Timeline China 2010-2015
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2010 Jan 1, Chinese state media said authorities have shut down a dairy in Shanghai and arrested three of its executives after tests found some of its milk products were tainted with the same industrial chemical at the center of a milk safety scandal more than a year ago.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, A free-trade agreement between China and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) came into effect. The 6 richest members scrapped tariffs on 90% of goods. The 4 poorest (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar) will not need to cut tariffs to the same level until 2015.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A4)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 1, Thousands of Hong Kong residents marched to the Chinese government's liaison office demanding that Beijing grant full democracy to the semiautonomous financial hub.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 4, In northern China 21 workers were killed by a gas leak at the Hebei Puyang Iron and Steel Co. Company officials initially said 16 workers were poisoned and seven died while nine were sent to a hospital. On Jan 7 senior executives "confessed" that they had covered up the death toll.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 5, A fire in a coal mine in central China killed at least 25 workers. Search efforts continued for at least three others trapped underground at the Lisheng coal mine in Xiangtan city in Hunan province.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, It was reported that Santa Barbara-based Cybersitter has filed a $2.2 billion lawsuit against China, accusing Beijing of stealing its technology to bar Internet access to political and religious sites in China. The suit alleges that the Chinese makers of Green Dam illegally copied more than 3,000 lines of code from its filtering software, and conspired with China's rulers and computer manufacturers to distribute more than 56 million copies of the pirated software throughout China.
(AFP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 7, China executed 7 gang leaders in Hebei province for murder, gun sales, gambling and other crimes in what state media called their province's worst gang case since the founding of communist China 60 years ago. In eastern China some 100 hired thugs beat farmers who had resisted eviction in the city of Pizhou in Jiangsu province. One woman was killed and another woman was severely injured. The next day up to 2,000 angry villagers descended on government offices in Pizhou to protest the issue and clashed with police over the forced evictions.
(AP, 1/7/10)(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 8, The China Passenger Car Association reported that China overtook the US as the biggest auto market in 2009 and automakers should see more strong growth this year.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In southeastern China a fire in coal mine trapped and killed 12 workers in Xinyu city, Jiangxi province.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, California-based eSolar Inc. said it will help build a series of solar thermal power plants in China, as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases tries to decrease its heavy reliance on coal, imported gas and oil.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 10, New data showed that China has overtaken Germany as the world's top exporter after December exports jumped 17.7% for their first increase in 14 months.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 11, China's top prosecutorial office said thousands of Chinese officials have fled overseas with as much as $50 billion in their pockets in stolen government funds during the country's economic boom over the past three decades. Zhao Shiying, the secretary-general of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, was taken into custody by authorities from his home in southern Shenzhen. He was released on Jan 25.
(AP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 11, China’s state media reported that more than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses in 2020, citing a study that blamed sex-specific abortions as a major factor. A study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences warned the imbalance will dash many young men's chance at marriage and lead to increased crime.
(AFP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 11, China's military, according to state media, successfully tested a ground-based system for intercepting missiles in mid-flight.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 12, China took new steps to control bank lending, ordering institutions to set aside more reserves in a move to avert a surge in credit that Beijing worries might fuel inflation or asset price bubbles.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 13, In France a Chinese student (26) stabbed to death a 49-year-old secretary and wounded three teachers in an attack at a university in the southern town of Perpignan.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 14, Los Angeles-based Gipson Hoffman & Pancione, the law firm representing a Santa Barbara company that sued China for allegedly pirating its Internet content filtering software, said its attorneys on Jan 11 started received emails containing Trojans, which can allow outside access to the target's computer.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 15, Chinese police in Beijing shut down what would have been the country’s first-ever gay pageant an hour before it was set to begin, highlighting the enduring sensitivity surrounding homosexuality and the struggle by gays to find mainstream acceptance.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Hong Kong protesters against a national high-speed rail network scuffled with police as they tried but failed to storm the legislature. Another 500 staged a sit-in in front of the Hong Kong leader's mansion, shutting down traffic. The $55 billion Hong Kong dollar ($7.1 billion) project to link Hong Kong to a national high-speed rail network has run into a growing protest movement.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, The US State Department said it will soon give China a formal diplomatic message expressing its concern about cyber attacks that prompted Google Inc to threaten to pull out of China.
(Reuters, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 17, In China text messaging services restarted with some restrictions for cell phone users in far western China, more than six months after deadly ethnic rioting prompted the government to shut them down.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 18, It was reported that China was tightening smoking regulations by enforcing a ban on smoking in any indoor public space in seven provincial capitals.
(www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_478846.html)
2010 Jan 18, In China rescue workers evacuated thousands of rural residents from parts of the northwest after extreme cold and blizzard conditions killed four people and left half a million snowed under. Storms in far western Xinjiang flattened or damaged about 100,000 homes and more than 15,000 head of livestock were killed by the cold front that set in the previous night.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 19, China’s Foreign Ministry said Google Inc will not be treated as an exception to China's demand foreign companies obey its laws, a week after the world's largest search engine warned it could pull out of China. Google said it had postponed the launch of two mobile handsets in China, in the latest fallout from its threat last week to withdraw from the Asian giant over cyberattacks and censorship.
(Reuters, 1/19/10)(AFP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, A former Chinese Supreme Court judge was sentenced to life in prison following his conviction for embezzlement and receiving more than half a million dollars in bribes. Huang Songyou, the court's former vice president, is the first judicial official of his stature to be tried and convicted on such charges.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, The World Wildlife Fund warned that the wild tiger faced extinction in China after having been decimated by poaching and the destruction of its natural habitat.
(AFP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 20, A top regulator said China will slow its massive lending spree and step up monitoring of banks as it tries to prevent speculative bubbles in real estate and other assets while keeping the country's economic recovery on track.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said about 1.5 million Graco strollers sold at Wal-Mart, Target and other major retailers are being recalled after some children's fingertips were amputated by hinges on the products. The strollers were made in China by Graco and sold at AAFES, Burlington Coat Factory, Babies R Us, Toys R Us, Kmart, Fred Meyer, Meijer, Navy Exchange, Sears, Target, Wal-Mart and other retailers nationwide from October 2004 to December 2009.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 21, China declared it is over the global crisis and signaled a shift in focus to controlling inflation, sparking concern it could hamper growth and the country's contribution to a worldwide rebound.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 22, Beijing issued a stinging response to US criticism that it is jamming the free flow of words and ideas on the Internet, accusing the United States of damaging relations between the two countries by hoisting its "information imperialism" on China. An attorney for a US free speech group said US trade officials have asked for more information as they consider whether to pursue a possible World Trade Organization case against Chinese Internet barriers.
(AP, 1/22/10)(Reuters, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 24, In India environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China said that talks in New Delhi had further cemented their alliance following the Copenhagen climate change summit. The group, known by the acronym BASIC, pledged to strengthen its unified stance but would seek consensus with developed countries.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 25, China sharply rebuked the United States, denying involvement in any Internet attacks and defending its online restrictions as lawful after Washington urged Beijing to investigate an attack against Google.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, In China the Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi sentenced four more people to death for involvement in rioting last year in the restive far-western region of Xinjiang, the country's worst ethnic violence in decades. Another person was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, a penalty usually commuted to life in prison, while eight others were given sentences of up to life imprisonment.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 25, Official media reported that China is hoping to close thousands of local government lobbying offices in Beijing to cut down on waste and corruption.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Hong Kong 5 pro-democracy lawmakers resigned their seats, vowing to turn the resulting elections into a populist campaign for universal suffrage in defiance of warnings from China.
(AFP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 28, Ford Motor Co. said it has halted production of some full-sized commercial vehicles in China because they contain gas pedals built by the same company behind the accelerators in Toyota Motor Corp.'s recent recall. Ford spokesman Said Deep said the diesel version of its Transit Classic built by a Chinese joint venture contains accelerators built by CTS Corp., based in Elkhart, Ind. The vehicles began production in December and only about 1,600 have been produced.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Toyota Motor Corp extended its safety recall of millions of its most popular cars to Europe and China in a further blow to the reputation of the world's largest auto maker.
(Reuters, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 29, In China envoys of exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama arrived in Beijing for weekend talks amid subtle shifts in China's approach to its restive, riot-scarred western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 30, China suspended military exchanges with the United States and threatened sanctions against American defense companies, just hours after Washington announced $6.4 billion in planned arms sales to Taiwan.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Feb 1, China launched a 10-day emergency crackdown on tainted milk products after several were found creeping back onto the market despite a massive scandal that sickened hundreds of thousands of children in 2008.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 3, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that Lekang Dairy Company general manager Zhang Wenxue and vice general managers Zhu Shuming and Tong Tianhu have been charged with manufacturing and selling tainted milk powder in the latest crackdown. Xinhua quoted Health Minister Chen Zhu as saying "all melamine-tainted milk products will be found and destroyed," as part of the current 10-day crackdown.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 4, In China two courts in the southern province of Guangdong sentenced 25 people to death for their roles in nine kidnapping cases.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, China told other world powers that discussing broader sanctions against Iran was counterproductive, striking a blow to a Western push to rein in Tehran's nuclear program.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, A Chinese ministry statement ordered schools to sever all ties and cooperation with Oxfam saying school administrators must ban all campus volunteer recruitment efforts run by the group's Hong Kong office. It accused the Hong Kong branch of having a hidden political agenda. Oxfam has operated in mainland China for 20 years and worked in cooperation with the government's poverty alleviation department. Oxfam, a confederation of 14 national organizations that works in about 100 countries, was founded in Britain in 1942.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 5, China said it will slap heavy anti-dumping duties on US chicken parts, a move likely to aggravate trade ties between two of the world's most important economies at a time of strained political relations.
(Reuters, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 6, China’s state media said a man who operated a porn website has been sentenced to 13 years in jail and fined 100,000 yuan (15,000 dollars), amid an ongoing campaign to crack down on online sexual content.
(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 6, Australian miner Resourcehouse said it has signed a 60-billion-US-dollar coal deal with energy-hungry China, calling it the country's "biggest-ever export contract." The company said it had negotiated a 20-year agreement to supply China Power International Holding Limited with 30 million tons of coal a year from a proposed mine in central Queensland. The initial report mistakenly identified the Chinese company as China Power International Development (CPI).
(AFP, 2/6/10)(AFP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 8, The China Daily newspaper reported officials have recalled more than 170 tons of milk powder tainted by the industrial chemical melamine and closed two dairy companies in the northern region of Ningxia. The current 10–day emergency crackdown has made it increasingly clear that many products discovered in the country's 2008 milk scandal were repackaged for sale instead of destroyed.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued new guidelines to local authorities and lifted a ban imposed in December on individuals acquiring .cn domain names. Individuals wanting to set up a website will have to submit identity cards and photos of themselves, as well as meet regulators, before their domain name can be registered.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 8, In southern China a bus collided with a sport utility vehicle and plunged down a mountain ravine, killing seven people and injuring 50.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 9, A Chinese court sentenced activist Tan Zuoren (56), who investigated the deaths of thousands of schoolchildren in the country's massive 2008 earthquake, to five years in jail for inciting subversion of state power. In 2010 the Sichuan provincial high court upheld the ruling.
(AP, 2/9/10)(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, China said its first national pollution census has mapped nearly 6 million sources of industrial, residential and agricultural waste. The 2-year survey results gave the government one year to shape the next 5-year environmental protection plan.
(SFC, 2/10/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 10, China declared a new food-safety campaign after contaminated milk products from an earlier scandal showed up repackaged in several places around the country, exposing weaknesses in the country's promise to stop such problems from happening again.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 12, China raised the level of reserves banks must hold for the second time this year, spooking financial markets on the eve of its New Year holiday by showing it was intent to curb lending and inflation.
(Reuters, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned his people to keep a "sober mind" about the challenges ahead in the new year as the country welcomed the arrival of the Year of the Tiger with noisy celebrations. Feb 14 officially marked the first day of the Lunar new Year.
(Reuters, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, Italian police said they have confiscated 500,000 tons of counterfeit goods discovered in eight industrial hangars on the outskirts of Rome. Once labeled with Italian brands, They would have brought in several million euros for the counterfeiters. The goods were suspected of being imported from China.
(AFP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 14, This day marked a new year according to the Chinese calendar, as it moved from the reign of the Ox to the year of the Tiger. The Chinese calendar is thought to have been formulated around 500 BC, though elements of it date back at least to the Shang Dynasty at around 1,000 BC.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/yearofthetigerallaboutthechinesezodiac)
2010 Feb 16, New US Treasury data said China's holdings of US Treasury bonds tumbled in December, allowing Japan to take over as the top holder of American government debt.
(AFP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 20, China said 35 people were killed in fires during the week-long new year holiday as millions of people set off fireworks to usher in the Year of the Tiger.
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 23, The Chinese Communist Party issued a new code of ethics as the country's fight against widespread corruption intensifies.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 24, Australia resumed free-trade talks with China after a 14-month gap, sweeping aside a brief plunge in ties to focus on a booming partnership tipped to deliver decades of growth.
(AFP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 25, In China the People’s Daily reported that 62 workers had been poisoned in a poorly ventilated factory in Suzhou run Wintek, a Taiwanese manufacturer that makes products for firms including apple and Nokia.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.83)
2010 Feb 25, In China at least 29 people were injured and hundreds of buildings damaged in a magnitude 5.4 earthquake in southwestern Yunnan province.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 28, In China a bus veered off a sleet-covered road and plunged into a reservoir in Zhengzhou city in central Henan province killing 19 people and injuring 7 others.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 1, In China 11 newspapers took a rare stand against a Mao Zedong-era system blamed for the wide gap between the country's rich and poor. Within hours their jointly signed editorial had largely disappeared online. 11 newspapers published a joint editorial calling on the National People’s Congress (NPC) to scrap the hukou system, which was originally intended to stop rural migrants flowing into the cities.
(AP, 3/2/10)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.26)
2010 Mar 1, In China Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologized in Beijing to Chinese customers for the company's quality problems and emphasized the importance of the fast-growing market to his company.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, Chinese rescuers worked to save 31 coal miners trapped underground by a flood at the Luotoushan, or Camel Head Mountain, coal mine in Wuhai city in northern Inner Mongolia. One miner was reported killed. On May 2 state news agency Xinhua reported that emergency workers have recovered 28 bodies from the mine in China's Inner Mongolia region that flooded in early-March. 3 people were still missing.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AP, 3/2/10)(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Australia Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina joined forces for a 2.96 billion US dollar bid for Australia's Arrow Energy, hoping for a bigger slice of the country's booming liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 9, China and India gave a qualified approval to the nonbinding Copenhagen climate accord brokered by Pres. Obama in the final hours of the December, 2009, climate summit.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 12, He Pingping (b.1988) of China, the world's shortest man, died in Rome while working on a TV show. He was 2 feet, 5.37 inches (74.6 cm) tall.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 15, China’s state media said at least 94 people living near a lead factory, most of them children, have tested positive for lead poisoning, prompting authorities to order the closure of the Zhongyi Alloy Co. in Longchang county of Sichuan province's Neijiang city. Hundreds more people waited for test results.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 18, China’s state media reported that parts of southern China are suffering from the worst drought in decades, leaving millions of people with inadequate water and huge areas of farmland too dry to plant.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 20, China's capital woke up to orange-tinted skies as the strongest sandstorm so far this year hit the country's north, delaying some flights at Beijing's airport and prompting a dust warning for Seoul.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, An estimate of gay men marrying heterosexual women in China was put at 90% as compared to 15-20% in the US.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.48)
2010 Mar 21, China’s state media reported that authorities in Xinjiang have restored access to email services and 32 Internet sites that were blocked after ethnic unrest broke out in the region in July.
(AFP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 22, Google announced that its China search engine, google.cn, would automatically redirect queries to its service in China's semiautonomous territory of Hong Kong, where Google is not legally required to censor searches.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 22, Sandstorms whipping across China shrouded cities in an unhealthy cloud of sand and grit, with winds carrying the pollution outside the mainland as far as Hong Kong and Taiwan.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In China four executives of Australia mining giant Rio Tinto pleaded guilty in Shanghai to taking bribes.
(SFC, 3/23/10, p.D3)
2010 Mar 23, In eastern China a former doctor, Zheng Minsheng (41), armed with a large knife rampaged outside an elementary school, stabbing 8 young children to death and wounding 5 others at the Nanping City Experimental Elementary School in Fujian province. On April 8 the Intermediate People's Court in Nanping city sentenced Minsheng to death.
(AP, 3/23/10)(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Mar 24, In China the presidents of Afghanistan and China oversaw the signing of new agreements aimed at strengthening the Afghan economy as a step toward combating the Taliban and achieving political stability.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Australia and China signed a multibillion dollar natural gas deal, pushing ahead with business as the trial of four employees of mining giant Rio Tinto ended in Shanghai with a verdict still to be announced.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 25, Chinese officials said emergency wells were being drilled and cloud-seeding operations carried out in southern China, where the worst drought in decades has left millions of people without water and caused more than 1,000 schools to close.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, China agreed to share water level data at 2 dams to ease pressure from nations downstream, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(SFC, 4/6/10, p.A3)
2010 Mar 26-2010 Mar 27, In China hundreds of citizens rampaged in the southern city of Kunming enraged by rumors that a vendor had been killed by an officer of the “City Administration and Law Enforcement Bureau," commonly known by its Chinese abbreviation chengguan.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.43)
2010 Mar 27, In China a recycling pool at a sewage treatment plant collapsed in northern Shaanxi province and some 1,000 tons of oil sludge contaminated farmland and the Luohe River, a tributary of the Yellow River.
(AFP, 4/3/10)
2010 Mar 28, In northern China at least 153 miners were trapped underground after water gushed into the state-owned the Wangjialing coal mine. 115 Chinese miners were pulled out alive on April 5 after being trapped for over a week in the flooded mine. Some had eaten sawdust and strapped themselves to the shafts' walls with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept. As of April 11 the death toll stood at 33 with 5 miners still missing.
(AP, 3/28/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 4/5/10)(AP, 4/11/10)
2010 Mar 28, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group signed a binding deal to buy Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo Cars unit for $1.8 billion, representing a coup for the independent Chinese automaker which is aiming to expand in Europe.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 29, In eastern China local residents and firefighters recovered the bodies of 21 babies, believed dumped by hospitals, which had washed ashore on the Guangfu River near the city of Jining, Shandong province. Tags on the feet of eight of the babies traced them back to a hospital in Jining.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Google Inc said its mobile services have been partially blocked in China for two days, while searches on its Chinese-language site became erratic, about a week after the company shut its mainland Chinese portal and rerouted Web searches to a Hong Kong site.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 31, In central China a gas explosion at a mine killed 12 workers and trapped 32 underground at the privately owned Guomin Mining Co. coal pit in Yichuan County, Luoyang City.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, Six major world powers agreed to begin putting together proposed new sanctions on Iran over its suspect nuclear program after China dropped its opposition.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Apr 1, US President Barack Obama called on Chinese President Hu Jintao to join forces on the Iranian nuclear standoff as he stepped up efforts to block Tehran's atomic program.
(AFP, 4/2/10)
2010 Apr 3, The 230-meter (754-ft) Shen Neng I, a bulk coal carrier, was on its way to China when it ran aground on a shoal off offshore from the Australian city of Rockhampton. Australian government officials said the stranded ship was leaking oil into the sea and is in danger of breaking up and damaging the Great Barrier Reef. The ship was refloated on April 12.
(Reuters, 4/4/10)(AP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 6, China said it had executed a Japanese man for drug smuggling, the first execution of a Japanese citizen since the countries established relations in 1972. Mitsunobu Akano (65) was convicted in 2008 of attempting to smuggle 2.5 kg (4.8 pounds) of drugs from China to Japan in 2006. He was executed in Liaoning province.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, A group of Canadian researchers released a report saying a cyber-espionage group based in southwest China stole documents from the Indian Defense Ministry and emails from the Dalai Lama's office.
(Reuters, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 7, China and India signed an agreement to set up a hot line linking their top leaders.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 12, China eased requirements for companies to qualify for government purchasing of technology after a plan to favor domestic technology was met with heavy criticism from other countries and business groups.
(AP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 12, A mentally ill Chinese man rampaged with a meat cleaver near an elementary school, hacking to death a second grader and an elderly woman. Five others were wounded in the second random attack on schoolchildren in China in three weeks. Yang Jiaqin (40) chased his victims through Xizhen village of the southern Guangxi region not long after classes ended.
(AP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 12, President Barack Obama and presidents, prime ministers and other top officials from 47 countries started work on a battle plan to keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands. Egypt called for world powers to press both Iran and Israel on nuclear weapons, saying that the Middle East should be a zone free of the ultra-destructive arms. China said sanctions were not the answer to the Iranian atomic standoff. Iran's envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog spurned the US nuclear summit, saying any decision taken at the conference is not binding on nations absent from the event.
(AP, 4/12/10)(AFP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 14, In China Wen Qiang (55), a former police chief in the southwestern city of Chongqing, was sentenced to death, in a sprawling gangland corruption case that has riveted the country. Wen was also found guilty of raping a university student in 2007 and 2008. Wen was detained in August and accused of protecting the gang operations masterminded by his sister-in-law, Xie Caiping (46), known as the "godmother" of the Chongqing underworld. Wen's wife was sentenced to 8 years in prison for taking bribes in exchange for protecting gang members.
(AP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 14, In western China a series of strong earthquakes struck a mountainous area of Tibet, killing some 2,064 people and injuring more than 10,000, as houses made of mud and wood collapsed. 5 days later 3 people were pulled alive from the rubble. On May 31 the toll was raised to 2,698 with 270 still missing.
(AP, 4/14/10)(AP, 4/15/10)(AP, 4/16/10)(AP, 4/19/10)(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 Apr 14, Australian police arrested a Chinese ship captain and senior officer and charged them with damaging the Great Barrier Reef, more than a week after their coal carrier ran aground and tore a two-mile (three km) gash in the protected area.
(AP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 14, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Indian PM Manmohan Singh arrived in Brazil to participate in bilateral meetings with the leaders of other emerging economies and a BRIC summit on April 16.
(AFP, 4/15/10)
2010 Apr 16, A Chinese court jailed three people who posted material on the Internet to help an illiterate woman pressure authorities to reinvestigate her daughter's death, in a trial that attracted scores of supporters.
(AP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 18, Chinese President Hu Jintao called on rescuers to keep searching for survivors as he visited victims of a powerful quake in Tibet that left some 2,064 dead.
(AP, 4/18/10)
2010 Apr 19, China’s government passed amendments revising the Border Quarantine Law as well as China's Law on Control of the Entry and Exit of Aliens. The changes were effective immediately. This lifted a two-decade-old ban on people with HIV and AIDS from entering the country, just as it is about to welcome the world to the Shanghai Expo on May 1.
(AP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 23, Chinese police in Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, detained Tagyal, a prominent Tibetan intellectual. Tagyal had recently authored “The Line Between Earth and Sky," in which he praised the activism of monks during the Tibetan unrest of 2008.
(Econ, 5/1/10, p.42)
2010 Apr 24, China replaced Wang Lequan (65), the unpopular Communist Party boss for western Xinjiang province, months after ethnic riots there killed nearly 200. The Xinhua News Agency said Wang had been appointed as deputy secretary of a political committee of the Central Committee. It is not known if he is still a member of the party's Politburo, the 25-member body near the pinnacle of power in China. He was replaced by Zhang Chunxian (56), party boss of southern Hunan province since November 2006. The Dalian city government ordered the mayor of Zhuanghe city to resign for his "mismanagement" of an April 13 incident in which he ignored scores of villagers who knelt in front of government offices to appeal for an investigation into official corruption.
(AP, 4/24/10)(AP, 4/25/10)
2010 Apr 26, Massachusetts-based Charles River Laboratories International Inc., a medical research equipment and services company, announced plans to buy WuXi PharmaTech, a Chinese pharmaceutical outsourcing company, for $1.6 billion.
(AP, 4/26/10)
2010 Apr 28, In Beijing France and China said they would work together to consider an overhaul of the global monetary system, at the start of a state visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
(AFP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 28, In southern China Chen Kangbing (33) wielding a knife broke into a primary school and stabbed 15 students and a teacher in Leizhou city, the same day another school attacker was executed for killing eight children last month. Xu Yuyuan (47) was found guilty of attempted homicide in mid-May by the Taizhou Intermediate Court in Jiangsu province. He was executed on May 30. Kangbing was sentenced to death on June 11.
(AP, 4/28/10)(AP, 5/30/10)(AP, 6/11/10)
2010 Apr 28, The International Olympic Committee, acting on evidence that Dong Fangxiao was only 14 at the 2000 Games in Sidney, stripped China of the women's team bronze medal. China was ordered to give the medal back, allowing the United States to claim it instead.
(AP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 29, In eastern China a knife-wielding jobless man, Xu Yuyuan (47), attacked a kindergarten class of 4-year-olds, slashing 29 children and 3 teachers in what an expert said was a copycat rampage of two other episodes at Chinese schools in the past month. On May 15 Xu Yuyuan was sentenced to death. He appealed the death sentence, saying the punishment was too severe considering no one was killed.
(AP, 4/29/10)(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 Apr 30, Shanghai kicked off the six-month World Expo with a star-studded gala ceremony set to end in a lavish blaze of fireworks and light along the city's river-front. The World Expo officially opened on May 1. Closing date was set for Oct 31.
(AFP, 4/30/10)(AP, 5/1/10)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.42)
2010 Apr 30, A Chinese farmer attacked kindergarten students with a hammer, injuring five, before burning himself to death in China's third such assault in as many days and prompting the government to demand stricter school security nationwide.
(AP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr 30, The EU's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said that China is willing to discuss sanctions on Iran as long as they are carefully targeted and bolster efforts to curb the Iranian nuclear program.
(AP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr, China’s policymakers imposed new curbs on housing speculation, raising down-payment requirements and mortgage rates.
(Econ, 5/29/10, p.73)
2010 Apr, Uighur journalist Memetjan Abdulla (33), who worked for an official Chinese radio service, was sentenced to life imprisonment for transmitting information about the 2009 ethnic riots in western China.
(AP, 12/24/10)
2010 May 1, In China World Expo 2010 officially opened in Shanghai. Two-wheeled Electric Networked Vehicles (EN-Vs) were unveiled at Expo 2010. They used a balancing system developed by Segway.
(Econ, 5/8/10, p.42)(Econ, 10/2/10, p.87)
2010 May 2, China raised the proportion of deposits that lenders must keep in reserve at the central bank, another step in its months-old campaign to mop up excess cash in the economy at a time when inflation is on the rise.
(Reuters, 5/3/10)
2010 May 3, Egypt's oil ministry said it has signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing with two Chinese companies to build a $2 billion refinery that would be its largest such plant.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 3, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il arrived on a luxury 17-car train in China, in what would be his first journey abroad in years as his regime faces a worsening economy and speculation it may have torpedoed a South Korean warship.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 4, Taiwan opened a tourism office in Beijing that represents the island's first official presence in China's capital since the two sides split amid civil war in 1949.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 5, China said it would punish officials who failed to fulfill emissions reduction targets, warning the nation's current environmental situation was extremely serious.
(AP, 5/5/10)
2010 May 6, In China a tornado and strong winds swept through the southwest early in the day, killing at least 58 people and injuring nearly 200. The southwestern municipality of Chongqing was the worst hit after a tornado and gale-force winds killed 29 people. 10 were left dead in Hunan province and 6 dead in Guangdong province. Torrential rain in the eastern province of Jiangxi killed seven people. 6 people died in rain-triggered landslides in the southwestern province of Guizhou.
(AP, 5/6/10)(AFP, 5/7/10)
2010 May 6, A Chinese media report said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il told President Hu Jintao during his secretive trip to Beijing that he is ready to return to stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations.
(AFP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 6, Wan Yanhai, a prominent Chinese AIDS activist, fled China for the United States with his wife and 4-year-old daughter to escape increasing government harassment of him and his organization. Wan, a former Health Ministry official, founded the Aizhixing Institute in 1994 to raise awareness and fight discrimination.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 7, In China lawyers Tang Jitian and Liu Wei were informed by Beijing judicial authorities that they had lost their credentials. They had represented a member of an outlawed spiritual movement. The next day Jitian and Wei said the penalty was designed to scare other lawyers away from taking on sensitive human rights cases.
(AP, 5/8/10)
2010 May 8, In southeastern China Zhou Yezhong (36) stabbed to death 8 people including his wife, elderly mother and young daughter in Chengyuan village in Jiangxi province. Another two people were killed and three wounded in a stabbing spree by a man (42) in Hong Kong.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 12, In northwest China 7 children and the owners of a kindergarten were hacked to death in Nanzheng county, a rural corner of Shaanxi province. Wu Huanming (48) used a kitchen cleaver to kill five boys and two girls as well as the mother-son team who owned and ran the private kindergarten. He then returned home and committed suicide. This latest in a string of assaults on schools, prompted officials to vow to "strike hard" to calm public alarm.
(Reuters, 5/12/10)
2010 May 12, In San Francisco Mayor Newsom presided over the official dedication of a 3-story, 15-ton Buddha sculpture, “Three heads Six Arms" by artist Zhang Huan, to mark the city’s 30th anniversary sister city relationship with Shanghai. The one year lease expired and the work was dismantled on Feb 15, 2011, for return to Zhang Huan.
(SFC, 5/13/10, p.C1)(SFC, 2/14/11, p.C1)
2010 May 13, In China a man who spent 11 years in jail after being tortured into confessing to the murder of a man who wasn't even dead was been given $96,000 in government compensation. Zhao Zuohai (57) was recently released from prison after the man he was convicted of killing more than a decade ago reappeared in their home village last month. Henan province Chief Justice Hu Ye was soon suspended over the case.
(AP, 5/13/10)(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 13, South African and Chinese companies announced plans to build a $217 million cement plant in South Africa, in one of China's biggest investments in the country.
(AFP, 5/13/10)
2010 May 13, In Abuja, Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) sealed a $23 billion deal to build three refineries and a petrochemical complex.
(AFP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 14, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said four robbers were sentenced to death as part of a 27-member gang who robbed a dozen tombs near the capital of the central province of Hunan in 2008 and 2009. The other robbers got prison terms.
(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 14, In China Internet service was restored to Xinjiang province, 10 months after it was blocked following deadly rioting in Urumqi, the regional capital.
(SFC, 5/15/10, p.A2)
2010 May 16, In China Xie Yulin (20), a cleaver-wielding man, attacked and wounded 6 women before jumping to his death in the southern city of Foshan. One of the women died the next day.
(AP, 5/17/10)(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 16, Yemeni tribesmen kidnapped two Chinese engineers and their government escorts in the country's volatile south. Kidnappers released the engineers after several days of mediation.
(AP, 5/16/10)(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 18, In China Huang Guangyu, a school drop-out who became China's richest man by building an electronics and home appliance empire, was jailed for 14 years for bribery and insider trading. He had admitted to paying bribes totaling 4.56m yuan to five government officials between 2006 and 2008. A Beijing court ordered Huang, in his 40s, to pay a fine of 600 million yuan ($88 million). Authorities seized another 200 million yuan in assets as part of his conviction.
(AFP, 5/18/10)(Econ, 5/22/10, p.69)
2010 May 19, In China at least five men armed with knives burst into the dormitory of a vocational college in Haikou, the capital of the southern island province of Hainan, and slashed nine students, one of them seriously.
(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 20, Chinese officials said Ma Yaohai (53), a college professor accused of organizing a swingers club and holding private orgies, has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, in a case that touched off national debate about sexual freedom. Ma, along with 21 other people, was arrested and charged last year under a 1997 law.
(AP, 5/20/10)
2010 May 21, In China some 1900 workers at a Honda auto parts factory in Guangdong province went on strike demanding higher pay. Monthly pay at the facility in Foshan city was about $117 per month. Similar companies paid between $292 and $365 a month. Honda announced a settlement on June 4.
(www.china.org.cn/business/2010-05/28/content_20133668.htm)(SSFC, 5/30/10, p.A4)(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 May 23, In southern China a fuel rod at the Guangdong Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station experienced a "very small leakage" that increased radioactivity levels slightly in the nuclear reactor's cooling water. The plant supplies power to Hong Kong.
(AP, 6/15/10)
2010 May 24, In southern China a head-on collision between two buses killed 10 people and injured an additional 43 early Monday in the second major bus accident in two days.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 May 25, US and Chinese officials signed accords on trade finance, China’s gas reserves and credit arrangements, but gave no indication of any progress on issues involving the value of China’s currency.
(SFC, 5/26/10, p.A3)
2010 May 27, Indian President Pratibha Patil sought to soothe trade disputes and recent border tensions in meetings with Chinese leaders in Beijing.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 29, The premier of China, North Korea's main ally, offered condolences to South Korea for the sinking of a warship blamed on Pyongyang after promising that Beijing, under pressure to punish the North, would not defend any country guilty of the attack.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 29, In China 17 miners were killed by a dynamite explosion at the Shuguang Coal Mine in Chenzhou city, Hunan province.
(AP, 5/30/10)
2010 May 30, China's security and judicial authorities, embarrassed by a murder victim who turned up a decade after his "killer" was convicted, issued rules to make it harder to convict suspects based on confessions secured under duress. Authorities said such evidence would be thrown out in death penalty cases that are under appeal.
(AP, 5/30/10)(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 Jun 1, China called on Iran to improve its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, after the agency said in a report that Tehran was pressing ahead with its controversial atomic program.
(AFP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 1, In China bank guard Zhu Jun (46), angry over a legal ruling in his divorce, opened fire with a machine gun and two pistols in a court building in the city of Yongzhou, shooting 3 judges dead and wounding 3 others before killing himself.
(AFP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 2, Foxconn, a subsidiary of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, announced a 30% pay increase for its workers in China.
(Econ, 6/5/10, p.48)
2010 Jun 4, Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents marked the bloody 1989 Tiananmen crackdown with a candle-lit vigil, as agitation against Beijing intensifies in the former British colony.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, A North Korean border guard shot and killed three Chinese citizens and wounded a fourth on the countries' border, apparently on suspicion they were crossing the border for illegal trade. China son lodged a formal diplomatic protest.
(AP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 7, China’s Xinhua News Agency said the death toll from flooding and rain-triggered landslides in southern China has climbed to 53 after the bodies of all missing people were recovered. Three days of heavy rain that began May 31 destroyed 11,000 homes and forced the evacuation of 200,000 people.
(AP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 8, China's Xinhua news agency said iPhone maker Foxconn International Holdings will no longer pay compensation to families of employees who kill themselves to discourage further suicides. Foxconn employed some 800,000 people, half of whom worked and lived in Shenzhen’s Foxconn City.
(Reuters, 6/8/10)(Econ, 5/29/10, p.67)
2010 Jun 8, In China a couple attacked two judges and four court officers with sulphuric acid as they were attempting to seize their home in southern Guangxi province over a loan dispute.
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Jun 11, In China a construction crew in the south-central city of Changsha completed a 15-story hotel in just six days.
(http://tinyurl.com/237rlpo)
2010 Jun 12, China’s government reported that unusually heavy seasonal flooding in southeast China has killed at least 155 people and forced more than 1.3 million to flee as water levels in some areas reached at their highest in more than a decade.
(AP, 6/12/10)
2010 Jun 16, In China at least 90 people died and 50 were missing after torrential downpours in southern China triggered heavy floods. The provinces of Fujian and Sichuan, in the southeast and southwest respectively, as well as the southern region of Guangxi were the hardest hit.
(AFP, 6/16/10)(AFP, 6/18/10)(AP, 6/19/10)
2010 Jun 19, China’s central bank said it will gradually make the yuan's exchange rate more flexible a week before a G20 summit, strongly suggesting that it was ready to break the currency's 23-month-old dollar peg.
(Reuters, 6/19/10)
2010 Jun 20, China’s central bank said it will keep the yuan's exchange rate at a basically stable level, suggesting that the country's new currency regime will look a lot like the old one.
(Reuters, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 20, China’s government said major rivers have burst their banks in southern China, triggering massive floods in 10 provinces and forcing 860,000 to flee their homes. Dozens were missing with more storms forecast. The death toll soon rose to 377.
(AP, 6/20/10)(AP, 6/21/10)(AP, 6/25/10)(SSFC, 6/27/10, p.N3)
2010 Jun 21, In central China at least 47 miners were killed when an explosion ripped through a coal mine in Pingdingshan city, Henan province.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 21, In southern China floodwaters breached the Changkai levee on the Fu River in Jiangxi province, forcing some 88,000 people to relocate from their homes in the nearby city of Fuzhou.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 23, China stepped in to provide Cambodia with more than 250 military vehicles after the United States earlier suspended a similar shipment when the Cambodian government deported 20 asylum seekers.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 23, In Hong Kong thousands of protestors chanting slogans and blaring vuvuzelas faced off as legislators debated a controversial plan to enact limited political reforms in the Chinese territory. Pro-democracy Hong Kong legislators attacked a proposal for limited political reforms made by the territory's Beijing-appointed government and tried to stall a vote expected to go in the administration's favor.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 24, Chinese President Hu Jintao called for a new start and a firming of Sino-Canadian ties, despite new irritants, during a state visit to Canada ahead of G8 and G20 summits in the Toronto area.
(AFP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 24, In China Karma Samdrup, a Tibetan environmentalist once praised as a model philanthropist, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of grave robbing and dealing in looted antiquities. Supporters said the case was aimed at punishing his activism.
(AP, 6/24/10)
2010 Jun 25, Chinese official said a huge bright green algae bloom is blanketing the sea off China's east coast and wind is driving it closer to land. The current outbreak has nearly doubled in size since it was first spotted June 14 near eastern Shandong province and now measures about 110 square miles (300 square km).
(AP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 25, ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, agreed in a meeting to start using Chinese characters for suffixes handed out by Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwan-based Internet registries. It started allowing Arabic earlier this year.
(AP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 26, In northwestern China an overloaded bus traveling to a funeral veered off a mountain road and plunged into a ravine, killing 11 people and injuring 31.
(AP, 6/27/10)
2010 Jun 26, Chinese authorities sentenced Dorje Tashi, one of Tibet's richest businessmen, to life in prison in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, for helping exile groups.
(AP, 8/12/10)
2010 Jun 28, In southwestern China a landslide caused by heavy rains trapped at least 107 people, and there was little hope for their survival.
(AP, 6/28/10)
2010 Jun 29, Taiwan’s government signed an Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (EFCA) with China.
(Econ, 7/3/10, p.39)
2010 Jun 29, Google Inc said it will stop automatically rerouting users in China to an uncensored search page, a move that aims to preserve its operating license and signals a fight to save the firm's Chinese business.
(Reuters, 6/29/10)
2010 Jun 30, China threw open the gates of its secretive Central Party School, offering foreign journalists a rare but carefully scripted peek at the leafy campus where the country's Communist elite are trained.
(AP, 6/30/10)
2010 Jun, China began allowing most of the country to pay for imports in yuan and for 365 Chinese companies top sell exports for currency. In December the number was increased to 67,359 companies.
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.85)
2010 Jul 4, In central China a fire on a shuttle bus carrying steel factory workers killed 24 people and injured 19. State media later reported that Dong Chuansheng (57), an angry steel worker, had started the shuttle bus fire near Shanghai.
(AP, 7/4/10)(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 5, In China Xue Feng (44), an American geologist detained and tortured by China's state security agents over an oil industry database, was sentenced in Beijing to 8 years in jail.
(SFC, 7/6/10, p.A3)
2010 Jul 6, Chinese police found a Catholic priest and a nun murdered in northern China, but the motive was not immediately clear. Joseph Shulai Zhang (55) and Sister Mary Wei Yanhui (32) were apparently stabbed to death at the nursing home where they worked in the city of Wuhai in Inner Mongolia. Monk Zhang Wenping (43) was arrested on July 8 in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia region. Wenping told police that he had personal grudges against the priest and nun.
(AFP, 7/8/10)(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 6, China priced the IPO of Agricultural Bank of China and proceeded to raise $19.2 billion in one the world’s largest IPO to date.
(www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/business/global/07ipo.html)
2010 Jul 7, China executed the former top justice official in the southwestern city of Chongqing, the highest ranking person caught in a massive crackdown on violent gangs and corrupt officials who protect them. Wen Qiang (55), former director of the Chongqing Municipal Judicial Bureau, was convicted in April of corruption charges involving organized crime.
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 8, In northwest China local authorities said floods triggered by torrential rain in a remote part of Qinghai province have killed 25 people. According to the China News Service, the government has recorded 483 flood-related deaths in China so far this year, with 255 people still missing.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 9, Chinese state media said authorities have seized 76 tons of milk powder tainted with melamine, the same chemical responsible for the deaths of six babies two years ago.
(AFP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 9, Google said China has renewed its license to operate a website, preserving the search giant's toehold in the most populous Internet market after it gave up an attempt to skirt Beijing's Web censorship.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 11, In China new rules went into effect requiring officials in government and state companies to report personal details from assets to the whereabouts of spouses and children. The new regulations were similar to rules released in April governing senior Communist Party officials, but have been expanded to include everyone from midlevel officials and up. Nonparty members and those working for state-owned business would now also be required to submit their details.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 13, In western China landslides slammed into three mountain hamlets, killing 17 people and leaving 44 missing, while crews drained a fast-rising reservoir in another part of the country following heavy rains.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 16, A typhoon that left a trail of destruction and deaths in the Philippines hit southern China as emergency workers prepared for torrential rains and lashing winds, flights and ferries were canceled and tens of thousands of residents were evacuated.
(AP, 7/16/10)
2010 Jul 17, In China 28 miners were killed when an electrical cable caught fire inside a coal shaft in northern Shaanxi province. There were no survivors. 8 coal miners died when a blaze engulfed a mine in central Henan province.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, Typhoon Conson weakened as it headed toward Vietnam, after passing over the Chinese island of Hainan where falling billboards killed at least two people.
(Reuters, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 18, In China 16 workers were inside the shaft when water gushed into the mine in Jinta, a county in Gansu province, and 3 men were safely lifted out. 2 bodies were found and 11 men remained trapped. An explosion at a coal mine in northeastern Liaoning province killed four workers and injured 13 others, who were in stable condition.
(AP, 7/18/10)(AP, 7/19/10)
2010 Jul 18, In southwestern China a bus plunged into a river, leaving 27 people on board missing and feared dead. Rescuers were able to save 11 others.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 19, China's Cabinet, the State Council, issued an order that said the black-market trade in food waste and used oil posed "serious potential food safety risks." It vowed to crack down on refined restaurant waste finding its way back to dinner tables through illegal channels.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Jul 19, In China landslides triggered by flooding killed at least 37 people with 97 missing in the central province of Shaanxi. In nearby Sichuan province, a weekend of torrential rains left 23 dead and forced nearly 600,000 to evacuate their homes.
(AP, 7/19/10)(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Jul 19, One of China's biggest ports, Dalian, shut down after a pipeline explosion triggered a major offshore oil spill, forcing a refinery to cut processing and importers to divert cargoes elsewhere. The government later said 1,500 tons of oil were spilled. Others later estimated as much as 60-90 thousand tons.
(Reuters, 7/19/10)(SFC, 7/31/10, p.A4)
2010 Jul 20, Paris-based International Energy Agency said China has overtaken the United States as the world's largest energy consumer. The IE said China's 2009 consumption of energy sources ranging from oil and coal wind and solar power was equal to 2.265 billion tons of oil, compared to 2.169 billion tons for the US.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Jul 21, China said flood waters this year have killed 701 people and left 347 missing. The overall damage thus far totaled 142.2 billion yuan ($21 billion).
(AP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 21, China's largest reported oil spill had more than doubled, closing beaches on the Yellow Sea and prompting an environmental official to warn the sticky black crude posed a "severe threat" to sea life and water quality. The oil was spread over 165 square miles (430 square km) of water five days since a pipeline at a busy northeastern port exploded.
(AP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 22, In China Guangxi police uncovered a kidnapping ring during a three-month investigation and arrested seven people in coastal Fujian province. One of the suspects confessed to police the group had operated since 1989, kidnapping women and children from cities in Guangxi to sell in Fujian.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Jul 23, A Chinese court sentenced a Uighur journalist to 15 years in jail for critical writings and comments he made to foreign media after last year's deadly ethnic riots in China's western Xinjiang region. Halaite Niyaze was found guilty of "endangering national security" and sentenced following a one-day trial in Urumqi.
(AP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 23, Typhoon Chanthu killed three people before weakening into a tropical storm after making landfall in southern China's Guangdong province.
(AP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 26, China’s Geely Holding Group received final government approval to acquire Volvo Cars from Ford Motor Co. in a $1.8 billion deal.
(AP, 7/29/10)
2010 Jul 27, In southern China a landslide caused by rains left 21 people missing, adding to a growing death toll from China's worst flood season in a decade, which is expected to worsen with heavy rains forecast across the country.
(AP, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 27, Japan and China agreed in Tokyo to seek an early conclusion to talks over plans to jointly exploit oil and gas fields in a disputed area of the East China Sea.
(AFP, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 28, In northeastern China floods caused by heavy rains stranded tens of thousands of residents without power, as the worst flooding in more than a decade continued to besiege many areas of the country.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 28, In eastern China a powerful blast caused by a suspected gas leak rocked a plastics factory, killing at least 12 people and seriously injuring more than a dozen others.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 30, It was reported that China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy.
(Reuters, 7/30/10)
2010 Jul 30, In Mexico Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi signed a four-year cooperation accord with Mexico aimed at boosting political and economic ties.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, In northern China an explosion ripped through a workers' dormitory area in Linfen city, Shanxi province, and killed at least 15 people at the Liugou mine, a coal mine notorious for mining disasters.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, A senior Iranian official said China has invested around 40 billion dollars in the Islamic republic's oil and gas sector.
(AFP, 7/31/10)
2010 Aug 1, In China a drunken Li Xianliang was finally subdued after he pulled an earthmover into the coal depot where he worked in Yuanshi county, Hebei province. The depot had been the place where Li had begun his murderous spree by killing his employer and 16 others. Li was taken into custody and faced the death penalty for murder.
(AP, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 1, UNESCO added five cultural sites to its World Heritage List, including the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long-Hanoi in Vietnam. The other new sites include the historic monuments of Dengfeng in China, the archaeological site Sarazm in Tajikistan, the Episcopal city of Albi in France and a 17th-century canal ring in Amsterdam.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Aug 2, China’s state media said thousands of tons of garbage washed down by recent torrential rain are threatening to jam the locks of the massive Three Gorges Dam, and is in places so thick people can stand on it.
(Reuters, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 2, Chinese plainclothes officers detained Ye Haiyan, an activist for sex workers' rights, a few days after she publicly called for prostitution to be legalized.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 2, In China lethal gas leaked into a coal mine at the Sanyuandong Coal Mine in Dengfeng city, Henan province. No survivors were found among the 16 miners trapped by the lethal gas leak.
(AP, 8/3/10)(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 2, In the Philippines the 2010 winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards were announced. Winners included Tadatoshi Akiba, the three-term mayor of Hiroshima, who spearheaded a global campaign for nuclear disarmament, and photographer Huo Daishan (56), who documented river pollution in his native China. The awards are considered Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Other awardees were physicists Christopher Bernido and wife Maria Victoria Carpio-Bernido of the Philippines, who introduced a novel way of teaching science, and Bangladeshi A.H.M. Noman Khan, who set up service-and-training centers for helping persons with disabilities.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 2, UNESCO added 6 sites located in Brazil, China, Mexico, France's Reunion Island and the South Pacific nation of Kiribati to World Heritage status.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 3, In eastern China Fang Jiantang (26), a knife-wielding man, went on a slashing rampage in a kindergarten, leaving 3 children and one teacher dead in Shandong province. About 20 children and staff members were injured. Police detained Jiantang.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 3, In China gas exploded at a coal mine in the southern province of Guizhou, killing 10 people and trapping 7.
(AP, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 4, In China heavy rains hindered efforts by workers to repair reservoirs and place sandbags along breached riverbanks as the death toll from China's worst flooding in a decade climbed above 1,000.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 6, In China AIDS activist Tian Xi (24) was taken into custody after a run-in with an administrator at Xincai County No. 1 People's Hospital, where he had been given a tainted blood transfusion as a boy. He was inflected with HIV via blood transfusion in 1996, and has been struggling to get compensation and treatment from the government more or less ever since. On Feb 11, 2011, Tian Xi was sentenced to one year in prison.
(AP, 2/12/11)(http://tinyurl.com/2b9cey5)
2010 Aug 7, A gas leak in a China coal mine killed at least one worker and trapped five more, just hours after a fire in a gold mine killed 16.
(AP, 8/7/10)
2010 Aug 8, In China landslides in the northwestern province of Gansu left at least 337 people dead in the deadliest incident so far in the country's worst flooding in a decade. More than 1,148 were missing.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 9, A leading Chinese general urged closer ties with Australia's military, amid a continuing freeze on Beijing's contacts with the Pentagon.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 10, The death toll from landslides in northwestern China more than doubled to 702, as crews in three countries across Asia struggled to reach survivors from flooding that has afflicted millions of people.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 10, China Kanghui Holdings, a maker of orthopedic implants, and its stockholders priced 6.7 million American depositary shares, representing 40.1 million ordinary shares, at $10.25 apiece. The stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "KH."
(AP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 11, Chinese rescuers raced against a potential new deluge in northwest Gansu province and hurried to drain an unstable lake formed by the country’s worst mudslides in decades. The mudslide left about 1500 people dead.
(AFP, 8/11/10)(AFP, 5/13/12)
2010 Aug 11, China launched its biggest relocation program since the Three Gorges Dam. The first group of 499 villagers was moved in central Hubei province and a total of 60,000 people were to be relocated by Sept. 30. The rest, for a total of 330,000, will be moved by 2014.
(AP, 8/12/10)
2010 Aug 12, In China 10,276 people in Inner Mongolia set a new world record for the longest chain of human dominoes toppling a record set a decade earlier in Singapore by more than several hundred.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100813/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_china_life_dominoes)
2010 Aug 13, In northwest China new landslides killed 24 people and left 24 missing in Gansu province as downpours threatened more devastation and made rescue work nearly impossible in a region where more than 1,100 people have died.
(AP, 8/13/10)
2010 Aug 14, China’s People's Daily reported that China will test a wider range of dairy products and even breast milk as authorities investigate claims that a brand of infant formula caused apparent breast growth in a small number of babies. State media have said the babies with apparent breast growth were found to have abnormal levels of the hormones estradiol and prolactin, which stimulate lactation, or the making of breast milk.
(AP, 8/14/10)
2010 Aug 16, In northeast China a massive explosion ripped through a fireworks factory, killing 19 workers, damaging nearby buildings and causing secondary blasts.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In China at least 36 more people have died and 23 others were missing in fresh flooding from torrential rains in Gansu province.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 17, At least 4 Tibetans were fatally shot and 30 others wounded when Chinese police opened fire on demonstrators protesting the expansion of a gold mine they blamed for causing environmental damage in southwestern China's Sichuan province not far from the border with Tibet. On Aug 30 the official Xinhua News Agency reported that a 47-year-old Tibetan named Babo died after being hit "by a stray bullet when police fired warning shots with an anti-riot shotgun."
(AP, 8/28/10)(AP, 8/30/10)
2010 Aug 17, Taiwan's parliament approved a historic but controversial trade deal with China which is expected to bring the two former rivals closer than ever before. Taiwan's Defense Ministry urged the US to sell the island advanced weapons systems, after a Pentagon report concluded that China's arms buildup is giving it a wider military advantage over Taiwan.
(AFP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 17, A North Korean military plane, what appeared to be a MiG-21 fighter jet, crashed in northeastern in Liaoning province. China’s official Xinhua News Agency later said it went down because of mechanical failure. The pilot reportedly died on the spot.
(AP, 8/19/10)
2010 Aug 19, In China an attacker riding a 3-wheeled vehicle struck a contingent of security volunteers killing seven people with 14 wounded in the far west region of Xinjiang, an area beset by ethnic conflict and separatist violence.
(AP, 8/19/10)(SFC, 8/20/10, p.A3)
2010 Aug 21, In China the Yalu river, which marks the Chinese-North Korean border, breached its banks on both sides following torrential rains. Four people died and more than 94,000 were evacuated. In North Korea at least 5,150 people were evacuated as residents clambered on rooftops or took shelter on hilltops.
(AFP, 8/21/10)(AP, 8/22/10)
2010 Aug 23, China cut 13 non-violent crimes from the list of 64 offences punishable by death. State media said flooding has forced the evacuation of more than a quarter-million people in northern China along its border with North Korea.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.35)(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, Philippine police stormed a bus in downtown Manila after shots were heard from the hostage-taker of 15 Chinese tourists. Former Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza (55), armed with a M16 rifle, had seized the busload of Hong Kong tourists to demand his reinstatement in the force. 8 tourists were killed along with Mendoza.
(AP, 8/23/10)(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 23, South African President Jacob Zuma flew to China on a three-day trip aimed at strengthening business ties. Zuma was accompanied by a delegation of over 370 business representatives - the biggest ever for a South African leader's visit abroad.
(www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11067072)
2010 Aug 24, In China Zheng Shaodong, an assistant public security minister who led the country’s economic crimes investigation unit, was given a suspended death sentence for taking more than $1 million in bribes and abusing his position.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, A massive traffic jam in north China stretched for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark. It reportedly stemmed from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, In China a Henan passenger plane with 91 passengers and crew overshot a runway in northeastern Hichun city. 43 people were killed and 53 injured.
(SFC, 8/25/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 26, North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il was in China on his second visit this year to his country's biggest source of diplomatic and financial support.
(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 30, Chinese state media said North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il wants an early restart to stalled nuclear disarmament talks, ending official silence about Kim's secretive five-day trip ahead of a key congress.
(Reuters, 8/30/10)
2010 Aug, In China the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) oversaw 123 large centrally-owned companies. Based on the state-owned enterprise reconstruction plan, the SASAC directly-supervised SOE will be reduced to 80-100 by the ending of 2010 year. The small companies will be merged into big state-owned enterprise giants. In 2011 SASAC controlled some $3.7 trillion in assets.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.71)(http://tinyurl.com/88wjnsa)
2010 Sep 1, In southern China 44 people were missing after a landslide hit Wama village, Yunnan province, killing at least four people.
(AP, 9/2/10)
2010 Sep 7, Two Chinese oil workers went missing but more than 30 others were rescued from a listing Sinopec rig off the northeast coast. The company insisted no oil was spilled.
(AFP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 7, A Chinese fishing boat collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands. On Nov 1 Japanese lawmakers said a coast guard video shows a Chinese trawler intentionally ramming Japanese vessels in the incident, which sparked the worst row in years between the Asian powers.
(AFP, 11/1/10)
2010 Sep 7, Myanmar’s ruling junta leader, Gen. Than Shwe, began a 4-day visit to China. This year alone China had already invested over $8 billion in Myanmar.
(Econ, 9/11/10, p.52)
2010 Sep 8, Diplomatic tensions between China and Japan escalated when Beijing called in Japan's ambassador for a second time after a Chinese fishing boat collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands.
(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 9, In China Chen Guangcheng (39), a blind, self-taught activist lawyer, was released from prison and promptly confined in his rural village with limited access to communication. He had documented forced abortions and other abuses.
(AP, 9/9/10)
2010 Sep 11, China detained 9 Vietnamese fishermen near the disputed Paracel islands in the South China Sea. Vietnam demanded their immediate release without conditions, but China refused until the captain paid a fine for having explosives aboard the boat. The fisherman returned home on Oct 26 after an ordeal that included a month of detention by China and a week lost on stormy seas.
(AP, 10/26/10)
2010 Sep 13, Japan freed 14 crew members of a Chinese fishing ship nearly a week after their vessel and two Japanese patrol boats collided near disputed southern islets. But China lashed out at Tokyo's decision to keep the captain in custody.
(AP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 15, The US steel industry, Ohio lawmakers and two veteran US trade policy experts urged Congress to pass legislation to push back against China's "undervalued" currency by slapping duties on Chinese imports that threaten American jobs. The senior Republican on the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee said a proposed bill to press China to revalue its currency would not address fundamental Chinese trade barriers.
(Reuters, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 15, Greenpeace said China's coal-fired plants produce enough toxic ash to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every two-and-a-half minutes, creating contaminants that travel far and wide.
(AFP, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 16, China warned that the worst offenders of food safety rules would get the death penalty in a new crackdown on an industry that has spawned embarrassing and deadly scandals in products ranging from seafood to baby formula.
(AP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 18, In China protesters in several cities marked a politically sensitive anniversary, the start of a brutal Japanese invasion in 1931, with anti-Japan chants and banners, as authorities tried to stop anger over a diplomatic spat between the Asian giants from getting out of control.
(AP, 9/18/10)
2010 Sep 19, China said it has suspended high-level contacts with Japan over the extended detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain arrested after a Sep 7 collision near disputed islands.
(AP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 20, In China JCRB.com, a legal issues website administered by China's Supreme Court, said a Jinfulai Dairy Company executive in Yangquan city of Shanxi province and six other people were arrested after authorities discovered 26 tons of milk powder tainted with a toxic chemical.
(AP, 9/20/10)
2010 Sep 21, Eighteen people have died and 48 are missing after Fanapi churned through southern China, while 65 people were killed in monsoon rain in India and 100,000 displaced after a lake burst in southern Pakistan. Two people went missing and thousands of homes flooded when a record rainstorm hit parts of South Korea during a national holiday.
(AFP, 9/22/10)
2010 Sep 23, China detained four Japanese citizens for allegedly videotaping at a military installation in Hebei province. 3 of the men were released on Sep 30. The 4th was held as investigations continued. The 4th Japanese contractor was freed on Oct 9.
(SFC, 10/1/10, p.A4)(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Sep 24, Japan said it would free Zhan Qixiong (41), a Chinese fishing boat captain, whose arrest in disputed waters over two weeks ago sparked the worst row in years between the Asian giants.
(AFP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 25, Japan refused to apologize for detaining a Chinese boat captain, showing no signs of softening in a dispute between the two economic powers after Japan gave ground and released him. China made a second call for an apology and compensation from Tokyo, demanding "practical steps" to resolve the diplomatic row.
(Reuters, 9/25/10)(AFP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 26, Chinese authorities said five people have been sickened with pneumonic plague in Tibet and that the deadly disease has killed one of them.
(AP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 27, In eastern China 2 men were sentenced to death for abducting and trafficking 40 infants. They were sentenced for their involvement in a ring that abducted dozens of baby boys from Sichuan and Yunnan provinces and sold them to villagers in neighboring Fujian for up to $6,000 each.
(AP, 9/28/10)
2010 Sep 29, China repeated promises of exchange rate flexibility but offered no new measures that might avert a possible vote by the U.S. House of Representatives on currency legislation.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Sep 29, The World Trade Organization ruled that a US ban on Chinese poultry is illegal, giving Beijing a win in the first international commerce ruling against the administration of President Barack Obama.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Sep 30, The South China Morning Post quoted Derek Reveron, a cyber expert at the US Naval War School, as saying: "The Stuxnet worm is a wake-up call to governments around the world." China’s state media had reported this week that the Stuxnet computer worm has wreaked havoc, infecting millions of computers around the country.
(AFP, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 1, China launched its second lunar exploration probe, boosting the country's efforts to rise as a major space power eventually capable of landing a man on the moon and perhaps one day exploring far beyond.
(Reuters, 10/1/10)
2010 Oct 1, Spanish energy giant Repsol announced the sale of 40 percent of its Brazilian affiliate to China's Sinopec for 7.1 billion dollars, securing funding for the development of oil fields in Brazil.
(AP, 10/1/10)
2010 Oct 2, China offered to buy Greek government bonds in a show of support for the country whose debt burden triggered a crisis for the euro zone and required an international bailout. Premier Wen Jiabao made the offer at the start of a two-day visit, where he says he expects to expand ties in all areas.
(Reuters, 10/2/10)
2010 Oct 2, In China 8 workers were killed and three others were injured when the residential building toppled in Xi'an, the capital of northwestern Shaanxi province.
(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 3, In China 6 people were killed when the wall of a factory under construction fell in Qingzhou city, Shandong province. 5 people were injured, 2 of them severely.
(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 6, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told the EU to stop piling pressure on Beijing to revalue its currency, saying a rapid shift could unleash disastrous social turmoil.
(Reuters, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 6, The US and EU said that UN climate talks in Ttianjin, China, were making less progress than hoped due to rifts over rising economies' emission goals, while China pushed back and put the onus on rich nations.
(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 7, In China a new regulation that took effect saying mine bosses who don't go underground with their workers will be severely punished in the latest bid to improve safety in the world's deadliest mines.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 7, China says at least 38 people in the southern part of the country have been infected with a mosquito-borne virus that causes an illness similar to dengue fever. This was thought to be China's largest-ever outbreak of the chikungunya virus, which can cause fevers, joint pain, headaches and rashes.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 7, In Italy Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sealed Sino-Italian business deals worth €2.25 billion ($3.15 billion), after fending off European pressure to raise the value of the yuan.
(AFP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 8, China said on rich nations must lock in fresh vows to slash greenhouse gas output to unblock talks for a new climate change deal, while some negotiators said Beijing was holding progress hostage.
(Reuters, 10/8/10)
2010 Oct 8, The Nobel Committee named imprisoned Chinese scholar Liu Xiaobo the 2010 Peace Prize winner for "his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." The decision by the five-member committee appointed by the Norwegian Parliament came over the objection of the Chinese government, which considers Liu a criminal.
(AP, 10/8/10)
2010 Oct 9, China and the United States clashed on the final day of climate change talks in Tianjin, accusing each other of blocking progress ahead of a major summit next month on global warming.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 9, In China a collision between an intercity bus and a cement truck on a foggy eastern China highway killed at least 17 people outside Nanjing city.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 10, In China the wife of construction worker Luo Yanquan (36) was taken kicking and screaming from their home by more than a dozen people and detained in a clinic for three days by family planning officials, then taken to a hospital and injected with a drug that killed her baby. Xiao Aiying (36) delivered the dead baby on Oct 14.
(AP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 11, China blocked European diplomats from meeting with the wife of the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner, cut off her phone communication and canceled meetings with Norwegian officials, acting on its fury over the award.
(AP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 11, Chinese state media reported that more than 440,000 people have been evacuated in Hainan after the heaviest rains for decades inundated 90 percent of the Chinese island in the South China Sea.
(AFP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 15, China's Communist Party opened its secretive annual meeting to discuss the nation's next five-year economic plan against the backdrop of unusually outspoken calls for political reform.
(AFP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, China's basketball association fined a series of coaches and players in the national team after a bench-clearing brawl put an end to a friendly match with Brazil. The fight had erupted the night of Oct 12 at a game in central Henan province.
(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 16, Thousands of Chinese marched in the streets in sometimes violent protests against Japan and its claim to disputed islands. Thousands of protesters marched through Tokyo to demonstrate against what they called China's invasion of disputed islands that both countries claim. Beijing expressed "deep concern" at anti-China protests by Japanese nationalists over a diplomatic spat centered on a group of disputed islands.
(AP, 10/16/10)(Reuters, 10/16/10)(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 16, In central China rescuers battled dangerous levels of gas, tons of coal dust and the risk of falling rocks as they worked to free 11 miners trapped by an explosion at a mine. 26 miners were confirmed killed at the state-run Pingyu Coal & Electric Co. Ltd mine.
(AP, 10/16/10)(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 16, In China Li Qiming (22) reportedly hit two students with his car at a university campus in the northern province of Hebei. Chen Xiaofeng (20) was killed. The drunk man shouted "sue me if you dare" when a crowd stopped him from fleeing. On Oct 26 state media reported that Qiming, the son of a senior police officer, was arrested after the incident sparked outrage on the Internet. The young woman’s father, Chen Guangqian, said on Nov 18 that Li Gang gave him 460,000 yuan, or more than $69,250. On Jan 30 Qiming was sentenced to six years in prison.
(AFP, 10/26/10)(AP, 11/18/10)(AP, 1/30/11)
2010 Oct 17, The Washington Post reported that the United States believes some Chinese firms are helping Iran improve its missile technology and develop nuclear weapons and has asked Beijing to prevent such activity.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, Zambian police said managers at a Chinese-run coal mine who shot at workers protesting poor working conditions will be charged with attempted murder. 12 workers at Collum Coal Mine in the southern town of Sinazongwe were injured a day earlier when mainly Chinese managers fired randomly at the protesting workers.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 19, China's central bank surprised with its first increase of interest rates in nearly three years. The People's Bank of China said it was raising benchmark rates by 25 basis points, taking one-year deposit rates to 2.5 percent and one-year lending rates to 5.56 percent. The impact was felt by markets across the board. Oil and gold prices tumbled, stocks turned negative in Europe and the dollar jumped.
(Reuters, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 19, Tibetan students in western China marched to protest unconfirmed plans to use the Chinese language exclusively in classes, an unusually bold challenge to authorities that reflects a deep unease over the marginalization of Tibetan culture.
(AP, 10/20/10)
2010 Oct 21, China rejected a UN report that says Chinese bullets were used in attacks on peacekeepers in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, calling the charge groundless.
(AFP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 21, At least 160,000 people were evacuated from southern China as Typhoon Megi, one of the most powerful storms to hit the region in years, bore down, bringing with it the threat of devastation.
(AFP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 22, In China Kigali and Beijing agreed to enhance their military cooperation during a visit to China by Rwandan Defence Minister James Kaberebe. Kaberebe held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie, as part of a five-day visit to China.
(AFP, 10/23/10)
(AFP, 10/22/10)(AP, 10/23/10)(SFC, 10/25/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 22, In Taiwan at least 7 people died when a temple collapsed in Suao, a coastal town in the northeast Ilan county. Torrential rains unleashed by Typhoon Megi triggered landslides that also left dozens missing and hundreds stranded. 19 Chinese bus passengers were among 23 people still missing on the island. As many as 31 people were left dead.
(AFP, 10/22/10)(AP, 10/23/10)(SFC, 10/25/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 22, In Virginia Glenn Shriver (28) of Detroit pleaded guilty to trying to get a job with the Central Intelligence Agency in order to spy for China and to hiding contacts and money he got from Chinese intelligence agents. Shriver acknowledged that he met with Chinese officials about 20 times beginning in 2004 and that he received a total of about $70,000 from Chinese intelligence officers. His plea agreement called for a sentence of 48 months in prison.
(Reuters, 10/22/10)
2010 Oct 22, Mexican authorities said federal police have captured Huang Chen Yaowei, the suspected leader of a gang that trafficked Chinese migrants through Mexico to the US.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 26, China rolled out its fastest train yet and announced that the Three Gorges Dam, the world's biggest hydroelectric project, is now generating electricity at maximum capacity. Inauguration ceremonies were held for the super-fast line from Shanghai's western suburb of Hongqiao to the resort city of Hangzhou. The train will cruise at a top speed of 220 mph (350 kph), making the 125-mile (200-km) trip in 45 minutes.
(AP, 10/26/10)
2010 Oct 28, In China Guo Xianliang, an engineer from the southern province of Yunnan, disappeared while on a business trip in the southern city of Guangzhou. He had been handing out fliers on the streets and in public parks there. Police told Guo's wife on Nov 2 that Guo had been criminally detained.
(AP, 11/3/10)
2010 Oct 28, In China 4 driverless vehicles arrived at the Shanghai Expo ending an 8,000 mile test drive from Italy.
(SFC, 10/29/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 28, Nvidia Corp. said China’s National University of Defense Technology has designed the world’s fastest supercomputer. Its Tianhe-1A set a performance record of 2.507 petaflops per second.
(SFC, 10/29/10, p.C5)
2010 Oct 28, Liang Congjie (78), historian and modern China’s first environmentalist, died. In 1994 he and 3 colleagues founded Friends of Nature, China’s first legal NGO and the first committed to protecting the country’s environment..
(Econ, 11/20/10, p.100)
2010 Oct 29, A feud between China and Japan deepened at the East Asian Summit in Vietnam, as China accused its rival of making false comments and hopes for landmark talks between their leaders evaporated.
(AFP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 30, In China Alexandria Mills, a soft-spoken 18-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, was named the winner in the 60th Miss World Competition, held on Hainan Island. Second place went to Emma Wareus of Botswana, and Adriana Vasini of Venezuela came third.
(AP, 10/31/10)
2010 Oct 31, China wrapped up its record-breaking World Expo with a lavish display of national pride, as organizers of the mammoth event pledged to continue pursuing more sustainable, balanced growth. Over 72 million visitors surpassed the record 1970 fair in Osaka, Japan, which drew 64 million.
(AP, 10/31/10)(SFC, 11/1/10, p.D2)
2010 Nov 1, China kicked off a once-a-decade census. Some 6 million people were mobilized to conduct a 10-day survey.
(AP, 11/1/10)(Econ, 11/6/10, p.56)
2010 Nov 4, China's President Hu Jintao landed in Paris for a three-day state visit set to see the signing of billions of dollars in deals for nuclear, aviation and energy technology. The visit resulted in more than $20 billion-worth of contracts, including an agreement by China to buy 66 more Airbus jets.
(AFP, 11/4/10)(Econ, 11/13/10, p.51)
2010 Nov 5, China and India received long-sought recognition as global economic heavyweights as the International Monetary Fund gave them and other emerging powers a significantly larger role in stabilizing the world economy. IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn announced planned reforms to the fund's voting power after a meeting of the organization's board in Washington, DC.
(AP, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 5, France and China reached a "real convergence" over the need to reform the global financial system after two days of talks between President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao. France told China that balanced trade and close cooperation was the best way to shield the world from future crises and the menace of protectionism, and China promised its support for Paris as it takes over the G20 presidency this month.
(Reuters, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 7, In Portugal Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to support Portugal's efforts to emerge from financial crisis, but he did not commit to purchasing Portuguese debt as was widely anticipated.
(AFP, 11/7/10)
2010 Nov 8, Britain’s PM David Cameron departed for a 2-day trip to China. He brought along 4 cabinet ministers and 50 businessmen. Cameron hoped to double trade with China over the next five years.
(Econ, 11/13/10, p.65)
2010 Nov 9, China signaled its intention to drain excess cash from its financial system by unexpectedly raising the yield on bills at a central bank auction and announcing new rules to curb hot money inflows.
(Reuters, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 9, A UN report suggesting North Korea may have supplied Syria, Iran and Myanmar with banned nuclear technology headed to the Security Council. The latest report by the so-called Panel of Experts on Pyongyang's compliance with UN sanctions was delivered to the Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee in May, but did not move for nearly six months due to Chinese objections.
(Reuters, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 10, In China a Beijing court imposed a 2½ year sentence on Zhao Lianhai, for inciting public disorder by setting up a web site to help parents with sick children share information and seek compensation. Lianhai became an activist after his son suffered from kidney problems linked to contaminated baby formula.
(SFC, 11/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 11, China said it has toughened rare earth export rules to allow only producers that meet environmental protection laws and international standards to ship the precious elements out of the country.
(AFP, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 11, In Britain an 18th-century Chinese porcelain vase, sold by a family clearing out a deceased relative's house in a suburb of London, went to a Chinese buyer for 51.6 million pounds ($83 million), more than 40 times the pre-sale estimate and a record for a Chinese work of art. The price included 20% in fees.
(AP, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 12, In South Korea leaders of the G20 major economies refused to back a US push to make China boost its currency's value, keeping alive a dispute that raises fears of a global trade war amid criticism that cheap Chinese exports are costing American jobs.
(AP, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 12, After weeks of delays due to Chinese objections, the UN Security Council received a report on violations of the arms embargo in Sudan's western Darfur region that infuriated Beijing. The confidential report said Khartoum committed multiple breaches of the embargo and China has done little to ensure its weaponry is not used in Darfur.
(Reuters, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 13, In Japan thousands of demonstrators waving Japanese flags and shouting anti-China slogans marched against Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit for an economic summit that comes as a territorial dispute strains ties between the Asian giants.
(AP, 11/13/10)
2010 Nov 13, US President Barack Obama used a Pacific Rim summit to press China on its flood of exports aided by a cheap yuan, but President Hu Jintao said Beijing would make reforms at its own pace.
(AFP, 11/13/10)
2010 Nov 14, In China a court convicted Cheng Jianping (46) of "disturbing social order" after she added a few words to a message written by her fiance, Hua Chunhui, whose Twitter post mocked anti-Japanese protesters. On Nov 16 Amnesty Int’l. urged the government to release Cheng, saying she could be the first Chinese citizen to become "a prisoner of conscience on the basis of a single tweet."
(AFP, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 15, In China a fire engulfed a Shanghai high-rise building, killing 58 and injuring 70, as panicked residents fled and thick smoke spread over China's commercial hub. Police the next day detained 8 welders on suspicion of accidentally starting the fire. 3 government officials were later detained for allowing illegal construction activities at the site. In June, 2011, prosecutors charged 26 people with bribery and other crimes related to the fire.
(AP, 11/15/10)(AP, 11/16/10)(SFC, 11/17/10, p.A3)(SFC, 12/25/10, p.A2)(AP, 6/25/11)
2010 Nov 16, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping began a trip to mineral-rich South Africa aimed at securing resources for the Asian economic power, looking to extend its influence in the African continent.
(Reuters, 11/16/10)
2010 Nov 17, China said it will intervene to control consumer prices if they rise too quickly, a move that will do little by itself to tame inflation but could foreshadow harsher monetary tightening. The government announced food subsidies for poor families as it tries to cool a double-digit surge in prices that communist leaders worry might stir unrest.
(Reuters, 11/17/10)(AP, 11/17/10)
2010 Nov 18, The Norwegian Nobel Committee Russia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Morocco, Iraq and China have declined to attend the December 10 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. 16 more countries had not replied by the committee's extended deadline. An award spokesman said the Nobel Peace Prize may not be handed out this year because no one from imprisoned Liu Xiaobo's family is likely to attend the ceremony.
(AP, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 19, China ordered lenders to lock up more of their money at the central bank for the second time in two weeks, stepping up its battle to pull excess cash out of the economy before inflation has a chance to take off.
(Reuters, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 19, The world's cardinals met at the Vatican to discuss religious freedom, sex abuse by clergy and other issues amid a new dispute with China over an illicit ordination that threatens delicate relations between the two.
(AP, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 20, China's government-backed Catholic church ordained a bishop who did not have the pope's approval, despite objections from the Vatican.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 21, In China water flooded a small coal mine, trapping 28 people as they did safety work to expand the mine's capacity. 13 workers escaped and rescue work was continuing for the 28 missing at the Batian mine in the southwestern province of Sichuan. 29 miners were rescued on Nov 22.
(AP, 11/21/10)(Econ, 11/27/10, p.51)
2010 Nov 21, A global tiger summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, approved a wide-ranging program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia. Experts wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect their habitats and step up the fight against poaching.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 23, China acknowledged that it is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, as it called on the United States to ensure climate change talks opening next week make progress.
(AFP, 11/23/10)
2010 Nov 24, The Vatican denounced China for ordaining a bishop without papal consent, accusing the government-backed church of gravely damaging the faith and warning that the bishop risked excommunication. The Vatican also accused Chinese authorities of committing "grave violations of freedom of religion and conscience" by forcing Vatican-approved bishops to attend the ordination ceremony of Rev. Joseph Guo Jincai.
(AP, 11/24/10)
2010 Nov 25, China’s state media said Shanghai is suffering from its worst November air quality in five years after the local government lifted pollution controls that were in place for the six-month World Expo. China started publishing hourly air-quality information for major cities across the country as the world's top source of greenhouse gas emissions tries to rein in its notorious pollution.
(AFP, 11/25/10)(AFP, 11/26/10)
2010 Nov 27, In China an "extraordinary" Asian Games closed after 15 days of thrills and spills that saw China reinforce its sporting credentials as 45 countries and territories took part. China’s final gold tally reached 199 and its total medals to 416, both Asian Games records.
(AFP, 11/27/10)
2010 Nov 28, China called for emergency talks on resolving a crisis on the Korean peninsula, and Seoul and Tokyo said they would study the proposal, as the US and South Korean militaries started a massive drill.
(AP, 11/28/10)
2010 Nov 29, In eastern China a man detonated explosives near the president of Tianjin Normal University, killing himself and possibly injuring the president in an apparent suicide bombing.
(AP, 12/2/10)
2010 Nov, In China Tan Yong attacked his wife Li Yan (39) with an air gun, but she grabbed it from him and used the butt of the weapon to kill him. He had previously hurt three other wives. Yan was later convicted of murder and sentenced to death. In 2015 the Ziyang Intermediate People's Court re-sentenced her to death with a two-year reprieve, meaning the penalty is likely to be commuted to life in prison.
(AFP, 4/24/15)
2010 Dec 3, Chinese police detained the wife of Hada, the co-founder of a Mongolian separatist movement, and raided the family bookstore just days before the activist is to be released from 15 years in prison.
(AP, 12/4/10)
2010 Dec 3, A Chinese passenger train set a new record for speed, hitting 302 miles per hour (486 km per hour) during a test run.
(AP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 3, A Chinese cargo ship with 24 Chinese passengers and crew members sank off the coast of the Philippines. At least 14 crewmen were rescued and 10 were missing.
(www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6B30U120101204)(SFC, 12/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 3, Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian mining firm, announced a joint venture with Chinalco, to hunt for minerals in China.
(Econ, 12/18/10, p.130)
2010 Dec 4, In southwestern China an explosion caused by illegally stored chemicals killed seven people and injured 37 at an Internet café.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, In southwest China at least 22 people died and one person was severely burned when a spreading grassland fire swept through a mountainous Tibetan region.
(Reuters, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 6, The US, South Korea and Japan all urged China to help rein in its ally North Korea and vowed solidarity in defending Seoul from any further attacks from the North.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, China hit back at the United States and its Asian allies for their refusal to talk to North Korea, saying dialogue was the only way to calm escalating tension on the divided Korean peninsula.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Norway Nobel officials said China and 18 other countries have declined to attend this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, as China unleashed a new barrage deriding the decision.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 9, In China the inaugural Confucius Peace Prize was awarded to former Taiwan vice-president Lien Chan at a chaotic press conference held by a handful of Chinese university professors. Lien's office in Taiwan declined comment, saying they had no knowledge of the award. Chinese poet Qiao Damo, one of the "candidates", told reporters the lack of any word from Lien represented "silent acceptance" of the prize, prompting laughter from assembled journalists.
(AFP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 9, Communist allies North Korea and China proclaimed their unity as the North's leader Kim Jong-Il held his first meeting with a senior Chinese envoy since the region's worst crisis in years erupted.
(AFP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 10, China's central bank raised the amount of money the country's lenders must keep on reserve for the third time in a month, following a spate of robust data that strengthened the case for policy tightening.
(Reuters, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 10, Dignitaries in Norway celebrated this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, with an empty chair. Xiaobo, derided by Beijing as a political farce, dedicated it from his prison cell to the "lost souls" of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
(AP, 12/10/10)(Reuters, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 13, A Chinese vessel carrying fertilizer and heavy fuel collided with a German cargo ship off northwestern Denmark. The Hong Kong-flagged Cleantec was listing and its 24-man crew was ready to be evacuated.
(AP, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 13, The US government welcomed a World Trade Organization ruling that upheld President Barack Obama's controversial decision last year to slap duties on Chinese-made tires to protect US workers from a market-disrupting surge in imports.
(Reuters, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 13, A classified US document, dated Feb 26, 2010, released by WikiLeaks said Venezuela’s government sold China oil for as little as $5 a barrel and was upset that China apparently profited by selling the fuel to other countries. Another embassy report on Sept. 23, 2009, said Venezuela has been manipulating its oil price index. Other cables indicated significant problems at PDVSA.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 14, A report, "High and Dry," by the Shan Sapawa Environmental Organization and the Shan Women's Action Network, said local trade and transport on the river in northern Myanmar near a border trade crossing with China has been severely affected by unpredictable daily changes in the water level since the completion in mid-2010 of the 360-foot (110-m) tall Longjiang Dam about 19 miles (30 km) upstream.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 15, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's travelled to India to build trust between two Asian powers with increasingly close economic ties despite their ongoing competition for regional influence.
(AP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 15, In southwest China local authorities told state press that Zeng Lingquan, the operator of an unlicensed shelter for disabled people, sold at least 70 mentally ill workers into slavery in recent years. Lingquan was arrested on Dec 13.
(AFP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 15, In China workers blasted through the last part of a tunnel that connects the Tibetan county of Metok to China's major thoroughfare.
(AP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 16, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pressed on with a charm offensive in India, offering support for New Delhi's bid for a greater role in the United Nations and agreeing on an ambitious target of $100 billion annually in trade between the rising Asian powers by 2015.
(Reuters, 12/16/10)(SFC, 12/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 16, China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement that it has banned poultry and poultry product imports from Manitoba, Canada, after an outbreak of low-pathogenic H5N2 bird flu there.
(Reuters, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 17, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made a rare visit to Pakistan aimed at expanding trade ties and the flow of Chinese investment into the country.
(AP, 12/17/10)
2010 Dec 18, A 63-ton Chinese fishing boat capsized after ramming into a 3,000-ton South Korean coastguard ship trying to curb its illegal fishing activities, leaving one Chinese crew member dead and another missing.
(AFP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 18, Pakistan and China concluded nearly 15 billion dollars' worth of deals, as visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Beijing would "never give up" on the troubled nuclear-armed Muslim country.
(AFP, 12/18/10)
2010 Dec 20, China's state news agency said eight people have been sentenced to prison terms of up to two-and-a-half years for selling fake rabies vaccines that contributed to the death of one boy. A court in southwestern Guangxi region sentenced Zhang Dazhi to 30 months' jail while seven others were handed one-year prison terms.
(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 20, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg toured the offices of Baidu, China's top search engine, during a visit that has sparked speculation the social networking magnate is looking for business opportunities in the world's largest Internet market.
(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 21, China urged North Korea to follow through on its offer to allow UN nuclear monitors into the country as a way to alleviate international tensions during a standoff with the South.
(AP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 23, China's capital announced that it will sharply limit new vehicle registrations to try to ease massive traffic jams that are rapidly turning Beijing's streets into parking lots.
(AP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 23, China said it will boost further its already expanding economic ties with Africa, which reached a record two-way volume of more than $100 billion this year.
(AP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 23, Nigeria said it has signed loan deals with China worth 900 million dollars that will be used to finance rail and communication projects in Africa's most populous nation.
(AFP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 24, In China a new lottery system was introduced aimed to reduce the number of cars in the notoriously gridlocked capital. Beijing counted 4.76 million vehicles, up from 2.6 million in 2005. The first batch of 20,000 plates will be awarded by lottery on Jan. 25. Every month a new batch of plates will become available.
(AP, 1/1/10)(Econ, 1/1/11, p.34)
2010 Dec 24, South Africa's minister of international relations and cooperation said South Africa has been invited by China to join the four-member "BRIC" grouping of fast-growing emerging markets. South Africa is the world's 31st-largest economy, according to World Bank data for 2009 and is less than a quarter the size of the smallest BRIC economy, Russia.
(Reuters, 12/24/10)
2010 Dec 25, China’s state media said police are offering cash and other rewards to encourage the country's millions of Internet users to help solve criminal investigations. China announced a 25-basis point increase in benchmark one-year interest rates, providing much-needed reassurance that it was determined to rein in price pressures.
(AFP, 12/25/10)(Reuters, 12/27/10)
2010 Dec 25, In China village leader Qian Yunhui (53) was killed under the wheel of a truck in Yueqing, Zhejiang province. On Jan 4 police charged the driver, Fei Liangyu, with accidental death. Thousands of netizens accused local government officials of killing Qian to silence his six-year campaign against fixed elections and illegal land expropriation, which was quickly denied by local authorities. On Feb 1, 2011, Fei was sentenced to three and a half years' imprisonment.
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.41)(http://tinyurl.com/4uwql4b)(AP, 2/1/11)
2010 Dec 27, In China 14 children died when the vehicle taking them to school plunged into a creek in the central province of Hunan. In Guizhou province 7 people died and 15 were injured after a truck crashed into a gas station in fog, causing a pileup involving more than 100 cars.
(AP, 12/27/10)
2010 Dec 28, China said it is reducing the amount of rare earths it will export for the first half of the year by more than 10 percent, likely to be an unpopular move worldwide since the minerals are vital to the manufacture of high-tech products.
(AP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 28, A Chinese journalist died from injuries sustained in a gang beating that some say was linked to his investigative work. Sun Hongjie, a senior reporter at the Northern Xinjiang Morning Post, died at a hospital in the city of Kuitun 10 days after he was beaten by six men at a construction site.
(AP, 12/28/10)
2010 Dec 28, In Thailand US and Thai officials arrested a group of 12 Chinese nationals accused of obtaining fake visas to try to gain entry to the United States. The visas bore the same numbers as authentic ones issued by the US Embassy in Warsaw to Polish citizens.
(AP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 30, In China Zeng Jinchun was shot to death for taking more than $4.7 million in bribes. He was the ruling Communist party's top corruption inspector for Chenzhou city in the central province of Hunan. Zeng was found guilty of taking the 31 million yuan in bribes in return for handing out mining contracts and job promotions over a decade ending in 2006.
(AP, 12/30/10)
2010 Dec 29, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that a fire at a factory belonging to the Quanxin Pharmaceutical Co. in southwestern China's Yunnan province caused a blast that killed at least five people and injured eight others.
(AP, 12/30/10)
2010 Dec, In China Dai Qingcheng (46) was given the death penalty for raping 116 women between 1993 and 2009 in Anhui province in eastern China.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2010 Dec, Laos said China would build a $7.2 billion high-speed railway from the border to its capital, Vientiane. Construction was due to begin in April, 2011. The 262-mile railway was expected to take fie years just to lay the tracks.
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.49)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.49)
2010 In China Sports writer Li Chengpeng authored “Chinese Football: The Inside Story." It detailed match-fixing and bribery across the country and brought down the wrath of angry trainers, “patriotic readers," and government censors.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.35)
2010 Stefan Halper authored “The Beijing Consensus: How China’s Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century."
(Econ, 6/25/11, SR p.3)
2010 Jonathan Holslag authored “China And India: Prospects for Peace."
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.89)
2010 Fraser Howie and Carl Walter authored “Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China’s Extraordinary Rise."
(Econ, 12/11/10, p.105)
2010 Yu Jie authored “China’s Best Actor, Wen Jiabao." It was published in Hong Kong, but was banned on the mainland.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.35)
2010 Richard McGregor authored “The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers."
(Econ, 6/19/10, p.84)
2010 China opened a 4-km bridge from the mainland to the island of Pingtan, directly across from Taiwan. By 2011 China hoped to develop the island together with Taiwan as a duty free enclave.
(Econ, 5/19/12, p.52)
2010 A prediction was made that China’s paramount leader will either have been elected or selected by an elected multi-party national parliament.
(SFC, 5/26/96, Z1 p.6)
2010 Zhang Jingli, one of four deputy heads of China’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), was removed from his post at the food and drug safety watchdog. He was under investigation over alleged bribery linked to US pharmaceuticals giant Johnson & Johnson. In early 2011 he was stripped of his party membership.
(AFP, 1/6/11)
2010 China began introducing donation schemes for human organs as its source of organs from prisoners fell due to fewer executions. A national organ bank was set up fight corruption in the organ-allocation system.
(Econ, 8/24/13, p.42)(Econ., 3/14/15, p.48)
2010 Xiaomi, a Chinese maker of smart phones, was founded. In 2013 it was valued at $10 billion.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.69)
2010 Japan’s nominal GDP of $5.474 trillion in 2010 put it behind China's $5.879 trillion. China first eclipsed Japan in the second quarter.
(AP, 2/14/11)
2010 The AIDS epidemic in China was expected to infect over 10 million people by this time, according to a 1998 forecast by the Ministry of Health. In 2006 China backed off from the high number but gave no new estimate.
(SFC, 12/2/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A17)
2011 Jan 2, In China seven crew members were missing and feared drowned after their fishing boat sank in the Xijiang River in the southern province of Guangdong.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, China’s state television reported that Chinese scientists have mastered the technology for reprocessing nuclear fuel, potentially yielding additional power sources to keep the country's economy booming.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 4, In China a gunfight in Tai’an City of Shandong Province left four police officers dead and five people injured.
(http://english.caing.com/2011-01-05/100214120.html)
2011 Jan 4, Zambian prosecutors applied for arrest warrants after the mining officials Xiao Li Shan and Wu Jiu Hua failed to attend the preliminary hearing regarding the Oct 15 shooting of nearly a dozen miners at a Chinese-run coal mine.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 5, China’s state media said Beijing and Shanghai will be among the first places to put marriage databases online this year. The plan is to have records for all of China online by 2015. Officials were putting marriage records online so lovers and spouses could check for cheaters. The Ministry of Civil Affairs a few years ago said such a project would be operational by last year. The plan now is to have records for all of China online by 2015.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 9, Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang kicked off a business-focused state visit to Britain with the sealing of a renewable energy deal between Scottish and Chinese companies.
(AFP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 11, China's radar-eluding stealth fighter, the J-20, made its first-known test flight, marking dramatic progress in the country's efforts to develop cutting-edge military technologies.
(AP, 1/11/11)(Econ, 1/15/11, p.43)
2011 Jan 11, In China a mammoth 31-foot sculpture of the ancient philosopher Confucius was unveiled off one side of Tiananmen Square. Three months later the statue was removed.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-01/12/c_13687988.htm)(Econ, 12/17/11, p.72)
2011 Jan 12, Tajikistan agreed to give away a portion of its territory to neighboring China in a bid to put an end to a land dispute dating back more than a century. Foreign Minister Khamrokon Zarifi portrayed it as a victory, saying China had initially claimed more than 11,000 square miles (28,000 square km).
(AP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 14, A Chinese court announced it will retry a farmer sentenced to life in prison for evading highway tolls after a massive public outcry over his heavy punishment. Farmer Shi Jianfeng had been convicted of fraud and sentenced to life in prison for using fake military license plates and uniforms to deceive toll collectors and avoid paying over $530,000 in tolls. A judge and two court officials were soon suspended in a probe into Jianfeng’s life sentence.
(http://www3.washingtontimes.com/topics/shi-jianfeng/)(AP, 1/16/11)
2011 Jan 14, In China Liu Huaqing (95), the father of the modern Chinese navy, died.
(AP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 16, Chinese President Hu Jintao, ahead of a visit to Washington, urged an end to a "zero sum" Cold War relationship with the United States and proposed new cooperation, but resisted US arguments about why China should let its currency strengthen.
(Reuters, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 17, China’s state media said thousands of villagers angry at government plans to build an artificial island in southern China forced the project's suspension last week, clashing with workers and smashing vehicles.
(Reuters, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 17, Mozambique officially received its new $70-million (€53-million) national sports stadium from the Chinese government after a series of false starts delayed its completion.
(AFP, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 19, President Barack Obama announced a deal to step up cooperation with China on nuclear security. The United States and China reached agreement on export deals worth $45 billion. The agreements included a $19 billion deal with Boeing in which China will purchase 200 Boeing aircraft. The deals were announced at the formal start of a four-day state visit to the US by Chinese President Hu Jintao. President Barack Obama issued a finely tuned call for greater respect for human rights in his speech to welcome his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.
(AP, 1/19/11)(Reuters, 1/19/11)
2011 Jan 21, China’s ICBC bank agreed to buy 80% of the Bank of East Asia’s retail branch network in New York and California for $140 million.
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.74)
2011 Jan 24, A Chinese newspaper said that transnational crime gangs are trafficking a growing number of Chinese women to Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa where they are forced into prostitution.
(AP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 25, Mexican authorities said they have seized more than 23 tons of a chemical used in the manufacture of synthetic drugs, during an inspection of a shipment from China. The ethyl phenylacetate was declared as a different product on arrival at the Pacific port of Manzanillo.
(AFP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 26, Chinese oceanographers gathered for a 2-day meeting in Shanghai to discuss the South China Sea-Deep, a $22 million project funded over 8 years for the exploration of the South China Sea.
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.90)
2011 Jan 28, China introduced its first home-ownership tax in the cities of Chongqing, .4%-.6% of the property’s value, and Shanghai, .5$-1.2%.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.52)
2011 Jan 31, In Shanghai, China, relatives of Liu Yonghua, a patient who died, rampaged with knives through a hospital, seriously wounding six people and trying to throw a doctor out a window.
(AP, 2/1/11)
2011 Feb 1, China Harbor Engineering Company, a subsidiary of state-owned China Communications Construction Company, signed a 1.2-billion-dollar contract to build Khartoum's new international airport.
(AFP, 2/15/11)
2011 Feb 3, In northeast China a fire set off by fireworks to celebrate the Lunar New Year destroyed a five-star hotel in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province.
(AP, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 8, China raised interest rates by .025% for the second time in just over six weeks, intensifying a battle in the fast-expanding economy against stubbornly high inflation that threatens to unsettle global markets.
(Reuters, 2/8/11)(Econ, 2/12/11, p.84)
2011 Feb 9, Chinese officials said they were preparing for a severe, long-lasting drought in several parched provinces, causing wheat prices to spike on the prospect of the world's largest consumer putting pressure on a global supply that's already squeezed.
(AP, 2/9/11)
2011 Feb 10, PetroChina said it is purchasing half of a prolific shale gas project from Canada's Encana Corp for C$5.4 billion ($5.4 billion), marking the largest Chinese investment yet in a foreign natural gas asset.
(Reuters, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 10, The US computer security firm McAfee Inc said in a report that hackers working in China over the last 2-4 years broke into the computer systems of 6 European and US energy companies to steal bidding plans and other critical proprietary information.
(Reuters, 2/10/11)(SFC, 2/25/11, p.D5)
2011 Feb 11, China’s foreign Minister Yan Jiechi said that China plans to increase economic cooperation with longtime African ally Zimbabwe in mining, agriculture and other ventures. He met with Pres. Mugabe in Harare. Mugabe thanked Yang for China's training of his guerrillas to help in "demolishing colonialism" before independence from British colonial rule in 1980.
(AP, 2/11/11)
2011 Feb 12, China’s the Xinhua News Agency reported that Liu Zhijun (58), who has been head of the railway ministry since 2003, is under investigation for "severe violations of discipline" and has been removed from his position as the ministry's Communist Party chief. He will be replaced by Sheng Guangzu (62), head of the General Administration of Customs.
(AP, 2/13/11)
2011 Feb 17, China warned the United States not to use calls for uncensored access to the Internet as a pretext to interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 18, China raised required reserves to a record 19.5 percent, adding to an increasingly aggressive effort by Beijing to stamp out stubbornly high inflation.
(Reuters, 2/18/11)
2011 Feb 19, Chinese authorities cracked down on activists as a call circulated for people to gather in more than a dozen cities Feb 20 for a "Jasmine Revolution." Rights lawyer Teng Biao disappeared. Officers searched his home and seized two computers, a printer, articles, books, DVDs and photos of another rights lawyer, Chen Guangcheng. Biao was released on April 29.
(AP, 2/19/11)(AP, 4/29/11)
2011 Feb 20, In China opposition campaigners said the government has detained top activists and deployed heavy security in large cities after the launch of a web campaign calling for protests echoing popular uprisings in the Arab world. Police mounted huge security operations in Beijing, Shanghai and several other cities following microblog messages urging citizens to take part in silent walk-past protests.
(AFP, 2/20/11)(Econ, 3/5/11, p.46)
2011 Feb 23, Chinese activists said officials have rounded up Internet users who had reposted a call for protests and charged them with subversion as the authoritarian government continued its campaign to crush any Middle East-style democracy movement. Unidentified organizers had issued a renewed appeal to gather peacefully in parks or near monuments at 2 p.m. on Sundays. China's Vice President Xi Jinping urged greater outreach by the ruling Communist Party to handle issues related to education, employment, health care and housing.
(AP, 2/23/11)(AP, 2/24/11)
2011 Feb 23, In China Xinjiang-based wlmqwb.com website reported that the country’s highest court has approved the executions of four men convicted in a series of murders in the restive western region of Xinjiang described as acts of "terrorist violence." The four were accused of killing 9 people in 3 separate incidents between August and November of last year.
(AP, 2/23/11)
2011 Feb 25, China widened its Internet policing after online calls for protests like those that swept the Middle East, with social networking site LinkedIn and searches for the US ambassador's name both blocked. Access to LinkedIn resumed on Feb 26.
(AP, 2/25/11)(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 25, China dropped the death penalty for more than a dozen nonviolent crimes and banned capital punishment for people over the age of 75 in largely symbolic moves that are not expected to significantly reduce executions.
(AP, 2/25/11)
2011 Feb 27, In China large numbers of police, and new tactics like shrill whistles and street cleaning trucks, squelched overt protests for a second in a row after more calls for peaceful gatherings modeled on recent democratic movements in the Middle East.
(AP, 2/27/11)
2011 Mar 1, China told journalists they must "cooperate" with police and respect the country's laws, after several foreign reporters were roughed up in a crackdown on calls for anti-government rallies. The government blamed foreign reporters for a weekend ruckus with police who tried to prevent them covering a planned protest in Beijing, as rights groups slammed China for curtailing press freedoms.
(AFP, 3/1/11)(Reuters, 3/1/11)
2011 Mar 1, China’s National Museum in Beijing re-opened following a nearly 4-year refurbishment that cost some 2.5 billion yuan.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-03/01/c_13755545.htm)
2011 Mar 1, Taiwan and China have cooperated as Taiwan’s coast guard personnel rescued a businessman, surnamed Hsia (40), on an uninhabited Taiwanese islet after his kidnappers deposited him there. He was kidnapped in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in early January and held for a $3.3 million ransom.
(AP, 3/2/11)
2011 Mar 2, The Philippine military deployed two warplanes near a disputed area in the South China Sea after a ship searching for oil complained it was harassed by two Chinese patrol boats. The Chinese vessels later left without confrontation at the Reed Bank, which is near the disputed Spratly Islands that are claimed by the Philippines, China and other nations.
(AP, 3/3/11)
2011 Mar 3, Chinese police further intensified pressure on foreign reporters, warning them to stay away from spots designated for Middle East-inspired protests and threatening them with expulsion or a revoking of their credentials.
(AP, 3/3/11)
2011 Mar 5, China’s national People’s Congress (NPC) opened in Beijing.
(Econ, 3/5/11, p.46)
2011 Mar 6, In China at a hastily called news conference in Beijing, Li Honghai, vice director of the city's Foreign Affairs Office, said reporters must apply for and receive government permission to conduct any newsgathering within the city center. It was the latest sign of the government's determination to prevent the formation of a Middle East-style protest movement.
(AP, 3/6/11)
2011 Mar 9, President Barack Obama said he had chosen Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to be the next US ambassador to China, replacing Jon Huntsman, a Republican who is stepping down and mulling a run for the presidency.
(Reuters, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 10, In China Guo Weidong (38), an Internet activist, was detained at his home in Haining. He was charged with subversion for spreading calls for Middle-Eastern style anti-government protests.
(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 10, In China an earthquake toppled more than 1,000 houses and apartment buildings in the southwest near the border with Myanmar, killing at least 24 people and injuring more than 200.
(AP, 3/10/11)
2011 Mar 11, In China a gas explosion from a coal mine in the southwest killed 19 miners in Guizhou province's Liupanshui city.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 12, In China 19-21 people were killed in a collision between a passenger bus and a truck in Wanlang township on the outskirts of Baishan city in northeast Jilin province.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 17, Rigzin Phuntsog (16), a Tibetan monk at the Kirti monastery in China’s Sichuan province, died one day after he set himself on fire in an anti-government protest. He was beaten and kicked by police, prompting hundreds of monks and others to rally. In August authorities said they will charge three Buddhist monks with murder over the death of Phuntsog.
(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/4nsxj9p)(AFP, 4/13/11)(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Mar 22, China called for an immediate cease-fire in Libya.
(AP, 3/22/11)
2011 Mar 23, A Chinese state-run news website said 7 people, allegedly involved in plotting terrorist activities, have been sentenced to death for robbery and murder in China's far western region of Xinjiang. The report said the 7 were among a dozen people who met and raised funds between June 2008 and October 2010 to carry out "violent, terrorist" activities.
(AP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 23, China’s state auditors reported that $28 million had been embezzled from its 1,300 km high-speed line between Beijing and Shanghai.
(Econ, 4/2/11, p.34)
2011 Mar 25, In China Ying Jianguo, general manager of Taizhou Suqi Storage Battery Co. Ltd., was taken into custody in the city of Taizhou in Zhejiang province. The official Xinhua News Agency reported 139 cases of lead poisoning near the plant. More testing soon found at least 168 villagers, including 53 children, had high lead levels.
(AP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 27, Yang Hengjun (46), a Sydney-based spy novelist, phoned an assistant from Guangzhou airport in southeastern China to say three men were following him. Yang was later able to briefly phone a sister in Guangzhou to say "he's having a long chat with his old friends." This was a prearranged signal that Yang had been taken by the secret police. Yang was an official in the Chinese Foreign Ministry before moving to Australia. His novel, "Fatal Weakness," deals with espionage between China and the United States and has been published on the Internet in China. On March 31 Hengjun said he is OK and apologizing for causing trouble.
(AP, 3/29/11)(AP, 3/31/11)
2011 Mar 30, China executed 3 Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking. Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Ramon Credo and Elizabeth Batain were arrested separately in 2008 carrying packages of at least 4 kilograms of heroin.
(SFC, 3/31/11, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/4oluzcf)
2011 Mar 30, China ordained a new Catholic bishop approved by the Vatican for the first time since ties between the sides soured last year. Paul Liang Jiansen was made bishop of the southern city of Jiangmen.
(AP, 4/11/11)
2011 Mar 31, In China French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called for more flexible exchange rate regimes as G20 nations met on global monetary reform in Nanjing.
(AFP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 2, Chinese officials said over 500 of the country’s 1,176 dairies were being shut down in an attempt to clean up the scandal-plagued dairy industry.
(SSFC, 4/3/11, p.A4)
2011 Apr 2, Swedish wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson said it is suing Chinese rival ZTE Corp. for alleged infringement of several of its patents in handset and network technology.
(AP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 3, Chinese police in Beijing detained outspoken Chinese artist and social critic Ai Weiwei preventing him from taking a flight to Hong Kong. He helped design Beijing's famed "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium but has since irritated the Communist Party government with his activism. On April 7 China confirmed that it has Weiwei, but insisted his case involves "economic crimes" and not human rights.
(AFP, 4/4/11)(SFC, 4/4/11, p.A2)(AP, 4/7/11)
2011 Apr 5, China’s central bank raised interest rates again.
(Econ, 4/9/11, p.84)
2011 Apr 8, China’s government and state media said 3 babies have died and 36 people, mostly children, fallen ill after drinking possibly tainted milk in the country's latest food scare.
(AFP, 4/8/11)
2011 Apr 10, Chinese state media reported that Intentional poisoning was behind the tainted milk that killed three children and caused 36 others to become ill in northwestern Gansu province last week. Police suspected that a couple poisoned milk from a local farmer, causing three deaths, because of anger over business disputes. Police soon found that nitrite was added to milk from Ma Wenxuan's farm near the city of Pingliang in Gansu province.
(Reuters, 4/10/11)(AP, 4/12/11)
2011 Apr 12, In southwestern China clashes erupted between security forces and locals at the Kirti Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Sichuan province, under lockdown after a monk set himself on fire and died on March 17.
(AFP, 4/13/11)
2011 Apr 14, In China 10 people were killed over the last 24 hours at a bathhouse and car wash in Anshan city in Liaoning province. Police soon arrested suspect Zhou Yuxin (33), the owner of both businesses. The dead included Yuxin’s wife, father and son.
(AP, 4/15/11)
2011 Apr 17, In China 47 members of the underground Shouwang church were detained in Beijing. Its leaders were kept under house arrest as part of a crackdown on the unregistered congregation. Tensions had escalated earlier this month when the church was evicted from its usual rented place of worship.
(AP, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 17, In southern China violent thunderstorms have lashed parts of the industrial heartland of Guangdong province, leaving 18 people dead and scores injured.
(AP, 4/18/11)
2011 Apr 20, China’s Legal Daily newspaper said authorities in Shenyang have found bean sprouts tainted with banned food additives to make the vegetables grow faster and look shinier. Police had seized 40 tons of bean sprouts treated with the chemical compounds sodium nitrite and urea, as well as antibiotics and a plant hormone called 6-benzyladenine.
(AP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 21, Chinese police raided the Kirti monastery, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery where tensions have run high over the March 17 death of a monk named Phuntsog. Police took 300 monks to an unknown location and two villagers trying to block the monks' removal were killed.
(AP, 4/23/11)
2011 Apr 22, In China truck drivers protested for a third day over rising fuel costs and fees, disrupting the flow of goods in Shanghai, China's busiest port city.
(AP, 4/22/11)
2011 Apr 25, Chinese oil refining giant Sinopec said it has demoted Lu Guangyu, a top executive, who bought 1.6 million yuan (148,463 pounds) of wine and spirits after details of the purchase leaked onto the Internet and sparked an uproar over extravagance at the state-owned firm.
(Reuters, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 25, In China an illegal garment shop in southern Beijing caught fire, killing 17 migrant workers and their family members who may not have been able to escape the four-story building because of bars on the windows.
(AP, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 26, Australian PM Julia Gillard, visiting China, raised a range of human rights concerns in talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who denied China had taken a "backward step."
(AFP, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 28, China released 2010 census numbers indicating a total mainland population of 1.34 billion.
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.43)
2011 May 1, China’s Health Ministry's amended guidelines on the management of public places that now ban smoking in more venues like hotels and restaurants were implemented.
(AP, 5/1/11)
2011 May 1, In northeastern China a fire at a hotel killed 11 people and injured 35, in Tonghua, an industrial city by the North Korean border. Arson was suspected at the hotel owned by the Nasdaq-listed Chinese budget chain Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc.
(AFP, 5/1/11)(AP, 5/2/11)(AFP, 3/29/12)
2011 May 4, The Chinese Embassy in Oslo said Sino-Norwegian relations are "in difficulty" because the peace prize was given to "a Chinese criminal ... and the Norwegian government supported this wrong decision." Norwegian salmon exporters were having their fish held up for days or even weeks by Chinese food safety inspectors, devastating its freshness.
(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 5, China’s Xinhua News Agency said in a brief report that a Panama-registered cargo ship with 24 Chinese sailors was hijacked by seven pirates in the Arabian Sea.
(AP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 7, Chinese farmer Liu Mingsuo came out and counted 80 burst watermelons. By the afternoon it was 100. Two days later he didn't bother to count anymore. Watermelons began bursting by the score in Jiangsu province, after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather. About 20 farmers were affected, losing up to 115 acres (45 hectares) of melon.
(AP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 9, In Australia organizers of the Sydney Writers' Festival said Chinese authorities have barred dissident writer Liao Yiwu from traveling to Australia for a festival for "security reasons" and advised him against publishing his works abroad.
(AFP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 10, In China a Mongol herder named Mergen was run over by a truck driven by an ethnic Han Chinese in Inner Mongolia. Mergen and other herders had been attempting to block a caravan of coal-hauling trucks in the Xilin Gol area. The killing sparked protests. 4 days later another Mongol was killed in a similar confrontation elsewhere. The truck driver was later executed and his co-driver sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 5/25/11)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.48)(Econ, 7/14/12, p.40)
2011 May 12, Chinese authorities arrested 40 people for allegedly trafficking at least 22 babies for sale. The ring bought babies in Yunnan, one of China's most impoverished provinces, and sold them to families in relatively prosperous Fujian.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, In China Xu Maiyong (52), a former vice mayor of the wealthy resort city of Hangzhou, was sentenced to death on corruption charges, one of the harshest sentences handed down to a high-level Chinese official in recent years.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 15, In China a one dog per family policy went into effect in Beijing.
(SSFC, 5/15/11, p.A5)
2011 May 16, The US Treasury Department said that China cut its holdings by $9.2 billion to $1.14 trillion, its 5th straight month of trimming.
(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 May 17, China downplayed a UN report saying North Korea remains "actively engaged" in exporting ballistic missiles, components and technology to numerous customers in the Middle East, saying it was not an official Security Council report.
(AP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 17, Pakistan's PM Yousuf Raza Gilani declared China his country's best friend in an apparent dig at Washington as he began a visit to China. China is Pakistan’s main arms supplier. Pakistan last week opened a 330-megawatt nuclear power plant in central Punjab province with Chinese help and said Beijing had been contracted to construct two more reactors.
(AFP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 18, China’s Cabinet acknowledged that its $23 billion Three Gorges Dam required action to curb pollution, counter risks of possible natural disasters and improve life for the 1.4 million people who were forced to relocate.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 18, China and Pakistan signed three agreements in Beijing on economic and technology cooperation, banking and mining.
(AP, 5/18/11)
2011 May 20, In China 2 workers were initially killed and 16 injured in the explosion at the plant of a Foxconn subsidiary in Chengdu. A seriously injured worker died two days later. The iPad 2 was being made in the building hit by the blast.
(AFP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 20, A company China says is controlled by artist Ai Weiwei was accused of massive tax evasion in the government's clearest disclosure yet about its investigation of the activist detained more than six weeks.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 20, Pakistani defense officials said China has agreed to provide Pakistan with 50 more fighter jets in a deal clinched during Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's trip to Beijing.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 21, The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea travelled to Fukushima in a show of solidarity over the ongoing nuclear crisis, visiting evacuees left homeless by the quake and tsunami.
(AFP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 21, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was said to have visited an industrial city in northeastern China and appeared headed to Beijing by train on the second day of a mysterious trip to his country's most important ally.
(AP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 22, In Japan the leaders of China and South Korea agreed to bolster efforts to aid disaster recovery as they met with the Japanese prime minister to smooth over differences on Tokyo's handling of its post-tsunami nuclear crisis.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 23, A spokesman for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said the group has halted payments for program in China amid mismanagement by a public agency.
(AFP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 23, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il visited a development zone in eastern China, as he pursued a secretive trip aimed at seeking answers for his nation's crippled economy.
(AFP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 24, North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong Il reportedly traveled to an eastern Chinese city to study Beijing's economic reforms, while a US government team was in North Korea on a rare trip to assess food shortages.
(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May 25, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il arrived in Beijing and was seen en route to what was believed to be a summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(AFP, 5/25/11)
2011 May 26, China Central Television said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il said he would adhere to the goal of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula during talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(AFP, 5/26/11)
2011 May 26, In southern China homemade bombs exploded at three government buildings in Fuzhou city, Jiangxi province, killing 3 people and wounding at least 9 others in what state media said was a revenge attack by Qian Mingqi (52), a middle-aged jobless man, who was killed in one of the explosions.
(AP, 5/26/11)(SFC, 5/27/11, p.A2)
2011 May 27, China bestowed a pomp-filled welcome on Myanmar's Pres. Thein Sein, conferring legitimacy on the country's new, nominally civilian government and ensuring continued Chinese access to its neighbor's natural resources.
(AP, 5/27/11)
2011 May 28, Chinese police sealed off parts of two county seats in Inner Mongolia for a second day in what residents described as a kind of martial law after protests triggered by the death of a Mongolian herder run over by a Chinese truck driver.
(AP, 5/28/11)
2011 May 28, In central China an explosion at a bus company killed an employee and injured at least two others, days after a bombing spree in another city rattled the country. A blast at a chemical plant in Zibo city, Shandong province, killed three people and injured eight others. The plant was owned by Shandong Baoyuan Chemical Co. Ltd.
(AP, 5/28/11)(AP, 5/29/11)
2011 May 29, Chinese state media said China will expand a ban on free shopping bags as it tries to further curb its addiction to plastic in a bid to rid the country of "white pollution" that clogs waterways, farms and fields.
(AFP, 5/29/11)
2011 Jun 3, In Libya a series of at least 10 NATO strikes hit in and around Tripoli, targeting military barracks close to Gadhafi's sprawling compound, a police station and a military base. A rebel military leader said his troops had broken the siege of two towns in the western Nafusa mountain range, Yefren and Shakshuk. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that China's ambassador to Qatar had recently met with the head of Libya's rebel council.
(AP, 6/3/11)
2011 Jun 3, Mexico’s federal Attorney General's Office said authorities in the Pacific port of Manzanillo seized 69 tons (63 metric tons) of two chemicals used to make synthetic drugs. 34 tons of monomethylamine arrived May 6 on one ship and the other ship carrying 35 tons of ethyl phenyl acetate arrived April 10. Both ships were from Shanghai, China.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 4, In China the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crushing of the pro-democracy movement was entirely ignored by the state-controlled media. The square was open under heavy security. Activists said security forces had rounded up a number government critics ahead of the anniversary of the, adding to an already harsh crackdown on dissent.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 9, In northern Myanmar fighting began 9 when government troops allegedly shelled a Kachin base in a bid to force the rebel fighters from a strategic region where China is constructing major hydropower plants.
(AP, 6/16/11)
2011 Jun 10, Flooding in central China was reported to have killed 41 people.
(SFC, 6/11/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 12, China’s state media reported that over 600 people have been sickened by lead poisoning in tinfoil processing workshops in Yangxunqiao, Zhejiang province.
(SFC, 6/13/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 12, In China riots broke out near the southern city of Guangzhou as hundreds of migrant workers protested what they felt was unfair treatment by Chinese security guards. What started the riot was an incident where guards were said to have pushed a pregnant street hawker to the ground, leading to protests by more than 1,000 migrants.
(Reuters, 6/12/11)
2011 Jun 13, In China severe flooding caused by days of torrential rains has led to 105 deaths. The heavy rains have also resulted in a number of mudslides, with the province of Hunan the hardest hit.
(AP, 6/13/11)
2011 Jun 15, In China the “The Beginning of the Great Revival," a celebration of the founding of China’s Communist Party, opened at every Cineplex in the country. It was produced by the for profit China Film Group.
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.72)
2011 Jun 16, In northern Myanmar more than 10,000 people were reported to have fled fighting between government troops and the Kachin ethnic minority group's militia. They were living in temporary camps near the Chinese border as refugees.
(AP, 6/16/11)
2011 Jun 18, China’s official media said floods and lightning killed at least eight people as heavy rains pounded southern China, destroying homes and blocking roads.
(AP, 6/18/11)
2011 Jun 19, China’s state media reported that more than 5 million people have been displaced or otherwise affected by flooding in eastern China that is also pushing up food prices. Rescuers searched for 11 workers who were buried when an office building they were renovating in Wuxi city, Jiangsu province, collapsed on top of them.
(AP, 6/19/11)
2011 Jun 19, Chinese public relations consultant Chen Hong closed down his website which let people post anonymous tips on official bribery after censors stepped in blocking access to the site for people inside China. His website, http://www.ibribery.com, had drawn 200,000 unique visitors in two weeks.
(AP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 19, An Indian general led a delegation to Beijing as the two countries moved to resume exchanges between their militaries after a yearlong freeze.
(AP, 6/19/11)
2011 Jun 20, Chinese President Hu Jintao made a rare visit to Ukraine to sign a strategic partnership declaration as Beijing seeks to revive ties with the ex-Soviet state after years of neglect. Hu Jintao oversaw the signing of business deals worth $3.5 billion.
(AFP, 6/20/11)(AP, 6/20/11)
2011 Jun 20, Chinese authorities said more than 40 miles (70 km) of dikes are in danger of overflowing in eastern Zhejiang province where floods have caused $1.2 billion in losses.
(AP, 6/20/11)
2011 Jun 21, China said that a meeting with Mahmud Jibril, the Libyan rebels' diplomatic chief, who is in Beijing for a two-day visit, was an effort to seek a quick solution to the crisis in the North African nation, a situation it said could not go on.
(Reuters, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 21, In China Sun Shuning was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing Yan Wenlong on May 15 during a dispute between coal mine operators and local residents protesting pollution. The case that fueled the biggest ethnic protests in Inner Mongolia in two decades.
(AP, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 21, In China Pastor Shi Enhao (55), a deputy chairman of the Chinese House Church Alliance, was detained in the eastern city of Suqian in Jiangsu province. The national group of underground congregations was established to provide mutual support and intercede with authorities who routinely threaten and harass unofficial churches. Enhao was sentenced a month later for organizing illegal religious gatherings.
(AP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jun 22, The online pranksters at Lulz Security say they've taken down two government Web sites in Brazil as they continue with their global "Anti-Security" campaign.
(AP, 6/22/11)(http://tinyurl.com/3ddjml6)
2011 Jun 22, In China renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei was released on bail after confessing to tax evasion following more than three months in detention.
(AP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 23, China's state-controlled Catholic church said it will move swiftly to appoint new bishops in dioceses where there are none, in a step that is certain to worsen frictions with the Vatican. Filling the more than 40 empty bishop's seats is an urgent task because the vacancies are causing serious problems in the handling of church affairs.
(AP, 6/23/11)
2011 Jun 24, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao embarked on a three-country tour of Europe, mired in currency and sovereign debt woes. After talks with Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban and a reception at a Budapest university, Wen moves on to London and Berlin before returning home.
(AFP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jun 25, China’s PM Wen Jiabao, during a visit to Budapest, announced Beijing would purchase Hungarian government bonds and extend a one-billion-euro credit to the country.
(AFP, 6/25/11)
2011 Jun 26, China said it and Vietnam have agreed to settle their dispute over the South China Sea through negotiations, as protesters in Hanoi marched for the fourth straight week to voice their outrage at their country's more powerful neighbor.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 26, Prominent Chinese political activist Hu Jia (37), imprisoned for sedition, was released at the end of his more than three-year sentence. Jia, known for his activism with AIDS patients and orphans, faced continued surveillance.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 26, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, reportedly a big Shakespeare fan, made a pilgrimage to the Bard's birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon, as part of a 3-day visit to reinforce economic links between the two countries.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 27, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and British PM David Cameron signed trade deals worth £1.4 billion at a summit as Wen faced questions over his country's rights record. Jiabao proceeded to Berlin for a visit that with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
(AP, 6/27/11)(Reuters, 6/27/11)
2011 Jun 28, Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir arrived in China for talks with President Hu Jintao.
(AFP, 6/28/11)
2011 Jun 29, In China Sudan's Pres. Omar al-Bashir, wanted on a war crimes warrant, won pledges from China and its state-owned energy firm they will continue investing in his country after its resource-rich southern region becomes independent next month.
(AP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jun 30, China’s 200 mph bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai opened to the public. Construction of the $34 billion, 1,318 km rail line began on April 18, 2008.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing%E2%80%93Shanghai_High-Speed_Railway)
2011 Jun, Chad’s President Idriss Deby Itno inaugurated the Djarmaya refinery, located 40 km (25 miles) north of the Chadian capital Ndjamena. He described it as a "gift from China" that would offer energy independence to his land-locked nation. China’s state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation International (CNPCI) owned 60%.
(AFP, 2/7/12)
2011 Jul 1, China confirmed that an oil spill had occurred in waters around Nanhuangcheng Island in Shandong province. US oil company ConocoPhillips operated the Penglai 19-3 oil field where the leak originated. Leaking oil was first detected on June 4, and then again on June 17. The state maritime bureau said that an area in the mouth of the Bohai Sea, measuring 840 square km (336 square miles), had been badly polluted due to the spill.
(AFP, 7/5/11)(SFC, 7/6/11, p.A4)
2011 Jul 1, In central Iraq the Al-Ahdab oil field, operated by China National Petroleum Corp, began production with 60,000 barrels per day. The contract with CNPC, signed in 2008, allows the Chinese company to develop the field for 23 years.
(AFP, 7/1/11)
2011 Jul 2, China suffered two mining accidents that left three workers dead and 42 trapped underground. The cave-in and flood occurred in the Guangxi region of Guizhou province.
(AFP, 7/2/11)(SFC, 7/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 5, Moody's said China's local government debt burden may be 3.5 trillion yuan ($540 billion) larger than auditors estimated, putting banks on the hook for deeper losses that could threaten their credit ratings.
(Reuters, 7/5/11)
2011 Jul 5, The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that China's export restrictions on raw materials are illegal, upholding complaints by the US, the EU and Mexico.
(AFP, 7/5/11)
2011 Jul 6, The People's Bank of China announced it was raising its benchmark rate for one-year loans by 0.25 percentage points to 6.56 percent to keep a lid on rising inflation levels.
(AP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 7, In China 4 miners were killed in a gas explosion in a mine in the western-most Xinjiang region. The death toll in a mine that flooded on July 2 in Guangxi province rose to four, with 18 still trapped. In eastern Shandong province, the number of miners trapped in a coal mine in Zaozhuang city dropped to 28 following a fire the previous evening. 23 miners remained trapped in a coal mine in southwest Guizhou province that also flooded on July 2.
(AFP, 7/7/11)
2011 Jul 9, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez announced a new $4 billion loan from China and discussed his health in a televised appearance.
(AP, 7/9/11)
2011 Jul 10, In China 2 workers were rescued in the Guangxi region after being trapped for more than a week deep underground in a July 2 mine collapse in which 8 people died and 12 were still missing.
(AFP, 7/10/11)
2011 Jul 14, Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei said he had accepted a job at an art university in Germany, as he battles charges of massive tax evasion after nearly three months in police detention.
(AFP, 7/14/11)
2011 Jul 14, China’s state-backed Catholic hierarchy held a 3-hour ceremony to consecrate a bishop in Shantou. 4 Rome-aligned bishops were reportedly abducted and pressed to take part in the ceremony.
(Econ, 8/20/11, p.40)
2011 Jul 16, China’s state media said landslides triggered by torrential rain across the country have left 13 people dead and hundreds trapped in their cars.
(AFP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 16, Iran and China signed a series of agreements worth $4 billion (2.8 billion euros) for infrastructure projects as part of a broader bid to boost trade volume between the two nations. The agreements were signed during a visit by He Guoqiang, a senior executive of the Chinese Communist Party.
(AFP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 16, The Vatican announced that Chinese bishop Joseph Huang Bingzhang ordained without papal approval on July 14, was excommunicated for accepting his new post.
(SSFC, 7/17/11, p.A4)
2011 Jul 18, In China 14 separatist rioters, 2 policemen and 2 civilian hostages, were killed in an attack on a police station in Khotan, in the far western Xinjiang region. The violence erupted when a large group of Uighurs tried to protest in Hotan, an oasis town of more than 115,000 people. The planned siege ended with 14 of the 18 attackers dead.
(AP, 7/18/11)(AP, 7/20/11)(Econ, 7/30/11, p.38)
2011 Jul 20, Basketball star Yao Ming (30) announced his retirement after a trailblazing career that made him China's best-known athlete and helped spur the game's global growth.
(AFP, 7/20/11)
2011 Jul 22, China said it had hooked its first so-called "fourth generation" nuclear reactor to the grid, a breakthrough that could eventually reduce its reliance on uranium imports.
(AFP, 7/22/11)
2011 Jul 22, In China a fire on an overcrowded bus carrying flammable materials killed 41 passengers in Xinyang, Hunan province.
(AFP, 7/22/11)
2011 Jul 23, In eastern China a crash involving two high-speed trains in Wenzhou city killed 40 people with 171 others injured. Rail officials later admitted that a Chinese-made signaling system was to blame and said the company that built it has apologized. 3 days after the crash legal authorities ordered lawyers not to take on cases from the families of victims. On Dec 28 a government report found 54 officials responsible for the crash.
(AP, 7/24/11)(AFP, 7/30/11)(AFP, 8/11/11)(Econ, 8/6/11, p.34)(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Jul 23, Canada returned Lai Changxing (52) to China where he is accused of running a $10 billion smuggling ring that dealt in everything from cars to oil in a scandal touching the government's highest levels.
(AP, 7/23/11)(Econ, 7/30/11, p.34)
2011 Jul 26, In China hundreds of people rioted in the southwest after security forces reportedly beat a disabled street vendor to death in Guizhou province's Anshun city.
(AFP, 7/27/11)
2011 Jul 26, China’s Jiaolong undersea craft, named after a mythical sea dragon, reached 5,057 meters (16,591 feet) below sea level in a test dive in the northeastern Pacific. In 1960 the US Navy reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the world's oceans at 11,000 meters.
(AFP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jul 27, China’s Ministry of Public Security said police had rescued 81 children from a major child trafficking ring in Hebei province.
(SFC, 7/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 29, Yahoo Inc., Japan's Softbank Corp. and the China’s Alibaba Group said they have agreed on a compensation plan involving the Web payment service Alipay.
(AP, 7/29/11)
2011 Jul 31, Chinese police shot dead 5 terrorist suspects and 6 civilians in Xinjiang province, bringing to 18 the death toll in weekend violence in the troubled ethnic region. This followed a day of clashes in Kashgar that killed 7 people and injured 22. Minority Uighurs have been blamed for previous violence in the region.
(AP, 7/31/11)(SFC, 8/1/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 1, Chinese authorities shot dead two Uighur men suspected of fomenting deadly ethnic unrest in Kashgar and vowed a further crackdown on "religious extremists." The deaths bring to 21 the number of people reported killed in Kashgar since the weekend. China blamed Islamic radicals trained in Pakistan for the attacks. Many of Xinjiang's roughly nine million Turkic-speaking Uighurs are unhappy with what they say has been decades of political and religious repression, and the unwanted immigration of the Han, China's dominant ethnic group.
(AFP, 8/2/11)(SFC, 8/2/11, p.A3)
2011 Aug 2, China's eastern city of Hangzhou offered its taxi drivers a subsidy of one yuan ($0.16) per trip in a bid to end a two-day strike in the tourism hub.
(AFP, 8/2/11)
2011 Aug 3, China warned that tortured efforts to raise the US limit on borrowing had failed to defuse Washington's "debt bomb", and signaled it would further diversify its holdings away from the dollar.
(AFP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 4, Computer security firms McAfee and Dell SecureWorks said Chinese hackers had attacked over 72 networks beginning in 2006. McAfee dubbed the attacks “Operation Shady RAT."
(SFC, 8/5/11, p.D6)
2011 Aug 7, Typhoon Muifa blew down power lines and billboards in the Chinese financial hub of Shanghai and aimed at a northeast port city where beaches were closed and sandbags were piled on the waterfront. At least one death was reported with one person missing.
(AP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 8, Sudan said it has granted a petroleum exploration license to China after visiting Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and President Omar al-Bashir held talks in Khartoum.
(AFP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 9, China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi ended a two-day visit to Khartoum and headed for Juba, the capital of South Sudan, in the first trip by a senior Chinese official to the world's newest nation.
(AP, 8/9/11)
2011 Aug 10, China suspended all new railway construction projects. Controversy and safety concerns swirled over the nation's high-speed network following the July 23 fatal crash, which left 40 people dead.
(AFP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 10, China launched its first aircraft carrier, a refitted former Soviet craft, for a maiden run. Last month China confirmed that it was refitting an old, unfinished Soviet carrier hull (the Varyag) bought from Ukraine's government in 1998. Sources said China was also building two of its own carriers.
(Reuters, 8/10/11)(Econ, 8/13/11, p.38)
2011 Aug 11, Chinese security forces launched a two-month "strike hard" crackdown against violence, terrorism and radical Islam following renewed ethnic violence in the restive western region of Xinjiang. It will last through Oct. 15, and includes around-the-clock patrols of trouble spots, identity checks and street searches of people and vehicles.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 11, Chinese designated lama Gyaltsen Norbu (21), the hand-picked 11th Panchen Lama, arrived at Xiahe, home of the Labrang Monastery. He left on Aug 16 following a cool welcome.
(SFC, 8/12/11, p.A2)(Econ, 8/20/11, p.39)
2011 Aug 12, A Chinese bullet train manufacturer recalled 54 trains in a new embarrassment for a problem-plagued prestige project following a July crash that killed 40 people.
(AP, 8/12/11)
2011 Aug 14, Chinese state media said authorities in the northeastern port city of Dalian ordered a petrochemical plant be shut down after more than 12,000 people demonstrated over pollution concerns. Calls to relocate the plant grew after waves from Tropical Storm Muifa broke a dike guarding it on August 8 and raised fears that flood waters could release toxic chemicals. A gas blast in a coal mine killed 10 people in Panxian county in Guizhou province.
(AP, 8/14/11)(AP, 8/15/11)(Econ, 8/20/11, p.41)
2011 Aug 15, In western China Tsewang Norbu (29), a Buddhist monk, died after setting himself on fire in Sichuan province's Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture an ethnically Tibetan region.
(AP, 8/15/11)
2011 Aug 18, In China a fight broke out in Beijing between the visiting Georgetown University men's basketball team and the Bayi Rockets, the army's Chinese Basketball Association team, forcing play to end early. Video footage spread on the Internet and worldwide TV news.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 19, China banned 100 songs from being featured on websites, barring artists ranging from Lady Gaga to the Backstreet Boys apparently for being out of tune with the country's cultural authorities.
(AFP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 22, Liu Qi, China’s party secretary for Beijing, told Internet companies to tighten control over material online as Beijing cracks down on dissent and tries to block the rise of Middle East-style protests. He issued the warning following a visit to Sina Corp., which operates a popular microblogging site.
(AP, 8/24/11)
2011 Aug 23, In China at least 15 people were killed when a blaze ripped through a dormitory building belonging to a ceramics factory in the Shengfeng Ceramics Factory in Foshan city.
(AFP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 23, In China 15 people were hurt and cars were damaged after more than 30 relatives of a patient who died at the hospital in Jiangxi province forced their way inside the building. Patient Fan Runyin was admitted to the hospital on August 19 after suffering a brain hemorrhage. Relatives said he died on the operating table.
(AFP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 23, The Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it is lifting the freeze on funding to China to ensure AIDS work in the country continues while it works with government officials, representatives from United Nations' agencies and private groups to resolve the dispute.
(AP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 26, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il renewed a push to restart talks on swapping aid for his country's nuclear disarmament during a stop in northeastern China on his return journey from Russia.
(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Aug 29, The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned about a new mutant strain of the deadly bird flu H5N1 virus (H5N1 - 2.3.2.1.) in China and Vietnam, saying there could be a "major resurgence" of the disease.
(AFP, 8/29/11)
2011 Aug 29, Chinese authorities jailed a Buddhist monk for 11 years over the March 17 self-immolation death of Rigzin Phuntsog. A court in the southern province of Sichuan handed long jail sentences to two more monks the next day over Phuntsog’s protest at their Kirti monastery.
(AFP, 8/31/11)
2011 Aug 29, In China a female staff member slashed children with a knife at a daycare center for migrant workers in Shanghai's suburban Minhang district, wounding eight children.
(AP, 8/29/11)
2011 Aug 29, In China a mine shaft in the city of Dazhou flooded as 30 miners were working underground. 18 escaped, 10 were killed and 2 miners remained trapped.
(AFP, 9/3/11)
2011 Aug 30, In China the body of Xie Yexin, who worked as an anti-corruption official in the central province of Hubei, was discovered in his office with 11 stab marks to his body next to a knife wrapped in a paper napkin. State-run media said Yexin had taken his own life.
(AP, 9/2/11)
2011 Aug 30, Philippine President Benigno Aquino flew to China, on a mission to secure billions of dollars in business deals as the two sides look to move beyond a territorial row.
(AFP, 8/30/11)
2011 Sep 6, In China police detained Li Tianyi (15) in Beijing after witnesses said he and a friend leapt from their BMW sports cars and beat a man and woman for three minutes while their son looked on. General Li Shuangjiang (72), a famous singer and music department dean at the Beijing-based PLA Academy of Arts, soon apologized for his son's actions.
(AP, 9/9/11)
2011 Sep 7, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology named Google's China website operator, Beijing Guxiang Information Technology Co. Ltd., as one of 137 firms whose licenses were renewed following adjustments in their operations.
(AFP, 9/7/11)
2011 Sep 9, China’s state news reported that over 14 million people were short of drinking water due to drought in the southwest. Large tracts of farmland were reported damaged.
(SFC, 9/10/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 9, In southern China 12 people, including 9 schoolchildren, died when a ferry carrying 50 people capsized in a river in Shaoyang city, Hunan province. The ferry, designed to carry 14, sank after it cut across dredging cables that appeared to then become wrapped around its propeller.
(AFP, 9/10/11)(AFP, 9/11/11)
2011 Sep 13, China held trials in Kashgar and Hotan and convicted 6 Uighur men of being behind the summer bloodshed in the Xinjiang region that left dozens. 4 men were sentenced to death and 2 were given 19-year prison sentences.
(SFC, 9/16/11, p.A7)
2011 Sep 13, Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi held talks in China with his counterpart Hu Jintao on further Chinese investment in the West African nation.
(AFP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 14, In China farmer Wang Hongbin (30), described as mentally ill, rampaged with an ax through the streets of Gongyi, Henan province, killing 6 people, 2 of them children.
(SFC, 9/15/11, p.A8)
2011 Sep 17, In southwestern China a crowded tourist bus overturned on a mountainous road, killing seven people and injuring 30 others in Sichuan province. In the northwest a landslide caused by heavy rain plowed into two small factories, killing at least 10 people and leaving 22 others missing in Shaanxi province.
(AP, 9/17/11)(AP, 9/18/11)
2011 Sep 19, China shut down a solar panel factory after hundreds of angry residents staged days of violent protests over pollution, the second such incident in as many months.
(AFP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 19, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz called for closer ties with China during a visit to the Chinese-Arab economic and trade forum in Yinchuan. Both countries signed an agreement granting the Mauritanian armed forces financial support worth 20 million yuan (2.3 millions euros, 3.1 million dollars).
(AFP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 20, General Motors Co. agreed to deepen cooperation with its flagship Chinese partner on development of electric vehicle knowhow amid pressure from Beijing to hand over proprietary technology.
(AP, 9/20/11)
2011 Sep 20, The World Health Organization warned countries that a dangerous strain of polio, WPV1, has spread to China from Pakistan.
(SFC, 9/21/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 20, Benin announced that China has given it $34 million in loans and grants, part of which will fund an anti-piracy patrol drive off the coast, where hijackings have surged this year.
(AFP, 9/22/11)
2011 Sep 22, In southern China hundreds of protesters attacked a police station and ransacked vehicles in Guangdong, leaving dozens injured in the latest unrest to hit the industrial heartland. The rioters were angered by a government land deal and rumors that police officers had killed a child.
(AP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 23, Chinese blogger Daniel Wu, praised for posting pictures of Chinese officials and their luxury watches online, said he has been forced out of action due to outside "pressure." His commitment to exposing the officials had been praised earlier this month by the state-run Xinhua news agency, which said the fight against corruption should follow his method.
(AFP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 26, In China 2 Tibetan monks, Lobsang Kalsang and Lobsang Konchok (believed to be 18 or 19 years old), set themselves on fire at the Kirti Monastery in a protest over China's tight rein over Buddhist practices, as the Chinese government reiterated it will choose the next Dalai Lama. Both were rescued by police, suffered slight burns and were in stable condition.
(AP, 9/26/11)
2011 Sep 29, British police and medical regulators said Russian gangs and their Chinese associates are making billions of dollars from selling fake and unlicensed medicines over the Internet, putting thousands of people at risk. More than 2.5 million doses of counterfeit, controlled and withdrawn drugs were seized across 79 countries in seven days of raids coordinated by international police organization Interpol under an operation codenamed Pangea that ended on Sep 27.
(Reuters, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 29, In Sweden the winners of Right Livelihood Awards, sometimes referred to as the alternative Nobel prizes, were announced. Human rights activist Jacqueline Moudeina of Chad; Spanish-based nonprofit GRAIN; and American midwifery educator Ina May Gaskin will share the euro150,000 ($205,000) cash award. Chinese solar power pioneer Huang Ming received an honorary award for developing "cutting-edge technologies."
(AP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 29, China ordered manufacturers of potentially toxic products to conduct safety and environmental checks after a recent spate of major anti-pollution protests triggered fears of more unrest.
(AFP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 29, China’s People’s Daily reported that 12 officials in Hunan province have been fire over allegations that family planning officials between 1999 and 2006 had kidnapped children in Longhui county and put them up for adoption.
(SFC, 9/30/11, p.A3)
2011 Sep 29, China launched an experimental module into space, taking its first step towards building a space station. Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace", took off from the Gobi desert in the northwest, propelled by a Long March 2F rocket.
(AFP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 29, Typhoon Nesat made landfall on the eastern tip of China's Hainan island.
(AP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep, China’s government shut down the popular “Happy Girl," a TV talent show that allowed a studio audience to vote for contestants. The show had replaced “Super Girl" in 2009, which had allowed viewers to vote for contestants via text messages.
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.53)
2011 Oct 1, In China angry Tibetans protested in Seda, a county seat in eastern Sichuan province, a tense area of southwestern China on the country's National Day after a Tibetan flag and a photo of the Dalai Lama were torn down.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 4, China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution threatening action against Syria's deadly crackdown on protests.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 4, In China a coal mine explosion killed at least 13 workers in Guizhou province.
(SFC, 10/5/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 5, Suspected drug traffickers hijacked two Chinese cargo ships on the Mekong River in northern Thailand. The bodies of 13 crew members were found near Chiang Rai in northern Thailand on Oct 7,8 and 10. In Nov, 2012, Burmese drug lord Naw Kham and 3 of his associates were sentenced to death by a court in Kunming. 9 Thai soldiers were believed to have been accomplices.
(AP, 10/10/11)(Econ, 11/10/12, p.43)
2011 Oct 5, Russia's intelligence service said it has detained an alleged Chinese spy who tried to obtain designs of an advanced missile system as part of Beijing's efforts to update its weaponry. Prosecutors submitted the case to the Moscow City Court today, although the man was detained late last October.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 6, The UN said increased access to technology that allows parents to know the sex of their fetus has left Asia short of 117 million women, mostly in China and India.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 7, In southwest China 2 teenagers set themselves on fire near a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Aba town amid rumors that dozens of monks were ready to sacrifice their lives. Choepel and Khayang were former monks from Sichuan province's Kirti monastery.
(AFP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 7, In China 3 major road accidents killed 56 people on the last day of a weeklong holiday, including 35 people who died when a bus collided with a car on a northern expressway.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 9, China's President Hu Jintao called for Taiwan and the Chinese mainland to reunite, as he marked the 100th anniversary of the revolution that ended the nation's long imperial history.
(AFP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 10, China suspended shipping through Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle after Oct 5 attacks by suspected drug traffickers on two Chinese cargo ships left 13 people dead or missing on the Mekong River.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 12, China said it is to invest up to 4 trillion yuan ($600 billion) over the next decade to overcome a huge water shortage that threatens the country's economic growth.
(AFP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 14, A Chinese air force JH-7 jet crashed at an air show outside the northern city of Xi'an, leaving one of the pilots missing and presumed dead.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 15, China's top Communist Party leaders opened a four-day meeting which will be devoted to the country's "cultural development." Analysts said the meeting is largely to strengthen the party's tight control over the media and the Internet.
(AFP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, Flooding in Cambodia was reported to have killed at least 247 people as China began delivering the first of some $7.8 million in flood relief aid.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 17, In western China Tenzin Wangmo (20), a Tibetan nun, committed self-immolation in a call for religious freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama. She was the 9th Tibetan to commit self-immolation and the first women to kill herself in this way.
(SFC, 10/18/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 18, China’s ruling Communist Party, at the close of a four-day annual policy meeting, approved a program to enhance its popularity at home and image abroad at a time when the leadership is struggling with domestic unrest and a delicate succession.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, Tibetan monk Yonten Gyatso, a senior monk and human rights activist in the restive Aba county, southwestern Sichuan province, was arrested. He was sentenced on June 18 by Aba Intermediate People's Court, but his family and the news organization that he contributes to only heard about it on Aug 22. They said he was beaten, tortured and imprisoned after his arrest.
(AFP, 8/23/12)
2011 Oct 19, Reports from China said many of the 6 million migrant workers employed in a massive railway buildup have not been paid for months, with some 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) of projects halted due to a lack of money.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, The Philippine navy apologized to China for accidentally ramming one of its fishing boats a day earlier near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 20, China said that it will allow four of its most developed cities and provinces to issue bonds on a trial basis, giving cash-strapped local governments a much-needed funding boost.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 21, In China Wang Yue, a 2-year-old girl who was twice run over by vans and then ignored by passers-by on a busy market street on Oct 13, died today, one week after the accident and after days of bitter soul-searching over declining morality in the country. Police soon arrested two drivers suspected of running over a toddler. Hu Jun (24) was charged with causing the wrongful death of the girl.
(AP, 10/21/11)(AP, 10/23/11)(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 23, In Hong Kong more than 1000 protesters, including pregnant women, marched to oppose the growing number of mainland Chinese women coming to the city to give birth. Women from mainland China are keen to have babies in Hong Kong because it entitles their child to rights of abode and education.
(AFP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 25, China’s state media reported that China will replace popular television entertainment with so-called "healthy" programming, reflecting regulators' latest move to tighten media control. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) ordered broadcasters to stop showing "excessive entertainment", and to air at least two hours of news each evening from January 1.
(AFP, 10/25/11)(AFP, 1/3/12)
2011 Oct 25, In China another monk set himself ablaze outside a Tibetan monastery in southwestern Sichuan province's Ganzi prefecture. This was the 10th self-immolation this year protesting against Chinese rule over the Himalayan region. London-based Free Tibet group said it was unable to confirm the monk's age or name and was unsure of his condition.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, Chinese Vice Premier Le Keqiang met with South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak during a two-day trip to Seoul. South Korea's central bank said it has agreed with its Chinese counterpart to expand their currency swap deal as a backstop against global economic turmoil.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, In China a group of children's clothing company owners protesting in the town of Zhili in Zhejiang province swelled to more than 600 people. Hundreds of migrant small business owners have protested over a tax dispute, some of them torching vehicles.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, China’s state media said hundreds of angry home buyers have launched a series of protests in the commercial hub of Shanghai this week, as owners decried falling prices for their properties.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 28, China blocked online access to news of riots by thousands of people who clashed with police in an eastern manufacturing city in what began as a protest over taxes.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 29, In central China a police officer was suspected of driving a police van drunk and killing five people in a crash that sparked angry crowds to smash and flip police cars in the latest burst of public anger against the authorities. The van crashed into two street lamp poles that fell, fatally crushing five victims and injuring three more.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 30, Chinese state media said China will maintain its strict "one-child" policy, despite calls for the rules to be relaxed.
(AFP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 31, China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand signed a regional security agreement pledging to share intelligence and to engage in joint patrols along a stretch of the Mekong between China and the Golden Triangle.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.45)
2011 Nov 1, China’s government announced a punitive $2.4 million tax bill on artist and government critic Ai Weiwei. He was given 15 days to come with the money. Donations began to come in from people and over $550,000 was donated by Nov 6.
(SFC, 11/7/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 1, A survey by the Bank of China and the Hurun Report said nearly half of China's wealthiest citizens are considering emigrating, with the United States and Canada the most popular destinations.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, China’s state media reported that police in Henan province have arrested 114 people in a crackdown on a counterfeit drugs ring, seizing $30 million worth of fake medications and more than 65 million medicine bottles.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, China launched an unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft, the latest step in its efforts to place a permanent space station in orbit. The Shenzhou 8 docked with the Tiangong 1 module on Nov 3.
(SFC, 11/1/11, p.A2)(SFC, 11/4/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 1, In China a massive explosion near an expressway ramp in Fuquan, Guizhou province, killed at least seven people and injured about 200 while also destroying several homes. The blast was caused by three explosives-laden vehicles that caught fire.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 2, Transparency Int’l., a Berlin-based campaigning group, published an update of its 2008 Bribe Payers Index. Russia and China scored worst. The index ranked 28 countries accounting for 80% of global trade and investment.
{Germany, Corruption, Russia, China}
(Econ, 11/5/11, p.72)
2011 Nov 3, Chinese state media reported that a Buddhist nun, identified as Qiu Xiang (35), has died after setting herself on fire, in the 11th case of self-immolation among Tibetans in western China in recent months.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Chinese rescuers began battling against the clock to save coal miners trapped underground in Henan province after a sudden explosion of rocks killed 8 of their colleagues. The rock burst in Henan happened moments after a 2.9 magnitude earthquake shook Sanmenxia city, where the mine is located. 52 miners were rescued over the next 2 days. Day later 2 miners died from their wounds raising the death toll to 10.
(AP, 11/4/11)(AP, 11/5/11)(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 3, Human Rights Watch said Chinese mining companies in Zambia ignore labor protections, demanding up to 18 hours of labor a day and flouting health and safety rules.
(AFP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 6, Japan's coastguard arrested the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that allegedly intruded into Japanese territorial waters.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 10, In China hundreds of rescuers took turns descending into an illegally operated coal mine to search for Chinese miners trapped by a gas leak that killed 34 others at the Sizhuang Coal Mine in Qujing city in Yunnan. 9 remained missing.
(AP, 11/10/11)(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 10, A Chinese court jailed musician Su Yue (56) for life for a scam in which he conned investors out of $9 million by claiming he was commissioned to hold shows attached to the Olympics. Su made his name with the folk songs "Loess Plateau" and "Blood-stained Glory", originally written to commemorate troops who were killed in the brief 1979 war against Vietnam but later was used in memory of those who died in the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests.
(AFP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, A Taiwanese man demanded Chinese authorities return his left hand, which he said was amputated after a savage robbery and then kept by mainland police as evidence. Hu Chi-yang (59) said he was attacked by three men in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian last week. He said they robbed him of about $600 in cash and nearly cut his left hand off to get at his ring and Rolex watch. On Nov 28 police in Fujian said they believed Hu's injuries were self-inflicted, saying the cuts were precise and that blood collected at the alleged crime scene contained traces of anesthetic.
(AFP, 11/10/11)(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 14, In northwestern China an explosion in a restaurant, likely caused by a natural gas leak, killed at least 7 people and injured another 31 in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 15, Shanghai sold bonds under a new pilot scheme raising $1.1 billion. China’s provincial and municipal governments had been prohibited from borrowing since 1994.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.78)
2011 Nov 15, The EU said it has tightened controls on imports of Chinese rice products after a growing number of shipments were contaminated by unauthorized genetically-modified rice.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 16, Outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei said he feels like he has paid a ransom, after depositing $1.3 million into a government account while he contests a huge tax bill months after being held in police detention.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, In western China an overloaded school minibus crashed head-on with a truck, killing 21 people including 19 kindergarten children on their way to class in Gansu province.
(AP, 11/16/11)(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 16, US President Barack Obama arrived in Australia and announced a new security agreement with Australia. Obama said the US would keep sending a clear message that China needs to accept the responsibilities that come with being a world power.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, On board the USS Fitzgerald in Manila Bay US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario signed a declaration calling for multilateral talks to resolve maritime disputes such as those in the South China Sea, contrasting China's policy of negotiating one-on-one with the Philippines and other Asian claimants.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 17, China's unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou VIII returned to Earth, state media reported, after completing two space dockings that have pushed forward the nation's ambitious space program.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 19, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao told US President Barack Obama that China would increase the flexibility of the yuan while stressing that reforms had already had an effect. The spoke on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Indonesia.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 19, In eastern China 14 workers were killed in an explosion at a chemical plant.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 23, Turkmenistan signed an agreement with China to boost natural gas deliveries. This will see the central Asian nation supply about half of China's gas needs. The gas agreement was one of 14 signed following talks in Beijing between Turkmen President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 25, The Chinese government donated a gift of 23 buses during a ceremony in Macedonia's capital. News of the donation ignited a torrent of criticism. Many asked: How could China make the donation to a foreign country when Chinese schools contend with shoddy transport?
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, Chinese automaker Chery Automobile Co. and partner Israel Corp. launched the 50-50 joint venture Qoros Automotive Co., seeking fresh appeal both overseas and in the slowing local market. Israel Corp. is Israel's largest holding company, with interests mainly in chemicals, shipping and energy.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 29, China's central government raised the country's rural poverty line by more than 80 percent as part of efforts to increase aid to its struggling low-income population. Veteran activist Chen Xi (57) was arrested. He was accused of writing 36 essays that incited subversion. On Dec 23 he charged with subversion. On Dec 26 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(AFP, 11/29/11)(AP, 12/24/11)(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Nov 29, China pledged more than $2.3 million in military assistance to Uganda during a high-profile visit to Kampala by Beijing's defense minister.
(AFP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov, In China Neil Heywood (b.1970), a British citizen, was found dead in his hotel in Chongqing. Authorities said he died of alcohol poisoning and cremated the body without an autopsy. Heywood had long history of advising Western companies on China and had connection with the family of Bo Xilai established through his Chinese wife.
(SFC, 3/27/12, p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Heywood)
2011 Dec 2, In the Philippines 6 fishermen, from China's southern island province of Hainan, were arrested in waters off western Palawan province's Balabac township, for catching endangered sea turtles. Officials said the fishermen's mother ship may have escaped when their speedboat was intercepted.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 2, The Seychelles invited Beijing to set up a military base on the archipelago to beef up the fight against piracy there.
(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 6, A Chinese court jailed Australian businessman Matthew Ng for 13 years on bribery and embezzlement charges. Ng, an executive working for travel services group Et-China in southern China, was arrested last November. Chinese media have said the case against Ng relates to his role in Et-China's battle with a Guangzhou government-owned travel company for control of domestic travel agency GZL.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 7, Chinese authorities said police last week had arrested 608 suspects and rescued 178 children in busts of two separate child trafficking networks.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, China inserted itself into the fight over oil between Sudan and its former territory South Sudan, sending a special envoy to try to break a deadlock between two rivals who often appear on the brink of renewed conflict.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 8, China executed a Filipino drug trafficker (35) despite a clemency appeal by Philippine Pres. Benigno Aquino III.
(SFC, 12/9/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 8, Mexican authorities say they have seized 226 tons (205 metric tons) of a chemical used in synthetic drugs. The methylamine was found over several days this month in the port of Lazaro Cardenas in 11 containers shipped from China.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 9, In China two exchange students accepted the Confucius Peace Prize on behalf of Russian PM Vladimir Putin, who was honored for enhancing Russia's status and crushing anti-government forces in Chechnya.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, In northeastern China two tourists from Hong Kong were killed and 36 others were hurt when their bus overturned after colliding with a farm vehicle in Jilin province.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, In China 9 people were killed and seven seriously injured in the far west region of Xinjiang when a long-distance bus collided with a heavy-duty truck.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 11, In China Xue Jinbo (42) died after two days in police custody. He had led protests in the fishing village of Wukan in opposition to government land confiscations and was arrested on Dec 9.
(SFC, 12/16/11, p.A13)
2011 Dec 12, China executed Janice Linden (35), a South African woman, by lethal injection for drug smuggling after rejecting last-minute pleas for clemency from her government. She was convicted of trying to sneak three kg (6.6 pounds) of methamphetamine into the country in her luggage through the southern city of Guangzhou in 2008. Amnesty International says China executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined.
(AFP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, In eastern China a school bus taking primary students home slipped off a country road into an irrigation ditch, killing 15 children in Jiangsu province.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 12, A Chinese captain stabbed two South Korean coast guard officers, killing one, after his fishing boat was stopped for illegally fishing in South Korean waters.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 16, China's government gave the first sign that prominent civil rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng is alive, saying he would be sent to prison for three years for violating his probation. Zhisheng, an advocate of constitutional reform, was convicted in 2006 of subversion and disappeared 20 months ago. On Jan 1, 2012, his brother said Gao has been imprisoned in Shaya prison in the far western region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 12/16/11)(AFP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 16, Beijing city authorities issued new rules requiring microbloggers to register their real names before posting online, as the Chinese government tightens its grip on the Internet.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 19, Nigeria launched a communications satellite into space to replace one that failed in 2008. The satellite was launched from Xichang in southwest China.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 20, In southern China police fired tear-gas and beat demonstrators who stormed government buildings to protest against a power plant in Haimen, Guangdong province.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 21, In China villagers of Wukan gave up their protests over land confiscations after the Guangdong party leadership promised to look into their complaints. On Jan 15, 2012, protest leader Lin Zuluan was appointed as the village’s new party chief.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.24)
2011 Dec 22, In southern China witnesses said police have begun arresting protesters after two days of violent clashes, as the local government warned against further "illegal" demonstrations.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 23, In China police fired tear gas at hundreds of people and detained a team of Hong Kong journalists in the southern town of Haimen, the scene of violent protests earlier this week. Activist Chen Wei (42) was sentenced to nine years in prison on subversion charges.
(AFP, 12/23/11)(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 23, In China Huang Guang, a local forestry official, poisoned a cat meat hotpot shared with billionaire Long Liyuan, who made his fortune running a forestry company in wealthy Guangdong province. On Jan 2 Yangjiang city authorities reported the arrest of Guang.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2011 Dec 25, China and Japan announced an agreement to let Japan buy Chinese sovereign debt. No sum or timetable was disclosed.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.59)
2011 Dec 26, China's biggest milk producer, Mengniu Dairy Group, said it has destroyed a batch found to have excessive levels of a cancer-causing toxin, in another safety scare for the country's dairy industry. The problem was reportedly discovered before the milk containing high levels of aflatoxin was sold to the public. An expert review identified the mildewed feed as the cause of the excessive levels of aflatoxin in milk.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 28, In China police in Xinjiang province opened fire and killed seven suspects, and wounded and arrested four others. The Xinjiang government said that a "violent terrorist group" had kidnapped two people in the northwestern region's remote Pishan county, prompting a stand-off with police. An exile group, described the incident as a protest by local Uighurs prompted by mounting discontent over a police crackdown and religious repression in the area.
(AFP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 29, China executed 12 people today, including a man who bombed a local tax office. Liu Zhuiheng had been convicted and sentenced to death for detonating explosives outside a tax office in Changsha city in Hunan province in July, 2010. The attack left 4 people killed and 17 others wounded.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 30, Chinese prosecutors in the eastern city of Xiamen indicted Lai Changxing for allegedly masterminding a network that smuggled everything from cigarettes to cars and oil and bribed dozens of government workers between 1996 and 1999. Lai became China's most-wanted man after he fled to Canada in 1999 and fought extradition for 12 years until he was deported in July.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, China’s food safety regulator in Shenzhen said it had found excessive levels of aflatoxin in peanuts sold in three stores, and in cooking oil in four restaurants.
(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 30, In northern China Muslim villagers in Taoshan, Ningxia region, clashed with police after their mosque was demolished. At least 2 people were killed. The Hui villagers were part of a Mandarin speaking community of some 10 million descended from Silk Road traders.
(SFC, 1/4/12, p.A4)
2011 Dec 30, The Republic of Congo said it has banned 69 Chinese fishing boats from its waters for illicit activities.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 31, In China a bus driver who contracted the bird flu virus died Shenzhen. This was the nation's first reported human case of the deadly disease in 18 months.
(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dan Breznitz and Michael Murphree authored “Run of the Red Queen: Government, Innovation, Globalization, and Economic Growth in China."
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.73)
2011 Michael Dunne authored “American Wheels, Chinese Roads: The Story of General Motors in China."
(Econ, 5/26/12, p.67)
2011 Aaron Friedberg authored “A Contest for Supremacy: China, America and the Struggle for Mastery of Asia."
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.56)
2011 Henry Kissinger authored “On China."
(Econ, 5/21/11, p.86)
2011 Liel Leibowitz authored “Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization." It told the story of the Chinese Educational Mission, which existed from 1872 to 1881.
(SSFC, 2/13/11, p.G4)
2011 Liao Yiwu, exiled Chinese poet, published his memoir “For a Song and a Hundred Sons: A Poet’s Journey Thjrough a Chinese Prison" in Taiwan and Germany. Earlier versions were were seized by police in 1995 and 2001. It was translated to english in 2013.
(SSFC, 7/7/13, p.F4)
2011 China overtook America as the world’s biggest electricity producer.
(Econ, 1/5/13, p.54)
2011 In China Zhao Haibin, a police chief in Guangdong province, was accused of owning 192 properties. The case came to light after he was reported by a businessman who was involved in a dispute with the officer.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.46)(https://ethixbase.com/blogs/tag/zhao-haibin/)
2011 The US passed legislation forbidding NASA from cooperating with China or any Chinese company and hosting official Chinese visitors at any NASA facility. The legal language was inserted into a funding bill by Congressman Frank Wolf, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies.
(http://tinyurl.com/n568kkz)(Econ, 10/12/13, p.95)
2012 Jan 3, China’s official Xinhua news agency said the number of entertainment shows airing during prime time every week had plunged to 38 from 126, in line with an order the state broadcasting watchdog issued in October.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, In China 13 people were killed in Hunan province when a truck crossed a highway divider and crashed head-on into a bus traveling in the opposite direction.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In southern China a bus went out of control and slipped from a snow-covered bridge, killing at least 18 people in Guizhou province.
(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 4, Chinese steelworkers began a 3-day strike at a state-controlled enterprise in the Qingbaijiang district of Sichuan province. Workers managed to get a small wage increase.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.21)
2012 Jan 4, British company Everything Everywhere said it is launching a mobile virtual network in Britain in partnership with telecoms giant China Telecom, targeting Chinese residents and visitors.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 5, China’s state media said Poyang Lake, the country’s largest freshwater lake, has shrunk to its smallest size in years due to drought, endangering the ecology in the area and fishermen's livelihoods.
(AFP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 6, China’s government bowed to a vocal online campaign for a change in the way air quality is measured in Beijing, one of the world's most polluted cities. The Beijing Environmental Bureau said it would provide hourly updates of PM2.5 measure ahead of the Lunar New Year, which starts on January 23, in response to the flood of public anger.
(AFP, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 6, In China a man was fatally shot in the head shortly after withdrawing 200,000 yuan ($31,700) in cash from a bank in Nanjing. Zeng Kaigui, a one-time policeman suspected in a series of slayings and robberies dating back to 2004, was suspected in the fatal shooting.
(AP, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 6, In southwest China two Tibetan men set themselves on fire near the restive Kirti monastery, the 13th and 14th to hit Tibetan areas in less than a year. An 18-year-old died in a hotel room while another man, aged 22, was being treated in hospital.
(AFP, 1/6/12)(AFP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 8, In China a monk named Sopa (42) died after drinking kerosene and throwing it over his body. His body exploded in pieces before police took it away in Dari county in Qinghai province. Xinhua News Agency identified the dead monk as Nyage Sonamdrugyu. The reason for the discrepancy in identification was not known.
(AP, 1/9/12)
2012 Jan 9, The presidents of China and South Korea agreed to work together to achieve peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, in their first summit since Kim Jong Il's death opened the chance for major changes in North Korea.
(AP, 1/9/12)
2012 Jan 11, It was announced that China and India are signing on as partners in the Thirty Meter Telescope when it’s built on the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano in 2018.
(SFC, 1/12/12, p.A6)
2012 Jan 13, Apple said it was suspending sales of the new iPhone at its China stores after fans desperate to get their hands on it fought with security and threw eggs at an official outlet.
(AFP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 14, In southwest China a Tibetan set himself on fire and police fired on hundreds of locals, possibly killing one, as they attempted to rescue the burned body from officials near the restive Kirti monastery in Sichuan province's Aba county. This was the 16th self-immolation attempt in Tibetan areas inside a year and the fourth in nine days.
(AFP, 1/14/12)
2012 Jan 14, China agreed to provide Nepal with $119 million in aid during a surprise visit to the tiny Himalayan nation by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
(AP, 1/14/12)
2012 Jan 14, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held talks with Saudi officials in Riyadh on the first stop of a Gulf tour, as tensions over Iran's nuclear program sparked fears of major oil supply disruptions.
(AFP, 1/15/12)
2012 Jan 17, In China Zhu Yufu (58), a writer and democracy advocate, was charged with subversion in Hangzhou for writing a poem urging citizens to gather to defend their freedoms. In February Yufu was sentenced to 7 years in prison.
(SFC, 1/18/12, p.A3)(SFC, 2/11/12, p.A2)
2012 Jan 17, In China around 1,000 people from Wanggang village gathered in front of a government building in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, in protest against Li Zhihang, their allegedly corrupt Communist Party secretary. The next morning officials said they would probe their case and would announce the result of the investigation by February 19.
(AFP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 17, Britain said it has signed deals with China to research stem cells and smart grids, after Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne held 2-day talks with officials in Beijing aimed at attracting investment.
(AFP, 1/17/12)
2012 Jan 18, A Chinese court in Wuhan city sentenced democracy activist Li Tie to 10 years imprisonment for subversion. A provincial court upheld the death sentence against Wu Ying (31), one of China’s wealthiest businesswomen. She was convicted on Dec 18, 2009, of illegal fund raising.
(SFC, 1/19/12, p.A2)(Econ, 1/28/12, p.45)
2012 Jan 21, In China Beijing environmental authorities started releasing more detailed air quality data that may better reflect how bad the Chinese capital's air pollution is.
(AP, 1/21/12)
2012 Jan 22, In southwest China a man who contracted the bird flu virus died, the second human death from the virulent disease in the country in just under a month.
(AFP, 1/22/12)
2012 Jan 23, A billion-plus Asians welcomed the Year of the Dragon with a cacophony of fireworks, hoping the mightiest sign in the Chinese zodiac will usher in the wealth and power it represents.
(AFP, 1/23/12)
2012 Jan 23, In China Police opened fire on Tibetans protesting against religious repression, killing at least one person and injuring more than 30 others in Sichuan province's Luhuo county.
(AFP, 1/23/12)
2012 Jan 24, In China two Tibetans were reportedly killed and several more were wounded when security forces opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Seda county in politically sensitive Ganzi prefecture in Sichuan province.
(AP, 1/25/12)
2012 Jan 27, Chinese security forces arrested a youth named Tarpa after he posted a leaflet in Sichuan's Aba prefecture "stating that the reason for the self-immolation protests was that Tibet must be free and the Dalai Lama must return, and until these demands were met, there was no way for the campaign to be stopped." Security forces fired at Tibetans trying to stop Tarpa’s arrest, killing one and wounding several others, in the third reported deadly clash in a politically sensitive Tibetan region in a week.
(AP, 1/27/12)
2012 Jan 28, In Ethiopia African leaders inaugurated a new $200 million headquarters that was funded by China as a gift. They said the massive complex in Addis Ababa is a symbol of China's rapidly changing role in Africa.
(AP, 1/28/12)
2012 Jan 28, In Sudan's South Kordofan state rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) captured 29 Chinese workers after a battle with government forces. Nine members of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) were also being held. On Feb 7 all 29 Chinese workers were released and flown to Kenya. Sudan's foreign ministry spokesman said that in addition to the 29 freed Chinese, 17 others had earlier been "released" by the Sudan Armed Forces but one other Chinese died.
(AFP, 1/29/12)(AFP, 2/7/12)
2012 Jan 30, Sudanese officials said the army has freed 14 Chinese road construction workers, part of a group reportedly abducted by militants on Jan 28 in a remote region in the country's south. China had an estimated 10,000 workers in Sudan.
(AP, 1/30/12)(Econ, 1/21/12, SR p.35)
2012 Jan 30, The World Trade Organization ruled that China’s policies to restrict exports of several metals, like bauxite and magnesium, violated its WTO obligations.
(Econ, 2/4/12, p.75)
2012 Jan 31, China said that it has detained seven company executives after tons of industrial waste including cadmium, a toxic metal, polluted some 200 miles of the Longjiang river, threatening water supplies for millions of people. Unnamed experts were quoted saying that the amount of illegally released waste in the waterway was unprecedented at an estimated 20 tons.
(AFP, 1/31/12)(SSFC, 2/5/12, p.A6)
2012 Jan 31, Egyptian Bedouins took 25 Chinese factory workers hostage in the northern Sinai Peninsula. The group demanded the release of militants jailed for a 2005 bombing in Sharm el-Sheikh at the tip of the Egyptian Sinai. All 25 workers were released by the next day.
(AFP, 1/31/12)(AFP, 2/1/12)
2012 Jan 31, South African Airways launched non-stop flights to Beijing. China became South Africa's top trade partner in 2009.
(AFP, 1/31/12)
2012 Feb 3, In southwestern China an explosion at a coal mine killed 13 miners and injured six at the Diaoyutai mine outside Yibin city in Sichuan province. One miner remained missing.
(AP, 2/3/12)(AFP, 2/4/12)
2012 Feb 3, In China three Tibetans set themselves alight in remote Phuhu village in the southwestern province of Sichuan. One died and two others were seriously hurt.
(AP, 2/5/12)
2012 Feb 4, German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrapped up a 3-day visit to China where she tried to reassure her hosts on the strength of the euro and Europe's ability to overcome its debt crisis. She expressed regret that Chinese police blocked a human rights lawyer from meeting her and said the Communist government should have the confidence to allow dissent.
(AFP, 2/4/12)(AP, 2/4/12)
2012 Feb 4, In eastern China a group of tourists visiting the Jinan Wildlife World had a narrow escape after up to 8 Bengal tigers attacked their bus, puncturing its tires and destroying the windscreen in Shandong province.
(AFP, 2/7/12)
2012 Feb 6, Chad announced it was reopening a major oil refinery it had earlier ordered shut because of a price dispute with its Chinese part-owners. The Djarmaya refinery was ordered closed on January 19.
(AFP, 2/6/12)
2012 Feb 8, China and Canada signed a series of deals to boost modest levels of bilateral trade and finished negotiations on a foreign investment protection pact after 18 years of talks.
(Reuters, 2/8/12)
2012 Feb 8, In China a Tibetan (19) set himself on fire in Sichuan province's Aba prefecture. He was a former monk from the local Kirti monastery, which has been the scene of protests over recent months. The monk was taken to hospital. Radio Free Asia said Tibetan protests erupted in two counties in Qinghai province, with about 1,000 people marching in each.
(AP, 2/9/12)
2012 Feb 8, In China reports circulated that Wang Lijun, the deputy mayor overseeing security in Chongqing, may have tried to defect to the US. He was reportedly arrested in Chengdu and flown to Beijing for questioning.
(SFC, 2/9/12, p.A5)
2012 Feb 9, In China security forces shot dead two Tibetan brothers who were on the run after protesting against Chinese rule.
(AFP, 2/12/12)
2012 Feb 10, Chinese PM Wen Jiabao pledged religious freedom and cultural protection in Tibet, just hours after security forces reportedly killed two Tibetans who protested China's rule.
(AFP, 2/10/12)
2012 Feb 10, In Hong Kong mainland woman Xu Li (29) was charged in a magistrates' court for her role as a "birth agent," the first prosecution of its kind as the southern city cracks down on the practice.
(AFP, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 11, In China Tenzin Choedron (Choedon), an 18-year-old nun, set herself on fire in Sichuan province and later died, the latest in a spate of such incidents among ethnic Tibetans protesting Beijing's rule.
(AFP, 2/12/12)
2012 Feb 11, Canada set the seal on improving ties with China by agreeing to a 10-year loan for two giant pandas, traditionally an indication of official approval from Beijing.
(Reuters, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 14, China's Premier Wen Jiabao said his country was ready to increase its participation in efforts to resolve Europe's debt crisis, after meeting EU president Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in Beijing.
(AFP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 14, Pres. Obama met with Xi Jinping (58), China’s vice president. Jinping was expected to become the next leader of China.
(Econ, 2/18/12, p.36)
2012 Feb 14, In South Korea over one hundred people rallied near the Chinese Embassy to protest China’s state security police for arresting dozens of North Korean defectors who face torture, imprisonment and even death if returned to their homeland.
(SFC, 2/15/12, p.A2)
2012 Feb 15, China's top central banker expressed confidence in the euro and pledged to continue buying European sovereign debt, as the Asian giant seeks to shore up support for its biggest trading partner.
(AFP, 2/15/12)
2012 Feb 15, Chinese health authorities and state media said 4 workers have died and about 30 have fallen ill from suspected glue poisoning that caused severe nerve damage. The victims worked in Guangzhou city in shoe and bag factories with poor ventilation, most of them illegal, and started falling ill last year after handling poor quality glue.
(AFP, 2/15/12)
2012 Feb 15, In China 15 miners were killed and three others hurt when the mine carriages they were in plunged into a tunnel in Hunan province.
(AP, 2/16/12)(AFP, 3/23/12)
2012 Feb 16, In Iowa China's leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping reached out to heartland America with billions of dollars in farm deals.
(AP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 16, An animal protection group said 4 Chinese nationals have been arrested in Zimbabwe on cruelty charges after they cut up and ate rare tortoises. The 4 men were found to have entered Zimbabwe illegally and worked without permits in the small scale mining district of Bikita. They awaited deportation.
(AFP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 17, In western China Tibetan Buddhist monk Tamchoe Sangpo set himself on fire at Bongtak monastery in Qinghai province amid a wave of such protests against China's handling of the vast Tibetan areas it rules.
(AP, 2/18/12)
2012 Feb 18, A Chinese court sentenced two top former Football Association officials to more than a decade in jail, in a graft scandal that brought the football league to its knees.
(AFP, 2/18/12)
2012 Feb 18, Syrian security forces fired live rounds and tear gas at thousands of people marching in a funeral procession that turned into a protest in Damascus, killing at least one person. The Observatory said two other people were killed, one in Homs who died from sniper fire and another in the north, who was shot by security forces conducting raids. Visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun called on all parties to stop violence. Jamal Bish, a city councilor in Aleppo was reported killed.
(AP, 2/18/12)(AFP, 2/19/12)
2012 Feb 20, China's Vice President Xi Jinping bade farewell to Ireland after a three-day visit during which Dublin sought to provide Beijing with a financial foothold in the EU.
(AFP, 2/20/12)
2012 Feb 20, In northeastern China an explosion at a steel plant killed 13 people and injured another 17, in Liaoning province's Anshan city.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 21, A senior Tata executive said India’s Tata Motors has selected a partner to build an assembly plant for its luxury British car brands Jaguar and Land Rover in China.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 22, China allegedly used force to threaten 11 Vietnamese fishermen preventing them from entering the Paracel islands to avoid a storm. A Vietnamese report on Feb 29 said Chinese forces assaulted the fishermen and tried to take their property.
(AP, 3/1/12)
2012 Feb 23, In China the United States and North Korea resumed talks delayed by the death of North Korea's longtime leader Kim Jong Il two months ago, with the US envoy saying he and his counterpart covered US food aid and other topics.
(AP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 27, South Korean legislator Park Sun-Young (55), who has staged a week-long hunger strike outside China's embassy, vowed to fast until death unless Beijing ends its policy of repatriating North Korean refugees.
(AFP, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb 28, In China riots in the volatile region of Xinjiang left at least 12 people dead.
(AFP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 28, In China an explosion at a chemical plant near Shijiazhuang city, capital of Hebei province, left 25 people dead and 46 injured.
(AFP, 3/4/12)
2012 Feb 28, In Pakistan a Chinese woman was shot dead with a male companion in Peshawar. They were killed by gunmen on motorbikes while walking in the Kohati bazaar.
(AFP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 29, China's cabinet ordered new air-quality standards to measure the most dangerous form of particulate matter, following a public outcry over worsening air pollution.
(AFP, 2/29/12)
2012 Feb 29, The Philippines said it would push ahead with plans to expand oil and gas exploration in waters also claimed by China, as it brushed off a fresh Chinese warning.
(AFP, 2/29/12)
2012 Feb, China swung into a huge trade deficit of $31.48 billion this month, as the West's economic troubles hit the world's second-largest economy.
(AFP, 3/9/12)
2012 Feb, China increased access to US films from 20 to 34 per year, but only if the additional 14 are shown in 3D or large format.
(Econ, 4/28/12, p.50)
2012 Mar 1, Chinese state press said Chen Quanguo, China’s top leader in Tibet, has ordered increased controls over the Internet and mobile phones, ahead of upcoming sensitive anniversaries in the restive region.
(AFP, 3/1/12)
2012 Mar 2, US authorities charged 29 people who were conspiring to illegally import counterfeit luxury fashion goods and deadly drugs worth hundreds of millions of dollars from China and Taiwan. Some 20 arrests took place in New Jersey, Florida, Texas, New York, and in the Philippines, as part of an international investigation.
(AFP, 3/2/12)
2012 Mar 3, In northwestern China a Tibetan teenager died after setting herself on fire. The girl, said to be aged between 16 and 19 years old, set herself alight at a vegetable market in Maqu county in Gansu province.
(AFP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 3, Chinese forces intercepted two Vietnamese fishing boats near the disputed Paracel islands. The Chinese soon demanded 70,000 yuan ($11,000) for the release of 21 fishermen.
(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 4, China said its military spending would top $100 billion in 2012, a double-digit increase on last year. The figure marks a slowdown from 2011 when spending rose by 12.7%.
(AFP, 3/4/12)
2012 Mar 4, In China a widowed mother of four died after setting herself on fire near the restive Kirti monastery in Aba county in Sichuan province, taking to at least 25 the number of such incidents in Tibetan-inhabited areas in the past year.
(AFP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 5, China lowered its growth target to 7.5%.
(Econ, 3/10/12, p.83)
2012 Mar 5, China said it will send a new envoy to Syria and is ready to support international aid under the auspices of the United Nations or another "impartial" organization.
(AFP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 6, Chinese rights activist Liu Ping (47) went missing after she was detained by security officials in Beijing. She had angered officials with her advocacy of free elections as well as support of labor and women’s rights.
(SFC, 3/20/12, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/7jom58l)
2012 Mar 10, In southwest China a Tibetan teenager set himself on fire and died on the sensitive anniversary of the Dalai Lama's flight into exile in 1959. The 18-year-old monk was from the restive Kirti Monastery and self-immolated in Aba town in Sichuan province.
(AFP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 13, Japan said it had won approval from Beijing to buy Chinese government bonds for the first time, in a move aimed at binding Asia's two biggest economies and traditional rivals closer together.
(AFP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 13, Japan, the EU and the US brought a case to the World Trade Organization (WTO) alleging that China was exporting too little of tungsten, molybdenum and 17 rare earth elements.
(Econ, 3/17/12, p.86)
2012 Mar 14, China national legislature enacted new safeguards for criminal suspects in amendments for the revised Criminal Procedure Law. The legislature upheld the right of police to hold certain suspects in secret residential locations for up to 6 months. Nearly 8% of the delegates abstained or voted against the legislation.
(SFC, 3/15/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 15, In China Bo Xilai (62), the Communist Party secretary in Chongqing, was removed from his post. Critics had said his anti-corruption had parallels with the Cultural Revolution that gripped China from 1966-1976.
(SFC, 3/16/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 15, In China Xu Ming, one of the richest people in China, was detained by a powerful body which investigates corruption within the ranks of the ruling Communist party. His company Shide Group sponsors a Chinese football club.
(AFP, 4/3/12)
2012 Mar 16, In southwestern China Lobsang Tsultrim (20), a Tibetan monk, set himself on fire before being beaten and dragged away by Chinese security forces by the Kirti monastery, Sichuan province.
(AFP, 3/16/12)(AFP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 17, In China Tibetan farmer Sonam Thargyal (44) fastened cotton padding to his body and doused himself with kerosene before setting himself on fire in Tongren, a monastery town in western China's Qinghai province. He had been close friends with a monk who survived a self-immolation attempt on March 14, also in Tongren. The monk, Jamyang Palden, was believed to be alive but critically injured.
(AP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 18, In China Ling Gu, the son of a loyal aide to President Hu Jintao, was killed in a Ferrari accident which initially garnered only minimal coverage in China's state media. Two young women were also injured. A report on Sep 3 said Ling was half-naked when the crash occurred and his two passengers were naked or half-dressed, suggesting they had been involved in some kind of high-speed sex game. Ling Jihua made a botched attempt to cover-up the incident. His youngest brother Ling Wancheng, director of the Communist party’s General Office, later fled to the US.
(AP, 9/4/12)(SFC, 8/4/15, p.A10)
2012 Mar 19, In China Lobsang Tsultrim (20), a Tibetan Buddhist monk, died in detention. He set himself on fire on March 16 in Aba town, a flashpoint for such protests.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 21, The Chinese government said that lawyers are now required to swear allegiance to the Communist Party, a move criticized by prominent human rights lawyers who have defended the authoritarian government's critics.
(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 22, China said it will abolish the transplanting of organs from executed prisoners within five years and try to spur more citizens to donate.
(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 22, In China 17 miners were trapped in a northeast colliery following a gas blast that left five dead in Liaoning province. Last week, 13 people died after a capsule plunged into a pit at an iron ore mine in eastern China after a steel rope holding it broke.
(AFP, 3/23/12)
2012 Mar 23, In China Li Mengnan (17) randomly attacked medical staff with a fruit knife after accusing a doctor of refusing to provide treatment for a chronic spinal condition. He killed the intern, Wang Hao (28), and injured three others before trying to kill himself. On Oct 19 Mengnan was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 10/19/12)
2012 Mar 26, In India Tibetan exile Jamphel Yeshi lit himself on fire and ran shouting through a demonstration in New Delhi, just ahead of a visit by China's president. Yeshi sustained burns on 98 percent of his body and his condition was critical. Jamphel Yeshi died on March 28.
(AP, 3/26/12)(AFP, 3/28/12)
2012 Mar 29, China executed three arsonists held responsible for the deadly May 1, 2012, hotel fire, that killed 11 people and injured more than 30 others.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 30, In China two Tibetan monks, identified as Tenpa Darjey and Chimey Palden, set themselves on fire in the western city of Maerkang in the latest in a wave of self-immolations protesting against Chinese rule.
(AP, 3/31/12)
2012 Mar 31, China’s official Xinhua news agency said authorities have closed 16 websites for spreading rumors of "military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on there. China made a string of arrests and punished two popular microblogs after rumors of a coup linked to a major scandal that brought down a top politician.
(AFP, 3/31/12)
2012 Mar 31, China opened the record breaking 4,000-ft-long Aizhai Bridge in Hunan province. Construction began in October 2007. It is the world's highest and longest tunnel-to-tunnel bridge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aizhai_Bridge)
2012 Apr 1, Taiwan said it will double its quota of independent Chinese tourists to allow up to 1,000 visitors a day, effective April 28, less than a year after lifting a ban on solo travel from the mainland.
(AFP, 4/1/12)
2012 Apr 2, China International Mining Group Corporation said it will invest $21.2 million (€15.8 million) to restart the Bindura Nickel Corporation's Trojan mine in Zimbabwe, which closed in 2008 during the country’s political turmoil.
(AFP, 4/2/12)
2012 Apr 4, China's state media reported that Premier Wen Jiabao has called for the break-up of a banking "monopoly" on lending that has squeezed private businesses as the global economy slows.
(AFP, 4/4/12)
2012 Apr 6, China’s Xinhua News Agency said authorities have indicted five people in central China for involvement in illegal organ trading after a teenager sold one of his kidneys to buy an iPhone and an iPad.
(AP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 6, Two Chinese political websites, Mao Flag and Utopia, said they had been ordered by authorities to shut for a month for criticizing state leaders, the latest move in a broad government crackdown on the Internet.
(AFP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 6, A Chinese cargo ship was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Oman, not far off the south of Iran. The Xianghuamen, owned by Yuanyang shipping company, was sailing with a crew of 28. Iran’s navy rescued the 28 crew members and detained 9 Somali pirates.
(AFP, 4/6/12)(AP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 6, Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi (76), a key figure in the pro-democracy movement behind the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, died in the United States.
(AFP, 4/7/12)
2012 Apr 9, China’s Supreme People's Court clarified and tightened rules governing forced land expropriations in a bid to "protect the public interest and guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of expropriated home owners."
(AFP, 4/10/12)
2012 Apr 10, China announced that Bo Xilai was being suspended from the Communist Party’s Politburo and Central Committee, and that his wife, Gu Kailai, was a suspect in the death of Briton Neil Heywood last November.
(SFC, 4/11/12, p.A3)
2012 Apr 10, A Chinese court sentenced disabled activist Ni Yulan and her husband to jail for "provoking trouble," a year after the couple were detained during a widespread crackdown on dissent. Ni and Dong, who have long helped victims of government-backed land grabs in China, were detained in April last year.
(AFP, 4/10/12)
2012 Apr 10, China's 3 top Internet portals pledged to work with the government to banish online rumors, as jittery authorities cracked down on the web following widespread rumors of a coup.
(AFP, 4/10/12)
2012 Apr 10, A Philippines warship found Chinese fishing boats inside the Scarborough shoal with an illegal haul of giant clams, coral and live sharks. Two Chinese civilian patrol boats blocked the mouth of the shoal to stop the Philippines navy from arresting the fisherman.
(Econ, 4/28/12, p.44)
2012 Apr 12, China deployed a third ship in an area of the disputed South China Sea where a tense standoff with Philippine vessels has dragged on, sparking alarm in Manila. On April 10 a Philippine warship attempted to arrest several Chinese fishermen accused of illegal entry and poaching, but was prevented by the arrival of two Chinese surveillance ships.
(AP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 12, China’s state media said 42 websites have been closed and more than 210,000 posts deleted since mid-March in a crackdown on online "rumors", as a major political scandal rocked the country.
(AFP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 13, In China an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu was discovered in Touying township of the Ningxia region after over 23,000 chickens began showing symptoms. Some 95,000 chickens were quickly culled.
(AFP, 4/18/12)
2012 Apr 16, In San Francisco the annual Goldman Environmental Prizes were presented 6 individuals. They included Sofia Gatica of Argentina work on diseases related to agrochemicals; Caroline Canon of Alaska for her village efforts against oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean; Ma Jun of China for his efforts on air and water violations by major manufacturers; Ikal Angelei of Kenya for her efforts to protect Lake Turkana; Evgenia Chirikova of Russia for her efforts to protect the Khimki Forest; and Father Edwin Gariguez of the Philippines for advocating against mining developments on indigenous lands.
(SFC, 4/16/12, p.A10)
2012 Apr 19, The US military said 2 ethnic Uighur men from western China, held for almost a decade without charge at Guantanamo Bay, have been resettled in El Salvador.
(SFC, 4/20/12, p.A2)
2012 Apr 20, China signed accords on energy cooperation and the Arctic in Iceland as Premier Wen Jiabao started a tour of northern Europe that will focus on Chinese investment in a continent eager for funds and to trade with the rising world power.
(Reuters, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 20, North Carolina-based Boxun.com was forced to move to a new web hosting service after its previous host said the attacks were threatening its entire business. The website has reported extensively on China's biggest political turmoil in years, underscoring the pivotal role the Internet has played in the unfolding scandal.
(AP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 20, Hackers claiming to come from China defaced the website of the Philippines' top university to assert their country's claim over the hotly disputed South China Sea.
(AFP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 22, China and Russia launched their first joint naval exercises, with 6 days of war games in the Yellow Sea that come amid tensions between China and its Asian neighbors over territorial claims.
(AFP, 4/22/12)
2012 Apr 22, Chinese blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng (40), one of the country’s best-known rights activists, made a daring escape from house arrest in Shandong province. By the end of the week he recorded a video detailing the abuses he and his family have suffered and expressed serious concerns for his wife and young son, still being held at the family's home. Chen reportedly found refuge in the US Embassy.
(AFP, 4/27/12)(SFC, 4/28/12, p.A3)
2012 Apr 23, Chinese state media said Guangdong party authorities have punished eight Wukan officials for corruption following a three month inquiry, including the previous Communist party chief, after their land grabs sparked an unprecedented uprising.
(AFP, 4/23/12)
2012 Apr 23, Chinese state media said police have arrested nine people and detained 54 others in a crackdown on chromium-tainted gel capsules made from industrial waste. On April 22 Xinhua News said that police have seized 77 million gel capsules and shuttered 80 production lines in Hebei province.
(AP, 4/23/12)
2012 Apr 25, South Sudan freed 14 Sudanese prisoners of war as a "goodwill gesture" despite weeks of fierce fighting along their contested border. South Sudan’s Pres. Kiir cut short his visit to China amid violence with Sudan, as Beijing announced plans to send a peace envoy.
(AFP, 4/25/12)
2012 Apr 27, In China the nephew of activist Chen Guangcheng defended himself from intruders who broke into the family home in eastern Shandong province apparently searching for his uncle following his April 22 dramatic escape from house arrest. The nephew later faced a charge of "intentional murder," despite the fact no one died in the encounter.
(AFP, 5/11/12)
2012 Apr 28, South Sudan government spokesman Barnaba Mariel Benjamin said China has agreed to loan the country eight billion dollars for infrastructure development.
(AFP, 4/28/12)
2012 Apr, In China Wang Guoqiang, the communist party chief of Fengcheng, Liaoning province, left the country with as much as 200 million yuan ($32 million). He allegedly fled to the United States amid a party investigation into a company run by a former classmate which had dealings with the city.
(AFP, 8/29/12)
2012 Apr, Chinese deputy party chief Zhi Haijie set up a new surveillance system in Lhasa, Tibet. Officials called it a “grid system of social management."
(Econ, 6/22/13, p.50)
2012 May 2, Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng left the US embassy, where he had sought protection after fleeing house arrest, following a deal with Beijing on his safety, US officials said. Beijing pledged that the legal campaigner and his family would be treated "humanely" and moved to a safe place, hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in China for pre-arranged talks.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 3, Chinese police detained and beat two supporters of Chen Guangcheng at the hospital where the blind activist was being treated.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 3, China's Bright Food said it is buying 60% of Weetabix from British owner Lion Capital in a deal valuing the breakfast cereal giant at £1.2 billion (1.48 billion euros, $1.94 billion).
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 3, The Philippine military accused China of sending more ships to the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, describing the move as an insult that would further inflame tensions.
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 4, The United States said that China had indicated it would let blind activist Chen Guangcheng and his family leave the country soon, raising hopes of a resolution to a damaging diplomatic crisis.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 6, Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, isolated in a Beijing hospital, appealed for official help to leave the country after a US-brokered diplomatic solution paved the way for his departure. Chen has been offered a fellowship from New York University.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 7, South Korean officials said they have seized thousands of smuggled drug capsules filled with powdered flesh from dead babies. The capsules were made in northeastern China from babies whose bodies were chopped into small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder.
(AP, 5/7/12)
2012 May 8, A North Korean boat hijacked three boats with 29 Chinese fishermen on board and demanded 1.2 million yuan ($190,000) for their release. The fisherman were freed May 20 after being held for 13 days.
(AP, 5/17/12)(AFP, 5/21/12)
2012 May 8, Qatar-based Al-Jazeera said it has shut its English-language bureau in China after its correspondent became the first foreign journalist to be expelled from the country since 1998. Beijing's refusal to renew the visa of US citizen Melissa Chan sparked anger among press groups, which linked the decision to a documentary by the international news channel on forced prison labor in China.
(AFP, 5/8/12)
2012 May 9, The United States opened its banking market to China's biggest bank ICBC, for the first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese state-controlled company.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 10, In northwestern China at least 44 people were killed when a brief but violent hailstorm and torrential rain swept through a mountainous region of Gansu province. 26 people remained missing.
(AFP, 5/13/12)(SFC, 5/14/12, p.A2)
2012 May 13, Leaders of China, Japan and South Korea, during their 5th annual trilateral summit, said they will work together to calm tensions on the Korean peninsula.
(SFC, 5/14/12, p.A2)
2012 May 14, The United States consulate in Shanghai began issuing its own pollution statistics, giving a much more pessimistic assessment of the city's air quality than official Chinese data.
(AFP, 5/15/12)
2012 May 15, In China police in Beijing launched a 100-day campaign urging citizens to report on foreigners illegally living or working in the capital, after a British man allegedly tried to rape a woman.
(AFP, 5/15/12)
2012 May 15, China began issuing new versions of its passports to include electronic chips. Inside the passports an outline of China printed in the upper left corner includes Taiwan and the entire South China Sea hemmed in by the dashes. This was later seen as a provocation since it would require other nations to tacitly endorse those claims by affixing their official seals to the documents.
(AP, 11/23/12)
2012 May 17, The US Commerce Department imposed levies of between 31 and 250 percent on Chinese producers and exporters after saying it had found they sold solar cells in the United States at artificially low prices, known as dumping.
(AFP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 18, Beijing blasted a "protectionist" US decision to slap hefty anti-dumping duties on Chinese solar cell makers.
(AFP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 18, In China Lai Changxing was convicted and sentenced by the Intermediate People's Court in Xiamen, the port city which was his base. On top of the life sentence for smuggling and a concurrent 15-year sentence for bribery, the court ordered all of Lai's personal property seized. The court's verdict said the operation totaled $3.3 billion, evaded $1.7 billion in duties and other taxes and bribed 64 officials between 1996 and 1999.
(AP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 19, Blind activist Chen Guangcheng and his family left China on a plane bound for the United States to pursue studies at an American university.
(AFP, 5/19/12)
2012 May 23, NY-based Human Rights Watch said a branch of Chinese city governments, set up to monitor everything from unlicensed street vendors to unauthorized construction, is rife with abuse of power, stoking already high social tensions.
(AP, 5/23/12)
2012 May 25, Chinese media reported that police in southwest China have detained a man suspected of murdering 11 boys and young men, chopping up their bodies and selling the flesh to unsuspecting consumers. Zhang Yongming (56) was detained two weeks ago in his home village of Nanmen in Yunnan and is being investigated over the murder of a 19-year-old man in late April and the disappearance of several others. Yongming, a convicted murderer, was released from prison in 1997.
(AFP, 5/25/12)(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 25, In China Ya Weilin (73), the father of a man killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, hanged himself in protest after two decades of failed attempts to seek government redress. Ya's son Ya Aiguo (22) was shot in the head by martial-law troops in Beijing after he had gone out shopping with his girlfriend.
(AP, 5/28/12)
2012 May 27, Chinese authorities said police have arrested Li Xingong, the former deputy director of the party committee in Yongcheng city, Henan province, on suspicion of raping at least 10 underage girls. The case has sparked a storm of Internet anger.
(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 27, Two Tibetan men set themselves on fire outside a temple in Lhasa and one died. Xinhua named the dead man as Tobgye Tseten, from Gansu province. The incident marked the first significant protest in Lhasa since riots broke out there in 2008. Chinese security forces rounded up hundreds of residents and pilgrims in the wake of the incident.
(AFP, 5/28/12)(AFP, 5/31/12)
2012 May 28, Chinese state media said former railways minister Liu Zhijun will face prosecution for alleged corruption, following reports he took bribes of more than 800 million yuan ($127 million). The ruling party's disciplinary watchdog said it had expelled Liu Zhijun from the party and handed his case to judicial authorities for handling.
(AFP, 5/28/12)
2012 May 30, In China a woman, identified as Rechok (33), set herself on fire outside a Buddhist monastery in an ethnically Tibetan region of western Sichuan province.
(AP, 5/31/12)
2012 Jun 1, China and Japan started direct currency trading as Beijing marked another stage on its journey to foster the yuan's use internationally in line with its growing economic clout.
(AFP, 6/1/12)
2012 Jun 2, Hong Kong health authorities urged the public not to panic after the southern Chinese city reported its first human case of bird flu in 18 months in a two-year-old boy.
(AFP, 6/2/12)
2012 Jun 2, In north China's Shaanxi province authorities forced Feng Jianmei to abort her 7-month pregnancy because she was unable to pay a 40,000 yuan ($6,270) fine for exceeding China's "one-child" population control policy. Graphic images of the abortion were later posted online showing the bloody corpse of her baby and caused an uproar in the country. On June 15 a deputy mayor visited Feng and her husband in the hospital, apologized to them and said officials would be suspended amid an investigation. In July the couple agreed to a compensation settlement from local authorities for 70,000 yuan ($11,000).
(AFP, 6/13/12)(AP, 6/15/12)(AFP, 7/11/12)
2012 Jun 3, In China police beat and detained political activists marking the 23rd anniversary of the brutal crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy protests. Officers used violence against activists in the southeast province of Fujian and detained them. A day earlier over 30 people who came to Beijing "to petition" were held and forced to return to their home province.
(AFP, 6/3/12)
2012 Jun 5, China told foreign embassies to stop publishing their own reports on air quality in the country, escalating its objections to a popular US Embassy Twitter feed that tracks pollution in smoggy Beijing.
(AP, 6/5/12)
2012 Jun 5, Chinese authorities alerted foreign travel agencies that they would no longer be issuing entry permits to Tibet.
(ABCNews, 6/7/12)
2012 Jun 6, In China 12 children were hurt in a clash at an Islamic school in the restive Xinjiang region, amid an escalating crackdown on "illegal" religious activities. The exiled World Uyghur Congress (WUC) group disputed the government version of events, citing sources on the ground as saying police tossed tear gas into the school.
(AFP, 6/6/12)
2012 Jun 6, In China ailing Chinese labor activist Li Wangyang (62), imprisoned for two decades, some of it doing hard labor, died in a hospital, reportedly hanging himself one year after being released from jail.
(AP, 6/6/12)
2012 Jun 6, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin visited China and emphasized burgeoning military ties on the second day of a visit to his nation's eastern neighbor.
(AP, 6/6/12)
2012 Jun 7, China cut its benchmark lending rate by a quarter percentage point to 6.31 percent for the first time since 2008 to support growth in its cooling economy.
(AP, 6/7/12)
2012 Jun 7, Chinese President Hu Jintao announced an SCO plan whereby China, Russia and four Central Asian states would grant Afghanistan observer status in their regional group. This was announced at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's annual summit in Beijing.
(AP, 6/7/12)
2012 Jun 8, China’s central bank cut its benchmark deposit and lending rates to help stimulate the economy.
(Econ, 6/16/12, p.81)
2012 Jun 9, China’s state media reported that authorities have fired or disciplined 12 police officers — including Jinning county police chief Da Qiming and Jincheng township police chief Zhao Huiyun, who were sacked last month, — for inadequately investigating a series of murders in southwest China in which victims were dismembered and buried.
(AP, 6/9/12)
2012 Jun 11, In China young and old residents of the metropolis of Wuhan were advised to stay indoors after a thick haze blanketed the city of nine million people. Xinhua described the haze as grey-yellow in color and said it was seen in 7 cities in Hubei province, including Wuhan.
(AFP, 6/11/12)
2012 Jun 13, China jailed two ex-chiefs of its football association, four former national team players and two others, in the culmination of a major crackdown on corruption in the scandal-plagued sport.
(AFP, 6/13/12)
2012 Jun 13, Chinese dairy maker Yili started recalling batches of baby formula after authorities found they contained high levels of mercury. The recall covered baby formula produced from November 2011 to May 2012.
(AFP, 6/14/12)
2012 Jun 13, Cambodia arrested French architect Patrick Devillers, with ties to disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, in a new twist to China's biggest political scandal in decades. Devillers was released on July 17 and flew to China voluntarily to help its investigation.
(AFP, 6/19/12)(AFP, 7/18/12)
2012 Jun 15, A manned Chinese submersible set a new record for the country's deepest sea dive, over 6,000 meters, showing Beijing's technological ambitions as it also readies for its first manned space docking. The "Jiaolong" craft dived over 19,685 feet into the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean.
(AFP, 6/15/12)
2012 Jun 16, China launched its most ambitious space mission yet carrying its first female astronaut and two male colleagues on a Shenzhou 9 capsule in an attempt to dock with an orbiting module and work on board for more than a week.
(AP, 6/16/12)
2012 Jun 18, Three Chinese astronauts entered an orbiting module for the first time, in a key step towards the nation's first space station.
(AFP, 6/18/12)
2012 Jun 20, In China 17 people were killed and three seriously injured when a long-distance bus overturned and plunged down a deep ravine in Fujian's Ningde city.
(AP, 6/20/12)
2012 Jun 20, In China Ngawang Norphel (21) set himself on fire along with another Tibetan youth, Tenzin Kaldrup, who died at the protest in Chendou county in the western province of Qinghai. Norphel died of his burns on Aug 1.
(AFP, 8/2/12)
2012 Jun 21, China said it summoned Vietnam's ambassador and strongly protested a law adopted by the Vietnamese parliament that places the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands under Hanoi's sovereignty. China also announced it had elevated the administrative status of the Nansha (Spratly) and Xisha (Paracel) islands from a county to a prefectural-level district.
(AFP, 6/21/12)
2012 Jun 21, Chinese PM Wen Jiabao held talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Jigmi Y. Thinley on the sidelines of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio De Janeiro. They agreed to establish diplomatic relations and resolve a long-standing border dispute.
(AFP, 6/22/12)
2012 Jun 22, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Uruguay, his first stop on a multi-nation visit to South America.
(AFP, 6/22/12)
2012 Jun 24, A manned Chinese submersible, the Jiaolong, broke through the 7,000-meter mark for a new national deep water dive record in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean on its fourth dive since arriving in the area earlier this month. The dive came on the same day China successfully completed its first manual space docking.
(AFP, 6/24/12)
2012 Jun 24, The Philippines alleged that a Chinese vessel accidentally rammed a local fishing boat north of a disputed South China Sea shoal, killing one and leaving four others missing. The fishing boat set out from the northern coastal town of Bolinao, in Pangasinan province on June 18 and was reported to have sunk two days later.
(AFP, 6/24/12)
2012 Jun 25, In China scores of people were injured when police in Shaxi township in Guangdong province broke up clashes between migrant workers from Sichuan province and the local population in the latest unrest to hit the nation.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 25, In Argentina Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met President Cristina Fernandez in Buenos Aires as part of a South American tour that included visits to Brazil and Uruguay and will end in Chile this week. Wen said the Asian giant is interested in a possible free-trade deal with the Mercosur regional trade bloc.
(AP, 6/25/12)
2012 Jun 26, In China the Chongqing municipal People's Congress accepted the resignation of Wang Lijun from the National People's Congress. Wang had launched the downfall of his former boss Bo Xilai when he fled to a US consulate in February.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 26, China executed four convicted drug traffickers and sentenced at least 15 others to death as the nation marked global anti-drug day.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 28, Cameroon and China signed a large infrastructure deal that will see Beijing lend the African country €368 million to build its first new motorway since independence in 1960.
(AFP, 6/28/12)
2012 Jun 28, Amnesty International said both South Sudan's army and rebel groups are using weapons imported from China, Ukraine and neighboring Sudan in fighting that has claimed dozens of civilian lives. Amnesty said the army was using Ukrainian-supplied T-72 battle tanks and that the rebel SSLA laid Chinese-made anti-vehicle mines and were firing Sudanese-made ammunition.
(AFP, 6/28/12)
2012 Jun 29, Chinese President Hu Jintao urged Hong Kong's restive people to embrace the motherland as he visited the financial citadel for the 15th anniversary of its return to rule by Beijing.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 29, China's first female astronaut, Liu Yang (33), and two other crew members emerged smiling from the Shenzhou 9 capsule that returned safely to Earth from a 13-day mission to an orbiting module that is a prototype for a future space station.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 29, In China Passengers and crew foiled an alleged hijacking attempt by six people on a plane in the far-western Xinjiang region. Local sources said that the plane turned back after Uighurs and Hans began fighting after a disagreement over seat assignments.
(AP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 29, In southern China a tanker truck filled with gasoline collided with a truck, setting off an explosion and a massive fire that left 20 people dead and 14 others hurt.
(AP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 30, China’s Civil Affairs Ministry said at least 50 people have been killed from mudslides in the south. Another 42 people were missing.
(SSFC, 7/1/12, p.A6)
2012 Jun 30, Hong Kong police used pepper spray to disperse crowds demonstrating against Chinese President Hu Jintao, ahead of the 15th anniversary of the territory's handover amid tight security.
(AFP, 6/30/12)
2012 Jul 1, Hong Kong's biggest protest for nearly a decade packed the former British colony's streets in a defiant reception for its new leader and a show of popular anger after 15 years of Chinese rule. The vast rally came after Leung Chun-ying, a millionaire property consultant seen as close to China's communist authorities, was sworn in as chief executive in front of Chinese President Hu Jintao -- who had his speech interrupted.
(AFP, 7/1/12)
2012 Jul 2, China's state media reported that the booming southern city of Guangzhou has imposed a cap on the number of cars allowed to be sold in an effort to curb worsening traffic and pollution. It became the third Chinese city, after Beijing and Guiyang, to introduce registration plate limits in an effort to combat the escalating number of cars on China's roads.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 2, In China the High Court of the southern province of Guangdong said Apple has paid $60 million to end a dispute with Shenzhen Proview Technology over who could use the iPad name in China, giving the US tech giant more certainty in selling its tablet computer in the Chinese market.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 3, Chinese police clashed for a second day with protesters in Shifang, who stopped the construction of a heavy metals factory over environmental concerns. Authorities bowed to violent protests and cancelled plans to build the controversial metals factory.
(AFP, 7/3/12)(AFP, 7/4/12)
2012 Jul 4, China’s giant and controversial Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River started working at full capacity as the last of its 32 generators went into operation.
(AFP, 7/4/12)
2012 Jul 4, In China a coal mine in Hunan province flooded trapping 16 miners. Rescue workers pulled 8 miners out of the coal mine in Leiyang city on July 8, but another 3 were believed to be still trapped.
(AFP, 7/5/12)(AFP, 7/8/12)(SFC, 7/9/12, p.A2)
2012 Jul 5, China pledged financial aid to Cuba as it undertakes historic economic reforms, promising visiting President Raul Castro a new credit line as well as help in health care and technology.
(AFP, 7/5/12)
2012 Jul 6, China's state-run Catholic church ordained Father Yue Fusheng as Bishop in the northeastern city of Harbin in defiance of the Vatican.
(AFP, 7/6/12)
2012 Jul 7, In China the Rev. Thaddeus Ma Daqin was consecrated as auxiliary bishop of Shanghai. Ma announced that he would no longer work for the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CCPA), the government body that oversees Catholics in China.
(SFC, 7/11/12, p.A6)(Economist, 9/8/12, p.42)
2012 Jul 8, China started work on a 30-billion-yuan ($4.8-billion) tourism project in Lhasa city, as it seeks to draw more travelers to the restive Tibet region.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, In China a gas blast at a coal mine in the central province of Hunan killed seven people, the latest in a string of accidents in the country's dangerous mining industry.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 11, A Chinese ship, bow number 560, on "routine patrol" became stranded near Half Moon Shoal in the Spratly Islands, 60 nautical miles from the western Philippine island of Palawan. The ship was refloated on July 15.
(AFP, 7/14/12)(AP, 7/15/12)
2012 Jul 11, New Zealand launched a search for hundreds of Chinese students who arrived in the country on fraudulently-obtained visas.
(AFP, 7/11/12)
2012 Jul 15, The Chinese province of Hunan urged parents to seek immediate treatment for children showing symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease after official figures showed 112 people died from the illness last month.
(AFP, 7/15/12)
2012 Jul 18, China’s Ministry of Health issued a new code of conduct banning medical staff from prescribing unnecessary tests and the prescription of expensive tests to boost income.
(Econ, 7/21/12, p.38)
2012 Jul 19, China said it would offer $20 billion in new loans to Africa, underscoring the relationship's growing importance, as Chinese companies agreed to operate more responsibly on the resource-rich continent.
(AFP, 7/19/12)
2012 Jul 19, At the United Nations permanent Security Council members Russia and China vetoed resolutions on Syria for the third time in nine months.
(AFP, 7/19/12)
2012 Jul 20, A Beijing court rejected dissident artist Ai Weiwei's lawsuit over a $2.4 million fine imposed on his company for tax evasion. He said the case is part of an intimidation campaign to stop him from criticizing the government.
(AP, 7/20/12)
2012 Jul 21, In China at least 54 people died, including 37 in Beijing, during torrential rainstorms which battered much of northern and southwestern China over the last 24 hours. Heavy rainfall was expected to last for another day. On July 26 the toll in Beijing was increased to 77.
(AFP, 7/21/12)(AP, 7/22/12)(AFP, 7/23/12)(AFP, 7/26/12)
2012 Jul 23, China’s State-controlled CNOOC Ltd launched a takeover bids by agreeing to buy Canadian oil producer Nexen Inc for $15.1 billion, forcing Ottawa to decide whether national security concerns outweigh its desire for foreign investment in its energy resources.
(Reuters, 7/23/12)
2012 Jul 23, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) agreed to purchase a 49% stake in the North Sea assets of Talisman Energy, a Canadian firm, for $1.5 billion.
(Econ, 7/28/12, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/c9v3ypx)
2012 Jul 24, China upgraded Sansha to prefecture level. The area was created by bureaucrats in 2007 to oversee and administer one million square miles of the South China Sea. A new mayor declared Sansha, population of just 1,000, to be China's newest municipality. The city administration is on tiny Yongxing island, 350 km (220 miles) southeast from China's tropical Hainan Island. Vietnam and China both claim the Paracels, of which Yongxing, little more than half the size of Manhattan's Central Park, is part.
(SFC, 7/24/13, p.A14)(Econ, 4/19/14, SR p.15)(AP, 7/24/12)
2012 Jul 24, In China Rosalia Amarilla (31), a clothes vendor from Paraguay, stepped into the international terminal of Beijing's cavernous main airport, wearing more than 7 pounds (3 kg) of cocaine stuffed into her underwear and bra. She was caught and later sentenced to death on drug trafficking charges.
(AP, 1/24/15)
2012 Jul 26, China’s state news agency said Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai, the former political leader whose downfall sent shockwaves through China, has been charged with murdering British businessman Neil Heywood last November. Zhang Xiaojun, previously described as an orderly who worked for the high-flying couple, will also be prosecuted on the same charge.
(AFP, 7/26/12)
2012 Jul 28, Authorities in eastern China dropped plans for a waste water discharge project after thousands of protesters angry about pollution took to the streets in Qidong, Jiangsu province. On Jan 30, 2013, 14 defendants were prosecuted on charges of encouraging mass violence against government buildings and intentionally damaging property in Qidong.
(AP, 7/28/12)(AP, 1/31/13)
2012 Jul 28, In China serial killer Zhang Yongming (56) was sentenced to death for murdering 11 people in Jinning county between 2008 and 2012.
(SSFC, 7/29/12, p.A6)
2012 Aug 1, It was reported that authorities in China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang have banned Muslim officials and students from fasting during Ramadan, prompting an exiled rights group to warn of new violence.
(AFP, 8/1/12)
2012 Aug 1, In northeast China a teenager (17) killed nine people and wounding four others in a knife attack in Liaoning province's Xinbin county. Police nabbed him as he was preparing to jump from a building in an apparent suicide attempt.
(AFP, 8/2/12)
2012 Aug 2, Chinese state media said courts in the restive Xinjiang region with a large Muslim population have jailed 20 people for up to 15 years for using the Internet to incite separatism and "holy war."
(AFP, 8/2/12)
2012 Aug 4, In southern Zambia coal miners killed a Chinese mine manager and injured his colleague in a riot over wages at the Collum Coal mine in Sinazongwe known for tensions with the Chinese investor.
(AFP, 8/5/12)
2012 Aug 5, China’s Xinhua news reported that authorities have detained nearly 2,000 people in recent weeks as part of nationwide crackdown on the sale of counterfeit drugs.
(SFC, 8/6/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 6, Macau police said they have arrested 150 people in raids at casinos and hotels across the Chinese territory following a spate of violence that raised fears of a revival of gang warfare in the world's most lucrative gambling market.
(AP, 8/6/12)
2012 Aug 7, In China Dolkar Kyi (26) immolated herself at Tso monastery in Kanlho prefecture (Gannan in Chinese), Gansu province, after chanting slogans calling for the return of the Dalai Lama.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, DreamWorks Animation said it plans to build a $3.2 billion "entertainment zone" in Shanghai, as the US film giant seeks to bolster its presence in the booming Chinese market.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 8, In eastern China Typhoon Haikui slammed into in Zhejiang province south of Shanghai, the country's third in a week, killing at least two people and causing more than $1 billion in damage.
(AFP, 8/8/12)
2012 Aug 9, In China Gu Kailai, the wife of disgraced politician Bo Xilai, said she lured a British businessman Neil Heywood to a hotel in the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing, where she got him drunk and poisoned him.
(AP, 8/9/12)
2012 Aug 10, Four Chinese police officers admitted in court to covering up the killing of a British businessman to protect Gu Kailai, the wife of a senior politician charged with his murder. The officers covered up her involvement in Neil Heywood's death by "forging interview scripts and hiding evidence," agreeing to say he died of excessive alcohol consumption.
(AFP, 8/10/12)
2012 Aug 13, In far west China a Kirti monk named Lungtok and another man, identified as Tashi, set themselves alight in Sichuan province's Aba prefecture. Police beat a Tibetan man to death during a clash that broke out after the two Tibetans set themselves on fire.
(AP, 8/14/12)
2012 Aug 14, Chinese police killed a fugitive armed robber and suspected serial killer dubbed China's most dangerous man, ending a huge manhunt. Zhou Kehua (42), suspected of killing nine people, spent eight years on the run before being shot dead in Chongqing.
(AFP, 8/14/12)
2012 Aug 15, China and South Korea pressed Japan to face up to its wartime past, as festering territorial disputes flared and Asia marked the anniversary of Tokyo's World War II surrender.
(AFP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 15, The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said that car importer Ateco Automotive ordered dealers to stop selling certain vehicles by China’s Great Wall Motor Co. and Chery Automobile after asbestos was found inside engine and exhaust gaskets.
(AP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 15, Japan made 14 arrests after pro-China activists from Hong Kong landed on Senkaku (aka Diaoyu) island at the center of a bitter territorial dispute. On Aug 17 half of the group were put aboard a commercial airliner in the Okinawan main city of Naha and arrived in Hong Kong. The other half were taken back to their boat in Ishigaki.
(AFP, 8/15/12)(AFP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 18, In China Yu Wenxia, Miss China, won the Miss World crown for 2012, defeating more than 100 other hopefuls the world's biggest beauty pageant in at a glittering ceremony in Ordos, a Chinese mining city on the edge of the Gobi desert.
(AFP, 8/18/12)
2012 Aug 18, A flotilla of boats carrying Japanese nationalists and lawmakers set sail for islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and as Diaoyu in China, at the heart of a vitriolic diplomatic row with China, despite warnings from Beijing. China demanded that Japan cease actions "harming" its territorial sovereignty.
(AFP, 8/18/12)
2012 Aug 19, Japanese nationalists raised flags on an island at the heart of a corrosive territorial row, sparking street protests in China and an angry reaction from Beijing.
(AFP, 8/19/12)
2012 Aug 20, A Chinese court handed Gu Kailai, the wife of disgraced political leader Bo Xilai, a suspended death sentence for murder in a case that has rocked the Communist party ahead of a 10-yearly power handover. Zhang Xiaojun, an employee of the Bo family charged with helping Gu to poison Heywood, was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in jail while four police officers were convicted of attempting to cover up the murder.
(AFP, 8/20/12)
2012 Aug 21, Sierra Leone said it has signed a $15 million (12 million euro) loan agreement with China for the installation of a fiber optic cable which will boost Internet capabilities.
(AFP, 8/21/12)
2012 Aug 22, In China students at Shanghai’s Sheshan Catholic seminary learned that classes would be suspended indefinitely.
(Economist, 9/8/12, p.42)
2012 Aug 23, Philippine police arrested more than 350 people over a major telephone scam that swindled people out of millions of dollars in Taiwan and mainland China.
(AFP, 8/23/12)
2012 Aug 24, In northeast China 3 people were killed and five injured when an eight-lane bridge collapsed, only nine months after it opened in Harbin city.
(AFP, 8/24/12)
2012 Aug 24, In Myanmar Kachin rebels said China has pushed thousands of Kachin refugees from Yunnan province back across the border into a province wracked by fighting between government troops and ethnic guerillas.
(AFP, 8/24/12)
2012 Aug 26, Chinese police brought back 37 suspected Chinese gangsters from Angola. They had been arrested for alleged crimes against other Chinese.
(SSFC, 8/26/12, p.A5)
2012 Aug 26, In northern China a double-decker bus rammed into a tanker loaded with highly flammable methanol, causing both vehicles to burst into flames and killing 36 people close to the city of Yan'an in Shaanxi province. In the southwest 11 people were killed and another was seriously hurt when a van crashed into a truck Sichuan province.
(AP, 8/26/12)(AP, 8/27/12)
2012 Aug 27, In China Tibetans Lobsang Kalsang (18), a Buddhist monk, and former monk Damchoek (17) died in hospital after setting themselves on fire in Aba town.
(AFP, 8/28/12)
2012 Aug 27, In northwest China a commercial van slammed into a truck, killing nine people.
(AP, 8/27/12)
2012 Aug 29, In China 154 miners were working underground at the Xiaojiawan coal mine in the city of Panzhihua, Sichuan province, when a blast occurred. At least 43 people were killed and 3 remained trapped.
(AFP, 9/1/12)
2012 Aug 31, Chinese dissident Wang Xiaoning (62), convicted based on evidence provided by US Internet giant Yahoo!, was released from prison after serving a 10-year term for subversion.
(AFP, 8/31/12)
2012 Aug, Yao Ming, former basketball star and a goodwill ambassador to WildAid, a nonprofit dedicated to ending illegal wildlife trading, took a trip to Kenya, where he spent several days interacting with wildlife officials and seeing some of the effects of poaching. Ming accepted to work as an ambassador for elephant conservationists hoping to convice the Chinese public not to buy trinkets from African ivory.
(Econ, 11/3/12, p.48)(http://tinyurl.com/au6uxs5)
2012 Sep 4, Congo and China signed accords worth 975 million euros as part of a project to rebuild parts of the capital Brazzaville devastated by a deadly munitions depot blast in early March.
(AFP, 9/4/12)
2012 Sep 4, Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony announced that joint military exercises between India and China will be resumed after a four-year gap, after talks in New Delhi with his Beijing counterpart.
(AFP, 9/4/12)
2012 Sep 5, China’s state media reported that former Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun, whose flight to a US consulate set off China's biggest political scandal in years, has been charged with crimes including defection and bribe taking.
(AP, 9/5/12)
2012 Sep 5, Japanese media reports said Japan’s government has agreed to buy three of the five privately owned islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, from the Kurihara family for 2.05 billion yen ($26 million). China responded by calling the reported purchase "illegal and invalid."
(AP, 9/5/12)
2012 Sep 6, The European Union launched an anti-dumping probe into Chinese solar panels after an industry association claimed the products were being exported for less than it costs to make them.
(AP, 9/6/12)
2012 Sep 7, In southwest China twin earthquakes collapsed houses and triggered landslides in a remote mountainous part of the borders of Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, killing at least 81 people and injuring over 800.
(AP, 9/7/12)(AP, 9/8/12)(AP, 9/9/12)
2012 Sep 8, Hong Kong officials backed down on plans to make students take Chinese patriotism classes following a week of protests in the former British colony sparked by fears of pro-Beijing "brainwashing."
(AP, 9/8/12)
2012 Sep 11, China announced that for the first time it is allowing foreigners to apply for positions as government officials in tourism, transportation, health, commerce and information technology.
(www.globaltimes.cn/content/732631.shtml)
2012 Sep 11, Japan's Cabinet formally announced that the government will purchase several disputed islands from a private Japanese family. China sent two patrol ships to the waters near the disputed islands in a show of its “undisputable sovereignty."
(AP, 9/11/12)(SFC, 9/12/12, p.A6)
2012 Sep 12, Nigeria’s Finance Ministry said China is offering it $1.1 billion in loans to help the West African nation build airport terminals, a light rail line for its capital city and communication system improvements.
(AP, 9/12/12)
2012 Sep 15, In China protests against Japan over its control of disputed islands spread across more than two dozen cities and turned violent at times, with protesters burning Japanese flags and clashing with Chinese paramilitary police at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing before order was restored.
(AP, 9/15/12)
2012 Sep 17, The US government lodged a trade complaint alleging that China unfairly subsidizes car-part exports.
(Economist, 9/22/12, p.37)
2012 Sep 18, In China the trial of former Chengdu police chief Wang Lijun ended. He confessed to defection as well as 3 other charges including abuse of power, taking bribes and bending the law for personal gain. On Sep 24 Lijun was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(SFC, 9/19/12, p.A4)(AP, 9/24/12)
2012 Sep 28, China's communist leadership expelled Bo Xilai (63) from the ruling party and sought to bury him with charges ranging from corruption to sexual affairs, aiming to sweep away their most damaging scandal in decades while finally scheduling their long-awaited leadership transition for November.
(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Sep 28, China launched a second satellite built for Venezuela's government. The $140 million remote sensing satellite soared into orbit atop a rocket from the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu. It will provide images for tasks such as mapping croplands, counter-drug efforts and monitoring floods.
(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Sep 28, President Barack Obama, citing national security risks, blocked a Chinese company from owning four wind farm projects in northern Oregon near a Navy base where the US military flies unmanned drones and electronic-warfare planes on training missions.
(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Oct 4, In China the Tiantou Elementary School was buried when the hillside collapsed in Zhenhe, a village in Yunnan province. 18 elementary school students were killed. A 19th victim was found the next day.
(AP, 10/5/12)
2012 Oct 5, In China some 3-4 thousand workers at the Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou reportedly went on strike over increased quality control standards. Foxconn, maker of Apple’s iPhones, said the next day that production continued without interruption.
(SSFC, 10/7/12, p.A5)
2012 Oct 8, A US House Intelligence Committee warned in a report that American companies should avoid doing business with China's two leading technology firms because they pose a national security threat to the United States. The panel said US regulators should block mergers and acquisitions in this country by Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ZTE Corp, among the world's leading suppliers of telecommunications gear and mobile phones.
(AP, 10/8/12)
2012 Oct 11, Guan Moye (b.1955), aka Mo Yan, became the first Chinese writer to win the literature Nobel Prize. He is best known in the West for "Red Sorghum", which portrays the hardships endured by farmers in the early years of communist rule and was made in a film directed by Zhang Yimou.
(AP, 10/12/12)(Econ, 10/20/12, p.42)
2012 Oct 13, In northwestern China's Gansu province Tamdrin Dorjee (52) died at the scene near Tsoe Monastery after setting himself on fire in protest of Chinese rule. Free Tibet said the man is the grandfather of the 7th Gungthang Rinpoche.
(AP, 10/13/12)
2012 Oct 21, In northwest China Tibetan Lhamo Kyeb (27) called for the Dalai Lama’s return and died after setting himself on fire near the Bhora monastery in Gansu province.
(SFC, 10/22/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 23, In China Dorje Rinchen (58), a Tibetan farmer, set himself on fire and died on the main street in Xiahe near the Labrang Monastery.
(AP, 10/24/12)
2012 Oct 24, China approved new nuclear power plants as part of plans to reduce reliance on oil and coal, ending the moratorium it imposed to review safety in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster last year.
(AP, 10/24/12)
2012 Oct 25, In China Tibetan cousins Tsepo (20) and Tenzin (25) called for independence for Tibet as they set fire to themselves in front of a government building in their village in Biru county north of Lhasa.
(AP, 10/27/12)
2012 Oct 25, The NY Times furnished evidence that family members of China’s PM Wen Jiabao has accumulated some $2.7 billion during his decade in office.
(Econ, 11/3/12, p.45)
2012 Oct 26, China blocked access to the NY Times website after the paper published an article claiming the family of Premier Wen Jiabao has amassed assets worth $2.7 billion through a web of investments, mostly accumulated after he rose to high office in 2002.
(SFC, 10/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 26, Chinese lawmakers stripped disgraced politician Bo Xilai of his last official position, formally expelling him from the country's top legislature and clearing the way for criminal proceedings against the once-rising political star.
(AP, 10/26/12)
2012 Oct 26, In China thousands of people in Ningbo city, Zhejiang province, clashed with police during a protest over the proposed expansion of a petrochemical factory that they fear would spew pollution and damage public health.
(AP, 10/27/12)
2012 Oct 28, The local Chinese government in Ningbo relented and agreed that a petrochemical factory would not be expanded, only to see the protesters refuse to halt their demonstration.
(AP, 10/28/12)
2012 Oct 31, Spanish infrastructure company Ferrovial said an arm of China's sovereign wealth fund has taken a 10 percent stake in the holding company controlling Britain's largest airport Heathrow.
(AP, 10/31/12)
2012 Nov 4, In China a closed-door meeting of the Central Committee ended. It endorsed decisions to expel Bo and former Railways Minister Liu Zhijun from the Communist Party and approved final preparations for the party's upcoming congress, which opens Nov 8.
(AP, 11/4/12)
2012 Nov 4, In China a Tibetan artist died after setting himself on fire in Tongren, Qinghai province, in protest over Chinese rule.
(SFC, 11/5/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 7, In China 4 self-immolations took place. Three Tibetan teenage monks, aged 15-16, set themselves on fire outside a police office in southwest Sichuan province. At least one died. A 23-year-old Tibetan nomadic woman, Tamdin Tso, died after self-immolating in western Qinghai province.
(AP, 11/8/12)
2012 Nov 7, In China Miyun county police took away Internet blogger Zhai Xiaobing and seized his computer. His Nov 5 tweet suggested the next movie in the "Final Destination" horror franchise would be about the Great Hall of the People collapsing on party delegates. A Miyun county police officer later told The Associated Press that Zhai was being investigated for "spreading terrorist information. Zhai's supporters call the allegation absurd and more than 400 people signed an online petition calling on police to release him.
(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Nov 8, China's ruling communists opened a pivotal congress to initiate a power handover to new leaders with a nod to their revolutionary past and a broad promise of cleaner government while keeping off-stage the main even. President Hu Jintao warned that unrestrained graft threatened to topple the party's continued rule.
(AP, 11/8/12) (AP, 11/9/12)
2012 Nov 8, In China Jinpa Gyatso, a Tibetan nomad in western Qinghai, died after setting himself on fire.
(AP, 11/8/12)
2012 Nov 9, In China Wang Yang, a senior Communist Party leader, said asset disclosure for Chinese officials is likely to be slowly phased in over time, as the government grapples with the fraught task of rooting out the corruption that has fed widespread public anger.
(AP, 11/9/12)
2012 Nov 10, In northwest China Gonpo Tsering, an 18-year-old Tibetan villager, died after setting himself on fire in front of a monastery in the city of Hezuo. This was the latest of a half-dozen such self-immolations reported during the past week as the country's communist leadership undergoes a once-a-decade transfer of power.
(AP, 11/10/12)
2012 Nov 12, In China a 24-year-old Tibetan man set himself on fire at a prayer ceremony in Tongren county in western Qinghai province, becoming the seventh person in six days to self-immolate in the region.
(AP, 11/12/12)
2012 Nov 13, In eastern China Yao Defen (39), the world's tallest woman at 7 feet and 7 inches, died at her home in Anhui province.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Nov 14, China’s President Hu Jintao stepped aside as ruling party leader to clear the way for Vice President Xi Jinping to take the helm as part of only the second orderly transfer of power in 63 years of Communist rule.
(AP, 11/14/12)
2012 Nov 15, In China Xi Jinping assumed the leadership as the ruling Communist Party confronts slower economic growth, a public clamor to end corruption and demands for change that threaten its hold on power. It was revealed the Hu Jintao had stepped down not only as the Party’s general secretary but also as head of China’s army.
(AP, 11/15/12)(Econ, 11/17/12, p.43)
2012 Nov 15, As China unveiled its new leadership in Beijing with promises of a better life for all, five runaway boys seeking shelter and warmth died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a garbage bin in Bijie city, 25 km from their home village of Caqiangyan.
(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Nov 18, In Cambodia Asean leaders decided to ask China to start formal talks "as soon as possible" on crafting a legally binding accord aimed at preventing an outbreak of violence in disputed South China Sea territories. ASEAN leaders also adopted a human rights declaration despite last-minute calls for a postponement by critics.
(AP, 11/18/12)
2012 Nov 19, French oil firm Total SA said it has sold a stake in an offshore oil field in Nigeria for $2.5 billion to Chinese state oil company Sinopec Corp. The cash deal requjired approval by Nigerian authorities.
(AP, 11/19/12)
2012 Nov 20, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that two Tibetan herdsmen had killed themselves by setting themselves on fire in two separate incidents.
(AP, 11/23/12)
2012 Nov 22, In northwest China Libong Tsering (19), a Tibetan man, set himself on fire in Qinghai province. The latest death brings to at least 78 the number of Tibetans who have self-immolated since 2009 in protest against China's strict control over Tibet's Buddhist culture.
(AP, 11/23/12)
2012 Nov 24, In China a coal mine accident in the southwest killed 18 workers and trapped five more in the state-owned Xiangshui coalmine in Guizhou province.
(AP, 11/24/12)
2012 Nov 24, India began issuing Chinese citizens visas embossed with maps of India showing all territories claimed by New Delhi. The move was in response to China’s newly revised passports that show disputed territory near their shared border as part of China.
(SSFC, 11/25/12, p.A6)
2012 Nov 20, A 5-year-old sex tape of an 18-year-old woman allegedly hired by developers to sleep with a city official exploded on the Chinese Internet when screenshots of it were uploaded by a Beijing-based former journalist Zhu Ruifeng to his Hong Kong-registered website, an independent online clearing house for corruption allegations.
(AP, 11/27/12)
2012 Nov 25, In China 4 more self-immolations by ethnicTibetans were reported over the last two days in Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai provinces. At least 20 students were hospitalized after a protest turned violent in Qinghai province's Hainan prefectur.
(AP, 11/27/12)
2012 Nov 29, A British environmental group released a report saying China is helping to propel a $4 billion trade in illegally harvested timber and spurring the destruction of fragile ecosystems across the globe.
(SFC, 11/30/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov, In China Wang Qishan took over the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), China's top anti-corruption authority.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.49)
2012 Dec 1, The Philippines denounced Chinese plans to search ships sailing through what Beijing says is its territory in the South Chine Sea.
(SSFC, 12/2/12, p.A5)
2012 Dec 4, In southern China a fire in a clothing factory apparently caused by arson killed 14 people in Shantou city, Guangdong province. The victims were all women aged 18-20. The next day suspect Liu Shuangyun said he started the fire due a longtime dispute over less than $500 in unpaid wages.
(AP, 12/4/12)(SFC, 12/6/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 4, Vietnam said it would begin new patrols in the South China Sea after it accused a Chinese fishing boat of cutting a seismic cable attached to one of its vessels exploring for oil and gas. India also said it would consider sending navy vessels to protect its interests in the area.
(SFC, 12/5/12, p.A3)
2012 Dec 7, Canada’s PM Stephen Harper approved China's biggest ever foreign takeover, a $15.1 billion bid by state-controlled CNOOC Ltd for energy company Nexen Inc., but drew a line in the sand against future buys by state-owned enterprises. He also approved a smaller deal for a Canadian gas producer by Petronas, Malaysia’s state energy company.
(Reuters, 12/7/12)(Econ, 12/15/12, p.38)
2012 Dec 9, Chinese state media said police have detained a monk and his nephew in Sichuan province and accused them of instigating the self-immolations of eight ethnic Tibetans on the instructions of the Dalai Lama and his followers.
(AP, 12/9/12)
2012 Dec 12, Chinese religious officials said they have revoked the title of new Catholic Bishop Ma Daqin in Shanghai. He outraged officials by immediately dropping out of the government agency that oversees the country's officially sanctioned church.
(AP, 12/12/12)
2012 Dec 14, China provided the United Nations with detailed claims to waters in the East China Sea, apparently padding out its legal argument in an ongoing territorial dispute with Japan.
(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Dec 14, Chinese authorities said they have arrested a legislator found to have four wives. Li Junwen (43), an appointed representative from Xiaodian and the Communist Party head of the village of Xiquan, Shanxi province, also had 10 children, and had been detained on suspicion of document forgery.
(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Dec 14, In China Min Yongjun (36), a resident of Guangshan, burst into the home of an elderly woman and stabbed her with a kitchen knife. He then took a kitchen knife and hacked at more 22 children as they entered their rural Chenpeng Village Primary School. On Dec 13, 2013, Yongjun was sentenced to death.
(AP, 12/15/12)(AFP, 12/13/13)
2012 Dec 18, Chinese state media reported that police have detained more than 500 people from a fringe Christian group for spreading rumors about the world's impending end on Dec 21.
(AP, 12/18/12)
2012 Dec 24, In China a van carrying 15 children to kindergarten plunged into a roadside pond killing 11 children in Guixi city, Jiangxi province.
(SFC, 12/25/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 25, In China 72 prominent Chinese scholars and lawyers released a petition urging the country's new Communist Party leaders to undertake moderate political reforms including separating the party from government.
(AP, 12/26/12)(Econ, 1/5/12, p.32)
2012 Dec 25, Argentina's coast guard cutter Thompson fired warning shots at two Chinese trawlers, blocking their escape into international waters. Ten tons of squid were found in the holds of the Lu Rong Yu 6177 and 6178 after they were hauled into port.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2012 Dec 26, China opened the world's longest high-speed rail line, which runs 2,298 km (1,428 miles) from the country's capital in the north to Guangzhou, an economic hub in the Pearl River delta in southern China.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 28, China’s national legislature amended its law on the elderly to require that adult children visit their aged parents "often" — or risk being sued by them.
(AP, 12/28/12)
2012 Dec 28, China passed a new law requiring real-name registration of internet subscribers.
(Econ, 1/5/13, p.33)
2012 Dec 28, In China an overloaded minibus fell into a ravine killing 5 children and 5 adults in the Guangxi region.
(SSFC, 12/30/12, p.A6)
2012 James Fallows authored “China Airborne," a look at China’s recent unprecedented achievements and its inherent limitations.
(SSFC, 5/20/12, p.M5)
2012 China passed its first national mental health law.
(Econ, 7/11/15, SR p.3)
2012 Chinese multinational Dalian Wanda acquired AMC Theaters, an American cinema chain, for $2.6 billion.
(Econ, 9/28/13, p.62)
2013 Jan 8, In China free-speech protesters in masks squared off against flag-waving communist loyalists in Guangzhou as a dispute over censorship at a newspaper spilled into the broader population, with authorities shutting microblog accounts of supporters of the paper.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, The Japanese government summoned China's ambassador to protest four Chinese maritime surveillance ships that spent about 13 hours in waters near disputed islands claimed by both countries.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 11, In China a landslide smothered 14 homes in Zhaojiagou village, Yunnan province. At least 46 people were killed.
(SSFC, 1/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 12, Four Chinese workers were abducted in Sudan's North Darfur region by unidentified gunmen. They were released on Jan 16. Eleven Sudanese workers who were abducted together with the Chinese remained hostages.
(AP, 1/14/13)(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 13, In China people refused to venture outdoors and buildings disappeared into Beijing's murky skyline as the air quality in the notoriously polluted capital went off the index.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 22, The Philippines took a desperate legal step against China's claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, formally notifying the Asian superpower that Manila is seeking international arbitration to declare Beijing's moves in the potentially oil-rich waters "unlawful."
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 25, Washington and Beijing agreed that any North Korean nuclear test will lead to North Korea's further isolation and set back efforts to restart regional talks.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, In China a scandal involving Chinese city officials having sex with women hired by developers who secretly videotaped the trysts to extort construction deals broadened with state media announcing that 10 more officials have been fired.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, A senior Japanese envoy handed China's leader, Xi Jinping, a cordial letter from PM Shinzo Abe in the highest-level contact between the sides since tensions spiked in September over an island dispute, though the meeting yielded little beyond commitments to hold further contact.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 29, Thick, off-the-scale smog shrouded eastern China for the second time in about two weeks, forcing airlines to cancel flights because of poor visibility and prompting Beijing to temporarily shut factories and curtail fleets of government cars.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 30, China’s Beijing government put into place emergency measures to try to combat thick smog which has encased the city.
(SFC, 1/31/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 31, Chinese courts convicted eight Tibetans over accusations they incited others to self-immolate in the first such prosecutions to become publicly known, showing Beijing's resolve to stamp out the protests by criminalizing both the protesters and their supporters.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2012 Jan 31, Chinese police detained Liu Hui, the brother-in-law of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, on fraud charges in what the family said is the latest act of official retaliation. In March he was formally charged over a real estate dispute.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Jan 31, The NY Times said Chinese hackers repeatedly penetrated its computer systems over the past four months, stealing reporters' passwords and hunting for files on an investigation into the wealth amassed by the family of a top Chinese leader.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan, In China out promoting his latest book, “Everybody in the World Knows," former sports writer Li Chengpeng was told by authorities that he could take “no questions from readers, no talking at all… not even ‘happy new year’ or ‘thank you"’.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.35)
2013 Feb 1, Chinese car maker Geely said it has bought Manganese Bronze, the maker of London's black taxis since 1948, for 11 million pounds, safeguarding jobs and production of the vehicles in Britain.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, In central China an elevated portion of highway collapsed after a truck loaded with illegal fireworks for Lunar New Year celebrations exploded, killing at least 10 people and sending vehicles plummeting 30 meters to the ground.
(AP, 2/1/13)(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, China’s Xinhua News reported that 13 people died after an overloaded bus tumbled down a slope. Over 50 people were killed in the last 24 hours in 4 major accidents.
(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A6)
2013 Feb 3, In China Gong Aiai (49), a former bank official from Shaanxi province, was arrested on suspicion of acquiring 41 houses in Beijing.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.46)( www.wiki86.com/view/9976143.htm)
2013 Feb 5, In China a court in Beijing sentenced 10 people to prison terms for running a black jail. “Custody and repatriation" centers, which held petitioners along with beggars and vagrants, were scrapped in 2003.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.45)
2013 Feb 5, Chinese phone maker Huawei and Microsoft launched a new smartphone in Africa, which they say is the world's fastest growing mobile phone market. The Huawei 4Afrika phone runs Windows Phone 8 and comes pre-loaded with applications designed for the African market.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 6, Taiwan banks began offering deposit accounts in Chinese currency following a clearing agreement between China central bank and Taipei signed last August.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.69)
2013 Feb 8, A Chinese court sentenced a Tibetan man to 13 years in prison for goading a monk to self-immolate. The sentence by a court in Qinghai province followed a news report that the government has detained 70 people in the province's ethnic Tibetan areas.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 10, The Chinese New Year, celebrated as the beginning of the year of the Snake, officially began.
(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A10)
2013 Feb 12, North Korea said it tested a “miniaturized" nuclear device in the remote, snowy northeast, taking a crucial step toward its goal of building a bomb small enough to be fitted on a missile capable of striking the US. China summoned the North's ambassador for a dressing-down.
(AP, 2/12/13)(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 13, In Nepal a Tibetan protester doused himself with gasoline, set himself ablaze and chanted anti-China slogans as he ran down a street in Kathmandu. Police and residents were able to put out the flames and rush the man to a hospital. He died the next day.
(AP, 2/13/13)(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 17, The NY Times reported that a 60-page analysis by Mandiant, a US computer security firm, has traced one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking groups to Shanghai and the gates of Unit 61398 of the Chinese military.
(SFC, 2/20/13, p.D1)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.12)
2013 Feb 25, In China a Tibetan monk set himself on fire in protest against Chinese rule near dozens of pilgrims who had gathered for prayers to mark the end of the Tibetan New Year festival in Gansu province. Another had set himself ablaze a day earlier at a monastery in Qinghai province. Both died. A third monk was taken to a hospital after setting himself alight in a separate incident.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 27, China’s state news announced the arrests of 5 Tibetans accused of inciting a series of self-immolations late last year.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 28, China's military said that overseas computer hackers targeted two of its websites an average of 144,000 times per month last year, with almost two-thirds of the attacks originating in the United States.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb, China launched a crackdown aimed at cleaning up tits thriving, but dirty, recycling industry.
(SFC, 10/4/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 1, China’s State Council spelled out fresh curbs on property speculation, sending the housing market into a tizzy.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.74)
2013 Mar 1, China executed four foreigners for killing 13 Chinese sailors in an attack on the Mekong River on Oct 5, 2011, following a live nationwide broadcast showing them being led to their deaths.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 2, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that a massive sulfuric acid leak at a warehouse in Liaoning province has killed at least 3 people.
(SSFC, 3/3/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 5, In China the National People’s Congress opened for a 12-day session. Premier Wen Jiabao and Pres. Hu Jintao will stand down at the end for incoming Premier Li Keqiang and Pres. Xi Jinping. China's government pledged to repair the country's ravaged environment and boost public services under its new leadership, an acknowledgment that quality of life was sidelined during the outgoing administration's decade of breakneck economic growth.
(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, The United States and China reached a deal that "significantly expands" UN sanctions on North Korea for its third nuclear test, eliciting a renewed threat by Pyongyang to scrap an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
(Reuters, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 7, Chinese officials castigated the Tibetan Kirti monastery, at the center of a wave of self-immolations, saying it has been inciting the fiery protests. They also indicated that authorities will not relax controls over the region.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 9, North Korea formally rejected a UN Security Council resolution that demands an end to its nuclear arms program, as China called for calm, saying sanctions were not the "fundamental" way to resolve tensions on the Korean peninsula.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 10, China announced plans to streamline government ministries, doing away with the powerful Railways Ministry and creating a super-agency to regulate the media and realigning other bureaucracies in a bid to boost efficiency. Plans included the merger of the family planning bureaucracy with the health ministry to form a new Health and Family Planning Commission.
(AP, 3/10/13)(Econ, 3/16/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 11, In China Shanghai officials said the number of dumped adult and piglet carcasses retrieved in tributaries of the Huangpu river had reached 2,813. The city government, citing monitoring authorities, said the drinking water quality has not been affected. Authorities have been pulling out swollen and rotting pigs since March 8. By March 21 the dead pig count reached over 16,000.
(AP, 3/11/13)(SFC, 3/23/13, p.A2)(Econ, 12/20/14, p.70)
2013 Mar 14, In China Xi Jinping was elevated to the presidency by the rubber-stamp national legislature, giving him the last of the three titles held by his predecessor, Hu Jintao.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 15, In China Li Keqiang was confirmed as premier.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 16, In China Lobsang Thokmey (28) became the 108th Tibetan to self-immolate in the last 4 years in protests against Chinese rule and religious restrictions. He set himself on fire in Kirti monastery, Sichuan province.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 17, China’s National People’s Congress came to a close.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 18, Chinese police arrested the husband of a Tibetan woman who died last week after setting herself alight in protest.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 18, The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a Swedish think tank, said China has bypassed Britain as the world's fifth largest arms exporter.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 20, China’s Suntech Power Holdings Ltd., one of the world's biggest solar panel manufacturers, was forced into bankruptcy court, becoming the latest casualty of a painful slump in the global solar industry.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 22, US officials in Beijing for two days of talks to lobby China on enforcement of new UN sanctions against North Korea said that they were heartened by Chinese expressions of resolve. Spurring Beijing to cooperate, the US officials said, is a concern that North Korean behavior had begun threatening China's interests in a region vital to its economic and security.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 26, Two courts in northwest China convicted and sentenced 20 people accused of militant separatism in the Xinjiang region. All 20 were believed to be ethnic Uighurs.
(SFC, 3/28/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 26, China and Brazil signed a deal to do up to $30 billion of trade in their local currencies, as the five-nation BRICS forum of emerging market powers worked to lessen dependence on the US dollar and euro.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 28, China’s State Council, the country’s highest executive organ of state power, released a code of conduct for officials in hopes for a more pransparent government.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 29, In China a large landslide trapped 83 workers, believed to have been asleep, at the state-owned Jiama (Gyama) copper and gold mining company in Tibet. Chances for survivors were slim. The mine, which formally opened in 2010, was owned by China Gold Int’l. Resources.
(AP, 3/29/13)(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A2)(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)(Econ, 4/6/13, p.54)
2013 Mar 31, Chinese officials confirmed that three recent cases of influenza were due to a new strain called H7N9.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.83)
2013 Mar, Chinese-led criminal gangs conspired with corrupt Tanzanian officials to traffic huge amounts of ivory, some of which was loaded in diplomatic bags on Pres. Xi's plane during a presidential visit.
(AP, 11/6/14)
2013 Apr 2, A Tibetan spokesman said Jigme Gyatso, a noted political prisoner, was released by Chinese authorities after 17 years in prison on charges of endangering national security and separatism.
(SFC, 4/3/13, p.A2)
2013 Apr 6, Chinese officials in Shanghai reported two more cases of H7N9 bird flu, raising the number of cases in eastern China to 18, including 6 deaths. It was later reported that 27 days elapsed between the first death from H7N9 and its public announcement.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.A3)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.47)
2013 Apr 7, China warned against "troublemaking" on its doorstep, in an apparent rebuke to North Korea, and the US said it was postponing a missile test to help calm high tension on the divided Korean peninsula.
(Reuters, 4/7/13)
2013 Apr 8, Australia and China agreed to make their currencies directly exchangeable in a deal that advances internationalization of the yuan and reduces costs for companies. PM Julia Gilliard said the Australian dollar will become only the third major currency to have direct convertibility with the yuan, after the US dollar and Japanese yen.
(AP, 4/8/13)
2013 Apr 8, A Chinese steel-hulled vessel hit an atoll at the Tubbataha National Marine Park, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site on Palawan island. On April 13 Philippine authorities found inside the ship more than 10,000 kg (22,000 pounds) of meat from a protected species, the pangolin or scaly anteater. On April 19 the ship was extricated and towed to Puerto Princesa.
(AP, 4/15/13)(SSFC, 4/21/13, p.A4)
2013 Apr 9, Australia’s PM Julia Gillard capped a 6-day trip to China with the formation of a “strategic partnershnip," a commitment to hold annual talks between their leaders.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.44)
2013 Apr 10, California Gov. Jerry Brown, on a trade mission to Beijing, announced that a Chinese investor has agreed to help pay for a $1.5 billion development deal in Oakland to transform 65 acres of industrial waterfront.
(SFC, 4/11/13, p.A1)
2013 Apr 11, China reported its 10th death from H7N9 bird flu.
(SFC, 4/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Apr 13, China and the US committed to a process aimed at ridding North Korea of its nuclear weapons.
(AP, 4/13/13)
2013 Apr 13, Chinese officials said a girl (7) has died in Beijing from H7N9 bird flu, becoming the 11th victim tied to the new strain.
(SSFC, 4/14/13, p.A4)
2013 Apr 15, China signed a free-trade deal with Iceland as PM Johanna Sigurdardottir made a 6-day visit there. This was China’s first free-trade with a European nation. Some saw China’s goal as better access to shipping routes through the Arctic.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.50)
2013 Apr 16, China's defense ministry made a thinly veiled attack on the United States for increasing tensions in the Asia-Pacific by ramping up its military presence and alliances in the region.
(Reuters, 4/16/13)
2013 Apr 17, A Chinese factory fishing ship caught fire just off the coast of Antarctica and 97 crew members were rescued by a nearby Norwegian vessel as Chile's military mobilized to prevent any environmental damage.
(AP, 4/18/13)
2013 Apr 18, Scientists reported the discovery of a cache of dinosaur embryos in southern China. The bed of lufengosaurus bones dated to the early Jurassic, about 190-197 million years ago.
(SFC, 4/19/13, p.D7)
2013 Apr 19, The US's annual global human rights report was issued by the State Department. It said China had imposed new registration requirements to prevent groups from emerging that might challenge government authority.
(AP, 4/21/13)
2013 Apr 20, In China a powerful earthquake struck the steep hills of Lushan county, Sichuan province, leaving at least 188 people dead and more than 11,000 injured.
(AP, 4/21/13)(AP, 4/22/13)
2013 Apr 21, China slammed the human rights record of the US in response to Washington's April 19 report on rights around the world, saying that US military operations have infringed on rights abroad and that political donations at home have thwarted the country's democracy.
(AP, 4/21/13)
2013 Apr 21, Stephen A. Schwarzman, founder of the private equity firm Blackstone, said he would give $100 million as a personal gift and raise another $200 million to endow the Schwarzman Scholars program at Beijing's Tsinghua University.
(AP, 4/21/13)
2013 Apr 21, The Chinese factory fishing ship Kai Xin, that burned last week off Antarctica, sank without anyone on board.
(AP, 4/23/13)
2013 Apr 23, Chinese marine surveillance vessels drove away Japanese nationalists who had entered the waters of the Diaoyu Islands.
(SSFC, 4/28/13, p.A4)
2013 Apr 23, In China Jia Jiuxiang, vice president of the Sanmenxia City Intermediate People's Court in Henan province, died under mysterious circumstances, his body bruised after 11 days in the custody of anti-graft investigators of the ruling Communist Party.
(AP, 4/24/13)
2013 Apr 23, In northwestern China a violent clash between authorities and assailants described as a terrorist gang left 21 people dead near Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Local sources said that police sparked the incident by shooting a Uighur youth during an illegal search of homes.
(AP, 4/24/13)(Econ, 5/25/13, p.45)
2013 Apr, China said it will open the Paracel Islands to tourists. China had expelled Vietnam from the islands in 1974. A representative from the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry’s National Boundary Commission gave a diplomatic note to a representative of the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi demanding that China cancel its plan to bring tourists to the Paracel archipelago.
(Econ, 4/13/13, p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracel_Islands)
2013 Apr, In China’s Yu Qiyi (42), chief engineer of a state-owned company in the eastern city of Wenzhou, died after he was allegedly stripped naked and held down in a bathtub by investigators as they attempted to extort a confession to corruption. State media reported his death on Sep 4. On Sep 30 a court in the city of Quzhou sentenced six Communist Party officials to between four and 14 years in jail for the death of Qiyi.
(AFP, 9/4/13)(Reuters, 10/14/13)
2013 May 1, Indian officials said that for two weeks Chinese soldiers have moved into the barren Depsang Valley in the Ladakh region and refused to move back over the so-called Line of Actual Control, that divides Indian-ruled territory from Chinese-run land, leaving India on the verge of a crisis with China.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, China’s Ministry of Public Security said police have broken a crime ring that passed off more than $1 million in rat and small mammal meat as mutton.
(Reuters, 5/2/13)
2013 May 5, North Koreans seized a Chinese fishing boat in what the boat owner maintained were Chinese waters. The gun-toting North Koreans demanded a 600,000 yuan ($100,000) ransom.
(AP, 5/20/13)
2013 May 6, China’s Pres. Xi Jinping met with Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing and urged dialogue in Middle East peace negotiations.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.52)
2013 May 6, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu met with his security Cabinet and then departed to China for a scheduled visit.
(AP, 5/6/13)
2013 May 7, In China Premier Li Keqiang and Pres. Xi Jinping met for talks in Beijing with Israel’s PM Netanyahu.
(SFC, 5/8/13, p.A6)
2013 May 7, The Bank of China said it has issued a bank account closing notice to North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank.
(SFC, 5/8/13, p.A3)
2013 May 9, Chinese officials said film director Zhang Yimou is being investigated for a potential violation of family planning laws. He reportedly has fathered up to 7 children with 4 women.
(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A7)
2013 May 10, The official China Internet Network Information Center explained in state media reports that a microblog belonging to He Bing, liberal professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, had been suspended because he was "intentionally spreading rumors."
(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 May 10, In China 12 miners were killed in a coal mine blast in Guizhou province.
(SFC, 5/13/13, p.A2)
2013 May 11, In China 28 miners were killed in a coal mine blast in Sichuan province.
(SFC, 5/13/13, p.A2)
2013 May 12, China’s ruling Communist Party's disciplinary agency said in a one-sentence statement on its website that Liu Tienan, deputy head of the Cabinet's National Development and Reform Commission, is being investigated for "suspected serious disciplinary violations." On Aug 8 the party’s antigraft agency said that an investigation had found Liu took bribes and abused his power. He was expelled from the CP and faced prosecution.
(AP, 5/12/13)(SFC, 8/9/13, p.A2)
2013 May 13, In China several rights lawyers attempting to visit one of the unofficial detention centers — also known as "black jails" — in the southwestern city of Ziyang were beaten by unidentified men.
(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 May 15, The Arctic Council, meeting in Sweden, agreed to expand membership and provide observer status to 6 new nations including China, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
(SFC, 5/16/13, p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Council)
2013 May 16, In southern China more than 2,000 people unfurled banners in Kunming and shouted "Protest! Protest!" to oppose plans for a petroleum refinery. Local authorities allowed the large environmental rally to go forward in order to let the public vent frustration.
(AP, 5/16/13)
2013 May 19, China's new Premier Li Keqiang visited India on his first foreign trip as the neighboring giants look to speed up efforts to settle a decades-old boundary dispute and boost economic ties.
(AP, 5/19/13)
2013 May 20, It was reported that a businesswoman in southern China has been sentenced to death on charges of defrauding investors. Lin Haiyan was convicted of "illegal fundraising" for collecting 640 million yuan ($100 million) from investors by promising high returns and low risk, according to a statement by the Intermediate People's Court in Wenzhou. It said the scheme collapsed in October 2011 and 428 million yuan could not be recovered.
(AP, 5/20/13)
2013 May 20, New Zealand PM John Key said a frozen meat issue is a technical hiccup that he expects will be resolved this week. Hundreds of tons of frozen mutton, lamb and beef from New Zealand have been stranded for 2-3 weeks on Chinese docks after China halted their import due to a certification dispute.
(AP, 5/20/13)
2013 May 21, Chinese boat owner Yu Xuejun said gunmen wearing North Korean military uniforms released his fishing boat after holding its crew since May 5, beating up the captain and stealing the vessel's fuel. He added that the hijackers did not get the 600,000 yuan ($100,000) ransom they had demanded.
(AP, 5/21/13)
2013 May 21, In India Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told Indian business leaders that developing stronger economic ties between their two nations would have huge benefits for both sides.
(AP, 5/21/13)
2013 May 22, China's Premier Li Keqiang began a two-day visit to Pakistan by praising the relationship between the two Asian powers in glowing terms.
(AP, 5/22/13)
2013 May 24, North Korean Vice Marshal Choe Ryong Hae delivered a letter from leader Kim Jong Un to Chinese President Xi Jinping and told him Pyongyang would take steps to rejoin stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, in an apparent victory for Beijing's efforts to coax its unruly ally into lowering tensions.
(AP, 5/24/13)
2013 May 27, Australian Broadcasting Corp. television reported that the plans for the 630 million Australian dollar ($608 million) Australian Security Intelligence Organization building had been stolen through a cyberattack by Chinese hackers on a building contractor.
(AP, 5/28/13)
2013 May 27, A US report said Chinese hackers have gained access to designs of more than two dozen major US weapons systems.
(Reuters, 5/28/13)(Econ, 6/8/13, p.50)
2013 May 29, In China Sri Lanka’s Pres. Mahinda Rajapaksa met with Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing. Loans and declarations of profound friendship were secured.
(Econ, 6/8/13, p.63)
2013 May 29, It was reported that Wan Long, chairman of China’s Shuanghui International has made a 4.7 billion bid for Virginia-based meatpacker Smithfield Foods. The purchase was endorsed by Smithfield's board but still require approval from shareholders and US regulators.
(AP, 5/31/13)(http://tinyurl.com/k4sdobs)(Econ, 6/8/13, p.38)
2013 May 31, China’s President Xi arrived for a state visit to the twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, a leading supplier of natural gas. Xi planned to seek to deepen trade and investment in energy when he meets with Trinidadian PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
(AP, 5/31/13)
2013 Jun 2, China’s President Xi Jinping arrived in Costa Rica, the only country in Central America to have diplomatic relations with China.
(AP, 6/2/13)
2013 Jun 2, In China Chen Xitong, who as Beijing's mayor backed the military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democratic movement but later expressed regret for the loss of life, died days before the 24th anniversary of the crackdown.
(AP, 6/4/13)
2013 Jun 3, In northeastern China a fire raged through a poultry plant in Jilin province's Mishazi township, trapping workers inside a cluttered slaughterhouse and killing 121 people. On Dec 26, 2014, two fire chiefs and two poultry farm bosses were convicted and sentenced to prison terms of up to nine years.
(AP, 6/3/13)(AP, 12/27/14)
2013 Jun 4, The European Union said it is imposing anti-dumping levies on imports of Chinese solar panels. The 27-country bloc will impose a tariff of about 12% immediately. It will increase that to 47% starting in August.
(AP, 6/4/13)
2013 Jun 5, Nicaragua’s National Assembly president said a concession to build a canal linking the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea will be awarded to a Chinese company. The government planned to grant the Chinese company a concession for 100 years.
(AP, 6/5/13)
2013 Jun 6, Ghana's immigration service said 161 Chinese nationals, who were arrested for illegal gold mining this week, will be deported to China.
(AP, 6/7/13)
2013 Jun 7, In China a fire ripped through the bus as it traveled on an elevated road in Xiamen during evening rush, killing 47 people, including Chen Shuizong, and injuring 34. Police identified Shuizong (b.1954) as the person responsible saying he was unhappy with life and set the fire to vent his anger.
(AP, 6/8/13)
2013 Jun 7, Pres. Obama welcomed China’s Pres. Xi Jinping as he arrived in southern California for a 2-day summit.
(SFC, 6/8/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 9, In China Liu Zhijun (60), who oversaw the ministry's high-profile bullet train development, wept as he admitted his guilt and sought leniency at his trial on corruption charges.
(AP, 6/9/13)
2013 Jun 9, A Chinese court sentenced the brother-in-law of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison — an unusually harsh punishment for a business dispute that the activist's wife immediately decried as a vendetta against the whole family.
(AP, 6/9/13)
2013 Jun 13, China’s state media reported that automated controls guided the Shenzhou 10 space capsule in its successful docking with the Tiangong-1 space lab. The astronauts will enter the module next week to conduct experiments during their 12-day mission.
(AP, 6/13/13)(SFC, 6/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 19, China’s Communist Party newspapers and websites proclaimed that Pres. Xi will fight "formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance." Xi commanded wayward cadres to purify themselves of corruption and summed it up in a pithy slogan: “Look in the mirror, take a bath."
(AP, 6/19/13)
2013 Jun 19, Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group said it would spend $1.6 billion (1 billion pounds) to buy British yacht maker Sunseeker and develop an upmarket London hotel, the latest example of a trend for Chinese companies to acquire top luxury global brands.
(AP, 6/19/13)
2013 Jun 19, Vietnam’s Pres. Truong Tan Sang left Hanoi to pay his first state visit to China as President. The two countries signed a new strategic partnership during the visit.
(http://tinyurl.com/k69vwr7)(Econ, 10/19/13, p.49)
2013 Jun 22, In China Fan Jiemin (62) shot to death 5 people and killed another with a tool at a chemical plant in Shanghai. The plant had been closed over pollution complaints.
(http://english.caixin.com/2013-06-24/100545440.html)
2013 Jun 23, The WHO said the new H7N9 strain of bird flu in China has killed 37 people with more than 130 sickened.
(SFC, 6/24/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 24, American executive Chip Starnes (42) said he has been held hostage for four days at his medical supply plant in Beijing by scores of workers demanding severance packages like those given to 30 co-workers in a phased-out department. Starnes left the Beijing factory on June 27 after he and a labor representative said the two sides had reached agreement in a pay dispute.
(AP, 6/24/13)(AP, 6/27/13)
2013 Jun 26, In China assailants attacked police and other people with knives and set fire to police cars in the restive far-western Xinjiang region killing 17 people including 9 police or security officials. Officers shot and killed 10 of the assailants in Lukqun, Turpan prefecture.
(AP, 6/26/13)
2013 Jun 26, A Chinese space capsule landed safely in Inner Mongolia with 3 astronauts after a 15-day trip to a prototype space station.
(SFC, 6/27/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 27, In China Pres. Xi Jinping and South Korean Pres. Park Geun-hye called for a swift resumption of six-nation North Korean nuclear disarmament talks after a summit that brought together Pyongyang's archrival and its biggest ally.
(AP, 6/27/13)
2013 Jun 28, In Hotan, China, a city in Xinjiang, violence erupted for the second time in three days, barely hours after the government called the earlier unrest a "terrorist attack" and raised the death toll to 35.
(AP, 6/28/13)
2013 Jun 29, China's state media warned that a "counterstrike" against the Philippines was inevitable if it continues to provoke Beijing in the South China Sea, potentially Asia's biggest military trouble spot.
(Reuters, 6/29/13)
2013 Jun 29, Chinese state media said more than a hundred people, riding motorbikes and wielding knives, attacked a Hotan police station in the ethnically divided western region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 6/30/13)
2013 Jun 30, Chinese paramilitary troops began round-the-clock patrols in the country's northwestern region of Xinjiang following a series of bloody clashes that have killed at least 56 people over the last several months. State media blamed religious extremists.
(AP, 6/30/13)(Reuters, 6/30/13)
2013 Jun, In China the mammoth New Century Global Center, the world’s largest building, opened in the southwestern city of Chengdu with 1.7 million square meters (19 million square feet) of floor space (about 329 football fields) edging out the previous record-holder, the Dubai airport.
(AP, 7/12/13)
2013 Jun, China unveiled a series of reforms to restrict air pollution. Companies as well as government planned to spend $275 billion over the next five years cleaning up the air.
(Econ, 8/10/13, p.18)
2013 Jun, In China an algae called Enteromorpha prolifera again engulfed the coast around Qingdao covering an area of nearly 11,500 square miles.
(SFC, 7/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Jul 1, In Hong Kong tens of thousands took to the streets in protest, demanding their widely disliked Beijing-backed leader resign and pressing for promised democratic reforms so they can choose their own top representative. The annual protest march has become increasingly popular in recent years.
(AP, 7/1/13)
2013 Jul 2, China announced rewards of up to 100,000 yuan ($16,000) for information leading the arrest of those responsible for the deadliest violence in four years in the vast far-western region of Xinjiang, dominated by Muslim Uighurs.
(Reuters, 7/2/13)
2013 Jul 6, Chinese police opened fire on a crowd of Tibetans celebrating the birthday of the Dalai Lama in Sichuan province. 9 people were injured.
(SFC, 7/10/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 8, China handed down a suspended death sentence on a former railways minister for corruption, a case seen as a test of President Xi Jinping's resolve to crack down on pervasive graft.
(Reuters, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 9, In western China rescuers in Sichuan province pulled 3 people from a raging river following the collapse of the Qinglian bridge amid heavy flooding that has forced thousands to evacuate their homes. The two-lane bridge was built in 1967 and a replacement span was under construction. At least 12 workers were killed when a rainstorm caused the collapse of an unfinished coal mine workshop they were building in Jinzhong.
(AP, 7/9/13)(AP, 7/10/13)
2013 Jul 10, In China Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over the signing of accords between their governments to facilitate $1.1 billion in low-interest loans for much-needed infrastructure in Nigeria.
(AP, 7/10/13)
2013 Jul 10, Flooding in western China triggered a landslide that killed at least 18 people with 107 missing in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province. More than 2,000 people were rescued after being trapped for several hours in a highway tunnel between Dujiangyan and Wenchuan. By the end of the week the toll of dead and missing climbed beyond 200.
(AP, 7/10/13)(AP, 7/11/13)(Reuters, 7/12/13)
2013 Jul 10, Chinese archaeologists said they have discovered some of the world's oldest known primitive writing, dating back 5,000 years, in eastern China, and some of the markings etched on broken axes resemble a modern Chinese character.
(AP, 7/10/13)
2013 Jul 11, China's police ministry accused executives of pharmaceutical supplier GlaxoSmithKline of conducting a large, long-running bribery campaign to persuade doctors to prescribe drugs.
(AP, 7/11/13)
2013 Jul 12, In China hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Jiangmen, Guangdong province, demanding that a project for a uranium processing plant be scrapped. The next day plans for the plant were abruptly canceled.
(Reuters, 7/13/13)(SFC, 7/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 15, In China the Hunan Provincial People's High Court ruled in favor of Tang Hui, who last year was sentenced to 18 months in a labor camp for petitioning for harsher penalties for the men who abducted, raped and prostituted her 11-year-old daughter.
(AP, 7/15/13)
2013 Jul 16, Chinese authorities detained Xu Zhiyong, a well-known rights lawyer, in a move activists described as the widening of a crackdown on individuals calling for greater accountability to fight graft.
(AP, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 19, China said it is ending controls on bank lending rates in a move toward creating a market-oriented financial system to support economic growth.
(AP, 7/19/13)
2013 Jul 19, China arrested activist Yang Lin (45) on a charge of subversion. His brother and a rights group reported the arrest on Aug 11. This was the second such arrest in less than two months and the latest sign that the authorities are hardening their stance toward dissent.
(Reuters, 8/11/13)
2013 Jul 19, Wu Dengming (73), Chinese environmental activist, died. He was the founder of the Chongqing Green Volunteer League (1995).
(Econ, 8/10/13, p.78)
2013 Jul 20, In China motorcycle taxi driver Ji Zhongxing detonated a homemade bomb at Beijing's main airport after eight years of frustration trying to seek redress for an attack by city guards that left him paralyzed and in debt. On Oct 15 Zhongxing was sentenced to six years in prison.
(AP, 7/24/13)(SFC, 10/16/12, p.A2)
2013 Jul 20, China’s central bank ended all restrictions on lending rates,which previously had a floor of 70% of the PBOC benchmark rate.
(Econ, 7/27/13, p.61)
2013 Jul 22, In northwest China two earthquakes shook an arid, hilly farming area sparking landslides that destroyed or damaged thousands of brick-and-mud homes in Gansu Province. At least 95 people were killed and more than 400 injured.
(AP, 7/22/13)(AP, 7/23/13)(SSFC, 7/28/13, p.A4)
2013 Jul 23, In China a man who was told by officials they couldn't register his fourth child because he didn't pay a penalty for breaking family planning laws stabbed to death 2 government workers and injured 4 others.
(AP, 7/24/13)
2013 Jul 25, China charged disgraced senior politician Bo Xilai with bribery, abuse of power and corruption, paving the way for a potentially divisive trial that President Xi Jinping will want smoothly handled as he pushes major economic reforms.
(Reuters, 7/25/13)
2013 Jul 27, China and the EU announced a truce on solar panel and related component tariffs. The EU planned to set a minimum sales price and a quota. An August 8 deadline loomed on the dispute.
(Econ, 8/3/13, p.36)
2013 Jul 29, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said it has switched on a pipeline bringing natural gas from Myanmar. The project has raised concerns in Myanmar's nascent civil society about whether its giant neighbor's resource grabs will benefit local people.
(AP, 7/29/13)
2013 Jul 30, In China Japan's top career diplomat met China's foreign minister in the latest bid to ease strains between Asia's two biggest economies over a bitter territorial row. A Chinese official newspaper said Beijing had ruled out a leaders' summit.
(Reuters, 7/30/13)
2013 Aug 1, Chinese authorities declared a “level 2" weather emergency as temperatures climbed to at least 140 degrees in some parts of the country. Shanghai counted at least 10 people dead from heatstroke over the last month and measured a 28th day above 95 degrees.
(SFC, 8/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 6, In China a panel of the Shanghai Communist Party Committee said that three Shanghai Supreme Court officials had "participated in prostitution" after being invited to dinner. A fourth court official had accepted female companionship but did not take a woman to a room. A whistleblower had filed a police complaint in April, but "the case went nowhere" and he therefore decided to post the video online instead of going to the police again. His case triggered the investigation.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, China fined six companies, including Mead Johnson Nutrition Co, Danone and New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, a total of $110 million following an investigation into price fixing and anti-competitive practices by foreign baby formula makers.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 8, In Afghanistan 3 Chinese citizens, 2 men and a woman, were murdered in an apartment in Kabul. One Afghan man was also found dead. One Chinese citizen remained missing.
(Reuters, 8/10/13)(AP, 8/11/13)
2013 Aug 10, Spain’s Interior Ministry said that 75 people have been arrested in a joint operation by Spanish and French police. They included 51 in Spain and 24 in France. Two Barcelona-based suspected heads of the gang, that allegedly smuggled Chinese citizens into Europe and the United States, were among those arrested.
(AP, 8/10/13)
2013 Aug 12, In China the Xinjiang government said a court has sentenced two people to death and another to life imprisonment over deadly violence last April. Two defendants were given 9-year jail sentences.
(Reuters, 8/12/13)
2013 Aug 14, Typhoon Utor struck the south coast of China, forcing airlines to cancel flights and halting stock exchange trading in the financial center of Hong Kong after leaving a trail of destruction in the Philippines.
(Reuters, 8/14/13)
2013 Aug 18, China’s Xinhua News Agency said 12 deaths reported in Liaoning province. That added to a total of 25 deaths reported earlier in Heilongjiang and Jilin, the other two provinces in China's northeast. In the south, six people were reported were killed by flooding and landslides in Guangdong province.
(AP, 8/18/13)
2013 Aug 20, A Chinese policeman was killed in an "anti-terrorism" operation in the restive region of Xinjiang. Overseas reports said 22 Uighurs were shot dead.
(AFP, 8/29/13)
2013 Aug 23, Chinese security forces killed at least 12 men and wounded 20 others during a raid on an alleged terrorist facility in Jigdejay village near Kashgar in the far western Xinjiang region.
(SFC, 9/19/13, p.A4)
2013 Aug 25, China was hit by the "largest ever" attack on its Internet structure, crashing the country's .cn servers.
(AFP, 8/26/13)
2013 Aug 26, China announced that Wang Yongchun, the deputy general manager of China Nat’l. Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), was under investigation for “severe discipline violations."
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.48)
2013 Aug 26, Chinese media said the Amur River, which marks the border between China and Russia, has experienced its worst flooding in a century, cutting off roads to some areas.
(AP, 8/26/13)
2013 Aug 28, In China Li Tianyi (17), the teenage son of a prominent Chinese general, denied the charge of gang rape, inflaming public anger in a case that has stirred resentment against the offspring of the political elite who are widely seen as spoiled. In 2011 he drove a BMW into another car in Beijing, beat up the couple inside the vehicle and then scoffed at bystanders about calling the police. Tianyi was one of five accused of assaulting a woman in a Beijing hotel in February. On Sep 26 a court sentenced Tianyi to 10 years in prison for his role in the rape. Two juvenile accomplices, who pleaded guilty, were given suspended sentences and released.
(Reuters, 8/28/13)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.53)
2013 Aug 28, In China Hong Xiaorou (4) was killed in Fujian province when a bulldozer hit her despite her grandmother screaming for the vehicle to stop as her family resisted a land grab. Authorities said Hong's death was an accident and that they had detained those responsible.
(Reuters, 8/29/13)
2013 Aug 30, Chinese official Yang Dacai, former head of the work safety administration in Shaanxi province, went on trial for corruption. His penchant for luxury watches sparked outrage after he was pictured smiling at the scene of a fatal accident. On Sep 5 Dacai was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
(AFP, 8/30/13)(Reuters, 9/5/13)
2013 Aug 31, In China a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit a remote part of Yunnan province near the popular tourist area of Shangri-La, killing 5 people and injuring 24 more.
(AFP, 8/31/13)
2013 Aug, China issued a secret directive known as Document Number Nine that spoke of the threat posed by ideas such as universal values, civil society and press freedom.
(http://tinyurl.com/lxt9a2y)(Econ., 2/28/15, p.37)
2013 Sep 1, China announced investigation proceedings for Jiang Jiemin, the government minister responsible for state owned assets, for “discipline violations," a party euphemism for corruption.
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.47)
2013 Sep 2, In China people began noticing dead fish along a 19-mile stretch of the Fuhe River in Hubei province. High levels of ammonia pollution from a plant owned by the Hubei Shuanghuan Science and Technology Co. was blamed.
(SFC, 9/5/13, p.A7)
2013 Sep 9, China charged well-known businesswoman Ding Shumiao (58), who has ties to a disgraced former railways minister, with bribery and illegal business activities.
(Reuters, 9/9/13)
2013 Sep 9, China unveiled tough measures to stop the spread of what the government calls irresponsible rumors, threatening three years in jail if untrue posts online are widely reposted, drawing an angry response from Chinese internet users.
(Reuters, 9/9/13)
2013 Sep 9, In southern China an explosion outside a primary school in Guilin, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, killed two people and injured 44 others, most of them schoolchildren. The blast occurred as a man riding a motorcycle passed the school gate while children were arriving for classes.
(AFP, 9/9/13)
2013 Sep 12, China's government said it will protect from retribution and attacks people who use the internet to report corruption, but only those who use an officially sanctioned website to do so.
(Reuters, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 12, A court in China's far western region of Xinjiang sentenced three ethnic Uighurs to death for acts of "violent terrorism", including murder and being part of a terrorist organization.
(Reuters, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 18, China’s state media said China will crack down on penalties paid by families flouting strict family planning rules after a National Audit Office probe found $260 million in fines had been levied illegally.
(Reuters, 9/18/13)
2013 Sep 22, China and Venezuela signed several finance and development agreements during a visit to Beijing by Pres. Nicolas Maduro.
(SFC, 9/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep 22, Wang Jianlin, the head of Chinese multinational Dalian Wanda, announced plans to build a $50 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) entertainment complex in Qingdao.
(Econ, 9/28/13, p.63)
2013 Sep 22, Severe Typhoon Usagi left 2 dead as it made landfall in southern China shutting down one of the world's busiest sea ports in nearby Hong Kong and throwing flight schedules into disarray.
(AP, 9/22/13)
2013 Sep 23, In Chinese officials said Typhoon Usagi has killed 25 people in the southern province of Guangdong, 13 of them in the city of Shanwei.
(AP, 9/23/13)
2013 Sep 24, China published a list that included military-like hardware and chemical substances that would be banned from export to North Korea for fear they could be used in the construction of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
(SFC, 9/25/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep 25, In China Xia Junfeng (36), who sold grilled meat skewers in the northern city of Shenyang, was put to death in a highly controversial case in a country that executes thousands each year. Xia had said he stabbed two officials to death in self-defense after they beat him with their fists and an iron mug.
(Reuters, 9/25/13)
2013 Sep 26, In China the teenage son of two celebrity singers for the Chinese military was convicted of rape and sentenced to 10 years in prison, in a case the public closely watched for signs of leniency because of his family ties.
(AP, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 26, Dubai said that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with China Sonangol to build a crude oil refinery aimed at meeting rising domestic demand.
(AFP, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 27, A Uganda official said China's state-owned CNOOC has secured a $2-billion deal to develop a petroleum field in Uganda and help propel the east African nation into the club of oil-producing countries.
(AFP, 9/27/13)
2013 Sep 28, China’s Ministry of Public Security said police have rescued 92 abducted children and detained 301 suspects in the latest operation to crack down on child trafficking.
(SSFC, 9/29/13, p.A7)
2013 Sep 29, China’s Shanghai Free Trade Zone (SFTZ) was launched.
(Econ, 10/5/13, p.49)
2013 Sep 30, Tropical storm Wutip lashed central Vietnam after sinking at least two Chinese fishing boats near the Paracel Islands, leaving 75 fishermen missing.
(AP, 9/30/13)
2013 Sep 30, In China a disused factory building collapsed burying 16 construction workers in Wuan city, Hebei province.
(SFC, 10/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Oct 3, China’s state media said swarms of hornets have killed 42 people in the northwest in recent months. Hua Baozhen, a professor of entomology at Northwest Agriculture Forestry University, attributed the attacks mostly to a decrease in the number of the hornets' natural enemies, such as spiders and birds, due to ecological changes.
(AFP, 10/3/13)
2013 Oct 4, China and Malaysia agreed elevate bilateral ties to a "comprehensive strategic partnership", aiming to boost military cooperation and nearly triple two-way trade to $160 billion by 2017.
(Reuters, 10/4/13)
2013 Oct 6, In China about 60 people were injured when security forces fired into a crowd of Tibetan residents who were demanding the release of a fellow villager detained for protesting orders to display the national flag. Police also fired tear gas at those protesting in Biru county in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
(AP, 10/8/13)
2013 Oct 7, Typhoon Fitow barrelled into China's east coast, packing winds of more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) an hour, after hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated and bullet train services were suspended.
(AFP, 10/7/13)
2013 Oct 8, In China Akong Tulku Rinpoche, a prominent monk who fled Tibet in 1959 and co-founded the West's first Tibetan monastery (Samye Ling in Scotland), was killed along with two other people in Chengdu. Police said three Tibetan men visited a house where the trio were staying and stabbed them to death in an argument over money.
(AFP, 10/9/13)
2013 Oct 9, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called for a South China Sea of "peace, friendship and cooperation" as he extended a hand in Brunei to APEC leaders wary of Beijing's territorial claims in the strategic waters.
(AFP, 10/9/13)
2013 Oct 13, China’s PM Li Keqiang arrived in Vietnam for a 3-day visit.
(Econ, 10/19/13, p.49)
2013 Oct 13, Companies involved in a $1.27 billion project to develop a business district around Britain’s Manchester airpor announced that Chinese construction giant Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG) has signed a deal with British firms to develop the area.
(AFP, 10/13/13)
2013 Oct 14, China said it would give rewards amounting to 5 billion yuan ($816.91 million) for curbing air pollution in six regions where the problem is serious, underscoring government concern about a source of public anger.
(Reuters, 10/14/13)
2013 Oct 15, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborn, announced a deal with China intended to make Britain the main offshore hub for trading in China’s currency and bonds and for foreign institutions investing in China. In exchange China’s banks would be allowed to enter Britain as branches of the their parents rather than as subsidiaries.
(Econ, 10/19/13, p.62)
2013 Oct 16, Chinese state media reported that an Australian tourist and 3 Tibetans died in an avalanche on Mt. Everest.
(SFC, 10/16/12, p.A2)
2013 Oct 18, In China Professor Xia Yeliang (53), a liberal economist who had been an outspoken critic of China's ruling Communist Party, was told that professors and school leaders had voted to end his contract. He had drawn the ire of school officials for his blog posts calling for democratic reforms and rule of law in China. Yeliang was a signatory to Charter 08, a 2008 petition calling for sweeping political change.
(Reuters, 10/18/13)(Econ, 2/15/14, p.40)
2013 Oct 18, Swiss customs agents said they have seized one million fake tablets of anti-anxiety drug Xanax at the Zurich airport, which were destined for Egypt. The counterfeit tablets, packed in four crates and weighing 400kg, had originated in China, according to Swissmedic, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products.
(AFP, 10/18/13)
2013 Oct 21, A disciplinary body of China’s Communist Party said anti-graft authorities have punished 8 people at a state-owned rail construction firm for spending more than $100 million on hospitality last year.
(Reuters, 10/21/13)
2013 Oct 21, In China visibility shrank to less than half a football field and small-particle pollution soared to a record 40 times higher than an international safety standard in the northern city of Harbin as the region entered its high-smog season.
(AP, 10/21/13)
2013 Oct 22, Chinese state media reported that China has convicted nearly 150,000 people for corruption since 2008, citing figures from the state prosecutor which underlined the scale of graft in the country.
(Reuters, 10/22/13)
2013 Oct 22, Western countries accused China of arresting activists, curbing Internet use and suppressing ethnic minorities, as the United Nations formally reviewed its rights record for the first time since Xi Jinping became president.
(Reuters, 10/22/13)
2013 Oct 23, In Beijing China’s PM Li Keqiang and India’s PM Manmohan Singh sounded a new optimistic tone in their relationship as they oversaw the signing of 9 agreements including a Defense Cooperation Agreement.
(AP, 10/23/13)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.47)
2013 Oct 23, Wang Qishan, China's top official battling deeply-ingrained corruption, warned staff their jobs were on the line if they failed to root out abuses, telling them to "shock and awe" their targets.
(Reuters, 10/23/13)
2013 Oct 23, China’s state-run New Express tabloid printed a front-page commentary begging police in the south-central city of Changsha to set reporter Chen Yongzhou free under the headline: "Please release him." Chen was detained after writing more than a dozen stories criticizing the finances of Zoomlion, a major state-owned construction equipment maker.
(Reuters, 10/23/13)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.54)
2013 Oct 23, Chinese police officers were injured in clashes with villagers in southwestern Yunnan province. Some 200 residents in Guangji village near the provincial capital Kunming stopped 11 officers on a highway after police had summoned two people a day earlier for alleged crimes.
(Reuters, 10/23/13)
2013 Oct 23, In China 2 children were killed and another four injured after a wall at their primary school collapsed in Yunnan province.
(AFP, 10/24/13)
2013 Oct 25, In China ousted politician Bo Xilai lost his appeal against a life sentence for corruption in his final public appearance before prison.
(AP, 10/25/13)
2013 Oct 27, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe warned China against forcibly changing the regional balance of power, as reports said Tokyo had scrambled fighter jets in response to Chinese military aircraft flying near Okinawa.
(AFP, 10/27/13)
2013 Oct 28, In China a sport utility vehicle plowed through a crowd in Tiananmen Square before crashing and catching fire, killing the 3 occupants and 2 tourists and injuring 38 visitors and security officers. The SUV was driven by Usmen Hasan, a man whose name suggested he is an ethnic Uighur. His wife and mother were also with him in the car, along with devices filled with gasoline. China blamed the attack on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Eight people connected with the incident were soon arrested with help from the Xinjiang government.
(AP, 10/28/13)(Reuters, 10/29/13)(AP, 10/30/13)(Econ, 11/9/13, p.50)(SSFC, 6/1/14, p.A5)
2013 Oct 28, Chinese pianist Lang Lang (31) became a UN messenger of Peace.
(SFC, 10/30/13, p.F4)
2013 Oct 29, Niger said it has accepted a controversial $1 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) to finance development projects.
(AFP, 10/29/13)
2013 Oct 31, Chinese state media said the last county in China to be accessible by modern land transport was finally linked up to the rest of the country with a new 117-km road that has taken decades to build. The 19,000 people of deeply isolated Medog in southeastern Tibet have until now had to depend on horses for land travel and trade.
(AFP, 10/31/13)
2013 Nov 1, China jailed for life Tian Xueren, a former vice governor of the northeastern province of Jilin and former banker, for taking more than $3 million in bribes, in the government's latest move to crack down on deep-rooted corruption.
(Reuters, 11/1/13)
2013 Nov 1, In China 11 people died and 17 were injured by an explosion in a fireworks factory in Guangxi province. Police detained two people.
(AFP, 11/2/13)
2013 Nov 1, In Tasmania int’l. negotiations ended after China, Russia and Ukraine scuttled plans to create the world's largest ocean sanctuary in Antarctica. The sanctuary plans were led by the Antarctic Ocean Alliance which campaigns for protecting the Antarctic seas. For the sanctuary proposals to pass, they needed backing from all 200 delegates from 25 member countries, many of which have conflicting interests.
(Reuters, 11/1/13)(SFC, 11/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Nov 2, China, the only country that still systematically takes organs from executed prisoners for use in transplant operations, said it plans to end the controversial practice by the middle of next year.
(Reuters, 11/2/13)
2013 Nov 2, An Iranian media website said China has agreed to finance $20 billion in development projects in Iran using oil money not transferred to the Islamic Republic because of international sanctions.
(AP, 11/2/13)
2013 Nov 3, China's ruling Communist Party announced the removal of the military chief of restive Xinjiang from the region's governing council, following an Oct 28 car crash in Beijing's Tiananmen Square blamed on Islamist militants from Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 11/3/13)
2013 Nov 5, China's state media said the People's Liberation Army has discovered in a corruption probe that its troops "illicitly kept" more than 8,000 apartments and 25,000 vehicles.
(Reuters, 11/5/13)
2013 Nov 6, In China a series of bombs packed with ball bearings exploded outside a provincial headquarters of the ruling Communist Party, killing at least one person in Taiyuan, Shanxi province.
(AFP, 11/6/13)
2013 Nov 6, In China supporters of jailed politician Bo Xilai established a new political party, the Zhi Xian Party, to support the former high-ranking official who was handed a life sentence for corruption in September.
(AFP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 7, China’s state media said China will provide a concessionary loan of up to $1 billion to Pacific island nations to support construction projects in a part of the world where Beijing and Taiwan compete for influence. Vice Premier Wang Yang had made the announcement at a forum with Pacific island nations in Guangzhou. The meeting was attended by representatives from Micronesia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Niue and Fiji.
(Reuters, 11/8/13)
2013 Nov 9, China's ruling Communist Party began its Third Plenum, a key 4-day meeting to dictate the direction of the world's second-biggest economy for the next decade.
(AFP, 11/9/13)
2013 Nov 12, China's Communist Party promised to deepen economic reforms to give the market a "decisive" role in allocating resources at the end of a closely-watched meeting. A document on reforms was approved but not made public until Nov 15.
(AFP, 11/12/13)(Econ, 11/23/13, p.47)
2013 Nov 12, China, Cuba, Russia and Saudi Arabia won seats on the UN Human Rights Council, despite fierce international criticism of their records.
(AFP, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 12, The Sao Tome government and Chinese representatives signed an agreement to open a trade mission to promote projects in Sao Tome and Principe, 16 years after it broke off relations over the tiny Central African island nation's diplomatic recognition of Taiwan.
(Reuters, 11/14/13)
2013 Nov 15, The final overview of China’s “third plenum" was published. China’s ruling Communist Party said it will loosen family planning rules that limit many couples to a single child in the first substantial change to the unpopular policy in nearly three decades, as leaders seek to address a rapidly aging population. It also said the country's much-criticized labor camp system would be abolished. Leaders pledged to open state-dominated industries wider to private competition and ease limits on foreign investment in e-commerce and other businesses in a sweeping reform plan aimed at rejuvenating a slowing economy.
(AP, 11/15/13)(Econ, 11/23/13, p.16)
2013 Nov 15, Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said China will build power plants in Yemen with total output capacity of 5,000 megawatts and expand the Arab country's main container ports.
(Reuters, 11/16/13)
2013 Nov 16, In China 9 attackers and 2 auxiliary police officers were killed in an attack on a police station in Serikbuya township, near the historic Silk Road city of Kashgar, Xinjiang province. The clash reportedly erupted after a Uighur youth was shot dead, with 8 others subsequently being killed.
(AFP, 11/17/13)
2013 Nov 19, Spain's National Court said it has issued arrest orders for former Chinese president Jiang Zemin and four other Chinese officials as part of a probe into alleged genocide by China against Tibet.
(AP, 11/19/13)
2013 Nov 20, China confirmed the deployment of a state-of-the-art hospital ship to the Philippines following foreign and domestic criticism that it was slow and less than generous in its response to one of the world's biggest typhoons, which killed at least 4,000 people.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Animal rights group PETA urged shoppers to boycott products made from angora rabbit fur, after it released footage of fur being plucked from the skins of live rabbits on Chinese farms.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 21, China’s highest court issued demands that judges bar confessions abtained through torture and avoid the death penalty when the evidence is shaky.
(SFC, 11/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Nov 22, In China an oil pipeline exploded in the coastal city of Qingdao killing 47 people.
(AFP, 11/22/13)(Reuters, 11/23/13)
2013 Nov 23, China declared an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) bolstering its claim to islands that Japan says it owns. The zone also included a reef know as Ieodo, claimed by China and South Korea. China warned that it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly in airspace over them.
(Reuters, 11/23/13)(Econ, 11/30/13, p.12)(Econ, 12/7/13, p.42)
2013 Nov 24, Japan warned of the danger of "unpredictable events" and South Korea voiced regret following China's unilateral declaration of an air defence zone over areas claimed by Tokyo and Seoul.
(AFP, 11/24/13)
2013 Nov 26, In China the Xinjiang Daily reported that students in western Xinjiang region will not graduate unless their political views are approved, as the country wages what school administrators called an ideological war against separatism.
(Reuters, 11/26/13)
2013 Nov 26, Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif ceremonially broke ground on a $9.59 billion nuclear power complex to be built in Karachi with China’s help. China National Nuclear Cooperation (CNNC) promised to grant a loan of at least $6.5 billion to finance the project which will have two reactors with a capacity of 1,100 megawatts each.
(SFC, 11/27/13, p.A2)(Reuters, 12/24/13)
2013 Nov 28, Chinese media said authorities have broken up six rings that smuggled around $164 million worth of cars into the country over the past three years, including more than 80 top-end models such as BMWs and Rolls-Royces.
(Reuters, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 28, Kenya launched construction of a Chinese-funded 13.8 billion dollar (10-billion euro) flagship railway project, hoping to dramatically increase trade and boost Kenya's position as a regional economic powerhouse.
(AFP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 28, South Korean and Japanese flights through China's new maritime air defense zone added to the international defiance of rules Beijing says it has imposed in East China Sea but that neighbors and the US have vowed to ignore.
(AP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 30, China urged India not to aggravate problems on the border shared by the two nations, a day after the Indian president toured a disputed region and called it an integral part of the country.
(Reuters, 11/30/13)
2013 Nov, Chinese officials signed two agreements to import 500,000 cattle and three million pigs from Romania over the next few years.
(AP, 11/31/13)
2013 Dec 2, China government said it has punished almost 20,000 officials in the last year for breaching rules to cut down on bureaucracy as well as pomp and ceremony.
(Reuters, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 2, A producer for China's state broadcaster CCTV said that he had been fired after he criticized the network's role in a controversial crackdown on online rumors. Wang Qinglei made the statement in an open letter, which has since been scrubbed from Chinese social media.
(Reuters, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 2, Zhang Yimou (62), one of China's top movie directors, admitted having three children with his current wife, according to a studio media posting, apologising after months of speculation he broke the country's controversial family planning laws.
(AFP, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 2, China launched Chang’e-3, its first moon rover mission, the latest step in an ambitious space program seen as a symbol of its rising global stature.
(AFP, 12/2/13)(Econ, 12/7/13, p.82)
2013 Dec 3, The US voiced solidarity with Japan against China's claim to airspace over disputed islands, vowing not to tolerate the aggressive move as VP Joe Biden prepared to deliver that message personally to Beijing.
(AP, 12/3/13)
2013 Dec 4, China accused Washington of taking Japan's side in a tense clash over disputed islands in the East China Sea, underscoring rising regional friction as visiting Vice President Joe Biden met with Beijing's leaders.
(AP, 12/4/13)
2013 Dec 4, In eastern China hazardous air pollution forced schools to shut or suspend outdoor activities in at least two cities, where residents complained of the yellow skies and foul smells that are symptomatic of the country's crippling smog crisis.
(Reuters, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 4, British PM David Cameron faced demands for the return of priceless artefacts looted from Beijing in the 19th century, the last day of his visit to China.
(AFP, 12/4/13)
2013 Dec 6, In China authorities in Shanghai ordered schoolchildren indoors and a halt to construction as the city, shrouded in yellow haze, suffered its worst bouts of air pollution.
(SFC, 12/7/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 6, In China a woman died of the H10N8 strain of bird flu, the first ever reported human case of the virus.
(Reuters, 12/18/13)
2013 Dec 9, In China legal scholar Zhang Xuezhong was notified of his dismissal from East China Univ. of Political Science and Law in Shanghai after he refused to apologize for writings that championed protections guaranteed by China’s Constitution.
(SFC, 12/11/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 10, China's cabinet, the State Council, announced that it was removing 82 powers from a number of central government ministries, including the powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Environmental Protection. The Ministry of Human Resources said the retirement age, currently at 60 for men and 55 for female white collar workers, would be gradually raised.
(Reuters, 12/10/13)(SSFC, 12/15/13, p.A20)
2013 Dec 10, In China a dozen residents of Wuhan, Hubei province, drank pesticide in Beijing to protest the demolition of their homes. All 12 survived and were treated for poisoning.
(SFC, 12/12/13, p.A6)
2013 Dec 11, Chinese sources said authorities have put Zhou Yongkang, one of the most powerful politicians of the last decade, under virtual house arrest while the ruling Communist Party investigates accusations of corruption against him.
(Reuters, 12/11/13)
2013 Dec 12, US authorities said three Chinese nationals have been charged in two separate cases of trying to steal seed-technology, trade secrets under development in the United States.
(Reuters, 12/12/13)
2013 Dec 13, China formally charged Xu Zhiyong, a prominent campaigner for officials to reveal their wealth, after police accused him of breaking the law by organizing demonstrations. Zhiyong, who has also pushed for greater civil rights, was arrested in August in a case that exposed shortcomings in the government's drive against deep-rooted corruption.
(Reuters, 12/13/13)
2013 Dec 13, In western China a gas explosion at a coal mine killed 21 workers in Xinjiang region's Changji prefecture.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 14, Chinese state media said authorities have detained 1,300 people for producing and selling fake medicine as part of an intensified government crackdown.
(Reuters, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 14, China successfully carried out the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades. The Chang’E 3 deployed a small rover called Yutu (Jade Rabbit), which traveled for 114 meters befor getting stuck.
(AP, 12/14/13)(Econ., 3/14/15, p.82)
2013 Dec 14, Japan and Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN) called for freedom of the air and sea, as China's military assertiveness raises regional tensions.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 15, In China 16 people, including 2 police officers, were killed in a clash in the Xinjiang region, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority.
(AFP, 12/16/13)
2013 Dec 16, Sources said China’s Pres. Xi Jinping and other party leaders have authorized a corruption probe against Zhou Yongkang, a former head of the domestic security apparatus.
(SFC, 12/16/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 16, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the United States will boost maritime security assistance to the countries of Southeast Asia amid rising tensions with Beijing.
(AP, 12/16/13)
2013 Dec 18, China's foreign minister paid a rare visit to Israel, reflecting the burgeoning trade ties between the two countries. But the trip was clouded by fresh accusations that Israel's prime minister had compromised the global war on terrorism under heavy Chinese pressure.
(AP, 12/18/13)
2013 Dec 20, China's ruling Communist Party said it was investigating Li Dongsheng, a vice minister of public security, for alleged disciplinary violations, the latest official to be targeted in a high-profile campaign to root out corruption. state media said Cao Jianliao, a top official in Guangdong province, is being investigated for "serious discipline violations", which is often a euphemism for corruption.
(AFP, 12/20/13)(Reuters, 12/20/13)
2013 Dec 22, NY-based Tiffany & Co. said it was ordered to pay Swatch Group AG about 402 million Swiss francs ($449 million) in compensation over a contractual dispute. The Netherlands Arbitration Institute also required Tiffany to pay more than $9 million for the Swiss watchmaker's legal fees and the cost of arbitration.
(AP, 12/23/13)
2013 Dec 23, China's ruling Communist Party told the already tightly monitored state media that they should not be reporting on "wrong points of view" and instead cover positive stories that promote "socialist values."
(Reuters, 12/23/13)
2013 Dec 24, China's top legislative committee voted to abolish "re-education through labor" camps introduced more than half a century ago, saying they had served their purpose.
(AFP, 12/24/13)
2013 Dec 25, China's ruling Communist Party unveiled a five-year plan to fight pervasive graft, with particular attention on corruption that triggers protests or happens in the course of economic reforms.
(Reuters, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 25, Chinese media reported the arrest of Chu Jian, a vice president of a prestigious university, for "suspected economic problems." He was appointed in 2005 as vice president of Zhejiang University in the eastern city of Hangzhou.
(Reuters, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 27, China’s environment ministry said it will raise standards for the production of cement, batteries, leather and heavy metals as part of its efforts to cut air, water and soil pollution.
(Reuters, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 27, A Chinese court in Hunan province sentenced four municipal security officers to prison for a clash that left Deng, a watermelon seller, dead and triggered a public outcry.
(AP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 28, China formally allowed couples to have a second child if one parent is an only child, the first major easing of its 3-decade-old restrictive birth policy.
(AP, 12/28/13)
2013 Dec 28, China's national legislature voted to abolish a much-criticized penal system that allowed police to lock up people for up to four years without due process.
(AP, 12/28/13)
2013 Dec 28, Chinese state media said 512 lawmakers in Hengyang city, Huana province, have resigned after being implicated in a bribery scandal, while another 56 provincial legislators have been sacked. Xinhua said the total amount of the bribes was more than 110 million yuan ($18.1 million) and the money was used to swing the results of elections.
(Reuters, 12/28/13)
2013 Dec 29, Chinese police seized nearly three metric tons (3.3 tons) of the drug crystal methamphetamine and arrested 182 people in raids on Boshe village, Guangdong province, notorious for producing narcotics.
(Reuters, 1/2/14)(SFC, 1/4/14, p.A2)
2013 Dec 30, Chinese police shot dead eight people during a "terrorist attack" in the western region of Xinjiang, raising the death toll from violent clashes there to at least 35 since November.
(Reuters, 12/30/13)
2013 Dec 30, China published results of an August-September audit on local government liabilities. It show a total local debt of $1.8 trillion at the end of June. The addition of explicit and implict debt guarantees raised the total to $2.95 trillion, about a third of the country’s GDP.
(Econ, 1/4/14, p.32)
2013 Dec 31, In China six herders who tried to defend grazing land from expropriation by a forestry firm were sentenced in the resource-rich Inner Mongolia region. The case has sparked protests.
(Reuters, 1/5/14)
2013 Frank Dikotter authored “The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution, 1945-57."
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.80)
2013 Orville Schell and John Delury authored “Wealth and Power" China’s Long March to the Twenty-First Century."
(SSFC, 8/4/13, p.F3)
2013 The Chinese adventure film “Journey to the West" was released. It grossed over $205 million.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.105)
2014 Jan 1, China began requiring the disclosure of offshore holdings.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.35)
2014 Jan 1, In San Francisco an arson attack destroyed the main entrance of the Chinese Consulate. On Jan 3 Yan Feng (39), who lives south of the city, surrendered to police after confessing to the attack.
(SSFC, 1/5/14, p.A5)(AFP, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 2, A Chinese helicopter rescued all 52 passengers from the MV Akademik Shokalskiy Russian research ship that has been trapped in Antarctic ice since Christmas Eve after weather conditions finally cleared enough for the operation. The passengers were all transported to an Australian icebreaker in the area.
(AP, 1/2/14)
2014 Jan 5, In China worshippers at the Beida Mosque in Guyuan, Ningxia region, were handing out traditional cakes when a rush for food triggered a stampede that left 14 dead.
(AP, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 6, China destroyed about 6 tons of illegal ivory from its stockpile in an unprecedented move wildlife groups say shows growing concern about the black market trade by authorities in the world's biggest market for elephant tusks.
(AP, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 6, China, the biggest investor in South Sudan's oil industry, called for an immediate ceasefire in the world's newest state as rebel and government negotiators haggled over the scope of peace talks meant to end three weeks of fighting.
(Reuters, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 6, China temporarily lifted a 14-year-old ban on selling video game consoles, paving the way for Sony Corp, Microsoft Corp and Nintendo Co Ltd to enter the world's third largest video game market in terms of revenue.
(Reuters, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 7, A Chinese icebreaker and a Russian research vessel -- broke free from thick Antarctic ice where they had been trapped for days.
(AFP, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 8, China's foreign minister said Beijing was tackling illegal gold mining in Ghana, after hundreds of his compatriots were arrested and sent home for extracting the mineral without permission.
(AFP, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 9, Chinese officials said famed film director Zhang Yimou must pay more than $1.2 million in fines for having three children in violation of China's strict family planning rules.
(AP, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 10, China defended its new fishing restrictions in disputed waters in the South China Sea against criticism from the United States, saying the rules were in accordance with international law.
(Reuters, 1/10/14)
2014 Jan 10, The Philippines and Vietnam condemned a new Chinese law that requires foreign fishermen to seek Beijing's approval to operate in much of the South China Sea, but China's Foreign Ministry insisted it has the right do so.
(AP, 1/10/14)
2014 Jan 11, In southwest China a fire raged for nearly 10 hours and razed an ancient Tibetan town popular with tourists, burning down hundreds of buildings as fire engines were unable to get onto the narrow streets of Dukezon, part of scenic Shangri-La county in Deqen prefecture.
(AP, 1/11/14)
2014 Jan 13, In southern China an explosion at an illegal gambling hall in Kaili, Guizhou province, killed 14 people and injured seven others.
(AP, 1/13/14)
2014 Jan 14, Chinese doctor Zhang Shuxia, who abducted and sold newborn babies, was given a suspended death sentence in a case that drew widespread outrage with child trafficking a chronic problem in the country.
(AFP, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 14, In China a fire at the Dadong factory in Wenling, Zhejiang province, killed 16 people. Safety exits were blocked.
(SFC, 1/15/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 15, China's commercial capital, Shanghai, introduced emergency measures to tackle air pollution, allowing it to shut schools and order cars off the road in the case of severe smog.
(Reuters, 1/15/14)
2014 Jan 15, Chinese police detained economics Prof. Ilham Tohti, an outspoken scholar of the Turkic Uighur ethnic minority. They raided his home in Beijing, seizing computers, cellphones and even his students' thesis manuscripts. On Jan 25 Tohti was accused of leading a separatist group that advocates violence to overthrow Chinese rule in Xinjiang. In late July Tohti (44) was charged with separatism.
(AP, 1/16/14)(AP, 1/25/14)(SFC, 7/31/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 15, Chinese police in Urumqi arrested Akbar Imin, a Uighur AIDS activist, for endangering national security in the troubled far western region of Xinjiang, home to the largely Muslim Uighur people. His arrest was only made public in March.
(Reuters, 3/10/14)
2014 Jan 17, China began to implement the loosening of its controversial one-child policy as Zhejiang province announced it has made it legal for couples to have two children if one parent is an only child.
(AFP, 1/17/14)
2014 Jan 17, China called on the Philippines to meet it halfway on new Chinese fishing rules in the disputed South China Sea, adding that Beijing was always willing to make efforts to resolve such issues via talks.
(Reuters, 1/17/14)
2014 Jan 17, China announced 4 more cases of H7N9 bird flu.
(SFC, 1/18/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 21, An official Chinese newspaper said China will base a 5,000-ton civilian patrol ship on Woody Island, which China calls Sansha city, on the Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea and begin regular patrols, a move likely to add fuel to territorial disputes with neighbors.
(Reuters, 1/21/14)
2014 Jan 21, China executed a man who held six women as sex slaves in an underground prison and killed two of them, in a crime which shocked the nation. Li Hao (36) was convicted of murder and rape in Luoyang Intermediate People's Court in the central province of Henan in 2012.
(Reuters, 1/21/14)
2014 Jan 22, The Chinese government condemned a report on the wealth of the country's elite being hidden in overseas tax havens as illogical and having ulterior motives, as the government blocked websites and censored mention of the story online.
(Reuters, 1/22/14)
2014 Jan 22, The Washington-based Int’l. Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) said it has obtained documents showing the identities of nearly 22,000 owners of companies and trusts in the British Virgin Islands, Samoa and other offshore centers. It said they include the brother-in-law of China’s Pres. Xi, former Premier Wen Jiabao’s son and son-in-law and relatives of other ruling party figures.
(SFC, 1/23/14, p.A4)
2014 Jan 23, In China the parents of activist Xue Mingkai were detained in Qufu city, Shandong province. After being held for six days, Xue and his wife, Wang Shuqing, fled and sought protection at a local prosecutor's office but were caught and separated. Days later, Wang was informed by authorities that her husband was dead. Authorities said he had killed himself by jumping from the fourth floor of a prosecutor's building. Many people suspected murder.
(Reuters, 2/4/14)
2014 Jan 23, In Kyrgyzstan 11 people, believed to be members of a militant group of ethnic Uighurs, were killed after illegally crossing the border from China.
(Reuters, 1/24/14)
2014 Jan 24, Chinese police shot dead six people during a "terrorist" attack in the restive western region of Xinjiang and six more died when explosives they were carrying detonated.
(Reuters, 1/26/14)
2014 Jan 26, A Chinese court sentenced Xu Zhiyong, one of the country’s most prominent rights advocates, to four years in prison. He had campaigned for the rights of children from rural areas to be educated in cities and for officials to disclose their assets.
(Reuters, 1/26/14)
2014 Jan 28, In China an Indian oil tanker being repaired at a shipyard at Haizhou Shipyard in the port city of Zhousha exploded and caught fire, killing 7 Chinese workers.
(AP, 1/28/14)
2014 Jan 28, Hong Kong culled around 20,000 chickens after finding the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus in poultry imported from mainland China. Fears over avian flu have grown following the deaths of two men from the H7N9 strain in Hong Kong since December.
(AFP, 1/28/14)
2014 Jan 29, Google said it is ridding itself of a financial headache by selling Motorola Mobility's smartphone business to Lenovo for $2.9 billion. The deal came less than two years after Google bought Motorola Mobility for $12.4 billion in the biggest acquisition of Google's 15-year history.
(AP, 1/30/14)
2014 Jan 31, China celebrated Lunar New Year, the year of the horse, a celebration also known as the Spring Festival.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.36)
2014 Jan 31, Activists from around China began arriving at the eastern town of Qufu during the Chinese New Year holiday to demand an investigation into the death of a fellow activist's father at a government building on Jan 29.
(AP, 2/7/14)
2014 Feb 5, It was reported that a new strain of avian influenza, H10N8, has been confirmed in two people in China. Cases of H7N9 were reported to be surging with some 300 cases and more appearing every day.
(SFC, 2/5/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 10, Spanish High Court Judge Ismael Moreno sought international arrest orders for former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, ex-PM Li Peng and others on allegations of genocide in Tibet.
(Reuters, 2/10/14)
2014 Feb 11, China and Taiwan held talks in Nanjing, their highest level talks since splitting amid a civil war in 1949.
(SFC, 2/11/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 12, China's Cabinet announced that 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) has been set aside this year to reward cities and regions that make significant progress in controlling air pollution, highlighting how the issue has become a priority for the leadership.
(AP, 2/13/14)
2014 Feb 12, In China a strong and shallow 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the far western region of Xinjiang, but in a sparsely populated area.
(AFP, 2/12/14)
2014 Feb 14, In China 11 "terrorists" were reported killed during an attack in Wushi County in the Aksu Prefecture of Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 2/14/14)
2014 Feb 14, The Chinese government sacked the police chief of the southern "sin city" of Dongguan following a candid report by the state broadcaster on the underground sex industry there.
(Reuters, 2/14/14)
2014 Feb 14, In eastern China a wedding hall collapsed killing 10 people in Yazhuang village, Zhejiang province.
(SFC, 2/15/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 15, In Germany the film “Black Coal, Thin Ice" won the Golden Bear award for best film at the 64th Berlin Film Festival. It was directed by Diao Yinan of China.
(Econ, 2/22/14, p.38)
2014 Feb 20, China's capital Beijing issued an emergency pollution alert for the first time, warning residents to reduce outdoor activities and construction sites to control dust given a forecast of heavy smog over the next three days.
(Reuters, 2/20/14)
2014 Feb 23, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks in Baghdad on issues ranging from trade to arming Iraq's hard-pressed security forces, on the first such visit in over a decade.
(AFP, 2/23/14)
2014 Feb 25, A Chinese state-run newspaper, the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily, reported that man in a smog-ridden northern city has become the first person in China to sue the government for failing to curb air pollution.
(Reuters, 2/25/14)
2014 Feb 27, In southwestern China a bus in Guiyang caught fire near an elementary school with about 50 people inside. 6 people were killed. A man suspicious of his wife's infidelity later admitted to setting the fire.
(AP, 2/28/14)
2014 Feb 27, The Philippines called on Malaysia, Vietnam and other claimants to join its legal challenge to China's massive territorial claim in the South China Sea.
(AP, 2/27/14)
2014 Feb 28, China’s Public Security Ministry said police have rescued 382 abducted babies and arrested 1,094 suspects in a national operation that busted four major Internet-based baby trafficking rings.
(SFC, 3/1/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 1, In southwestern China a group of knife-wielding men attacked the Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan province. The rampage killed 31 people and wounded 141. Police fatally shot four of the assailants, putting the overall death toll at 33. Xinjiang separatist forces were blamed. The Ministry of Public Security later said a "terrorist gang" of six men and two women led by a person identified as Abdurehim Kurban was responsible for the attack. 4 attackers were killed and 4 faced death sentences.
(AP, 3/1/14)(AP, 3/2/14)(AP, 3/3/14)(Reuters, 3/29/14)
2014 Mar 1, In China a crash in the Yanhou Tunnel in Shaanxi province involved more than 40 vehicles, including those carrying hazardous materials. At least 31 people were killed and a resulting fire burned for three days.
(AP, 3/13/14)
2014 Mar 4, Chinese millionaires pleaded for the Canadian government not to throw away the immigration applications of thousands of Chinese nationals as part of its plans to end a backlogged investor program.
(AP, 3/4/14)
2014 Mar 4, In China the Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science and Technology Co. declared that it lacked the cash to make the full interest payment on a corporate bond. This was China’s first domestic market bond default since the central bank started regulating the market in 1997.
(Econ, 3/8/14, p.75)
2014 Mar 5, China’s PM Li Keqiang vowed to act against corruption and to declare war on pollution.
(Econ, 3/8/14, p.70)(Econ, 3/15/14, p.13)
2014 Mar 5, EcoMotors, a startup backed by Bill Gates and Khosla Ventures, unveiled a joint venture with a division of China FAW Group to produce 100,000 new two-stroke engines a year.
(Econ, 3/8/14, p.70)
2014 Mar 5, In northeastern China a fire on a public bus in Jilin province left 10 people dead and 17 injured.
(SFC, 3/6/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 7, Chinese authorities allowed the country's first corporate bond default, inflicting losses on small investors in a painful step toward making its financial system more market-oriented.
(AP, 3/7/14)
2014 Mar 8, China declared a "red line" on North Korea, saying that China will not permit chaos or war on the Korean peninsula, and that peace can only come through denuclearization.
(Reuters, 3/8/14)
2014 Mar 8, In southwest China a small plane belonging to a flight academy crashed into a farm field, killing both people on board.
(AP, 3/8/14)
2014 Mar 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 fell off radar screens less than an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. Vietnamese air force planes spotted two large oil slicks close to where the Boeing 777 went missing early today. The aircraft carried 239 people. Foreign ministry officials in Rome and Vienna confirmed that names of two nationals listed on the manifest matched passports reported stolen in Thailand. The flight was carrying 154 people from China and Taiwan, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians and six Australians among the 227 passengers.
(AP, 3/8/14)(Reuters, 3/8/14)
2014 Mar 10, The Philippines air dropped food and water to soldiers stationed on a grounded transport ship on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal. A day earlier China blocked two Filipino supply ships from reaching the troops.
(Reuters, 3/12/14)
2014 Mar 11, China’s banking regulators approved a pilot scheme to allow privately owned banks in various parts of the country. The China Banking Regulatory Commission said ten companies, including Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent, have been picked to invest in China's first five privately owned banks.
(AP, 3/11/14)(Econ, 3/15/14, p.70)
2014 Mar 12, Thailand police rescued about 200 suspected Muslim Uighurs, believed to be from China's troubled far-western region of Xinjiang, from a human smuggling camp in southern Thailand.
(Reuters, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 13, Police in southwestern China took away veteran activist Huang Qi, who runs a rights monitoring website, and seized his computers and mobile phones in Chengdu.
(AP, 3/13/14)
2014 Mar 14, In China a fellow dissident and lawyers said prominent Chinese human rights activist Cao Shunli, detained in September for staging sit-ins at the country's foreign ministry, has died after being denied medical treatment in detention.
(Reuters, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 14, In southern China a fight between two food stall owners at a market left 5 people hacked to death and one person fatally shot by police in Changsha. A witness said the stand operators were Uighurs selling flatbread.
(AP, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 16, China’s government released its “people-centered" plan on urbanization. Under this some 100 million migrants will be given urban hukou (certificates) and access to urban services by the end of the decade. This would still leave some 200m unregistered.
(Econ, 3/22/14, p.17)(Econ, 4/19/14, p.12)
2014 Mar 16, In China a monk from the Shaderi Monastery in Huangnan Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Qinghai province, set himself on fire.
(AP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 16, In central China 4 people died in a fire at a hospital's in-patient building in Huangshi city, Hubei province.
(AP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 16, In China Bishop Fan Zhongliang (97) died at his home in Shanghai. He was ordained by Pope John Paul II but not recognized by Chinese authorities, and spent more than 30 years in prisons and labor camps over the course of his life, starting in 1955.
(Reuters, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 18, China's education ministry ordered a nationwide investigation into whether schools are giving students medication without permission after a protest in Xi’an by parents of kindergarteners who were given an antiviral drug.
(AP, 3/18/14)
2014 Mar 18, The United States and European Union (EU) accused China of using arrests and harassment to silence human rights activists, also voicing consternation at the death in custody of a prominent dissident.
(Reuters, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 19, Hundreds of Taiwanese activists were locked in a tense standoff with police after they stormed parliament to try to stop the government ratifying a contentious trade agreement with China.
(AFP, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 19, Tango, a mobile messaging app-maker, announced it has raised $280 million in a new funding round led by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
(Reuters, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 21, US first lady Michelle Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first day of her weeklong visit to China, in a sign that the leaders of the world's two largest economies are seeking to build stronger bonds.
(AP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 21, In eastern China a fire in Dujiatuan village, Shandong province, killed a farmer and injured three other farmers. Police later said a real estate developer and a village official directed arsonists who set the fire on a the farmer’s tent pitched to guard his land against development.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 21, Four Chinese rights lawyers were tortured by police after they were rounded up following protests outside a detention center in Jiansanjiang, a farming community in the northeast. They had joined several people shouting to demand information about relatives believed locked up inside because they were members of Falun Gong — banned as a cult though they claim to be a peaceful spiritual movement.
(AP, 4/15/14)
2014 Mar 22, A satellite image released by China offered the latest sign that wreckage from a Malaysia Airlines plane lost on March 8 could be in a remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean.
(AP, 3/22/14)
2014 Mar 23, China and the Netherlands signed a trade pact pledging Dutch dairy expertise to help Chinese producers boost the quality and quantity of their milk. It was part of a raft of deals and memoranda of understanding inked on the 2nd day of a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is in the Netherlands with a large trade delegation.
(AP, 3/23/14)
2014 Mar 25, China's eastern city of Hangzhou said will start restricting car sales on March 26, joining major cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, in the fight against snarling traffic and heavy smog in the world's largest automobile market.
(Reuters, 3/25/14)
2014 Mar 26, In southern China a fire in a lingerie factory killed 11 people in Puning County, Guangdong province.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, The World Trade Organization ruled that China has violated international trade rules with its restrictions on the export of 17 "rare earths" and two other minerals that have key industrial and high-tech uses.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 27, China’s Defense Ministry said it will beef up its internet security after recent reports that the US government spied on a major telecommunications firm.
(Reuters, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 27, China’s Xinhua state news said a Wuhu city court has sentenced to death a rapist who posed as a female on social networks to lure 16 girls to meet him. Wang Yong (40) was sentenced earlier this month for raping the girls aged 12 to 16 starting in 2009.
(AP, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 27, In China a man (34) involved in a property dispute stabbed six people to death in a Beijing district and injured others.
(AP, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 29, A Philippine government ship slipped past a Chinese coast guard blockade and brought food and fresh troops to a marooned navy ship used as a base by Filipino troops to bolster the country's territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea.
(AP, 3/29/14)
2014 Mar 30, In southern China hundreds of protesters marched against a chemical plant and environmental degradation. The Maoming city government called the demonstration a "grave violation" by criminals causing chaos. Residents were protesting the production of paraxylene, a chemical used to make fabrics and plastic bottles at a plant run by the local government and state-owned Sinopec Corp, China's biggest refiner.
(Reuters, 3/31/14)
2014 Mar 30, In Belgium China’s Pres. Xi Jinping received a royal welcome and an honorary knighthood in Brussels at the start of a 3-day visit that will see him become the first Chinese leader to visit EU headquarters.
(AFP, 3/30/14)
2014 Mar 30, In China Phuntso Wangye (b.1922), a veteran Tibetan Communist leader, died in Beijing. He had founded the Tibetan Communist Party and later become an outspoken critic of Beijing's hardline policies towards the Himalayan region. His book “A Long Way to Equality and Unity" was recently published in Hong Kong.
(Reuters, 3/30/14)(SFC, 3/31/14, p.C3)
2014 Mar 30, The Philippines filed a case against China at an arbitration tribunal in The Hague, subjecting Beijing to international legal scrutiny over the territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 3/31/14)
2014 Mar 31, Chinese prosecutors brought corruption charges against a top general. A military prosecutor charged Lt. Gen. Gu Junshan with embezzlement, bribery, misuse of state funds and abuse of power. Liu Han, a mining tycoon, his brother and 34 associates stood trial on allegations of running a vast criminal gang in Sichuan province that gunned down rivals, maintained fleets of Ferraris and bribed police to avoid prosecution.
(AP, 3/31/14)
2014 Mar, Chinese hackers broke into the computer networks of the US Office of Personnel Management with the intention of accessing the files of tens of thousands of federal employees who had applied for top-secret security clearances. Hackers gained access to some of the agency's databases before the threat was detected and blocked.
(AP, 7/10/14)
2014 Apr 1, China's Defense Ministry said inspectors have uncovered widespread irregularities and suspected corruption among military units based around Beijing, a sign that a widening anti-graft campaign that is turning to the sprawling 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, In China protests against a proposed chemical plant in Maoming city, Guangdong province, spread to Guangzhou, the provincial capital, even as authorities signaled they may back down on construction plans in attempt to head off more unrest.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, China's foreign ministry expressed anger after Ilham Tohti, a prominent detained Uighur academic, won a human rights award in the United States, saying that he was a suspected criminal.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, Human Rights Watch said China has pressured Nepal to impose tough controls on thousands of Tibetan refugees, including arbitrary detention, excessive use of force and intrusive surveillance.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 2, In southern China local authorities said torrential rains have left 14 people dead. Rains have battered Guangdong and Hong Kong since March 29, grounding some flights in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
(AP, 4/2/14)
2014 Apr 2, Suspected Filipino Abu Sayyaf insurgents seized Gao Huayuan (29) a Chinese tourist, and Marcy Dayawan (40), a hotel receptionist, from the Singamata Reef Resort in eastern Malaysia and then fled in a speed boat. The kidnappers soon demanded a ransom of 500 million pesos ($11.3 million). On May 30 Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak said both victims have been freed.
(AP, 4/3/14)(AFP, 4/5/14)(AP, 4/10/14)(AP, 5/30/14)
2014 Apr 4, China’s energy administration said it will close 1,725 small-scale mines with a total capacity of 117.48 million tons in 2014 as part of its program to phase out low-quality coal production.
(Reuters, 4/4/14)
2014 Apr 5, Chinese state media reported that kindergarten headmaster Shi Haixia and a man were sentenced to death in a poisoning case that left two girls dead. Haixia was upset that a rival school had better enrollments and injected rat poison into a bottle of yogurt. She then asked her accomplice to place it on the road in late April 2013, with a notebook and a pencil in a plastic bag on the way to the other kindergarten in Pingshan County, Hebei province.
(AP, 4/5/14)(AFP, 4/6/14)
2014 Apr 5, In China workers in Guangdong province walked out of factories owned by Yue Yuen, a Taiwanese maker of branded shoes. The walkout grew to involve tens of thousands of workers.
(Econ, 4/26/14, p.41)
2014 Apr 7, In China the Xiahaizi mine in Yunnan province suddenly filled with water following an explosion, leaving 22 miners trapped. The death toll rose to 20 with the recovery of another 14 bodies nearly two weeks after the accident.
(AFP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 8, The defense chiefs of China and the US faced off over Beijing's escalating territorial disputes in the region, with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel telling his Chinese counterparts they do not have the right to unilaterally establish an air defense zone over disputed islands with no consultation.
(AP, 4/8/14)
2014 Apr 8, A Shanghai collector paid a record $36 million for a rare Ming Dynasty cup that's touted as the "holy grail" of China's art world.
(AP, 4/8/14)
2014 Apr 8, China and Brazil signed a corn-import deal.
(Econ, 4/12/14, p.27)
2014 Apr 9, Malaysia awarded a manufacturing license to a $618 million venture that will assemble fuel-efficient SUVs for China's Great Wall Motor Co. Privately owned Go Automobile Manufacturing will invest 2 billion ringgit ($618 million) over the next four years to expand its manufacturing plant in northern Kedah state.
(AP, 4/9/14)
2014 Apr 10, China unveiled a plan to give foreign investors greater access to its stock market by allowing investors in Shanghai and Hong Kong to trade shares on each other's exchanges.
(AP, 4/10/14)
2014 Apr 10, In China 8 school children died in a bus crash on the island province of Hainan on their way to a school outing. The driver was later arrested for allegedly causing the casualties.
(Reuters, 4/10/14)(AP, 4/25/14)
2014 Apr 11, In China residents of the western city of Lanzhou rushed to buy bottled water after authorities said the city's drinking water contained levels of benzene, a cancer-inducing chemical, standing at 20 times above national safety levels. The local environmental bureau blamed a crude oil leak from a pipeline owned by a unit of China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) for the water contamination.
(Reuters, 4/11/14)(Reuters, 4/13/14)
2014 Apr 12, In China’s Xinjiang region Abdubasit Ablimit (17) was shot after he reportedly tried twice to seize weapons from police at a checkpoint in Aksu prefecture. He died of his wounds the next day. Another account that circulated after said Ablimit was killed after running a red light in an apparent attempt to avoid paying a fine.
(AP, 4/17/14)
2014 Apr 13, Chinese state media reported that authorities have seized more than 10,000 illegal guns in the southwestern province of Guizhou, marking its largest haul of illegal firearms. Fifteen people suspected of being part of a criminal gang involved in the manufacturing and trafficking of firearms were arrested.
(Reuters, 4/13/14)
2014 Apr 13, Chinese conglomerate Sanpower said it has agreed to buy a majority stake in British department store House of Fraser in a deal worth £480 million (578 million euros, $800 million).
(AP, 4/13/14)
2014 Apr 13, Glencore, based in Switzerland, said it has signed an agreement to sell its entire interest in the Peruvian Las Bambas copper mine to a consortium led by MMG Ltd., a mining company controlled by state-owned China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Co. Ltd.
(AP, 4/14/14)
2014 Apr 15, In southern China thousands of workers at a giant Yue Yuen Industrial shoe factory shrugged off an offer for improved social benefits, prolonging one of the largest strikes in China in recent years amid signs of increased labor activism as the economy slows.
(Reuters, 4/15/14)
2014 Apr 15, In China a government owned company that bred bears for traditional medicines agreed to convert itself in to a sanctuary. Some 70 bear farms, with bears caged for their bile, were believed to be still operating in the country.
(SFC, 4/16/14, p.A4)
2014 Apr 17, A strike at the Chinese factories Yu Yuen Industrial, the world's biggest athletic shoe maker, snowballed to about 30,000 workers in Dongguan, making it one of the largest-ever work stoppages at a private business in China.
(AP, 4/17/14)
2014 Apr 17, China’s environment ministry said a nationwide investigation has shown that as much as 16 percent of China's soil contains higher than permitted levels of pollution. This was nearly one-fifth of China’s farmland.
(Reuters, 4/17/14)(SFC, 4/19/14, p.A4)
2014 Apr 17, China introduced its first armed police patrols in Xi'an. Shanghai and Qingdao police began to carry 9 mm pistols on Apr 20.
(AP, 4/21/14)
2014 Apr 18, A Chinese court sentenced four anti-corruption protestors to between two and three-and-a-half years in jail over their role in small-scale demonstrations, furthering a crackdown on rights activists. The four were associated with the New Citizens Movement, a loose network whose members held peaceful protests in Beijing last year.
(AFP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 18, In Vietnam a Chinese man who was being repatriated from Vietnam along with 15 other migrants seized a gun from a border guard, triggering a gunfight and standoff in which five Chinese and two Vietnamese guards died.
(AP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 19, A Chinese maritime court in Shanghai seized a ship owned by Japanese shipping firm Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, a move that Japan warned could have an adverse impact on its businesses in China. The court said the company had failed to pay compensation stemming from a WWII contractual obligation. On April 24 China said Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd has paid about $29 million for the release of the ship.
(Reuters, 4/21/14)(Reuters, 4/24/14)
2014 Apr 20, In India 2 victims were found dead aboard the Chinese-built carrier Tuo Fu 3 anchored near Haldia city in the Bay of Bengal. They had reportedly collapsed immediately after entering the cargo hold filled with coal and accumulated methane gas.
(AP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 22, US Naval officials and two dozen Asia-Pacific nations adopted the code For Unplanned Encounters, an agreement aimed at improving communication at sea to reduce the possibility of conflict amid rising friction between an increasingly assertive China and its neighbors. The agreement was approved unanimously at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao.
(AP, 4/22/14)(SFC, 4/23/14, p.A2)
2014 Apr 22, Tesla Motors Inc. delivered its first eight electric sedans to customers in China. CEO Elon Musk said the company will build a nationwide network of charging stations and service centers as fast as it can.
(AP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 22, In the Philippines about 80 activists protested at the Chinese consulate in Manila, demanding that China stop intruding into Philippine territory in the South China Sea. Philippine marine officer Mike Pelotera said he and his men saw Filipino fishermen being "bullied" away from the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea at least eight times from December to March.
(AP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 24, China passed amendments to the country's environmental protection law that will impose tougher penalties on polluters in the most sweeping revisions to the law in 25 years.
(Reuters, 4/24/14)
2014 Apr 25, China’s Sina.com temporarily closed its literature site after being accused of hosting pornography, and authorities confirmed they were revoking two crucial licenses, ensnaring one of China's top web portals in an intensifying online crackdown.
(AP, 4/25/14)
2014 Apr 26, China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said it aims to start building more than 7 million units of public housing this year, signaling the latest government move to counter high property prices.
(Reuters, 4/26/14)
2014 Apr 26, In China a spokeswoman for a leading online video site, Youku, said it has received notification not to show sitcom "The Big Bang Theory," political and legal drama "The Good Wife," crime drama "NCIS" and legal drama "The Practice."
(AP, 4/27/14)
2014 Apr 26, In China labor activists said most of the thousands of striking workers in Dongguan have returned to work enabling Adidas to resume production. Some 10,000 remained on strike at the Taiwanese owned Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Ltd.
(SSFC, 4/27/14, p.A7)
2014 Apr 28, In China a man distressed by his divorce case intentionally rammed a car into electric scooters and pedestrians near a school in the southeast, killing 6 people, including 3 children. Police subdued Lin Jianxin (37) with a water gun in Zhuangtou village, Fujian province.
(AP, 4/28/14)
2014 Apr 28, In China the large, officially approved, Sanjiang Protestant Church was demolished in Wenzhou. It had been built six years earlier at a cost of $4.8 million, but officials said it had violated building codes.
(Econ, 5/3/14, p.40)
2014 Apr 29, The US targeted companies from China and Dubai for allegedly helping Iran evade weapons and oil sanctions, a signal Washington will keep pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.
(Reuters, 4/29/14)
2014 Apr 30, In China an explosion shook a railway station in the restive far-western region of Xinjiang as President Xi Jinping wrapped up a four-day visit to the area. Authorities the next day said that two religious extremists carried out the terror attack by detonating explosives, in an apparent suicide bombing that killed one other person and wounded 79. It was later reported that 3 government officials were knifed to death and their bodies dumped in a lake during the president’s visit.
(AP, 4/30/14)(AP, 5/1/14)(Reuters, 5/16/14)
2014 May 1, China deployed a $1 billion deep sea rig near the Paracel Islands and the flotilla of escort ships, some armed, in a gradual campaign of asserting its sovereignty in the South China Sea. After China stationed the oil rig, Vietnam immediately dispatched marine police and fishery protection vessels but they were harassed as they approached.
(AP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 2, A Venezuelan fishing boat found 11 Chinese sailors floating in a raft about 1,000 miles west of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. 2 soon died of their injuries.
(SFC, 5/5/14, p.A2)
2014 May 3, In southern China a stone arch bridge under illegal construction, collapsed, killing 11 people and injuring several others in Liangkengkou village, Guangdong province.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang set off for a four-country tour of Africa (Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola and Kenya), acknowledging "growing pains" in China-Africa relations amid labor conflicts and other problems stemming from Chinese investment.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, A Chinese vessel intentionally rammed two Vietnamese Sea Guard vessels in a part of the disputed South China Sea where Beijing has deployed a giant oil rig, sending tensions spiraling in the region.
(Reuters, 5/7/14)
2014 May 5, China’s state media said a court has convicted a man, identified by the surname Li, of spying and sentenced him to 10 years in prison for leaking classified military documents to a foreign spy, named Feige, who also approached more than 50 other people around China.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 5, Beijing-based Peking University announced plans for China's second international program modeled after the Rhodes Scholarship.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 5, Vietnam demanded China stop oil drilling operations in a disputed patch of the South China Sea, saying that Beijing's decision to deploy a deep sea rig over the weekend was illegal.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 6, Chinese police shot and wounded a suspect who attacked passengers at a busy railway station in the southern city of Guangzhou, leaving six people injured in the third high-profile assault on civilians at a train station in a little more than two months.
(AP, 5/6/14)
2014 May 6, The Philippines seized a Chinese fishing boat and its 11 crewmen on charges of catching endangered sea turtles in disputed South China Sea waters, prompting China to demand their release and accuse Manila of being provocative. On May 12 all nine men were charged with poaching over 500 endangered sea turtles.
(AP, 5/7/14)(SFC, 5/13/14, p.A3)
2014 May 7, Tibet’s exiled Dalai Lama began a three-day stay in Norway. Unlike on his previous visits, no government officials will meet with him to avoid upsetting China.
(AP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 8, China accused Vietnam of intentionally colliding with its ships in the South China Sea, but called for talks to end a bitter row sparked by Beijing's parking of a giant oil rig in contested waters.
(Reuters, 5/8/14)
2014 May 8, Chinese police shot dead an assailant who attacked a police vehicle with knives in the far western region of Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 5/8/14)
2014 May 10, China’s state media reported that President Xi Jinping has called for the acceleration of land transfers to help modernize the country's agriculture.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 10, Protesters in eastern China clashed with police at a rally against plans to build a huge waste incinerator in Yuhang that residents fear will be harmful to their health and add to pollution. The Yuhang government said that all work on the incinerator has stopped, and that it would invite the public to participate in a decision whether to press ahead with the scheme.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 10, In Myanmar Southeast Asian foreign ministers voiced "serious concerns" over naval clashes between Vietnam and China as the ASEAN’s top official urged Beijing to step up efforts to advance talks on maritime security.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 11, In eastern China heavy rain caused a retaining wall to collapse at a recycling plant in Qingdao city, killing 18 people.
(AP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 11, Myanmar hosted the Southeast Asian summit (ASEAN) as Vietnam and the Philippines pushed for stronger action to confront China's aggressive behavior in the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 11, China signed a deal with East African leaders to build a $3.8 billion rail link between Kenya's Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and Nairobi, the first stage of a line that will eventually link Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
(AFP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 13, In Vietnam several thousand workers protested at Chinese-owned factories, vandalizing some of them, as anger flared at Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in waters claimed by Vietnam.
(AP, 5/13/14)
2014 May 14, Chinese police said they have charged the former British boss of drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline PLC's China business and other colleagues with corruption, after a probe found the firm made billions of yuan from elaborate schemes to bribe doctors and hospitals. Mark Reilly and two Chinese executives, Zhang Guowei and Zhao Hongyan, were also suspected of bribing officials in the industry and commerce departments of Beijing and Shanghai.
(Reuters, 5/14/14)
2014 May 14, In northwestern China a pipeline in a coal mine collapsed, killing 11 people in the city of Yulin, Shaanxi province. 24 people came out alive and 2 remained missing.
(AP, 5/16/14)
2014 May 14, In Vietnam a 1,000-strong mob stormed a Taiwanese steel mill in Ha Tinh province and hunted down Chinese workers, killing one, attacking scores more and then setting the complex alight in response to Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in the long-disputed South China Sea. State-owned China Metallurgical Group later reported that 4 of its workers were killed. Some 600 Chinese crossed into Cambodia over the land border in southern Vietnam.
(AP, 5/15/14)(AP, 5/20/14)(SFC, 5/21/14, p.A2)
2014 May 15, A Chinese court sentenced Vincent Wu, a Chinese-American businessman, to 20 years in prison on charges of heading a mob that kidnapped rivals and operated illegal casinos, and rejected his claim that he was tortured by police. About two dozen other defendants in the case received sentences of between 19 months and 19 years
(AP, 5/15/14)
2014 May 15, China’s Caixin business magazine reported that Wei Pengyuan, a senior official of the National Energy Administration’s coal department, was under arrest. So much cash ($16m) was found at his home in Beijing that investigators brought in 16 machines from a bank to count it all.
(http://tinyurl.com/l8kd336)(Econ, 6/28/14, p.38)
2014 May 16, In China the leader of a baby trafficking ring that brought 23 boys and pregnant women from Vietnam was sentenced to death. The court in the southern region of Guangxi gave another 23 members of the group sentences ranging from less than two years to life in prison.
(AP, 5/16/14)
2014 May 16, Filipinos and Vietnamese residents in Manila staged a joint protest against China's incursions into South China Sea territories claimed by their countries.
(AP, 5/16/14)
2014 May 16, Suspected Boko Haram rebels from Nigeria attacked a Chinese work site near Waza in northern Cameroon and at least 10 people were believed to have been kidnapped.
(Reuters, 5/17/14)(Econ, 7/26/14, p.43)
2014 May 17, China's public security chief urged Vietnam to take tough measures to stem anti-China violence and punish rioters following deadly attacks there earlier this week.
(Reuters, 5/17/14)
2014 May 17, Vietnam's PM Nguyen Tan Dun ordered an end to all "illegal protests" in the country after a week of violent demonstrations against China's deployment of an oil rig in a disputed section of the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/17/14)
2014 May 18, In China Liu Zhanbin, the chief executive of Sanjing Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., jumped to his death. He was under investigation on suspicion of taking bribes.
(AP, 5/19/14)
2014 May 18, Vietnam smothered anti-China protests with a massive security clampdown after deadly riots triggered by a territorial dispute with Beijing spooked foreign investors and the country's leadership alike. Beijing said it had evacuated 3,000 nationals from Vietnam and was sending the first of five ships to pull out others wanting to leave.
(AP, 5/18/14)
2014 May 19, Chinese media said the government of the industrial city of Tianjin will limit the number of vehicles allowed on roads during heavy smog. Last month Tianjin banned new steel and cement plants as part of a program to reverse damage done to its environment.
(Reuters, 5/19/14)
2014 May 19, The US indicted five members of the Chinese military on charges they stole US secrets through hacking to help state-run companies. Attorney General Eric Holder said they hacked into six US nuclear power, metals and solar products industries: Alcoa World Alumina, Westinghouse Electric Co., Allegheny Technologies, U.S. Steel Corp., United Steelworkers Union, and SolarWorld.
(AFP, 5/19/14)(AP, 5/19/14)
2014 May 19, Hundreds of Chinese workers left Vietnam on ships chartered by their government after deadly unrest broke out last week amid a dispute over sovereignty claims in the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/19/14)
2014 May 20, China warned the US was jeopardizing military ties by charging five Chinese officers with cyberspying and tried to turn the tables on Washington by calling it "the biggest attacker of China's cyberspace."
(AP, 5/20/14)
2014 May 20, China's Xinjiang Supreme Court jailed 39 people in a special operation to curb the spread of audio and video materials inciting terrorism. They were convicted of crimes including organizing and leading terrorist groups, inciting ethnic hatred, ethnic discrimination and the illegal manufacturing of guns.
(AP, 5/21/14)
2014 May 21, China signed a landmark deal to buy Russian natural gas worth about $400 billion, giving a boost to diplomatically isolated President Vladimir Putin and expanding Moscow's ties with Asia.
(AP, 5/21/14)
2014 May 21, China’s state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp. said it is ready to deliver the country’s first homegrown regional airliner, the ARJ21-700, to Chengdu Airlines.
(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.D2)
2014 May 21, Vietnamese PM Nguyen Tan Dung said Vietnam and the Philippines are determined to oppose Chinese infringement of their territorial waters.
(Reuters, 5/21/14)
2014 May 22, In China two vehicles with explosives ploughed into an open market in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, in the deadliest act of violence in the region in years. At least 43 people were killed including 4 suicide bombers. One suspect was captured.
(Reuters, 5/22/14)(Reuters, 5/23/14)(AP, 5/24/14)
2014 May 22, China and Russia vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed by both sides in its civil war.
(AFP, 5/22/14)
2014 May 23, China warned Japan to stay out of a growing dispute with its neighbors over the South China Sea, as the Philippines implicitly accused Beijing of delaying talks aimed at a solution.
(Reuters, 5/23/14)
2014 May 23, In China Liu Han, a former mining tycoon, was sentenced to death for leading a crime gang that killed rivals. Han had been chairman of the Sichuan Hanlong Group, an energy conglomerate with stakes in Australian and US mines.
(AP, 5/23/14)(SFC, 5/24/14, p.A3)
2014 May 23, In Vietnam a woman (67) died after setting herself on fire in downtown Ho Chi Minh City in protest against China's deployment of an oil rig in waters claimed by Hanoi.
(AP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 23, The WTO ruled that China's anti-dumping duties on imports of American-made cars and sport-utility vehicles violate international trade rules.
(AP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 23, In China a tour bus carrying 26 people fell into a section of the Jiulong River in Fujian province killing at least 2 people. Five people remained missing. 24 passengers were from Taiwan.
(AP, 5/24/14)
2014 May 25, In northwestern China two trucks collided, killing 10 people and injuring 32 in Wujiaqu city, Xinjiang region.
(AP, 5/25/14)
2014 May 26, China announced that it has arrested more than 200 terror suspects over the past month in the restive Xinjiang region, highlighting its commitment to a security crackdown even as a bloody attack last week raised questions about its effectiveness. Police foiled a terror plot by detaining five suspects and seizing 1.8 tons of bomb-making materials in the Hotan section of the Xinjiang region.
(AP, 5/26/14)(AP, 5/27/14)
2014 May 26, China’s government said 37 people have died and six left missing in widespread flooding that's hit hundreds of thousands of people in a swath of southern China.
(AP, 5/26/14)
2014 May 26, China's government said it plans to take 6 million older, polluting vehicles off the road this year in an effort to revive stalled progress toward cleaning up smog-choked cities.
(AP, 5/27/14)
2014 May 26, South Korea and China agreed recent nuclear activity by North Korea posed a serious threat to the peace and stability of the region and Pyongyang must not conduct a nuclear test, after a meeting of their top diplomats in Seoul.
(Reuters, 5/26/14)
2014 May 26, Some 40 Chinese fishing boats surrounded a Vietnamese fishing boat before one of them rammed it and it sank not far from where China has parked an oil rig in the disputed South China Sea. Vietnamese fishing boats operating nearby rescued the 10 fishermen on board.
(Reuters, 5/27/14)
2014 May 27, A Chinese court announced guilty verdicts for 55 people on charges of terrorism, separatism and murder in a stadium filled with 7,000 people in Yili, Xinjiang province. At least one convict received a death sentence before the audience made up of local residents and officials.
(AP, 5/28/14)
2014 May 28, In eastern China members of the "All-powerful spirit" religious cult beat a woman to death at a McDonald's restaurant in Zhaoyuan. The attack was caught on video and 6 members of the cult were soon arrested. Five members of the Church of Almighty God, aka Eastern Lightning" went on trial on Aug 21. In October two defendants were sentenced to death, a 3rd to life in prison, and two other to seven and ten years in prison.
(http://tinyurl.com/o575hgg)(Econ, 8/30/14, p.40)(AFP, 10/11/14)
2014 May 29, China’s health officials said they expect 2 million extra babies per year as a result of loosening its “one child" birth limits.
(SFC, 5/30/14, p.A2)
2014 May 31, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned an international security conference at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that the US "will not look the other way" when nations such as China try to restrict navigation or ignore international rules and standards.
(AP, 5/31/14)
2014 Jun 3, China showed off its first high-speed rail link to the restive region of Xinjiang, promising that it could guarantee the security of an important economic project despite a recent serious escalation in violence.
(Reuters, 6/3/14)
2014 Jun 4, China rejected an arbitration tribunal's ruling giving it six months to respond to a case filed by the Philippines over disputed waters, saying it has no plans to take part.
(Reuters, 6/4/14)
2014 Jun 5, Chinese state media said authorities have sentenced 81 people on terror-related charges, nine of them to death, and made 29 new arrests in a huge crackdown in the far west following deadly attacks blamed on Muslim extremists.
(AP, 6/5/14)
2014 Jun 5, China offered $16 million in humanitarian assistance for refugees from the conflict in Syria as part of Beijing's growing engagement with the Arab world.
(AP, 6/5/14)
2014 Jun 5, China freed Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen (40), who made a 2008 documentary about Tibetan nomads expressing discontent over China's rule, after serving six years for separatism. Wangchen was freed in the western city of Xining, capital of Qinghai province.
(AP, 6/6/14)
2014 Jun 7, The Chinese government said it will deploy eight inspection teams across the country to investigate how regional governments are implementing 19 central policies and will hold accountable those found wanting.
(Reuters, 6/7/14)
2014 Jun 8, In China a raid by officers on small bathhouses and other businesses associated with prostitution sparked clashes lasting hours in the southern city of Guangzhou.
(AP, 6/8/14)
2014 Jun 8, China's foreign minister visited India's new leaders in hopes of spurring stalled trade and easing decades of tensions between the Asian nations.
(AP, 6/8/14)
2014 Jun 9, China denounced Vietnam and the Philippines for getting together on the Vietnamese-held island of Southwest Cay, a disputed island in the South China Sea, to play soccer and volleyball, calling it "a clumsy farce" and demanded both countries stop causing trouble.
(Reuters, 6/9/14)
2014 Jun 10, China’s government issued a “white paper" asserting that autonomy granted to Hong Kong in 1997 was entirely dependent on China’s leaders.
(Econ, 7/5/14, p.37)
2014 Jun 10, In China convicted criminal Zhang Zeqing, was shot and killed by police in Qianjiang, Hubei province. He had taken 50 elementary school students and a teacher hostage and had agreed to exchange them for the deputy mayor of the surrounding town of Haokou, but was shot after he poured gasoline over the official.
(AP, 6/10/14)
2014 Jun 11, A delegation of Thai military commanders travelled to China for talks on regional security and joint training amid Western reproach of the army's seizure of power in a coup last month.
(Reuters, 6/11/14)
2014 Jun 14, China’s corruption watchdog said Su Rong, the vice-chairman of China's top parliamentary advisory body, has been put under investigation for serious "disciplinary violations," usually Chinese Communist Party shorthand for graft.
(Reuters, 6/14/14)
2014 Jun 14, China began building a school on tiny Yongxing island in the South China Sea to serve the children of military personnel and others for the settlement of Sansha, created in 2012. It is part of the Paracel chain, which is also claimed by Vietnam.
(AP, 6/15/14)
2014 Jun 14, The Philippines said it filed a protest last week with Beijing for reclaiming land on a disputed South China Sea reef, the fourth such complaint in three months.
(AFP, 6/14/14)
2014 Jun 16, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Britain on a 3-day visit that included a planned meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and talks aimed at boosting fragile diplomatic relations.
(AP, 6/16/14)
2014 Jun 17, In China an accidental explosion killed 17 soldiers as they were stacking ammunition in Hengyang, Hunan province.
(SFC, 6/19/14, p.A2)
2014 Jun 17, Chinese premier Li Keqiang began his visit to Britain with a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. He then traveled to central London for a formal inspection of British soldiers and a meeting with PM David Cameron at his office in Downing Street. Mr Li, who was accompanied by a large business delegation, formally agreed during the trip to commercial deals and investments worth £14bn ($24 billion) in areas such as energy and finance.
(AP, 6/17/14)(Econ, 7/19/14, p.11)
2014 Jun 19, China said it is moving a second oil rig closer to Vietnam's coast, showing its determination to press its territorial claims and continue searching for resources in disputed waters despite a tense confrontation with Vietnam over another oil rig to the south.
(AP, 6/19/14)
2014 Jun 19, In eastern China a court sentenced to up to 6 ½ years in prison three activists who were part of a nascent civil rights movement that has urged government officials to publicly disclose their assets. A court in southern Guangxi region sentenced to death He Shenguo, who killed two government workers and injured four other people in an argument related to the one-child policy.
(AP, 6/19/14)
2014 Jun 19, Chinese PM Li Keqiang arrived on an official three-day visit to Greece, which the Greek government hopes will lead to trade and investment deals that will boost the recession-plagued economy.
(AP, 6/19/14)
2014 Jun 19, Chinese authorities arrested 11 North Koreans who had fled their country and will likely deport them back to the North where they could face severe punishment.
(AP, 7/2/14)
2014 Jun 20, In China assailants stabbed two police officers guarding a security checkpoint in a village in Qaraqash county, Xinjiang, and set fire to a room in which three other officers were sleeping, killing all five.
(AP, 6/24/14)
2014 Jun 21, In China police in Kashgar prefecture in Xinjiang's southwest shot dead 13 assailants who rammed a truck into a police office building and set off explosives in an attack that also wounded three officers.
(AP, 6/21/14)
2014 Jun 22, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said five days of rainstorms in the south have left 26 people dead and another three missing and led to direct economic losses of 4 billion yuan ($650 million).
(AP, 6/23/14)
2014 Jun 23, Chinese authorities said they broke up 32 terror groups and arrested more than 380 suspects in the far west in the first month of a crackdown aimed at demonstrating the Communist Party's resolve to maintain order in the Xinjiang region. Many suspects received rapid trials and stiff sentences, including death penalties. Security forces also seized several hundred explosive devices.
(AP, 6/23/14)
2014 Jun 24, In China Wei Jianghong, chairman of a state-owned copper smelter and a delegate to the national legislature, jumped to his death in Anhui province. The suicide was attributed to “excessive work pressure and mental stress."
(Econ, 6/28/14, p.38)
2014 Jun 25, China sent its first ever ministerial-level official to Taiwan for four days of meetings.
(SFC, 6/26/14, p.A2)
2014 Jun 27, China’s state media said a court has sentenced 25 members of Quannengshen, or the Church of Almighty God, a banned religious, group to prison terms of up to eight years, the largest in a series of prosecutions against a group that China calls an illegal cult.
(Reuters, 6/27/14)
2014 Jun 27, Five Chinese fishermen were missing after a trawler sank in waters to the north of islands disputed with Japan in the East China Sea in what appeared to be an accident.
(Reuters, 6/27/14)
2014 Jun 27, In Hong Kong more than 800 lawyers protested over a requirement for judges to be patriotic to China. In what was seen as a thinly veiled threat ahead of a 10-day referendum, Beijing had released a policy document that said, among other things, that Hong Kong's autonomy comes at the discretion of the central government and included a requirement for judges to be patriotic to China.
(AP, 6/29/14)
2014 Jun 28, Chinese President Xi Jinping feted neighbors India and Myanmar, dusting off the 60th anniversary of a now rather obscure agreement signed in the early days of the Cold War to pledge a rising China's commitment to peace.
(Reuters, 6/28/14)
2014 Jun 28, In Taiwan Zhang Zhijun, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister, canceled two events after protesters threw paint on his motorcade.
(SSFC, 6/29/14, p.A6)
2014 Jun 30, In China former top Gen. Xu Caihou was expelled from the ruling Communist Party to face bribery charges. Three other senior officials, including a former deputy police minister, also were expelled from the party to face corruption charges.
(AP, 6/30/14)
2014 Jun 30, China said it will re-open its embassy in Mogadishu 23 years after evacuating its diplomats as Somalia plunged into civil war.
(AP, 6/30/14)
2014 Jun 30, In China a leaking oil pipeline caught fire in the northeastern port city of Dalian, forcing the evacuation of nearly 20,000 residents.
(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jun 30, In Hong Kong the results of a 10-day referendum indicated overwhelming support for the Legislative Council to reject any electoral reform proposed by China that does not meet int’l. standards. About 23% of registered voters participated.
(SFC, 6/30/14, p.A4)
2014 Jul 1, In Hong Kong tens of thousands marched through the streets of the former British colony to push for greater democracy in a rally fueled by anger over Beijing's recent warning that it holds the ultimate authority over the southern Chinese financial center.
(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jul 2, China's top anti-corruption body said Ji Wenlin, a former aide to embattled retired domestic security boss, Zhou Yongkang, has been expelled from the Communist Party after taking "huge bribes" and committing adultery.
(Reuters, 7/2/14)
2014 Jul 3, Chinese President Xi Jinping began a two-day visit to Seoul. The leaders of China and South Korea simultaneously snubbed North Korea, bolstered their already booming trade relationship and gave the US and Japan a look at Beijing's growing influence south of the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
(AP, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 3, A China-based tour operator said North Korea will reopen some of its domestic scheduled air routes for the first time in years, another sign of moves to bolster tourism in the isolated country.
(Reuters, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 3, Chinese patrol ships arrested six Vietnamese fishermen in waters off China's Hainan Island. An official in the district where the fishermen came from, said the arrests took place in disputed waters near the Gulf of Tonkin.
(AP, 7/4/14)
2014 Jul 4, In China Zhang Shaojie, the pastor of a Christian church in Henan province, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in what supporters say is a crackdown aimed at curbing fast-growing religious activity.
(AP, 7/4/14)
2014 Jul 5, In northwestern China 17 miners were trapped following a gas explosion at a coal mine in the Xinjiang region. On July 7 official media reported that all 17 had died.
(AP, 7/6/14)(AP, 7/7/14)
2014 Jul 7, China’s state media said authorities have taken down more than 40 groups called "violent terror gangs" and arrested more than 400 people in the restive western region of Xinjiang since the government began a crackdown in May.
(Reuters, 7/7/14)
2014 Jul 9, The United States and China vowed to improve their economic and security cooperation, saying they wouldn't let persistent differences over maritime claims, cyberhacking and currency hamper a relationship critical to global peace and prosperity.
(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 10, In China courts in the western region of Xinjiang sentenced 32 people to prison, three of them for life, for terror charges stemming from downloading and spreading violent Internet content that authorities have blamed for inspiring a recent string of deadly attacks.
(AP, 7/12/14)
2014 Jul 10, China and the United States agreed to boost military ties and counter-terrorism cooperation during high-level annual talks in Beijing, but there was little immediate sign of progress on thorny cyber-security or maritime issues. They also agreed that China will reduce its intervention in the currency market when conditions are ripe and promised closer cooperation on climate change and North Korea.
(Reuters, 7/10/14)(AP, 7/10/14)
2014 Jul 11, In China Rui Chenggang, a celebrity anchorman for China Central Television (CCTV-2), was abruptly absent from the live cast of a nightly business news program. State prosecutors reportedly removed Rui from his workplace.
(AP, 7/12/14)(Econ, 7/19/14, p.40)
2014 Jul 11, US authorities said they have charged Chinese businessman Su Bin with hacking into the computer systems of US companies with large defense contracts, including Boeing, to steal data on military projects, including some of the latest fighter jets. He had worked in cahoots with two unnamed Chinese hackers to get the data between 2009 and 2013.
(AP, 7/11/14)
2014 Jul 12, It was reported that Chinese regulators have banned the country's journalists from sharing information they have obtained on the job with overseas media or publishing it in any venue, such as blogging sites, outside the media they are employed. The regulations were detailed in a June 30 document but released this week.
(AP, 7/12/14)
2014 Jul 14, Chinese state media reported that authorities have indicted British and American investigators hired by GlaxoSmithKline on charges of illegally obtaining and selling private information, as the Briton blamed the pharmaceutical company for misleading and using him.
(AP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 14, China’s state media reported that teachers are now banned from receiving gifts from students and their parents to curb the buying of favors, often in exchange for giving students special treatment.
(Reuters, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 14, Chinese state media reported that police have uncovered a series of illegal World Cup betting cases involving almost $3 billion, as authorities struggled to control the country's growing gambling problem.
(AFP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 14, In southwest China part of a railway tunnel collapsed, trapping an estimated 14 workers in Yunnan province's Funing county.
(AP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 15, China’s top anti-corruption watchdog said Zhang Youren, a former senior executive at a state-owned military giant, has been expelled from the ruling Communist Party for taking bribes and other "massive" corruption.
(Reuters, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 15, In southern China an explosion went off on a bus that then caught fire in Guangzhou, killing 2 people and injuring at least six.
(AP, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 15, In Brazil leaders of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) met for their 6th annual summit. They created two financial institutions: The New Development Bank (NDB) to finance infrastructure with $50 billion to start and the $100 billion Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) to tide over members in financial difficulties.
(AP, 7/15/14)(Econ, 7/19/14,p.62)
2014 Jul 15, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying formally asked Beijing for legal changes that would ultimately let residents of the southern Chinese city elect his successor, but he downplayed calls for the public to nominate candidates free of China's vetting.
(AP, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 16, Vietnam said China has moved an oil rig out of waters claimed by Hanoi. Two months of drilling had triggered a near-breakdown in ties between the neighbors and led to deadly protests in Vietnam.
(AP, 7/16/14)
2014 Jul 17, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said heavy rains and landslides over the past week have killed at least 45 people in southern China and left 21 others missing.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, In Brazil China's President Xi Jinpin pressed a charm offensive with Latin America, signing deals with Brazil, meeting regional leaders and proposing a $20 billion infrastructure fund that highlights Beijing's growing interests in the region.
(AP, 7/18/14)
2014 Jul 18, In southern China Typhoon Rammasun hit the island of Hainan as over 26,000 people evacuated the area. 9 people were killed and 5 left missing on Hainan. Another 9 were killed as the storm plowed through the Guangxi region on the mainland.
(SFC, 7/19/14, p.A2)(SFC, 7/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 18, In Argentina visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping announced huge investments in hydroelectric power, shipbuilding, railways and a deal to help Argentina build its fourth nuclear plant.
(AFP, 7/19/14)
2014 Jul 22, In China the Paper, a new digital news platform, was launched as an offshoot of the Oriental Morning Post in Shanghai.
(Econ, 12/13/14, p.46)
2014 Jul 22, In northeastern China a man tied up two bedridden patients and a mentally disabled one and used a dull razor to castrate them. A 60-year-old victim lost both his testicles while the other two victims, aged 53 and 80, lost one each. A suspect was soon detained.
(AP, 7/24/14)
2014 Jul 23, Chinese police detained five people from a unit of US food supplier OSI Group, in a case involving expired meat sold to fast food giants including McDonald's and KFC. The Chinese supplier also had provided 20% of the meat for chicken nuggets in Japan.
(AFP, 7/23/14)(SFC, 7/23/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 23, China’s state media said Beijing has closed the first of four large coal-fired power plants set to be de-commissioned as part of the city's efforts to cut air pollution, citing the local planning agency.
(Reuters, 7/23/14)
2014 Jul 23, Chinese state media said the government would target pornography on smartphones and punish pornographic app creators.
(SFC, 7/24/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 23, In China tropical storm Matmo made landfall. It brought heavy rains and winds to parts of eastern China following another typhoon that killed at least 56 people in the country's south. Matmo left 9 dead in Jiangxi province and 4 dead in Guangdong province.
(AP, 7/24/14)(SFC, 7/28/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 25, Chinese state media said the government has investigated more than 25,000 people for corruption in the first six months of 2014.
(Reuters, 7/25/14)
2014 Jul 28, In China at least 13 police officers and 20 Uighurs were killed and injured in an alleged "terrorist attack" in the far western Xinjiang region, home to the mainly Muslim Uighur minority. Chinese police shot dead dozens of knife-wielding attackers after they staged assaults on two towns in the Xinjiang region. On Aug 3 state media said that 37 civilians and 59 "terrorists" were killed in the attack in Xinjiang.
(AFP, 7/29/14)(Reuters, 7/29/14)(SFC, 7/31/14, p.A6)(AP, 8/3/14)
2014 Jul 28, In China police took down the cross of the Longgang Huai En Church in the eastern city of Wenzhou, known as China’s Jerusalem, saying it violated height limits. Church leaders said the government is trying to suppress the fast growing Protestant religion.
(SFC, 7/29/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 29, China's ruling Communist Party said it has put former security chief Zhou Yongkang (71) under investigation, the most senior official to fall for decades.
(AFP, 7/29/14)(SSFC, 8/3/14, p.A4)
2014 Jul 30, In China Aini Aishan (18) reportedly organized an attack on Jume Tahir. He was arrested two days later in Hotan, Xinjiang province. Tahir was the state-appointed imam of China's biggest mosque and often spoke in support of government policies. In late September two Uighur teenagers were sentenced to death for their role in the murder of Tahir.
(AP, 8/25/14)(SFC, 9/29/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 31, A Chinese man said he was suing a psychological clinic for carrying out electric shocks intended to turn him straight.
(SFC, 8/1/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 1, China acknowledged the existence of a new intercontinental ballistic missile said to be capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads as far as the United States. The Dongfeng-41 (DF-41) is designed to have a range of 12,000 km (7,500 miles).
(AFP, 8/1/14)
2014 Aug 1, Police in China's Xinjiang region shot dead 9 suspected terrorists and captured one.
(AFP, 8/1/14)
2014 Aug 1, Japan named five uninhabited small isles belonging to an island group in the center of a dispute with China as part of efforts to reinforce its claim, a move likely to spark anger from Beijing and another claimant, Taiwan.
(AP, 8/1/14)
2014 Aug 2, In eastern China a suspected dust explosion at an automotive parts factory that supplies General Motors killed 75 people in Kunshan. The death toll climbed to 146 when other workers died in the hospital. This was the country's worst industrial accident since 2005. On December 30 China's Cabinet announced the firing of the top two officials of Kunshan. 20 others were placed under judicial review for possible indictment.
(AP, 8/2/14)(SFC, 8/5/14, p.A2)(AP, 12/30/14)
2014 Aug 3, In southern China a magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Yunnan province toppled thousands of homes. The death toll soon climbed to nearly 600 people with more than 1,800 injured.
(AP, 8/3/14)(SFC, 8/4/14, p.A3)(AFP, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 4, China’s state media said the government is offering more than 300 million yuan ($49 million) for residents of Xinjiang, the homeland of mainly Muslim Uighurs, who help a crackdown on "terrorists." A total of 4.23 million yuan was already handed out to individuals and government agencies who helped in the killing and capture of 10 "suspected terrorists" in Hotan prefecture last week.
(AFP, 8/4/14)
2014 Aug 4, China's smog-plagued capital announced plans to ban the use of coal by the end of 2020 as the country fights deadly levels of pollution, especially in major cities.
(AP, 8/5/14)
2014 Aug 5, Chinese police authorized the arrest of a student, surnamed Chang, who was found to have "gathered intelligence" for "foreign personnel" more than 50 times over nearly two years for some $32,000.
(AFP, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 5, A Philippine court found 12 Chinese fishermen guilty of illegal fishing in Philippine waters in April 2013, sending them to jail for six to 12 years, the first convictions since tension between the neighbors flared over rival claims in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 8/5/14)
2014 Aug 6, China executed two South Koreans, convicted of smuggling 14 kg (30 lb) of methamphetamines from North Korea in 2010 and 2011, and planned to soon execute a third.
(Reuters, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 6, China’s state media said Karamay city in the western region of Xinjiang, has banned people with head scarves, veils and long beards from boarding buses, as the government battles unrest with a policy that critics said discriminates against Muslims.
(Reuters, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 7, China’s state media said plans are in place to build lighthouses on five islands in the South China Sea, in defiance of calls from the United States and the Philippines for a freeze on such activity to ease tension over rival claims. At least two of the islands appear to be in waters also claimed by Vietnam.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, South Korea's Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said China has confirmed it had blocked "some foreign messaging applications through which terrorism-related information" was circulating. These included KakaoTalk and Line. It named other blocked apps as Didi, Talk Box and Vower. The service disruptions in China began a month ago.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 8, A Chinese court sentenced Peter Humphrey, a private British investigator, to 2½ years in prison and his business-partner wife, Yu Yingzeng, to two years after they pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining private records of Chinese citizens as they researched corporate fraud. In early 2013 Glaxo Pharma had asked their Hong Kong-based company, China Whys, to investigate whether a former employee was passing information of suspected fraud to Chinese authorities.
(SFC, 8/9/14, p.D4)
2014 Aug 9, In China a tour bus on a highway in Tibet fell off a 10-meter (30-foot) cliff after crashing into an SUV and a pickup, killing 44 people and injuring 11 others.
(AP, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 11, China accused the US of deliberately stoking tensions in the South China Sea as it rejected Washington's proposal for a freeze on provocative actions in the region.
(AFP, 8/11/14)
2014 Aug 12, In China actor Gao Hu (40), who had a small part as a soldier in Zhang Yimou's 2011 movie "The Flowers of War," was detained by police for possession and use of marijuana and methamphetamine, part of a wave of detentions in China's sternest crackdowns on illegal drug use in two decades.
(AP, 8/13/14)
2014 Aug 12, Chinese security forces opened fire on unarmed Tibetan protesters, wounding at least 10 people, before they detained the protesters and rounded up more male villagers in the southwestern province of Sichuan. One protester identified as Lo Palsang committed suicide while in custody while another unnamed person died from untreated wounds. 3 more protesters died later in jail after being denied medical treatment.
(AP, 8/20/14)
2014 Aug 14, In China 23 workers were trapped after a coal mine flooded at the Anzhishun Coal Mine in Jixi City, Heilongjiang province.
(SFC, 8/15/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 14, Hong Kong's Law Society passed an historic vote of no-confidence in its president over pro-Beijing comments, revealing a determination by the traditionally conservative lawyers to confront perceived threats from China to the legal independence in the free-wheeling, global financial hub.
(Reuters, 8/15/14)
2014 Aug 15, China’s state media reported that two HIV-positive passengers and a friend are suing a Chinese airline for refusing to let them on board, in the country's first such lawsuit.
(AFP, 8/15/14)
2014 Aug 16, China’s state media reported that police have arrested seven people in the northwest allegedly involved in a scheme that forced school children to donate blood.
(AFP, 8/16/14)
2014 Aug 17, Indian border police noticed Chinese troops in a disputed and unpopulated area of Ladakh during a patrol of the informal border that separates India and China.
(AFP, 8/19/14)
2014 Aug 17, In South Korea Pope Francis made his strongest gesture yet to reach out to China, saying he wants to improve relations and insisting that the Catholic Church isn't coming in as a "conqueror" but is rather a partner in dialogue.
(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 18, China's government said it has concluded Mercedes-Benz violated anti-monopoly law and charged excessive prices for parts, adding to a growing number of global automakers snared in an investigation of the industry.
(AP, 8/18/14)
2014 Aug 18, China’s CNOOC discovered a gas field at a depth of about 1,500 meters, about 150 km south of Hainan island. It was unclear whether the discovery would become commercially viable.
(AP, 9/16/14)
2014 Aug 19, In China an explosion ripped through the Dongfang coal mine in the city of Huainan. On Nov 12 authorities confirmed the deaths of 21 missing miners who were trapped in the mine collapse, bringing the death toll to 27.
(AP, 11/12/14)
2014 Aug 21, China's Xi Jinping began a two-day trip to neighboring Mongolia, the first Chinese president to visit in more than a decade. China and Mongolia pledged to almost double their annual two-way trade to $10 billion by 2020.
(AFP, 8/21/14)(AP, 8/21/14)
2014 Aug 22, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Mongolia that Beijing respected its independence and integrity as he concluded a visit looking to forge closer ties with China's resource-rich but often suspicious neighbor.
(AFP, 8/22/14)
2014 Aug 21, In southern China at least seven people were stabbed in an apparently random attack in Guangzhou.
(SFC, 8/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 22, The Obama administration accused a Chinese fighter jet of conducting a "dangerous intercept" of a US Navy surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft off the coast of China in international airspace.
(AP, 8/23/14)
2014 Aug 23, Chinese state media reported the execution of eight people convicted on terrorism charges in the restive western region of Xinjiang, including three men authorities say were behind a deadly attack in the heart of Beijing in which an SUV plowed through a crowd.
(AP, 8/23/14)
2014 Aug 23, Chinese authorities blocked the annual Beijing Independent Film Festival from opening, seizing documents and films from organizers and hauling away two event officials in a sign that Beijing is stepping up its already tight ideological controls.
(AP, 8/25/14)
2014 Aug 25, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (90) was welcomed in Beijing by his counterpart Xi Jinping as Africa's longest-ruling leader sought more Chinese investment in his nation's stagnant economy.
(AFP, 8/25/14)
2014 Aug 26, In China a bus collided head-on with a truck in the country's northwest, killing 13 people and injuring many others in Gansu province.
(AP, 8/26/14)
2014 Aug 27, China moved to limit 2017 elections for Hong Kong's leader to a handful of candidates loyal to Beijing.
(Reuters, 8/27/14)
2014 Aug 27, China and Vietnam said they're committed to negotiating maritime disputes to avoid a recurrence of tensions that spiked when China deployed an oil rig in waters claimed by Hanoi.
(AP, 8/27/14)
2014 Aug 27, A landslide in southwest China killed at least 15 people, with 8 missing and 22 injured.
(Reuters, 8/30/14)(SFC, 8/30/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 29, China's top leaders decided to cut salaries and restrict expense accounts and other perks of executives at state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as they pursued a crackdown on corruption and extravagance.
(AFP, 8/29/14)
2014 Aug, Chinese police arrested an employee of commodity trader Trafigura as part of an investigation into an alleged $32 million gasoline trade fraud. Tian Meng (39), who works at Trafigura's oil marketing team in Beijing, was being held without charge in the northern city of Cangzhou.
(Reuters, 12/4/14)
2014 Sep 1, In central China a man (40) stabbed students and teachers with a knife at a school, killing 3 children and injuring 6 people before jumping to his death at the Dongfang primary school in Chengguan, Hubei province.
(AP, 9/1/14)(SFC, 9/2/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 2, The American Chamber of Commerce in China said foreign companies in China feel increasingly targeted for unfair enforcement of anti-monopoly and other laws and might cut investment if conditions fail to improve.
(AP, 9/2/14)
2014 Sep 4, Zimbabwe launched a $533-million project with China to scale up electricity generation at one of its major power plants in a bid to ease perennial energy woes.
(AFP, 9/4/14)
2014 Sep 5, Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group sought to raise up to $24.3 billion in an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, which would value the company at $163 billion. Those are both IPO records.
(AP, 9/5/14)
2014 Sep 6, China reported that flooding in the southwest over the past week has left 44 people dead and 18 missing, and has caused massive damage to housing and crops.
(AP, 9/6/14)
2014 Sep 7, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that authorities have killed some 4,900 dogs in Baoshan, Yunnan province, after blaming five human deaths on rabies. The city of vaccinated another 100,000 in its anti-rabies campaign and issued an urgent order calling for authorities to tightly regulate dogs and kill stray ones.
(AP, 9/7/14)
2014 Sep 11, The Shanghai Co-operation Organization (SCO) opened its 14th annual summit. The 2-day meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, included the groups six member countries: China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The SCO agreed to adopt procedures for expansion with India and Pakistan likely to join next year.
(Econ, 9/20/14, p.39)
2014 Sep 12, A boat from the northern China seaport city of Dalian, with six crew on board, was seized by North Koreans while fishing in the Yellow Sea between China and the Korean Peninsula. The North Koreans demanded a fine of 250,000 yuan ($40,700) for releasing the boat and its crew, but on September 17th the six crew returned to their fishing village with wounds on their bodies from being beaten.
(Reuters, 9/23/14)
2014 Sep 14, In southern China residents of Huizhou protested against a proposed garbage incinerator for a 2nd straight day. 24 people were detained a day earlier in the Guangdong province protests.
(AP, 9/14/14)(Reuters, 9/14/14)
2014 Sep 14, In China police detained writer Huang Zerong (81), better known as Tieliu, on the vague charge of causing trouble. Police also arrested Jaycee Chan (31), the son of film star Jackie Chan, on drug charges. Taiwanese movie star Ko Kai was also arrested. Police said both tested positive for marijuana.
(SFC, 9/16/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 15, China's President Xi Jinping enlisted the Maldives' backing for a "21st century maritime silk road" as he began a tour of South Asia in the strategically located Indian Ocean island chain.
(AFP, 9/15/14)
2014 Sep 16, Germany-listed Ultrasonic AG said in a statement it has been unable to reach its chief executive, Qingyong Wu, and chief operating officer, Minghong Wu, since the weekend. The company said most of its cash was in China and Hong Kong has been transferred beyond its control.
(AP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in the Indian prime minister's home state of Gujarat for a three-day visit expected to focus on India's need to improve worn out infrastructure and reduce its trade deficit.
(AP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, Chinese authorities put Ilham Tohti, a prominent scholar from the mostly-Muslim Uighur minority, on trial for separatism as critics warned the prosecution will worsen tensions in violence-wracked Xinjiang.
(AFP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, In China Lhamo Tashi burned himself to death in Hezuo city in the Tibetan prefecture of Gannan in the northwestern province of Gansu.
(AP, 9/22/14)
2014 Sep 17, Japan agreed to cut purchases of eel fry from neighboring countries by 20 percent as part of moves to protect the endangered species. The agreement with China, South Korea and Taiwan called for reducing eel hauls by 20 percent for one year, beginning in November.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 17, US Senate investigators blamed China for nearly two dozen successful hacker break-ins of computer networks belonging to Pentagon contractors. A yearlong investigation announced by the Senate Armed Services Committee identified at least 50 intrusions since 2012 against unspecified contractors working for the US Transportation Command.
(AP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, In Iowa Shao Tong (20), a Chinese national and international student at Iowa State University, went missing. Her body was found Sept. 26. An autopsy said she'd been asphyxiated. Authorities said she had been killed after a weekend with Li Xiangnan at a motel. Li returned to China following the slaying. Xiangnan (23) surrendered to police in Wenzhou on May 13, 2015, and was arrested on June 19 to face a charge of intentional homicide.
(AP, 6/30/15)
2014 Sep 18, In eastern China an official hanged himself after being sacked following a corruption probe into his presence at an extravagant banquet. Lou Xuequan (50) had been Communist Party chief of a district in Nanjing city.
(Reuters, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 18, Indian PM Narendra Modi stood beside Chinese President Xi Jinping at a news conference and said he raised India's concerns about repeated incidents at the border. Both leaders said peace and stability along the border were necessary for economic growth and development in the region.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 19, China fined drug maker GlaxoSmithKline $492 million for bribing doctors in the biggest such penalty ever imposed by a Chinese court.
(AP, 9/19/14)
2014 Sep 19, Alibaba made its long-awaited Wall Street debut on the heels of a record stock offering at $68 per share.
(AFP, 9/19/14)
2014 Sep 21, China's police ministry said 88 fugitives wanted on charges of corruption and other economic offenses have been extradited or returned on their own from the United States and other countries in the midst of an anti-graft crackdown.
(AP, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 21, China’s Xinhua News Agency said three police officers and four other people have been convicted of torturing suspects to obtain confessions. Multiple explosions in Luntai county, Xinjiang, killed at least 2 people and injured many others. 50 people, including 40 assailants, were killed in what authorities called a terror attack.
(AP, 9/22/14)(AP, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 22, Thousands of Hong Kong college and university students boycotted classes to protest Beijing's decision to restrict voting reforms, the start of a weeklong strike that marks the latest phase in the battle for democracy in the southern Chinese city.
(AP, 9/22/14)
2014 Sep 22, In southern China an explosion at a fireworks factory killed six people and injured 38 others at the Nanyang Export Fireworks Factory, Liling city, Hunan province.
(AP, 9/22/14)
2014 Sep 23, A Chinese court found economics professor Ilham Tohti, an ethnic Uighur Muslim, guilty of separatism and sentenced him to life in prison.
(AP, 9/23/14)
2014 Sep 23, Indian military officials said that Chinese troops have set up a camp about 3 km (2 miles) into territory claimed by India in the Chumar region of the Ladakh plateau more than a week ago. Indian soldiers have set up their own base nearby and have been told not to back down.
(Reuters, 9/23/14)
2014 Sep 24, In China Liu Tienan (59), the former deputy head of China's top planning agency, confessed in court to extensive bribery involving several companies including a Toyota Motor Corp. joint venture.
(Reuters, 9/24/14)
2014 Sep 25, China and Spain signed business deals worth $4 billion on as Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy visited the Asian powerhouse to seek support for Spain's struggling economy.
(AP, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 25, Chinese police detained Shen Hao, publisher of the 21st Century Business Herald, and general manager Chen Dongyang, weeks after some editors and reporters for the publication's website were detained on allegations of extortion.
(AP, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 25, China said it will send 700 troops to join a UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, where fighting has threatened Beijing's oil investments.
(Reuters, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 26, China's top anti-graft body said Gao Jianyun, a senior internet regulator, has been expelled from the ruling Communist Party on graft charges.
(Reuters, 9/26/14)
2014 Sep 26, In China a man fatally stabbed four students as they were walking to their elementary school in Lingshan County, Guanxi province. Police searched for 56-year-old suspect who attacked the children from a motorcycle. 6 schoolchildren died and 25 were injured in a stampede at the Mingtong Primary School in the southern city of Kunming.
(AP, 9/26/14)
2014 Sep 26, Intel said it will pay up to $1.5 billion for a 20 percent stake in a Chinese venture that will design and make Intel-branded chips for mobile phones and other electronics.
(AP, 9/26/14)
2014 Sep 27, In Hong Kong tens of thousands of people massed in the heart of the city to demand more democracy, as tensions grew over Beijing's decision to rule out free elections in the former British colony. Riot police arrested dozens of students who stormed the government headquarters compound during a night of scuffles.
(Reuters, 9/27/14)(AP, 9/27/14)
2014 Sep 28, Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc., was reported blocked in China amid pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
(Reuters, 9/28/14)
2014 Sep 29, China reported that policeman Li Shunlin died last week after about 20 Vietnamese citizens attacked him and other officers who had impounded a vessel suspected of smuggling in southern China.
(AP, 9/29/14)
2014 Sep 29, Hong Kong democracy protesters defied volleys of tear gas and police baton charges to stand firm in the centre of the global financial hub, one of the biggest political challenges for China since the Tiananmen Square crackdown 25 years ago.
(Reuters, 9/29/14)
2014 Sep 30, President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders solemnly presented flower baskets at the People's Heroes Monument in central Beijing to mark Martyr's Day, one of three new holidays created this year in a renewed focus on World War II.
(AP, 9/30/14)
2014 Sep 30, It was reported that China's government has kicked off a media campaign in support of genetically modified crops, as it battles a wave of negative publicity over a technology it hopes will play a major role in boosting its food security.
(Reuters, 9/30/14)
2014 Sep 30, The Chinese-registered cargo ship Lurongyu 2859 sank in the Sea of Japan. Five crew members were rescued. Nine people were believed missing.
(AP, 10/1/14)
2014 Oct 3, In Hong Kong violent scuffles broke out in Mong Kok, a famous and congested shopping district, as hundreds of supporters of Chinese rule stormed tents and ripped down banners belonging to pro-democracy protesters, forcing many to retreat.
(Reuters, 10/3/14)
2014 Oct 6, In southern China 5 people were killed in an explosion at an illegal fireworks factory in Lanjiang village, Guizhou province.
(AP, 10/6/14)
2014 Oct 7, In southwestern China a strong, shallow 6.0 earthquake shook Yunnan province. At least one person was killed as aftershocks continued to strike the area.
(AP, 10/8/14)
2014 Oct 9, China’s disciplinary body said that Wan Qinglian, the former party head of the southern city of Guangzhou, was being referred for criminal prosecution on accusations of having demanded and received a "gigantic amount" of bribes.
(AP, 10/9/14)
2014 Oct 10, In China days of heavy smog shrouding northern swathes of the country pushed pollution to more than 20 times recommended limits, despite government promises to tackle environmental blight.
(AFP, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 10, A South Korea coast guardsman fatally shot the captain of a Chinese fishing vessel who resisted the inspection of his ship for suspected illegal fishing.
(AP, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 11, Hong Kong students leading pro-democracy protests issued an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping, urging him to consider political reforms in the city and blaming the city's unpopular leader for the demonstrations. Thousands of people returned for sit-ins in Hong Kong's main protest zone.
(AP, 10/11/14)
2014 Oct 11, China’s social media began reporting that authorities have ordered books by Chinese-American scholar Yu Ying-shih to be removed from sale, as Beijing expresses its displeasure with writers showing support for pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong and elsewhere.
(AP, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 11, In northwestern China a landslide buried a dormitory for highway construction workers as they slept inside, killing 19 and injuring two others in Shaanxi province.
(AP, 10/11/14)
2014 Oct 12, Chinese police stormed into a conference room outside Beijing where rights lawyers were meeting to discuss wrongful cases and broke up the gathering. Chinese scholar and rights advocate Guo Yushan, founder of an influential non-governmental think tank, was detained on the criminal charge of provoking troubles.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In China four ethnic Uighurs armed with knives and explosives killed at least 22 people, mostly Han Chinese, in Kashgar Prefecture. Dozens were injured before police shot and killed the attackers.
(SFC, 10/20/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 13, China’s state media said a court in western Xinjiang region has sentenced to death 12 people blamed for terrorist attacks that killed 37 people in July.
(AP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 13, In China Comcast NBCUniversal and a consortium of four Chinese state-owned companies announced the approval of the development of a $3.3 billion Universal theme park in Beijing that would be the first major foreign-owned theme park in the Chinese capital.
(AP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 14, In southwest China 8 people died in a clash between construction workers and villagers in Jinning county, Yunnan province, over a land dispute. 4 of the construction workers were burned to death.
(Reuters, 10/15/14)(SFC, 10/17/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 17, China’s Vice President Li Yuanchao called on China and Vietnam to enhance political trust and manage maritime disputes in a meeting with Vietnamese Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh in Beijing.
(AP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 20, China was reported to have donated $6 million to help stave off food shortages in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the countries worst affected by the Ebola virus.
(AP, 10/20/14)
2014 Oct 24, Twenty-one Asian nations signed on to a China-driven initiative to create a new development bank for Asia that's aimed at boosting infrastructure investment of all kinds. The $100 billion Asian Infrastructure Development Bank (AIIB) will be a rival to the Asian Development Bank.
(AP, 10/25/14)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.61)
2014 Oct 24, In northwestern China a coal mine shaft collapsed just before midnight, killing 16 miners outside the Xinjiang regional capital of Urumqi.
(AP, 10/25/14)
2014 Oct 27, China and Vietnam agreed to use an existing border dispute mechanism to find a solution to a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, saying they did not want it to affect relations.
(Reuters, 10/27/14)
2014 Oct 27, China’s Xinhua news agency reported that private clubs in historical buildings, parks and other public facilities have been banned because they were hindering the fight against corruption.
(Reuters, 10/27/14)
2014 Oct 28, China's Communist Party published a lengthy resolution calling for an extensive and profound revolution in the way the country is governed. Endorsed by the Central Committee five days earlier it pledged to speed up legislation to fight corruption and make it tougher for officials to exert control over the judiciary. State media said prosecutors have indicted Xu Caihou, former deputy chairman of the ruling Communist Party's powerful Central Military Commission, on bribery charges. China's top prosecuting body said that whistleblowers who expose corruption and other wrongdoing would receive legal protection against reprisals.
(Reuters, 10/28/14)(AP, 10/28/14)(Econ, 11/1/14, p.43)
2014 Oct 28, Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani began a 4-day visit to China. Ghani met President Xi Jinping in Beijing and pledged to help China fight Islamist extremists.
(Reuters, 10/28/14)
2014 Oct 31, In China a senior prosecutor said investigators have found more than 200 million yuan ($33 million) in cash at the home of an energy official accused of receiving bribes, in the country's largest cash seizure ever. The cash was seized at the home of Wei Pengyuan, deputy chief of the coal bureau under the National Energy Administration.
(AP, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct 31, A man in southeastern China slashed a first-grader to death and severely injured two others in Luojia village, Jiangxi province.
(AP, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct 31, In China Han Lei (40), a man who killed a two-year-old girl after a row with her mother over a parking space in Beijing in July, 2012, was executed.
(AFP, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct 31, In Australia the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) wound up a 10-day meeting in Hobart without the consensus needed for a deal to conserve and manage the marine ecosystems in the Southern Ocean. China and Russia thwarted an international attempt to create the world’s largest ocean sanctuary in Antarctica.
(Reuters, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct, China’s overall debt rose to about 250% of GDP, up from 150% six years earlier.
(Econ, 10/18/14, p.77)
2014 Nov 1, It was reported that China's legislature has designated Dec. 4 as Constitution Day amid a drive to strengthen the authority of the country's legal system.
(AP, 11/1/14)
2014 Nov 1, China successfully recovered an experimental spacecraft that flew around the moon and back in a test run for the country's first unmanned return trip to the lunar surface. The eight-day trip marked the first time in almost four decades that a spacecraft has returned to Earth after traveling around the moon.
(AP, 11/1/14)
2014 Nov 2, China’s state media said China has successfully tested a self-developed laser defense system against small-scale low-altitude drones.
(Reuters, 11/2/14)
2014 Nov 3, In China a bus rolled over on Shanghai’s Donghai Bridge, one of the longest cross-sea bridges in the world, killing six people and injuring 43 others.
(AP, 11/3/14)
2014 Nov 5, A consortium led by China Railway Corp. won a contract to build Mexico’s first high-speed train. The $3.7 billion project will link Mexico City with Queretaro by 2017. Pena Nieto’s government cancelled the contract on Nov 7 following an investigation into Grupo Higa, a Mexican partner in the consortium, which also provided Nieto and his wife use of a $7 million mansion on the western edge of Mexico City. Grupo Higa had granted Angelica Rivera, Pena’s wife, a loan to buy the mansion in 2012.
(SSFC, 11/9/14, p.A4)(SFC, 11/10/14, p.A4)(SFC, 11/11/14, p.A2)
2014 Nov 7, China said it has reached agreement with Japan to ramp up high-level contacts. China and Japan jointly announced that they are seeking to improve relations and set up a system to prevent minor maritime contingencies from escalating into true warfare.
(AP, 11/7/14)(SFC, 11/8/14, p.A3)
2014 Nov 7, South Africa said it has signed a nuclear energy cooperation agreement with China as the government looks to expand the critical power supply system.
(AFP, 11/7/14)
2014 Nov 8, China’s President Xi Jinping announced the creation of a $40 billion Silk Road infrastructure fund to boost connectivity across Asia.
(Reuters, 11/8/14)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.61)
2014 Nov 8, The foreign ministers of China and Japan held talks ahead of a hoped-for meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe after more than two years of frozen high-level contacts.
(AP, 11/8/14)
2014 Nov 8, Ministers from Pacific Rim countries endorsed a call to formally start work on a free-trade initiative seen as an effort by China to raise its influence in trade policy. 21 Asia Pacific countries agreed to cooperate on the extradition of corrupt officials, enhance asset recovery efforts and establish an anti-corruption transparency network to share intelligence on graft.
(AP, 11/8/14)(Reuters, 11/8/14)
2014 Nov 8, The central banks of China and Canada said they have agreed to a currency swap worth 200 billion yuan ($32.67 billion) or C$30 billion, effective for three years.
(Reuters, 11/9/14)
2014 Nov 9, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin promised ever-closer cooperation as they met for the 10th time in less than two years. They signed agreements to boost energy cooperation, including an understanding to develop a second major route to supply the Chinese side with Russian gas following an initial $400 billion deal in May.
(AP, 11/9/14)
2014 Nov 10, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed world leaders to this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit.
(Econ, 11/8/14, p.47)
2014 Nov 10, South Korea said it has agreed to sign a free trade deal with China that will remove tariffs on more than 90 percent of goods over two decades but won't include rice or autos.
(AP, 11/10/14)
2014 Nov 10, Pres. Obama announced in Beijing that China and the US had reached a reciprocal agreement to extend visa validity periods to as long as a decade.
(SFC, 11/11/14, p.A5)
2014 Nov 11, China’s Pres. Xi Jinping said an Asia-Pacific summit has endorsed a Beijing-backed route towards a vast free trade area in the region.
(AFP, 11/11/14)
2014 Nov 12, China and the United States agreed to new limits on carbon emissions starting in 2025, but the pledge by the world's two biggest polluters appears to be more politically significant than substantive.
(Reuters, 11/12/14)
2014 Nov 13, Speaking in Myanmar China's PM Li Keqiang proposed a friendship treaty with Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN) and offered $20 billion in loans but held firm on the line that Beijing will only settle South China Sea disputes directly with other claimants.
(Reuters, 11/13/14)
2014 Nov 15, Three Hong Kong student leaders were stopped from boarding a flight to Beijing to take their fight for greater democracy directly to the Chinese government after airline authorities said their travel permits were invalid.
(Reuters, 11/15/14)
2014 Nov 15, In Liberia about 160 Chinese health workers arrived, where they are due to staff a new $41 million Ebola clinic that, unlike most other foreign interventions, is being built and fully run by Chinese personnel.
(Reuters, 11/16/14)
2014 Nov 16, In China a fire in a carrot-packaging plant killed 18 people at the Longyuan Food Co. facility in Shouguang, Shandong province.
(AP, 11/16/14)
2014 Nov 17, China’s official government news agency Xinhua said a campaign dubbed “Operation Fox Hunt" has arrested 288 fugitives suspected of committing economic crimes as part of an aggressive anti-corruption effort aimed at individuals who have fled abroad. The Chinese government has given overseas graft suspects a deadline of December 1 to surrender. By May 2015 some 680 fugitives from 69 countries were repatriated.
(Reuters, 11/17/14)(Econ., 5/2/15, p.38)
2014 Nov 17, Australia and China signed a preliminary free-trade deal that would give Australia's service industry unsurpassed access to the Chinese market and Australian agriculture advantages over competitors from the United States, Canada and the European Union.
(AP, 11/17/14)
2014 Nov 18, In China villagers in Sanjiang township, part of Haikou City near the northern coast of Hainan Island, clashed with police and smashed vehicles after the local government began construction on a center to house patients with leprosy and sexually transmitted diseases. Construction on the facility was suspended pending talks to eliminate misunderstandings.
(Reuters, 11/18/14)
2014 Nov 19, Chinese officials announced limits on growth in energy consumption aimed at making the country less dependent on coal.
(AP, 11/19/14)
2014 Nov 19, In eastern China an overloaded makeshift school bus collided with a truck, killing 11 kindergarteners and the bus driver.
(AP, 11/19/14)
2014 Nov 20, China’s state media reported that police have arrested 39 people as they broke up a telephone scam ring in Guangdong province that tricked Malaysians into wiring them money.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, In northeastern China 6 nurses and a janitor were killed in a knife attack at the Beidaihe Sanatorium, a military hospital and resort in the seaside town of Beidaihe. A 27-year-old employee was detained.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 21, China's central bank cuts interest rate by 0.25 percentage point, and its one-year loan rate by 0.4 percentage point.
(Marketwatch, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 21, It was reported that the Chinese government and banks will finance Chinese companies to build $45.6 billion worth of energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan over the next six years.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 21, Jane’s, a leading defense publication, said satellite images show China is building an island on a reef in the disputed Spratly Islands large enough to accommodate what could be its first offshore airstrip in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 22, In western China a magnitude-5.9 earthquake struck a lightly populated, mountainous area. At least 5 people were killed and 54 injured.
(AP, 11/22/14)(AP, 11/23/14)
2014 Nov 24, China’s state media said authorities in the northern region of Inner Mongolia arrested 31 people on suspicion of trafficking women because they had held 14 people, 11 of them from Myanmar.
(Reuters, 11/24/14)
2014 Nov 24, A Philippine court fined nine Chinese fishermen $102,000 each after they were caught last May with hundreds of sea turtles in a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 11/24/14)
2014 Nov 25, In China an office of the State Council released a draft of the country’s first anti-domestic violence law.
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.47)
2014 Nov 26, In China a fire sparked by underground tremors tore through a mine run by the state-owned Fuxin Coal Corp. 26 miners were killed and several others left with life-threatening injuries in Liaoning province.
(AP, 11/26/14)
2014 Nov 26, China's official Xinhua News Agency said that a tiger, named Ustin, bit and killed 15 goats and left another three missing On Nov 23-24. Russian experts rescued five tiger cubs two years ago. Ustin was one of three released by Pres. Putin in May in a remote part of the Amur region.
(AP, 11/26/14)
2014 Nov 27, In China at least 11 people were killed in the second deadly coal mine accident to hit the country in two days. 19 people were working in a mine in the southern province of Guizhou when an explosion ripped through the shaft early this morning.
(AP, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 27, In southern China a man in his 20s stabbed several people at the entrance to a supermarket in Nanning. Nine people were rushed to the hospital with two seriously injured.
(Reuters, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 28, China’s Standing Committee of Beijing Municipal People's Congress passed draft regulation to ban smoking in all indoor public spaces effective on June 1, 2015.
(AP, 11/29/14)
2014 Nov 28, In China the standing committee of Xinjiang's parliament, banned the practice of religion in government buildings and stipulated penalties of between 5,000 and 30,000 yuan ($4,884) for individuals who use the Internet, mobile phones or digital publishing to undermine national unity, social stability or incite ethnic hatred.
(Reuters, 11/30/14)
2014 Nov 28, In China a group of "terrorists" launched an attack on civilians in Shache county, Xinjiang region, leaving 15 people dead and 14 wounded. 11 "terrorists" were also reported shot dead during the violence.
(AFP, 11/29/14)(AP, 11/30/14)
2014 Nov 30, China’s government proposed to insure all banking deposit accounts for up to 500,000 yuan (($81,300).
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.82)
2014 Nov 30, Police in Kenya arrested 37 Chinese nationals with advanced communications equipment in a house in an upscale Nairobi neighborhood following a fire that left one person dead. 40 more Chinese nationals were arrested on Dec 3 and police consulted technical experts to see if they were committing espionage.
(AP, 12/4/14)
2014 Dec 3, In northeastern China an employee of the central bank shot and killed two colleagues at the branch he was working at in Dashiqiao city, Liaoning province.
(Reuters, 12/3/14)
2014 Dec 4, China marked its first Constitution Day as part of President Xi Jinping's drive to show that the country embraces rule of law while ensuring that the ruling Communist Party holds on to its unrivaled authority.
(AP, 12/4/14)
2014 Dec 5, Chinese authorities arrested ex-domestic security Chief Zhou Yongkang and barred him from the ruling Communist Party.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 8, A Chinese court sentenced eight people to death on charges of leading terror groups and setting off explosives in two attacks that left 46 people dead in the far western region of Xinjiang. The Urumqi Intermediate People's Court in Xinjiang also handed out suspended death sentences to five others.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 8, In eastern China 5 middle school students were killed after a wall collapsed on them at Tongren Middle School in Huaibei city.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 9, In China a rights lawyer said seven students of Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti have been jailed for 3-8 years for inciting seperatism.
(SFC, 12/10/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 9, The Save the Elephants group reported that street prices for illegal ivory are soaring in China, where newly wealthy middle and upper class citizens are buying carved ivory and whole tusks as a status symbol of their riches.
(AP, 12/9/14)
2014 Dec 9, Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro was awarded China's Confucius Peace Prize, portrayed by organizers as an alternative to the Nobel Prize. The prize was handed to a Cuban foreign student representative at a ceremony at a Beijing hotel.
(AP, 12/11/14)
2014 Dec 9, In China Liu Tienan was jailed for life for receiving some $6 million in bribes. Mr. Liu was sacked in August 2013 as deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission after a disgruntled mistress blew the whistle on him.
(AP, 12/10/14)(Econ, 12/13/14, p.46)
2014 Dec 10, In China authorities in Urumqi, the capital of the restive western region of Xinjiang, introduced a law banning veiled robes in public amid measures taken by Beijing to curb Muslim extremism. The new law was passed by the Urumqi legislature's standing committee but needs endorsement at the regional level before going into effect.
(AP, 12/11/14)
2014 Dec 10, China General Nuclear Power, established in 1994, floated shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Shares in China's largest nuclear power producer surged almost 20 percent on its debut.
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.18)(http://tinyurl.com/p59lh8h)
2014 Dec 12, China opened a key section of a massive and ambitious plan to transport water from wetter central and southern parts of the country up to its arid north, including Beijing.
(Reuters, 12/12/14)
2014 Dec 13, China marked its first national memorial day for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. President Xi Jinping said China and Japan should set aside hatred and not allow the minority who led Japan to war to affect relations now.
(Reuters, 12/13/14)
2014 Dec 13, In China at least 12 people were killed and three badly injured in a six-car pileup on a major north-south highway near Heyuan, Guangdong province.
(AP, 12/13/14)
2014 Dec 13, In China ten workers were stopped by guards and police when they attempted to enter the construction site in northern Shanxi province to be paid. Zhou Xiuyun (47), a female construction worker, was killed in an ensuing brawl in which police also broke Zhou's husband's ribs. One officer was later accused of causing the death of Zhou Xiuyun. Two others were arrested for allegedly abusing their power.
(AP, 12/31/14)
2014 Dec 14, In China 10 miners were found dead hours after they were trapped underground in an explosion at a mine in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.
(AP, 12/14/14)
2014 Dec 15, A court in northern China cleared a man of the rape and murder of a woman in a public toilet 18 years after he was executed for the crime. Huugjilt was 18 when he was sentenced to death and executed for the 1996 crime. State media had previously reported that a convicted serial rapist and killer confessed to the murder in 2005 after receiving a death sentence for other crimes, but was never tried for this killing and has still not been executed. On Dec 17 Feng Zhiming, police officer who oversaw the case, was arrested and charged with torture to coerce confession, dereliction of duty and taking bribes.
(AP, 12/15/14)(AP, 12/18/14)
2014 Dec 15, In China a former senior provincial official told a court he took around 13 million yuan ($2.1 million) in bribes consisting largely of precious stones. Ni Fake, a former deputy governor of the eastern province of Anhui, reportedly had a craving for jade.
(AFP, 12/16/14)
2014 Dec 16, Chinese PM Li Keqiang visited Afghanistan to meet with Afghanistan's chief executive officer, Abdullah Abdullah.
(Reuters, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 17, In China Ji Jianye, a former mayor of Nanjing, was indicted on corruption charges amid a widening anti-graft crackdown.
(AP, 12/17/14)
2014 Dec 17, China secured a deal to construct a high-speed train link between the Belgrade and Budapest that will cut travel time between the Serbian and Hungarian capitals from eight hours to less than three.
(AP, 12/17/14)
2014 Dec 19, In China Shanghai-based lawyer Zhang Peihong said he was notified by prosecutors in northeastern Yanbian prefecture of the arrest of Peter Hahn (74), a Korean-American Christian who ran a vocational school for Chinese and Korean youth for more than a decade in the border town of Tumen.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 19, A Beijing court sentenced a former employee of the Forbidden City to be executed for stabbing two of his supervisors to death on the museum's grounds. Zheng Zhibiao had argued at his trial in early December that he had been concerned over a lack of protection of artifacts held at the former palace of China's emperors.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 19, A Beijing court ordered a psychological clinic to pay compensation to a homosexual man for administering electric shocks in an attempt to make him heterosexual, an unprecedented ruling on so-called conversion therapy.
(AFP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 19, China said it would build an 867-km rail network in Thailand and buy two million tons of its rice. Premier Li Keqiang was attending a two-day summit of leaders of Mekong River region countries.
(Reuters, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 20, State media reported that China has offered more than $3 billion in loans and aid to neighbors Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos to improve infrastructure and production, and to fight poverty.
(Reuters, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 21, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported that authorities have detained over 30,000 people during a two-month clamp down on pornography and gambling.
(Reuters, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 21, Chinese police in the southwestern province of Guangxi stopped a group of "religious extremists" from illegally crossing into neighboring Vietnam after shooting one person dead and detaining 21.
(AP, 12/24/14)
2014 Dec 21, US cybersecurity researchers said malicious software likely linked to China is being used to infect visitors to a wide range of official Afghan government websites.
(Reuters, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 22, China's ruling Communist Party announced a corruption investigation into Ling Jihua, a one-time senior aide to former president Hu Jintao, as President Xi Jinping opens another front in his sweeping battle against deep-rooted graft.
(Reuters, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 22, China issued rules, effective March 1, requiring real-estate owners to register their holdings with authorities, a major step in the fight against official corruption that should make it harder for property speculators to evade regulations.
(Reuters, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 22, Chinese prosecutors indicted the son of Hong Kong action film star Jackie Chan on the charge of sheltering others to use drugs, more than four months after he was detained.
(AP, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 22, A Chinese military plane crashed in the country's northwest and at least two people were killed.
(AP, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 22, Nicaraguan officials and a Chinese company broke ground on a $50 billion transoceanic waterway predicted to rival the Panama Canal.
(AP, 12/23/14)
2014 Dec 23, In China Tsepe Kyi (20, a Tibetan woman, died after setting herself on fire in protest at China's rule of the Himalayan region.
(AFP, 12/23/14)
2014 Dec 23, Antigua PM Gaston Browne said that China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation will modernize St. John's port and harbor.
(AP, 12/24/14)
2014 Dec 26, In China a monk was shot in the arm after police used teargas and opened fire during a clash with Tibetans outside a police station in the western province of Sichuan.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, China said it will increase official aid to Nepal by more than five times from fiscal 2015-16, to develop infrastructure in the landlocked nation.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In Vietnam senior Chinese and Vietnamese officials agreed to settle their maritime disputes without resorting to “megaphone diplomacy," during a meeting in Hanoi.
(Reuters, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 26, Data from Google's Transparency Report showed online traffic from China to Gmail fell precipitously and dropped to nearly zero on Dec 27. There was a tiny pickup on Dec 29. Tests later showed that China's government had blocked Google IP addresses in Hong Kong used by people on the mainland to access Gmail services.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2014 Dec 27, China's capital received its first flows from the South-North Water Diversion Project, one of the most ambitious engineering projects in Chinese history.
(AFP, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 29, In China a scaffolding collapse at one of Beijing's most prestigious high schools killed 10 construction workers and injured four others.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2014 Dec 30, Chinese state media reported that a man, identified as a rich businessmen surnamed Xu, has been jailed for 13 years for buying and eating endangered tigers and making wine made out of their blood.
(Reuters, 12/31/14)
2014 Dec 30, A court in eastern China issued the country's biggest environmental fine resulting from public interest litigation against polluters. The Jiangsu provincial high court ordered six companies to pay 160 million yuan ($26 million) for discharging waste chemicals into rivers.
(AP, 12/30/14)
2014 Dec 31, In southern China a gas explosion at an auto parts factory killed 17 people and injured 33 others in Foshan city.
(AP, 12/31/14)
2014 Dec 31, Hong Kong authorities began destroying 15,000 chickens at a poultry market and suspended imports from mainland China after some birds were found to be infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu.
(AP, 12/31/14)(SSFC, 1/3/15, p.A2)
2014 Dec 31, In China a stampede during New Year's celebrations in Shanghai's historic waterfront area killed 36 people in the worst disaster to hit one of China's showcase cities in recent years.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2014 Leta Hong Fincher authored “Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China."
(Econ, 5/3/14, p.74)
2014 Howard French authored “China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa."
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.76)
2014 Bill Hayton authored “The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia."
(Econ, 9/13/14, p.89)
2014 Nicholas Lardy authored “Markets Over Mao: The Rise of Private Business in China."
(Econ, 10/25/14, p.89)
2014 Louisa Lim authored “The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited."
(Econ, 5/31/14, p.74)
2014 Evan Osnos authored “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China."
(SSFC, 6/1/14, p.F1)(Econ, 5/31/14, p.75)
2014 Dan Washburn authored “The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream."
(Econ, 6/14/14, p.75)
2014 Northern China suffered its worst drought in 60 years. Ground water in some areas had fallen from 70 feet just a few years ago to as much as 260 feet this past summer.
(SFC, 9/25/14, p.A4)
2015 Jan 4, China’s corruption watchdog said it is investigating Yang Weize, the Communist Party chief of Nanjing, as the country's corruption crackdown drags in a growing number of top officials.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 5, South Korean media reported that a young North Korean soldier crossed the border in late December and stole money and food at a house before killing four residents in China's northeastern city of Helong.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 12, Chinese police shot and killed six would-be bombers in the latest violence to strike the restive far northwestern region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, In China taxi drivers began protesting against high cab rental fees and emerging competitors such as Uber in several provincial cities.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Chinese officials said Bai Enpei, formerly the party boss of Yunnan province, has been fired from his position at China's parliament after investigators found he accepted bribes in huge amounts.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 15, In China pollution levels soared in Beijing to readings more than 20 times WHO recommended limits, as an annual bout of intense smog returned to haunt the capital despite government vows to address the plague.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, In China 4 Singaporeans, an Indonesian, a Malaysian, an Indian, 14 Chinese and a Japanese were among 22 people dead following the overturning of the tugboat during a test voyage in the river's Fubei Channel in the eastern province of Jiangsu. 3 people survived.
(AP, 1/16/15)(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 19, Chinese shares plunged about 8 percent after the country's securities regulator imposed margin trading curbs on several major brokerages.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 20, In Myanmar a Chinese embassy spokesman in Yangon said more than 100 Chinese citizens trapped by fighting between government troops and insurgents in the north, have been arrested and are being held by the Myanmar government.
(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 23, It was reported that China is blocking VPN services that let users skirt online censorship of popular websites such as Google and Facebook amid a wider crackdown on online information.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Chinese police said they've arrested five people in connection with a phony bank that used bogus offices and tellers to bilk depositors out of $32 million.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 28, Myanmar opened trial operations of a deep sea port off its western coast, part of a $2.45 billion port and pipeline project that will carry crude oil from the Middle East to China.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 29, A Chinese coast guard ship allegedly rammed and damaged three Philippine fishing boats at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. On Feb 4 the Philippines protested to Beijing.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 2, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection named the country’s ten most polluted cities of 2014. Seven were located in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing.
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.41)
2015 Feb 2, A Chinese court said a father and daughter have been executed for attacking and killing a woman who had refused to join their outlawed "All-powerful Spirit" group during an altercation last May 28 at a McDonald's outlet in Shandong province.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 4, China announced that users of blogs and chat rooms will be required to register their names with operators and promise in writing to avoid challenging the Communist political system, further tightening control over Internet use.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Chinese and Argentine leaders signed a batch of agreements in Beijing, including collaboration on two new nuclear power plants.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, TransAsia Airways Flight GE235, a turboprop ATR 72-600 with 58 passengers and crew, careered into a river shortly after taking off from a downtown Taipei airport. 31 people were confirmed dead with 12 missing and 15 rescued. 31 of those on board were tourists from China’s southeastern city of Xiamen.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)(AP, 2/4/15)(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 5, In China authorities in Shanghai said police have seized 2.4 tons of methamphetamine and arrested 28 people in one of the country's largest drug busts.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, In China a fire at a wholesale market killed at least 17 people and injured nine others on the fourth floor of the market in southern Guangdong province.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 10, China promised to help build a hydroelectric power plant in a violent Afghan border region, as well as road and rail links to Pakistan, in the latest sign it is taking a more active role in Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 12, China offered to mediate in stalled efforts to engage the Afghan Taliban in peace negotiations.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 16, In China a party watchdog said Su Rong, a former provincial party leader and former vice chairman of China's top political advisory body, has been expelled from the ruling Communist party and stripped of all government positions. Su Rong was accused of taking bribes in return for government positions and will likely face criminal charges.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Chinese New Year holiday began today due to the insertion of a lunar leap month last year.
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.40)
2015 Feb 19, Chinese were seeing in the Year of the Sheep as fireworks and firecrackers ushered in the Lunar New Year across Asia.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In China Luo Renchu (64) attacked elderly residents and staff at the privately run home in Hunan province. He killed 3 elderly residents with a brick and injured 15 other people after arguing with his boss over unpaid wages.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 24, In China 22 people were killed and 38 injured in a bus accident in Bachu County, Xinjiang region.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 26, China imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports with immediate effect amid criticism that its citizens' huge appetite for ivory has fueled poaching that threatens the existence of African elephants.
(AP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 28, China's central bank cut interest rates for the second time in three months, adding to signs that the country's leaders are worried the economic slowdown is deepening too sharply. The People's Bank of China announced a rate cut on one-year loans by commercial banks by 0.25 percentage point to 5.35 percent. The interest rate paid on a one-year deposit was lowered by 0.25 point to 2.50 percent.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In China former vice governor Ni Fake, known for his appetite for jade and arts, was sentenced to 17 years in prison on corruption charges. Fake, former vice governor of the eastern province of Anhui, was found guilty of taking more than $2 million in bribes.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In China the online video documentary “Under the Dome" was released. It pointed out the role of large state-owned enterprises in creating the semi-permanent smog that cloaked many cities in the country. It was viewed by some 200 million people before it was blocked by authorities.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.44)(Econ., 4/25/15, p.77)
2015 Feb, China’s Pres. Xi Jinping unveiled his “Four Comprehensives," a list of political goals for the country: Comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society; Comprehensively deepen reform; Comprehensively govern the nation according to law; Comprehensively strictly govern the Party.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Comprehensives)(Econ., 3/7/15, p.45)
2015 Feb, China and South Korea reached agreement on a free-trade deal.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.36)
2015 Mar 1, Hong Kong police arrested 33 people after scuffles broke out at a protest in a border town, in the latest example of heightened tensions over the growing influx of mainland Chinese shoppers in the city.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 2, Chinese military prosecutors released a list of 14 generals convicted of graft or placed under investigation in an accelerating nationwide anti-corruption drive.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 5, China’s Pm Li Keqiang called for about 7% growth this year at the opening of the opening of the annual session of the National People’s Congress.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.43)
2015 Mar 8, China-based Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI) launched its new Phantom 3 range of drones with prices starting at $1,000.
(SFC, 5/14/15, p.58)
2015 Mar 9, Beijing police said five women activists have been criminally detained for planning to put up anti-sexual harassment posters in three Chinese cities.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 10, The top Communist official in China's Xinjiang said that extremists from the mainly Muslim region have been apprehended after returning from fighting in Syria with the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Indian police detained about a hundred Tibetans who were protesting outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against China's rule in Tibet.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 13, A bomb from a Myanmar aircraft reportedly fell in Chinese territory and killed 4 Chinese people. Myanmar denied that any bomb from its forces had fallen in China and said the rebels might have fired into China to create misunderstanding.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In China an earthquake in the eastern city of Fuyang killed two people and damaged thousands of homes.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 15, In China Xu Caihou (71), the highest-ranking military officer to fall victim to President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive, died of cancer.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, The Stockholm Int’l. Peaced Research Institute reported that China has overtaken Germany as the world’s third largest arms exporter with a 5% share, behind the US at 31% and Russia at 27%.
(SFC, 3/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 17, Germany, France and Italy followed Britain in announcing that they plan to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a proposed Chinese-led Asian regional bank, swinging Europe's biggest economic powers behind a project that is viewed with concern in Washington.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 19, In South Korea the foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea held their first trilateral talks in four years.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.46)
2015 Mar 20, Beijing shut down the third of its four coal-fired power plants as part of its campaign to cut pollution, with the final one scheduled to close next year.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In China a female (28) was shot to death in the city of Chifeng. Zhao Liping (63), who once presided over police affairs for Inner Mongolia, was soon detained on a charge of intentional homicide. Zhao had reportedly disposed of the body, which was later recovered in a village in Chifeng.
(AP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 21, The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China agreed that a summit meeting of their leaders, on hold for nearly three years because of tensions over history and territory, should be held soon to mend the countries' ties.
(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 May 22, It was announced that China National Chemical Corp. (CNCC), a state-owned conglomerate, would buy Pirelli, an Italian tire maker, for $7.7 billion.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.70)
2015 Mar 23, In central China a flood in a shale mine left at least five miners dead and one missing.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 24, In China a meeting of the Communist Party's politburo hosted by President Xi Jinping approved three free-trade zones in the southern province of Guangdong, eastern province of Fujian and northern city of Tianjin.
(AFP, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 26, The Philippines' top diplomat said that China has been rushing construction projects, including massive land reclamation, in the disputed South China Sea in hopes of forestalling any legal moves against its vast territorial claims.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 28, China’s Pres. Xi Jinping opened a major regional economic conference at the Boao Forum on Hainan Island and argued for strong Chinese-led efforts to promote Asian economic and political cooperation. Mr. Xi described his One Belt, One Road" vision for regional and global cooperation.
(SSFC, 3/29/15, p.A6)(Econ., 4/11/15, p.41)
2015 Mar 28, Brazil said it has accepted China's invitation to join a Beijing-backed international infrastructure bank.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 30, China’s government said nearly 70 "illegal" courses have been closed, seemingly enforcing a decade-old ban for the first time.
(AFP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar, Beijing police arrested an environmental reporter and his associates in an apparent extortion scandal. The group's ringleader, surnamed Chen, was accused of blackmailing businesses into paying hundreds of thousands of yuan to delete embarrassing online reports about their activities on a website for environmental news.
(AP, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 2, In China Guangdong police arrested 22 people after demonstrators forced their way into a high-speed rail station in a protest about land and housing issues.
(Reuters, 4/3/15)
2015 Apr 3, In China prosecutors charged former national security chief Zhou Yongkang with corruption and leaking of state secrets, setting the stage for him to become the highest-level politician to stand trial in China in more than three decades.
(AP, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 3, Xue Feng (50), a Chinese-born American geologist was released from prison in China and returned home to Houston after serving more than eight years on charges of procuring state secrets. Xue was detained in November 2007, and sentenced in 2010 on charges of illegally gathering information on China's oil industry.
(AP, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 4, Beijing police took more than 30 people to hospital after they consumed pesticide during a "lie-in" protest on a shopping street near the center of the capital.
(Reuters, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 4, In southwest China a bus plunged into a ravine in Nayong county Guizhou province, killing 21 people and injuring three others. In the northwest a farm vehicle careened while making a turn on a mountain road, killing 12 people and injuring five in Kangle country, Gansu province.
(AP, 4/5/15)
2015 Apr 5, In southern China 7 members of a family on a holiday outing drowned when a 17-year-old girl fell into a reservoir and several relatives dove in after her in a deadly attempt to rescue her in Shantou, Guangdong province.
(AP, 4/6/15)
2015 Apr 7, China's finance ministry said Iran has been approved as a founding member of the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Bank (AIIB).
(AFP, 4/7/15)
2015 Apr 8, In China Shanghai authorities said the city’s Deputy Secretary Dai Haibo has been removed from his post.
(Reuters, 4/8/15)
2015 Apr 8, In China a nun set herself on fire while crying out for the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet. Yeshi Khando (47) of Ngangang Nunnery circled Kardze Monastery in Sichuan province and then self-immolated near the police station.
(AP, 4/11/15)
2015 Apr 9, China sketched out plans for the islands it is creating in the disputed South China Sea, saying they would be used for military defense as well as to provide civilian services that would benefit other countries.
(Reuters, 4/9/15)
2015 Apr 9, Chinese state media reported that Shi Tao, a former top executive at Volkswagen's China joint venture with FAW Group Corp, was sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes. He accepted bribes from 48 individuals and companies from 2006 and amassed 26.7 million yuan in property derived from unclear sources before being discovered in a 2013 audit.
(Reuters, 4/9/15)
2015 Apr 10, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that the United States has promised support for China's campaign to hunt corrupt officials fleeing abroad, after meetings between security officials from the world's two largest economies.
(Reuters, 4/11/15)
2015 Apr 10, Canadian researchers said China has expanded its Internet censorship efforts beyond its borders with a new strategy that attacks websites across the globe. The new strategy, dubbed "Great Cannon," seeks to shut down websites and services aimed at helping Chinese citizens circumvent the "Great Firewall".
(AFP, 4/10/15)
2015 Apr 12, In China hundreds of people in southern Guangdong province protested against the expansion of a coal-fired power plant.
(Reuters, 4/12/15)
2015 Apr 13, Chinese authorities curbed some travel from mainland China to Hong Kong to cool tensions over a growing influx of shoppers that has angered residents of the Asian financial hub.
(AP, 4/13/15)
2015 Apr 13, Lawyers said Chinese authorities have unexpectedly decided to release three women activists, taken into custody on the weekend of March 8, International Women's Day, and detained on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." Li Tingting (25) and Wu Rongrong (30) were also released.
(Reuters, 4/13/15)(SFC, 4/23/15, p.A4)
2015 Apr 15, The Philippines foreign secretary said his country is seeking more "substantive" support from its long-time security ally United States on how to counter China's rapid expansion in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 4/15/15)
2015 Apr 16, Recent satellite images from Airbus Defense and Space were published showing China has made rapid progress in building an airstrip suitable for military use in contested territory in the South China Sea's Spratly Islands and may be planning another.
(Reuters, 4/17/15)
2015 Apr 16, Apple said it is investing in Chinese solar power and preserving forests that make environmentally friendly paper.
(AP, 4/16/15)
2015 Apr 17, A Beijing court sentenced Gao Yu (71), a veteran Chinese journalist, to seven years in prison on charges of leaking a document detailing the Communist Party leadership's resolve to aggressively target civil society and press freedom as a threat to its monopoly on power.
(AP, 4/17/15)
2015 Apr 20, China's President Xi Jinping arrived in Pakistan to oversee the signing of agreements aimed at establishing a Pakistan-China Economic Corridor. China and Pakistan launched a plan for energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan worth $46 billion.
(Reuters, 4/20/15)
2015 Apr 20, Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd., a struggling Chinese property developer, said it has defaulted on dollar-denominated debt, exposing international creditors to potential losses as it grapples with a slumping property market amid a slowdown in the world's second biggest economy.
(AP, 4/20/15)
2015 Apr 20, Chinese customs authorities said they have detained over 250 members of two gangs earlier this month involved in smuggling in 440,000 tons of fuel using retooled fishing boats or vessels done up to look like boats that carry out cleaning work on oil tankers.
(Reuters, 4/20/15)
2015 Apr 21, Greenpeace East Asia released a report saying that Chinese government data shows that 90% of Chinese cities have failed to meet national air quality standards for the first three months of this year.
(SFC, 4/22/15, p.A5)
2015 Apr 22, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit in Indonesia.
(Reuters, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 23, In China Li Chuncheng, the deposed leader of one of China's most populous provinces, confessed to charges of bribery and abuse of power. He was the latest senior official linked to retired security boss Zhou Yongkang, the most senior person charged with corruption.
(Reuters, 4/23/15)
2015 Apr 23, China’s Ministry of Culture said officials are launching a campaign to crack down on stripteases and other lewd shows that have become popular at funerals in some rural areas.
(AP, 4/23/15)
2015 Apr 23, The Philippine fisheries bureau said that fishermen aboard three vessels with clear Chinese coastguard markings boarded two fishing boats in Scarborough Shoal earlier this month and took the crew's catch. The next day China called the claim "inconsistent with the fact".
(AFP, 4/24/15)
2015 Apr 25, In China a 55-year-old man surnamed Zhao, his 26-year-old daughter and another man aged 67 were killed in Longcheng township along the North Korean border, not far from where at least 7 villagers were reported killed last year by border guards who had crossed the Tumen River in search of money and food.
(AP, 4/30/15)
2015 Apr 29, China's biggest lender by assets, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, said it has signed an infrastructure pact worth $2 billion with the oil-rich west African nation of Equatorial Guinea.
(Reuters, 4/29/15)
2015 Apr 30, China’s Politburo announced that it would move forward on the integration of Beijing with the nearby port city of Tianjin.
(Econ, 5/30/15, p.42)
2015 May 1, In China angry Muslims in Qinghai province smashed windows in Xining city after pork sausages and ham were found in a delivery van. This was reported along with a story that Chinese authorites have ordered Muslim shopkeepers and restaurants in a Xinjiang region village to sell alcohol and cigarettes as part of an effort to weaken the hold of Islam in the region.
(SFC, 5/6/15, p.A6)
2015 May 2, In northern China police fatally shot Xu Chunhe as he was on his way to Beijing to ask the central government to help house and take care of his children and elderly mother. His relatives received approval for the aid three days after the killing.
(AP, 5/6/15)
2015 May 5, China said it will expand its bans on coal burning to include suburban areas as well as city centers in efforts to tackle air pollution.
(Reuters, 5/5/15)
2015 May 5, Shanghai, China, announced new rules to keep the spouses and children of top government officials from entering private business and profiting from their government connections.
(SFC, 5/6/15, p.A2)
2015 May 8, Newly released images showed Vietnam has carried out significant land reclamation at two sites in the disputed South China Sea, though the scale and pace is dwarfed by that of China.
(Reuters, 5/8/15)
2015 May 13, In southern China more than 10,000 workers at a state-owned machinery manufacturer protested low wages and company plans to lay off thousands of staff after posting losses for three years. Workers started taking to the streets of Deyang on May 11 with banners protesting against corrupt and incompetent managers.
(AP, 5/13/15)
2015 May 13, Chinese state media said forest police in Yunnan province have arrested 10 people for killing a female wild giant panda, buying and selling its parts.
(AP, 5/13/15)
2015 May 14, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Indian PM Narendra Modi in his ancestral home town at the start of a three-day visit to China as the two Asian giants work to boost economic ties despite decades of mistrust.
(Reuters, 5/14/15)
2015 May 15, China and India proposed fresh measures to stabilize their border during PM Narendra Modi's visit to China. India’s Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar has ordered a mountain strike force to be 25-30,000 strong, initially planned at 90,000.
(Reuters, 5/15/15)
2015 May 15, In China prosecutors in Beijing formally charged lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, a giant in the weiquan (rights protection) movement with inciting ethnic hatred or discrimination, picking quarrels and provoking troubles. He had been in custody for more than a year.
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.35)
2015 May 15, In north-central China a bus fell from a cliff in Shaanxi province. 25 people were killed instantly and 10 died in a hospital.
(AP, 5/15/15)
2015 May 16, In China Indian PM Narendra Modi got down to business on the final day of his trip, saying his country was open for investment as firms signed deals worth more than $22 billion.
(AFP, 5/16/15)
2015 May 16, In northern China a chemical leak killed 8 people and injured two others in Yangcheng County, Shanxi province. The carbon disulfide leak occurred at a plant belonging to the Ruixing chemical company.
(AP, 5/17/15)
2015 May 17, In southwestern China more than 30 police officers and 38 civilians were injured over the last 24 hours during protests by residents who feared that a planned railway would bypass their community.
(AP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 20, The Chinese navy warned a US surveillance plane flying over artificial islands that Beijing is creating in the disputed South China Sea to leave the area eight times. The mission over Fiery Cross Reef showed sand being sucked from the bottom of the sea and sprayed onto the island-in-the-making by Chinese dredgers. The Philippines and Vietnam both say they own Fiery Cross Reef.
(Reuters, 5/21/15)(Econ, 5/30/15, p.37)
2015 May 20, In China Li Hejun, one of the country’s wealthiest billionaires, inaugurated a giant exhibition center near Beijing’s Olympic Forest Park.
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.53)
2015 May 20, In southwest China a nine-story residential building collapsed in Guiyang city following a landslide. 16 people remained missing.
(AP, 5/20/15)
2015 May 21, Chinese officials said at least 15 people have been killed and thousands more forced from their homes by flooding in southern and central China and more rain has been forecast for coming days.
(AP, 5/21/15)
2015 May 22, China and Peru agreed to study the feasibility of a controversial 5,300 km (3,300 miles) transcontinental railroad that will connect Peru's Pacific coast with Brazil's Atlantic coast as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Peru, on the third leg of a Latin America visit. Brazil and China already agreed this week on such a study.
(Reuters, 5/23/15)
2015 May 24, Chinese authorities said the death toll in the latest round of flooding has risen to at least 52, including two schoolchildren aboard a bus carrying more than twice its authorized passenger load that plunged into a pond.
(AP, 5/24/15)
2015 May 25, China announced it will cut import taxes on clothing, cosmetics and some other goods by half in a new tactic to spur consumer spending and economic growth.
(AP, 5/25/15)
2015 May 25, In central China a fire swept through a privately run home for the elderly killing 38 people and leaving much of it a charred ruin in Pingdingshan, Henan province.
(AP, 5/26/15)
2015 May 26, China said it would project its military power further beyond its sea borders and more assertively in the air, defending the construction of artificial islands which sparked concern in Washington. China outlined a strategy to boost its naval reach and held a groundbreaking ceremony for two lighthouses in disputed waters.
(AFP, 5/26/15)(Reuters, 5/26/15)
2015 May 28, China executed Li Jishun, a former elementary school teacher in Gansu province, for molesting or raping 26 students, some as young as 4. The case underscored the vulnerability of rural children left behind by parents seeking jobs in cities.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 29, Chinese authorities destroyed 662 kg of ivory that was seized after being smuggled into the country. Zhao Shucong, head of the State Forestry Administration, said China will strictly control ivory processing and trade until the commercial processing and sale of ivory products are eventually halted.
(AP, 5/29/15)(SFC, 6/26/15, p.A3)
2015 May 29, China confirmed its first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in a South Korean businessman who ignored instructions to stay home after his father was diagnosed with the disease.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 29, The United States said that China had placed mobile artillery weapons systems on a reclaimed island in the disputed South China Sea. US officials say Chinese dredging work has added some 2,000 acres to five outposts in the resource-rich Spratly islands in the South China Sea, including 1,500 acres this year.
(Reuters, 5/29/15)
2015 May 29, Japanese and European leaders agreed to step up defense and economic ties, and expressed concern about rising tensions in the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 30, The United States called for an immediate end to China's intensifying reclamation works in the South China Sea and vowed to continue sending military aircraft and ships to the tense region.
(AFP, 5/30/15)
2015 May 31, Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg took off from Nanjing, China, for a six day flight to Hawaii in the solar powered Solar Impulse. This was the 7th of twelve flights in the round the world journey. Borschberg made an unscheduled stop in Japan on June 1 to wait out bad weather.
(SFC, 6/1/15, p.A2)(SFC, 6/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 1, In China the cruise boat Eastern Star was hit by a freak tornado and capsized on the Yangtze River with 456 people onboard. By the next day only 14 people, including the ship's captain, were found alive since the ship capsized. The disaster left at least 103 people dead and nearly 340 missing. The numbers were later reduced to 12 survivors and 442 dead.
(Reuters, 6/2/15)(Reuters, 6/3/15)(AP, 6/5/15)(AFP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 1, In China the official Hebei Daily newspaper said China’s biggest steelmaking province, Hebei, will order its big industrial emitters to pay for the pollution they discharge via a regional trading scheme beginning next year.
(Reuters, 6/1/15)
2015 Jun 1, In China a ban on smoking in public places in Beijing went into effect.
(SFC, 6/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 1, South Korea and China signed a free trade deal that will remove tariffs on more than 90 percent of goods over two decades.
(AP, 6/1/15)
2015 Jun 3, Britain’s Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay plc (TLSB) named China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) as preferred bidder for a £300 million ($548 million, 412 million euros) contract the world's first artificial tidal lagoon.
(AFP, 6/3/15)
2015 Jun 4, American officials said China-based hackers are suspected of breaking into the computer networks of the US government personnel office and stealing identifying information of at least 4 million federal workers. The attack was uncovered in April and had apparently been going on for several months. On July 9 the Obama administration said hackers stole Social Security numbers from more than 21 million people and snatched other sensitive information.
(SFC, 6/5/15, p.A10)(Econ, 6/13/15, p.29)(SFC, 7/10/15, p.A7)
2015 Jun 6, Chinese and Japanese finance ministers held talks in Beijing to deepen economic cooperation that had been delayed for about two years over strained relations between the Asian giants.
(AP, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 6, China's foreign ministry said Hungary has become the first European country to sign a cooperation agreement for the new "Silk Road" initiative to develop trade and transport infrastructure across Asia and beyond.
(Reuters, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 7, The death toll from a Chinese cruise ship which capsized during a storm in the Yangtze River on June 1 jumped to 431, with 11 still missing.
(Reuters, 6/7/15)
2015 Jun 9, In China a boy (13) and his three younger sisters died after drinking liquid pesticide at home in their village of Tiankan. They had been abandoned by their parents and neglected by government workers. Two village heads were soon fired and three other officials — including the district education chief — were suspended from their work and were being investigated.
(AP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 10, In southern China two girls aged 8 and 14 died in Hunan province after drinking a cola laced with pesticide. A boy (12) was soon identified as the prime suspect in the poisoning.
(AP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 11, In China a court sentenced the former security chief to life in prison after convicting him of corruption in a secretly held trial. Zhou Yongkang (72) was spared the death penalty in a decision seen as a show of leniency toward the former Politburo Standing Committee member. He and family members were found to have pocketed more than $20 million.
(AP, 6/11/15)(Econ, 6/20/15, p.46)
2015 Jun 11, Chinese border guards shot and killed one person who was allegedly trying to illegally cross from North Korea.
(AP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 12, US officials said hackers linked to China appear to have gained access to the sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances, describing a second cyberbreach of federal records that could dramatically compound the potential damage.
(AP, 6/12/15)
2015 Jun 15, Egypt and China signed an agreement for $10 billion-worth of new projects.
(Econ, 6/20/15, p.47)
2015 Jun 16, China announced it would soon stop new island building in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, but said it will continue to develop the outposts it controls in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.
(SFC, 6/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 17, The Chinese government rolled out more details of the building work it is undertaking in the disputed South China Sea, listing lighthouses, communications stations and other facilities for civilian and emergency use.
(Reuters, 6/17/15)
2015 Jun 17, Japan warned China that its extensive land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea does not make ownership a done deal.
(AFP, 6/17/15)
2015 Jun 18, Hong Kong's legislature vetoed a China-backed electoral reform package criticized by opposition pro-democracy lawmakers and activists as undemocratic, easing for now the prospect of fresh mass protests in the financial hub.
(Reuters, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 18, A Tanzanian government minister described elephant poaching on as a national disaster, and urged China to curb its appetite for ivory.
(Reuters, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 19, China said heavy storms that swept through several southern provinces this past week killed 18 people and left four more missing.
(AP, 6/20/15)
2015 Jun 20, Italian prosecutors sought to indict 297 people and the Bank of China in connection with a massive money-laundering investigation. The Bank of has denied any wrongdoing.
(SFC, 6/22/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 22, In China restaurateurs in Yulin, in the largely rural and poor Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, held an annual dog meat festival despite international criticism of the event as cruel and unhygienic. At least 10,000 dogs were expected to be slaughtered.
(AP, 6/22/15)(Econ, 6/20/15, p.46)
2015 Jun 22, China inaugurated a new land crossing into Tibet for Indian pilgrims who wish to visit one of the holiest sites in both Hinduism and Buddhism.
(Reuters, 6/22/15)
2015 Jun 22, In western China at least 18 people were killed in a knife and bomb attack in Kashgar, a predominantly Uighur city in the Xinjiang region. Some 10 million Uighurs lived in the Xinjiang region, making up 60% of its residents.
(SFC, 6/25/15, p.A4)(Econ, 6/27/15, p.11,35)
2015 Jun 23, State Councilor Yang Jiechi said China will work with the United States and other countries on cybersecurity issues.
(Reuters, 6/23/15)
2015 Jun 23, In China former soldiers reportedly staged a sit-in outside a major military base complaining about a lack of proper benefits and pensions. Hundreds were reported detained at the protest outside the Central Military Commission, which has overall command of the military, in Beijing.
(Reuters, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 25, China's Defense Ministry said that it was unaware of any protest after a report that thousands of former soldiers had staged a sit-in on June 23 outside a major military base complaining about a lack of proper benefits and pensions.
(Reuters, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 25, China's Defense Ministry declined to confirm a report that it was in talks for a military base in Horn of Africa country Djibouti.
(Reuters, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 25, In central China an early morning fire killed 13 people in an apartment building n Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province.
(AP, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 26, In eastern China a bus overturned on a highway and was hit by an oncoming truck, killing at least 10 people in Wuhu city, Anhui province.
(AP, 6/26/15)
2015 Jun 27, China cut interest rates for 4th time in 6 months to boost sluggish national economy.
(AP, 6/27/15)
2015 Jun 29, China's Premier Li Keqiang said he wants to see Greece remain in the euro zone and promised that Beijing would make investments in the European Union's new infrastructure fund.
(Reuters, 6/29/15)
2015 Jun 29, In China envoys of governments that plan to join a Chinese-led Asian bank endorsed a structure that gives Beijing the biggest voting stake at the start but no veto power.
(AP, 6/29/15)
2015 Jun 30, China's Ministry of Civil Affairs said four days of heavy rain have caused severe flooding in central China, killing at least 15 people and leaving 19 others missing.
(AP, 6/30/15)
2015 Jun 30, A total of 173 people, mostly women and children, from the minority Chinese Muslim community of Uighurs arrived in Turkey from Thailand, where they were being held after fleeing China. They were being resettled in the central city of Kayseri, which boasts a strong Uighur community.
(AP, 7/2/15)
2015 Jul 1, The Chinese government adopted a new national security law. The bill replaced one passed in 1993.
(SFC, 7/2/15, p.A3)(Econ, 7/4/15, p.35)
2015 Jul 1, In northeastern China a bus carrying a group of South Koreans fell off a highway bridge, killing 7 South Koreans and 2 Chinese.
(AP, 7/1/15)
2015 Jul 3, In China a magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit a rural part of far western Xinjiang region, killing 6 people, injuring dozens and destroying or damaging thousands of homes.
(AP, 7/3/15)
2015 Jul 6, Customs officials at Zurich airport seized 262 kg (578 pounds) of ivory that three Chinese men had dispatched from Tanzania, contraband that may have come from up to 50 elephants. The tusks had been sawed into 172 pieces to fit into luggage.
(AP, 8/4/15)
2015 Jul 7, Trading in over 90% of the 2,774 shares listed in Chinese exchanges was suspended or halted. Shares had fallen by a third in less than a month.
(Econ, 7/11/15, p.13)
2015 Jul 7, The Philippines asked an international tribunal at The Hague to declare China's claims to virtually all the South China Sea invalid.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 9, China began rounding up civil-rights lawyers and support staff for interrogation. By mid-July many of around 120 detainees were released but 31 were still missing or believed to be in custody.
(Econ, 7/18/15, p.37)
2015 Jul 9, Thailand sent back to China more than 100 ethnic Uighur refugees, drawing harsh criticism from the UN refugee agency and human rights groups over concerns that they face persecution by the Chinese government.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 10, China's national weather service said super Typhoon Chan-hom is expected to make landfall by early tomorrow at the eastern province of Zhejiang, and has issued its highest-level alert. Authorities have evacuated tens of thousands of people, canceled scores of trains and flights and shuttered seaside resorts.
(AP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 11, In China Typhoon Chan-hom slammed ashore in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, paralyzing transport links and devastating farmland as authorities evacuated more than a million people. The storm killed 5 people in the Philippines earlier in the week
(AP, 7/10/15)(SSFC, 7/12/15, p.A4)
2015 Jul 11, In central China a fire late today at a residential building in Wuhan city killed 7 people and injured 12 others.
(AP, 7/11/15)
2015 Jul 12, China's anti-corruption watchdog said Xi Xiaoming, vice president of the Supreme People's Court, has come under investigation for corruption, becoming one of the most senior judicial officials to be swept up by the country's anti-graft dragnet.
(Reuters, 7/12/15)
2015 Jul 12, In northern China a warehouse containing fireworks exploded, killing at least 3 people and injuring more than a dozen others in Ningjin county, Hebei province.
(AP, 7/12/15)
2015 Jul 12, In China Tibetan lama Tenzin Delek Rinpoche (65) died in prison 13 years into serving a sentence for what human rights groups say were false charges that he was involved in a bombing in a public park.
(AP, 7/13/15)
2015 Jul 13, In China police in Shenyang killed 3 Uighur men said to belong to a terrorist organization.
(SFC, 7/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 14, China's state media accused more than two dozen human rights attorneys rounded up in recent days of being troublemakers intent on illegal activism.
(AP, 7/14/15)
2015 Jul 14, China said it has begun building a 314-meter (1,030-ft) high dam which will be among the world's tallest. The Shuangjiankou dam on a tributary of the Yangtze river will be completed in 2022.
(AFP, 7/15/15)
2015 Jul 15, In China Wan Li (99), a politician known for his reform policies, died in Beijing. Wan was best known for the reform policies that he began implementing in the late 1970s, especially in rural China.
(AP, 7/15/15)
2015 Jul 17, Chinese state media said police have detained Wang Lin, a well-connected self-proclaimed master of the spiritual martial art of Qigong, on suspicion of the murder of a disciple. The case has gripped China with lurid tales of wealth and magic. Wang was detained in Jiangxi province over the alleged kidnapping and death of a businessman, provincial legislator and disciple called Zou Yong earlier this month.
(Reuters, 7/17/15)
2015 Jul 18, Chinese police shot dead one man and injured another during an apparent protest at a construction site in Luoyang city.
(AFP, 7/19/15)
2015 Jul 20, China's state media said Ling Jihua, former President Hu Jintao's top aide, has been stripped of his party membership, removed from all government positions, and will be criminally prosecuted on corruption charges.
(AP, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 20, In eastern China an unemployed man suffering from a liver ailment blew himself up in an explosion that also killed one other person and injured 24 outside Huxi Park in Heze city, Shandong province.
(AP, 7/21/15)
2015 Jul 20, In northern China the colliery at Hegang, Heilongjiang province, flooded trapping 15 miners with at least 4 killed. Investigators blamed the accident on a downpour. Six men were rescued on July 27 with five still trapped.
(AFP, 7/26/15)
2015 Jul 21, A former chief librarian at a Chinese university admitted in court to stealing more than 140 paintings by grandmasters in a gallery under his watch and replacing them with fakes he painted himself. For two years up until 2006, Xiao Yuan substituted famous works including landscapes and calligraphies in a gallery within the library of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.
(AP, 7/21/15)
2015 Jul 22, Chinese artist and social critic Ai Weiwei received his passport back after it was seized by authorities in 2011 in apparent retaliation for his social and political activism.
(SFC, 7/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 22, A court in northern Myanmar sentenced 153 Chinese nationals to life in prison after convicting them of illegal logging in a case that has already strained relations with Beijing.
(AP, 7/22/15)
2015 Jul 24, Prominent exiled Chinese dissident Wu'er Kaixi announced his candidacy for a seat in Taiwan's parliament, saying he wants to serve as a check on the ruling Nationalist Party and help shore up the island's global status.
(AP, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 25, A court in northeast China sentenced five people to prison for spreading the teachings of Quannengshen, a banned religious group that's been linked to a killing of a woman in a McDonald's restaurant last year.
(AP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 27, Delta said it will pay $450 million to buy a stake in China Eastern Airlines as the Atlanta-based airline seeks to expand into China's fast-growing travel industry.
(AP, 7/27/15)
2015 Jul 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with top Chinese officials amid tensions over China's treatment of its Uighur minority and sensitive negotiations surrounding the possible purchase of a Chinese missile system.
(AP, 7/29/15)
2015 Jul 30, China said it will prosecute Guo Boxiong (73), a former top military officer, for corruption. He was a vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission until he stepped down in 2012.
(Reuters, 7/30/15)
2015 Jul 31, Beijing was awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics, capitalizing on its previous 2008 Summer Games experience and defying concerns about its air quality and lack of natural snow.
(CSM, 7/31/15)
2015 Jul 31, An ASEAN official said China and Southeast Asian nations have agreed to set up a foreign ministers' hotline to tackle emergencies in the disputed South China Sea.
(AP, 7/31/15)
2015 Aug 3, Chinese officials said authorities over the weekend seized thousands of bottles of spirits laced with chemicals used to make erectile dysfunction drugs such as Viagra.
(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 3, In China Wu Shengfu (51) the general manager of China First Heavy Industries (CFHI), was found hanging in his office in the northeastern city of Qiqihar as anti-corruption investigators probed his firm.
(AFP, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 4, ASEAN countries backed a US call to halt land reclamation in the South China Sea, underlining unease in the region over Beijing's continued expansion on disputed islands.
(Reuters, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 4, Thailand police said they have arrested five people suspected of trafficking Thai women into sex slavery in China and believed to be part of a ring that has also trafficked women into Malaysia and Singapore.
(Reuters, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 5, China’s foreign minister, at a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers, said reclamation work in the South China Sea has been halted. China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed to speed up consultations on a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 8/5/15)
2015 Aug 8, In China Typhoon Soudelor hit the city of Putian in Fujian province late today. Strong winds caused power outages to more than 1.41 million household in the province.
(AP, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 9, Typhoon Soudelor dumped heavy rain and winds on the Chinese mainland, leaving a total of 22 people dead or missing, collapsing homes and trees and cutting power to more than a million homes in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces.
(AP, 8/9/15)
2015 Aug 10, In China a military court gave a suspended death sentence to General Gu Junshan, the highest-ranking military officer to be tried since China's president began cracking down on corruption in the country's vast army. Junshan, the People's Liberation Army's former head of logistics, was found guilty of abuse of power, embezzlement, accepting bribes and misusing state funds and received a death sentence with a two-year reprieve.
(AP, 8/10/15)
2015 Aug 10, Alibaba said it is taking a 20 percent stake in Chinese electronics store chain Suning in a move that helps the Chinese e-commerce powerhouse expand in the brick-and-mortar arena.
(AP, 8/10/15)
2015 Aug 11, China devalued its tightly controlled currency following a slump in trade, allowing the yuan's biggest one-day decline in a decade.
(AP, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 11, In southwestern China an accident at a coal and gas mine killed 10 people in Guizhou province.
(AFP, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 12, China cut the yuan's value against the dollar for the second consecutive day. The yuan hit a four-year low falling for a second day.
(Reuters, 8/12/15)(AFP, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 12, In northern China more than 60 people were missing after a landslide buried the living quarters of a mining company under one million cubic meters of earth in Shanyang county, Shaanxi province.
(AFP, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 12, In China two huge explosions tore through an industrial area where toxic chemicals and gas were stored in the northeastern port city of Tianjin. Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai International Logistics was identified as the owner of the site. On Aug 15 police confirmed for the first time the presence of deadly sodium cyanide at the site of the blast as a series of new explosions were heard and small fires broke out. By August 31 the death toll was at 158 with 15 still missing.
(Reuters, 8/13/15)(AP, 8/14/15)(Reuters, 8/15/15)(AP, 8/22/15)(AP, 8/31/15)
2015 Aug 13, In Beijing a man slashed a Chinese woman to death and injured her French companion in one of the city’s busiest shopping districts in broad daylight. The man (25), family name Gao, was arrested.
(AP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 18, China’s Ministry of Public Security said police have arrested 15,000 people on suspicion of cybercrimes as the government tightens its control over the Internet.
(AP, 8/18/15)
2015 Aug 20, China’s state media reported that flooding in three central provinces has left at least 13 people dead and 13 others missing and disrupted the lives of nearly 1 million people.
(AP, 8/20/15)
2015 Aug 22, In eastern China an explosion at a chemical plant killed one person and injured nine others. The facility, owned by Shandong Runxing Chemical Technology Co., produced adiponitrile, which can give off toxic fumes when burned.
(AP, 8/23/15)
2015 Aug 24, Chinese border patrol officials seized 620 wild turtles and tortoises, 510 of them considered endangered, that were found alive in a shipment of frozen seafood from Vietnam.
(AP, 8/30/15)
2015 Aug 25, China cut interest rates for a fifth time in nine months in a new effort to shore up slowing economic growth. European and US shares rebounded on bargain-hunting as China cut rates.
(AP, 8/25/15)
2015 Aug 27, China accused 11 transport and customs officials and several municipal authorities in Tianjin of “dereliction of duty" and “abuse of power" over a chemical explosion on Aug. 12 that killed some 140 people in the northeastern city.
(CSM, 8/27/15)
2015 Aug 27, Chinese state-run media reported that courts in the restive, western region of Xinjiang have jailed 45 people on terrorism-related charges, including 18 convicted of organizing illegal border crossings.
(AP, 8/27/15)
2015 Aug 27, In China debris from a Long March-4 rocket carrying a remote sensing satellite crashed into a villager's home minutes after the launch from Shaanxi province.
(AFP, 8/28/15)
2015 Aug 28, In China workers were overcome with toxic gas from a paper mill's waste pool in Hunan province and seven of them died.
(AP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 29, China's National People's Congress approved a prisoner amnesty as part of commemorations of World War II's end that could see thousands of inmates such as war veterans or juveniles released.
(AP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 29, China said legislators have approved amendments to the country’s 15-year-old air pollution law that grants the state new powers to punish offenders and create a legal framework to cap coal consumption.
(Reuters, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 29, In China about 15 tons of sulfuric acid spilled early today from a crashed tanker truck in the eastern province of Zhejiang. The driver and a passenger in the truck were killed when it veered off the road into farm land near the resort city of Hangzhou.
(AP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 31, The Chinese Ministry of Public Security said it has punished at least 197 people in recent days for spreading rumors online.
(SFC, 9/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Aug 31, In China a fire at the Shandong Binyuan Chemical Co Ltd, in Lijin county, killed 13 people. It was extinguished before dawn the next day.
(Reuters, 9/1/15)(AP, 9/6/15)
2015 Sep 1, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, an accused war criminal, as an "old friend", as China's foreign ministry defended his invite to a military parade to mark the end of World War Two.
(Reuters, 9/1/15)
2015 Sep 3, China unveiled new "carrier-killer" missiles and announced a 300,000 cut in troop numbers at a spectacular WWII anniversary parade.
(AFP, 9/3/15)
2015 Sep 7, China said it would remove personal income tax on dividends for shareholders who hold stocks for more than a year.
(Reuters, 9/7/15)
2015 In China Wang Daqi (30) authored “Burden of Wealth" in which he profiled several of his monied peers.
(Econ, 7/4/15, p.36)
2015 Chen Guangcheng authored “The Barefoot Lawyer: A Blind Man’s Fight for Justice and Freedom in China."
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.83)
2015 Andrew Small authored “The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia’s New Geopolitics."
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.74)
2015 Xue Xinran (b.1958), British-Chinese journalist, authored “Buy Me the Sky: The Remarkable Truth of China’s One-Child Generation." It was translated to English by Esther Tyldesley and David Dobson.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.75)
2015 In China some 20,000 workers at the Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone worked to complete a 2nd terminal and runway. Officials expected the planned aerotropolis to have five runways by 2030 serving some 70 million passengers annually.
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.47)
2015 Shanghai, China, produced the most household rubbish in the country with 22,000 tons per day.
(Econ., 4/25/15, p.42)
2030 The population of China was expected to reach 1.6 billion.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.D5)
2040 In 2006 it was projected that the total number of cars in India and China could rise from some 30 million to 750 million.
(Econ, 9/16/06, Survey p.20)
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2010 Jan 1, Chinese state media said authorities have shut down a dairy in Shanghai and arrested three of its executives after tests found some of its milk products were tainted with the same industrial chemical at the center of a milk safety scandal more than a year ago.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, A free-trade agreement between China and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) came into effect. The 6 richest members scrapped tariffs on 90% of goods. The 4 poorest (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar) will not need to cut tariffs to the same level until 2015.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A4)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 1, Thousands of Hong Kong residents marched to the Chinese government's liaison office demanding that Beijing grant full democracy to the semiautonomous financial hub.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 4, In northern China 21 workers were killed by a gas leak at the Hebei Puyang Iron and Steel Co. Company officials initially said 16 workers were poisoned and seven died while nine were sent to a hospital. On Jan 7 senior executives "confessed" that they had covered up the death toll.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 5, A fire in a coal mine in central China killed at least 25 workers. Search efforts continued for at least three others trapped underground at the Lisheng coal mine in Xiangtan city in Hunan province.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, It was reported that Santa Barbara-based Cybersitter has filed a $2.2 billion lawsuit against China, accusing Beijing of stealing its technology to bar Internet access to political and religious sites in China. The suit alleges that the Chinese makers of Green Dam illegally copied more than 3,000 lines of code from its filtering software, and conspired with China's rulers and computer manufacturers to distribute more than 56 million copies of the pirated software throughout China.
(AFP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 7, China executed 7 gang leaders in Hebei province for murder, gun sales, gambling and other crimes in what state media called their province's worst gang case since the founding of communist China 60 years ago. In eastern China some 100 hired thugs beat farmers who had resisted eviction in the city of Pizhou in Jiangsu province. One woman was killed and another woman was severely injured. The next day up to 2,000 angry villagers descended on government offices in Pizhou to protest the issue and clashed with police over the forced evictions.
(AP, 1/7/10)(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 8, The China Passenger Car Association reported that China overtook the US as the biggest auto market in 2009 and automakers should see more strong growth this year.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In southeastern China a fire in coal mine trapped and killed 12 workers in Xinyu city, Jiangxi province.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, California-based eSolar Inc. said it will help build a series of solar thermal power plants in China, as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases tries to decrease its heavy reliance on coal, imported gas and oil.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 10, New data showed that China has overtaken Germany as the world's top exporter after December exports jumped 17.7% for their first increase in 14 months.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 11, China's top prosecutorial office said thousands of Chinese officials have fled overseas with as much as $50 billion in their pockets in stolen government funds during the country's economic boom over the past three decades. Zhao Shiying, the secretary-general of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, was taken into custody by authorities from his home in southern Shenzhen. He was released on Jan 25.
(AP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 11, China’s state media reported that more than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses in 2020, citing a study that blamed sex-specific abortions as a major factor. A study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences warned the imbalance will dash many young men's chance at marriage and lead to increased crime.
(AFP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 11, China's military, according to state media, successfully tested a ground-based system for intercepting missiles in mid-flight.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 12, China took new steps to control bank lending, ordering institutions to set aside more reserves in a move to avert a surge in credit that Beijing worries might fuel inflation or asset price bubbles.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 13, In France a Chinese student (26) stabbed to death a 49-year-old secretary and wounded three teachers in an attack at a university in the southern town of Perpignan.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 14, Los Angeles-based Gipson Hoffman & Pancione, the law firm representing a Santa Barbara company that sued China for allegedly pirating its Internet content filtering software, said its attorneys on Jan 11 started received emails containing Trojans, which can allow outside access to the target's computer.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 15, Chinese police in Beijing shut down what would have been the country’s first-ever gay pageant an hour before it was set to begin, highlighting the enduring sensitivity surrounding homosexuality and the struggle by gays to find mainstream acceptance.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Hong Kong protesters against a national high-speed rail network scuffled with police as they tried but failed to storm the legislature. Another 500 staged a sit-in in front of the Hong Kong leader's mansion, shutting down traffic. The $55 billion Hong Kong dollar ($7.1 billion) project to link Hong Kong to a national high-speed rail network has run into a growing protest movement.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, The US State Department said it will soon give China a formal diplomatic message expressing its concern about cyber attacks that prompted Google Inc to threaten to pull out of China.
(Reuters, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 17, In China text messaging services restarted with some restrictions for cell phone users in far western China, more than six months after deadly ethnic rioting prompted the government to shut them down.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 18, It was reported that China was tightening smoking regulations by enforcing a ban on smoking in any indoor public space in seven provincial capitals.
(www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_478846.html)
2010 Jan 18, In China rescue workers evacuated thousands of rural residents from parts of the northwest after extreme cold and blizzard conditions killed four people and left half a million snowed under. Storms in far western Xinjiang flattened or damaged about 100,000 homes and more than 15,000 head of livestock were killed by the cold front that set in the previous night.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 19, China’s Foreign Ministry said Google Inc will not be treated as an exception to China's demand foreign companies obey its laws, a week after the world's largest search engine warned it could pull out of China. Google said it had postponed the launch of two mobile handsets in China, in the latest fallout from its threat last week to withdraw from the Asian giant over cyberattacks and censorship.
(Reuters, 1/19/10)(AFP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, A former Chinese Supreme Court judge was sentenced to life in prison following his conviction for embezzlement and receiving more than half a million dollars in bribes. Huang Songyou, the court's former vice president, is the first judicial official of his stature to be tried and convicted on such charges.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, The World Wildlife Fund warned that the wild tiger faced extinction in China after having been decimated by poaching and the destruction of its natural habitat.
(AFP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 20, A top regulator said China will slow its massive lending spree and step up monitoring of banks as it tries to prevent speculative bubbles in real estate and other assets while keeping the country's economic recovery on track.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said about 1.5 million Graco strollers sold at Wal-Mart, Target and other major retailers are being recalled after some children's fingertips were amputated by hinges on the products. The strollers were made in China by Graco and sold at AAFES, Burlington Coat Factory, Babies R Us, Toys R Us, Kmart, Fred Meyer, Meijer, Navy Exchange, Sears, Target, Wal-Mart and other retailers nationwide from October 2004 to December 2009.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 21, China declared it is over the global crisis and signaled a shift in focus to controlling inflation, sparking concern it could hamper growth and the country's contribution to a worldwide rebound.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 22, Beijing issued a stinging response to US criticism that it is jamming the free flow of words and ideas on the Internet, accusing the United States of damaging relations between the two countries by hoisting its "information imperialism" on China. An attorney for a US free speech group said US trade officials have asked for more information as they consider whether to pursue a possible World Trade Organization case against Chinese Internet barriers.
(AP, 1/22/10)(Reuters, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 24, In India environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China said that talks in New Delhi had further cemented their alliance following the Copenhagen climate change summit. The group, known by the acronym BASIC, pledged to strengthen its unified stance but would seek consensus with developed countries.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 25, China sharply rebuked the United States, denying involvement in any Internet attacks and defending its online restrictions as lawful after Washington urged Beijing to investigate an attack against Google.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, In China the Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi sentenced four more people to death for involvement in rioting last year in the restive far-western region of Xinjiang, the country's worst ethnic violence in decades. Another person was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, a penalty usually commuted to life in prison, while eight others were given sentences of up to life imprisonment.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 25, Official media reported that China is hoping to close thousands of local government lobbying offices in Beijing to cut down on waste and corruption.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Hong Kong 5 pro-democracy lawmakers resigned their seats, vowing to turn the resulting elections into a populist campaign for universal suffrage in defiance of warnings from China.
(AFP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 28, Ford Motor Co. said it has halted production of some full-sized commercial vehicles in China because they contain gas pedals built by the same company behind the accelerators in Toyota Motor Corp.'s recent recall. Ford spokesman Said Deep said the diesel version of its Transit Classic built by a Chinese joint venture contains accelerators built by CTS Corp., based in Elkhart, Ind. The vehicles began production in December and only about 1,600 have been produced.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Toyota Motor Corp extended its safety recall of millions of its most popular cars to Europe and China in a further blow to the reputation of the world's largest auto maker.
(Reuters, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 29, In China envoys of exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama arrived in Beijing for weekend talks amid subtle shifts in China's approach to its restive, riot-scarred western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 30, China suspended military exchanges with the United States and threatened sanctions against American defense companies, just hours after Washington announced $6.4 billion in planned arms sales to Taiwan.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Feb 1, China launched a 10-day emergency crackdown on tainted milk products after several were found creeping back onto the market despite a massive scandal that sickened hundreds of thousands of children in 2008.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 3, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that Lekang Dairy Company general manager Zhang Wenxue and vice general managers Zhu Shuming and Tong Tianhu have been charged with manufacturing and selling tainted milk powder in the latest crackdown. Xinhua quoted Health Minister Chen Zhu as saying "all melamine-tainted milk products will be found and destroyed," as part of the current 10-day crackdown.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 4, In China two courts in the southern province of Guangdong sentenced 25 people to death for their roles in nine kidnapping cases.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, China told other world powers that discussing broader sanctions against Iran was counterproductive, striking a blow to a Western push to rein in Tehran's nuclear program.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, A Chinese ministry statement ordered schools to sever all ties and cooperation with Oxfam saying school administrators must ban all campus volunteer recruitment efforts run by the group's Hong Kong office. It accused the Hong Kong branch of having a hidden political agenda. Oxfam has operated in mainland China for 20 years and worked in cooperation with the government's poverty alleviation department. Oxfam, a confederation of 14 national organizations that works in about 100 countries, was founded in Britain in 1942.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 5, China said it will slap heavy anti-dumping duties on US chicken parts, a move likely to aggravate trade ties between two of the world's most important economies at a time of strained political relations.
(Reuters, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 6, China’s state media said a man who operated a porn website has been sentenced to 13 years in jail and fined 100,000 yuan (15,000 dollars), amid an ongoing campaign to crack down on online sexual content.
(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 6, Australian miner Resourcehouse said it has signed a 60-billion-US-dollar coal deal with energy-hungry China, calling it the country's "biggest-ever export contract." The company said it had negotiated a 20-year agreement to supply China Power International Holding Limited with 30 million tons of coal a year from a proposed mine in central Queensland. The initial report mistakenly identified the Chinese company as China Power International Development (CPI).
(AFP, 2/6/10)(AFP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 8, The China Daily newspaper reported officials have recalled more than 170 tons of milk powder tainted by the industrial chemical melamine and closed two dairy companies in the northern region of Ningxia. The current 10–day emergency crackdown has made it increasingly clear that many products discovered in the country's 2008 milk scandal were repackaged for sale instead of destroyed.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued new guidelines to local authorities and lifted a ban imposed in December on individuals acquiring .cn domain names. Individuals wanting to set up a website will have to submit identity cards and photos of themselves, as well as meet regulators, before their domain name can be registered.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 8, In southern China a bus collided with a sport utility vehicle and plunged down a mountain ravine, killing seven people and injuring 50.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 9, A Chinese court sentenced activist Tan Zuoren (56), who investigated the deaths of thousands of schoolchildren in the country's massive 2008 earthquake, to five years in jail for inciting subversion of state power. In 2010 the Sichuan provincial high court upheld the ruling.
(AP, 2/9/10)(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, China said its first national pollution census has mapped nearly 6 million sources of industrial, residential and agricultural waste. The 2-year survey results gave the government one year to shape the next 5-year environmental protection plan.
(SFC, 2/10/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 10, China declared a new food-safety campaign after contaminated milk products from an earlier scandal showed up repackaged in several places around the country, exposing weaknesses in the country's promise to stop such problems from happening again.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 12, China raised the level of reserves banks must hold for the second time this year, spooking financial markets on the eve of its New Year holiday by showing it was intent to curb lending and inflation.
(Reuters, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned his people to keep a "sober mind" about the challenges ahead in the new year as the country welcomed the arrival of the Year of the Tiger with noisy celebrations. Feb 14 officially marked the first day of the Lunar new Year.
(Reuters, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, Italian police said they have confiscated 500,000 tons of counterfeit goods discovered in eight industrial hangars on the outskirts of Rome. Once labeled with Italian brands, They would have brought in several million euros for the counterfeiters. The goods were suspected of being imported from China.
(AFP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 14, This day marked a new year according to the Chinese calendar, as it moved from the reign of the Ox to the year of the Tiger. The Chinese calendar is thought to have been formulated around 500 BC, though elements of it date back at least to the Shang Dynasty at around 1,000 BC.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/yearofthetigerallaboutthechinesezodiac)
2010 Feb 16, New US Treasury data said China's holdings of US Treasury bonds tumbled in December, allowing Japan to take over as the top holder of American government debt.
(AFP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 20, China said 35 people were killed in fires during the week-long new year holiday as millions of people set off fireworks to usher in the Year of the Tiger.
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 23, The Chinese Communist Party issued a new code of ethics as the country's fight against widespread corruption intensifies.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 24, Australia resumed free-trade talks with China after a 14-month gap, sweeping aside a brief plunge in ties to focus on a booming partnership tipped to deliver decades of growth.
(AFP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 25, In China the People’s Daily reported that 62 workers had been poisoned in a poorly ventilated factory in Suzhou run Wintek, a Taiwanese manufacturer that makes products for firms including apple and Nokia.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.83)
2010 Feb 25, In China at least 29 people were injured and hundreds of buildings damaged in a magnitude 5.4 earthquake in southwestern Yunnan province.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 28, In China a bus veered off a sleet-covered road and plunged into a reservoir in Zhengzhou city in central Henan province killing 19 people and injuring 7 others.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 1, In China 11 newspapers took a rare stand against a Mao Zedong-era system blamed for the wide gap between the country's rich and poor. Within hours their jointly signed editorial had largely disappeared online. 11 newspapers published a joint editorial calling on the National People’s Congress (NPC) to scrap the hukou system, which was originally intended to stop rural migrants flowing into the cities.
(AP, 3/2/10)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.26)
2010 Mar 1, In China Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologized in Beijing to Chinese customers for the company's quality problems and emphasized the importance of the fast-growing market to his company.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, Chinese rescuers worked to save 31 coal miners trapped underground by a flood at the Luotoushan, or Camel Head Mountain, coal mine in Wuhai city in northern Inner Mongolia. One miner was reported killed. On May 2 state news agency Xinhua reported that emergency workers have recovered 28 bodies from the mine in China's Inner Mongolia region that flooded in early-March. 3 people were still missing.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AP, 3/2/10)(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Australia Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina joined forces for a 2.96 billion US dollar bid for Australia's Arrow Energy, hoping for a bigger slice of the country's booming liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 9, China and India gave a qualified approval to the nonbinding Copenhagen climate accord brokered by Pres. Obama in the final hours of the December, 2009, climate summit.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 12, He Pingping (b.1988) of China, the world's shortest man, died in Rome while working on a TV show. He was 2 feet, 5.37 inches (74.6 cm) tall.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 15, China’s state media said at least 94 people living near a lead factory, most of them children, have tested positive for lead poisoning, prompting authorities to order the closure of the Zhongyi Alloy Co. in Longchang county of Sichuan province's Neijiang city. Hundreds more people waited for test results.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 18, China’s state media reported that parts of southern China are suffering from the worst drought in decades, leaving millions of people with inadequate water and huge areas of farmland too dry to plant.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 20, China's capital woke up to orange-tinted skies as the strongest sandstorm so far this year hit the country's north, delaying some flights at Beijing's airport and prompting a dust warning for Seoul.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, An estimate of gay men marrying heterosexual women in China was put at 90% as compared to 15-20% in the US.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.48)
2010 Mar 21, China’s state media reported that authorities in Xinjiang have restored access to email services and 32 Internet sites that were blocked after ethnic unrest broke out in the region in July.
(AFP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 22, Google announced that its China search engine, google.cn, would automatically redirect queries to its service in China's semiautonomous territory of Hong Kong, where Google is not legally required to censor searches.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 22, Sandstorms whipping across China shrouded cities in an unhealthy cloud of sand and grit, with winds carrying the pollution outside the mainland as far as Hong Kong and Taiwan.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In China four executives of Australia mining giant Rio Tinto pleaded guilty in Shanghai to taking bribes.
(SFC, 3/23/10, p.D3)
2010 Mar 23, In eastern China a former doctor, Zheng Minsheng (41), armed with a large knife rampaged outside an elementary school, stabbing 8 young children to death and wounding 5 others at the Nanping City Experimental Elementary School in Fujian province. On April 8 the Intermediate People's Court in Nanping city sentenced Minsheng to death.
(AP, 3/23/10)(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Mar 24, In China the presidents of Afghanistan and China oversaw the signing of new agreements aimed at strengthening the Afghan economy as a step toward combating the Taliban and achieving political stability.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Australia and China signed a multibillion dollar natural gas deal, pushing ahead with business as the trial of four employees of mining giant Rio Tinto ended in Shanghai with a verdict still to be announced.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 25, Chinese officials said emergency wells were being drilled and cloud-seeding operations carried out in southern China, where the worst drought in decades has left millions of people without water and caused more than 1,000 schools to close.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, China agreed to share water level data at 2 dams to ease pressure from nations downstream, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(SFC, 4/6/10, p.A3)
2010 Mar 26-2010 Mar 27, In China hundreds of citizens rampaged in the southern city of Kunming enraged by rumors that a vendor had been killed by an officer of the “City Administration and Law Enforcement Bureau," commonly known by its Chinese abbreviation chengguan.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.43)
2010 Mar 27, In China a recycling pool at a sewage treatment plant collapsed in northern Shaanxi province and some 1,000 tons of oil sludge contaminated farmland and the Luohe River, a tributary of the Yellow River.
(AFP, 4/3/10)
2010 Mar 28, In northern China at least 153 miners were trapped underground after water gushed into the state-owned the Wangjialing coal mine. 115 Chinese miners were pulled out alive on April 5 after being trapped for over a week in the flooded mine. Some had eaten sawdust and strapped themselves to the shafts' walls with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept. As of April 11 the death toll stood at 33 with 5 miners still missing.
(AP, 3/28/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 4/5/10)(AP, 4/11/10)
2010 Mar 28, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group signed a binding deal to buy Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo Cars unit for $1.8 billion, representing a coup for the independent Chinese automaker which is aiming to expand in Europe.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 29, In eastern China local residents and firefighters recovered the bodies of 21 babies, believed dumped by hospitals, which had washed ashore on the Guangfu River near the city of Jining, Shandong province. Tags on the feet of eight of the babies traced them back to a hospital in Jining.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Google Inc said its mobile services have been partially blocked in China for two days, while searches on its Chinese-language site became erratic, about a week after the company shut its mainland Chinese portal and rerouted Web searches to a Hong Kong site.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 31, In central China a gas explosion at a mine killed 12 workers and trapped 32 underground at the privately owned Guomin Mining Co. coal pit in Yichuan County, Luoyang City.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, Six major world powers agreed to begin putting together proposed new sanctions on Iran over its suspect nuclear program after China dropped its opposition.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Apr 1, US President Barack Obama called on Chinese President Hu Jintao to join forces on the Iranian nuclear standoff as he stepped up efforts to block Tehran's atomic program.
(AFP, 4/2/10)
2010 Apr 3, The 230-meter (754-ft) Shen Neng I, a bulk coal carrier, was on its way to China when it ran aground on a shoal off offshore from the Australian city of Rockhampton. Australian government officials said the stranded ship was leaking oil into the sea and is in danger of breaking up and damaging the Great Barrier Reef. The ship was refloated on April 12.
(Reuters, 4/4/10)(AP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 6, China said it had executed a Japanese man for drug smuggling, the first execution of a Japanese citizen since the countries established relations in 1972. Mitsunobu Akano (65) was convicted in 2008 of attempting to smuggle 2.5 kg (4.8 pounds) of drugs from China to Japan in 2006. He was executed in Liaoning province.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, A group of Canadian researchers released a report saying a cyber-espionage group based in southwest China stole documents from the Indian Defense Ministry and emails from the Dalai Lama's office.
(Reuters, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 7, China and India signed an agreement to set up a hot line linking their top leaders.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 12, China eased requirements for companies to qualify for government purchasing of technology after a plan to favor domestic technology was met with heavy criticism from other countries and business groups.
(AP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 12, A mentally ill Chinese man rampaged with a meat cleaver near an elementary school, hacking to death a second grader and an elderly woman. Five others were wounded in the second random attack on schoolchildren in China in three weeks. Yang Jiaqin (40) chased his victims through Xizhen village of the southern Guangxi region not long after classes ended.
(AP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 12, President Barack Obama and presidents, prime ministers and other top officials from 47 countries started work on a battle plan to keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands. Egypt called for world powers to press both Iran and Israel on nuclear weapons, saying that the Middle East should be a zone free of the ultra-destructive arms. China said sanctions were not the answer to the Iranian atomic standoff. Iran's envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog spurned the US nuclear summit, saying any decision taken at the conference is not binding on nations absent from the event.
(AP, 4/12/10)(AFP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 14, In China Wen Qiang (55), a former police chief in the southwestern city of Chongqing, was sentenced to death, in a sprawling gangland corruption case that has riveted the country. Wen was also found guilty of raping a university student in 2007 and 2008. Wen was detained in August and accused of protecting the gang operations masterminded by his sister-in-law, Xie Caiping (46), known as the "godmother" of the Chongqing underworld. Wen's wife was sentenced to 8 years in prison for taking bribes in exchange for protecting gang members.
(AP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 14, In western China a series of strong earthquakes struck a mountainous area of Tibet, killing some 2,064 people and injuring more than 10,000, as houses made of mud and wood collapsed. 5 days later 3 people were pulled alive from the rubble. On May 31 the toll was raised to 2,698 with 270 still missing.
(AP, 4/14/10)(AP, 4/15/10)(AP, 4/16/10)(AP, 4/19/10)(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 Apr 14, Australian police arrested a Chinese ship captain and senior officer and charged them with damaging the Great Barrier Reef, more than a week after their coal carrier ran aground and tore a two-mile (three km) gash in the protected area.
(AP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 14, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Indian PM Manmohan Singh arrived in Brazil to participate in bilateral meetings with the leaders of other emerging economies and a BRIC summit on April 16.
(AFP, 4/15/10)
2010 Apr 16, A Chinese court jailed three people who posted material on the Internet to help an illiterate woman pressure authorities to reinvestigate her daughter's death, in a trial that attracted scores of supporters.
(AP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 18, Chinese President Hu Jintao called on rescuers to keep searching for survivors as he visited victims of a powerful quake in Tibet that left some 2,064 dead.
(AP, 4/18/10)
2010 Apr 19, China’s government passed amendments revising the Border Quarantine Law as well as China's Law on Control of the Entry and Exit of Aliens. The changes were effective immediately. This lifted a two-decade-old ban on people with HIV and AIDS from entering the country, just as it is about to welcome the world to the Shanghai Expo on May 1.
(AP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 23, Chinese police in Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, detained Tagyal, a prominent Tibetan intellectual. Tagyal had recently authored “The Line Between Earth and Sky," in which he praised the activism of monks during the Tibetan unrest of 2008.
(Econ, 5/1/10, p.42)
2010 Apr 24, China replaced Wang Lequan (65), the unpopular Communist Party boss for western Xinjiang province, months after ethnic riots there killed nearly 200. The Xinhua News Agency said Wang had been appointed as deputy secretary of a political committee of the Central Committee. It is not known if he is still a member of the party's Politburo, the 25-member body near the pinnacle of power in China. He was replaced by Zhang Chunxian (56), party boss of southern Hunan province since November 2006. The Dalian city government ordered the mayor of Zhuanghe city to resign for his "mismanagement" of an April 13 incident in which he ignored scores of villagers who knelt in front of government offices to appeal for an investigation into official corruption.
(AP, 4/24/10)(AP, 4/25/10)
2010 Apr 26, Massachusetts-based Charles River Laboratories International Inc., a medical research equipment and services company, announced plans to buy WuXi PharmaTech, a Chinese pharmaceutical outsourcing company, for $1.6 billion.
(AP, 4/26/10)
2010 Apr 28, In Beijing France and China said they would work together to consider an overhaul of the global monetary system, at the start of a state visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
(AFP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 28, In southern China Chen Kangbing (33) wielding a knife broke into a primary school and stabbed 15 students and a teacher in Leizhou city, the same day another school attacker was executed for killing eight children last month. Xu Yuyuan (47) was found guilty of attempted homicide in mid-May by the Taizhou Intermediate Court in Jiangsu province. He was executed on May 30. Kangbing was sentenced to death on June 11.
(AP, 4/28/10)(AP, 5/30/10)(AP, 6/11/10)
2010 Apr 28, The International Olympic Committee, acting on evidence that Dong Fangxiao was only 14 at the 2000 Games in Sidney, stripped China of the women's team bronze medal. China was ordered to give the medal back, allowing the United States to claim it instead.
(AP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 29, In eastern China a knife-wielding jobless man, Xu Yuyuan (47), attacked a kindergarten class of 4-year-olds, slashing 29 children and 3 teachers in what an expert said was a copycat rampage of two other episodes at Chinese schools in the past month. On May 15 Xu Yuyuan was sentenced to death. He appealed the death sentence, saying the punishment was too severe considering no one was killed.
(AP, 4/29/10)(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 Apr 30, Shanghai kicked off the six-month World Expo with a star-studded gala ceremony set to end in a lavish blaze of fireworks and light along the city's river-front. The World Expo officially opened on May 1. Closing date was set for Oct 31.
(AFP, 4/30/10)(AP, 5/1/10)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.42)
2010 Apr 30, A Chinese farmer attacked kindergarten students with a hammer, injuring five, before burning himself to death in China's third such assault in as many days and prompting the government to demand stricter school security nationwide.
(AP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr 30, The EU's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said that China is willing to discuss sanctions on Iran as long as they are carefully targeted and bolster efforts to curb the Iranian nuclear program.
(AP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr, China’s policymakers imposed new curbs on housing speculation, raising down-payment requirements and mortgage rates.
(Econ, 5/29/10, p.73)
2010 Apr, Uighur journalist Memetjan Abdulla (33), who worked for an official Chinese radio service, was sentenced to life imprisonment for transmitting information about the 2009 ethnic riots in western China.
(AP, 12/24/10)
2010 May 1, In China World Expo 2010 officially opened in Shanghai. Two-wheeled Electric Networked Vehicles (EN-Vs) were unveiled at Expo 2010. They used a balancing system developed by Segway.
(Econ, 5/8/10, p.42)(Econ, 10/2/10, p.87)
2010 May 2, China raised the proportion of deposits that lenders must keep in reserve at the central bank, another step in its months-old campaign to mop up excess cash in the economy at a time when inflation is on the rise.
(Reuters, 5/3/10)
2010 May 3, Egypt's oil ministry said it has signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing with two Chinese companies to build a $2 billion refinery that would be its largest such plant.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 3, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il arrived on a luxury 17-car train in China, in what would be his first journey abroad in years as his regime faces a worsening economy and speculation it may have torpedoed a South Korean warship.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 4, Taiwan opened a tourism office in Beijing that represents the island's first official presence in China's capital since the two sides split amid civil war in 1949.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 5, China said it would punish officials who failed to fulfill emissions reduction targets, warning the nation's current environmental situation was extremely serious.
(AP, 5/5/10)
2010 May 6, In China a tornado and strong winds swept through the southwest early in the day, killing at least 58 people and injuring nearly 200. The southwestern municipality of Chongqing was the worst hit after a tornado and gale-force winds killed 29 people. 10 were left dead in Hunan province and 6 dead in Guangdong province. Torrential rain in the eastern province of Jiangxi killed seven people. 6 people died in rain-triggered landslides in the southwestern province of Guizhou.
(AP, 5/6/10)(AFP, 5/7/10)
2010 May 6, A Chinese media report said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il told President Hu Jintao during his secretive trip to Beijing that he is ready to return to stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations.
(AFP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 6, Wan Yanhai, a prominent Chinese AIDS activist, fled China for the United States with his wife and 4-year-old daughter to escape increasing government harassment of him and his organization. Wan, a former Health Ministry official, founded the Aizhixing Institute in 1994 to raise awareness and fight discrimination.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 7, In China lawyers Tang Jitian and Liu Wei were informed by Beijing judicial authorities that they had lost their credentials. They had represented a member of an outlawed spiritual movement. The next day Jitian and Wei said the penalty was designed to scare other lawyers away from taking on sensitive human rights cases.
(AP, 5/8/10)
2010 May 8, In southeastern China Zhou Yezhong (36) stabbed to death 8 people including his wife, elderly mother and young daughter in Chengyuan village in Jiangxi province. Another two people were killed and three wounded in a stabbing spree by a man (42) in Hong Kong.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 12, In northwest China 7 children and the owners of a kindergarten were hacked to death in Nanzheng county, a rural corner of Shaanxi province. Wu Huanming (48) used a kitchen cleaver to kill five boys and two girls as well as the mother-son team who owned and ran the private kindergarten. He then returned home and committed suicide. This latest in a string of assaults on schools, prompted officials to vow to "strike hard" to calm public alarm.
(Reuters, 5/12/10)
2010 May 12, In San Francisco Mayor Newsom presided over the official dedication of a 3-story, 15-ton Buddha sculpture, “Three heads Six Arms" by artist Zhang Huan, to mark the city’s 30th anniversary sister city relationship with Shanghai. The one year lease expired and the work was dismantled on Feb 15, 2011, for return to Zhang Huan.
(SFC, 5/13/10, p.C1)(SFC, 2/14/11, p.C1)
2010 May 13, In China a man who spent 11 years in jail after being tortured into confessing to the murder of a man who wasn't even dead was been given $96,000 in government compensation. Zhao Zuohai (57) was recently released from prison after the man he was convicted of killing more than a decade ago reappeared in their home village last month. Henan province Chief Justice Hu Ye was soon suspended over the case.
(AP, 5/13/10)(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 13, South African and Chinese companies announced plans to build a $217 million cement plant in South Africa, in one of China's biggest investments in the country.
(AFP, 5/13/10)
2010 May 13, In Abuja, Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) sealed a $23 billion deal to build three refineries and a petrochemical complex.
(AFP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 14, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said four robbers were sentenced to death as part of a 27-member gang who robbed a dozen tombs near the capital of the central province of Hunan in 2008 and 2009. The other robbers got prison terms.
(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 14, In China Internet service was restored to Xinjiang province, 10 months after it was blocked following deadly rioting in Urumqi, the regional capital.
(SFC, 5/15/10, p.A2)
2010 May 16, In China Xie Yulin (20), a cleaver-wielding man, attacked and wounded 6 women before jumping to his death in the southern city of Foshan. One of the women died the next day.
(AP, 5/17/10)(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 16, Yemeni tribesmen kidnapped two Chinese engineers and their government escorts in the country's volatile south. Kidnappers released the engineers after several days of mediation.
(AP, 5/16/10)(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 18, In China Huang Guangyu, a school drop-out who became China's richest man by building an electronics and home appliance empire, was jailed for 14 years for bribery and insider trading. He had admitted to paying bribes totaling 4.56m yuan to five government officials between 2006 and 2008. A Beijing court ordered Huang, in his 40s, to pay a fine of 600 million yuan ($88 million). Authorities seized another 200 million yuan in assets as part of his conviction.
(AFP, 5/18/10)(Econ, 5/22/10, p.69)
2010 May 19, In China at least five men armed with knives burst into the dormitory of a vocational college in Haikou, the capital of the southern island province of Hainan, and slashed nine students, one of them seriously.
(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 20, Chinese officials said Ma Yaohai (53), a college professor accused of organizing a swingers club and holding private orgies, has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, in a case that touched off national debate about sexual freedom. Ma, along with 21 other people, was arrested and charged last year under a 1997 law.
(AP, 5/20/10)
2010 May 21, In China some 1900 workers at a Honda auto parts factory in Guangdong province went on strike demanding higher pay. Monthly pay at the facility in Foshan city was about $117 per month. Similar companies paid between $292 and $365 a month. Honda announced a settlement on June 4.
(www.china.org.cn/business/2010-05/28/content_20133668.htm)(SSFC, 5/30/10, p.A4)(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 May 23, In southern China a fuel rod at the Guangdong Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station experienced a "very small leakage" that increased radioactivity levels slightly in the nuclear reactor's cooling water. The plant supplies power to Hong Kong.
(AP, 6/15/10)
2010 May 24, In southern China a head-on collision between two buses killed 10 people and injured an additional 43 early Monday in the second major bus accident in two days.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 May 25, US and Chinese officials signed accords on trade finance, China’s gas reserves and credit arrangements, but gave no indication of any progress on issues involving the value of China’s currency.
(SFC, 5/26/10, p.A3)
2010 May 27, Indian President Pratibha Patil sought to soothe trade disputes and recent border tensions in meetings with Chinese leaders in Beijing.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 29, The premier of China, North Korea's main ally, offered condolences to South Korea for the sinking of a warship blamed on Pyongyang after promising that Beijing, under pressure to punish the North, would not defend any country guilty of the attack.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 29, In China 17 miners were killed by a dynamite explosion at the Shuguang Coal Mine in Chenzhou city, Hunan province.
(AP, 5/30/10)
2010 May 30, China's security and judicial authorities, embarrassed by a murder victim who turned up a decade after his "killer" was convicted, issued rules to make it harder to convict suspects based on confessions secured under duress. Authorities said such evidence would be thrown out in death penalty cases that are under appeal.
(AP, 5/30/10)(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 Jun 1, China called on Iran to improve its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, after the agency said in a report that Tehran was pressing ahead with its controversial atomic program.
(AFP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 1, In China bank guard Zhu Jun (46), angry over a legal ruling in his divorce, opened fire with a machine gun and two pistols in a court building in the city of Yongzhou, shooting 3 judges dead and wounding 3 others before killing himself.
(AFP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 2, Foxconn, a subsidiary of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, announced a 30% pay increase for its workers in China.
(Econ, 6/5/10, p.48)
2010 Jun 4, Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents marked the bloody 1989 Tiananmen crackdown with a candle-lit vigil, as agitation against Beijing intensifies in the former British colony.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, A North Korean border guard shot and killed three Chinese citizens and wounded a fourth on the countries' border, apparently on suspicion they were crossing the border for illegal trade. China son lodged a formal diplomatic protest.
(AP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 7, China’s Xinhua News Agency said the death toll from flooding and rain-triggered landslides in southern China has climbed to 53 after the bodies of all missing people were recovered. Three days of heavy rain that began May 31 destroyed 11,000 homes and forced the evacuation of 200,000 people.
(AP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 8, China's Xinhua news agency said iPhone maker Foxconn International Holdings will no longer pay compensation to families of employees who kill themselves to discourage further suicides. Foxconn employed some 800,000 people, half of whom worked and lived in Shenzhen’s Foxconn City.
(Reuters, 6/8/10)(Econ, 5/29/10, p.67)
2010 Jun 8, In China a couple attacked two judges and four court officers with sulphuric acid as they were attempting to seize their home in southern Guangxi province over a loan dispute.
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Jun 11, In China a construction crew in the south-central city of Changsha completed a 15-story hotel in just six days.
(http://tinyurl.com/237rlpo)
2010 Jun 12, China’s government reported that unusually heavy seasonal flooding in southeast China has killed at least 155 people and forced more than 1.3 million to flee as water levels in some areas reached at their highest in more than a decade.
(AP, 6/12/10)
2010 Jun 16, In China at least 90 people died and 50 were missing after torrential downpours in southern China triggered heavy floods. The provinces of Fujian and Sichuan, in the southeast and southwest respectively, as well as the southern region of Guangxi were the hardest hit.
(AFP, 6/16/10)(AFP, 6/18/10)(AP, 6/19/10)
2010 Jun 19, China’s central bank said it will gradually make the yuan's exchange rate more flexible a week before a G20 summit, strongly suggesting that it was ready to break the currency's 23-month-old dollar peg.
(Reuters, 6/19/10)
2010 Jun 20, China’s central bank said it will keep the yuan's exchange rate at a basically stable level, suggesting that the country's new currency regime will look a lot like the old one.
(Reuters, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 20, China’s government said major rivers have burst their banks in southern China, triggering massive floods in 10 provinces and forcing 860,000 to flee their homes. Dozens were missing with more storms forecast. The death toll soon rose to 377.
(AP, 6/20/10)(AP, 6/21/10)(AP, 6/25/10)(SSFC, 6/27/10, p.N3)
2010 Jun 21, In central China at least 47 miners were killed when an explosion ripped through a coal mine in Pingdingshan city, Henan province.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 21, In southern China floodwaters breached the Changkai levee on the Fu River in Jiangxi province, forcing some 88,000 people to relocate from their homes in the nearby city of Fuzhou.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 23, China stepped in to provide Cambodia with more than 250 military vehicles after the United States earlier suspended a similar shipment when the Cambodian government deported 20 asylum seekers.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 23, In Hong Kong thousands of protestors chanting slogans and blaring vuvuzelas faced off as legislators debated a controversial plan to enact limited political reforms in the Chinese territory. Pro-democracy Hong Kong legislators attacked a proposal for limited political reforms made by the territory's Beijing-appointed government and tried to stall a vote expected to go in the administration's favor.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 24, Chinese President Hu Jintao called for a new start and a firming of Sino-Canadian ties, despite new irritants, during a state visit to Canada ahead of G8 and G20 summits in the Toronto area.
(AFP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 24, In China Karma Samdrup, a Tibetan environmentalist once praised as a model philanthropist, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of grave robbing and dealing in looted antiquities. Supporters said the case was aimed at punishing his activism.
(AP, 6/24/10)
2010 Jun 25, Chinese official said a huge bright green algae bloom is blanketing the sea off China's east coast and wind is driving it closer to land. The current outbreak has nearly doubled in size since it was first spotted June 14 near eastern Shandong province and now measures about 110 square miles (300 square km).
(AP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 25, ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, agreed in a meeting to start using Chinese characters for suffixes handed out by Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwan-based Internet registries. It started allowing Arabic earlier this year.
(AP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 26, In northwestern China an overloaded bus traveling to a funeral veered off a mountain road and plunged into a ravine, killing 11 people and injuring 31.
(AP, 6/27/10)
2010 Jun 26, Chinese authorities sentenced Dorje Tashi, one of Tibet's richest businessmen, to life in prison in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, for helping exile groups.
(AP, 8/12/10)
2010 Jun 28, In southwestern China a landslide caused by heavy rains trapped at least 107 people, and there was little hope for their survival.
(AP, 6/28/10)
2010 Jun 29, Taiwan’s government signed an Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (EFCA) with China.
(Econ, 7/3/10, p.39)
2010 Jun 29, Google Inc said it will stop automatically rerouting users in China to an uncensored search page, a move that aims to preserve its operating license and signals a fight to save the firm's Chinese business.
(Reuters, 6/29/10)
2010 Jun 30, China threw open the gates of its secretive Central Party School, offering foreign journalists a rare but carefully scripted peek at the leafy campus where the country's Communist elite are trained.
(AP, 6/30/10)
2010 Jun, China began allowing most of the country to pay for imports in yuan and for 365 Chinese companies top sell exports for currency. In December the number was increased to 67,359 companies.
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.85)
2010 Jul 4, In central China a fire on a shuttle bus carrying steel factory workers killed 24 people and injured 19. State media later reported that Dong Chuansheng (57), an angry steel worker, had started the shuttle bus fire near Shanghai.
(AP, 7/4/10)(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 5, In China Xue Feng (44), an American geologist detained and tortured by China's state security agents over an oil industry database, was sentenced in Beijing to 8 years in jail.
(SFC, 7/6/10, p.A3)
2010 Jul 6, Chinese police found a Catholic priest and a nun murdered in northern China, but the motive was not immediately clear. Joseph Shulai Zhang (55) and Sister Mary Wei Yanhui (32) were apparently stabbed to death at the nursing home where they worked in the city of Wuhai in Inner Mongolia. Monk Zhang Wenping (43) was arrested on July 8 in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia region. Wenping told police that he had personal grudges against the priest and nun.
(AFP, 7/8/10)(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 6, China priced the IPO of Agricultural Bank of China and proceeded to raise $19.2 billion in one the world’s largest IPO to date.
(www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/business/global/07ipo.html)
2010 Jul 7, China executed the former top justice official in the southwestern city of Chongqing, the highest ranking person caught in a massive crackdown on violent gangs and corrupt officials who protect them. Wen Qiang (55), former director of the Chongqing Municipal Judicial Bureau, was convicted in April of corruption charges involving organized crime.
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 8, In northwest China local authorities said floods triggered by torrential rain in a remote part of Qinghai province have killed 25 people. According to the China News Service, the government has recorded 483 flood-related deaths in China so far this year, with 255 people still missing.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 9, Chinese state media said authorities have seized 76 tons of milk powder tainted with melamine, the same chemical responsible for the deaths of six babies two years ago.
(AFP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 9, Google said China has renewed its license to operate a website, preserving the search giant's toehold in the most populous Internet market after it gave up an attempt to skirt Beijing's Web censorship.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 11, In China new rules went into effect requiring officials in government and state companies to report personal details from assets to the whereabouts of spouses and children. The new regulations were similar to rules released in April governing senior Communist Party officials, but have been expanded to include everyone from midlevel officials and up. Nonparty members and those working for state-owned business would now also be required to submit their details.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 13, In western China landslides slammed into three mountain hamlets, killing 17 people and leaving 44 missing, while crews drained a fast-rising reservoir in another part of the country following heavy rains.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 16, A typhoon that left a trail of destruction and deaths in the Philippines hit southern China as emergency workers prepared for torrential rains and lashing winds, flights and ferries were canceled and tens of thousands of residents were evacuated.
(AP, 7/16/10)
2010 Jul 17, In China 28 miners were killed when an electrical cable caught fire inside a coal shaft in northern Shaanxi province. There were no survivors. 8 coal miners died when a blaze engulfed a mine in central Henan province.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, Typhoon Conson weakened as it headed toward Vietnam, after passing over the Chinese island of Hainan where falling billboards killed at least two people.
(Reuters, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 18, In China 16 workers were inside the shaft when water gushed into the mine in Jinta, a county in Gansu province, and 3 men were safely lifted out. 2 bodies were found and 11 men remained trapped. An explosion at a coal mine in northeastern Liaoning province killed four workers and injured 13 others, who were in stable condition.
(AP, 7/18/10)(AP, 7/19/10)
2010 Jul 18, In southwestern China a bus plunged into a river, leaving 27 people on board missing and feared dead. Rescuers were able to save 11 others.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 19, China's Cabinet, the State Council, issued an order that said the black-market trade in food waste and used oil posed "serious potential food safety risks." It vowed to crack down on refined restaurant waste finding its way back to dinner tables through illegal channels.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Jul 19, In China landslides triggered by flooding killed at least 37 people with 97 missing in the central province of Shaanxi. In nearby Sichuan province, a weekend of torrential rains left 23 dead and forced nearly 600,000 to evacuate their homes.
(AP, 7/19/10)(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Jul 19, One of China's biggest ports, Dalian, shut down after a pipeline explosion triggered a major offshore oil spill, forcing a refinery to cut processing and importers to divert cargoes elsewhere. The government later said 1,500 tons of oil were spilled. Others later estimated as much as 60-90 thousand tons.
(Reuters, 7/19/10)(SFC, 7/31/10, p.A4)
2010 Jul 20, Paris-based International Energy Agency said China has overtaken the United States as the world's largest energy consumer. The IE said China's 2009 consumption of energy sources ranging from oil and coal wind and solar power was equal to 2.265 billion tons of oil, compared to 2.169 billion tons for the US.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Jul 21, China said flood waters this year have killed 701 people and left 347 missing. The overall damage thus far totaled 142.2 billion yuan ($21 billion).
(AP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 21, China's largest reported oil spill had more than doubled, closing beaches on the Yellow Sea and prompting an environmental official to warn the sticky black crude posed a "severe threat" to sea life and water quality. The oil was spread over 165 square miles (430 square km) of water five days since a pipeline at a busy northeastern port exploded.
(AP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 22, In China Guangxi police uncovered a kidnapping ring during a three-month investigation and arrested seven people in coastal Fujian province. One of the suspects confessed to police the group had operated since 1989, kidnapping women and children from cities in Guangxi to sell in Fujian.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Jul 23, A Chinese court sentenced a Uighur journalist to 15 years in jail for critical writings and comments he made to foreign media after last year's deadly ethnic riots in China's western Xinjiang region. Halaite Niyaze was found guilty of "endangering national security" and sentenced following a one-day trial in Urumqi.
(AP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 23, Typhoon Chanthu killed three people before weakening into a tropical storm after making landfall in southern China's Guangdong province.
(AP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 26, China’s Geely Holding Group received final government approval to acquire Volvo Cars from Ford Motor Co. in a $1.8 billion deal.
(AP, 7/29/10)
2010 Jul 27, In southern China a landslide caused by rains left 21 people missing, adding to a growing death toll from China's worst flood season in a decade, which is expected to worsen with heavy rains forecast across the country.
(AP, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 27, Japan and China agreed in Tokyo to seek an early conclusion to talks over plans to jointly exploit oil and gas fields in a disputed area of the East China Sea.
(AFP, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 28, In northeastern China floods caused by heavy rains stranded tens of thousands of residents without power, as the worst flooding in more than a decade continued to besiege many areas of the country.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 28, In eastern China a powerful blast caused by a suspected gas leak rocked a plastics factory, killing at least 12 people and seriously injuring more than a dozen others.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 30, It was reported that China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy.
(Reuters, 7/30/10)
2010 Jul 30, In Mexico Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi signed a four-year cooperation accord with Mexico aimed at boosting political and economic ties.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, In northern China an explosion ripped through a workers' dormitory area in Linfen city, Shanxi province, and killed at least 15 people at the Liugou mine, a coal mine notorious for mining disasters.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, A senior Iranian official said China has invested around 40 billion dollars in the Islamic republic's oil and gas sector.
(AFP, 7/31/10)
2010 Aug 1, In China a drunken Li Xianliang was finally subdued after he pulled an earthmover into the coal depot where he worked in Yuanshi county, Hebei province. The depot had been the place where Li had begun his murderous spree by killing his employer and 16 others. Li was taken into custody and faced the death penalty for murder.
(AP, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 1, UNESCO added five cultural sites to its World Heritage List, including the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long-Hanoi in Vietnam. The other new sites include the historic monuments of Dengfeng in China, the archaeological site Sarazm in Tajikistan, the Episcopal city of Albi in France and a 17th-century canal ring in Amsterdam.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Aug 2, China’s state media said thousands of tons of garbage washed down by recent torrential rain are threatening to jam the locks of the massive Three Gorges Dam, and is in places so thick people can stand on it.
(Reuters, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 2, Chinese plainclothes officers detained Ye Haiyan, an activist for sex workers' rights, a few days after she publicly called for prostitution to be legalized.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 2, In China lethal gas leaked into a coal mine at the Sanyuandong Coal Mine in Dengfeng city, Henan province. No survivors were found among the 16 miners trapped by the lethal gas leak.
(AP, 8/3/10)(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 2, In the Philippines the 2010 winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards were announced. Winners included Tadatoshi Akiba, the three-term mayor of Hiroshima, who spearheaded a global campaign for nuclear disarmament, and photographer Huo Daishan (56), who documented river pollution in his native China. The awards are considered Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Other awardees were physicists Christopher Bernido and wife Maria Victoria Carpio-Bernido of the Philippines, who introduced a novel way of teaching science, and Bangladeshi A.H.M. Noman Khan, who set up service-and-training centers for helping persons with disabilities.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 2, UNESCO added 6 sites located in Brazil, China, Mexico, France's Reunion Island and the South Pacific nation of Kiribati to World Heritage status.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 3, In eastern China Fang Jiantang (26), a knife-wielding man, went on a slashing rampage in a kindergarten, leaving 3 children and one teacher dead in Shandong province. About 20 children and staff members were injured. Police detained Jiantang.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 3, In China gas exploded at a coal mine in the southern province of Guizhou, killing 10 people and trapping 7.
(AP, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 4, In China heavy rains hindered efforts by workers to repair reservoirs and place sandbags along breached riverbanks as the death toll from China's worst flooding in a decade climbed above 1,000.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 6, In China AIDS activist Tian Xi (24) was taken into custody after a run-in with an administrator at Xincai County No. 1 People's Hospital, where he had been given a tainted blood transfusion as a boy. He was inflected with HIV via blood transfusion in 1996, and has been struggling to get compensation and treatment from the government more or less ever since. On Feb 11, 2011, Tian Xi was sentenced to one year in prison.
(AP, 2/12/11)(http://tinyurl.com/2b9cey5)
2010 Aug 7, A gas leak in a China coal mine killed at least one worker and trapped five more, just hours after a fire in a gold mine killed 16.
(AP, 8/7/10)
2010 Aug 8, In China landslides in the northwestern province of Gansu left at least 337 people dead in the deadliest incident so far in the country's worst flooding in a decade. More than 1,148 were missing.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 9, A leading Chinese general urged closer ties with Australia's military, amid a continuing freeze on Beijing's contacts with the Pentagon.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 10, The death toll from landslides in northwestern China more than doubled to 702, as crews in three countries across Asia struggled to reach survivors from flooding that has afflicted millions of people.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 10, China Kanghui Holdings, a maker of orthopedic implants, and its stockholders priced 6.7 million American depositary shares, representing 40.1 million ordinary shares, at $10.25 apiece. The stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "KH."
(AP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 11, Chinese rescuers raced against a potential new deluge in northwest Gansu province and hurried to drain an unstable lake formed by the country’s worst mudslides in decades. The mudslide left about 1500 people dead.
(AFP, 8/11/10)(AFP, 5/13/12)
2010 Aug 11, China launched its biggest relocation program since the Three Gorges Dam. The first group of 499 villagers was moved in central Hubei province and a total of 60,000 people were to be relocated by Sept. 30. The rest, for a total of 330,000, will be moved by 2014.
(AP, 8/12/10)
2010 Aug 12, In China 10,276 people in Inner Mongolia set a new world record for the longest chain of human dominoes toppling a record set a decade earlier in Singapore by more than several hundred.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100813/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_china_life_dominoes)
2010 Aug 13, In northwest China new landslides killed 24 people and left 24 missing in Gansu province as downpours threatened more devastation and made rescue work nearly impossible in a region where more than 1,100 people have died.
(AP, 8/13/10)
2010 Aug 14, China’s People's Daily reported that China will test a wider range of dairy products and even breast milk as authorities investigate claims that a brand of infant formula caused apparent breast growth in a small number of babies. State media have said the babies with apparent breast growth were found to have abnormal levels of the hormones estradiol and prolactin, which stimulate lactation, or the making of breast milk.
(AP, 8/14/10)
2010 Aug 16, In northeast China a massive explosion ripped through a fireworks factory, killing 19 workers, damaging nearby buildings and causing secondary blasts.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In China at least 36 more people have died and 23 others were missing in fresh flooding from torrential rains in Gansu province.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 17, At least 4 Tibetans were fatally shot and 30 others wounded when Chinese police opened fire on demonstrators protesting the expansion of a gold mine they blamed for causing environmental damage in southwestern China's Sichuan province not far from the border with Tibet. On Aug 30 the official Xinhua News Agency reported that a 47-year-old Tibetan named Babo died after being hit "by a stray bullet when police fired warning shots with an anti-riot shotgun."
(AP, 8/28/10)(AP, 8/30/10)
2010 Aug 17, Taiwan's parliament approved a historic but controversial trade deal with China which is expected to bring the two former rivals closer than ever before. Taiwan's Defense Ministry urged the US to sell the island advanced weapons systems, after a Pentagon report concluded that China's arms buildup is giving it a wider military advantage over Taiwan.
(AFP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 17, A North Korean military plane, what appeared to be a MiG-21 fighter jet, crashed in northeastern in Liaoning province. China’s official Xinhua News Agency later said it went down because of mechanical failure. The pilot reportedly died on the spot.
(AP, 8/19/10)
2010 Aug 19, In China an attacker riding a 3-wheeled vehicle struck a contingent of security volunteers killing seven people with 14 wounded in the far west region of Xinjiang, an area beset by ethnic conflict and separatist violence.
(AP, 8/19/10)(SFC, 8/20/10, p.A3)
2010 Aug 21, In China the Yalu river, which marks the Chinese-North Korean border, breached its banks on both sides following torrential rains. Four people died and more than 94,000 were evacuated. In North Korea at least 5,150 people were evacuated as residents clambered on rooftops or took shelter on hilltops.
(AFP, 8/21/10)(AP, 8/22/10)
2010 Aug 23, China cut 13 non-violent crimes from the list of 64 offences punishable by death. State media said flooding has forced the evacuation of more than a quarter-million people in northern China along its border with North Korea.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.35)(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, Philippine police stormed a bus in downtown Manila after shots were heard from the hostage-taker of 15 Chinese tourists. Former Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza (55), armed with a M16 rifle, had seized the busload of Hong Kong tourists to demand his reinstatement in the force. 8 tourists were killed along with Mendoza.
(AP, 8/23/10)(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 23, South African President Jacob Zuma flew to China on a three-day trip aimed at strengthening business ties. Zuma was accompanied by a delegation of over 370 business representatives - the biggest ever for a South African leader's visit abroad.
(www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11067072)
2010 Aug 24, In China Zheng Shaodong, an assistant public security minister who led the country’s economic crimes investigation unit, was given a suspended death sentence for taking more than $1 million in bribes and abusing his position.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, A massive traffic jam in north China stretched for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark. It reportedly stemmed from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, In China a Henan passenger plane with 91 passengers and crew overshot a runway in northeastern Hichun city. 43 people were killed and 53 injured.
(SFC, 8/25/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 26, North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il was in China on his second visit this year to his country's biggest source of diplomatic and financial support.
(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 30, Chinese state media said North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il wants an early restart to stalled nuclear disarmament talks, ending official silence about Kim's secretive five-day trip ahead of a key congress.
(Reuters, 8/30/10)
2010 Aug, In China the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) oversaw 123 large centrally-owned companies. Based on the state-owned enterprise reconstruction plan, the SASAC directly-supervised SOE will be reduced to 80-100 by the ending of 2010 year. The small companies will be merged into big state-owned enterprise giants. In 2011 SASAC controlled some $3.7 trillion in assets.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.71)(http://tinyurl.com/88wjnsa)
2010 Sep 1, In southern China 44 people were missing after a landslide hit Wama village, Yunnan province, killing at least four people.
(AP, 9/2/10)
2010 Sep 7, Two Chinese oil workers went missing but more than 30 others were rescued from a listing Sinopec rig off the northeast coast. The company insisted no oil was spilled.
(AFP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 7, A Chinese fishing boat collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands. On Nov 1 Japanese lawmakers said a coast guard video shows a Chinese trawler intentionally ramming Japanese vessels in the incident, which sparked the worst row in years between the Asian powers.
(AFP, 11/1/10)
2010 Sep 7, Myanmar’s ruling junta leader, Gen. Than Shwe, began a 4-day visit to China. This year alone China had already invested over $8 billion in Myanmar.
(Econ, 9/11/10, p.52)
2010 Sep 8, Diplomatic tensions between China and Japan escalated when Beijing called in Japan's ambassador for a second time after a Chinese fishing boat collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands.
(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 9, In China Chen Guangcheng (39), a blind, self-taught activist lawyer, was released from prison and promptly confined in his rural village with limited access to communication. He had documented forced abortions and other abuses.
(AP, 9/9/10)
2010 Sep 11, China detained 9 Vietnamese fishermen near the disputed Paracel islands in the South China Sea. Vietnam demanded their immediate release without conditions, but China refused until the captain paid a fine for having explosives aboard the boat. The fisherman returned home on Oct 26 after an ordeal that included a month of detention by China and a week lost on stormy seas.
(AP, 10/26/10)
2010 Sep 13, Japan freed 14 crew members of a Chinese fishing ship nearly a week after their vessel and two Japanese patrol boats collided near disputed southern islets. But China lashed out at Tokyo's decision to keep the captain in custody.
(AP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 15, The US steel industry, Ohio lawmakers and two veteran US trade policy experts urged Congress to pass legislation to push back against China's "undervalued" currency by slapping duties on Chinese imports that threaten American jobs. The senior Republican on the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee said a proposed bill to press China to revalue its currency would not address fundamental Chinese trade barriers.
(Reuters, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 15, Greenpeace said China's coal-fired plants produce enough toxic ash to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every two-and-a-half minutes, creating contaminants that travel far and wide.
(AFP, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 16, China warned that the worst offenders of food safety rules would get the death penalty in a new crackdown on an industry that has spawned embarrassing and deadly scandals in products ranging from seafood to baby formula.
(AP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 18, In China protesters in several cities marked a politically sensitive anniversary, the start of a brutal Japanese invasion in 1931, with anti-Japan chants and banners, as authorities tried to stop anger over a diplomatic spat between the Asian giants from getting out of control.
(AP, 9/18/10)
2010 Sep 19, China said it has suspended high-level contacts with Japan over the extended detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain arrested after a Sep 7 collision near disputed islands.
(AP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 20, In China JCRB.com, a legal issues website administered by China's Supreme Court, said a Jinfulai Dairy Company executive in Yangquan city of Shanxi province and six other people were arrested after authorities discovered 26 tons of milk powder tainted with a toxic chemical.
(AP, 9/20/10)
2010 Sep 21, Eighteen people have died and 48 are missing after Fanapi churned through southern China, while 65 people were killed in monsoon rain in India and 100,000 displaced after a lake burst in southern Pakistan. Two people went missing and thousands of homes flooded when a record rainstorm hit parts of South Korea during a national holiday.
(AFP, 9/22/10)
2010 Sep 23, China detained four Japanese citizens for allegedly videotaping at a military installation in Hebei province. 3 of the men were released on Sep 30. The 4th was held as investigations continued. The 4th Japanese contractor was freed on Oct 9.
(SFC, 10/1/10, p.A4)(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Sep 24, Japan said it would free Zhan Qixiong (41), a Chinese fishing boat captain, whose arrest in disputed waters over two weeks ago sparked the worst row in years between the Asian giants.
(AFP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 25, Japan refused to apologize for detaining a Chinese boat captain, showing no signs of softening in a dispute between the two economic powers after Japan gave ground and released him. China made a second call for an apology and compensation from Tokyo, demanding "practical steps" to resolve the diplomatic row.
(Reuters, 9/25/10)(AFP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 26, Chinese authorities said five people have been sickened with pneumonic plague in Tibet and that the deadly disease has killed one of them.
(AP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 27, In eastern China 2 men were sentenced to death for abducting and trafficking 40 infants. They were sentenced for their involvement in a ring that abducted dozens of baby boys from Sichuan and Yunnan provinces and sold them to villagers in neighboring Fujian for up to $6,000 each.
(AP, 9/28/10)
2010 Sep 29, China repeated promises of exchange rate flexibility but offered no new measures that might avert a possible vote by the U.S. House of Representatives on currency legislation.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Sep 29, The World Trade Organization ruled that a US ban on Chinese poultry is illegal, giving Beijing a win in the first international commerce ruling against the administration of President Barack Obama.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Sep 30, The South China Morning Post quoted Derek Reveron, a cyber expert at the US Naval War School, as saying: "The Stuxnet worm is a wake-up call to governments around the world." China’s state media had reported this week that the Stuxnet computer worm has wreaked havoc, infecting millions of computers around the country.
(AFP, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 1, China launched its second lunar exploration probe, boosting the country's efforts to rise as a major space power eventually capable of landing a man on the moon and perhaps one day exploring far beyond.
(Reuters, 10/1/10)
2010 Oct 1, Spanish energy giant Repsol announced the sale of 40 percent of its Brazilian affiliate to China's Sinopec for 7.1 billion dollars, securing funding for the development of oil fields in Brazil.
(AP, 10/1/10)
2010 Oct 2, China offered to buy Greek government bonds in a show of support for the country whose debt burden triggered a crisis for the euro zone and required an international bailout. Premier Wen Jiabao made the offer at the start of a two-day visit, where he says he expects to expand ties in all areas.
(Reuters, 10/2/10)
2010 Oct 2, In China 8 workers were killed and three others were injured when the residential building toppled in Xi'an, the capital of northwestern Shaanxi province.
(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 3, In China 6 people were killed when the wall of a factory under construction fell in Qingzhou city, Shandong province. 5 people were injured, 2 of them severely.
(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 6, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told the EU to stop piling pressure on Beijing to revalue its currency, saying a rapid shift could unleash disastrous social turmoil.
(Reuters, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 6, The US and EU said that UN climate talks in Ttianjin, China, were making less progress than hoped due to rifts over rising economies' emission goals, while China pushed back and put the onus on rich nations.
(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 7, In China a new regulation that took effect saying mine bosses who don't go underground with their workers will be severely punished in the latest bid to improve safety in the world's deadliest mines.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 7, China says at least 38 people in the southern part of the country have been infected with a mosquito-borne virus that causes an illness similar to dengue fever. This was thought to be China's largest-ever outbreak of the chikungunya virus, which can cause fevers, joint pain, headaches and rashes.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 7, In Italy Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sealed Sino-Italian business deals worth €2.25 billion ($3.15 billion), after fending off European pressure to raise the value of the yuan.
(AFP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 8, China said on rich nations must lock in fresh vows to slash greenhouse gas output to unblock talks for a new climate change deal, while some negotiators said Beijing was holding progress hostage.
(Reuters, 10/8/10)
2010 Oct 8, The Nobel Committee named imprisoned Chinese scholar Liu Xiaobo the 2010 Peace Prize winner for "his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." The decision by the five-member committee appointed by the Norwegian Parliament came over the objection of the Chinese government, which considers Liu a criminal.
(AP, 10/8/10)
2010 Oct 9, China and the United States clashed on the final day of climate change talks in Tianjin, accusing each other of blocking progress ahead of a major summit next month on global warming.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 9, In China a collision between an intercity bus and a cement truck on a foggy eastern China highway killed at least 17 people outside Nanjing city.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 10, In China the wife of construction worker Luo Yanquan (36) was taken kicking and screaming from their home by more than a dozen people and detained in a clinic for three days by family planning officials, then taken to a hospital and injected with a drug that killed her baby. Xiao Aiying (36) delivered the dead baby on Oct 14.
(AP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 11, China blocked European diplomats from meeting with the wife of the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner, cut off her phone communication and canceled meetings with Norwegian officials, acting on its fury over the award.
(AP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 11, Chinese state media reported that more than 440,000 people have been evacuated in Hainan after the heaviest rains for decades inundated 90 percent of the Chinese island in the South China Sea.
(AFP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 15, China's Communist Party opened its secretive annual meeting to discuss the nation's next five-year economic plan against the backdrop of unusually outspoken calls for political reform.
(AFP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, China's basketball association fined a series of coaches and players in the national team after a bench-clearing brawl put an end to a friendly match with Brazil. The fight had erupted the night of Oct 12 at a game in central Henan province.
(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 16, Thousands of Chinese marched in the streets in sometimes violent protests against Japan and its claim to disputed islands. Thousands of protesters marched through Tokyo to demonstrate against what they called China's invasion of disputed islands that both countries claim. Beijing expressed "deep concern" at anti-China protests by Japanese nationalists over a diplomatic spat centered on a group of disputed islands.
(AP, 10/16/10)(Reuters, 10/16/10)(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 16, In central China rescuers battled dangerous levels of gas, tons of coal dust and the risk of falling rocks as they worked to free 11 miners trapped by an explosion at a mine. 26 miners were confirmed killed at the state-run Pingyu Coal & Electric Co. Ltd mine.
(AP, 10/16/10)(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 16, In China Li Qiming (22) reportedly hit two students with his car at a university campus in the northern province of Hebei. Chen Xiaofeng (20) was killed. The drunk man shouted "sue me if you dare" when a crowd stopped him from fleeing. On Oct 26 state media reported that Qiming, the son of a senior police officer, was arrested after the incident sparked outrage on the Internet. The young woman’s father, Chen Guangqian, said on Nov 18 that Li Gang gave him 460,000 yuan, or more than $69,250. On Jan 30 Qiming was sentenced to six years in prison.
(AFP, 10/26/10)(AP, 11/18/10)(AP, 1/30/11)
2010 Oct 17, The Washington Post reported that the United States believes some Chinese firms are helping Iran improve its missile technology and develop nuclear weapons and has asked Beijing to prevent such activity.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, Zambian police said managers at a Chinese-run coal mine who shot at workers protesting poor working conditions will be charged with attempted murder. 12 workers at Collum Coal Mine in the southern town of Sinazongwe were injured a day earlier when mainly Chinese managers fired randomly at the protesting workers.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 19, China's central bank surprised with its first increase of interest rates in nearly three years. The People's Bank of China said it was raising benchmark rates by 25 basis points, taking one-year deposit rates to 2.5 percent and one-year lending rates to 5.56 percent. The impact was felt by markets across the board. Oil and gold prices tumbled, stocks turned negative in Europe and the dollar jumped.
(Reuters, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 19, Tibetan students in western China marched to protest unconfirmed plans to use the Chinese language exclusively in classes, an unusually bold challenge to authorities that reflects a deep unease over the marginalization of Tibetan culture.
(AP, 10/20/10)
2010 Oct 21, China rejected a UN report that says Chinese bullets were used in attacks on peacekeepers in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, calling the charge groundless.
(AFP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 21, At least 160,000 people were evacuated from southern China as Typhoon Megi, one of the most powerful storms to hit the region in years, bore down, bringing with it the threat of devastation.
(AFP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 22, In China Kigali and Beijing agreed to enhance their military cooperation during a visit to China by Rwandan Defence Minister James Kaberebe. Kaberebe held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie, as part of a five-day visit to China.
(AFP, 10/23/10)
(AFP, 10/22/10)(AP, 10/23/10)(SFC, 10/25/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 22, In Taiwan at least 7 people died when a temple collapsed in Suao, a coastal town in the northeast Ilan county. Torrential rains unleashed by Typhoon Megi triggered landslides that also left dozens missing and hundreds stranded. 19 Chinese bus passengers were among 23 people still missing on the island. As many as 31 people were left dead.
(AFP, 10/22/10)(AP, 10/23/10)(SFC, 10/25/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 22, In Virginia Glenn Shriver (28) of Detroit pleaded guilty to trying to get a job with the Central Intelligence Agency in order to spy for China and to hiding contacts and money he got from Chinese intelligence agents. Shriver acknowledged that he met with Chinese officials about 20 times beginning in 2004 and that he received a total of about $70,000 from Chinese intelligence officers. His plea agreement called for a sentence of 48 months in prison.
(Reuters, 10/22/10)
2010 Oct 22, Mexican authorities said federal police have captured Huang Chen Yaowei, the suspected leader of a gang that trafficked Chinese migrants through Mexico to the US.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 26, China rolled out its fastest train yet and announced that the Three Gorges Dam, the world's biggest hydroelectric project, is now generating electricity at maximum capacity. Inauguration ceremonies were held for the super-fast line from Shanghai's western suburb of Hongqiao to the resort city of Hangzhou. The train will cruise at a top speed of 220 mph (350 kph), making the 125-mile (200-km) trip in 45 minutes.
(AP, 10/26/10)
2010 Oct 28, In China Guo Xianliang, an engineer from the southern province of Yunnan, disappeared while on a business trip in the southern city of Guangzhou. He had been handing out fliers on the streets and in public parks there. Police told Guo's wife on Nov 2 that Guo had been criminally detained.
(AP, 11/3/10)
2010 Oct 28, In China 4 driverless vehicles arrived at the Shanghai Expo ending an 8,000 mile test drive from Italy.
(SFC, 10/29/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 28, Nvidia Corp. said China’s National University of Defense Technology has designed the world’s fastest supercomputer. Its Tianhe-1A set a performance record of 2.507 petaflops per second.
(SFC, 10/29/10, p.C5)
2010 Oct 28, Liang Congjie (78), historian and modern China’s first environmentalist, died. In 1994 he and 3 colleagues founded Friends of Nature, China’s first legal NGO and the first committed to protecting the country’s environment..
(Econ, 11/20/10, p.100)
2010 Oct 29, A feud between China and Japan deepened at the East Asian Summit in Vietnam, as China accused its rival of making false comments and hopes for landmark talks between their leaders evaporated.
(AFP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 30, In China Alexandria Mills, a soft-spoken 18-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, was named the winner in the 60th Miss World Competition, held on Hainan Island. Second place went to Emma Wareus of Botswana, and Adriana Vasini of Venezuela came third.
(AP, 10/31/10)
2010 Oct 31, China wrapped up its record-breaking World Expo with a lavish display of national pride, as organizers of the mammoth event pledged to continue pursuing more sustainable, balanced growth. Over 72 million visitors surpassed the record 1970 fair in Osaka, Japan, which drew 64 million.
(AP, 10/31/10)(SFC, 11/1/10, p.D2)
2010 Nov 1, China kicked off a once-a-decade census. Some 6 million people were mobilized to conduct a 10-day survey.
(AP, 11/1/10)(Econ, 11/6/10, p.56)
2010 Nov 4, China's President Hu Jintao landed in Paris for a three-day state visit set to see the signing of billions of dollars in deals for nuclear, aviation and energy technology. The visit resulted in more than $20 billion-worth of contracts, including an agreement by China to buy 66 more Airbus jets.
(AFP, 11/4/10)(Econ, 11/13/10, p.51)
2010 Nov 5, China and India received long-sought recognition as global economic heavyweights as the International Monetary Fund gave them and other emerging powers a significantly larger role in stabilizing the world economy. IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn announced planned reforms to the fund's voting power after a meeting of the organization's board in Washington, DC.
(AP, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 5, France and China reached a "real convergence" over the need to reform the global financial system after two days of talks between President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao. France told China that balanced trade and close cooperation was the best way to shield the world from future crises and the menace of protectionism, and China promised its support for Paris as it takes over the G20 presidency this month.
(Reuters, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 7, In Portugal Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to support Portugal's efforts to emerge from financial crisis, but he did not commit to purchasing Portuguese debt as was widely anticipated.
(AFP, 11/7/10)
2010 Nov 8, Britain’s PM David Cameron departed for a 2-day trip to China. He brought along 4 cabinet ministers and 50 businessmen. Cameron hoped to double trade with China over the next five years.
(Econ, 11/13/10, p.65)
2010 Nov 9, China signaled its intention to drain excess cash from its financial system by unexpectedly raising the yield on bills at a central bank auction and announcing new rules to curb hot money inflows.
(Reuters, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 9, A UN report suggesting North Korea may have supplied Syria, Iran and Myanmar with banned nuclear technology headed to the Security Council. The latest report by the so-called Panel of Experts on Pyongyang's compliance with UN sanctions was delivered to the Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee in May, but did not move for nearly six months due to Chinese objections.
(Reuters, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 10, In China a Beijing court imposed a 2½ year sentence on Zhao Lianhai, for inciting public disorder by setting up a web site to help parents with sick children share information and seek compensation. Lianhai became an activist after his son suffered from kidney problems linked to contaminated baby formula.
(SFC, 11/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 11, China said it has toughened rare earth export rules to allow only producers that meet environmental protection laws and international standards to ship the precious elements out of the country.
(AFP, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 11, In Britain an 18th-century Chinese porcelain vase, sold by a family clearing out a deceased relative's house in a suburb of London, went to a Chinese buyer for 51.6 million pounds ($83 million), more than 40 times the pre-sale estimate and a record for a Chinese work of art. The price included 20% in fees.
(AP, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 12, In South Korea leaders of the G20 major economies refused to back a US push to make China boost its currency's value, keeping alive a dispute that raises fears of a global trade war amid criticism that cheap Chinese exports are costing American jobs.
(AP, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 12, After weeks of delays due to Chinese objections, the UN Security Council received a report on violations of the arms embargo in Sudan's western Darfur region that infuriated Beijing. The confidential report said Khartoum committed multiple breaches of the embargo and China has done little to ensure its weaponry is not used in Darfur.
(Reuters, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 13, In Japan thousands of demonstrators waving Japanese flags and shouting anti-China slogans marched against Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit for an economic summit that comes as a territorial dispute strains ties between the Asian giants.
(AP, 11/13/10)
2010 Nov 13, US President Barack Obama used a Pacific Rim summit to press China on its flood of exports aided by a cheap yuan, but President Hu Jintao said Beijing would make reforms at its own pace.
(AFP, 11/13/10)
2010 Nov 14, In China a court convicted Cheng Jianping (46) of "disturbing social order" after she added a few words to a message written by her fiance, Hua Chunhui, whose Twitter post mocked anti-Japanese protesters. On Nov 16 Amnesty Int’l. urged the government to release Cheng, saying she could be the first Chinese citizen to become "a prisoner of conscience on the basis of a single tweet."
(AFP, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 15, In China a fire engulfed a Shanghai high-rise building, killing 58 and injuring 70, as panicked residents fled and thick smoke spread over China's commercial hub. Police the next day detained 8 welders on suspicion of accidentally starting the fire. 3 government officials were later detained for allowing illegal construction activities at the site. In June, 2011, prosecutors charged 26 people with bribery and other crimes related to the fire.
(AP, 11/15/10)(AP, 11/16/10)(SFC, 11/17/10, p.A3)(SFC, 12/25/10, p.A2)(AP, 6/25/11)
2010 Nov 16, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping began a trip to mineral-rich South Africa aimed at securing resources for the Asian economic power, looking to extend its influence in the African continent.
(Reuters, 11/16/10)
2010 Nov 17, China said it will intervene to control consumer prices if they rise too quickly, a move that will do little by itself to tame inflation but could foreshadow harsher monetary tightening. The government announced food subsidies for poor families as it tries to cool a double-digit surge in prices that communist leaders worry might stir unrest.
(Reuters, 11/17/10)(AP, 11/17/10)
2010 Nov 18, The Norwegian Nobel Committee Russia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Morocco, Iraq and China have declined to attend the December 10 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. 16 more countries had not replied by the committee's extended deadline. An award spokesman said the Nobel Peace Prize may not be handed out this year because no one from imprisoned Liu Xiaobo's family is likely to attend the ceremony.
(AP, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 19, China ordered lenders to lock up more of their money at the central bank for the second time in two weeks, stepping up its battle to pull excess cash out of the economy before inflation has a chance to take off.
(Reuters, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 19, The world's cardinals met at the Vatican to discuss religious freedom, sex abuse by clergy and other issues amid a new dispute with China over an illicit ordination that threatens delicate relations between the two.
(AP, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 20, China's government-backed Catholic church ordained a bishop who did not have the pope's approval, despite objections from the Vatican.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 21, In China water flooded a small coal mine, trapping 28 people as they did safety work to expand the mine's capacity. 13 workers escaped and rescue work was continuing for the 28 missing at the Batian mine in the southwestern province of Sichuan. 29 miners were rescued on Nov 22.
(AP, 11/21/10)(Econ, 11/27/10, p.51)
2010 Nov 21, A global tiger summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, approved a wide-ranging program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia. Experts wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect their habitats and step up the fight against poaching.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 23, China acknowledged that it is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, as it called on the United States to ensure climate change talks opening next week make progress.
(AFP, 11/23/10)
2010 Nov 24, The Vatican denounced China for ordaining a bishop without papal consent, accusing the government-backed church of gravely damaging the faith and warning that the bishop risked excommunication. The Vatican also accused Chinese authorities of committing "grave violations of freedom of religion and conscience" by forcing Vatican-approved bishops to attend the ordination ceremony of Rev. Joseph Guo Jincai.
(AP, 11/24/10)
2010 Nov 25, China’s state media said Shanghai is suffering from its worst November air quality in five years after the local government lifted pollution controls that were in place for the six-month World Expo. China started publishing hourly air-quality information for major cities across the country as the world's top source of greenhouse gas emissions tries to rein in its notorious pollution.
(AFP, 11/25/10)(AFP, 11/26/10)
2010 Nov 27, In China an "extraordinary" Asian Games closed after 15 days of thrills and spills that saw China reinforce its sporting credentials as 45 countries and territories took part. China’s final gold tally reached 199 and its total medals to 416, both Asian Games records.
(AFP, 11/27/10)
2010 Nov 28, China called for emergency talks on resolving a crisis on the Korean peninsula, and Seoul and Tokyo said they would study the proposal, as the US and South Korean militaries started a massive drill.
(AP, 11/28/10)
2010 Nov 29, In eastern China a man detonated explosives near the president of Tianjin Normal University, killing himself and possibly injuring the president in an apparent suicide bombing.
(AP, 12/2/10)
2010 Nov, In China Tan Yong attacked his wife Li Yan (39) with an air gun, but she grabbed it from him and used the butt of the weapon to kill him. He had previously hurt three other wives. Yan was later convicted of murder and sentenced to death. In 2015 the Ziyang Intermediate People's Court re-sentenced her to death with a two-year reprieve, meaning the penalty is likely to be commuted to life in prison.
(AFP, 4/24/15)
2010 Dec 3, Chinese police detained the wife of Hada, the co-founder of a Mongolian separatist movement, and raided the family bookstore just days before the activist is to be released from 15 years in prison.
(AP, 12/4/10)
2010 Dec 3, A Chinese passenger train set a new record for speed, hitting 302 miles per hour (486 km per hour) during a test run.
(AP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 3, A Chinese cargo ship with 24 Chinese passengers and crew members sank off the coast of the Philippines. At least 14 crewmen were rescued and 10 were missing.
(www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6B30U120101204)(SFC, 12/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 3, Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian mining firm, announced a joint venture with Chinalco, to hunt for minerals in China.
(Econ, 12/18/10, p.130)
2010 Dec 4, In southwestern China an explosion caused by illegally stored chemicals killed seven people and injured 37 at an Internet café.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, In southwest China at least 22 people died and one person was severely burned when a spreading grassland fire swept through a mountainous Tibetan region.
(Reuters, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 6, The US, South Korea and Japan all urged China to help rein in its ally North Korea and vowed solidarity in defending Seoul from any further attacks from the North.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, China hit back at the United States and its Asian allies for their refusal to talk to North Korea, saying dialogue was the only way to calm escalating tension on the divided Korean peninsula.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Norway Nobel officials said China and 18 other countries have declined to attend this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, as China unleashed a new barrage deriding the decision.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 9, In China the inaugural Confucius Peace Prize was awarded to former Taiwan vice-president Lien Chan at a chaotic press conference held by a handful of Chinese university professors. Lien's office in Taiwan declined comment, saying they had no knowledge of the award. Chinese poet Qiao Damo, one of the "candidates", told reporters the lack of any word from Lien represented "silent acceptance" of the prize, prompting laughter from assembled journalists.
(AFP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 9, Communist allies North Korea and China proclaimed their unity as the North's leader Kim Jong-Il held his first meeting with a senior Chinese envoy since the region's worst crisis in years erupted.
(AFP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 10, China's central bank raised the amount of money the country's lenders must keep on reserve for the third time in a month, following a spate of robust data that strengthened the case for policy tightening.
(Reuters, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 10, Dignitaries in Norway celebrated this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, with an empty chair. Xiaobo, derided by Beijing as a political farce, dedicated it from his prison cell to the "lost souls" of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
(AP, 12/10/10)(Reuters, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 13, A Chinese vessel carrying fertilizer and heavy fuel collided with a German cargo ship off northwestern Denmark. The Hong Kong-flagged Cleantec was listing and its 24-man crew was ready to be evacuated.
(AP, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 13, The US government welcomed a World Trade Organization ruling that upheld President Barack Obama's controversial decision last year to slap duties on Chinese-made tires to protect US workers from a market-disrupting surge in imports.
(Reuters, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 13, A classified US document, dated Feb 26, 2010, released by WikiLeaks said Venezuela’s government sold China oil for as little as $5 a barrel and was upset that China apparently profited by selling the fuel to other countries. Another embassy report on Sept. 23, 2009, said Venezuela has been manipulating its oil price index. Other cables indicated significant problems at PDVSA.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 14, A report, "High and Dry," by the Shan Sapawa Environmental Organization and the Shan Women's Action Network, said local trade and transport on the river in northern Myanmar near a border trade crossing with China has been severely affected by unpredictable daily changes in the water level since the completion in mid-2010 of the 360-foot (110-m) tall Longjiang Dam about 19 miles (30 km) upstream.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 15, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's travelled to India to build trust between two Asian powers with increasingly close economic ties despite their ongoing competition for regional influence.
(AP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 15, In southwest China local authorities told state press that Zeng Lingquan, the operator of an unlicensed shelter for disabled people, sold at least 70 mentally ill workers into slavery in recent years. Lingquan was arrested on Dec 13.
(AFP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 15, In China workers blasted through the last part of a tunnel that connects the Tibetan county of Metok to China's major thoroughfare.
(AP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 16, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pressed on with a charm offensive in India, offering support for New Delhi's bid for a greater role in the United Nations and agreeing on an ambitious target of $100 billion annually in trade between the rising Asian powers by 2015.
(Reuters, 12/16/10)(SFC, 12/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 16, China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement that it has banned poultry and poultry product imports from Manitoba, Canada, after an outbreak of low-pathogenic H5N2 bird flu there.
(Reuters, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 17, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made a rare visit to Pakistan aimed at expanding trade ties and the flow of Chinese investment into the country.
(AP, 12/17/10)
2010 Dec 18, A 63-ton Chinese fishing boat capsized after ramming into a 3,000-ton South Korean coastguard ship trying to curb its illegal fishing activities, leaving one Chinese crew member dead and another missing.
(AFP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 18, Pakistan and China concluded nearly 15 billion dollars' worth of deals, as visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Beijing would "never give up" on the troubled nuclear-armed Muslim country.
(AFP, 12/18/10)
2010 Dec 20, China's state news agency said eight people have been sentenced to prison terms of up to two-and-a-half years for selling fake rabies vaccines that contributed to the death of one boy. A court in southwestern Guangxi region sentenced Zhang Dazhi to 30 months' jail while seven others were handed one-year prison terms.
(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 20, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg toured the offices of Baidu, China's top search engine, during a visit that has sparked speculation the social networking magnate is looking for business opportunities in the world's largest Internet market.
(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 21, China urged North Korea to follow through on its offer to allow UN nuclear monitors into the country as a way to alleviate international tensions during a standoff with the South.
(AP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 23, China's capital announced that it will sharply limit new vehicle registrations to try to ease massive traffic jams that are rapidly turning Beijing's streets into parking lots.
(AP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 23, China said it will boost further its already expanding economic ties with Africa, which reached a record two-way volume of more than $100 billion this year.
(AP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 23, Nigeria said it has signed loan deals with China worth 900 million dollars that will be used to finance rail and communication projects in Africa's most populous nation.
(AFP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 24, In China a new lottery system was introduced aimed to reduce the number of cars in the notoriously gridlocked capital. Beijing counted 4.76 million vehicles, up from 2.6 million in 2005. The first batch of 20,000 plates will be awarded by lottery on Jan. 25. Every month a new batch of plates will become available.
(AP, 1/1/10)(Econ, 1/1/11, p.34)
2010 Dec 24, South Africa's minister of international relations and cooperation said South Africa has been invited by China to join the four-member "BRIC" grouping of fast-growing emerging markets. South Africa is the world's 31st-largest economy, according to World Bank data for 2009 and is less than a quarter the size of the smallest BRIC economy, Russia.
(Reuters, 12/24/10)
2010 Dec 25, China’s state media said police are offering cash and other rewards to encourage the country's millions of Internet users to help solve criminal investigations. China announced a 25-basis point increase in benchmark one-year interest rates, providing much-needed reassurance that it was determined to rein in price pressures.
(AFP, 12/25/10)(Reuters, 12/27/10)
2010 Dec 25, In China village leader Qian Yunhui (53) was killed under the wheel of a truck in Yueqing, Zhejiang province. On Jan 4 police charged the driver, Fei Liangyu, with accidental death. Thousands of netizens accused local government officials of killing Qian to silence his six-year campaign against fixed elections and illegal land expropriation, which was quickly denied by local authorities. On Feb 1, 2011, Fei was sentenced to three and a half years' imprisonment.
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.41)(http://tinyurl.com/4uwql4b)(AP, 2/1/11)
2010 Dec 27, In China 14 children died when the vehicle taking them to school plunged into a creek in the central province of Hunan. In Guizhou province 7 people died and 15 were injured after a truck crashed into a gas station in fog, causing a pileup involving more than 100 cars.
(AP, 12/27/10)
2010 Dec 28, China said it is reducing the amount of rare earths it will export for the first half of the year by more than 10 percent, likely to be an unpopular move worldwide since the minerals are vital to the manufacture of high-tech products.
(AP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 28, A Chinese journalist died from injuries sustained in a gang beating that some say was linked to his investigative work. Sun Hongjie, a senior reporter at the Northern Xinjiang Morning Post, died at a hospital in the city of Kuitun 10 days after he was beaten by six men at a construction site.
(AP, 12/28/10)
2010 Dec 28, In Thailand US and Thai officials arrested a group of 12 Chinese nationals accused of obtaining fake visas to try to gain entry to the United States. The visas bore the same numbers as authentic ones issued by the US Embassy in Warsaw to Polish citizens.
(AP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 30, In China Zeng Jinchun was shot to death for taking more than $4.7 million in bribes. He was the ruling Communist party's top corruption inspector for Chenzhou city in the central province of Hunan. Zeng was found guilty of taking the 31 million yuan in bribes in return for handing out mining contracts and job promotions over a decade ending in 2006.
(AP, 12/30/10)
2010 Dec 29, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that a fire at a factory belonging to the Quanxin Pharmaceutical Co. in southwestern China's Yunnan province caused a blast that killed at least five people and injured eight others.
(AP, 12/30/10)
2010 Dec, In China Dai Qingcheng (46) was given the death penalty for raping 116 women between 1993 and 2009 in Anhui province in eastern China.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2010 Dec, Laos said China would build a $7.2 billion high-speed railway from the border to its capital, Vientiane. Construction was due to begin in April, 2011. The 262-mile railway was expected to take fie years just to lay the tracks.
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.49)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.49)
2010 In China Sports writer Li Chengpeng authored “Chinese Football: The Inside Story." It detailed match-fixing and bribery across the country and brought down the wrath of angry trainers, “patriotic readers," and government censors.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.35)
2010 Stefan Halper authored “The Beijing Consensus: How China’s Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century."
(Econ, 6/25/11, SR p.3)
2010 Jonathan Holslag authored “China And India: Prospects for Peace."
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.89)
2010 Fraser Howie and Carl Walter authored “Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China’s Extraordinary Rise."
(Econ, 12/11/10, p.105)
2010 Yu Jie authored “China’s Best Actor, Wen Jiabao." It was published in Hong Kong, but was banned on the mainland.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.35)
2010 Richard McGregor authored “The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers."
(Econ, 6/19/10, p.84)
2010 China opened a 4-km bridge from the mainland to the island of Pingtan, directly across from Taiwan. By 2011 China hoped to develop the island together with Taiwan as a duty free enclave.
(Econ, 5/19/12, p.52)
2010 A prediction was made that China’s paramount leader will either have been elected or selected by an elected multi-party national parliament.
(SFC, 5/26/96, Z1 p.6)
2010 Zhang Jingli, one of four deputy heads of China’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), was removed from his post at the food and drug safety watchdog. He was under investigation over alleged bribery linked to US pharmaceuticals giant Johnson & Johnson. In early 2011 he was stripped of his party membership.
(AFP, 1/6/11)
2010 China began introducing donation schemes for human organs as its source of organs from prisoners fell due to fewer executions. A national organ bank was set up fight corruption in the organ-allocation system.
(Econ, 8/24/13, p.42)(Econ., 3/14/15, p.48)
2010 Xiaomi, a Chinese maker of smart phones, was founded. In 2013 it was valued at $10 billion.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.69)
2010 Japan’s nominal GDP of $5.474 trillion in 2010 put it behind China's $5.879 trillion. China first eclipsed Japan in the second quarter.
(AP, 2/14/11)
2010 The AIDS epidemic in China was expected to infect over 10 million people by this time, according to a 1998 forecast by the Ministry of Health. In 2006 China backed off from the high number but gave no new estimate.
(SFC, 12/2/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A17)
2011 Jan 2, In China seven crew members were missing and feared drowned after their fishing boat sank in the Xijiang River in the southern province of Guangdong.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, China’s state television reported that Chinese scientists have mastered the technology for reprocessing nuclear fuel, potentially yielding additional power sources to keep the country's economy booming.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 4, In China a gunfight in Tai’an City of Shandong Province left four police officers dead and five people injured.
(http://english.caing.com/2011-01-05/100214120.html)
2011 Jan 4, Zambian prosecutors applied for arrest warrants after the mining officials Xiao Li Shan and Wu Jiu Hua failed to attend the preliminary hearing regarding the Oct 15 shooting of nearly a dozen miners at a Chinese-run coal mine.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 5, China’s state media said Beijing and Shanghai will be among the first places to put marriage databases online this year. The plan is to have records for all of China online by 2015. Officials were putting marriage records online so lovers and spouses could check for cheaters. The Ministry of Civil Affairs a few years ago said such a project would be operational by last year. The plan now is to have records for all of China online by 2015.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 9, Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang kicked off a business-focused state visit to Britain with the sealing of a renewable energy deal between Scottish and Chinese companies.
(AFP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 11, China's radar-eluding stealth fighter, the J-20, made its first-known test flight, marking dramatic progress in the country's efforts to develop cutting-edge military technologies.
(AP, 1/11/11)(Econ, 1/15/11, p.43)
2011 Jan 11, In China a mammoth 31-foot sculpture of the ancient philosopher Confucius was unveiled off one side of Tiananmen Square. Three months later the statue was removed.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-01/12/c_13687988.htm)(Econ, 12/17/11, p.72)
2011 Jan 12, Tajikistan agreed to give away a portion of its territory to neighboring China in a bid to put an end to a land dispute dating back more than a century. Foreign Minister Khamrokon Zarifi portrayed it as a victory, saying China had initially claimed more than 11,000 square miles (28,000 square km).
(AP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 14, A Chinese court announced it will retry a farmer sentenced to life in prison for evading highway tolls after a massive public outcry over his heavy punishment. Farmer Shi Jianfeng had been convicted of fraud and sentenced to life in prison for using fake military license plates and uniforms to deceive toll collectors and avoid paying over $530,000 in tolls. A judge and two court officials were soon suspended in a probe into Jianfeng’s life sentence.
(http://www3.washingtontimes.com/topics/shi-jianfeng/)(AP, 1/16/11)
2011 Jan 14, In China Liu Huaqing (95), the father of the modern Chinese navy, died.
(AP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 16, Chinese President Hu Jintao, ahead of a visit to Washington, urged an end to a "zero sum" Cold War relationship with the United States and proposed new cooperation, but resisted US arguments about why China should let its currency strengthen.
(Reuters, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 17, China’s state media said thousands of villagers angry at government plans to build an artificial island in southern China forced the project's suspension last week, clashing with workers and smashing vehicles.
(Reuters, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 17, Mozambique officially received its new $70-million (€53-million) national sports stadium from the Chinese government after a series of false starts delayed its completion.
(AFP, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 19, President Barack Obama announced a deal to step up cooperation with China on nuclear security. The United States and China reached agreement on export deals worth $45 billion. The agreements included a $19 billion deal with Boeing in which China will purchase 200 Boeing aircraft. The deals were announced at the formal start of a four-day state visit to the US by Chinese President Hu Jintao. President Barack Obama issued a finely tuned call for greater respect for human rights in his speech to welcome his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.
(AP, 1/19/11)(Reuters, 1/19/11)
2011 Jan 21, China’s ICBC bank agreed to buy 80% of the Bank of East Asia’s retail branch network in New York and California for $140 million.
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.74)
2011 Jan 24, A Chinese newspaper said that transnational crime gangs are trafficking a growing number of Chinese women to Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa where they are forced into prostitution.
(AP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 25, Mexican authorities said they have seized more than 23 tons of a chemical used in the manufacture of synthetic drugs, during an inspection of a shipment from China. The ethyl phenylacetate was declared as a different product on arrival at the Pacific port of Manzanillo.
(AFP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 26, Chinese oceanographers gathered for a 2-day meeting in Shanghai to discuss the South China Sea-Deep, a $22 million project funded over 8 years for the exploration of the South China Sea.
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.90)
2011 Jan 28, China introduced its first home-ownership tax in the cities of Chongqing, .4%-.6% of the property’s value, and Shanghai, .5$-1.2%.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.52)
2011 Jan 31, In Shanghai, China, relatives of Liu Yonghua, a patient who died, rampaged with knives through a hospital, seriously wounding six people and trying to throw a doctor out a window.
(AP, 2/1/11)
2011 Feb 1, China Harbor Engineering Company, a subsidiary of state-owned China Communications Construction Company, signed a 1.2-billion-dollar contract to build Khartoum's new international airport.
(AFP, 2/15/11)
2011 Feb 3, In northeast China a fire set off by fireworks to celebrate the Lunar New Year destroyed a five-star hotel in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province.
(AP, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 8, China raised interest rates by .025% for the second time in just over six weeks, intensifying a battle in the fast-expanding economy against stubbornly high inflation that threatens to unsettle global markets.
(Reuters, 2/8/11)(Econ, 2/12/11, p.84)
2011 Feb 9, Chinese officials said they were preparing for a severe, long-lasting drought in several parched provinces, causing wheat prices to spike on the prospect of the world's largest consumer putting pressure on a global supply that's already squeezed.
(AP, 2/9/11)
2011 Feb 10, PetroChina said it is purchasing half of a prolific shale gas project from Canada's Encana Corp for C$5.4 billion ($5.4 billion), marking the largest Chinese investment yet in a foreign natural gas asset.
(Reuters, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 10, The US computer security firm McAfee Inc said in a report that hackers working in China over the last 2-4 years broke into the computer systems of 6 European and US energy companies to steal bidding plans and other critical proprietary information.
(Reuters, 2/10/11)(SFC, 2/25/11, p.D5)
2011 Feb 11, China’s foreign Minister Yan Jiechi said that China plans to increase economic cooperation with longtime African ally Zimbabwe in mining, agriculture and other ventures. He met with Pres. Mugabe in Harare. Mugabe thanked Yang for China's training of his guerrillas to help in "demolishing colonialism" before independence from British colonial rule in 1980.
(AP, 2/11/11)
2011 Feb 12, China’s the Xinhua News Agency reported that Liu Zhijun (58), who has been head of the railway ministry since 2003, is under investigation for "severe violations of discipline" and has been removed from his position as the ministry's Communist Party chief. He will be replaced by Sheng Guangzu (62), head of the General Administration of Customs.
(AP, 2/13/11)
2011 Feb 17, China warned the United States not to use calls for uncensored access to the Internet as a pretext to interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 18, China raised required reserves to a record 19.5 percent, adding to an increasingly aggressive effort by Beijing to stamp out stubbornly high inflation.
(Reuters, 2/18/11)
2011 Feb 19, Chinese authorities cracked down on activists as a call circulated for people to gather in more than a dozen cities Feb 20 for a "Jasmine Revolution." Rights lawyer Teng Biao disappeared. Officers searched his home and seized two computers, a printer, articles, books, DVDs and photos of another rights lawyer, Chen Guangcheng. Biao was released on April 29.
(AP, 2/19/11)(AP, 4/29/11)
2011 Feb 20, In China opposition campaigners said the government has detained top activists and deployed heavy security in large cities after the launch of a web campaign calling for protests echoing popular uprisings in the Arab world. Police mounted huge security operations in Beijing, Shanghai and several other cities following microblog messages urging citizens to take part in silent walk-past protests.
(AFP, 2/20/11)(Econ, 3/5/11, p.46)
2011 Feb 23, Chinese activists said officials have rounded up Internet users who had reposted a call for protests and charged them with subversion as the authoritarian government continued its campaign to crush any Middle East-style democracy movement. Unidentified organizers had issued a renewed appeal to gather peacefully in parks or near monuments at 2 p.m. on Sundays. China's Vice President Xi Jinping urged greater outreach by the ruling Communist Party to handle issues related to education, employment, health care and housing.
(AP, 2/23/11)(AP, 2/24/11)
2011 Feb 23, In China Xinjiang-based wlmqwb.com website reported that the country’s highest court has approved the executions of four men convicted in a series of murders in the restive western region of Xinjiang described as acts of "terrorist violence." The four were accused of killing 9 people in 3 separate incidents between August and November of last year.
(AP, 2/23/11)
2011 Feb 25, China widened its Internet policing after online calls for protests like those that swept the Middle East, with social networking site LinkedIn and searches for the US ambassador's name both blocked. Access to LinkedIn resumed on Feb 26.
(AP, 2/25/11)(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 25, China dropped the death penalty for more than a dozen nonviolent crimes and banned capital punishment for people over the age of 75 in largely symbolic moves that are not expected to significantly reduce executions.
(AP, 2/25/11)
2011 Feb 27, In China large numbers of police, and new tactics like shrill whistles and street cleaning trucks, squelched overt protests for a second in a row after more calls for peaceful gatherings modeled on recent democratic movements in the Middle East.
(AP, 2/27/11)
2011 Mar 1, China told journalists they must "cooperate" with police and respect the country's laws, after several foreign reporters were roughed up in a crackdown on calls for anti-government rallies. The government blamed foreign reporters for a weekend ruckus with police who tried to prevent them covering a planned protest in Beijing, as rights groups slammed China for curtailing press freedoms.
(AFP, 3/1/11)(Reuters, 3/1/11)
2011 Mar 1, China’s National Museum in Beijing re-opened following a nearly 4-year refurbishment that cost some 2.5 billion yuan.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-03/01/c_13755545.htm)
2011 Mar 1, Taiwan and China have cooperated as Taiwan’s coast guard personnel rescued a businessman, surnamed Hsia (40), on an uninhabited Taiwanese islet after his kidnappers deposited him there. He was kidnapped in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in early January and held for a $3.3 million ransom.
(AP, 3/2/11)
2011 Mar 2, The Philippine military deployed two warplanes near a disputed area in the South China Sea after a ship searching for oil complained it was harassed by two Chinese patrol boats. The Chinese vessels later left without confrontation at the Reed Bank, which is near the disputed Spratly Islands that are claimed by the Philippines, China and other nations.
(AP, 3/3/11)
2011 Mar 3, Chinese police further intensified pressure on foreign reporters, warning them to stay away from spots designated for Middle East-inspired protests and threatening them with expulsion or a revoking of their credentials.
(AP, 3/3/11)
2011 Mar 5, China’s national People’s Congress (NPC) opened in Beijing.
(Econ, 3/5/11, p.46)
2011 Mar 6, In China at a hastily called news conference in Beijing, Li Honghai, vice director of the city's Foreign Affairs Office, said reporters must apply for and receive government permission to conduct any newsgathering within the city center. It was the latest sign of the government's determination to prevent the formation of a Middle East-style protest movement.
(AP, 3/6/11)
2011 Mar 9, President Barack Obama said he had chosen Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to be the next US ambassador to China, replacing Jon Huntsman, a Republican who is stepping down and mulling a run for the presidency.
(Reuters, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 10, In China Guo Weidong (38), an Internet activist, was detained at his home in Haining. He was charged with subversion for spreading calls for Middle-Eastern style anti-government protests.
(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 10, In China an earthquake toppled more than 1,000 houses and apartment buildings in the southwest near the border with Myanmar, killing at least 24 people and injuring more than 200.
(AP, 3/10/11)
2011 Mar 11, In China a gas explosion from a coal mine in the southwest killed 19 miners in Guizhou province's Liupanshui city.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 12, In China 19-21 people were killed in a collision between a passenger bus and a truck in Wanlang township on the outskirts of Baishan city in northeast Jilin province.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 17, Rigzin Phuntsog (16), a Tibetan monk at the Kirti monastery in China’s Sichuan province, died one day after he set himself on fire in an anti-government protest. He was beaten and kicked by police, prompting hundreds of monks and others to rally. In August authorities said they will charge three Buddhist monks with murder over the death of Phuntsog.
(SFC, 3/18/11, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/4nsxj9p)(AFP, 4/13/11)(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Mar 22, China called for an immediate cease-fire in Libya.
(AP, 3/22/11)
2011 Mar 23, A Chinese state-run news website said 7 people, allegedly involved in plotting terrorist activities, have been sentenced to death for robbery and murder in China's far western region of Xinjiang. The report said the 7 were among a dozen people who met and raised funds between June 2008 and October 2010 to carry out "violent, terrorist" activities.
(AP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 23, China’s state auditors reported that $28 million had been embezzled from its 1,300 km high-speed line between Beijing and Shanghai.
(Econ, 4/2/11, p.34)
2011 Mar 25, In China Ying Jianguo, general manager of Taizhou Suqi Storage Battery Co. Ltd., was taken into custody in the city of Taizhou in Zhejiang province. The official Xinhua News Agency reported 139 cases of lead poisoning near the plant. More testing soon found at least 168 villagers, including 53 children, had high lead levels.
(AP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 27, Yang Hengjun (46), a Sydney-based spy novelist, phoned an assistant from Guangzhou airport in southeastern China to say three men were following him. Yang was later able to briefly phone a sister in Guangzhou to say "he's having a long chat with his old friends." This was a prearranged signal that Yang had been taken by the secret police. Yang was an official in the Chinese Foreign Ministry before moving to Australia. His novel, "Fatal Weakness," deals with espionage between China and the United States and has been published on the Internet in China. On March 31 Hengjun said he is OK and apologizing for causing trouble.
(AP, 3/29/11)(AP, 3/31/11)
2011 Mar 30, China executed 3 Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking. Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Ramon Credo and Elizabeth Batain were arrested separately in 2008 carrying packages of at least 4 kilograms of heroin.
(SFC, 3/31/11, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/4oluzcf)
2011 Mar 30, China ordained a new Catholic bishop approved by the Vatican for the first time since ties between the sides soured last year. Paul Liang Jiansen was made bishop of the southern city of Jiangmen.
(AP, 4/11/11)
2011 Mar 31, In China French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called for more flexible exchange rate regimes as G20 nations met on global monetary reform in Nanjing.
(AFP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 2, Chinese officials said over 500 of the country’s 1,176 dairies were being shut down in an attempt to clean up the scandal-plagued dairy industry.
(SSFC, 4/3/11, p.A4)
2011 Apr 2, Swedish wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson said it is suing Chinese rival ZTE Corp. for alleged infringement of several of its patents in handset and network technology.
(AP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 3, Chinese police in Beijing detained outspoken Chinese artist and social critic Ai Weiwei preventing him from taking a flight to Hong Kong. He helped design Beijing's famed "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium but has since irritated the Communist Party government with his activism. On April 7 China confirmed that it has Weiwei, but insisted his case involves "economic crimes" and not human rights.
(AFP, 4/4/11)(SFC, 4/4/11, p.A2)(AP, 4/7/11)
2011 Apr 5, China’s central bank raised interest rates again.
(Econ, 4/9/11, p.84)
2011 Apr 8, China’s government and state media said 3 babies have died and 36 people, mostly children, fallen ill after drinking possibly tainted milk in the country's latest food scare.
(AFP, 4/8/11)
2011 Apr 10, Chinese state media reported that Intentional poisoning was behind the tainted milk that killed three children and caused 36 others to become ill in northwestern Gansu province last week. Police suspected that a couple poisoned milk from a local farmer, causing three deaths, because of anger over business disputes. Police soon found that nitrite was added to milk from Ma Wenxuan's farm near the city of Pingliang in Gansu province.
(Reuters, 4/10/11)(AP, 4/12/11)
2011 Apr 12, In southwestern China clashes erupted between security forces and locals at the Kirti Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Sichuan province, under lockdown after a monk set himself on fire and died on March 17.
(AFP, 4/13/11)
2011 Apr 14, In China 10 people were killed over the last 24 hours at a bathhouse and car wash in Anshan city in Liaoning province. Police soon arrested suspect Zhou Yuxin (33), the owner of both businesses. The dead included Yuxin’s wife, father and son.
(AP, 4/15/11)
2011 Apr 17, In China 47 members of the underground Shouwang church were detained in Beijing. Its leaders were kept under house arrest as part of a crackdown on the unregistered congregation. Tensions had escalated earlier this month when the church was evicted from its usual rented place of worship.
(AP, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 17, In southern China violent thunderstorms have lashed parts of the industrial heartland of Guangdong province, leaving 18 people dead and scores injured.
(AP, 4/18/11)
2011 Apr 20, China’s Legal Daily newspaper said authorities in Shenyang have found bean sprouts tainted with banned food additives to make the vegetables grow faster and look shinier. Police had seized 40 tons of bean sprouts treated with the chemical compounds sodium nitrite and urea, as well as antibiotics and a plant hormone called 6-benzyladenine.
(AP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 21, Chinese police raided the Kirti monastery, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery where tensions have run high over the March 17 death of a monk named Phuntsog. Police took 300 monks to an unknown location and two villagers trying to block the monks' removal were killed.
(AP, 4/23/11)
2011 Apr 22, In China truck drivers protested for a third day over rising fuel costs and fees, disrupting the flow of goods in Shanghai, China's busiest port city.
(AP, 4/22/11)
2011 Apr 25, Chinese oil refining giant Sinopec said it has demoted Lu Guangyu, a top executive, who bought 1.6 million yuan (148,463 pounds) of wine and spirits after details of the purchase leaked onto the Internet and sparked an uproar over extravagance at the state-owned firm.
(Reuters, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 25, In China an illegal garment shop in southern Beijing caught fire, killing 17 migrant workers and their family members who may not have been able to escape the four-story building because of bars on the windows.
(AP, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 26, Australian PM Julia Gillard, visiting China, raised a range of human rights concerns in talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who denied China had taken a "backward step."
(AFP, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 28, China released 2010 census numbers indicating a total mainland population of 1.34 billion.
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.43)
2011 May 1, China’s Health Ministry's amended guidelines on the management of public places that now ban smoking in more venues like hotels and restaurants were implemented.
(AP, 5/1/11)
2011 May 1, In northeastern China a fire at a hotel killed 11 people and injured 35, in Tonghua, an industrial city by the North Korean border. Arson was suspected at the hotel owned by the Nasdaq-listed Chinese budget chain Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc.
(AFP, 5/1/11)(AP, 5/2/11)(AFP, 3/29/12)
2011 May 4, The Chinese Embassy in Oslo said Sino-Norwegian relations are "in difficulty" because the peace prize was given to "a Chinese criminal ... and the Norwegian government supported this wrong decision." Norwegian salmon exporters were having their fish held up for days or even weeks by Chinese food safety inspectors, devastating its freshness.
(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 5, China’s Xinhua News Agency said in a brief report that a Panama-registered cargo ship with 24 Chinese sailors was hijacked by seven pirates in the Arabian Sea.
(AP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 7, Chinese farmer Liu Mingsuo came out and counted 80 burst watermelons. By the afternoon it was 100. Two days later he didn't bother to count anymore. Watermelons began bursting by the score in Jiangsu province, after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather. About 20 farmers were affected, losing up to 115 acres (45 hectares) of melon.
(AP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 9, In Australia organizers of the Sydney Writers' Festival said Chinese authorities have barred dissident writer Liao Yiwu from traveling to Australia for a festival for "security reasons" and advised him against publishing his works abroad.
(AFP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 10, In China a Mongol herder named Mergen was run over by a truck driven by an ethnic Han Chinese in Inner Mongolia. Mergen and other herders had been attempting to block a caravan of coal-hauling trucks in the Xilin Gol area. The killing sparked protests. 4 days later another Mongol was killed in a similar confrontation elsewhere. The truck driver was later executed and his co-driver sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 5/25/11)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.48)(Econ, 7/14/12, p.40)
2011 May 12, Chinese authorities arrested 40 people for allegedly trafficking at least 22 babies for sale. The ring bought babies in Yunnan, one of China's most impoverished provinces, and sold them to families in relatively prosperous Fujian.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, In China Xu Maiyong (52), a former vice mayor of the wealthy resort city of Hangzhou, was sentenced to death on corruption charges, one of the harshest sentences handed down to a high-level Chinese official in recent years.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 15, In China a one dog per family policy went into effect in Beijing.
(SSFC, 5/15/11, p.A5)
2011 May 16, The US Treasury Department said that China cut its holdings by $9.2 billion to $1.14 trillion, its 5th straight month of trimming.
(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 May 17, China downplayed a UN report saying North Korea remains "actively engaged" in exporting ballistic missiles, components and technology to numerous customers in the Middle East, saying it was not an official Security Council report.
(AP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 17, Pakistan's PM Yousuf Raza Gilani declared China his country's best friend in an apparent dig at Washington as he began a visit to China. China is Pakistan’s main arms supplier. Pakistan last week opened a 330-megawatt nuclear power plant in central Punjab province with Chinese help and said Beijing had been contracted to construct two more reactors.
(AFP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 18, China’s Cabinet acknowledged that its $23 billion Three Gorges Dam required action to curb pollution, counter risks of possible natural disasters and improve life for the 1.4 million people who were forced to relocate.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 18, China and Pakistan signed three agreements in Beijing on economic and technology cooperation, banking and mining.
(AP, 5/18/11)
2011 May 20, In China 2 workers were initially killed and 16 injured in the explosion at the plant of a Foxconn subsidiary in Chengdu. A seriously injured worker died two days later. The iPad 2 was being made in the building hit by the blast.
(AFP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 20, A company China says is controlled by artist Ai Weiwei was accused of massive tax evasion in the government's clearest disclosure yet about its investigation of the activist detained more than six weeks.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 20, Pakistani defense officials said China has agreed to provide Pakistan with 50 more fighter jets in a deal clinched during Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's trip to Beijing.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 21, The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea travelled to Fukushima in a show of solidarity over the ongoing nuclear crisis, visiting evacuees left homeless by the quake and tsunami.
(AFP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 21, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was said to have visited an industrial city in northeastern China and appeared headed to Beijing by train on the second day of a mysterious trip to his country's most important ally.
(AP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 22, In Japan the leaders of China and South Korea agreed to bolster efforts to aid disaster recovery as they met with the Japanese prime minister to smooth over differences on Tokyo's handling of its post-tsunami nuclear crisis.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 23, A spokesman for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said the group has halted payments for program in China amid mismanagement by a public agency.
(AFP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 23, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il visited a development zone in eastern China, as he pursued a secretive trip aimed at seeking answers for his nation's crippled economy.
(AFP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 24, North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong Il reportedly traveled to an eastern Chinese city to study Beijing's economic reforms, while a US government team was in North Korea on a rare trip to assess food shortages.
(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May 25, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il arrived in Beijing and was seen en route to what was believed to be a summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(AFP, 5/25/11)
2011 May 26, China Central Television said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il said he would adhere to the goal of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula during talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(AFP, 5/26/11)
2011 May 26, In southern China homemade bombs exploded at three government buildings in Fuzhou city, Jiangxi province, killing 3 people and wounding at least 9 others in what state media said was a revenge attack by Qian Mingqi (52), a middle-aged jobless man, who was killed in one of the explosions.
(AP, 5/26/11)(SFC, 5/27/11, p.A2)
2011 May 27, China bestowed a pomp-filled welcome on Myanmar's Pres. Thein Sein, conferring legitimacy on the country's new, nominally civilian government and ensuring continued Chinese access to its neighbor's natural resources.
(AP, 5/27/11)
2011 May 28, Chinese police sealed off parts of two county seats in Inner Mongolia for a second day in what residents described as a kind of martial law after protests triggered by the death of a Mongolian herder run over by a Chinese truck driver.
(AP, 5/28/11)
2011 May 28, In central China an explosion at a bus company killed an employee and injured at least two others, days after a bombing spree in another city rattled the country. A blast at a chemical plant in Zibo city, Shandong province, killed three people and injured eight others. The plant was owned by Shandong Baoyuan Chemical Co. Ltd.
(AP, 5/28/11)(AP, 5/29/11)
2011 May 29, Chinese state media said China will expand a ban on free shopping bags as it tries to further curb its addiction to plastic in a bid to rid the country of "white pollution" that clogs waterways, farms and fields.
(AFP, 5/29/11)
2011 Jun 3, In Libya a series of at least 10 NATO strikes hit in and around Tripoli, targeting military barracks close to Gadhafi's sprawling compound, a police station and a military base. A rebel military leader said his troops had broken the siege of two towns in the western Nafusa mountain range, Yefren and Shakshuk. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that China's ambassador to Qatar had recently met with the head of Libya's rebel council.
(AP, 6/3/11)
2011 Jun 3, Mexico’s federal Attorney General's Office said authorities in the Pacific port of Manzanillo seized 69 tons (63 metric tons) of two chemicals used to make synthetic drugs. 34 tons of monomethylamine arrived May 6 on one ship and the other ship carrying 35 tons of ethyl phenyl acetate arrived April 10. Both ships were from Shanghai, China.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 4, In China the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crushing of the pro-democracy movement was entirely ignored by the state-controlled media. The square was open under heavy security. Activists said security forces had rounded up a number government critics ahead of the anniversary of the, adding to an already harsh crackdown on dissent.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 9, In northern Myanmar fighting began 9 when government troops allegedly shelled a Kachin base in a bid to force the rebel fighters from a strategic region where China is constructing major hydropower plants.
(AP, 6/16/11)
2011 Jun 10, Flooding in central China was reported to have killed 41 people.
(SFC, 6/11/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 12, China’s state media reported that over 600 people have been sickened by lead poisoning in tinfoil processing workshops in Yangxunqiao, Zhejiang province.
(SFC, 6/13/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 12, In China riots broke out near the southern city of Guangzhou as hundreds of migrant workers protested what they felt was unfair treatment by Chinese security guards. What started the riot was an incident where guards were said to have pushed a pregnant street hawker to the ground, leading to protests by more than 1,000 migrants.
(Reuters, 6/12/11)
2011 Jun 13, In China severe flooding caused by days of torrential rains has led to 105 deaths. The heavy rains have also resulted in a number of mudslides, with the province of Hunan the hardest hit.
(AP, 6/13/11)
2011 Jun 15, In China the “The Beginning of the Great Revival," a celebration of the founding of China’s Communist Party, opened at every Cineplex in the country. It was produced by the for profit China Film Group.
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.72)
2011 Jun 16, In northern Myanmar more than 10,000 people were reported to have fled fighting between government troops and the Kachin ethnic minority group's militia. They were living in temporary camps near the Chinese border as refugees.
(AP, 6/16/11)
2011 Jun 18, China’s official media said floods and lightning killed at least eight people as heavy rains pounded southern China, destroying homes and blocking roads.
(AP, 6/18/11)
2011 Jun 19, China’s state media reported that more than 5 million people have been displaced or otherwise affected by flooding in eastern China that is also pushing up food prices. Rescuers searched for 11 workers who were buried when an office building they were renovating in Wuxi city, Jiangsu province, collapsed on top of them.
(AP, 6/19/11)
2011 Jun 19, Chinese public relations consultant Chen Hong closed down his website which let people post anonymous tips on official bribery after censors stepped in blocking access to the site for people inside China. His website, http://www.ibribery.com, had drawn 200,000 unique visitors in two weeks.
(AP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 19, An Indian general led a delegation to Beijing as the two countries moved to resume exchanges between their militaries after a yearlong freeze.
(AP, 6/19/11)
2011 Jun 20, Chinese President Hu Jintao made a rare visit to Ukraine to sign a strategic partnership declaration as Beijing seeks to revive ties with the ex-Soviet state after years of neglect. Hu Jintao oversaw the signing of business deals worth $3.5 billion.
(AFP, 6/20/11)(AP, 6/20/11)
2011 Jun 20, Chinese authorities said more than 40 miles (70 km) of dikes are in danger of overflowing in eastern Zhejiang province where floods have caused $1.2 billion in losses.
(AP, 6/20/11)
2011 Jun 21, China said that a meeting with Mahmud Jibril, the Libyan rebels' diplomatic chief, who is in Beijing for a two-day visit, was an effort to seek a quick solution to the crisis in the North African nation, a situation it said could not go on.
(Reuters, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 21, In China Sun Shuning was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing Yan Wenlong on May 15 during a dispute between coal mine operators and local residents protesting pollution. The case that fueled the biggest ethnic protests in Inner Mongolia in two decades.
(AP, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 21, In China Pastor Shi Enhao (55), a deputy chairman of the Chinese House Church Alliance, was detained in the eastern city of Suqian in Jiangsu province. The national group of underground congregations was established to provide mutual support and intercede with authorities who routinely threaten and harass unofficial churches. Enhao was sentenced a month later for organizing illegal religious gatherings.
(AP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jun 22, The online pranksters at Lulz Security say they've taken down two government Web sites in Brazil as they continue with their global "Anti-Security" campaign.
(AP, 6/22/11)(http://tinyurl.com/3ddjml6)
2011 Jun 22, In China renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei was released on bail after confessing to tax evasion following more than three months in detention.
(AP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 23, China's state-controlled Catholic church said it will move swiftly to appoint new bishops in dioceses where there are none, in a step that is certain to worsen frictions with the Vatican. Filling the more than 40 empty bishop's seats is an urgent task because the vacancies are causing serious problems in the handling of church affairs.
(AP, 6/23/11)
2011 Jun 24, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao embarked on a three-country tour of Europe, mired in currency and sovereign debt woes. After talks with Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban and a reception at a Budapest university, Wen moves on to London and Berlin before returning home.
(AFP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jun 25, China’s PM Wen Jiabao, during a visit to Budapest, announced Beijing would purchase Hungarian government bonds and extend a one-billion-euro credit to the country.
(AFP, 6/25/11)
2011 Jun 26, China said it and Vietnam have agreed to settle their dispute over the South China Sea through negotiations, as protesters in Hanoi marched for the fourth straight week to voice their outrage at their country's more powerful neighbor.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 26, Prominent Chinese political activist Hu Jia (37), imprisoned for sedition, was released at the end of his more than three-year sentence. Jia, known for his activism with AIDS patients and orphans, faced continued surveillance.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 26, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, reportedly a big Shakespeare fan, made a pilgrimage to the Bard's birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon, as part of a 3-day visit to reinforce economic links between the two countries.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 27, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and British PM David Cameron signed trade deals worth £1.4 billion at a summit as Wen faced questions over his country's rights record. Jiabao proceeded to Berlin for a visit that with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
(AP, 6/27/11)(Reuters, 6/27/11)
2011 Jun 28, Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir arrived in China for talks with President Hu Jintao.
(AFP, 6/28/11)
2011 Jun 29, In China Sudan's Pres. Omar al-Bashir, wanted on a war crimes warrant, won pledges from China and its state-owned energy firm they will continue investing in his country after its resource-rich southern region becomes independent next month.
(AP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jun 30, China’s 200 mph bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai opened to the public. Construction of the $34 billion, 1,318 km rail line began on April 18, 2008.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing%E2%80%93Shanghai_High-Speed_Railway)
2011 Jun, Chad’s President Idriss Deby Itno inaugurated the Djarmaya refinery, located 40 km (25 miles) north of the Chadian capital Ndjamena. He described it as a "gift from China" that would offer energy independence to his land-locked nation. China’s state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation International (CNPCI) owned 60%.
(AFP, 2/7/12)
2011 Jul 1, China confirmed that an oil spill had occurred in waters around Nanhuangcheng Island in Shandong province. US oil company ConocoPhillips operated the Penglai 19-3 oil field where the leak originated. Leaking oil was first detected on June 4, and then again on June 17. The state maritime bureau said that an area in the mouth of the Bohai Sea, measuring 840 square km (336 square miles), had been badly polluted due to the spill.
(AFP, 7/5/11)(SFC, 7/6/11, p.A4)
2011 Jul 1, In central Iraq the Al-Ahdab oil field, operated by China National Petroleum Corp, began production with 60,000 barrels per day. The contract with CNPC, signed in 2008, allows the Chinese company to develop the field for 23 years.
(AFP, 7/1/11)
2011 Jul 2, China suffered two mining accidents that left three workers dead and 42 trapped underground. The cave-in and flood occurred in the Guangxi region of Guizhou province.
(AFP, 7/2/11)(SFC, 7/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 5, Moody's said China's local government debt burden may be 3.5 trillion yuan ($540 billion) larger than auditors estimated, putting banks on the hook for deeper losses that could threaten their credit ratings.
(Reuters, 7/5/11)
2011 Jul 5, The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that China's export restrictions on raw materials are illegal, upholding complaints by the US, the EU and Mexico.
(AFP, 7/5/11)
2011 Jul 6, The People's Bank of China announced it was raising its benchmark rate for one-year loans by 0.25 percentage points to 6.56 percent to keep a lid on rising inflation levels.
(AP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 7, In China 4 miners were killed in a gas explosion in a mine in the western-most Xinjiang region. The death toll in a mine that flooded on July 2 in Guangxi province rose to four, with 18 still trapped. In eastern Shandong province, the number of miners trapped in a coal mine in Zaozhuang city dropped to 28 following a fire the previous evening. 23 miners remained trapped in a coal mine in southwest Guizhou province that also flooded on July 2.
(AFP, 7/7/11)
2011 Jul 9, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez announced a new $4 billion loan from China and discussed his health in a televised appearance.
(AP, 7/9/11)
2011 Jul 10, In China 2 workers were rescued in the Guangxi region after being trapped for more than a week deep underground in a July 2 mine collapse in which 8 people died and 12 were still missing.
(AFP, 7/10/11)
2011 Jul 14, Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei said he had accepted a job at an art university in Germany, as he battles charges of massive tax evasion after nearly three months in police detention.
(AFP, 7/14/11)
2011 Jul 14, China’s state-backed Catholic hierarchy held a 3-hour ceremony to consecrate a bishop in Shantou. 4 Rome-aligned bishops were reportedly abducted and pressed to take part in the ceremony.
(Econ, 8/20/11, p.40)
2011 Jul 16, China’s state media said landslides triggered by torrential rain across the country have left 13 people dead and hundreds trapped in their cars.
(AFP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 16, Iran and China signed a series of agreements worth $4 billion (2.8 billion euros) for infrastructure projects as part of a broader bid to boost trade volume between the two nations. The agreements were signed during a visit by He Guoqiang, a senior executive of the Chinese Communist Party.
(AFP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 16, The Vatican announced that Chinese bishop Joseph Huang Bingzhang ordained without papal approval on July 14, was excommunicated for accepting his new post.
(SSFC, 7/17/11, p.A4)
2011 Jul 18, In China 14 separatist rioters, 2 policemen and 2 civilian hostages, were killed in an attack on a police station in Khotan, in the far western Xinjiang region. The violence erupted when a large group of Uighurs tried to protest in Hotan, an oasis town of more than 115,000 people. The planned siege ended with 14 of the 18 attackers dead.
(AP, 7/18/11)(AP, 7/20/11)(Econ, 7/30/11, p.38)
2011 Jul 20, Basketball star Yao Ming (30) announced his retirement after a trailblazing career that made him China's best-known athlete and helped spur the game's global growth.
(AFP, 7/20/11)
2011 Jul 22, China said it had hooked its first so-called "fourth generation" nuclear reactor to the grid, a breakthrough that could eventually reduce its reliance on uranium imports.
(AFP, 7/22/11)
2011 Jul 22, In China a fire on an overcrowded bus carrying flammable materials killed 41 passengers in Xinyang, Hunan province.
(AFP, 7/22/11)
2011 Jul 23, In eastern China a crash involving two high-speed trains in Wenzhou city killed 40 people with 171 others injured. Rail officials later admitted that a Chinese-made signaling system was to blame and said the company that built it has apologized. 3 days after the crash legal authorities ordered lawyers not to take on cases from the families of victims. On Dec 28 a government report found 54 officials responsible for the crash.
(AP, 7/24/11)(AFP, 7/30/11)(AFP, 8/11/11)(Econ, 8/6/11, p.34)(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Jul 23, Canada returned Lai Changxing (52) to China where he is accused of running a $10 billion smuggling ring that dealt in everything from cars to oil in a scandal touching the government's highest levels.
(AP, 7/23/11)(Econ, 7/30/11, p.34)
2011 Jul 26, In China hundreds of people rioted in the southwest after security forces reportedly beat a disabled street vendor to death in Guizhou province's Anshun city.
(AFP, 7/27/11)
2011 Jul 26, China’s Jiaolong undersea craft, named after a mythical sea dragon, reached 5,057 meters (16,591 feet) below sea level in a test dive in the northeastern Pacific. In 1960 the US Navy reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the world's oceans at 11,000 meters.
(AFP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jul 27, China’s Ministry of Public Security said police had rescued 81 children from a major child trafficking ring in Hebei province.
(SFC, 7/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 29, Yahoo Inc., Japan's Softbank Corp. and the China’s Alibaba Group said they have agreed on a compensation plan involving the Web payment service Alipay.
(AP, 7/29/11)
2011 Jul 31, Chinese police shot dead 5 terrorist suspects and 6 civilians in Xinjiang province, bringing to 18 the death toll in weekend violence in the troubled ethnic region. This followed a day of clashes in Kashgar that killed 7 people and injured 22. Minority Uighurs have been blamed for previous violence in the region.
(AP, 7/31/11)(SFC, 8/1/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 1, Chinese authorities shot dead two Uighur men suspected of fomenting deadly ethnic unrest in Kashgar and vowed a further crackdown on "religious extremists." The deaths bring to 21 the number of people reported killed in Kashgar since the weekend. China blamed Islamic radicals trained in Pakistan for the attacks. Many of Xinjiang's roughly nine million Turkic-speaking Uighurs are unhappy with what they say has been decades of political and religious repression, and the unwanted immigration of the Han, China's dominant ethnic group.
(AFP, 8/2/11)(SFC, 8/2/11, p.A3)
2011 Aug 2, China's eastern city of Hangzhou offered its taxi drivers a subsidy of one yuan ($0.16) per trip in a bid to end a two-day strike in the tourism hub.
(AFP, 8/2/11)
2011 Aug 3, China warned that tortured efforts to raise the US limit on borrowing had failed to defuse Washington's "debt bomb", and signaled it would further diversify its holdings away from the dollar.
(AFP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 4, Computer security firms McAfee and Dell SecureWorks said Chinese hackers had attacked over 72 networks beginning in 2006. McAfee dubbed the attacks “Operation Shady RAT."
(SFC, 8/5/11, p.D6)
2011 Aug 7, Typhoon Muifa blew down power lines and billboards in the Chinese financial hub of Shanghai and aimed at a northeast port city where beaches were closed and sandbags were piled on the waterfront. At least one death was reported with one person missing.
(AP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 8, Sudan said it has granted a petroleum exploration license to China after visiting Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and President Omar al-Bashir held talks in Khartoum.
(AFP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 9, China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi ended a two-day visit to Khartoum and headed for Juba, the capital of South Sudan, in the first trip by a senior Chinese official to the world's newest nation.
(AP, 8/9/11)
2011 Aug 10, China suspended all new railway construction projects. Controversy and safety concerns swirled over the nation's high-speed network following the July 23 fatal crash, which left 40 people dead.
(AFP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 10, China launched its first aircraft carrier, a refitted former Soviet craft, for a maiden run. Last month China confirmed that it was refitting an old, unfinished Soviet carrier hull (the Varyag) bought from Ukraine's government in 1998. Sources said China was also building two of its own carriers.
(Reuters, 8/10/11)(Econ, 8/13/11, p.38)
2011 Aug 11, Chinese security forces launched a two-month "strike hard" crackdown against violence, terrorism and radical Islam following renewed ethnic violence in the restive western region of Xinjiang. It will last through Oct. 15, and includes around-the-clock patrols of trouble spots, identity checks and street searches of people and vehicles.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 11, Chinese designated lama Gyaltsen Norbu (21), the hand-picked 11th Panchen Lama, arrived at Xiahe, home of the Labrang Monastery. He left on Aug 16 following a cool welcome.
(SFC, 8/12/11, p.A2)(Econ, 8/20/11, p.39)
2011 Aug 12, A Chinese bullet train manufacturer recalled 54 trains in a new embarrassment for a problem-plagued prestige project following a July crash that killed 40 people.
(AP, 8/12/11)
2011 Aug 14, Chinese state media said authorities in the northeastern port city of Dalian ordered a petrochemical plant be shut down after more than 12,000 people demonstrated over pollution concerns. Calls to relocate the plant grew after waves from Tropical Storm Muifa broke a dike guarding it on August 8 and raised fears that flood waters could release toxic chemicals. A gas blast in a coal mine killed 10 people in Panxian county in Guizhou province.
(AP, 8/14/11)(AP, 8/15/11)(Econ, 8/20/11, p.41)
2011 Aug 15, In western China Tsewang Norbu (29), a Buddhist monk, died after setting himself on fire in Sichuan province's Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture an ethnically Tibetan region.
(AP, 8/15/11)
2011 Aug 18, In China a fight broke out in Beijing between the visiting Georgetown University men's basketball team and the Bayi Rockets, the army's Chinese Basketball Association team, forcing play to end early. Video footage spread on the Internet and worldwide TV news.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 19, China banned 100 songs from being featured on websites, barring artists ranging from Lady Gaga to the Backstreet Boys apparently for being out of tune with the country's cultural authorities.
(AFP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 22, Liu Qi, China’s party secretary for Beijing, told Internet companies to tighten control over material online as Beijing cracks down on dissent and tries to block the rise of Middle East-style protests. He issued the warning following a visit to Sina Corp., which operates a popular microblogging site.
(AP, 8/24/11)
2011 Aug 23, In China at least 15 people were killed when a blaze ripped through a dormitory building belonging to a ceramics factory in the Shengfeng Ceramics Factory in Foshan city.
(AFP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 23, In China 15 people were hurt and cars were damaged after more than 30 relatives of a patient who died at the hospital in Jiangxi province forced their way inside the building. Patient Fan Runyin was admitted to the hospital on August 19 after suffering a brain hemorrhage. Relatives said he died on the operating table.
(AFP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 23, The Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it is lifting the freeze on funding to China to ensure AIDS work in the country continues while it works with government officials, representatives from United Nations' agencies and private groups to resolve the dispute.
(AP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 26, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il renewed a push to restart talks on swapping aid for his country's nuclear disarmament during a stop in northeastern China on his return journey from Russia.
(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Aug 29, The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned about a new mutant strain of the deadly bird flu H5N1 virus (H5N1 - 2.3.2.1.) in China and Vietnam, saying there could be a "major resurgence" of the disease.
(AFP, 8/29/11)
2011 Aug 29, Chinese authorities jailed a Buddhist monk for 11 years over the March 17 self-immolation death of Rigzin Phuntsog. A court in the southern province of Sichuan handed long jail sentences to two more monks the next day over Phuntsog’s protest at their Kirti monastery.
(AFP, 8/31/11)
2011 Aug 29, In China a female staff member slashed children with a knife at a daycare center for migrant workers in Shanghai's suburban Minhang district, wounding eight children.
(AP, 8/29/11)
2011 Aug 29, In China a mine shaft in the city of Dazhou flooded as 30 miners were working underground. 18 escaped, 10 were killed and 2 miners remained trapped.
(AFP, 9/3/11)
2011 Aug 30, In China the body of Xie Yexin, who worked as an anti-corruption official in the central province of Hubei, was discovered in his office with 11 stab marks to his body next to a knife wrapped in a paper napkin. State-run media said Yexin had taken his own life.
(AP, 9/2/11)
2011 Aug 30, Philippine President Benigno Aquino flew to China, on a mission to secure billions of dollars in business deals as the two sides look to move beyond a territorial row.
(AFP, 8/30/11)
2011 Sep 6, In China police detained Li Tianyi (15) in Beijing after witnesses said he and a friend leapt from their BMW sports cars and beat a man and woman for three minutes while their son looked on. General Li Shuangjiang (72), a famous singer and music department dean at the Beijing-based PLA Academy of Arts, soon apologized for his son's actions.
(AP, 9/9/11)
2011 Sep 7, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology named Google's China website operator, Beijing Guxiang Information Technology Co. Ltd., as one of 137 firms whose licenses were renewed following adjustments in their operations.
(AFP, 9/7/11)
2011 Sep 9, China’s state news reported that over 14 million people were short of drinking water due to drought in the southwest. Large tracts of farmland were reported damaged.
(SFC, 9/10/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 9, In southern China 12 people, including 9 schoolchildren, died when a ferry carrying 50 people capsized in a river in Shaoyang city, Hunan province. The ferry, designed to carry 14, sank after it cut across dredging cables that appeared to then become wrapped around its propeller.
(AFP, 9/10/11)(AFP, 9/11/11)
2011 Sep 13, China held trials in Kashgar and Hotan and convicted 6 Uighur men of being behind the summer bloodshed in the Xinjiang region that left dozens. 4 men were sentenced to death and 2 were given 19-year prison sentences.
(SFC, 9/16/11, p.A7)
2011 Sep 13, Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi held talks in China with his counterpart Hu Jintao on further Chinese investment in the West African nation.
(AFP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 14, In China farmer Wang Hongbin (30), described as mentally ill, rampaged with an ax through the streets of Gongyi, Henan province, killing 6 people, 2 of them children.
(SFC, 9/15/11, p.A8)
2011 Sep 17, In southwestern China a crowded tourist bus overturned on a mountainous road, killing seven people and injuring 30 others in Sichuan province. In the northwest a landslide caused by heavy rain plowed into two small factories, killing at least 10 people and leaving 22 others missing in Shaanxi province.
(AP, 9/17/11)(AP, 9/18/11)
2011 Sep 19, China shut down a solar panel factory after hundreds of angry residents staged days of violent protests over pollution, the second such incident in as many months.
(AFP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 19, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz called for closer ties with China during a visit to the Chinese-Arab economic and trade forum in Yinchuan. Both countries signed an agreement granting the Mauritanian armed forces financial support worth 20 million yuan (2.3 millions euros, 3.1 million dollars).
(AFP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 20, General Motors Co. agreed to deepen cooperation with its flagship Chinese partner on development of electric vehicle knowhow amid pressure from Beijing to hand over proprietary technology.
(AP, 9/20/11)
2011 Sep 20, The World Health Organization warned countries that a dangerous strain of polio, WPV1, has spread to China from Pakistan.
(SFC, 9/21/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 20, Benin announced that China has given it $34 million in loans and grants, part of which will fund an anti-piracy patrol drive off the coast, where hijackings have surged this year.
(AFP, 9/22/11)
2011 Sep 22, In southern China hundreds of protesters attacked a police station and ransacked vehicles in Guangdong, leaving dozens injured in the latest unrest to hit the industrial heartland. The rioters were angered by a government land deal and rumors that police officers had killed a child.
(AP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 23, Chinese blogger Daniel Wu, praised for posting pictures of Chinese officials and their luxury watches online, said he has been forced out of action due to outside "pressure." His commitment to exposing the officials had been praised earlier this month by the state-run Xinhua news agency, which said the fight against corruption should follow his method.
(AFP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 26, In China 2 Tibetan monks, Lobsang Kalsang and Lobsang Konchok (believed to be 18 or 19 years old), set themselves on fire at the Kirti Monastery in a protest over China's tight rein over Buddhist practices, as the Chinese government reiterated it will choose the next Dalai Lama. Both were rescued by police, suffered slight burns and were in stable condition.
(AP, 9/26/11)
2011 Sep 29, British police and medical regulators said Russian gangs and their Chinese associates are making billions of dollars from selling fake and unlicensed medicines over the Internet, putting thousands of people at risk. More than 2.5 million doses of counterfeit, controlled and withdrawn drugs were seized across 79 countries in seven days of raids coordinated by international police organization Interpol under an operation codenamed Pangea that ended on Sep 27.
(Reuters, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 29, In Sweden the winners of Right Livelihood Awards, sometimes referred to as the alternative Nobel prizes, were announced. Human rights activist Jacqueline Moudeina of Chad; Spanish-based nonprofit GRAIN; and American midwifery educator Ina May Gaskin will share the euro150,000 ($205,000) cash award. Chinese solar power pioneer Huang Ming received an honorary award for developing "cutting-edge technologies."
(AP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 29, China ordered manufacturers of potentially toxic products to conduct safety and environmental checks after a recent spate of major anti-pollution protests triggered fears of more unrest.
(AFP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 29, China’s People’s Daily reported that 12 officials in Hunan province have been fire over allegations that family planning officials between 1999 and 2006 had kidnapped children in Longhui county and put them up for adoption.
(SFC, 9/30/11, p.A3)
2011 Sep 29, China launched an experimental module into space, taking its first step towards building a space station. Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace", took off from the Gobi desert in the northwest, propelled by a Long March 2F rocket.
(AFP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 29, Typhoon Nesat made landfall on the eastern tip of China's Hainan island.
(AP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep, China’s government shut down the popular “Happy Girl," a TV talent show that allowed a studio audience to vote for contestants. The show had replaced “Super Girl" in 2009, which had allowed viewers to vote for contestants via text messages.
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.53)
2011 Oct 1, In China angry Tibetans protested in Seda, a county seat in eastern Sichuan province, a tense area of southwestern China on the country's National Day after a Tibetan flag and a photo of the Dalai Lama were torn down.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 4, China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution threatening action against Syria's deadly crackdown on protests.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 4, In China a coal mine explosion killed at least 13 workers in Guizhou province.
(SFC, 10/5/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 5, Suspected drug traffickers hijacked two Chinese cargo ships on the Mekong River in northern Thailand. The bodies of 13 crew members were found near Chiang Rai in northern Thailand on Oct 7,8 and 10. In Nov, 2012, Burmese drug lord Naw Kham and 3 of his associates were sentenced to death by a court in Kunming. 9 Thai soldiers were believed to have been accomplices.
(AP, 10/10/11)(Econ, 11/10/12, p.43)
2011 Oct 5, Russia's intelligence service said it has detained an alleged Chinese spy who tried to obtain designs of an advanced missile system as part of Beijing's efforts to update its weaponry. Prosecutors submitted the case to the Moscow City Court today, although the man was detained late last October.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 6, The UN said increased access to technology that allows parents to know the sex of their fetus has left Asia short of 117 million women, mostly in China and India.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 7, In southwest China 2 teenagers set themselves on fire near a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Aba town amid rumors that dozens of monks were ready to sacrifice their lives. Choepel and Khayang were former monks from Sichuan province's Kirti monastery.
(AFP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 7, In China 3 major road accidents killed 56 people on the last day of a weeklong holiday, including 35 people who died when a bus collided with a car on a northern expressway.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 9, China's President Hu Jintao called for Taiwan and the Chinese mainland to reunite, as he marked the 100th anniversary of the revolution that ended the nation's long imperial history.
(AFP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 10, China suspended shipping through Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle after Oct 5 attacks by suspected drug traffickers on two Chinese cargo ships left 13 people dead or missing on the Mekong River.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 12, China said it is to invest up to 4 trillion yuan ($600 billion) over the next decade to overcome a huge water shortage that threatens the country's economic growth.
(AFP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 14, A Chinese air force JH-7 jet crashed at an air show outside the northern city of Xi'an, leaving one of the pilots missing and presumed dead.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 15, China's top Communist Party leaders opened a four-day meeting which will be devoted to the country's "cultural development." Analysts said the meeting is largely to strengthen the party's tight control over the media and the Internet.
(AFP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, Flooding in Cambodia was reported to have killed at least 247 people as China began delivering the first of some $7.8 million in flood relief aid.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 17, In western China Tenzin Wangmo (20), a Tibetan nun, committed self-immolation in a call for religious freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama. She was the 9th Tibetan to commit self-immolation and the first women to kill herself in this way.
(SFC, 10/18/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 18, China’s ruling Communist Party, at the close of a four-day annual policy meeting, approved a program to enhance its popularity at home and image abroad at a time when the leadership is struggling with domestic unrest and a delicate succession.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, Tibetan monk Yonten Gyatso, a senior monk and human rights activist in the restive Aba county, southwestern Sichuan province, was arrested. He was sentenced on June 18 by Aba Intermediate People's Court, but his family and the news organization that he contributes to only heard about it on Aug 22. They said he was beaten, tortured and imprisoned after his arrest.
(AFP, 8/23/12)
2011 Oct 19, Reports from China said many of the 6 million migrant workers employed in a massive railway buildup have not been paid for months, with some 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) of projects halted due to a lack of money.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, The Philippine navy apologized to China for accidentally ramming one of its fishing boats a day earlier near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 20, China said that it will allow four of its most developed cities and provinces to issue bonds on a trial basis, giving cash-strapped local governments a much-needed funding boost.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 21, In China Wang Yue, a 2-year-old girl who was twice run over by vans and then ignored by passers-by on a busy market street on Oct 13, died today, one week after the accident and after days of bitter soul-searching over declining morality in the country. Police soon arrested two drivers suspected of running over a toddler. Hu Jun (24) was charged with causing the wrongful death of the girl.
(AP, 10/21/11)(AP, 10/23/11)(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 23, In Hong Kong more than 1000 protesters, including pregnant women, marched to oppose the growing number of mainland Chinese women coming to the city to give birth. Women from mainland China are keen to have babies in Hong Kong because it entitles their child to rights of abode and education.
(AFP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 25, China’s state media reported that China will replace popular television entertainment with so-called "healthy" programming, reflecting regulators' latest move to tighten media control. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) ordered broadcasters to stop showing "excessive entertainment", and to air at least two hours of news each evening from January 1.
(AFP, 10/25/11)(AFP, 1/3/12)
2011 Oct 25, In China another monk set himself ablaze outside a Tibetan monastery in southwestern Sichuan province's Ganzi prefecture. This was the 10th self-immolation this year protesting against Chinese rule over the Himalayan region. London-based Free Tibet group said it was unable to confirm the monk's age or name and was unsure of his condition.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, Chinese Vice Premier Le Keqiang met with South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak during a two-day trip to Seoul. South Korea's central bank said it has agreed with its Chinese counterpart to expand their currency swap deal as a backstop against global economic turmoil.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, In China a group of children's clothing company owners protesting in the town of Zhili in Zhejiang province swelled to more than 600 people. Hundreds of migrant small business owners have protested over a tax dispute, some of them torching vehicles.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, China’s state media said hundreds of angry home buyers have launched a series of protests in the commercial hub of Shanghai this week, as owners decried falling prices for their properties.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 28, China blocked online access to news of riots by thousands of people who clashed with police in an eastern manufacturing city in what began as a protest over taxes.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 29, In central China a police officer was suspected of driving a police van drunk and killing five people in a crash that sparked angry crowds to smash and flip police cars in the latest burst of public anger against the authorities. The van crashed into two street lamp poles that fell, fatally crushing five victims and injuring three more.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 30, Chinese state media said China will maintain its strict "one-child" policy, despite calls for the rules to be relaxed.
(AFP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 31, China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand signed a regional security agreement pledging to share intelligence and to engage in joint patrols along a stretch of the Mekong between China and the Golden Triangle.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.45)
2011 Nov 1, China’s government announced a punitive $2.4 million tax bill on artist and government critic Ai Weiwei. He was given 15 days to come with the money. Donations began to come in from people and over $550,000 was donated by Nov 6.
(SFC, 11/7/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 1, A survey by the Bank of China and the Hurun Report said nearly half of China's wealthiest citizens are considering emigrating, with the United States and Canada the most popular destinations.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, China’s state media reported that police in Henan province have arrested 114 people in a crackdown on a counterfeit drugs ring, seizing $30 million worth of fake medications and more than 65 million medicine bottles.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, China launched an unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft, the latest step in its efforts to place a permanent space station in orbit. The Shenzhou 8 docked with the Tiangong 1 module on Nov 3.
(SFC, 11/1/11, p.A2)(SFC, 11/4/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 1, In China a massive explosion near an expressway ramp in Fuquan, Guizhou province, killed at least seven people and injured about 200 while also destroying several homes. The blast was caused by three explosives-laden vehicles that caught fire.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 2, Transparency Int’l., a Berlin-based campaigning group, published an update of its 2008 Bribe Payers Index. Russia and China scored worst. The index ranked 28 countries accounting for 80% of global trade and investment.
{Germany, Corruption, Russia, China}
(Econ, 11/5/11, p.72)
2011 Nov 3, Chinese state media reported that a Buddhist nun, identified as Qiu Xiang (35), has died after setting herself on fire, in the 11th case of self-immolation among Tibetans in western China in recent months.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Chinese rescuers began battling against the clock to save coal miners trapped underground in Henan province after a sudden explosion of rocks killed 8 of their colleagues. The rock burst in Henan happened moments after a 2.9 magnitude earthquake shook Sanmenxia city, where the mine is located. 52 miners were rescued over the next 2 days. Day later 2 miners died from their wounds raising the death toll to 10.
(AP, 11/4/11)(AP, 11/5/11)(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 3, Human Rights Watch said Chinese mining companies in Zambia ignore labor protections, demanding up to 18 hours of labor a day and flouting health and safety rules.
(AFP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 6, Japan's coastguard arrested the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that allegedly intruded into Japanese territorial waters.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 10, In China hundreds of rescuers took turns descending into an illegally operated coal mine to search for Chinese miners trapped by a gas leak that killed 34 others at the Sizhuang Coal Mine in Qujing city in Yunnan. 9 remained missing.
(AP, 11/10/11)(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 10, A Chinese court jailed musician Su Yue (56) for life for a scam in which he conned investors out of $9 million by claiming he was commissioned to hold shows attached to the Olympics. Su made his name with the folk songs "Loess Plateau" and "Blood-stained Glory", originally written to commemorate troops who were killed in the brief 1979 war against Vietnam but later was used in memory of those who died in the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests.
(AFP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, A Taiwanese man demanded Chinese authorities return his left hand, which he said was amputated after a savage robbery and then kept by mainland police as evidence. Hu Chi-yang (59) said he was attacked by three men in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian last week. He said they robbed him of about $600 in cash and nearly cut his left hand off to get at his ring and Rolex watch. On Nov 28 police in Fujian said they believed Hu's injuries were self-inflicted, saying the cuts were precise and that blood collected at the alleged crime scene contained traces of anesthetic.
(AFP, 11/10/11)(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 14, In northwestern China an explosion in a restaurant, likely caused by a natural gas leak, killed at least 7 people and injured another 31 in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 15, Shanghai sold bonds under a new pilot scheme raising $1.1 billion. China’s provincial and municipal governments had been prohibited from borrowing since 1994.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.78)
2011 Nov 15, The EU said it has tightened controls on imports of Chinese rice products after a growing number of shipments were contaminated by unauthorized genetically-modified rice.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 16, Outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei said he feels like he has paid a ransom, after depositing $1.3 million into a government account while he contests a huge tax bill months after being held in police detention.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, In western China an overloaded school minibus crashed head-on with a truck, killing 21 people including 19 kindergarten children on their way to class in Gansu province.
(AP, 11/16/11)(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 16, US President Barack Obama arrived in Australia and announced a new security agreement with Australia. Obama said the US would keep sending a clear message that China needs to accept the responsibilities that come with being a world power.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, On board the USS Fitzgerald in Manila Bay US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario signed a declaration calling for multilateral talks to resolve maritime disputes such as those in the South China Sea, contrasting China's policy of negotiating one-on-one with the Philippines and other Asian claimants.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 17, China's unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou VIII returned to Earth, state media reported, after completing two space dockings that have pushed forward the nation's ambitious space program.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 19, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao told US President Barack Obama that China would increase the flexibility of the yuan while stressing that reforms had already had an effect. The spoke on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Indonesia.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 19, In eastern China 14 workers were killed in an explosion at a chemical plant.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 23, Turkmenistan signed an agreement with China to boost natural gas deliveries. This will see the central Asian nation supply about half of China's gas needs. The gas agreement was one of 14 signed following talks in Beijing between Turkmen President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 25, The Chinese government donated a gift of 23 buses during a ceremony in Macedonia's capital. News of the donation ignited a torrent of criticism. Many asked: How could China make the donation to a foreign country when Chinese schools contend with shoddy transport?
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, Chinese automaker Chery Automobile Co. and partner Israel Corp. launched the 50-50 joint venture Qoros Automotive Co., seeking fresh appeal both overseas and in the slowing local market. Israel Corp. is Israel's largest holding company, with interests mainly in chemicals, shipping and energy.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 29, China's central government raised the country's rural poverty line by more than 80 percent as part of efforts to increase aid to its struggling low-income population. Veteran activist Chen Xi (57) was arrested. He was accused of writing 36 essays that incited subversion. On Dec 23 he charged with subversion. On Dec 26 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(AFP, 11/29/11)(AP, 12/24/11)(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Nov 29, China pledged more than $2.3 million in military assistance to Uganda during a high-profile visit to Kampala by Beijing's defense minister.
(AFP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov, In China Neil Heywood (b.1970), a British citizen, was found dead in his hotel in Chongqing. Authorities said he died of alcohol poisoning and cremated the body without an autopsy. Heywood had long history of advising Western companies on China and had connection with the family of Bo Xilai established through his Chinese wife.
(SFC, 3/27/12, p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Heywood)
2011 Dec 2, In the Philippines 6 fishermen, from China's southern island province of Hainan, were arrested in waters off western Palawan province's Balabac township, for catching endangered sea turtles. Officials said the fishermen's mother ship may have escaped when their speedboat was intercepted.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 2, The Seychelles invited Beijing to set up a military base on the archipelago to beef up the fight against piracy there.
(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 6, A Chinese court jailed Australian businessman Matthew Ng for 13 years on bribery and embezzlement charges. Ng, an executive working for travel services group Et-China in southern China, was arrested last November. Chinese media have said the case against Ng relates to his role in Et-China's battle with a Guangzhou government-owned travel company for control of domestic travel agency GZL.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 7, Chinese authorities said police last week had arrested 608 suspects and rescued 178 children in busts of two separate child trafficking networks.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, China inserted itself into the fight over oil between Sudan and its former territory South Sudan, sending a special envoy to try to break a deadlock between two rivals who often appear on the brink of renewed conflict.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 8, China executed a Filipino drug trafficker (35) despite a clemency appeal by Philippine Pres. Benigno Aquino III.
(SFC, 12/9/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 8, Mexican authorities say they have seized 226 tons (205 metric tons) of a chemical used in synthetic drugs. The methylamine was found over several days this month in the port of Lazaro Cardenas in 11 containers shipped from China.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 9, In China two exchange students accepted the Confucius Peace Prize on behalf of Russian PM Vladimir Putin, who was honored for enhancing Russia's status and crushing anti-government forces in Chechnya.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, In northeastern China two tourists from Hong Kong were killed and 36 others were hurt when their bus overturned after colliding with a farm vehicle in Jilin province.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, In China 9 people were killed and seven seriously injured in the far west region of Xinjiang when a long-distance bus collided with a heavy-duty truck.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 11, In China Xue Jinbo (42) died after two days in police custody. He had led protests in the fishing village of Wukan in opposition to government land confiscations and was arrested on Dec 9.
(SFC, 12/16/11, p.A13)
2011 Dec 12, China executed Janice Linden (35), a South African woman, by lethal injection for drug smuggling after rejecting last-minute pleas for clemency from her government. She was convicted of trying to sneak three kg (6.6 pounds) of methamphetamine into the country in her luggage through the southern city of Guangzhou in 2008. Amnesty International says China executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined.
(AFP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, In eastern China a school bus taking primary students home slipped off a country road into an irrigation ditch, killing 15 children in Jiangsu province.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 12, A Chinese captain stabbed two South Korean coast guard officers, killing one, after his fishing boat was stopped for illegally fishing in South Korean waters.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 16, China's government gave the first sign that prominent civil rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng is alive, saying he would be sent to prison for three years for violating his probation. Zhisheng, an advocate of constitutional reform, was convicted in 2006 of subversion and disappeared 20 months ago. On Jan 1, 2012, his brother said Gao has been imprisoned in Shaya prison in the far western region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 12/16/11)(AFP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 16, Beijing city authorities issued new rules requiring microbloggers to register their real names before posting online, as the Chinese government tightens its grip on the Internet.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 19, Nigeria launched a communications satellite into space to replace one that failed in 2008. The satellite was launched from Xichang in southwest China.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 20, In southern China police fired tear-gas and beat demonstrators who stormed government buildings to protest against a power plant in Haimen, Guangdong province.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 21, In China villagers of Wukan gave up their protests over land confiscations after the Guangdong party leadership promised to look into their complaints. On Jan 15, 2012, protest leader Lin Zuluan was appointed as the village’s new party chief.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.24)
2011 Dec 22, In southern China witnesses said police have begun arresting protesters after two days of violent clashes, as the local government warned against further "illegal" demonstrations.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 23, In China police fired tear gas at hundreds of people and detained a team of Hong Kong journalists in the southern town of Haimen, the scene of violent protests earlier this week. Activist Chen Wei (42) was sentenced to nine years in prison on subversion charges.
(AFP, 12/23/11)(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 23, In China Huang Guang, a local forestry official, poisoned a cat meat hotpot shared with billionaire Long Liyuan, who made his fortune running a forestry company in wealthy Guangdong province. On Jan 2 Yangjiang city authorities reported the arrest of Guang.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2011 Dec 25, China and Japan announced an agreement to let Japan buy Chinese sovereign debt. No sum or timetable was disclosed.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.59)
2011 Dec 26, China's biggest milk producer, Mengniu Dairy Group, said it has destroyed a batch found to have excessive levels of a cancer-causing toxin, in another safety scare for the country's dairy industry. The problem was reportedly discovered before the milk containing high levels of aflatoxin was sold to the public. An expert review identified the mildewed feed as the cause of the excessive levels of aflatoxin in milk.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 28, In China police in Xinjiang province opened fire and killed seven suspects, and wounded and arrested four others. The Xinjiang government said that a "violent terrorist group" had kidnapped two people in the northwestern region's remote Pishan county, prompting a stand-off with police. An exile group, described the incident as a protest by local Uighurs prompted by mounting discontent over a police crackdown and religious repression in the area.
(AFP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 29, China executed 12 people today, including a man who bombed a local tax office. Liu Zhuiheng had been convicted and sentenced to death for detonating explosives outside a tax office in Changsha city in Hunan province in July, 2010. The attack left 4 people killed and 17 others wounded.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 30, Chinese prosecutors in the eastern city of Xiamen indicted Lai Changxing for allegedly masterminding a network that smuggled everything from cigarettes to cars and oil and bribed dozens of government workers between 1996 and 1999. Lai became China's most-wanted man after he fled to Canada in 1999 and fought extradition for 12 years until he was deported in July.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, China’s food safety regulator in Shenzhen said it had found excessive levels of aflatoxin in peanuts sold in three stores, and in cooking oil in four restaurants.
(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 30, In northern China Muslim villagers in Taoshan, Ningxia region, clashed with police after their mosque was demolished. At least 2 people were killed. The Hui villagers were part of a Mandarin speaking community of some 10 million descended from Silk Road traders.
(SFC, 1/4/12, p.A4)
2011 Dec 30, The Republic of Congo said it has banned 69 Chinese fishing boats from its waters for illicit activities.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 31, In China a bus driver who contracted the bird flu virus died Shenzhen. This was the nation's first reported human case of the deadly disease in 18 months.
(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dan Breznitz and Michael Murphree authored “Run of the Red Queen: Government, Innovation, Globalization, and Economic Growth in China."
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.73)
2011 Michael Dunne authored “American Wheels, Chinese Roads: The Story of General Motors in China."
(Econ, 5/26/12, p.67)
2011 Aaron Friedberg authored “A Contest for Supremacy: China, America and the Struggle for Mastery of Asia."
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.56)
2011 Henry Kissinger authored “On China."
(Econ, 5/21/11, p.86)
2011 Liel Leibowitz authored “Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization." It told the story of the Chinese Educational Mission, which existed from 1872 to 1881.
(SSFC, 2/13/11, p.G4)
2011 Liao Yiwu, exiled Chinese poet, published his memoir “For a Song and a Hundred Sons: A Poet’s Journey Thjrough a Chinese Prison" in Taiwan and Germany. Earlier versions were were seized by police in 1995 and 2001. It was translated to english in 2013.
(SSFC, 7/7/13, p.F4)
2011 China overtook America as the world’s biggest electricity producer.
(Econ, 1/5/13, p.54)
2011 In China Zhao Haibin, a police chief in Guangdong province, was accused of owning 192 properties. The case came to light after he was reported by a businessman who was involved in a dispute with the officer.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.46)(https://ethixbase.com/blogs/tag/zhao-haibin/)
2011 The US passed legislation forbidding NASA from cooperating with China or any Chinese company and hosting official Chinese visitors at any NASA facility. The legal language was inserted into a funding bill by Congressman Frank Wolf, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies.
(http://tinyurl.com/n568kkz)(Econ, 10/12/13, p.95)
2012 Jan 3, China’s official Xinhua news agency said the number of entertainment shows airing during prime time every week had plunged to 38 from 126, in line with an order the state broadcasting watchdog issued in October.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, In China 13 people were killed in Hunan province when a truck crossed a highway divider and crashed head-on into a bus traveling in the opposite direction.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In southern China a bus went out of control and slipped from a snow-covered bridge, killing at least 18 people in Guizhou province.
(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 4, Chinese steelworkers began a 3-day strike at a state-controlled enterprise in the Qingbaijiang district of Sichuan province. Workers managed to get a small wage increase.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.21)
2012 Jan 4, British company Everything Everywhere said it is launching a mobile virtual network in Britain in partnership with telecoms giant China Telecom, targeting Chinese residents and visitors.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 5, China’s state media said Poyang Lake, the country’s largest freshwater lake, has shrunk to its smallest size in years due to drought, endangering the ecology in the area and fishermen's livelihoods.
(AFP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 6, China’s government bowed to a vocal online campaign for a change in the way air quality is measured in Beijing, one of the world's most polluted cities. The Beijing Environmental Bureau said it would provide hourly updates of PM2.5 measure ahead of the Lunar New Year, which starts on January 23, in response to the flood of public anger.
(AFP, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 6, In China a man was fatally shot in the head shortly after withdrawing 200,000 yuan ($31,700) in cash from a bank in Nanjing. Zeng Kaigui, a one-time policeman suspected in a series of slayings and robberies dating back to 2004, was suspected in the fatal shooting.
(AP, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 6, In southwest China two Tibetan men set themselves on fire near the restive Kirti monastery, the 13th and 14th to hit Tibetan areas in less than a year. An 18-year-old died in a hotel room while another man, aged 22, was being treated in hospital.
(AFP, 1/6/12)(AFP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 8, In China a monk named Sopa (42) died after drinking kerosene and throwing it over his body. His body exploded in pieces before police took it away in Dari county in Qinghai province. Xinhua News Agency identified the dead monk as Nyage Sonamdrugyu. The reason for the discrepancy in identification was not known.
(AP, 1/9/12)
2012 Jan 9, The presidents of China and South Korea agreed to work together to achieve peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, in their first summit since Kim Jong Il's death opened the chance for major changes in North Korea.
(AP, 1/9/12)
2012 Jan 11, It was announced that China and India are signing on as partners in the Thirty Meter Telescope when it’s built on the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano in 2018.
(SFC, 1/12/12, p.A6)
2012 Jan 13, Apple said it was suspending sales of the new iPhone at its China stores after fans desperate to get their hands on it fought with security and threw eggs at an official outlet.
(AFP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 14, In southwest China a Tibetan set himself on fire and police fired on hundreds of locals, possibly killing one, as they attempted to rescue the burned body from officials near the restive Kirti monastery in Sichuan province's Aba county. This was the 16th self-immolation attempt in Tibetan areas inside a year and the fourth in nine days.
(AFP, 1/14/12)
2012 Jan 14, China agreed to provide Nepal with $119 million in aid during a surprise visit to the tiny Himalayan nation by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
(AP, 1/14/12)
2012 Jan 14, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held talks with Saudi officials in Riyadh on the first stop of a Gulf tour, as tensions over Iran's nuclear program sparked fears of major oil supply disruptions.
(AFP, 1/15/12)
2012 Jan 17, In China Zhu Yufu (58), a writer and democracy advocate, was charged with subversion in Hangzhou for writing a poem urging citizens to gather to defend their freedoms. In February Yufu was sentenced to 7 years in prison.
(SFC, 1/18/12, p.A3)(SFC, 2/11/12, p.A2)
2012 Jan 17, In China around 1,000 people from Wanggang village gathered in front of a government building in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, in protest against Li Zhihang, their allegedly corrupt Communist Party secretary. The next morning officials said they would probe their case and would announce the result of the investigation by February 19.
(AFP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 17, Britain said it has signed deals with China to research stem cells and smart grids, after Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne held 2-day talks with officials in Beijing aimed at attracting investment.
(AFP, 1/17/12)
2012 Jan 18, A Chinese court in Wuhan city sentenced democracy activist Li Tie to 10 years imprisonment for subversion. A provincial court upheld the death sentence against Wu Ying (31), one of China’s wealthiest businesswomen. She was convicted on Dec 18, 2009, of illegal fund raising.
(SFC, 1/19/12, p.A2)(Econ, 1/28/12, p.45)
2012 Jan 21, In China Beijing environmental authorities started releasing more detailed air quality data that may better reflect how bad the Chinese capital's air pollution is.
(AP, 1/21/12)
2012 Jan 22, In southwest China a man who contracted the bird flu virus died, the second human death from the virulent disease in the country in just under a month.
(AFP, 1/22/12)
2012 Jan 23, A billion-plus Asians welcomed the Year of the Dragon with a cacophony of fireworks, hoping the mightiest sign in the Chinese zodiac will usher in the wealth and power it represents.
(AFP, 1/23/12)
2012 Jan 23, In China Police opened fire on Tibetans protesting against religious repression, killing at least one person and injuring more than 30 others in Sichuan province's Luhuo county.
(AFP, 1/23/12)
2012 Jan 24, In China two Tibetans were reportedly killed and several more were wounded when security forces opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Seda county in politically sensitive Ganzi prefecture in Sichuan province.
(AP, 1/25/12)
2012 Jan 27, Chinese security forces arrested a youth named Tarpa after he posted a leaflet in Sichuan's Aba prefecture "stating that the reason for the self-immolation protests was that Tibet must be free and the Dalai Lama must return, and until these demands were met, there was no way for the campaign to be stopped." Security forces fired at Tibetans trying to stop Tarpa’s arrest, killing one and wounding several others, in the third reported deadly clash in a politically sensitive Tibetan region in a week.
(AP, 1/27/12)
2012 Jan 28, In Ethiopia African leaders inaugurated a new $200 million headquarters that was funded by China as a gift. They said the massive complex in Addis Ababa is a symbol of China's rapidly changing role in Africa.
(AP, 1/28/12)
2012 Jan 28, In Sudan's South Kordofan state rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) captured 29 Chinese workers after a battle with government forces. Nine members of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) were also being held. On Feb 7 all 29 Chinese workers were released and flown to Kenya. Sudan's foreign ministry spokesman said that in addition to the 29 freed Chinese, 17 others had earlier been "released" by the Sudan Armed Forces but one other Chinese died.
(AFP, 1/29/12)(AFP, 2/7/12)
2012 Jan 30, Sudanese officials said the army has freed 14 Chinese road construction workers, part of a group reportedly abducted by militants on Jan 28 in a remote region in the country's south. China had an estimated 10,000 workers in Sudan.
(AP, 1/30/12)(Econ, 1/21/12, SR p.35)
2012 Jan 30, The World Trade Organization ruled that China’s policies to restrict exports of several metals, like bauxite and magnesium, violated its WTO obligations.
(Econ, 2/4/12, p.75)
2012 Jan 31, China said that it has detained seven company executives after tons of industrial waste including cadmium, a toxic metal, polluted some 200 miles of the Longjiang river, threatening water supplies for millions of people. Unnamed experts were quoted saying that the amount of illegally released waste in the waterway was unprecedented at an estimated 20 tons.
(AFP, 1/31/12)(SSFC, 2/5/12, p.A6)
2012 Jan 31, Egyptian Bedouins took 25 Chinese factory workers hostage in the northern Sinai Peninsula. The group demanded the release of militants jailed for a 2005 bombing in Sharm el-Sheikh at the tip of the Egyptian Sinai. All 25 workers were released by the next day.
(AFP, 1/31/12)(AFP, 2/1/12)
2012 Jan 31, South African Airways launched non-stop flights to Beijing. China became South Africa's top trade partner in 2009.
(AFP, 1/31/12)
2012 Feb 3, In southwestern China an explosion at a coal mine killed 13 miners and injured six at the Diaoyutai mine outside Yibin city in Sichuan province. One miner remained missing.
(AP, 2/3/12)(AFP, 2/4/12)
2012 Feb 3, In China three Tibetans set themselves alight in remote Phuhu village in the southwestern province of Sichuan. One died and two others were seriously hurt.
(AP, 2/5/12)
2012 Feb 4, German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrapped up a 3-day visit to China where she tried to reassure her hosts on the strength of the euro and Europe's ability to overcome its debt crisis. She expressed regret that Chinese police blocked a human rights lawyer from meeting her and said the Communist government should have the confidence to allow dissent.
(AFP, 2/4/12)(AP, 2/4/12)
2012 Feb 4, In eastern China a group of tourists visiting the Jinan Wildlife World had a narrow escape after up to 8 Bengal tigers attacked their bus, puncturing its tires and destroying the windscreen in Shandong province.
(AFP, 2/7/12)
2012 Feb 6, Chad announced it was reopening a major oil refinery it had earlier ordered shut because of a price dispute with its Chinese part-owners. The Djarmaya refinery was ordered closed on January 19.
(AFP, 2/6/12)
2012 Feb 8, China and Canada signed a series of deals to boost modest levels of bilateral trade and finished negotiations on a foreign investment protection pact after 18 years of talks.
(Reuters, 2/8/12)
2012 Feb 8, In China a Tibetan (19) set himself on fire in Sichuan province's Aba prefecture. He was a former monk from the local Kirti monastery, which has been the scene of protests over recent months. The monk was taken to hospital. Radio Free Asia said Tibetan protests erupted in two counties in Qinghai province, with about 1,000 people marching in each.
(AP, 2/9/12)
2012 Feb 8, In China reports circulated that Wang Lijun, the deputy mayor overseeing security in Chongqing, may have tried to defect to the US. He was reportedly arrested in Chengdu and flown to Beijing for questioning.
(SFC, 2/9/12, p.A5)
2012 Feb 9, In China security forces shot dead two Tibetan brothers who were on the run after protesting against Chinese rule.
(AFP, 2/12/12)
2012 Feb 10, Chinese PM Wen Jiabao pledged religious freedom and cultural protection in Tibet, just hours after security forces reportedly killed two Tibetans who protested China's rule.
(AFP, 2/10/12)
2012 Feb 10, In Hong Kong mainland woman Xu Li (29) was charged in a magistrates' court for her role as a "birth agent," the first prosecution of its kind as the southern city cracks down on the practice.
(AFP, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 11, In China Tenzin Choedron (Choedon), an 18-year-old nun, set herself on fire in Sichuan province and later died, the latest in a spate of such incidents among ethnic Tibetans protesting Beijing's rule.
(AFP, 2/12/12)
2012 Feb 11, Canada set the seal on improving ties with China by agreeing to a 10-year loan for two giant pandas, traditionally an indication of official approval from Beijing.
(Reuters, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 14, China's Premier Wen Jiabao said his country was ready to increase its participation in efforts to resolve Europe's debt crisis, after meeting EU president Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in Beijing.
(AFP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 14, Pres. Obama met with Xi Jinping (58), China’s vice president. Jinping was expected to become the next leader of China.
(Econ, 2/18/12, p.36)
2012 Feb 14, In South Korea over one hundred people rallied near the Chinese Embassy to protest China’s state security police for arresting dozens of North Korean defectors who face torture, imprisonment and even death if returned to their homeland.
(SFC, 2/15/12, p.A2)
2012 Feb 15, China's top central banker expressed confidence in the euro and pledged to continue buying European sovereign debt, as the Asian giant seeks to shore up support for its biggest trading partner.
(AFP, 2/15/12)
2012 Feb 15, Chinese health authorities and state media said 4 workers have died and about 30 have fallen ill from suspected glue poisoning that caused severe nerve damage. The victims worked in Guangzhou city in shoe and bag factories with poor ventilation, most of them illegal, and started falling ill last year after handling poor quality glue.
(AFP, 2/15/12)
2012 Feb 15, In China 15 miners were killed and three others hurt when the mine carriages they were in plunged into a tunnel in Hunan province.
(AP, 2/16/12)(AFP, 3/23/12)
2012 Feb 16, In Iowa China's leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping reached out to heartland America with billions of dollars in farm deals.
(AP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 16, An animal protection group said 4 Chinese nationals have been arrested in Zimbabwe on cruelty charges after they cut up and ate rare tortoises. The 4 men were found to have entered Zimbabwe illegally and worked without permits in the small scale mining district of Bikita. They awaited deportation.
(AFP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 17, In western China Tibetan Buddhist monk Tamchoe Sangpo set himself on fire at Bongtak monastery in Qinghai province amid a wave of such protests against China's handling of the vast Tibetan areas it rules.
(AP, 2/18/12)
2012 Feb 18, A Chinese court sentenced two top former Football Association officials to more than a decade in jail, in a graft scandal that brought the football league to its knees.
(AFP, 2/18/12)
2012 Feb 18, Syrian security forces fired live rounds and tear gas at thousands of people marching in a funeral procession that turned into a protest in Damascus, killing at least one person. The Observatory said two other people were killed, one in Homs who died from sniper fire and another in the north, who was shot by security forces conducting raids. Visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun called on all parties to stop violence. Jamal Bish, a city councilor in Aleppo was reported killed.
(AP, 2/18/12)(AFP, 2/19/12)
2012 Feb 20, China's Vice President Xi Jinping bade farewell to Ireland after a three-day visit during which Dublin sought to provide Beijing with a financial foothold in the EU.
(AFP, 2/20/12)
2012 Feb 20, In northeastern China an explosion at a steel plant killed 13 people and injured another 17, in Liaoning province's Anshan city.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 21, A senior Tata executive said India’s Tata Motors has selected a partner to build an assembly plant for its luxury British car brands Jaguar and Land Rover in China.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 22, China allegedly used force to threaten 11 Vietnamese fishermen preventing them from entering the Paracel islands to avoid a storm. A Vietnamese report on Feb 29 said Chinese forces assaulted the fishermen and tried to take their property.
(AP, 3/1/12)
2012 Feb 23, In China the United States and North Korea resumed talks delayed by the death of North Korea's longtime leader Kim Jong Il two months ago, with the US envoy saying he and his counterpart covered US food aid and other topics.
(AP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 27, South Korean legislator Park Sun-Young (55), who has staged a week-long hunger strike outside China's embassy, vowed to fast until death unless Beijing ends its policy of repatriating North Korean refugees.
(AFP, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb 28, In China riots in the volatile region of Xinjiang left at least 12 people dead.
(AFP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 28, In China an explosion at a chemical plant near Shijiazhuang city, capital of Hebei province, left 25 people dead and 46 injured.
(AFP, 3/4/12)
2012 Feb 28, In Pakistan a Chinese woman was shot dead with a male companion in Peshawar. They were killed by gunmen on motorbikes while walking in the Kohati bazaar.
(AFP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 29, China's cabinet ordered new air-quality standards to measure the most dangerous form of particulate matter, following a public outcry over worsening air pollution.
(AFP, 2/29/12)
2012 Feb 29, The Philippines said it would push ahead with plans to expand oil and gas exploration in waters also claimed by China, as it brushed off a fresh Chinese warning.
(AFP, 2/29/12)
2012 Feb, China swung into a huge trade deficit of $31.48 billion this month, as the West's economic troubles hit the world's second-largest economy.
(AFP, 3/9/12)
2012 Feb, China increased access to US films from 20 to 34 per year, but only if the additional 14 are shown in 3D or large format.
(Econ, 4/28/12, p.50)
2012 Mar 1, Chinese state press said Chen Quanguo, China’s top leader in Tibet, has ordered increased controls over the Internet and mobile phones, ahead of upcoming sensitive anniversaries in the restive region.
(AFP, 3/1/12)
2012 Mar 2, US authorities charged 29 people who were conspiring to illegally import counterfeit luxury fashion goods and deadly drugs worth hundreds of millions of dollars from China and Taiwan. Some 20 arrests took place in New Jersey, Florida, Texas, New York, and in the Philippines, as part of an international investigation.
(AFP, 3/2/12)
2012 Mar 3, In northwestern China a Tibetan teenager died after setting herself on fire. The girl, said to be aged between 16 and 19 years old, set herself alight at a vegetable market in Maqu county in Gansu province.
(AFP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 3, Chinese forces intercepted two Vietnamese fishing boats near the disputed Paracel islands. The Chinese soon demanded 70,000 yuan ($11,000) for the release of 21 fishermen.
(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 4, China said its military spending would top $100 billion in 2012, a double-digit increase on last year. The figure marks a slowdown from 2011 when spending rose by 12.7%.
(AFP, 3/4/12)
2012 Mar 4, In China a widowed mother of four died after setting herself on fire near the restive Kirti monastery in Aba county in Sichuan province, taking to at least 25 the number of such incidents in Tibetan-inhabited areas in the past year.
(AFP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 5, China lowered its growth target to 7.5%.
(Econ, 3/10/12, p.83)
2012 Mar 5, China said it will send a new envoy to Syria and is ready to support international aid under the auspices of the United Nations or another "impartial" organization.
(AFP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 6, Chinese rights activist Liu Ping (47) went missing after she was detained by security officials in Beijing. She had angered officials with her advocacy of free elections as well as support of labor and women’s rights.
(SFC, 3/20/12, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/7jom58l)
2012 Mar 10, In southwest China a Tibetan teenager set himself on fire and died on the sensitive anniversary of the Dalai Lama's flight into exile in 1959. The 18-year-old monk was from the restive Kirti Monastery and self-immolated in Aba town in Sichuan province.
(AFP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 13, Japan said it had won approval from Beijing to buy Chinese government bonds for the first time, in a move aimed at binding Asia's two biggest economies and traditional rivals closer together.
(AFP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 13, Japan, the EU and the US brought a case to the World Trade Organization (WTO) alleging that China was exporting too little of tungsten, molybdenum and 17 rare earth elements.
(Econ, 3/17/12, p.86)
2012 Mar 14, China national legislature enacted new safeguards for criminal suspects in amendments for the revised Criminal Procedure Law. The legislature upheld the right of police to hold certain suspects in secret residential locations for up to 6 months. Nearly 8% of the delegates abstained or voted against the legislation.
(SFC, 3/15/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 15, In China Bo Xilai (62), the Communist Party secretary in Chongqing, was removed from his post. Critics had said his anti-corruption had parallels with the Cultural Revolution that gripped China from 1966-1976.
(SFC, 3/16/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 15, In China Xu Ming, one of the richest people in China, was detained by a powerful body which investigates corruption within the ranks of the ruling Communist party. His company Shide Group sponsors a Chinese football club.
(AFP, 4/3/12)
2012 Mar 16, In southwestern China Lobsang Tsultrim (20), a Tibetan monk, set himself on fire before being beaten and dragged away by Chinese security forces by the Kirti monastery, Sichuan province.
(AFP, 3/16/12)(AFP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 17, In China Tibetan farmer Sonam Thargyal (44) fastened cotton padding to his body and doused himself with kerosene before setting himself on fire in Tongren, a monastery town in western China's Qinghai province. He had been close friends with a monk who survived a self-immolation attempt on March 14, also in Tongren. The monk, Jamyang Palden, was believed to be alive but critically injured.
(AP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 18, In China Ling Gu, the son of a loyal aide to President Hu Jintao, was killed in a Ferrari accident which initially garnered only minimal coverage in China's state media. Two young women were also injured. A report on Sep 3 said Ling was half-naked when the crash occurred and his two passengers were naked or half-dressed, suggesting they had been involved in some kind of high-speed sex game. Ling Jihua made a botched attempt to cover-up the incident. His youngest brother Ling Wancheng, director of the Communist party’s General Office, later fled to the US.
(AP, 9/4/12)(SFC, 8/4/15, p.A10)
2012 Mar 19, In China Lobsang Tsultrim (20), a Tibetan Buddhist monk, died in detention. He set himself on fire on March 16 in Aba town, a flashpoint for such protests.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 21, The Chinese government said that lawyers are now required to swear allegiance to the Communist Party, a move criticized by prominent human rights lawyers who have defended the authoritarian government's critics.
(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 22, China said it will abolish the transplanting of organs from executed prisoners within five years and try to spur more citizens to donate.
(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 22, In China 17 miners were trapped in a northeast colliery following a gas blast that left five dead in Liaoning province. Last week, 13 people died after a capsule plunged into a pit at an iron ore mine in eastern China after a steel rope holding it broke.
(AFP, 3/23/12)
2012 Mar 23, In China Li Mengnan (17) randomly attacked medical staff with a fruit knife after accusing a doctor of refusing to provide treatment for a chronic spinal condition. He killed the intern, Wang Hao (28), and injured three others before trying to kill himself. On Oct 19 Mengnan was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 10/19/12)
2012 Mar 26, In India Tibetan exile Jamphel Yeshi lit himself on fire and ran shouting through a demonstration in New Delhi, just ahead of a visit by China's president. Yeshi sustained burns on 98 percent of his body and his condition was critical. Jamphel Yeshi died on March 28.
(AP, 3/26/12)(AFP, 3/28/12)
2012 Mar 29, China executed three arsonists held responsible for the deadly May 1, 2012, hotel fire, that killed 11 people and injured more than 30 others.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 30, In China two Tibetan monks, identified as Tenpa Darjey and Chimey Palden, set themselves on fire in the western city of Maerkang in the latest in a wave of self-immolations protesting against Chinese rule.
(AP, 3/31/12)
2012 Mar 31, China’s official Xinhua news agency said authorities have closed 16 websites for spreading rumors of "military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on there. China made a string of arrests and punished two popular microblogs after rumors of a coup linked to a major scandal that brought down a top politician.
(AFP, 3/31/12)
2012 Mar 31, China opened the record breaking 4,000-ft-long Aizhai Bridge in Hunan province. Construction began in October 2007. It is the world's highest and longest tunnel-to-tunnel bridge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aizhai_Bridge)
2012 Apr 1, Taiwan said it will double its quota of independent Chinese tourists to allow up to 1,000 visitors a day, effective April 28, less than a year after lifting a ban on solo travel from the mainland.
(AFP, 4/1/12)
2012 Apr 2, China International Mining Group Corporation said it will invest $21.2 million (€15.8 million) to restart the Bindura Nickel Corporation's Trojan mine in Zimbabwe, which closed in 2008 during the country’s political turmoil.
(AFP, 4/2/12)
2012 Apr 4, China's state media reported that Premier Wen Jiabao has called for the break-up of a banking "monopoly" on lending that has squeezed private businesses as the global economy slows.
(AFP, 4/4/12)
2012 Apr 6, China’s Xinhua News Agency said authorities have indicted five people in central China for involvement in illegal organ trading after a teenager sold one of his kidneys to buy an iPhone and an iPad.
(AP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 6, Two Chinese political websites, Mao Flag and Utopia, said they had been ordered by authorities to shut for a month for criticizing state leaders, the latest move in a broad government crackdown on the Internet.
(AFP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 6, A Chinese cargo ship was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Oman, not far off the south of Iran. The Xianghuamen, owned by Yuanyang shipping company, was sailing with a crew of 28. Iran’s navy rescued the 28 crew members and detained 9 Somali pirates.
(AFP, 4/6/12)(AP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 6, Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi (76), a key figure in the pro-democracy movement behind the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, died in the United States.
(AFP, 4/7/12)
2012 Apr 9, China’s Supreme People's Court clarified and tightened rules governing forced land expropriations in a bid to "protect the public interest and guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of expropriated home owners."
(AFP, 4/10/12)
2012 Apr 10, China announced that Bo Xilai was being suspended from the Communist Party’s Politburo and Central Committee, and that his wife, Gu Kailai, was a suspect in the death of Briton Neil Heywood last November.
(SFC, 4/11/12, p.A3)
2012 Apr 10, A Chinese court sentenced disabled activist Ni Yulan and her husband to jail for "provoking trouble," a year after the couple were detained during a widespread crackdown on dissent. Ni and Dong, who have long helped victims of government-backed land grabs in China, were detained in April last year.
(AFP, 4/10/12)
2012 Apr 10, China's 3 top Internet portals pledged to work with the government to banish online rumors, as jittery authorities cracked down on the web following widespread rumors of a coup.
(AFP, 4/10/12)
2012 Apr 10, A Philippines warship found Chinese fishing boats inside the Scarborough shoal with an illegal haul of giant clams, coral and live sharks. Two Chinese civilian patrol boats blocked the mouth of the shoal to stop the Philippines navy from arresting the fisherman.
(Econ, 4/28/12, p.44)
2012 Apr 12, China deployed a third ship in an area of the disputed South China Sea where a tense standoff with Philippine vessels has dragged on, sparking alarm in Manila. On April 10 a Philippine warship attempted to arrest several Chinese fishermen accused of illegal entry and poaching, but was prevented by the arrival of two Chinese surveillance ships.
(AP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 12, China’s state media said 42 websites have been closed and more than 210,000 posts deleted since mid-March in a crackdown on online "rumors", as a major political scandal rocked the country.
(AFP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 13, In China an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu was discovered in Touying township of the Ningxia region after over 23,000 chickens began showing symptoms. Some 95,000 chickens were quickly culled.
(AFP, 4/18/12)
2012 Apr 16, In San Francisco the annual Goldman Environmental Prizes were presented 6 individuals. They included Sofia Gatica of Argentina work on diseases related to agrochemicals; Caroline Canon of Alaska for her village efforts against oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean; Ma Jun of China for his efforts on air and water violations by major manufacturers; Ikal Angelei of Kenya for her efforts to protect Lake Turkana; Evgenia Chirikova of Russia for her efforts to protect the Khimki Forest; and Father Edwin Gariguez of the Philippines for advocating against mining developments on indigenous lands.
(SFC, 4/16/12, p.A10)
2012 Apr 19, The US military said 2 ethnic Uighur men from western China, held for almost a decade without charge at Guantanamo Bay, have been resettled in El Salvador.
(SFC, 4/20/12, p.A2)
2012 Apr 20, China signed accords on energy cooperation and the Arctic in Iceland as Premier Wen Jiabao started a tour of northern Europe that will focus on Chinese investment in a continent eager for funds and to trade with the rising world power.
(Reuters, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 20, North Carolina-based Boxun.com was forced to move to a new web hosting service after its previous host said the attacks were threatening its entire business. The website has reported extensively on China's biggest political turmoil in years, underscoring the pivotal role the Internet has played in the unfolding scandal.
(AP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 20, Hackers claiming to come from China defaced the website of the Philippines' top university to assert their country's claim over the hotly disputed South China Sea.
(AFP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 22, China and Russia launched their first joint naval exercises, with 6 days of war games in the Yellow Sea that come amid tensions between China and its Asian neighbors over territorial claims.
(AFP, 4/22/12)
2012 Apr 22, Chinese blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng (40), one of the country’s best-known rights activists, made a daring escape from house arrest in Shandong province. By the end of the week he recorded a video detailing the abuses he and his family have suffered and expressed serious concerns for his wife and young son, still being held at the family's home. Chen reportedly found refuge in the US Embassy.
(AFP, 4/27/12)(SFC, 4/28/12, p.A3)
2012 Apr 23, Chinese state media said Guangdong party authorities have punished eight Wukan officials for corruption following a three month inquiry, including the previous Communist party chief, after their land grabs sparked an unprecedented uprising.
(AFP, 4/23/12)
2012 Apr 23, Chinese state media said police have arrested nine people and detained 54 others in a crackdown on chromium-tainted gel capsules made from industrial waste. On April 22 Xinhua News said that police have seized 77 million gel capsules and shuttered 80 production lines in Hebei province.
(AP, 4/23/12)
2012 Apr 25, South Sudan freed 14 Sudanese prisoners of war as a "goodwill gesture" despite weeks of fierce fighting along their contested border. South Sudan’s Pres. Kiir cut short his visit to China amid violence with Sudan, as Beijing announced plans to send a peace envoy.
(AFP, 4/25/12)
2012 Apr 27, In China the nephew of activist Chen Guangcheng defended himself from intruders who broke into the family home in eastern Shandong province apparently searching for his uncle following his April 22 dramatic escape from house arrest. The nephew later faced a charge of "intentional murder," despite the fact no one died in the encounter.
(AFP, 5/11/12)
2012 Apr 28, South Sudan government spokesman Barnaba Mariel Benjamin said China has agreed to loan the country eight billion dollars for infrastructure development.
(AFP, 4/28/12)
2012 Apr, In China Wang Guoqiang, the communist party chief of Fengcheng, Liaoning province, left the country with as much as 200 million yuan ($32 million). He allegedly fled to the United States amid a party investigation into a company run by a former classmate which had dealings with the city.
(AFP, 8/29/12)
2012 Apr, Chinese deputy party chief Zhi Haijie set up a new surveillance system in Lhasa, Tibet. Officials called it a “grid system of social management."
(Econ, 6/22/13, p.50)
2012 May 2, Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng left the US embassy, where he had sought protection after fleeing house arrest, following a deal with Beijing on his safety, US officials said. Beijing pledged that the legal campaigner and his family would be treated "humanely" and moved to a safe place, hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in China for pre-arranged talks.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 3, Chinese police detained and beat two supporters of Chen Guangcheng at the hospital where the blind activist was being treated.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 3, China's Bright Food said it is buying 60% of Weetabix from British owner Lion Capital in a deal valuing the breakfast cereal giant at £1.2 billion (1.48 billion euros, $1.94 billion).
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 3, The Philippine military accused China of sending more ships to the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, describing the move as an insult that would further inflame tensions.
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 4, The United States said that China had indicated it would let blind activist Chen Guangcheng and his family leave the country soon, raising hopes of a resolution to a damaging diplomatic crisis.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 6, Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, isolated in a Beijing hospital, appealed for official help to leave the country after a US-brokered diplomatic solution paved the way for his departure. Chen has been offered a fellowship from New York University.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 7, South Korean officials said they have seized thousands of smuggled drug capsules filled with powdered flesh from dead babies. The capsules were made in northeastern China from babies whose bodies were chopped into small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder.
(AP, 5/7/12)
2012 May 8, A North Korean boat hijacked three boats with 29 Chinese fishermen on board and demanded 1.2 million yuan ($190,000) for their release. The fisherman were freed May 20 after being held for 13 days.
(AP, 5/17/12)(AFP, 5/21/12)
2012 May 8, Qatar-based Al-Jazeera said it has shut its English-language bureau in China after its correspondent became the first foreign journalist to be expelled from the country since 1998. Beijing's refusal to renew the visa of US citizen Melissa Chan sparked anger among press groups, which linked the decision to a documentary by the international news channel on forced prison labor in China.
(AFP, 5/8/12)
2012 May 9, The United States opened its banking market to China's biggest bank ICBC, for the first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese state-controlled company.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 10, In northwestern China at least 44 people were killed when a brief but violent hailstorm and torrential rain swept through a mountainous region of Gansu province. 26 people remained missing.
(AFP, 5/13/12)(SFC, 5/14/12, p.A2)
2012 May 13, Leaders of China, Japan and South Korea, during their 5th annual trilateral summit, said they will work together to calm tensions on the Korean peninsula.
(SFC, 5/14/12, p.A2)
2012 May 14, The United States consulate in Shanghai began issuing its own pollution statistics, giving a much more pessimistic assessment of the city's air quality than official Chinese data.
(AFP, 5/15/12)
2012 May 15, In China police in Beijing launched a 100-day campaign urging citizens to report on foreigners illegally living or working in the capital, after a British man allegedly tried to rape a woman.
(AFP, 5/15/12)
2012 May 15, China began issuing new versions of its passports to include electronic chips. Inside the passports an outline of China printed in the upper left corner includes Taiwan and the entire South China Sea hemmed in by the dashes. This was later seen as a provocation since it would require other nations to tacitly endorse those claims by affixing their official seals to the documents.
(AP, 11/23/12)
2012 May 17, The US Commerce Department imposed levies of between 31 and 250 percent on Chinese producers and exporters after saying it had found they sold solar cells in the United States at artificially low prices, known as dumping.
(AFP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 18, Beijing blasted a "protectionist" US decision to slap hefty anti-dumping duties on Chinese solar cell makers.
(AFP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 18, In China Lai Changxing was convicted and sentenced by the Intermediate People's Court in Xiamen, the port city which was his base. On top of the life sentence for smuggling and a concurrent 15-year sentence for bribery, the court ordered all of Lai's personal property seized. The court's verdict said the operation totaled $3.3 billion, evaded $1.7 billion in duties and other taxes and bribed 64 officials between 1996 and 1999.
(AP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 19, Blind activist Chen Guangcheng and his family left China on a plane bound for the United States to pursue studies at an American university.
(AFP, 5/19/12)
2012 May 23, NY-based Human Rights Watch said a branch of Chinese city governments, set up to monitor everything from unlicensed street vendors to unauthorized construction, is rife with abuse of power, stoking already high social tensions.
(AP, 5/23/12)
2012 May 25, Chinese media reported that police in southwest China have detained a man suspected of murdering 11 boys and young men, chopping up their bodies and selling the flesh to unsuspecting consumers. Zhang Yongming (56) was detained two weeks ago in his home village of Nanmen in Yunnan and is being investigated over the murder of a 19-year-old man in late April and the disappearance of several others. Yongming, a convicted murderer, was released from prison in 1997.
(AFP, 5/25/12)(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 25, In China Ya Weilin (73), the father of a man killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, hanged himself in protest after two decades of failed attempts to seek government redress. Ya's son Ya Aiguo (22) was shot in the head by martial-law troops in Beijing after he had gone out shopping with his girlfriend.
(AP, 5/28/12)
2012 May 27, Chinese authorities said police have arrested Li Xingong, the former deputy director of the party committee in Yongcheng city, Henan province, on suspicion of raping at least 10 underage girls. The case has sparked a storm of Internet anger.
(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 27, Two Tibetan men set themselves on fire outside a temple in Lhasa and one died. Xinhua named the dead man as Tobgye Tseten, from Gansu province. The incident marked the first significant protest in Lhasa since riots broke out there in 2008. Chinese security forces rounded up hundreds of residents and pilgrims in the wake of the incident.
(AFP, 5/28/12)(AFP, 5/31/12)
2012 May 28, Chinese state media said former railways minister Liu Zhijun will face prosecution for alleged corruption, following reports he took bribes of more than 800 million yuan ($127 million). The ruling party's disciplinary watchdog said it had expelled Liu Zhijun from the party and handed his case to judicial authorities for handling.
(AFP, 5/28/12)
2012 May 30, In China a woman, identified as Rechok (33), set herself on fire outside a Buddhist monastery in an ethnically Tibetan region of western Sichuan province.
(AP, 5/31/12)
2012 Jun 1, China and Japan started direct currency trading as Beijing marked another stage on its journey to foster the yuan's use internationally in line with its growing economic clout.
(AFP, 6/1/12)
2012 Jun 2, Hong Kong health authorities urged the public not to panic after the southern Chinese city reported its first human case of bird flu in 18 months in a two-year-old boy.
(AFP, 6/2/12)
2012 Jun 2, In north China's Shaanxi province authorities forced Feng Jianmei to abort her 7-month pregnancy because she was unable to pay a 40,000 yuan ($6,270) fine for exceeding China's "one-child" population control policy. Graphic images of the abortion were later posted online showing the bloody corpse of her baby and caused an uproar in the country. On June 15 a deputy mayor visited Feng and her husband in the hospital, apologized to them and said officials would be suspended amid an investigation. In July the couple agreed to a compensation settlement from local authorities for 70,000 yuan ($11,000).
(AFP, 6/13/12)(AP, 6/15/12)(AFP, 7/11/12)
2012 Jun 3, In China police beat and detained political activists marking the 23rd anniversary of the brutal crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy protests. Officers used violence against activists in the southeast province of Fujian and detained them. A day earlier over 30 people who came to Beijing "to petition" were held and forced to return to their home province.
(AFP, 6/3/12)
2012 Jun 5, China told foreign embassies to stop publishing their own reports on air quality in the country, escalating its objections to a popular US Embassy Twitter feed that tracks pollution in smoggy Beijing.
(AP, 6/5/12)
2012 Jun 5, Chinese authorities alerted foreign travel agencies that they would no longer be issuing entry permits to Tibet.
(ABCNews, 6/7/12)
2012 Jun 6, In China 12 children were hurt in a clash at an Islamic school in the restive Xinjiang region, amid an escalating crackdown on "illegal" religious activities. The exiled World Uyghur Congress (WUC) group disputed the government version of events, citing sources on the ground as saying police tossed tear gas into the school.
(AFP, 6/6/12)
2012 Jun 6, In China ailing Chinese labor activist Li Wangyang (62), imprisoned for two decades, some of it doing hard labor, died in a hospital, reportedly hanging himself one year after being released from jail.
(AP, 6/6/12)
2012 Jun 6, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin visited China and emphasized burgeoning military ties on the second day of a visit to his nation's eastern neighbor.
(AP, 6/6/12)
2012 Jun 7, China cut its benchmark lending rate by a quarter percentage point to 6.31 percent for the first time since 2008 to support growth in its cooling economy.
(AP, 6/7/12)
2012 Jun 7, Chinese President Hu Jintao announced an SCO plan whereby China, Russia and four Central Asian states would grant Afghanistan observer status in their regional group. This was announced at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's annual summit in Beijing.
(AP, 6/7/12)
2012 Jun 8, China’s central bank cut its benchmark deposit and lending rates to help stimulate the economy.
(Econ, 6/16/12, p.81)
2012 Jun 9, China’s state media reported that authorities have fired or disciplined 12 police officers — including Jinning county police chief Da Qiming and Jincheng township police chief Zhao Huiyun, who were sacked last month, — for inadequately investigating a series of murders in southwest China in which victims were dismembered and buried.
(AP, 6/9/12)
2012 Jun 11, In China young and old residents of the metropolis of Wuhan were advised to stay indoors after a thick haze blanketed the city of nine million people. Xinhua described the haze as grey-yellow in color and said it was seen in 7 cities in Hubei province, including Wuhan.
(AFP, 6/11/12)
2012 Jun 13, China jailed two ex-chiefs of its football association, four former national team players and two others, in the culmination of a major crackdown on corruption in the scandal-plagued sport.
(AFP, 6/13/12)
2012 Jun 13, Chinese dairy maker Yili started recalling batches of baby formula after authorities found they contained high levels of mercury. The recall covered baby formula produced from November 2011 to May 2012.
(AFP, 6/14/12)
2012 Jun 13, Cambodia arrested French architect Patrick Devillers, with ties to disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, in a new twist to China's biggest political scandal in decades. Devillers was released on July 17 and flew to China voluntarily to help its investigation.
(AFP, 6/19/12)(AFP, 7/18/12)
2012 Jun 15, A manned Chinese submersible set a new record for the country's deepest sea dive, over 6,000 meters, showing Beijing's technological ambitions as it also readies for its first manned space docking. The "Jiaolong" craft dived over 19,685 feet into the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean.
(AFP, 6/15/12)
2012 Jun 16, China launched its most ambitious space mission yet carrying its first female astronaut and two male colleagues on a Shenzhou 9 capsule in an attempt to dock with an orbiting module and work on board for more than a week.
(AP, 6/16/12)
2012 Jun 18, Three Chinese astronauts entered an orbiting module for the first time, in a key step towards the nation's first space station.
(AFP, 6/18/12)
2012 Jun 20, In China 17 people were killed and three seriously injured when a long-distance bus overturned and plunged down a deep ravine in Fujian's Ningde city.
(AP, 6/20/12)
2012 Jun 20, In China Ngawang Norphel (21) set himself on fire along with another Tibetan youth, Tenzin Kaldrup, who died at the protest in Chendou county in the western province of Qinghai. Norphel died of his burns on Aug 1.
(AFP, 8/2/12)
2012 Jun 21, China said it summoned Vietnam's ambassador and strongly protested a law adopted by the Vietnamese parliament that places the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands under Hanoi's sovereignty. China also announced it had elevated the administrative status of the Nansha (Spratly) and Xisha (Paracel) islands from a county to a prefectural-level district.
(AFP, 6/21/12)
2012 Jun 21, Chinese PM Wen Jiabao held talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Jigmi Y. Thinley on the sidelines of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio De Janeiro. They agreed to establish diplomatic relations and resolve a long-standing border dispute.
(AFP, 6/22/12)
2012 Jun 22, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Uruguay, his first stop on a multi-nation visit to South America.
(AFP, 6/22/12)
2012 Jun 24, A manned Chinese submersible, the Jiaolong, broke through the 7,000-meter mark for a new national deep water dive record in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean on its fourth dive since arriving in the area earlier this month. The dive came on the same day China successfully completed its first manual space docking.
(AFP, 6/24/12)
2012 Jun 24, The Philippines alleged that a Chinese vessel accidentally rammed a local fishing boat north of a disputed South China Sea shoal, killing one and leaving four others missing. The fishing boat set out from the northern coastal town of Bolinao, in Pangasinan province on June 18 and was reported to have sunk two days later.
(AFP, 6/24/12)
2012 Jun 25, In China scores of people were injured when police in Shaxi township in Guangdong province broke up clashes between migrant workers from Sichuan province and the local population in the latest unrest to hit the nation.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 25, In Argentina Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met President Cristina Fernandez in Buenos Aires as part of a South American tour that included visits to Brazil and Uruguay and will end in Chile this week. Wen said the Asian giant is interested in a possible free-trade deal with the Mercosur regional trade bloc.
(AP, 6/25/12)
2012 Jun 26, In China the Chongqing municipal People's Congress accepted the resignation of Wang Lijun from the National People's Congress. Wang had launched the downfall of his former boss Bo Xilai when he fled to a US consulate in February.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 26, China executed four convicted drug traffickers and sentenced at least 15 others to death as the nation marked global anti-drug day.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 28, Cameroon and China signed a large infrastructure deal that will see Beijing lend the African country €368 million to build its first new motorway since independence in 1960.
(AFP, 6/28/12)
2012 Jun 28, Amnesty International said both South Sudan's army and rebel groups are using weapons imported from China, Ukraine and neighboring Sudan in fighting that has claimed dozens of civilian lives. Amnesty said the army was using Ukrainian-supplied T-72 battle tanks and that the rebel SSLA laid Chinese-made anti-vehicle mines and were firing Sudanese-made ammunition.
(AFP, 6/28/12)
2012 Jun 29, Chinese President Hu Jintao urged Hong Kong's restive people to embrace the motherland as he visited the financial citadel for the 15th anniversary of its return to rule by Beijing.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 29, China's first female astronaut, Liu Yang (33), and two other crew members emerged smiling from the Shenzhou 9 capsule that returned safely to Earth from a 13-day mission to an orbiting module that is a prototype for a future space station.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 29, In China Passengers and crew foiled an alleged hijacking attempt by six people on a plane in the far-western Xinjiang region. Local sources said that the plane turned back after Uighurs and Hans began fighting after a disagreement over seat assignments.
(AP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 29, In southern China a tanker truck filled with gasoline collided with a truck, setting off an explosion and a massive fire that left 20 people dead and 14 others hurt.
(AP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 30, China’s Civil Affairs Ministry said at least 50 people have been killed from mudslides in the south. Another 42 people were missing.
(SSFC, 7/1/12, p.A6)
2012 Jun 30, Hong Kong police used pepper spray to disperse crowds demonstrating against Chinese President Hu Jintao, ahead of the 15th anniversary of the territory's handover amid tight security.
(AFP, 6/30/12)
2012 Jul 1, Hong Kong's biggest protest for nearly a decade packed the former British colony's streets in a defiant reception for its new leader and a show of popular anger after 15 years of Chinese rule. The vast rally came after Leung Chun-ying, a millionaire property consultant seen as close to China's communist authorities, was sworn in as chief executive in front of Chinese President Hu Jintao -- who had his speech interrupted.
(AFP, 7/1/12)
2012 Jul 2, China's state media reported that the booming southern city of Guangzhou has imposed a cap on the number of cars allowed to be sold in an effort to curb worsening traffic and pollution. It became the third Chinese city, after Beijing and Guiyang, to introduce registration plate limits in an effort to combat the escalating number of cars on China's roads.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 2, In China the High Court of the southern province of Guangdong said Apple has paid $60 million to end a dispute with Shenzhen Proview Technology over who could use the iPad name in China, giving the US tech giant more certainty in selling its tablet computer in the Chinese market.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 3, Chinese police clashed for a second day with protesters in Shifang, who stopped the construction of a heavy metals factory over environmental concerns. Authorities bowed to violent protests and cancelled plans to build the controversial metals factory.
(AFP, 7/3/12)(AFP, 7/4/12)
2012 Jul 4, China’s giant and controversial Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River started working at full capacity as the last of its 32 generators went into operation.
(AFP, 7/4/12)
2012 Jul 4, In China a coal mine in Hunan province flooded trapping 16 miners. Rescue workers pulled 8 miners out of the coal mine in Leiyang city on July 8, but another 3 were believed to be still trapped.
(AFP, 7/5/12)(AFP, 7/8/12)(SFC, 7/9/12, p.A2)
2012 Jul 5, China pledged financial aid to Cuba as it undertakes historic economic reforms, promising visiting President Raul Castro a new credit line as well as help in health care and technology.
(AFP, 7/5/12)
2012 Jul 6, China's state-run Catholic church ordained Father Yue Fusheng as Bishop in the northeastern city of Harbin in defiance of the Vatican.
(AFP, 7/6/12)
2012 Jul 7, In China the Rev. Thaddeus Ma Daqin was consecrated as auxiliary bishop of Shanghai. Ma announced that he would no longer work for the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CCPA), the government body that oversees Catholics in China.
(SFC, 7/11/12, p.A6)(Economist, 9/8/12, p.42)
2012 Jul 8, China started work on a 30-billion-yuan ($4.8-billion) tourism project in Lhasa city, as it seeks to draw more travelers to the restive Tibet region.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, In China a gas blast at a coal mine in the central province of Hunan killed seven people, the latest in a string of accidents in the country's dangerous mining industry.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 11, A Chinese ship, bow number 560, on "routine patrol" became stranded near Half Moon Shoal in the Spratly Islands, 60 nautical miles from the western Philippine island of Palawan. The ship was refloated on July 15.
(AFP, 7/14/12)(AP, 7/15/12)
2012 Jul 11, New Zealand launched a search for hundreds of Chinese students who arrived in the country on fraudulently-obtained visas.
(AFP, 7/11/12)
2012 Jul 15, The Chinese province of Hunan urged parents to seek immediate treatment for children showing symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease after official figures showed 112 people died from the illness last month.
(AFP, 7/15/12)
2012 Jul 18, China’s Ministry of Health issued a new code of conduct banning medical staff from prescribing unnecessary tests and the prescription of expensive tests to boost income.
(Econ, 7/21/12, p.38)
2012 Jul 19, China said it would offer $20 billion in new loans to Africa, underscoring the relationship's growing importance, as Chinese companies agreed to operate more responsibly on the resource-rich continent.
(AFP, 7/19/12)
2012 Jul 19, At the United Nations permanent Security Council members Russia and China vetoed resolutions on Syria for the third time in nine months.
(AFP, 7/19/12)
2012 Jul 20, A Beijing court rejected dissident artist Ai Weiwei's lawsuit over a $2.4 million fine imposed on his company for tax evasion. He said the case is part of an intimidation campaign to stop him from criticizing the government.
(AP, 7/20/12)
2012 Jul 21, In China at least 54 people died, including 37 in Beijing, during torrential rainstorms which battered much of northern and southwestern China over the last 24 hours. Heavy rainfall was expected to last for another day. On July 26 the toll in Beijing was increased to 77.
(AFP, 7/21/12)(AP, 7/22/12)(AFP, 7/23/12)(AFP, 7/26/12)
2012 Jul 23, China’s State-controlled CNOOC Ltd launched a takeover bids by agreeing to buy Canadian oil producer Nexen Inc for $15.1 billion, forcing Ottawa to decide whether national security concerns outweigh its desire for foreign investment in its energy resources.
(Reuters, 7/23/12)
2012 Jul 23, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) agreed to purchase a 49% stake in the North Sea assets of Talisman Energy, a Canadian firm, for $1.5 billion.
(Econ, 7/28/12, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/c9v3ypx)
2012 Jul 24, China upgraded Sansha to prefecture level. The area was created by bureaucrats in 2007 to oversee and administer one million square miles of the South China Sea. A new mayor declared Sansha, population of just 1,000, to be China's newest municipality. The city administration is on tiny Yongxing island, 350 km (220 miles) southeast from China's tropical Hainan Island. Vietnam and China both claim the Paracels, of which Yongxing, little more than half the size of Manhattan's Central Park, is part.
(SFC, 7/24/13, p.A14)(Econ, 4/19/14, SR p.15)(AP, 7/24/12)
2012 Jul 24, In China Rosalia Amarilla (31), a clothes vendor from Paraguay, stepped into the international terminal of Beijing's cavernous main airport, wearing more than 7 pounds (3 kg) of cocaine stuffed into her underwear and bra. She was caught and later sentenced to death on drug trafficking charges.
(AP, 1/24/15)
2012 Jul 26, China’s state news agency said Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai, the former political leader whose downfall sent shockwaves through China, has been charged with murdering British businessman Neil Heywood last November. Zhang Xiaojun, previously described as an orderly who worked for the high-flying couple, will also be prosecuted on the same charge.
(AFP, 7/26/12)
2012 Jul 28, Authorities in eastern China dropped plans for a waste water discharge project after thousands of protesters angry about pollution took to the streets in Qidong, Jiangsu province. On Jan 30, 2013, 14 defendants were prosecuted on charges of encouraging mass violence against government buildings and intentionally damaging property in Qidong.
(AP, 7/28/12)(AP, 1/31/13)
2012 Jul 28, In China serial killer Zhang Yongming (56) was sentenced to death for murdering 11 people in Jinning county between 2008 and 2012.
(SSFC, 7/29/12, p.A6)
2012 Aug 1, It was reported that authorities in China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang have banned Muslim officials and students from fasting during Ramadan, prompting an exiled rights group to warn of new violence.
(AFP, 8/1/12)
2012 Aug 1, In northeast China a teenager (17) killed nine people and wounding four others in a knife attack in Liaoning province's Xinbin county. Police nabbed him as he was preparing to jump from a building in an apparent suicide attempt.
(AFP, 8/2/12)
2012 Aug 2, Chinese state media said courts in the restive Xinjiang region with a large Muslim population have jailed 20 people for up to 15 years for using the Internet to incite separatism and "holy war."
(AFP, 8/2/12)
2012 Aug 4, In southern Zambia coal miners killed a Chinese mine manager and injured his colleague in a riot over wages at the Collum Coal mine in Sinazongwe known for tensions with the Chinese investor.
(AFP, 8/5/12)
2012 Aug 5, China’s Xinhua news reported that authorities have detained nearly 2,000 people in recent weeks as part of nationwide crackdown on the sale of counterfeit drugs.
(SFC, 8/6/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 6, Macau police said they have arrested 150 people in raids at casinos and hotels across the Chinese territory following a spate of violence that raised fears of a revival of gang warfare in the world's most lucrative gambling market.
(AP, 8/6/12)
2012 Aug 7, In China Dolkar Kyi (26) immolated herself at Tso monastery in Kanlho prefecture (Gannan in Chinese), Gansu province, after chanting slogans calling for the return of the Dalai Lama.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, DreamWorks Animation said it plans to build a $3.2 billion "entertainment zone" in Shanghai, as the US film giant seeks to bolster its presence in the booming Chinese market.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 8, In eastern China Typhoon Haikui slammed into in Zhejiang province south of Shanghai, the country's third in a week, killing at least two people and causing more than $1 billion in damage.
(AFP, 8/8/12)
2012 Aug 9, In China Gu Kailai, the wife of disgraced politician Bo Xilai, said she lured a British businessman Neil Heywood to a hotel in the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing, where she got him drunk and poisoned him.
(AP, 8/9/12)
2012 Aug 10, Four Chinese police officers admitted in court to covering up the killing of a British businessman to protect Gu Kailai, the wife of a senior politician charged with his murder. The officers covered up her involvement in Neil Heywood's death by "forging interview scripts and hiding evidence," agreeing to say he died of excessive alcohol consumption.
(AFP, 8/10/12)
2012 Aug 13, In far west China a Kirti monk named Lungtok and another man, identified as Tashi, set themselves alight in Sichuan province's Aba prefecture. Police beat a Tibetan man to death during a clash that broke out after the two Tibetans set themselves on fire.
(AP, 8/14/12)
2012 Aug 14, Chinese police killed a fugitive armed robber and suspected serial killer dubbed China's most dangerous man, ending a huge manhunt. Zhou Kehua (42), suspected of killing nine people, spent eight years on the run before being shot dead in Chongqing.
(AFP, 8/14/12)
2012 Aug 15, China and South Korea pressed Japan to face up to its wartime past, as festering territorial disputes flared and Asia marked the anniversary of Tokyo's World War II surrender.
(AFP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 15, The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said that car importer Ateco Automotive ordered dealers to stop selling certain vehicles by China’s Great Wall Motor Co. and Chery Automobile after asbestos was found inside engine and exhaust gaskets.
(AP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 15, Japan made 14 arrests after pro-China activists from Hong Kong landed on Senkaku (aka Diaoyu) island at the center of a bitter territorial dispute. On Aug 17 half of the group were put aboard a commercial airliner in the Okinawan main city of Naha and arrived in Hong Kong. The other half were taken back to their boat in Ishigaki.
(AFP, 8/15/12)(AFP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 18, In China Yu Wenxia, Miss China, won the Miss World crown for 2012, defeating more than 100 other hopefuls the world's biggest beauty pageant in at a glittering ceremony in Ordos, a Chinese mining city on the edge of the Gobi desert.
(AFP, 8/18/12)
2012 Aug 18, A flotilla of boats carrying Japanese nationalists and lawmakers set sail for islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and as Diaoyu in China, at the heart of a vitriolic diplomatic row with China, despite warnings from Beijing. China demanded that Japan cease actions "harming" its territorial sovereignty.
(AFP, 8/18/12)
2012 Aug 19, Japanese nationalists raised flags on an island at the heart of a corrosive territorial row, sparking street protests in China and an angry reaction from Beijing.
(AFP, 8/19/12)
2012 Aug 20, A Chinese court handed Gu Kailai, the wife of disgraced political leader Bo Xilai, a suspended death sentence for murder in a case that has rocked the Communist party ahead of a 10-yearly power handover. Zhang Xiaojun, an employee of the Bo family charged with helping Gu to poison Heywood, was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in jail while four police officers were convicted of attempting to cover up the murder.
(AFP, 8/20/12)
2012 Aug 21, Sierra Leone said it has signed a $15 million (12 million euro) loan agreement with China for the installation of a fiber optic cable which will boost Internet capabilities.
(AFP, 8/21/12)
2012 Aug 22, In China students at Shanghai’s Sheshan Catholic seminary learned that classes would be suspended indefinitely.
(Economist, 9/8/12, p.42)
2012 Aug 23, Philippine police arrested more than 350 people over a major telephone scam that swindled people out of millions of dollars in Taiwan and mainland China.
(AFP, 8/23/12)
2012 Aug 24, In northeast China 3 people were killed and five injured when an eight-lane bridge collapsed, only nine months after it opened in Harbin city.
(AFP, 8/24/12)
2012 Aug 24, In Myanmar Kachin rebels said China has pushed thousands of Kachin refugees from Yunnan province back across the border into a province wracked by fighting between government troops and ethnic guerillas.
(AFP, 8/24/12)
2012 Aug 26, Chinese police brought back 37 suspected Chinese gangsters from Angola. They had been arrested for alleged crimes against other Chinese.
(SSFC, 8/26/12, p.A5)
2012 Aug 26, In northern China a double-decker bus rammed into a tanker loaded with highly flammable methanol, causing both vehicles to burst into flames and killing 36 people close to the city of Yan'an in Shaanxi province. In the southwest 11 people were killed and another was seriously hurt when a van crashed into a truck Sichuan province.
(AP, 8/26/12)(AP, 8/27/12)
2012 Aug 27, In China Tibetans Lobsang Kalsang (18), a Buddhist monk, and former monk Damchoek (17) died in hospital after setting themselves on fire in Aba town.
(AFP, 8/28/12)
2012 Aug 27, In northwest China a commercial van slammed into a truck, killing nine people.
(AP, 8/27/12)
2012 Aug 29, In China 154 miners were working underground at the Xiaojiawan coal mine in the city of Panzhihua, Sichuan province, when a blast occurred. At least 43 people were killed and 3 remained trapped.
(AFP, 9/1/12)
2012 Aug 31, Chinese dissident Wang Xiaoning (62), convicted based on evidence provided by US Internet giant Yahoo!, was released from prison after serving a 10-year term for subversion.
(AFP, 8/31/12)
2012 Aug, Yao Ming, former basketball star and a goodwill ambassador to WildAid, a nonprofit dedicated to ending illegal wildlife trading, took a trip to Kenya, where he spent several days interacting with wildlife officials and seeing some of the effects of poaching. Ming accepted to work as an ambassador for elephant conservationists hoping to convice the Chinese public not to buy trinkets from African ivory.
(Econ, 11/3/12, p.48)(http://tinyurl.com/au6uxs5)
2012 Sep 4, Congo and China signed accords worth 975 million euros as part of a project to rebuild parts of the capital Brazzaville devastated by a deadly munitions depot blast in early March.
(AFP, 9/4/12)
2012 Sep 4, Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony announced that joint military exercises between India and China will be resumed after a four-year gap, after talks in New Delhi with his Beijing counterpart.
(AFP, 9/4/12)
2012 Sep 5, China’s state media reported that former Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun, whose flight to a US consulate set off China's biggest political scandal in years, has been charged with crimes including defection and bribe taking.
(AP, 9/5/12)
2012 Sep 5, Japanese media reports said Japan’s government has agreed to buy three of the five privately owned islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, from the Kurihara family for 2.05 billion yen ($26 million). China responded by calling the reported purchase "illegal and invalid."
(AP, 9/5/12)
2012 Sep 6, The European Union launched an anti-dumping probe into Chinese solar panels after an industry association claimed the products were being exported for less than it costs to make them.
(AP, 9/6/12)
2012 Sep 7, In southwest China twin earthquakes collapsed houses and triggered landslides in a remote mountainous part of the borders of Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, killing at least 81 people and injuring over 800.
(AP, 9/7/12)(AP, 9/8/12)(AP, 9/9/12)
2012 Sep 8, Hong Kong officials backed down on plans to make students take Chinese patriotism classes following a week of protests in the former British colony sparked by fears of pro-Beijing "brainwashing."
(AP, 9/8/12)
2012 Sep 11, China announced that for the first time it is allowing foreigners to apply for positions as government officials in tourism, transportation, health, commerce and information technology.
(www.globaltimes.cn/content/732631.shtml)
2012 Sep 11, Japan's Cabinet formally announced that the government will purchase several disputed islands from a private Japanese family. China sent two patrol ships to the waters near the disputed islands in a show of its “undisputable sovereignty."
(AP, 9/11/12)(SFC, 9/12/12, p.A6)
2012 Sep 12, Nigeria’s Finance Ministry said China is offering it $1.1 billion in loans to help the West African nation build airport terminals, a light rail line for its capital city and communication system improvements.
(AP, 9/12/12)
2012 Sep 15, In China protests against Japan over its control of disputed islands spread across more than two dozen cities and turned violent at times, with protesters burning Japanese flags and clashing with Chinese paramilitary police at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing before order was restored.
(AP, 9/15/12)
2012 Sep 17, The US government lodged a trade complaint alleging that China unfairly subsidizes car-part exports.
(Economist, 9/22/12, p.37)
2012 Sep 18, In China the trial of former Chengdu police chief Wang Lijun ended. He confessed to defection as well as 3 other charges including abuse of power, taking bribes and bending the law for personal gain. On Sep 24 Lijun was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(SFC, 9/19/12, p.A4)(AP, 9/24/12)
2012 Sep 28, China's communist leadership expelled Bo Xilai (63) from the ruling party and sought to bury him with charges ranging from corruption to sexual affairs, aiming to sweep away their most damaging scandal in decades while finally scheduling their long-awaited leadership transition for November.
(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Sep 28, China launched a second satellite built for Venezuela's government. The $140 million remote sensing satellite soared into orbit atop a rocket from the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu. It will provide images for tasks such as mapping croplands, counter-drug efforts and monitoring floods.
(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Sep 28, President Barack Obama, citing national security risks, blocked a Chinese company from owning four wind farm projects in northern Oregon near a Navy base where the US military flies unmanned drones and electronic-warfare planes on training missions.
(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Oct 4, In China the Tiantou Elementary School was buried when the hillside collapsed in Zhenhe, a village in Yunnan province. 18 elementary school students were killed. A 19th victim was found the next day.
(AP, 10/5/12)
2012 Oct 5, In China some 3-4 thousand workers at the Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou reportedly went on strike over increased quality control standards. Foxconn, maker of Apple’s iPhones, said the next day that production continued without interruption.
(SSFC, 10/7/12, p.A5)
2012 Oct 8, A US House Intelligence Committee warned in a report that American companies should avoid doing business with China's two leading technology firms because they pose a national security threat to the United States. The panel said US regulators should block mergers and acquisitions in this country by Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ZTE Corp, among the world's leading suppliers of telecommunications gear and mobile phones.
(AP, 10/8/12)
2012 Oct 11, Guan Moye (b.1955), aka Mo Yan, became the first Chinese writer to win the literature Nobel Prize. He is best known in the West for "Red Sorghum", which portrays the hardships endured by farmers in the early years of communist rule and was made in a film directed by Zhang Yimou.
(AP, 10/12/12)(Econ, 10/20/12, p.42)
2012 Oct 13, In northwestern China's Gansu province Tamdrin Dorjee (52) died at the scene near Tsoe Monastery after setting himself on fire in protest of Chinese rule. Free Tibet said the man is the grandfather of the 7th Gungthang Rinpoche.
(AP, 10/13/12)
2012 Oct 21, In northwest China Tibetan Lhamo Kyeb (27) called for the Dalai Lama’s return and died after setting himself on fire near the Bhora monastery in Gansu province.
(SFC, 10/22/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 23, In China Dorje Rinchen (58), a Tibetan farmer, set himself on fire and died on the main street in Xiahe near the Labrang Monastery.
(AP, 10/24/12)
2012 Oct 24, China approved new nuclear power plants as part of plans to reduce reliance on oil and coal, ending the moratorium it imposed to review safety in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster last year.
(AP, 10/24/12)
2012 Oct 25, In China Tibetan cousins Tsepo (20) and Tenzin (25) called for independence for Tibet as they set fire to themselves in front of a government building in their village in Biru county north of Lhasa.
(AP, 10/27/12)
2012 Oct 25, The NY Times furnished evidence that family members of China’s PM Wen Jiabao has accumulated some $2.7 billion during his decade in office.
(Econ, 11/3/12, p.45)
2012 Oct 26, China blocked access to the NY Times website after the paper published an article claiming the family of Premier Wen Jiabao has amassed assets worth $2.7 billion through a web of investments, mostly accumulated after he rose to high office in 2002.
(SFC, 10/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 26, Chinese lawmakers stripped disgraced politician Bo Xilai of his last official position, formally expelling him from the country's top legislature and clearing the way for criminal proceedings against the once-rising political star.
(AP, 10/26/12)
2012 Oct 26, In China thousands of people in Ningbo city, Zhejiang province, clashed with police during a protest over the proposed expansion of a petrochemical factory that they fear would spew pollution and damage public health.
(AP, 10/27/12)
2012 Oct 28, The local Chinese government in Ningbo relented and agreed that a petrochemical factory would not be expanded, only to see the protesters refuse to halt their demonstration.
(AP, 10/28/12)
2012 Oct 31, Spanish infrastructure company Ferrovial said an arm of China's sovereign wealth fund has taken a 10 percent stake in the holding company controlling Britain's largest airport Heathrow.
(AP, 10/31/12)
2012 Nov 4, In China a closed-door meeting of the Central Committee ended. It endorsed decisions to expel Bo and former Railways Minister Liu Zhijun from the Communist Party and approved final preparations for the party's upcoming congress, which opens Nov 8.
(AP, 11/4/12)
2012 Nov 4, In China a Tibetan artist died after setting himself on fire in Tongren, Qinghai province, in protest over Chinese rule.
(SFC, 11/5/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 7, In China 4 self-immolations took place. Three Tibetan teenage monks, aged 15-16, set themselves on fire outside a police office in southwest Sichuan province. At least one died. A 23-year-old Tibetan nomadic woman, Tamdin Tso, died after self-immolating in western Qinghai province.
(AP, 11/8/12)
2012 Nov 7, In China Miyun county police took away Internet blogger Zhai Xiaobing and seized his computer. His Nov 5 tweet suggested the next movie in the "Final Destination" horror franchise would be about the Great Hall of the People collapsing on party delegates. A Miyun county police officer later told The Associated Press that Zhai was being investigated for "spreading terrorist information. Zhai's supporters call the allegation absurd and more than 400 people signed an online petition calling on police to release him.
(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Nov 8, China's ruling communists opened a pivotal congress to initiate a power handover to new leaders with a nod to their revolutionary past and a broad promise of cleaner government while keeping off-stage the main even. President Hu Jintao warned that unrestrained graft threatened to topple the party's continued rule.
(AP, 11/8/12) (AP, 11/9/12)
2012 Nov 8, In China Jinpa Gyatso, a Tibetan nomad in western Qinghai, died after setting himself on fire.
(AP, 11/8/12)
2012 Nov 9, In China Wang Yang, a senior Communist Party leader, said asset disclosure for Chinese officials is likely to be slowly phased in over time, as the government grapples with the fraught task of rooting out the corruption that has fed widespread public anger.
(AP, 11/9/12)
2012 Nov 10, In northwest China Gonpo Tsering, an 18-year-old Tibetan villager, died after setting himself on fire in front of a monastery in the city of Hezuo. This was the latest of a half-dozen such self-immolations reported during the past week as the country's communist leadership undergoes a once-a-decade transfer of power.
(AP, 11/10/12)
2012 Nov 12, In China a 24-year-old Tibetan man set himself on fire at a prayer ceremony in Tongren county in western Qinghai province, becoming the seventh person in six days to self-immolate in the region.
(AP, 11/12/12)
2012 Nov 13, In eastern China Yao Defen (39), the world's tallest woman at 7 feet and 7 inches, died at her home in Anhui province.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Nov 14, China’s President Hu Jintao stepped aside as ruling party leader to clear the way for Vice President Xi Jinping to take the helm as part of only the second orderly transfer of power in 63 years of Communist rule.
(AP, 11/14/12)
2012 Nov 15, In China Xi Jinping assumed the leadership as the ruling Communist Party confronts slower economic growth, a public clamor to end corruption and demands for change that threaten its hold on power. It was revealed the Hu Jintao had stepped down not only as the Party’s general secretary but also as head of China’s army.
(AP, 11/15/12)(Econ, 11/17/12, p.43)
2012 Nov 15, As China unveiled its new leadership in Beijing with promises of a better life for all, five runaway boys seeking shelter and warmth died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a garbage bin in Bijie city, 25 km from their home village of Caqiangyan.
(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Nov 18, In Cambodia Asean leaders decided to ask China to start formal talks "as soon as possible" on crafting a legally binding accord aimed at preventing an outbreak of violence in disputed South China Sea territories. ASEAN leaders also adopted a human rights declaration despite last-minute calls for a postponement by critics.
(AP, 11/18/12)
2012 Nov 19, French oil firm Total SA said it has sold a stake in an offshore oil field in Nigeria for $2.5 billion to Chinese state oil company Sinopec Corp. The cash deal requjired approval by Nigerian authorities.
(AP, 11/19/12)
2012 Nov 20, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that two Tibetan herdsmen had killed themselves by setting themselves on fire in two separate incidents.
(AP, 11/23/12)
2012 Nov 22, In northwest China Libong Tsering (19), a Tibetan man, set himself on fire in Qinghai province. The latest death brings to at least 78 the number of Tibetans who have self-immolated since 2009 in protest against China's strict control over Tibet's Buddhist culture.
(AP, 11/23/12)
2012 Nov 24, In China a coal mine accident in the southwest killed 18 workers and trapped five more in the state-owned Xiangshui coalmine in Guizhou province.
(AP, 11/24/12)
2012 Nov 24, India began issuing Chinese citizens visas embossed with maps of India showing all territories claimed by New Delhi. The move was in response to China’s newly revised passports that show disputed territory near their shared border as part of China.
(SSFC, 11/25/12, p.A6)
2012 Nov 20, A 5-year-old sex tape of an 18-year-old woman allegedly hired by developers to sleep with a city official exploded on the Chinese Internet when screenshots of it were uploaded by a Beijing-based former journalist Zhu Ruifeng to his Hong Kong-registered website, an independent online clearing house for corruption allegations.
(AP, 11/27/12)
2012 Nov 25, In China 4 more self-immolations by ethnicTibetans were reported over the last two days in Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai provinces. At least 20 students were hospitalized after a protest turned violent in Qinghai province's Hainan prefectur.
(AP, 11/27/12)
2012 Nov 29, A British environmental group released a report saying China is helping to propel a $4 billion trade in illegally harvested timber and spurring the destruction of fragile ecosystems across the globe.
(SFC, 11/30/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov, In China Wang Qishan took over the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), China's top anti-corruption authority.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.49)
2012 Dec 1, The Philippines denounced Chinese plans to search ships sailing through what Beijing says is its territory in the South Chine Sea.
(SSFC, 12/2/12, p.A5)
2012 Dec 4, In southern China a fire in a clothing factory apparently caused by arson killed 14 people in Shantou city, Guangdong province. The victims were all women aged 18-20. The next day suspect Liu Shuangyun said he started the fire due a longtime dispute over less than $500 in unpaid wages.
(AP, 12/4/12)(SFC, 12/6/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 4, Vietnam said it would begin new patrols in the South China Sea after it accused a Chinese fishing boat of cutting a seismic cable attached to one of its vessels exploring for oil and gas. India also said it would consider sending navy vessels to protect its interests in the area.
(SFC, 12/5/12, p.A3)
2012 Dec 7, Canada’s PM Stephen Harper approved China's biggest ever foreign takeover, a $15.1 billion bid by state-controlled CNOOC Ltd for energy company Nexen Inc., but drew a line in the sand against future buys by state-owned enterprises. He also approved a smaller deal for a Canadian gas producer by Petronas, Malaysia’s state energy company.
(Reuters, 12/7/12)(Econ, 12/15/12, p.38)
2012 Dec 9, Chinese state media said police have detained a monk and his nephew in Sichuan province and accused them of instigating the self-immolations of eight ethnic Tibetans on the instructions of the Dalai Lama and his followers.
(AP, 12/9/12)
2012 Dec 12, Chinese religious officials said they have revoked the title of new Catholic Bishop Ma Daqin in Shanghai. He outraged officials by immediately dropping out of the government agency that oversees the country's officially sanctioned church.
(AP, 12/12/12)
2012 Dec 14, China provided the United Nations with detailed claims to waters in the East China Sea, apparently padding out its legal argument in an ongoing territorial dispute with Japan.
(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Dec 14, Chinese authorities said they have arrested a legislator found to have four wives. Li Junwen (43), an appointed representative from Xiaodian and the Communist Party head of the village of Xiquan, Shanxi province, also had 10 children, and had been detained on suspicion of document forgery.
(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Dec 14, In China Min Yongjun (36), a resident of Guangshan, burst into the home of an elderly woman and stabbed her with a kitchen knife. He then took a kitchen knife and hacked at more 22 children as they entered their rural Chenpeng Village Primary School. On Dec 13, 2013, Yongjun was sentenced to death.
(AP, 12/15/12)(AFP, 12/13/13)
2012 Dec 18, Chinese state media reported that police have detained more than 500 people from a fringe Christian group for spreading rumors about the world's impending end on Dec 21.
(AP, 12/18/12)
2012 Dec 24, In China a van carrying 15 children to kindergarten plunged into a roadside pond killing 11 children in Guixi city, Jiangxi province.
(SFC, 12/25/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 25, In China 72 prominent Chinese scholars and lawyers released a petition urging the country's new Communist Party leaders to undertake moderate political reforms including separating the party from government.
(AP, 12/26/12)(Econ, 1/5/12, p.32)
2012 Dec 25, Argentina's coast guard cutter Thompson fired warning shots at two Chinese trawlers, blocking their escape into international waters. Ten tons of squid were found in the holds of the Lu Rong Yu 6177 and 6178 after they were hauled into port.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2012 Dec 26, China opened the world's longest high-speed rail line, which runs 2,298 km (1,428 miles) from the country's capital in the north to Guangzhou, an economic hub in the Pearl River delta in southern China.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 28, China’s national legislature amended its law on the elderly to require that adult children visit their aged parents "often" — or risk being sued by them.
(AP, 12/28/12)
2012 Dec 28, China passed a new law requiring real-name registration of internet subscribers.
(Econ, 1/5/13, p.33)
2012 Dec 28, In China an overloaded minibus fell into a ravine killing 5 children and 5 adults in the Guangxi region.
(SSFC, 12/30/12, p.A6)
2012 James Fallows authored “China Airborne," a look at China’s recent unprecedented achievements and its inherent limitations.
(SSFC, 5/20/12, p.M5)
2012 China passed its first national mental health law.
(Econ, 7/11/15, SR p.3)
2012 Chinese multinational Dalian Wanda acquired AMC Theaters, an American cinema chain, for $2.6 billion.
(Econ, 9/28/13, p.62)
2013 Jan 8, In China free-speech protesters in masks squared off against flag-waving communist loyalists in Guangzhou as a dispute over censorship at a newspaper spilled into the broader population, with authorities shutting microblog accounts of supporters of the paper.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, The Japanese government summoned China's ambassador to protest four Chinese maritime surveillance ships that spent about 13 hours in waters near disputed islands claimed by both countries.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 11, In China a landslide smothered 14 homes in Zhaojiagou village, Yunnan province. At least 46 people were killed.
(SSFC, 1/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 12, Four Chinese workers were abducted in Sudan's North Darfur region by unidentified gunmen. They were released on Jan 16. Eleven Sudanese workers who were abducted together with the Chinese remained hostages.
(AP, 1/14/13)(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 13, In China people refused to venture outdoors and buildings disappeared into Beijing's murky skyline as the air quality in the notoriously polluted capital went off the index.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 22, The Philippines took a desperate legal step against China's claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, formally notifying the Asian superpower that Manila is seeking international arbitration to declare Beijing's moves in the potentially oil-rich waters "unlawful."
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 25, Washington and Beijing agreed that any North Korean nuclear test will lead to North Korea's further isolation and set back efforts to restart regional talks.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, In China a scandal involving Chinese city officials having sex with women hired by developers who secretly videotaped the trysts to extort construction deals broadened with state media announcing that 10 more officials have been fired.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, A senior Japanese envoy handed China's leader, Xi Jinping, a cordial letter from PM Shinzo Abe in the highest-level contact between the sides since tensions spiked in September over an island dispute, though the meeting yielded little beyond commitments to hold further contact.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 29, Thick, off-the-scale smog shrouded eastern China for the second time in about two weeks, forcing airlines to cancel flights because of poor visibility and prompting Beijing to temporarily shut factories and curtail fleets of government cars.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 30, China’s Beijing government put into place emergency measures to try to combat thick smog which has encased the city.
(SFC, 1/31/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 31, Chinese courts convicted eight Tibetans over accusations they incited others to self-immolate in the first such prosecutions to become publicly known, showing Beijing's resolve to stamp out the protests by criminalizing both the protesters and their supporters.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2012 Jan 31, Chinese police detained Liu Hui, the brother-in-law of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, on fraud charges in what the family said is the latest act of official retaliation. In March he was formally charged over a real estate dispute.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Jan 31, The NY Times said Chinese hackers repeatedly penetrated its computer systems over the past four months, stealing reporters' passwords and hunting for files on an investigation into the wealth amassed by the family of a top Chinese leader.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan, In China out promoting his latest book, “Everybody in the World Knows," former sports writer Li Chengpeng was told by authorities that he could take “no questions from readers, no talking at all… not even ‘happy new year’ or ‘thank you"’.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.35)
2013 Feb 1, Chinese car maker Geely said it has bought Manganese Bronze, the maker of London's black taxis since 1948, for 11 million pounds, safeguarding jobs and production of the vehicles in Britain.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, In central China an elevated portion of highway collapsed after a truck loaded with illegal fireworks for Lunar New Year celebrations exploded, killing at least 10 people and sending vehicles plummeting 30 meters to the ground.
(AP, 2/1/13)(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, China’s Xinhua News reported that 13 people died after an overloaded bus tumbled down a slope. Over 50 people were killed in the last 24 hours in 4 major accidents.
(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A6)
2013 Feb 3, In China Gong Aiai (49), a former bank official from Shaanxi province, was arrested on suspicion of acquiring 41 houses in Beijing.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.46)( www.wiki86.com/view/9976143.htm)
2013 Feb 5, In China a court in Beijing sentenced 10 people to prison terms for running a black jail. “Custody and repatriation" centers, which held petitioners along with beggars and vagrants, were scrapped in 2003.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.45)
2013 Feb 5, Chinese phone maker Huawei and Microsoft launched a new smartphone in Africa, which they say is the world's fastest growing mobile phone market. The Huawei 4Afrika phone runs Windows Phone 8 and comes pre-loaded with applications designed for the African market.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 6, Taiwan banks began offering deposit accounts in Chinese currency following a clearing agreement between China central bank and Taipei signed last August.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.69)
2013 Feb 8, A Chinese court sentenced a Tibetan man to 13 years in prison for goading a monk to self-immolate. The sentence by a court in Qinghai province followed a news report that the government has detained 70 people in the province's ethnic Tibetan areas.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 10, The Chinese New Year, celebrated as the beginning of the year of the Snake, officially began.
(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A10)
2013 Feb 12, North Korea said it tested a “miniaturized" nuclear device in the remote, snowy northeast, taking a crucial step toward its goal of building a bomb small enough to be fitted on a missile capable of striking the US. China summoned the North's ambassador for a dressing-down.
(AP, 2/12/13)(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 13, In Nepal a Tibetan protester doused himself with gasoline, set himself ablaze and chanted anti-China slogans as he ran down a street in Kathmandu. Police and residents were able to put out the flames and rush the man to a hospital. He died the next day.
(AP, 2/13/13)(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 17, The NY Times reported that a 60-page analysis by Mandiant, a US computer security firm, has traced one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking groups to Shanghai and the gates of Unit 61398 of the Chinese military.
(SFC, 2/20/13, p.D1)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.12)
2013 Feb 25, In China a Tibetan monk set himself on fire in protest against Chinese rule near dozens of pilgrims who had gathered for prayers to mark the end of the Tibetan New Year festival in Gansu province. Another had set himself ablaze a day earlier at a monastery in Qinghai province. Both died. A third monk was taken to a hospital after setting himself alight in a separate incident.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 27, China’s state news announced the arrests of 5 Tibetans accused of inciting a series of self-immolations late last year.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 28, China's military said that overseas computer hackers targeted two of its websites an average of 144,000 times per month last year, with almost two-thirds of the attacks originating in the United States.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb, China launched a crackdown aimed at cleaning up tits thriving, but dirty, recycling industry.
(SFC, 10/4/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 1, China’s State Council spelled out fresh curbs on property speculation, sending the housing market into a tizzy.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.74)
2013 Mar 1, China executed four foreigners for killing 13 Chinese sailors in an attack on the Mekong River on Oct 5, 2011, following a live nationwide broadcast showing them being led to their deaths.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 2, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that a massive sulfuric acid leak at a warehouse in Liaoning province has killed at least 3 people.
(SSFC, 3/3/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 5, In China the National People’s Congress opened for a 12-day session. Premier Wen Jiabao and Pres. Hu Jintao will stand down at the end for incoming Premier Li Keqiang and Pres. Xi Jinping. China's government pledged to repair the country's ravaged environment and boost public services under its new leadership, an acknowledgment that quality of life was sidelined during the outgoing administration's decade of breakneck economic growth.
(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, The United States and China reached a deal that "significantly expands" UN sanctions on North Korea for its third nuclear test, eliciting a renewed threat by Pyongyang to scrap an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
(Reuters, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 7, Chinese officials castigated the Tibetan Kirti monastery, at the center of a wave of self-immolations, saying it has been inciting the fiery protests. They also indicated that authorities will not relax controls over the region.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 9, North Korea formally rejected a UN Security Council resolution that demands an end to its nuclear arms program, as China called for calm, saying sanctions were not the "fundamental" way to resolve tensions on the Korean peninsula.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 10, China announced plans to streamline government ministries, doing away with the powerful Railways Ministry and creating a super-agency to regulate the media and realigning other bureaucracies in a bid to boost efficiency. Plans included the merger of the family planning bureaucracy with the health ministry to form a new Health and Family Planning Commission.
(AP, 3/10/13)(Econ, 3/16/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 11, In China Shanghai officials said the number of dumped adult and piglet carcasses retrieved in tributaries of the Huangpu river had reached 2,813. The city government, citing monitoring authorities, said the drinking water quality has not been affected. Authorities have been pulling out swollen and rotting pigs since March 8. By March 21 the dead pig count reached over 16,000.
(AP, 3/11/13)(SFC, 3/23/13, p.A2)(Econ, 12/20/14, p.70)
2013 Mar 14, In China Xi Jinping was elevated to the presidency by the rubber-stamp national legislature, giving him the last of the three titles held by his predecessor, Hu Jintao.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 15, In China Li Keqiang was confirmed as premier.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 16, In China Lobsang Thokmey (28) became the 108th Tibetan to self-immolate in the last 4 years in protests against Chinese rule and religious restrictions. He set himself on fire in Kirti monastery, Sichuan province.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 17, China’s National People’s Congress came to a close.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 18, Chinese police arrested the husband of a Tibetan woman who died last week after setting herself alight in protest.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 18, The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a Swedish think tank, said China has bypassed Britain as the world's fifth largest arms exporter.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 20, China’s Suntech Power Holdings Ltd., one of the world's biggest solar panel manufacturers, was forced into bankruptcy court, becoming the latest casualty of a painful slump in the global solar industry.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 22, US officials in Beijing for two days of talks to lobby China on enforcement of new UN sanctions against North Korea said that they were heartened by Chinese expressions of resolve. Spurring Beijing to cooperate, the US officials said, is a concern that North Korean behavior had begun threatening China's interests in a region vital to its economic and security.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 26, Two courts in northwest China convicted and sentenced 20 people accused of militant separatism in the Xinjiang region. All 20 were believed to be ethnic Uighurs.
(SFC, 3/28/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 26, China and Brazil signed a deal to do up to $30 billion of trade in their local currencies, as the five-nation BRICS forum of emerging market powers worked to lessen dependence on the US dollar and euro.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 28, China’s State Council, the country’s highest executive organ of state power, released a code of conduct for officials in hopes for a more pransparent government.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 29, In China a large landslide trapped 83 workers, believed to have been asleep, at the state-owned Jiama (Gyama) copper and gold mining company in Tibet. Chances for survivors were slim. The mine, which formally opened in 2010, was owned by China Gold Int’l. Resources.
(AP, 3/29/13)(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A2)(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)(Econ, 4/6/13, p.54)
2013 Mar 31, Chinese officials confirmed that three recent cases of influenza were due to a new strain called H7N9.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.83)
2013 Mar, Chinese-led criminal gangs conspired with corrupt Tanzanian officials to traffic huge amounts of ivory, some of which was loaded in diplomatic bags on Pres. Xi's plane during a presidential visit.
(AP, 11/6/14)
2013 Apr 2, A Tibetan spokesman said Jigme Gyatso, a noted political prisoner, was released by Chinese authorities after 17 years in prison on charges of endangering national security and separatism.
(SFC, 4/3/13, p.A2)
2013 Apr 6, Chinese officials in Shanghai reported two more cases of H7N9 bird flu, raising the number of cases in eastern China to 18, including 6 deaths. It was later reported that 27 days elapsed between the first death from H7N9 and its public announcement.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.A3)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.47)
2013 Apr 7, China warned against "troublemaking" on its doorstep, in an apparent rebuke to North Korea, and the US said it was postponing a missile test to help calm high tension on the divided Korean peninsula.
(Reuters, 4/7/13)
2013 Apr 8, Australia and China agreed to make their currencies directly exchangeable in a deal that advances internationalization of the yuan and reduces costs for companies. PM Julia Gilliard said the Australian dollar will become only the third major currency to have direct convertibility with the yuan, after the US dollar and Japanese yen.
(AP, 4/8/13)
2013 Apr 8, A Chinese steel-hulled vessel hit an atoll at the Tubbataha National Marine Park, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site on Palawan island. On April 13 Philippine authorities found inside the ship more than 10,000 kg (22,000 pounds) of meat from a protected species, the pangolin or scaly anteater. On April 19 the ship was extricated and towed to Puerto Princesa.
(AP, 4/15/13)(SSFC, 4/21/13, p.A4)
2013 Apr 9, Australia’s PM Julia Gillard capped a 6-day trip to China with the formation of a “strategic partnershnip," a commitment to hold annual talks between their leaders.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.44)
2013 Apr 10, California Gov. Jerry Brown, on a trade mission to Beijing, announced that a Chinese investor has agreed to help pay for a $1.5 billion development deal in Oakland to transform 65 acres of industrial waterfront.
(SFC, 4/11/13, p.A1)
2013 Apr 11, China reported its 10th death from H7N9 bird flu.
(SFC, 4/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Apr 13, China and the US committed to a process aimed at ridding North Korea of its nuclear weapons.
(AP, 4/13/13)
2013 Apr 13, Chinese officials said a girl (7) has died in Beijing from H7N9 bird flu, becoming the 11th victim tied to the new strain.
(SSFC, 4/14/13, p.A4)
2013 Apr 15, China signed a free-trade deal with Iceland as PM Johanna Sigurdardottir made a 6-day visit there. This was China’s first free-trade with a European nation. Some saw China’s goal as better access to shipping routes through the Arctic.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.50)
2013 Apr 16, China's defense ministry made a thinly veiled attack on the United States for increasing tensions in the Asia-Pacific by ramping up its military presence and alliances in the region.
(Reuters, 4/16/13)
2013 Apr 17, A Chinese factory fishing ship caught fire just off the coast of Antarctica and 97 crew members were rescued by a nearby Norwegian vessel as Chile's military mobilized to prevent any environmental damage.
(AP, 4/18/13)
2013 Apr 18, Scientists reported the discovery of a cache of dinosaur embryos in southern China. The bed of lufengosaurus bones dated to the early Jurassic, about 190-197 million years ago.
(SFC, 4/19/13, p.D7)
2013 Apr 19, The US's annual global human rights report was issued by the State Department. It said China had imposed new registration requirements to prevent groups from emerging that might challenge government authority.
(AP, 4/21/13)
2013 Apr 20, In China a powerful earthquake struck the steep hills of Lushan county, Sichuan province, leaving at least 188 people dead and more than 11,000 injured.
(AP, 4/21/13)(AP, 4/22/13)
2013 Apr 21, China slammed the human rights record of the US in response to Washington's April 19 report on rights around the world, saying that US military operations have infringed on rights abroad and that political donations at home have thwarted the country's democracy.
(AP, 4/21/13)
2013 Apr 21, Stephen A. Schwarzman, founder of the private equity firm Blackstone, said he would give $100 million as a personal gift and raise another $200 million to endow the Schwarzman Scholars program at Beijing's Tsinghua University.
(AP, 4/21/13)
2013 Apr 21, The Chinese factory fishing ship Kai Xin, that burned last week off Antarctica, sank without anyone on board.
(AP, 4/23/13)
2013 Apr 23, Chinese marine surveillance vessels drove away Japanese nationalists who had entered the waters of the Diaoyu Islands.
(SSFC, 4/28/13, p.A4)
2013 Apr 23, In China Jia Jiuxiang, vice president of the Sanmenxia City Intermediate People's Court in Henan province, died under mysterious circumstances, his body bruised after 11 days in the custody of anti-graft investigators of the ruling Communist Party.
(AP, 4/24/13)
2013 Apr 23, In northwestern China a violent clash between authorities and assailants described as a terrorist gang left 21 people dead near Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Local sources said that police sparked the incident by shooting a Uighur youth during an illegal search of homes.
(AP, 4/24/13)(Econ, 5/25/13, p.45)
2013 Apr, China said it will open the Paracel Islands to tourists. China had expelled Vietnam from the islands in 1974. A representative from the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry’s National Boundary Commission gave a diplomatic note to a representative of the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi demanding that China cancel its plan to bring tourists to the Paracel archipelago.
(Econ, 4/13/13, p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracel_Islands)
2013 Apr, In China’s Yu Qiyi (42), chief engineer of a state-owned company in the eastern city of Wenzhou, died after he was allegedly stripped naked and held down in a bathtub by investigators as they attempted to extort a confession to corruption. State media reported his death on Sep 4. On Sep 30 a court in the city of Quzhou sentenced six Communist Party officials to between four and 14 years in jail for the death of Qiyi.
(AFP, 9/4/13)(Reuters, 10/14/13)
2013 May 1, Indian officials said that for two weeks Chinese soldiers have moved into the barren Depsang Valley in the Ladakh region and refused to move back over the so-called Line of Actual Control, that divides Indian-ruled territory from Chinese-run land, leaving India on the verge of a crisis with China.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, China’s Ministry of Public Security said police have broken a crime ring that passed off more than $1 million in rat and small mammal meat as mutton.
(Reuters, 5/2/13)
2013 May 5, North Koreans seized a Chinese fishing boat in what the boat owner maintained were Chinese waters. The gun-toting North Koreans demanded a 600,000 yuan ($100,000) ransom.
(AP, 5/20/13)
2013 May 6, China’s Pres. Xi Jinping met with Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing and urged dialogue in Middle East peace negotiations.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.52)
2013 May 6, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu met with his security Cabinet and then departed to China for a scheduled visit.
(AP, 5/6/13)
2013 May 7, In China Premier Li Keqiang and Pres. Xi Jinping met for talks in Beijing with Israel’s PM Netanyahu.
(SFC, 5/8/13, p.A6)
2013 May 7, The Bank of China said it has issued a bank account closing notice to North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank.
(SFC, 5/8/13, p.A3)
2013 May 9, Chinese officials said film director Zhang Yimou is being investigated for a potential violation of family planning laws. He reportedly has fathered up to 7 children with 4 women.
(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A7)
2013 May 10, The official China Internet Network Information Center explained in state media reports that a microblog belonging to He Bing, liberal professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, had been suspended because he was "intentionally spreading rumors."
(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 May 10, In China 12 miners were killed in a coal mine blast in Guizhou province.
(SFC, 5/13/13, p.A2)
2013 May 11, In China 28 miners were killed in a coal mine blast in Sichuan province.
(SFC, 5/13/13, p.A2)
2013 May 12, China’s ruling Communist Party's disciplinary agency said in a one-sentence statement on its website that Liu Tienan, deputy head of the Cabinet's National Development and Reform Commission, is being investigated for "suspected serious disciplinary violations." On Aug 8 the party’s antigraft agency said that an investigation had found Liu took bribes and abused his power. He was expelled from the CP and faced prosecution.
(AP, 5/12/13)(SFC, 8/9/13, p.A2)
2013 May 13, In China several rights lawyers attempting to visit one of the unofficial detention centers — also known as "black jails" — in the southwestern city of Ziyang were beaten by unidentified men.
(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 May 15, The Arctic Council, meeting in Sweden, agreed to expand membership and provide observer status to 6 new nations including China, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
(SFC, 5/16/13, p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Council)
2013 May 16, In southern China more than 2,000 people unfurled banners in Kunming and shouted "Protest! Protest!" to oppose plans for a petroleum refinery. Local authorities allowed the large environmental rally to go forward in order to let the public vent frustration.
(AP, 5/16/13)
2013 May 19, China's new Premier Li Keqiang visited India on his first foreign trip as the neighboring giants look to speed up efforts to settle a decades-old boundary dispute and boost economic ties.
(AP, 5/19/13)
2013 May 20, It was reported that a businesswoman in southern China has been sentenced to death on charges of defrauding investors. Lin Haiyan was convicted of "illegal fundraising" for collecting 640 million yuan ($100 million) from investors by promising high returns and low risk, according to a statement by the Intermediate People's Court in Wenzhou. It said the scheme collapsed in October 2011 and 428 million yuan could not be recovered.
(AP, 5/20/13)
2013 May 20, New Zealand PM John Key said a frozen meat issue is a technical hiccup that he expects will be resolved this week. Hundreds of tons of frozen mutton, lamb and beef from New Zealand have been stranded for 2-3 weeks on Chinese docks after China halted their import due to a certification dispute.
(AP, 5/20/13)
2013 May 21, Chinese boat owner Yu Xuejun said gunmen wearing North Korean military uniforms released his fishing boat after holding its crew since May 5, beating up the captain and stealing the vessel's fuel. He added that the hijackers did not get the 600,000 yuan ($100,000) ransom they had demanded.
(AP, 5/21/13)
2013 May 21, In India Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told Indian business leaders that developing stronger economic ties between their two nations would have huge benefits for both sides.
(AP, 5/21/13)
2013 May 22, China's Premier Li Keqiang began a two-day visit to Pakistan by praising the relationship between the two Asian powers in glowing terms.
(AP, 5/22/13)
2013 May 24, North Korean Vice Marshal Choe Ryong Hae delivered a letter from leader Kim Jong Un to Chinese President Xi Jinping and told him Pyongyang would take steps to rejoin stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, in an apparent victory for Beijing's efforts to coax its unruly ally into lowering tensions.
(AP, 5/24/13)
2013 May 27, Australian Broadcasting Corp. television reported that the plans for the 630 million Australian dollar ($608 million) Australian Security Intelligence Organization building had been stolen through a cyberattack by Chinese hackers on a building contractor.
(AP, 5/28/13)
2013 May 27, A US report said Chinese hackers have gained access to designs of more than two dozen major US weapons systems.
(Reuters, 5/28/13)(Econ, 6/8/13, p.50)
2013 May 29, In China Sri Lanka’s Pres. Mahinda Rajapaksa met with Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing. Loans and declarations of profound friendship were secured.
(Econ, 6/8/13, p.63)
2013 May 29, It was reported that Wan Long, chairman of China’s Shuanghui International has made a 4.7 billion bid for Virginia-based meatpacker Smithfield Foods. The purchase was endorsed by Smithfield's board but still require approval from shareholders and US regulators.
(AP, 5/31/13)(http://tinyurl.com/k4sdobs)(Econ, 6/8/13, p.38)
2013 May 31, China’s President Xi arrived for a state visit to the twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, a leading supplier of natural gas. Xi planned to seek to deepen trade and investment in energy when he meets with Trinidadian PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
(AP, 5/31/13)
2013 Jun 2, China’s President Xi Jinping arrived in Costa Rica, the only country in Central America to have diplomatic relations with China.
(AP, 6/2/13)
2013 Jun 2, In China Chen Xitong, who as Beijing's mayor backed the military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democratic movement but later expressed regret for the loss of life, died days before the 24th anniversary of the crackdown.
(AP, 6/4/13)
2013 Jun 3, In northeastern China a fire raged through a poultry plant in Jilin province's Mishazi township, trapping workers inside a cluttered slaughterhouse and killing 121 people. On Dec 26, 2014, two fire chiefs and two poultry farm bosses were convicted and sentenced to prison terms of up to nine years.
(AP, 6/3/13)(AP, 12/27/14)
2013 Jun 4, The European Union said it is imposing anti-dumping levies on imports of Chinese solar panels. The 27-country bloc will impose a tariff of about 12% immediately. It will increase that to 47% starting in August.
(AP, 6/4/13)
2013 Jun 5, Nicaragua’s National Assembly president said a concession to build a canal linking the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea will be awarded to a Chinese company. The government planned to grant the Chinese company a concession for 100 years.
(AP, 6/5/13)
2013 Jun 6, Ghana's immigration service said 161 Chinese nationals, who were arrested for illegal gold mining this week, will be deported to China.
(AP, 6/7/13)
2013 Jun 7, In China a fire ripped through the bus as it traveled on an elevated road in Xiamen during evening rush, killing 47 people, including Chen Shuizong, and injuring 34. Police identified Shuizong (b.1954) as the person responsible saying he was unhappy with life and set the fire to vent his anger.
(AP, 6/8/13)
2013 Jun 7, Pres. Obama welcomed China’s Pres. Xi Jinping as he arrived in southern California for a 2-day summit.
(SFC, 6/8/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 9, In China Liu Zhijun (60), who oversaw the ministry's high-profile bullet train development, wept as he admitted his guilt and sought leniency at his trial on corruption charges.
(AP, 6/9/13)
2013 Jun 9, A Chinese court sentenced the brother-in-law of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison — an unusually harsh punishment for a business dispute that the activist's wife immediately decried as a vendetta against the whole family.
(AP, 6/9/13)
2013 Jun 13, China’s state media reported that automated controls guided the Shenzhou 10 space capsule in its successful docking with the Tiangong-1 space lab. The astronauts will enter the module next week to conduct experiments during their 12-day mission.
(AP, 6/13/13)(SFC, 6/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 19, China’s Communist Party newspapers and websites proclaimed that Pres. Xi will fight "formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance." Xi commanded wayward cadres to purify themselves of corruption and summed it up in a pithy slogan: “Look in the mirror, take a bath."
(AP, 6/19/13)
2013 Jun 19, Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group said it would spend $1.6 billion (1 billion pounds) to buy British yacht maker Sunseeker and develop an upmarket London hotel, the latest example of a trend for Chinese companies to acquire top luxury global brands.
(AP, 6/19/13)
2013 Jun 19, Vietnam’s Pres. Truong Tan Sang left Hanoi to pay his first state visit to China as President. The two countries signed a new strategic partnership during the visit.
(http://tinyurl.com/k69vwr7)(Econ, 10/19/13, p.49)
2013 Jun 22, In China Fan Jiemin (62) shot to death 5 people and killed another with a tool at a chemical plant in Shanghai. The plant had been closed over pollution complaints.
(http://english.caixin.com/2013-06-24/100545440.html)
2013 Jun 23, The WHO said the new H7N9 strain of bird flu in China has killed 37 people with more than 130 sickened.
(SFC, 6/24/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 24, American executive Chip Starnes (42) said he has been held hostage for four days at his medical supply plant in Beijing by scores of workers demanding severance packages like those given to 30 co-workers in a phased-out department. Starnes left the Beijing factory on June 27 after he and a labor representative said the two sides had reached agreement in a pay dispute.
(AP, 6/24/13)(AP, 6/27/13)
2013 Jun 26, In China assailants attacked police and other people with knives and set fire to police cars in the restive far-western Xinjiang region killing 17 people including 9 police or security officials. Officers shot and killed 10 of the assailants in Lukqun, Turpan prefecture.
(AP, 6/26/13)
2013 Jun 26, A Chinese space capsule landed safely in Inner Mongolia with 3 astronauts after a 15-day trip to a prototype space station.
(SFC, 6/27/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 27, In China Pres. Xi Jinping and South Korean Pres. Park Geun-hye called for a swift resumption of six-nation North Korean nuclear disarmament talks after a summit that brought together Pyongyang's archrival and its biggest ally.
(AP, 6/27/13)
2013 Jun 28, In Hotan, China, a city in Xinjiang, violence erupted for the second time in three days, barely hours after the government called the earlier unrest a "terrorist attack" and raised the death toll to 35.
(AP, 6/28/13)
2013 Jun 29, China's state media warned that a "counterstrike" against the Philippines was inevitable if it continues to provoke Beijing in the South China Sea, potentially Asia's biggest military trouble spot.
(Reuters, 6/29/13)
2013 Jun 29, Chinese state media said more than a hundred people, riding motorbikes and wielding knives, attacked a Hotan police station in the ethnically divided western region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 6/30/13)
2013 Jun 30, Chinese paramilitary troops began round-the-clock patrols in the country's northwestern region of Xinjiang following a series of bloody clashes that have killed at least 56 people over the last several months. State media blamed religious extremists.
(AP, 6/30/13)(Reuters, 6/30/13)
2013 Jun, In China the mammoth New Century Global Center, the world’s largest building, opened in the southwestern city of Chengdu with 1.7 million square meters (19 million square feet) of floor space (about 329 football fields) edging out the previous record-holder, the Dubai airport.
(AP, 7/12/13)
2013 Jun, China unveiled a series of reforms to restrict air pollution. Companies as well as government planned to spend $275 billion over the next five years cleaning up the air.
(Econ, 8/10/13, p.18)
2013 Jun, In China an algae called Enteromorpha prolifera again engulfed the coast around Qingdao covering an area of nearly 11,500 square miles.
(SFC, 7/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Jul 1, In Hong Kong tens of thousands took to the streets in protest, demanding their widely disliked Beijing-backed leader resign and pressing for promised democratic reforms so they can choose their own top representative. The annual protest march has become increasingly popular in recent years.
(AP, 7/1/13)
2013 Jul 2, China announced rewards of up to 100,000 yuan ($16,000) for information leading the arrest of those responsible for the deadliest violence in four years in the vast far-western region of Xinjiang, dominated by Muslim Uighurs.
(Reuters, 7/2/13)
2013 Jul 6, Chinese police opened fire on a crowd of Tibetans celebrating the birthday of the Dalai Lama in Sichuan province. 9 people were injured.
(SFC, 7/10/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 8, China handed down a suspended death sentence on a former railways minister for corruption, a case seen as a test of President Xi Jinping's resolve to crack down on pervasive graft.
(Reuters, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 9, In western China rescuers in Sichuan province pulled 3 people from a raging river following the collapse of the Qinglian bridge amid heavy flooding that has forced thousands to evacuate their homes. The two-lane bridge was built in 1967 and a replacement span was under construction. At least 12 workers were killed when a rainstorm caused the collapse of an unfinished coal mine workshop they were building in Jinzhong.
(AP, 7/9/13)(AP, 7/10/13)
2013 Jul 10, In China Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over the signing of accords between their governments to facilitate $1.1 billion in low-interest loans for much-needed infrastructure in Nigeria.
(AP, 7/10/13)
2013 Jul 10, Flooding in western China triggered a landslide that killed at least 18 people with 107 missing in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province. More than 2,000 people were rescued after being trapped for several hours in a highway tunnel between Dujiangyan and Wenchuan. By the end of the week the toll of dead and missing climbed beyond 200.
(AP, 7/10/13)(AP, 7/11/13)(Reuters, 7/12/13)
2013 Jul 10, Chinese archaeologists said they have discovered some of the world's oldest known primitive writing, dating back 5,000 years, in eastern China, and some of the markings etched on broken axes resemble a modern Chinese character.
(AP, 7/10/13)
2013 Jul 11, China's police ministry accused executives of pharmaceutical supplier GlaxoSmithKline of conducting a large, long-running bribery campaign to persuade doctors to prescribe drugs.
(AP, 7/11/13)
2013 Jul 12, In China hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Jiangmen, Guangdong province, demanding that a project for a uranium processing plant be scrapped. The next day plans for the plant were abruptly canceled.
(Reuters, 7/13/13)(SFC, 7/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 15, In China the Hunan Provincial People's High Court ruled in favor of Tang Hui, who last year was sentenced to 18 months in a labor camp for petitioning for harsher penalties for the men who abducted, raped and prostituted her 11-year-old daughter.
(AP, 7/15/13)
2013 Jul 16, Chinese authorities detained Xu Zhiyong, a well-known rights lawyer, in a move activists described as the widening of a crackdown on individuals calling for greater accountability to fight graft.
(AP, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 19, China said it is ending controls on bank lending rates in a move toward creating a market-oriented financial system to support economic growth.
(AP, 7/19/13)
2013 Jul 19, China arrested activist Yang Lin (45) on a charge of subversion. His brother and a rights group reported the arrest on Aug 11. This was the second such arrest in less than two months and the latest sign that the authorities are hardening their stance toward dissent.
(Reuters, 8/11/13)
2013 Jul 19, Wu Dengming (73), Chinese environmental activist, died. He was the founder of the Chongqing Green Volunteer League (1995).
(Econ, 8/10/13, p.78)
2013 Jul 20, In China motorcycle taxi driver Ji Zhongxing detonated a homemade bomb at Beijing's main airport after eight years of frustration trying to seek redress for an attack by city guards that left him paralyzed and in debt. On Oct 15 Zhongxing was sentenced to six years in prison.
(AP, 7/24/13)(SFC, 10/16/12, p.A2)
2013 Jul 20, China’s central bank ended all restrictions on lending rates,which previously had a floor of 70% of the PBOC benchmark rate.
(Econ, 7/27/13, p.61)
2013 Jul 22, In northwest China two earthquakes shook an arid, hilly farming area sparking landslides that destroyed or damaged thousands of brick-and-mud homes in Gansu Province. At least 95 people were killed and more than 400 injured.
(AP, 7/22/13)(AP, 7/23/13)(SSFC, 7/28/13, p.A4)
2013 Jul 23, In China a man who was told by officials they couldn't register his fourth child because he didn't pay a penalty for breaking family planning laws stabbed to death 2 government workers and injured 4 others.
(AP, 7/24/13)
2013 Jul 25, China charged disgraced senior politician Bo Xilai with bribery, abuse of power and corruption, paving the way for a potentially divisive trial that President Xi Jinping will want smoothly handled as he pushes major economic reforms.
(Reuters, 7/25/13)
2013 Jul 27, China and the EU announced a truce on solar panel and related component tariffs. The EU planned to set a minimum sales price and a quota. An August 8 deadline loomed on the dispute.
(Econ, 8/3/13, p.36)
2013 Jul 29, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said it has switched on a pipeline bringing natural gas from Myanmar. The project has raised concerns in Myanmar's nascent civil society about whether its giant neighbor's resource grabs will benefit local people.
(AP, 7/29/13)
2013 Jul 30, In China Japan's top career diplomat met China's foreign minister in the latest bid to ease strains between Asia's two biggest economies over a bitter territorial row. A Chinese official newspaper said Beijing had ruled out a leaders' summit.
(Reuters, 7/30/13)
2013 Aug 1, Chinese authorities declared a “level 2" weather emergency as temperatures climbed to at least 140 degrees in some parts of the country. Shanghai counted at least 10 people dead from heatstroke over the last month and measured a 28th day above 95 degrees.
(SFC, 8/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 6, In China a panel of the Shanghai Communist Party Committee said that three Shanghai Supreme Court officials had "participated in prostitution" after being invited to dinner. A fourth court official had accepted female companionship but did not take a woman to a room. A whistleblower had filed a police complaint in April, but "the case went nowhere" and he therefore decided to post the video online instead of going to the police again. His case triggered the investigation.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, China fined six companies, including Mead Johnson Nutrition Co, Danone and New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, a total of $110 million following an investigation into price fixing and anti-competitive practices by foreign baby formula makers.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 8, In Afghanistan 3 Chinese citizens, 2 men and a woman, were murdered in an apartment in Kabul. One Afghan man was also found dead. One Chinese citizen remained missing.
(Reuters, 8/10/13)(AP, 8/11/13)
2013 Aug 10, Spain’s Interior Ministry said that 75 people have been arrested in a joint operation by Spanish and French police. They included 51 in Spain and 24 in France. Two Barcelona-based suspected heads of the gang, that allegedly smuggled Chinese citizens into Europe and the United States, were among those arrested.
(AP, 8/10/13)
2013 Aug 12, In China the Xinjiang government said a court has sentenced two people to death and another to life imprisonment over deadly violence last April. Two defendants were given 9-year jail sentences.
(Reuters, 8/12/13)
2013 Aug 14, Typhoon Utor struck the south coast of China, forcing airlines to cancel flights and halting stock exchange trading in the financial center of Hong Kong after leaving a trail of destruction in the Philippines.
(Reuters, 8/14/13)
2013 Aug 18, China’s Xinhua News Agency said 12 deaths reported in Liaoning province. That added to a total of 25 deaths reported earlier in Heilongjiang and Jilin, the other two provinces in China's northeast. In the south, six people were reported were killed by flooding and landslides in Guangdong province.
(AP, 8/18/13)
2013 Aug 20, A Chinese policeman was killed in an "anti-terrorism" operation in the restive region of Xinjiang. Overseas reports said 22 Uighurs were shot dead.
(AFP, 8/29/13)
2013 Aug 23, Chinese security forces killed at least 12 men and wounded 20 others during a raid on an alleged terrorist facility in Jigdejay village near Kashgar in the far western Xinjiang region.
(SFC, 9/19/13, p.A4)
2013 Aug 25, China was hit by the "largest ever" attack on its Internet structure, crashing the country's .cn servers.
(AFP, 8/26/13)
2013 Aug 26, China announced that Wang Yongchun, the deputy general manager of China Nat’l. Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), was under investigation for “severe discipline violations."
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.48)
2013 Aug 26, Chinese media said the Amur River, which marks the border between China and Russia, has experienced its worst flooding in a century, cutting off roads to some areas.
(AP, 8/26/13)
2013 Aug 28, In China Li Tianyi (17), the teenage son of a prominent Chinese general, denied the charge of gang rape, inflaming public anger in a case that has stirred resentment against the offspring of the political elite who are widely seen as spoiled. In 2011 he drove a BMW into another car in Beijing, beat up the couple inside the vehicle and then scoffed at bystanders about calling the police. Tianyi was one of five accused of assaulting a woman in a Beijing hotel in February. On Sep 26 a court sentenced Tianyi to 10 years in prison for his role in the rape. Two juvenile accomplices, who pleaded guilty, were given suspended sentences and released.
(Reuters, 8/28/13)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.53)
2013 Aug 28, In China Hong Xiaorou (4) was killed in Fujian province when a bulldozer hit her despite her grandmother screaming for the vehicle to stop as her family resisted a land grab. Authorities said Hong's death was an accident and that they had detained those responsible.
(Reuters, 8/29/13)
2013 Aug 30, Chinese official Yang Dacai, former head of the work safety administration in Shaanxi province, went on trial for corruption. His penchant for luxury watches sparked outrage after he was pictured smiling at the scene of a fatal accident. On Sep 5 Dacai was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
(AFP, 8/30/13)(Reuters, 9/5/13)
2013 Aug 31, In China a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit a remote part of Yunnan province near the popular tourist area of Shangri-La, killing 5 people and injuring 24 more.
(AFP, 8/31/13)
2013 Aug, China issued a secret directive known as Document Number Nine that spoke of the threat posed by ideas such as universal values, civil society and press freedom.
(http://tinyurl.com/lxt9a2y)(Econ., 2/28/15, p.37)
2013 Sep 1, China announced investigation proceedings for Jiang Jiemin, the government minister responsible for state owned assets, for “discipline violations," a party euphemism for corruption.
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.47)
2013 Sep 2, In China people began noticing dead fish along a 19-mile stretch of the Fuhe River in Hubei province. High levels of ammonia pollution from a plant owned by the Hubei Shuanghuan Science and Technology Co. was blamed.
(SFC, 9/5/13, p.A7)
2013 Sep 9, China charged well-known businesswoman Ding Shumiao (58), who has ties to a disgraced former railways minister, with bribery and illegal business activities.
(Reuters, 9/9/13)
2013 Sep 9, China unveiled tough measures to stop the spread of what the government calls irresponsible rumors, threatening three years in jail if untrue posts online are widely reposted, drawing an angry response from Chinese internet users.
(Reuters, 9/9/13)
2013 Sep 9, In southern China an explosion outside a primary school in Guilin, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, killed two people and injured 44 others, most of them schoolchildren. The blast occurred as a man riding a motorcycle passed the school gate while children were arriving for classes.
(AFP, 9/9/13)
2013 Sep 12, China's government said it will protect from retribution and attacks people who use the internet to report corruption, but only those who use an officially sanctioned website to do so.
(Reuters, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 12, A court in China's far western region of Xinjiang sentenced three ethnic Uighurs to death for acts of "violent terrorism", including murder and being part of a terrorist organization.
(Reuters, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 18, China’s state media said China will crack down on penalties paid by families flouting strict family planning rules after a National Audit Office probe found $260 million in fines had been levied illegally.
(Reuters, 9/18/13)
2013 Sep 22, China and Venezuela signed several finance and development agreements during a visit to Beijing by Pres. Nicolas Maduro.
(SFC, 9/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep 22, Wang Jianlin, the head of Chinese multinational Dalian Wanda, announced plans to build a $50 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) entertainment complex in Qingdao.
(Econ, 9/28/13, p.63)
2013 Sep 22, Severe Typhoon Usagi left 2 dead as it made landfall in southern China shutting down one of the world's busiest sea ports in nearby Hong Kong and throwing flight schedules into disarray.
(AP, 9/22/13)
2013 Sep 23, In Chinese officials said Typhoon Usagi has killed 25 people in the southern province of Guangdong, 13 of them in the city of Shanwei.
(AP, 9/23/13)
2013 Sep 24, China published a list that included military-like hardware and chemical substances that would be banned from export to North Korea for fear they could be used in the construction of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
(SFC, 9/25/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep 25, In China Xia Junfeng (36), who sold grilled meat skewers in the northern city of Shenyang, was put to death in a highly controversial case in a country that executes thousands each year. Xia had said he stabbed two officials to death in self-defense after they beat him with their fists and an iron mug.
(Reuters, 9/25/13)
2013 Sep 26, In China the teenage son of two celebrity singers for the Chinese military was convicted of rape and sentenced to 10 years in prison, in a case the public closely watched for signs of leniency because of his family ties.
(AP, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 26, Dubai said that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with China Sonangol to build a crude oil refinery aimed at meeting rising domestic demand.
(AFP, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 27, A Uganda official said China's state-owned CNOOC has secured a $2-billion deal to develop a petroleum field in Uganda and help propel the east African nation into the club of oil-producing countries.
(AFP, 9/27/13)
2013 Sep 28, China’s Ministry of Public Security said police have rescued 92 abducted children and detained 301 suspects in the latest operation to crack down on child trafficking.
(SSFC, 9/29/13, p.A7)
2013 Sep 29, China’s Shanghai Free Trade Zone (SFTZ) was launched.
(Econ, 10/5/13, p.49)
2013 Sep 30, Tropical storm Wutip lashed central Vietnam after sinking at least two Chinese fishing boats near the Paracel Islands, leaving 75 fishermen missing.
(AP, 9/30/13)
2013 Sep 30, In China a disused factory building collapsed burying 16 construction workers in Wuan city, Hebei province.
(SFC, 10/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Oct 3, China’s state media said swarms of hornets have killed 42 people in the northwest in recent months. Hua Baozhen, a professor of entomology at Northwest Agriculture Forestry University, attributed the attacks mostly to a decrease in the number of the hornets' natural enemies, such as spiders and birds, due to ecological changes.
(AFP, 10/3/13)
2013 Oct 4, China and Malaysia agreed elevate bilateral ties to a "comprehensive strategic partnership", aiming to boost military cooperation and nearly triple two-way trade to $160 billion by 2017.
(Reuters, 10/4/13)
2013 Oct 6, In China about 60 people were injured when security forces fired into a crowd of Tibetan residents who were demanding the release of a fellow villager detained for protesting orders to display the national flag. Police also fired tear gas at those protesting in Biru county in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
(AP, 10/8/13)
2013 Oct 7, Typhoon Fitow barrelled into China's east coast, packing winds of more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) an hour, after hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated and bullet train services were suspended.
(AFP, 10/7/13)
2013 Oct 8, In China Akong Tulku Rinpoche, a prominent monk who fled Tibet in 1959 and co-founded the West's first Tibetan monastery (Samye Ling in Scotland), was killed along with two other people in Chengdu. Police said three Tibetan men visited a house where the trio were staying and stabbed them to death in an argument over money.
(AFP, 10/9/13)
2013 Oct 9, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called for a South China Sea of "peace, friendship and cooperation" as he extended a hand in Brunei to APEC leaders wary of Beijing's territorial claims in the strategic waters.
(AFP, 10/9/13)
2013 Oct 13, China’s PM Li Keqiang arrived in Vietnam for a 3-day visit.
(Econ, 10/19/13, p.49)
2013 Oct 13, Companies involved in a $1.27 billion project to develop a business district around Britain’s Manchester airpor announced that Chinese construction giant Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG) has signed a deal with British firms to develop the area.
(AFP, 10/13/13)
2013 Oct 14, China said it would give rewards amounting to 5 billion yuan ($816.91 million) for curbing air pollution in six regions where the problem is serious, underscoring government concern about a source of public anger.
(Reuters, 10/14/13)
2013 Oct 15, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborn, announced a deal with China intended to make Britain the main offshore hub for trading in China’s currency and bonds and for foreign institutions investing in China. In exchange China’s banks would be allowed to enter Britain as branches of the their parents rather than as subsidiaries.
(Econ, 10/19/13, p.62)
2013 Oct 16, Chinese state media reported that an Australian tourist and 3 Tibetans died in an avalanche on Mt. Everest.
(SFC, 10/16/12, p.A2)
2013 Oct 18, In China Professor Xia Yeliang (53), a liberal economist who had been an outspoken critic of China's ruling Communist Party, was told that professors and school leaders had voted to end his contract. He had drawn the ire of school officials for his blog posts calling for democratic reforms and rule of law in China. Yeliang was a signatory to Charter 08, a 2008 petition calling for sweeping political change.
(Reuters, 10/18/13)(Econ, 2/15/14, p.40)
2013 Oct 18, Swiss customs agents said they have seized one million fake tablets of anti-anxiety drug Xanax at the Zurich airport, which were destined for Egypt. The counterfeit tablets, packed in four crates and weighing 400kg, had originated in China, according to Swissmedic, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products.
(AFP, 10/18/13)
2013 Oct 21, A disciplinary body of China’s Communist Party said anti-graft authorities have punished 8 people at a state-owned rail construction firm for spending more than $100 million on hospitality last year.
(Reuters, 10/21/13)
2013 Oct 21, In China visibility shrank to less than half a football field and small-particle pollution soared to a record 40 times higher than an international safety standard in the northern city of Harbin as the region entered its high-smog season.
(AP, 10/21/13)
2013 Oct 22, Chinese state media reported that China has convicted nearly 150,000 people for corruption since 2008, citing figures from the state prosecutor which underlined the scale of graft in the country.
(Reuters, 10/22/13)
2013 Oct 22, Western countries accused China of arresting activists, curbing Internet use and suppressing ethnic minorities, as the United Nations formally reviewed its rights record for the first time since Xi Jinping became president.
(Reuters, 10/22/13)
2013 Oct 23, In Beijing China’s PM Li Keqiang and India’s PM Manmohan Singh sounded a new optimistic tone in their relationship as they oversaw the signing of 9 agreements including a Defense Cooperation Agreement.
(AP, 10/23/13)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.47)
2013 Oct 23, Wang Qishan, China's top official battling deeply-ingrained corruption, warned staff their jobs were on the line if they failed to root out abuses, telling them to "shock and awe" their targets.
(Reuters, 10/23/13)
2013 Oct 23, China’s state-run New Express tabloid printed a front-page commentary begging police in the south-central city of Changsha to set reporter Chen Yongzhou free under the headline: "Please release him." Chen was detained after writing more than a dozen stories criticizing the finances of Zoomlion, a major state-owned construction equipment maker.
(Reuters, 10/23/13)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.54)
2013 Oct 23, Chinese police officers were injured in clashes with villagers in southwestern Yunnan province. Some 200 residents in Guangji village near the provincial capital Kunming stopped 11 officers on a highway after police had summoned two people a day earlier for alleged crimes.
(Reuters, 10/23/13)
2013 Oct 23, In China 2 children were killed and another four injured after a wall at their primary school collapsed in Yunnan province.
(AFP, 10/24/13)
2013 Oct 25, In China ousted politician Bo Xilai lost his appeal against a life sentence for corruption in his final public appearance before prison.
(AP, 10/25/13)
2013 Oct 27, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe warned China against forcibly changing the regional balance of power, as reports said Tokyo had scrambled fighter jets in response to Chinese military aircraft flying near Okinawa.
(AFP, 10/27/13)
2013 Oct 28, In China a sport utility vehicle plowed through a crowd in Tiananmen Square before crashing and catching fire, killing the 3 occupants and 2 tourists and injuring 38 visitors and security officers. The SUV was driven by Usmen Hasan, a man whose name suggested he is an ethnic Uighur. His wife and mother were also with him in the car, along with devices filled with gasoline. China blamed the attack on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Eight people connected with the incident were soon arrested with help from the Xinjiang government.
(AP, 10/28/13)(Reuters, 10/29/13)(AP, 10/30/13)(Econ, 11/9/13, p.50)(SSFC, 6/1/14, p.A5)
2013 Oct 28, Chinese pianist Lang Lang (31) became a UN messenger of Peace.
(SFC, 10/30/13, p.F4)
2013 Oct 29, Niger said it has accepted a controversial $1 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) to finance development projects.
(AFP, 10/29/13)
2013 Oct 31, Chinese state media said the last county in China to be accessible by modern land transport was finally linked up to the rest of the country with a new 117-km road that has taken decades to build. The 19,000 people of deeply isolated Medog in southeastern Tibet have until now had to depend on horses for land travel and trade.
(AFP, 10/31/13)
2013 Nov 1, China jailed for life Tian Xueren, a former vice governor of the northeastern province of Jilin and former banker, for taking more than $3 million in bribes, in the government's latest move to crack down on deep-rooted corruption.
(Reuters, 11/1/13)
2013 Nov 1, In China 11 people died and 17 were injured by an explosion in a fireworks factory in Guangxi province. Police detained two people.
(AFP, 11/2/13)
2013 Nov 1, In Tasmania int’l. negotiations ended after China, Russia and Ukraine scuttled plans to create the world's largest ocean sanctuary in Antarctica. The sanctuary plans were led by the Antarctic Ocean Alliance which campaigns for protecting the Antarctic seas. For the sanctuary proposals to pass, they needed backing from all 200 delegates from 25 member countries, many of which have conflicting interests.
(Reuters, 11/1/13)(SFC, 11/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Nov 2, China, the only country that still systematically takes organs from executed prisoners for use in transplant operations, said it plans to end the controversial practice by the middle of next year.
(Reuters, 11/2/13)
2013 Nov 2, An Iranian media website said China has agreed to finance $20 billion in development projects in Iran using oil money not transferred to the Islamic Republic because of international sanctions.
(AP, 11/2/13)
2013 Nov 3, China's ruling Communist Party announced the removal of the military chief of restive Xinjiang from the region's governing council, following an Oct 28 car crash in Beijing's Tiananmen Square blamed on Islamist militants from Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 11/3/13)
2013 Nov 5, China's state media said the People's Liberation Army has discovered in a corruption probe that its troops "illicitly kept" more than 8,000 apartments and 25,000 vehicles.
(Reuters, 11/5/13)
2013 Nov 6, In China a series of bombs packed with ball bearings exploded outside a provincial headquarters of the ruling Communist Party, killing at least one person in Taiyuan, Shanxi province.
(AFP, 11/6/13)
2013 Nov 6, In China supporters of jailed politician Bo Xilai established a new political party, the Zhi Xian Party, to support the former high-ranking official who was handed a life sentence for corruption in September.
(AFP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 7, China’s state media said China will provide a concessionary loan of up to $1 billion to Pacific island nations to support construction projects in a part of the world where Beijing and Taiwan compete for influence. Vice Premier Wang Yang had made the announcement at a forum with Pacific island nations in Guangzhou. The meeting was attended by representatives from Micronesia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Niue and Fiji.
(Reuters, 11/8/13)
2013 Nov 9, China's ruling Communist Party began its Third Plenum, a key 4-day meeting to dictate the direction of the world's second-biggest economy for the next decade.
(AFP, 11/9/13)
2013 Nov 12, China's Communist Party promised to deepen economic reforms to give the market a "decisive" role in allocating resources at the end of a closely-watched meeting. A document on reforms was approved but not made public until Nov 15.
(AFP, 11/12/13)(Econ, 11/23/13, p.47)
2013 Nov 12, China, Cuba, Russia and Saudi Arabia won seats on the UN Human Rights Council, despite fierce international criticism of their records.
(AFP, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 12, The Sao Tome government and Chinese representatives signed an agreement to open a trade mission to promote projects in Sao Tome and Principe, 16 years after it broke off relations over the tiny Central African island nation's diplomatic recognition of Taiwan.
(Reuters, 11/14/13)
2013 Nov 15, The final overview of China’s “third plenum" was published. China’s ruling Communist Party said it will loosen family planning rules that limit many couples to a single child in the first substantial change to the unpopular policy in nearly three decades, as leaders seek to address a rapidly aging population. It also said the country's much-criticized labor camp system would be abolished. Leaders pledged to open state-dominated industries wider to private competition and ease limits on foreign investment in e-commerce and other businesses in a sweeping reform plan aimed at rejuvenating a slowing economy.
(AP, 11/15/13)(Econ, 11/23/13, p.16)
2013 Nov 15, Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said China will build power plants in Yemen with total output capacity of 5,000 megawatts and expand the Arab country's main container ports.
(Reuters, 11/16/13)
2013 Nov 16, In China 9 attackers and 2 auxiliary police officers were killed in an attack on a police station in Serikbuya township, near the historic Silk Road city of Kashgar, Xinjiang province. The clash reportedly erupted after a Uighur youth was shot dead, with 8 others subsequently being killed.
(AFP, 11/17/13)
2013 Nov 19, Spain's National Court said it has issued arrest orders for former Chinese president Jiang Zemin and four other Chinese officials as part of a probe into alleged genocide by China against Tibet.
(AP, 11/19/13)
2013 Nov 20, China confirmed the deployment of a state-of-the-art hospital ship to the Philippines following foreign and domestic criticism that it was slow and less than generous in its response to one of the world's biggest typhoons, which killed at least 4,000 people.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Animal rights group PETA urged shoppers to boycott products made from angora rabbit fur, after it released footage of fur being plucked from the skins of live rabbits on Chinese farms.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 21, China’s highest court issued demands that judges bar confessions abtained through torture and avoid the death penalty when the evidence is shaky.
(SFC, 11/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Nov 22, In China an oil pipeline exploded in the coastal city of Qingdao killing 47 people.
(AFP, 11/22/13)(Reuters, 11/23/13)
2013 Nov 23, China declared an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) bolstering its claim to islands that Japan says it owns. The zone also included a reef know as Ieodo, claimed by China and South Korea. China warned that it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly in airspace over them.
(Reuters, 11/23/13)(Econ, 11/30/13, p.12)(Econ, 12/7/13, p.42)
2013 Nov 24, Japan warned of the danger of "unpredictable events" and South Korea voiced regret following China's unilateral declaration of an air defence zone over areas claimed by Tokyo and Seoul.
(AFP, 11/24/13)
2013 Nov 26, In China the Xinjiang Daily reported that students in western Xinjiang region will not graduate unless their political views are approved, as the country wages what school administrators called an ideological war against separatism.
(Reuters, 11/26/13)
2013 Nov 26, Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif ceremonially broke ground on a $9.59 billion nuclear power complex to be built in Karachi with China’s help. China National Nuclear Cooperation (CNNC) promised to grant a loan of at least $6.5 billion to finance the project which will have two reactors with a capacity of 1,100 megawatts each.
(SFC, 11/27/13, p.A2)(Reuters, 12/24/13)
2013 Nov 28, Chinese media said authorities have broken up six rings that smuggled around $164 million worth of cars into the country over the past three years, including more than 80 top-end models such as BMWs and Rolls-Royces.
(Reuters, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 28, Kenya launched construction of a Chinese-funded 13.8 billion dollar (10-billion euro) flagship railway project, hoping to dramatically increase trade and boost Kenya's position as a regional economic powerhouse.
(AFP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 28, South Korean and Japanese flights through China's new maritime air defense zone added to the international defiance of rules Beijing says it has imposed in East China Sea but that neighbors and the US have vowed to ignore.
(AP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 30, China urged India not to aggravate problems on the border shared by the two nations, a day after the Indian president toured a disputed region and called it an integral part of the country.
(Reuters, 11/30/13)
2013 Nov, Chinese officials signed two agreements to import 500,000 cattle and three million pigs from Romania over the next few years.
(AP, 11/31/13)
2013 Dec 2, China government said it has punished almost 20,000 officials in the last year for breaching rules to cut down on bureaucracy as well as pomp and ceremony.
(Reuters, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 2, A producer for China's state broadcaster CCTV said that he had been fired after he criticized the network's role in a controversial crackdown on online rumors. Wang Qinglei made the statement in an open letter, which has since been scrubbed from Chinese social media.
(Reuters, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 2, Zhang Yimou (62), one of China's top movie directors, admitted having three children with his current wife, according to a studio media posting, apologising after months of speculation he broke the country's controversial family planning laws.
(AFP, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 2, China launched Chang’e-3, its first moon rover mission, the latest step in an ambitious space program seen as a symbol of its rising global stature.
(AFP, 12/2/13)(Econ, 12/7/13, p.82)
2013 Dec 3, The US voiced solidarity with Japan against China's claim to airspace over disputed islands, vowing not to tolerate the aggressive move as VP Joe Biden prepared to deliver that message personally to Beijing.
(AP, 12/3/13)
2013 Dec 4, China accused Washington of taking Japan's side in a tense clash over disputed islands in the East China Sea, underscoring rising regional friction as visiting Vice President Joe Biden met with Beijing's leaders.
(AP, 12/4/13)
2013 Dec 4, In eastern China hazardous air pollution forced schools to shut or suspend outdoor activities in at least two cities, where residents complained of the yellow skies and foul smells that are symptomatic of the country's crippling smog crisis.
(Reuters, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 4, British PM David Cameron faced demands for the return of priceless artefacts looted from Beijing in the 19th century, the last day of his visit to China.
(AFP, 12/4/13)
2013 Dec 6, In China authorities in Shanghai ordered schoolchildren indoors and a halt to construction as the city, shrouded in yellow haze, suffered its worst bouts of air pollution.
(SFC, 12/7/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 6, In China a woman died of the H10N8 strain of bird flu, the first ever reported human case of the virus.
(Reuters, 12/18/13)
2013 Dec 9, In China legal scholar Zhang Xuezhong was notified of his dismissal from East China Univ. of Political Science and Law in Shanghai after he refused to apologize for writings that championed protections guaranteed by China’s Constitution.
(SFC, 12/11/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 10, China's cabinet, the State Council, announced that it was removing 82 powers from a number of central government ministries, including the powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Environmental Protection. The Ministry of Human Resources said the retirement age, currently at 60 for men and 55 for female white collar workers, would be gradually raised.
(Reuters, 12/10/13)(SSFC, 12/15/13, p.A20)
2013 Dec 10, In China a dozen residents of Wuhan, Hubei province, drank pesticide in Beijing to protest the demolition of their homes. All 12 survived and were treated for poisoning.
(SFC, 12/12/13, p.A6)
2013 Dec 11, Chinese sources said authorities have put Zhou Yongkang, one of the most powerful politicians of the last decade, under virtual house arrest while the ruling Communist Party investigates accusations of corruption against him.
(Reuters, 12/11/13)
2013 Dec 12, US authorities said three Chinese nationals have been charged in two separate cases of trying to steal seed-technology, trade secrets under development in the United States.
(Reuters, 12/12/13)
2013 Dec 13, China formally charged Xu Zhiyong, a prominent campaigner for officials to reveal their wealth, after police accused him of breaking the law by organizing demonstrations. Zhiyong, who has also pushed for greater civil rights, was arrested in August in a case that exposed shortcomings in the government's drive against deep-rooted corruption.
(Reuters, 12/13/13)
2013 Dec 13, In western China a gas explosion at a coal mine killed 21 workers in Xinjiang region's Changji prefecture.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 14, Chinese state media said authorities have detained 1,300 people for producing and selling fake medicine as part of an intensified government crackdown.
(Reuters, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 14, China successfully carried out the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades. The Chang’E 3 deployed a small rover called Yutu (Jade Rabbit), which traveled for 114 meters befor getting stuck.
(AP, 12/14/13)(Econ., 3/14/15, p.82)
2013 Dec 14, Japan and Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN) called for freedom of the air and sea, as China's military assertiveness raises regional tensions.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 15, In China 16 people, including 2 police officers, were killed in a clash in the Xinjiang region, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority.
(AFP, 12/16/13)
2013 Dec 16, Sources said China’s Pres. Xi Jinping and other party leaders have authorized a corruption probe against Zhou Yongkang, a former head of the domestic security apparatus.
(SFC, 12/16/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 16, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the United States will boost maritime security assistance to the countries of Southeast Asia amid rising tensions with Beijing.
(AP, 12/16/13)
2013 Dec 18, China's foreign minister paid a rare visit to Israel, reflecting the burgeoning trade ties between the two countries. But the trip was clouded by fresh accusations that Israel's prime minister had compromised the global war on terrorism under heavy Chinese pressure.
(AP, 12/18/13)
2013 Dec 20, China's ruling Communist Party said it was investigating Li Dongsheng, a vice minister of public security, for alleged disciplinary violations, the latest official to be targeted in a high-profile campaign to root out corruption. state media said Cao Jianliao, a top official in Guangdong province, is being investigated for "serious discipline violations", which is often a euphemism for corruption.
(AFP, 12/20/13)(Reuters, 12/20/13)
2013 Dec 22, NY-based Tiffany & Co. said it was ordered to pay Swatch Group AG about 402 million Swiss francs ($449 million) in compensation over a contractual dispute. The Netherlands Arbitration Institute also required Tiffany to pay more than $9 million for the Swiss watchmaker's legal fees and the cost of arbitration.
(AP, 12/23/13)
2013 Dec 23, China's ruling Communist Party told the already tightly monitored state media that they should not be reporting on "wrong points of view" and instead cover positive stories that promote "socialist values."
(Reuters, 12/23/13)
2013 Dec 24, China's top legislative committee voted to abolish "re-education through labor" camps introduced more than half a century ago, saying they had served their purpose.
(AFP, 12/24/13)
2013 Dec 25, China's ruling Communist Party unveiled a five-year plan to fight pervasive graft, with particular attention on corruption that triggers protests or happens in the course of economic reforms.
(Reuters, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 25, Chinese media reported the arrest of Chu Jian, a vice president of a prestigious university, for "suspected economic problems." He was appointed in 2005 as vice president of Zhejiang University in the eastern city of Hangzhou.
(Reuters, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 27, China’s environment ministry said it will raise standards for the production of cement, batteries, leather and heavy metals as part of its efforts to cut air, water and soil pollution.
(Reuters, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 27, A Chinese court in Hunan province sentenced four municipal security officers to prison for a clash that left Deng, a watermelon seller, dead and triggered a public outcry.
(AP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 28, China formally allowed couples to have a second child if one parent is an only child, the first major easing of its 3-decade-old restrictive birth policy.
(AP, 12/28/13)
2013 Dec 28, China's national legislature voted to abolish a much-criticized penal system that allowed police to lock up people for up to four years without due process.
(AP, 12/28/13)
2013 Dec 28, Chinese state media said 512 lawmakers in Hengyang city, Huana province, have resigned after being implicated in a bribery scandal, while another 56 provincial legislators have been sacked. Xinhua said the total amount of the bribes was more than 110 million yuan ($18.1 million) and the money was used to swing the results of elections.
(Reuters, 12/28/13)
2013 Dec 29, Chinese police seized nearly three metric tons (3.3 tons) of the drug crystal methamphetamine and arrested 182 people in raids on Boshe village, Guangdong province, notorious for producing narcotics.
(Reuters, 1/2/14)(SFC, 1/4/14, p.A2)
2013 Dec 30, Chinese police shot dead eight people during a "terrorist attack" in the western region of Xinjiang, raising the death toll from violent clashes there to at least 35 since November.
(Reuters, 12/30/13)
2013 Dec 30, China published results of an August-September audit on local government liabilities. It show a total local debt of $1.8 trillion at the end of June. The addition of explicit and implict debt guarantees raised the total to $2.95 trillion, about a third of the country’s GDP.
(Econ, 1/4/14, p.32)
2013 Dec 31, In China six herders who tried to defend grazing land from expropriation by a forestry firm were sentenced in the resource-rich Inner Mongolia region. The case has sparked protests.
(Reuters, 1/5/14)
2013 Frank Dikotter authored “The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution, 1945-57."
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.80)
2013 Orville Schell and John Delury authored “Wealth and Power" China’s Long March to the Twenty-First Century."
(SSFC, 8/4/13, p.F3)
2013 The Chinese adventure film “Journey to the West" was released. It grossed over $205 million.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.105)
2014 Jan 1, China began requiring the disclosure of offshore holdings.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.35)
2014 Jan 1, In San Francisco an arson attack destroyed the main entrance of the Chinese Consulate. On Jan 3 Yan Feng (39), who lives south of the city, surrendered to police after confessing to the attack.
(SSFC, 1/5/14, p.A5)(AFP, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 2, A Chinese helicopter rescued all 52 passengers from the MV Akademik Shokalskiy Russian research ship that has been trapped in Antarctic ice since Christmas Eve after weather conditions finally cleared enough for the operation. The passengers were all transported to an Australian icebreaker in the area.
(AP, 1/2/14)
2014 Jan 5, In China worshippers at the Beida Mosque in Guyuan, Ningxia region, were handing out traditional cakes when a rush for food triggered a stampede that left 14 dead.
(AP, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 6, China destroyed about 6 tons of illegal ivory from its stockpile in an unprecedented move wildlife groups say shows growing concern about the black market trade by authorities in the world's biggest market for elephant tusks.
(AP, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 6, China, the biggest investor in South Sudan's oil industry, called for an immediate ceasefire in the world's newest state as rebel and government negotiators haggled over the scope of peace talks meant to end three weeks of fighting.
(Reuters, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 6, China temporarily lifted a 14-year-old ban on selling video game consoles, paving the way for Sony Corp, Microsoft Corp and Nintendo Co Ltd to enter the world's third largest video game market in terms of revenue.
(Reuters, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 7, A Chinese icebreaker and a Russian research vessel -- broke free from thick Antarctic ice where they had been trapped for days.
(AFP, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 8, China's foreign minister said Beijing was tackling illegal gold mining in Ghana, after hundreds of his compatriots were arrested and sent home for extracting the mineral without permission.
(AFP, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 9, Chinese officials said famed film director Zhang Yimou must pay more than $1.2 million in fines for having three children in violation of China's strict family planning rules.
(AP, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 10, China defended its new fishing restrictions in disputed waters in the South China Sea against criticism from the United States, saying the rules were in accordance with international law.
(Reuters, 1/10/14)
2014 Jan 10, The Philippines and Vietnam condemned a new Chinese law that requires foreign fishermen to seek Beijing's approval to operate in much of the South China Sea, but China's Foreign Ministry insisted it has the right do so.
(AP, 1/10/14)
2014 Jan 11, In southwest China a fire raged for nearly 10 hours and razed an ancient Tibetan town popular with tourists, burning down hundreds of buildings as fire engines were unable to get onto the narrow streets of Dukezon, part of scenic Shangri-La county in Deqen prefecture.
(AP, 1/11/14)
2014 Jan 13, In southern China an explosion at an illegal gambling hall in Kaili, Guizhou province, killed 14 people and injured seven others.
(AP, 1/13/14)
2014 Jan 14, Chinese doctor Zhang Shuxia, who abducted and sold newborn babies, was given a suspended death sentence in a case that drew widespread outrage with child trafficking a chronic problem in the country.
(AFP, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 14, In China a fire at the Dadong factory in Wenling, Zhejiang province, killed 16 people. Safety exits were blocked.
(SFC, 1/15/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 15, China's commercial capital, Shanghai, introduced emergency measures to tackle air pollution, allowing it to shut schools and order cars off the road in the case of severe smog.
(Reuters, 1/15/14)
2014 Jan 15, Chinese police detained economics Prof. Ilham Tohti, an outspoken scholar of the Turkic Uighur ethnic minority. They raided his home in Beijing, seizing computers, cellphones and even his students' thesis manuscripts. On Jan 25 Tohti was accused of leading a separatist group that advocates violence to overthrow Chinese rule in Xinjiang. In late July Tohti (44) was charged with separatism.
(AP, 1/16/14)(AP, 1/25/14)(SFC, 7/31/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 15, Chinese police in Urumqi arrested Akbar Imin, a Uighur AIDS activist, for endangering national security in the troubled far western region of Xinjiang, home to the largely Muslim Uighur people. His arrest was only made public in March.
(Reuters, 3/10/14)
2014 Jan 17, China began to implement the loosening of its controversial one-child policy as Zhejiang province announced it has made it legal for couples to have two children if one parent is an only child.
(AFP, 1/17/14)
2014 Jan 17, China called on the Philippines to meet it halfway on new Chinese fishing rules in the disputed South China Sea, adding that Beijing was always willing to make efforts to resolve such issues via talks.
(Reuters, 1/17/14)
2014 Jan 17, China announced 4 more cases of H7N9 bird flu.
(SFC, 1/18/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 21, An official Chinese newspaper said China will base a 5,000-ton civilian patrol ship on Woody Island, which China calls Sansha city, on the Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea and begin regular patrols, a move likely to add fuel to territorial disputes with neighbors.
(Reuters, 1/21/14)
2014 Jan 21, China executed a man who held six women as sex slaves in an underground prison and killed two of them, in a crime which shocked the nation. Li Hao (36) was convicted of murder and rape in Luoyang Intermediate People's Court in the central province of Henan in 2012.
(Reuters, 1/21/14)
2014 Jan 22, The Chinese government condemned a report on the wealth of the country's elite being hidden in overseas tax havens as illogical and having ulterior motives, as the government blocked websites and censored mention of the story online.
(Reuters, 1/22/14)
2014 Jan 22, The Washington-based Int’l. Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) said it has obtained documents showing the identities of nearly 22,000 owners of companies and trusts in the British Virgin Islands, Samoa and other offshore centers. It said they include the brother-in-law of China’s Pres. Xi, former Premier Wen Jiabao’s son and son-in-law and relatives of other ruling party figures.
(SFC, 1/23/14, p.A4)
2014 Jan 23, In China the parents of activist Xue Mingkai were detained in Qufu city, Shandong province. After being held for six days, Xue and his wife, Wang Shuqing, fled and sought protection at a local prosecutor's office but were caught and separated. Days later, Wang was informed by authorities that her husband was dead. Authorities said he had killed himself by jumping from the fourth floor of a prosecutor's building. Many people suspected murder.
(Reuters, 2/4/14)
2014 Jan 23, In Kyrgyzstan 11 people, believed to be members of a militant group of ethnic Uighurs, were killed after illegally crossing the border from China.
(Reuters, 1/24/14)
2014 Jan 24, Chinese police shot dead six people during a "terrorist" attack in the restive western region of Xinjiang and six more died when explosives they were carrying detonated.
(Reuters, 1/26/14)
2014 Jan 26, A Chinese court sentenced Xu Zhiyong, one of the country’s most prominent rights advocates, to four years in prison. He had campaigned for the rights of children from rural areas to be educated in cities and for officials to disclose their assets.
(Reuters, 1/26/14)
2014 Jan 28, In China an Indian oil tanker being repaired at a shipyard at Haizhou Shipyard in the port city of Zhousha exploded and caught fire, killing 7 Chinese workers.
(AP, 1/28/14)
2014 Jan 28, Hong Kong culled around 20,000 chickens after finding the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus in poultry imported from mainland China. Fears over avian flu have grown following the deaths of two men from the H7N9 strain in Hong Kong since December.
(AFP, 1/28/14)
2014 Jan 29, Google said it is ridding itself of a financial headache by selling Motorola Mobility's smartphone business to Lenovo for $2.9 billion. The deal came less than two years after Google bought Motorola Mobility for $12.4 billion in the biggest acquisition of Google's 15-year history.
(AP, 1/30/14)
2014 Jan 31, China celebrated Lunar New Year, the year of the horse, a celebration also known as the Spring Festival.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.36)
2014 Jan 31, Activists from around China began arriving at the eastern town of Qufu during the Chinese New Year holiday to demand an investigation into the death of a fellow activist's father at a government building on Jan 29.
(AP, 2/7/14)
2014 Feb 5, It was reported that a new strain of avian influenza, H10N8, has been confirmed in two people in China. Cases of H7N9 were reported to be surging with some 300 cases and more appearing every day.
(SFC, 2/5/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 10, Spanish High Court Judge Ismael Moreno sought international arrest orders for former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, ex-PM Li Peng and others on allegations of genocide in Tibet.
(Reuters, 2/10/14)
2014 Feb 11, China and Taiwan held talks in Nanjing, their highest level talks since splitting amid a civil war in 1949.
(SFC, 2/11/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 12, China's Cabinet announced that 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) has been set aside this year to reward cities and regions that make significant progress in controlling air pollution, highlighting how the issue has become a priority for the leadership.
(AP, 2/13/14)
2014 Feb 12, In China a strong and shallow 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the far western region of Xinjiang, but in a sparsely populated area.
(AFP, 2/12/14)
2014 Feb 14, In China 11 "terrorists" were reported killed during an attack in Wushi County in the Aksu Prefecture of Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 2/14/14)
2014 Feb 14, The Chinese government sacked the police chief of the southern "sin city" of Dongguan following a candid report by the state broadcaster on the underground sex industry there.
(Reuters, 2/14/14)
2014 Feb 14, In eastern China a wedding hall collapsed killing 10 people in Yazhuang village, Zhejiang province.
(SFC, 2/15/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 15, In Germany the film “Black Coal, Thin Ice" won the Golden Bear award for best film at the 64th Berlin Film Festival. It was directed by Diao Yinan of China.
(Econ, 2/22/14, p.38)
2014 Feb 20, China's capital Beijing issued an emergency pollution alert for the first time, warning residents to reduce outdoor activities and construction sites to control dust given a forecast of heavy smog over the next three days.
(Reuters, 2/20/14)
2014 Feb 23, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks in Baghdad on issues ranging from trade to arming Iraq's hard-pressed security forces, on the first such visit in over a decade.
(AFP, 2/23/14)
2014 Feb 25, A Chinese state-run newspaper, the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily, reported that man in a smog-ridden northern city has become the first person in China to sue the government for failing to curb air pollution.
(Reuters, 2/25/14)
2014 Feb 27, In southwestern China a bus in Guiyang caught fire near an elementary school with about 50 people inside. 6 people were killed. A man suspicious of his wife's infidelity later admitted to setting the fire.
(AP, 2/28/14)
2014 Feb 27, The Philippines called on Malaysia, Vietnam and other claimants to join its legal challenge to China's massive territorial claim in the South China Sea.
(AP, 2/27/14)
2014 Feb 28, China’s Public Security Ministry said police have rescued 382 abducted babies and arrested 1,094 suspects in a national operation that busted four major Internet-based baby trafficking rings.
(SFC, 3/1/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 1, In southwestern China a group of knife-wielding men attacked the Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan province. The rampage killed 31 people and wounded 141. Police fatally shot four of the assailants, putting the overall death toll at 33. Xinjiang separatist forces were blamed. The Ministry of Public Security later said a "terrorist gang" of six men and two women led by a person identified as Abdurehim Kurban was responsible for the attack. 4 attackers were killed and 4 faced death sentences.
(AP, 3/1/14)(AP, 3/2/14)(AP, 3/3/14)(Reuters, 3/29/14)
2014 Mar 1, In China a crash in the Yanhou Tunnel in Shaanxi province involved more than 40 vehicles, including those carrying hazardous materials. At least 31 people were killed and a resulting fire burned for three days.
(AP, 3/13/14)
2014 Mar 4, Chinese millionaires pleaded for the Canadian government not to throw away the immigration applications of thousands of Chinese nationals as part of its plans to end a backlogged investor program.
(AP, 3/4/14)
2014 Mar 4, In China the Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science and Technology Co. declared that it lacked the cash to make the full interest payment on a corporate bond. This was China’s first domestic market bond default since the central bank started regulating the market in 1997.
(Econ, 3/8/14, p.75)
2014 Mar 5, China’s PM Li Keqiang vowed to act against corruption and to declare war on pollution.
(Econ, 3/8/14, p.70)(Econ, 3/15/14, p.13)
2014 Mar 5, EcoMotors, a startup backed by Bill Gates and Khosla Ventures, unveiled a joint venture with a division of China FAW Group to produce 100,000 new two-stroke engines a year.
(Econ, 3/8/14, p.70)
2014 Mar 5, In northeastern China a fire on a public bus in Jilin province left 10 people dead and 17 injured.
(SFC, 3/6/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 7, Chinese authorities allowed the country's first corporate bond default, inflicting losses on small investors in a painful step toward making its financial system more market-oriented.
(AP, 3/7/14)
2014 Mar 8, China declared a "red line" on North Korea, saying that China will not permit chaos or war on the Korean peninsula, and that peace can only come through denuclearization.
(Reuters, 3/8/14)
2014 Mar 8, In southwest China a small plane belonging to a flight academy crashed into a farm field, killing both people on board.
(AP, 3/8/14)
2014 Mar 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 fell off radar screens less than an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. Vietnamese air force planes spotted two large oil slicks close to where the Boeing 777 went missing early today. The aircraft carried 239 people. Foreign ministry officials in Rome and Vienna confirmed that names of two nationals listed on the manifest matched passports reported stolen in Thailand. The flight was carrying 154 people from China and Taiwan, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians and six Australians among the 227 passengers.
(AP, 3/8/14)(Reuters, 3/8/14)
2014 Mar 10, The Philippines air dropped food and water to soldiers stationed on a grounded transport ship on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal. A day earlier China blocked two Filipino supply ships from reaching the troops.
(Reuters, 3/12/14)
2014 Mar 11, China’s banking regulators approved a pilot scheme to allow privately owned banks in various parts of the country. The China Banking Regulatory Commission said ten companies, including Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent, have been picked to invest in China's first five privately owned banks.
(AP, 3/11/14)(Econ, 3/15/14, p.70)
2014 Mar 12, Thailand police rescued about 200 suspected Muslim Uighurs, believed to be from China's troubled far-western region of Xinjiang, from a human smuggling camp in southern Thailand.
(Reuters, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 13, Police in southwestern China took away veteran activist Huang Qi, who runs a rights monitoring website, and seized his computers and mobile phones in Chengdu.
(AP, 3/13/14)
2014 Mar 14, In China a fellow dissident and lawyers said prominent Chinese human rights activist Cao Shunli, detained in September for staging sit-ins at the country's foreign ministry, has died after being denied medical treatment in detention.
(Reuters, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 14, In southern China a fight between two food stall owners at a market left 5 people hacked to death and one person fatally shot by police in Changsha. A witness said the stand operators were Uighurs selling flatbread.
(AP, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 16, China’s government released its “people-centered" plan on urbanization. Under this some 100 million migrants will be given urban hukou (certificates) and access to urban services by the end of the decade. This would still leave some 200m unregistered.
(Econ, 3/22/14, p.17)(Econ, 4/19/14, p.12)
2014 Mar 16, In China a monk from the Shaderi Monastery in Huangnan Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Qinghai province, set himself on fire.
(AP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 16, In central China 4 people died in a fire at a hospital's in-patient building in Huangshi city, Hubei province.
(AP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 16, In China Bishop Fan Zhongliang (97) died at his home in Shanghai. He was ordained by Pope John Paul II but not recognized by Chinese authorities, and spent more than 30 years in prisons and labor camps over the course of his life, starting in 1955.
(Reuters, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 18, China's education ministry ordered a nationwide investigation into whether schools are giving students medication without permission after a protest in Xi’an by parents of kindergarteners who were given an antiviral drug.
(AP, 3/18/14)
2014 Mar 18, The United States and European Union (EU) accused China of using arrests and harassment to silence human rights activists, also voicing consternation at the death in custody of a prominent dissident.
(Reuters, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 19, Hundreds of Taiwanese activists were locked in a tense standoff with police after they stormed parliament to try to stop the government ratifying a contentious trade agreement with China.
(AFP, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 19, Tango, a mobile messaging app-maker, announced it has raised $280 million in a new funding round led by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
(Reuters, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 21, US first lady Michelle Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first day of her weeklong visit to China, in a sign that the leaders of the world's two largest economies are seeking to build stronger bonds.
(AP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 21, In eastern China a fire in Dujiatuan village, Shandong province, killed a farmer and injured three other farmers. Police later said a real estate developer and a village official directed arsonists who set the fire on a the farmer’s tent pitched to guard his land against development.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 21, Four Chinese rights lawyers were tortured by police after they were rounded up following protests outside a detention center in Jiansanjiang, a farming community in the northeast. They had joined several people shouting to demand information about relatives believed locked up inside because they were members of Falun Gong — banned as a cult though they claim to be a peaceful spiritual movement.
(AP, 4/15/14)
2014 Mar 22, A satellite image released by China offered the latest sign that wreckage from a Malaysia Airlines plane lost on March 8 could be in a remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean.
(AP, 3/22/14)
2014 Mar 23, China and the Netherlands signed a trade pact pledging Dutch dairy expertise to help Chinese producers boost the quality and quantity of their milk. It was part of a raft of deals and memoranda of understanding inked on the 2nd day of a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is in the Netherlands with a large trade delegation.
(AP, 3/23/14)
2014 Mar 25, China's eastern city of Hangzhou said will start restricting car sales on March 26, joining major cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, in the fight against snarling traffic and heavy smog in the world's largest automobile market.
(Reuters, 3/25/14)
2014 Mar 26, In southern China a fire in a lingerie factory killed 11 people in Puning County, Guangdong province.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, The World Trade Organization ruled that China has violated international trade rules with its restrictions on the export of 17 "rare earths" and two other minerals that have key industrial and high-tech uses.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 27, China’s Defense Ministry said it will beef up its internet security after recent reports that the US government spied on a major telecommunications firm.
(Reuters, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 27, China’s Xinhua state news said a Wuhu city court has sentenced to death a rapist who posed as a female on social networks to lure 16 girls to meet him. Wang Yong (40) was sentenced earlier this month for raping the girls aged 12 to 16 starting in 2009.
(AP, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 27, In China a man (34) involved in a property dispute stabbed six people to death in a Beijing district and injured others.
(AP, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 29, A Philippine government ship slipped past a Chinese coast guard blockade and brought food and fresh troops to a marooned navy ship used as a base by Filipino troops to bolster the country's territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea.
(AP, 3/29/14)
2014 Mar 30, In southern China hundreds of protesters marched against a chemical plant and environmental degradation. The Maoming city government called the demonstration a "grave violation" by criminals causing chaos. Residents were protesting the production of paraxylene, a chemical used to make fabrics and plastic bottles at a plant run by the local government and state-owned Sinopec Corp, China's biggest refiner.
(Reuters, 3/31/14)
2014 Mar 30, In Belgium China’s Pres. Xi Jinping received a royal welcome and an honorary knighthood in Brussels at the start of a 3-day visit that will see him become the first Chinese leader to visit EU headquarters.
(AFP, 3/30/14)
2014 Mar 30, In China Phuntso Wangye (b.1922), a veteran Tibetan Communist leader, died in Beijing. He had founded the Tibetan Communist Party and later become an outspoken critic of Beijing's hardline policies towards the Himalayan region. His book “A Long Way to Equality and Unity" was recently published in Hong Kong.
(Reuters, 3/30/14)(SFC, 3/31/14, p.C3)
2014 Mar 30, The Philippines filed a case against China at an arbitration tribunal in The Hague, subjecting Beijing to international legal scrutiny over the territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 3/31/14)
2014 Mar 31, Chinese prosecutors brought corruption charges against a top general. A military prosecutor charged Lt. Gen. Gu Junshan with embezzlement, bribery, misuse of state funds and abuse of power. Liu Han, a mining tycoon, his brother and 34 associates stood trial on allegations of running a vast criminal gang in Sichuan province that gunned down rivals, maintained fleets of Ferraris and bribed police to avoid prosecution.
(AP, 3/31/14)
2014 Mar, Chinese hackers broke into the computer networks of the US Office of Personnel Management with the intention of accessing the files of tens of thousands of federal employees who had applied for top-secret security clearances. Hackers gained access to some of the agency's databases before the threat was detected and blocked.
(AP, 7/10/14)
2014 Apr 1, China's Defense Ministry said inspectors have uncovered widespread irregularities and suspected corruption among military units based around Beijing, a sign that a widening anti-graft campaign that is turning to the sprawling 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, In China protests against a proposed chemical plant in Maoming city, Guangdong province, spread to Guangzhou, the provincial capital, even as authorities signaled they may back down on construction plans in attempt to head off more unrest.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, China's foreign ministry expressed anger after Ilham Tohti, a prominent detained Uighur academic, won a human rights award in the United States, saying that he was a suspected criminal.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, Human Rights Watch said China has pressured Nepal to impose tough controls on thousands of Tibetan refugees, including arbitrary detention, excessive use of force and intrusive surveillance.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 2, In southern China local authorities said torrential rains have left 14 people dead. Rains have battered Guangdong and Hong Kong since March 29, grounding some flights in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
(AP, 4/2/14)
2014 Apr 2, Suspected Filipino Abu Sayyaf insurgents seized Gao Huayuan (29) a Chinese tourist, and Marcy Dayawan (40), a hotel receptionist, from the Singamata Reef Resort in eastern Malaysia and then fled in a speed boat. The kidnappers soon demanded a ransom of 500 million pesos ($11.3 million). On May 30 Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak said both victims have been freed.
(AP, 4/3/14)(AFP, 4/5/14)(AP, 4/10/14)(AP, 5/30/14)
2014 Apr 4, China’s energy administration said it will close 1,725 small-scale mines with a total capacity of 117.48 million tons in 2014 as part of its program to phase out low-quality coal production.
(Reuters, 4/4/14)
2014 Apr 5, Chinese state media reported that kindergarten headmaster Shi Haixia and a man were sentenced to death in a poisoning case that left two girls dead. Haixia was upset that a rival school had better enrollments and injected rat poison into a bottle of yogurt. She then asked her accomplice to place it on the road in late April 2013, with a notebook and a pencil in a plastic bag on the way to the other kindergarten in Pingshan County, Hebei province.
(AP, 4/5/14)(AFP, 4/6/14)
2014 Apr 5, In China workers in Guangdong province walked out of factories owned by Yue Yuen, a Taiwanese maker of branded shoes. The walkout grew to involve tens of thousands of workers.
(Econ, 4/26/14, p.41)
2014 Apr 7, In China the Xiahaizi mine in Yunnan province suddenly filled with water following an explosion, leaving 22 miners trapped. The death toll rose to 20 with the recovery of another 14 bodies nearly two weeks after the accident.
(AFP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 8, The defense chiefs of China and the US faced off over Beijing's escalating territorial disputes in the region, with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel telling his Chinese counterparts they do not have the right to unilaterally establish an air defense zone over disputed islands with no consultation.
(AP, 4/8/14)
2014 Apr 8, A Shanghai collector paid a record $36 million for a rare Ming Dynasty cup that's touted as the "holy grail" of China's art world.
(AP, 4/8/14)
2014 Apr 8, China and Brazil signed a corn-import deal.
(Econ, 4/12/14, p.27)
2014 Apr 9, Malaysia awarded a manufacturing license to a $618 million venture that will assemble fuel-efficient SUVs for China's Great Wall Motor Co. Privately owned Go Automobile Manufacturing will invest 2 billion ringgit ($618 million) over the next four years to expand its manufacturing plant in northern Kedah state.
(AP, 4/9/14)
2014 Apr 10, China unveiled a plan to give foreign investors greater access to its stock market by allowing investors in Shanghai and Hong Kong to trade shares on each other's exchanges.
(AP, 4/10/14)
2014 Apr 10, In China 8 school children died in a bus crash on the island province of Hainan on their way to a school outing. The driver was later arrested for allegedly causing the casualties.
(Reuters, 4/10/14)(AP, 4/25/14)
2014 Apr 11, In China residents of the western city of Lanzhou rushed to buy bottled water after authorities said the city's drinking water contained levels of benzene, a cancer-inducing chemical, standing at 20 times above national safety levels. The local environmental bureau blamed a crude oil leak from a pipeline owned by a unit of China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) for the water contamination.
(Reuters, 4/11/14)(Reuters, 4/13/14)
2014 Apr 12, In China’s Xinjiang region Abdubasit Ablimit (17) was shot after he reportedly tried twice to seize weapons from police at a checkpoint in Aksu prefecture. He died of his wounds the next day. Another account that circulated after said Ablimit was killed after running a red light in an apparent attempt to avoid paying a fine.
(AP, 4/17/14)
2014 Apr 13, Chinese state media reported that authorities have seized more than 10,000 illegal guns in the southwestern province of Guizhou, marking its largest haul of illegal firearms. Fifteen people suspected of being part of a criminal gang involved in the manufacturing and trafficking of firearms were arrested.
(Reuters, 4/13/14)
2014 Apr 13, Chinese conglomerate Sanpower said it has agreed to buy a majority stake in British department store House of Fraser in a deal worth £480 million (578 million euros, $800 million).
(AP, 4/13/14)
2014 Apr 13, Glencore, based in Switzerland, said it has signed an agreement to sell its entire interest in the Peruvian Las Bambas copper mine to a consortium led by MMG Ltd., a mining company controlled by state-owned China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Co. Ltd.
(AP, 4/14/14)
2014 Apr 15, In southern China thousands of workers at a giant Yue Yuen Industrial shoe factory shrugged off an offer for improved social benefits, prolonging one of the largest strikes in China in recent years amid signs of increased labor activism as the economy slows.
(Reuters, 4/15/14)
2014 Apr 15, In China a government owned company that bred bears for traditional medicines agreed to convert itself in to a sanctuary. Some 70 bear farms, with bears caged for their bile, were believed to be still operating in the country.
(SFC, 4/16/14, p.A4)
2014 Apr 17, A strike at the Chinese factories Yu Yuen Industrial, the world's biggest athletic shoe maker, snowballed to about 30,000 workers in Dongguan, making it one of the largest-ever work stoppages at a private business in China.
(AP, 4/17/14)
2014 Apr 17, China’s environment ministry said a nationwide investigation has shown that as much as 16 percent of China's soil contains higher than permitted levels of pollution. This was nearly one-fifth of China’s farmland.
(Reuters, 4/17/14)(SFC, 4/19/14, p.A4)
2014 Apr 17, China introduced its first armed police patrols in Xi'an. Shanghai and Qingdao police began to carry 9 mm pistols on Apr 20.
(AP, 4/21/14)
2014 Apr 18, A Chinese court sentenced four anti-corruption protestors to between two and three-and-a-half years in jail over their role in small-scale demonstrations, furthering a crackdown on rights activists. The four were associated with the New Citizens Movement, a loose network whose members held peaceful protests in Beijing last year.
(AFP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 18, In Vietnam a Chinese man who was being repatriated from Vietnam along with 15 other migrants seized a gun from a border guard, triggering a gunfight and standoff in which five Chinese and two Vietnamese guards died.
(AP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 19, A Chinese maritime court in Shanghai seized a ship owned by Japanese shipping firm Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, a move that Japan warned could have an adverse impact on its businesses in China. The court said the company had failed to pay compensation stemming from a WWII contractual obligation. On April 24 China said Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd has paid about $29 million for the release of the ship.
(Reuters, 4/21/14)(Reuters, 4/24/14)
2014 Apr 20, In India 2 victims were found dead aboard the Chinese-built carrier Tuo Fu 3 anchored near Haldia city in the Bay of Bengal. They had reportedly collapsed immediately after entering the cargo hold filled with coal and accumulated methane gas.
(AP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 22, US Naval officials and two dozen Asia-Pacific nations adopted the code For Unplanned Encounters, an agreement aimed at improving communication at sea to reduce the possibility of conflict amid rising friction between an increasingly assertive China and its neighbors. The agreement was approved unanimously at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao.
(AP, 4/22/14)(SFC, 4/23/14, p.A2)
2014 Apr 22, Tesla Motors Inc. delivered its first eight electric sedans to customers in China. CEO Elon Musk said the company will build a nationwide network of charging stations and service centers as fast as it can.
(AP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 22, In the Philippines about 80 activists protested at the Chinese consulate in Manila, demanding that China stop intruding into Philippine territory in the South China Sea. Philippine marine officer Mike Pelotera said he and his men saw Filipino fishermen being "bullied" away from the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea at least eight times from December to March.
(AP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 24, China passed amendments to the country's environmental protection law that will impose tougher penalties on polluters in the most sweeping revisions to the law in 25 years.
(Reuters, 4/24/14)
2014 Apr 25, China’s Sina.com temporarily closed its literature site after being accused of hosting pornography, and authorities confirmed they were revoking two crucial licenses, ensnaring one of China's top web portals in an intensifying online crackdown.
(AP, 4/25/14)
2014 Apr 26, China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said it aims to start building more than 7 million units of public housing this year, signaling the latest government move to counter high property prices.
(Reuters, 4/26/14)
2014 Apr 26, In China a spokeswoman for a leading online video site, Youku, said it has received notification not to show sitcom "The Big Bang Theory," political and legal drama "The Good Wife," crime drama "NCIS" and legal drama "The Practice."
(AP, 4/27/14)
2014 Apr 26, In China labor activists said most of the thousands of striking workers in Dongguan have returned to work enabling Adidas to resume production. Some 10,000 remained on strike at the Taiwanese owned Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Ltd.
(SSFC, 4/27/14, p.A7)
2014 Apr 28, In China a man distressed by his divorce case intentionally rammed a car into electric scooters and pedestrians near a school in the southeast, killing 6 people, including 3 children. Police subdued Lin Jianxin (37) with a water gun in Zhuangtou village, Fujian province.
(AP, 4/28/14)
2014 Apr 28, In China the large, officially approved, Sanjiang Protestant Church was demolished in Wenzhou. It had been built six years earlier at a cost of $4.8 million, but officials said it had violated building codes.
(Econ, 5/3/14, p.40)
2014 Apr 29, The US targeted companies from China and Dubai for allegedly helping Iran evade weapons and oil sanctions, a signal Washington will keep pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.
(Reuters, 4/29/14)
2014 Apr 30, In China an explosion shook a railway station in the restive far-western region of Xinjiang as President Xi Jinping wrapped up a four-day visit to the area. Authorities the next day said that two religious extremists carried out the terror attack by detonating explosives, in an apparent suicide bombing that killed one other person and wounded 79. It was later reported that 3 government officials were knifed to death and their bodies dumped in a lake during the president’s visit.
(AP, 4/30/14)(AP, 5/1/14)(Reuters, 5/16/14)
2014 May 1, China deployed a $1 billion deep sea rig near the Paracel Islands and the flotilla of escort ships, some armed, in a gradual campaign of asserting its sovereignty in the South China Sea. After China stationed the oil rig, Vietnam immediately dispatched marine police and fishery protection vessels but they were harassed as they approached.
(AP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 2, A Venezuelan fishing boat found 11 Chinese sailors floating in a raft about 1,000 miles west of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. 2 soon died of their injuries.
(SFC, 5/5/14, p.A2)
2014 May 3, In southern China a stone arch bridge under illegal construction, collapsed, killing 11 people and injuring several others in Liangkengkou village, Guangdong province.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang set off for a four-country tour of Africa (Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola and Kenya), acknowledging "growing pains" in China-Africa relations amid labor conflicts and other problems stemming from Chinese investment.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, A Chinese vessel intentionally rammed two Vietnamese Sea Guard vessels in a part of the disputed South China Sea where Beijing has deployed a giant oil rig, sending tensions spiraling in the region.
(Reuters, 5/7/14)
2014 May 5, China’s state media said a court has convicted a man, identified by the surname Li, of spying and sentenced him to 10 years in prison for leaking classified military documents to a foreign spy, named Feige, who also approached more than 50 other people around China.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 5, Beijing-based Peking University announced plans for China's second international program modeled after the Rhodes Scholarship.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 5, Vietnam demanded China stop oil drilling operations in a disputed patch of the South China Sea, saying that Beijing's decision to deploy a deep sea rig over the weekend was illegal.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 6, Chinese police shot and wounded a suspect who attacked passengers at a busy railway station in the southern city of Guangzhou, leaving six people injured in the third high-profile assault on civilians at a train station in a little more than two months.
(AP, 5/6/14)
2014 May 6, The Philippines seized a Chinese fishing boat and its 11 crewmen on charges of catching endangered sea turtles in disputed South China Sea waters, prompting China to demand their release and accuse Manila of being provocative. On May 12 all nine men were charged with poaching over 500 endangered sea turtles.
(AP, 5/7/14)(SFC, 5/13/14, p.A3)
2014 May 7, Tibet’s exiled Dalai Lama began a three-day stay in Norway. Unlike on his previous visits, no government officials will meet with him to avoid upsetting China.
(AP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 8, China accused Vietnam of intentionally colliding with its ships in the South China Sea, but called for talks to end a bitter row sparked by Beijing's parking of a giant oil rig in contested waters.
(Reuters, 5/8/14)
2014 May 8, Chinese police shot dead an assailant who attacked a police vehicle with knives in the far western region of Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 5/8/14)
2014 May 10, China’s state media reported that President Xi Jinping has called for the acceleration of land transfers to help modernize the country's agriculture.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 10, Protesters in eastern China clashed with police at a rally against plans to build a huge waste incinerator in Yuhang that residents fear will be harmful to their health and add to pollution. The Yuhang government said that all work on the incinerator has stopped, and that it would invite the public to participate in a decision whether to press ahead with the scheme.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 10, In Myanmar Southeast Asian foreign ministers voiced "serious concerns" over naval clashes between Vietnam and China as the ASEAN’s top official urged Beijing to step up efforts to advance talks on maritime security.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 11, In eastern China heavy rain caused a retaining wall to collapse at a recycling plant in Qingdao city, killing 18 people.
(AP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 11, Myanmar hosted the Southeast Asian summit (ASEAN) as Vietnam and the Philippines pushed for stronger action to confront China's aggressive behavior in the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 11, China signed a deal with East African leaders to build a $3.8 billion rail link between Kenya's Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and Nairobi, the first stage of a line that will eventually link Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
(AFP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 13, In Vietnam several thousand workers protested at Chinese-owned factories, vandalizing some of them, as anger flared at Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in waters claimed by Vietnam.
(AP, 5/13/14)
2014 May 14, Chinese police said they have charged the former British boss of drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline PLC's China business and other colleagues with corruption, after a probe found the firm made billions of yuan from elaborate schemes to bribe doctors and hospitals. Mark Reilly and two Chinese executives, Zhang Guowei and Zhao Hongyan, were also suspected of bribing officials in the industry and commerce departments of Beijing and Shanghai.
(Reuters, 5/14/14)
2014 May 14, In northwestern China a pipeline in a coal mine collapsed, killing 11 people in the city of Yulin, Shaanxi province. 24 people came out alive and 2 remained missing.
(AP, 5/16/14)
2014 May 14, In Vietnam a 1,000-strong mob stormed a Taiwanese steel mill in Ha Tinh province and hunted down Chinese workers, killing one, attacking scores more and then setting the complex alight in response to Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in the long-disputed South China Sea. State-owned China Metallurgical Group later reported that 4 of its workers were killed. Some 600 Chinese crossed into Cambodia over the land border in southern Vietnam.
(AP, 5/15/14)(AP, 5/20/14)(SFC, 5/21/14, p.A2)
2014 May 15, A Chinese court sentenced Vincent Wu, a Chinese-American businessman, to 20 years in prison on charges of heading a mob that kidnapped rivals and operated illegal casinos, and rejected his claim that he was tortured by police. About two dozen other defendants in the case received sentences of between 19 months and 19 years
(AP, 5/15/14)
2014 May 15, China’s Caixin business magazine reported that Wei Pengyuan, a senior official of the National Energy Administration’s coal department, was under arrest. So much cash ($16m) was found at his home in Beijing that investigators brought in 16 machines from a bank to count it all.
(http://tinyurl.com/l8kd336)(Econ, 6/28/14, p.38)
2014 May 16, In China the leader of a baby trafficking ring that brought 23 boys and pregnant women from Vietnam was sentenced to death. The court in the southern region of Guangxi gave another 23 members of the group sentences ranging from less than two years to life in prison.
(AP, 5/16/14)
2014 May 16, Filipinos and Vietnamese residents in Manila staged a joint protest against China's incursions into South China Sea territories claimed by their countries.
(AP, 5/16/14)
2014 May 16, Suspected Boko Haram rebels from Nigeria attacked a Chinese work site near Waza in northern Cameroon and at least 10 people were believed to have been kidnapped.
(Reuters, 5/17/14)(Econ, 7/26/14, p.43)
2014 May 17, China's public security chief urged Vietnam to take tough measures to stem anti-China violence and punish rioters following deadly attacks there earlier this week.
(Reuters, 5/17/14)
2014 May 17, Vietnam's PM Nguyen Tan Dun ordered an end to all "illegal protests" in the country after a week of violent demonstrations against China's deployment of an oil rig in a disputed section of the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/17/14)
2014 May 18, In China Liu Zhanbin, the chief executive of Sanjing Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., jumped to his death. He was under investigation on suspicion of taking bribes.
(AP, 5/19/14)
2014 May 18, Vietnam smothered anti-China protests with a massive security clampdown after deadly riots triggered by a territorial dispute with Beijing spooked foreign investors and the country's leadership alike. Beijing said it had evacuated 3,000 nationals from Vietnam and was sending the first of five ships to pull out others wanting to leave.
(AP, 5/18/14)
2014 May 19, Chinese media said the government of the industrial city of Tianjin will limit the number of vehicles allowed on roads during heavy smog. Last month Tianjin banned new steel and cement plants as part of a program to reverse damage done to its environment.
(Reuters, 5/19/14)
2014 May 19, The US indicted five members of the Chinese military on charges they stole US secrets through hacking to help state-run companies. Attorney General Eric Holder said they hacked into six US nuclear power, metals and solar products industries: Alcoa World Alumina, Westinghouse Electric Co., Allegheny Technologies, U.S. Steel Corp., United Steelworkers Union, and SolarWorld.
(AFP, 5/19/14)(AP, 5/19/14)
2014 May 19, Hundreds of Chinese workers left Vietnam on ships chartered by their government after deadly unrest broke out last week amid a dispute over sovereignty claims in the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/19/14)
2014 May 20, China warned the US was jeopardizing military ties by charging five Chinese officers with cyberspying and tried to turn the tables on Washington by calling it "the biggest attacker of China's cyberspace."
(AP, 5/20/14)
2014 May 20, China's Xinjiang Supreme Court jailed 39 people in a special operation to curb the spread of audio and video materials inciting terrorism. They were convicted of crimes including organizing and leading terrorist groups, inciting ethnic hatred, ethnic discrimination and the illegal manufacturing of guns.
(AP, 5/21/14)
2014 May 21, China signed a landmark deal to buy Russian natural gas worth about $400 billion, giving a boost to diplomatically isolated President Vladimir Putin and expanding Moscow's ties with Asia.
(AP, 5/21/14)
2014 May 21, China’s state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp. said it is ready to deliver the country’s first homegrown regional airliner, the ARJ21-700, to Chengdu Airlines.
(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.D2)
2014 May 21, Vietnamese PM Nguyen Tan Dung said Vietnam and the Philippines are determined to oppose Chinese infringement of their territorial waters.
(Reuters, 5/21/14)
2014 May 22, In China two vehicles with explosives ploughed into an open market in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, in the deadliest act of violence in the region in years. At least 43 people were killed including 4 suicide bombers. One suspect was captured.
(Reuters, 5/22/14)(Reuters, 5/23/14)(AP, 5/24/14)
2014 May 22, China and Russia vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed by both sides in its civil war.
(AFP, 5/22/14)
2014 May 23, China warned Japan to stay out of a growing dispute with its neighbors over the South China Sea, as the Philippines implicitly accused Beijing of delaying talks aimed at a solution.
(Reuters, 5/23/14)
2014 May 23, In China Liu Han, a former mining tycoon, was sentenced to death for leading a crime gang that killed rivals. Han had been chairman of the Sichuan Hanlong Group, an energy conglomerate with stakes in Australian and US mines.
(AP, 5/23/14)(SFC, 5/24/14, p.A3)
2014 May 23, In Vietnam a woman (67) died after setting herself on fire in downtown Ho Chi Minh City in protest against China's deployment of an oil rig in waters claimed by Hanoi.
(AP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 23, The WTO ruled that China's anti-dumping duties on imports of American-made cars and sport-utility vehicles violate international trade rules.
(AP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 23, In China a tour bus carrying 26 people fell into a section of the Jiulong River in Fujian province killing at least 2 people. Five people remained missing. 24 passengers were from Taiwan.
(AP, 5/24/14)
2014 May 25, In northwestern China two trucks collided, killing 10 people and injuring 32 in Wujiaqu city, Xinjiang region.
(AP, 5/25/14)
2014 May 26, China announced that it has arrested more than 200 terror suspects over the past month in the restive Xinjiang region, highlighting its commitment to a security crackdown even as a bloody attack last week raised questions about its effectiveness. Police foiled a terror plot by detaining five suspects and seizing 1.8 tons of bomb-making materials in the Hotan section of the Xinjiang region.
(AP, 5/26/14)(AP, 5/27/14)
2014 May 26, China’s government said 37 people have died and six left missing in widespread flooding that's hit hundreds of thousands of people in a swath of southern China.
(AP, 5/26/14)
2014 May 26, China's government said it plans to take 6 million older, polluting vehicles off the road this year in an effort to revive stalled progress toward cleaning up smog-choked cities.
(AP, 5/27/14)
2014 May 26, South Korea and China agreed recent nuclear activity by North Korea posed a serious threat to the peace and stability of the region and Pyongyang must not conduct a nuclear test, after a meeting of their top diplomats in Seoul.
(Reuters, 5/26/14)
2014 May 26, Some 40 Chinese fishing boats surrounded a Vietnamese fishing boat before one of them rammed it and it sank not far from where China has parked an oil rig in the disputed South China Sea. Vietnamese fishing boats operating nearby rescued the 10 fishermen on board.
(Reuters, 5/27/14)
2014 May 27, A Chinese court announced guilty verdicts for 55 people on charges of terrorism, separatism and murder in a stadium filled with 7,000 people in Yili, Xinjiang province. At least one convict received a death sentence before the audience made up of local residents and officials.
(AP, 5/28/14)
2014 May 28, In eastern China members of the "All-powerful spirit" religious cult beat a woman to death at a McDonald's restaurant in Zhaoyuan. The attack was caught on video and 6 members of the cult were soon arrested. Five members of the Church of Almighty God, aka Eastern Lightning" went on trial on Aug 21. In October two defendants were sentenced to death, a 3rd to life in prison, and two other to seven and ten years in prison.
(http://tinyurl.com/o575hgg)(Econ, 8/30/14, p.40)(AFP, 10/11/14)
2014 May 29, China’s health officials said they expect 2 million extra babies per year as a result of loosening its “one child" birth limits.
(SFC, 5/30/14, p.A2)
2014 May 31, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned an international security conference at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that the US "will not look the other way" when nations such as China try to restrict navigation or ignore international rules and standards.
(AP, 5/31/14)
2014 Jun 3, China showed off its first high-speed rail link to the restive region of Xinjiang, promising that it could guarantee the security of an important economic project despite a recent serious escalation in violence.
(Reuters, 6/3/14)
2014 Jun 4, China rejected an arbitration tribunal's ruling giving it six months to respond to a case filed by the Philippines over disputed waters, saying it has no plans to take part.
(Reuters, 6/4/14)
2014 Jun 5, Chinese state media said authorities have sentenced 81 people on terror-related charges, nine of them to death, and made 29 new arrests in a huge crackdown in the far west following deadly attacks blamed on Muslim extremists.
(AP, 6/5/14)
2014 Jun 5, China offered $16 million in humanitarian assistance for refugees from the conflict in Syria as part of Beijing's growing engagement with the Arab world.
(AP, 6/5/14)
2014 Jun 5, China freed Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen (40), who made a 2008 documentary about Tibetan nomads expressing discontent over China's rule, after serving six years for separatism. Wangchen was freed in the western city of Xining, capital of Qinghai province.
(AP, 6/6/14)
2014 Jun 7, The Chinese government said it will deploy eight inspection teams across the country to investigate how regional governments are implementing 19 central policies and will hold accountable those found wanting.
(Reuters, 6/7/14)
2014 Jun 8, In China a raid by officers on small bathhouses and other businesses associated with prostitution sparked clashes lasting hours in the southern city of Guangzhou.
(AP, 6/8/14)
2014 Jun 8, China's foreign minister visited India's new leaders in hopes of spurring stalled trade and easing decades of tensions between the Asian nations.
(AP, 6/8/14)
2014 Jun 9, China denounced Vietnam and the Philippines for getting together on the Vietnamese-held island of Southwest Cay, a disputed island in the South China Sea, to play soccer and volleyball, calling it "a clumsy farce" and demanded both countries stop causing trouble.
(Reuters, 6/9/14)
2014 Jun 10, China’s government issued a “white paper" asserting that autonomy granted to Hong Kong in 1997 was entirely dependent on China’s leaders.
(Econ, 7/5/14, p.37)
2014 Jun 10, In China convicted criminal Zhang Zeqing, was shot and killed by police in Qianjiang, Hubei province. He had taken 50 elementary school students and a teacher hostage and had agreed to exchange them for the deputy mayor of the surrounding town of Haokou, but was shot after he poured gasoline over the official.
(AP, 6/10/14)
2014 Jun 11, A delegation of Thai military commanders travelled to China for talks on regional security and joint training amid Western reproach of the army's seizure of power in a coup last month.
(Reuters, 6/11/14)
2014 Jun 14, China’s corruption watchdog said Su Rong, the vice-chairman of China's top parliamentary advisory body, has been put under investigation for serious "disciplinary violations," usually Chinese Communist Party shorthand for graft.
(Reuters, 6/14/14)
2014 Jun 14, China began building a school on tiny Yongxing island in the South China Sea to serve the children of military personnel and others for the settlement of Sansha, created in 2012. It is part of the Paracel chain, which is also claimed by Vietnam.
(AP, 6/15/14)
2014 Jun 14, The Philippines said it filed a protest last week with Beijing for reclaiming land on a disputed South China Sea reef, the fourth such complaint in three months.
(AFP, 6/14/14)
2014 Jun 16, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Britain on a 3-day visit that included a planned meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and talks aimed at boosting fragile diplomatic relations.
(AP, 6/16/14)
2014 Jun 17, In China an accidental explosion killed 17 soldiers as they were stacking ammunition in Hengyang, Hunan province.
(SFC, 6/19/14, p.A2)
2014 Jun 17, Chinese premier Li Keqiang began his visit to Britain with a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. He then traveled to central London for a formal inspection of British soldiers and a meeting with PM David Cameron at his office in Downing Street. Mr Li, who was accompanied by a large business delegation, formally agreed during the trip to commercial deals and investments worth £14bn ($24 billion) in areas such as energy and finance.
(AP, 6/17/14)(Econ, 7/19/14, p.11)
2014 Jun 19, China said it is moving a second oil rig closer to Vietnam's coast, showing its determination to press its territorial claims and continue searching for resources in disputed waters despite a tense confrontation with Vietnam over another oil rig to the south.
(AP, 6/19/14)
2014 Jun 19, In eastern China a court sentenced to up to 6 ½ years in prison three activists who were part of a nascent civil rights movement that has urged government officials to publicly disclose their assets. A court in southern Guangxi region sentenced to death He Shenguo, who killed two government workers and injured four other people in an argument related to the one-child policy.
(AP, 6/19/14)
2014 Jun 19, Chinese PM Li Keqiang arrived on an official three-day visit to Greece, which the Greek government hopes will lead to trade and investment deals that will boost the recession-plagued economy.
(AP, 6/19/14)
2014 Jun 19, Chinese authorities arrested 11 North Koreans who had fled their country and will likely deport them back to the North where they could face severe punishment.
(AP, 7/2/14)
2014 Jun 20, In China assailants stabbed two police officers guarding a security checkpoint in a village in Qaraqash county, Xinjiang, and set fire to a room in which three other officers were sleeping, killing all five.
(AP, 6/24/14)
2014 Jun 21, In China police in Kashgar prefecture in Xinjiang's southwest shot dead 13 assailants who rammed a truck into a police office building and set off explosives in an attack that also wounded three officers.
(AP, 6/21/14)
2014 Jun 22, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said five days of rainstorms in the south have left 26 people dead and another three missing and led to direct economic losses of 4 billion yuan ($650 million).
(AP, 6/23/14)
2014 Jun 23, Chinese authorities said they broke up 32 terror groups and arrested more than 380 suspects in the far west in the first month of a crackdown aimed at demonstrating the Communist Party's resolve to maintain order in the Xinjiang region. Many suspects received rapid trials and stiff sentences, including death penalties. Security forces also seized several hundred explosive devices.
(AP, 6/23/14)
2014 Jun 24, In China Wei Jianghong, chairman of a state-owned copper smelter and a delegate to the national legislature, jumped to his death in Anhui province. The suicide was attributed to “excessive work pressure and mental stress."
(Econ, 6/28/14, p.38)
2014 Jun 25, China sent its first ever ministerial-level official to Taiwan for four days of meetings.
(SFC, 6/26/14, p.A2)
2014 Jun 27, China’s state media said a court has sentenced 25 members of Quannengshen, or the Church of Almighty God, a banned religious, group to prison terms of up to eight years, the largest in a series of prosecutions against a group that China calls an illegal cult.
(Reuters, 6/27/14)
2014 Jun 27, Five Chinese fishermen were missing after a trawler sank in waters to the north of islands disputed with Japan in the East China Sea in what appeared to be an accident.
(Reuters, 6/27/14)
2014 Jun 27, In Hong Kong more than 800 lawyers protested over a requirement for judges to be patriotic to China. In what was seen as a thinly veiled threat ahead of a 10-day referendum, Beijing had released a policy document that said, among other things, that Hong Kong's autonomy comes at the discretion of the central government and included a requirement for judges to be patriotic to China.
(AP, 6/29/14)
2014 Jun 28, Chinese President Xi Jinping feted neighbors India and Myanmar, dusting off the 60th anniversary of a now rather obscure agreement signed in the early days of the Cold War to pledge a rising China's commitment to peace.
(Reuters, 6/28/14)
2014 Jun 28, In Taiwan Zhang Zhijun, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister, canceled two events after protesters threw paint on his motorcade.
(SSFC, 6/29/14, p.A6)
2014 Jun 30, In China former top Gen. Xu Caihou was expelled from the ruling Communist Party to face bribery charges. Three other senior officials, including a former deputy police minister, also were expelled from the party to face corruption charges.
(AP, 6/30/14)
2014 Jun 30, China said it will re-open its embassy in Mogadishu 23 years after evacuating its diplomats as Somalia plunged into civil war.
(AP, 6/30/14)
2014 Jun 30, In China a leaking oil pipeline caught fire in the northeastern port city of Dalian, forcing the evacuation of nearly 20,000 residents.
(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jun 30, In Hong Kong the results of a 10-day referendum indicated overwhelming support for the Legislative Council to reject any electoral reform proposed by China that does not meet int’l. standards. About 23% of registered voters participated.
(SFC, 6/30/14, p.A4)
2014 Jul 1, In Hong Kong tens of thousands marched through the streets of the former British colony to push for greater democracy in a rally fueled by anger over Beijing's recent warning that it holds the ultimate authority over the southern Chinese financial center.
(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jul 2, China's top anti-corruption body said Ji Wenlin, a former aide to embattled retired domestic security boss, Zhou Yongkang, has been expelled from the Communist Party after taking "huge bribes" and committing adultery.
(Reuters, 7/2/14)
2014 Jul 3, Chinese President Xi Jinping began a two-day visit to Seoul. The leaders of China and South Korea simultaneously snubbed North Korea, bolstered their already booming trade relationship and gave the US and Japan a look at Beijing's growing influence south of the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
(AP, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 3, A China-based tour operator said North Korea will reopen some of its domestic scheduled air routes for the first time in years, another sign of moves to bolster tourism in the isolated country.
(Reuters, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 3, Chinese patrol ships arrested six Vietnamese fishermen in waters off China's Hainan Island. An official in the district where the fishermen came from, said the arrests took place in disputed waters near the Gulf of Tonkin.
(AP, 7/4/14)
2014 Jul 4, In China Zhang Shaojie, the pastor of a Christian church in Henan province, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in what supporters say is a crackdown aimed at curbing fast-growing religious activity.
(AP, 7/4/14)
2014 Jul 5, In northwestern China 17 miners were trapped following a gas explosion at a coal mine in the Xinjiang region. On July 7 official media reported that all 17 had died.
(AP, 7/6/14)(AP, 7/7/14)
2014 Jul 7, China’s state media said authorities have taken down more than 40 groups called "violent terror gangs" and arrested more than 400 people in the restive western region of Xinjiang since the government began a crackdown in May.
(Reuters, 7/7/14)
2014 Jul 9, The United States and China vowed to improve their economic and security cooperation, saying they wouldn't let persistent differences over maritime claims, cyberhacking and currency hamper a relationship critical to global peace and prosperity.
(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 10, In China courts in the western region of Xinjiang sentenced 32 people to prison, three of them for life, for terror charges stemming from downloading and spreading violent Internet content that authorities have blamed for inspiring a recent string of deadly attacks.
(AP, 7/12/14)
2014 Jul 10, China and the United States agreed to boost military ties and counter-terrorism cooperation during high-level annual talks in Beijing, but there was little immediate sign of progress on thorny cyber-security or maritime issues. They also agreed that China will reduce its intervention in the currency market when conditions are ripe and promised closer cooperation on climate change and North Korea.
(Reuters, 7/10/14)(AP, 7/10/14)
2014 Jul 11, In China Rui Chenggang, a celebrity anchorman for China Central Television (CCTV-2), was abruptly absent from the live cast of a nightly business news program. State prosecutors reportedly removed Rui from his workplace.
(AP, 7/12/14)(Econ, 7/19/14, p.40)
2014 Jul 11, US authorities said they have charged Chinese businessman Su Bin with hacking into the computer systems of US companies with large defense contracts, including Boeing, to steal data on military projects, including some of the latest fighter jets. He had worked in cahoots with two unnamed Chinese hackers to get the data between 2009 and 2013.
(AP, 7/11/14)
2014 Jul 12, It was reported that Chinese regulators have banned the country's journalists from sharing information they have obtained on the job with overseas media or publishing it in any venue, such as blogging sites, outside the media they are employed. The regulations were detailed in a June 30 document but released this week.
(AP, 7/12/14)
2014 Jul 14, Chinese state media reported that authorities have indicted British and American investigators hired by GlaxoSmithKline on charges of illegally obtaining and selling private information, as the Briton blamed the pharmaceutical company for misleading and using him.
(AP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 14, China’s state media reported that teachers are now banned from receiving gifts from students and their parents to curb the buying of favors, often in exchange for giving students special treatment.
(Reuters, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 14, Chinese state media reported that police have uncovered a series of illegal World Cup betting cases involving almost $3 billion, as authorities struggled to control the country's growing gambling problem.
(AFP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 14, In southwest China part of a railway tunnel collapsed, trapping an estimated 14 workers in Yunnan province's Funing county.
(AP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 15, China’s top anti-corruption watchdog said Zhang Youren, a former senior executive at a state-owned military giant, has been expelled from the ruling Communist Party for taking bribes and other "massive" corruption.
(Reuters, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 15, In southern China an explosion went off on a bus that then caught fire in Guangzhou, killing 2 people and injuring at least six.
(AP, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 15, In Brazil leaders of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) met for their 6th annual summit. They created two financial institutions: The New Development Bank (NDB) to finance infrastructure with $50 billion to start and the $100 billion Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) to tide over members in financial difficulties.
(AP, 7/15/14)(Econ, 7/19/14,p.62)
2014 Jul 15, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying formally asked Beijing for legal changes that would ultimately let residents of the southern Chinese city elect his successor, but he downplayed calls for the public to nominate candidates free of China's vetting.
(AP, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 16, Vietnam said China has moved an oil rig out of waters claimed by Hanoi. Two months of drilling had triggered a near-breakdown in ties between the neighbors and led to deadly protests in Vietnam.
(AP, 7/16/14)
2014 Jul 17, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said heavy rains and landslides over the past week have killed at least 45 people in southern China and left 21 others missing.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, In Brazil China's President Xi Jinpin pressed a charm offensive with Latin America, signing deals with Brazil, meeting regional leaders and proposing a $20 billion infrastructure fund that highlights Beijing's growing interests in the region.
(AP, 7/18/14)
2014 Jul 18, In southern China Typhoon Rammasun hit the island of Hainan as over 26,000 people evacuated the area. 9 people were killed and 5 left missing on Hainan. Another 9 were killed as the storm plowed through the Guangxi region on the mainland.
(SFC, 7/19/14, p.A2)(SFC, 7/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 18, In Argentina visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping announced huge investments in hydroelectric power, shipbuilding, railways and a deal to help Argentina build its fourth nuclear plant.
(AFP, 7/19/14)
2014 Jul 22, In China the Paper, a new digital news platform, was launched as an offshoot of the Oriental Morning Post in Shanghai.
(Econ, 12/13/14, p.46)
2014 Jul 22, In northeastern China a man tied up two bedridden patients and a mentally disabled one and used a dull razor to castrate them. A 60-year-old victim lost both his testicles while the other two victims, aged 53 and 80, lost one each. A suspect was soon detained.
(AP, 7/24/14)
2014 Jul 23, Chinese police detained five people from a unit of US food supplier OSI Group, in a case involving expired meat sold to fast food giants including McDonald's and KFC. The Chinese supplier also had provided 20% of the meat for chicken nuggets in Japan.
(AFP, 7/23/14)(SFC, 7/23/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 23, China’s state media said Beijing has closed the first of four large coal-fired power plants set to be de-commissioned as part of the city's efforts to cut air pollution, citing the local planning agency.
(Reuters, 7/23/14)
2014 Jul 23, Chinese state media said the government would target pornography on smartphones and punish pornographic app creators.
(SFC, 7/24/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 23, In China tropical storm Matmo made landfall. It brought heavy rains and winds to parts of eastern China following another typhoon that killed at least 56 people in the country's south. Matmo left 9 dead in Jiangxi province and 4 dead in Guangdong province.
(AP, 7/24/14)(SFC, 7/28/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 25, Chinese state media said the government has investigated more than 25,000 people for corruption in the first six months of 2014.
(Reuters, 7/25/14)
2014 Jul 28, In China at least 13 police officers and 20 Uighurs were killed and injured in an alleged "terrorist attack" in the far western Xinjiang region, home to the mainly Muslim Uighur minority. Chinese police shot dead dozens of knife-wielding attackers after they staged assaults on two towns in the Xinjiang region. On Aug 3 state media said that 37 civilians and 59 "terrorists" were killed in the attack in Xinjiang.
(AFP, 7/29/14)(Reuters, 7/29/14)(SFC, 7/31/14, p.A6)(AP, 8/3/14)
2014 Jul 28, In China police took down the cross of the Longgang Huai En Church in the eastern city of Wenzhou, known as China’s Jerusalem, saying it violated height limits. Church leaders said the government is trying to suppress the fast growing Protestant religion.
(SFC, 7/29/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 29, China's ruling Communist Party said it has put former security chief Zhou Yongkang (71) under investigation, the most senior official to fall for decades.
(AFP, 7/29/14)(SSFC, 8/3/14, p.A4)
2014 Jul 30, In China Aini Aishan (18) reportedly organized an attack on Jume Tahir. He was arrested two days later in Hotan, Xinjiang province. Tahir was the state-appointed imam of China's biggest mosque and often spoke in support of government policies. In late September two Uighur teenagers were sentenced to death for their role in the murder of Tahir.
(AP, 8/25/14)(SFC, 9/29/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 31, A Chinese man said he was suing a psychological clinic for carrying out electric shocks intended to turn him straight.
(SFC, 8/1/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 1, China acknowledged the existence of a new intercontinental ballistic missile said to be capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads as far as the United States. The Dongfeng-41 (DF-41) is designed to have a range of 12,000 km (7,500 miles).
(AFP, 8/1/14)
2014 Aug 1, Police in China's Xinjiang region shot dead 9 suspected terrorists and captured one.
(AFP, 8/1/14)
2014 Aug 1, Japan named five uninhabited small isles belonging to an island group in the center of a dispute with China as part of efforts to reinforce its claim, a move likely to spark anger from Beijing and another claimant, Taiwan.
(AP, 8/1/14)
2014 Aug 2, In eastern China a suspected dust explosion at an automotive parts factory that supplies General Motors killed 75 people in Kunshan. The death toll climbed to 146 when other workers died in the hospital. This was the country's worst industrial accident since 2005. On December 30 China's Cabinet announced the firing of the top two officials of Kunshan. 20 others were placed under judicial review for possible indictment.
(AP, 8/2/14)(SFC, 8/5/14, p.A2)(AP, 12/30/14)
2014 Aug 3, In southern China a magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Yunnan province toppled thousands of homes. The death toll soon climbed to nearly 600 people with more than 1,800 injured.
(AP, 8/3/14)(SFC, 8/4/14, p.A3)(AFP, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 4, China’s state media said the government is offering more than 300 million yuan ($49 million) for residents of Xinjiang, the homeland of mainly Muslim Uighurs, who help a crackdown on "terrorists." A total of 4.23 million yuan was already handed out to individuals and government agencies who helped in the killing and capture of 10 "suspected terrorists" in Hotan prefecture last week.
(AFP, 8/4/14)
2014 Aug 4, China's smog-plagued capital announced plans to ban the use of coal by the end of 2020 as the country fights deadly levels of pollution, especially in major cities.
(AP, 8/5/14)
2014 Aug 5, Chinese police authorized the arrest of a student, surnamed Chang, who was found to have "gathered intelligence" for "foreign personnel" more than 50 times over nearly two years for some $32,000.
(AFP, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 5, A Philippine court found 12 Chinese fishermen guilty of illegal fishing in Philippine waters in April 2013, sending them to jail for six to 12 years, the first convictions since tension between the neighbors flared over rival claims in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 8/5/14)
2014 Aug 6, China executed two South Koreans, convicted of smuggling 14 kg (30 lb) of methamphetamines from North Korea in 2010 and 2011, and planned to soon execute a third.
(Reuters, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 6, China’s state media said Karamay city in the western region of Xinjiang, has banned people with head scarves, veils and long beards from boarding buses, as the government battles unrest with a policy that critics said discriminates against Muslims.
(Reuters, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 7, China’s state media said plans are in place to build lighthouses on five islands in the South China Sea, in defiance of calls from the United States and the Philippines for a freeze on such activity to ease tension over rival claims. At least two of the islands appear to be in waters also claimed by Vietnam.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, South Korea's Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said China has confirmed it had blocked "some foreign messaging applications through which terrorism-related information" was circulating. These included KakaoTalk and Line. It named other blocked apps as Didi, Talk Box and Vower. The service disruptions in China began a month ago.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 8, A Chinese court sentenced Peter Humphrey, a private British investigator, to 2½ years in prison and his business-partner wife, Yu Yingzeng, to two years after they pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining private records of Chinese citizens as they researched corporate fraud. In early 2013 Glaxo Pharma had asked their Hong Kong-based company, China Whys, to investigate whether a former employee was passing information of suspected fraud to Chinese authorities.
(SFC, 8/9/14, p.D4)
2014 Aug 9, In China a tour bus on a highway in Tibet fell off a 10-meter (30-foot) cliff after crashing into an SUV and a pickup, killing 44 people and injuring 11 others.
(AP, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 11, China accused the US of deliberately stoking tensions in the South China Sea as it rejected Washington's proposal for a freeze on provocative actions in the region.
(AFP, 8/11/14)
2014 Aug 12, In China actor Gao Hu (40), who had a small part as a soldier in Zhang Yimou's 2011 movie "The Flowers of War," was detained by police for possession and use of marijuana and methamphetamine, part of a wave of detentions in China's sternest crackdowns on illegal drug use in two decades.
(AP, 8/13/14)
2014 Aug 12, Chinese security forces opened fire on unarmed Tibetan protesters, wounding at least 10 people, before they detained the protesters and rounded up more male villagers in the southwestern province of Sichuan. One protester identified as Lo Palsang committed suicide while in custody while another unnamed person died from untreated wounds. 3 more protesters died later in jail after being denied medical treatment.
(AP, 8/20/14)
2014 Aug 14, In China 23 workers were trapped after a coal mine flooded at the Anzhishun Coal Mine in Jixi City, Heilongjiang province.
(SFC, 8/15/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 14, Hong Kong's Law Society passed an historic vote of no-confidence in its president over pro-Beijing comments, revealing a determination by the traditionally conservative lawyers to confront perceived threats from China to the legal independence in the free-wheeling, global financial hub.
(Reuters, 8/15/14)
2014 Aug 15, China’s state media reported that two HIV-positive passengers and a friend are suing a Chinese airline for refusing to let them on board, in the country's first such lawsuit.
(AFP, 8/15/14)
2014 Aug 16, China’s state media reported that police have arrested seven people in the northwest allegedly involved in a scheme that forced school children to donate blood.
(AFP, 8/16/14)
2014 Aug 17, Indian border police noticed Chinese troops in a disputed and unpopulated area of Ladakh during a patrol of the informal border that separates India and China.
(AFP, 8/19/14)
2014 Aug 17, In South Korea Pope Francis made his strongest gesture yet to reach out to China, saying he wants to improve relations and insisting that the Catholic Church isn't coming in as a "conqueror" but is rather a partner in dialogue.
(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 18, China's government said it has concluded Mercedes-Benz violated anti-monopoly law and charged excessive prices for parts, adding to a growing number of global automakers snared in an investigation of the industry.
(AP, 8/18/14)
2014 Aug 18, China’s CNOOC discovered a gas field at a depth of about 1,500 meters, about 150 km south of Hainan island. It was unclear whether the discovery would become commercially viable.
(AP, 9/16/14)
2014 Aug 19, In China an explosion ripped through the Dongfang coal mine in the city of Huainan. On Nov 12 authorities confirmed the deaths of 21 missing miners who were trapped in the mine collapse, bringing the death toll to 27.
(AP, 11/12/14)
2014 Aug 21, China's Xi Jinping began a two-day trip to neighboring Mongolia, the first Chinese president to visit in more than a decade. China and Mongolia pledged to almost double their annual two-way trade to $10 billion by 2020.
(AFP, 8/21/14)(AP, 8/21/14)
2014 Aug 22, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Mongolia that Beijing respected its independence and integrity as he concluded a visit looking to forge closer ties with China's resource-rich but often suspicious neighbor.
(AFP, 8/22/14)
2014 Aug 21, In southern China at least seven people were stabbed in an apparently random attack in Guangzhou.
(SFC, 8/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 22, The Obama administration accused a Chinese fighter jet of conducting a "dangerous intercept" of a US Navy surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft off the coast of China in international airspace.
(AP, 8/23/14)
2014 Aug 23, Chinese state media reported the execution of eight people convicted on terrorism charges in the restive western region of Xinjiang, including three men authorities say were behind a deadly attack in the heart of Beijing in which an SUV plowed through a crowd.
(AP, 8/23/14)
2014 Aug 23, Chinese authorities blocked the annual Beijing Independent Film Festival from opening, seizing documents and films from organizers and hauling away two event officials in a sign that Beijing is stepping up its already tight ideological controls.
(AP, 8/25/14)
2014 Aug 25, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (90) was welcomed in Beijing by his counterpart Xi Jinping as Africa's longest-ruling leader sought more Chinese investment in his nation's stagnant economy.
(AFP, 8/25/14)
2014 Aug 26, In China a bus collided head-on with a truck in the country's northwest, killing 13 people and injuring many others in Gansu province.
(AP, 8/26/14)
2014 Aug 27, China moved to limit 2017 elections for Hong Kong's leader to a handful of candidates loyal to Beijing.
(Reuters, 8/27/14)
2014 Aug 27, China and Vietnam said they're committed to negotiating maritime disputes to avoid a recurrence of tensions that spiked when China deployed an oil rig in waters claimed by Hanoi.
(AP, 8/27/14)
2014 Aug 27, A landslide in southwest China killed at least 15 people, with 8 missing and 22 injured.
(Reuters, 8/30/14)(SFC, 8/30/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 29, China's top leaders decided to cut salaries and restrict expense accounts and other perks of executives at state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as they pursued a crackdown on corruption and extravagance.
(AFP, 8/29/14)
2014 Aug, Chinese police arrested an employee of commodity trader Trafigura as part of an investigation into an alleged $32 million gasoline trade fraud. Tian Meng (39), who works at Trafigura's oil marketing team in Beijing, was being held without charge in the northern city of Cangzhou.
(Reuters, 12/4/14)
2014 Sep 1, In central China a man (40) stabbed students and teachers with a knife at a school, killing 3 children and injuring 6 people before jumping to his death at the Dongfang primary school in Chengguan, Hubei province.
(AP, 9/1/14)(SFC, 9/2/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 2, The American Chamber of Commerce in China said foreign companies in China feel increasingly targeted for unfair enforcement of anti-monopoly and other laws and might cut investment if conditions fail to improve.
(AP, 9/2/14)
2014 Sep 4, Zimbabwe launched a $533-million project with China to scale up electricity generation at one of its major power plants in a bid to ease perennial energy woes.
(AFP, 9/4/14)
2014 Sep 5, Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group sought to raise up to $24.3 billion in an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, which would value the company at $163 billion. Those are both IPO records.
(AP, 9/5/14)
2014 Sep 6, China reported that flooding in the southwest over the past week has left 44 people dead and 18 missing, and has caused massive damage to housing and crops.
(AP, 9/6/14)
2014 Sep 7, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that authorities have killed some 4,900 dogs in Baoshan, Yunnan province, after blaming five human deaths on rabies. The city of vaccinated another 100,000 in its anti-rabies campaign and issued an urgent order calling for authorities to tightly regulate dogs and kill stray ones.
(AP, 9/7/14)
2014 Sep 11, The Shanghai Co-operation Organization (SCO) opened its 14th annual summit. The 2-day meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, included the groups six member countries: China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The SCO agreed to adopt procedures for expansion with India and Pakistan likely to join next year.
(Econ, 9/20/14, p.39)
2014 Sep 12, A boat from the northern China seaport city of Dalian, with six crew on board, was seized by North Koreans while fishing in the Yellow Sea between China and the Korean Peninsula. The North Koreans demanded a fine of 250,000 yuan ($40,700) for releasing the boat and its crew, but on September 17th the six crew returned to their fishing village with wounds on their bodies from being beaten.
(Reuters, 9/23/14)
2014 Sep 14, In southern China residents of Huizhou protested against a proposed garbage incinerator for a 2nd straight day. 24 people were detained a day earlier in the Guangdong province protests.
(AP, 9/14/14)(Reuters, 9/14/14)
2014 Sep 14, In China police detained writer Huang Zerong (81), better known as Tieliu, on the vague charge of causing trouble. Police also arrested Jaycee Chan (31), the son of film star Jackie Chan, on drug charges. Taiwanese movie star Ko Kai was also arrested. Police said both tested positive for marijuana.
(SFC, 9/16/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 15, China's President Xi Jinping enlisted the Maldives' backing for a "21st century maritime silk road" as he began a tour of South Asia in the strategically located Indian Ocean island chain.
(AFP, 9/15/14)
2014 Sep 16, Germany-listed Ultrasonic AG said in a statement it has been unable to reach its chief executive, Qingyong Wu, and chief operating officer, Minghong Wu, since the weekend. The company said most of its cash was in China and Hong Kong has been transferred beyond its control.
(AP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in the Indian prime minister's home state of Gujarat for a three-day visit expected to focus on India's need to improve worn out infrastructure and reduce its trade deficit.
(AP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, Chinese authorities put Ilham Tohti, a prominent scholar from the mostly-Muslim Uighur minority, on trial for separatism as critics warned the prosecution will worsen tensions in violence-wracked Xinjiang.
(AFP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, In China Lhamo Tashi burned himself to death in Hezuo city in the Tibetan prefecture of Gannan in the northwestern province of Gansu.
(AP, 9/22/14)
2014 Sep 17, Japan agreed to cut purchases of eel fry from neighboring countries by 20 percent as part of moves to protect the endangered species. The agreement with China, South Korea and Taiwan called for reducing eel hauls by 20 percent for one year, beginning in November.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 17, US Senate investigators blamed China for nearly two dozen successful hacker break-ins of computer networks belonging to Pentagon contractors. A yearlong investigation announced by the Senate Armed Services Committee identified at least 50 intrusions since 2012 against unspecified contractors working for the US Transportation Command.
(AP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, In Iowa Shao Tong (20), a Chinese national and international student at Iowa State University, went missing. Her body was found Sept. 26. An autopsy said she'd been asphyxiated. Authorities said she had been killed after a weekend with Li Xiangnan at a motel. Li returned to China following the slaying. Xiangnan (23) surrendered to police in Wenzhou on May 13, 2015, and was arrested on June 19 to face a charge of intentional homicide.
(AP, 6/30/15)
2014 Sep 18, In eastern China an official hanged himself after being sacked following a corruption probe into his presence at an extravagant banquet. Lou Xuequan (50) had been Communist Party chief of a district in Nanjing city.
(Reuters, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 18, Indian PM Narendra Modi stood beside Chinese President Xi Jinping at a news conference and said he raised India's concerns about repeated incidents at the border. Both leaders said peace and stability along the border were necessary for economic growth and development in the region.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 19, China fined drug maker GlaxoSmithKline $492 million for bribing doctors in the biggest such penalty ever imposed by a Chinese court.
(AP, 9/19/14)
2014 Sep 19, Alibaba made its long-awaited Wall Street debut on the heels of a record stock offering at $68 per share.
(AFP, 9/19/14)
2014 Sep 21, China's police ministry said 88 fugitives wanted on charges of corruption and other economic offenses have been extradited or returned on their own from the United States and other countries in the midst of an anti-graft crackdown.
(AP, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 21, China’s Xinhua News Agency said three police officers and four other people have been convicted of torturing suspects to obtain confessions. Multiple explosions in Luntai county, Xinjiang, killed at least 2 people and injured many others. 50 people, including 40 assailants, were killed in what authorities called a terror attack.
(AP, 9/22/14)(AP, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 22, Thousands of Hong Kong college and university students boycotted classes to protest Beijing's decision to restrict voting reforms, the start of a weeklong strike that marks the latest phase in the battle for democracy in the southern Chinese city.
(AP, 9/22/14)
2014 Sep 22, In southern China an explosion at a fireworks factory killed six people and injured 38 others at the Nanyang Export Fireworks Factory, Liling city, Hunan province.
(AP, 9/22/14)
2014 Sep 23, A Chinese court found economics professor Ilham Tohti, an ethnic Uighur Muslim, guilty of separatism and sentenced him to life in prison.
(AP, 9/23/14)
2014 Sep 23, Indian military officials said that Chinese troops have set up a camp about 3 km (2 miles) into territory claimed by India in the Chumar region of the Ladakh plateau more than a week ago. Indian soldiers have set up their own base nearby and have been told not to back down.
(Reuters, 9/23/14)
2014 Sep 24, In China Liu Tienan (59), the former deputy head of China's top planning agency, confessed in court to extensive bribery involving several companies including a Toyota Motor Corp. joint venture.
(Reuters, 9/24/14)
2014 Sep 25, China and Spain signed business deals worth $4 billion on as Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy visited the Asian powerhouse to seek support for Spain's struggling economy.
(AP, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 25, Chinese police detained Shen Hao, publisher of the 21st Century Business Herald, and general manager Chen Dongyang, weeks after some editors and reporters for the publication's website were detained on allegations of extortion.
(AP, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 25, China said it will send 700 troops to join a UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, where fighting has threatened Beijing's oil investments.
(Reuters, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 26, China's top anti-graft body said Gao Jianyun, a senior internet regulator, has been expelled from the ruling Communist Party on graft charges.
(Reuters, 9/26/14)
2014 Sep 26, In China a man fatally stabbed four students as they were walking to their elementary school in Lingshan County, Guanxi province. Police searched for 56-year-old suspect who attacked the children from a motorcycle. 6 schoolchildren died and 25 were injured in a stampede at the Mingtong Primary School in the southern city of Kunming.
(AP, 9/26/14)
2014 Sep 26, Intel said it will pay up to $1.5 billion for a 20 percent stake in a Chinese venture that will design and make Intel-branded chips for mobile phones and other electronics.
(AP, 9/26/14)
2014 Sep 27, In Hong Kong tens of thousands of people massed in the heart of the city to demand more democracy, as tensions grew over Beijing's decision to rule out free elections in the former British colony. Riot police arrested dozens of students who stormed the government headquarters compound during a night of scuffles.
(Reuters, 9/27/14)(AP, 9/27/14)
2014 Sep 28, Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc., was reported blocked in China amid pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
(Reuters, 9/28/14)
2014 Sep 29, China reported that policeman Li Shunlin died last week after about 20 Vietnamese citizens attacked him and other officers who had impounded a vessel suspected of smuggling in southern China.
(AP, 9/29/14)
2014 Sep 29, Hong Kong democracy protesters defied volleys of tear gas and police baton charges to stand firm in the centre of the global financial hub, one of the biggest political challenges for China since the Tiananmen Square crackdown 25 years ago.
(Reuters, 9/29/14)
2014 Sep 30, President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders solemnly presented flower baskets at the People's Heroes Monument in central Beijing to mark Martyr's Day, one of three new holidays created this year in a renewed focus on World War II.
(AP, 9/30/14)
2014 Sep 30, It was reported that China's government has kicked off a media campaign in support of genetically modified crops, as it battles a wave of negative publicity over a technology it hopes will play a major role in boosting its food security.
(Reuters, 9/30/14)
2014 Sep 30, The Chinese-registered cargo ship Lurongyu 2859 sank in the Sea of Japan. Five crew members were rescued. Nine people were believed missing.
(AP, 10/1/14)
2014 Oct 3, In Hong Kong violent scuffles broke out in Mong Kok, a famous and congested shopping district, as hundreds of supporters of Chinese rule stormed tents and ripped down banners belonging to pro-democracy protesters, forcing many to retreat.
(Reuters, 10/3/14)
2014 Oct 6, In southern China 5 people were killed in an explosion at an illegal fireworks factory in Lanjiang village, Guizhou province.
(AP, 10/6/14)
2014 Oct 7, In southwestern China a strong, shallow 6.0 earthquake shook Yunnan province. At least one person was killed as aftershocks continued to strike the area.
(AP, 10/8/14)
2014 Oct 9, China’s disciplinary body said that Wan Qinglian, the former party head of the southern city of Guangzhou, was being referred for criminal prosecution on accusations of having demanded and received a "gigantic amount" of bribes.
(AP, 10/9/14)
2014 Oct 10, In China days of heavy smog shrouding northern swathes of the country pushed pollution to more than 20 times recommended limits, despite government promises to tackle environmental blight.
(AFP, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 10, A South Korea coast guardsman fatally shot the captain of a Chinese fishing vessel who resisted the inspection of his ship for suspected illegal fishing.
(AP, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 11, Hong Kong students leading pro-democracy protests issued an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping, urging him to consider political reforms in the city and blaming the city's unpopular leader for the demonstrations. Thousands of people returned for sit-ins in Hong Kong's main protest zone.
(AP, 10/11/14)
2014 Oct 11, China’s social media began reporting that authorities have ordered books by Chinese-American scholar Yu Ying-shih to be removed from sale, as Beijing expresses its displeasure with writers showing support for pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong and elsewhere.
(AP, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 11, In northwestern China a landslide buried a dormitory for highway construction workers as they slept inside, killing 19 and injuring two others in Shaanxi province.
(AP, 10/11/14)
2014 Oct 12, Chinese police stormed into a conference room outside Beijing where rights lawyers were meeting to discuss wrongful cases and broke up the gathering. Chinese scholar and rights advocate Guo Yushan, founder of an influential non-governmental think tank, was detained on the criminal charge of provoking troubles.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In China four ethnic Uighurs armed with knives and explosives killed at least 22 people, mostly Han Chinese, in Kashgar Prefecture. Dozens were injured before police shot and killed the attackers.
(SFC, 10/20/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 13, China’s state media said a court in western Xinjiang region has sentenced to death 12 people blamed for terrorist attacks that killed 37 people in July.
(AP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 13, In China Comcast NBCUniversal and a consortium of four Chinese state-owned companies announced the approval of the development of a $3.3 billion Universal theme park in Beijing that would be the first major foreign-owned theme park in the Chinese capital.
(AP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 14, In southwest China 8 people died in a clash between construction workers and villagers in Jinning county, Yunnan province, over a land dispute. 4 of the construction workers were burned to death.
(Reuters, 10/15/14)(SFC, 10/17/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 17, China’s Vice President Li Yuanchao called on China and Vietnam to enhance political trust and manage maritime disputes in a meeting with Vietnamese Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh in Beijing.
(AP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 20, China was reported to have donated $6 million to help stave off food shortages in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the countries worst affected by the Ebola virus.
(AP, 10/20/14)
2014 Oct 24, Twenty-one Asian nations signed on to a China-driven initiative to create a new development bank for Asia that's aimed at boosting infrastructure investment of all kinds. The $100 billion Asian Infrastructure Development Bank (AIIB) will be a rival to the Asian Development Bank.
(AP, 10/25/14)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.61)
2014 Oct 24, In northwestern China a coal mine shaft collapsed just before midnight, killing 16 miners outside the Xinjiang regional capital of Urumqi.
(AP, 10/25/14)
2014 Oct 27, China and Vietnam agreed to use an existing border dispute mechanism to find a solution to a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, saying they did not want it to affect relations.
(Reuters, 10/27/14)
2014 Oct 27, China’s Xinhua news agency reported that private clubs in historical buildings, parks and other public facilities have been banned because they were hindering the fight against corruption.
(Reuters, 10/27/14)
2014 Oct 28, China's Communist Party published a lengthy resolution calling for an extensive and profound revolution in the way the country is governed. Endorsed by the Central Committee five days earlier it pledged to speed up legislation to fight corruption and make it tougher for officials to exert control over the judiciary. State media said prosecutors have indicted Xu Caihou, former deputy chairman of the ruling Communist Party's powerful Central Military Commission, on bribery charges. China's top prosecuting body said that whistleblowers who expose corruption and other wrongdoing would receive legal protection against reprisals.
(Reuters, 10/28/14)(AP, 10/28/14)(Econ, 11/1/14, p.43)
2014 Oct 28, Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani began a 4-day visit to China. Ghani met President Xi Jinping in Beijing and pledged to help China fight Islamist extremists.
(Reuters, 10/28/14)
2014 Oct 31, In China a senior prosecutor said investigators have found more than 200 million yuan ($33 million) in cash at the home of an energy official accused of receiving bribes, in the country's largest cash seizure ever. The cash was seized at the home of Wei Pengyuan, deputy chief of the coal bureau under the National Energy Administration.
(AP, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct 31, A man in southeastern China slashed a first-grader to death and severely injured two others in Luojia village, Jiangxi province.
(AP, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct 31, In China Han Lei (40), a man who killed a two-year-old girl after a row with her mother over a parking space in Beijing in July, 2012, was executed.
(AFP, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct 31, In Australia the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) wound up a 10-day meeting in Hobart without the consensus needed for a deal to conserve and manage the marine ecosystems in the Southern Ocean. China and Russia thwarted an international attempt to create the world’s largest ocean sanctuary in Antarctica.
(Reuters, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct, China’s overall debt rose to about 250% of GDP, up from 150% six years earlier.
(Econ, 10/18/14, p.77)
2014 Nov 1, It was reported that China's legislature has designated Dec. 4 as Constitution Day amid a drive to strengthen the authority of the country's legal system.
(AP, 11/1/14)
2014 Nov 1, China successfully recovered an experimental spacecraft that flew around the moon and back in a test run for the country's first unmanned return trip to the lunar surface. The eight-day trip marked the first time in almost four decades that a spacecraft has returned to Earth after traveling around the moon.
(AP, 11/1/14)
2014 Nov 2, China’s state media said China has successfully tested a self-developed laser defense system against small-scale low-altitude drones.
(Reuters, 11/2/14)
2014 Nov 3, In China a bus rolled over on Shanghai’s Donghai Bridge, one of the longest cross-sea bridges in the world, killing six people and injuring 43 others.
(AP, 11/3/14)
2014 Nov 5, A consortium led by China Railway Corp. won a contract to build Mexico’s first high-speed train. The $3.7 billion project will link Mexico City with Queretaro by 2017. Pena Nieto’s government cancelled the contract on Nov 7 following an investigation into Grupo Higa, a Mexican partner in the consortium, which also provided Nieto and his wife use of a $7 million mansion on the western edge of Mexico City. Grupo Higa had granted Angelica Rivera, Pena’s wife, a loan to buy the mansion in 2012.
(SSFC, 11/9/14, p.A4)(SFC, 11/10/14, p.A4)(SFC, 11/11/14, p.A2)
2014 Nov 7, China said it has reached agreement with Japan to ramp up high-level contacts. China and Japan jointly announced that they are seeking to improve relations and set up a system to prevent minor maritime contingencies from escalating into true warfare.
(AP, 11/7/14)(SFC, 11/8/14, p.A3)
2014 Nov 7, South Africa said it has signed a nuclear energy cooperation agreement with China as the government looks to expand the critical power supply system.
(AFP, 11/7/14)
2014 Nov 8, China’s President Xi Jinping announced the creation of a $40 billion Silk Road infrastructure fund to boost connectivity across Asia.
(Reuters, 11/8/14)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.61)
2014 Nov 8, The foreign ministers of China and Japan held talks ahead of a hoped-for meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe after more than two years of frozen high-level contacts.
(AP, 11/8/14)
2014 Nov 8, Ministers from Pacific Rim countries endorsed a call to formally start work on a free-trade initiative seen as an effort by China to raise its influence in trade policy. 21 Asia Pacific countries agreed to cooperate on the extradition of corrupt officials, enhance asset recovery efforts and establish an anti-corruption transparency network to share intelligence on graft.
(AP, 11/8/14)(Reuters, 11/8/14)
2014 Nov 8, The central banks of China and Canada said they have agreed to a currency swap worth 200 billion yuan ($32.67 billion) or C$30 billion, effective for three years.
(Reuters, 11/9/14)
2014 Nov 9, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin promised ever-closer cooperation as they met for the 10th time in less than two years. They signed agreements to boost energy cooperation, including an understanding to develop a second major route to supply the Chinese side with Russian gas following an initial $400 billion deal in May.
(AP, 11/9/14)
2014 Nov 10, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed world leaders to this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit.
(Econ, 11/8/14, p.47)
2014 Nov 10, South Korea said it has agreed to sign a free trade deal with China that will remove tariffs on more than 90 percent of goods over two decades but won't include rice or autos.
(AP, 11/10/14)
2014 Nov 10, Pres. Obama announced in Beijing that China and the US had reached a reciprocal agreement to extend visa validity periods to as long as a decade.
(SFC, 11/11/14, p.A5)
2014 Nov 11, China’s Pres. Xi Jinping said an Asia-Pacific summit has endorsed a Beijing-backed route towards a vast free trade area in the region.
(AFP, 11/11/14)
2014 Nov 12, China and the United States agreed to new limits on carbon emissions starting in 2025, but the pledge by the world's two biggest polluters appears to be more politically significant than substantive.
(Reuters, 11/12/14)
2014 Nov 13, Speaking in Myanmar China's PM Li Keqiang proposed a friendship treaty with Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN) and offered $20 billion in loans but held firm on the line that Beijing will only settle South China Sea disputes directly with other claimants.
(Reuters, 11/13/14)
2014 Nov 15, Three Hong Kong student leaders were stopped from boarding a flight to Beijing to take their fight for greater democracy directly to the Chinese government after airline authorities said their travel permits were invalid.
(Reuters, 11/15/14)
2014 Nov 15, In Liberia about 160 Chinese health workers arrived, where they are due to staff a new $41 million Ebola clinic that, unlike most other foreign interventions, is being built and fully run by Chinese personnel.
(Reuters, 11/16/14)
2014 Nov 16, In China a fire in a carrot-packaging plant killed 18 people at the Longyuan Food Co. facility in Shouguang, Shandong province.
(AP, 11/16/14)
2014 Nov 17, China’s official government news agency Xinhua said a campaign dubbed “Operation Fox Hunt" has arrested 288 fugitives suspected of committing economic crimes as part of an aggressive anti-corruption effort aimed at individuals who have fled abroad. The Chinese government has given overseas graft suspects a deadline of December 1 to surrender. By May 2015 some 680 fugitives from 69 countries were repatriated.
(Reuters, 11/17/14)(Econ., 5/2/15, p.38)
2014 Nov 17, Australia and China signed a preliminary free-trade deal that would give Australia's service industry unsurpassed access to the Chinese market and Australian agriculture advantages over competitors from the United States, Canada and the European Union.
(AP, 11/17/14)
2014 Nov 18, In China villagers in Sanjiang township, part of Haikou City near the northern coast of Hainan Island, clashed with police and smashed vehicles after the local government began construction on a center to house patients with leprosy and sexually transmitted diseases. Construction on the facility was suspended pending talks to eliminate misunderstandings.
(Reuters, 11/18/14)
2014 Nov 19, Chinese officials announced limits on growth in energy consumption aimed at making the country less dependent on coal.
(AP, 11/19/14)
2014 Nov 19, In eastern China an overloaded makeshift school bus collided with a truck, killing 11 kindergarteners and the bus driver.
(AP, 11/19/14)
2014 Nov 20, China’s state media reported that police have arrested 39 people as they broke up a telephone scam ring in Guangdong province that tricked Malaysians into wiring them money.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, In northeastern China 6 nurses and a janitor were killed in a knife attack at the Beidaihe Sanatorium, a military hospital and resort in the seaside town of Beidaihe. A 27-year-old employee was detained.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 21, China's central bank cuts interest rate by 0.25 percentage point, and its one-year loan rate by 0.4 percentage point.
(Marketwatch, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 21, It was reported that the Chinese government and banks will finance Chinese companies to build $45.6 billion worth of energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan over the next six years.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 21, Jane’s, a leading defense publication, said satellite images show China is building an island on a reef in the disputed Spratly Islands large enough to accommodate what could be its first offshore airstrip in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 22, In western China a magnitude-5.9 earthquake struck a lightly populated, mountainous area. At least 5 people were killed and 54 injured.
(AP, 11/22/14)(AP, 11/23/14)
2014 Nov 24, China’s state media said authorities in the northern region of Inner Mongolia arrested 31 people on suspicion of trafficking women because they had held 14 people, 11 of them from Myanmar.
(Reuters, 11/24/14)
2014 Nov 24, A Philippine court fined nine Chinese fishermen $102,000 each after they were caught last May with hundreds of sea turtles in a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 11/24/14)
2014 Nov 25, In China an office of the State Council released a draft of the country’s first anti-domestic violence law.
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.47)
2014 Nov 26, In China a fire sparked by underground tremors tore through a mine run by the state-owned Fuxin Coal Corp. 26 miners were killed and several others left with life-threatening injuries in Liaoning province.
(AP, 11/26/14)
2014 Nov 26, China's official Xinhua News Agency said that a tiger, named Ustin, bit and killed 15 goats and left another three missing On Nov 23-24. Russian experts rescued five tiger cubs two years ago. Ustin was one of three released by Pres. Putin in May in a remote part of the Amur region.
(AP, 11/26/14)
2014 Nov 27, In China at least 11 people were killed in the second deadly coal mine accident to hit the country in two days. 19 people were working in a mine in the southern province of Guizhou when an explosion ripped through the shaft early this morning.
(AP, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 27, In southern China a man in his 20s stabbed several people at the entrance to a supermarket in Nanning. Nine people were rushed to the hospital with two seriously injured.
(Reuters, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 28, China’s Standing Committee of Beijing Municipal People's Congress passed draft regulation to ban smoking in all indoor public spaces effective on June 1, 2015.
(AP, 11/29/14)
2014 Nov 28, In China the standing committee of Xinjiang's parliament, banned the practice of religion in government buildings and stipulated penalties of between 5,000 and 30,000 yuan ($4,884) for individuals who use the Internet, mobile phones or digital publishing to undermine national unity, social stability or incite ethnic hatred.
(Reuters, 11/30/14)
2014 Nov 28, In China a group of "terrorists" launched an attack on civilians in Shache county, Xinjiang region, leaving 15 people dead and 14 wounded. 11 "terrorists" were also reported shot dead during the violence.
(AFP, 11/29/14)(AP, 11/30/14)
2014 Nov 30, China’s government proposed to insure all banking deposit accounts for up to 500,000 yuan (($81,300).
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.82)
2014 Nov 30, Police in Kenya arrested 37 Chinese nationals with advanced communications equipment in a house in an upscale Nairobi neighborhood following a fire that left one person dead. 40 more Chinese nationals were arrested on Dec 3 and police consulted technical experts to see if they were committing espionage.
(AP, 12/4/14)
2014 Dec 3, In northeastern China an employee of the central bank shot and killed two colleagues at the branch he was working at in Dashiqiao city, Liaoning province.
(Reuters, 12/3/14)
2014 Dec 4, China marked its first Constitution Day as part of President Xi Jinping's drive to show that the country embraces rule of law while ensuring that the ruling Communist Party holds on to its unrivaled authority.
(AP, 12/4/14)
2014 Dec 5, Chinese authorities arrested ex-domestic security Chief Zhou Yongkang and barred him from the ruling Communist Party.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 8, A Chinese court sentenced eight people to death on charges of leading terror groups and setting off explosives in two attacks that left 46 people dead in the far western region of Xinjiang. The Urumqi Intermediate People's Court in Xinjiang also handed out suspended death sentences to five others.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 8, In eastern China 5 middle school students were killed after a wall collapsed on them at Tongren Middle School in Huaibei city.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 9, In China a rights lawyer said seven students of Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti have been jailed for 3-8 years for inciting seperatism.
(SFC, 12/10/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 9, The Save the Elephants group reported that street prices for illegal ivory are soaring in China, where newly wealthy middle and upper class citizens are buying carved ivory and whole tusks as a status symbol of their riches.
(AP, 12/9/14)
2014 Dec 9, Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro was awarded China's Confucius Peace Prize, portrayed by organizers as an alternative to the Nobel Prize. The prize was handed to a Cuban foreign student representative at a ceremony at a Beijing hotel.
(AP, 12/11/14)
2014 Dec 9, In China Liu Tienan was jailed for life for receiving some $6 million in bribes. Mr. Liu was sacked in August 2013 as deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission after a disgruntled mistress blew the whistle on him.
(AP, 12/10/14)(Econ, 12/13/14, p.46)
2014 Dec 10, In China authorities in Urumqi, the capital of the restive western region of Xinjiang, introduced a law banning veiled robes in public amid measures taken by Beijing to curb Muslim extremism. The new law was passed by the Urumqi legislature's standing committee but needs endorsement at the regional level before going into effect.
(AP, 12/11/14)
2014 Dec 10, China General Nuclear Power, established in 1994, floated shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Shares in China's largest nuclear power producer surged almost 20 percent on its debut.
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.18)(http://tinyurl.com/p59lh8h)
2014 Dec 12, China opened a key section of a massive and ambitious plan to transport water from wetter central and southern parts of the country up to its arid north, including Beijing.
(Reuters, 12/12/14)
2014 Dec 13, China marked its first national memorial day for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. President Xi Jinping said China and Japan should set aside hatred and not allow the minority who led Japan to war to affect relations now.
(Reuters, 12/13/14)
2014 Dec 13, In China at least 12 people were killed and three badly injured in a six-car pileup on a major north-south highway near Heyuan, Guangdong province.
(AP, 12/13/14)
2014 Dec 13, In China ten workers were stopped by guards and police when they attempted to enter the construction site in northern Shanxi province to be paid. Zhou Xiuyun (47), a female construction worker, was killed in an ensuing brawl in which police also broke Zhou's husband's ribs. One officer was later accused of causing the death of Zhou Xiuyun. Two others were arrested for allegedly abusing their power.
(AP, 12/31/14)
2014 Dec 14, In China 10 miners were found dead hours after they were trapped underground in an explosion at a mine in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.
(AP, 12/14/14)
2014 Dec 15, A court in northern China cleared a man of the rape and murder of a woman in a public toilet 18 years after he was executed for the crime. Huugjilt was 18 when he was sentenced to death and executed for the 1996 crime. State media had previously reported that a convicted serial rapist and killer confessed to the murder in 2005 after receiving a death sentence for other crimes, but was never tried for this killing and has still not been executed. On Dec 17 Feng Zhiming, police officer who oversaw the case, was arrested and charged with torture to coerce confession, dereliction of duty and taking bribes.
(AP, 12/15/14)(AP, 12/18/14)
2014 Dec 15, In China a former senior provincial official told a court he took around 13 million yuan ($2.1 million) in bribes consisting largely of precious stones. Ni Fake, a former deputy governor of the eastern province of Anhui, reportedly had a craving for jade.
(AFP, 12/16/14)
2014 Dec 16, Chinese PM Li Keqiang visited Afghanistan to meet with Afghanistan's chief executive officer, Abdullah Abdullah.
(Reuters, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 17, In China Ji Jianye, a former mayor of Nanjing, was indicted on corruption charges amid a widening anti-graft crackdown.
(AP, 12/17/14)
2014 Dec 17, China secured a deal to construct a high-speed train link between the Belgrade and Budapest that will cut travel time between the Serbian and Hungarian capitals from eight hours to less than three.
(AP, 12/17/14)
2014 Dec 19, In China Shanghai-based lawyer Zhang Peihong said he was notified by prosecutors in northeastern Yanbian prefecture of the arrest of Peter Hahn (74), a Korean-American Christian who ran a vocational school for Chinese and Korean youth for more than a decade in the border town of Tumen.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 19, A Beijing court sentenced a former employee of the Forbidden City to be executed for stabbing two of his supervisors to death on the museum's grounds. Zheng Zhibiao had argued at his trial in early December that he had been concerned over a lack of protection of artifacts held at the former palace of China's emperors.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 19, A Beijing court ordered a psychological clinic to pay compensation to a homosexual man for administering electric shocks in an attempt to make him heterosexual, an unprecedented ruling on so-called conversion therapy.
(AFP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 19, China said it would build an 867-km rail network in Thailand and buy two million tons of its rice. Premier Li Keqiang was attending a two-day summit of leaders of Mekong River region countries.
(Reuters, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 20, State media reported that China has offered more than $3 billion in loans and aid to neighbors Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos to improve infrastructure and production, and to fight poverty.
(Reuters, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 21, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported that authorities have detained over 30,000 people during a two-month clamp down on pornography and gambling.
(Reuters, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 21, Chinese police in the southwestern province of Guangxi stopped a group of "religious extremists" from illegally crossing into neighboring Vietnam after shooting one person dead and detaining 21.
(AP, 12/24/14)
2014 Dec 21, US cybersecurity researchers said malicious software likely linked to China is being used to infect visitors to a wide range of official Afghan government websites.
(Reuters, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 22, China's ruling Communist Party announced a corruption investigation into Ling Jihua, a one-time senior aide to former president Hu Jintao, as President Xi Jinping opens another front in his sweeping battle against deep-rooted graft.
(Reuters, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 22, China issued rules, effective March 1, requiring real-estate owners to register their holdings with authorities, a major step in the fight against official corruption that should make it harder for property speculators to evade regulations.
(Reuters, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 22, Chinese prosecutors indicted the son of Hong Kong action film star Jackie Chan on the charge of sheltering others to use drugs, more than four months after he was detained.
(AP, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 22, A Chinese military plane crashed in the country's northwest and at least two people were killed.
(AP, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 22, Nicaraguan officials and a Chinese company broke ground on a $50 billion transoceanic waterway predicted to rival the Panama Canal.
(AP, 12/23/14)
2014 Dec 23, In China Tsepe Kyi (20, a Tibetan woman, died after setting herself on fire in protest at China's rule of the Himalayan region.
(AFP, 12/23/14)
2014 Dec 23, Antigua PM Gaston Browne said that China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation will modernize St. John's port and harbor.
(AP, 12/24/14)
2014 Dec 26, In China a monk was shot in the arm after police used teargas and opened fire during a clash with Tibetans outside a police station in the western province of Sichuan.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, China said it will increase official aid to Nepal by more than five times from fiscal 2015-16, to develop infrastructure in the landlocked nation.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In Vietnam senior Chinese and Vietnamese officials agreed to settle their maritime disputes without resorting to “megaphone diplomacy," during a meeting in Hanoi.
(Reuters, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 26, Data from Google's Transparency Report showed online traffic from China to Gmail fell precipitously and dropped to nearly zero on Dec 27. There was a tiny pickup on Dec 29. Tests later showed that China's government had blocked Google IP addresses in Hong Kong used by people on the mainland to access Gmail services.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2014 Dec 27, China's capital received its first flows from the South-North Water Diversion Project, one of the most ambitious engineering projects in Chinese history.
(AFP, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 29, In China a scaffolding collapse at one of Beijing's most prestigious high schools killed 10 construction workers and injured four others.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2014 Dec 30, Chinese state media reported that a man, identified as a rich businessmen surnamed Xu, has been jailed for 13 years for buying and eating endangered tigers and making wine made out of their blood.
(Reuters, 12/31/14)
2014 Dec 30, A court in eastern China issued the country's biggest environmental fine resulting from public interest litigation against polluters. The Jiangsu provincial high court ordered six companies to pay 160 million yuan ($26 million) for discharging waste chemicals into rivers.
(AP, 12/30/14)
2014 Dec 31, In southern China a gas explosion at an auto parts factory killed 17 people and injured 33 others in Foshan city.
(AP, 12/31/14)
2014 Dec 31, Hong Kong authorities began destroying 15,000 chickens at a poultry market and suspended imports from mainland China after some birds were found to be infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu.
(AP, 12/31/14)(SSFC, 1/3/15, p.A2)
2014 Dec 31, In China a stampede during New Year's celebrations in Shanghai's historic waterfront area killed 36 people in the worst disaster to hit one of China's showcase cities in recent years.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2014 Leta Hong Fincher authored “Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China."
(Econ, 5/3/14, p.74)
2014 Howard French authored “China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa."
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.76)
2014 Bill Hayton authored “The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia."
(Econ, 9/13/14, p.89)
2014 Nicholas Lardy authored “Markets Over Mao: The Rise of Private Business in China."
(Econ, 10/25/14, p.89)
2014 Louisa Lim authored “The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited."
(Econ, 5/31/14, p.74)
2014 Evan Osnos authored “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China."
(SSFC, 6/1/14, p.F1)(Econ, 5/31/14, p.75)
2014 Dan Washburn authored “The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream."
(Econ, 6/14/14, p.75)
2014 Northern China suffered its worst drought in 60 years. Ground water in some areas had fallen from 70 feet just a few years ago to as much as 260 feet this past summer.
(SFC, 9/25/14, p.A4)
2015 Jan 4, China’s corruption watchdog said it is investigating Yang Weize, the Communist Party chief of Nanjing, as the country's corruption crackdown drags in a growing number of top officials.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 5, South Korean media reported that a young North Korean soldier crossed the border in late December and stole money and food at a house before killing four residents in China's northeastern city of Helong.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 12, Chinese police shot and killed six would-be bombers in the latest violence to strike the restive far northwestern region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, In China taxi drivers began protesting against high cab rental fees and emerging competitors such as Uber in several provincial cities.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Chinese officials said Bai Enpei, formerly the party boss of Yunnan province, has been fired from his position at China's parliament after investigators found he accepted bribes in huge amounts.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 15, In China pollution levels soared in Beijing to readings more than 20 times WHO recommended limits, as an annual bout of intense smog returned to haunt the capital despite government vows to address the plague.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, In China 4 Singaporeans, an Indonesian, a Malaysian, an Indian, 14 Chinese and a Japanese were among 22 people dead following the overturning of the tugboat during a test voyage in the river's Fubei Channel in the eastern province of Jiangsu. 3 people survived.
(AP, 1/16/15)(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 19, Chinese shares plunged about 8 percent after the country's securities regulator imposed margin trading curbs on several major brokerages.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 20, In Myanmar a Chinese embassy spokesman in Yangon said more than 100 Chinese citizens trapped by fighting between government troops and insurgents in the north, have been arrested and are being held by the Myanmar government.
(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 23, It was reported that China is blocking VPN services that let users skirt online censorship of popular websites such as Google and Facebook amid a wider crackdown on online information.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Chinese police said they've arrested five people in connection with a phony bank that used bogus offices and tellers to bilk depositors out of $32 million.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 28, Myanmar opened trial operations of a deep sea port off its western coast, part of a $2.45 billion port and pipeline project that will carry crude oil from the Middle East to China.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 29, A Chinese coast guard ship allegedly rammed and damaged three Philippine fishing boats at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. On Feb 4 the Philippines protested to Beijing.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 2, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection named the country’s ten most polluted cities of 2014. Seven were located in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing.
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.41)
2015 Feb 2, A Chinese court said a father and daughter have been executed for attacking and killing a woman who had refused to join their outlawed "All-powerful Spirit" group during an altercation last May 28 at a McDonald's outlet in Shandong province.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 4, China announced that users of blogs and chat rooms will be required to register their names with operators and promise in writing to avoid challenging the Communist political system, further tightening control over Internet use.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Chinese and Argentine leaders signed a batch of agreements in Beijing, including collaboration on two new nuclear power plants.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, TransAsia Airways Flight GE235, a turboprop ATR 72-600 with 58 passengers and crew, careered into a river shortly after taking off from a downtown Taipei airport. 31 people were confirmed dead with 12 missing and 15 rescued. 31 of those on board were tourists from China’s southeastern city of Xiamen.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)(AP, 2/4/15)(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 5, In China authorities in Shanghai said police have seized 2.4 tons of methamphetamine and arrested 28 people in one of the country's largest drug busts.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, In China a fire at a wholesale market killed at least 17 people and injured nine others on the fourth floor of the market in southern Guangdong province.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 10, China promised to help build a hydroelectric power plant in a violent Afghan border region, as well as road and rail links to Pakistan, in the latest sign it is taking a more active role in Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 12, China offered to mediate in stalled efforts to engage the Afghan Taliban in peace negotiations.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 16, In China a party watchdog said Su Rong, a former provincial party leader and former vice chairman of China's top political advisory body, has been expelled from the ruling Communist party and stripped of all government positions. Su Rong was accused of taking bribes in return for government positions and will likely face criminal charges.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Chinese New Year holiday began today due to the insertion of a lunar leap month last year.
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.40)
2015 Feb 19, Chinese were seeing in the Year of the Sheep as fireworks and firecrackers ushered in the Lunar New Year across Asia.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In China Luo Renchu (64) attacked elderly residents and staff at the privately run home in Hunan province. He killed 3 elderly residents with a brick and injured 15 other people after arguing with his boss over unpaid wages.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 24, In China 22 people were killed and 38 injured in a bus accident in Bachu County, Xinjiang region.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 26, China imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports with immediate effect amid criticism that its citizens' huge appetite for ivory has fueled poaching that threatens the existence of African elephants.
(AP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 28, China's central bank cut interest rates for the second time in three months, adding to signs that the country's leaders are worried the economic slowdown is deepening too sharply. The People's Bank of China announced a rate cut on one-year loans by commercial banks by 0.25 percentage point to 5.35 percent. The interest rate paid on a one-year deposit was lowered by 0.25 point to 2.50 percent.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In China former vice governor Ni Fake, known for his appetite for jade and arts, was sentenced to 17 years in prison on corruption charges. Fake, former vice governor of the eastern province of Anhui, was found guilty of taking more than $2 million in bribes.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In China the online video documentary “Under the Dome" was released. It pointed out the role of large state-owned enterprises in creating the semi-permanent smog that cloaked many cities in the country. It was viewed by some 200 million people before it was blocked by authorities.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.44)(Econ., 4/25/15, p.77)
2015 Feb, China’s Pres. Xi Jinping unveiled his “Four Comprehensives," a list of political goals for the country: Comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society; Comprehensively deepen reform; Comprehensively govern the nation according to law; Comprehensively strictly govern the Party.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Comprehensives)(Econ., 3/7/15, p.45)
2015 Feb, China and South Korea reached agreement on a free-trade deal.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.36)
2015 Mar 1, Hong Kong police arrested 33 people after scuffles broke out at a protest in a border town, in the latest example of heightened tensions over the growing influx of mainland Chinese shoppers in the city.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 2, Chinese military prosecutors released a list of 14 generals convicted of graft or placed under investigation in an accelerating nationwide anti-corruption drive.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 5, China’s Pm Li Keqiang called for about 7% growth this year at the opening of the opening of the annual session of the National People’s Congress.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.43)
2015 Mar 8, China-based Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI) launched its new Phantom 3 range of drones with prices starting at $1,000.
(SFC, 5/14/15, p.58)
2015 Mar 9, Beijing police said five women activists have been criminally detained for planning to put up anti-sexual harassment posters in three Chinese cities.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 10, The top Communist official in China's Xinjiang said that extremists from the mainly Muslim region have been apprehended after returning from fighting in Syria with the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Indian police detained about a hundred Tibetans who were protesting outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against China's rule in Tibet.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 13, A bomb from a Myanmar aircraft reportedly fell in Chinese territory and killed 4 Chinese people. Myanmar denied that any bomb from its forces had fallen in China and said the rebels might have fired into China to create misunderstanding.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In China an earthquake in the eastern city of Fuyang killed two people and damaged thousands of homes.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 15, In China Xu Caihou (71), the highest-ranking military officer to fall victim to President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive, died of cancer.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, The Stockholm Int’l. Peaced Research Institute reported that China has overtaken Germany as the world’s third largest arms exporter with a 5% share, behind the US at 31% and Russia at 27%.
(SFC, 3/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 17, Germany, France and Italy followed Britain in announcing that they plan to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a proposed Chinese-led Asian regional bank, swinging Europe's biggest economic powers behind a project that is viewed with concern in Washington.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 19, In South Korea the foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea held their first trilateral talks in four years.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.46)
2015 Mar 20, Beijing shut down the third of its four coal-fired power plants as part of its campaign to cut pollution, with the final one scheduled to close next year.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In China a female (28) was shot to death in the city of Chifeng. Zhao Liping (63), who once presided over police affairs for Inner Mongolia, was soon detained on a charge of intentional homicide. Zhao had reportedly disposed of the body, which was later recovered in a village in Chifeng.
(AP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 21, The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China agreed that a summit meeting of their leaders, on hold for nearly three years because of tensions over history and territory, should be held soon to mend the countries' ties.
(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 May 22, It was announced that China National Chemical Corp. (CNCC), a state-owned conglomerate, would buy Pirelli, an Italian tire maker, for $7.7 billion.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.70)
2015 Mar 23, In central China a flood in a shale mine left at least five miners dead and one missing.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 24, In China a meeting of the Communist Party's politburo hosted by President Xi Jinping approved three free-trade zones in the southern province of Guangdong, eastern province of Fujian and northern city of Tianjin.
(AFP, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 26, The Philippines' top diplomat said that China has been rushing construction projects, including massive land reclamation, in the disputed South China Sea in hopes of forestalling any legal moves against its vast territorial claims.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 28, China’s Pres. Xi Jinping opened a major regional economic conference at the Boao Forum on Hainan Island and argued for strong Chinese-led efforts to promote Asian economic and political cooperation. Mr. Xi described his One Belt, One Road" vision for regional and global cooperation.
(SSFC, 3/29/15, p.A6)(Econ., 4/11/15, p.41)
2015 Mar 28, Brazil said it has accepted China's invitation to join a Beijing-backed international infrastructure bank.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 30, China’s government said nearly 70 "illegal" courses have been closed, seemingly enforcing a decade-old ban for the first time.
(AFP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar, Beijing police arrested an environmental reporter and his associates in an apparent extortion scandal. The group's ringleader, surnamed Chen, was accused of blackmailing businesses into paying hundreds of thousands of yuan to delete embarrassing online reports about their activities on a website for environmental news.
(AP, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 2, In China Guangdong police arrested 22 people after demonstrators forced their way into a high-speed rail station in a protest about land and housing issues.
(Reuters, 4/3/15)
2015 Apr 3, In China prosecutors charged former national security chief Zhou Yongkang with corruption and leaking of state secrets, setting the stage for him to become the highest-level politician to stand trial in China in more than three decades.
(AP, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 3, Xue Feng (50), a Chinese-born American geologist was released from prison in China and returned home to Houston after serving more than eight years on charges of procuring state secrets. Xue was detained in November 2007, and sentenced in 2010 on charges of illegally gathering information on China's oil industry.
(AP, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 4, Beijing police took more than 30 people to hospital after they consumed pesticide during a "lie-in" protest on a shopping street near the center of the capital.
(Reuters, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 4, In southwest China a bus plunged into a ravine in Nayong county Guizhou province, killing 21 people and injuring three others. In the northwest a farm vehicle careened while making a turn on a mountain road, killing 12 people and injuring five in Kangle country, Gansu province.
(AP, 4/5/15)
2015 Apr 5, In southern China 7 members of a family on a holiday outing drowned when a 17-year-old girl fell into a reservoir and several relatives dove in after her in a deadly attempt to rescue her in Shantou, Guangdong province.
(AP, 4/6/15)
2015 Apr 7, China's finance ministry said Iran has been approved as a founding member of the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Bank (AIIB).
(AFP, 4/7/15)
2015 Apr 8, In China Shanghai authorities said the city’s Deputy Secretary Dai Haibo has been removed from his post.
(Reuters, 4/8/15)
2015 Apr 8, In China a nun set herself on fire while crying out for the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet. Yeshi Khando (47) of Ngangang Nunnery circled Kardze Monastery in Sichuan province and then self-immolated near the police station.
(AP, 4/11/15)
2015 Apr 9, China sketched out plans for the islands it is creating in the disputed South China Sea, saying they would be used for military defense as well as to provide civilian services that would benefit other countries.
(Reuters, 4/9/15)
2015 Apr 9, Chinese state media reported that Shi Tao, a former top executive at Volkswagen's China joint venture with FAW Group Corp, was sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes. He accepted bribes from 48 individuals and companies from 2006 and amassed 26.7 million yuan in property derived from unclear sources before being discovered in a 2013 audit.
(Reuters, 4/9/15)
2015 Apr 10, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that the United States has promised support for China's campaign to hunt corrupt officials fleeing abroad, after meetings between security officials from the world's two largest economies.
(Reuters, 4/11/15)
2015 Apr 10, Canadian researchers said China has expanded its Internet censorship efforts beyond its borders with a new strategy that attacks websites across the globe. The new strategy, dubbed "Great Cannon," seeks to shut down websites and services aimed at helping Chinese citizens circumvent the "Great Firewall".
(AFP, 4/10/15)
2015 Apr 12, In China hundreds of people in southern Guangdong province protested against the expansion of a coal-fired power plant.
(Reuters, 4/12/15)
2015 Apr 13, Chinese authorities curbed some travel from mainland China to Hong Kong to cool tensions over a growing influx of shoppers that has angered residents of the Asian financial hub.
(AP, 4/13/15)
2015 Apr 13, Lawyers said Chinese authorities have unexpectedly decided to release three women activists, taken into custody on the weekend of March 8, International Women's Day, and detained on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." Li Tingting (25) and Wu Rongrong (30) were also released.
(Reuters, 4/13/15)(SFC, 4/23/15, p.A4)
2015 Apr 15, The Philippines foreign secretary said his country is seeking more "substantive" support from its long-time security ally United States on how to counter China's rapid expansion in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 4/15/15)
2015 Apr 16, Recent satellite images from Airbus Defense and Space were published showing China has made rapid progress in building an airstrip suitable for military use in contested territory in the South China Sea's Spratly Islands and may be planning another.
(Reuters, 4/17/15)
2015 Apr 16, Apple said it is investing in Chinese solar power and preserving forests that make environmentally friendly paper.
(AP, 4/16/15)
2015 Apr 17, A Beijing court sentenced Gao Yu (71), a veteran Chinese journalist, to seven years in prison on charges of leaking a document detailing the Communist Party leadership's resolve to aggressively target civil society and press freedom as a threat to its monopoly on power.
(AP, 4/17/15)
2015 Apr 20, China's President Xi Jinping arrived in Pakistan to oversee the signing of agreements aimed at establishing a Pakistan-China Economic Corridor. China and Pakistan launched a plan for energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan worth $46 billion.
(Reuters, 4/20/15)
2015 Apr 20, Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd., a struggling Chinese property developer, said it has defaulted on dollar-denominated debt, exposing international creditors to potential losses as it grapples with a slumping property market amid a slowdown in the world's second biggest economy.
(AP, 4/20/15)
2015 Apr 20, Chinese customs authorities said they have detained over 250 members of two gangs earlier this month involved in smuggling in 440,000 tons of fuel using retooled fishing boats or vessels done up to look like boats that carry out cleaning work on oil tankers.
(Reuters, 4/20/15)
2015 Apr 21, Greenpeace East Asia released a report saying that Chinese government data shows that 90% of Chinese cities have failed to meet national air quality standards for the first three months of this year.
(SFC, 4/22/15, p.A5)
2015 Apr 22, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit in Indonesia.
(Reuters, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 23, In China Li Chuncheng, the deposed leader of one of China's most populous provinces, confessed to charges of bribery and abuse of power. He was the latest senior official linked to retired security boss Zhou Yongkang, the most senior person charged with corruption.
(Reuters, 4/23/15)
2015 Apr 23, China’s Ministry of Culture said officials are launching a campaign to crack down on stripteases and other lewd shows that have become popular at funerals in some rural areas.
(AP, 4/23/15)
2015 Apr 23, The Philippine fisheries bureau said that fishermen aboard three vessels with clear Chinese coastguard markings boarded two fishing boats in Scarborough Shoal earlier this month and took the crew's catch. The next day China called the claim "inconsistent with the fact".
(AFP, 4/24/15)
2015 Apr 25, In China a 55-year-old man surnamed Zhao, his 26-year-old daughter and another man aged 67 were killed in Longcheng township along the North Korean border, not far from where at least 7 villagers were reported killed last year by border guards who had crossed the Tumen River in search of money and food.
(AP, 4/30/15)
2015 Apr 29, China's biggest lender by assets, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, said it has signed an infrastructure pact worth $2 billion with the oil-rich west African nation of Equatorial Guinea.
(Reuters, 4/29/15)
2015 Apr 30, China’s Politburo announced that it would move forward on the integration of Beijing with the nearby port city of Tianjin.
(Econ, 5/30/15, p.42)
2015 May 1, In China angry Muslims in Qinghai province smashed windows in Xining city after pork sausages and ham were found in a delivery van. This was reported along with a story that Chinese authorites have ordered Muslim shopkeepers and restaurants in a Xinjiang region village to sell alcohol and cigarettes as part of an effort to weaken the hold of Islam in the region.
(SFC, 5/6/15, p.A6)
2015 May 2, In northern China police fatally shot Xu Chunhe as he was on his way to Beijing to ask the central government to help house and take care of his children and elderly mother. His relatives received approval for the aid three days after the killing.
(AP, 5/6/15)
2015 May 5, China said it will expand its bans on coal burning to include suburban areas as well as city centers in efforts to tackle air pollution.
(Reuters, 5/5/15)
2015 May 5, Shanghai, China, announced new rules to keep the spouses and children of top government officials from entering private business and profiting from their government connections.
(SFC, 5/6/15, p.A2)
2015 May 8, Newly released images showed Vietnam has carried out significant land reclamation at two sites in the disputed South China Sea, though the scale and pace is dwarfed by that of China.
(Reuters, 5/8/15)
2015 May 13, In southern China more than 10,000 workers at a state-owned machinery manufacturer protested low wages and company plans to lay off thousands of staff after posting losses for three years. Workers started taking to the streets of Deyang on May 11 with banners protesting against corrupt and incompetent managers.
(AP, 5/13/15)
2015 May 13, Chinese state media said forest police in Yunnan province have arrested 10 people for killing a female wild giant panda, buying and selling its parts.
(AP, 5/13/15)
2015 May 14, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Indian PM Narendra Modi in his ancestral home town at the start of a three-day visit to China as the two Asian giants work to boost economic ties despite decades of mistrust.
(Reuters, 5/14/15)
2015 May 15, China and India proposed fresh measures to stabilize their border during PM Narendra Modi's visit to China. India’s Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar has ordered a mountain strike force to be 25-30,000 strong, initially planned at 90,000.
(Reuters, 5/15/15)
2015 May 15, In China prosecutors in Beijing formally charged lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, a giant in the weiquan (rights protection) movement with inciting ethnic hatred or discrimination, picking quarrels and provoking troubles. He had been in custody for more than a year.
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.35)
2015 May 15, In north-central China a bus fell from a cliff in Shaanxi province. 25 people were killed instantly and 10 died in a hospital.
(AP, 5/15/15)
2015 May 16, In China Indian PM Narendra Modi got down to business on the final day of his trip, saying his country was open for investment as firms signed deals worth more than $22 billion.
(AFP, 5/16/15)
2015 May 16, In northern China a chemical leak killed 8 people and injured two others in Yangcheng County, Shanxi province. The carbon disulfide leak occurred at a plant belonging to the Ruixing chemical company.
(AP, 5/17/15)
2015 May 17, In southwestern China more than 30 police officers and 38 civilians were injured over the last 24 hours during protests by residents who feared that a planned railway would bypass their community.
(AP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 20, The Chinese navy warned a US surveillance plane flying over artificial islands that Beijing is creating in the disputed South China Sea to leave the area eight times. The mission over Fiery Cross Reef showed sand being sucked from the bottom of the sea and sprayed onto the island-in-the-making by Chinese dredgers. The Philippines and Vietnam both say they own Fiery Cross Reef.
(Reuters, 5/21/15)(Econ, 5/30/15, p.37)
2015 May 20, In China Li Hejun, one of the country’s wealthiest billionaires, inaugurated a giant exhibition center near Beijing’s Olympic Forest Park.
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.53)
2015 May 20, In southwest China a nine-story residential building collapsed in Guiyang city following a landslide. 16 people remained missing.
(AP, 5/20/15)
2015 May 21, Chinese officials said at least 15 people have been killed and thousands more forced from their homes by flooding in southern and central China and more rain has been forecast for coming days.
(AP, 5/21/15)
2015 May 22, China and Peru agreed to study the feasibility of a controversial 5,300 km (3,300 miles) transcontinental railroad that will connect Peru's Pacific coast with Brazil's Atlantic coast as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Peru, on the third leg of a Latin America visit. Brazil and China already agreed this week on such a study.
(Reuters, 5/23/15)
2015 May 24, Chinese authorities said the death toll in the latest round of flooding has risen to at least 52, including two schoolchildren aboard a bus carrying more than twice its authorized passenger load that plunged into a pond.
(AP, 5/24/15)
2015 May 25, China announced it will cut import taxes on clothing, cosmetics and some other goods by half in a new tactic to spur consumer spending and economic growth.
(AP, 5/25/15)
2015 May 25, In central China a fire swept through a privately run home for the elderly killing 38 people and leaving much of it a charred ruin in Pingdingshan, Henan province.
(AP, 5/26/15)
2015 May 26, China said it would project its military power further beyond its sea borders and more assertively in the air, defending the construction of artificial islands which sparked concern in Washington. China outlined a strategy to boost its naval reach and held a groundbreaking ceremony for two lighthouses in disputed waters.
(AFP, 5/26/15)(Reuters, 5/26/15)
2015 May 28, China executed Li Jishun, a former elementary school teacher in Gansu province, for molesting or raping 26 students, some as young as 4. The case underscored the vulnerability of rural children left behind by parents seeking jobs in cities.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 29, Chinese authorities destroyed 662 kg of ivory that was seized after being smuggled into the country. Zhao Shucong, head of the State Forestry Administration, said China will strictly control ivory processing and trade until the commercial processing and sale of ivory products are eventually halted.
(AP, 5/29/15)(SFC, 6/26/15, p.A3)
2015 May 29, China confirmed its first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in a South Korean businessman who ignored instructions to stay home after his father was diagnosed with the disease.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 29, The United States said that China had placed mobile artillery weapons systems on a reclaimed island in the disputed South China Sea. US officials say Chinese dredging work has added some 2,000 acres to five outposts in the resource-rich Spratly islands in the South China Sea, including 1,500 acres this year.
(Reuters, 5/29/15)
2015 May 29, Japanese and European leaders agreed to step up defense and economic ties, and expressed concern about rising tensions in the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 30, The United States called for an immediate end to China's intensifying reclamation works in the South China Sea and vowed to continue sending military aircraft and ships to the tense region.
(AFP, 5/30/15)
2015 May 31, Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg took off from Nanjing, China, for a six day flight to Hawaii in the solar powered Solar Impulse. This was the 7th of twelve flights in the round the world journey. Borschberg made an unscheduled stop in Japan on June 1 to wait out bad weather.
(SFC, 6/1/15, p.A2)(SFC, 6/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 1, In China the cruise boat Eastern Star was hit by a freak tornado and capsized on the Yangtze River with 456 people onboard. By the next day only 14 people, including the ship's captain, were found alive since the ship capsized. The disaster left at least 103 people dead and nearly 340 missing. The numbers were later reduced to 12 survivors and 442 dead.
(Reuters, 6/2/15)(Reuters, 6/3/15)(AP, 6/5/15)(AFP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 1, In China the official Hebei Daily newspaper said China’s biggest steelmaking province, Hebei, will order its big industrial emitters to pay for the pollution they discharge via a regional trading scheme beginning next year.
(Reuters, 6/1/15)
2015 Jun 1, In China a ban on smoking in public places in Beijing went into effect.
(SFC, 6/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 1, South Korea and China signed a free trade deal that will remove tariffs on more than 90 percent of goods over two decades.
(AP, 6/1/15)
2015 Jun 3, Britain’s Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay plc (TLSB) named China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) as preferred bidder for a £300 million ($548 million, 412 million euros) contract the world's first artificial tidal lagoon.
(AFP, 6/3/15)
2015 Jun 4, American officials said China-based hackers are suspected of breaking into the computer networks of the US government personnel office and stealing identifying information of at least 4 million federal workers. The attack was uncovered in April and had apparently been going on for several months. On July 9 the Obama administration said hackers stole Social Security numbers from more than 21 million people and snatched other sensitive information.
(SFC, 6/5/15, p.A10)(Econ, 6/13/15, p.29)(SFC, 7/10/15, p.A7)
2015 Jun 6, Chinese and Japanese finance ministers held talks in Beijing to deepen economic cooperation that had been delayed for about two years over strained relations between the Asian giants.
(AP, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 6, China's foreign ministry said Hungary has become the first European country to sign a cooperation agreement for the new "Silk Road" initiative to develop trade and transport infrastructure across Asia and beyond.
(Reuters, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 7, The death toll from a Chinese cruise ship which capsized during a storm in the Yangtze River on June 1 jumped to 431, with 11 still missing.
(Reuters, 6/7/15)
2015 Jun 9, In China a boy (13) and his three younger sisters died after drinking liquid pesticide at home in their village of Tiankan. They had been abandoned by their parents and neglected by government workers. Two village heads were soon fired and three other officials — including the district education chief — were suspended from their work and were being investigated.
(AP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 10, In southern China two girls aged 8 and 14 died in Hunan province after drinking a cola laced with pesticide. A boy (12) was soon identified as the prime suspect in the poisoning.
(AP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 11, In China a court sentenced the former security chief to life in prison after convicting him of corruption in a secretly held trial. Zhou Yongkang (72) was spared the death penalty in a decision seen as a show of leniency toward the former Politburo Standing Committee member. He and family members were found to have pocketed more than $20 million.
(AP, 6/11/15)(Econ, 6/20/15, p.46)
2015 Jun 11, Chinese border guards shot and killed one person who was allegedly trying to illegally cross from North Korea.
(AP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 12, US officials said hackers linked to China appear to have gained access to the sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances, describing a second cyberbreach of federal records that could dramatically compound the potential damage.
(AP, 6/12/15)
2015 Jun 15, Egypt and China signed an agreement for $10 billion-worth of new projects.
(Econ, 6/20/15, p.47)
2015 Jun 16, China announced it would soon stop new island building in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, but said it will continue to develop the outposts it controls in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.
(SFC, 6/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 17, The Chinese government rolled out more details of the building work it is undertaking in the disputed South China Sea, listing lighthouses, communications stations and other facilities for civilian and emergency use.
(Reuters, 6/17/15)
2015 Jun 17, Japan warned China that its extensive land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea does not make ownership a done deal.
(AFP, 6/17/15)
2015 Jun 18, Hong Kong's legislature vetoed a China-backed electoral reform package criticized by opposition pro-democracy lawmakers and activists as undemocratic, easing for now the prospect of fresh mass protests in the financial hub.
(Reuters, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 18, A Tanzanian government minister described elephant poaching on as a national disaster, and urged China to curb its appetite for ivory.
(Reuters, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 19, China said heavy storms that swept through several southern provinces this past week killed 18 people and left four more missing.
(AP, 6/20/15)
2015 Jun 20, Italian prosecutors sought to indict 297 people and the Bank of China in connection with a massive money-laundering investigation. The Bank of has denied any wrongdoing.
(SFC, 6/22/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 22, In China restaurateurs in Yulin, in the largely rural and poor Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, held an annual dog meat festival despite international criticism of the event as cruel and unhygienic. At least 10,000 dogs were expected to be slaughtered.
(AP, 6/22/15)(Econ, 6/20/15, p.46)
2015 Jun 22, China inaugurated a new land crossing into Tibet for Indian pilgrims who wish to visit one of the holiest sites in both Hinduism and Buddhism.
(Reuters, 6/22/15)
2015 Jun 22, In western China at least 18 people were killed in a knife and bomb attack in Kashgar, a predominantly Uighur city in the Xinjiang region. Some 10 million Uighurs lived in the Xinjiang region, making up 60% of its residents.
(SFC, 6/25/15, p.A4)(Econ, 6/27/15, p.11,35)
2015 Jun 23, State Councilor Yang Jiechi said China will work with the United States and other countries on cybersecurity issues.
(Reuters, 6/23/15)
2015 Jun 23, In China former soldiers reportedly staged a sit-in outside a major military base complaining about a lack of proper benefits and pensions. Hundreds were reported detained at the protest outside the Central Military Commission, which has overall command of the military, in Beijing.
(Reuters, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 25, China's Defense Ministry said that it was unaware of any protest after a report that thousands of former soldiers had staged a sit-in on June 23 outside a major military base complaining about a lack of proper benefits and pensions.
(Reuters, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 25, China's Defense Ministry declined to confirm a report that it was in talks for a military base in Horn of Africa country Djibouti.
(Reuters, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 25, In central China an early morning fire killed 13 people in an apartment building n Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province.
(AP, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 26, In eastern China a bus overturned on a highway and was hit by an oncoming truck, killing at least 10 people in Wuhu city, Anhui province.
(AP, 6/26/15)
2015 Jun 27, China cut interest rates for 4th time in 6 months to boost sluggish national economy.
(AP, 6/27/15)
2015 Jun 29, China's Premier Li Keqiang said he wants to see Greece remain in the euro zone and promised that Beijing would make investments in the European Union's new infrastructure fund.
(Reuters, 6/29/15)
2015 Jun 29, In China envoys of governments that plan to join a Chinese-led Asian bank endorsed a structure that gives Beijing the biggest voting stake at the start but no veto power.
(AP, 6/29/15)
2015 Jun 30, China's Ministry of Civil Affairs said four days of heavy rain have caused severe flooding in central China, killing at least 15 people and leaving 19 others missing.
(AP, 6/30/15)
2015 Jun 30, A total of 173 people, mostly women and children, from the minority Chinese Muslim community of Uighurs arrived in Turkey from Thailand, where they were being held after fleeing China. They were being resettled in the central city of Kayseri, which boasts a strong Uighur community.
(AP, 7/2/15)
2015 Jul 1, The Chinese government adopted a new national security law. The bill replaced one passed in 1993.
(SFC, 7/2/15, p.A3)(Econ, 7/4/15, p.35)
2015 Jul 1, In northeastern China a bus carrying a group of South Koreans fell off a highway bridge, killing 7 South Koreans and 2 Chinese.
(AP, 7/1/15)
2015 Jul 3, In China a magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit a rural part of far western Xinjiang region, killing 6 people, injuring dozens and destroying or damaging thousands of homes.
(AP, 7/3/15)
2015 Jul 6, Customs officials at Zurich airport seized 262 kg (578 pounds) of ivory that three Chinese men had dispatched from Tanzania, contraband that may have come from up to 50 elephants. The tusks had been sawed into 172 pieces to fit into luggage.
(AP, 8/4/15)
2015 Jul 7, Trading in over 90% of the 2,774 shares listed in Chinese exchanges was suspended or halted. Shares had fallen by a third in less than a month.
(Econ, 7/11/15, p.13)
2015 Jul 7, The Philippines asked an international tribunal at The Hague to declare China's claims to virtually all the South China Sea invalid.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 9, China began rounding up civil-rights lawyers and support staff for interrogation. By mid-July many of around 120 detainees were released but 31 were still missing or believed to be in custody.
(Econ, 7/18/15, p.37)
2015 Jul 9, Thailand sent back to China more than 100 ethnic Uighur refugees, drawing harsh criticism from the UN refugee agency and human rights groups over concerns that they face persecution by the Chinese government.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 10, China's national weather service said super Typhoon Chan-hom is expected to make landfall by early tomorrow at the eastern province of Zhejiang, and has issued its highest-level alert. Authorities have evacuated tens of thousands of people, canceled scores of trains and flights and shuttered seaside resorts.
(AP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 11, In China Typhoon Chan-hom slammed ashore in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, paralyzing transport links and devastating farmland as authorities evacuated more than a million people. The storm killed 5 people in the Philippines earlier in the week
(AP, 7/10/15)(SSFC, 7/12/15, p.A4)
2015 Jul 11, In central China a fire late today at a residential building in Wuhan city killed 7 people and injured 12 others.
(AP, 7/11/15)
2015 Jul 12, China's anti-corruption watchdog said Xi Xiaoming, vice president of the Supreme People's Court, has come under investigation for corruption, becoming one of the most senior judicial officials to be swept up by the country's anti-graft dragnet.
(Reuters, 7/12/15)
2015 Jul 12, In northern China a warehouse containing fireworks exploded, killing at least 3 people and injuring more than a dozen others in Ningjin county, Hebei province.
(AP, 7/12/15)
2015 Jul 12, In China Tibetan lama Tenzin Delek Rinpoche (65) died in prison 13 years into serving a sentence for what human rights groups say were false charges that he was involved in a bombing in a public park.
(AP, 7/13/15)
2015 Jul 13, In China police in Shenyang killed 3 Uighur men said to belong to a terrorist organization.
(SFC, 7/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 14, China's state media accused more than two dozen human rights attorneys rounded up in recent days of being troublemakers intent on illegal activism.
(AP, 7/14/15)
2015 Jul 14, China said it has begun building a 314-meter (1,030-ft) high dam which will be among the world's tallest. The Shuangjiankou dam on a tributary of the Yangtze river will be completed in 2022.
(AFP, 7/15/15)
2015 Jul 15, In China Wan Li (99), a politician known for his reform policies, died in Beijing. Wan was best known for the reform policies that he began implementing in the late 1970s, especially in rural China.
(AP, 7/15/15)
2015 Jul 17, Chinese state media said police have detained Wang Lin, a well-connected self-proclaimed master of the spiritual martial art of Qigong, on suspicion of the murder of a disciple. The case has gripped China with lurid tales of wealth and magic. Wang was detained in Jiangxi province over the alleged kidnapping and death of a businessman, provincial legislator and disciple called Zou Yong earlier this month.
(Reuters, 7/17/15)
2015 Jul 18, Chinese police shot dead one man and injured another during an apparent protest at a construction site in Luoyang city.
(AFP, 7/19/15)
2015 Jul 20, China's state media said Ling Jihua, former President Hu Jintao's top aide, has been stripped of his party membership, removed from all government positions, and will be criminally prosecuted on corruption charges.
(AP, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 20, In eastern China an unemployed man suffering from a liver ailment blew himself up in an explosion that also killed one other person and injured 24 outside Huxi Park in Heze city, Shandong province.
(AP, 7/21/15)
2015 Jul 20, In northern China the colliery at Hegang, Heilongjiang province, flooded trapping 15 miners with at least 4 killed. Investigators blamed the accident on a downpour. Six men were rescued on July 27 with five still trapped.
(AFP, 7/26/15)
2015 Jul 21, A former chief librarian at a Chinese university admitted in court to stealing more than 140 paintings by grandmasters in a gallery under his watch and replacing them with fakes he painted himself. For two years up until 2006, Xiao Yuan substituted famous works including landscapes and calligraphies in a gallery within the library of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.
(AP, 7/21/15)
2015 Jul 22, Chinese artist and social critic Ai Weiwei received his passport back after it was seized by authorities in 2011 in apparent retaliation for his social and political activism.
(SFC, 7/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 22, A court in northern Myanmar sentenced 153 Chinese nationals to life in prison after convicting them of illegal logging in a case that has already strained relations with Beijing.
(AP, 7/22/15)
2015 Jul 24, Prominent exiled Chinese dissident Wu'er Kaixi announced his candidacy for a seat in Taiwan's parliament, saying he wants to serve as a check on the ruling Nationalist Party and help shore up the island's global status.
(AP, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 25, A court in northeast China sentenced five people to prison for spreading the teachings of Quannengshen, a banned religious group that's been linked to a killing of a woman in a McDonald's restaurant last year.
(AP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 27, Delta said it will pay $450 million to buy a stake in China Eastern Airlines as the Atlanta-based airline seeks to expand into China's fast-growing travel industry.
(AP, 7/27/15)
2015 Jul 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with top Chinese officials amid tensions over China's treatment of its Uighur minority and sensitive negotiations surrounding the possible purchase of a Chinese missile system.
(AP, 7/29/15)
2015 Jul 30, China said it will prosecute Guo Boxiong (73), a former top military officer, for corruption. He was a vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission until he stepped down in 2012.
(Reuters, 7/30/15)
2015 Jul 31, Beijing was awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics, capitalizing on its previous 2008 Summer Games experience and defying concerns about its air quality and lack of natural snow.
(CSM, 7/31/15)
2015 Jul 31, An ASEAN official said China and Southeast Asian nations have agreed to set up a foreign ministers' hotline to tackle emergencies in the disputed South China Sea.
(AP, 7/31/15)
2015 Aug 3, Chinese officials said authorities over the weekend seized thousands of bottles of spirits laced with chemicals used to make erectile dysfunction drugs such as Viagra.
(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 3, In China Wu Shengfu (51) the general manager of China First Heavy Industries (CFHI), was found hanging in his office in the northeastern city of Qiqihar as anti-corruption investigators probed his firm.
(AFP, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 4, ASEAN countries backed a US call to halt land reclamation in the South China Sea, underlining unease in the region over Beijing's continued expansion on disputed islands.
(Reuters, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 4, Thailand police said they have arrested five people suspected of trafficking Thai women into sex slavery in China and believed to be part of a ring that has also trafficked women into Malaysia and Singapore.
(Reuters, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 5, China’s foreign minister, at a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers, said reclamation work in the South China Sea has been halted. China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed to speed up consultations on a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 8/5/15)
2015 Aug 8, In China Typhoon Soudelor hit the city of Putian in Fujian province late today. Strong winds caused power outages to more than 1.41 million household in the province.
(AP, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 9, Typhoon Soudelor dumped heavy rain and winds on the Chinese mainland, leaving a total of 22 people dead or missing, collapsing homes and trees and cutting power to more than a million homes in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces.
(AP, 8/9/15)
2015 Aug 10, In China a military court gave a suspended death sentence to General Gu Junshan, the highest-ranking military officer to be tried since China's president began cracking down on corruption in the country's vast army. Junshan, the People's Liberation Army's former head of logistics, was found guilty of abuse of power, embezzlement, accepting bribes and misusing state funds and received a death sentence with a two-year reprieve.
(AP, 8/10/15)
2015 Aug 10, Alibaba said it is taking a 20 percent stake in Chinese electronics store chain Suning in a move that helps the Chinese e-commerce powerhouse expand in the brick-and-mortar arena.
(AP, 8/10/15)
2015 Aug 11, China devalued its tightly controlled currency following a slump in trade, allowing the yuan's biggest one-day decline in a decade.
(AP, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 11, In southwestern China an accident at a coal and gas mine killed 10 people in Guizhou province.
(AFP, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 12, China cut the yuan's value against the dollar for the second consecutive day. The yuan hit a four-year low falling for a second day.
(Reuters, 8/12/15)(AFP, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 12, In northern China more than 60 people were missing after a landslide buried the living quarters of a mining company under one million cubic meters of earth in Shanyang county, Shaanxi province.
(AFP, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 12, In China two huge explosions tore through an industrial area where toxic chemicals and gas were stored in the northeastern port city of Tianjin. Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai International Logistics was identified as the owner of the site. On Aug 15 police confirmed for the first time the presence of deadly sodium cyanide at the site of the blast as a series of new explosions were heard and small fires broke out. By August 31 the death toll was at 158 with 15 still missing.
(Reuters, 8/13/15)(AP, 8/14/15)(Reuters, 8/15/15)(AP, 8/22/15)(AP, 8/31/15)
2015 Aug 13, In Beijing a man slashed a Chinese woman to death and injured her French companion in one of the city’s busiest shopping districts in broad daylight. The man (25), family name Gao, was arrested.
(AP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 18, China’s Ministry of Public Security said police have arrested 15,000 people on suspicion of cybercrimes as the government tightens its control over the Internet.
(AP, 8/18/15)
2015 Aug 20, China’s state media reported that flooding in three central provinces has left at least 13 people dead and 13 others missing and disrupted the lives of nearly 1 million people.
(AP, 8/20/15)
2015 Aug 22, In eastern China an explosion at a chemical plant killed one person and injured nine others. The facility, owned by Shandong Runxing Chemical Technology Co., produced adiponitrile, which can give off toxic fumes when burned.
(AP, 8/23/15)
2015 Aug 24, Chinese border patrol officials seized 620 wild turtles and tortoises, 510 of them considered endangered, that were found alive in a shipment of frozen seafood from Vietnam.
(AP, 8/30/15)
2015 Aug 25, China cut interest rates for a fifth time in nine months in a new effort to shore up slowing economic growth. European and US shares rebounded on bargain-hunting as China cut rates.
(AP, 8/25/15)
2015 Aug 27, China accused 11 transport and customs officials and several municipal authorities in Tianjin of “dereliction of duty" and “abuse of power" over a chemical explosion on Aug. 12 that killed some 140 people in the northeastern city.
(CSM, 8/27/15)
2015 Aug 27, Chinese state-run media reported that courts in the restive, western region of Xinjiang have jailed 45 people on terrorism-related charges, including 18 convicted of organizing illegal border crossings.
(AP, 8/27/15)
2015 Aug 27, In China debris from a Long March-4 rocket carrying a remote sensing satellite crashed into a villager's home minutes after the launch from Shaanxi province.
(AFP, 8/28/15)
2015 Aug 28, In China workers were overcome with toxic gas from a paper mill's waste pool in Hunan province and seven of them died.
(AP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 29, China's National People's Congress approved a prisoner amnesty as part of commemorations of World War II's end that could see thousands of inmates such as war veterans or juveniles released.
(AP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 29, China said legislators have approved amendments to the country’s 15-year-old air pollution law that grants the state new powers to punish offenders and create a legal framework to cap coal consumption.
(Reuters, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 29, In China about 15 tons of sulfuric acid spilled early today from a crashed tanker truck in the eastern province of Zhejiang. The driver and a passenger in the truck were killed when it veered off the road into farm land near the resort city of Hangzhou.
(AP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 31, The Chinese Ministry of Public Security said it has punished at least 197 people in recent days for spreading rumors online.
(SFC, 9/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Aug 31, In China a fire at the Shandong Binyuan Chemical Co Ltd, in Lijin county, killed 13 people. It was extinguished before dawn the next day.
(Reuters, 9/1/15)(AP, 9/6/15)
2015 Sep 1, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, an accused war criminal, as an "old friend", as China's foreign ministry defended his invite to a military parade to mark the end of World War Two.
(Reuters, 9/1/15)
2015 Sep 3, China unveiled new "carrier-killer" missiles and announced a 300,000 cut in troop numbers at a spectacular WWII anniversary parade.
(AFP, 9/3/15)
2015 Sep 7, China said it would remove personal income tax on dividends for shareholders who hold stocks for more than a year.
(Reuters, 9/7/15)
2015 In China Wang Daqi (30) authored “Burden of Wealth" in which he profiled several of his monied peers.
(Econ, 7/4/15, p.36)
2015 Chen Guangcheng authored “The Barefoot Lawyer: A Blind Man’s Fight for Justice and Freedom in China."
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.83)
2015 Andrew Small authored “The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia’s New Geopolitics."
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.74)
2015 Xue Xinran (b.1958), British-Chinese journalist, authored “Buy Me the Sky: The Remarkable Truth of China’s One-Child Generation." It was translated to English by Esther Tyldesley and David Dobson.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.75)
2015 In China some 20,000 workers at the Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone worked to complete a 2nd terminal and runway. Officials expected the planned aerotropolis to have five runways by 2030 serving some 70 million passengers annually.
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.47)
2015 Shanghai, China, produced the most household rubbish in the country with 22,000 tons per day.
(Econ., 4/25/15, p.42)
2030 The population of China was expected to reach 1.6 billion.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.D5)
2040 In 2006 it was projected that the total number of cars in India and China could rise from some 30 million to 750 million.
(Econ, 9/16/06, Survey p.20)
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