Word: importance
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Though China has nuclear weapons, it has lagged badly in developing atomic energy. The country has no operational reactors, mainly because it refused for many years to import foreign technology. Now the Chinese are looking outward. They have started a joint venture with the government of Hong Kong to build two French-designed reactors by 1991 in Guangdong province. China has also signed a preliminary agreement with France to buy two more reactors. Executives from Westinghouse and General Electric have paid several visits to China in recent months, but deals must await the signing of a U.S.-China nuclear cooperation...
...that each of Detroit's Big Three now relies on a Japanese company to provide some of its small cars. Starting next year, GM plans to build some 250,000 small cars a year with Toyota in a plant in Fremont, Calif. By 1986 the company hopes to import 300,000 cars built by Suzuki and Isuzu. Predicts GM Chairman Roger Smith: "Joint ventures are going to be a way of life." Chrysler, which last week filed an antitrust suit seeking to prevent the Toyota-GM hookup, imports four Mitsubishi models and will probably replace its aging Omni...
...mainly because of maintenance problems. Just outside Lusaka, in Zambia, hundreds of government vehicles sit abandoned in a parking lot. Some are wrecks, but many others are almost new, missing only a clutch plate or a windshield. Desperately short of foreign exchange, the government of President Kaunda prefers to import new vehicles through aid programs rather than buy the spare parts necessary to repair the old ones. In Zambia and Tanzania, locomotives badly needed to haul copper and agricultural produce sit on railroad sidings because no one can fix their hydraulic-brake systems...
...Beset by regular breakdowns, it produced five tons last year. In accepting such largesse, African leaders have mortgaged themselves to outside interests. Observes a Nigerian film maker: "We build palaces but can't run them, we import cars we can't repair, we are attracted by everything that glitters. We are slaves to another culture...
...most diversified of any U.S. automaker's. He has launched the company's Saturn Project to develop a 45-m.p.g. model by 1987. In addition, GM has created alliances with four Japanese automakers. It has made large investments in both Isuzu and Suzuki, and expects to import 300,000 of their cars. Its agreement with Toyota to produce 250,000 cars annually in Fremont, Calif., was approved last month by the Federal Trade Commission. And GM has also quietly arranged for Nissan, Toyota's archrival, to build cars for its Australian subsidiary...