China Reform Monitor: No. 765

June 11, 2009 Joshua Eisenman
Related Categories: Human Rights and Humanitarian Issues; International Economics and Trade; Public Diplomacy and Information Operations; Central Asia; China; India; South Asia

May 19:

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) – a listed subsidiary of China's largest offshore oil producer – will look to develop natural gas deposits in the South China Sea, the company has announced. The PanYu 30-1 field, located at around 200 meters depth in the eastern South China Sea some 240 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong, was yielding about 30 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, said a statement on the company website. The daily gas production of the basin would triple to 93 million cubic feet per day this year. CNOOC has installed facilities including an integrated platform and three sub-sea pipelines and expects peak production to eventually reach 160 million cubic feet per day. Gas will be piped to an onshore processing terminal in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, the China Daily reports.

June 1:

M.M. Pallam Raju, India’s new Minister of State for Defense, said that India is keeping an eye on and seeking to counter China’s growing influence in Pakistan and other neighboring countries. "There is no shortfall in preparedness from our side in this regard. Chinese influence is not just in Pakistan. They are trying to develop a port in Sri Lanka and in Myanmar [Burma]. And we are well aware of all these developments. We are taking steps that Chinese influence does not pose a threat," said Raju. China and Pakistan have helped Sri Lanka in its action against the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam]. China is also helping Sri Lanka build the Hambantota port, which many in New Delhi see as part of Beijing’s "String of Pearls" strategy of building relations with countries along sea-lanes from the Middle East to the South China Sea.

June 2:

In a meeting with Zhang Meiying, vice-chairwoman of the National Committee of the China’s People's Political Consultative Conference, Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow has said his country will supply "up to 40 billion cubic meters of gas to China.” The China-Turkmenistan transnational gas pipeline, which is currently under construction and is due to be completed this year, is one of several joint projects in the oil and gas sector. Bilateral cooperation in the telecommunications, transportation, and textile industry are also underway, Russia’s official ITAR-TASS news agency reports.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the United Russia party have inked a treaty of cooperation in Beijing. Vyacheslav Volodin, secretary of the Russian ruling party's general council and deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma told Russian state TV Rossiya that the new agreement will increase cooperation in border areas, boost bilateral economic relations, and help Russia develop resources it can supply to China. "This is the first official and high-level dialogue between the Chinese and Russian ruling parties," Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee said of the agreement. The Wang and Volodin agreement signing ceremony on party-to-party cooperation was attended by China’s Vice President Xi Jinping.

In the end of July and early August, China and Russia will hold three joint military training exercises codenamed Peace Mission 2009. Lt-Gen Sergey Antonov, who heads the Russian delegation holding consultations on the exercise with Chinese counterparts in Khabarovsk, told Russia’s official ITAR-TASS news agency: "From the Russian side, a reinforced motor-rifle battalion and a paratrooper company from the Far Eastern Military District - about 1,000 troops with their standard weapons and military equipment - will take part in the manoeuvres. In addition to heavy equipment - tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled artillery - our side will use army, frontline and military-transport aviation. On a parity basis, about the same number of troops will take part from the Chinese side." Regarding the schedule for the exercises Antonov said, "The first stage - military-political consultations - will be held in July in the Far Eastern Military District. The second and third stages - the active phase of the manoeuvres - will be held in August in northeastern China not far from the Mongolian border. During the manoeuvres, aviation will be based at the airfield (about 250 km north-west of Harbin)."