August 4:
On August 3 an estimated 200,000 people protested outside the presidential office of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taipei, the BBC reports. They shouted for President Ma Ying-jeou and the military to tell the truth about the death of 24-year-old military corporal, Hung Chung-chiu, who died from internal bleeding and organ failure two days before his discharge on July 4. For bringing a cell phone to the military base, Hung’s superiors punished him with a week of confinement and then strenuous exercises in the sun. In response to the public outcry, ROC Defense Minister Kao Hua-chu resigned last month and investigations have indicted 18 officers, but only one for manslaughter and the others on lesser chargers. On August 4, protestors mobbed President Ma when he visited the Hung family to offer his respects, Formosa News reports. Many Taiwanese families have gone public about abuses their sons suffered during the ROC’s mandatory year of military service, which is scheduled to be phased out after 2015.
August 6:
Protests in Taiwan over Hung’s mistreatment and death have caused many mainland Chinese to ask online why such protests are allowed in Taiwan but not in China, the South China Morning Post reports. “If this sort of event occurred on the mainland, who would dare attend it? Even the petitioners themselves would get thrown into prison,” wrote one Sina Weibo user in response to the news. “Taiwan is a place where the people call the shots. National leaders there must make decisions that reflect the values of individuals in society, rather than simply corrupting and oppressing vulnerable groups. In Taiwan they’ve protected Chinese culture, human rights and freedom of speech,” wrote another user. “Why in the world would the Taiwanese people ever want to return to the motherland? The Chinese Dream is actually in Taiwan.”
The official People’s Daily has warned that “constitutionalism” and “democratic reform” are part of an American conspiracy to impose Western ideals on China. The front-page commentary said foundations affiliated with U.S. intelligence agencies aiming to overturn socialism fostered the spread of “constitutional-rule” in China. Since the beginning of the Cold War prominent American thinkers such as Arthur Schlesinger and George F. Kennan have seen “democratic socialism” as powerful ideological weapon against “totalitarianism.” “Democratic socialism” and “constitutionalism” were the two “weapons” that had contributed to the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union. The article said that U.S. government has used various foundations to promote constitutionalism in China such as the Ford Foundation’s Comparative Constitutionalism Project in the late 1980s.
An article in Study Times, a CPC Central Party School publication, has expressed a view in opposition to the People’s Daily editorial above. The appeal to the new leadership said “a government’s power should be restrained by a higher system of laws that protects citizens’ rights” and argued that China had reached a critical juncture and it was “imperative to proceed with political reform.” The Study Times said that hopes for "democratic reform" were high after the 18th party congress, but it was “imperative for leaders to introduce political reform to promote citizens' political rights and their participation in policymaking.”
[Editor’s Note: The two articles are an indication of the intensity of the debate between the communist party's left and right wings, the SCMP reports. “Certainly, the People’s Daily often reflects the view of the conservatives while the Study Times represent the liberals," said Deng Yuwen, former deputy editor of Study Times.]
August 7:
According to BP, in 2012 Turkmenistan was China’s largest supplier of gas, accounting for 51.4 percent of Chinese imports. Qatar, China's second largest gas supplier, accounted for only about a third of Turkmen volume. After extraction starts at the Galkynys gas deposit in southeast Turkmenistan, gas exports to China via a 1,833 km pipeline commissioned in 2009 and running through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will increase even more, the EurasiaNet website reports. To expand the bilateral energy relationship, a delegation headed by Wu Xinxiong, the director of China’s National Energy Administration, and deputy foreign minister Cheng Guoping are in Ashgabat for talks with Foreign Minister Rasit Meredow, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry website reports.