CHINA

State-Owned Firm to Sell Shares: Foreigners will soon be able to buy shares in a state-owned company in China in one of Beijing’s boldest flirtations with capitalism since Mao Tse-tung founded the communist state in 1949. Shanghai Vacuum Electron Device Co. will offer special shares to foreigners probably by the end of the year, according to financial executives in Shanghai--marking an important step for Beijing’s fledging experiment with stock markets. “We’re extremely keyed up about this now,” said a senior official at Shanghai Shenyin Securities Co., which is managing the stock issue. “It has not been formally set, but we are working very hard on this. Most of the problems have been basically solved,” said the official, who asked not to be identified. Political and economic sources in the capital said Premier Li Peng himself had approved the idea, in part to counter his hard-line image and to show that he fully supported economic reforms.