China Reform Monitor: No. 887

March 5:

The Philippines has filed an official protest with China claiming People’s Liberation Army (PLA) patrol boats circled and brought their vessels “menacingly close” to a Philippine ship looking for oil near the Reed Bank area of the South China Sea, 250 km off Palawan. Manila sent two warplanes to fly over the location of the incident but the PLA patrol boats had departed before they arrived, The Philippine Times reports. China has long been at loggerheads with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei over conflicting claims in the South China Sea.

March 8:

The Jakarta Post reports that Philippine President Benigno Aquino III has arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to discuss the sporadic clashes that continue between ASEAN countries' naval vessels and China’s PLA navy patrol boats in the South China Sea. Prior to his departure Aquino said: “We need to come up with a common ASEAN stand for exploration that would be beneficial to all parties.” He also said he would press the issue this week while on state visits to Indonesia and Singapore.

March 16:

After more than 40 Wutong trees, all about 60 years old, had their crowns cut off to ready them for removal and possible relocation, the residents of Nanjing, Jiangsu came together to protect 900 others from the axe, the official China Daily reports. The first 40 were removed for a new stop on the city’s subway and the rest were set to be removed as part of the systems’ expansion. Many residents and children tied green ribbons around the trees to signal their support for efforts to save them, the official People’s Daily and CCTV report. Despite government assurances that some trees would be transplanted elsewhere, an online petition calling for their protection garnered over 10,000 supporters, some calling for a public protest on March 19. Many residents worry because in 2006, 68 trees uprooted for the construction of another subway line died after relocation. In Taiwan, a Kuomintang legislator, Chou Yi, also criticized the city’s government, calling on them to protect the trees “in the spirit of Dr. Sun Yat-sen,” the official Global Times reports. The government bowed to public pressure and the uprooting was temporarily halted and new plans will be drawn up, said Lu Bing, Nanjing’s vice mayor, in a TV interview.

March 17:

China’s ambassador has said Chinese companies are ready to return to Libya. The comments come a day after Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi told the Arabic service of Russia Today, Russian state television, that: “We no longer trust the West and therefore invite companies from Russia, India and China to invest in the oil and construction spheres.” At a meeting with Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi in Tripoli, China’s Ambassador Wang Wangsheng said “Chinese firms wanted to return to complete infrastructure, housing, roads and telecommunications contracts as well as to undertake other development projects,” according to the Agence France Press and a posting on the official People’s Daily online discussion forum. In comments carried by Libyan TV and its JANA news agency, Wang also said “one Chinese communication company has already arrived in Libya to start work.”

March 19:

A young Tibetan monk died after setting himself on fire to protest government suppression of Tibetan culture and religion. Rigzin Phuntsog, 24, immolated himself in Aba, Sichuan on the anniversary of the 2008 protest at the Kirti monastery, where at least 10 Tibetans died. A government spokesman blamed the monk’s death on treatment delays, saying police had rushed him to hospital but that other monks had forcibly taken him away and hidden him in the monastery before he died, the official China Daily reports. But the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said the monks had rescued Phuntsog from the police, who started beating him after extinguishing the flames, and took him back to the monastery before taking him to the hospital where he later died, Taiwan’s China Post reports. After his death, hundreds of monks and civilians protested near the monastery, leading police to beat and detained an unknown number of them before sealing off the monastery. Phuntsog’s self- immolation also sparked a demonstration in Dharamshala, India, the Dalai Lama’s hometown, where about 500 people gathered at the town's main temple. Speaking beside a photograph of the dead monk projected onto a screen, locals gave speeches to the chanting crowds who denounced government crackdowns on Tibetan religion and culture. This was the second Kirti monk to set himself on fire since authorities imposed a broad crackdown across Tibet and neighboring regions of China with large Tibetan populations following the 2008 unrest.