China Reform Monitor: No. 1048

July 14:

Last month Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told South Korean President Park Geun-hye during their meeting that water quality has deteriorated in the Yalu River after North Korea’s third nuclear test in February. Residents in China’s three northeastern provinces have filed petitions claiming damages. In an interview with Yonhap, Cho Baek-sang, Seoul’s consul general in Shenyang, Liaoning said: “As they are close in distance to North Korea, concerns about environmental pollution are high among residents in the three northeastern provinces. They are naturally concerned about water quality.” Cho said Beijing is enforcing sanctions more “vigorously” than before; inspecting cargo heading to North Korea to identify items banned under U.N. resolutions.

July 15:

China has nine projects in Belurus worth $2 billion including one $323.8 million loan from China’s Export-Import Bank to build a nuclear power plant, and another to finance 330 kW power lines for the plant. In August 2012, North China Power Engineering Co., Ltd. (NCPE) agreed to build the nuclear plant and this week in Beijing NCPE chairman Liu Chaoan met with Belarus’ Energy Minister Uladzimir Patupchyk to sign the MoU for the power lines and power substations, Belarus’ Belapan news agency reports.

July 16:

After officials from Huadu, Guangzhou announced the construction of a new garbage incinerator in Qianjin village in Shiling township, about 10,000 people protested in the streets. The demonstration, which was approved by Shiling officials, began at the Qianjin village committee office with 3,000 people but grew as it wound its way through Shiling. People joined until “the sea of people appeared to stretch about [one kilometer] along the roads,” the South China Morning Post reports. Witnesses put the total number at between 8,000 and 20,000, while the organizer said about 10,000 people showed up. Nearly 1,000 police cleared the way for the demonstrators, who carried banners criticizing the incinerator. After reaching the township government offices the protest dispersed peacefully. The incinerator plan will be finalized August 30, an environmental review is set for February, and construction will begin in June.

[Editor’s Note: By 2015, in addition to the existing one in Baiyun, Guangzhou will build five new garbage incinerators. The Baiyun incinerator handles 1,000 metric tons of trash per day. Most of the 18,000 metric tons a day of waste the city produces goes to landfills that last year contained 40 million metric tons of trash.]

July 17:

A circular issued by China’s State Council has eliminated 20 items from the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television’s approval process. The new policy will cut red tape by eliminating the need for government approval for the promotion of domestic publications abroad and importing equipment or film. “The administration will stop managing radio plays and relax censorship over films,” the official People’s Daily reports, although production summaries will still be subject to review. Provincial officials will now censor TV programs with foreign producers, while the administration will strengthen copyright protection.

[Editor’s Note: The re-organized administration became operational in March after the government merged the press and broadcasting regulators responsible for overseeing the press, publication, radio, film and television sectors as part of efforts to cut bureaucracy and administrative intervention.]