January 4:
Ugandan President Museveni has blocked an additional loan to China’s Huawei Technologies for a fiber optic cable project after an audit by Ernst & Young revealed “the project price was grossly inflated,” the Daily Monitor reports. A letter from the Auditor General said the project, which was supported with a loan from Exim Bank of China, suffered from poor procurement practices and low quality. During the implementation of the first two phases of the project, $41.9 million was lost “due to the purchase of unnecessary equipment” and the inflated cost of fiber optic cable, which was “significantly higher than that for many of the local operators.”
January 5:
A North Korean army deserter has robbed and shot to death four elderly Chinese people in their homes in Nanping, Helong, Jilin along the DPRK border, Yonhap reports. The North Korean soldier also broke into the home of another man, ate his food, stole 100 yuan, and wounded him, the New York Times reports. Chinese police and military personnel caught the soldier after a manhunt. An official Xinhua report saidthe soldier had crossed into China in search of food. In December 2013, a North Korean defector killed a Chinese couple in Yanji, Jilin and stole 20,000 yuan before being caught in Beijing.
The official People’s Daily reports that Africans like Chinese television shows. “More and more African peoples are gaining an understanding of Chinese society by watching contemporary Chinese television dramas, and becoming interested in China,”an English version of the article said. Currently only about 42 million households with televisions in sub-Saharan Africa receive Chinese programing out of a population of 840 million. With funding from the Export-Import Bank of China, China’s StarTimes Media Group is building an $80 million headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya including a dubbing center where Chinese programs can be translated with an eye towards selling digital TV packages in Africa. The five Chinese television series being broadcast in Tanzania were chosen by the embassy in cooperation with China’s national broadcast authorities.
January 6:
Two members of the Afghan Taliban visited Beijing in November “to discuss the possibility of opening talks with the Afghan government,” the Wall Street Journalreports. Qari Din Mohammad Hanif, a minister of planning in the Taliban regime ousted in 2001, and now a member of the Taliban’s Qatar office, led the visit. Taliban requests include amending the Afghan constitution, giving them control of government ministries, and removing them from international sanctions lists. In October, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani visited Beijing in an effort to bring the militants to the table, theWall Street Journal reports. Ghani recently suggested China would host negotiations: “We have prepared ground internationally for peace in the past three months. In particular, our measures with China are hopeful.” In December, Afghan and Pakistani representatives met in China for “track two” discussions about regional security.
[Editor’s Note: Beijing did not establish diplomatic ties with the Taliban when it ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, but maintained unofficial channels of communication. China has not taken part in military operations in Afghanistan, but since 2001 has provided about $250 million in civilian aid. In October, China pledged another $327 million in aid through 2017 after President Xi met Ghani in Beijing.]
January 10:
Nearly 150 people, including 102 Chinese, were arrested for illegal logging in Myanmar’s Kachin State near the Chinese border. During three days of raids on the illegal logging camps, a special team comprising military, forestry and police officials seized over 17,000 logs and 447 timber trucks. In April, Myanmar banned teak exports, but illegal logging is still rife in the border areas, The Nation reports. Myanmar’s Minister of Environmental Conservation and Forestry Win Tun blamed China: “I have requested that the minister of State Forestry Administration of China and Yunnan Province ban the illegal import of Myanmar's timber. Also, I have asked the Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar to end the illicit timber trade using maps and photos as evidence. Although the Central Government of China does not seem to support the illicit trade, the Yunnan administration prioritizes its people's employment and the supply of raw materials.” Furniture trade is booming in Ruili, Yunnan on the Myanmar-China border, and Myanmar timber imports are vital to China, where logging is banned.
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