China Reform Monitor: No. 801

December 25:

China’s domestic military forces, including the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the People’s Armed Police (PAP), are in the process of a major reshuffling of its military commanders, particularly in Xinjiang and Tibet. Following the retirement of Wu Shuangzhan, who had led the PAP for 10 years, Wang Jianping has become the seventh commander of the parmilitary police force since it was formed. Wang had been a division commander in the Shenyang Military Region and later became commander of the PAP Tibet Division. He is also an alternate member of the 17th CPC Central Committee, the Zhongguo Tongxun She reports.

December 27:

There have been a series of adjustments of high-level PLA commanding officers and generals in Xinjiang and Tibet designed to allow authorities to “undertake the heavy task of cracking down on ‘Xinjiang independence’ and ‘Tibet independence,’” Hong Kong’s Beijing-leaning Ta Kung Pao reports. Lieutenant General Tian Xiusi, who had been political commissar of the Xinjiang Military District for five years, was transferred to political commissar of the Chengdu Military Region. Tian worked in Xinjiang for almost 40 years in various roles including as the Xinjiang Military District Political Department deputy director and secretary of the military district’s CPC committee. Lieutenant General Shu Yutai, commander of the Tibet Military District, will serve under Tian as the region’s deputy commander. Shu, who had been Tibet Military District commander, will be replaced by Major General Yang Jinshan, director of the Chengdu Military Region Armament Department.

December 28:

Chinese state media and the Associated Press report that a hijacked Chinese cargo ship and 25 sailors have been rescued two months after they were seized by pirates off the lawless Somali coast. The official Xinhua News Agency said the ship and crew were rescued earlier but didn't say if the ship was retaken by force or if a ransom was paid. The De Xin Hai was the first Chinese vessel to be hijacked since China deployed a three-ship squadron to the Gulf of Aden last year, joining Britain, India, Iran, the U.S., France and other countries in anti-piracy patrols. It was seized Oct. 19 about 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) east of the Somali coastline.

December 29:

A senior Chinese police official has vowed “pre-emptive attacks” against threats to Communist Party control. Yang Huanning, the vice minister for public security, said the government faced undiminished risks to control despite fast economic growth, according to the official Xinhua news agency. In a speech on December 18, Mr. Yang singled out perceived threats from political foes of the Communist Party, including separatist sentiment in Tibet and Xinjiang. “Strike hard against hostile forces at home and abroad,” he said. “Strive to anticipate and prevent, staging pre-emptive attacks.” The warning suggests China will continue tough measures to stifle political dissent, control the Internet, and quell ethnic unrest, Reuters reports.

December 30:

Singapore’s first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew has said in a speech that some Chinese citizens are behaving “over-confident and assertive” as a result of the country's economic rise. He said Singapore has built up an unspoken understanding with China that will serve it well but must never becoming a satellite of Beijing. Singapore must keep its “own point of view,” or it will lose all effectiveness, he said. Lee also singled out, as chief among the milestones in China-Singapore relations, the 15-year-long partnership on the Suzhou Industrial Park, which weathered early bilateral disagreements to become a model for industrial parks elsewhere in China. “For 15 years…we've been training over 2,000 officials, we converted our rules into Chinese, had discussions with them in Chinese,” said Mr Lee. There are 500,000 Chinese citizens living in Singapore and the two countries are currently developing an eco-city in Tianjin, the Singapore Straits Times reports.