China Reform Monitor: No. 1014

January 22:

A Russian military delegation including members of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, official arms trader Rosoboronexport, and Sukhoi Corp. have “signed a joint document giving a green light to the advancement of Su-35 on the Chinese market.” China has long been interested in the Su-35 fighter aircraft but the two sides could not agree on the size of the first purchase. Beijing wants to buy an initial tranche of 4-6 fighters, but Moscow wants the first sale to be about 40. Moscow is concerned that a small initial sale would “create serious risks for technology leaks [resulting in] a great probability that the fighter will simply be copied as happened before and no further purchases will follow.” Despite the disagreement, prospects seem good for the eventual sale, Russia’s military news agency Interfax-AVN reports.

January 29:

Communist Party chief and Central Military Commission (CMC) chairman, Xi Jinping spent the day at the People’s Armed Police (PAP) headquarters in Beijing highlighting the importance of the paramilitary force’s loyalty to the party and its mission to safeguard state security and maintain social stability. In the morning Xi, sporting an olive-green army jacket and accompanied by CMC vice-chairmen General Fan Changlong and General Xu Qiliang, security tsar Meng Jianzhu and Beijing party chief Guo Jinlong, braved freezing weather to review the 13th branch of the PAP’s Beijing Corps. Then in the afternoon Xi met hundreds of senior officers and gave a speech calling on them to raise the PAP’s combat ability and stressing that “as an armed force under the absolute leadership of the party the PAP’s allegiance to the party is its overriding political priority,” the official Xinhua news agency reports.

[Editor’s Note: Over the past few years, as the number of “mass incidents” has steadily risen, the 800,000-strong PAP has regularly been called on to put down ever-larger civilian protests. China’s annual domestic security expenditures now exceed it foreign defense budget.]

January 30:

Pakistan’s has approved a deal transferring control of Gwadar Port (in Baluchistan near the Pakistan-Iran border and the Strait of Hormuz) from Singapore’s Port Singapore Authority International to Chinese Overseas Port Holdings Ltd. “The Chinese will make investments to make the project operational,” Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said in comments carried by The Dawn. Pakistan hopes that after its transfer to Chinese control Gwadar Port will help contribute to improving its ailing economy. China provided about 75 percent of the initial $250 million for the port’s construction.

January 31:

The day after The New York Times reported that Chinese hackers had infiltrated its computers and stolen employee passwords, The Wall Street Journal announced that it too was attacked by Chinese hackers. In a written statement, the Journal described the attack as an “ongoing issue” and said it was working to complete a “network overhaul” and rid its systems of the hackers who broke into its network through computers in its Beijing bureau. In 2008, Chinese hackers began targeting foreign news organizations, stealing e-mails, contacts and files from more than 30 journalists and executives at Western news outlets, and identifying certain “anti-China” journalists for repeated attacks, The New York Times reports.

February 1:

Since last year about 200 North Korean commerce officials have received training on China’s “reform and opening up” policy and how to carry out economic and trade relations with foreign countries in Changchun, Jilin. The Ministry of Commerce conducted the sessions at Jilin University, which hosted the trainees for lectures “on the theory and practice of China’s development zones and the policies and statutes common to international economic and trade cooperation.” Hong Kong’s Beijing-controlled Ta Kung Pao reports that the training programs are part of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s new initiative to improve China-DPRK economic relations and learn from China’s development experience. During the annual meeting of the Jilin Provincial People’s Political Consultative Conference, representatives doing business in North Korea agreed that: “After Kim Jong Un the North Korea’s attitude is more positive. Since last year they have amended and supplemented several laws and regulations pertaining to economic and trade cooperation. North Korea’s overall investment environment is developing in a positive, favorable direction.”