China Reform Monitor: No. 1053

August 23:

Next year Japan will establish embassies in six countries “aiming to reinforce Japan’s presence in the diplomatic sphere in the face of the growing influence of China,” a government source told Kyodo News. The six are Bhutan, the Marshal Islands, Namibia, Turkmenistan, Armenia, and Barbados. Bhutan and the Marshall Islands, which lack diplomatic relations with Beijing, are “target” countries to check China. Turkmenistan’s natural gas, which currently flows via pipeline to China, has also caught Tokyo’s eye as has Armenia’s rich copper and silver deposits. Barbados will be Japan’s base in the Caribbean and an embassy in Namibia will help in Africa, where nearly 20 countries do not have a Japanese embassy. In 2013, Japan opened embassies in South Sudan and Iceland, raising its total to 136. As of January, 2013 China had 164 embassies.

August 24:

Between November 4-14, a company of troops from the Indian Army’s Sikh Light Infantry will visit the Chengdu Military Region Command in Sichuan to participate in the a third joint army drill codenamed Hand-in-Hand, India’s Telegraph reports. This iteration of Hand-in-Hand exercises is a symbolic military engagement that “involves a display of martial arts by the two armies.” It has been five years since the last one held in Belgaum, India. The first, held in 2007 in Kunming, Yunnan, was a joint war game against a group of militants on the border. After 2008 the exercises were shelved because of India’s anger over China’s issuing of stapled visas, the denial of a visa to an Indian army commander, and growing military tensions on the border.

August 25:

Damascus has lauded China’s opposition to the “unfair resolutions against Syria” in international forums and urged closer bilateral cooperation. Meeting in Damascus, Prime Minister Wail al-Halqi and Chinese Ambassador Zhang Xun discussed “the participation of Chinese companies in the reconstruction process in Syria, the possibility of a Chinese industrial zone established on the Syrian coast, imports of foodstuffs and consumer goods from China, and training Syrian cadres in China,” Syria’s official SANA news agency reports. Al-Halqi “praised China’s support to Syria against the international terrorism and global war targeting it.” Zhang reiterated Beijing’s commitment to Syria, rejected Western interference in its internal affairs, and praised “the Syrian government’s positive cooperation with the UN chemical weapons inspection team.”

August 26:

On June 28, on the highway from Hanerik to Hotan, Xinjiang paramilitary police shot to death scores of Uighur protesters seeking an end to heavy-handed policing of their religious practices. The week prior, authorities detained Mettursun Metseydi, the young imam of an unauthorized mosque on the edge of Hanerik, who had been drawing large crowds with sermons condemning the government’s religious restrictions. Authorities sealed the mosque, but on June 28, congregants forced their way in and after worship about 400 people carrying farm implements and wood decided to march to Hotan. Shouting “Allahu Akbar,” or “God Is Great,” they pushed past police but after entering the highway they were confronted by paramilitary police on a bridge. The marchers hesitated, then surged forward and the soldiers opened fire. The New York Times reports that according to several sources, including local officials, “police continued to shoot, picking off those who tried to flee, including a number of people on motorcycles.” For weeks following the incident Hotan was under curfew while phone and internet service was cut. Uighur officials watched footage of the marchers and were asked to identify them. At least 200 people have been arrested. “The Chinese killed our brothers in the street like they were dogs,” said a young taxi driver named Yusuf. “We will have our revenge.”