From New York financial correspondent Bill Mossette
NEW YORK (TCNfn)-A spokesman for United Fuels Corporation stated today that the company had recently located a large and, until now, undiscovered oil deposit six miles from Mischief Reef, one of the Spratly Islands chain located in the South China Sea.
The deposit is thought to be the largest of its type yet discovered, with a conservative estimated yield of close to one trillion barrels. This information caused a massive surge in United Fuels stock, which peaked today at eighty-nine dollars a share, up nearly 200 percent. Experts predict that the stock will continue to skyrocket if the find is fully substantiated.
However, many financial advisers are wary of investing in United on the basis of this new find, due to the political instability surrounding the area in which the oil lies. The Spratly Islands have long been contested, with China, Vietnam, Taiwan and other neighboring countries all claiming sovereignty, Wall Street experts say that the oil find will be contested by the governments of the aforementioned countries, among others, and that it may be years before such disagreements may be resolved. During this time, of course, United Fuels Corporation will be unable to drill in the area.
Nevertheless, United has already started to build a drilling platform at the site, staging construction from the prospecting ship that located the enormous oil deposit, Benthic Adventure.
Coup in China, Li takes control
July 23, 1997
Web posted at: 3:00 p.m. EST (2000 GMT)
From Washington chief correspondent Michael Flasetti
WASHINGTON (TCN)-In a stunning development, Premier Li Peng has staged a coup d'etat and gained control of the Chinese government in the early hours of this morning. Aided in the coup by General Yu Quili, leader of the so-called Petroleum Faction, Li has apparently ordered the arrest of Jiang Zemin, president and successor to the late Deng Xiaoping, and Zhu Rongji, senior vice premier. Both political rivals in the struggle for control, Jiang and Zhu have yet to be located and are presumed in hiding.
Li, a conservative with broad support from both the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese military, issued a statement to the effect that Deng's liberal economic policies were causing ruin within China, destroying the socialist ideals that the Communist Party has been striving to maintain. He also stated that rampant capitalism and greater economic ties to the West threaten to undermine the 'national focus of China' and that 'it was time that the people of China stood together in a common cause.' Precisely what that cause is remains to be seen.
However, Taiwan has requested aid from the United Nations, fearing that Li may attempt an invasion of the country, which China has regarded as a renegade province since 1949. If such an invasion was to take place, it would probably be masterminded by General Yu Quili, the one-armed army veteran who led the Petroleum Faction, a group of engineers that developed the rich Daqing oil field in Manchuria with the aid of then Chairman Mao Ze-dong.
The Petroleum Faction wielded enormous power over China's economic policy until Deng consolidated his own power base within the government in the early 1980s. Now, with Li and other allies, including Wang Tao, chairman of the China National Petroleum Corporation, General Yu seems poised to take a place among the executive elite of China.
East Asia political expert Adrian Mann commented today on the current radical shift of government power. 'Energy production seems to have become the engine for a neoconservative upheaval in China. Politically, those who control the means of energy production can control the country. It's a very strong position.' Doubly strong, Dr. Mann went on to argue, in a country with a well-documented shortage of raw power.
The White House has so far been unresponsive to the developments in China, as the President wishes to confer with UN chiefs before making any official statement, which is expected later today. Sources report that the President will need full support from the UN before action, if any, is to be taken, in light of America's historically rocky relationship with China.
President reacts to Chinese coup, UN sanctions expected
July 23, 1997
Web posted at: 12:00 p.m. EST (1700 GMT)
From Washington chief correspondent Michael Flasetti
WASHINGTON (TCN)-After conferring with other permanent members of the UN Security Council for most of the day, the President made a statement condemning the Chinese coup, led by Li Peng. In addition, both the U.S. and UN have officially refused to acknowledge the new Chinese government, demanding instead that Jiang Zemin, chosen by ex-paramount leader Deng to be his successor, be restored as China's new leader. However, many believe Jiang to be dead, killed by troops under Peng during the coup. Senior vice premier Zhu Rongji is also missing.
Li Peng responded to the demands by stating that both Jiang and Zhu were wanted for 'crimes against the state' and that he would not give up his new position, which is supported by the leaders of China's industrial-military complex. He went on to decry the UN mandates as yet more 'interferist Western meddling in China's interior affairs' and that China would not submit to any of the UN's requests.
Deadlocked, the UN is convening immediately to analyze the situation and discuss the possibility of sanctions against China.
