China Reform Monitor: No. 969

May 11:

Between 20,000 and 30,000 North Korean women are “sex slaves” in China sold into marriage, prostitution, or forced to sell phone and online sex to South Koreans, Ha Tae-keung, a member of South Korea’s national assembly, told Business Insider. South Koreans are regular customers at brothels in China, which are often controlled by local ethnic Korean Chinese and South Korean gangs who collaborate to exploit North Korean women. “It’s a modern form of slavery where you’re sold into a forced situation for a price,” said Frank Jannuzi of Amnesty International. Female defectors make up about 70 percent of the 100,000 to 200,000 North Koreans in China hiding among the 2 million ethnic Korean Chinese. Some flee into the mountains where they struggle for food and shelter and to elude Chinese police and North Korean security agents working to find and deport them.

May 14:

The World Uighur Congress (WUC) is holding its annual assembly in Tokyo, Japan with 120 representatives from the ethnic group’s communities from more than 10 countries including the U.S., Germany, Sweden and Turkey. The four-day meeting of the Munich-based organization came despite Chinese opposition to Japan’s issuing its exiled leader, Rebiya Kadeer, a visa to attend the session. The organization seeks political independence for the Uighurs, who mainly live in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and also have large communities in some Central Asian countries. China sees the WUC as a separatist organization and objects to Japan’s hosting the assembly. Meeting participants will select its new leadership as the three-year terms of Kadeer and other leaders are expiring, Japan’s Kyodo News agency reports.

May 16:

Sixteen retired midlevel Communist Party (CPC) officials from Yunnan have circulated an online petition calling for the resignation of security chief, Zhou Yongkang, and a top propaganda official, Liu Yunshan. They accused Zhou, a member of the CPC Politburo Standing Committee, of supporting the fallen party leader Bo Xilai. Zhou and Liu both advocate online censorship, tight control of the press, and oppose calls for political change and cut them from news reports. Officials visited the signers to persuade them not to post the petition, claiming that “anti-Chinese forces” would exploit it, but they decided to go ahead. Shortly after posting, the petition and associated search words were blocked on the internet, The New York Timesreports. On May 19 China’s CCTV national news showed Zhou meeting with police officials and Liu welcoming an African delegation suggesting they remain important political figures.

May 17:

Unidentified North Koreans have detained 29 Chinese fishermen from three boats and are demanding payment for their release, the BBC reports. The Chinese were seized at gunpoint on May 8 in the Yellow Sea between China and North Korea. It is unclear if North Korean authorities or kidnappers seized the boats. One of the boat owners said the captors, who include both North Koreans and Chinese, initially demanded 1.2 million yuan ($189,800) for the return of the men and boats then later reduced their demand to 900,000 yuan. “We urge the North Korean side to guarantee the legal rights of the Chinese fishermen,” a spokesman at China’s Foreign Ministry said.

May 18:

Chongqing has delayed its provincial party congress until June in the wake of Bo Xilai’s removal as party chief. The South China Morning Post reports that political jockeying for Chongqing’s top post among various factions caused the delay. Since Bo’s removal, Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang has held the position, but his role is widely seen as transitional and Shandong party chief Jiang Yikang and Hunan’s Zhou Qiang are among the contenders for the post, which could also carry a politburo appointment. Additional leadership changes are also likely in Chongqing, including the removal of propaganda chief He Shizhong. China’s regional authorities are holding provincial party congresses in preparation for a national leadership change this fall. Guangdong, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Hainan, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Gansu have finished their party congresses.