China Reform Monitor: No. 1039

Authorities in Pakistan-administered Kashmir have cleared a Chinese man accused of blasphemy for desecrating a Quran. On May 17, Li Ping, the manager of a Chinese consortium building a major hydropower project, was accused of throwing the Quran to the ground while moving the belongings of a Pakistani doctor that had refused to vacate his room. In response, hundreds of workers stormed his company offices near Muzaffarabad prompting police to take Li into protective custody. Cabinet minister Matloob Inqalabi told Pakistan’s the Dawn that police had cleared Li of Quran desecration charges and will prosecute 35 people involved in the violence.

June 2:

The Financial Times reports China’s navy has started operating within the U.S.’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) near Guam, a revelation confirmed by Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific. Locklear said the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) had started “reciprocating” the U.S. navy’s habit of sending ships and aircraft into the EEZ off China’s coast. “They are, and we encourage their ability to do that,” Locklear said about the PLA’s forays into the U.S.’ EEZ. “We are considering this as a practice, we have tried it out, but we don’t have the capacity to do this all the time like the U.S. does,” a PLA source told the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Zhao Yadan, at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said the decision indicated, “Beijing is moving towards international norms, which emphasize the right of free navigation on the high seas.”

[Editor’s Note: Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea each country has the exclusive right to the economic resources inside a 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off its coast. The U.S., like most countries, interprets the law as allowing military vessels free passage through EEZs, but China and 26 other countries disagree and has objected to U.S. surveillance missions in its EEZ.]

June 4:

To mark the 24th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown President of the Republic of China (ROC-Taiwan) Ma Ying-jeou has called on Chinese leaders in Beijing “to seize the current window of opportunity and create a new era for human rights [and] broaden their minds to tolerate dissidents.” When asked why he commemorates the June 4th crackdown each year Ma replied: “Because the June 4th Incident, like Taiwan’s 228 Incident, is a tragedy resulting from the government’s improper handling of a popular protest. Both the 228 Incident and the June 4th Incident are like mirrors, reminding the leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to engage in soul searching and learn lessons.” The 228 Incident refers to the authoritarian Kuomintang regime’s brutal crackdown of a popular uprising on February 28, 1947, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reports.

June 5:

Despite Beijing’s efforts to restrict illicit North Korean money transfers Pyongyang continues to launder millions of dollars through the Kwangson Banking Group branches in Zhuhai, Guandong and Dandong, Liaoning. The JoongAng Daily reports that officials working for Kwangson, an affiliate of North Korea’s state-run Foreign Trade Bank, the country’s primary foreign exchange bank, entered Zhuhai in late March with $2 million, which they provided to local a “private loan shark” for a 15 percent commission. Kwangson’s Zhuhai branch launders about $3 billion a year, about the same as the Dandong branch, which was founded in 2002. In 2005, after Banco Delta Asia in Macau was shuttered for its DPRK dealings North Korean laundering was temporarily paralyzed, forcing Kwangson to move from Macau to Zhuhai. “It is urgent to stop illicit North Korean activities in China. It is impossible to impose effective sanctions against North Korea without the full help of the Chinese government,” a South Korean government official said.

A public opinion poll by the University of Hong Kong’s Public Opinion Program has found Hong Kong residents’ negative feelings towards Beijing and mainlanders have increased drastically since November. Of those polled 37 percent said they had negative feelings towards China’s government, 12 points higher than the last November’s poll. The rate of Hong Kong people having negative feelings towards mainlanders also rose, from 26 to 36 percent over the same period. Both findings are historical highs since 2006. People with positive feelings towards mainlanders also fell to the lowest level, just 21 percent. In 2008, the number was 41 percent, but it has dropped continuously in subsequent years. A fifth of Hongkongers reported positive feelings towards mainlanders, down by half since 2008. The survey, which took place in May included about 1000 Hong Kong residents, the SCMP reports.