China Reform Monitor: No. 979

June 27:

China will be the first buyer of Russia’s anti-stealth S-400 Triumph surface-to-air missile system, but only after 2017 when an export version has been developed and the Russian army receives “the necessary number of systems,” RIA Novosti reports. Russia currently has four S-400 regiments – two in the Moscow region, one in the Baltic Fleet and one in the Eastern Military District – but plans to have 28 S-400 regiments by 2020, each comprised of two battalions deployed primarily in maritime and border areas. The S-400 Triumph, which succeeds the Soviet-era S-300, is a medium- to long- range missile system that can engage aerial targets including aircraft, drones, and missiles at up to 400 km and an altitude of up to 30 km.

June 30:

This month 9.15 million high school seniors took China’s college entrance exam: the gaokao. The test determines whether they can attend a university, and if so, which one. Once a student gets their scores they submit a list of universities. The universities decide whom to admit based on their scores. The gaokao promotes rote learning, hobbles creativity, and puts an immense strain on students. In one case students in Hubei were hooked up to intravenous drips while cramming, the Yangtze Business News reports. The China Business News reports that in Xian, Shaanxi a student’s family and teachers hid her father’s death from her for two months before the exam. Although it is intended to promote equality the test favors well-off urban students since a residency-based quota system makes it easier for them to get into local urban universities, which are generally China’s best. Last year a student from Anhui had 1 in 7826 odds of getting into Peking University, while a student from Beijing had 1 in 190 odds, or 0.5 percent. Harvard’s acceptance rate was 5.9 percent, the New York Times reports.

July 2:

Two out of the six Uighurs that tried to hijack a plane from Hotan to Urumqi have died from injuries and two others were hospitalized after “mutilating themselves.” On June 29, the men battered the cockpit door of the airplane with a crutch and tried to set off explosives before passengers, crew, and six plain-clothes police foiled their efforts. The Tianjin Airlines plane safely returned to Hotan 22 minutes after takeoff, the Washington Post reports. Authorities are investigating how the men – aged 20 to 36 and all from Kashgar – managed to get the explosives past security. Senior regional officials awarded the ten people who helped subdue the hijackers with 100,000 yuan each for bravery and the flight crew was given a 500,000 yuan group reward, the South China Morning Post reports.

July 3:

Authorities have suspended construction on a 10.4 billion yuan molybdenum-copper alloy factory after two days of protests in Shifang, Sichuan over the project turned violent. Tens of thousands took to the streets with banners saying, “Safeguard our hometown, oppose building the chemical factory” and “Protect the environment for our next generation.” Protesters throwing bricks, flowerpots, bottles and other objects broke through security and besieged the government headquarters. They destroyed windows, signs, a propaganda exhibition, and a dozen police cars. Hundreds of riot police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowds, injuring over a dozen people, the South China Morning Post reports. Late last year thousands protested in Dalian, Liaoning, forcing the government to suspend the building of another petrochemical plant.

Qiao Yu, a professor at Tsinghua University, has coauthored a report on the tax and spend policies of China’s municipal governments. After studying 81 cities (four province-level cities and the three largest from each province) the authors concluded “that just 8.6 percent barely met basic requirements of fiscal openness.” In a New York Times editorial, Qiao said city governments regularly release a preliminary budget, conceal the final revenue and expenditure statements, and hide off-budget accounts. He called for “a ‘sunshine law’ under which all layers of governments must open detailed fiscal reports, including both on-balance and off-balance items. Citizens resent officials’ use of public funds for trips, cars, entertainment and hotels.

[Editor’s Note: In May 2011, China’s State Council demanded central and local governments reveal their official expenses prompting 54 of the 98 central government departments to disclose 9.47 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in outlays. Although the nationwide figure remains unknown, several years ago the National Administration Institute estimated the total at 900 billion yuan ($143 billion), or about 20 percent of the budget.]