February 11:
Dozens of youth in Sudan’s East Darfur State are picketing at the site of a Chinese oil company to protest their dismissal. The chairman of the youth committee that organized the sit-in told Sudan’s Al-Sahafa newspaper that the group, whose members were fired from the unnamed Chinese company (which is likely the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation or SINOPEC) are demanding their reinstatement and that locals be given preference for jobs over Chinese workers. He said the local security forces are mediating between the two sides but that the Chinese company has so far been unwilling to rehire the Sudanese workers.
February 17:
Authorities in Xinjiang have launched a “patriotic education” campaign against “illegal religious activities.” The Xinjiang regional Communist Party committee formally launched the campaign, titled “Modernization and Progress Week,” to spread its policies on ethnic minorities and religion, Radio Free Asia reports. The goal is to educate the region’s citizens about the law so that they became “new model citizens with a modern attitude.” The Communist Party tightly regulates the practice of Islam: it bans children from mosques, censors the wording of sermons and interpretations of the Quran, and considers the study of the Quran in an unauthorized location an “illegal religious activity.” The Japan Times reports that Hu decided to cancel the planned meeting because “the military is against the Japanese government’s plan to name uninhabited islands.” An opinion piece published last month in the official People’s Daily said Japan’s naming the islands “is a blatant move to damage China's core interests.” Relations between Japan and China have deteriorated to their lowest point in years after Japan arrested the captain of a Chinese trawler following a collision with Japanese patrol vessels near the Senkaku Islands in September 2010.
February 14:
China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has announced that foreign TV shows will no longer be aired from 7:30 to 10:00pm. Foreign TV series also cannot run longer than 50 episodes and should comprise “no more than 25% of programming each day,” according to the decree. Local TV channels are not allowed to show too many programs from one particular region, the regulator said, without further explanation. All foreign shows must be approved and cannot have violent or vulgar content. Stations that violate the new rules face “severe punishments,” the BBC reports. The rules are part of a series of new regulations on TV programming.
February 16:
Heilongjiang’s 2011 trade with Russia was $18.99 billion, a 154 percent increase over 2010 levels, the official China Daily reports. Heilongjiang-Russia trade represented 24 percent of total bilateral trade between the two countries. In January the province’s foreign trade reached $2.45 billion, with Russia making up 67 percent of that total. Heilongjiang shares a 3,000km border with Russia, that includes 25 trade ports. China and Russia aim to increase their bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2015, and to $200 billion by 2020.
February 17:
Chinese police have cracked two major drug trafficking cases in Yunnan and seized 12 suspects, including two from Myanmar. Six suspects were caught with 27 kg of methamphetamine and a gun in Fengqing, Yunnan. In a second case, another six suspects, five in Dali, Yunnan and another in Lanzhou, Gansu were apprehended with 20 kg of heroin. China has a zero-tolerance approach to drugs. Smugglers, dealers, transporters and manufacturers caught with more than 1 kg of opium or more than 50 grams of heroin or methamphetamine can be sentenced to 15 years in jail, life imprisonment, or death.
Want these sent to your inbox?
Subscribe
