December 6:
China will launch Turkmenistan’s first communications satellite in 2014. China’s Great Wall Industry Corp. has signed a contract with France’s Thales Alenia Space to use its Spacebus 4000C2 platform for the launch. The satellite, which will carry a transponder, weigh about 4.5 tons, and have a life span of 15 years, will be shot into orbit atop China’s Long March 3B carrier rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan. Great Wall is the only Chinese company authorized to provide commercial satellite launch services, export whole satellites, or conduct international space technology cooperation operations. Since its first successful launch in 1990, Great Wall has launched 38 commercial satellites, the official People’s Daily reports.
December 11:
Police have helped a Hitachi-affiliated factory in Shenzhen, Guangdong break a week-long strike and move products out of its warehouse. More than 300 workers had staged a sit-in over wages and job security and prevented goods leaving the warehouse before riot police marched in at dawn to evict them. When about 20 workers refused to leave, police assaulted them with batons and took them into custody, the South China Morning Post reports. They were later released without charge. After the raid, angry workers surrounded about 30 police and accused them of beating a worker who was five months pregnant and sending her to the hospital. Workers have vowed to continue the strike. This incident is one in a litany of industrial and land disputes in Guangdong province this year. China suffers an estimated 180,000 “mass incidents” per year.
December 12:
China will build a naval facility in the small island nation of Seychelles to “seek supplies and recuperate” its naval forces on long voyages, China’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement on its website. The decision to establish a naval presence was taken during defense minister Liang Guanglie’s visit earlier this month when Seychelles’ foreign affairs minister “invited the Chinese government to set up a military presence [to] fight the pirate attacks that the Seychelles face on a regular basis,” the Press Trust of India reports. The official China Daily reports that China will not send troops to protect the supply stop so it does not equate to establishing a military base.
[Editor’s Note: Since anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden began in 2008, China’s navy has sent ten missions, over 8,000 officers and soldiers, and escorted more than 4,300 vessels. Chinese naval forces currently resupply in Djibouti, Oman, Yemen and Pakistan.]
A Chinese boat captain has stabbed one South Korean Coast Guard officer to death and severely injured another after his boat was seized for fishing illegally in South Korean waters. As Korean commandos scuffled with the Chinese crew to gain control of the 66-ton vessel near the maritime border with North Korea in the Yellow Sea, the Chinese captain broke a window and stabbed the Korean officer repeatedly with a piece of broken glass. A second officer is being treated for injuries sustained during the fight, Yonhap news agency reports. South Korea has seized the ship and nine Chinese sailors including the captain. Shortly after the incident Seoul “demanded that the Chinese government strictly clamp down on illegal fishing and the illegal acts of Chinese fishermen.” The growing number of Chinese ships fishing in Korean waters has prompted increased South Korean patrols. In 2008 a Chinese fishermen killed a Korean officer during a similar raid.
December 13:
Britain’s The Telegraph reports that the Communist Party of China has “lost all control” of Wukan, Guangdong, a small fishing village of 20,000 residents. Wukan’s party officials fled last week after thousands stormed their offices and blocked police wielding tear gas and water cannons from retaking the village. Police have retreated to a roadblock three miles away, grounded Wukan’s fishing fleet, blocked food and water from entering, and residents from leaving. Friendly neighbors carrying food across the fields on shoulder poles are now supplying the village. The original source of discontent was officials’ appropriation of farmland, but the crisis escalated when five chosen village representatives were seized and one died in police custody. Officials claim he died from a heart attack but his family – citing a litany of injuries – claim he was murdered.