China Reform Monitor: No. 995

October 2:

China has completed a bridge to its half of Heixiazi Island (Bolshoy Ussuriyskiy Island), Russia’s PrimaMedia reports. After the bridge is opened the authorities of Fuyuan, Heilongjiang plan to open a year-round border crossing. They expect that over 1 million visitors, 1.5 million metric tons of cargo, and about 730,000 cars will cross the new bridge each year. It took less than 18 months for China to build the bridge. Russia is expected to complete a bridge to its part of the island in October 2013.

October 6:

Direct flights between Kabul, Afghanistan and Urumqi, Xinjiang have been suspended for the past four months after China reduced the number of visas for Afghans to 50 per week and required an invitation letter from a Chinese company. As a result it now takes 17 flying hours and costs $1,600 for an Afghan to travel to Urumqi. The head of the Chamber of Commerce of Afghanistan in China said without direct flights trade is reliant on ground transport through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan causing shipping delays. According to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Transport and Commerce if China increases the visas from 50 to 100 per week airlines will restart weekly flights to Urumqi, Ariana TV in Kabul reports.

October 7:

According to South Korean government data, China’s trade with North Korea has nearly tripled over the past five years from $1.98 billion in 2007 to $5.63 billion in 2011. China’s exports to the DPRK rose to $3.17 billion last year, from $1.39 billion in 2007, and its imports almost quadrupled to $2.46 billion in 2011, compared with $580 million in 2007. North Korea has allowed Chinese firms to mine its mineral deposits which helps explain why the North’s main exports to China are coal and iron ore, while primary imports from China are crude oil, gasoline and cargo trucks. The data underscore how North Korea’s isolation has increased its economic reliance on China, the Yonhap news agency reports.

October 9:

China will reform its “reeducation through labor” system, according to a senior official in charge of China’s judicial system reform. “The necessity of the reform has been recognized and authorities have done plenty of research and heard advice from experts and legislators. They are now working on a plan,” he said. He admitted that loopholes exist in the current system’s regulations and procedures but “stressed that the reeducation through labor system has a legal basis” and helps to maintain social order, the semi-official Global Times reports.

October 10:

China has released its first white paper on legal reform, the official People’s Daily reports. According to the white paper the Criminal Procedure Law amended in 2012 specifies that “except for few cases” a defense attorney may meet a detained suspect or defendant without being monitored, a lawyer can request the court ensure the public security bureau turns over all evidence. If they think the authorities or court staff are hindering their work, they can petition another court to examine the case. Some legal experts, however, are pessimistic that the new regulations can be enforced. “The paper does not lay out a concrete path directing the future of legal reform of China. It is an attempt to praise the current leaders. As the legal system is still operated under the party central committee’s Political and Legislative Affairs Committee, it lacks the apparatus to implement reforms,” Professor He Weifang at Peking University Law School told the South China Morning Post. Zhou Yongkang, who presides over the Committee, said in August that the judicial system “must give priority to the party’s cause.”