March 15:
In an exclusive interview with the official China Daily, Wang Lequan, Xinjiang’s hard-line Party secretary, described a massive investment plan to help Xinjiang's economy “catch up with the eastern coastal provinces.” He said: "We can see the central government's determination to help Xinjiang - a region that has recently been under attacks by separatists - maintain long-term stability through economic development and improving people's living standards. The social situation can only become stable when the problem of people's livelihood is solved and economic development is the solution.” Investment injected from the central government and state-owned enterprises will jump sharply to “realize fast-paced economic development." The central government has also paired up municipalities and provinces with different areas of Xinjiang to provide large amounts of capital, technology and talent, according to Wang.
[Editor’s Note: For Uighurs the term “talent” may be a euphemism for ‘Han Chinese labor immigration;’ a major source of irritation within the Turkic ethnic minority.]
March 16:
Global Witness and the Environmental Investigation Agency have called on French shipping company Delmas to cancel a shipment of hundreds of tons of protected rosewood to China. The shipment was illegally logged from the rainforests in national park of Masoala - a World Heritage site - and other protected regions in the northeastern part of Madagascar. Since early 2009 political turmoil in the country has allowed thousands of illegal woodcutters to begin illegally logging Malagasy national parks, reaping an estimated $460,000 per day in the illegal rosewood and ebony trade. The Kiara, a ship operated by Delmas and bound for China, was sighted in port Vohemar loading containers filled with rosewood, an export banned since 2006. China remains by far the biggest market for illegal Malagasy wood, although some also goes to American and European customers, the Madagascar Tribune reports.
March 18:
Officials say five people have died from cadmium poisoning in Zhentou, Hunan but villagers say the death toll is over a dozen and that people are still dying. Since heavy-metal pollution from a nearby chemical plant surfaced last July thousands of residents have protested numerous times, clashed with authorities, and petitioned the provincial government for help. Now, the South China Morning Post reports, officials are reportedly forcing villagers to farm the polluted land. Meanwhile, a similar pollution scandal has erupted in Jiahe county, the province’s industrial hub, where over 250 children are suffering from lead poisoning. The cause of the contamination is thought to be the lead smelters and battery factories in the poor, mountainous region. One of the worst polluters in Jiahe county, the Tengda Metal Recycling Company, had been ordered closed at least three times since it began operating in 2007, but continued to operate with impunity.
[Editor’s Note: Reports of heavy metal poisoning have emerged across China’s rural areas in the past year. Last year, more than 2000 children were affected in Fengxiang, Shaanxi, Wugang, Hunan and Kunming, Yunnan. About 30% of children below 14 in Yunnan are suffering from some degree of lead poisoning, according to an official survey released in December by Yunnan's Child Lead Prevention and Cure Office.]
March 19:
Just three days before courts in Beijing were to begin hearing cases against four Rio Tinto employees for alleged bribery and commercial spying, the mining giant announced a joint venture in Simandou, Guinea with Chinalco, the Chinese state-run metals firm that it wooed and then jilted last year. The Simandou deal will give Chinalco a 47% stake in the massive African iron ore mine for $1.35 billion and will guarantee a portion of its output to China. The initial charges against the four men of stealing state secrets have been downgraded to stealing commercially confidential information. Despite Australian diplomats’ requests to observe the entire proceedings, those parts of the trial dealing will proprietary information will be closed. Meanwhile, this year’s annual iron-ore price talks have been frosty. Booming demand has prompted 90% price increases, which China’s steelmakers’ association, CISA, calls unacceptable, The Economist reports.
Want these sent to your inbox?
Subscribe