China Reform Monitor: No. 1043

June 18 :

At a cross-strait forum in Xiamen, Fujian that included Kuomintang Vice Chairman Lin Fong-cheng and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Zhang Zhijun, the two sides announced new measures to promote exchanges and said more are coming soon. The measures include easing travel restrictions and providing support for Taiwanese looking to start a business on the mainland. Fujian also issued seven province-level measures aimed at attracting investment from Taiwan’s small and medium-sized enterprises. Politburo Standing Committee Member Yu Zhengsheng made an overture to forum delegates: “Even those who once supported and promoted Taiwan independence, or followed those who do, so long as they are willing to help improve and develop cross-strait relations, will be welcome to visit the mainland and to join in promoting exchanges and cooperation between the two sides,” Taipei Times reports.

June 20:

China and Pakistan have agreed to establish a special economic zone (SEZ) near Lahore. Jun Ma, Chairman of Chairman of China Enterprise Confederation (CEC) and Faisal Afridi, Chief Executive of Ruba-SEZ, inked the agreement at the Diaoyutai State Guest House. The SEZ will start with 900 acres, then be expanded first to 3000 acres, then to 10,000 acres. CEC’s 54,500 members, including China’s top 500 firms, will submit investment proposals. “Chinese investors can set up industries in the SEZ and can sell products not only in Pakistan, but also to the Middle Eastern market,” Afridi said in comments carried by Pakistan’s Express Tribune.

June 21:

Taiwan’s opposition parties prevented the passage of an act allowing the People’s Republic of China (PRC-China) and the Republic of China (ROC-Taiwan) to reciprocally establish representative offices by paralyzing the legislative committee meeting. Opposition lawmakers arrived before KMT legislators and when the meeting room door opened they occupied the podium and delayed the proceedings all day. Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Su Tseng-chang accused President Ma Ying-jeou of “asking the Legislative Yuan for a blank check” for cross-strait representative offices before negotiations are completed. The opposition is demanding that ROC officials be permitted to visit the more than 1,000 Taiwanese imprisoned in China, to which Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi replied: “We will try our best to secure visitation rights, but humanitarian visits is one thing for which Chinese negotiators have not shown any sign of agreeing to yet.” The ninth round of cross-strait talks held today in Shanghai are addressing the issue of reciprocal representative offices, Taipei Times reports

June 22:

Xi Jinping, Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), has ordered an audit of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) real estate and construction projects in an effort to develop a complete database of all army-owned property. Some officers have made huge profits by receiving kickbacks to transfer PLA properties at below market rates. General Zhao Keshi, head of the PLA’s General Logistics Dept., chaired the first CMC panel meeting on surveying the army’s real estate. Zhao said the property database is for budgeting and cost control assessments aimed at “bringing the construction practices and management procedures in line with standards and the law.” The official PLA Daily reports that Zhao called for the military to adhere to “duties prescribed, follow procedures, and implement more effective corrective measures and approaches to ensure construction and management are conducted in a legal and orderly fashion including project approval, material procurement, land transfer, rental, management, accountability, etc.” Illicit property deals have continued despite the military’s repeated bans on the improper transfer of army property for personal gain, the South China Morning Post reports.

June 26:

At least 27 people were killed in riots in Xinjiang, The Hindu reports citing the official Chinese press. “Knife-wielding” mobs attacked a police station, a local government office and a construction site in the township of Lukqun, in Turpan prefecture southeast of Urumqi. The official Xinhua news agency said attackers had stabbed people and set fire to cars. While 17 people were killed in the violence, a further 10 people were shot dead by police who opened fire on the mob. Among the 17 killed were nine policemen and security guards. Local authorities said they had detained three people at the scene, while three others were being treated at a hospital.

[Editor’s Note: This is the latest in a series of increasingly violent incidents in Xinjiang. In April 21 people were killed in Kashgar and Hotan. In that incident a group armed with knives had killed 10 police officers and five “community workers.”]