China Reform Monitor: No. 771

June 17:

In the wake of China-Russia trade talks in Moscow, lead by China’s Deputy Minister of Commerce Jiang Yaoping and his Russian counterpart Andrey Slepnev, the Izvestiya newspaper has published a scathing account of Beijing’s trade policies entitled "We Give Them Oil, They Give Us Rags." The publication said the forum “demonstrated existing imbalances,” and said that although China has become Russia's main economic partner, the “partnership still looks one-sided.” It criticized China’s export subsidies, which help Chinese firms sell Russia “electronics, automobiles and clothing” in return for “minerals, timber and metals.” “The Chinese can also not be won over with high technology products. Everything that is produced in the world, they immediately copy and place into mass production,” the pro-Kremlin newspaper wrote.

June 24:

China’s outgoing ambassador to Zimbabwe Yuan Nansheng has said Beijing’s decision to veto a U.S. resolution at the United Nations Security Council to sanction Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe’s cronies “provided a good foundation for the formation of the inclusive government." The U.S. drive to rally the UN community against President Robert Mugabe’s government flopped after Beijing and Moscow, allies of the Zimbabwean leader, vetoed the Security Council resolution to impose an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and place visa and financial sanctions on officials of the ruling ZANU-PF. “I do not think the inclusive government would have been established if Russia and China had not vetoed the U.S. resolution," he said in comments carried by ZimOnline, nothing that China “wanted to create a good environment for Zimbabwe.”

June 25:

Beijing authorities have stepped up their suppression and supervision of dissidents arresting scores of independent scholars, dissidents, human rights lawyers and human rights activists. Hong Kong’s Apple Daily reports that regime critics are now being subject to stricter and longer house arrests and surveillance than before the 20th anniversary of the June Fourth 1989 protest. The crackdown began in April on the 20th anniversary of the death of Hu Yaobang, former general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, when many dissidents were first put under surveillance or taken away by authorities. Last month the Central Discipline Inspection Commission directly criticized three influential intellectuals by name (Sha Yexin, Xu Youyu and Liu Junning) accusing them of "waging an attack against the party" and threatening them with punishment if they did not change their stance.

June 29:

Vietnam’s public security department is cracking down at the border after uncovering two heroin smuggling rings into China involving Vietnamese and Africans. In one case, Vietnam border guards arrested a suspect crossing into China with 349g of heroin hidden in his shoes. Based on his information police later seized the suspected Vietnamese ringleader and eight Nigerians and Zimbabweans hired to transport the heroin into China. Beginning last year, the Voice of Vietnam website reports, the suspects carried 19 shipments of heroin between 100g and 400g from Vietnam to China. In a second case police arrested a Vietnamese woman smuggling 700g of heroin into China hidden in shirt buttons. Based on her information the police apprehended two more suspects from Nigeria and the Philippines. The mules said they had made six smuggling runs into China since the beginning of this year and were paid $10,000.

June 30:

Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and finance minister Tendai Biti have negotiated a $950 million loan package with China, the New York Times reports. “It is available for the procurement of goods from China — that is my understanding,” said Mr. Tsvangirai’s aide. A senior official in Mr. Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change, said the lines of credit would include favorable terms for infrastructure projects and commercial incentives to buy Chinese goods. Zimbabwe’s government – a virtually bankrupt contraption led by Mr. Mugabe and his rival, Mr. Tsvangirai – needs about $8 billion to rebuild the country’s ruined economy.

Defense Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, who ran Mr. Mugabe’s violent re-election campaign last year, is leading a rival delegation of officials from the ruling party, ZANU-PF, to Beijing. “We will encourage and facilitate more Chinese companies to seek development in Zimbabwe,” said Politburo member Zhou Yongkang, who met with Mnangagwa. The Communist Party of China is ready to increase exchanges and cooperation with ZANU-PF, Zhou said in comments carried by he official Xinhua News Agency.