China Reform Monitor: No. 823

April 19:

Myanmar’s ruling military junta captured seven Chinese volunteer soldiers in a battle between its army and the Kokang tribal militia in special region bordering China last September. The men joined the Kokang – a Han-ethnic group within Myanmar – to fight against the junta government forces because they believe the region is part of China. Hong Kong’s Apple Daily reports that Beijing has refused to help secure their release.

April 21:

After the recent organizational reshuffle of China’s State Council Information Office, a part of the office known as Section 5 has been given responsibilities for “liaisons with online journalists.” Meanwhile the newly added Section 9 “will be responsible for supervising and shaping China's Internet culture,” the Beijing-owned Hong Kong daily Ta Kung Pao reports.

April 23:

About a dozen disgruntled villagers in Emei Mountain, Sichuan, angry at the authorities for forcibly acquisitioning their houses for a tourist project, set themselves on fire at a famous tourist spot. Eight sustained injuries, one died, Ming Pao reports. According to a city plan more than 1100 houses in five towns which included the villagers’ homes will be demolished to build a tourism project between Sichuan’s top tourist attractions, Emei Mountain and the Giant Stone Buddha at Leshan. The project was temporarily shelved due to villagers’ protests but it was resumed in February. Stretching more than 33 hectares and costing about 2 billion yuan, the project includes a complex of luxury hotels, resorts, clubs and parks. The official Shanghai Daily reports that the land was auctioned in 2007 for over 62 million yuan, but did not mention how much of that sum went to compensate displaced villagers.

Over a hundred lawyers and rights activists in Beijing have come together in a rare display of coordinated social disobedience calling for due process in China’s legal system. They protested outside the Beijing Judiciary Bureau where the cases of lawyers Tan Jitian and Liu Wei were being heard. Tan and Liu were disqualified for serving as defense lawyers for Falun Gong practitioners and a man who killed six Shanghai police officers. Beijing police detained about twenty protesters, Ming Pao reports.

April 24:

China is building the world’s highest damn at 3,260 meters on the Brahmaputra river in Zangmu, Tibet and will build four other dams in the valley between Jiacha and Sangro counties. The total capacity of the dams is expected to surpass the gigantic Three Gorges Dam with over 500 megawatts of electricity earmarked for Guangdong and Hong Kong. Electricity will also be sold to Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, Laos and Cambodia. Because of the area’s altitude and extreme weather conditions special materials and technologies developed by the Chinese space agency will be used. India is worried the dams will reduce the water flow and hurt the Himalayas ecosystem. Agriculture and industry in India’s north-eastern states depend on the river. The project will also give China direct control over more than 90,000 square meters of land also claimed by India, Asia News reports.

After 15 years of iron rule Wang Lequan has been removed as Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang, Reuters reports. Beijing has chosen Zhang Chunxian, the Communist Party secretary of Hunan, to succeed Wang and urged him to "administer Xinjiang in a soft manner." Xinjiang will soon hold a cadres meeting to announce appointments and replacements in what many expect to be a housecleaning of those “found lacking in social management;” i.e. those held responsible for the July 2009 Urumqi riots. Zhang’s mandate from Beijing is considerable: “raise the living standards of the people of various ethnic groups, enhancing ethnic unity, maintaining the motherland's reunification, and safeguarding the state's security." Wang will head to Beijing for various posts including deputy secretary of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the CPC Central Committee, deputy head of the State Council Leading Group for Western Region Development, and deputy secretary of the powerful Central Commission of Political Science and Law headed by Zhou Yongkang, Ming Pao and Xinhua report.

[Editor’s Note: The 57-year-old Zhang was minister of transportation in 2002 at the age of 49, and was the youngest minister at the time. Three years later he was appointed secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee. There are rumors he may be promoted at the 18th CPC National Party Congress in 2012.]