of China.
In 2001, Quaker Oats was still struggling to make flavored oatmeal either a staple or a snack
food among urban Chinese.
Yet foreign investment continues to flow in. Expectations that China will enter the WTO in 2000
resulted in a sharp jump in contracted foreign direct investment in 1999-2000.
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Mrs. He's husband Xu Wenli has served two
sentences in Chinese jails: from 1981 to 1993 and again for 13 years.
Click
here for my report on "Jail, Trails and Harassment of an Activist's
Wife"
A footnote: In January 2001,Xu Wenli was
still being held in a Chinese prison. His health is said to be poor. Human
Rights groups urge concerned citizens to write to their government
leaders to put pressure on the Chinese government leadership. |
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1997 of course was the year of the return to Chinese sovereignty of the British colony of Hong Kong.
As since 1970, I had been a regular visitor and resident of the territory, I was anxious to witness
the handover.
The transition turned out to be more smooth and the hand-over less dramatic than many reporters
expected. Still, I was glad to have had the opportunity to stand at the back of the new Hong Kong
Convention Center and watch the ceremony during which Prince Charles of the United Kingdom symbolically
at least passed the keys to Hong Kong to China's President Jiang Zemin.
What no one predicted was that Hong Kong would go into economic doldrums shortly after the
Chinese gained the economic powerhouse.
In the lead up to the handover, I filed a number of dispatches for ABC News.
Click here for my report on the "Legacy of Tienanmen 1989 haunts Hong Kong"
Click here
for my report on "The Peoples Liberation Army and navy." After their initial
appearance in Hong Kong in June 1997, Chinese troops in Hong Kong have been invisible.
By the summer of 1998, Hong Kong had settled in to life under Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa
and his clearly pro-Beijing policies.
What nobody expected - in addition to an economic slowdown - was the shaky opening on what was
supposed to be one of Hong Kong post 1997 crowning achievements: the opening of a sprawling, new
state-of-the-art international airport.
Click here for my report on Hong Kong's Airport troubles July 16, 1998
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