China Reform Monitor: No. 973

June 1:

Early this year China arrested an aide in the office of an unidentified vice-minister in China's Ministry of State Security for spying for the U.S. The official was detained on allegations that for years he was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide “political, economic and strategic intelligence” on China’s overseas espionage activities to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Although it is unclear what information he had access to, or whether overseas Chinese spies were compromised, the case could represent China's worst known breach of state intelligence in two decades, Reuters reports. “The destruction has been massive,” one source said. The vice minister has been suspended and is being questioned.

June 5:

Before arriving in China for a “friendly visit,” four Indian vessels including a destroyer and a supply ship visited a naval base in Yokosuka, near Tokyo, to hold joint search-and-rescue exercises with Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force. “Japan's Defence Ministry is aiming to strengthen ties with India through the drill to keep China, which is increasing its military power, in line,” Japan’s NHK World reports. Japan and India have held naval drills in the past, but this is the first time they conducted an exercise to improve strategic skills. India’s commanding officer Rear Admiral Ajit Kumar said the exercise is a good opportunity to work with Japan to improve “mutual operational skills.”

June 6 :

A China fisheries patrol vessel has been spotted near the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands in the East China Sea,Japan’s Kyodo news agency reports. The vessel, Yuzheng 35001, was spotted 37 km northwest of Kuba Island, part of the Japan-controlled islands. A Japanese Coast Guard patrol ship radioed a warning to the Chinese vessel not to enter Japan’s territorial waters and it departed soon afterward. The Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands are uninhabited islets located in the East China Sea between Okinawa and Taiwan, are claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan.

Fifty-five percent of 4,727 groundwater monitoring sites in 200 Chinese cities have water quality that is “poor” or “very poor,” Vice Minister of Environmental Protection Wu Xiaoqing said in comments carried by the official PLA Daily. Wu said the quality of the near-shore water in north China’s Bohai Sea, the East China Sea, Bohai Bay, the Yangtze estuary, Hangzhou Bay in Zhejiang, the Minjiang estuary in Fujian, and the Pearl river estuary in Guangdong are “extremely poor.” Among 469 stations monitoring water quality along 10 major rivers, including the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Pearl River, 25.3 percent recorded pollution ratings of grade 4 or 5, meaning that people cannot come in contact with the water. The water quality of 13.7 percent of rivers is below grade 5. Wu also said that 26 major lakes and reservoirs suffer from eutrophication, a process whereby excess nutrients spur excessive plant growth.

June 7:

China has 16 million people suffering from schizophrenia and other severe mental diseases, and services and treatments for them are inadequate, according to a Ministry of Health report. The report identifies a series of goals to meet by 2015 including the establishment of a treatment network for serious mental diseases to cover 95 percent of counties and cities nationwide; providing personnel specializing in mental illnesses to 90 percent of community health service centers; expanding formal supervision to 70 percent of patients diagnosed with severe mental diseases and regular treatment for 60 percent of such patients. Psychological crisis intervention teams will be set up in at least 90 percent of provinces regions and 60 percent of cities.

June 8:

“To protect its national interests,” over the next few years the China Marine Surveillance agency, a maritime law enforcement agency under the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), will receive 36 new patrol vessels. The agency’s vessels recently confronted Philippine warships near Huangyan Island (Scarborough Shoal) in the South China Sea in early April. “The ships fully exercised their duty to safeguard China’s sovereignty and maritime interests,” said Liu Cigui, SOA director. To protect China’s maritime interest it currently has more than 400 law enforcement vessels and uses a monitoring system consisting of satellites, airborne remote sensors and cameras, the official China Daily reports.