May 11:
Xinjiang's new party secretary, Zhang Chunxian, has held a series of meetings with representatives from the Xinjiang Regional Military Area, Regional Armed Police Force, the Production and Construction Corps, and the regional Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Zhang, who was Hunan party secretary before replacing the hardline Wang Lequan as Xinjiang party boss, told his subordinantes that “the battle against separatist forces in Xinjiang is severe, complex and intense, while the basis for maintaining stability remains fragile. Please make an all-out effort in preventing and combating various separatist and sabotage activities” in comments carried by the South China morning Post.
[Editor’s Note: Zhang has a reputation as a soft-liner, so his recent tough rhetoric and meetings with Xinjiang’s security services and political leadership are likely an attempt to toughen up his image. Meanwhile, in a gesture of goodwill, Zhang also ordered the restoration of normal internet access in Xinjiang, marking the first full resumption of external communications in the region since deadly riots last July.]
May 13:
Russia today said it is ready to assist in the dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama to resolve the issue, India’s Press Trust of India reports. Russia advocates normalization of relations between Beijing and the Tibetan spiritual leader. “We are closely watching the developments in the relations between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in his report to the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament. “We are interested in normalization of the relations between Beijing and the Dalai Lama.” Lavrov also suggested another Dalai Lama visit to Russia was likely, but that “all the parties involved make every effort to cleanse the pastoral contacts of any political accretions, ” Russia’s RIA Novosti reports. The Dalai Lama last visited Russia in 2004.
China has developed advanced “meter-wave radar technology capable of detecting stealth aircraft in actual combat,” the Beijing-owned Ta Kung Pao reports. The technology far surpasses the Czech Republic’s "Vera" radar, which Washington once pressured the Czechs not to export to China. With the U.S. military's F-22A Raptor fighter, F-35 fighter, B-2 stealth bomber entering service, China’s top military leaders have become deeply concerned that the U.S. stealth air force gives it air superiority. At its core China's air defense system is built on a Russian framework, a fact Dai Xu, China’s Air Force colonel recently lamented: “When facing stealth aircraft the countries using Russia-made fighter aircraft and ground-to-air missiles may face the danger of completely losing the air defense system's efficacy in technological terms.”
May 16:
Ethiopia’s minister of Finance and Economic Development, Sufian Ahmed, has returned from China with “billions” in loans for several large government projects: a light rail line for Addis Ababa, a new Ethio-Djibouti Railway line, nine vessels for Ethiopian Shipping Lines, and the construction of 200 buildings in the Ethiopian capital. The city railway project, known as Light Rail Transit Project, will include two lines and will extend 300km. The Ethio-Djibouti Railway Line, which will include 656km of track, will be built in part by the China Communication Construction Company and China Railway Group. The construction of 200 Chinese-designed residential buildings in Addis Ababa each 25 to 30 storeys high was delayed a year due to lack of foreign currency. Ahmed went to Beijing in part to secure foreign currency from China to import materials for the construction projects, Ethiopia’s Addis Fortune reports.
May 18:
