October 1:
Qiushi (Seeking Truth), the Communist Party of China's (CPC) theoretical magazine, has posted an article on its website written by Wang Jiarui, director of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee, entitled "Party Diplomacy with Contemporary Chinese Characteristics,” that elaborates on the CPC principle of “noninterference in internal affairs.” Wang describes the CPC’s the primary principle of this “new concept of a new type of interparty relations”: “be opposed to judging between right and wrong of another party and country." Wang explained the CPC efforts to “build a good international image of itself” and its “research on such major issues as diplomatic and security strategies and provided useful references for the party” in particular its “systematic research on foreign ruling parties' theories, systems, patterns, and laws of governance and profoundly summed up experiences and lessons of foreign parties' rise or decline to provide intellectual support for increasing our party's ability to govern and consolidating its position as the ruling party.”
October 3:
The U.S. Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board (ISAB), a 17-member board composed of national security experts with scientific, military, diplomatic and political backgrounds who provide independent advice to the secretary of state on all aspects of arms control, disarmament, international security and related issues, has issued the “China’s Strategic Modernization: Report from the ISAB Task Force.” The report’s writing team, headed by Paul Wolfowitz, former deputy secretary of defense and currently chairman of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, concluded that: “The United States is viewed as China’s principal strategic adversary and as a potential challenge to the regime’s legitimacy, specifically with regard to Taiwan. United States may view the Taiwan question as status quo versus integration with China, Beijing views it as peaceful reunion or forcible conquest. Most important, the United States must, in actions and words, demonstrate its revolve to remain militarily strong and its consistency to defend its interests and meet its security commitments to friends and allies in the region,” the draft said, according to the Taipei Times.
October 7:
The China National Coal Group Corp., China's second-largest coal producer, saw its revenue rise 47.8 percent year-on-year to RMB 61.5 billion ($9 billion) during the first three quarters of this year, according to a company announcement on October 7th. In the first nine months, reports Interfax, the company produced 86.16 million tons of coal, an 8.7 percent increase when compared with the same period a year ago. Its coal sales volume climbed by 12.7 percent on an annual basis to 77.63 million tons, of which 12.20 million tons was exported. In addition, China Coal Energy Co. Ltd., the company's Hong Kong-listed subsidiary, produced 75.36 million tons of coal and sold 68.11 million tons in the first nine months, growing by 9.6 percent and 10.2 percent year-on-year respectively.
[Editor’s Note: These massive increases in coal production mark a trend for China to rely even more heavily on the sulfur-rich domestic fuel in response to the rising costs of imported oil, reports Reuters. The number of coal manufacturers in China is huge: by the end of February 2007, there were 23,000 coalmines in China located in 1,300 counties and cities.]
October 8:
In a ruling that could set the course for releasing dozens more prisoners from the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, a federal judge ordered the Bush administration to immediately free 17 Uighurs – ethnic Muslims from China’s Northwestern Xinjiang Autonomus Region – from the Cuba-based prison into the United States. In the first court-ordered release of Guantanamo detainees since the prison camp opened in 2002, U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina said it would be wrong to continue holding the detainees, who have been in custody for nearly seven years, since they are no longer considered enemy combatants. "Because the Constitution prohibits indefinite detentions without cause, the continued detention is unlawful," Urbina said in comments carried by the Associated Press. The Chinese Embassy in Washington, reiterated Beijing's argument that the Uighur detainees – who were captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001 – are terror suspects and should be returned to China. "We ask the US side to take into serious consideration of the repeated requests of the Chinese side… so as not to further harm their bilateral cooperation on combating international terrorism."
[Editor’s Note: The Bush administration has refused to turn the Uighurs over to China because they might face torture. The administration says it has found no other country willing to accept them. Albania accepted five Uighur detainees in 2006 but since has balked at taking others, partly for fear of diplomatic repercussions from China.]