China Reform Monitor: No. 1055

August 28 :

China has supplied Kyrgyzstan’s police equipment, including GPS-like tracking devices and an electronic crime registry, the AKIpress news agency. “The Kyrgyz Interior Ministry has received a large consignment of cargo from China including buses, lorries, water canons, and special equipment,” said Interior Minister Abdulda Suranchiyev. He thanked Beijing for the equipment, which he said would centralize information from the Interior Ministry, district police departments and from the Bishkek Police Chief’s office in one server. “Investigators are overloaded. We want to use the new equipment to ease the burden of investigators,” he said. “In Shanghai 54-56 percent of cases are solved. I asked the Chinese public security minister how they work. He said equipment solves crimes. After all, China is full of surveillance cameras.”

August 30 :

Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan met with Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Anatoliy Antonov on the sidelines of the second ASEAN defense ministers and partners dialogue in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, Russia’s Interfax-AVN reports. “The sides exchanged assessments on the problem of [U.S.] missile defense and processes relating to the development of a security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region,” the Russian Defense Ministry explained. “[Antonov and Chang] examined in detail the state of collaboration between the Russian and Chinese defense ministries and the prospects for that collaboration to be boosted, including in the context of preparations for the 81st session of the joint Russian-Chinese intergovernmental commission on military technical cooperation, scheduled to take place in October in Moscow.”

September 2:

Li Wei from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations has called on local officials in Xinjiang to end to their “information blockade.” Li said more openness and transparency in the mainland’s war against terrorism would “show the public that the fight against terrorism is necessary in Xinjiang, so people will understand what we are doing. It’s important that people have the right to be informed.” Li said he was against censoring Xinjiang media reports on terrorist attacks, but insisted the decisions did not come from Beijing. “Some local officials I’ve spoken to are concerned about the impact such negative coverage might bring to their businesses, especially this time of year when it’s peak tourism season,” he said, in comments carried by the South China Morning Post.

[Editor’s Note: In July, Reporters Without Borders agreed that more transparency was needed in Xinjiang, but claimed Beijing, not local Xinjiang officials was responsible. “Xinjiang remains targeted by a program of censorship and monitoring directed from Beijing. Acts of violence still under way cannot be covered independently by the Chinese or the foreign media,” the report said. “Since president Xi Jinping came to power, he has perpetuated a policy that has made Xinjiang virtually an information ‘black hole.’”

China has equipped Nepal Police with a GPS-like digital tracking system and integrated it with 66 CCTV cameras installed around Katmandu. Public Security Ministry’s Chief of International Cooperation Liao Jinrong and Chief of Nepal Police Kuber Singh Rana jointly inaugurated the service. “The best advanced technology has been used in the project. It will enhance the social security of Nepal,” said Liao. The China Daily reports the digital tracking system has been installed in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Sidhupalchowk, with 20 million RMB worth of equipment installed in Kathmandu alone. Each device connects to the nearest tower and the tracking system automatically assigns itself to the nearest radio channels thus enabling the Nepal Police to track its location.

September 7:

China and Kazakhstan have agreed to boost bilateral cooperation in security, law enforcement and intelligence sharing, according to a joint declaration issued in Astana. The two countries agreed that terrorism, separatism and extremism, and transnational organized crimes, including illegal arms and drug trafficking and economic crimes, pose a serious threat to the security and stability of Central Asian nations. President Xi Jinping is in Kazakhstan for a state visit after attending a G20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. After Kazakhstan, Xi will visit Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. He visited Turkmenistan before the G20 summit, reports the People’s Daily.