jshen@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Jun Shen) (01/27/91)
N E W S B R I E F
1. Arms Sale.
A direct impact of the fall of Bangladesh president Ershad
is bound to be felt by China. While in power, Ershad had visited China
every hear and developed close ties with the PLA. In addition to
economic aid, China had helped reguild ordnance factories in Bangladesh
and provided other military assistance at so-called "friendship"
prices. Ershad, who had been planning to raise a new infantry division
hast year, had asked the PLA to provide conventional weapons for
the new formation. Beijing had managed to fend off the request
temporarily, pointing out that Dhaka had not fully utilized military
credits already pledged. However, plans for the new division have since been
scrapped, and China is unlikely to get any orders for military equipment from
Dhaka until a new regime has at least made a start on solving the
country's other myriad economic problems.
2. Future Commodities for N. Korea.
North Korean Premier Yon Hyong-muk has succeeded in securing a
pledge from Beijing that China would supply increased amounts of crude oil
and grain to Pyongyang this year. The commitment was made during Yon's
six-day visit to China in late November. Pyongyang urgently needs both
commodities as a result of substantially reduced supplies from the
Soviet Union and bad weather.
3. Oust of Nguyen Co Thach
Nguyen Co Thach, a career diplomat who has spearheaded Hanoi's
efforts to improve relations with the non-communist world, could be
ousted when the communist party congress next meets. China is said to
have demanded the removal of Thach, a sharp critic of Beijing when
Sino-Vietnamese relations soured in the late 1970s, as a precondition
for normalizing relations. Nguyen Khanh, a vice-premier with no known
foreign policy experience, is being geavily tipped as Thach's possible
successor.
4. Two roads in Canton
At the time when Gordon Wu is planning a 120-km Hongkong-Canton
road for Guandong Province, Dongguan County also has launched a series of
major road-building plans. Significantly, these include straightening and
upgrading the existing Hongkong-Guangdong highway, which Wu's road is
intended to replace. In addition, the Dongguan has plans to drive a
two-lane highway from the center of the county to the Hongkong border. The
cost per km of these roads - to be financed by Dongguan solely out
of remittances from Hongkong companies - are a graction of the cost of
Wu's superhighway. In fact, Wu is said to have paid four times as much
for the land per km on which he will buld the superhighway as Dongguan
expects to pay for 1 km of completed road. The effect of competition
from Dongguan on the feasibility of Wu's project is not known. Wu's
company, Hongkong -listed Hopewell Holdings, recently signed a US$800
million non-recourse project financing for the road.
source: Far East Economic Review
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