Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!daemon Date: Sat, 16 Dec 89 16:03:15 EST Sender: From: chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (Bo Chi) Message-ID: <8912170203.AA16990@vlsi.waterloo.edu> Original-To: china-distribution@cs.toronto.edu Subject: Dec. 16 (II), News Digest Newsgroups: ut.chinese Distribution: ut Sender: list-admin@csri.toronto.edu Approved: nobody@csri.toronto.edu | +---------I __L__ ___- i \ ------I +----+----+ | ___\_\_ | \./ | | -----+- | | | | | __ \/ | --+-- |--- | |---| | I----+----I | I__J/\ | __|__ | | | |---| | | | _____ \ | /| \ | | | L__-| | I I---------J / J \/ | | V | _/ * 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Sky Isn't Falling -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Foreign Students in US ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= News Transmission chi@vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (or) -------------------- --------------------- Local Editor: Bo Chi chi@vlsi.waterloo.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sat Dec 16 21:00:02 EST 1989