September 11:
While visiting Shenzhen, Than Shwe, chairman of Burma’s ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council, has concluded agreements with China’s secretive Huawei Technologies Company Ltd. At Huawei headquarters, Shwe and company executives discussed joint projects in the communication and information technology industries and announced that: “Burma will increase cooperation with Huawei, ZTE, and other companies.” The Burmese leader told his Shenzhen hosts that banking and insurance sectors also offered prime opportunities for Chinese firms. Than Shwe welcomed Shenzhen entrepreneurs' to visit Burma in search of profitable investments, the official Zhongguo Xinwen She reports.
September 13:
The Hong Kong police have been censoring their reports to the media for political purposes. Reports involving senior government officials, disciplined officials, and mainland authorities illegally crossing into Hong Kong were among those police removed from the reporting system. In 2004, the Hong Kong police department began using a secure radio system to prevent journalists – and anyone else – from overhearing their radio traffic, the South China Morning Post reports.
September 15:
China’s Defense Minister Liang Guanglie and Chen Bingde, Chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have met with Swiss Armed Forces Lieutenant General Andre Blattmann in Beijing to enhance bilateral military cooperation. Blattmann praised the relationship’s development and “the close cooperation between the armed forces.” Over the last several years China-Switzerland have held regular high-level military exchanges including an annual defense dialogue, the official People’s Daily reports. A posting on China’s Ministry of National Defense website said Switzerland and China will “strengthen military exchanges and cooperation in personnel training.”
[Editor’s Note: Although Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, its neighbors are. The EU maintains an arms embargo on China imposed in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown that Beijing would very much like to have removed. As there appears to be no significant movement on that issue in Brussels, Switzerland is perhaps the only country with access to both European military technology and the PLA’s top brass.]
September 16:
Niu Yongbin, a lecturer at Jinan University in Guangdong Province has resigned and disappeared after giving a three-hour class and showing videos of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests, the Apple Daily reports. According to online posts, Niu, who in 1989 was a student at People's University in Beijing, called the crackdown "the biggest tragedy of the Republic." This is not the first time a Chinese professor has risked his career to teach students about the Tiananmen Square protests. Two years ago, near the 19th anniversary of the June 4th crackdown, Professor Xiao Han at the University of Political Science and Law delivered an unexpected final lecture to his class on the demonstrations. He also resigned.
September 17:
The quality of China’s more remote infrastructure projects has come under fire in the wake of a mudslide of over seventy million cubic feet of mud and rocks that left 2,000 dead in Zhouqu, Gansu on August 7th. Survivors are calling it a "man-made calamity" and pressing the authorities for the investigation results. Over 100 petitioners went to the Zhouqu county government to meet with the county head and push for progress. Representatives brought cement blocks collected from the destroyed dams, which they crushed in their hands in front of officials. The officials claimed that the investigation would take three months, which irritated the petitioners who protested, holding a banner for several hours. "The dams built earlier are in good condition, but those built in recent years have collapsed. Our loved ones have died, killed by the shoddy projects; we pledge to seek justice," said one protester in comments carried by the Ming Pao.
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