SWB
FE/6319/BII/1
CHINA - II
15 Ja SO
(Bracketed names phonetic. Unless a minority language or dialect is specified, all provincial broadcasts were in Standard Chinese)
Selection of People to Study Abroad
NCNA in Chinese 0738 gmt 4 Jan 80
Text of report:
Recently the Ministry of Education and the Bureau of Scientific and Technological Personnel of the State Council jointly held a national work conference in Peking on sending people to study abroad. The conference summed up experience in selecting people to study abroad and decided on the principle, tasks and future methods of selection.
Fang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee and Vice-Premier of the State Council, made an important speech at the conference.
After summing up and exchanging experiences in sending people to study abroad, the delegates pointed out: since the founding of New China, the Party Central Committee has attached very great importance to the work of sending students to study abroad. It was only because Lin Biao and the gang of four opposed learning from foreign countries' advanced experiences that the work to send people to study abroad was completely discontinued. After the gang of four was overthrown, the Party Central Committee started to set things right and, on the basis of conditions at home and abroad, made the important decision in June 1978 on sending more people to study abroad. Practice has proved that this decision was absolutely correct.
In the past year and more, our country has made very great achievements in sending people to study abroad. The governments, civil organizations and friendly personages of many countries have given us tremendous support and help. As of now, our country has already sent more than 2,700 people to pursue studies in various fields in 41 countries, thus laying a good foundation for further development of this work.
It was pointed out at the conference that sending people to study abroad is not only an important measure in providing the high-level scientific, technological and managerial personnel urgently needed for the four modernizations and in closing the gap between us and current advanced world levels, but also a policy that must be followed for a long time to come. In the future, even when our science and technology are highly developed and production levels greatly increased, we still must learn from the strong points of other countries and continue our efforts to advance our economy and culture toward even higher levels of development. Therefore, we must [word indistinct] fully abroad and really do a good job in this area.
The conference pointed out that from now on the policy of sending people to study abroad is as follows: on the premise of really guaranteeing quality and based on the country's needs and possibilities, it is necessary to open up more channels and strive to send more people abroad, and it is necessary to bring into full play the initiative of various central departments and local and grassroots units in this work. In the selection process it is necessary to follow the "three priorities" principle: in selecting people to study abroad, priority should be given to the natural sciences, while some people are also sent to study the social sciences and foreign languages; and in the field of natural sciences, priority should be given to technological sciences, but without ignoring the needs for basic science and applied technology.