October 27:
The domestic Xinhua News Agency reports that the State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation and Qinghua University have teamed up to establish the State Nuclear Power Technology Research and Development Center. The center will focus on the research and development of key technologies related to advanced pressurized water reactors and over the long term is intended to become China’s premier fourth-generation nuclear power technology research facility.
October 29:
Burma and China are stepping up their military cooperation. Burma's top three generals met with People’s Liberation Army General Zhang Li, the vice chief-of-staff of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), on Monday, October 27,in Naypyidaw, Burma. Burma’s reclusive military leader, Senior-General Than Shwe, who frequently snubs visiting UN envoys, offered a warm welcome to General Zhang’s delegation. Second in command Vice Senior-General Maung Aye and chief of general staff of the Burmese army, navy and air force General Thura Shwe Mann attended the meeting and held separate talks with the Chinese general, according to the Thailand-based Irrawaddy.
[Editor’s Note: In August, Burma's Chief of Defense Industry Lt-Gen Tin Aye visited China and met with General Liang Guanglie, chief of general staff of the PLA. New York-based Human Rights Watch said that China has supplied Burma with advanced helicopter gunships, arms production technology, support equipment and small arms, including mortars, landmines, and assault rifles, as well as assistance in setting up an indigenous small-arms production capability.
October 30:
An Indonesian provincial broadcasting commission has closed a private radio station, Era Baru, for criticizing the Chinese government. According to monitoring by the commission, Era Baru, which broadcasts 90 percent of its programs in Chinese, aired programs in support of China’s outlawed religious cult Falun Gong. The chairman of the Riau Islands Falun Gong group, a shareholder of Era Baru, called the move “foreign intervention” in violation of the country’s 1999 Press Law, the Jakarta Press reports.
November 1:
The PLA Navy has begun construction on a second F-22P frigate for the Pakistan Navy at Hudong Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai. The ship, to be named the PNS Shamsheer when it joins the Pakistan Navy fleet in January 2010, is one of four that Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense contracted in October 2005 with the China Shipbuilding and Trading Company. In order to maximize the transfer of ship building technology, three ships are to be built in China and the fourth ship will be built at Karachi Shipyard, the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reports.
November 5:
Chinese Defense Minister General Liang Guanglie has met with visiting Indian Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major, in the southern city of Zhuhai. Both sides reviewed the ongoing bilateral military-to-military exchanges and agreed that "good progress" have been made, the Press Trust of India reports. They discussed the implementation of the MoU on Defense Cooperation signed during the visit of India's Defense Minister to China in 2006. As part of that agreement both sides held the first Joint Anti-Terrorism Training Exercise in late 2007 in Kunming.
Meanwhile in New Delhi, Admiral Wu Shengli, chief of the PLA Navy, is wrapping up confidence-building meetings with India’s defense minister A K Antony and his Indian counterpart Admiral Sureesh Mehta. General Wu also visited the Western Naval Command at Mumbai, the naval airbase at Goa, and the naval base at Karwar, which is under construction, the Times of India reports.
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