China Reform Monitor: No. 1057

September 7:

To punish Austria for allowing the Dali Lama to visit in May 2012, China is delaying renewing the contract of Yang Yang and Long Hui, the two pandas on loan to Vienna’s Schoenbrunn Zoo. “A year on China is still angry over meetings Social Democratic Party of Austria Chancellor Werner Faymann and Austrian People’s Party Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger held with the ‘separatist’ from Tibet – and is using the pandas to exert pressure,” Austria’s Die Presse reports. Beijing demanded Vienna promise not to receive the Dalai Lama again, but Vienna instead stressed its “one-China policy” and regretted the “negative impact” of the meeting, but did not “regret” the meeting itself. China responded by praising Austria’s “opposition to any kind of separatist activities aiming at the independence of Tibet.”

September 9:

To “boost local development” China will spend a 1.13 billion yuan ($184 million) to build an airport at an altitude of 3780 meters in the Tibetan-populated Golog Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Qinghai. Golog, which is dominated by snow-capped mountains, covers 76,000 square km on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and has a population of 180,000, mostly herders. Once completed in 2016, the airport, the seventh built in a Tibetan locality, will handle 80,000 passengers and 200 metric tons of cargo per year, the official China Daily reports.

September 11:

China and Djibouti have signed a $339 million loan agreement for a cross-border water project between Ethiopia and Djibouti. Over the next 24 months the loan from China’s Exim Bank will fund a pipeline and the drilling of wells to help transport Ethiopian drinking water to Djibouti. China’s EXIM Bank has concluded four major projects for more than $3 billion in Djibouti, the ADI news agency reports.

September 13:

The Chinese authorities have detained at least two Chinese experts with ties to Japan. Zhu Jianrong, a professor of Chinese politics and diplomacy at Tokyo Gakuen University, and Su Ling, chief editor of Xinhua Times, a Chinese newspaper published in Japan, have been missing for months. After arriving in Beijing in May, Su, who had been carrying out a signature campaign calling for Beijing and Tokyo to avoid confrontation, went missing and has likely been detained on suspicion of espionage, Kyodo news reports. Zhu, who disappeared in Shanghai on July 17, is almost certainly under investigation. When asked if he had been detained China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman replied: “Zhu Jianrong is a Chinese citizen. China is a country ruled by law. All Chinese citizens should observe and obey the law of China.” According to one anonymous Chinese journalist: “There are several other Chinese residents in Japan who cannot be contacted. I think this kind of thing is happening for the first time.”

China continues to urge the U.S., Japan, and South Korea to restart the six-party talks with North Korea, suggesting countries “bear in mind the big picture.” Beijing proposed a September 18 informal meeting to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the start of the six-party talks, but Seoul, Tokyo, and the Washington have remained firm that they will not restart talks with Pyongyang unless the regime demonstrates it is serious about denuclearization, Yonhap reports.