
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 7, 1990                   TAG: 9004070009
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: BEIJING                                LENGTH: Medium

CHINA AGREES TO FULBRIGHT EXCHANGES

China has formally agreed to restore - at a reduced size and scope - Fulbright scholar exchanges disrupted by Beijing last year, and wants to resume talks on a postponed U.S. Peace Corps program, American officials said Friday.

The Chinese moves come amid largely bleak U.S.-Chinese relations. Friendly ties between the countries began to deteriorate after the Chinese army cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators last June and the United States imposed sanctions on Beijing.

The relationship has not substantially improved since then despite high-level delegations sent to Beijing by President Bush, but there are signs of some continuing U.S.-Chinesecooperation in the field of science and technology. China is scheduled today to use a Chinese rocket to launch an American-made telecommunications satellite into space for the first time.

Traditionalist Chinese Communist officials who want to reassert the primacy of Marxism-Leninism are believed to have questioned the usefulness of the Fulbright and Peace Corps programs.

Some Chinese officials apparently view the Fulbright program, with its emphasis on the humanities, as ideologically opposed to communism. Others apparently see the Peace Corps as a threat because it would bring American volunteers into contact with ordinary Chinese in the provinces.

Beijing disrupted the U.S.-funded Fulbright program after Washington imposed sanctions on China. According to the American officials, China and the United States agreed in principle more than a month ago to resume the exchanges after protracted negotiations, but the program was quickly thrown into doubt again until this week, when the Chinese made a final decision to approve it.

Although it is being resumed, the Fulbright program will be reduced in size and scope, an official said. Under the original program, 23 American scholars came to China to teach at universities each year and 23 Chinese professors and graduate students traveled to the United States for advanced studies.

Under the new agreement, 16 American professors will teach subjects in the field of humanities - such as law, literature and history - at Chinese universities. The same number of Chinese research scholars will do advanced research at U.S. universities in the American studies field.

by CNB