February 22:
Provincial government leaders from Heilongjiang have traveled to Russia to hold private meetings with officials from Russia’s Khabarovsk Territory to discuss the development of Heixiazi Island, a 200 sq. mi sandbar in the middle of the confluence of the Heilongjiang and Wusuli Rivers (Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island, and the Amur and Ussuri Rivers in Russian), Radio Vostok Rossii reports. Before the meeting, the regional economic development and foreign affairs minister, Viktor Kalashnikov, told journalists that China was developing its part of the island at an accelerated pace, while Russia was lagging behind. This year Russia has allocated $6.9 million over four years for a new bridge to the island scheduled to break ground in the spring, but the Chinese side wants to speed up the process. At the meeting, both sides also decided to proceed with an 18-month project to protect the island’s banks, GTRK Dalnevostochnaya TV reported.
[Editor’s Note: Heixiazi has been a major border irritant since the Red Army seized it from China in 1929. Under a 2008 agreement intended to resolve all remaining border disputes, China and Russia agreed to share the island. China has plans to develop its side as a tourist resort, complete with hotels and a free trade shopping area, China Briefing reported last November. Heilongjiang’s provincial government plans to invest $1.47 billion to develop the island and attract wealthy tourists from Russia, Japan, and South Korea – leaving the Russians to play catch up on their side.]
February 25:
A group of loggers were arrested in Russia’s far eastern city of Lazo, Khabarovskiy kray Territory for illegally harvesting forests in Russia’s nature reserves and selling them to China. The illegally logged wood was transported to Khor, Khabarovskiy Krai, where it was sold to Chinese nationals who smuggled it to China, Radio Vostok Rossii reports. According to Russia’s Interior Ministry, an estimated $413,800 in damage was caused by “up to four teams of loggers illicitly harvesting trees in the nature reserve.”
[Editor’s Note: Tensions continue to grow between Russians in the country’s Far East regions and Chinese who are investing heavily in Russian natural resources and quietly moving into these sparsely populated areas. In many cases trade and investment capital flows from China far outstrip monies transferred to these regions by Moscow.]
February 26:
Japan’s Kyodo News Agency and Ming Pao report that tens of thousands of residents of Lianyungang, Jiangsu pelted water cannon-wielding police with rocks and bricks, leaving one protester dead and more than ten police wounded. The riots broke out when the relative of a local Communist Party cadre, Li Jixiang, allegedly murdered his young wife, Li Rong, 27, and their two daughters after she confronted him about his marital infidelities. Locals were furious when Li was released without charge and the deaths were officially declared a murder/suicide and blamed on the dead woman. Riots began when local officials, escorted by scores of police, tried to forcibly remove the bodies from the woman’s home for cremation. Townspeople repelled the officials and police claiming they were trying to cover up the wounds that prove her husband’s guilt.
February 27:
As calls for a “Jasmine Revolution” continue to circulate in China authorities are tightening social control and hunting down those responsible for the postings. Beginning on February 20 the Communist Party’s Central Party School held a five-day symposium attended by high-ranking cadre about “strengthening social management.” There, Party Secretary Hu Jintao delivered a long speech on the topic, as did Vice President Xi Jinping and Zhou Yongkang, secretary of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the CPC Central Committee. After the symposium, central government ministries and the Beijing municipality issued orders to all levels to “maintain stability.” Officials are instructed not to go to crowded places, not to turn off their cell phones, and to keep military vehicles out of the streets, where their presence is considered a provocation. Meanwhile, there has also been a push to cleanse the internet. The five bureaus of the State Council Information Office responsible for news websites and the nine bureaus responsible for social network sites and blogs will take the lead, while the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and the General Administration of Press and Publication will assist in the campaign to root out those who initiated the Jasmine Revolution emails, chats and texts, Ming Pao reports.
