February 28:
China's legislature has enacted a new food safety law including tougher regulations and severe punishments for makers of bad products. The National People's Congress approved the law, which will ensure food safety "from the production line to the dining table," the official Xinhua News Agency said. The law calls for a monitoring and supervision system, a set of national standards on food safety, severe punishment for offenders, and a food recall system. It will also impose strict supervision over additives and create a "high-level coordination and guidance" body, the China Daily newspaper said. Food regulation procedures would be streamlined by cutting the number of agencies involved by more than half. China's current system of splitting food safety responsibilities among many different agencies has resulted in uneven enforcement and confusion, the U.N. said in a report late last year.
March 2:
The Ta Kung Pao, Hong Kong’s Beijing-leaning daily, has published a pessimistic account of the recent U.S.-China bilateral defense talks and issued a stern rebuke of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. Qian Lihua, director of the Defense Ministry's Foreign Affairs Office and head of the Chinese delegation, was quoted as saying “Current relations between the Chinese and U.S. militaries are still in a difficult period. Obstacles to the development of relations between the two militaries have yet to be removed.” The article said “the United States does not respect China's interests” and accused the “U.S. Government of violating its explicit commitments” through its arms sales to Taiwan. “China will not put up with U.S. hegemonic acts that hurt its core interests.”
March 5:
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Daily reports that the naval destroyer "Guangzhou" has arrived at the southern Pakistani port of Karachi to participate in multinational training and confidence building exercises codenamed “Peace 09.” The exercises are scheduled to be conducted in the North Arabian Sea from March 5-14, 2009 with the navies of about 30 countries taking part or observing. The first of the “Peace” joint -training series was held in March 2007 when 14 ships from the Bangladesh, China, France, Italy, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States navies participated.
Wu Dawei, member of the standing committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference [CPPCC] and vice foreign minister, said that China and African countries engage in mutually beneficial economic cooperation and denied that China’s economic policies amount to "colonialism" on the continent. In comments carried by the official Xinhua News Agency he said, “African countries' expectations on China have become higher and they widely hope that China will provide greater help to them. As China's has further developed, we will provide more assistance to African countries. China currently widely adopts a model of government domination, market working, and enterprise participation.”
March 9:
Chinese vice foreign minister Wu Dawei has told the Zhongguo Xinwen She that the Six-party talks collapsed because “the parties failed to reach a consensus on the issue of verification of the DPRK's nuclear facilities.” Wu’s comments echo those of Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi who two days earlier at a press conference at the Second Session of the 11th National People's Congress said China will continue to host the talks. “All the parties should act in accordance with the agreement reached on September 19, 2005 and should move as early as possible so the talks may enter the third phase." Yang also “expressed concern over and taken note of the reactions of various countries” what he called the North’s decision to “launch an experimental communications satellite.”
Five Chinese vessels “shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in dangerously close proximity” to a U.S. Navy ocean surveillance ship as it conducted routine operations in international waters, the Pentagon said. The vessels closed to within 50 feet of the USNS Impeccable, waving Chinese flags and telling the U.S. ship to leave the area. In response the Impeccable sprayed fire hoses at one of the Chinese boats. The encounter took place in the South China Sea in international waters about 75 miles south of Hainan Island and included a Chinese Navy intelligence ship. Two days earlier, a Chinese frigate crossed Impeccable at about 100 yards, according to the Pentagon. Less than two hours later a Chinese Y-12 surveillance aircraft made 11 fly-bys of Impeccable, and the frigate crossed U.S. vessels bow again at a range of 400 to 500 yards. The U.S. Embassy lodged a protest during the weekend with Chinese officials over the incidents, Bloomberg reports.
[Editor’s note: This incident was preceded by days of increasingly aggressive conduct by Chinese vessels. On March 4 a Chinese Bureau of Fisheries Patrol vessel used a high-intensity spotlight to illuminate the U.S. surveillance ship USNS Victorious, the U.S. said. The vessel then crossed Victorious’ bow in darkness, without notice. A Chinese Y-12 made 12 passes near Victorious the following day.]