China Reform Monitor: No. 1110

June 16:

More than three metric tons of pangolin scales valued at $2.2 million from more than 8,000 endangered scaly anteaters have been found hidden in two shipping containers that arrived in Hong Kong from Africa via Malaysia, the South China Morning Post reports. The haul, the biggest in five years, was bound for the mainland, where prices have soared to $645 per kg from $258 a kg over the past five years. The scales – used in Chinese medicine and thought to have curative powers – sell for less than half the price in Africa. One of the containers arrived from Uganda via Kenya and Malaysia on May 28, ostensibly carrying plastic waste. Some 40 bags containing one metric ton of scales were discovered inside. On the second container, supposedly containing timber from Cameroon, officers seized 115 bags with 2.34 metric tons of scales.

A nine-man Chinese boat crew awaits their pretrial hearing in a jail barracks on the outskirts of Puerto Princesa, the capital of the Philippine island province Palawan. The fishermen face up to 20 years in a Philippine jail for illegally poaching a record number of endangered turtles off the Philippine coast. The fishermen, who do not recognize the court proceedings, say they were in Chinese waters and that Philippine maritime police had no right to arrest them. Philippine police officers say the crew is using the territorial dispute between Beijing and Manila over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea as a ploy to avoid prosecution, SCMP reports.

June 17:

The American Association of University Professors has called on U.S. and Canadian universities to either terminate or renegotiate their agreements with nearly 100 Chinese government-backed Confucius Institutes, reports the New York Times. The Association argued that U.S. colleges and universities have sacrificed their independence and integrity by allowing the Beijing to set guidelines for academic staff, curriculum design, and the boundaries of debate. “Confucius Institutes function as an arm of the Chinese state and are allowed to ignore academic freedom,” the statement said. “Most agreements establishing Confucius Institutes feature nondisclosure clauses and unacceptable concessions to the political aims and practices of the government of China.” Universities have embraced Confucius Institutes as a cost-effective way to expand Chinese language and culture instruction. The heavily subsidized program, begun in 2004 in Seoul, South Korea, has grown to include more than 400 institutes in over 100 countries.

[Editor’s Note: Last December, the Canadian Association of University Teachers released a similar statement calling on universities to sever ties with Confucius institutes. In 2012, McMaster University in Ontario, Canada decided to close its Institute after a teacher filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario accusing the university of discriminatory hiring practices. Sonia Zhao alleged that by requiring her to conceal her association with Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China, the university was “giving legitimation to discrimination.”]

June 19:

Chongqing has opened the last of seven pilot carbon-trading markets around China. In 2011 Beijing approved trading schemes in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Guangdong and Hubei under which Chinese enterprises that produce high emissions can buy unused quotas on the market from those that pollute less. In exchange for companies’ participation, Beijing will encourage state banks to offer preferential loans. Chongqing has selected 254 companies with carbon dioxide emissions exceeding 20,000 metric tons each per year for trading. Within half an hour after the trading started, sixteen transactions worth more than 4.45 million yuan ($723,577) and involving gas emission quotas of 145,000 metric tons were conducted, the official Global Timesreports. As of May 23, Chinese enterprises have traded over 3.85 million metric tons of carbon emission quotas for 125 million yuan, making China the second largest carbon trader after Europe.

June 25:

Chinese development corporations will help build 25 million square meters of housing for 460,000 Russian families by the end of 2017. “We’ll soon sign a memorandum of intentions with large Chinese construction corporations, which have expressed their desire to participate in the program,” said Russian Construction, Housing and Utilities Minister Mikhail Men. Men added that Russian companies were regarded as “priority contractors,” and that Chinese developers would not be admitted to all regions. Russian Vice-Premier Igor Shuvalov said one major Chinese developer had offered to build affordable housing 15% cheaper than Russian construction firms, Russia’s ITAR-TASS reports.