China Reform Monitor: No. 1133

October 27:

The official Global Times has published photos, birth dates, and ID numbers of three “Taiwanese spies” – Lin Chao-wei, Hsu Chi-chun and Tai Wei-kuang – accused of recruiting Chinese students studying in Taiwan and then paying them to obtain intelligence. Citing “government agencies,” it reported that since 2009 Taiwanese spies have attempted to solicit information from 40 Chinese students at more than 20 Taiwan universities and encouraged them to enter government agencies after they return. Beijing requires students that study in Taiwan to report to the security agencies upon their return. A spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said: “Taiwan should stop such behavior immediately,” and claimed it “has seriously endangered the safety and healthy growth of the students, and is interfering with cross-strait educational exchanges and cooperation.” Taiwan’s National Security Bureau denied that it engaged in on-campus espionage or interfered with cross-Taiwan Strait academic exchanges, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reports.

October 28:

Drafts of China’s new counterterrorism and counter-espionage laws were submitted to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee. Under the counterterrorism law, an intelligence center would be set up to expand information sharing across government departments. It also includes provisions on internet security management, the transport of dangerous materials, and strengthens border controls. “But work in intelligence gathering is still insufficient and we need to work more on that,” said Xinjiang University’s Pan Zhiping. The new counter-espionage law will replace the existing National Security Law, which came into effect in 1993. It will target foreign organizations and individuals who conduct espionage, or who instigate and sponsor others to do so. Two weeks ago a court in Xinjiang sentenced 12 people to death for an attack in July in Yarkand that killed 37 civilians and 59 “terrorists,” the South China Morning Post reports.


October 30:

One and a half weeks ago, during an official visit to China, Nepal’s Deputy Prime Minister Bamdev Gautam promised Chinese officials that Nepal would need a year to “bring under control those engaged in anti-China activities,” Nepal’s Annapurna Post and the Press Trust of India reports. The pledge came after immense pressure from Beijing to crackdown on Tibetans living in Nepal. To pressure Kathmandu to follow up, this week Beijing sent a delegation led by Luo Sang Jiang Cun, Party Chairman of Tibet, to Nepal with a message: end ‘anti-China activities’ within a year and deport all Tibetans to China. The delegation met with senior leaders including President Ram Baran Yadav, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, and Unified Communist Party of Nepal Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Chinese officials claim Western countries are using Tibetan refugees for anti-China activities. Cun said: “There are no refugees. In China and Tibet, there is no violence or war to produce refugees, therefore those whom you are describing as refugees are not refugees. Those who come to Nepal as refugees are anti-China, they are supporters of Free Tibet, not refugees.” Nepal has already stopped issuing Tibetans ID cards.

October 31:

A new three km bridge over the Yalu River linking Dandong, China and Sinuiju, North Korea has been postponed “indefinitely.” The Chinese side “blamed North Korea for failing to build facilities for its part of the bridge as scheduled,” Yonhap reports. The project, valued at 2.2 billion yuan, “is delayed for nearly a year, due to various reasons,” said Zhang Hui, chairman of a Chinese construction company building the bridge.

November 1:

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport has begun handing out free cellphones and medical kits to visitors from Ebola-affected countries, with 98 phones handed out in the first five days. Recipients have to keep their phones on for 21 days so medical workers can track them. “People who fail to do so will be put on our black list upon their next trip to China,” an airport official said in comments carried by the South China Morning Post In the first nine months of 2014, city border checkpoints recorded 430,000 arrivals and exits by Africans. To allay rumors that there a half million Africans living in Guangzhou, deputy mayor Xie Xiaodan said: “There has been a misunderstanding. The count is about visits and exits, not the number of residents.” Only about 16,000 Africans live in Guangzhou and most arrivals were people coming for short buying trips. China’s visa policies remained unchanged, Xie said.