October 16:
Provincial-level officials held talks on the sidelines of the China-Russia Expo and Days of Khabarovsk Territory exhibition in Harbin, Heilongjiang on October 12-17, Vesti Khabarovsk reports. On October 16, Heilongjiang party secretary Wang Xiankui and governor Lu Hao met with a Russian delegation led by Khabarovsk governor Vyacheslav Shport. Khabarovsk, which sent 212 officials and businessmen to the events, is eager to promote cooperation with Heilongjiang in health care, education, culture and tourism. The talks covered the implementation of joint projects, specifically the development of Bolshoy Ussuriyskiy (Heixiazi in Chinese) Island and a new border checkpoint there, Guberniya TV reports. Shport "talked at length" about "unprecedented measures of state support and tax privileges” to support investment. At the Expo, 50 Chinese and Russian localities proposed investment projects culminating in “several agreements between representatives of Russian and Chinese companies."
October 23:
China has a "well-knit surveillance network" along its border with India, The Hindureports. 'Somehow, the Chinese know the exact movement of our troops. Whenever our men go for patrolling along the border, the Chinese come to know about it," said an Indian government official. By contrast, "apart from human intelligence" India has "little electronic evidence to aid patrolling." New Delhi wants to install surveillance cameras at fifty locations in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim and Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. In 2013, India began a pilot project to install cameras along unmanned pockets of the Ladakh valley on the Chinese border, but it failed because high-velocity winds and frost blurred the images.
October 24:
Since July, more than 290 human rights lawyers and activists have been taken away in a sweeping crackdown. They have been placed under "residential surveillance" a form of solitary detention that can last up to six months - on charges of "incitement of subversion of state power" and denied visits from lawyers and family. The South China Morning Post reports the crackdown has also extended to the children and loved ones of those arrested, who have been restricted from traveling abroad and had their passports rescinded.
[Editor’s Note: The concept of zhulian - the implication by association of family members of political criminals - is deeply ingrained in China. In imperial dynasties, even distant relatives of political prisoners could be put to death. During the Cultural Revolution, children or spouses of people seen as "enemies of the state" were persecuted just because of their "bad background."]
October 28:
European countries are competing to woo China. Last week, while in Britain for a state visit, President Xi Jinping signed deals worth £40 billion, hailed a "golden era" in Beijing’s "special relationship" with London, and pledged to create a bilateral "global comprehensive strategic partnership for the 21st century." This week German Chancellor Angela Merkel begins her eighth visit to China designed to reinforce Berlin’s "excellent relations with Beijing. After holding meetings in Beijing, she traveled with a business delegation to Premier Li Keqiang’s hometown – Hefei, Anhui – to emphasize their "close personal ties." Since taking office in 2005, Merkel has visited seven cities including Xian, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Tianjin. Germany’s ambassador to China, Michael Clauss, said: "Among the leaders of Western countries she is the one most frequently making visits to China - and knows China best." Only Berlin has regularized intergovernmental consultations with Beijing at the cabinet level. In 2014, China-Germany trade hit a record 154 billion Euro, representing 48% of Germany's total Asian trade. Next week, French President François Hollande arrives in Beijing. "The [European] visits imply competition between EU members for the Chinese market," Cui Hongjian of the official China Institute of International Studies told the SCMP.
November 3:
"The manufacture and sale of shoddy or counterfeit goods has become a key concern," the official Xinhua news agency reports. Last year 58.7 percent of products purchased online were genuine or of good quality, according to a report presented to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee chaired by Zhang Dejiang. In 2014, China’s online sales increased 40 percent to 2.8 tillion yuan, but authorities received 77,800 complaints about online orders – a 356.6 percent increase.