September 17:
China's Ministry of Finance (MoF) of has awarded RMB 1.27 billion ($185.94 million) in subsidies to support the building of high-tech solar energy panels. MoF will provide RMB 20 ($2.92) per watt to buildings that use solar panels with a total installed capacity of more than 50 kilowatts. Government subsidies will make solar projects financially viable and stimulate solar cells sales; additional subsidies will be announced in the coming months, Russia’s Interfax News Agency reports.
September 23:
At the China-Russia-Central Asia Oil and Gas Forum, Liu Xiaoli, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission’s Energy Research Institute, has announced that China is working to diversify its natural gas imports and move its pricing mechanism to market levels. Currently, China's natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports come from Central Asia, Russia, and Burma. China has rapidly constructed natural gas pipelines from Kazakhstan, Russia, and Burma, and its domestic pipeline system is nearing completion. By 2020, China's natural gas demand will reach approximately 240 billion cubic meters, triple its 2008 figure, the official Xinhua News Agency reports.
September 24:
The annual China-India ‘Hand-in-Hand’ military exercises will not be held this year because Beijing cannot spare the troops and New Delhi thought it too costly to fly and house its troops in Yunan. The joint training, the biggest confidence-building measure between the two countries, began in 2007 when 118 Indian soldiers landed in Kunming, for an eight-day drill. It was followed-up in 2008 when 130 Chinese soldiers traveled to India for war games. Both armies had agreed that the exercise – called a "joint training operation" – would be held every year. But after just two episodes, it appears to have floundered, the Indian Express reports. Indian warships made port calls in Qingdao and a Chinese Navy warship visited Kochi in August. But a joint exercise of the two air forces, proposed in 2006, has also not taken off, India’s Telegraph report.
September 25:
The Indian Air Force is building series of radars in the mountains along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to strengthening its air defense in Ladakh against China’s People’s Liberation Army. (PLA). Indian Air Force (IAF) Air Marshal N.A.K. Browne told the Press Trust of India that over the next four to five years radars would gradually be expanded to cover 667-km of the LAC with China. He said the IAF would base two Su-30MKI squadrons in Punjab (India's northern state) by 2011 as well as two units of medium and light helicopters. The comments come on the heals of IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik recent remarks that India's air force fleet was just one-third the size of the PLA airforce.
September 26:
The official Global Times and Reuters reports that Burma’s government has ordered all Chinese citizens to leave the disputed Kokang border region. The Burmese authorities claim more than 10,000 Chinese citizens have been living in Burmese territory illegally without proper authorization. An official of the United Wa State Army adjacent to Kokang confirmed the report and told the Democratic Voice of Burma that three SPDC divisions including 22 regiments were still stationed near the territory. In response China’s Foreign Ministry has urged Myanmar to “take effective measures to safeguard the lawful rights of Chinese citizens in Myanmar,” the official China Military Online reports.
[Editor’s Note: On October 1 China’s foreign ministry denied all reports of unrest along the border. “The current situation in the China-Myanmar [Burma] border are stable and in order. The exchanges between the two peoples are also normal,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said in comments carried by the Democratic Voice of Burma.]