China Reform Monitor: No. 1104

May 8:

China and Vietnam are engaged in a confrontation in the South China Sea 120 nautical miles off Vietnam’s coast. China has placed its first deepwater drilling rig, known as HD-981 -- a vessel as big as a football field, as tall as a 40-story building, and worth $1 billion -- 17 miles off the Spratly Islands in an area both countries claim. In response, Vietnam dispatched 35 ships to the area and China has deployed about 80 vessels. China claims that over four days Vietnam’s ships have rammed Chinese vessels 171 times and Vietnam accuses Chinese ships of ramming its vessels and blasting them with water cannons, which Beijing called a “most gentle measure.” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Daniel R. Russel, who was in Hanoi, said the dispute was major topic of his discussions there. “We oppose any act of intimidation, particularly in disputed areas,” he said. The U.S. does take a position on the competing sovereignty claims, he added, but claimed they need to be “dealt with in accordance to international laws,” the New York Times reports.

[Editor’s Note: Two years ago, China displaced the Philippines from the disputed Scarborough Shoal without a fight, by refusing to abide by an American-brokered agreement. The Philippines retreated, fulfilling its side, but the Chinese did not, and have controlled the reef, and its rich fishery ever since.]

May 11:

At summit of Southeast Asian countries’ leaders in Myanmar, Vietnam’s prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung accused China of “dangerous and serious violations” in their latest territorial dispute. Despite his pleas, the ten ASEAN countries failed to produce a meaningful collective response. Foreign ministers issued an oblique statement citing “serious concerns over the ongoing developments in the South China Sea,” but did not mention China. Meanwhile, in Hanoi, hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside China’s Embassy and Vietnam’s authoritarian government permitted the state-controlled news media to cover them and signs displayed slogans like “Denounce the Chinese Invasion,” the New York Times reports.

May 15:

China has agreed to provide Sri Lanka’s military professional training and military assistance and hold joint exercises, Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror reports. The MoU was signed by China’s third ranking military official, General Xu Qilian, the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) who is in Sri Lanka for three days leading over two-dozen top Chinese army brass. The senior group is the highest-level military delegation China has ever sent to the island nation. According to Xi, who toured the country’s military facilities and met with its top leaders, his trip served to elevate “relations between the two countries and the armed forces to a new level,” the official Government News Portal of Sri Lanka reports.

May 18:

One Chinese national was shot twice and 10 others are missing, presumed kidnapped, following an attack by an unidentified armed group on a subsidiary of state-owned Sinohydro in the far north of Cameroon, the official China Daily reports. The Chinese firm’s Bureau 16 camp in the country’s north was attacked by militants who also took 10 vehicles from the Chinese company. The subsidiary of Sinohydro, a leading Chinese international contractor in the power and infrastructure sectors, is working on a road improvement project near the increasingly unstable Cameroon-Nigeria border. Chinese officials are relying on their Cameroonian counterparts to locate the missing men.

May 22:

At least 31 people died and over 90 were injured when attackers drove two cars into shoppers, and threw explosives, at an open-air market in Urumqi, Xinjiang. China’s Ministry of Public Security called it a “violent terrorist incident” and Xinhua said “explosives were thrown out of the vehicles. One of the vehicles exploded in the market.” Photos posted on Chinese social media sites showing chaos and carnage were later removed by authorities. “The Uighurs are now beginning to operate outside of Xinjiang, a major change in their operational tactics,” said Christopher Johnson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in comments carried by USA Today. “They have a logistical network the government is not aware of.”

Under pressure from China, Pakistan’s armed forces have attacked the strongholds of the Uighur group known as the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in North Waziristan in a series of pre-dawn air strikes killing at least 73 suspected local and foreign militants. Four Pakistani security personnel also died during the attacks, which included military planes and helicopter gunships, targeting Uighur militants from Xinjiang and Uzbekistan, Pakistan’s Dawn News reports. Islamabad is officially claiming 60 militants were killed, but a security official put the number at 32. One local resident said about 70 were dead including some women and children. Phones went dead immediately after the strike and the region is under curfew.