July 28:
Russian customs officers at the Zabaykalsk highway checkpoint adjacent from China’s inner Mongolian town of Manzhouli have arrested a Chinese man attempting to smuggle Russian Su-27 combat military aircraft engine components into China. Russian Zvezda TV reports that it is unclear if the man, who claimed the equipment was for “a friend who grows rice in China,” was “plundering military secrets or just a hapless smuggler.” The components for the multi-role, highly maneuverable, all-weather fighter-interceptor were found in the trunk of his vehicle. Russian authorities are still searching for the source of the stolen aircraft components. The man faces 7 years in prison.
July 29:
In response to China’s proposed railway network linking it with Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan India has released an even more ambitious plan to include its three South Asian neighbors in its railway network. Indian Minister for Roads, Transport and Railways R. P. N. Singh floated the counterproposal, which is aimed at “enhancing the regions trade and connectivity,” to the transport ministers of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) states in Colombo, Sri Lanka last week. Details of the Indian plan are being finalized by a multinational "expert group," the Kathmandu Post reports.
The 500-plus newly recruited ethnic minority policemen in Urumqi are being given “special training on stability maintenance.” Authorities are forming working groups of Uighur cadres from regional departments and bureaus throughout Xinjiang and sending them to five priority districts in Urumqi “to conduct intensive propaganda and educational work and to safeguard social stability.” The recruits will join a number of newly established police stations and security posts in “the city's priority areas and will reinforce the local security forces and uncover clues,” Zhongguo Xinwen She reports.
July 30:
India's plans to bolster its military presence along its China boarder by deploying its potent Su-30MKIs fighter jets at its Tezpur airbase have been delayed. "Tezpur's infrastructure is inadequate to deploy and operate the heavier Su-30MKIs,” a top Indian Air Force officer said in comments carried by the Press Trust of India. New Delhi plans to strengthen the airstrips’ and tarmac -- which currently support the MiG-21 – to permit the superior multi-role Russian-origin Su-30MKI as well, the officer said. On June 15, India transported four Su-30MKIs to Tezpur in anticipation of having the full squadron of 18 currently based in Lohegaon relocated there this year. Now those plans are postponed until mid 2010, when the runway reinforcement is to be completed. The slow delivery of SU-30MKIs by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. has also contributed to the delay in the squadron’s deployment, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reports.
July 31:
Pakistan’s Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Noman Bashir is at Shanghai’s Hudong Zhonghua Shipyard to take possession of the first of four state-of-the-art F-22P China-made frigates, PTI reports. The F-22P frigates are equipped with modern weaponry and sensors and can carry a Z9EC helicopter. The design and construction of four F-22P started in 2005 after an agreement between Pakistan’s defense ministry and China Shipbuilding Trading Co., Ltd. Three ships will be built in China and one in Karachi Shipyard, to boost Pakistan’s domestic shipbuilding capabilities, Bashir said. The other three ships are still under construction and will be completed by 2013. He said the ships "will contribute to the security of the Indian Ocean," and that Beijing and Islamabad are now "looking beyond the F-22P" in their military relationship, Pakistan’s The News reports.
Fifteen people involved in the clash between Han and Uighur workers in a toy factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong that sparked off recent ethnic riots in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region will face trial, provincial Communist Party chief Wang Yang said in comments carried in the South China Morning Post. Wang described the clash – in which two Uighur workers were killed – as a conflict between factory staff. Workers at a factory belonging to Early Light International (Holdings) -- owned by Hong Kong tycoon Francis Choi Chi-ming -- clashed on June 26 after rumors that Uighurs had raped Han women at the plant. The rumors proved to be false.
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