China Reform Monitor: No. 1083

January 23:

Forty kilometers from the China-Kyrgyzstan border (Jeti-Oguz District, Issyk-Kul Region, Kyrgyzstan aka the Pykertyk border area) a confrontation between Kyrgyz border police and 11 young Chinese Uighurs aged 25-30 has left 12 dead including all 11 Uighurs, the privately owned Kyrgyz news agency 24.kg reports. According to the official Kyrgyz account, 11 unknown “suspicious people” were approached by a Kyrgyz local who tried to escort them to the police station. A confrontation ensued and the local shot and killed two Uighurs before they killed him. Seventeen Kyrgyz border guards then arrived and after eight hours of talks used a grenade launcher to blow up a building killing all the “separatists.” Raimberdi Duyshenbiyev, chairman of the Kyrgyz Border Service, told reporters that the Uighurs were killed “because they had brutally killed a Kyrgyz and did not fulfill the border guard’s demands.” He added: “The Uighur separatists arrived to seize weapons from shepherds and hunters to commit terror attacks and return to China. The versions that they were poachers, smugglers or simply refugees are ruled out. Judging by their kit they belong to Uighur separatist organizations. We immediately informed the Chinese side when we found them.”

January 24:

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has sent a delegation to meet with Kyrgyz Defense Minister Taalaybek Omuraliyev and the head of the Kyrgyz Border Service to provide over 40 million yuan in military and technical assistance. The delegation also inspected the Defense Ministry’s service center and houses built for Kyrgyz Defence Ministry officials with a previous PLA grant, the privately-owned AKIpress reports.

January 25:

China is Tanzania’s largest single foreign economic partner; both in terms of bilateral trade and as an investment source, the East African reports. By June 2013, China’s FDI in Tanzania was $2.17 billion, up from $700 million in 2011. China has primarily invested in infrastructure – road construction, railways, ports, gas pipeline, buildings, and electricity, etc. In 2012, China and Tanzania had $2.5 billion in bilateral trade, making China Tanzania’s largest single trading partner, alone accounting for 15 percent of total foreign trade. China and Tanzania have signed 19 contracts worth billions of dollars, including a deal last March to build a multibillion-dollar port northwest of Dar es Salaam at Bagamoyo. China’s state-owned Exim bank provided $10 billion in financing for the dock, which is set to be the largest and most modern in Africa handling 20 times more cargo than Dar es Salaam by 2017. China state-run firm Merchants Holdings has a contract to build a 34 km road between Bagamoyo and Mlandizi, linking the port with Tanzania’s rail network and the Tan-Zam Railway.

[Editor’s Note: China has developed extensive investments in Tanzanian petroleum and mining. In September 2012, a $1.2 billion loan at 33-year maturity and an interest rate of 2 percent was signed with the China Exim Bank for a 523 km rail line connecting Dar es Salaam and the Mtwara gas field. China’s state-owned Sichuan Hongda Group has a $3 billion joint venture with Tanzania's National Development Corporation in an iron-coal mine.]

January 27:

Scientists may not be able to repair China’s lunar rover, Jade Rabbit, which has broken down on the surface of the moon, the South China Morning Post reports. The rover experienced a “mechanical control abnormality” just before it was about to shut down for its second lunar night, which lasts about two weeks with temperatures plunging to minus 180 degrees Celsius. Jade Rabbit was to carry out geological surveys and astronomical observations for three months after it landed on the moon on December 14. One expert speculated that the electric motors that withdraw solar panels on the rover have failed.

February 3:

Hinting at an easing of its non-interference principle, China has been working to end the fighting in key oil-producer South Sudan. The South China Morning Post reports that in December Beijing sent special envoy Zhong Jianhua to lead mediation efforts in South Sudan after violence broke out between its president and rebels loyal to the ousted vice-president. Soon after Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for an end to hostilities and the two sides signed a ceasefire. “In South Sudan, China has a huge financial interest and the potential losses could also be huge if the situation gets out of control. China realizes that if it does not try hard to mediate, then it will only suffer more when crises keep unfolding,” said Zhang Hongming from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, adding that the principle of non-interference should be flexible. China imported 14 million barrels of oil from South Sudan in the first 10 months of last year and has more than 100 registered enterprises in the African nation.