October 6:
Some 800,000 barrels of crude oil have left Libya’s Al-Zueitina terminal bound for China, the first shipment since November 2015. The terminal is now being operated by Libyan laborers after foreign workers left due to security concerns. Zueitina is one of three previously-blockaded ports in Libya’s oil crescent region that reopened last month after forces after Khalifa Haftar took control of the terminals. Reopening ports has helped boost Libya’s oil production, which is still a fraction of the 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) it was producing before the 2011 uprising. The National Oil Corp. hopes to raise oil production to 900,000 bpd by the end of the year, Libyan Express reports.
October 10:
PLA troops permanently stationed at sentry posts along the Indian border over 4,000 meters above sea level are allotted "47 kinds of special medicines for altitude sickness prevention and treatment," the official PLA Daily reports. In recent years PLA plateau troops have received a greater "variety, quantity and quality of special medicines" to prevent altitude disease and as a result, the morbidity rate and number of cases of severe altitude sickness have been sharply reduced. The Health Bureau of the Logistics Support Department under the Central Military Commission has allocated "special medicines" to those temporally entering areas over 3,000 meters for combat-readiness training and drills. "The existing special medicines for altitude disease prevention and treatment will be upgraded, and the constant and fast and accurate supply of the special medicines to plateau troops will be enhanced."
October 13:
At a national meeting attended by Politburo Standing Committee members Wang Qishan, Zhang Gaoli, and Liu Yunshan, President and CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping announced that the Party has control over China’s 106 state companies. "Party leadership and building the role of the party are the root and soul for state-owned enterprises. The party’s leadership in state-owned enterprises is a major political principle, and that principle must be insisted on," Xi said in comments carried by the official Xinhua news agency. State-owned companies, which command nearly 40 percent of China’s industrial assets, ensure the CPC’s tight control over the economy, the New York Times reports. Xi called for enhanced supervision over officials at SOEs. By 2015, the powerful discipline and inspection commission, headed by Wang had detained 124 top executives from China’s state enterprises.
October 20:
Local authorities in Xinjiang’s Ili prefecture are requiring residents to hand in their passports and provide biometric data to get them back. "Please hand in your passports for annual review at the police station in the district of your household registration, or at the Shihezi municipal police department, after which all passports will be held by the police department," said a statement dated October 19 posted to the Shihezi municipal police department social media accounts. The rules require "biometric data," including a DNA sample, fingerprints, a voice-print sample, and a 3D body scan image, to be lodged with police before an application can be processed. "Those who do not comply will have to bear the consequences, which include not being permitted to leave the country. All future applicants for passports be required to present themselves at their local police station for the collection of biometric data."
October 22:
Investigators from the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) are conducting "political health checks" on government agencies and at least 60 Chinese corporations across China. They interrogate officials, frequently rebuke them, and "demand unflinching loyalty to President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party," the New York Times reports. The CCDI has become a political inquisitor, investigating the loyalty and commitment of cadres to Mr. Xi. This month at the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing, hundreds of officers watched as investigators excoriated senior officials for lacking "political judgment" and demanded loyalty to the center. "Loyalty to the party is the top political imperative," said then Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun, who vowed to make his officers "even more steadfastly and conscientiously" obedient. "The entire party must safeguard the authority of the party center," Mr. Xi said in remarks featured recently on the commission’s website. "The challenge that worries us most comes from within, from within the PRC and from within our own party. I’ve said there’ll be no end to this, because if there’s a backlash, there’ll be big problems," said Wang, the CCDI secretary, in a closed-door speech to inspectors last year. "We are very concerned about the expanding scope and uncertain duration of CCDI investigations, which appear to have extended nationwide and to practically every sector of the economy," said James Zimmerman, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
