June 18:
Excessive amounts of mercury have been found in the baby formula of the Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co. Mercury, a toxic metallic element, was detected in several batches of formula prompting the company to issue a recall, the official China Daily reports. The excessive mercury could have been caused by the environment, water or animal feeds. The incident is the latest in a series of tainted milk and food scandals to have hit China since 2008.
June 19
China’s Foreign Ministry has objected to a joint Japan-South Korea- U.S. naval military drill to be held in waters off South Korea’s southern coast near Jeju Island. The drill will involve search and rescue training and maritime interdiction operations, the official China Radio International reports. By contrast, Beijing has not objected to a joint India-Russia army-to-army exercise, codenamed INDRA 2012, to be held near the Russia-China border in August. This is the fourth round of INDRA military training involving more than 250 troops from both sides. The exercises, part of a spectrum of India-Russia defense cooperation that includes military exchanges and naval exercises, are aimed at increasing the inter-operability and relations between the two militaries, the Press Trust of India reports.
June 20
A day after Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported that Igor Reshetin, former head of the Tsniimash-eksport Company, was released on parole, St. Petersburg’s city court found two professors from Voyenmekh Baltic State Technical University guilty of spying for China. In 2007 Reshetin was convicted and sentenced to 11.5 years in prison for transferring dual-use technologies to China. Defense News agency reports that Yevgeniy Afanasyev and Svyatoslav Bobyshev were convicted of high treason and espionage and each was sentenced to at least 12 years. In May-June 2009 the two scientists visited China carrying state secret information on Bulava, Russia’s latest submarine-launched ballistic missile, and passed it to Chinese military intelligence for money. In May, a worker from a Russian weapons plant in the Urals was also sentenced to eight years for passing information on the Bulava project to foreign intelligence.
June 21:
Celestine Elebechi, a 28-year-old Nigerian man, has died in the custody of Guangzhou police after they beat him for failing to present his passport, the South China Morning Post reports. During an altercation with a local electric bicycle taxi driver Elebechi was “attacked in a mob action.” In response, hundreds of angry Africans protested over Elebechi's death outside the Kuangquan police station demanding the release of his body. Guangzhou police said Elebechi and the driver were taken to the police station where “the foreigner suddenly lost consciousness,” adding that he died despite medial treatment. “We will get to the root of the matter,” a Nigeria embassy spokesman said. Nigeria’s embassy has sent two consular officers to Guangzhou to urge restraint while assisting with official investigations.
June 22:
China will establish a new prefecture-level city named Sansha to administer three disputed island chains in the South China Sea. Sansha will be established on Woody Island (aka Yongxing Island), part of the Paracels, to manage the Spratly, Paracel, and Mel and Macclesfield Bank island chains and their surrounding waters. The new city will help improve “administrative management” on the three islands, coordinate Beijing’s policies toward them, and facilitate China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, which are now conducted by several government bodies. Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun summoned Vietnam’s ambassador to China to protest Hanoi’s new law governing the Paracel and Spratly island chains calling it a “serious violation” that demanded an “immediate correction,” the South China Morning Post reports.