China Reform Monitor: No. 863

November 12:

The joint China-Thai marine training exercise code-named "Blue Strike 2010," which took place at the Royal Thai Marine Corps Sattahip Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, has concluded, according to a posting on the official website of China’s Ministry of National Defense. Although the China Daily said the Chinese side only mobilized 115 military personnel, they were from a crack unit: the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Marine Amphibious Reconnaissance Detachment commanded by Colonel Gao Dong. Gai said that the exercise included the combined “precision attacks forces from air, sea and mountains.” The joint marines drill began just after the end of a 15-day counterterrorism training exercise between Thai and Chinese Special Forces in Guilin, Guangxi. The two armies have been holding joint special forces training exercises since 2007 and their first joint navel exercise was held in December 2005.

November 13:

The official People’s Daily reports that Somali pirates have hijacked a cargo ship, the Panama-flagged Yuan Xiang, and its 29 Chinese crew. The attack occurred in an area outside the region where a multinational force including the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy is patrolling in the Gulf of Aden – one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The news comes only three days after the release of nineteen Chinese sailors on the Singaporean-registered cargo ship, Golden Blessing. After being hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on June 28 en route from Saudi Arabia to India, the men were held hostage by Somali pirates for 135 days before the Chinese and Singaporean governments and “involved companies” secured their release. “I really want to thank my country,” said one crew member in comments also carried by the People’s Daily.

November 15:

Much to Beijing’s chagrin, Commander Admiral Agus Suhartono said the Indonesian navy was considering conducting coordinated patrols in the South China Sea with Vietnam. Jakarta is in talks about “conducting coordinated patrols with Vietnam to monitor and safeguard the two countries' borders in the South China Sea,” Suhartono said, after delivering a keynote address at a seminar “Positioning ASEAN Defense Ministers in the ASEAN Political-Security Community” in Jakarta, the Indonesian government-owned Antara news agency reports.

According to the South Korean government’s Unification Ministry, the number of North Korean defectors to South Korea has surpassed 20,000. Tens of thousands of North Koreans are believed to be living in hiding in China, which has begun to crackdown on them and strictly enforce its repatriation pact with Pyongyang. If sent back to the North, defectors face imprisonment, torture and sometimes death. North Korean defectors undergo three months of resettlement training before they become South Korean citizens. The government pays them a total of 6 million won in cash and partially finances their housing in an effort to help them better assimilate. Defectors receive additional cash incentives if they get jobs, but discrimination makes it difficult for them.

November 16:

Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou has expressed concern over China's continued obstruction of Taiwanese civic groups to participate in international events. “Our NGOs recently encountered harassment and obstruction from mainland China and this has upset many people,” Ma said in an interview with the Central News Agency. His remarks came after a Chinese delegation attempted to downgrade the status of the Taiwanese delegation at an international film festival in Tokyo last month. The conflict arose when the head of the Chinese delegation insisted that the Taiwanese delegation should be named "Taipei, China" or "Chinese Taipei" instead of "Taiwan", as was the case at previous festivals. Ma described the incident, which occurred on October 23, as “the tip of the iceberg” and urged Beijing authorities to carefully assess the negative impact of such rows. He said that "it would be difficult to improve cross-strait relations” if Taiwan's NGOs keep encountering obstruction by China at international events. “It took us a year and a half to negotiate and sign an ECFA (economic cooperation framework agreement),” Ma added, referring to the landmark cross-strait trade pact aimed at further liberalizing trade in goods and services. “However, these achievements would quickly evaporate if one or two other such incidents occur.”