China Reform Monitor: No. 1031

April 18:

To avoid damaging ties with China, Sydney University has called off a talk to students by the Dalai Lama, The Guardian reports. Perhaps fearful of funding cuts for its Chinese-sponsored Confucius Institute, the university cancelled the on-campus talk organized by its Institute for Democracy and Human Rights. The school’s vice-chancellor Michael Spence praised the decision as “in the best interests of researchers across the university.” Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, whose Green party controls the upper house of Australia’s parliament, disagreed: “As a democratic country, we should be encouraging more open and frank discussion about the current situation in Tibet, not banning the country’s spiritual leader from addressing students and staff at universities.”

[Editor’s Note: Earlier this month Australia’s prime minister, Julia Gillard, led a trade delegation to meet the China’s premier Li Keqiang, and agreed to a new “strategic partnership” with Beijing including annual talks between leaders on foreign policy and economics, Australia’s the Herald reports. In 2011 Gillard was criticized for refusing to meet the Dalai Lama to avoid damaging trade with China, which last year totaled $120 billion.]

April 23:

China will build a second, larger aircraft carrier capable of carrying more fighter jets, Song Xue, deputy chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army Navy, said at a ceremony with foreign military attaches, Reuters reports. In September 2012 Chinese officials had denied foreign media reports that China was building a second carrier in Shanghai.

April 24:

On April 15, “a platoon” of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers along with dogs and vehicles entered the Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector of Ladakh, India and established an outpost there at an altitude of 17,000 feet. The region, about 10 km inside territory under Indian control, is also claimed by China. New Delhi called for all Chinese troops to leave but Beijing responded by claiming that the PLA “has confined activities to within the Chinese border and never trespassed across the line,” the official People’s Daily reports. Meanwhile, on April 21 the Press Trust of India (PTI) reports, that two Chinese military helicopters “violated Indian airspace at Chumar, several hundred km southeast of Leh, and returned after dropping food, cigarettes and notes.” In response, New Delhi will deploy 1,500 more airborne troops along the China border, PTI reports

April 25:

Hong Kong’s gold supplies have been depleted after the recent drop in gold prices spurred a massive Chinese buying spree, the International Business Times reports. “In every corner of Hong Kong, local residents and tourists from mainland China alike are buying up anything gold. I have never seen anything like this in my 30 years in the business,” said Huang Feichang, CEO of Luk Fook Jewelry. The Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society is rush-ordering four times its usual amount of gold bars from Switzerland and London to meet the increased demand. “Stimulated by the plummeting gold price last week, daily total transactions multiplied to 160 billion Hong Kong dollars ($20.6 billion). All of our gold stock is gone now,” said Zhang Dexi president of the exchange.

Kamran Daneshju, Iran’s minister of science and technology, has met with Wan Gang, his Chinese counterpart, and agreed to expand bilateral cooperation, Iran’s private Fars News Agency website reports. Daneshju also met with Bai Chunli, President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and agreed to develop cooperative projects in areas including nanotechnology, satellites, and passenger aircraft, etc. “Five research centers of this academy can begin joint and practical work with Iran. We will be glad to see more Iranians attending CAS,” Bai said. CAS will grant scholarships to Iranian researchers. Daneshju proposed that two research centers from China and two from Iran begin working on joint projects, Iranian official government news agency IRNA reports.