Timeline China 2000-2004
Return to home
2000 Jan 4, In
China the State Development Planning Commission announced that private
enterprise should be put on "equal footing with state-owned
enterprises."
(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A6)
2000 Jan 6, In China the
state-controlled Catholic Church ordained 5 new bishops while the Pope
elevated 12 prelates in St. Peter's Basilica.
(SFC, 1/7/00, p.A14)
2000 Jan 15, In China 5.9 and 6.5
earthquakes hit in Yunnan province and 4 people were killed.
(SFEC, 1/16/00, p.A25)
2000 Jan 18, In China the
Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang,
convicted 13 Uigher defendants of separatism, murder, robbery and
illegally dealing in weapons. 5 of the convicted were sentenced to
death.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan 18, Steven Leung (52), a
SF Bay Area entrepreneur, was found unconscious in a Beijing karaoke
bar and transferred to a hospital where he was diagnosed with
irreversible brain damage. Leung was flown home and died at Stanford
Hosp. on Feb 3.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.D2)(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A16)
2000 Jan 20, It was reported that
the number of Internet users in China had more than doubled over the
last 6 months from 4 to 8.9 million, most of them young single men.
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.C16)
2000 Jan 21, In China it was
reported that some 700 investigators had gathered over the last 2
months in Xiamen, formerly called Amoy, to investigate corruption and
the smuggling of some $9.5 billion worth of goods.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan 26, In China the State
Bureau of Secrecy issued a 20-article circular that banned discussion
of state secrets on the Internet, in e-mail, and in chat rooms or
bulletin boards. Content and service providers were also required to
undergo a "security certification" prior to operation.
(SFC, 1/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 27, The US and China
agreed to resume normal military ties.
(SFC, 1/28/00, p.D2)
2000 Jan, Li Jinhua, auditor
general of China, reported that $15 billion in public funds destined
for poverty relief and water conservation projects had been embezzled
in 1999. It was also reported that 14 officials were being investigated
for embezzling $57 million in funds intended to resettle people
displaced by the Three Gorges Dam projects.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.A25)(SFC, 5/6/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 10, Ji Pengfei, one of
the last of China’s old guard, died at age 91. His 6 children included
Gen. Ji Shengde.
(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A14)
2000 Feb 17, In China authorities
detained Chen Zixiu (60) for heading to Beijing to protest for the
Falun Gong. She was unable to pay a fine of $120 and was beaten and
died on Feb 21. The government denied mistreatment.
(SFC, 2/29/00, p.A14)(SFC, 3/1/00, p.A13)
2000 Feb 21, China warned Taiwan
that a prolonged lack of negotiations could provoke a military attack.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 25, The US sharply
criticized China for a marked deterioration in human rights.
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 27, In Louyang city Jin
Xiangwu stabbed to death 3 children after they failed to pay 30 cents
in his video arcade. Xiangwu was convicted and executed in April.
(SFC, 4/19/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 27-2000 Feb 29, Some 20
thousand workers battled police and soldiers in Yangjiazhangzi due to
loss of work and alleged corruption at a local molybdenum mine. The
facility had closed last November and in Feb. workers received $68 for
each year they had worked there.
(SFC, 4/5/00, p.A10,14)
2000 Feb, Rescue Bear 0001 arrived
at the Animals Asia Foundation in Chengdu, China. He was named Andrew
by the Hong Kong philanthropist who donated $1 million to create the
animal sanctuary. Andrew (15) died in 2006 from a liver cancer likely
related to years of being tapped for bile fluid.
(SFC, 2/16/06, p.A14)
2000 Mar 4, In Beijing 2,900
delegates from 32 provinces and regions gathered for the 10-11 day
session of the Ninth National People's Congress. During the session Hu
Changqing, a former official in Jiangxi province, was scheduled to be
executed for taking bribes worth $658,000.
(SFC, 3/4/00, p.C1)(SFEC, 3/5/00, p.A22)
2000 Mar 6, China introduced a
$111.1 billion budget that cut its deficit and added funds for military
spending.
(WSJ, 3/7/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 8, In China Hu Changqing,
former vice governor of Jiangxi province, was executed for corruption.
(SFC, 3/9/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 10-2000 Mar 11, Public
sentencing rallies took place in the Aksu region of Xinjiang and 11
Muslim Uighur members of a terrorist group were executed. The Uighurs
of the region made up nearly half of Xinjiang’s 20 million population
and had been struggling against Chinese rule for several years.
(SFC, 3/20/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 3/20/00, p.A1)(Econ,
9/6/08, p.54)
2000 Mar 14, In China an official
was sentenced to death for embezzling $1.4 million that was meant to
help relocate 1.3 million people displaced by the Three Gorges dam
project.
(WSJ, 3/15/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar, Rebiya Kadeer (54) was
convicted of revealing state information to "foreigners." She had sent
official Chinese press reports to her husband in the US. Her appeal was
later rejected and she was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
(SFC, 12/12/00, p.B3)
2000 Apr 1, Groundbreaking
ceremonies for the Grand National Theater in Beijing were cancelled due
to petitions against the design. Paul Andreu of France had won the
design contest with a $361 million project in the shape of a "pearl" or
"duck’s egg."
(WSJ, 9/6/00, p.A24)
2000 Apr 1, In Nanjing 4
unemployed youths broke into the home of Jurgen Hermann Pfrang (50), an
executive for DaimlerChrysler, and stabbed him to death along with his
wife and 2 children. The 4 were found guilty of murder and robbery on
7/14/00 and sentenced to death.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A13)
2000 Apr 12, China’s Pres. Jiang
Zemin arrived in Israel to support commercial defense relations between
the two countries.
(SFC, 4/13/00, p.A15)
2000 Apr 20, In China the
Communist party announced that Cheng Kejie, a deputy chairman in the
national legislature, was expelled and charged with amassing $4.5
million in bribes and kickbacks.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A20)
2000 Apr 23, In China Li Chenglong
(48), deputy mayor of Guigang city, was executed. He had been convicted
of corruption during his term as Communist Party secretary of Yulin
city between 1991 and 1996.
(SFC, 4/24/00, p.A14)
2000 May 5, A human rights group
reported that China had banned 9 books published by Zhong Gong, a
school of the qi gong traditional slow-motion exercises.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.C1)
2000 May 6, It was reported that
Jin Wenchao, a former soldier and head of a Chinese construction firm
involved in the Three Gorges dam project, had disappeared with over
$120 million.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.A12)
2000 May 15, It was reported that
Li Fuxiang (47), a top Chinese finance manager, leaped to his death
from the top floor of a hospital a week earlier.
(WSJ, 5/15/00, p.A1)
2000 May 16, In China’s Liaoning
province some 5,000 retired or laid-off workers in Liaoyang clashed
with police following protests over non-payment of pensions and wages.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A18)
2000 May 19, China and the EU
agreed to open markets.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A8)
2000 May 24, The US House voted
237 to 197 to grant China permanent normal trade status.
(SFC, 5/25/00, p.A1)
2000 May 29-2000 May 31, North
Korean leader Kim Jong Il visited China and met with Pres. Jiang Zemin
and the ruling Communist Party’s inner circle. He received promises of
free food and other material assistance.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A16)
2000 May 30, Mou Qizhong,
entrepreneur and former "reform hero," was sentenced to life in prison
on charges that included defrauding a Chinese state bank of $75 million.
(SFC, 5/31/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun 9, At least 74 people
were reported killed in Sichuan, China, from floods and mudslides
following torrential rain and hail.
(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A24)
2000 Jun 15, Guo Chaoren,
president of China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, died at age 65. His
books included "Sprint to the Summit," "Tibet in the Past Decade," and
"African Diary."
(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A34)
2000 Jun 22, In China an
overloaded ship capsized on the Yangtze River in Sichuan province and
59 people were either killed or missing. Separately a Yunshuji-7
turboprop was struck by lightning in Hubei province and all 42 people
aboard were killed. 4 people were missing.
(SFC, 6/23/00, p.D3)
2000 Jun 28, China’s government
announced a $48 million emergency plan to fight the drought in the
northern provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, Gansu, and Ningxia.
(SFC, 6/29/00, p.C6)
2000 Jun 28, In Taiwan Pres. Chen
Shui-bian told visiting Americans that he accepts that there is "one
China."
(SFC, 6/29/00, p.A10)
2000 Jul 6, In Urumqi, China, 3
separatists were executed by firing squad immediately after a public
sentencing.
(SFC, 7/13/00, p.C4)
2000 Jul 7, Chinese press reported
that an investigation of Gen. Ji Shengde was concluded and that he
would soon be indicted for corruption totaling $12.5 million.
(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A14)
2000 Jul 7, Three days of
torrential rains over central China left at least 22 people dead in
Sichuan. Thousands of buildings, 17 bridges and 7 hydroelectric power
stations were damaged. In Guangxi Zhuang a bus fell into the Liujiang
River in Liuzhou and at least 65 people were killed.
(SFC, 7/8/00, p.D8)(SFC, 7/10/00, p.A9)
2000 Jul 11, In China it was
reported that 6 members of a Uighur separatist group were executed.
(WSJ, 7/12/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 13, In China a mudslide
following heavy rains killed at least 119 villagers in Ziyang county in
Shaanxi province. The death toll was later raised to 213 with another
23 killed in the Liangshan area of Sichuan province.
(SFC, 7/17/00, p.A13)(SFC, 7/21/00, p.B7)
2000 Jul 15, It was reported that
an attack force of 700,000 ducks and chickens, trained to hunt and eat
insects at the sound of a whistle, were placed in the locust-plagued
fields of China’s Xinjiang province.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A24)
2000 Jul 18, Chinese Pres. Jiang
Zemin and Russia’s Pres. Putin denounced the US proposed missile
defense program as a violation of the 1972 ABM treaty. They also vowed
to strengthen a strategic partnership between their countries.
(SFC, 7/19/00, p.A10)
2000 Jul 22, In Beijing some 100
people were rounded up in a scattered protest marking the first
anniversary of the banning of Falun Gong.
(SFEC, 7/23/00, p.B16)
2000 Jul 29, It was reported that
the Songhua River had completely dried up under the drought that has
ruined 35 million acres. 16.2 million Chinese were left short of water.
(SFC, 7/29/00, p.D8)
2000 Jul 31, A Beijing court
sentenced Cheng Kejie (66) to death for corruption. He was a former
deputy chairman of the national legislature and headed the southern
region of Guangxi from 1990-1998. Over the last week 48 people were
executed for drug trafficking. Kejie was executed in Sept.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A10)(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A14)
2000 Jul 31, It was reported that
a number of large Chinese companies were on the verge of bankruptcy
even as the government planned to bail out its money losing state
sector by making more companies public.
(WSJ, 8/1/00, p.A8)
2000 Jul, Liu Yong, Chinese
Communist Party member and head of the Jiayang Group, was arrested for
corruption in Shenyang.
(SFC, 10/11/01, p.C2)
2000 Aug 17-2000 Aug 23, Farmers
in Fengcheng, China, rioted in opposition to high taxes and other
issues.
(SFC, 9/5/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 21, In China’s Yunnan
province an earthquake in Wuding county left 177,000 people homeless
and 211 injured.
(SFC, 8/26/00, p.A9)
2000 Aug 28, Four Chinese students
and a man whose sister was killed in the Tiananmen Square massacre
filed a suit in NYC against Li Peng, head of the Chinese Parliament,
for human rights abuses.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.A16)
2000 Aug 30, In China’s Fujian
province police arrested a Catholic priest, 20 nuns, 2 laymen and a
seminarian in Luoyuan county. Rev. Liu Shaozhang (38) was reported to
have been severely beaten and that parishioners bought the release of 2
nuns.
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.C16)
2000 Aug, Some 20,000 Chinese
farmers attacked government offices and official’s homes in Jiangxi to
protest high taxes.
(WSJ, 8/30/00, p.A1)
2000 Sep 1, Typhoon Maria struck 2
southern Chinese provinces between Huizhou and Shanwei and killed 47
people with $223 million in damages.
(WSJ, 9/6/00, p.A1)(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A22)
2000 Sep 5, Over 30 coal miners
were killed in an explosion in Datong, China.
(SFC, 12/25/00, p.B6)
2000 Sep 8, The government of
China’s Shaanxi province appropriated 123 Zhong Gong properties and
land worth $36.5 million.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A12)
2000 Sep 8, A truck carrying
explosives blew up in Urumqi, China. 100 casualties were reported.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A12)
2000 Sep 19, The US Senate voted
83-15 to end trade restrictions on China. The vote also removed a
fiscal obstacle to Beijing’s 14-year drive to join the WTO.
(SFC, 9/20/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Sep 27, In China an explosion
at the Muchonggou Coal Mine in Shuicheng, Guizhou province, killed 118
miners.
(SFC, 9/28/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 1, Pope John Paul II
canonized as martyrs 87 Chinese believers and 33 European missionaries
killed between 1648 and 1930. He also canonized Mother Katherine Drexel
(d.1955), a Philadelphia heiress, who became a nun.
(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A12)
2000 Oct 1, In China Falun Dafa
staged one to the biggest Tiananmen Square protests since it was banned
14 months earlier.
(WSJ, 10/2/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 12, The Nobel Prize in
literature was won by Gao Xingjian (60), an exiled Chinese writer
living in Paris. His novels include "Soul Mountain," based on a 1986
walking tour along the Yangtze River.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A16)
2000 Oct 16, The Chinese press
endorsed the building of a $12 billion river project to divert water
from the Yangtze north to the Yellow River.
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.C3)
2000 Oct 18, A human rights group
reported that 3 members of Falun Gong died after their arrest by
Chinese police. 57 Falun Gong members have died under police custody
during the 15-month crackdown.
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.C10)
2000 Oct 26, In Beijing at least
100 Falun Gong sect members were dragged from Tiananmen Square
following a protest one the year anniversary of a government ban of the
cult.
(SFC, 10/27/00, p.A21)
2000 Oct 27, China’s state media
reported that auditors had found over $11 billion in mismanaged funds
in government offices and businesses.
(SFC, 10/28/00, p.A14)
2000 Oct, In China some 6 million
census takers began the 5th national census.
(SFC, 10/14/00, p.A12)
2000 Nov 8, Courts in southern
China sentenced 11 people to death for their role in a giant smuggling
ring, the Yuanhua Group, that moved some $6.4 billion in goods with the
complicity of mayors, police and customs officers.
(SFC, 11/9/00, p.C2)
2000 Nov 20, China singed an
agreement with the UN for cooperation and training on individual rights
and the rule of law.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A13)
2000 Nov 21, Pres. Clinton agreed
not to punish China for exporting missile components to Iran and
Pakistan after China promised to end future technological cooperation
with countries seeking to develop missile weaponry.
(SFC, 11/22/00, p.A20)
2000 Nov, Liu Dalin, a pioneering
Shanghai sexologist, authored "Sexual culture of 20th Century China."
He argued for an open-minded approach to sex.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B7)
2000 Dec 1, It was reported that
Gao Changli, head of the Chinese bureaucracy that controls the legal
system, was relieved of his duties, apparently as part of a crackdown
on corruption.
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A13)
2000 Dec 1, A shopping mall
collapsed in Dongguan, China, and scores of people were killed.
(WSJ, 12/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 12, China fired the boss
of Fijian province amid an antigraft drive.
(WSJ, 12/13/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 16, Brilliance China
Automotive Holding introduced its new Zhonghua car. It boasted an
Italian design, Japanese engine, and German electronics and suspension.
(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 25, In China’s Louyang
city as many as 309 young people were killed at a disco fire.
(SFC, 12/26/00, p.C6)
2000 Dec, Tan Guangguang, a
Chinese scholar with recent visits to the US, was arrested on suspicion
of spying.
(SFC, 4/10/01, p.A11)
2000 Martin Booth authored "The
Dragon Syndicates," a history of the Chinese criminal societies known
as the triads.
(WSJ, 8/4/00, p.W7)
2000 Bill Kong, Chinese film
producer, released “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” He had wooed
Hollywood for a year to front half of the film’s $15 million budget.
(WSJ, 9/14/05, p.A1)
2000 China’s Premier Zhu Rongji
said Beijing will no longer be livable in 35 years due to sand dunes 93
miles away and converging at an annual speed of 2 km.
(SSFC, 8/12/01, p.A21)
2000 China's Pres. Jiang Zemin
launched the "Three Represents" program: the party must represent
China's advanced productive forces, its advanced culture and the
interests of the overwhelming majority of the people.
(Econ, 11/15/03, p.41)
2000 China launched its “great
development of the west” program (often referred to as the “Go west”
policy).
(Econ, 12/3/05, p.39)
2000 China planned to build 1,000
hotels for tourism growth for a total of 4,500. The government expected
visitors to increase to 54 million from 46 million in 1995. The hotels
were to be built in the poorer central and western China.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A10)
2000 In Ningbo, China, the Geely
Group began producing cars. By 2006 the plant was producing 180,000
cars a year.
(WSJ, 11/7/06, p.A1)
2000 The WHO ranked China 4th from
the bottom of 191 countries in terms of fairness of its medical
coverage.
(WSJ, 12/5/05, p.A1)
2000 In China coal mine fatalities
were estimated to be between 5,000 and 10,000 per year with an average
of 13 miners killed per day. Miners earned about $50 per month.
(SFC, 12/25/00, p.B6)(NW, 10/28/02, p.44R)
2001 Jan 10, China sent rats into
orbit aboard its "Sacred Ship" Shenzhou II, powered by a Long March
rocket.
(SFC, 1/11/01, p.A16)
2001 Jan 11, China’s state media
reported at least 27 people dead from a New years Day blizzard in inner
Mongolia.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A18)
2001 Jan 16, China’s Shenzhou II
unmanned space craft landed after 108 orbits.
(WSJ, 1/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 23, Five people believed
to members of Falun Gong set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square.
One woman and her daughter (12) died. In August 4 people were convicted
of murder for organizing the self-immolation. A judge found that they
had spread the notion that members could achieve nirvana through
self-immolation.
(SFC, 1/24/01, p.A12)(SFC, 8/18/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 24, The Chinese lunar
calendar marked this as the new year, 4699.
(SSFC, 1/28/01, p.CN3)
2001 Feb 8, China’s cabinet
approved a 700-mile rail line to link Lhasa, Tibet, and Qinghai
province.
(WSJ, 2/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 11, Gao Zhan, a US-based
scholar, was detained at Beijing airport by Chinese authorities. She
was formally charged as a spy on April 3. [see Mar 27]
(WSJ, 3/28/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/4/01, p.D14)
2001 Feb 25, Chinese officials in
Shenzhen detained Li Shaomin (44), an associate professor of marketing
at Hong Kong’s City Univ.
(SFC, 3/31/01, p.A11)
2001 Feb 26, The US State Dept.
issued its annual report on the status of human rights and cited
"unconfirmed but credible" reports from China of continued use of
torture by police to obtain coerced confessions.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 28, China gave a
qualified endorsement for a UN-sponsored human rights treaty. It backed
away from a guarantee of workers rights.
(SFC, 3/1/01, p.A8)
2001 Mar 1, China was reported to
consume a little over 6% of the world’s total 75.5 million barrels per
day of oil.
(WSJ, 3/1/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 2, In China 37 members of
the banned Falun Gong were sentenced to prison terms of 3-10 years.
Most had been convicted of "using a cult to obstruct the law."
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 5, China announced a
17.7% increase in defense spending.
(SFC, 3/6/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 6, It was reported that
Chinese psychiatrists have decided to stop classifying homosexuality as
a mental illness.
(SFC, 3/6/01, p.A11)
2001 Mar 6, In China an explosion
at an elementary school in Jiangxi province left 37 students and 4
teachers dead. 42 people, mostly students, were killed in a schoolhouse
explosion in southern China; parents said the students had been forced
to make fireworks by school officials. Teachers, to enhance their
meager salaries, had forced students to make firecrackers during their
lunch breaks. Prime Minister Zhu Rongji said the blast was caused by a
"deranged suicide bomber."
(WSJ, 3/7/01, p.A1)(SFC, 3/8/01, p.A1)(SFC, 3/9/01,
p.A14)(AP, 3/5/02)
2001 Mar 13, In China four writers
were detained a few months after they had formed the New Youth Study
Group for discussing political change in China. In 2003 Xu Wei (28) and
Jin Haike (26) were sentenced to 10 years in prison for subverting
state power. Yang Zili (32) and Zhang Honghai (29) were sentenced to 8
years.
(SFC, 5/30/03, p.A16)
2001 Mar 16, Explosions rocked
residential buildings in Shijiazhuang, a mill town in China’s Hebei
province. At least 18 people were killed. The deaths soon mounted to
108 with 38 injured. Police later arrested Jin Ruchao (41), a deaf man,
who reportedly confessed to the bombings.
(SFC, 3/17/01, p.A10)(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.D1)(SFC,
3/24/01, p.A11)
2001 Mar 21, The Taiwan United
Daily News reported that a senior Chinese colonel had defected to the
US.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.D4)
2001 Mar 22, Pres. Bush met with
Chinese Deputy Premier Qian Qichen and said the US would support
Taiwan’s military needs.
(WSJ, 3/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 27, In its first specific
accusation against a detained U.S.-based scholar, China said Gao Zhan
had confessed to spying for foreign intelligence agencies. The US
denied employing her as a spy. Gao, who had been detained on Feb. 11,
was released the following July. In 2003 Gao Zhan admitted to illegal
profits of over $539,000 from selling 80 microprocessors to the Chinese
government. [see Feb 11]
(WSJ, 3/28/01, p.A1)(AP, 3/27/02)(SFC, 11/27/03,
p.A3)
2001 Mar 27, China reported that
its population stood at 1.26 billion, an 11.7% increase over the last
decade.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.D4)
2001 Mar 30, It was reported that
the forests of China’s Yunnan province had dropped from 50% coverage in
1949 to less than 10% today.
(SFC, 3/30/01, p.A17)
2001 Apr 1, A US Navy EP-3
surveillance plane with 24 aboard collided with a Chinese fighter jet
over the South China Sea and was forced to land on China's Hainan
island. The fighter jet crashed. Chinese pilot Wang Wei parachuted out
of his F-8 jet but had not been found. Zhao Yu, a 2nd pilot, later
blamed the US plane banked and hit Wei’s plane. None of the 24 crew
members was hurt, but they were held prisoner by the Chinese for a
tense 11 days.
(SFC, 4/2/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/2/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/4/01,
p.A13)(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A13)(AP, 4/1/02)
2001 Apr 2, Pres. Bush demanded
that the Chinese release the US Navy crew and spy plane that had made
an emergency landing on China’s Hainan Island.
(SFC, 4/3/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/3/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 4, US diplomats met with
24 US crew members held by the Chinese military on Hainan island. Colin
Powell issued a statement of regret over the loss of the Chinese pilot
involved in the incident. Powell also sent a letter to China’s chief
foreign policy official outlining ways of settlement.
(SFC, 4/4/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 5, Wang Zhizhi of China,
7 feet and 1 inch tall, made his NBA debut for the Dallas Mavericks.
Wang Zhizhi became the first Chinese player to play in the NBA when he
took the court for Dallas against Atlanta. He scored six points and
grabbed three rebounds as the Mavericks beat the Hawks 108-to-94.
(SSFC, 4/15/01, p.A17)(AP, 4/5/02)
2001 Apr 5, Pres. Bush expressed
regret over the loss of a Chinese pilot in the Apr 1 collision with a
US spy plane.
(SFC, 4/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 6, US officials announced
some progress toward the release of 24 military personnel in China and
hoped to establish a joint US-China commission to examine the April 1
collision of a US spy plane and Chinese jet.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.1)
2001 Apr 7, China rejected
statements of regret and continued to demand a US apology for the April
1 collision between a US spy plane and Chinese jet.
(SSFC, 4/7/01, p.C1)
2001 Apr 8, Sec. of State Colin
Powell expressed sorrow for the Chinese pilot lost on Apr 1, but the
Chinese continued to demand that the US apologize reiterated a demand
that the US stop all military surveillance off the Chinese coast. US
officials said Pres. Bush was sending a letter to the wife of a missing
Chinese fighter pilot as a humanitarian gesture. The pilot's plane had
collided with a US spy plane, forcing the spy plane to make an
emergency landing in China.
(SFC, 4/9/01, p.A1)(AP, 4/8/02)
2001 Apr 12, The 24 crew members
of a US spy plane arrived in Hawaii after being held for 11 days in
China. Pres. Bush blamed the Chinese for the midair collision of the US
spy plane and a Chinese jet and rebuffed demands to end reconnaissance
flights off the coast of China. In 2006 it was revealed that Prince
Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi ambassador to the US, negotiated the release
of the crew on behalf of Pres. Bush.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A1)(AP, 4/12/06)(WSJ, 10/11/06,
p.D10)
2001 Apr 13, In China a 5.9
earthquake hit Yunnan province and at least 7 people were killed.
42,000 homes were destroyed in the Shidian area.
(SFC, 4/21/01, p.A24)
2001 Apr 15, Chinese police opened
fire on villagers who opposed high local taxes and fees in Yuntang. 2
were killed and at least 18 wounded.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A16)
2001 Apr 17, US envoys arrived in
China to resolved issues of the US spy plane collision with a Chinese
jet.
(SFC, 4/18/01, p.A12)
2001 Apr 18, US negotiators said
China agreed to discuss the return of the US spy plane following a day
of unproductive talks.
(SFC, 4/19/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr 19, US and Chinese
negotiators failed to reach any agreement over the US spy plane. The
Chinese showed video images from flights last year and the US presented
a written proposal for the return of the plane.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A14)
2001 Apr 25, In unusually blunt
terms, President Bush warned China that an attack on Taiwan could
provoke a U.S. military response.
(AP, 4/25/02)
2001 Apr 29, China offered to
allow US officials to inspect the US Navy spy plane on Hainan Island.
(SFC, 4/30/01, p.A1)
2001 May 2, Foreign Minister Tang
Jiaxuan returned to China from Russia with a draft accord for relations
with Russia.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D2)
2001 May 2, US technical experts
examined the US spy plane on China’s Hainan Island.
(WSJ, 5/3/01, p.A1)
2001 May 2, In China a landslide
in Wulong County buried a 9-story building where 76 of 95 residents
were home. 65 bodies were recovered.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D2)
2001 May 4, US experts, following
3 days of inspections, said the US spy plane on China’s Hainan Island
could be repaired and flown home.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D1)
2001 May 8, China rejected a US
plan to repair EP-3 the spy plane and fly it away.
(WSJ, 5/9/01, p.A1)
2001 May 19, It was reported that
China’s "Strike Hard" anti-crime campaign had resulted in at least 801
executions in the last 3 weeks of April.
(SFC, 5/19/01, p.A8)
2001 May 20, In China 20 miners
were feared dead in a gypsum mine in the Guangxi region and another
38-39 were trapped in a coal mine in Sichuan. The miners in Sichuan
were working a prison-run mine.
(SFC, 5/21/01, p.A10)(SFC, 5/22/01, p.A11)
2001 May 20, In China 14 people
were executed in 2 cities for robbery and murder.
(SFC, 5/21/01, p.A10)
2001 May 26, Wu Jianmin (46), a
Chinese-born American writer, was arrested on charges of collecting
information that endangered security. He was released and expelled Sep
28.
(SFC, 8/2/01, p.A7)(SFC, 9/29/01, p.B1)
2001 Jun 4, It was reported that
US Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld had virtually cut off all Pentagon
contacts with the Chinese armed forces in displeasure over the spy
plane incident. Rumsfeld announced that he had given limited permission
to resume military-to-military contacts with China due to the progress
in the resolution of the spy plane incident.
(SFC, 6/4/01, p.A10)(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A12)
2001 Jun 5, It was reported that
the ecstasy drug was a big hit in Chinese night clubs. It had begun
filtering in from Hong Kong in 1998.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A12)
2001 Jun 5, In China 13 children
were killed in a fire at a kindergarten dormitory in Nanchang.
(SFC, 6/6/01, p.C3)
2001 Jun 7, The US and China
agreed on a final plan for the removal of the US spy plane from Hainan
Island.
(SFC, 6/8/01, p.A16)
2001 Jun 7, China published new
rules on genetic engineering. The government took broad oversight over
the industry and required clear labeling on genetically altered foods.
(WSJ, 6/8/01, p.A13)
2001 Jun 14, A forum in China
inducted Uzbekistan as the 6th member of a regional group (the Shanghai
Five) that included China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan. The 5-year-old group hoped to counterbalance US influence
and fight Islamic separatism.
(SFC, 6/15/01, p.D6)(WSJ, 6/14/01, p.C11)
2001 Jun 15, The Shanghai Five
member nations (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia),
having admitted Uzbekistan, signed the Declaration of Shanghai
Cooperation Organization.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organisation)
2001 Jun 16, He Qinglian (44),
Chinese economist, fled China after security agents broke into her
office in Shenzhen.
(SFC, 7/3/01, p.A8)
2001 Jun 21, Jailed Falun Gong
members attempted a group suicide in a Chinese northeast labor camp.
10-14 reportedly died by hanging.
(SFC, 7/4/01, p.A11)(WSJ, 7/5/01, p.A8)
2001 Jun 25, Typhoon Chebi killed
73 people in China’s Fujian province and left 83 missing. Damage was
estimated at $425 million.
(WSJ, 6/26/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/27/01, p.D3)
2001 Jun 26, In China 7 members of
a North Korean family took refuge in the Beijing office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees and claimed fear of deportation.
(SFC, 6/27/01, p.D3)
2001 Jun 27, It was reported that
Wang Guoqi, a Chinese doctor seeking political asylum, had presented a
written statement to US authorities that he had taken part in
harvesting body parts from executed prisoners in China. China meanwhile
observed UN anti-drug day by executing dozens of people for drug
crimes. China denied the accusations.
(SFC, 6/27/01, p.A10)(SFC, 6/29/01, p.D4)
2001 Jun 29, A new $2.4 billion
700-mile railway project was begun to connect Lhasa, Tibet, to the
Chinese interior.
(SSFC, 7/1/01, p.A18)
2001 Jul 1, China’s Pres. Jiang
Zemin announced that the Communist Party will allow private businessmen
to become members.
(SFC, 7/2/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 1, Parts of the US spy
plane were flown out from China’s Hainan Island.
(WSJ, 7/3/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 7, It was reported that
China had executed 1,781 people over the last 3 months.
(SFC, 7/7/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 13, It was reported that
record droughts persisted in Afghanistan northern China, North Korea,
Mongolia and Tajikistan.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.D4)
2001 Jul 13, The IOC awarded
Beijing, China, the honor of hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics.
(SFC, 7/14/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 14, China convicted Li
Shaomin (44), a Chinese-born American business professor, of spying for
Taiwan and ordered his expulsion.
(SSFC, 7/15/01, p.A12)
2001 Jul 15, China’s Pres. Zemin
arrived in Russia for a state visit. A treaty of friendship and
cooperation was planned.
(SFC, 7/16/01, p.A9)
2001 Jul 16, In northwest China an
illegal cache of explosives blew up in Mafang and 41 people were killed.
(SFC, 7/17/01, p.A7)
2001 Jul 17, In Moscow Russia and
China agreed to plan a $1.7 billion pipeline for oil from Siberia to
northeastern China.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.C4)
2001 Jul 17, In China’s Guangxi
province the Lajiapo and Longshan mines flooded and 81 miners were
killed. Immediate news was covered up. In Aug 20 company employees and
70 suspected gang members were arrested for the coverup. 11 mine
officials and 4 county political leaders were arrested.
(SFC, 8/7/01, p.A7)(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A7)(SFC, 9/1/01,
p.A10)(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A10)
2001 Jul 20, It was reported that
China planned to buy 38 Russian Su-30 MKK ground attack jets worth $2
billion.
(SFC, 7/20/01, p.D4)
2001 Jul 24, A Chinese court
sentenced two US residents to 10 years in prison on charges of spying
for Taiwan. China released Gao Zhan and Qin Guangguang two days later.
(SFC, 7/25/01, p.A1)(AP, 7/24/02)
2001 Jul 28, US Sec. of State
Colin Powell met with China’s Pres. Zemin and reached agreement to
restart a formal dialogue with the US on human rights and weapons
proliferation.
(SSFC, 7/29/01, p.A12)
2001 Aug 8, Four American Senators
met with Pres. Jiang Zemin in China and warned him that the continued
sales of sensitive missile technology would trigger an arms race and
boost internal US support for a missile defense system.
(SFC, 8/9/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 9, It was reported that
the US had decided to pay China $34,567 to cover the costs of the spy
plane that was detained on Hainan island. China had asked for $1
million and rejected the offer.
(SFC, 8/10/01, p.A12)(SFC, 8/13/01, p.A12)
2001 Aug 10, China received its
new $120 mil Boeing 767-300ER aircraft following retrofit in San
Antonio, Tx. In Oct Chinese experts discovered high-tech listening
devices hidden in the plane. Purchase of the plane was 1st announced in
Aug 2000.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A4)
2001 Aug 14, In China Chen Qiulan,
an arrested Falun Gong member, died of a heart attack at a detention
center in Daqing, Hailongjiang.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 16, China said that it
was spending $8.4 million to set aside forests in the southwest to help
save some 1,000 remaining wild pandas.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.A14)
2001 Aug 20, In China Wu Liangjie,
an arrested Falun Gong member, died after falling from the window of a
police office in Baicheng, Jilin province.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 21, It was reported that
Chinese authorities had removed Khenpo Jigme Phuntsog (68), a Tibetan
monk, from his Serthar religious academy in the Larung valley of
Sichuan province. The move was seen as an effort to reduce the 6-7
thousand monks and nuns living in the area.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 23, It was reported that
surveys had indicated that two-thirds of China’s 1.26 billion people
were infected with hepatitis B.
(SFC, 8/23/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 23, The Chinese
government reported that some 600,000 people have been infected with
AIDS with nearly as many from selling their blood as from sexual
contact.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 23, Brian Regan (38),
retired US Air Force master sergeant and cryptanalyst, was arrested by
the FBI at Dulles Int’l. Airport on charges of spying. In 2002 Regan
was accused of trying to spy for Iraq, Libya and China. On February 20,
2003, Regan was found guilty of three charges of attempted espionage
including two counts of attempted espionage related to attempts to sell
information to Iraq and China, and one count of gathering national
defense information. He was acquitted of attempting to provide US
secrets to Libya. On March 20, 2003, Regan was sentenced to life in
prison without parole.
(http://cicentre.com/Documents/DOC_Regan_1.htm)(SFC,
8/29/01, p.A6)(WSJ, 2/15/02, p.A1)
2001 Sep 9, It was reported that
some 3,000 people had been executed in China since Pres. Zemin
announced a crackdown in April.
(SSFC, 9/9/01, p.A18)
2001 Sep 25, A Chinese captain
went down with his freighter in the Taiwan Strait as Typhoon Lekima
lashed the area.
(WSJ, 9/26/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 28, In China Wu Jianmin,
a Chinese-born American writer, was released from jail and expelled.
The state media said he had confessed to his crimes of spying for
Taiwan.
(SFC, 9/29/01, p.B1)
2001 Oct 10, In China a state
court sentenced over a dozen key officials in Shenyang for corruption.
(SFC, 10/11/01, p.C2)
2001 Oct 12, China put limits on
air travel to citizens of 19 countries, mainly in the Middle East.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A10)
2001 Oct 15, China executed 2
Muslim separatists in Yili, Xinjiang province.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.C2)
2001 Oct 18, Pres. Bush arrived in
China for the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in
Shanghai. The agenda was economic development and trade liberalization.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A9)
2001 Nov 10, China officially
joined the WTO after ministers in Qatar approved its membership.
(SSFC, 11/11/01, p.A14)
2001 Nov 11, Taiwan officially
joined the WTO after ministers in Qatar approved its membership.
(SSFC, 11/11/01, p.A14)
2001 Nov 20, Chinese police on
Tiananmen Square detained some 35 foreigners who protested the
crackdown on the Falun Gong. The protesters were all expelled from the
country.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 11/22/01, p.A21)
2001 Nov, China held its 1st
national AIDS conference in Beijing.
(WSJ, 12/19/01, p.A12)
2001 Nov, China’s 4 largest
producers of Vitamin C formed the Vitamin C Chapter of the China
Chamber of Commerce of Medicines and Health Products.
(WSJ, 2/10/06, p.A16)
2001 Dec 13, The Beijing First
Intermediate Court sentenced 6 people to prison for 3 to 12 years for
downloading material from the Internet on the banned Falun Gong
spiritual movement and passing it along.
(SFC, 12/24/01, p.A4)
2001 Dec 16, In China a weekend
bombing killed 5 people.
(WSJ, 12/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 27, Pres. Bush
permanently normalized trade relations with China.
(WSJ, 12/28/01, p.A1)
2001 Ian Buruma authored "Bad
Elements," a look at China’s dissidents, their convictions, and the
country’s problems with self-identity.
(SFC, 11/26/01, p.A17)
2001 Gordon C. Chang authored "The
Coming Collapse of China." He predicted that the People’s Republic
would fall by the Olympic Games of 2008.
(WSJ, 8/8/01, p.A10)
2001 The ballet Raise the Red
Lantern premiered in the spring. It was based on a 1991 film of the
same name directed by Zhang Yimou.
(WSJ, 4/3/02, p.A16)
2001 In China Zhengzhou city in
Henan province unveiled plans for a new city and hired Japanese
architect Kisho Kurokawa to design Zhengdong New District and its main
showcase buildings. Completion was scheduled for 2015 at a cost of $25
billion.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.40)
2001 Amnesty Int’l. reported in
2002 that at least 3,048 people were executed in 31 countries in 2001.
China accounted for at least 1,781. 90% of the executed were from
China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the US.
(SFC, 4/10/02, p.A12)
2001 Shi Zhengrong, a Chinese
solar engineer, started Suntech to manufacture solar cells. By 2007 the
company was the world’s 3rd largest in the field.
(Econ, 6/2/07, SR p.16)
2001 There were some 720,000
passenger vehicles sold this year in China. Sales were expected to
climb to 900,000 units in 2002.
(WSJ, 7/3/02, p.A9)
2001 Some 5,670 Chinese miners
died in accidents in this year.
(SFC, 4/3/03, p.D1)
2002 Jan 3, Hu Jintao (59) was
reported to be in line for the leadership of the Chinese Communist
Party.
(WSJ, 1/3/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 15, China reported that
at least 50 miners were killed in 3 separate mine accidents.
(SFC, 1/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Jan 19, It was reported that
China had imposed new Internet controls and required service providers
to screen all e-mail messages for political content.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A4)
2002 Jan 23, It was reported that
China was moving 17,000 settlers to a traditionally Tibetan region.
(WSJ, 1/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 24, The US imposed
sanctions on 3 Chinese entities accused of giving chemical and
biological arms technology to Iran.
(WSJ, 1/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 25, Chinese PM Zhu Rongji
visited Bangalore and said: You are number one in software, and we are
number one in hardware. If Indian software and Chinese hardware work
together, we can create a force that will be number one in the world.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.A24)
2002 Jan 29, In China historian Xu
Zerong (David Tsui) was sentenced to 13 years in prison for providing
classified historical documents, pertaining to Chinese operations
during the Korean war, to unspecified overseas parties.
(SSFC, 2/3/02, p.A17)
2002 Feb 12-2002 Feb 13, The
Chinese lunar calendar marked this as the new year, 4700, the Year of
the Horse.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 14, In China 41
foreigners were arrested and later expelled following pro Falun Gong
demonstrations on Tiananmen Square.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 20, President Bush, on
the final leg of his Asian trip, arrived in China, where he urged
President Jiang Zemin to respect religious freedoms.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2002 Feb 21, Pres. Bush met with
Pres. Zemin in Beijing and both agreed to work on the reunification of
North and South Korea. They disagreed over controls on exports of
missile technology. Pres. Bush answered questions in a live broadcast
and reaffirmed the US right to protect Taiwan.
(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A12)(SFC, 2/22/02, p.A12)(WSJ,
2/22/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 1, Laid-off workers of
the Daqing Oilfield Co. began massive protests for re-negotiation of
early retirement packages. Some 86,000 of 260,000 workers had been laid
off since 1999. Daily protests hit as many as 50,000 workers.
(WSJ, 3/14/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A9)
2002 Mar 5, In China Falun Gong
members cut into a cable network in Changchun and broadcast its
messages for some 50 minutes.
(SFC, 3/8/02, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/8/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 6, China announced a
17.6% increase in defense spending.
(SFC, 3/7/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 15, China allowed 25
North Korean asylum seekers to leave the Spanish Embassy in Beijing for
South Korea by way of the Philippines.
(WSJ, 3/18/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 20, China deployed
military police to at least 2 northeast cities to quell labor protests.
(WSJ, 3/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 30, It was reported that
a massive dust storm spread from northwest China to South Korea. It was
largest recorded since records began 130 years ago. Trans Pacific winds
carried the dust clouds west.
(SFC, 3/30/02, p.A20)
2002 Apr 6, It was reported that
China’s Jilin province was experiencing its worst drought in 20 years.
Some 5 million acres were affected and dry soil reached a depth of 7
feet. Shandong province was also affected.
(SFC, 4/6/02, p.C10)
2002 Apr 11, China reported that
some 850,000 people were infected with AIDS at the end of 2001.
(SFC, 4/12/02, p.A8)
2002 Apr 15, In South Korea an Air
China jet Boeing 767, CA-129, with some 166 passengers crashed into a
mountain near Kimhae. 122 people died in the crash.
(SFC, 4/15/02, p.A3)(SFC, 4/16/02, p.A7)(AP, 4/15/07)
2002 Apr 27, China’s VP Hu Jintao
(59), heir apparent, stopped in Hawaii on his way to meet with Pres.
Bush.
(WSJ, 4/29/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 28, China’s VP Hu Jintao
(59), heir apparent, rang the bell at the NY Stock Exchange and viewed
ground zero.
(WSJ, 4/30/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr, There was a bomb blast
in Chengdu, China. Tibetan monks Lobsang Dhondup (28) and Tenzin Deleg
Rinpoche were detained. Dhondup was executed Jan 27, 2003.
(SFC, 1/28/03, p.A6)
2002 May 1, China’s VP Hu Jintao
met with Pres. Bush. Jintao said the Taiwan issue could hurt relations
and defended China’s record on human rights.
(WSJ, 5/2/02, p.A1)
2002 May 2, China’s VP Hu Jintao
met with Mayor Brown in SF and set a visit to Intel prior to his
departure back to China.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A8)
2002 May 4, Two explosions killed
at 34 miners in China’s Guizhou and Hunan provinces.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A13)
2002 May 7, A China Northern
Airlines with 112 people crashed off the northeast coast. Flight 6136
was an MD-82 enroute from Beijing to Dalian. Xinhua news later reported
that it was due to an act of sabotage by a passenger who lit a fire on
board.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A15)(Reuters, 12/7/02)
2002 May 16, The state phone
industry was divided into 2 competing parts: China Telecom and China
Netcom.
(WSJ, 5/16/02, p.A12)
2002 May 30, It was reported that
China was embarking on a program to inoculate its poorest people
against hepatitis. Half of the population was reported to have had the
disease with 120 million long term carriers.
(WSJ, 5/30/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 12, In China more than
200 people have died in some of the worst flooding in years. Crops were
destroyed and vast areas were under water.
(AP, 6/12/02)
2002 Jun 13, In China at least 223
were reported dead and 320,000 homeless from Xinjiang to Hubei
provinces following weekend rains and flooding.
(SFC, 6/14/02, p.A16)
2002 Jun 16, In China at least 24
people were killed and 13 injured when a fire swept through the packed
Lanjisu Cyber cafe in a university district of Beijing, in the city's
worst fire since 1949. Windows were barred and the only door was
locked. The unlicensed owner was arrested.
(Reuters, 6/16/02)(SFC, 6/17/02, p.A7)
2002 Jun 20, A gas explosion
ripped through the Chengzihe coal mine in Jixi in northeast China and
killed 111 miners.
(Reuters, 6/20/02)
2002 Jun 22, In China an explosion
at a gold mine in Fanshi County, Shanxi, killed 46 miners. An initial
cover-up was attempted.
(SFC, 6/29/02, p.A14)(SFC, 7/2/02, p.A8)
2002 Jun 26, Chinese basketball
star Yao Ming was selected first overall by the Houston Rockets in the
NBA draft.
(AP, 6/26/03)
2002 Jun 28, In China it was
reported that at least 46 people were killed in the northern province
of Shanxi when an electrical fire ignited explosives in a gold mine.
(Reuters, 6/28/02)
2002 Jul 3, Chinese police found
Wang Bingzhang, a pro-democracy activist and US resident, in Guangxi
Province. He had been recently kidnapped with 2 others in Vietnam.
(SFC, 12/21/02, p.A10)
2002 Jul 4, In China a blast in
the Fuqiang mine in Songshu trapped 39 miners. There was little hope
for survivors.
(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A14)
2002 Jul 7, In southern China 13
people were killed when a wall being demolished at a vegetable market
crumbled after heavy rain, burying vendors and workers under a mound of
rubble.
(Reuters, 7/7/02)
2002 Jul 8, In China a gas
explosion at a coal mine killed 44 miners at the Dingsheng mine in
northeastern Heilongjiang province.
(Reuters, 7/9/02)(SFC, 7/9/02, p.A10)
2002 Jul 12, Chinese officials
reported that nearly 1,000 schoolchildren in northeast China were
rushed to hospital after being vaccinated in late June for encephalitis
and two senior officials were arrested and charged with negligence.
(Reuters, 7/12/02)
2002 Jul 19, In central China a
downpour of giant hailstones, some the size of eggs, killed 15 people
and left hospitals overflowing with head-wound victims.
(Reuters, 7/20/02)
2002 Jul 20, The number of
Japanese who have died after taking diet pills imported from China has
risen to four and 124 have fallen ill, Kyodo news agency reported
quoting a Health Ministry report.
(Reuters, 7/20/02)
2002 Jul 25, Chinese police have
formally arrested Liu Xiaoqing, one of the country's most famous film
stars and 2-time winner of the prestigious Hundred Flowers Best Actress
award, on suspicion of large-scale tax evasion. Liu was queen of
Chinese cinema in the 1980s and is best remembered for playing Qing
Dynasty Empress Dowager Cixi in the film "The Reign Behind the Curtain."
(Reuters, 7/25/02)
2002 Jul 26, It was reported that
the regional Chinese governments of Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan had
agreed to develop an area to be called "The China Shangri-La Ecological
Tourist Zone" across 50 counties next to Meili Snow Mountain.
(SFC, 7/26/02, p.A15)
2002 Aug 8, The Chinese government
awarded an Australian consortium a 25-year natural gas supply contract
in Australia's biggest-ever foreign trade deal.
(AP, 8/8/02)
2002 Aug 9, China reported 70
people dead from landslides and flooding in Hunan province.
(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A9)
2002 Aug 10, In China rescue crews
pulled the bodies of 7 workers from a flooded mine in the central
Chinese province of Henan. One more was recovered the next day.
(AP, 8/11/02)
2002 Aug 10, China’s Science and
Technology Daily reported approval of a home-grown AIDS drug for the
first time that will end the dependence of Chinese with the disease on
imported medicine. Jiduo Fuding was developed by the Northeast General
Pharmaceutical Factory.
(Reuters, 8/10/02)
2002 Aug 14, In southwest China a
massive wall of mud and rock unleashed by heavy rains slammed into
villages, burying 67 people in the second deadly landslide to strike
the area this week.
(Reuters, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 17, In China 3 days of
floods and landslides caused by mountain torrents swept through
southeastern Zhejiang province, killing at least 21 people.
(Reuters, 8/17/02)
2002 Aug 22, China evacuated some
600,000 people around the swollen Lake Dongting in Hunan province.
(WSJ, 8/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 3, Russia and China gave
their backing to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.
(AP, 9/3/02)(WSJ, 9/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 4, China reported that
flooding had killed 1,532 people this year.
(SFC, 9/5/02, p.A11)
2002 Sep 8, In southeast China
typhoon Sinlaku was weakening as it churned inland after triggering
fierce winds and heavy rain that killed 23 people, toppled homes and
uprooted trees.
(Reuters, 9/8/02)
2002 Sep 14, In China 38 (49)
people died and hundreds were hospitalized with food poisoning after
eating breakfast snacks, sesame cakes, fried dough sticks and fried
glutinous rice balls, in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing. A man
jealous of a business rival later confessed to spiking his competitor's
breakfast snacks with rat poison. The man was convicted and sentenced
to execution.
(Reuters, 9/14/02)(Reuters, 9/17/02)(WSJ, 9/17/02,
p.A1)(WSJ, 10/1/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 23, In Inner Mongolia,
China, a staircase guardrail gave way at a school, killing 21 students.
(Reuters, 9/24/02)
2002 Sep 30, The National
Intelligence Council said China, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria and Russia
will have 50-75 million HIV-infected people by 2010, more than any
other 5 countries.
(SFC, 10/1/02, p.A5)
2002 Oct 3, Wu-chi Liu (95),
China-born scholar, died in Menlo Park, Ca. His books included "A Short
History of Confucian Philosophy" and "An Introduction to Chinese
Literature." He was also the senior editor of "Sunflower Splendor," an
anthology that encompassed 3,000 years of Chinese poetry in translation.
(SFC, 10/18/02, p.A26)
2002 Oct 10, China sent Zhu
Xiaohua (53), its most senior financial official nabbed for corruption,
to jail for 15 years, but spared him the executioner's bullet after he
confessed to taking bribes prosecutors knew nothing about.
(AP, 10/10/02)
2002 Oct 20, Yao Ming (22), a
7-foot-5 basketball player from China, arrived in Texas to join the
Houston Rockets.
(WSJ, 10/22/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 23, In China rescuers
fought to save 29 miners trapped underground after a coal mine
explosion in the northern province of Shanxi killed 21. China's death
toll from mining accidents up to July this year was 3,620, up 4.8
percent from a year earlier
(AP, 10/25/02)(Reuters, 10/26/02)
2002 Oct 28, It was reported that
200 farms in China tap 7,000 live, caged bears for their bile in an
excruciating process. Owners slice into the bears to milk bile from
their gall bladder with a tube. Bear bile is viewed as a panacea in
traditional Chinese medicine. Many bears do not survive the initial
operation and few live longer than 10 years, less than half the average
life expectancy.
(Reuters, 10/28/02)
2002 Oct 29, China and the United
States have agreed to resume military-to-military ties with plans to
hold talks at senior level in the near future.
(AP, 10/29/02)
2002 Nov 4, China signed a
landmark agreement with Southeast Asian countries (Brunei, Malaysia,
Philippines, Vietnam) on avoiding open conflict in the disputed South
China Sea Spratly Islands. Indonesia objected and Taiwan was barred
from signing.
(Reuters, 11/4/02)(Econ, 5/22/04, p.40)
2002 Nov 5, China finished
blocking the Yangtze River at the Three Gorges Dam, paving the way for
the world's biggest hydroelectricity and flood control project to come
on stream next year.
(Reuters, 11/6/02)
2002 Nov 8, China's President
Jiang Zemin opened the Communist Party to businessmen to preserve its
grip on power as he kicked off a congress at which his generation of
leaders is due to retire.
(Reuters, 11/8/02)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.9)
2002 Nov 12, China's Communist
Party congress held a preliminary vote for a new crop of leaders
expected to replace President Jiang Zemin and other party chieftains
this week.
(Reuters, 11/12/02)
2002 Nov 13, Delegates to China's
Communist Party Congress confirmed that Jiang Zemin would step down as
party chief and make way for a new generation of leaders this week.
(AP, 11/13/02)
2002 Nov 14, Chinese Communist
Party chief Jiang Zemin ushered in a new generation of leaders under Hu
Jintao in the first orderly succession since the party took power in
1949.
(Reuters, 11/14/02)
2002 Nov 15, Hu Jintao replaced
Jiang Zemin as China's Communist Party leader.
(AP, 11/15/03)
2002 Nov 27, China arrested
flamboyant flower magnate Yang Bin (39), a Dutch national, on charges
of fraud and other commercial crimes, just two months after North Korea
named him head of a new free-trade enclave.
(AP, 11/27/02)
2002 Dec 2, In Beijing Russia’s
Pres. Putin and Jiang Zemin signed a 13-page declaration calling for a
"multi-polar" world and peaceful solutions in Iraq and North Korea.
(SFC, 12/3/02, p.A8)
2002 Dec 3, Shanghai will host the
2010 World Exposition after bidding fiercely to organize an event
expected to fuel millions of dollars of investment, Expo officials
announced in Monaco.
(Reuters, 12/3/02)
2002 Dec 7, Entertainment giant
Vivendi Universal signed an agreement to build a Universal Studios
theme park in booming Shanghai, beating much-fancied Walt Disney Co to
the punch.
(Reuters, 12/7/02)
2002 Dec 24, Chinese pro-democracy
activist Xu Wenli was released from a prison in Beijing and flown to
the United States.
(AP, 12/24/03)
2002 Dec 30, China launched its
Shenzhou IV spacecraft in a test launch to prepare for manned space
voyages.
(SFC, 12/30/02, p.A8)
2002 Dec 31, In China a
German-designed magnetic-levitation train hit 260 mph on its maiden run
between Shanghai and Pudong airport.
(SFC, 1/1/03, p.A10)
2002 Dec, China signed a
preliminary agreement with Indonesia aimed at halting the trade in
illegal logs.
(WSJ, 12/23/03, p.A12)
2002 Dec, In Guangdong province up
to 26 people were killed and 100 injured following a tornado and severe
hailstorm.
(SFC, 12/28/02, p.A24)
2002 China banned the novel "K:
The Art of Love" by Chen Hongying following a lawsuit by a British
woman who said the book insulted her late parents. The book was based
on letters and journals of Julian Bell (d.1937), a nephew of Virginia
Woolf, and his affair with poet named Lin.
(SFC, 12/13/02, p.K2)
2002 Adeline Yen Mah authored "A
Thousand Pieces of Gold: A Memoir of China’s Past Through Its Proverbs."
(SSFC, 11/3/02, p.M1)
2002 Andrew J. Nathan and Bruce
Gilley authored "China's New Rulers." A 2nd edition was published in
2004.
(Econ, 3/27/04, p.82)
2002 David Sheff authored "China
Dawn," a close-up look at the young men building Internet
infrastructure in China.
(WSJ, 3/12/02, p.A24)
2002 Joe Studwell authored "The
China Dream," the story of American business woes in China over the
last 700 years.
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A20)
2002 China and ASEAN agreed to a
China-ASEAN free-trade area to be implemented in stages up to 2015.
(Econ, 3/31/07, SR p.8)
2002 In China the International
Trade City Mall opened in Zhejiang province. The giant 4-story mall had
30,000 stores across 18 million square feet, the equivalent of 350
football fields.
(SFC, 12/8/06, p.A31)
2002 China began constructing a
$3.2 billion railroad to Tibet, to be completed in 2007.
(SFC, 11/5/03, p.A13)
2002 China announced a $5.25
billion East-West natural gas project. A Western consortium backed out
in 2004.
(WSJ, 8/4/04, p.A11)
2002 Citigroup paid $70 million
for a 4.6% stake in Shanghai Pudong Development, China’s 8th largest
bank. In 2006 it pushed to raise the stake to 19.9%.
(Econ, 5/20/06, Survey p.21)
2002 Bankers looted some $483
million from the Bank of China in the southern Guangdong province and
then fled the country.
(WSJ, 8/4/03, p.A1)
2002 China took over its whole
portion of the Internet naming system as part of its program to control
Internet access.
(WSJ, 2/13/06, p.A9)
2002 Tencent Holdings PLC, a
Chinese Internet company, designed a virtual currency payment system
for users in its virtual world. The system caught on and users began
trading it at a discount to the yuan. In 2007 Chinese ministries and
the central bank waged a crackdown on the QQ coin in order to prevent
money laundering.
(WSJ, 3/30/07, p.B1)
2002 China's exports totaled $325
billion.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.98)
2002 China surpassed the US as
Taiwan's top trading partner.
(WSJ, 4/20/04, p.A18)
2002 China surpassed the US to
become the world's largest beer market by volume.
(WSJ, 3/10/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/904, p.A1)
2002 Official Chinese statistics
said some 7,000 miners died in accidents in this year.
(SFC, 4/3/03, p.D1)
2002 A UN analysis of timber
statistics for 2002 showed China's reported import of logs from
Indonesia to be 200 times higher that the figures reported by
Indonesian customs.
(WSJ, 12/23/03, p.A12)
2003 Jan 5, Chinese media reported
that an unmanned Chinese space capsule had returned safely to Earth.
(AP, 1/5/04)
2003 Jan 11, In northern China an
explosion ripped through a coal mine, leaving 34 people missing a day
after a blast in a neighboring province killed 8 miners.
(AP, 1/11/03)
2003 Jan 20, In northeast China a
gas explosion tore through a coal mine, killing 16 workers at a
facility in the same city where another blast killed scores of miners
last year.
(AP, 1/21/03)
2003 Jan 28, A Chinese company
began distributing generic drugs for an anti-AIDS cocktail.
(SFC, 1/29/03, p.A5)
2003 Jan, China ended a "100-day
campaign" to hunt down North Korean refugees. 3,200 were deported and
another 1,300 awaited deportation. A Christian sponsored underground
railroad reportedly helped some 300,000 North Koreans escape their
homeland.
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A14)
2003 Jan-2003 Dec, In China there
were more than 58,000 protests, many of them over land rights disputes,
across the country.
(Reuters, 6/29/05)
2003 Feb 1, The Lunar Chinese New
Year 4701, the Year of the Ram, began.
(SFC, 1/31/03, p.A23)
2003 Feb 2, In northeastern China,
fire tore through the Tiantan Hotel Harbin, killing 33 people at the
start of Chinese New Year.
(AP, 2/2/03)
2003 Feb 9, In China state media
reported that scientists had discovered a massive underground lake,
some 35 billion cubic feet, in the arid northwest beneath the
Taklamakan desert.
(AP, 2/9/03)
2003 Feb 10, A Chinese court
convicted U.S.-based dissident Wang Bingzhang on spying and terrorism
charges and sentenced him to life in prison.
(AP, 2/10/04)
2003 Feb 11, From China it was
reported that an unidentified illness, 1st noted in Nov., has killed at
least five people in Guangdong province, left hundreds hospitalized and
sent health officials scrambling to find its source.
(AP, 2/11/03)
2003 Feb 11, In China Ma Sanli
(b.1914), a master performer of the traditional Chinese art of
crosstalk, a rhythmic, often humorous mix of dialogue and storytelling,
died.
(AP, 2/11/03)
2003 Feb 19, China outlined
plans for an enormous, 30-50 year project to carry water from the
country’s water-saturated south to its arid north. The project was 1st
conceived by Mao Zedong in the 1950s.
(AP, 2/19/03)(SSFC, 9/5/04, p.A16)
2003 Feb 24, In China
accidents in 3 coal mines killed at least 49 miners and left 10 others
missing.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Feb 24, A devastating
earthquake shook western China, killing at least 268 people, injuring
some 2,000 and flattening homes, schools and other buildings near the
Silk Road oasis of Kashgar. The death toll soon rose to at least 266
people, with another 2,000 injured.
(SFC, 2/26/03, A8)(AP, 2/25/04)
2003 Feb 25, China issued
its first group of long-term residency permits to 46 foreigners,
letting them live in the country for up to five years.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Mar 6, The Chinese
government committed itself to helping its poorest citizens, unveiling
a new budget aimed at helping the countryside and maintaining growth.
Defense was budgeted a 9.3% rise, the lowest in 14 years, and plans
were made to abolish the agency in charge of five-year plans.
(AP, 3/6/03)(SFC, 3/6/03, p.A14)(WSJ, 3/6/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 15, Hu Jintao was chosen
to replace Jiang Zemin as the president of China.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2003 Mar 16, In China Wen Jiaboa
(60) replaced Zhu Rongji as premier.
(SFC, 3/16/03, p.A16)
2003 Mar 17, Chinese police found
28 baby girls hidden in suitcases aboard a long-distance bus in
southern Guangxi, apparently being smuggled for sale. Police later
arrested 10 people involved in the scheme.
(AP, 3/22/03)(WSJ, 3/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 19, Doctors in Hong Kong
reportedly identified the deadly pneumonia virus as belonging to the
paramyxoviridae family. The severe acute respiratory illness (SARS) had
killed at least 11 people and left hundreds ill. The outbreak is
believed to have began in southern China in November. Later reports
held that it could be a coronavirus, part of a group that cause the
common cold. Many people treated with corticosteroids later developed
an irreversible bone disease called avascular necrosis. By July 12,
2003, SARS killed 812 people worldwide.
(SFC, 3/15/03, p.A8)(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A4)(WSJ,
4/3/03, p.B1)(WSJ, 12/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 20, China demanded that
military action against Iraq stop immediately and said the initial
attack was "violating the norms of international behavior."
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 22, A gas explosion
killed 28 people and trapped 45 others in a coal mine in northern China.
(AP, 3/22/03)
2003 Mar 30, Students in China
staged a rare state-sanctioned protest as hundreds of thousands around
the world staged another day of rallies denouncing the US led war in
Iraq.
(AP, 3/30/03)
2003 Apr 4, Chinese experts in
hard-hit Guangdong province told the scientists they have found a rare
form of airborne chlamydia in some of their SARS patients, raising the
possibility that more than one germ may be involved. Other Chinese
cases suggest the disease might be passed by touching something tainted
by a sick person's mucous or saliva.
(AP, 4/5/03)
2003 Apr 6, In eastern China a
fire roared through a food processing plant, killing 21 workers.
(AP, 4/6/03)
2003 Apr 9, China closed the
People's Armed Police Hospital in Beijing due to SARS.
(SFC, 4/26/03, A3)
2003 Apr 11, Amnesty International
said at least 1,526 people were executed worldwide last year, with 80
percent of all known executions carried out in China (1,060), Iran
(113) and the United States (71).
(Reuters, 4/11/03)
2003 Apr 16, US, Chinese and North
Korean officials announced talks in Beijing to try to resolve standoff
over North's nuclear program.
(AP, 4/24/03)
2003 Apr 16, SARS deaths totaled
some 154 with at least 3,412 affected in 22 countries. A World Health
Organization team disclosed that there were unreported cases of the
SARS virus in Beijing's military hospitals and that investigators have
been barred from releasing details.
(SFC, 4/16/03, p.A3)(AP, 4/17/03)
2003 Apr 20, After reporting a
nearly tenfold increase in SARS cases in the capital, China announced
the sacking of its top health official and the capital's mayor from key
Communist Party positions. The number of infections in Beijing soared
from 37 to 346.
(AP, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 21, China (13) and Hong
Kong (6) reported 19 new deaths from SARS.
(SFC, 4/22/03, A3)
2003 Apr 23, Beijing closed all
its primary and secondary schools until at least May 7 due to the SARS
epidemic.
(SFC, 4/23/03, A16)
2003 Apr 23, A Chinese fuel
tanker, "Daqing 767" carrying a 1000 tons of oil, sank and 3 crew
members were missing after the vessel collided in heavy fog with
another ship off China's southeastern coast.
(AP, 4/24/03)
2003 Apr 24, China shut down a
major hospital in Beijing and put more than 2,000 employees under
observation for severe acute respiratory syndrome. The global death
toll from SARS surpassed 260
(AP, 4/24/04)
2003 Apr 25, Nuclear talks in
Beijing ended after U.S. officials said North Korea claimed to have
nuclear weapons and might test, export or use them.
(AP, 4/25/03)
2003 Apr 25, Beijing reported 180
new SARS infections and 5 deaths. Some 2,000 people at the People's and
Ditan Hospitals were quarantined.
(SFC, 4/26/03, A3)
2003 Apr 26, Health ministers from
across east Asia came up with a joint plan to fight SARS during a
meeting, and hundreds of medical workers in Beijing were forced to
sleep in their offices because of hospital-wide quarantines. The death
toll climbed to 122 and a new 1,000-bed Beijing hospital was built in 5
days.
(AP, 4/26/03)(SSFC, 4/27/03, A1)
2003 Apr 27, In China's central
Hunan province a wagon overturned and tumbled into a gully, killing 16
people and injuring seven others. In Beijing theaters, cafés and
karaoke bars were closed as 126 new SARS cases were reported. Total
confirmed cases in China rose to 2,914 with 131 deaths. 26 of China's
31 provinces were infected.
(AP, 4/27/03)(WSJ, 4/28/03, A1)(SFC, 4/28/03, A1)
2003 Aug 27, The US and North
Korea held direct talks for the first time in months, meeting for a
half-hour on the sidelines of a six-nation summit in Beijing designed
to resolve the standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear program.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2003 Apr 29, China reported 9 more
deaths and more than 200 new cases, most of them in the capital Beijing.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 May 2, China reported an
accident on a diesel-powered submarine that killed all 70 sailors
aboard.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 5, China said there were
160 new infections and 9 new deaths, similar to totals in the past
several days. It has now recorded 4,280 cases, the bulk of the world's
total. Beijing closed its schools for another 2 weeks.
(AP, 5/5/03)(WSJ, 5/5/03, p.A1)
2003 May 13, In eastern China a
gas explosion ripped through a coal mine, killing at least 63 miners
and leaving 23 others missing 1,500 feet underground.
(AP, 5/14/03)
2003 May 15, China threatened
possible execution or jail sentences for people who cause death or
injury by deliberately spreading SARS.
(WSJ, 5/16/03, p.A1)
2003 May 17, In southern China
heavy rainstorms caused flooding killing 45 people and causing millions
of dollars in damage to homes and crops.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 23, Researchers from
China and Hong Kong identified a coronavirus in 3 wild mammals, palm
civets, a raccoon dog and a ferret badger, sold in the live-animal food
markets of South China.
(SFC, 5/24/03, p.A1)
2003 May 20, In northern China a
powerful gas explosion at the Yongtai mine, an unlicensed coal mine,
killed 25 miners.
(AP, 5/26/03)
2003 May 23, Flooding in a coal
mine in central China trapped 15 miners,
(AP, 5/26/03)
2003 May 24, In China Chen
Yongfeng (20), was arrested in Wenzhou on charges of killing and
dismembering 10 people, who had made their living picking through
garbage.
(AP, 5/30/03)
2003 May 26, China's Pres. Hu
Jintao arrived in Moscow for talks with Pres. Putin.
(SFC, 5/27/03, p.A12)
2003 May 28, Chinese President Hu
Jintao called for a "multipolar world" and a strategic partnership with
Russia to counter U.S. dominance, and oil executives signed a
preliminary deal for pipeline to carry Siberian oil to China.
(AP, 5/29/03)
2003 May 31, In St. Petersburg,
Russia, Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi and Hu Jintao, the new president
of China, agreed in a summit to work at defusing tensions over North
Korea.
(AP, 5/31/03)
2003 May 31, A Chinese freighter
sank in the Baltic Sea. It carried 66,000 tons of fertilizer and leaked
over 55,270 gallons of diesel oil. Some 38,000 gallons were recovered.
(SFC, 6/3/03, p.A3)
2003 May, Sun Dawu, owner of an
agricultural conglomerate in China’s Xushui county, was arrested for
illegally accepting deposits from local residents. Mr. Sun had recently
accused rural state-owned banks of financial oppression and kickbacks.
He was convicted in October and given a 3-year suspended sentence and a
fine of $12,000.
(Econ, 1/3/04, p.26)
2003 Jun 1, China began filling
the reservoir behind its gargantuan Three Gorges Dam, a major step
toward completion of the world's largest hydroelectric project.
(AP, 6/1/03)
2003 Jun 6, In southern China a
coach bus drove off a highway and plunged into a river, killing 12
people.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 7, In southern China 13
school children were reported missing after their ferry sank in rapids
on the Qingshui River in Guizhou province.
(AP, 6/8/03)
2003 Jun 8, China began building
one of the world's longest bridges. The 22-mile, $1.4 billion bridge
across Hangzhou Bay, linking Shanghai to the port of Ningbo, was set
for completion in 2009.
(AP, 6/9/03)(SFC, 7/9/03, p.A16)
2003 Jun 20, China said it will
move 42,000 soldiers to civilian jobs this year as part of efforts to
shrink the world's largest military.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 23, India's PM Atal
Bihari Vajpayee, making the first visit to China by a leader of his
nation in a decade, told his Premier Wen Jiabao that he hoped for
friendship and trust between the nuclear-armed former rivals.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Jun 24, The WHO lifted its
warning against travel to Beijing due to SARS.
(SFC, 6/25/03, p.A7)
2003 Jun 29, Hong Kong and China
signed a free-trade agreement, the Closer Economic Partnership
Agreement (CEPA).
(AP, 6/29/03)(Econ, 6/30/07, SR p.11)
2003 Jun, China began a new $15.7
billion investment fund as an alternative to its dilapidated pension
system.
(WSJ, 8/26/03, p.C1)
2003 Jul 4, Landslides in central
China caused by torrential rains killed 21 people as river waters ran
at their highest level in more than a decade,
(AP, 7/6/03)
2003 Jul 4, A coal mine explosion
in northeastern China killed 22 people and injured 6 others.
(AP, 7/6/03)
2003 Jul 11, In China a mudslide
left 50 people missing in Sichuan province.
(AP, 7/13/03)
2003 Jul 14, In China Yang
Bin (40), a Chinese-born Dutch citizen, was convicted of fraud and
bribery and sentenced to 18 years in prison. The orchid-selling tycoon
was once ranked by Forbes magazine as China's second-richest
businessman.
(AP, 7/14/03)(SFC, 7/15/03, p.A11)
2003 Jul 14, In China a mountain
on a tributary of the Three Gorges gave way killing 13 farmers. A large
tongue of land was sheered into the water and a resulting wave crashed
over 20 boats killing 11 fisherman.
(WSJ, 8/29/07, p.A12)
2003 Jul 19, In southern China a
bus plunged more than 300 feet off a cliff, killing 23 people.
(AP, 7/21/03)
2003 Jul 21, In southwest China a
magnitude-6.2 earthquake toppled thousands of mud-brick houses in a
mountainous area, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 300
others.
(AP, 7/22/03)
2003 Jul 28, In northern China a
blast ripped through a fireworks factory in Wangkou, killing 29 people
and injuring at least 141.
(AP, 7/29/03)
2003 Jul, China's foreign reserves
reached a record $356 billion.
(Econ, 8/30/03, p.54)
2003 Jul, China said that
newspapers run by county level governments and Communist Party
committees would be axed by the end of September except for those with
an advertising revenue of over 4m yuan ($480,000) annually.
(Econ, 10/4/03, p.42)
2003 Aug 11, In northern China a
gas explosion ripped through a coal mine, killing at least 33 miners
and leaving nine missing.
(AP, 8/12/03)
2003 Aug 13, Chinese researchers
reported that they had created hybrid embryos of human and rabbit DNA
as a source for stem cells.
(SFC, 8/14/03, p.A3)
2003 Aug 18, In Shanxi province,
China, there was a gas explosion in a coal mine where 27 miners were
working. At least 25 were killed.
(AP, 8/20/03)
2003 Aug 22, In northern China a
bus swerving to avoid an oil truck ran off a highway and plunged into a
ravine, killing 27 people.
(AP, 8/23/03)
2003 Aug 26, A hidden cache of
fireworks exploded in a town in China's southeast, killing at least 20
people in the 2nd such disaster to strike the same county in one month.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2003 Sep 1, State media reported
that China will cut an additional 200,000 soldiers as part of efforts
to modernize its armed forces.
(AP, 9/1/03)
2003 Sep 2, Typhoon Dujuan slammed
into the southern Chinese coastal city of Shenzhen, killing at least 20
people and causing extensive damage to parts of the country's showcase
economic development zone.
(AP, 9/3/03)
2003 Sep 2, The official Xinhua
News Agency reported that heavy flooding in northern China has killed
38 people with another 34 people missing since Aug 24.
(AP, 9/2/03)
2003 Sep 2, In Inner Mongolia a
locust plague, Oedaleus decorus asiaticus, was reported to have
affected some 47 million acres of grasslands.
(WSJ, 9/2/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 2, Two South China
tigers, the first ever to leave the country, arrived in South Africa as
part of a project to save the endangered species.
(AP, 9/3/03)
2003 Sep 3, In China Typhoon
Dujuan killed at least 32 people.
(WSJ, 9/4/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 23, China signed
agreements with Russia and four Central Asian neighbors (Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan) in an effort to strengthen a
7-year-old security alliance and encourage economic links across a
largely undeveloped region.
(AP, 9/23/03)
2003 Sep, The Chinese government
permitted US educators and a British prep school to operate a school
for kindergarten and high school students. A ban on foreign-run
elementary and middle schools remained in force.
(SFC, 12/26/03, p.D1)
2003 Sep, Wal-Mart opened a
superstore in Namchang, China, and over 100,000 jammed the aisles. The
company 1st entered China in 1996 through a joint-venture agreement.
(WSJ, 10/17/05,
p.A1)(www.wal-martchina.com/english/walmart/history.htm)
2003 Oct 1, In China new rules
took effect that eliminate a requirement for couples to get the
permission of their employers before they tie the knot.
(AP, 10/1/03)
2003 Oct 8, China was reported to
have taken the first step toward recognizing the Himalayan territory of
Sikkim as a part of India, resolving a long-standing border dispute.
Sikkim, located between Nepal and the kingdom of Bhutan, was an
independent principality before it was annexed by India in 1975.
(AP, 10/8/03)
2003 Oct 9, In central China an
underground flood in a coal mine trapped 18 miners.
(AP, 10/10/03)
2003 Oct 11, In China the 16th
Communist Party Congress began in Beijing. The 4-day meeting included
debates on reforms toward private property, a more stable legal system
and measures to encourage private investments.
(SSFC, 10/11/03, p.A3)
2003 Oct 12, In China Ma
Yong (43), was arrested and accused of robbing and killing 12 women in
southern China over a five-month period, preying on job seekers in the
boomtown of Shenzhen. Duan Zhiqun (20), his female partner, was
arrested Oct 23.
(AP, 11/11/03)
2003 Oct 12, In southern China an
explosion in a coal mine killed 7 miners, while the bodies of 4 miners
killed in an underground flood were pulled from a shaft in a central
province.
(AP, 10/12/03)
2003 Oct 14, China's ruling
communists closed a secretive 4-day meeting aimed at pushing ahead with
market reforms and said a revision to the country's constitution had
been endorsed.
(AP, 10/14/03)
2003 Oct 15, In China Shenzhou 5
launched into orbit with air force Lt. Col. Yang Liwei (38) aboard,
making China the third nation to put a human in space on its own, after
the former Soviet Union and the United States. His capsule landed in
Mongolia the next day.
(AP, 10/15/03)(SFC, 10/16/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 7/15/07,
p.D5)
2003 Oct 23, Chinese officials
reported that accidents in China's mines and factories killed 11,449
people in the first nine months of this year despite a nationwide
safety crackdown.
(AP, 10/23/03)
2003 Oct 24, Chinese President Hu
Jintao became the first Asian leader to address Australia's parliament.
(AP, 10/24/03)
2003 Oct 25, In northwestern China
powerful twin tremors, minutes apart, killed nine people and leveled
houses in Gansu province.
(AP, 10/26/03)
2003 Nov 3, In China Yang Zhiya
(Yang Xinhai, Yang Xinhua), an ex-convict dumped by his girlfriend, was
arrested in northern Hebei province for the stabbing murders of 67
people and 23 rapes. Xinhai was sentenced to death on Feb 1, 2004. He
was executed Feb 14.
(AP, 11/15/03)(AP, 2/1/04)(AP, 2/14/04)
2003 Nov 5, Chinese tycoon
Aikelamu Aishayoufu was reported to be missing. His Xinjiang Hops Co.
ran up liabilities totaling $100 million.
(WSJ, 11/5/03, p.A1)
2003 Nov 11, In Beijing former
President Clinton called on China and the US to overcome their
differences on trade, saying the two powers must learn to work together
to conquer common threats like AIDS, terrorism and global warming.
(AP, 11/11/03)
2003 Nov 14, China and India began
1st ever joint naval exercises.
(SFC, 11/13/03, p.A7)
2003 Nov 22, In China a gas
explosion at the Sundian coal mine in Hunan province killed 14 people,
while 9 were still missing.
(AP, 11/24/03)
2003 Nov 24, The US Dept. of
Commerce said it would impose tariffs on Chinese-made television sets
that it ruled were being sold below fair market price in the US.
(SFC, 11/27/03, p.C3)
2003 Nov 29, China said it broke
diplomatic relations with Kiribati after the tiny Pacific island nation
opened ties with rival Taiwan.
(AP, 11/29/03)
2003 Nov, In China Jiang Lijun
(39) was sentenced to four years in prison for posting Internet
articles calling for the overthrow of the Communist Party. In 2006 it
was reported that Yahoo's Hong Kong unit gave authorities a draft
e-mail that had been saved on Jiang's account. Yahoo also provided
information in the cases of Li Zhi and Shi Tao.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2003 Nov, Drought conditions in
China's Hunan province forced Changsha, the provincial capital, to
institute rolling blackouts.
(Econ, 3/27/04, p.43)
2003 Dec 1, A strong earthquake
rumbled through a swath of western China's mountainous Xinjiang region,
killing at least 11 people and collapsing hundreds of homes in Ili
Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture near the border with Kazakhstan.
(AP, 12/1/03)
2003 Dec 5, Shanghai's government
reported that its population has surged to more than 20 million people,
soaring by 3 million over the past year amid a flood of job seekers
from other parts of China.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 6, In the beach resort of
Sanya, China, Miss Ireland, 19-year-old Rosanna Davison, won the Miss
World competition. Second place went to Miss Canada, Nazanin
Afshin-Jam, while the host country's Miss China, Guan Qi, took third.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 9, Shanghai reported
plans to ban bicycles from its major roads next year, banishing China's
most popular form of transportation to make more room for cars.
(AP, 12/9/03)
2003 Dec 9, Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao visited with Pres. Bush for talks on trade, Taiwan and other
issues.
(WSJ, 12/9/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 10, It was reported that
China was forcibly repatriating some 100 North Korean refugees each
week and the 852 were detained in camps awaiting deportation.
(SFC, 12/10/03, p.A16)
2003 Dec 11, In China's far
northwest a coal mine fire in Urumqi killed nine miners, and rescue
efforts were hampered by repeated gas explosions.
(AP, 12/13/03)
2003 Dec 12, Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao arrived in Mexico in a bid to extend a string of recent
diplomatic and economic successes in North America. In 2002 China
shipped $6.3 billion in goods to Mexico, undercutting many local goods.
(SFC, 12/4/03, p.A22)(AP, 12/12/03)
2003 Dec 13, Chinese Premier Web
Jiabao sought to assure Mexican leaders that their country's economy is
not threatened by China's lower wages and cheaper goods, saying the two
nations are partners, not rivals.
(AP, 12/13/03)
2003 Dec 15, From China it was
reported that Liu Dalin (71), founder and curator of the Chinese Sexual
Culture Museum, was moving his collection from Shanghai to Tongli. His
3,700 items covered 6,000 years of human sexuality in the world's most
populous nation.
(AP, 12/15/03)
2003 Dec 17, China Life, China's
biggest life insurer, debuted on the NY stock exchange.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.104)
2003 Dec 19, China said it has
issued rules restricting exports of missile, nuclear and biological
technologies that can be used to make or deliver weapons of mass
destruction.
(AP, 12/20/03)
2003 Dec 22, China put forth
legislation to change its constitution to protect private property
rights for the first time since the 1949 communist revolution, a key
step in making capitalism its economy's driving force.
(AP, 12/22/03)
2003 Dec 23, A blowout occurred at
a natural gas field near Chongqing in Kaixian County. Fumes from the
gas well in China's southwest killed at least 233 people and forced
some 41,000 to flee a 10-square-mile death zone. Technicians capped it
Dec 27.
(AP, 12/25/03)(SFC, 12/27/03, p.A8)(SFC, 12/29/03,
p.A3)
2003 Dec 25, China announced steps
to reduce overexpansion.
(SFC, 12/26/03, p.A3)
2003 Dec 26, In northern China a
fire raced through coal mine in Wu'an, a city in Hebei province,
killing 26 miners.
(AP, 12/27/03)
2003 Dec 27, China announced its
first suspected SARS case since July.
(AP, 12/27/03)
2003 Dec 29, China reported that
the China State Shipbuilding Corp. has broken ground on what it says
will be the world's biggest shipyard, a high-tech facility capable of
producing cruise ships and natural gas tankers at the mouth of the
Yangtze.
(AP, 12/29/03)
2003 Dec 30, In northeast China an
explosion at a fireworks factory in Tieling, Liaoning province, killed
at least 29 people. Authorities soon ordered more than 2,000 fireworks
factories closed after a series of fatal explosions "sounded warning
bells for the industry."
(AP, 12/30/03)(AP, 1/3/04)
2003 Dec 31, China offered to
allow Taiwan to fly unlimited numbers of direct charter flights to the
mainland in 2004, if the island's government agrees to allow Chinese
airlines to do the same the following year.
(AP, 12/31/03)
2003 In China journalists Chen
Guidi and Wu Chuntao authored “Will the Boat Sink the Water,” a look at
peasant life in southeast China. It sold some 250,000 copies before
authorities took it off the shelves. Pirated copies continued to sell.
In 2006 it was translated to English.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.D8)
2003 In China for the 1st time in
over two decades people in Beijing got their names on ballot papers
without official backing in elections to district people’s congresses.
(Econ, 11/11/06, p.48)
2003 China began building wire
fences on major defection North Korean routes along the Tumen River.
Since September 2006, China began building wire fences along the Yalu
River.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2003 The Shanghai Tatler magazine
was set up by owners of the Hong Kong Tatler, modeled on London’s
Tatler.
(Econ, 1/3/04, p.27)
2003 The China Banking Regulatory
Commission was carved out of the central bank.
(Econ, 10/29/05, p.72)
2003 Coca-Cola test-marketed its
“fruit pulp orange” drink in China and began rolling it out across the
country with great success.
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.68)
2003 William C. Hsiao, senior
professor of economics at Harvard, launched a program in Xinlian,
China, to help residents monitor and publicize the quality of health
care. Village doctors in China made most of their money selling drugs.
(WSJ, 2/13/07, p.A1)
2003 In China the local government
of Hongwei acknowledged the seriousness of local pollution and called
on Daqing Lianhua, a subsidiary of PetroChina, to relocate villagers.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.47)
2003 In 2005 estimates of Chinese
labor unrest for 2003 noted some 60,000 protests with a 17% annual
increase over the past decade.
(WSJ, 4/18/05, p.A16)
2003 In 2006 China said its first
confirmed human death from bird flu was in 2003, two years earlier than
previously reported, showing that the virus was present on the mainland
before the latest outbreak was first disclosed elsewhere in Asia.
(AFP, 8/8/06)
2003 China's growth rate for the
year was measured at 9.1%.
(WSJ, 1/21/04, p.A1)
2003 Chinese Internet users
protested the beating to death in jail of a man arrested for failing to
carry the right identity documents. This led to the scrapping of a
decades old law giving police sweeping powers to detain anyone
suspected of staying without a permit in a place other than his
registered home town.
(Econ, 4/29/06, p.30)
2003 China executed 726 people,
nearly two-thirds of the world's known court-ordered executions, and
violated its own law by killing at least one man for a crime committed
at age 16, according to a 2004 report by Amnesty Int'l. Publicly
admitted executions in China soared to over 7,000 this year due to a
“strike hard” crackdown on crime.
(AP, 4/7/04)(Econ, 4/28/07, p.69)
2003 India changed its verbiage on
Tibet to say that the Tibet Autonomous Region is part of China as
opposed to the previous description of Tibet as an autonomous region of
China.
(Econ, 11/18/06, p.16)
2004 Jan 1, China began running
the world's 1st commercially operated maglev train in Shanghai. The
German-built system spanned 18 miles.
(SFC, 1/10/04, p.E4)
2004 Jan 1, Hong Kong began a de
facto free-trade agreement with mainland China.
(SFC, 10/15/05, p.C1)
2004 Jan 3, In China a fire broke
out on an overcrowded bus along an expressway that connects Shanghai
with the eastern city of Nanjing, killing at least 12 people and
injuring 14.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 3, In China a landslide
crushed five houses, killing at least 14 people in northern Shanxi
province.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 5, China confirmed its
first SARS case since an outbreak of the disease was contained in July
and authorities ordered the emergency slaughter of some 10,000 civet
cats and related species after tests linked a virus found in the
animals to the patient.
(AP, 1/5/04)
2004 Jan 6, China began a mass
eradication of some 10,000 civet cats to stem a suspected link to SARS.
(SFC, 1/7/04, p.A14)
2004 Jan 8, Chinese state media
reported that authorities had dismissed 44,701 police between August
and November in 2003 for lacking job qualifications, corruption or
other offenses in a campaign to raise policing standards.
(AP, 1/8/04)
2004 Jan 10, China reported a 3rd
suspected SARS infection involved a 35-year-old man in Guangdong
province.
(AP, 1/11/04)(WSJ, 1/13/04, p.D5)
2004 Jan 12, It was reported that
China might inject $40 billion into its Industrial and Commercial Bank.
2 other state-run lenders, Bank of China and China Construction Bank,
split $45 billion in transfers from foreign exchange reserves a week
earlier.
(WSJ, 1/12/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 17, The Chinese
government confirmed two more SARS patients, bringing the total number
this year to three.
(AP, 1/17/04)
2004 Jan 22, The Chinese New Year
(Lunar Year 4702) ushered in the Year of the Monkey. In Korea the event
is called Solnal and in Vietnam it is called Tet. The Chinese New Year
marked a traditional time of settling debts. Migrant workers in the
Chinese construction industry were reportedly owed over $40 billion in
back pay.
(WSJ, 1/19/04, p.A1)(SFC, 1/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 26, China's President Hu
Jintao arrived in France, with European ministers considering Beijing's
request that they lift an arms embargo imposed after the killing of
Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989.
(AP, 1/26/04)
2004 Jan 30, The Chinese
government said audits aimed at ferreting out corruption in China
uncovered $8 billion in misused or embezzled funds and widespread
irregularities that produced "serious losses" of state assets.
(AP, 1/30/04)
2004 Jan 31, China’s oil-refining
boss signed a deal to buy crude oil from Gabon. Pres. Hu Jintao visited
Gabon the next day.
(Econ, 2/7/04, p.45)
2004 Feb 1, China reported 5 more
cases of the avian influenza virus.
(SFC, 2/2/04, p.A4)
2004 Feb 5, A lantern festival
marking the end of China's Lunar New Year celebrations erupted into a
stampede, killing at least 37 people and injuring 15.
(AP, 2/5/04)
2004 Feb 6, Chinese state-run
media reported regulators have given preliminary approval for a private
airline to be set up in the southwestern city of Chengdu.
(AP, 2/6/04)
2004 Feb 9, Culturecom Holdings
Ltd. of Hong Kong unveiled a DVD player and word-processing device
built with chips developed by Chinese computer scientist Chu Bong-foo.
Chu found a way to put Asia characters in position to command binary
code.
(WSJ, 2/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 10, The US broke ground
for a new U.S. Embassy compound in the Chinese capital, billed by the
American government as the largest State Department project ever built
on foreign soil.
(AP, 2/10/04)
2004 Feb 11, A gas explosion in a
coal mine in southern China killed 24 miners.
(AP, 2/11/04)
2004 Feb 12, Wang Huaizhong (57),
a former Chinese provincial vice governor, was executed in Shandong
province for taking more than $600,000 in bribes.
(AP, 2/12/04)
2004 Feb 14, China executed Yang
Xinhua (38), a man convicted of murdering 67 people, in what media said
might be the country's longest killing spree in modern history. Yang
was convicted of 67 killings and 23 rapes in Henan and three other
provinces. His crime spree began in 2001 following release from a labor
camp and ended with his capture in November.
(AP, 2/14/04)
2004 Feb 15, In northeastern China
a fire swept through a shopping center, killing 51 people and injuring
dozens more. Hours later, a fire in a temple in the country's southeast
killed 39 people. The 2 blazes killed at least 93 people.
(AP, 2/15/04)(AP, 2/15/05)
2004 Feb 23, In northeastern China
a coal mine explosion killed at least 24 miners as rescue workers
scrambled to find 13 more trapped miners.
(AP, 2/24/04)
2004 Feb 23, Envoys from 6 nations
gathered in Beijing for talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis.
(WSJ, 2/24/04, p.A1)
2003 Feb 28, It was reported that
China’s foreign exchange reserves were $730 billion.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.72)
2004 Feb 29, In central China a
bus carrying migrant workers to faraway factory jobs plunged off a
mountain road, killing 12 and injuring 35.
(AP, 2/29/04)
2004 Mar 1, An explosion in an
unlicensed coal mine in northern China killed 28 miners.
(AP, 3/3/04)
2004 Mar 2, In China authorities
shut down water supplies after a combination of synthetic ammonia and
nitrogen from the Sichuan General Chemical Factory leaked into the Tuo
River. Nearly 1 million people were left without water for drinking and
bathing.
(AP, 3/5/04)
2004 Mar 5, China's Premier Wen
Jiabao addressed the 2,904-member legislature and turned attention and
resources to the hundreds of millions of citizens who work the land.
(AP, 3/5/04)(SFC, 3/06/04, p.A10)
2004 Mar 6, China handed its
enormous military a double-digit spending increase in a show of
support. According to China's 2004 budget, military spending for the
PLA will rise 11.6 percent this year, an increase of $2.6 billion.
(AP, 3/6/04)
2004 Mar 7, in China's Muslim
Xinjiang region the No. 2 Mine of the Hami Coal Co. flooded. 25 managed
to escape while rescuers worked desperately to save survivors. Rescue
workers saved 15 coal miners trapped in a flooded shaft, but seven
miners were still missing.
(AP, 3/8/04)
2004 Mar 8, China's parliament
began discussing a constitutional amendment that would protect private
property for the first time since the 1949 communist revolution.
(AP, 3/8/04)
2004 Mar 9, China reported that it
would scrap the 8% tax on farmers' crops over the next 5 years. The
vestige of feudalism was established 4,000 years ago during the Bronze
Age.
(AP, 3/9/04)
2004 Mar 12, Chinese state media
reported that a 1,930-mile railway project to link China and Europe was
announced by Kanat Zhangaskin, vice president of the Kazakhstan
National Railway Co.
(AP, 3/12/04)
2004 Mar 14, China took symbolic
steps toward a more capitalist society, amending its constitution to
protect private property rights and formalizing a former president's
once-unthinkable legacy, inviting entrepreneurs to join the Communist
Party.
(AP, 3/14/04)
2004 Mar 16, China declared
victory in its fight against bird flu, saying it had "stamped out" all
of its known cases, while a factory worker in Thailand became Asia's
23rd victim of the virus.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 23, Chen Zhongwei (74), a
Chinese surgeon credited with pioneering the process of reattaching
severed limbs, died. Chen successfully reattached the severed right
hand of an injured factory worker in 1963, in the first operation of
its kind.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Mar 25, China's Foreign
Minister Li Zhaoxing, arriving home from North Korea, saying his
three-day trip yielded an agreement from that country's reclusive
leader to "push forward" toward a third round of talks on its nuclear
program.
(AP, 3/25/04)
2004 Apr 5, China promised $122
million to Pres. Skerritt in return for revoking Dominica’s recognition
of Taiwan.
(Econ, 4/10/04, p.29)
2004 Apr 6, China issued a major
ruling on how Hong Kong chooses its leaders, saying the territory must
submit proposed political reforms to Beijing for approval.
(AP, 4/6/04)
2004 Apr 8, In China PM Wen Jiabao
suspended plans for a huge dam system on the Nu River in western China
due to environmental concerns.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.A10)
2004 Apr 10, A coal mine explosion
trapped five miners underground in a northeastern Chinese city where
more than 150 miners have been killed in the past year.
(AP, 4/10/04)
2004 Apr 11, China’s People’s
Bank, in an effort to slow the growth in money supply, raised bank
reserve requirements from 7 to 7.5%, the 3rd increase in 8 months.
(Econ, 4/17/04, p.71)
2004 Apr 13, Authorities in
Shanghai announced that divorced couples who remarry will be allowed to
have a second child.
(AP, 4/13/04)
2004 Apr 14, China began offering
free AIDS tests to anyone who wants one and free treatment for infected
people who can't afford.
(AP, 4/14/04)
2004 Apr 16, Yu Zhendong, a
fugitive Chinese banker accused of helping embezzle $485 million from
his state-owned bank, was returned to China by U.S. authorities.
(AP, 4/16/04)
2004 Apr 16, A Chinese newspaper
reported that China over the last few months had arrested nearly a
dozen military officers — including at least four generals — on charges
of spying for rival Taiwan.
(AP, 4/16/04)
2004 Apr 16, In Chongqing, China,
leaking chlorine gas exploded at a chemical plant, killing at least 7
people and forcing 150,000 to flee their homes.
(AP, 4/17/04)(WSJ, 4/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 18, North Korean leader
Kim Jong Il crossed into China in a special train for a summit to
discuss the North's nuclear weapons program with the Chinese president.
(AP, 4/18/04)
2004 Apr 19, North Korean leader
Kim Jong Il reportedly held talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao
about the North's nuclear arms program and requests for economic aid.
(AP, 4/19/04)
2004 Apr 20, China urged North
Korean leader Kim Jong Il to rethink his demands for a written U.S.
pledge not to attack, saying only a softer line can ease the standoff
over Pyongyang's nuclear program.
(AP, 4/20/04)
2004 Apr 20, Yang Xiuzhu, former
vice-mayor of Wenzhou and vice-director of China’s Zhejiang Provincial
Construction Bureau, fled abroad as investigations began on bribery
charges. She was believed to have taken bribes of 253.2 million yuan
(US$30 million).
(http://tinyurl.com/aza8m)(Econ, 6/4/05, p.42)
2004 Apr 20, Chinese state media
reported that from April last year, about 50 to 60 infants died from
malnutrition after being fed a milk formula with virtually no
nutritional value.
(AP, 4/20/04)(SFC, 4/21/04, p.A8)
2004 Apr 23, China confirmed two
cases of SARS and said the mother of one patient has died, apparently
the first SARS fatality in the country since July.
(AP, 4/23/04)
2004 Apr 26, Mainland China dealt
a crushing blow to Hong Kong's hopes for full democracy, when its most
powerful legislative panel ruled the territory won't have direct
elections for its next leader in 2007 or for all its lawmakers in 2008.
(AP, 4/26/04)
2004 Apr 27, The Chinese
government said it had shut down a U.S. visa information center in
Shanghai because of complaints of overcharging.
(AP, 4/28/04)
2004 Apr 27, It was reported that
China planned to consolidate some 35,000 rural cooperatives over the
next 3 years to about 3,000. The government estimated cooperative bad
loans at 26% of the total loans.
(WSJ, 4/27/04, p.A16)
2004 Apr, China released Chen
Gang, a factory worker who helped to organize a strike during China's
1989 pro-democracy protests.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 May 1, Shanghai Tobacco,
maker of Panda and other cigarette brands, embarked on a campaign to
extend Panda beyond the political and military elite. WHO statistics
held that China accounts for 30% of the 5.5 trillion cigarettes
consumed daily world-wide.
(WSJ, 5/26/04, p.A1)
2004 May 3, A car packed with
explosives went off as a bus carried Chinese engineers to a port
project in remote southwestern Pakistan, killing 3 of them and injuring
11 other people.
(AP, 5/3/04)
2004 May 4, Pakistan and China
signed a deal for the construction of a nuclear power plant, the second
such plant to be built in Pakistan with Beijing's help.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 5, In central China
shelves stacked high with garlic collapsed and killed 15 workers at a
cold-storage warehouse in Zhenghou.
(AP, 5/6/04)
2004 May 5, British-based
SABMiller launched an unsolicited HK$4.3 billion ($550m) bid for Harbin
Brewery, China’s 4th largest brewer.
(Econ, 5/8/04, p.61)
2004 May 9, The Chinese government
warned that AIDS is continuing to spread and estimated that there were
some 840,000 carriers of the disease.
(SFC, 5/10/04, p.A3)
2004 May 17, China and Kazakhstan
agreed to build a 744-mile crude oil pipeline to send an initial 10
million tons of Kazakh oil to Xinjiang by 2006.
(WSJ, 6/17/04, p.A16)
2004 May 18, An explosion and a
fire at two coal mines in northern China killed at least 22 workers and
trapped 25.
(AP, 5/19/04)
2004 May 26, African and Latin
American leaders meeting in China urged rich countries to fight
terrorism by sharing wealth, not through military intervention.
(AP, 5/26/04)
2004 May 30, In southwest China a
landslide triggered by torrential rains buried a village in Guizhou
province, killing 8 people.
(AP, 6/1/04)
2004 May 31, Newbridge Capital, an
American private equity firm, became the 1st foreign financial to gain
control of a Chinese bank with an 18% stake in Shenzhen Development
Bank and majority control of the board.
(Econ, 6/5/04, p.70)
2004 May, In Fujian province angry
mobs in Fuan city gutted at least 3 villas of wealthy residents accused
of defrauding investors in an informal network of unregistered credit
associations known as biaohui.
(Econ, 7/17/04, p.46)
2004 May, A Japanese consulate
worker in Shanghai committed suicide. Japanese newspapers later
reported the official took his life because Chinese officials were
pressuring him for secret information, using a "woman problem" as
leverage. China accused Japan of deliberately smearing China's
international image.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2004 Jun 1, Anheuser-Busch offered
HK$5.58 per share for China’s Harbin Brewery Group Ltd. 2 days later
SABMiller withdrew its HK$4.30 offer.
(WSJ, 6/4/04, p.A3)
2004 Jun 9, A Chinese state
newspaper said 1 baby died and 20 were hospitalized with severe
malnutrition in eastern China after drinking low-quality milk powder,
two months after a nationwide crackdown on fake infant formula.
(AP, 6/9/04)
2004 Jun 15, It was reported that
China had ordered water prices increased for the 1st time since the
founding of the People’s Republic due to strains on supplies from
development.
(WSJ, 6/15/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 26, In Beijing, China, 4
days of talks on North Korea’s nuclear program ended with a promise for
further discussion.
(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.A24)
2004 Jun 28, The European Union
denied China's request to be officially recognized as a market economy,
saying that an assessment of the Chinese economy showed too much state
interference and poor corporate governance.
(AP, 6/28/04)
2004 Jun, The first Confucius
Institute, designed to promote the study of Chinese abroad, was
established in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The 75th was established in
Cracow, Poland, in 2006.
(Econ, 7/8/06, p.38)
2004 Jul 2, China began censoring
telephone text messages to “block the dissemination of illicit news and
information.”
(SFC, 7/3/04, p.A2)
2004 Jul 2, Shanghai police raided
the apartment of Randolph Hobson Guthrie III in a joint US-Chinese
operation against pirated DVDs. They seized 210,000 pirated DVD copies.
(WSJ, 3/7/05, p.A1)
2004 Jul 13, It was reported that
the bid price for a car license plate in Shanghai had surged to $4,133
in May.
(WSJ, 7/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 27, The official Xinhua
News Agency said Chinese authorities have shut down 700 pornographic
Web sites in less than two weeks as part of a massive campaign to clean
up the Internet.
(AP, 7/27/04)
2004 Aug
4, In China a school employee with a history of schizophrenia slashed
15 students and three teachers with a kitchen knife at a Beijing
kindergarten, killing one child and leaving terrified classmates
covered in blood.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2004 Aug 6-2004 Aug 8, Up to
100,000 rock and rollers crowded a remote desert venue in China's
isolated Ningxia province over the weekend for a three-day festival
featuring the nation's oldest and best bands.
(AP, 8/9/04)
2004 Aug 10, In southwest China a
5.6 earthquake killed four and injured nearly 600 in Yunnan province.
More than 125,000 people were left homeless and cracked walls in
reservoirs posed a threat to villages downstream.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 11, Huang Jingao, chief
of Fujian’s Lianjiang County, posted on open letter on the Internet
accusing colleagues of confiscating land from peasants and selling it a
below-market prices to developers in exchange for bribes. In 2005
Jingao was sentenced to life in prison following a year-long campaign
by party authorities to silence and discredit him.
(SFC, 11/11/05, p.A3)
2004 Aug 13, Typhoon Rananim
weakened to a tropical storm. The death toll from Rananim rose to 115,
after it slammed into the China's southeastern coast.
(AP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 16, General Motors said
it will start making Cadillacs in China this year, joining a race by
foreign luxury car brands to sell to the country's newly rich elite.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 16, In China villagers in
an eastern province dug with farm tools to search for 24 people missing
in massive landslides unleashed by Typhoon Rananim.
(AP, 8/16/04)
2004 Aug 17, A US research
institute said India is projected to outpace China and become the
world's most populous country by 2050, growing by 50 percent in the
next 46 years to reach more than 1.6 billion people.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 20, China said it would
offer 10-year residency permits to “high-level” foreigners, who bring
in important investments or business skills.
(WSJ, 8/23/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 23, It was reported that
China recorded its 1st ever agricultural trade deficit, $3.73 billion,
for the 1st half of this year.
(WSJ, 8/23/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 24, China evacuated
hundreds of thousands of people as Typhoon Aere lashed neighboring
Taiwan, triggering landslides and disruption and leaving at least seven
people feared dead and one missing.
(AFP, 8/24/04)
2004 Aug 26, Typhoon Aere crashed
into mainland China prompting the evacuation of nearly a million
people, as the death toll climbed to 35 after a mudslide killed 15
villagers in Taiwan.
(AP, 8/26/04)
2004 Aug 27, Liu Xiang (b.1983),
Chinese hurdler, set a record and won Olympic gold in Athens in the 110
meter hurdles with a time of 12.91 seconds equaling the 1993 time of
Colin Jackson.
(www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-08/28/content_369582.htm)
2004 Aug 27, It was reported that
SABMiller was investing $82.2 million to build a brewery in Dongguan,
Guangdong province, China.
(WSJ, 8/27/04, p.A10)
2004 Aug, The World Bank estimated
that pollution is causing China and annual 8-12% of its $1.4 trillion
GDP in direct damage.
(Econ, 8/21/04, p.56)
2004 Sep 2, The first Chinese
tourists to visit Paris, French, on an official tour group were treated
to a full taste of its charms.
(AP, 9/3/04)
2004 Sep 6, In southwest China at
least 90 people were killed and 77 were missing after some of the worst
rainstorms in recent years triggered landslides and flash floods.
(AP, 9/6/04)
2004 Sep 7, In southwestern China
floods unleashed by torrential rains have killed at least 161 people
and left dozens more missing, prompting authorities to put the massive
Three Gorges hydroelectric project on alert.
(AP, 9/7/04)(WSJ, 9/7/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 10, Li Yuanjiang, the
former editor-in-chief of one of China's biggest newspapers, the
Guangzhou Daily, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for taking bribes.
Guangzhou is the capital and the sub-provincial city of Guangdong
Province in southern mainland China. The city was formerly known
internationally as Canton, after a French language transliteration of
the name of the province in Cantonese.
(AP, 9/11/04)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangzhou)
2004 Sep 19, Former President
Jiang Zemin turned over his last major post as chairman of the
commission that runs China's military to his successor, Hu Jintao (61),
completing the country's first peaceful leadership transition since its
1949 revolution.
(AP, 9/19/04)
2004 Sep 20, Russia's embattled
Yukos oil giant raised the stakes in its bitter standoff with the
Kremlin as the company slashed supplies to China in a move analysts
said was designed to cause maximum embarrassment in Moscow.
(AP, 9/20/04)
2004 Sep 21, China's PM Wen Jiabao
hailed a series of agreements with neighboring Kyrgyzstan including an
agreement on the thorny issue of the countries' common border.
(AFP, 9/21/04)
2004 Sep 25, In southwest China a
swollen river swept a bus off a bridge, and about 30 passengers were
missing.
(AP, 9/25/04)
2004 Sep 25, Ma Chengyuan (77),
former president of the renowned Shanghai Museum, died. He saved
priceless artifacts from marauding Red Guards during the Cultural
Revolution.
(AP, 10/10/04)
2004 Oct 1, G7 ministers met in
Washington DC. Chinese officials were invited to attend for the 1st
time.
(Econ, 10/2/04, p.11)
2004 Oct 7, US President George W.
Bush told Chinese President Hu Jintao in a phone conversation that he
supports reunifying Taiwan with the mainland but warned against "any
unilateral attempt" to do so.
(AFP, 10/7/04)
2004 Oct 9, French President
Jacques Chirac declared that France was a natural trade partner to
China and, amid a flurry of air, rail and energy deals.
(AP, 10/9/04)
2004 Oct 13, In Shanghai, China,
the Houston Rockets, featuring Yao Ming, played an exhibition
basketball game against the Sacramento Kings. Advertisers paid some $10
million to sponsor the game and another in Beijing.
(WSJ, 10/15/04, p.B1)
2004 Oct 13, Russia and China
settled a dispute over their 2,700-mile border during a visit by Pres.
Putin.
(WSJ, 10/14/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 20, China formally
arrested Zhao Yan, a New York Times researcher, who was detained Sep 16
for allegedly leaking state secrets. The crime could be punishable by
death.
(AFP, 10/21/04)
2004 Oct 20, In central China a
gas explosion ripped through a coal shaft at the Daping Mine in Henan
province killing at least 77 miners. Dozens miners were missing.
(AP, 10/21/04)(AP, 10/23/04)
2004 Oct 20, Senior Indian and
Chinese officials met in New Delhi, India, to discuss a long-running
border dispute between the two countries.
(AFP, 10/20/04)
2004 Oct 20, The EU revamped its
trade rules. Nations with more than 15% of European market share of any
goods were set to lose their discounted tariffs. China and India were
expected to be the main losers.
(WSJ, 10/20/04, p.A15)
2004 Oct 21, China and Japan
planned emergency talks over energy rights in the disputed waters
between them.
(WSJ, 10/21/04, p.A17)
2004 Oct 21, Fu Hegong sneaked
into a Beijing kindergarten to rob it. When he was discovered, he
smothered a teacher with a quilt and killed a 5-year-old boy by hitting
him with a fire extinguisher. In 2005 Hegong (31) was sentenced to
death.
(AP, 9/10/05)
2004 Oct 24, In China the Golden
Resources Shopping Mall, the largest in the world, opened in the Haidan
district of Beijing.
(www.csmonitor.com/2004/1124/p01s03-woap.html)
2004 Oct 25, China’s state press
reported that the population will grow to nearly 1.5 billion over the
next 20 to 30 years.
(AFP, 10/25/04)
2004 Oct 27-2004 Oct 31, Violent
clashes in a village in central China killed 7 people and injured 42.
Police imposed martial law in Langchenggang, Zhongmou County, in Henan
province after the fighting between hundreds of rioters that pitted
Muslim Chinese against non-Muslims.
(AP, 11/1/04)(WSJ, 11/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 28, China's central bank
raised interest rates for the first time in 9 years in a surprise move
that was aimed at guiding a heated economy onto a path of slower
growth. The rate increase .25% to 5.6%.
(Reuters, 10/28/04)(Econ, 11/6/04, p.12)
2004 Oct 28, China and Iran signed
a memorandum of understanding for an oil and gas agreement worth tens
of billions of dollars.
(WSJ, 11/1/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 30, A burst of poisonous
gas in a coal mine in northeast China killed 15 miners at the Xilutian
Mine in Fushun, a city in Liaoning province.
(AP, 10/31/04)
2004 Nov 6, China's central bank
said it would take a "gradual and safe" approach to loosening the
yuan-dollar peg.
(AP, 11/6/04)
2004 Nov 8, China’s state media
reported that China will selectively reduce spending to help trim its
ballooning fiscal deficit.
(AP, 11/8/04)
2004 Nov 10, Taiwan's leader,
making a new appeal to China to hold talks, urged the communist giant
to ban the development and use of weapons of mass destruction.
(AP, 11/10/04)
2004 Nov 10, Japan's navy went on
alert when a submarine was detected in Japanese waters between the
southern island of Okinawa and Taiwan. Japan soon determined that it
was Chinese nuclear submarine and incident strained relations between
two of Asia's biggest economic and military powers.
(AP, 11/13/04)
2004 Nov 11, It was reported that
Beijing this month cancelled its bicycle registration requirements, a
move viewed by the state press as highlighting the nation's full
fledged entry into "car society" and the demise of the bicycle as a
"transportation tool."
(AFP, 11/11/04)
2004 Nov 11, It was reported that
large swathes of southern and eastern China are in the grip of their
worst drought in more than 50 years, prompting calls from the countries
top leaders for better management of water conservation.
(AP, 11/12/04)
2004 Nov 12, It was reported that
Japan and China owned about a quarter of outstanding US Treasury debt.
They held $723 and $172 billion respectively.
(WSJ, 11/12/04, p.C4)
2004 Nov 15, China’s state media
reported that shortages of coal and electricity are expected this
winter.
(AP, 11/15/04)
2004 Nov 20, In China a fire at a
complex of iron mines in Shahe, Hebei province, left 68 dead. Most of
the miners were suffocated by smoke.
(AP, 11/26/04)
2004 Nov 21, In northern China a
Bombardier CRJ-200 passenger plane crashed in an ice-covered lake
seconds after takeoff, killing all 54 people aboard and one person on
the ground after an apparent midair explosion.
(AP, 11/21/04)(WSJ, 11/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 22, Chinese President Hu
Jintao met with Fidel Castro in Havana for talks focusing on the
broadening ties between Cuba and China.
(AP, 11/22/04)
2004 Nov 25, In China Yan Yanming
(21) broke into a high school dormitory in Ruzhou with a knife and
killed 8 students. A series of knife attacks have hit Chinese schools
in recent months. Yanming was executed Jan 18, 2004.
(AP, 11/26/04)(AP, 1/20/05)
2004 Nov 28, In central China an
explosion tore through a coal mine, sending smoke from air vents and
trapping at least 166 miners in tunnels and shafts below without
communications. The death toll was later confirmed at 166.
(AP, 12/1/04)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.43)
2004 Nov 29, Southeast Asian
nations (ASEAN) and China signed an accord to create the world's
biggest free trade area by removing tariffs for their 2 billion people
by decade's end.
(AP,
11/29/04)(www.ey.com/global/content.nsf/Thailand/Home)
2004 Dec 2, It was reported that
United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) has forged a $100 million agreement
with Sinotrans to take direct control of its international express
operations in China's largest and most important cities by the end of
2005.
(www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2004/11/29/daily33.html)
2004 Dec 4, Miss Peru, Maria Julia
Mantilla Garcia, an aspiring high school teacher, was crowned Miss
World 2004 In Southern China.
(AP, 12/4/04)
2004 Dec 6, China and Germany
signed contracts worth $2.1 billion for Airbus jets and other
industrial goods. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called for an end to a
15-year-old European arms embargo on China.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 6, A Beijing newspaper
reported that 9 out of 10 Chinese calling into a suicide-prevention
hotline in the capital are getting the busy tone, adding that
nationwide four people were killing themselves every minute.
(Reuters, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 7, IBM and China’s Lenovo
Group planned a joint PC venture. Lenovo was expected to pay some $2
billion for a majority share of IBM’s PC business. Lenovo announced a
$1.75 billion cash and stock deal to acquire a majority interest in
IBM’s PC business.
(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.A3)(SFC, 12/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 8, China’s Premier Wen
Jiabao repeated that China will move gradually to a flexible exchange
rate.
(WSJ, 12/9/04, p.A14)
2004 Dec 8, The European Union and
China agreed to boost relations, but the EU made clear there can be no
early lifting of its 15-year-old arms embargo until Beijing improves
its human rights record.
(AP, 12/8/04)
2004 Dec 9, China reported that
its monthly trade surplus widened in November for the fourth straight
month, hitting $9.9 billion as exports surged at an annual rate of
nearly 46 percent.
(AP, 12/9/04)
2004 Dec 10, A US trade panel gave
final approval to anti-dumping duties of up to 198 percent on imports
of about $1.2 billion worth of wooden bedroom furniture from China.
(AP, 12/10/04)
2004 Dec 11, China ended
restrictions limiting foreign retailers to joint ventures.
(WSJ, 12/14/04, p.A13)
2004 Dec 12, In southern China a
flood at a mine trapped 36 workers in Guizhou province.
(AP, 12/12/04)
2004 Dec 12, China dropped
geographic restrictions against foreign insurers.
(WSJ, 12/13/04, p.A14)
2004 Dec 13, The Chinese
government said China and Russia will hold their first joint military
exercise next year.
(AP, 12/13/04)
2004 Dec 13, China said it will
impose duties on its exports of textiles and apparel in an effort to
alleviate the impact of eased restrictions effective Jan 1.
(SFC, 12/14/04, p.D3)
2004 Dec 17, It was reported that
China paid out $15 billion per month to keep the yuan fixed at 8.277 to
the US dollar.
(WSJ, 12/17/04, p.A14)
2004 Dec 17, It was reported that
China’s growing power industry was causing global concern over mercury
accumulation in the world’s water and food supply.
(WSJ, 12/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 25, In southern China
villagers of Da Lang battled police in a riot after security forces
beat a resident to death.
(SFC, 12/27/04, p.A3)
2004 Dec 30, China accused the US
of pressuring Israel not to return armed drone aircraft that were sent
back for upgrades following their purchase in the 1990s.
(WSJ, 12/31/04, p.A1)
2004 In China Jiang Rong’s novel
“The Wolf Totem” became a best seller. It was about the struggle for
life on the Mongolian grasslands during the 1966-1976 Cultural
Revolution. In 2005 the Penguin Group purchased rights for an English
version.
(SFC, 9/7/05, p.E3)
2004 Mark Elvin authored “The
Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China.”
(Econ, 7/10/04, p.74)
2004 Bruce Gilley authored
“China’s Democratic Future: How It Will Happen and Where It Will Lead.”
(Econ, 6/26/04, p.83)
2004 China introduced new identity
cards with embedded microchips. Software limited the use to standard
characters. In 2006 a police official moved to ban problematic
characters, thereby limiting people’s choices in names.
(Econ, 4/15/06, p.44)
2004 In China some 130 mainland
securities companies lost 15 billion yuan (almost $2 billion) under a
falling stock market, a dearth of new flotations and bad management.
Losses for 2005 were later estimated to be even higher.
(Econ, 2/11/06, p.69)
2004 China experienced some 74,000
protests involving over 3.7 million people, up from 10,000 in 1994 and
58,000 in 2003.
(Econ, 10/1/05, p.38)
2004 China’s national tax revenue
of $318 billion came mostly from business taxes. The average Chinese
paid $16 in income tax. Authorities in 90 Chinese cities turned some
sales receipts into lottery tickets to encourage customers to demand
trackable invoices.
(WSJ, 3/31/05, p.A1)
2004 China and Hong Kong entered
into a Closer Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). The phased
agreement eliminated tariffs on Hong Kong exports and by 2005 created
29,000 jobs in Hong Kong.
(WSJ, 10/19/05, p.A11)
2004 China’s 2004 economic growth
rate was revised up to 10.1 percent from 9.5 percent following the
completion of an economic census in 2006.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2004 Chinese car sales reached 2.3
million making it the world’s 4th largest car market. It was expected
to overtake Germany in 2005 and Japan by 2010.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.61)
2004 A report by the World Health
Organization (WHO) said some 600 people were killed daily in traffic
accidents in China.
(SFC, 12/7/07, p.A25)
2004 Chinese made shoes accounted
for 82% of all shoes sold in the US. US quotas had been abandoned in
1982.
(WSJ, 6/7/05, p.A13)
2004 China invested almost $150
million in Sudan this year.
(Econ, 10/28/06, p.54)
2004-2005 A Russian built nuclear reactor was
scheduled to begin operating in Lianyungang, a coastal city northwest
of Shanghai.
(SFC,12/30/97, p.B2)
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