October 6:
Tu Youyou, an 85-year-old Chinese medical researcher has won the Nobel Prize for medicine for her discoveries on malaria treatments, reports the South China Morning Post (SCMP). In the late 1960s, Tu began researching traditional herbal medicine to fight the disease. She was the first to show that a component extracted from the artemisia annua plant, later called artemisinin, was highly effective.
[Editor’s Note: There is disagreement about who discovered artemisinin. In her 2009 book, Tu claimed she was the inventor, but others claim her treatment was unsuccessful and that Li Guoqiao, from Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, proved the drug’s effectiveness.]
October 9:
After facing months of declining sales, last week's "golden week" holiday brought no relief to Hong Kong’s struggling retailers – a further sign of weakness in the Chinese economy. Arrivals rose 1.5 percent year-on-year to 1.33 million with about 75 percent, or 1.1 million, coming from China, 2.3 percent more than last year, reports SCMP. The figures represent the lowest increase since a small decline in visitor numbers in 2006. Retail sales were flat and on average visitors spent less. One sales director at jeweler Chow Sang Sang said: "We made 15 percent less money this year."
October 12:
Drug abuse among North Koreans along the China border has become “uncontrollable,” The Daily NK reports. Crystal methamphetamine is being produced in Hamhung, South Hamgyong and Sunchon, South Pyongan, and smuggled into China by families that transport it across the border. After morning meetings customs officials with the State Security Department in North Hamgyong head to drug houses, forcing legitimate traders wanting to go through customs to waste hours tracking them down. Widespread availability has expanded abuse among residents and traders. A gram of the drug costs 100 yuan ($15.75), or 130,000 North Korean won – an increase of 15% over the last three months. In big cities, people give meth as a gift, typically one gram for a birthday or wedding.
October 15:
Natsuo Yamaguchi, the leader of the Komeito party – the junior partner in Japan's ruling coalition – passed Chinese President Xi Jinping a letter from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and invited him to Tokyo. After meeting with Xi, Yamaguchi said: "I told him that we would very much like the president to see Tokyo's cherry blossoms," while President Xi “smiled brilliantly and nodded,” reports the Japan Times. Xi’s last visit to Japan was in 2009 before he became president. On October 14 State Councillor Yang Jiechi met Prime Minister Abe in Tokyo. He said Abe looks forward to talks with Xi during a G-20 summit in Turkey next month. In late October or early November, Japan, China and South Korea are scheduled to host their first trilateral summit since 2012.
According to an editorial in the official Global Times: “The main reason why Washington cannot stop China from expanding islands in the South China Sea is that the U.S. accepts that China's expansion of islands complies with international law. For the U.S. military to disregard the legitimacy of China's expanding the islands, and adopt a radical provocative act against China, is a breach of China's sovereignty. China will resolutely not stand by idly. China has so far been restrained over the Pentagon's provocation, but the People's Liberation Army will surely stand up if the U.S. military intrudes into China's core interests. If the U.S. is determined to prove that it can maintain its military superiority close to China such attempts will not only test the U.S. military's hardware capability around China, but also test how determined and willing the U.S. is to call the shots at China's door-steps at all costs.”