China Reform Monitor: No. 1143

January 12:

The Twitter and YouTube accounts of the U.S. military’s Central Command were hacked by Islamic State (ISIS) sympathizers who uploaded several maps revealing military bases in China and North Korea. On the Twitter account the hackers also posted what appeared to be U.S. military scenarios for China and the Korean peninsula, CBS News reports. Conspiracy theories were circulating online in China – one accused the U.S. of faking the attack as cover to reveal the bases’ location, while another said Beijing should thank the hackers for revealing Washington’s plot to attack China, WantChinaTimes reports.

January 13:

According to a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) report, the annual reports filed this month by all provincial-level governments and most State Council organs were “hollow without concrete content.” The report said: “Government organs should pay more attention to their faults rather than self-praise when reviewing their work.” Many of the government departments are merely “giving themselves high scores” and “listing progress and praising themselves.” CASS said: “It is meaningless for them to submit a yearly report praising themselves. Instead, they should pay more attention to responses from the public and identify their weaknesses.” The official China Dailysingled out the Central Commission for Discipline (CCDI) Inspection as lacking in transparency. “The CCDI emphasized its work by only listing achievements, such as conferences it held and the number of anti-graft cases it handled. The commission should also collect opinion and probe possible ways to solve problems raised by the public.”

January 14:

The official China Daily has called on Beijing to “consider establishing overseas military bases” in an effort to “deepen military cooperation with certain nations.” Although “Chinese leaders have always carefully avoided an overseas military presence,” the author, a CPC scholar, argues that: “economic considerations encourage China to obtain military bases overseas. For example, to ensure its energy security, China can obtain a staging post or access to some temporary facilities on the maritime route to overseas oil supply; for financial security, it can establish information collection centers in certain relevant states; for the security of its citizens or properties overseas, China can negotiate for temporary cooperation sites or emergency stations in the countries' neighboring regions torn by conflict. If the bases involve military personnel, the pacts should include clear, unambiguous clauses on their rights and responsibilities. It is better for China to station troops only temporarily and to shift them regularly, so as to be both practical and flexible.”

The official China Daily, citing Song Xinfei, a staff officer in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General Staff HQ, reports that, “the intelligence agencies of some foreign powers establish companies near bases or use sightseeing tours around military installations to gain access and gather information. A number of foreign-invested enterprises always seem to establish a presence wherever we relocate our facilities.” Song’s commanding officer, Ma Yifei, who is “overseeing military infrastructure,” said a naval base in Dalian, Liaoning spent “10 million yuan to erect a wall 800 meters long and 22 meters high to conceal its facilities and ships from the residents of a nearby array of European-style villas, and residents of several high-rise buildings near the base that provide a clear view of operations inside the perimeter fence.” On Hainan Island “an unidentified naval base continued to allow the construction of foreign-invested villas in a restricted military area, even though the provincial authorities had spent a huge amount of money on acquiring, and then demolishing, many of the houses.”

January 15:

Local authorities on the China side of the North Korean border are organizing civilian militias, installing surveillance cameras, providing patrol vehicles, and setting up a hotline to report suspected North Korean intruders. The measures come in response to a jump in violent crime from armed North Korean soldiers and border guards that cross into China in search of food and money. In recent years, North Korean assailants have killed at least 20 people in Nanping, Liaoning. The border between the two countries is separated by the Tumen River, which allows easy crossings when it freezes over in winter, the New York Times reports.