December 22:
China’s Foreign Ministry has refused to confirm Russian media reports that next year both countries will hold the “Peace Mission 2011” joint drill, involving land, sea and air forces, in the far Eastern Sino-Russian border region and the Sea of Japan. The Peace Mission 2011, which is due to be launched next summer, would be the largest and most extensive China-Russia joint military exercise since 2005, the South China Morning Post reports. China staged several unilateral drills in the Yellow Sea region in July and August.
December 25:
In an interview with Hong Kong’s Ming Pao, Lin Xiangao, a priest at an underground Protestant church in Guangzhou, said Christians would rather attend his church over the official church because of its “attraction to common people who want close relationships with other members.” Beijing considers members of underground Protestant church akin to political dissidents. Lin’s comments come as the China’s state religious authorities are attempting to expand their power over China’s Catholic Church.
December 27:
An estimated 76.5 percent of Taiwanese will voluntarily fight if their island comes under military threat according to a telephone survey of nearly 1000 civilians over the age of 20 across Taiwan, Deputy Defense Minister Chao Shih-chang said in comments carried by Taiwan’s Central News Agency. In similar survey in 2009, 74.5 percent of respondents said they would volunteer if Taiwan came under attack, Chao said, attributing the higher percentage this year to “successful national defense education.” The new program was put in place as the military is preparing to switch to a fully volunteer recruitment system and the poll was conducted to determine the level of volunteerism that could be expected in the event of a war. According to the poll, civilians between the ages of 40 and 59 would be most likely to voluntarily defend Taiwan, and blue-collar workers would be more willing than white-collar workers to do so.
December 28:
The prosecutor's office of Russia's Siberian Transbaikal region has launched an investigation into a blast at an oil processing plant that killed five Chinese citizens, Russia’s Interfax News Agency and the official Xinhua news agency report. Eighteen Chinese workers were in the pump station of Zabaikalsky Refining Company at the time of the explosion, three are confirmed dead and two are still missing. China’s deputy consul-general in Irkutsk, Luo Hui, said the blast was “an accident caused by the use of open flames in the storage.” China’s Consulate launched an “emergency mechanism” after the explosion and contacted relevant departments in the local and central Russian government.
[Editor’s Note: Although both Beijing and Moscow are playing down the possibility of criminal activity, anti-Chinese sentiment is on the rise among Russians in Siberia and in the Russian press. Many Russians see the Chinese as not only importing Russian raw materials but also serving as a cheap – albeit illegal – labor supply for Russia’s extractive industries.]
December 29:
China’s Central Military Commission (CMC), led by President and Party Chief Hu Jintao, has begun an initiative to “build a sound system for punishing and preventing corruption within the armed forces and promoting honest party and government conduct in the armed forces.” The CMC’s new directive, entitled Regulations on Implementing Inner-Party Supervision in Party Organizations Within the Armed Forces, “introduces a supervision system for overseeing policy decisions, reporting on the performance of duties and behavior, initiating inquiries, and handling petitions.” The goals are to “introduce accountability for violations” and “improve party building within the armed forces,” Xinhua reports. The directive “stipulated that conduct that is subject to supervision includes observing party and government discipline, implementing laws and regulations, and acting with integrity and self-discipline.” An abridged English version of the directive posted on the Ministry of Defense’s website said it included instructions to “supervise ‘key areas’ prone to corruption, including the selection and promotion of officials, the enrollment of new students for the armed forces-affiliated schools, funds management, construction work and supplies and armaments procurement.”
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