February 9:
The Central Military Commission (CMC) lead by Chairman Hu Jintao (who is also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC)) has issued a set of instructions to CPC Committees in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the official Huanqiu website reports. The new regulations call for “the strengthening of leadership teams of party committees at all levels with the focus on improving their ideological style, building strong party committee leadership teams that thoroughly carrying [sic] out activities to build progressive grassroots party organizations and seek to become outstanding Communist Party members.” The one aim of the campaign is to remind the PLA that “the armed forces always function as the people's army under the party's absolute leadership.” To achieve this end, the edict “promotes the development of party committees at all levels in the armed forces” and “party committees to play a core leadership role in the PLA.” In April 2004, the CMC first issued the “trial implementation” in an effort to guide the work of party committees at all levels and strengthen CPC leadership within the PLA, Xinhua reported.
February 10:
Beijing has officially remained silent on Egypt’s revolution and what it means for China and its interests in Africa. The Wen Wei Po’s editorial page, however, has commended the “restraint” of the Mubarak regime and argued that “it is in China's long-term interests for Egypt to maintain a secular regime that separates politics from religion, regardless of whether the regime is a Western-style democracy or directed by elite authoritarianism.” The Beijing-controlled Hong Kong newspaper said it was critical to “avoid Egypt’s plunging into chaos,” which would embolden extremist Islamist forces including the East Turkestan Islamic movement fighting for Uighur independence in Xinjiang. The newspaper called for China to “make all-out efforts to deal with the change in Egypt so as to safeguard its national interest and the interest of the Chinese people.”
[Editor’s Note: Over the years Beijing has become quite adept at switching its support during power transitions in African countries. The CPC has had a long and fruitful relationship with Mubarak’s National Democratic Party but will now have to build relations with those ruling parties that emerge in post-Mubarak Egypt.]
February 11:
Lawyers in China regularly face threats from thugs associated with local governments and/or corrupt courts. Most recently, the South China Morning Post reports that on January 24, six defense lawyers from the Heilongjiang Jiaxu Law Firm entering a courtroom at the Daoli District People's Court in Harbin were severely beaten by court marshals. Among the group were two pregnant women, one of whom suffered a miscarriage as a result of the beating. On February 1, the Political and Legislative Affairs Committees of Harbin and Daoli agreed to investigate the matter and on February 2, Xinhua reported the Daoli court had denied the court marshals beat the lawyers, but admitted “rough physical contact.” The two pregnant lawyers have sent an open letter to the All-China Women's Federation requesting the state-backed mass organization voice support for their cause.
February 12:
The Egyptian revolution may present an opportunity for Taiwan to establish a representative office in the North African nation, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reports. “Whomever Mubarak's successor is, there will be an opportunity for Taiwan to make a new push to establish a representative office there,” said Yen Chen-shen of National Chengchi University in Taipei. Since Taiwan does not have official representation in Egypt, the 500 Taiwanese stranded there had to rely on the self-governing island’s representative office in Jordan for help during the crisis. By contrast, Beijing-owned China Southern Airlines evacuated over 200 Hong Kong Chinese on February 1st on one of six charter flights out of Egypt organized by The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) amid the crisis, the official China Daily reports.
