January 13:
Over 100 parents of children with lead poisoning in Gaohe, Anhui took to the street and protested outside the county government offices demanding proper treatment and a thorough investigation of local battery factories. In Gaohe, 228 out of 307 children have been found to have excessive concentrations of lead in their blood, ranging from 100 to 400mg/l, for which the most have received “400 yuan, two bottles of milk powder and some fruit” in compensation, the South China Morning Post reports. Several parents plan to send their children to Beijing and Shanghai for more blood tests because the local authorities have banned unofficial check-ups in Anhui. Both central government and provincial health authorities are backing local authorities that insist that lead levels in the blood samples of children have already fallen back to a safe range and that they can return home.
Iran’s Mardom-Salari newspaper has published an editorial strongly criticizing China’s trade policies and their impact on Iran’s economy. It said: “China does not want to reduce the role of exports in the growth of its economy on the pretext that increasing the value of Yuan would lead to unemployment, a political tremor and public unrest. Along with this action, the Chinese regard economic espionage as a way of dealing with some competitors. A decade ago, only toys and a handful of other products were made in China, today most Iranian consumer goods are made there. The market for Chinese products has gotten so hot that it is burning Iranian producers. Go into any warehouse and Chinese goods are seen there. There is no industry in Iran that is not confronted with the Chinese monster with cheap prices. The ceramics industry is a new victim of Chinese goods and in the not-so-distant future it will also give its furnaces to the Chinese so the list of Chinese goods that have conquered Iran's markets becomes longer and longer.”
January 17:
An unknown number of soldiers from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been stationed in the North Korea’s Rajin-Sonbong special economic zone ostensibly to guard China’s investments and citizens in port facilities, South Korea’s Choson Ilbo reports. On or around December 15th about 50 PLA armored vehicles and tanks crossed the Tumen River from Sanhe, Jilin into Hoeryong, North Korea. A Chinese mission has been stationed in Rajin-Sonbong since December when Beijing and Pyongyang signed an investment pact and an agreement to build three more piers at the port, a highway and a railroad to Quanhe, Jilin. Starting in April, China will supply electricity to the recently-renovated Rajin-Sonbong Port, which it uses to transport natural resources from its northeastern region to the south. China first used the port on December 7th, when it transported 20,000 tons of coal from a mine in Hunchun, Jilin Province to Shanghai. Upon hearing of the PLA deployment, Nam Joo-hong, South Korea’s ambassador for international security, reportedly remarked: “With its military presence in Rajin-Sonbong, there is a likelihood that China could intervene in Korean affairs by sending a large number of troops into the North under the pretext of protecting its residents there in an emergency.”
January 18:
Courts in Xinjiang have already tried 376 cases of “crimes against national security” in connection with an attack on military police last August that left six dead and 15 wounded in Aksu, the People's Daily website said, citing a court official. The attack led to the latest round of crackdowns on what Beijing calls the “three forces” of religious extremism, ethnic separatism and international terrorism. “The people's courts at all levels in Xinjiang will make the crackdown on terrorism their top priority,” Xinjiang Higher People's Court president Rozi Simayi was quoted as saying in comments carried by Reuters and the Taipei Times.
January 19:
Taiwan’s military has concluded its largest live-fire air defense exercise in several years, including a full review of military tactics, strategies and air counterattacks at the Jiupeng air base in Pingtung. The drill included 12 units from Taiwan’s Army, Marines and Air Force. Taiwan test-fired $10.3 million worth of missiles, 19 in all, including the Tien-kung, Hawk, Sparrow, Stinger, and vehicle-launched Tien-chien I short-range and air-to-air missiles. Unfortunately for Taipei, six of the missiles missed their targets leaving President Ma Ying-jeou “unsatisfied” and demanding an immediate review, Taiwan’s China Post reports. Among those missiles that failed were the French-made short and medium-range, anti-air and multi-target MICA (Missile d'interception et de combat aerien or Interception and Aerial Combat Missile) launched from a Mirage 2000 fighter, a Taiwan-made short-range missile and the air-to-air Tien-chien II missile fired from Taiwan’s Indigenous Defense Fighter. One U.S.-made AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile dropped to the sea six seconds after launch and another overshot the mark.