China

It's as clear as day - China needs its own Clean Air Act

Last week, a pleased Shanghai doctor who performed a successful cataract operation gingerly led his patient to the window for him to see the city's skyline for the first time, but instead of a delightful cry, the patient batted his eyelids several times and began to shout at the doctor for botching the job. That is one of the dozens of jokes flying around the country's social media as Shanghai and more than 100 other major mainland cities were enveloped in the choking and hazardous smog last week. Visibility in some eastern cities was reduced to less than 50 metres and to less than five metres in the worst hit places, where PM2.5 concentrations hit 500 micrograms per cubic metre. The World Health Organisation's recommended level for the pollutant is 25mcg per cubic metre.

Protesting Mongolian herders expelled from Beijing

17 herders from Urad Middle Banner in front of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing in November 2013 (SMHRIC photo)

On November 30, 2013, 17 Mongolian herders from western Southern (Inner) Mongolia’s Urad Middle Banner (“wu la te zhong qi” in Chinese) were expelled from Beijing. They had spent the previous 12 days submitting appeals to Central Government authorities, attempting to solicit support from the Chinese State Council Letter and Visitation Bureau and the Ministry of Agriculture to restrain local government officials and Chinese miners from illegally occupying their grazing lands. Dispatches from the local Urad Middle Banner government and the Public Security authorities carried out the expulsion of the protesting herders from Beijing. The herders are currently confined to their communities and barred from communications with higher government authorities. According to written communications received by the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC), the herders are protesting: 1. illegal land expropriation and land sale by local government officials to the Chinese; 2. destruction of the herders’ grazing land by Chinese miners and military bases; 3. the government’s failure to provide adequate redress and compensation to the affected herders.

Patrick Buchanan: Has The Asian Tiger Gone Tiger? – OpEd

When Montecore, one of two white tigers in the Las Vegas act of Siegfried and Roy, turned and almost killed Roy on stage, the reaction was that the tame and complacent beast had gone berserk. Comedian Chris Rock was nearer the mark: “That tiger ain’t go crazy; that tiger went tiger.” Seems our Asian tiger is going tiger as well. Sharply escalating its clash with Japan over ownership of the Senkaku Islands, Beijing has established an air defense identification zone over the islands and a huge stretch of the East China Sea. Before entering its ADIZ, says Beijing, all planes must now notify China. The United States responded by flying two B-52s through the zone. Japan and South Korea sent fighter jets through, also without permission. China then sent a squadron of fighters over the islands. Now, in a move that has startled Tokyo, the United States has advised U.S. airliners entering China’s new ADIZ to alert China. Japan considers this tacit U.S. recognition of China’s territorial claim. While America is not a party to the dispute over who owns the islands, under our security treaty, we are obligated to come to Japan’s defense if islands administered by Tokyo are attacked.

China Sends Lunar Probe, Rover Into Space

The Chang'e-3 rocket carrying the Jade Rabbit rover blasts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, Dec. 2, 2013.

China on Monday launched its Chang'e-3 lunar probe and rover aboard a "Long March" rocket ahead of a planned touch-down on the surface of the moon later this month, official media reported. Official video of the countdown and launch showed the enhanced Long March-3B rocket blasting off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China at 1:30 a.m. Announcing the successful launch, Xichang launch center director Zhang Zhenzhong said China's space program was part of the "Chinese dream" touted by President Xi Jinping. "The probe has entered the designated orbit," Xinhua quoted Zhang as saying. "We will strive for our space dream as part of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation," he said. China's accelerated space program comes as budget restraints and shifting priorities hold back U.S. manned space launches, and the Chang'e-3 probe blasted off just one day after India launched a mission to orbit Mars.

How Chinese Merchants Are Transforming Central Asia

Central Asian bazaars, such as this one in Pendzhikent, Tajikistan, are now home to many Chinese traders. (rapidtravelchai/Flickr)

Traders from China, a ubiquitous presence in the region's bazaars, represent Beijing's growing influence in an area once dominated by Russia. Outside Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, lie two major transit hubs. To the west is the Manas Transit Center, the United States’ main waypoint for soldiers coming in and out of Afghanistan. And to the north is the Dordoi bazaar, said to be the largest re-export market in Central Asia, a funnel for cheap Chinese goods to the relatively rich consumers of Kazakhstan and Russia. The Manas Transit Center is set to close in 2014, marking the end of Washington’s major security presence in the region. Dordoi, meanwhile, will be open indefinitely, an enduring symbol of the region’s Chinese-dominated future.

China’s Uyghur question as a strategic pit

The recent Tiananmen incident that led to the death of five people once again revived the debate on the Xinjiang/Uyghur question. The Uyghur issue not only exposes deficiencies in human rights and fundamental liberties in China but also appears as a hurdle for China’s two most pronounced strategic imperatives, namely “building a harmonious society” and the “peaceful rise of China.” PRC’s reaction to the recent incident and its pattern of handling crises of ethnic tension are increasingly dragging China into a strategic pit, which gets deeper with every instance of ethnic violence related to Tibet or Xinjiang. Beijing’s reluctance to acknowledge the root causes of minority discontent leads the PRC to “resolve problems in its own way” by using force, instilling fear in society, marginalizing minorities, and radicalizing dissent groups.

Wife of China’s jailed Nobel Laureate suspected of suffering from severe depression

Liu Xia, wife of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, weeps in anguish after her brother was jailed in June. Photo: AP

The wife of jailed Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo is unwell under house arrest and possibly suffering from severe depression, but refuses to seek medical help as she is afraid of further punishment, her friends said on Monday. The accounts from Liu Xia’s friends shed a rare light into her condition since being held at home after Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Prize in 2010. They also come two days ahead of a visit to China by US Vice President Joe Biden, during which human rights will likely be raised amid a broader crackdown on dissent and freedom of speech and assembly. Liu Xia wrote to prominent human rights lawyer Mo Shaoping in August that she was “close to going crazy, close to mental collapse” during the time of the trial of her brother, Liu Hui, on fraud charges, Mo told reporters.

Housing Prices Challenge China's Reforms

IMAGINECHINA New high-rise residential apartment buildings under construction in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, Nov. 18, 2013.

Eight months after taking office, China's new government is still struggling to bring housing prices under control. Despite a series of measures since March, prices have kept up their relentless climb, frustrating first-time buyers and the government's urbanization drive. In October, 65 of 70 surveyed cities reported higher new home prices, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The increases in China's four largest cities were the biggest since January 2011, Bloomberg News said. Price hikes from a year earlier ranged from 16 to 21 percent in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, the NBS reported. In November, prices rose again in 69 out of 100 cities in a China Index Academy survey, Shanghai Daily said.

Uyghur Scholar Takes Aim at College Graduation Ban

A top ethnic minority Uyghur scholar and activist has hit out at moves to ban college students in China's troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang from graduating unless they pass a test of political views, saying that the policy is "dangerous" and "ridiculous." "The Xinjiang authorities are in the process of doing something very dangerous," Uyghur university professor Ilham Tohti, a vocal critic of China’s policies toward ethnic minority Uyghurs, said in response to official media reports from a regional education conference.

THE UYGHUR ‘TERRORISTS’ OF XINJIANG

Beijing has alleged that the “East Turkistan Islamic Movement,” which purportedly has links with Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaida as well as many other Central and West Asian terrorist organisations is waging a “holy war with the aim of setting up a theocratic ‘Islamic state’ in Xinjiang.” While this allegation leveled against the Uyghur community is indeed damning, Beijing has unfortunately failed to provide even a shred of credible evidence to support its claim.

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