ÿ Last Updated 03:17 PM ET June 23, 1998
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U.S. Firms Sign $400 Mln In China Telecoms Deals
By Paul Eckert
BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. businessmen and Chinese officials clinked champagne glasses and signed more than $400 million in telecommunications deals in Beijing on Tuesday, two days before President Bill Clinton begins a landmark state visit.
In a preview of the lucrative contracts many U.S. businesses hope will flow from the warming of ties between Washington and Beijing, Motorola and Lucent Technologies inked seven pacts to provide equipment for China's fast-growing telecommunications market.
Lucent Technologies signed three contracts worth a total $62 million with Chinese partners, chiefly China Telecom, to supply transmission equipment and optical cable to major local carriers.
Across the hall moments later, Motorola signed four contracts worth $346 million. The biggest was a $210 million contract with China Eastern Communications (Eastcom) to make and supply GSM digital cellular infrastructure equipment.
Motorola's deals also included a $115 million contract to expand a cellular network in the eastern province of Zhejiang and a $21 million pact to expand a cellular network in northern Shanxi province, company officials said.
All major equipment manufacturers' eyes are trained on the telecommunications market in China, which has a 1.3 billion population and relatively low 5.68 fixed lines and 1.07 cellular phones per 100 people.
The signing ceremonies took place in Beijing's cavernous Great Hall of the People, where Clinton will attend a controversial welcome ceremony later in the week. U.S. ambassador to China James Sasser looked on, accompanied by a beaming Wu Jichuan, China's information industry minister.
The Great Hall, seat of China's parliament, borders Tiananmen Square -- which was the focus of pro-democracy protests that were crushed by Chinese troops with heavy loss of life in June 1989. Clinton's decision to attend a ceremony there has been widely criticized in the United States.
The plush carpeted room with ornate marble walls displayed traditional Chinese calligraphy by President Jiang Zemin hailing technological cooperation between China and the United States.
A day earlier, U.S. auto giant General Motors announced a deal to pump new money into a revamped $230 million project to build pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles in northern China.
Also on Monday, vice foreign trade minister Sun Zhenyu held out the prospect of major deals during Clinton's June 25-July 3 visit, noting that agreements worth $4.2 billion were signed during Jiang's visit to the United States last year.
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