🚀 go-pugleaf

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             * C h i n a   N e w s   D i g e s t *


		    (ND Canada Service)

                       -- Dec. 16 (II), 1989


Table of Contents
                                                                     # of Lines
1) The  Sky Isn't Falling ............................................. 90
2) Foreign Students in US ............................................. 26

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1. The  Sky Isn't Falling 
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source: by Jan Wong, The Globe and Mail 
From:  pyan@violet.waterloo.edu  (random walker), Date: 16 Dec 89
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china

    The  world  is  coming  to  an  end.  An asteroid is hurtling
toward Earth and could kill half the population.

    You haven't heard?  It's all over the Chinese press.

    Xinhua,  the  official  Chinese news agency, said "scientists
are  right now trying to find a way to avoid this disaster."  The
asteroid,  it  said,  is 1000 kilometers in diameter and will hit
Earth  "with a force 7.7 million times as distructive as the atom
bomb that devastated Hiroshima."

    It cited as its source the Associated Press.

    "If  it  is true, I'm going to take the rest of the day off,"
said James Abrahams, AP's Beijing bureau chief.

    After  queries  from  mystified  AP  staff in Beijing, Xinhua
attributed  the  story  to a translation error.  But some Chinese
and foreign observers believe the false story was a domestic hoax
embarrass the official press.

    Yesterday,  the  earth-shattering news panicked many Chinese.
It  was  picked up by Centrial People's Radio and at least half a
dozen government newspapers.

    "It's  going to hit us any day now," said a worried cook, who
heard it on the morning news.

    "We are all going to die," said a Chinese woman cyclist.

    The  AP  Beijing  bureau only became aware of the story after
half  a  dozen  worried Chinese phoned to confirm the report.  AP
called  its  Asia  headquarters  in Tokyo, which failed to find a
trace  of  the doomsday story.  AP then called its head office in
New York, which also came up empty.  Finally, AP called Xinhua.

    An  hour  later,  Xinhua, which has often accused the foreign
media, including AP, of "rumor mongering," said the story was the
result of a translation error that would be corrected.

    "It's  clearly not a translation error," said an American who
has  lived  in China for 15 years. "It might be a practical joke.
There may be someone who wants to make papers look like fools."

    Four hours after Xinhua acknowledged that the AP story was in
error,  the nationally televised evening news continued to reprot
the  story as if it were true.  It ran an interview with astrono-
mers  at  the Nanjing Observatory  who told viewers the chance of
an asteroid's hitting a heavily populated area is minuscule.

    "We  haven't  got  any  news that an asteroid is coming," one
said. " Nobody should panic."

    Given  the low credibility of the Chinese media, the vehement
denials might only strengthen people's feeling of danger.

    One  foreign  political  scientist  said  some  Chinese might
interpret  the  news as a portent that the current leadership has
lost the mandate of Heaven.

    As part of the crackdown on pro-reform demonstrators, Chinese
leaders  recently  ordered  newspapers  to  publish only positive
news.  Since martial law was imposed over most of Beijing in May,
some key media, including the People's Daily, Centrial Radio, and
Centrial Television, are under military control.

    Attributing  the  Xinhua story to a U.S. news agency enhanced
its  credibility.   The  three-paragragh item gave specific, hor-
rific  details.   "At  present  the asteroid is 800000 kilometers
from  the  Earth,"  it said, and only can be nudged from its des-
tructive  path  if  scientists "fire special rockets ot a nuclear
bomb at it."

    By  late  yesterday  afternoon,  AP  tracked  down an item it
thought might be the source of the incorrect Xinhua story.  An AP
story last weekend described a San Francisco meeting of the Amer-
ican  Geophysical Union that proposed a program to keep the Earth
from  being  hit  by  huge  asteroids.  The AP story said such an
event happens once every 3000000 years.

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2.  Foreign Students in US
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From: liao@oahu.cs.ucla.edu
Source: Institute of International Education
        It is on the U.S. News and World Report, Dec. 18, 1989.
 
In 1988-1989 academic year, there are totally 366,000 foreign
students in the United States. The top 10 countries are
 
    Country of Origin     Students in U.S. Universities
 
     China                 29,040
     Taiwan                28,760
     Japan                 24,000
     India                 23,350
     Korean                20,610
     Malaysia              16,170
     Canada                16,030
     Hong Kong             10,560
     Iran                   8,950
     Indonesia              8,720
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News    Transmission    chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca   (or)
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Local Editor: Bo Chi    chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu    
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Sat Dec 16 21:00:02 EST 1989