Timeline China 2010-2012
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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 an 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 death toll surged past 1,100.
(AFP, 8/11/10)
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 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 billion high-speed railway from the border to its
capital, Vientiane. Construction was due to begin in april, 2011.
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.49)
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 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 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 Xilingol
area. The killing sparked protests. 4 days later another Mongol was
killed in a similar confrontation elsewhere.
(AFP, 5/25/11)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.48)
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.
The bodies of 13 crew members were found near Chiang Rai in northern
Thailand on Oct 7,8 and 10.
(AP, 10/10/11)
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 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 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)
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 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 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 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 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)
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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End of file