February 13:
Asadollah Askaroladi, head of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce, has announced that China has pledged $20 billion in new financing to Iran. A Chinese delegation visited Iran last week and a 15-member Iranian trade group will travel to China in early April. Iran has a large amount of yuan in China, which offers preferential financing for countries conducting transactions in the Chinese currency, Mehr news agency reports.
February 17:
Japan's military is helping Southeast Asian countries improve their defense capabilities and plans to promote exchanges between defense personnel. That will include visits by Japan's Maritime Self-defense Force units to Vietnam and other countries that have territorial disputes with China, Japanese TV NHK reports. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has expressed "serious concern" following China's deployment of advanced surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island in the South China Sea. The island, which Beijing calls Yongxing, is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. "If there are missiles there, it could be an indication of militarization of the South China Sea in ways that the president of China, that President Xi said he would not do," the head of the U.S. Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris said after talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani in Tokyo. The two sides agreed to work closely on the issue, Kyodo reports.
February 22:
Front-page headlines across China have trumpeted President Xi jinping's visits to the headquarters of the three main Communist Party and state news outlets. While there, he conveyed a clear message: the media is a propaganda tool for the Communist Party, and it must pledge its fealty. "All news media run by the party must work to speak for the party's will and its propositions, and protect the party's authority and unity," Xi told media officials. The president demanded that journalists and news organizations "strictly adhere to the news viewpoint of Marxism" and "raise high the banner." The act of biao tai, or pledging loyalty, by newsroom leaders was one that Xi has demanded of military leaders and other important figures last year. Xi's appearances were part of his effort to build a personality cult that equates him with the well-being of the party and the nation, the New York Times reports. An editorial in the official China Daily explained: "It is necessary for the media to restore people's trust in the party, especially as the economy has entered a new normal and suggestions that it is declining and dragging down the global economy have emerged. The nation's media outlets are essential to political stability, and the leadership cannot afford to wait for them to catch up with the times."
The propaganda unit of the Beijing municipal party committee has accused a popular property tycoon, Ren Zhiqiang, of having "lost his party spirit" and "opposing the party" after he criticized President Xi's speech to media officials, reports Chinese website Qianlong.com. Ren, a party member, wrote on his microblog that the media should serve the people, not the party. His posts have been deleted.
February 19:
Starting March 10, foreign companies – including those with joint ventures with Chinese partners – will not be allowed to publish and distribute online content unless they get government approval. The rules, which were jointly released by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, will restrict the dissemination of a wide range of content online, including text, maps, games, animation, audio, video books, art, literature and science. There are questions about how the regulations will be enforced, and what types of companies are considered distributors of online content. They stipulate that anything published online should "serve the people," promote socialism, and not harm national interests, the New York Times reports.
[Editor's Note: The new regulations pose market-access issues for foreign companies in China ahead of trade talks with the United States. They jeopardize Microsoft and Apple, which has a Chinese App Store, and Amazon, which sells e-books in China and operates Amazon.cn. Foreign firms need licenses that can be difficult to obtain to operate web services in China, and there are restrictions on their ability to invest in many Chinese sectors. Several big companies, including Microsoft, have also been the subject of anti-trust investigations.]