March 21:
China's Export-Import Bank has agreed to provide nearly $700 million in loans to Zimbabwe; the biggest loan package yet from Beijing to the mineral rich, yet desperately poor, southern African country. During a briefing with China’s Vice Premier Wang Qishan in Harare, Zimbabwe Vice President Joice Mujuru said the new Chinese loans would be used for agriculture, machinery, equipment, health and water systems. Zimbabwe has large mineral deposits, including the world's second largest platinum reserves, which China covets. Wang's visit comes at a time when there is tension in Harare over a drive by long-time despot Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF to nationalize mines. Under a new law, foreign-owned mines are required to sell majority shares to black Zimbabweans. Wang said China supports black ownership policies but urged the government not to tamper with China’s investments. “We hope Zimbabwe will protect the legitimate right of Chinese businesses in the country,” he said in comments carried by Reuters.
While leading a 15-member military delegation to Kathmandu, Chen Bingde, Chief of Army Staff of China's People Liberation Army (PLA) announced a $20 million technical assistance package for Nepal’s Army and signed a MoU outlining future PLA military assistance. Chen held talks with top-ranking Nepali officials including Chief of Army Staff, Chhatraman Singh Gurung, President Ram Baran Yadav, Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal and Defense Minister Bishnu Poudel. The cash will be spent on upgrading the army hospital at Chhauni and the purchase of military equipment. Last year, the PLA gave Nepal’s army 10 million yuan for communication and other equipment. Chen's visit is the highest-level military visit from China since then-minister of defense and vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, Chi Haotian, visited Kathmandu in 2001, Nepal’s Himalayan Times reports.
March 23:
Indonesia and China have signed a partnership for joint military arms production. The Jakarta Post reports that China's director of the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, Chen Quifa, and Indonesian deputy defense minister, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, inked an MoU between the two governments at the defense ministry in Jakarta. The MoU includes stipulations for joint military procurement, technological transfer of weapons and joint-development and marketing of certain military systems. “For example, if we [Indonesia] want to produce a certain type of weapon in Indonesia, China will have to transfer the technology for the production of that weapon,” said a spokesman at Indonesia’s defense ministry. Jakarta is most interested, he said, to procure more C-907 missiles for is Sukhoi fighter aircraft, a product the country already acquired from China in 2009 and 2010. Indonesia owns 10 Sukhoi jets and is planning to buy six more, but has yet to decide on whether or not to buy the JF-17 fighter jet, which is jointly produced by China and Pakistan.
March 26: (Apple daily March 28)
State-run CCTV has depicted video footage of a large crowd of people chanting 'Vive le France' and holding banners to welcome the allied forces' imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya as a public assembly in support of the Qaddafi regime. The move infuriated the Libyan opposition and many Chinese netizens rebuked CCTV for the mischaracterization. Three days earlier (March 23), in an editorial carried by the Beijing-controlled Wen Wei Po, Chinese Major General Wang Haiyun said: “This war lacks international legal basis and will inevitably arouse strong resistance from the people of Libya and the Arab world.” Wang claimed the “air attack operation has far exceeded the UN authorization” and called on the U.S. and Europe to stop what he called an “inhumane act of violence.”
March 30:
China, the U.S., and the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have agreed to work together to prevent the spread of terrorism and narcotics -- particularly heroin – flowing to Central Asia from Afghanistan. At a meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, SCO member states agreed on a five-year strategy and action plan to combat drug smuggling, the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency reports. The deputy head of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service, Oleg Safonov, said the accord “will make it possible to take specific measures to decrease demand for narcotics in our countries.” On the sidelines of the meeting, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake, said that on March 17-18 he led a delegation to Beijing to voice Washington’s strong support for the initiative and willingness to cooperate with China and other SCO member countries. Blake said at the meetings he and his Chinese interlocutors discussed their shared interest in preventing Afghanistan- and Pakistan-based terrorist movements from operating in China, countering drug trafficking and developing the region’s energy sector.