China Reform Monitor: No. 899

May 18:

In a statement released after a State Council special meeting on the Three Gorges Dam chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao, China has acknowledged serious problems with world’s largest dam project. “While the Three Gorges project has brought great benefits, there are problems that must be urgently resolved in the resettlement and wealth-making of immigrants, environmental protection and geological disaster prevention,” the notice said. “We must strengthen ecological protection and control pollution in the reservoir area and the prevention and control of geological disasters.” Hundreds of millions of people and much of China’s industry and inland shipping depend on the Yangtze. Upstream from the dam water pollution and landslides are wreaking havoc, meanwhile downstream drought has caused shipping to stop, crops to fail, a shortage of drinking water, and hydroelectric plants to stall. Power shortages are now widespread. Water authorities in the middle reaches of the river have begun extra dredging work to prevent the problem from worsening and The Three Gorges Power Co., the dam’s operator, has been discharging extra amounts of water to help fight the drought, the Washington Post reports.

[Editor’s Note: A report published last year by the Ministry of Environmental Protection found widespread contamination of Yangtze tributaries and lakes with copper, zinc, lead and ammonium. New water treatment plants in Chongqing, the biggest city upriver from the dam, have helped but not eliminated the problem, the ministry said.]

May 22:

The PLA is employing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or drones) “for reconnaissance along border areas where natural conditions are inhospitable,” Li Wei, director of the anti-terrorism research center at the state-run China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations told the official China Daily. China’s largest drone, the ASN-229 A, has a 2,000 km operating radius, and is satellite-guided. UAVs are being used in Tibet and Xinjiang to monitor separatist Uighur groups and spot Islamist militants sneaking into Kashgar. Representatives of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, one of China's biggest UAV manufacturers, said they would play an even bigger role in China’s future anti-terrorism missions. India’s The Hindu reports that officers of its Indo-Tibetan Border Police force have spotted China’s drones scouting along the two countries’ disputed mountainous border region and reported that they are also on patrol in the Taiwan Straits.

May 24:

Beijing has denied a statement by Pakistan’s defense minister Ahmad Mukhtar that claimed China would take control of the Gwadar port and invited the People’s Liberation Army to build a naval base there. Pakistan's Dawn News reports Mukhtar made the statement after visiting Beijing with the Pakistani Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani. The Gwadar port was built in 2007 with $200 million in Chinese largesse and Islamabad has since been asking Beijing to put up more money to expand its capabilities. Mukhtar claimed that China had “acceded to Pakistan's request to take over operations (of the Gwadar port).” But, he said, Pakistan would be “more grateful to the Chinese if they agree to build a naval base at Gwadar.” A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman quoted in the Dawn of Pakistan responded: “Regarding the specific China-Pakistan cooperative project, I have not heard of it. It’s my understanding that during the visit last week this issue was not touched upon.” The statement comes after 10 Pakistani army officers died and an undisclosed number of Chinese technicians were kidnapped during a 16-hour Taliban siege on a naval base in Karachi, Pakistan. Pakistani officials also said that in talks, Beijing agreed to speed up delivery of jointly developed fighter aircraft, The New York Times reports.

May 27:

At a hearing on Commerce Secretary Gary Locke’s nomination to be ambassador to China, Senator Robert Menendez said that 40 Senators would sign a letter to President Barack Obama urging the sale of F-16s to Taiwan. Without the sale, “we will leave Taiwan in a position that is, I think, indefensible at the end of the day. And to me that will only exacerbate the situation,” Menendez said. Menendez urged Locke to be an advocate within the Obama administration for sale of F-16s to Taiwan. “The United States stands with Taiwan to ensure that it can defend itself and that its self-defense capabilities are never eroded,” Locke said. According to Channel News Asia, last year the U.S. approved $6.4 billion in weapons for Taiwan, including Patriot missiles and Black Hawk helicopters, but not the F-16s repeatedly sought by Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou.