June 2:
China is building new structures in gas fields in the East China Sea, Kyodo reports. New construction has been confirmed this year at three of the 16 Chinese facilities near the median line between the two nations' coastlines. "It is extremely regrettable that China is proceeding with unilateral developments in the East China Sea even though the boundary between Japan and China in the waters has not yet been fixed," Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said. In 2008, a bilateral accord on joint gas development in the East China Sea was signed, but has been stalled since bilateral relations became strained over territorial issues. "Japan requests China implement the agreement as soon as possible," Kishida said. Last November both countries agreed to restart talks based on the agreement within a year.
June 3:
Russia's long anticipated delivery of the S-400 advanced surface-to-air missile system to China will not occur before 2018, Sergei Chemezov, head of the Rostec, which owns Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, told Kommersant. When asked when China would get the system, he responded: "Not before 2018. We have a rule: first we deliver arms to our forces, and only then do we sell weapons overseas. Many clients ask us to deliver weapons earlier – as it was with China." China purchased the S-400 system in November 2014 and a year later the official TASS news agency reported that the system would be delivered not earlier than a year to 18 months from that time.
June 5:
Five South Korean fishing boats have captured two Chinese fishing boats and dragged them to the border island of Yeonpyeong. The 11 Chinese crew members were sleeping when their vessels were towed. "We went out to fish in waters south of Yeonpyeong early in the morning when we saw about 100 Chinese fishing boats covering the sea. We became so mad that we decided to take collective action," said a Korean captain who took part in the capture. The South Korean coast guard has taken both the Korean and Chinese fishermen into custody. The South Koreans could be charged for entering an area that lies too close to the North Korean border. The Chinese, meanwhile, will be charged with illegally entering foreign waters and illegal fishing since their boats were not registered with Chinese authorities, Yonhap reports.
June 9:
As part of its national goal to alleviate poverty by 2020, the Chinese government "will provide basic medical services for all people living under the poverty line in rural China by 2020," the official PLA Daily reports. By the end of 2015, about 42 percent of China's poverty-stricken population owed their plight to disease, but within five years Beijing plans to allow them to "receive treatment before payment." The initiative, which is led by the National Health and Family Planning Commission, will focus on chronic, contagious and regional diseases, with the goal to "make poverty induced by critical diseases a thing of the past."To do this, Beijing plans a "national big data strategy" to better connect national, provincial and lower-level platforms. This week Premier Li Keqiang promised to enhance the portability of medical information and insurance to meet "the growing need for health and medical services."
June 11:
South Korean boats carrying military police entered the neutral waters between North and South Korea where the estuary of the Han River meets the Yellow Sea to drive out illegal Chinese crabbers. June is the peak season for blue crabs in the largely untouched fishing ground tempting the Chinese crabbers to intrude into the militarily-sensitive border area. To crackdown on the operations, four South Korean vessels and 24 military and coast guard forces joined with United Nations Military Armistice Commission personnel. About 10 Chinese fishing boats retreated into North Korea-controlled waters when they spotted the patrols. In the first five months of 2016, illegal Chinese fishing has soared in the sensitive border areas and Chinese fishing boats have been detected in the neutral waters on 520 occasions. The crackdown operation will continue until the last Chinese fishing boat leaves the Han River estuary, Yonhap reports. Beijing has pledged to cooperate to stop the illegal Chinese fishing.