China Reform Monitor: No. 1084

January 27:

Minister Zhang Zhijun, the head of the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) under China's State Council, and his counterpart Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) head Wang Yu-chi, will meet in China for the first time, but with extensive restrictions. Beijing has demanded that during the meeting there be no mention of political issues, Taiwan’s national title or the words “freedom,” “democracy,” “human rights,” “the rule of law,” or “president,” Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reports. Wang will arrive in Nanjing on February 16 and meet with Zhang. The next day he will visit the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and deliver a speech at Nanjing University on Taiwan’s development after 1949. Taipei has allowed Beijing to review beforehand the content of Wang’s speech and related press statements and preselect all audience members. After Nanjing, Wang will travel to Shanghai and attend a seminar with handpicked academics specializing in Taiwan affairs.

January 28:

In an effort to enhance “joint operation capability” at the China-Russian border the guards at Heishantou, Jilin and their Russian counterparts at Upper Ergun River have built a communication system linking them. The new line will allow both sides to remain in 24-hour contact “to fix meetings and set priorities,” the PLA Daily reports.

February 3:

Amid an escalation in tensions with its neighbors over territorial disputes China will spend $148 billion on its military this year, up from $139.2 billion in 2013, the New York Times reports. This estimate includes R&D spending and pension costs not reflected in China’s official estimates, which will be released at the annual National People’s Congress next month in Beijing. Next year, China is estimated to spend more on defense than Britain, Germany and France combined, and by 2024, the country will spend more on security than all of Western Europe. The U.S. will spend about $574.9 billion this year, down from $664.3 billion in 2012.

February 4:

Chinese government research facilities and agricultural companies are under investigation for stealing high tech seed varieties from the U.S. Zhang Weiqiang, a rice breeder, and Yan Wengui, a research geneticist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, gave proprietary rice seeds to Chinese government crop researchers. Zhang and Yan, a permanent resident and a naturalized U.S. citizen, respectively, both made trips to their native China to discuss their research. Last year they arranged for a delegation from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science and the China Crop Research Institute to visit their work facilities, including the federal agriculture facility where Yan worked. Proprietary rice seeds were later found in the Chinese delegation members’ luggage as they tried to leave the country and at Zhang’s home, who, along with Yan, was arrested in December, the New York Times reports.

Six Chinese citizens have been indicted on charges of stealing trade secrets in a brazen scheme to undercut expensive, time-consuming research. In 2011, a manager at a DuPont research farm in Iowa noticed Mo Hailong digging up corn seeds. Mo and his associates visited numerous seed testing fields in Iowa and Illinois used by the big agriculture firms Pioneer, Monsanto and LG Seeds. They bought a test plot in Illinois and concealed stolen seeds in microwave popcorn boxes and napkins. Mo, who worked for the Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group, was arraigned last week in Des Moines. The seeds Mo was after are called inbreds. They come from self-pollinating corn plants and are crossed with other inbreds to create hybrid seeds durable in the face of drought and pests that are then sold to farmers. One inbred line takes five to eight years of research and can cost $30-$40 million to develop.