September 4:
A leaked audiotape indicates that Nepal’s Maoists sought NRS 500 million ($6.7 million) from Chinese "friends" to buy parliamentarians votes ahead of an election to choose a new prime minister. Both the Maoists, who called the tape a fake, and the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu, have denied the allegations. The nearly 20-minute tape has two conversations, allegedly between Krishna Bahadur Mahara, former Maoist information and communications minister, currently the MP in charge of the party's foreign affairs, and an unidentified caller who appears to be a Chinese middleman. Mahara says that “For 50 members, if we cost (sic) them, then the minimum is NRS 10 million per person.” The middleman suggests a Hong Kong rendezvous to make the exchange because “this is very sensitive and we don't want to have anything to do between (you) and the government of China.” Mahara was uneasy about Hong Kong, saying there are too many Nepalese living there and a visit would not remain secret and instead proposed Chengdu or Singapore, the Times of India reports.
[Editor’s Note: On September 12th a 21-member delegation from the Communist Party of China (CPC) arrived on a five-day visit to strengthen ties between Nepal's political parties. Headed by Vice Premier He Yong, who is also secretary at the secretariat of the 17th Central Committee of the CPC, the delegation, unfazed by the bribery allegations, met Maoist chief Prachanda, the Indo-Asian News Service reports]
September 7:
Zimbabwe’s Vice President Joice Mujuru has suggested that to “further cement the Look East Policy” the southern African country, which has no currency of its own, should adopt the Chinese renminbi. “Adopting the Chinese Yuan would be a logical step and could help solve some of the country’s liquidity constraints,” Mujuru said. China is now Zimbabwe’s biggest trading partner and buys most of the country’s mineral and agricultural produce. Senior Zanu-PF officials have welcomed Mujuru’s suggestion but economists are not so sure. "I don’t see why we should not use the Chinese Yuan when most of what we are producing in the country like our tobacco and minerals are ultimately being bought by the Chinese,” Mujuru said in comments carried by the Afrik News agency.
September 8:
Direct trading of China’s currency, the Yuan, with Russia’s ruble is scheduled to start before the end of this year, Xinhua reports. While visiting Moscow in March this year, China’s Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng suggested direct currency trading with the ruble begin as soon as possible. “Since then, China and Russia held discussions on this issue and reached agreement expeditiously.” When completed this agreement would mark the first time China’s has allowed foreign nationals to conduct unrestricted Yuan trading in their own country, a major step towards the strengthening of the role of the currency as a regional unit of trade.
[Editor’s Note: In April 2009 China and Russia both publicly urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to study the “creation of strong regional currencies and to use them as the basis for a new reserve currency,” Reuters reported.]
September 10:
At a Global Policy Forum in Moscow, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev contrasted Russia’s “developing democracy” with China’s more repressive environment. “We have good relations with China. But they have their own path which does not suit Russia now and did not suit it 20 years ago.” Medvedev said it was necessary to exercise caution when considering any restrictions on civil rights and liberties, “There are people who protest. This too is normal,” Russia’s ITAR-TASS reports. “We do not have a heavy atmosphere in society. I do not have the feeling that the air here is stale, that we live in a stagnating county, that this is a police state. I don't get the feeling that we have been thrown back,” Russia’s Interfax reports. Medvedev stressed that Russia’s government, “unlike governments in some other states,” does not censor the Internet. The web has its own rules, the president noted in comments carried by Russia Today (RT).
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