March 20:
Authorities in Tibet will form a monastery management agency and “establish a file for each Tibetan Buddhist monk and nun with detailed personal and family information,” said Xinza Danzeng Quzha, Vice chairman of the Tibet’s Regional People’s Congress. Cadres posted at monasteries will contact monks’ and nuns’ families and “jointly educate and guide them in loving the country and in observing discipline and law,” the official Xinhua news agency reports. “Each monastery-based cadre should make friends with at least one monk or nun and visit his or her family to spread the warmth of the party,” Xinza Danzeng Quzha said. Padma Choling, chairman of the Tibetan regional government, said more than 21,000 cadres are now stationed in monasteries in 5,451 villages, The South China Morning Post reports.
March 26:
The State Council Taiwan Affairs Office will consider regularized security talks to “stabilize the situation across the Taiwan Strait,” the official China Radio International reports. The comments came in response to calls for a “mutual trust mechanism” at a Taipei Forum Foundation (TFF) conference on opportunities for cross-Strait relations. Taiwan’s China Post reports that the “mechanism” would facilitate academic exchanges, cooperation in non-traditional military areas, such as marine rescue and anti-piracy, and could include a military “hotline” between Taipei and Beijing. At the Taipei conference Su Chi, TFF Chairman and a former Secretary General of the National Security Council, said the next two years are “a window of strategic opportunity for cross-Strait relations,” the Kuomindang Party’s official website reports.
March 27:
China has launched a national campaign to raise public awareness of the country’s territorial claims and safeguard its sovereignty in disputed areas, the South China Morning Post reports. The party’s propaganda department and a dozen ministries including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Civil Affairs, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television will participate. A steering group set up to determine the campaign’s priorities will publish a new map of the South China Sea to strengthen Beijing’s claim on the disputed region. “Propaganda and education on national boundaries promotes patriotism and safeguards China’s dignity and integrity,” according to a statement on the website of the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation.
March 28:
On May 31 and June 1 representatives from several U.S. high-tech companies and their potential Chinese customers will meet in Shanghai. Participants from China’s Ministry of Commerce, the American Chamber of Commerce, General Electric, Boeing, Applied Materials, and Dow Chemical will attend. Earlier this month U.S. ambassador to China Gary Locke called for “major reform and simplification that will enable more high-tech goods to be exported to China,” the Wall Street Journal reports. In January 2011 China submitted a shopping list of 141 high-technology items that U.S. officials claimed was vague, but also included 46 items that are not currently limited. Embargoed items include aircraft engines, avionics, propulsion and inertial-navigation systems, lasers, depleted uranium, underwater cameras, certain composite materials, and space or air defense telecommunications equipment.
March 30:
Between January and March China’s military and the military’s websites received over 240,000 cyber attacks from overseas hackers, but did not single out any particular country for blame. Beijing denied that its military supports cyber attack against other countries, calling accusations against China “unprofessional and irresponsible,” the official People’s Daily reports.
[Editor’s Note: A recent report, issued by Northrop Grumman for the Congressionally-mandated U.S. - China Economic and Security Review Commission, alleged Beijing is supporting cyber attacks against the U.S. military and its contractors.]