April 15:
A fleet of 10 People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy vessels, including two submarines, sailed in international waters between Japan’s Okinawa Island and Miyakojima island. A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Defense stressed that “organizing normal training activities in international waters is in line with the international laws and is a common practice of the various countries in the world.” The official Zhongguo Xinwen She reports that “relevant parties should not make improper speculations” about this PLA deployment.
According to Japan’s Self-Defense Forces' Joint Staff Office, five PLA naval ships, including frigates, took part in the three days of exercises in the East China Sea last week. In one incident a PLA carrier-based helicopter came within about 90 meters of two Japanese destroyers. Tokyo believes the goal of the exercises may have been espionage since a PLA helicopter was seen filming Japanese vessels. PLA naval forces are expanding their training area with the likely aim of preventing a U.S. or Japanese intervention if a conflict arose in the Taiwan Strait, Yomiuri Shimbun reports.
April 16:
Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou has said that the time is right to sign a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China and that his government will do what it can to prevent disadvantaged industries from being affected by the pact. Taiwan's machinery exports to China face strong competition from South Korea now and Taiwan’s firms fear even stiffer competition if China signs a free trade agreement with South Korea that lowers tariffs, Taiwan’s state owned Central News Agency reports.
April 17:
Hundreds of Chinese internet users staged a protest in front of the People's court in Fuzhou, Fujian Province against the 1-2 year court sentence handed down for three internet activists, Fan Yanqiong, You Jingyou and Wu Huaying. The three were charged with posting online news about a girl being gang raped and murdered. The girl's mother accused the police of unfair investigation of the case, Ming Pao reports.
[Editor’s Note: Ironically, it is precisely this type of online organization and activism that China seeks to prevent through heavy handed internet censorship.]
April 18:
The South China Morning Post has published an expose on official corruption in China revealing that eight senior provincial officials have committed suicide so far this year. Several suspicious suicides have occurred in official custody. Perhaps the most suspicious came on March 26, when Wei Jingling, the director of education in Zhaotong, Yunnan, died on her third day of police interrogation. Officials claim she went into an adjoining room and stabbed herself with a fruit knife. Most recently, on April 8, Zhang Guosheng, the mayor of Putian, Fujian reportedly threw himself off a five story building. Without a court judgment, cases against dead officials are ruled unproven allegations, the case is closed, and the dead officials’ beneficiaries get away with the proceeds. Investigators may give officials the means to take their own lives, often a knife or a rope. Shao Daosheng, a professor at the China Academy of Social Sciences said: “This law is against the popular will, against legal reason and against the regulations of the fight against corruption.”
The Wall St. Journal reports China will provide $20 billion in "soft loans" to Venezuela for highway-building and energy sector projects. In return for the money, which will be provided by state-owned China Development Bank, Venezuela will continue to send oil to China. Venezuela, which has already received some $8 billion from China, and has been paying it back with oil, indicated last month that it wanted to expand the credit-for-oil program. So far Chinese funds have built Venezuela’s communication satellites, railroads, schools, homes and paid for over a dozen military aircraft this year. In exchange, Venezuela says it sends 460,000 barrels a day (bpd) of crude oil to China. A joint-venture deal was also signed between Venezuela state run Petroleos de Venezuela (60%) and the China National Petroleum Corp (40%) to drill for oil in Venezuela's Orinoco region and is expected to produce 400,000 bpd. Developing the block could cost $16 billion.
