1. MINING EQUIPMENT

Until the 1970s, development of China's mining equipment industry had a low priority. Mining machinery plants constructed with Soviet aid or built indigenously during the Great Leap Forward (1958-60) produced only the most essential extraction and processing machinery, as emphasis was placed on other types of machinery. The growing need for mining equipment prompted Peking to launch a major campaign in 1971 to upgrade the industry and increase mechanization of the country's coal and iron ore mines. Output of mining equipment in 1973 reportedly increased 15 percent over the previous year. Production of ore processing equipment, excavators, and rock drills also increased substantially. Numerous mining machinery plants have been opened near small- and medium-sized mines, and the major mining equipment facilities have increased capacity in support of the mechanization program for major coal and iron ore mines.

Several new items of mining equipment have been trial manufactured or have gone into serial production. In 1971, tunnel boring machines were produced at the Fu-shun Coal Mine Machinery Plant and the Shanghai No. 1 Petroleum Machinery Plant. The Fu-shun model had a boring diameter of 3.8 meters and the Shanghai equipment had a diameter of 3 meters. While it is not known whether the equipment is being serially produced, the technology is representative of equipment used in the West during the 1940s. In 1974, the Shanghai Mining Machinery Plant made China's largest shaft mine drilling machine with a drill bit having a maximum diameter of 7.4 meters. In addition, a number of plants cooperated in developing China's first hydraulic propelled coal mine tunnelling machine in 1975.

Although China has made progress in expanding its mining equipment industry, the coal industry, for example, continues to rely heavily on manual labor or semiautomated mining methods to meet the country's coal production targets. Much of the equipment produced is based on Western prototypes of the preliberation era or on Soviet and East European equipment of the early 1950s. Equipment is often made from inferior steel and requires frequent repair and replacement. The degree of mechanization is uneven, larger mines being the main recipients of heavy equipment while smaller mines rely heavily on human labor.

The PRC leadership is acutely aware of the shortfalls within the mining equipment industry and the need to bolster this sector in order to increase production of coal and iron ore. An article in People's Daily of December 12, 1977 titled "Get More Coal Through Mechanization" urged increased mechanization rather than manual labor to further China's coal output. The article stresses the importance of importing foreign equipment and technology for increasing coal production and developing the base for domestic adaptation. On January 3, 1978, the Minister of Coal Industry, Hsiao Han, outlined China's program for developing the coal industry. According to Han, coal output should be doubled in 10 years and tripled by the end of the century. This can be achieved, Hsiao Han stated, only through large-scale mechanization and modernization of the industry. In a later article written for the Peking Review (February 24, 1978),

Hsiao states that China's target is to basically mechanize work in the coal mining sector within 10 years, with the major mines to be equipped with coal-cutters and tunneling machines, continuous transport facilities, automatic coal lifting, washing, and dressing machines, and computerized communications and dispatching systems.

2. MATERIALS HANDLING EQUIPMENT

China produces a fairly wide selection of materials handling equipment including cranes, elevators, forklift trucks, pneumatic loaders and unloaders, and conveyors. Compared with Western equipment, most Chinese machinery is small and the lift capacity is limited. Production of materials handling equipment is carried out by various manufacturing enterprises subordinate to China's construction, mining, transportation, and shipbuilding industries.

Of all categories of PRC materials handling equipment, mobile and stationary cranes offer the greatest variety of sizes and models, ranging from 1-ton truck cranes to a 500-ton floating crane. Mobile cranes comprise the largest subgroup of lifting equipment produced in China, with designed lifting capacities ranging from 1 to 32 tons. In addition, two 65-ton hydraulic crane trucks were trial manufactured at the Chang-chiang Crane Plant in 1977, and a 100-ton motor vehicle hoist was trial produced at the Peking Machinery Plant in 1976. Other mobile cranes with substantially larger lift capabilities are manufactured for railway and port use.

Stationary and floating cranes are an important component of China's materials handling equipment industry. Most are custom made to meet specific requirements, including a 200-ton floating gantry crane built in Canton and a 500-ton floating crane constructed in Tientsin.

Lifting equipment for use in ports includes traveling portal jibs, gantry and still leg derricks, tower transporters, and miscellaneous cargo cranes. In addition, production of handling equipment for ports is being pushed, including fork lift trucks, conveyors, elevators, and pneumatic suction equipment to include bulk grain and coal. New facilities at Whampoa harbor near Canton will have automatic conveyors and suction equipment capable of lifting 400 tons of grain an hour. A new 30-ton capacity gantry crane has also been trial manufactured at the Lien-yuan-hang Machinery Plant in Kiangsu, for handling containers of various sizes including the internationally tandardized 40-foot container.

F. Petroleum Equipment

Since its establishment in the early 1960s, China's petroleum equipment industry has been primarily tasked with turning out basic shallow-well drilling machinery and small scale refining equipment. Output continues to be patterned on antiquated Soviet and East European design technology. Key petroleum equipment plants are the Soviet-designed Lan-chou Petrochemical Machinery Plant and the Shanghai No. 1 Petroleum Machinery Plant. In addition, China has more than 50 small and medium-sized plants and nonspecialized facilities manufacturing various types of petroleum machinery and equipment.

The level of technology in China's petroleum equipment industry lags considerably behind the world state-of-the-art. Most of the drilling equipment produced in China is designed for depths of less than 4,000 meters. China produces rock bits of the three-cone variety for use in both hard and soft core formations, but they are generally of poor quality. It was only in June 1977 that the Chinese announced a new breakthrough in drilling technology with the trial manufacture of a synthetic diamond drilling bit. Ram-type and bag-type blowout preventers are manufactured in China, and a new hydraulically controlled blowout preventer was reported to have been trial manufactured in May 1977 at the Chung-ching Mining Machinery Plant. A variety of geophysical instruments are manufactured, with most technologically dated. The leading manufacturer, the Sian Geophysical Instrumentation Plant, produces logging instruments, seismographs, magnetometers, and isotope well-testing instruments.

Since early 1973, China has purchased more than $350 million worth of foreign petroleum machinery and equipment including seismic surveying and prospecting equipment, downhole equipment, offshore drilling equipment, and such miscellaneous devices as pumps, instruments, pipe laying machines, and oil field transport equipment. Aside from filling a basic void in China's domestic manufacture, imports of foreign equipment offer a valuable source of technology which China will eventually extract and adapt to its equipment design, or perhaps duplicate entirely for indigenous manufacture.

G. Electronics

China has done a creditable job in its development of the electronics branch of machine building. By 1949, war damage and Soviet plundering of Manchuria had reduced China's fledgling electronics base to a fraction of its initial meager capacity. The later rapid development of electronics stemmed from its priority in both the military and industrial programs of the Communist leadership. Since 1961, infusion of foreign technology and equipment has played a critical role in the development of new products and the upgrading of manufacturing capacity.

In spite of rapid progress, shortcomings in product quality and technological sophistication remain. To quote Wang Cheng, Minister of the Fourth Ministry of Machine Building:

The electronics industry has developed into a well-formed new industry, however, our electronics industry is a relatively weak link; the technical level of its products is not high, its production efficiency is low, and it still cannot meet the needs of national defense and the building of the national economy. There is still a considerable gap between the level of our electronic technology and advanced world levels. We are not (falling any further) behind in developing semiconductors, computers, and other specialized fields, but the gap between us and advanced world levels in other areas has widened * * *

China produces a broad range of electronic equipment, including components (capacitors, resistors, and semiconductors), electronic instruments, computers, communications equipment, consumer products, and specialized military items. Output for 1977 is estimated at $2 billion, twice the level of 1972. Most of the equipment produced is allocated to the military, with the remainder destined for civilian

industrial applications. Only a tiny percentage of the industry is involved in the production of such consumer goods as radios, television sets, phonographs, and tape recorders.

China claims to have 2,000 electronics enterprises in all parts of the country. Production takes place in: (a) about 200 major plants employing a total of nearly a half million people; (b) another 500 or so smaller plants employing up to 500 people each; and (c) perhaps 1,500 neighbor community workshops, staffed by housewives and producing electronics elements and parts. Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, Nanking, Canton, and Chen-tu together account for half of the major plants and three-fourths of production.

China suffers from an extreme technological lag between its stateof-the-art as exhibited by laboratory-produced electronics equipment and its quality of mass production. While China is able in some areas to imitate Western developments of the last decade in one-ofa-kind or small-batch production items, electronics production in the main tends to run 10 years or more behind the world state-of-the-art in terms of embodied technology. As a result, China can be expected to continue its imports of electronics in order to develop basic expertise in all areas of production:

1. Components. Without the development of quality components, China's production of computers, instruments, and other electronic equipment will suffer. The Chinese are seeking mass production technology and plant equipment for integrated circuits and largescale integration from Japan. China initially sought the technology in 1973 but negotiations apparently came to an end because of internal political turmoil.

2. Instruments.-China imports sizable quantities of instruments, because of the unreliability and lack of precision of domestic production, a situation unlikely to change in the near future.

3. Computers. Most of China's computers are one-of-a-kind or batch assembly items developed independently at a number of research institutes and production facilities. Computers in service are clearly inadequate in numbers and capabilities to meet military and industrial needs or to train sufficient personnel in computer applications. Furthermore, the unstandardized output from these varied facilities precludes any rapid development of a common body of knowledge in computer applications and software. China's interest in importing computers has been substantial; recent imports include. three highly advanced Hitachi computers bought for $8.6 million to aid meteorological forecasting.

4. Communications Equipment.-Chinese emphasis on upgrading telecommunications systems, both civil and military, have been highlighted by a recent national conference which set basic telecommunications development goals. Current accomplishments include development of a national microwave/coaxial cable trunkline and construction of a domestic satellite ground station. The Chinese also have expressed interest in technology for a domestic communications satellite system.

5. Consumer Goods. With continued emphasis on military preparedness and the strengthening of industry, it is probable that transistor radios and other electronic consumer goods will continue

to rate a low prioirty in China's development and import strategems. China has the potential, however, to become a significant exporter of low-priced transistorized consumer entertainment products.

H. Agricultural Machinery

China produces a mix of agricultural equipment including tillers, harvesters, threshers, rice transplanters, and other mechanized and nonmechanized implements; information on levels of production and major producers is scarce. Domestic press discussions of agricultural mechanization in the PRC focus on the production of tractors and powered irrigation equipment. It is in these areas where the Chinese have made considerable progress over the past two decades.

1 TRACTORS

The PRC began trial production of tractors in a handful of plants in the late 1950's while establishing a modern Soviet-aid production facility at Lo-yang. Today, about 80 plants in China are involved in tractor production. Roughly 40 of these plants produce garden tractors (also called walking tractors or hand tractors); the remaining facilities produce medium and large-size tractors (15-150 horsepower). Some plants produce both tractors and walking tractors.

Lo-yang, the largest tractor plant in the country produces 40 to 50 percent of China's total horsepower in medium-to-large tractors. Other major tractor plants include the Hunan and Hupeh Provincial Tractor Works as well as plants in Tientsin, Shanghai, Kiangsi, and Chang-chun. Leading garden tractor plants are located in Shanghai, Peking, Shenyang, and Nan-ning.

China produces 20 or more tractor models which range in size from 3 to 12 horsepower garden tractors to 100-150 horsepower standard tractors. The most common models (model number generally equates with brake horsepower) and their major source of production include the Tungfanghung 54 and 75 (Lo-Yang Tractor Plant), Tieh-niu 55 (Tientsin Tractor Plant), Fengshou 27 and 35 (Kiangsi Tractor Plant, Shanghai), and Hung-chi 75 and 100 (An-shan Tractor Plant). The Shanghai Tractor Plant is the major supplier of Kung-ning 11 garden tractors.

In 1977 China produced roughly 241,000 standard units of tractors and garden tractors (3.6 million drawbar horsepower; 6 million brake horsepower). This figure includes 156,000 standard units of tractors and 85,000 of garden tractors.2

2. POWERED IRRIGATION EQUIPMENT

Powered irrigation equipment is crucial to China's maximization of arable land, a major factor when dealing with the incredible task of trying to feed close to a billion people. Irrigation equipment facilitates cultivation in low-rainfall areas and makes extensive terraced farming practical in China's many hilly regions.

A standard unit is 15 drawbar horsepower; tractor model numbers, however, indicate their brake housepower. A tractor's drawbar horsepower is usually 50-70 percent of its brake horsepower; thus a Tungfanghung 25 has a brake horsepower of 25, a drawbar horsepower of 15, and is equal to 1 standard unit. Similarly a Kung-nung 11 garden tractor has a brake horsepower of 12, a drawbar horsepower of 6.6, and is equal of 0.44 standard units.