Zhang said, after twenties years' endeavor, China's telecom industry has succeeded in solving the main problem of short supply. Currently, it is necessary to adjust the policy of the industry for the major contradiction has turned out to be how to provide high-quality service at low prices.

At present, the telephone-owning rate is one telephone-set for six citizens and nearly 80 percent of the household own telephones in China. So the policy must be mapped out to represent the benefits of the masses for among all industries in China this industry has a great deal to do with them, he added. To protect consumers' legal benefits in real earnest, we should pay attention to the following three aspects:

1. To deepen the reform: Based on the existing competition of all telecom operators, open the market further, establish an effective competitive system in all telecom businesses as soon as possible, and break through the bottleneck of bandwidth, thus to improve the service quality by market competition;

2.To perfect the supervision and management system: Develop the management system of the industry according to the law and strengthen the supervision on it by such aspects as administration, justice, society, public opinion, and consumers.

3.To work out a reasonable price-matrix and prices according to cost so as to make a balance between the benefits of social distribution and enterprises. And the government should gradually relinquish its intervention and finally withdraw from the business arenas in which prices can be set according to the market competition.

(People's Daily 06/05/2001)