September 2:
China is playing a double game with Iran, simultaneously boosting oil purchases to record levels while putting the brakes on new oil and gas investments. The volume of China’s imports of Iranian crude rose about 50 percent in the first seven months of 2011 over 2010 levels to nearly 560,000 barrels per day. China’s purchases represent about a quarter of Iran’s crude exports, worth some $20 billion a year. This year Sinopec inked a new import deal for 90,000 barrels per day of super light crude oil, boosting China's Iranian oil purchases to record levels. Meanwhile, however, Reuters reports that China is slowing new energy investments in Iran in an effort to ease tension with the Obama administration and cut the risk of Chinese oil firms being hit by U.S. sanctions. U.S. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “all have stressed the need for continued Chinese restraint in investing in Iran's energy sector,” said a White House spokesperson. In response, in late 2010, China’s government told China National Offshore Oil Corp. to stop work on Iran’s North Pars gas venture and China’s Sinopec Group has also delayed the start date of the $2 billion Yadavaran oil development project.
Nigeria’s Ambassador to China, Aminu Wali, says 400 Nigerians are languishing in Chinese jails and that one of them was executed by lethal injection last month. Wali told a group of Nigerian journalists in Beijing that most of the convicts were tried for hard drug-related offenses. Thanks to the intervention of the embassy, one Nigerian had his death sentence suspended and may have it commuted to life imprisonment. The ambassador said he was personally visiting Nigerian convicts in Chinese prisons and giving money to ensure their needs were provided for, Nigeria’s Daily Trust reports.
September 5:
Two professors at Baltic State Technical University in St. Petersburg are on trial, accused of passing state secrets to the Chinese special services. Russia’s Federal Security Service has charged professors Ye.V. Afanasyev and S.V. Bobyshev with “treason and divulging state secrets.” According to a statement from the agency: “Investigators have established that in May-June 2009 Afanasyev and Bobyshev went to China on a work-related visit taking with them classified information which they gave to representatives of Chinese military intelligence for a sum of money.” The two men were arrested in March 2010 and have been held in custody since then, Interfax news agency reports. Russia’s Committee for the Protection of Academics described them as “victims of spy mania.”
September 6:
To “fend off corruption,” China’s Central Military Commission has issued an internal circular calling for a strengthening of the People’s Liberation Army’s auditing practices. Audit results will be factored in when evaluating military leaders and regiments performance. The circular also ordered army units to “improve their internal management and clean governance,” and it highlighted the leadership of the CPC over the army. Army auditing, the official People’s Daily reports, should be “an important tool to exercise supervision over the army and is crucial to ensure the absolute leadership of the CPC over the Army.”
September 8:
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) is deploying a new missile system capable of hitting airports and harbors along China’s southeastern coast. Production of the “Wan Chien” or “Ten Thousand Swords” missile system will be installed on upgraded Ching-kuo Indigenous Defense Fighters produced between 2014 and 2018. The ministry will begin testing integration between the upgraded fighters and the new missile system late this year. If all goes smoothly mass production of the missile system will start in 2014. Taiwan’s military already took delivery of the upgraded Indigenous Defense Fighter jets from state-run Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. earlier this year, prompting it to advance production of the new missile system. Each missile carries more than 100 warheads capable of blowing dozens of small craters in airport runways and making them impossible to use, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reports.