CHINA

Ahead of Goal, Planner Says: China’s goal of quadrupling its gross national product between 1980 and 2000 may well be reached by 1997, said Gan Ziyu, vice chairman of China’s State Planning Commission. “By the end of this century, all sectors of the nation’s economy and the nation’s composite strength will have risen to a new level,” Gan told a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Hong Kong. “The Chinese people will have bypassed any problems of insufficient food and clothing.” He said China will increase its GNP at an annual rate of 8% to 9% up to the end of the century.