China Reform Monitor: No. 1169

June 11:

Hundreds of private cars using the Uber-like Didi Zhuanche privatecar-hailing app confronted dozens of armed police causing a 2km long traffic jam that lasted several hours in downtown Guangzhou. The altercation began between an undercover police officer and an unlicensed private car driver. Fearing a large fine for offering taxi services without a license, the driver sent a message to a social media group used by his fellow drivers. Hundreds of private car drivers across the city rushed to the scene, surrounded the car and successfully forced the police to let the driver go without a fine ,reports the South China Morning Post.

[Editor’s Note: Last month, hundreds of Uber drivers in Guangzhou came to the rescue of a colleague after four passengers threatened to report him for not having a license unless he paid them 20,000 yuan. Drivers are starting a fund to help colleagues that are fined by the authorities. “There are at least 30,000 drivers working with Uber and Didi,” said one driver. “If every one donates one yuan, that will be enough.”]

June 12:

Chinese and Russian-made lightweight man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) are “currently available in North Africa” and armed militants in Iraq and Syria “have acquired dozens.” South Sudan has purchased Chinese MANPADS while Sudan plans to manufacture a weapon similar to the new third-generation Chinese FN-6, which has improved range, warheads, and fuses, the South China Morning Post reports. A photo of a Chinese FN-6 reportedly taken in Libya suggests extremists have obtained the weapon. “China does not export weapons to non-state entities or countries and regions that come under the arms embargo sanctions of the U.N. Security Council,” said a Chinese spokesperson in the official Shanghai Daily.

June 14:

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is in Beijing to improve relations with Myanmar's most important neighbor. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy must convince voters that they can handle relations with China if they can win the election in November, the SCMP reports. While in China she did not press for the release of fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who was jailed in 2009 for the same crime that put Suu Kyi under house arrest in Yangon for 15 years until 2010. China’s leadership sanctioned her former incarceration in Myanmar.

June 17:

Beijing is implementing new legislation for its 6,000-plus foreign nonprofits. Under the draft law, which will be enacted this year, foreign NGOs will come under the Chinese security services’ supervision. They will require an official sponsor, police approval for all “activities,” cannot accept donations inside China, are prohibited from accepting Chinese members, and at least half their staff must be Chinese. Groups affected include professional training programs, public lectures, grant-makers, international trade associations and philanthropic foundations. WangCunkui of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences warned that some foreign NGOs working in China are devoted to “infiltrating the ideological sphere” and nurturing “Western agents.” In a joint letter to the Chinese legislature, nearly four dozen U.S. trade and professional associations (including the Motion Picture Association of America, the American Petroleum Institute and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) warned that the legislation would hinder China's economic development and harm U.S.-China relations, the New York Times reports.

June 18:

Pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong overwhelmingly defeated a proposal that would have given every Hong Kong citizen a vote for the city's next leader in 2017 – but with only pre-screened, pro-Beijing candidates on the ballot. The Legislative Council's 27 pro-democracy lawmakers had vowed to vote it down while the remaining pro-Beijing lawmakers pledged to back it. But as the chamber began voting, a pro-Beijing lawmaker requested a 15-minute delay, a request that was rejected by the council president. Soon afterward, scores of pro-Beijing lawmakers abruptly walked out, Reuters reports. With most pro-Beijing lawmakers absent, the vote went ahead, and with 28 votes against, and eight for, the Beijing-backed plan was defeated. “It wasn't planned. It was just an accident. Somehow the others didn't realize what we were doing,” pro-Beijing lawmaker Abraham Shek said of the walk-out. It was a rare instance of a local-level legislature voting heavily against a proposal endorsed by Beijing.