February 6:
Just after midnight, the Information Office of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region opened access to 27 select websites outside the region deemed to be “highly useful and well liked.” Most of the websites are links to Chinese state-run media, shopping, and travel including China Radio International, China Central Television, Ctrip, and Air China. Following the July 5th riots in Urumqi, authorities imposed tight control of the Internet, mobile phone messaging, and other forms of communication in order to “calm and stabilize the situation.” On December 29, Xinjiang first restored limited browsing of the People’s Daily and Xinhua, followed by Sina and Sohu on January 10th. Authorities have announced that they plan to gradually open access to other Internet sites, the official Xinhua reports. An English summary of this story appeared in the Agence France Presse.
February 8:
India is intensifying military cooperation with Nepal and Bhutan to counterbalance China’s growing military prowess. India helped establish and equip the Bhutan Air Force and has facilitated Russia’s sale of military helicopters and logistical support to the tiny Himalayan nation. Bhutan has also deployed Indian-made defense equipment along its border with China and New Delhi is building an airbase for Nepal. For its part Beijing is offering to extend the Tibet railway to Nepal and send thousands of tourists to Katmandu, but in return wants assurances that Tibetan separatists won’t operate from Nepal. “The struggle between pro-India and pro-China forces in Katmandu is at a critical stage and Beijing needs to pay more attention to its interests there,” said Dai Bing, a Chinese military analyst, in comments carried by India’s Economic Times.
February 9:
In what is being taken by Hanoi as direct challenge, the Danang border guard high command said hundreds of Chinese fishing boats penetrated into Vietnam's territorial waters between January 29 and February 2, the Phap Luat Thanh pho Ho Chi Minh newspaper reports. Local border guards themselves identified 30 Chinese fishing boats offshore only 45 nautical miles from Danang city and Thua Thien Hue province's coastlines. In late January approximately 100 Chinese vessels were sighted offshore adjacent from Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue provinces. Last year, Hanoi said China’s navy arrested 17 Vietnamese fishing boats and 210 fishermen from Quang Ngai province.
Russia's trade representative in China, Sergey Tsyplakov, said that China-Russia trade was $38.8 billion dollars in 2009– down 31.8 percent from 2008. Russia has fallen to 14th place among China's trade partners, accounting for only 1.7 percent of China's total foreign trade. Russian exports to China fell to $21.3 billion dollars (a decrease of 10.7 percent), and Russian imports from China were only $17.5 billion dollars (a decrease of 47.1 percent). The precipitous drop in overall value Russian exports to China – caused largely by a drop in commodity prices – was offset by a 31 percent increase in Russian oil sales, to top the 15 million-ton-mark, and major deliveries of Russian coal, which started last year, Russia’s state news agency ITAR-TASS reports.
February 10:
India is on the verge of entering the club of nations possessing Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Three days after successfully test firing its nuclear-capable Agni-III ballistic missile, which have a range of over 2,500 km, India announced plans to a test its 5,000 km range Agni-V ballistic missile before year’s end. The three stage, canister-based Agni-V is road mobile, can be mounted on ships or platforms and can deploy multiple warheads to counter an anti-ballistic system. India's Defense Research and Development Organization Chief V. K. Saraswat said that with "Agni III and Agni V, as far as cities in China and Pakistan are concerned, there will be no target that we want to hit but can't hit." Agni program Director Avinash Chander said in terms of "accuracy and technology" the Agni-III was superior to the China’s 2,500 km range DF-21 and DF-25, the Press Trust of India reports.
[Editor’s Note: A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman dismissed reports of India’s successful Agni III test. "China will not be a threat to India, and nor will India pose a threat to China," he said in comments carried by the official China Daily.]
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