China Reform Monitor: No. 914

August 3:

Tensions are growing between ethnic Chinese and locals in Central Asia. Unemployed truck drivers in Issyk-Kul and Naryn, Kyrgyzstan, for instance, are demanding a ban on Chinese trucking in the country. In Torugart, the Kyrgyz news agency Vesti reports that about 300 Kyrgyz drivers stopped Chinese vehicles to forcibly unload their cargo onto their own trucks. Meanwhile, in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, the Avesta news agency reports that a brawl occurred between over two dozen Tajik and Chinese. The conflict occurred at the construction site of the National Library, which is being built by a Chinese firm. This is not the first time Tajik and Chinese citizens have come to blows. In a 2009 several were injured in a clash in Kulob, Tajikistan between locals and Chinese.

August 4:

Led by Vice Admiral Tian Zhong, commander of the North Sea Fleet, a PLA Navy flotilla including the training ship Zheng He and missile frigate Luoyang arrived in North Korea’s Wonsan Port for a four-day visit. Chinese dignitaries including Ambassador Liu Hongcai, and military attaché Sun Yanfeng, attended the exchanges, which were intended to reinforce the bilateral military relationship, North Korea’s Central Broadcasting Station reports. Chinese naval officers will hold exchanges and training sessions with the DPRK’s East Sea Fleet officers who will also tour the Chinese warships. Wonsan, on the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, is home to both DPRK navy and air force bases. The Chinese naval training flotilla arrived in Wonsan after sailing for two days from Vladivostok, Russia where it concluded a goodwill visit with Russian forces on August 2. Pictures of the visit were available on the official CNTV website.

August 5:

Throughout July, police in Guangzhou, Macau, and Hong Kong have conducted a joint operation codenamed “Thunderbolt 11” targeting triad gangs. The crackdown was carried out ahead of the World University Games - Universiade 2011 - in Shenzhen, which runs from August 12 to 23. Hong Kong police arrested 1,081 people, 8,442 people were arrested in Guangdong, and 279 people were nabbed in Macau. Officers raided 2,553 locations including gambling and drug dens, discos, and brothels. They smashed two illegal bookmaking syndicates and found records of bets worth over $15 million. Hong Kong police, backed by immigration and customs officers, confiscated over a million dollars worth of goods including illegal drugs, pornography, illicit oil and contraband cigarettes, the South China Morning Post reports.

August 9:

Over the last two years, authorities in Russia’s Far Eastern Maritime Territory have targeted militant groups carrying out armed attacks on Chinese nationals, Aleksandr Bortnikov head of the National Antiterrorism Committee and the Federal Security Service has said in comments carried by the Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency. In addition, over 20 foreign nationals, some with ties to groups that support Uighur independence, including The Islamic Party of Turkestan and Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, have been extradited. Right-wing extremist and nationalist youth movements in the Russian Far East, including the Slavic Union and the Russian Club, which employ violent methods to achieve their objectives, are on the rise. Preventing the recruitment of new members into radical right wing and religious extremist groups should be the top priority for local authorities, Bortnikov added.

August 10:

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has officially denied reports citing the Dalian Naval Academy that a newly-built nuclear submarine docked off the coast of Dalian was discovered leaking radioactive materials, Malyasia’s Bernama news agency reports. South Korea had expressed concern over the reports, which had gone unanswered for about a week.