Roundup - 27/01/2010

• Four more people have been sentenced to death for their roles in violent protests in Xinjiang last July. One other person was sentenced to death with a two year reprieve, usually commuted to a life sentence, and eight others received jail terms. The names of the four who received death sentences suggest that they are all ethnic Uighurs. 26 people have now been executed or sentenced to death in connection with the riots. Uighurs began to protest in response to the murder of two Uighur migrant workers in southern China. On July 5^th the protests turned violent and government figures say almost 200 Han Chinese were killed. Two days later gangs of Han Chinese were seen roaming the streets seeking revenge, the Uighur death toll has not been officially counted.
  
  
  
• Five pro-democracy legislators who resigned in an attempt to spark a referendum on democratic reform have been denied the chance to make their final speeches. Pro-Beijing legislators staged a mass walk-out before they were due to speak, forcing an adjournment until next week. The resignations take effect at the end of the week. Beijing has forced Hong Kong to slow its move towards democracy, its says that a fully elected legislature cannot come into place until 2020.
  
  
  
• China's State Council has set up a National Energy Commission to oversee China's energy security. China's energy need have grown enormously alongside its economic rise prompting the PLA to consider it a question of national security. The new commission will be headed by Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice-Premier Li Kaqiao will act as deputy.
  
  
  
• 14 people have been killed in an avalanche in Xinjiang. The avalanche occurred yesterday in Yili, a region mostly inhabited by ethnic Kazakhs. 13 other people have died in Xinjiang after a cold snap led to an increase in snowstorms and avalanches.
  
  
  
• At least five people have been killed in an explosion at an illegal fireworks factory in Inner Mongolia. The factory in Hohhot had been operating without a license, hoping to cash in on the demand for fireworks during the new year holidays which start on February 14^th. 10 more people were injured in the blast.
  

Roundup - 26/01/2010

• Five legislators in Hong Kong have resigned their seats in a bid to promote democratic reform. The legislators, from the League of Social Democrats and the Civic Party, hope that the five resulting by-elections will be viewed as a referendum on democratic reform in Hong Kong. Currently Hong Kong's legislature is only partly elected and its Chief Executive is elected by a committee appointed by Beijing. China has said that the chief executive should not be directly elected until 2017 and the legislature until 2020. However, the pro-democracy parties want the reforms to be in place by 2012.
  
  
  
• Envoys of the Dalai Lama are to meet Chinese officials in Beijing tomorrow for the ninth round of talks since 2002 on the future of Tibet. The talks have a continuous history of going nowhere. Chinese officials are expected to demand that the Dalai Lama renounce violent separatism while the Dalai's envoys will reaffirm his commitment to a peaceful road to semi-autonomy for Tibet.
  
  China is beginning a new ten-year plan for Tibet which will continue to further open up the plateau and develop the economy. Tibetan exiles say that this increases ethnic tensions due to the huge influx of non-Tibetan Chinese. However, China hopes that tensions will be diffused if it succeeds in its plan to raise the incomes of rural Tibetans to the national average.
  
  
  
• Associated Press has reported that the Obama administration has decided to continue with controversial arms sales to Taiwan. The new sale is said to include UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles. However, the sale will not include F-16 fighters as these were deemed to be too provocative. The sale of arms to Taiwan is a major thorn in the side of Sino-US relations.
  
  
  
• China's Ministry of Environmental Protection has announced that it will exceed its targets for the reduction of two key pollutants. The 11^th five year plan (2006-10) prescribed cuts of 10% of sulphur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand, a major indicator of water pollution. They say that, by the end of the year, they will have reduced an additional 400,000 tons of SO2 and 200,000 tons of COD.
  
  The 12^th five year plan (2011-15) will contain similar targets with the addition of nitrogen oxide and ammonia nitrogen to the list of chemicals set to be reduced.
  

Roundup - 16/01/2010

• Gao Zhisheng, a prominent advocate of religious freedom, has 'gone missing' his family have said. Gao Zhisheng was detained on the 4^th February 2009 and was believed to be in police custody. However, an officer told his brother that he 'lost his way and went missing.'
  
  Gao Zhisheng, a former soldier and coal miner, came to prominence as a dissident after representing underground Christian churches and helping to organise a hunger strike by Falun Gong supporters. He had previously been in custody in 2007 during which time he said he was tortured with electric batons and toothpicks through his testicles.
  
  Geng He, Gao's wife, said in her new home of New York that she was stunned by the news that the authorities did not know the whereabouts of her husband. She has asked the authorities, 'if he's alive, let us see him, if he's dead, tell us where the body is.'
  
  
  
• China has criticised the plans of five Hong Kong legislators to resign en-masse to provoke a 'referendum' on democratic reform. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council has said that any referendum would be a violation of the Basic Law. Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, has also come out strongly against the move saying that the Hong Kong government would not recognise it.
  
  The legislators, members of the opposition Civic Party and League of Social Democrats, are heavily critical of the delays to universal suffrage which have been imposed from Beijing with the support of the Hong Kong government. They plan to resign on January 27^th.
  
  
  
• Police in Beijing shut down China's first gay pageant an hour before it was due to start. The Mr Gay China pageant was supposed to be a sign of China's gradual acceptance of homosexuals. Homosexuality was a crime until 1997 and classified as a mental disorder until 2001. Since then public homosexuality and gay bars and clubs have slowly been growing in China's cities. However, the closing of this pageant shows how far China still has to go.
  
  Police said that the event was cancelled because of inadequate paperwork, although they are said to have commented that the pageant was a 'sensitive issue.'
  

Roundup - 14/01/2010

• China has issued its first official response to Google's warning that it may leave China if it is not allowed to publish uncensored search results. A statement on Thursday by Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Jiang Yu said that China was opposed to any form of internet attack and wanted further details so that it could investigate the matter. Ms Jiang also said that she would 'like to stress that China welcomes international Internet enterprises to conduct business in China according to the law.'
  
  Meanwhile Google chief legal officer and vice-president of corporate development David Drummond said that Google was 'not saying one way or the other whether the attacks are state-sponsored or done with the approval of the state.'
  
  Google users have by and large welcomed Google's decision. Flowers were left at the entrance to Google's offices in Beijing yesterday. One user on said on Twitter that 'it's not Google that's withdrawing from China, it's China that's withdrawing from the world.'
  
  
  
• Chinese police have shot and wounded at least five demonstrators at a land protest in Guangxi. The clashes, which also left 11 policemen injured, occurred in Longyatun village in Guangxi after police tried to arrest 12 villagers for obstructing public works. This charge is often brought against citizens who try to stop construction on government requisitioned land. China News Service reported that police fired in self defence after being attacked by villagers wielding rocks, knives and clubs.
  
  
  
• Hong Kong police have arrested two people on suspicion of carrying out an acid attack on a crowded market. The two men, aged 18 and 23, were arrested in connection with an attack on December 12^th on the Causeway Bay shopping district which injured six people. No comment was made as to whether the pair were suspected of carrying out other similar attacks.
  
  The latest in a series of such attacks came on Saturday when two bottles of acid were dropped on the Temple Street night market injuring at least 30 people.
  
  
  
• A poll by Taiwan's Common Wealth magazine suggests that nine out of ten Taiwanese corporate executives want a trade pact with the mainland. President Ma Yingjiu has placed the pact at the centre of his policy agenda but has received criticism from the opposition who fear that Ma will bring Taiwan too close to China. A previous poll suggested that the majority of Taiwanese voters opposed the pact and local elections, in which the pact was the central issue, delivered a defeat for Ma's Nationalist Party.
  
  Negotiations on the pact will begin next week and President Ma hopes to sign a deal in May.
  
  
  
• China's General Administration of Customs statistics show that China's oil imports continued to rise rapidly, reaching 204 million tons in 2009. China's oil imports now account for 52% of total consumption. Analysts believe that by 2020 nearly 65% of China's oil consumption will be supplied by imports.
  
  China is looking at ways to limit oil consumption by producing more fuel efficient cars and electric cars. However, with the number of vehicles on China's roads increasing so rapidly China's oil consumption is likely to continue to rise.
  

Roundup - 11/01/2010

• China has overtaken Germany as the worlds largest export economy. A 13 month decrease in Chinese exports was ended in December when a sudden jump of 17.7% year on year sent Chinese exports over US$1.2 trillion.
  
  China's imports also soared in December, showing a 50% year on year increase. This was largely due to an increase in minerals such as iron ore for steel production and crude oil to meet China's energy needs. In December China imported an average of over 5 million barrels of oil a day for the first time.
  
  In spite of China's rapid recovery from the global economic crisis the government plans to keep its stimulus package in place throughout 2010. Finance Minister Xie Xuren said that ending the stimulus too early could damage the economy and could undo many of the gains China has made over the last year.
  
  However, Mr. Xie did say that the stimulus package would now 'give greater emphasis to expanding domestic demand.' Many analysts predict that China will overtake Japan as the worlds second largest economy by the end of 2010.
  
  
  
• Hong Kong police have announced that a man arrested on a rooftop after an acid attack that injured about 30 people had nothing to do with the crime. The attack, the latest in a series of attacks over the last year, occurred on Saturday night at the popular Temple Street night market. Large bottles of acid were hurled from a rooftop onto the crowd below.
  
  The 39-year-old man was initially reported to have been arrested in connection with the attack. However, police now say that he was simply arrested for missing a court date. Some have suggested that he was simply on the roof to hide from the police.
  
  Over the last 15 months there have been at least six attacks leaving more than 100 injured. So far nobody has been charged in connection with the attacks.
  
  
  
• A Chinese investigation into Australian Rio Tinto Ltd has been sent to prosecutors in Shanghai according to a statement by Australia's Department of Foreign affairs and Trade. Three Rio Tinto employees, including Stern Hu, an Australian citizen, have been detained since July on suspicion of illegally obtaining commercial secrets. It is now up to the Shanghai People's Procuratorate to decide whether or not to bring the case to trial.
  
  The case has caused tensions amid negotiations between China and a number of iron ore producers in Australia. China produced more than half of the world's steel last year and demand for Australian iron ore pushed bilateral trade to US%56 billion last year. A boom in Australian mining has helped Australia to recover from the economic crisis much faster than most Western countries.
  
  
  
• According to state media as many as 4,000 officials have fled China with more than US$50 billion in government funds over the last 30 years. In 2009 103 cases were investigated including that of Yang Xianghong, an official from Wenzhou, who fled to France and attempted to launder US$2.9 million. Officials are believed to use local criminal gangs in their destination country, usually Australia or the US, to arrange travel and to launder public funds.
  
  
  
• Local press in Taiwan reports that Taiwan is planning on buying 8 second-hand frigates from the US. The Perry-class frigates were designed in the 1970s but plans to equip them with the Aegis Combat System would turn them into a powerful force against China's air and missile forces. The report comes only a week after the US confirmed that it would go ahead with a controversial deal to sell Patriot missile equipment to Taiwan.
  
  
  
• A report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has suggested that as many as 24 million men of marrying age will be unable to find a spouse by 2020. The report blames gender specific abortions, the traditional Chinese preference for boys and young people's unwillingness to have children for the problem. Across China 119 boys are born for every 100 girls, in some provinces the figures rise to as much as 130 boys for every 100 girls. The gender imbalance has been blamed for many social ills including forced prostitution and human trafficking which researcher say has become 'rampant' in some parts of the country.
  
  
  
• The contestants of the first Mr. Gay China Pageant have been unveiled. One of the eight contestants will go on to compete in the Worldwide Mr Gay Pageant in Oslo, Norway late this year. Mainstream Chinese language media have not bee invited to the event, due to take place this Friday, amid fears of police interference.
  
  Harassment of China's gay community is still widespread. Homosexuality was illegal until 1997 and considered a mental illness until 2001. However, there are some signs of change. A government funded gay bar opened in Yunnan in December for example.
  

Roundup - 02/01/2009

• Thousands of protesters have been marching through Hong Kong demanding full democracy. Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a constitution which guaranteed that Hong Kong's Chief Executive and Legislature should eventually elected democratically. However, in 2007 China postponed the change, the Chief Executive will now be elected from 2017 and the legislature from 2020.
  
  Reports on the size of the demonstrations vary from 4,600 to 9,000. While the protests are a boost to democratic campaigners in Hong Kong, the numbers fall far short of previous protests. In 2003 a national security bill was shelved after 500,000 took to the streets in protest.
  
  Although the democratic movement has been weakened in recent years, it is hoped that the resignation of five pro-democracy legislators later this months will provoke elections which could be interpreted as a referendum on democratic reform.
  
  
  
• The China-ASEAN Free Trade Area has now come into effect. The agreement, initially prompted by the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s, covers a region which contains 1.9 billion people and and combined GDP of almost US$6 trillion. ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan has said that the Free Trade Area will benefit both China and ASEAN and help to lift the global economy out of recession.
  
  
  
• The Shanghai Panda Dairy Company has been shut down and three of its executives arrested for selling milk products contaminated with melamine. Authorities are currently overseeing the recall of its products from other parts of China. In 2008 six children died from drinking milk containing melamine. Several people were jailed and two executed for their role in that scandal. However, cases of melamine contamination continue to be discovered. Last month three people were arrested in Shaanxi for producing milk powder containing melamine.
  
  
  
• Apple has followed Google's lead in self-censorship in China. Applications for the iPhone relating to the Dalai Lama and Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer are not available from the Chinese app store. Apples runs different app stores for each country and has the final say on what applications are available in which stores. Reports suggest that searches on iTunes only find apps relating to the Dalai Lama if the search is in English but not in Chinese.
  
  
  
• Nine people have been killed and another eight injured after an explosion at a fireworks factory in Shaanxi. On Friday afternoon a massive blast destroyed all seven workshops of the Xinping Firecrackers Co. Ltd. Police are looking for Qu Pingxing, the factory boss, who is believed to have fled following the explosion.
  
  
  
• 606,100 tourists from the mainland visited Taiwan last year according to the Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits. Restrictions on mainlanders visiting Taiwan have been relaxed by both sides since commercial flights resumed between the two territories in July 2008. The visitors brought an estimated US$1.13 billion to the Taiwanese economy.
  

Roundup - 15/12/2009

• The split between China and the US at the Copenhagen summit is continuing to deepen. After reports yesterday that China may be willing to renounce its claim to financial support to implement carbon cuts, Foreign Ministry officials have anonymously commented that this was a misinterpretation of comments made by Vice-Foreign Minister He Yafei. However, Chinese academics and western analysts have suggested that China may agree to a transfer of funding from China to poorer countries as part of a deal.
  
  The US meanwhile is concentrating on finding a way to monitor China's progress on carbon intensity cuts. China is insisting that it can monitor itself, saying that Chinese law provides a guarantee that its promises will be kept. The US and other western powers want independent monitoring.
  
  The conference was further hampered by a five-hour walkout led by several African delegations. They refused to come back to the negotiating table until it was agreed that the continuation of the Kyoto treaty would be discussed. The G77+China favours Kyoto because it contains the principle of differentiated responsibility, thereby placing most of the burden of combating climate change on the developed world.
  
  There is now only two days of negotiations before world leaders arrive in Copenhagen for an intense final round of negotiations.
  
  
  
• Vice-President Xi Jinping has begun a tour of four Asian countries by visiting Japan. In a meeting with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama Xi said that he supported Hatoyama's concept of an East Asian Community and welcomed Hatoyama's comments that Japan should face up to its past.
  
  The visit was marred slightly by irregularities surrounding a meeting between Xi Jinping and Emperor Akihito. Meetings are traditionally scheduled at least a month in advance but the Chinese request for a meeting arrived only on Nov. 26^th. Much of the Japanese media has condemned this irregularity saying that the Prime Minister is using the Emperor for political purposes. However, many analysts point out that Xi Jinping's visit is important given Japan's strengthening economic ties with China and Xi Jinping's possible future succession to the role of President.
  
  
  
• Calls to release the dissident Liu Xiaobo have sent to China from the US and the EU. Liu was a founding signatory of Charter '08, a document which called for political reform. He has been detained for a year and last week was charged with inciting the subversion of state power, he now faces up to 15 years in prison. As well as international support liu has been supported by his fellow signatories. In an article on news.boxun.com, many signatories wrote that they were as guilty as he was and that they would be willing to accept punishment by his side.
  
  Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has emphasised 'principled pragmatism' in a speech to students in Georgetown University. She pointed out that coercion and isolation are not the only tools for promoting democratic reform.
  
  
  
• Railway police in Shanghai have arrested 47 child traffickers and rescued 21 children in a month-long crackdown. Most of the babies were kidnapped from poor families in Yunnan to be sold to wealthy but childless families in Jiangsu and Shandong. It is unknown whether any of the babies were to sold in Shanghai. The Ministry of Public Security has said that it is setting up a DNA database in an attempt to reunite kidnapped children with their families.
  
  
  
• The trial of a Chongqing mafia boss has been delayed after he implicated his own defence lawyer. Gong Gangmo, billionaire and suspected gang leader, is believed to have handed over his defense lawyer, Li Zhuang, in an attempt to earn lenient treatment. Gong says his lawyer advised him to lie to the courts about allegedly being tortured while in police custody. Several suspected gangsters have made similar claims. An arrest warrant has been issued for Li Zhuang.
  
  Meanwhile Yue Cun, a Chongqing local police chief, is on trial for leading another gang. 15 guns, 16 cars, 13 properties and 52 million RMB have been seized. Yue Cun began gathering decommissioned soldiers to work as security guards for his cinema in the late 1990s. The gang then moved into loan-sharking and blackmail, even using high-tech equipment to spy on government officials. The gang is thought to be responsible for at least three murders.
  
  
  
• Construction has begun on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge. The bridge will be 50 km long, 36km of which will be over water. The six-lane motorway is designed to increase the flow of traffic between mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao.
  
  
  
• A survey of China's historical sites has revealed enormous losses in China's cultural heritage. A nationwide survey of China's cultural sites has never been completed but the latest attempt has already revealed that a 1982 attempt contained over 30,000 sites which no longer exist. This is partly due to new methods of counting but mostly due to China's rampant development over the last twenty years. The sites lost include entire town centres such as Dinghai in Zhejiang and parts of the Great Wall in Mongolia.
  

Roundup - 03/12/2009

• 85 people have been arrested in Yibin, Sichuan on suspicion of producing methamphetamine. 44 tonnes of chemicals, enough to make 10 tonnes of crystal meth worth around $318 million, were seized by police. The bust included 415 kilograms of ephedrine, a drug used to combat the flu. The State Food and Drug Administration is placing a cap on the usage of compounds containing ephedrine amid concerns that it s being used to produce large quantities of illegal narcotics.
  
  
  
• China Daily reports on a forced demolition in Chengdu which led to suicide. Due to vigorous attacks by China's netizens the local government has been forced to respond. In 2007 the local government decided to demolish a garment processing plant owned by Hu Changming in order to make way for a road. The government claims that the dispute began after Hu asked for an excessive amount of compensation. The dispute came to a head on Nov. 13^th when men with cudgels attempted to clear the way for demolition. Hu's wife, Tang Fuzhen, and several other relative resisted and Tang threatened to immolate herself. The men refused to withdraw and instead set about Tang's relatives. At one point one of then snatched a one-year old baby from her nephew's wife and began kicking her. Eventually Tang carried out her threat, poured petrol over herself and set herself alight. She died of her burns in hospital on Nov. 27^th.
  
  The report quotes a Beijing lawyer who points out that the demolition of the building should have been the responsibility of the local court, not the government officials.
  
  
  
• Five more people have been sentenced to death for crimes committed during unrest in Xinjiang in July. The court in Urumqi also sentenced two others to life imprisonment. Last month China executed nine people for their roles in the violence that officially left almost 200 dead and 1,600 injured. No comment was made as to the ethnicity of the new cases but to date those arrested and executed have been disproportionately ethnic Uighurs.
  
  
  
• The UN's Clean Development Mechanism has suspended approvals for many of China's wind farms. This comes amid suspicions that the government is manipulating state subsidies so that more schemes qualify for UN help. China has been the largest receiver of carbon credits in the program. It has received 153 million credits worth more than $1 billion.
  
  
  
• China's top meteorologist, Zheng Guoguang, has warned that climate change is a major threat to China but that the focus should be on adapting to it rather than slowing it down. In an article in 'Speaking Truth' he states that for a developing country it is less practical to combat climate change than to work with it. China's official line is that both prevention and adaptation are equally important.
  
  
  
• Four Chinese have been detained in Romania amid a dispute over market stores. Romanian tax officials closed 221 stores in Bucharest for lacking documentation on their products. When officials returned to reopen some of the stores some Chinese suspected they were there to close down more stores and attacked the officials.
  
  The incident comes amid a dispute between the store owners and the owners of the market which has been brewing since early November. Store owners bought their shops outright when Niro Market was established. Now Niro Group wants them to move to a neighouring market and buy stores there. However, they are refusing to compensate store owners for the stores they already own.
  
  On Nov 17^th store owners staged a protest and Niro group retaliated by cutting off water and power to the market. Niro Group is a well established company in Romania which focuses on real estate.
  
  
  
• Construction will begin in December on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. The project, a series of bridges, tunnels and new roads, is designed to facilitate traffic between Hong Kong, Macao and the Mainland. It is scheduled to be finished in 2015.