April 26:
China’s Eximbank has granted Uzbekistan a $350 million loan for a 19 kilometer railway tunnel. The twenty-year loan includes a five-year grace period at an annual interest rate of 2.25 percent. Vesti.uz reports the tunnel, which will be built by the Chinese China Railway Tunnel Group Co. Ltd, is part of the $481.7 million Angren-Pop railway line and will connect central Uzbekistan to the restive Ferghana Valley, where Islamist militants are known to operate.
May 2:
China has loaned Kyrgyzstan $400 million to cover the first phase of the construction of a 433 kilometer road which will cost a total of $850 million. China Road and Bridge Corporation was chosen to build the project, Interfax reports. President Almazbek Atambayev thanked China for its support and promised that “the credit is provided on preferential terms and it will not burden the country’s budget.” Atambayev said he hoped “a railway line will also be constructed along the same route soon.”
Kim Chun-il, a division chief at North Korea’s Rason free trade zone’s foreign business bureau, has denied reports that China has invested $3 billion and leased two piers at the port. Kim said that Russia leased Pier 3 and that North Korea plans to modernize the two other piers on its own, Yonhap reports. China’s decision not to lease the two piers, which it once appeared committed to, could be due to the surprise execution of the North Korean leader’s uncle, Jang Song-thaek. Among the accusations announced by North Korea’s state media at the time of the execution: “Jang had no scruples about committing such act of treachery as selling off the land of the Rason economic and trade zone to a foreign country for a period of five decades under the pretext of paying those debts.” Although it is unclear if the “foreign country” is China, Rason economic zone was supposed to be jointly developed with China.
May 4:
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has developed contingency plans in case of regime collapse in North Korea, Kyodo reports. The internal PLA documents call for boosting China’s border surveillance. Among the scenarios reviewed in the documents, which were compiled last summer after North Korea’s third nuclear test, is a foreign attack on North Korea leading to its collapse and an outflow of refugees and military personnel into China. In that case, plans call for deployments to the border to block entry to the dangerous or undesirable, and counter any “oppositional forces.” To cope with the refugees, 1,500-person camps would be set up along the border. Important North Korean political or military figures would be given “protection” -- that is, placed in special camps to prevent them from influencing military operations or doing anything contrary to China’s interests. Another scenario involves a “military power,” presumably the U.S., crossing the China-North Korea border on the pretext of counter terrorism. Additional policy options include closing the border altogether and carrying out cyber attacks. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson said the report was “groundless and with an ulterior motive,” Yonhapreports.
May 5:
A Guangdong man, surnamed Li, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for passing along 13 “highly classified” documents, the second-most-strict level of secrecy in China, and 10 classified documents, the third-most-strict level, the official People’s Daily reports. In May 2011, a “woman cyber friend” named “Fei Ge” began “showing care and considerations for his daily life” via the online messaging service QQ and slowly baited him over time. At Fei Ge’s behest, and for a meager 3,000 yuan per month, Li subscribed to domestic Chinese military journals and forwarded them outside the country. Li also took photographs of military installations “and observed important military bases in China at fixed times and fixed locations for a long time,” the official China Daily reports. “A large amount of information about developments and conditions of military bases and pictures of military equipment went abroad, constituting a serious threat to the nation’s military security.” Since 2007, Fei Ge used “online bookstores,” “military fan clubs" and other websites to recruit 12 spies in Guangdong, for a total of 40 in more than 20 provinces and municipalities nationwide.
May 7:
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel has made remarks in Hong Kong calling for political reform and universal suffrage in the chief executive election there. In response, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said demanded the United States stop “issuing orders regarding the political reform of Hong Kong or doing anything to damage its prosperity and stability,” the official China Dailyreports.