China Reform Monitor: No. 1035

May 9 :

Following a report on Caixin Century Weekly’s website claiming Zhu Yanfeng, the deputy party secretary of Jilin, was being investigated for corruption, the magazine has had to cut its legal section and reassign reporters “to focus more on economic reports rather than legal affairs,” reports the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Caixin cited sources saying the party’s top graft-busting agency is investigating Zhu in connection with the missing assets of Jilin-based First Automobile Works Group, where he used to be president. But the next day Zhu made a public appearance and Caixin quickly took the report off line. Another monthly magazine, Lens, which carried a report about a woman tortured at a labor reform camp in Liaoning postponed its May issue for a week. That decision came after the provincial government said the report was phony and contained “malicious attack rhetoric,” phrasing that the SCMP said suggests the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement.

May 12:

After meeting with President Xi Jinping and Wang Zuoan, director of the State Bureau of Religious Affairs, the Russian Orthodox Church’s Patriarch Kirill has “recognized the Chinese leadership’s efforts to promote a harmonious society” and vowed that the Church would remain “in full compliance with China’s constitution and laws,” Russia’s Interfax news agency reports. Kirill, who held mass in Beijing, said the Russian Orthodox Church, “considers it its duty to make a real contribution to strengthening true friendship between nations.” Wang condemned those “forces working against the state using the multi-faith factor to create domestic problems.” He said “harmonizing these relations is a major state task.”

May 13:

The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee General Office has issued a directive entitled “Concerning the Situation in the Ideological Sphere” warning cadres to combat “dangerous” Western values and other ideological threats. The New York Times reports that a description of the directive, which was not openly published, was released from Chongqing’s Commission on Urban-Rural Development. It said officials must “fully understand the dangers posed by Western views and theories and cut off at the source channels for disseminating erroneous thought currents, strengthen internet management, enhance opinion guidance, purify the internet environment, give no opportunities for lawless elements to seize on.” In December, Xi said China must learn the lessons of the Soviet Union’s collapse, which he blamed on ill-disciplined cadre and ideological laxity.

Continuing conflict in Myanmar’s northern Shan State will delay the first shipments of natural gas from the Bay of Bengal through the Shwe Gas pipeline to China, a Myanmar official said in comments carried by Mizzima News. Although construction of the almost 500-mile trans-Myanmar pipeline will be completed this month, renewed clashes between Myanmar government forces and the Kachin Independence Army and the Shan State Army threaten to disrupt the transfer of natural gas from Kyaukphyu in Rakhine State through northern Shan State to Kunming, Yunan. The vice-governor of Yunnan, by contrast, said last week that by June the natural gas pipeline would be operational. The twin oil pipeline along the same route that will be completed later this year will face similar security concerns.

May 14:

Authorities in Ziyang, Sichuan (100 km south of Chengdu) have released eight lawyers, after they were “beaten by uniformed policemen” and jailed for attempting to visit an illegal “black jail.” Another four lawyers that arrived to negotiate their release were also detained. Although three were quickly released, police kept one in detention with the original group. No explanation was given and no charges were filed against any of the lawyers. About 200 people are illegally detained at the Ziyang Legal Education Centre, said Liu Weiguo, a human rights lawyer, in comments carried by the SCMP.