China Reform Monitor: No. 778

August 5:

In response to pleas from family members and provincial authorities, Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has contacted the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi to request the release of 13 fishermen captured by a Chinese navy patrol on August 1 in the South China Sea. Hanoi requested Beijing inform them of the fishermen's condition, the Tien Phong newspaper reports. This is the second time this summer the Chinese navy has detained a Vietnamese ship fishing in waters claimed by both countries. Chinese authorities are demanding the ship owner’s family pay a 100,000 RMB ($14,615 or 250 million Vietnamese Dong) fine for their release.

[Editor’s Note: On August 12th the Thanh Nien News reports Beijing agreed to release the ship and crew along with 12 other fishermen from two additional Vietnamese vessels also detained.]

August 6:

The Zhongguo Guofang Bao (China National Defense), a People’s Liberation Army newspaper, has published an editorial entitled "Internet subversion not to be underestimated," warning that Twitter and YouTube are becoming powerful tools of Western intervention and subversion. It warned that controlling the Internet was key to protecting national security and recognized the important role Twitter played in undermining the Communist Party in Moldova and uncovering vote-rigging in the Iranian presidential election. The editorial said the U.S. was behind much of the attacks and called for an “urgent strengthening of internet control to avoid the Internet becoming a new poisoned arrow for hostile forces." YouTube, Facebook and Twitter - which have been available only intermittently since last year - are now blocked.

August 7:

A row over anti-dumping measures between China and India is escalating. Bilateral trade has fallen 32 percent to $19 billion in the first six months of 2009 leading to accusations of protectionism. Beijing is protesting the 17 anti-dumping measures that India has initiated this year against Chinese exports including toys, textiles, chemicals and mobile phones. They estimate $1.5 billion worth of Chinese goods could not enter India between October and February 2009. In June, India announced a two-year 30 percent import duty on Chinese aluminum products, a five-year duty on Vitamin-C, and extended its ban on dairy products. The Indian Embassy in Beijing responded that Indian growers have sought access for 17 varieties of produce and China has only approved three. In the first half of this year Chinese exports to India fell 16 percent, while Indian exports to China fell 50 percent, Indian officials said. Falling bilateral trade contrasts the rapid trade growth enjoyed for much of the last decade: trade grew 34 percent last year to $52 billion, up from only $3 billion in 2000, The Hindu reports.

August 9:

China’s official government website has posted an article detailing Urumqi’s new policies to reinforce migrant population control by through a Myanmar-style housing registration campaign. Authorities issued a circular last week calling on all local businesses and residents to register all guests and report to authorities any suspicious activity. Work teams have been deployed to residential communities in the city's Tianshan District to ensure all residents are registered by the August 30 deadline. Those who fail to cooperate before the deadline will face severe penalties. Government posters accompanying the registration campaign say: "most of the suspects involved in the deadly riot had been living in rented houses, which were their hideouts from which to launch violence and terrorist actions." The city has already registered more than 300,000 people in 500 residential communities, said an official with the house renting management office.

August 10:

To improve efficiency and reduce accidents the Shanxi Coal Industry Bureau (SCIB) has launched a plan to phase out the province’s small-scale coalmines by 2011, the official Shanxi Evening Daily reports. All coalmines with an annual output below 300,000 tons will be shutdown to reduce the currently 2,600 operational coalmines to less than 1,000 of the most highly-mechanized. Each individual coalmine output is expected to grow from the current output level of 360,000 tons to 1.1 million tons. Under the plan Shanxi’s 2,200 coal companies will be consolidated into 100 and a few state-owned coal firms with annual output levels of more than 10 million tons will dominate over 80 percent of coal output, Russia’s Interfax reports.

[Editor’s Note: Two days before this announcement rescuers recovered three bodies and predicted the discovery of two more missing following a gas blast at the Futong coal mine in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Ten Miners were conducting repairs when the explosion occurred, only five escaped, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.]