China Reform Monitor: No. 1085

February 7:

Shanghai is bailing out and restructuring the city’s state-run media amid declining profits. Under a directive from Shanghai Communist Party boss Han Zheng the local propaganda department has merged the city’s two largest print media companies - Jiefang Daily Group and Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group – to form the Shanghai United Media Group. Despite projected losses this year, the newly created conglomerate, led by former chief editor of Caijing magazine He Li, is seeking $500 million in investor financing. Local officials and United Media executives hope a profitable digital product can offset losses from existing print newspapers, which have been eclipsed by out-of-town rivals, particularly the Guangzhou Daily and Chengdu Business Daily. Amid sharply declining revenue the Shanghai Media Group, which owns the city’s major television and radio stations, is also planning reforms. Shanghai-based media is losing market share “partly because their in-depth reporting is constrained by the local propaganda department,” asserted the South China Morning Post.

February 8:

This year China plans to sell Pakistan six S20 diesel-electric submarines, a Pakistani official said in comments carried by Want China Times. The Pakistan Navy currently has five aging French-made submarines – three Agosta 90B-class submarines purchased in the 1990s and two Agosta 70-class submarines bought in late 1970s. The sale will further consolidate China’s role as the Pakistani military’s top weapons and military equipment supplier. The 66-meter-long S20 is an improved version of the Yuan-class submarine boasting a double-hulled structure and a maximum dive depth of 300 meters. It has a submerged displacement of 2,300 metric tons, a maximum speed of 18 knots, a range of 8,000 nautical miles, and can carry 38 crew for up to two months.

February 9:

The Association of Taiwan Journalists has condemned Beijing for blocking reporters from Taiwan’s Apple Daily and U.S.-based Radio Free Asia from covering the February 11 meeting between Taiwan and China’s top two cross-Taiwan Strait policy planners in Nanjing. After their applications for Chinese visas were rejected, the association released a statement criticizing Chinese authorities’ “suppression of freedom of the press.” The statement urged Wang Yu-chi, the head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, to publicly protest the rejection of the journalists’ visas before leaving to meet Zhang Zhijun, who heads China’s Taiwan Affairs Office. Nearly 90 journalists from 43 media outlets in Taiwan have signed up to cover the meeting, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reports.

February 10:

PetroChina, Asia’s largest oil and gas producer, has found 308.2 billion cubic meters of recoverable gas in China’s Sichuan basin, one of China’s largest gas discoveries. The Moxi block of Anyue field was officially certified to hold 440.4 bcm of proven geological reserves, Reuters reports. PetroChina drilled two exploration wells in Anyue field and both struck high gas flows. Now it is building a production facility able to pump 4 bcm/ year, and plans a second phase to pump another 6 bcm/year, although no timeline or cost estimates were provided. China produced 121 bcm of natural gas last year, up 9.8 percent over 2012 levels. The 2013 output includes 3 bcm of coal-seam gas and a small amount (200 mcm) of shale gas. In 2013 China imported 53.4 bcm of gas, or 31.5 percent of its total gas demand of 169 bcm.

The United Wa State Army (UWSA), the largest ethnic armed group in Burma, claims to have sent 30 soldiers to receive pilot training in China, the Irrawaddy reports; citing at least two recent visitors to UWSA headquarters in Panghsang in northern Shan State on the China-Myanmar border. The UWSA has two helicopters, surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles, and a weapons-making facility that produces AK-47 rifles, explosive devices and other arms. Last April, Jane’s Intelligence Review reported that China had delivered several Mil Mi-17 ‘Hip’ medium-transport helicopters armed with TY-90 air-to-air missiles to the UWSA.