China Reform Monitor: No. 826

April 28:

In an interview with the official Zhongguo Xinwen She, former PLA Deputy Chief of the General Staff, General Xiong Guangkai, has called on the PLA to resolutely “oppose invasion, oppose splittism, and oppose subversion.” Xiong laid out a half dozen global problems of top priority for China including: financial security and banking, combating terrorism, information security, energy security, food safety issue, and climate change. In the face of these challenges Xiong said China’s top strategic concerns include, “the motherland's reunification,” “controversies with some neighboring countries on the question of territorial land and sea sovereignty,” “winning local war under informatized conditions,” and “peacekeeping and carrying out naval escorts.”

April 29:

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members – China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – are enhancing collaborative efforts to fight Islamism in Central Asia. Director of the SCO’s Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) executive committee, Zhenisbek Zhumanbekov, said members would “improve cooperation and exchange of information about threats of terrorism, separatism and extremism;” known in Beijing as the “Three Evils.” SCO RATS anti-terror initiatives already underway include the regularly updated SCO Unified Search Registry, which includes over 1100 suspects. Zhumanbekov said SCO countries have banned 42 “Three Evil” organizations. The next step, he said, is to develop contacts with Interpol, and hold training courses and conferences to increase the “exchange of information to improve counter-terrorism legislation,” Russia’s Interfax-AVN reports.

May 1:

Over the last 40 days there have been five attacks on Chinese school children fuelling security concerns, an information crackdown, and widespread public rumors. Last week in Weifang, Shandong a Chinese farmer attacked children with a hammer at a kindergarten then burned himself to death. Most recently in Taixing, Jiangsu a man stabbed 29 children. State-run press had been closely covering the attacks but after the Jiangsu attack authorities banned all media coverage, including websites, from reporting or commenting on them. An official notice said that to prevent public panic or imitation all links to reports about the previous attacks in Nanping, Fujian and Leizhou, Guangdong, should be deleted. In Taixing, the media blackout led to rumors that some of the 29 children had died causing thousands to take to the streets in front of the local hospital, although no clashes were reported. Government vehicles with loudspeakers drove around Taixing warning people “not to listen to rumors,” the South China Morning Post reports.

May 2:

Upon the invitation of China’s People Liberation Army (PLA) top officials of the Indian army lead by Brigadier Y K Joshi journeyed to the boarder region of Ladakh in the northernmost of Jammu and Kashmir where he and PLA Senior Colonel Deng Guohua agreed to “contribute to peace, stability and development of the region.” Despite its inhospitable climate and terrain the Sino-Indian boarder has been highly militarized by both sides in recent years, to improve relations, border personnel meeting are held six times a year between Indian and Chinese military delegations, the Press Trust of India reports.

May 4:

South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Shin Kak-soo said Seoul has “expressed its disappointment” in the timing of the North Korean leaders Kim Jong-il’s trip to meet with President Hu Jintao in Beijing. Another South Korean official bluntly told Yonhap news that: “the [South Korean] government is not happy about the timing of Kim's trip.” Kim's arrived in China several days after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met with Hu to ask for China's support in dealing with the sinking of a South Korean warship. North Korea is coming under growing suspicion in the sinking of a 1,200-ton South Korean patrol ship, the Cheonan. The ship went down on March 26 during a patrol mission near the volatile Yellow Sea border with the North, killing 46 sailors. President Lee said the Cheonan "did not sink due to a simple accident," suggesting there was an attack.