Timeline China 1995-1999
Return to home
1995 Jan 25, The
top of a Chinese Long March missile disintegrated as it hit supersonic
speeds and destroyed a Hughes Apstar 2 satellite. The debris killed at
least 6 villagers.
(SFC, 6/15/98,
p.A5)(www.christusrex.org/www2/china/Hughes/pg7.html)
1995 Jan, In China 6 people were
killed in a failed rocket launch.
(WSJ, 3/4/96, p. A-6)
1995 Feb 4, A standoff between the
United States and China escalated into a trade war, with each country
ordering stiff tariffs against the other.
(AP, 2/4/00)
1995 Feb 15, Population of
People's Republic of China hit 1.2 billion.
(www.china.org.cn/e-white/familypanning/13-2.htm)(WSJ, 11/20/95, p.A-1)
1995 May, The 11th reincarnation
of the Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choikyi Nyima, was announced by the Dalai
Lama. China declared Gyaincain Norbu (5) as the Panchen Lama.
(SFC, 5/8/97, p.C2)(SFC, 6/19/99, p.A11)
1995 May, A pro-democracy peace
charter was signed by 56 people to coincide with the 6th anniversary of
student demonstrations in China.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.C2)
1995 May, Former Chinese student
leader Li Hai was detained after signing a peace charter.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.C2)
1995 Jun 19, Chinese-American
human rights activist Harry Wu was detained as he tried to enter China;
he was jailed for 66 days before being expelled.
(AP, 6/19/00)(SFC, 5/19/96, Z1, p.3)
1995 Jul 8, Chinese-American human
rights activist Harry Wu, detained on June 19, was arrested in China
and charged with obtaining state secrets. He was later convicted of
espionage and deported.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1995 Jul 21-1995 China conducted a
series of ballistic missile test firings 85 miles from Taiwan. The
missiles were all MTCR class four short range and two intermediate
range. All were modern, mobile, nuclear-capable. No country has ever
held this level of field tests for nuclear capable missiles before.
(www.fas.org/news/taiwan/1995/index.html)
1995 Aug 2, China ordered the
expulsion of two US Air Force officers it said were caught spying on
military sites.
(AP, 8/2/00)
1995 Aug 30, At a lavish opening
ceremony in Beijing, organizers of a major women’s conference vowed to
fight for empowerment and equality.
(AP, 8/30/00)(www.iisd.org/women/beijfact.htm)
1995 Sep 5, First Lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton, addressing the UN-sponsored fourth World Conference on
Women in Beijing, declared it was "time to break the silence" about the
abuse of women.
(AP, 9/5/05)
1995 Sep 15, The UN Fourth World
Conference on Women adjourned in Beijing after approving a wide-ranging
platform running the gamut from promoting inheritance rights to
condemning rape in wartime. The Beijing Platform, signed by 189 states,
urged a review of all laws that punish women for having abortions.
(AP, 9/15/00)(Econ, 5/19/07, p.65)
1995 Sep, Chen Xitong, former
mayor of Beijing, was stripped of his seat on the Politburo.
(SFC, 9/10/97, p.A9)
1995 Sep, Ngawang Choepel, a
musician on a Fullbright scholarship, was arrested in Tibet on grounds
of espionage. He had arrived as a Chinese citizen to make a documentary
on folk music and dance.
(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A13)(SFC, 8/11/00, p.A18)
1995 Oct 19, Firefighters in
western China extinguished a 100 year old blaze in an untapped coal
deposit and saved 5.5 mil. tons of coal reserves in the Baiyanghe mine
in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The fire had consumed 300,000
tons of coal a year.
(WSJ, 10/20/95, p. A1)
1995 Oct 24, President Clinton and
Chinese President Jiang Zemin met in New York, trying to stabilize
relations shaken by disputes over human rights, trade and Taiwan.
(AP, 10/24/00)
1995 Nov, China unveiled plans to
slash import tariffs and allow joint ventures.
(WSJ, 11/16/99, p.A19)
1995 Nov, Chinese Bishop Zeng
Jingmu (75) was arrested and sentenced to 3 years of re-education for
holding unauthorized religious services in a home. His allegiance to
the Vatican had already caused him 23 years in jail since the 1950s. He
was released in 1998, 6 months early, prior to a visit by Pres. Clinton.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A24)
1995 Dec, A Chinese court
convicted Wei Jing Sheng of conspiring to subvert the government. He
was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
(WSJ, 12/14/95, p.A-1)
1995 Mo Yan won the Chinese Dajia
Prize for his novel ”Big Breasts and Wide Hips.” In 2004 Howard
Goldblatt translated it to English.
(SSFC, 1/9/05, p.E3)
1995 The Puccini opera "Turandot"
was staged in Beijing. It marked the first time that a non-Chinese
opera was sung in the country in its original language.
(WSJ, 9/16/98, p.A20)
1995 The film "Red Cherry" was
directed by Ye Ying and became China’s biggest hit of the year.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.D3)
1995 China seized Mischief Reef,
part of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, that were claimed
by the Philippines.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A16)(Econ, 3/31/07, SR p.7)
1995 Beijing introduced “managed”
competition by breaking up China Telecom.
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.59)
1995 Washington said Pakistan
received M-11 missiles from China, capable of carrying nuclear
warheads. [see Jun 13, 1996]
(SFEC, 5/17/98, p.A15)
1995 Hong Kong, a weekly news
magazine was published by millionaire Jimmy Lai, a virulent critic of
China. 88% of Hong Kong's population speaks Cantonese. It is scheduled
to revert to Chinese control in 1997.
(WSJ, 10/26/95, p.A-1)
1995 Cheung Yan founded Nine
Dragons Paper and spent 3 years setting up the first of its
paper-making machines in Dongguan, China. By 2007 the company, valued
at $6.5 billion, was the 3rd largest paper company in the world.
(Econ, 6/9/07, p.76)
1995 Sinochem shipped 284 barrels
of glycerin from China to Dastech Int’l. of Great Neck, NY. The
glycerin was labeled 98% pure, but Dastech found that the syrup
contained sugar compounds and diethylene glycol.
(SSFC, 6/17/07, p.A12)
1995 Anheuser-Busch Cos. bought
the largest brewer in central China and began selling Budweiser in
major Chinese cities.
(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A1)
1995 Russia agreed to assist China
with manned spaceflight technology and training of Chinese astronauts
in cosmonaut academy near Moscow.
(AP, 10/15/03)
1995 A World Bank study concluded
that water pollution cost China some $54 billion this year.
(SFC, 6/6/03, p.A12)
1996 Jan, A Chinese state policy
that limited families to one child has resulted in the abandonment or
death of millions of female infants. Survivors have been put into state
orphanages and a film documenting conditions in orphanages was made be
Kate Blewett, Brian Woods, and Peter Hugh, who bluffed their way into
various orphanages.
(WSJ, 1/11/96, p.A-12)
1996 Feb 3, A 7.0 earthquake hit
Lijiang region of Yunnan province in China. Some 231 people were killed
and 14,000 injured.
(WSJ, 2/5/96, p.A-1)(NH, 4/97, p.44)
1996 Feb 14, A failed Loral
Intelsat satellite launch caused a rocket to hit a village near the
Xichang Space Center in China’s southwest Sichuan province and killed
six people. US intelligence estimated the death toll at 200. The rocket
was a new-generation Long March 3B. The satellite was intended for TV
shows in Latin America for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
(WSJ, 2/16/96, p.A-1)(WSJ, 3/4/96, p. A-6)(SFC,
6/15/98, p.A5)
1996 Apr 26, The Shanghai Five
grouping was created with the signing of the Treaty on Deepening
Military Trust in Border Regions in Shanghai. Boris Yeltsin and the
presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan visited Shanghai
and signed a treaty with Pres. Jiang Zemin at the Jin Jiang Hotel that
demarcated their borders with China.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organisation)(WSJ,
3/5/97, p.A16)
1996 Apr, Beijing announced that
it would prosecute 18 former officials for embezzling more than 2.2
billion. The scandal is tied to last year’s firing of Beijing’s
Communist boss.
(WSJ, 4/4/96, A-1)
1996 Apr, Boris Yeltsin and the
presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan visited Shanghai
and signed a treaty with Pres. Jiang Zemin at the Jin Jiang Hotel that
demarcated their borders with China.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A16)
1996 May 3, A 6.4 earthquake
struck Inner Mongolia in northern China. At least 14 people were killed
and 266 injured.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-8)
1996 May 22, China planned to
spend $10.78 billion on its telecommunications industry this year.
24,800 miles of optical cable were scheduled for install.
(WSJ, 5/22/96, p.A-16)
1996 May 23, Federal agents in the
Bay Area and Sacramento, Ca., began arresting agents of China’s two
main government-owned arms companies on suspicion of smuggling 2,000
illegal automatic assault weapons into the US. The smugglers are
representatives of China Northern Industrial Corp. (Norinco) and Poly
Technologies. Norinco reports to the State Council headed by Premier Li
Peng. Poly Tech operates under the Chinese army General Staff, which
reports to Chinese Pres. Jiang Zemin.
(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A17)
1996 Mar 25, China halted its
18-day intimidating naval exercises around Taiwan led by the new
guided-missile destroyer Harbin.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A3)
1996 May 25, In China 2 mining
disasters killed nearly 80 people. In Hunan province a coal explosion
killed 46 with 38 missing. In Gansu province flooding in a lead and
zinc mine killed 33.
(SFC, 5/26/96, p.A-2)
1996 May 31, The Ex-Im Bank said
that it would not finance companies bidding on China’s massive $24
billion Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangtze River due to human
rights and environmental issues.
(WSJ, 5/31/96, p.A1)
1996 Jun 4, A report on China
focused on tens of millions of people suffering from iodine deficiency.
The effects of the deficiency has led to stunted lives and intellects.
Where goiter and cretinism are not visibly apparent, chronic mental and
physical fatigue and some degree of mental impairment was widespread.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.A13)
1996 Jun 6, China agreed
conditionally to a ban on the use of nuclear explosions for civilian
projects.
(WSJ, 6/7/96, p.A1)
1996 Jun 8, A second year of
draught in China’s wheat belt has parched 17.5 million acres and caused
the lower reaches of the Yellow River in Shandong Province to dry up 5
times since Jan.
(SFC, 6/8/96, p.A9)
1996 Jun 8, China set off an
underground nuclear test blast. The Australian Seismological Center
reported a nuclear test by China having a body wave magnitude of 5.7, a
middle range explosion, in the Lop Nor area of Xinjiang Province. This
was the 44th test since 1964.
(SFC, 6/8/96, p.A11)(AP, 6/8/06)
1996 Jun 9, Police in southern
Guangdong Province in China shut down production lines at 2 factories
since May 30 that were making and processing video disks. The US
officials claimed that 42 factories are still open.
(SFC, 6/10/96, C2)(SFC, 6/12/96, p.A10)
1996 Jun 11, Formosa Plastic Group
of Taiwan led by Y.C. Wang was planning to build 6 thermal power plants
in the coastal province of Fujian in China for an investment of $3.8
bil.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A10)
1996 Jun 13, A Washington Times
report said that Chinese M-11 missiles have been deployed in Pakistan
in the last few months.
(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A1,4)
1996 Jun 17, The US threatened to
slap sanctions on $2 billion of Chinese goods if action is not taken by
the government against the manufacture of pirate compact disks, videos
and software. An agreement was reached just before the deadline.
(WSJ, 6/6/96, p.A16)
1996 Jun 20, China was to announce
the convertibility of its currency, the yuan, for trade, services, debt
payment and profit repatriation by foreign companies.
(WSJ, 6/20/96, p.A14)
1996 Jun 25, A report stated that
China had declared that foreign movies on TV can’t run for more than 36
minutes between 6 and 10 p.m.
(WSJ, 6/25/96, p.A11)
1996 Jun 26, At least 30 children
died of acute kidney failure after taking contaminated liquid
acetaminophen made by a company in Haiti. Another 38 were being treated
for acute kidney failure. Glycerin from China was contaminated with
diethylene glycol as it was shipped to Haiti. It was then used in
children's medication that killed 86 people from 1995-1996.
(SFC, 6/26/96, p.A9)(AP, 10/27/06)
1996 Jun 27, China was believed to
have executed hundreds of drug traffickers after a nationwide
crackdown.
(WSJ, 6/27/96, p.A1)
1996 Jun, Four young Beijing
residents published "China Can Say No." It was very nationalistic and
soon became a best seller with a strident anti-American stance.
(WSJ, 9/19/96, p.A16)
1996 Jun, In mid 1996 Gen'l. Ji
Shengde, chief of Chinese military intelligence, ordered $300,000 to be
deposited in his bank account to subsidize secret contributions to help
re-elect Pres. Clinton. This information was later told to US federal
investigators by Democratic donor Johnny Chung.
(SFC, 4/17/99, p.A4)
1996 Jul 1, A new regulation went
into effect that called for films co-produced with foreigners to apply
for approval from the State Council before filming begins.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.F3)
1996 Jul 4, Floods and landslides
in China killed at least 121 people and forced 450,000 from their homes
from Zhejiang on the east coast to Guizhou in the southwest.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A1)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of a
Big Mac in China was $1.15.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Parade, p.17)
1996 Jul 19, In China the Yangtze
River threatened to burst its banks. workers used 500 tons of rice in
sacks to fill gaps in the banks. Millions have been left homeless and
716 were reported dead.
(SFC, 7/20/96, p.A8)
1996 Jul 29, China set off a
nuclear test and promised that it would be the last one. Beijing
said it would seek some changes in the global test-ban treaty currently
being fashioned by negotiators.
(WSJ, 7/30/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 1, It was reported that
1/5 of China’s river water can no longer be used to irrigate land.
(WSJ, 8/2/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 25, Dai Houying,
novelist, and her niece were knifed to death in Shanghai during an
apparent robbery. A former chef was later tried, convicted and
sentenced to death for the murders.
(SFC, 8/30/96, p.E5)(SFC, 10/19/96, A12)
1996 Aug 28, China accused the US
of aiding Taiwanese separatism by selling Stinger antiaircraft missiles
and other weapons to the Taipei government.
(WSJ, 8/28/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 28, In China Mou Qizhong,
head of the Land Economic Group, was being pressured by the government
to repay up to $50 million in overdue loans. He was also the proponent
for listing China’s 13,700 large state-owned enterprises on the New
York Stock Exchange. However the state has a minimum 7.65% upfront
payment law to take 51% control of a joint venture.
(WSJ, 8/28/96, p.A1,4)
1996 Aug 30, The US State Dept.
sent a diplomatic note to China protesting the sale of equipment for
use in nuclear facilities in Pakistan.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A12)
1996 Sep 23, In Jiangsu Province,
China, the American Dream Park was scheduled to open. It is a
70-acre-mini Disneyland and admission will cost 100 yuan, about 2 weeks
wages for the average Chinese worker.
(WSJ, 9/5/96, p.A14)
1996 Sep, Peasants revolted in
Qidong in Hunan province after they discovered that city authorities
kept secret for 6 months a directive from Beijing to end excessive
taxes.
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A12)
1996 Oct 11, In China 7 people
were executed for selling women. An additional 54 were given suspended
death sentences. 334 women were rescued from being sold into marriage
or prostitution where the going rate was $240-$360.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A11)
1996 Oct 11, Wang Dan, prominent
student leader of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989, was
charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government. His trial on Oct
30 sentenced him to 11 years in prison. He had been in detention for
the last 17 months.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, p.A18)(SFC, 12/31/96, p.A10)(SFC,
1/11/96, p.A8)
1996 Oct 24, China’s Foreign
Ministry acknowledged that some samples of serum albumin were
contaminated with the AIDS virus. Authorities said that 4,305 people in
China had HIV. They acknowledged that the number could be as high
as 100,000.
(SFC, 10/25/96, p.A14)
1996 Oct 24, The EU awarded the
1996 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought to Wei Jingsheng of China.
(SFC, 10/25/96, p.A17)
1996 Oct 30, After a four-hour
trial, a Chinese court sentenced pro-democracy activist Wang Dan to 11
years in prison for "conspiring to subvert the Chinese government."
Wang was freed in April 1998 and sent into exile in the United States.
(AP, 10/30/901)
1996 Oct, Shanghai opened a $48.2
million antiquities museum. A new $72 library was scheduled to open in
Dec. and a new $133 million Grand Theater opera house on Oct 1, 1988.
(SFC, 11/16/96, p.E3)
1996 Nov 6, Chen Ziming, Chinese
political dissident, was released on a medical parole from a 13-year
sentence that began in 1989.
(SFC, 11/7/96, p.a12)
1996 Nov 10, China announced a ban
on selected US goods in response to a US cut in import quotas of
textiles.
(SFC, 11/11/96, p.A10)
1996 Nov 28, Chinese Pres. Jiang
Zemin made a 3-day visit to India, the first ever.
(SFC, 11/29/96, p.B8)
1996 Nov, China formed a Selection
Committee to choose the first post-colonial chief executive and
provisional legislature in Hong Kong.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A8)
1996 Nov, Canada revised rules on
overseas sales of ecologically sensitive technology to enable the sale
of two 700-megawat Candu 6, nuclear reactors to China. The $3
billion project will be built in Qinshan and financed by a $1.1 billion
loan from Ottawa.
(SFC, 12/31/96, p.A11)
1996 Dec 2, India and China agreed
to troop withdrawals along their 2,500 mile border, and pledged not to
use military force against one another.
(SFC, 12/3/96, p.A13)
1996 Dec 17, The Chinese stock
market continued to tumble and authorities deployed plainclothes police
to keep order among angry investors outside security brokerage houses
in the major cities. The drop started when the official People’s Daily
newspaper warned that the stock market was overvalued.
(WSJ, 12/18/96, p.A16)
1996 Dec 17, Sun Yaoting (b.1902),
China’s last known eunuch, died.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B6)
1996 Dec 27, Russia and China
agreed to remove troops along their border and to build a nuclear power
plant in eastern China’s Jiangsu province with a $2.5 billion loan from
Russia.
(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A12,13)
1996 Dec 31, Former Chinese
student leader Li Hai was sentenced to 9 years in prison on charges of
prying into state secrets.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.C2)
1996 Li Hongjhi published Zhuan
Falun, the bible of the Falun Dafa disciples. He left China under
pressure in 1998 and moved to the US.
(WSJ, 4/26/99, p.A6)
1996 Yu Weichao, Chinese
archeologist, authored “What Is Archeology?”
(Arch, 9/04, p.36)
1996 China set up the Preparatory
Committee to replace the PWC and oversee the transition of Hong Kong in
line with the Basic Law and decisions of China’s parliament.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A8)
1996 The World Bank proposed to
move 58,000 poor Chinese farmers from the eastern half of Qinghai 300
miles west to an area of Tibet called Dulan. The $81 million project
faced heavy opposition prior to a Bank vote in 1999.
(SFC, 6/18/99, p.D2)
1996 China’s Huangshan Tourism
Development Co. was formed to manage the 72 peaks of the 60-square-mile
Huangshan national scenic area.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.A17)
1996 Wal-Mart 1st entered China
through a joint-venture agreement.
(www.wal-martchina.com/english/walmart/history.htm)
1996 Worldwide executions for the
year hit a record high of 4,200. China led with 3,500 executions and
was followed by Ukraine, Russia and Iran.
(SFC, 4/5/97, p.A11)
1997 Jan 14, The China
Agribusiness Development Trust and Investment Corp. (CADTIC), set up in
1988 to channel domestic and foreign funds into the agricultural
sector, was closed with reports of being involved in smuggling, tax
evasion and ruinous real estate speculation.
(SFC, 2/17/97, p.B3)
1997 Jan 21, In China 2
earthquakes struck within a minute in Xinjiang province and killed at
least 12 people.
(WSJ, 1/22/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 25, It was reported that
winter storms had stranded some 320,000 people in China’s Xinjiang
province and that many were close to starvation.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A18)
1997 Jan 29, In China the Supreme
People’s Court upheld the death sentence for businesswoman Han Yuji,
the former president of the Jilin province Yuquan Industrial and Trade
Co., for fraud that involved as much as $43 million. She was
immediately executed.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.C1)
1997 Feb 4, It was reported that
the Chinese government was cracking down on the arts while attempting
to promote Pres. Jiang Zemin’s "spiritual civilization." Writer Mo Yan,
author of "Ample Breasts, Fat Buttocks" was singled out for criticism.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 5-1997 Feb 6, The Uighers
rioted in the province of Xinjiang and reports of deaths varied from
4-300. The fighting was said to have begun after the public execution
of 30 young Muslims. Residents said Muslims attacked and killed ethnic
Chinese before police quashed the revolt. Authorities said 10 people
died and 140 were injured. 12 people were later executed for the
uprising.
(USAT, 2/11/97, p.5A)(USAT, 2/12/97, p.8A)(WSJ,
2/11/97, p.A1)(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A10)
1997 Feb 6, The Chinese New Year
ended the year of the rat and began the year of the ox, 4695.
(SFEC, 2/2/97, DB. p.7)
1997 Feb 19, Deng Xiaoping (92),
the last of China's major Communist revolutionaries, died from
Parkinson’s disease. He smoked heavily and Panda was his brand./
(AP, 2/19/98)(WSJ, 5/26/04, p.A1)
1997 Feb 25, China's elite bid a
final farewell to Deng Xiaoping, the country's last major revolutionary
leader.
(AP, 2/25/98)
1997 Feb 25, In Urumqi, capital of
Xinjiang province, Muslim Uigher separatists set bombs that killed as
many as 5 and wounded 27.
(SFC, 2/26/97, p.A8)(WSJ, 2/26/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 2, China’s Premier Li
Peng asked the National People’s Congress for a 12.7% increase in the
defense budget for a total of $9.68 billion.
(WSJ, 3/3/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 17, It was reported that
China was upgrading the city of Chongqing in Sichuan to the status of
province. It would be directly controlled by the central government but
operate as a province.
(WSJ, 3/17/97, p.B9D)
1997 Mar 21, The first Chinese
ships to ever visit the US mainland docked in San Diego, the destroyer
Harbin, Zhuhai, and supply ship Nancang.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A3)
1997 Mar 24, Vice President Gore
arrived in China for the highest-level U.S. visit in eight years. He
witnessed the Beijing signing of trade deals with GM and Boeing.
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A12)(AP, 3/24/98)
1997 Apr 15, China blocked a UN
resolution criticizing its human-rights record for the 7th year in a
row.
(WSJ, 4/16/97, p.A16)
1997 Apr 25, Police opened fire on
a crowd in China’s Xinjiang province and killed 2 people. Protestors
had tried to block the execution of 3 people convicted during the
February unrest.
(WSJ, 4/29/97, p.A1)
1997 Apr 26, Peng Zhen (95),
former Communist Party secretary and Mayor of Beijing, died.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.B8)
1997 Apr 29, At Rongjiawan in
China’s Hunan province a train crash killed at least 67 and injured 260
people.
(WSJ, 4/30/97, p.A1)
1997 May 16, "The Great Wall and
the Empty Fortress" by Andrew J. Nathan and Robert S. Ross was
reviewed. It was an examination of China’s current political role in
int’l. affairs.
(WSJ, 5/16/97, p.A16)
1997 May 19, A gas explosion in
China’s Wuhai city killed at least 28 miners.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.C16)
1997 May 29, Authorities executed
8 Muslim separatists in China’s Xinjiang.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.16)
1997 May, A Boeing 737 crashed in
Shenzhen, China, and 35 people were killed.
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.A11)
1997 Jun 1, China banned leaded
gasoline in 8 of 18 districts and counties.
(SFC, 1/1/98, p.A17)
1997 Jun 4, China signed a $660
million deal to develop an Iraqi oil field.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 5, The Chinese film "In
Expectation" was an Int’l. film festival award winner and premiered in
the Bay Area.
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.E3)
1997 Jun 5, China announced that
diplomat Ma Yuzhen would be its top civilian representative in Hong
Kong beginning July 1. Domestic affairs will be run by Hong Kong
residents but foreign affairs will be under the central government.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.E3)
1997 Jun 9, The Chinese film "The
Opium War" premiered in Beijing.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.D4)
1997 Jun 18, In China’s Yunnan
province 27 drug traffickers were executed.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A22)
1997 Jun 19, China executed 38
people. In Sichuan 24 died for drug dealing and 14 were executed in
Beijing.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A22)
1997 Jun 27, China announced that
it would send 4,000 troops into Hong Kong six hours after the former
colony is handed over to Chinese control.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 27, A major fire at a
petrochemical plant outside Beijing caused many deaths and injuries.
News of the fire was restricted to maintain an official tone of
celebration for the Hong Kong transfer.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A13)
1997 Jul 1, Hong Kong reverted to
Chinese rule after 156 years as a British colony. Britain relinquished
Hong Kong as a colonial territory, and China became master. Many rights
were guaranteed for 50 years under a Sino-British treaty.
(WSJ, 11/14/94, p.A9)(SFC, 5/30/96, p.A9)(AP,
7/1/98)
1997 Jul 4, The Hong Kong
Philharmonic premiered of the "Symphony 1997 (Heaven Earth Mankind)" by
the composer Tan Dun. The piece was commissioned by China to mark the
reunification of Hong Kong and China.
(WSJ, 6/25/97, p.A20)
1997 Jul 10, Paramilitary police
suppressed protests in Mianyang city in China’s Sichuan province where
more than 100,000 unemployed textile workers demanded government
assistance and accused local officials of stealing their unemployment
funds.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A12)
1997 Jul, Chinese authorities in
Tibet closed down the 700-year old Jonang monastery and sent the monks
home after they refused to denounce the Dalai Lama.
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.E9)
1997 Aug 7, It was reported that
Zhu Qihua planned to move the Big Green Mountain by Lanzhou, a Chinese
railroad hub, in order to clear the air of heavy smog.
(WSJ, 8/7/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 7, The US State Dept.
expressed concern over reports of Chinese nuclear-capable M-11
missiles sold to Pakistan.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)
1997 Aug 26, It was reported that
China executed at least 4,367 people in 1996.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A9)
1997 Aug, Chen Xiaotang (Chen
Xitong), son of former Beijing mayor Chen Xitong, was sentenced to 12
years in prison for economic crimes.
(SFC, 9/10/97, p.E3)
1997 Sep 9, In China former
Beijing mayor Chen Xitong was handed over to prosecutors on charges of
corruption in a scandal with the loss of as much as $2.2 billion in
public funds.
(SFC, 9/10/97, p.A9)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.49)
1997 Sep 12, The Chinese Communist
Party Congress opened under Pres. Jiang Zemin and embraced a program of
bold economic reform. The event was held every 5 years. Jiang Zemin was
expected to stay as general-secretary. The positions of Li Peng and
Qiao Shi were in question.
(SFC, 8/28/97, p.C2)(SFC, 9/13/97, p.A8)
1997 Oct 26, The third Shanghai
International Film Festival opened. 350 films from 40 countries were to
be shown over 10 days.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.D3)
1997 Oct 29, Pres. Clinton and
China’s Pres. Jiang Zemin engaged in high level talks and publicly
disagreed on Chinese human rights policies. Business deals included an
accord to let Westinghouse and other firms develop nuclear power in
China and a $3 billion order from Boeing.
(SFC,10/30/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/30/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct, China signed the UN
Int’l. Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights during pres.
Zemin’s visit to the US.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A10)
1997 Oct, China slashed import
duties on some products but maintained "peak tariffs" on others.
(WSJ, 11/16/99, p.A19)
1997 Nov 3, Chinese President
Jiang Zemin left the United States after an eight-day visit.
(AP, 11/3/98)
1997 Nov 8, Chinese engineers
diverted the Yangtze River to make way for the Three Gorges Dam, the
most ambitious construction project in modern China's history.
(AP, 11/8/98)
1997 Nov 10, In China Pres.
Yeltsin began talks with China’s Pres. Jiang Zemin. They settled a
border dispute and authorized agreements on trade and protection of
Manchurian tigers.
(WSJ, 11/10/97, p.A1)(SFC,11/11/97, p.A12)
1997 Nov 15, This was the original
scheduled date for the damming of the Yangtze River in China. About 1.2
million people were to be moved due to the rising waters. The flooded
area provides 40% of China’s grain and 70% of its rice crops.
(SFEC, 1/19/96, p.A14)
1997 Nov 16, Chinese dissident Wei
Jingsheng was released from prison and left for the US after 18 years
in captivity.
(SFEC,11/16/97, p.A2)
1997 Nov, Edgar Bronfman, chairman
of the Seagram Co., signed an agreement for a $55 million joint venture
with the Chongqing Three Gorges Construction Group to develop orange
juice production in southwest China.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.A1)
1997 Dec 30, China adopted new
rules restricting the use of the Internet. Details forbade defamation
of government agencies, the promotion of separatist movements, and the
divulgence of state secrets. Also forbidden was pornography and
prowling by hackers.
(SFC,12/31/97, p.A1)
1997 Dec 30, Russia signed an
agreement to build a $3B nuclear power plant in China.
(www.nti.org/db/china/jiangsu.htm)
1997 Dec 30, South Africa
established diplomatic ties with China and ended formal ties with
Taiwan.
(SFC,12/31/97, p.A9)
1997 Dec 31, China banned leaded
gasoline in the whole Beijing area.
(SFC, 1/1/98, p.A17)
1997 "Three Thousand Years of
Chinese Painting" was published by Yale Univ.
(SFEC,12/797, Par p.9)
1997 "Power and Virtue: The Horse
in Chinese Art," by Robert E. Harrist, Jr. was published. Also
published was "When Silk Was Gold: Central Asian and Chinese Textiles,"
by Anne E. Wardwell and James C.Y. Watt.
(NH, 9/97, p.14)
1997 Chinese author Li Rui had his
novel "Silver City" translated into English.
(WSJ, 11/24/97, p.A20)
1997 Peggy Yu (32) returned to
Beijing from NYC and founded Dangdang.com. By 2003 the company was
China's biggest online bookseller.
(Econ, 8/23/03, p.52)
1997 Shen Qing perfected his baked
pig's head with 30 herbs and spices. He successfully opened restaurants
to serve the dish and registered it with the Chinese State Patent
Bureau.
(WSJ, 5/11/99, p.A1)
1997 Chinese authorities in Tibet
ordered nuns to leave the 800 year-old Rakhor nunnery and everything
except the main assembly hall was destroyed.
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.E9)
1997 China established a national
social security system whereby each province managed its own social
security fund.
(WSJ, 2/13/04, p.A10)
1997 China began to allow consumer
loans.
(Econ, 10/29/05, p.72)
1997 China began investing in
Sudan following US sanctions there. By 2005 Sudan provided China with
about 5% if its oil imports.
(WSJ, 3/29/05, p.A2)
1997 China declared that a
committee of experts had located Shangri-La in the Diqing Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan province. A 25,000-square-mile area was
set aside to be called the Great Rivers National Park. The site was
selected based on evidence that it was the area originally described
for National Geographic by American ethnologist James Rock in the 1920s
and 1930s.
(SFEC, 11/28/99, p.A22)
1997 China’s vitamin makers got a
big break following a US Justice Dept. investigation of European and
Japanese companies for price fixing dozens of vitamins. On May 20,
1999, the antitrust case resulted in $750 million in government fines
and several jail terms for executives.
(WSJ, 2/10/06, p.A16)
1997 PepsiCo Inc. introduced Lay’s
potato chips in China.
(WSJ, 12/19/05, p.A6)
1997 Executions in China totaled
about 3,000 for the year. China executed at least 1,876 people in 1977.
(SFC, 9/4/98, p.D4)(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D5)
1997 A study discovered that the
water tables beneath much of northern China were shrinking by about 5
feet every year.
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.A12)
1997 In China a freshwater dolphin
in the Yangtze River, known as the Baiji dolphin, was last reliably
sighted. Estimates said only about 17 of the 6-foot dolphins remained.
The white dolphin had been known for centuries in Chinese legend as the
Goddess of the Yangtze.
(WSJ, 12/6/06, p.A1)
1997 The Central Asia Regional
Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program was initiated. The 8-member group
included Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
(www.adb.org/CAREC/default.asp)
1998 Jan 5, In China Stanford
scholar Hua Di (63) was arrested in Beijing on charges of treason for
allegedly leaking military secrets. Di was sentenced to 15 years in
prison in 1999. In 2000 the High Court ordered the lower court to retry
Di because the evidence did not warrant his conviction.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A23)(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A12)(SFC,
4/4/00, p.A1)
1998 Jan 9, In Wuhan, China, a
thousand factory workers marched after being laid off with little
compensation.
(SFC, 1/10/98, p.A9)
1998 Jan 10, In China a 6.2
earthquake hit Zhangbei County in northern Hebei province and 50 people
were reported killed and over 11,440 injured. The quake reportedly left
cracks in the Great Wall.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, p.A15)(SFC, 1/12/98, p.A12)(SFC,
1/22/98, p.E3)
1998 Jan 11, It was reported that
parrots had become a speculative rage in Beijing where a green-faced
parrot could fetch $2,400.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, p.A29)
1998 Jan 19, The US and China
signed an accord designed to avoid naval and air conflicts at sea.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.B2)
1998 Jan 23, It was reported that
millions of workers were being laid off in China’s northeast industrial
belt cities like Harbin and Shenyang.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.E2)
1998 Jan 27, The Chinese lunar
year of 4696, the year of the tiger, began. According to ancient legend
the count began when Buddha called all the animals of the world and
promised to name a year after each one in exchange for eternal loyalty
and obeisance. Only 12 answered the call in the following order: rat,
ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, and
bear.
(SFC, 1/27/98, p.A19)(SFC, 1/28/98, p.A16)
1998 Feb 16, Ren Chengjian was
hauled back to Zhengzhou, China, from the US where he faced charges of
stealing vast sums, $42 million, from state-run banks and companies.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A14)
1998 Feb 16, In Taiwan a China
Airlines Airbus A300-600R crashed at Chiang Kai-shek airport while
trying to land in fog. 196 people on board were killed plus 6 on the
ground. The passengers included the governor of Taiwan’s Central Bank
and other financial officials.
(SFC, 2/17/98, p.A6)(AP, 2/16/08)
1998 Mar 1, China pledged to spend
$32.6 billion to stabilize nearly insolvent state banks amid the Asian
financial crises.
(WSJ, 1/4/98, p.R4)
1998 Mar 5, In a speech by Premier
Li Peng it was announced that China planned to eliminate 11 ministries
and lay off as many as 4 million bureaucrats. The plan was developed by
economic chief Zhu Rongji, who was expected to replace Li Peng.
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.A12)
1998 Mar 12, China agree to sign a
UN pact on civil and political rights.
(WSJ, 3/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 16, Zhu Rongji was chosen
by the National People’s Congress as Premier to replace Li Peng, who
served his limit of two 5-year terms. Hu Jintao (55) was appointed
vice-president, the youngest in modern Chinese history to that post.
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.A9)(WSJ, 3/17/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 1, A new law requiring
motorists in Beijing to install pollution-reduction devices went into
effect.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.B3)
1998 Apr 1, China agreed to
release and put into exile Wang Dan, the noted dissident and student
leader of Tiananmen Square, for medical reasons.
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.)
1998 cApr 7, A 2.8 mile stretch of
dike disintegrated in Jiujiang, China.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A18)
1998 Apr 19, Wang Dan, prominent
student leader of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, arrived in the
US and was taken to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit for medical
evaluation.
(SFEC, 4/20/98, p.A8)
1998 Apr 30, Over 800 riot police
clashed with some 3 thousand vendors when they tried to dismantle the
street market in Chengdu, China.
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.A10)
1998 Apr, In China Lin Hai (30), a
software entrepreneur, was arrested for inciting subversion by
providing 30,000 Chinese e-mail addresses to Li Hongkuan, a US based
Chinese dissident. [see Dec 4]
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A10)(Wired, 2/99, p.127)
1998 Apr, Chinese authorities
arrested Jude Shao (37), a Stanford educated entrepreneur, for alleged
tax violations. He had earlier refused to pay bribes for his medical
equipment export company. He was convicted in March, 2000, and
sentenced to 16 years in prison. Efforts to free him continued into
2008.
(SFC, 5/1/08, p.A12)(www.freejudeshao.com)
1998 May 20, The US House voted
overwhelmingly to block future satellite exports to China. [see May 10,
1999]
(AP, 5/20/99)
1998 Jun 11, China ordered
officials in its nearly 1 million villages to open their activities to
public scrutiny.
(SFC, 6/12/98, p.A14)
1998 Jun 12, Torrential rains
began in Hunan province and led to the death of at least 40 people.
Over 100,000 homes were destroyed.
(SFC, 6/20/98, p.A4)
1998 Jun 18, China formally
declared it new housing policy that eliminated the right of workers to
cost-free apartments by the end of the year.
(SFC, 6/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Jun 24, In China Wang Youcai
and other dissidents announced plans to form the China Democracy Party
and applied to officials in Zhejiang province for permission to set up
a local committee.
(SFC, 2/05/04, p.A3)
1998 Jun 25, Pres. Clinton landed
in Xian, China. In Zhejiang province democracy activists announced the
formation of the China Democracy Party. Some of the organizers were
later arrested and jailed.
(SFC, 6/26/98, p.A1)(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A8)
1998 Jun 29, Students at Peking
University peppered President Clinton with polite but critical
questions about America's human rights record, Taiwan policy and views
on China in an exchange televised live across the vast nation. In
Beijing US corporations announced major sales agreements with China
worth nearly $2 billion.
(SFC, 6/30/98, p.A8)(AP, 6/29/08)
1998 Jul 8, China announced that
it would broadcast its first live court trial on Jul 11.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A15)
1998 Jul 16, China’s leaders
announced a war on smuggling and the formation of a new anti-smuggling
police force.
(SFC, 7/17/98, p.A12)
1998 Jul 22, China’s Pres. Jiang
ordered the People's Liberation Army to close down its many businesses.
(WSJ, 7/23/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/21/99, p.A9)
1998 Jul 31, Chen Xitong, former
mayor of Beijing, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for graft. The
bribes were to be confiscated and handed over to the state treasury.
(SFC, 7/31/98, p.D2)
1998 Jul 31, It was reported that
floods on the Yangtze River had killed 1,261 people in China’s Hubei,
Hunan and Jiangxi provinces.
(SFC, 7/31/98, p.D3)
1998 Aug 1, In China floodwaters
burst through a levee along the Yangtze in Hubei province and over 1000
people were reported missing. News of more flooding was hushed and it
was later learned that 8,000-10,000 people in Jiayu province were
inundated and presumed dead.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A9)(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A12)(SFEC,
8/16/98, p.A18)
1998 Aug 7, China’s death toll
from the summer floods passed 2,000 and the Jingjiang flood plain was
ordered evacuated.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A14)
1998 Aug 9, In China engineers
blew up secondary dikes in Jianli County, 90 miles upriver from Wushan,
to relieve pressure from the swollen Yangtze.
(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 12, The flooding in
China, the worst in 4 decades, was estimated to surpass $24 billion in
costs.
(SFC, 8/13/98, p.C5)
1998 Aug 14, Flooding in Daqing,
China, broke a levee protecting the nation’s largest oil field. 155 of
20,000 wells were closed as 200,000 people fought the flood.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 17, Flooding of the Nen
River at Daqing, China, closed 1,391 oil wells and halted production at
another 280. Daqing’s 25,000 wells produced 17.9 billion gallons of oil
in 1997.
(SFC, 8/18/98, p.A7)
1998 Aug 18, In China the Songhua
River rose to 397 1/2 feet and threatened the provincial capital of
Harbin.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Aug 26, China’s government
revised its death toll from the floods to over 3,000 [4,150] people.
(SFC, 8/27/98, p.a14)(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A12)
1998 Sep 1, China imposed a ban on
logging upstream on the Yangtze effective by this date due to the
excess flooding following a half-century of clear-cutting.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 12/23/03, p.A1)
1998 Sep 5, The opera "Turandot"
opened in a Ming Dynasty palace in China’s Forbidden City. The $15
million production was conducted by Zubin Mehta.
(WSJ, 9/16/98, p.A20)
1998 Sep 14, Yang Shangkun
(b.1907), president of China during the 1969 Tiananmen massacre, died
in Beijing.
(WSJ, 9/15/98, p.A1)(SFC, 9/16/98, p.C4)
1998 Sep 21, It was reported that
the government had begun cracking down on the efforts of dissidents to
organize the fledgling China Democratic Party.
(SFC, 9/21/98, p.A16)
1998 Oct 5, China signed the 1976
Int’l. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights bringing the number of
signatories to 140. The signing still required parliamentary approval.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 14, China and Taiwan held
their first talks since 1993 and said they were working toward
reunification.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 23, It was reported that
the city of Taiyaun in northern China had exhausted its groundwater
supply and that the Fen River which used to snake through the town was
all dried up.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.D4)
1998 Oct 28, The new $400 million
Wanjiazhai dam on China’s Yellow River was to begin producing
hydroelectric power.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.D5)
1998 Nov 8, It was reported that
over 5,000 acres of marijuana flourished in China’s Yunnan province and
officials vowed to eliminate it by 2000.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.A30)
1998 Nov 11, China and the UN
planned to sign an agreement to turn the Lop Nur nuclear test site into
a sanctuary for Bactrian camels. The barren area is about the size of
Germany.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.A13)
1998 Nov 12, In China a Hong Kong
mob boss was sentenced to death for kidnapping and arms smuggling.
Cheung Tze-keung, aka the "big Spender," led a gang that was convicted
of smuggling guns, 7 armed robberies of Hong Kong gold stores and the
theft of 277 tons of steel in Shenzhen. 4 accomplices were also
sentenced to death.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.D4)
1998 Nov 25, In Japan Pres. Jiang
Zemin of China and Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi decided not to sign a
joint declaration on the relationship between their countries during
the Jiang’s 6-day visit, the first ever by a Chinese head of state.
Zemin wanted a written apology from Japan for WW II atrocities that
began with a 1931 Japanese invasion. Only verbal apologies were made.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.B3)
1998 Nov, The Hong Kong freighter
ship Cheung Son (Chang Sheng), loaded with iron ore, was hijacked and
all 23 crewmen were lined up on deck and gunned down by pirates. In
1999 38 defendants went on trial in China on charges of murder, robbery
and possession of firearms and drugs. In 2000 13 of 37 gang members
were executed.
(SFC, 7/7/99, p.C12)(SFC, 12/16/99, p.C9)(SFC,
1/29/00, p.C1)
1998 Dec 4, From China it was
reported that Lin Hai (30), a software entrepreneur, had been arrested
for inciting subversion by providing 30,000 Chinese e-mail addresses to
"hostile foreign organizations. [see Apr 1998]
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A10)(Wired, 2/99, p.127)
1998 Dec 5, Cheung Tze-keung, a
reputed Hong Kong crime boss, was executed in China.
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A14)
1998 Dec 10, Zhang Jieying,
Chinese writer and columnist, was reported to have sold 200,000 legal
copies and millions of pirated editions of her book "Absolute Privacy."
The book was a collection of people’s private stories on love and sex
in an era of social change.
(WSJ, 12/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 14, In China the armed
forces completed the hand over of their commercial holdings to civilian
control.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.C7)
1998 Dec 16, In China members of
the "Two Gun, One Ax" gang were executed in Guangdong province. The
group had been found guilty of killing 3 people and about 50 armed
robberies and weapons trafficking.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C10)
1998 Dec 17, In China dissidents
Wang Youcai in Hangzhou and Qin Yongmin in Wuhan, arrested for
subversion, pleaded their cases for forming the China Democracy Party.
Youcai was released in 2004 and sent to the US.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D3)(SFC, 2/05/04, p.A3)
1998 Dec 21, In China 3 dissidents
were sentenced to prison terms of 11-13 years. Xu Wenli received 13
years, Wang Youcai 11 years and Qin Yongmin 12 years for subversion,
i.e. trying to organize an opposition party. Xu Wenli was released in
Dec, 2002.
(SFC, 12/22/98, p.A14)(AP, 12/21/99)(SFC, 12/25/02,
p.A1)
1998 Dec 27, In China a 4th
dissident for democracy received a 10 year prison sentence for speaking
to a reported by telephone about farmer's protests.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.A6)
1998 Dec 29, The language book
operations of China Today Press were suspended and the staff was
ordered to undergo "rectification."
(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A14)
1998 Dec 31, The collected
villages of Bujun in Sichuan province cast ballots for their own
magistrate.
(SFC, 1/26/99, p.A13)
1998 Ms. He Qinglian published
"The Trap of Modernization." She warned that China was heading toward
joint rule by the government and a Mafia.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A13)
1998 James Seymour and Richard
Anderson (nom de plume of an anonymous researcher) published "New
Ghosts, Old Ghosts," an examination of the "laogai" (reform through
labor) prison camps.
(WSJ, 11/9/98, p.A21)
1998 Jonathan D. Spence published
"The Chan’s Great Continent," a history of Western interaction with
China.
(WSJ, 9/4/98, p.W12)
1998 The Chinese film "Dragon Town
Story" starred Wu Chien-Lin and was directed by Yang Fenliang. It was a
revenge story set in pre-Communist China.
(SFC, 6/10/98, p.D3)
1998 The Chinese film "The
Emperor’s Shadow" was directed by Zhou Xiaowen. It was a historical
drama of the first emperor of a united China.
(SFC, 6/24/98, p.E3)
1998 The unsanctioned Chinese film
"Frozen" directed by Wu Ming (no name) opened in SF.
(SFC, 4/4/98, p.C6)
1998 The Chinese film "The Great
Conqueror’s Concubine" starred Gong Li, Ray Lui and Rosamund Kwan. It
was directed by Stephen Shin and was set in Qin dynasty of the 3rd
century BC.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.E3)
1998 The Chinese comedy film
"Shower" was produced by Peter Loehr.
(WSJ, 12/30/99, p.A1)
1998 The Chinese film "Spicy Love
Soup" was directed by Zhang Yang and produced by Peter Loehr.
(WSJ, 12/30/99, p.A1)
1998 The world’s tallest building,
the Shanghai Financial Center (1,508 ft, or 460 meters), was scheduled
to begin construction in 1998.
(Hem., 2/97, p.58)
1998 Caijing, a finance and
business magazine, was founded in China by a group of intellectuals,
notably Wang Boming, the son of a former deputy foreign minister.
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.68)
1998 An Jun founded Corruption
Watch to report on Chinese government corruption. In 2000 he was
convicted of subversion in Xinyang.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.C40)
1998 China formally outlawed price
fixing.
(WSJ, 2/10/06, p.A16)
1998 China ordered written
land-use contracts to be issued to peasants.
(Econ, 3/25/06, Survey p.9)
1998 China began to expand its
influence in Ethiopia when the US evacuated its Peace Corps volunteers
and scaled back military aid due to the border war with Eritrea.
(WSJ, 3/29/05, p.A1)
1998 China’s state metals
conglomerate bought a moth-balled copper mine in Chambisi, Zambia,
bringing in jobs and investments. The Chinese owners soon banned union
activity and cut corners on safety.
(WSJ, 2/2/07, p.A1)
1998-2001 UNICEF reported that at least 60,000
Vietnamese women were trafficked into China’s Guangxi Zhuong autonomous
region during this period.
(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.B6)
1998-2002 China’s closure of state-owned enterprises
and “collectives” resulted in job losses for some 24 million workers,
representing about 10% of the work force.
(Econ, 9/11/04, p.37)
1999 Jan 4, A footbridge in
Chongqing collapsed and killed 40 people. A week later another bridge
in Fujian province collapsed and killed 7. Bridge officials were
arrested on suspicion of graft or using shoddy materials. A Party
official in Chongqing was later convicted of taking bribes and
sentenced to death.
(SFC, 3/2/99, p.D1)(WSJ, 4/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 7, In China police
arrested Song Xianggui (36) in Linghai city for setting off explosives
on a bus. 19 people were killed when his plan to stun passengers to rob
them went awry.
(SFC, 1/8/99, p.A16)
1999 Jan 15, China asserted its
sovereignty over the potentially oil-rich Spratly Islands and rejected
a Philippine proposal to discuss the disputed islands.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A11)
1999 Jan 20, In China Lin Hai, a
software entrepreneur, was sentenced to 2 years in jail for giving
e-mail addresses to dissidents abroad.
(SFC, 1/21/99, p.A12)
1999 Jan 22, In Beijing
telecommunications authorities issued a circular clamping down on the
use of phone lines for telephone sex.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A7)
1999 Jan 25, In China an explosion
in Yizhang killed 8 people and injured over 60. The area was the site
of recent worker and farmer protests over corruption, unpaid wages and
taxes.
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.E9)
1999 Jan 29, From China it was
reported that police were ordered to arrest people posting
anti-government remarks on computer networks.
(SFC, 1/30/99, p.A14)
1999 Jan, In China a government
audit was released that showed state companies lost over $10 billion
last year from graft and plunder.
(WSJ, 1/26/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 4, In China dissidents
set up 5 new branches of the banned China Democratic opposition
political party.
(SFC, 2/5/99, p.A13)
1999 Feb 5, Yu Qiuli, former
Chinese vice-premier, died at age 85.
(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A21)
1999 Feb 6, The Harta Rimba, a
ship not licensed for passenger use, sank in the South China Sea,
killing about 325 people.
(AP, 2/3/06)
1999 Feb 23, The Disney film
"Mulan" premiered in China. Only 10 foreign films per year were allowed
into China so as to protect its own industry.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.E3)
1999 Feb 24, China announced that
it would veto a Security Council resolution to renew a UN peacekeeping
force in Macedonia, which had recently established relations with
Taiwan.
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 24, A China Southwest
Airlines jet crashed near Ruian and all 61 people onboard were killed.
The jet was a Russian-made Tupelov-154.
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.A11)
1999 Feb 28, Xie Bingxin,
prominent Chinese children's novelist, died at age 99. Her books
included "For Small Readers," Little Tangerine Lamp," and "Ode to a
Cherry Blossom."
(SFC, 3/2/99, p.A20)
1999 Feb, In China Qiao Liang and
Wang Xiangsui authored a report on ways to defeat the US. It stated:
"American are slaves to technology in their thinking… a single man-made
market crash, a single computer virus invasion, or a single rumor or
scandal that results in a fluctuation in the enemy country’s exchange
rates… all can be included in the ranks of new-concept weapons." In
2002 it was published in English as “Unrestricted Warfare: China's
Master Plan to Destroy America.”
(http://cryptome.org/cuw.htm)(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A16)
1999 Mar 5, In China the annual
2-week plenary session was scheduled to amend the Constitution. The
preamble will mention the goal of developing a "socialist market
economy" and acknowledge the late Deng Xiaoping. Revisions were also
planned to protect private enterprise and recognize multiple forms of
ownership.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A22)(WSJ, 2/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 8, In China 148 people
were poisoned in Luoyang after nitric acid was put into the donkey meat
soup. 5 people were later arrested. Chi Jianguo, the owner of a
competing restaurant, hired 4 farmers to poison the soup. He was later
sentenced to death, but the sentence was suspended for 2 years.
(SFC, 3/22/99, p.A11)(SFC, 4/7/99, p.C12)
1999 Mar 14, Premier Zhu Rongji
pledged that China would make the biggest concessions it could to
conclude WTO talks.
(WSJ, 11/16/99, p.A19)
1999 Mar 18, The Grand Hyatt
Shanghai opened on the top 35 stories of the new $540 million Jin Mao
Tower, the 3rd tallest in the world.
(WSJ, 3/17/99, p.B1)
1999 Mar 27, Chinese Pres. Jiang
Zemin in a speech to Swiss business leaders criticized NATO airstrikes
in Yugoslavia.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.A16)
1999 Mar, Jack Ma (b.1964), a
former English teacher, launched Alibaba.com to support small business
people in China. In 2005 Yahoo agreed to pay $1 billion in cash and
turn over its Chinese operations to Alibaba in return for a 40% stake
in the Chinese e-commerce company. On Nov 6, 2007, Alibaba became
listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. In 2009 Liu Shiying and Martha
Avery authored “Alibaba: The Inside Story Behind Jack Ma and the
Creation of the world’s Biggest Online marketplace.”
(WSJ, 8/12/05, p.A1,B1)(SFC, 11/5/07, p.A15)(WSJ,
3/4/09, p.A13)
1999 Apr 6, Chinese Premier Zhu
Rongji began a 9-day, 6-city US visit in Los Angeles. He planned to
gain support for China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.C12)(WSJ, 4/6/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 9, China's Premier Zhu
Rongji said that he would trade China's $57 billion surplus, which he
called exaggerated, for technology for a cleaner environment.
(SFC, 4/10/99, p.A10)
1999 Apr 12, The largest video and
installation art exhibit ever held in Shanghai was forced to close due
to lack of proper operating licenses. Artists Yang Zhenzhong, Xu Zhen
and Alexander Brandt had worked 8 months to organize the controversial
"Art for Sale" exhibit in a Shanghai department store.
(WSJ, 5/5/99, p.A20)
1999 Apr 19, The number of
Siberian tigers living in the wilderness was reported to be less than
20. Loss of habitat due to deforestation was blamed.
(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A6)
1999 Apr 23, In China it was
reported that a bus collided with a truck and causing an explosion that
killed at least 30 people in Xiangshui county, 300 miles northwest of
Shanghai.
(SFC, 4/24/99, p.A15)
1999 Apr 25, In China some 10,000
people protested in Beijing on behalf of the right to practice Falun
Dafa (law wheel great way), a brand of meditation and exercise.
Adherents to the practice, founded by Li Hongzhi, was estimated at
70-100 million.
(SFC, 4/26/99, p.A13)(WSJ, 4/26/99, A1,6)
1999 Apr 29, China announced that
1.6 million people would be allowed to move to Hong Kong over the next
10-13 years.
(SFC, 4/30/99, p.D7)
1999 May 7, NATO bombs hit a
residential area in Nis and at least 15 people were killed and 60
wounded. NATO bombs hit the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and 3 people
were killed and 21 injured. An outdated map was blamed for the embassy
bombing. The British Observor later reported that NATO bombed the
Embassy because it was being used to transmit Yugoslav military
communications. British, NATO and US officials denied the story. In
2000 the US CIA fired one officer and reprimanded 6 others for the
bombing.
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A1,10)(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A1)(WSJ,
10/18/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.A1,15)
1999 May 8, It was reported that
China ordered dozens of cable TV stations to stop broadcasting foreign
satellite programming.
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.C1)
1999 May 8, In China protestors
attacked US diplomatic mission in demonstrations against the NATO
bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Many of the demonstrations
were organized by the government-controlled Beijing Students Assoc.
(SFEC, 5/9/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 5/10/99, p.A8)
1999 May 10, In China Pres. Jiang
Zemin said that NATO must stop bombing Yugoslavia before the UN
Security Council considers any peace plan to end the Kosovo conflict.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A1)
1999 May 10, The US approved the
export of 2 Motorola Iridium satellites to China. [see May 20, 1998]
(WSJ, 5/11/99, p.A1,14)
1999 May 19, A bull market began
in China after the people’s Daily exhorted the masses to buy stocks.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.D1)
1999 May, Chinese hackers broke in
and vandalized American government websites in retaliation for the May
7 American aircraft bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The
White House website closed for three days.
(Econ, 5/26/07, p.64)
1999 May, In Sudan a team of
10,000 Chinese laborers under China Natural Petroleum Corp. completed a
1,000 mile oil pipeline, 2 wells and a refinery after 18 months of
work. In exchange Sudan gave CNPC exclusive drilling rights to over
40,000 square miles near the city of Bor.
(WSJ, 12/20/99, p.A22)
1999 Jun 3, Pres. Clinton called
for an extension of China's favorable trading status on the 10th
anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
(SFC, 6/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 11, It was reported that
50,000 copies of the May issue of Beijing Literature were turned to
pulp for an article commemorating the "democratic spirit" of the May 4,
1919, movement.
(SFC, 6/12/99, p.C1)
1999 Jun 24, The World Bank
approved a plan to relocate 58,000 poor Chinese farmers to land
historically farmed by Tibet. However work on the $40 million project
was delayed pending a review panel.
(SFC, 6/25/99, p.A14)(WSJ, 6/25/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 26, China's legislature
revised a Hong Kong ruling on immigration and reasserted its right to
decide issues that concern the mainland and Hong Kong. In Dec the high
court in Hong Kong affirmed the Chinese decision.
(SFC, 6/26/99, p.A16)(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A12)
1999 Jun 26, It was reported that
500,000 acres of forest in China's Liaoning province were destroyed by
at least 20 types of bugs due to lack of diversity, the high ration of
young trees and drought from last year.
(SFC, 6/26/99, p.A8)(HN, 6/26/99)
1999 Jun 29, Volkswagen won
approval to build its own car in China in a joint venture with Shanghai
Automotive Ind. Corp. to sell for about $12,000.
(WSJ, 6/30/99, p.A19)
1999 Jul 5, In China a landslide
caused a cave dormitory at a cement factory to collapse in Dengfeng and
17 people were killed.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A15)
1999 Jul 6-1999 Jul 7, Some 1000
members of Falun Gong demonstrated at the Chinese Communist Party
headquarters in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province.
(SFEC, 7/11/99, p.A26)
1999 Jul 7, From China it was
reported that flooding on the Yangtze River since late June had killed
240 people and caused over $3 billion in damage.
(WSJ, 7/7/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 9, In China the number of
AIDS cases was reported to have climbed past 400,000. A government
report in 2000 said 20,711 people had tested positive for AIDS with 397
having died. Health officials estimated 500,000 HIV-positive Chinese.
(SFC, 7/10/99, p.C1)(SSFC, 12/17/00, p.D2)
1999 Jul 14, China announced that
it had developed the design technology to make neutron bombs 11 years
ago and could make miniaturized nuclear weapons. [see Jul 15]
(SFC, 7/15/99, p.A9)(WSJ, 7/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 15, China declared that
it had invented its own neutron bomb. [see Jul 14]
(AP, 7/15/04)
1999 Jul 19, China began arresting
70 members of the Fulan Gong in raids in at least 15 cities.
(SFC, 7/21/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 22, In China the
government announced a ban on the Falun Gong spiritual movement.
(SFC, 7/23/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 24, In China the
government arrested some 1,200 government officials accused of
associating with the Falun Gong.
(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A8)
1999 July 29, In China authorities
issued an arrest warrant for Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong
living in NY.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A12)
1999 Jul 30, The US agreed to pay
$4.5 million to the injured and families of the victims of the May 7
bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
(SFC, 7/31/99, p.A6)
1999 Jul 31, Chinese authorities
seized a Taiwanese freighter near the Taiwanese military post of Matsu
Island with accusations of smuggling.
(SFC, 8/2/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul, Floodwaters ripped a
dike near Yijang, China, and forced some 130,000 residents to evacuate
from 3 townships in Hunan.
(SFC, 7/31/99, p.A14)
1999 Aug 2, China tested a new
long-range rocket, the 3-stage Dong Feng 31.
(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A8)
1999 Aug 4, It was reported that
flooding of China’s Yangtze River had left 1.8 million people homeless.
Summer flooding left some 725 people dead.
(WSJ, 8/5/99, p.A1)(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 6, Taiwan pop music star
Ah-mei, Zhang Huimei (26), mesmerized a crowd of 45,000 fans at a rock
concert in Beijing.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A15)
1999 Aug 7, In China Song Yongyi,
a research librarian at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., was
imprisoned while collecting data on the Cultural Revolution. On Dec 12
he was charged with "the purchase and illegal provision of intelligence
to foreigners." Yongyi was released on Jan 28, 2000.
(SFC, 1/26/00, p.A8)(SFC, 1/29/00, p.A8)
1999 Aug 22, In Hong Kong a China
Airlines plane with over 300 passengers overturned while landing under
high winds from Typhoon [Tropical Storm] Sam. 3 people were killed and
211 injured of the 313 survivors.
(SFC, 8/23/99, p.A14)(AP, 8/22/04)
1999 Aug 25, In Kyrgyzstan Boris
Yeltsin met with Jiang Zemin to forge a closer alliance to
counterbalance US global clout. The meeting preceded a 5-day Central
Asia summit. It was later reported that a deal was made for Russia to
sell 2 nuclear submarines to China.
(SFC, 8/26/99, p.A13)(WSJ, 9/2/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 28, In China it was
announced that stipends to unemployed workers would be raised 30% to
help arrest an economic slide and brighten sentiment before the 50th
anniversary of Communist Party rule.
(SFC, 8/30/99, p.A14)
1999 Sep 5, Increases in salaries,
pensions and welfare payments were announced for China’s 84 million
people as a birthday gift for the Oct 1 anniversary.
(SFC, 9/6/99, p.A14)
1999 Sep 6, Jiang Zemin arrived in
Australia, the first visit there by a Chinese president.
(WSJ, 9/7/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 9, China and the US
agreed to reopen negotiations for China's entry into the WTO.
(SFC, 9/10/99, p.D3)
1999 Sep 11, China’s Pres. Jiang
and Pres. Clinton agreed to restart WTO talks during the New Zealand
economic summit.
(WSJ, 11/16/99, p.A19)
1999 Sep 20, Factories in Beijing
were closed down to clear the air as part of the $13 billion
preparations for the 50th anniversary of Communist rule.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.A10)
1999 Oct 1, In China the
celebration for the 50th anniversary of Communism included 50 approved
slogans for the masses to chant and 61 approved songs to sing. Central
TV had already aired a 16-part documentary on the past 50 years.
(WSJ, 9/30/99, p.A18)
1999 Oct 8, It was reported that
only about 1000 giant pandas were living in China with fewer than 100
in captivity.
(SFC, 10/8/99, p.A14)
1999 Oct 15, The People's Daily
published an order that demanded that "foreign organizations or
individuals using encryption products or equipment containing
encryption technology in China must apply" for permission by Jan 31.
(WSJ, 1/25/00, p.A10)
1999 Oct 23, Pres. Jiang Zemin of
China visited France and signed a $2.5 billion deal that included an
order for 28 Airbus planes.
(SFEC, 10/24/99, p.A28)
1999 Oct 26, In China police
arrested Falun Gong protestors in Tiananmen Square during a 2nd day of
protests by the spiritual group.
(SFC, 10/27/99, p.C2)
1999 Oct 27, In China members of
the Falun Gong continued to descend on Beijing in an effort to press
the government to reverse its condemnation.
(SFC, 10/28/99, p.A12)
1999 Oct 28, China Netcom Corp.
began operations. It was formed earlier in the year by several
government agencies as a competitor to the state-owned telecom
monopoly, China Telecom Corp. Jiang Mianheng, the son of Jiang Zemin,
was one of the 5-member board of directors.
(WSJ, 10/28/99, p.A21)(WSJ, 11/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 30, In China the
government approved new laws against superstitious sects and secret
societies with prison terms of 7 years or more.
(SFC, 11/1/99, p.A11)
1999 Nov 1, A new Beijing Int’l.
Airport opened.
(Hem, 8/02, p.34)
1999 Nov 1, A 5.6 earthquake shook
China’s Shanxi and Hebei provinces and some 20,000 people were left
homeless.
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.D8)
1999 Nov 15, In Beijing, China, US
and Chinese trade negotiators agreed to a pact for China to join the
WTO. Charlene Barshefsky and Shi Guangsheng reached a deal that was
similar to the one the US rejected in April. Details of the plan were
made public Mar 14, 2000.
(WSJ, 11/16/99, p.A1,2)(SFC, 3/15/00, p.A3)
1999 Nov 16, UN Sec. Gen'l. Kofi
Annan, in China for a 4-day visit, said he had a "better understanding"
of the government crackdown on the Falun Gong.
(SFC, 11/17/99, p.A17)
1999 Nov 20, China completed its
first unmanned test of a spacecraft. The Shenzhou 1, or "Divine
Vessel," was launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu
province.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A1)
1999 Nov 24-1999 Nov 25, The
Chinese ferry, Dashun, with 312 passengers caught fire and sank in
stormy seas on the Bohai Strait near Yantai in Shandong province. Only
22 passengers were rescued.
(SFC, 11/26/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/26/99, p.A1)(SFC,
11/27/99, p.A14)(AP, 11/24/00)
1999 Dec 3, A 129 country
environmental conference in China agreed to provide poor countries an
additional $440 million over 3 years to stop using chemicals that harm
the ozone layer.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 10, In China Pres.
Yeltsin of Russia and Pres. Jiang Zemin ended a 2-day summit and
swapped pledges of support for Chechnya and Taiwan.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.A18)
1999 Dec 10, China signed a deal
to advance Belgrade some $300 million in cash and credits for
reconstruction.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.C2)
1999 Dec 15, The US and China
agreed to a $28 million compensation package for damage to the Chinese
embassy in Belgrade on May 7. China agreed to pay $2.87 million for
damage to the US Embassy and consular offices.
(SFC, 12/16/99, p.A16)
1999 Dec 20, Macao, a enclave of
430,000 under Portugal, reverted to Chinese control. Edmond Ho, local
banker, took over to head the new government. Local autonomy was to be
had for at least 50 years.
(WSJ, 10/26/95, p.A-18)(SFEC, 12/19/99, p.A28)(SFC,
12/20/99, p.A10)
1999 Dec 24, Chinese police
identified 22 suspects and rescued 17 children from a kidnapping ring
in Guangdong province. Chen Qifu and his extended family were accused
of taking children and selling them for up to $1,200 each. 6 more
suspects were arrested in Jan and 18 more children were rescued.
(SFC, 1/15/00, p.C14)
1999 Dec 26, In China 4 alleged
ringleaders of the Falun Gong were convicted and sentenced for 7-18
years for stealing "state secrets," organizing a cult to disrupt law
and order, and causing deaths.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec, Li Lusong, a villager
from Lan county in China’s Shanxi province, had half of his tongue cut
off by police for cursing police during detention for writing
anti-corruption slogans.
(SFC, 4/25/00, p.A14)
1999 James Mann published "About
Face," a look at diplomatic relations with China since the Nixon
administration.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.A21)
1999 Edward Timperlake and William
C. Triplett II authored "Year of the Rat," in which they explore Pres.
Clinton's relations with Chinese officials and their Washington agents.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.A21)
1999 Meihong Hu and Larry
Engelmann authored "Daughter of China: A True Story of Love and
Betrayal." Xu had been a former intelligence officer in China's
People's Liberation Army and Larry Engelmann was her American target.
(SFEC, 11/7/99, BR p.4)
1999 The Chinese film "The King of
Masks" starred Chu Yuk and was directed by Wu Tianming. It was about a
lonely old magician.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, DB p.16)
1999 The Chinese film "The Last
Woman of Shang" starred Lina Daui and Shin Yung-Kyoon. It was set in
the 11 century BC and was about a woman who pursues becoming empress in
order to avenge her father's death.
(SFC, 6/14/99, p.E3)
1999 The Chinese film "Red River
Valley" starred Ning Jing and Ying Zhen. It was shot in Tibet and
directed by Feng Xiaoning.
(SFC, 10/1/99, p.C7)
1999 Shanghai’s 2nd airport with a
passenger capacity of 60 million was scheduled to be completed.
(Hem., 2/97, p.70)
1999 China introduced the system
of "Golden Weeks," a vacation scheme which forced workers across the
country to take their three weeks of paid holiday at the same time, in
an effort to boost domestic consumption and tourism revenue. The plan
went under re-evaluation in 2006 as it spawned major frustrations with
overcrowded tourist sites and travel problems.
(AFP, 9/29/06)
1999 China introduced 2 crucial
changes to its higher education policy. University places were expanded
and state-owned banks were ordered to lend money to students to pay for
fees and expenses. By 2004 some 800,000 students had taken out
subsidized loans.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.42)
1999 China’s Communist Party
investigated and disciplined 132,447 party and government officials for
corruption in this year.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.A25)
1999 Lai Changxing, head of the
China’s Yuanhua Group Inc., was accused of graft and running a
multibillion dollar smuggling ring. Changxing fled to Canada. His Red
Mansion opened as museum in 2001.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A6)(WSJ, 11/23/01, p.A1)
1999 Starbucks opened its first
China store in Beijing’s China World Trade Center and partnered with
Chinese firms to expand.
(WSJ, 11/29/06, p.A12)
1999 In China Ji Qi founded Ctrip,
a new Internet firm, catering to the Chinese traveler. He later
followed up with Home Inns, a chain of basic hotels.
(Econ, 1/26/08, p.64)
1999 Chinese state executions were
reported to number 1,263 for this year.
(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.D1)
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