China Reform Monitor: No. 1026

March 21:

Mainland Chinese hacks on Taiwan’s computer systems are growing more serious and threaten the security of its military secrets and high-tech commercial information, Tsai Der-sheng, Director of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau said in remarks to the Taiwan legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. The problem is “very serious,” said Tsai, the nation’s top security official. “Before, China’s hacking focused on stealing information, but now we have discovered that the attacks are aiming to damage national infrastructure. Chinese cyber attacks could seriously undermine our infrastructure and transportation systems, as well as financial operations.” Tsai said China has already stolen vast quantities of data from Taiwan and can monitor and control “our personal data through inter-analysis.” He proposed the establishment of an information security office to integrate counter-hacking efforts and protect the nation’s data and systems, the Taipei Times reports.

March 25:

After months of fierce negotiations prior to President Xi Jinping’s Moscow visit (March 22-24) China and Russian signed an agreement on supplying 24 Russian Su-35 fighter jets to China and for the joint construction of four Lada-class diesel submarines. The purchases are China’s most significant from Russia in the past 10 years, the Interfax news agency reports, and are intended to provide a basis for future bilateral military cooperation.

[Editor’s Note: Su-35 is Russia’s most advanced 4th generation multipurpose fighter jet. The Lada-class submarine specializes in anti-submarine defense and conducting independent missions against enemy subs and ships in coastal, narrow and closed-sea areas. Yuriy Kormilitsinin, the Lada’s designer, called it “an underwater hunting craft capable of destroying any target.”]

Under last-minute pressure from the Chinese embassy in Jakarta, the Indonesian government disinvited Taiwan’s participants to its 2013 Jakarta International Defense Dialogue. Taiwan had planned to send two scholars and two officials from its representative office in Jakarta to take part in the defense forum. In response, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister David Lin told the island’s legislature: “We have voiced our discontent over Indonesia’s snub.” Ma Chen-kun, a National Defense University professor, represented Taiwan at the 2012 conference, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reports.

March 26:

In five separate cases two Xinjiang courts, one in Kashgar and another in Bayingol, have convicted 20 Uighurs to prison sentences ranging from five years to life for engaging in militant separatism. The accused were “seduced by religious extremism and terrorist violence and used the Internet, mobile phones and digital storage devices to organize, lead and participated in terror organizations, provoked incidents, and incited separatism,” Xinjiang’s official Tianshan news website reports. The report said those convicted in Kashgar used cellphones and videos to spread militant ideas for the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan – two groups Beijing accuses of fomenting separatism. In one case in Kashgar, eight people engaged in proselytizing, collected money, organized terrorist training, bought weapons, and planned to assassinate local police officers and officials. The two “ringleaders” were sentenced to life. The Bayingol court convicted one person of using the internet to “promote ethnic separatism, terrorist violence and religious extremism.”

March 28:

A Chinese Navy vessel fired two flares at four Vietnamese fishing boats operating in disputed waters around the Paracel Islands causing one of the boat’s cabins to catch fire, according to an official Vietnamese statement. Hanoi called the incident “very serious” and lodged a formal complaint with Beijing demanding compensation. In response, China’s Defense Ministry said the flares were fired after the Vietnamese ships failed to respond to whistles, shouts and signal flags demanding that they cease fishing and leave the area. Beijing confirmed its navy fired flares at the Vietnamese fishing boats but claims they burned out in the air and did not hit the vessels, calling Hanoi’s accusation that they caused a fire a “sheer fabrication,” the Japan Times reports.