China Reform Monitor: No. 1099

April 10:

President Xi Jinping has personally commissioned the “Falcon Commando Unit” as an elite police counter-terror brigade under the Special Police Academy of the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force (PAP). During a ceremony at the Special Police Academy, Xi presented the Falcons with their new flag and called the unit, which he officially created on February 20, China’s “preeminent national anti-terror force.” He told the Falcons to become a world-class anti-terror force and “always remain loyal to the Communist Party of China,” the official People’s Daily reports. The Special Police Academy of the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force was established in 1982 as a special anti-hijacking unit.

April 11:

China will establish a national online system for petitioning this year in effort to stem the unceasing flow of petitioners to Beijing and other provincial capitals in search of redress for their grievances. The State Bureau for Letters and Calls (SBLC) said petitioners using the new network would be able to submit complaints delivered by letters, personal visits, hotlines, videos and online formats. Central government organizations will be able to share information with their provincial counterparts through a data exchange platform. After a test run the SBLC plans to launch the online petitioning network in December. China accepted about 2.48 million online petition cases in 2013, up 10.9 percent year on year, the official China Daily reports.

April 12:

China Coal Technology & Engineering Group (CCTEG) has signed an $88.5 million contract with Uzbekistan’s JSC UzbekKo’mir to modernize coal mining, UzReport Information Agency reports. CCTEG will replace the entire existing production technology at the Boysun and Shorgun coal deposits and build two new mechanized complexes, each of which will produce 450,000 metric tons of coal a year by 2020. The first complex will be commissioned in 2015 and the second in 2016. Valued at $101.3 million, the full project also includes the modernization of coal transport systems, $89.5 million of which will be paid by the Chinese Eximbank loan, with the remaining $11.8 million coming from UzbekKo’mir.

The People’s Liberation Army’s Navy (PLAN) will bring the Indian and Pakistani navies together for a rare joint appearance at Qingdao port, Shandong on April 23-24 as part of the 65th anniversary celebration of its founding. Pakistan’s PNS-Shamsheer-F22-P frigate, built with Chinese technology and assistance, will participate along side India’s indigenously built INS Shivalik “stealth frigate.” A Pakistan Navy spokesman told TheNews: “This will practically be the first time that Pakistan and India will be participating in such an exercise together.”

April 14:

A military criminal court in Almaty, Kazakhstan has delivered guilty verdicts against dozens of customs officials that colluded with organized criminal groups to smuggle large qualities of Chinese goods into Kazakhstan through the Khorgos and Kalzhat border checkpoints. Last April, Kazakh authorities completed their investigations in the so-called “Khorgos case.” Convicted high-ranking officials include the deputy head of the National Security Committee department, who received five years, and the head of the Customs Control Committee department, who received 14 years. Four other customs officials and high-ranking security officers received 16-17 years in prison each and two criminal leaders were sentenced to 13 and 16 years each. Only two of the 45 defendants on trial received a suspended sentence, while the other 36 were received between three to ten years in prison each, Interfax-Kazakhstan reports.

[Editor’s Note: An extensive internet search on this case yielded no reports on arrests or investigations by authorities on the Chinese side of the border.].