CHINA

Foreign Car-Assembly Projects Outlawed: As part of its launch of a program to raise its own industrial giants, the country has banned new-car assembly projects that involve foreigners until 1996 and will tighten controls on car imports. The ban, part of a government initiative called the Framework of National Industrial Policy for the ‘90s, will focus resources to allow rapid expansion of eight existing car companies, said Ye Qing, vice minister of the state planning commission. Premier Li Peng approved the framework in March and said the automobile industry blueprint was the first of a series of programs “to help important sectors reach economies of scale,” Ye said at a press conference.