October 31:
China’s embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal has officially denied a report in the Times of India accusing China CAMC Engineering Co. Ltd. of “bribing the Nepalese leadership in order to get construction contracts.” Nepal’s newspaper Kantipurreports that China has expressed serious concern and has conveyed to Nepal that “such baseless propaganda should not impact on the cordial relations existing between the two countries.” Specifically, the Times reported that the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) chairman, finance minister, and prime minister’s wife were paid kickbacks to allow the Chinese firm to win the contract to build Pokhara Regional International Airport at an inflated cost. An MoU for construction of the airport was signed between Kathmandu and CAMC in September 2011. But the government auditors red-flagged the $305 million deal since the government had only budgeted $180 million.
November 4:
China’s Ministry of Land and Resources has announced the discovery of the country’s largest sandstone-type uranium deposit in Daying, Inner Mongolia, but did not elaborate on the mine’s size. The discovery of one of the world’s largest uranium deposits will help China ensure supplies to support its ambitious plans to develop nuclear power. The site was found along with a “super-size” coalmine estimated at 51 billion metric tons, the official China Daily reports.
November 5:
Over the last five years China has captured more than 500 fugitives, including 76 government officials, who were on the run and accused of corruption and other job-related crimes. Fugitives have been returned to China from the U.S., Canada, and South Korea as a result of “extradition, repatriation or persuasion,” the official People’s Daily reports. For instance, Gao Shan, former director of a Bank of China branch in Harbin, Heilongjiang, was returned from Canada, and in 2009 Xu Chaofan and Xu Guojun, both former directors at a Bank of China branch in Guangdong, were tried in the U.S. and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Since 2008, as authorities tightened supervision over financial transfers to family members abroad and on officials’ foreign travel they uncovered 184 officials attempting to fraudulently obtain a passport.
November 6:
Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, has urged China to address deep-rooted frustrations with human rights in Tibet. In response, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson slammed the accusations and accused Pillay of “interfering in Chinese domestic affairs,” the official People’s Daily reports. He said: “people in Tibet are enjoying economic growth, social stability and a settled life. Their religious, political, economic and cultural rights are guaranteed. They are satisfied with the current situation.” He blamed “the Dalai Lama clique” for dozens of self-immolations among Tibetans and “stressed that China opposes any foreign government, organization or people interfering in its internal affairs.”
November 9:
On the day the 18th Communist Party congress opened about 6,000 Tibetans rallied in Tongren, Qinghai to protest a string of as least five self-immolations over the last 48 hours. They marched to a government building chanting slogans demanding freedom for Tibetans and the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet. The crowd then rallied near the Rongwo monastery where local Tibetans have amassed to show solidarity with a young monk who died of self immolation there this week. Two other teenage monks, ages 15 and 16, from a monastery on the outskirts of Aba, Sichuan, where the self-immolations began, also set themselves ablaze outside the town’s Public Security Bureau, chanting “freedom for Tibet” and calling for the Dalai Lama’s return. The LA Times reports that the protests were carried out in response to the heavy troop presence and other stifling security measures, intimidating footage on television and harsh sentences for involvement in a protest or disclosure about demonstrations to outsiders.