May 30:
On the cusp of the 20th anniversary of the June 4th Tiananmen crackdown Esquire magazine’s Hong Kong-based Chinese language version (published by the South China Media Group) pulled a special 10-page commemoration. A journalist from the magazine explained that the "June 4 Special" issue contained content vindicating the student movement. One reporter told the Ming Pao newspaper that "a top executive of the company called my colleagues and me into the conference room. The top executive held a copy of the pages with the 'problematic' passages highlighted in yellow; and then she read the 'problematic' sentences one by one. She said: 'These sentences are provocative content and any person who is dissatisfied with the decision can quit.'"
June 2:
Beijing has initiated a new round of patriotic education calling on young people to “integrate their patriotism with world sentiments.” The official Hong Kong-based Zhongguo Tongxun She (ZTS) reports that the "neo-patriotism" education initiative includes a national campaign to select “moral models,” the opening of a new batch of “national patriotic education bases,” and the dissemination of the "loving our motherland" propaganda campaign materials and lectures at schools. Patriotic education campaigns will be carried out from June through September in local exhibitions and presentations. TV and internet will also serve as carriers for statements on "neo-patriotism" that, ZTS writes, “contain the CCP's expectations and guidance on the people's patriotic concepts and actions.” This campaign is reminiscent of one held twenty years ago after the June 4th Tiananmen protests were put down.
June 6:
Pakistan has arrested and extradited 10 members of the pro-independence Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) to China, Pakistan’s The News reports. A Pakistani government spokesman in Islamabad, confirming the extradition, said the ETIM militants had been arrested after they attacked Pakistani security forces in the tribal areas. Ten of the over two-dozen Chinese Muslims arrested in Pakistan were handed over to Beijing after it was established that they belonged to the ETIM, an armed secessionist group with bases in Xingjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region in the northwest of China. The Chinese militants were extradited despite Amnesty International’s opposition. Amnesty staff warned Islamabad that the risks posed to ETIM members forcibly returned to Beijing were extremely grave.
[Editor’s Note: Pakistan’s extradition decision comes as the U.S., refusing China’s demand for extradition of Uighurs at Guantanmo Bay, Cuba convinced the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau to resettle up to 17 Uighurs and Bermuda to settle four others.]
June 10:
Amid repeated allegations of Chinese military incursions in Arunachal Pradesh India is boosting its military deployment along the 3,500 km long border. New Delhi is positioning two Army divisions (each comprising around 25,000 to 30,000 personnel), a squadron of 18 Sukhoi Su-30 MKI combat jets, and three Awacs aircraft at a key airbase in the northeast to monitor the movement of China’s troops and aircraft, Indian military officials disclosed. The deployment will be “completed in a phased manner in the next few years along with the development of roads and other infrastructure along the borders," former Indian Army chief Gen. J.J Singh told the Statesman. "Hitherto, the Indian defence establishment's focus had been on Pakistan but there is a growing realization that we cannot ignore China's growing military might and its ability to quickly move troops and equipment thanks to the railway line it has built up to Lhasa," a top military officer said. There are more plans to improve infrastructure in the region, including developing four or five airfields and advanced landing grounds.