China Reform Monitor: No. 810

February 9:

After clashing with police over a water diversion project more than 300 villagers from Hengshishui, Guangdong stormed the town government building. A water shortage in the province, where drought and widespread pollution are a major problem, triggered the protest. Three villages have joined forces to stop Hengshishui's water from being transferred to neighboring Qiaotou, where upstream factories polluted the river. Many Guangdong cities, including Meizhou, Shaoguan, Shantou, Chaozhou and Qingyuan, have reported serious water shortages in recent years. The China: Elections and Governance website reports each summer, the Beijiang, one of the three tributaries of the Pearl River dries up. The other two tributaries, the Xijiang and Dongjiang, are also drying up. Six of the Guangdong protesters were injured and two police vehicles were damaged.

February 10:

The Beijing-owned Hong Kong daily Ta Kung Pao has published an editorial arguing that in response to Washington’s efforts to “sow dissension among the nations involved in the South China Sea conflict with a view to containing the rise of China” Beijing should cease demanding North Korea dismantle its nuclear facilities. The article, authored by Chiu Po, called for China to “offer assistance to the DPRK to recognize a nuclear program” as a measure of retaliation.

February 12:

Vietnam has adopted several tactics to counter China’s growing military and commercial presence in the South China Sea. Vietnamese lawmakers are likely to approve the long-awaited Law on the Sea in an executive meeting this May. Hanoi’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs drafted the code ten years ago but the approval has been delayed to avoid provoking China. All of countries with claims have already adopted sea codes – except for Vietnam, Vietnamnet reports. In December, China passed a law asserting control over the South China Sea islands, which Vietnam and other claimants fiercely protested. Hanoi, which holds ASEAN’s rotating chairmanship this year, is also likely to persuade ASEAN countries to join multilateral negotiations with China on the South China Sea, the official China Daily reports. Vietnam will also allocate more resources to develop the South China Sea islands, the TuanVietnam.net online newspaper managed by Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communication reports.

February 15:

India’s military is looking to counter what it perceives an increasingly aggressive China. Indian Defense Minister A K Antony said the country's army was raising two new mountain divisions in the northeast, along the borders with China. The two new infantry divisions, consisting of 1,260 officers and 35,011 soldiers, will be in place by 2012, the Press Trust of India reports. India is also deploying an artillery brigade for Arunachal Pradesh, basing two Sukhoi-30 MKI squadrons (36 fighters) each at Tezpur and Chabua in Assam and the building the 3,500-km Agni-III and the 5,000-km Agni-V ballistic missiles as soon as possible. New Delhi has also announced that by 2014 it plans to launch an intelligence satellite equipped with sensors to pick up conversations and detect espionage activities, The Hindu reports.

February 16:

To counter the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) deployment of fighters, helicopters, and drones along the unresolved 4,057-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) India plans to base surface-to-air Akash missile squadrons in the Northeast. China's massive build-up of military infrastructure has included upgrading as many as 14 airfields in Tibet, of which at least half are now fully-operational. Its Linzi airbase, for instance, is less than 30 km from the LAC. In response, by 2015 the Indian Air Force is looking to deploy eight Akash tactical air defense squadrons, with the first one becoming operational by 2011. With an effective interception range of 25 km and an 88 percent kill probability, the Akash system made up of supersonic missiles and a network of radars is designed to neutralize multiple aerial targets attacking from several directions simultaneously in all-weather conditions, the Times of India reports.