China Reform Monitor: No. 1158

April 10:

Hours after Beijing defended its creation of artificial islands in the contested South China Sea, U.S. president Barack Obama said he is concerned China is bullying smaller nations. New ports, fuel storage depots, and two airstrips allow Beijing to project power into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia,the Guardian reports. “China is not necessarily abiding by international norms and rules and is using its sheer size and muscle to force countries into subordinate positions. We think this can be solved diplomatically, but just because the Philippines or Vietnam are not as large as China doesn’t mean that they can just be elbowed aside,” Obama said. Earlier that day China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the Spratlys islands would be used for military defense and to provide civilian services: “We are building shelters, aids for navigation, search and rescue as well as marine meteorological forecasting services, fishery services and other administrative services. The relevant construction is a matter that is entirely within the scope of China’s sovereignty. It is fair, reasonable, lawful, and is not targeted against any country. It is beyond reproach.”

April 12:

Turkish security forces have detained 134 people for illegally entering the country including six Chinese nationals, presumably Uighurs, Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News reports. Turkey has a substantial ethnic Uighur population, many of which have illegally immigrated to the country.

April 15:

A Hong Kong syndicate behind ivory smuggling is providing a “baby rental” service for HK$30 an hour as a cover to help its smugglers evade detection while crossing into the mainland. The tactic was revealed after a Hong Kong woman with a baby was arrested at a border checkpoint as she tried to smuggle 24 ivory products into Shenzhen, SCMP reports. Meanwhile, more than 50 wildlife protection groups have accused the Hong Kong government of “aiding and abetting an elephant poaching epidemic in Africa.” The groups demanded the government stop issuing licenses for so-called pre-convention elephant ivory. “Criminal buyers of pre-convention raw ivory are smuggling it across Hong Kong's internationally recognized border with China to feed an insatiable demand from the mainland’s ivory carving factories. Certainly Hong Kong is not the final destination for these raw ivory tusks,” said Alex Hofford with WildAid. In February, some 70 high-profile figures, including British naturalist David Attenborough, wrote to President Xi Jinping, urging him to outlaw the ivory trade, SCMP reports.

April 17:

Chinese police have shot dead two suspected “terrorists” on the border with Vietnam,Reuters reports. The men were part of a group of Uighurs trying to escape China that police discovered in Dongxing, Guangxi. Two escaped while they were being detained by police, but were tracked down and shot dead. Hundreds of people have been killed around China in the past two years in violence between majority Han Chinese and Xinjiang’s Uighur Muslim minority. The flow of Uighurs across China’s porous southern border has swelled in recent years and large numbers of Uighurs continue to surface in Southeast Asia seeking political asylum.

Satellite images taken on March 23 show China’s rapid progress on a 500-meter runway suitable for military use on reclaimed parts of Fiery Cross reef in Spratly archipelago. The facility would be large enough for fighter jets and surveillance aircraft. Paved sections of apron could be expanded to 3,000 meters. Images from another reef in the Spratlys show reclamation work on another 3,000-meterairstrip, while others showed China extending an existing airstrip in the Paracel Islands to the same length. The Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan have their own air strips in the area and several countries are engaging in land reclamation and construction, although nowhere near the pace and scale of China’s, the Guardian reports.