March 30:
There is growing public concern about a plan to build a China-Russia natural gas pipeline across Kanas Lake, Xinjiang – an area renowned for its scenery and rare wildlife along the mountainous China-Russia boarder. In 2006, China National Petroleum Company and Gazprom, the largest oil and natural-gas producer in Russia, signed an agreement to build two pipelines, including the west line that is slated to pass through the Kanas Lake area carrying 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year beginning in 2018. Concern has been growing, however, since a panel of Forestry Ministry experts gave the go-ahead for the 2000 km-long Chinese pipeline. Authorities have not released the construction plans to the public sparking anger and fear among residents and environmentalists who argue the project needs a public hearing and proper supervision. Chi Chongqing, the Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang's Tourism Bureau, defended the pipeline saying the project would have minimal environmental impact, the South China Morning Post reports.
March 31:
Dozens were injured after hundreds of paramilitary police with in armored vehicles dispersed a five-day-long protest by thousands of residents of Suijiang, Yunnan, the New York Times reports. China's construction of the gigantic Xiangjiaba Hydropower Station and dike on Yunnan's Jinsha River has displaced over 100,000 residents including the whole of Pingshan and Suijiang counties. Suijiang alone had to move 40,000 residents. Protesters blocked roads and threatened businesses prompting the government to call in hundreds of riot police. The Xiangjiaba Dam, which will be built on the Jinsha River in Shuifu County in Yunnan, involves a total investment of 75 billion yuan. The construction started in 2006 and it is estimated to begin power generation in 2012.
April 1:
In the wake of a recent crackdown on the Catholic Church, the South China Morning Post reports that authorities have now begun to target underground churches. The landlord for Beijing-based Shouwang Church, with about 800 members, was forced to stop renting the church venue for services. The church has been pressured to close many times for trumped up violations including “breaching fire regulations” and its flock has received threats. At one point, after the 18-year-old church was forced to stop meeting, parishioners held their worship in a park during a snowstorm. Meanwhile, in Guangzhou, Guandong, Tianyun church, with a congregation of about 200 was forced to cancel services this week and another Guangzhou house church, the Rongguili church, with a congregation of 4000, is under pressure after its landlord stopped renting it the premises. Authorities may see strikes against the churches as serving a dual purpose since many human rights lawyers and intellectuals who go to churches criticize the government.
April 4:
Prosecutors in Zambia will not to pursue a case against two Chinese supervisors who shot 13 striking coal miners with shotguns last October, Businessweek reports. During the protest, organized by the Gemstone and Allied Workers Union of Zambia, hundreds of angry miners marched toward a locked gate and as the crowd butted up against the fence the two managers opened fire. The decision not to prosecute came after the government itself brokered agreements with the wounded miners not to pursue the matter. Many Zambians view the episode, which occurred during a labor protest at the Chinese-owned Collum Coal Mine, as an outrage and symptom of the growing economic influence China has over their country. Chinese investment in Zambia amounts to more than $1 billion a year, according to the government of the impoverished but mineral-rich country in southern Africa, and most new construction involves Chinese-run companies. Government prosecutors had said the shootings (none of which were fatal) would be vigorously investigated and arrested the two Chinese supervisors — Xiao Lishan and Wu Jiuhua — and charged them with attempted murder, only to later reduce and finally dismiss the charges.
[Editor’s Note: Chinese businessman Xu Jianxue and his four brothers own and operate the Collum Coal Mine, employing Chinese supervisors from Leping, their hometown in Jiangxi. The supervisors speak little English or Tonga, the two languages likely to be understood by their 800 Zambian employees, who at the time of the shooting were paid about $4 a day to work under conditions the Zambian government said were unsafe.]
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