China Reform Monitor: No. 818

March 22:

For ASEAN, unlike over the past four years under the chairmanship of Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, respectively, Vietnam will ensure the South China Sea dispute with China will surpass Burma’s troubles as ASEAN's biggest challenge. Since the signing of a Declaration of Conduct of Concerned Parties in South China Sea between China and ASEAN in 2002, the issue has languished. Absence of progress in the disputed areas, which cover the Spratly and Paracel Islands, “has now become the biggest sore spot in ASEAN-China relations,” the Bangkok Post reports. China’s growing strength has undermined cohesion among ASEAN states and divided them among claimants and non-claimants. Non-claimant members such as Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand prefer the current bilateral negotiations with China while most claimants, including Vietnam, prefer the issue be addressed multilaterally at the ASEAN summit.

[Editor’s Note: Meanwhile, in the South China Sea the Chinese navy captured another Vietnamese fishing boat and is demanding $10,000 in fines for the release of the vessel and its crew, the Thanh Nien reports. In August and October, China seized several Vietnamese fishing boats and their crews when they tried to shelter in the disputed Paracel Islands during storms.]

China’s Ministry of Defense spokesperson, Senior Colonel Huang Xueping, the Deputy Chief of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Television Network, and a Colonel from the News Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Defense visited Israel for meetings with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesperson Unit. Huang and his colleagues were briefed about the IDF School for Media's training system and Israel’s integration of public relations and operational planning. The delegation visited areas near the Gaza Strip and was briefed on the IDF activity there. They also visited the Israeli Army Radio station in Jaffa, the IDF newspaper (Bamahane) and the Home Front Command training base, the official IDF Spokesman website reports.

March 25:

Russia has announced the delivery of 15 battalions of S-300PMU2 Favorit anti-aircraft missile defense systems and four SU-83M6E2 control systems to China. The statement says the systems were delivered to China between August 2007 and November 2009 and today are protecting China's largest cities including Beijing and Shanghai. "This contract is unprecedented in terms of both the volumes of sales and the intensity of series production,” the Russian military news agency Interfax-AVN reports.

March 27:

Following three-months of anti-piracy patrols off the Somali coast Chinese warships are anchored in Abu Dhabi - the first time the PLA Navy has entered the Persian Gulf. "It fits perfectly with their strategy of using this anti-piracy work for broader goals of quietly building new strategic relationships," said Gary Li at London’s International Institute of Strategic Studies. Routine resupply logistics are one of the biggest tests for the China’s naval deployment, which began in January 2009. PLA ships are planning to enter more ports, including Kenya’s port Mombassa, Djibouti, Aden, and some Somali ports. Beijing needs friendly ports, if not full bases, to sustain long-range blue-water deployments, the South China Morning Post reports.

March 30:

China is expanding ties with its neighboring pariah states North Korea and Myanmar. First Secretary of Myanmar’s State Peace and Development Council General Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo met with China’s Minister of Commerce Chen Deming in Myanmar’s capital and pledged to increase bilateral trade, which Xinhua reports grew 10.7 percent in 2009. Meanwhile in Beijing, Xu Caihou, vice-chairman of China's Central Military Commission met with An Yonggi, director of the foreign affairs department of the DPRK's Ministry of the People's Armed Forces to “bolster the development of the relations between the two countries and militaries,” The People’s Daily reports. The day after the meeting a South Korean official announced that a visit to Beijing by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il “appears imminent” and that DPRK officials in China are working on the arrangements, which may provide a breakthrough in the stalled Six-party nuclear negotiations, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reports.