June 11:
The 600 km China-Vietnam expressway from Kunming, Yunnan to Hanoi, Vietnam is expected to open in 2013. The highway will reduce the travel time from over 12 hours to six or seven hours in effort to boost the regional economy. In 2008-9 China and Vietnam started upgrading local expressways and roads to connect the cross-border expressway. The project is part of Yunnan’s Bridgehead Strategy, which aims to build a social and economic corridor between the province and South Asia and Southeast Asia. Three other cross-border highways leading to Thailand, Myanmar and India are also under construction, the semi-official Global Times reports.
June 12
China’s National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2012-2015) aims to “improve the mechanism whereby the masses express their wishes and unlock and broaden the channels for people to make petitions in the form of letters and personal visits.” China will establish a national complaint-handling center and new systems for online, telephone, and video complaints. Cadres are required to efficiently read petitions and make comments or issue instructions concerning them. They must also receive visitors with complaints and visit localities. The plan also guarantees “employees’ right to be heard,” by compelling employers to discuss labor regulations changes with workers “to ensure that channels are unblocked for employees to express appeals.” The plan also strengthens “institutional guarantees for the legitimate rights and interests of news agencies and journalists, ensuring in accordance with the law journalists’ rights to be informed, to gather materials, to publish, to criticize, and to supervise, and safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests,” the official People’s Daily reports.
June 15
Guangdong will spend 12.3 billion yuan to nearly double the number of digital surveillance cameras to 2 million. Since 2005 Guangdong has installed 1.1 million cameras, but it plans to double that number within just three years. The hi-tech cameras will recognize faces and vehicle license plates, analyze the flow of people, and identify unusual gatherings. By 2014 authorities throughout the province will be able to combine personal data from the surveillance system with information from identity cards. The South China Morning Post reports that police will control 96,000 cameras, costing between 40,000 and 60,000 yuan each, to ensure that main roads and key public venues are closely monitored, while the remaining 864,000 cameras, costing 10,000 to 20,000 yuan each, will be installed at major state-owned enterprises, less busy streets, and public venues. To monitor vehicles, a further 2,750 high-definition camera clusters will be installed between Guangdong cities and counties. The province has installed more surveillance cameras than any other province. More than 660 of China’s 676 cities use surveillance systems.
June 16:
Sun Changmin, vice-director of the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission, has told theOriental Morning Post that all Chinese couples should be allowed to have a second child, suggesting a change to the “one child policy” will come “when the time is ripe.” In Shanghai couples in which both partners are from one-child families are permitted to have a second child, but if one or both partners have a sibling, they are restricted to a single child. Guangdong has also applied for this program. Sun’s comments suggest that as China’s population ages authorities will eventually permit families to have two children regardless of whether or not one or both partners had siblings, the South China Morning Post reports.
[Editor’s Note: China’s “one-child policy” is applied unevenly. Violations can result in fines of tens of thousands of yuan or loss of job if the parents work in government or state-owned enterprises. Recently the forced abortion of a woman seven months pregnant in Shaanxi province caused a public outcry. In some areas, however, enforcement is slack and if couples have a second child five years after the first they will not attract the attention of authorities. Registering each child’s residency (hukou) separately may also help parents avoid penalties.]
June 19:
Over the next three years the Bank of China (BoC) will provide 200 billion yuan ($31.75 billion) in loans to Taiwan businesses based in the mainland. BoC said the lending plan aims to help Taiwan enterprises in China “grow their business and promote cross-Strait economic and trade relations,” the official China Daily reports. BoC does business with more than 700 Taiwan-funded companies, providing them 170 billion yuan in loans over the last three years.
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