Investors from mainland China were accompanied by Cambodian chief of the National Police, General Hok Lundi to the Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin, still governed by the Khmer Rouge Number Two leader Leng Sary, to sign a "major investment agreement" worth 15 million dollars, reports the Phnom Penh Reaksmei Kampuchea. The Hun Sen regime gave a 30-year concession and contracts in Pailin to the Chinese MSP Development company for electricity generators, a water reservoir and purification system, and road building to the Thailand border. [Editor's note: Similar to its role in Burma, China is now the largest supplier of weapons to the coup-installed Hun Sen regime.]

In a case described as the world's first prosecution of an Internet user for political reasons, China has charged a software specialist with subversion for supplying a pro-democracy magazine with Chinese e-mail addresses, Reuters reports. If convicted, Lin Hai, 30, could be sentenced to death or face a minimum of 10 years in prison. Communist authorities have tightened control over the Internet since President Clinton's visit to China, І says Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.

Shanghai's cyber-police force has been reinforced with 150 additional computer experts. The Center claims that some Chinese Internet users have had their access blocked or their computers confiscated. In central Jianxi province, the publishers of Tunnel, a weekly on-line magazine featuring dissident writings, were recently arrested. And the US-based Chinese Democratic party says its web site and those of other pro-democracy publications have been obliterated by Chinese cyber-police.

China blocks access to web sites of many foreign news media with filters that target words, such as "Taiwan," "dissidents," or "Tibet," Reuters adds. But "enterprising surfers" are finding ways around government censors by logging on through accounts in Hong Kong and other areas. Some political dissidents exchange e-mail with Chinese abroad, while others have started an electronic magazine and newsletter containing Chinese language media reports from outside the country.

Beijing expressed full sovereignty over the strategic and oil rich Spratly islands, the China Daily reports. "China's sovereignty over the Nansha [Spratly] Islands, including the Meiji Reef and adjacent waters, is indisputable," claimed Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Tang Gouqiang. The Philippines has rejected China№s offer for joint use of shelters and weather- tracking facilities built by the Chinese on Mischief [Meiji] Reef, which is located in the South China Sea near the Philippines' Palawan coastal area. Lauro Baja, foreign under secretary of the Philippines, rejected the Chinese offer regarding Mischief Reef, saying, "We want it back, it's ours."

"China continues to export modern weaponry to countries like Iran and Burma, the latter well on its way to becoming a client state... The sea route between Yunnan [China] and Rangoon [Burma] is routinely mentioned by China as being of the highest national strategic significance," from the Foreword to Jane's Fighting Ships 1998-99. [Editor's note: I highly recommend this book.]

Copyright © 2000, American Foreign Policy Council.
All Rights Reserved.

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	Copyright © 2000, American Foreign Policy Council. All Rights Reserved.
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