Timeline China (F) 2010-2019
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2010 Jan 1,
Chinese state media said authorities have shut down a dairy in
Shanghai and arrested three of its executives after tests found some
of its milk products were tainted with the same industrial chemical
at the center of a milk safety scandal more than a year ago.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, A free-trade
agreement between China and the 10 members of the Association of
Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) came into effect. The 6 richest
members scrapped tariffs on 90% of goods. The 4 poorest (Vietnam,
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar) will not need to cut tariffs to the same
level until 2015.
(SSFC, 1/3/10, p.A4)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 1, Thousands of Hong
Kong residents marched to the Chinese government's liaison office
demanding that Beijing grant full democracy to the semiautonomous
financial hub.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 4, In northern China
21 workers were killed by a gas leak at the Hebei Puyang Iron and
Steel Co. Company officials initially said 16 workers were poisoned
and seven died while nine were sent to a hospital. On Jan 7 senior
executives "confessed" that they had covered up the death toll.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 5, A fire in a coal
mine in central China killed at least 25 workers. Search efforts
continued for at least three others trapped underground at the
Lisheng coal mine in Xiangtan city in Hunan province.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, It was reported
that Santa Barbara-based Cybersitter has filed a $2.2 billion
lawsuit against China, accusing Beijing of stealing its technology
to bar Internet access to political and religious sites in China.
The suit alleges that the Chinese makers of Green Dam illegally
copied more than 3,000 lines of code from its filtering software,
and conspired with China's rulers and computer manufacturers to
distribute more than 56 million copies of the pirated software
throughout China.
(AFP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 7, China executed 7
gang leaders in Hebei province for murder, gun sales, gambling and
other crimes in what state media called their province's worst gang
case since the founding of communist China 60 years ago. In eastern
China some 100 hired thugs beat farmers who had resisted eviction in
the city of Pizhou in Jiangsu province. One woman was killed and
another woman was severely injured. The next day up to 2,000 angry
villagers descended on government offices in Pizhou to protest the
issue and clashed with police over the forced evictions.
(AP, 1/7/10)(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 8, The China Passenger
Car Association reported that China overtook the US as the biggest
auto market in 2009 and automakers should see more strong growth
this year.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In southeastern
China a fire in coal mine trapped and killed 12 workers in Xinyu
city, Jiangxi province.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 9, California-based
eSolar Inc. said it will help build a series of solar thermal power
plants in China, as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases
tries to decrease its heavy reliance on coal, imported gas and oil.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 10, New data showed
that China has overtaken Germany as the world's top exporter after
December exports jumped 17.7% for their first increase in 14 months.
(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 11, China's top
prosecutorial office said thousands of Chinese officials have fled
overseas with as much as $50 billion in their pockets in stolen
government funds during the country's economic boom over the past
three decades. Zhao Shiying, the secretary-general of the
Independent Chinese PEN Center, was taken into custody by
authorities from his home in southern Shenzhen. He was released on
Jan 25.
(AP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 11, China’s state
media reported that more than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age
could find themselves without spouses in 2020, citing a study that
blamed sex-specific abortions as a major factor. A study by the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences warned the imbalance will dash
many young men's chance at marriage and lead to increased crime.
(AFP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 11, China's military,
according to state media, successfully tested a ground-based system
for intercepting missiles in mid-flight.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 12, China took new
steps to control bank lending, ordering institutions to set aside
more reserves in a move to avert a surge in credit that Beijing
worries might fuel inflation or asset price bubbles.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 13, In France a
Chinese student (26) stabbed to death a 49-year-old secretary and
wounded three teachers in an attack at a university in the southern
town of Perpignan.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 14, Los Angeles-based
Gipson Hoffman & Pancione, the law firm representing a Santa
Barbara company that sued China for allegedly pirating its Internet
content filtering software, said its attorneys on Jan 11 started
received emails containing Trojans, which can allow outside access
to the target's computer.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 15, Chinese police in
Beijing shut down what would have been the country’s first-ever gay
pageant an hour before it was set to begin, highlighting the
enduring sensitivity surrounding homosexuality and the struggle by
gays to find mainstream acceptance.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Hong Kong
protesters against a national high-speed rail network scuffled with
police as they tried but failed to storm the legislature. Another
500 staged a sit-in in front of the Hong Kong leader's mansion,
shutting down traffic. The $55 billion Hong Kong dollar ($7.1
billion) project to link Hong Kong to a national high-speed rail
network has run into a growing protest movement.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 15, The US State
Department said it will soon give China a formal diplomatic message
expressing its concern about cyber attacks that prompted Google Inc
to threaten to pull out of China.
(Reuters, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 17, In China text
messaging services restarted with some restrictions for cell phone
users in far western China, more than six months after deadly ethnic
rioting prompted the government to shut them down.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 18, It was reported
that China was tightening smoking regulations by enforcing a ban on
smoking in any indoor public space in seven provincial capitals.
(www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_478846.html)
2010 Jan 18, In China rescue
workers evacuated thousands of rural residents from parts of the
northwest after extreme cold and blizzard conditions killed four
people and left half a million snowed under. Storms in far western
Xinjiang flattened or damaged about 100,000 homes and more than
15,000 head of livestock were killed by the cold front that set in
the previous night.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 19, China’s Foreign
Ministry said Google Inc will not be treated as an exception to
China's demand foreign companies obey its laws, a week after the
world's largest search engine warned it could pull out of China.
Google said it had postponed the launch of two mobile handsets in
China, in the latest fallout from its threat last week to withdraw
from the Asian giant over cyberattacks and censorship.
(Reuters, 1/19/10)(AFP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, A former Chinese
Supreme Court judge was sentenced to life in prison following his
conviction for embezzlement and receiving more than half a million
dollars in bribes. Huang Songyou, the court's former vice president,
is the first judicial official of his stature to be tried and
convicted on such charges.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 19, The World Wildlife
Fund warned that the wild tiger faced extinction in China after
having been decimated by poaching and the destruction of its natural
habitat.
(AFP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 20, A top regulator
said China will slow its massive lending spree and step up
monitoring of banks as it tries to prevent speculative bubbles in
real estate and other assets while keeping the country's economic
recovery on track.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, The US Consumer
Product Safety Commission said about 1.5 million Graco strollers
sold at Wal-Mart, Target and other major retailers are being
recalled after some children's fingertips were amputated by hinges
on the products. The strollers were made in China by Graco and sold
at AAFES, Burlington Coat Factory, Babies R Us, Toys R Us, Kmart,
Fred Meyer, Meijer, Navy Exchange, Sears, Target, Wal-Mart and other
retailers nationwide from October 2004 to December 2009.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 21, China declared it
is over the global crisis and signaled a shift in focus to
controlling inflation, sparking concern it could hamper growth and
the country's contribution to a worldwide rebound.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 22, Beijing issued a
stinging response to US criticism that it is jamming the free flow
of words and ideas on the Internet, accusing the United States of
damaging relations between the two countries by hoisting its
"information imperialism" on China. An attorney for a US free speech
group said US trade officials have asked for more information as
they consider whether to pursue a possible World Trade Organization
case against Chinese Internet barriers.
(AP, 1/22/10)(Reuters, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 24, In India
environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China
said that talks in New Delhi had further cemented their alliance
following the Copenhagen climate change summit. The group, known by
the acronym BASIC, pledged to strengthen its unified stance but
would seek consensus with developed countries.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 25, China sharply
rebuked the United States, denying involvement in any Internet
attacks and defending its online restrictions as lawful after
Washington urged Beijing to investigate an attack against Google.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, In China the
Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi sentenced four more people to
death for involvement in rioting last year in the restive
far-western region of Xinjiang, the country's worst ethnic violence
in decades. Another person was sentenced to death with a two-year
reprieve, a penalty usually commuted to life in prison, while eight
others were given sentences of up to life imprisonment.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 25, Official media
reported that China is hoping to close thousands of local government
lobbying offices in Beijing to cut down on waste and corruption.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Hong Kong 5
pro-democracy lawmakers resigned their seats, vowing to turn the
resulting elections into a populist campaign for universal suffrage
in defiance of warnings from China.
(AFP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 28, Ford Motor Co.
said it has halted production of some full-sized commercial vehicles
in China because they contain gas pedals built by the same company
behind the accelerators in Toyota Motor Corp.'s recent recall. Ford
spokesman Said Deep said the diesel version of its Transit Classic
built by a Chinese joint venture contains accelerators built by CTS
Corp., based in Elkhart, Ind. The vehicles began production in
December and only about 1,600 have been produced.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Toyota Motor Corp
extended its safety recall of millions of its most popular cars to
Europe and China in a further blow to the reputation of the world's
largest auto maker.
(Reuters, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 29, In China envoys of
exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama arrived in Beijing for
weekend talks amid subtle shifts in China's approach to its restive,
riot-scarred western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 30, China suspended
military exchanges with the United States and threatened sanctions
against American defense companies, just hours after Washington
announced $6.4 billion in planned arms sales to Taiwan.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Feb 1, China launched a
10-day emergency crackdown on tainted milk products after several
were found creeping back onto the market despite a massive scandal
that sickened hundreds of thousands of children in 2008.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 3, China’s official
Xinhua News Agency reported that Lekang Dairy Company general
manager Zhang Wenxue and vice general managers Zhu Shuming and Tong
Tianhu have been charged with manufacturing and selling tainted milk
powder in the latest crackdown. Xinhua quoted Health Minister Chen
Zhu as saying "all melamine-tainted milk products will be found and
destroyed," as part of the current 10-day crackdown.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 4, In China two courts
in the southern province of Guangdong sentenced 25 people to death
for their roles in nine kidnapping cases.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, China told other
world powers that discussing broader sanctions against Iran was
counterproductive, striking a blow to a Western push to rein in
Tehran's nuclear program.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, A Chinese ministry
statement ordered schools to sever all ties and cooperation with
Oxfam saying school administrators must ban all campus volunteer
recruitment efforts run by the group's Hong Kong office. It accused
the Hong Kong branch of having a hidden political agenda. Oxfam has
operated in mainland China for 20 years and worked in cooperation
with the government's poverty alleviation department. Oxfam, a
confederation of 14 national organizations that works in about 100
countries, was founded in Britain in 1942.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 5, China said it will
slap heavy anti-dumping duties on US chicken parts, a move likely to
aggravate trade ties between two of the world's most important
economies at a time of strained political relations.
(Reuters, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 6, China’s state media
said a man who operated a porn website has been sentenced to 13
years in jail and fined 100,000 yuan (15,000 dollars), amid an
ongoing campaign to crack down on online sexual content.
(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 6, Australian miner
Resourcehouse said it has signed a 60-billion-US-dollar coal deal
with energy-hungry China, calling it the country's "biggest-ever
export contract." The company said it had negotiated a 20-year
agreement to supply China Power International Holding Limited with
30 million tons of coal a year from a proposed mine in central
Queensland. The initial report mistakenly identified the Chinese
company as China Power International Development (CPI).
(AFP, 2/6/10)(AFP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 8, The China Daily
newspaper reported officials have recalled more than 170 tons of
milk powder tainted by the industrial chemical melamine and closed
two dairy companies in the northern region of Ningxia. The current
10–day emergency crackdown has made it increasingly clear that many
products discovered in the country's 2008 milk scandal were
repackaged for sale instead of destroyed.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 8, China's Ministry of
Industry and Information Technology issued new guidelines to local
authorities and lifted a ban imposed in December on individuals
acquiring .cn domain names. Individuals wanting to set up a website
will have to submit identity cards and photos of themselves, as well
as meet regulators, before their domain name can be registered.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 8, In southern China a
bus collided with a sport utility vehicle and plunged down a
mountain ravine, killing seven people and injuring 50.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 9, A Chinese court
sentenced activist Tan Zuoren (56), who investigated the deaths of
thousands of schoolchildren in the country's massive 2008
earthquake, to five years in jail for inciting subversion of state
power. In 2010 the Sichuan provincial high court upheld the
ruling.
(AP, 2/9/10)(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, China said its
first national pollution census has mapped nearly 6 million sources
of industrial, residential and agricultural waste. The 2-year survey
results gave the government one year to shape the next 5-year
environmental protection plan.
(SFC, 2/10/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 10, China declared a
new food-safety campaign after contaminated milk products from an
earlier scandal showed up repackaged in several places around the
country, exposing weaknesses in the country's promise to stop such
problems from happening again.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 12, China raised the
level of reserves banks must hold for the second time this year,
spooking financial markets on the eve of its New Year holiday by
showing it was intent to curb lending and inflation.
(Reuters, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao warned his people to keep a "sober mind" about the
challenges ahead in the new year as the country welcomed the arrival
of the Year of the Tiger with noisy celebrations. Feb 14 officially
marked the first day of the Lunar new Year.
(Reuters, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, Italian police
said they have confiscated 500,000 tons of counterfeit goods
discovered in eight industrial hangars on the outskirts of Rome.
Once labeled with Italian brands, They would have brought in several
million euros for the counterfeiters. The goods were suspected of
being imported from China.
(AFP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 14, This day marked a
new year according to the Chinese calendar, as it moved from the
reign of the Ox to the year of the Tiger. The Chinese calendar is
thought to have been formulated around 500 BC, though elements of it
date back at least to the Shang Dynasty at around 1,000 BC.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/yearofthetigerallaboutthechinesezodiac)
2010 Feb 16, New US Treasury
data said China's holdings of US Treasury bonds tumbled in December,
allowing Japan to take over as the top holder of American government
debt.
(AFP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 20, China said 35
people were killed in fires during the week-long new year holiday as
millions of people set off fireworks to usher in the Year of the
Tiger.
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 23, The Chinese
Communist Party issued a new code of ethics as the country's fight
against widespread corruption intensifies.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 24, Australia resumed
free-trade talks with China after a 14-month gap, sweeping aside a
brief plunge in ties to focus on a booming partnership tipped to
deliver decades of growth.
(AFP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 25, In China the
People’s Daily reported that 62 workers had been poisoned in a
poorly ventilated factory in Suzhou run Wintek, a Taiwanese
manufacturer that makes products for firms including apple and
Nokia.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.83)
2010 Feb 25, In China at least
29 people were injured and hundreds of buildings damaged in a
magnitude 5.4 earthquake in southwestern Yunnan province.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 28, In China a bus
veered off a sleet-covered road and plunged into a reservoir
in Zhengzhou city in central Henan province killing 19 people and
injuring 7 others.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 1, In China 11
newspapers took a rare stand against a Mao Zedong-era system blamed
for the wide gap between the country's rich and poor. Within hours
their jointly signed editorial had largely disappeared online. 11
newspapers published a joint editorial calling on the National
People’s Congress (NPC) to scrap the hukou system, which was
originally intended to stop rural migrants flowing into the cities.
(AP, 3/2/10)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.26)
2010 Mar 1, In China Toyota
President Akio Toyoda apologized in Beijing to Chinese customers for
the company's quality problems and emphasized the importance of the
fast-growing market to his company.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, Chinese rescuers
worked to save 31 coal miners trapped underground by a flood at the
Luotoushan, or Camel Head Mountain, coal mine in Wuhai city in
northern Inner Mongolia. One miner was reported killed. On May 2
state news agency Xinhua reported that emergency workers have
recovered 28 bodies from the mine in China's Inner Mongolia region
that flooded in early-March. 3 people were still missing.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AP, 3/2/10)(AFP, 5/2/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Australia Royal
Dutch Shell and PetroChina joined forces for a 2.96 billion US
dollar bid for Australia's Arrow Energy, hoping for a bigger slice
of the country's booming liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector.
(AP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 9, China and India
gave a qualified approval to the nonbinding Copenhagen climate
accord brokered by Pres. Obama in the final hours of the December,
2009, climate summit.
(SFC, 3/10/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 12, He Pingping
(b.1988) of China, the world's shortest man, died in Rome while
working on a TV show. He was 2 feet, 5.37 inches (74.6 cm) tall.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 15, China’s state
media said at least 94 people living near a lead factory, most of
them children, have tested positive for lead poisoning, prompting
authorities to order the closure of the Zhongyi Alloy Co. in
Longchang county of Sichuan province's Neijiang city. Hundreds more
people waited for test results.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 18, China’s state
media reported that parts of southern China are suffering from the
worst drought in decades, leaving millions of people with inadequate
water and huge areas of farmland too dry to plant.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 20, China's capital
woke up to orange-tinted skies as the strongest sandstorm so far
this year hit the country's north, delaying some flights at
Beijing's airport and prompting a dust warning for Seoul.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, An estimate of gay
men marrying heterosexual women in China was put at 90% as compared
to 15-20% in the US.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.48)
2010 Mar 21, China’s state
media reported that authorities in Xinjiang have restored access to
email services and 32 Internet sites that were blocked after ethnic
unrest broke out in the region in July.
(AFP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 22, Google announced
that its China search engine, google.cn, would automatically
redirect queries to its service in China's semiautonomous territory
of Hong Kong, where Google is not legally required to censor
searches.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 22, Sandstorms
whipping across China shrouded cities in an unhealthy cloud of sand
and grit, with winds carrying the pollution outside the mainland as
far as Hong Kong and Taiwan.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In China four
executives of Australia mining giant Rio Tinto pleaded guilty in
Shanghai to taking bribes.
(SFC, 3/23/10, p.D3)
2010 Mar 23, In eastern China a
former doctor, Zheng Minsheng (41), armed with a large knife
rampaged outside an elementary school, stabbing 8 young children to
death and wounding 5 others at the Nanping City Experimental
Elementary School in Fujian province. On April 8 the Intermediate
People's Court in Nanping city sentenced Minsheng to death.
(AP, 3/23/10)(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Mar 24, In China the
presidents of Afghanistan and China oversaw the signing of new
agreements aimed at strengthening the Afghan economy as a step
toward combating the Taliban and achieving political stability.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Australia and
China signed a multibillion dollar natural gas deal, pushing ahead
with business as the trial of four employees of mining giant Rio
Tinto ended in Shanghai with a verdict still to be announced.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 25, Chinese officials
said emergency wells were being drilled and cloud-seeding operations
carried out in southern China, where the worst drought in decades
has left millions of people without water and caused more than 1,000
schools to close.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, China agreed to
share water level data at 2 dams to ease pressure from nations
downstream, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(SFC, 4/6/10, p.A3)
2010 Mar 26-2010 Mar 27, In
China hundreds of citizens rampaged in the southern city of Kunming
enraged by rumors that a vendor had been killed by an officer of the
“City Administration and Law Enforcement Bureau," commonly known by
its Chinese abbreviation chengguan.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.43)
2010 Mar 27, In China a
recycling pool at a sewage treatment plant collapsed in northern
Shaanxi province and some 1,000 tons of oil sludge contaminated
farmland and the Luohe River, a tributary of the Yellow River.
(AFP, 4/3/10)
2010 Mar 28, In northern China
at least 153 miners were trapped underground after water gushed into
the state-owned the Wangjialing coal mine. 115 Chinese miners were
pulled out alive on April 5 after being trapped for over a week in
the flooded mine. Some had eaten sawdust and strapped themselves to
the shafts' walls with their belts to avoid drowning while they
slept. As of April 11 the death toll stood at 33 with 5 miners still
missing.
(AP, 3/28/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 4/5/10)(AP,
4/11/10)
2010 Mar 28, Zhejiang Geely
Holding Group signed a binding deal to buy Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo
Cars unit for $1.8 billion, representing a coup for the independent
Chinese automaker which is aiming to expand in Europe.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 29, In eastern China
local residents and firefighters recovered the bodies of 21 babies,
believed dumped by hospitals, which had washed ashore on the Guangfu
River near the city of Jining, Shandong province. Tags on the feet
of eight of the babies traced them back to a hospital in Jining.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, Google Inc said
its mobile services have been partially blocked in China for two
days, while searches on its Chinese-language site became erratic,
about a week after the company shut its mainland Chinese portal and
rerouted Web searches to a Hong Kong site.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 31, In central China a
gas explosion at a mine killed 12 workers and trapped 32 underground
at the privately owned Guomin Mining Co. coal pit in Yichuan County,
Luoyang City.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, Six major world
powers agreed to begin putting together proposed new sanctions on
Iran over its suspect nuclear program after China dropped its
opposition.
(AP, 3/31/10)
2010 Apr 1, US President Barack
Obama called on Chinese President Hu Jintao to join forces on the
Iranian nuclear standoff as he stepped up efforts to block Tehran's
atomic program.
(AFP, 4/2/10)
2010 Apr 3, The 230-meter
(754-ft) Shen Neng I, a bulk coal carrier, was on its way to China
when it ran aground on a shoal off offshore from the Australian city
of Rockhampton. Australian government officials said the stranded
ship was leaking oil into the sea and is in danger of breaking up
and damaging the Great Barrier Reef. The ship was refloated on April
12.
(Reuters, 4/4/10)(AP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 6, China said it had
executed a Japanese man for drug smuggling, the first execution of a
Japanese citizen since the countries established relations in 1972.
Mitsunobu Akano (65) was convicted in 2008 of attempting to smuggle
2.5 kg (4.8 pounds) of drugs from China to Japan in 2006. He was
executed in Liaoning province.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, A group of Canadian
researchers released a report saying a cyber-espionage group based
in southwest China stole documents from the Indian Defense Ministry
and emails from the Dalai Lama's office.
(Reuters, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 7, China and India
signed an agreement to set up a hot line linking their top leaders.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 12, China eased
requirements for companies to qualify for government purchasing of
technology after a plan to favor domestic technology was met with
heavy criticism from other countries and business groups.
(AP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 12, A mentally ill
Chinese man rampaged with a meat cleaver near an elementary school,
hacking to death a second grader and an elderly woman. Five others
were wounded in the second random attack on schoolchildren in China
in three weeks. Yang Jiaqin (40) chased his victims through Xizhen
village of the southern Guangxi region not long after classes ended.
(AP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 12, President Barack
Obama and presidents, prime ministers and other top officials from
47 countries started work on a battle plan to keep nuclear weapons
out of terrorist hands. Egypt called for world powers to press both
Iran and Israel on nuclear weapons, saying that the Middle East
should be a zone free of the ultra-destructive arms. China said
sanctions were not the answer to the Iranian atomic standoff. Iran's
envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog spurned the US nuclear summit,
saying any decision taken at the conference is not binding on
nations absent from the event.
(AP, 4/12/10)(AFP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 14, In China Wen Qiang
(55), a former police chief in the southwestern city of Chongqing,
was sentenced to death, in a sprawling gangland corruption case that
has riveted the country. Wen was also found guilty of raping a
university student in 2007 and 2008. Wen was detained in August and
accused of protecting the gang operations masterminded by his
sister-in-law, Xie Caiping (46), known as the "godmother" of the
Chongqing underworld. Wen's wife was sentenced to 8 years in prison
for taking bribes in exchange for protecting gang members.
(AP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 14, In western China a
series of strong earthquakes struck a mountainous area of Tibet,
killing some 2,064 people and injuring more than 10,000, as houses
made of mud and wood collapsed. 5 days later 3 people were pulled
alive from the rubble. On May 31 the toll was raised to 2,698 with
270 still missing.
(AP, 4/14/10)(AP, 4/15/10)(AP, 4/16/10)(AP,
4/19/10)(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 Apr 14, Australian police
arrested a Chinese ship captain and senior officer and charged them
with damaging the Great Barrier Reef, more than a week after their
coal carrier ran aground and tore a two-mile (three km) gash in the
protected area.
(AP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 14, Chinese President
Hu Jintao and Indian PM Manmohan Singh arrived in Brazil to
participate in bilateral meetings with the leaders of other emerging
economies and a BRIC summit on April 16.
(AFP, 4/15/10)
2010 Apr 16, A Chinese court
jailed three people who posted material on the Internet to help an
illiterate woman pressure authorities to reinvestigate her
daughter's death, in a trial that attracted scores of supporters.
(AP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 18, Chinese President
Hu Jintao called on rescuers to keep searching for survivors as he
visited victims of a powerful quake in Tibet that left some 2,064
dead.
(AP, 4/18/10)
2010 Apr 19, China’s government
passed amendments revising the Border Quarantine Law as well as
China's Law on Control of the Entry and Exit of Aliens. The changes
were effective immediately. This lifted a two-decade-old ban on
people with HIV and AIDS from entering the country, just as it is
about to welcome the world to the Shanghai Expo on May 1.
(AP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 23, Chinese police in
Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, detained Tagyal, a
prominent Tibetan intellectual. Tagyal had recently authored “The
Line Between Earth and Sky," in which he praised the activism of
monks during the Tibetan unrest of 2008.
(Econ, 5/1/10, p.42)
2010 Apr 24, China replaced
Wang Lequan (65), the unpopular Communist Party boss for western
Xinjiang province, months after ethnic riots there killed nearly
200. The Xinhua News Agency said Wang had been appointed as deputy
secretary of a political committee of the Central Committee. It is
not known if he is still a member of the party's Politburo, the
25-member body near the pinnacle of power in China. He was replaced
by Zhang Chunxian (56), party boss of southern Hunan province since
November 2006. The Dalian city government ordered the mayor of
Zhuanghe city to resign for his "mismanagement" of an April 13
incident in which he ignored scores of villagers who knelt in front
of government offices to appeal for an investigation into official
corruption.
(AP, 4/24/10)(AP, 4/25/10)
2010 Apr 26,
Massachusetts-based Charles River Laboratories International Inc., a
medical research equipment and services company, announced plans to
buy WuXi PharmaTech, a Chinese pharmaceutical outsourcing company,
for $1.6 billion.
(AP, 4/26/10)
2010 Apr 28, In Beijing France
and China said they would work together to consider an overhaul of
the global monetary system, at the start of a state visit by French
President Nicolas Sarkozy.
(AFP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 28, In southern China
Chen Kangbing (33) wielding a knife broke into a primary school and
stabbed 15 students and a teacher in Leizhou city, the same day
another school attacker was executed for killing eight children last
month. Xu Yuyuan (47) was found guilty of attempted homicide in
mid-May by the Taizhou Intermediate Court in Jiangsu province. He
was executed on May 30. Kangbing was sentenced to death on June 11.
(AP, 4/28/10)(AP, 5/30/10)(AP, 6/11/10)
2010 Apr 28, The International
Olympic Committee, acting on evidence that Dong Fangxiao was only 14
at the 2000 Games in Sidney, stripped China of the women's team
bronze medal. China was ordered to give the medal back, allowing the
United States to claim it instead.
(AP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 29, In eastern China a
knife-wielding jobless man, Xu Yuyuan (47), attacked a kindergarten
class of 4-year-olds, slashing 29 children and 3 teachers in what an
expert said was a copycat rampage of two other episodes at Chinese
schools in the past month. On May 15 Xu Yuyuan was sentenced to
death. He appealed the death sentence, saying the punishment was too
severe considering no one was killed.
(AP, 4/29/10)(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 Apr 30, Shanghai kicked
off the six-month World Expo with a star-studded gala ceremony set
to end in a lavish blaze of fireworks and light along the city's
river-front. The World Expo officially opened on May 1. Closing date
was set for Oct 31.
(AFP, 4/30/10)(AP, 5/1/10)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.42)
2010 Apr 30, A Chinese farmer
attacked kindergarten students with a hammer, injuring five, before
burning himself to death in China's third such assault in as many
days and prompting the government to demand stricter school security
nationwide.
(AP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr 30, The EU's foreign
affairs chief Catherine Ashton said that China is willing to discuss
sanctions on Iran as long as they are carefully targeted and bolster
efforts to curb the Iranian nuclear program.
(AP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr, China’s policymakers
imposed new curbs on housing speculation, raising down-payment
requirements and mortgage rates.
(Econ, 5/29/10, p.73)
2010 Apr, Uighur journalist
Memetjan Abdulla (33), who worked for an official Chinese radio
service, was sentenced to life imprisonment for transmitting
information about the 2009 ethnic riots in western China.
(AP, 12/24/10)
2010 May 1, In China World Expo
2010 officially opened in Shanghai. Two-wheeled Electric Networked
Vehicles (EN-Vs) were unveiled at Expo 2010. They used a balancing
system developed by Segway.
(Econ, 5/8/10, p.42)(Econ, 10/2/10, p.87)
2010 May 2, China raised the
proportion of deposits that lenders must keep in reserve at the
central bank, another step in its months-old campaign to mop up
excess cash in the economy at a time when inflation is on the rise.
(Reuters, 5/3/10)
2010 May 3, Egypt's oil
ministry said it has signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing
with two Chinese companies to build a $2 billion refinery that would
be its largest such plant.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 3, North Korean leader
Kim Jong Il arrived on a luxury 17-car train in China, in what would
be his first journey abroad in years as his regime faces a worsening
economy and speculation it may have torpedoed a South Korean
warship.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 4, Taiwan opened a
tourism office in Beijing that represents the island's first
official presence in China's capital since the two sides split amid
civil war in 1949.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 5, China said it would
punish officials who failed to fulfill emissions reduction targets,
warning the nation's current environmental situation was extremely
serious.
(AP, 5/5/10)
2010 May 6, In China a tornado
and strong winds swept through the southwest early in the day,
killing at least 58 people and injuring nearly 200. The southwestern
municipality of Chongqing was the worst hit after a tornado and
gale-force winds killed 29 people. 10 were left dead in Hunan
province and 6 dead in Guangdong province. Torrential rain in the
eastern province of Jiangxi killed seven people. 6 people died in
rain-triggered landslides in the southwestern province of Guizhou.
(AP, 5/6/10)(AFP, 5/7/10)
2010 May 6, A Chinese media
report said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il told President Hu Jintao
during his secretive trip to Beijing that he is ready to return to
stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations.
(AFP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 6, Wan Yanhai, a
prominent Chinese AIDS activist, fled China for the United States
with his wife and 4-year-old daughter to escape increasing
government harassment of him and his organization. Wan, a former
Health Ministry official, founded the Aizhixing Institute in 1994 to
raise awareness and fight discrimination.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 7, In China lawyers
Tang Jitian and Liu Wei were informed by Beijing judicial
authorities that they had lost their credentials. They had
represented a member of an outlawed spiritual movement. The next day
Jitian and Wei said the penalty was designed to scare other lawyers
away from taking on sensitive human rights cases.
(AP, 5/8/10)
2010 May 8, In southeastern
China Zhou Yezhong (36) stabbed to death 8 people including his
wife, elderly mother and young daughter in Chengyuan village in
Jiangxi province. Another two people were killed and three wounded
in a stabbing spree by a man (42) in Hong Kong.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 12, In northwest China
7 children and the owners of a kindergarten were hacked to death in
Nanzheng county, a rural corner of Shaanxi province. Wu Huanming
(48) used a kitchen cleaver to kill five boys and two girls as well
as the mother-son team who owned and ran the private kindergarten.
He then returned home and committed suicide. This latest in a string
of assaults on schools, prompted officials to vow to "strike hard"
to calm public alarm.
(Reuters, 5/12/10)
2010 May 12, In San Francisco
Mayor Newsom presided over the official dedication of a 3-story,
15-ton Buddha sculpture, “Three heads Six Arms" by artist Zhang
Huan, to mark the city’s 30th anniversary sister city relationship
with Shanghai. The one year lease expired and the work was
dismantled on Feb 15, 2011, for return to Zhang Huan.
(SFC, 5/13/10, p.C1)(SFC, 2/14/11, p.C1)
2010 May 13, In China a man who
spent 11 years in jail after being tortured into confessing to the
murder of a man who wasn't even dead was been given $96,000 in
government compensation. Zhao Zuohai (57) was recently released from
prison after the man he was convicted of killing more than a decade
ago reappeared in their home village last month. Henan province
Chief Justice Hu Ye was soon suspended over the case.
(AP, 5/13/10)(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 13, South African and
Chinese companies announced plans to build a $217 million cement
plant in South Africa, in one of China's biggest investments in the
country.
(AFP, 5/13/10)
2010 May 13, In Abuja, Nigeria,
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and China State
Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) sealed a $23
billion deal to build three refineries and a petrochemical complex.
(AFP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 14, China’s state-run
Xinhua News Agency said four robbers were sentenced to death as part
of a 27-member gang who robbed a dozen tombs near the capital of the
central province of Hunan in 2008 and 2009. The other robbers got
prison terms.
(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 14, In China Internet
service was restored to Xinjiang province, 10 months after it was
blocked following deadly rioting in Urumqi, the regional capital.
(SFC, 5/15/10, p.A2)
2010 May 16, In China Xie Yulin
(20), a cleaver-wielding man, attacked and wounded 6 women before
jumping to his death in the southern city of Foshan. One of the
women died the next day.
(AP, 5/17/10)(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 16, Yemeni tribesmen
kidnapped two Chinese engineers and their government escorts in the
country's volatile south. Kidnappers released the engineers after
several days of mediation.
(AP, 5/16/10)(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 18, In China Huang
Guangyu, a school drop-out who became China's richest man by
building an electronics and home appliance empire, was jailed for 14
years for bribery and insider trading. He had admitted to paying
bribes totaling 4.56m yuan to five government officials between 2006
and 2008. A Beijing court ordered Huang, in his 40s, to pay a fine
of 600 million yuan ($88 million). Authorities seized another 200
million yuan in assets as part of his conviction.
(AFP, 5/18/10)(Econ, 5/22/10, p.69)
2010 May 19, In China at least
five men armed with knives burst into the dormitory of a vocational
college in Haikou, the capital of the southern island province of
Hainan, and slashed nine students, one of them seriously.
(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 20, Chinese officials
said Ma Yaohai (53), a college professor accused of organizing a
swingers club and holding private orgies, has been sentenced to 3
1/2 years in prison, in a case that touched off national debate
about sexual freedom. Ma, along with 21 other people, was arrested
and charged last year under a 1997 law.
(AP, 5/20/10)
2010 May 21, In China some 1900
workers at a Honda auto parts factory in Guangdong province went on
strike demanding higher pay. Monthly pay at the facility in Foshan
city was about $117 per month. Similar companies paid between $292
and $365 a month. Honda announced a settlement on June 4.
(www.china.org.cn/business/2010-05/28/content_20133668.htm)(SSFC,
5/30/10, p.A4)(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 May 23, In southern China
a fuel rod at the Guangdong Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station
experienced a "very small leakage" that increased radioactivity
levels slightly in the nuclear reactor's cooling water. The plant
supplies power to Hong Kong.
(AP, 6/15/10)
2010 May 24, In southern China
a head-on collision between two buses killed 10 people and injured
an additional 43 early Monday in the second major bus accident in
two days.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 May 25, US and Chinese
officials signed accords on trade finance, China’s gas reserves and
credit arrangements, but gave no indication of any progress on
issues involving the value of China’s currency.
(SFC, 5/26/10, p.A3)
2010 May 27, Indian President
Pratibha Patil sought to soothe trade disputes and recent border
tensions in meetings with Chinese leaders in Beijing.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 29, The premier of
China, North Korea's main ally, offered condolences to South Korea
for the sinking of a warship blamed on Pyongyang after promising
that Beijing, under pressure to punish the North, would not defend
any country guilty of the attack.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 29, In China 17 miners
were killed by a dynamite explosion at the Shuguang Coal Mine in
Chenzhou city, Hunan province.
(AP, 5/30/10)
2010 May 30, China's security
and judicial authorities, embarrassed by a murder victim who turned
up a decade after his "killer" was convicted, issued rules to make
it harder to convict suspects based on confessions secured under
duress. Authorities said such evidence would be thrown out in death
penalty cases that are under appeal.
(AP, 5/30/10)(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 Jun 1, China called on
Iran to improve its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, after
the agency said in a report that Tehran was pressing ahead with its
controversial atomic program.
(AFP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 1, In China bank guard
Zhu Jun (46), angry over a legal ruling in his divorce, opened fire
with a machine gun and two pistols in a court building in the city
of Yongzhou, shooting 3 judges dead and wounding 3 others before
killing himself.
(AFP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 2, Foxconn, a
subsidiary of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, announced
a 30% pay increase for its workers in China.
(Econ, 6/5/10, p.48)
2010 Jun 4, Tens of thousands
of Hong Kong residents marked the bloody 1989 Tiananmen crackdown
with a candle-lit vigil, as agitation against Beijing intensifies in
the former British colony.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, A North Korean
border guard shot and killed three Chinese citizens and wounded a
fourth on the countries' border, apparently on suspicion they were
crossing the border for illegal trade. China son lodged a formal
diplomatic protest.
(AP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 7, China’s Xinhua News
Agency said the death toll from flooding and rain-triggered
landslides in southern China has climbed to 53 after the bodies of
all missing people were recovered. Three days of heavy rain that
began May 31 destroyed 11,000 homes and forced the evacuation of
200,000 people.
(AP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 8, China's Xinhua news
agency said iPhone maker Foxconn International Holdings will no
longer pay compensation to families of employees who kill themselves
to discourage further suicides. Foxconn employed some 800,000
people, half of whom worked and lived in Shenzhen’s Foxconn City.
(Reuters, 6/8/10)(Econ, 5/29/10, p.67)
2010 Jun 8, In China a couple
attacked two judges and four court officers with sulphuric acid as
they were attempting to seize their home in southern Guangxi
province over a loan dispute.
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Jun 11, In China a
construction crew in the south-central city of Changsha completed a
15-story hotel in just six days.
(http://tinyurl.com/237rlpo)
2010 Jun 12, China’s government
reported that unusually heavy seasonal flooding in southeast China
has killed at least 155 people and forced more than 1.3 million to
flee as water levels in some areas reached at their highest in more
than a decade.
(AP, 6/12/10)
2010 Jun 16, In China at least
90 people died and 50 were missing after torrential downpours in
southern China triggered heavy floods. The provinces of Fujian and
Sichuan, in the southeast and southwest respectively, as well as the
southern region of Guangxi were the hardest hit.
(AFP, 6/16/10)(AFP, 6/18/10)(AP, 6/19/10)
2010 Jun 19, China’s central
bank said it will gradually make the yuan's exchange rate more
flexible a week before a G20 summit, strongly suggesting that it was
ready to break the currency's 23-month-old dollar peg.
(Reuters, 6/19/10)
2010 Jun 20, China’s central
bank said it will keep the yuan's exchange rate at a basically
stable level, suggesting that the country's new currency regime will
look a lot like the old one.
(Reuters, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 20, China’s government
said major rivers have burst their banks in southern China,
triggering massive floods in 10 provinces and forcing 860,000 to
flee their homes. Dozens were missing with more storms forecast. The
death toll soon rose to 377.
(AP, 6/20/10)(AP, 6/21/10)(AP, 6/25/10)(SSFC,
6/27/10, p.N3)
2010 Jun 21, In central China
at least 47 miners were killed when an explosion ripped through a
coal mine in Pingdingshan city, Henan province.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 21, In southern China
floodwaters breached the Changkai levee on the Fu River in Jiangxi
province, forcing some 88,000 people to relocate from their homes in
the nearby city of Fuzhou.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 23, China stepped in
to provide Cambodia with more than 250 military vehicles after the
United States earlier suspended a similar shipment when the
Cambodian government deported 20 asylum seekers.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 23, In Hong Kong
thousands of protestors chanting slogans and blaring vuvuzelas faced
off as legislators debated a controversial plan to enact limited
political reforms in the Chinese territory. Pro-democracy Hong Kong
legislators attacked a proposal for limited political reforms made
by the territory's Beijing-appointed government and tried to stall a
vote expected to go in the administration's favor.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 24, Chinese President
Hu Jintao called for a new start and a firming of Sino-Canadian
ties, despite new irritants, during a state visit to Canada ahead of
G8 and G20 summits in the Toronto area.
(AFP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 24, In China Karma
Samdrup, a Tibetan environmentalist once praised as a model
philanthropist, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of
grave robbing and dealing in looted antiquities. Supporters said the
case was aimed at punishing his activism.
(AP, 6/24/10)
2010 Jun 25, Chinese official
said a huge bright green algae bloom is blanketing the sea off
China's east coast and wind is driving it closer to land. The
current outbreak has nearly doubled in size since it was first
spotted June 14 near eastern Shandong province and now measures
about 110 square miles (300 square km).
(AP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 25, ICANN, the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, agreed in a
meeting to start using Chinese characters for suffixes handed out by
Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwan-based Internet registries. It started
allowing Arabic earlier this year.
(AP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 26, In northwestern
China an overloaded bus traveling to a funeral veered off a mountain
road and plunged into a ravine, killing 11 people and injuring 31.
(AP, 6/27/10)
2010 Jun 26, Chinese
authorities sentenced Dorje Tashi, one of Tibet's richest
businessmen, to life in prison in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, for
helping exile groups.
(AP, 8/12/10)
2010 Jun 28, In southwestern
China a landslide caused by heavy rains trapped at least 107 people,
and there was little hope for their survival.
(AP, 6/28/10)
2010 Jun 29, Taiwan’s
government signed an Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement
(EFCA) with China.
(Econ, 7/3/10, p.39)
2010 Jun 29, Google Inc said it
will stop automatically rerouting users in China to an uncensored
search page, a move that aims to preserve its operating license and
signals a fight to save the firm's Chinese business.
(Reuters, 6/29/10)
2010 Jun 30, China threw open
the gates of its secretive Central Party School, offering foreign
journalists a rare but carefully scripted peek at the leafy campus
where the country's Communist elite are trained.
(AP, 6/30/10)
2010 Jun, China began
allowing most of the country to pay for imports in yuan and for 365
Chinese companies top sell exports for currency. In December the
number was increased to 67,359 companies.
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.85)
2010 Jul 4, In central China a
fire on a shuttle bus carrying steel factory workers killed 24
people and injured 19. State media later reported that Dong
Chuansheng (57), an angry steel worker, had started the shuttle bus
fire near Shanghai.
(AP, 7/4/10)(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 5, In China Xue Feng
(44), an American geologist detained and tortured by China's state
security agents over an oil industry database, was sentenced in
Beijing to 8 years in jail.
(SFC, 7/6/10, p.A3)
2010 Jul 6, Chinese police
found a Catholic priest and a nun murdered in northern China, but
the motive was not immediately clear. Joseph Shulai Zhang (55) and
Sister Mary Wei Yanhui (32) were apparently stabbed to death at the
nursing home where they worked in the city of Wuhai in Inner
Mongolia. Monk Zhang Wenping (43) was arrested on July 8 in Hohhot,
capital of the Inner Mongolia region. Wenping told police that he
had personal grudges against the priest and nun.
(AFP, 7/8/10)(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 6, China priced the
IPO of Agricultural Bank of China and proceeded to raise $19.2
billion in one the world’s largest IPO to date.
(www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/business/global/07ipo.html)
2010 Jul 7, China executed the
former top justice official in the southwestern city of Chongqing,
the highest ranking person caught in a massive crackdown on violent
gangs and corrupt officials who protect them. Wen Qiang (55), former
director of the Chongqing Municipal Judicial Bureau, was convicted
in April of corruption charges involving organized crime.
(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 8, In northwest China
local authorities said floods triggered by torrential rain in a
remote part of Qinghai province have killed 25 people. According to
the China News Service, the government has recorded 483
flood-related deaths in China so far this year, with 255 people
still missing.
(AFP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 9, Chinese state media
said authorities have seized 76 tons of milk powder tainted with
melamine, the same chemical responsible for the deaths of six babies
two years ago.
(AFP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 9, Google said China
has renewed its license to operate a website, preserving the search
giant's toehold in the most populous Internet market after it gave
up an attempt to skirt Beijing's Web censorship.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 11, In China new rules
went into effect requiring officials in government and state
companies to report personal details from assets to the whereabouts
of spouses and children. The new regulations were similar to rules
released in April governing senior Communist Party officials, but
have been expanded to include everyone from midlevel officials and
up. Nonparty members and those working for state-owned business
would now also be required to submit their details.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 13, In western China
landslides slammed into three mountain hamlets, killing 17 people
and leaving 44 missing, while crews drained a fast-rising reservoir
in another part of the country following heavy rains.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 16, A typhoon that
left a trail of destruction and deaths in the Philippines hit
southern China as emergency workers prepared for torrential rains
and lashing winds, flights and ferries were canceled and tens of
thousands of residents were evacuated.
(AP, 7/16/10)
2010 Jul 17, In China 28 miners
were killed when an electrical cable caught fire inside a coal shaft
in northern Shaanxi province. There were no survivors. 8 coal miners
died when a blaze engulfed a mine in central Henan province.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 17, Typhoon Conson
weakened as it headed toward Vietnam, after passing over the Chinese
island of Hainan where falling billboards killed at least two
people.
(Reuters, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 18, In China 16
workers were inside the shaft when water gushed into the mine in
Jinta, a county in Gansu province, and 3 men were safely lifted out.
2 bodies were found and 11 men remained trapped. An explosion at a
coal mine in northeastern Liaoning province killed four
workers and injured 13 others, who were in stable condition.
(AP, 7/18/10)(AP, 7/19/10)
2010 Jul 18, In southwestern
China a bus plunged into a river, leaving 27 people on board missing
and feared dead. Rescuers were able to save 11 others.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 19, China's Cabinet,
the State Council, issued an order that said the black-market trade
in food waste and used oil posed "serious potential food safety
risks." It vowed to crack down on refined restaurant waste finding
its way back to dinner tables through illegal channels.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Jul 19, In China
landslides triggered by flooding killed at least 37 people with 97
missing in the central province of Shaanxi. In nearby Sichuan
province, a weekend of torrential rains left 23 dead and forced
nearly 600,000 to evacuate their homes.
(AP, 7/19/10)(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Jul 19, One of China's
biggest ports, Dalian, shut down after a pipeline explosion
triggered a major offshore oil spill, forcing a refinery to cut
processing and importers to divert cargoes elsewhere. The government
later said 1,500 tons of oil were spilled. Others later estimated as
much as 60-90 thousand tons.
(Reuters, 7/19/10)(SFC, 7/31/10, p.A4)
2010 Jul 20, Paris-based
International Energy Agency said China has overtaken the United
States as the world's largest energy consumer. The IE said China's
2009 consumption of energy sources ranging from oil and coal wind
and solar power was equal to 2.265 billion tons of oil, compared to
2.169 billion tons for the US.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Jul 21, China said flood
waters this year have killed 701 people and left 347 missing. The
overall damage thus far totaled 142.2 billion yuan ($21 billion).
(AP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 21, China's largest
reported oil spill had more than doubled, closing beaches on the
Yellow Sea and prompting an environmental official to warn the
sticky black crude posed a "severe threat" to sea life and water
quality. The oil was spread over 165 square miles (430 square km) of
water five days since a pipeline at a busy northeastern port
exploded.
(AP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 22, In China Guangxi
police uncovered a kidnapping ring during a three-month
investigation and arrested seven people in coastal Fujian province.
One of the suspects confessed to police the group had operated since
1989, kidnapping women and children from cities in Guangxi to sell
in Fujian.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Jul 23, A Chinese court
sentenced a Uighur journalist to 15 years in jail for critical
writings and comments he made to foreign media after last year's
deadly ethnic riots in China's western Xinjiang region. Halaite
Niyaze was found guilty of "endangering national security" and
sentenced following a one-day trial in Urumqi.
(AP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 23, Typhoon Chanthu
killed three people before weakening into a tropical storm after
making landfall in southern China's Guangdong province.
(AP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 26, China’s Geely
Holding Group received final government approval to acquire Volvo
Cars from Ford Motor Co. in a $1.8 billion deal.
(AP, 7/29/10)
2010 Jul 27, In southern China
a landslide caused by rains left 21 people missing, adding to a
growing death toll from China's worst flood season in a decade,
which is expected to worsen with heavy rains forecast across the
country.
(AP, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 27, Japan and China
agreed in Tokyo to seek an early conclusion to talks over plans to
jointly exploit oil and gas fields in a disputed area of the East
China Sea.
(AFP, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 28, In northeastern
China floods caused by heavy rains stranded tens of thousands of
residents without power, as the worst flooding in more than a decade
continued to besiege many areas of the country.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 28, In eastern China a
powerful blast caused by a suspected gas leak rocked a plastics
factory, killing at least 12 people and seriously injuring more than
a dozen others.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 30, It was reported
that China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest
economy.
(Reuters, 7/30/10)
2010 Jul 30, In Mexico Chinese
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi signed a four-year cooperation accord
with Mexico aimed at boosting political and economic ties.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, In northern China
an explosion ripped through a workers' dormitory area in Linfen
city, Shanxi province, and killed at least 15 people at the Liugou
mine, a coal mine notorious for mining disasters.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, A senior Iranian
official said China has invested around 40 billion dollars in the
Islamic republic's oil and gas sector.
(AFP, 7/31/10)
2010 Aug 1, In China a drunken
Li Xianliang was finally subdued after he pulled an earthmover into
the coal depot where he worked in Yuanshi county, Hebei province.
The depot had been the place where Li had begun his murderous spree
by killing his employer and 16 others. Li was taken into custody and
faced the death penalty for murder.
(AP, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 1, UNESCO added five
cultural sites to its World Heritage List, including the Imperial
Citadel of Thang Long-Hanoi in Vietnam. The other new sites include
the historic monuments of Dengfeng in China, the archaeological site
Sarazm in Tajikistan, the Episcopal city of Albi in France and a
17th-century canal ring in Amsterdam.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Aug 2, China’s state media
said thousands of tons of garbage washed down by recent torrential
rain are threatening to jam the locks of the massive Three Gorges
Dam, and is in places so thick people can stand on it.
(Reuters, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 2, Chinese
plainclothes officers detained Ye Haiyan, an activist for sex
workers' rights, a few days after she publicly called for
prostitution to be legalized.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 2, In China
lethal gas leaked into a coal mine at the Sanyuandong Coal Mine in
Dengfeng city, Henan province. No survivors were found among the 16
miners trapped by the lethal gas leak.
(AP, 8/3/10)(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 2, In the Philippines
the 2010 winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards were announced.
Winners included Tadatoshi Akiba, the three-term mayor of Hiroshima,
who spearheaded a global campaign for nuclear disarmament, and
photographer Huo Daishan (56), who documented river pollution in his
native China. The awards are considered Asia's equivalent of the
Nobel Prize. Other awardees were physicists Christopher Bernido and
wife Maria Victoria Carpio-Bernido of the Philippines, who
introduced a novel way of teaching science, and Bangladeshi A.H.M.
Noman Khan, who set up service-and-training centers for helping
persons with disabilities.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 2, UNESCO added 6
sites located in Brazil, China, Mexico, France's Reunion Island and
the South Pacific nation of Kiribati to World Heritage status.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 3, In eastern China
Fang Jiantang (26), a knife-wielding man, went on a slashing rampage
in a kindergarten, leaving 3 children and one teacher dead in
Shandong province. About 20 children and staff members were injured.
Police detained Jiantang.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 3, In China gas
exploded at a coal mine in the southern province of Guizhou, killing
10 people and trapping 7.
(AP, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 4, In China heavy
rains hindered efforts by workers to repair reservoirs and place
sandbags along breached riverbanks as the death toll from China's
worst flooding in a decade climbed above 1,000.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 6, In China AIDS
activist Tian Xi (24) was taken into custody after a run-in with an
administrator at Xincai County No. 1 People's Hospital, where he had
been given a tainted blood transfusion as a boy. He was inflected
with HIV via blood transfusion in 1996, and has been struggling to
get compensation and treatment from the government more or less ever
since. On Feb 11, 2011, Tian Xi was sentenced to one year in prison.
(AP, 2/12/11)(http://tinyurl.com/2b9cey5)
2010 Aug 7, A gas leak in a
China coal mine killed at least one worker and trapped five more,
just hours after a fire in a gold mine killed 16.
(AP, 8/7/10)
2010 Aug 8, In China landslides
in the northwestern province of Gansu left at least 337 people dead
in the deadliest incident so far in the country's worst flooding in
a decade. More than 1,148 were missing.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 9, A leading Chinese
general urged closer ties with Australia's military, amid a
continuing freeze on Beijing's contacts with the Pentagon.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 10, The death toll
from landslides in northwestern China more than doubled to 702, as
crews in three countries across Asia struggled to reach survivors
from flooding that has afflicted millions of people.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 10, China Kanghui
Holdings, a maker of orthopedic implants, and its stockholders
priced 6.7 million American depositary shares, representing 40.1
million ordinary shares, at $10.25 apiece. The stock listed on the
New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "KH."
(AP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 11, Chinese rescuers
raced against a potential new deluge in northwest Gansu province and
hurried to drain an unstable lake formed by the country’s worst
mudslides in decades. The mudslide left about 1500 people dead.
(AFP, 8/11/10)(AFP, 5/13/12)
2010 Aug 11, China launched its
biggest relocation program since the Three Gorges Dam. The first
group of 499 villagers was moved in central Hubei province and a
total of 60,000 people were to be relocated by Sept. 30. The rest,
for a total of 330,000, will be moved by 2014.
(AP, 8/12/10)
2010 Aug 12, In China 10,276
people in Inner Mongolia set a new world record for the longest
chain of human dominoes toppling a record set a decade earlier in
Singapore by more than several hundred.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100813/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_china_life_dominoes)
2010 Aug 13, In northwest China
new landslides killed 24 people and left 24 missing in Gansu
province as downpours threatened more devastation and made rescue
work nearly impossible in a region where more than 1,100 people have
died.
(AP, 8/13/10)
2010 Aug 14, China’s People's
Daily reported that China will test a wider range of dairy products
and even breast milk as authorities investigate claims that a brand
of infant formula caused apparent breast growth in a small number of
babies. State media have said the babies with apparent breast growth
were found to have abnormal levels of the hormones estradiol and
prolactin, which stimulate lactation, or the making of breast milk.
(AP, 8/14/10)
2010 Aug 16, In northeast China
a massive explosion ripped through a fireworks factory, killing 19
workers, damaging nearby buildings and causing secondary blasts.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In China at least
36 more people have died and 23 others were missing in fresh
flooding from torrential rains in Gansu province.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 17, At least 4
Tibetans were fatally shot and 30 others wounded when Chinese police
opened fire on demonstrators protesting the expansion of a gold mine
they blamed for causing environmental damage in southwestern China's
Sichuan province not far from the border with Tibet. On Aug 30 the
official Xinhua News Agency reported that a 47-year-old Tibetan
named Babo died after being hit "by a stray bullet when police fired
warning shots with an anti-riot shotgun."
(AP, 8/28/10)(AP, 8/30/10)
2010 Aug 17, Taiwan's
parliament approved a historic but controversial trade deal with
China which is expected to bring the two former rivals closer than
ever before. Taiwan's Defense Ministry urged the US to sell the
island advanced weapons systems, after a Pentagon report concluded
that China's arms buildup is giving it a wider military advantage
over Taiwan.
(AFP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 17, A North Korean
military plane, what appeared to be a MiG-21 fighter jet, crashed in
northeastern in Liaoning province. China’s official Xinhua News
Agency later said it went down because of mechanical failure. The
pilot reportedly died on the spot.
(AP, 8/19/10)
2010 Aug 19, In China an
attacker riding a 3-wheeled vehicle struck a contingent of security
volunteers killing seven people with 14 wounded in the far west
region of Xinjiang, an area beset by ethnic conflict and separatist
violence.
(AP, 8/19/10)(SFC, 8/20/10, p.A3)
2010 Aug 21, In China the Yalu
river, which marks the Chinese-North Korean border, breached its
banks on both sides following torrential rains. Four people died and
more than 94,000 were evacuated. In North Korea at least 5,150
people were evacuated as residents clambered on rooftops or took
shelter on hilltops.
(AFP, 8/21/10)(AP, 8/22/10)
2010 Aug 23, China cut 13
non-violent crimes from the list of 64 offences punishable by death.
State media said flooding has forced the evacuation of more than a
quarter-million people in northern China along its border with North
Korea.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.35)(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, Philippine police
stormed a bus in downtown Manila after shots were heard from the
hostage-taker of 15 Chinese tourists. Former Senior Inspector
Rolando Mendoza (55), armed with a M16 rifle, had seized the busload
of Hong Kong tourists to demand his reinstatement in the force. 8
tourists were killed along with Mendoza.
(AP, 8/23/10)(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 23, South African
President Jacob Zuma flew to China on a three-day trip aimed at
strengthening business ties. Zuma was accompanied by a delegation of
over 370 business representatives - the biggest ever for a South
African leader's visit abroad.
(www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11067072)
2010 Aug 24, In China Zheng
Shaodong, an assistant public security minister who led the
country’s economic crimes investigation unit, was given a suspended
death sentence for taking more than $1 million in bribes and abusing
his position.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, A massive traffic
jam in north China stretched for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day
mark. It reportedly stemmed from road construction in Beijing that
won't be finished until the middle of next month.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, In China a Henan
passenger plane with 91 passengers and crew overshot a runway in
northeastern Hichun city. 43 people were killed and 53 injured.
(SFC, 8/25/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 26, North Korea's
reclusive leader Kim Jong Il was in China on his second visit this
year to his country's biggest source of diplomatic and financial
support.
(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 30, Chinese state
media said North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il wants an early restart
to stalled nuclear disarmament talks, ending official silence about
Kim's secretive five-day trip ahead of a key congress.
(Reuters, 8/30/10)
2010 Aug, In China the
State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC)
oversaw 123 large centrally-owned companies. Based on the
state-owned enterprise reconstruction plan, the SASAC
directly-supervised SOE will be reduced to 80-100 by the ending of
2010 year. The small companies will be merged into big state-owned
enterprise giants. In 2011 SASAC controlled some $3.7 trillion in
assets.
(Econ, 11/12/11,
p.71)(http://tinyurl.com/88wjnsa)
2010 Sep 1, In southern China
44 people were missing after a landslide hit Wama village, Yunnan
province, killing at least four people.
(AP, 9/2/10)
2010 Sep 7, Two Chinese oil
workers went missing but more than 30 others were rescued from a
listing Sinopec rig off the northeast coast. The company insisted no
oil was spilled.
(AFP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 7, A Chinese fishing
boat collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of
disputed islands. On Nov 1 Japanese lawmakers said a coast guard
video shows a Chinese trawler intentionally ramming Japanese vessels
in the incident, which sparked the worst row in years between the
Asian powers.
(AFP, 11/1/10)
2010 Sep 7, Myanmar’s ruling
junta leader, Gen. Than Shwe, began a 4-day visit to China. This
year alone China had already invested over $8 billion in Myanmar.
(Econ, 9/11/10, p.52)
2010 Sep 8, Diplomatic tensions
between China and Japan escalated when Beijing called in Japan's
ambassador for a second time after a Chinese fishing boat collided
with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands.
(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 9, In China Chen
Guangcheng (39), a blind, self-taught activist lawyer, was released
from prison and promptly confined in his rural village with limited
access to communication. He had documented forced abortions and
other abuses.
(AP, 9/9/10)
2010 Sep 11, China detained 9
Vietnamese fishermen near the disputed Paracel islands in the South
China Sea. Vietnam demanded their immediate release without
conditions, but China refused until the captain paid a fine for
having explosives aboard the boat. The fisherman returned home on
Oct 26 after an ordeal that included a month of detention by China
and a week lost on stormy seas.
(AP, 10/26/10)
2010 Sep 13, Japan freed 14
crew members of a Chinese fishing ship nearly a week after their
vessel and two Japanese patrol boats collided near disputed southern
islets. But China lashed out at Tokyo's decision to keep the captain
in custody.
(AP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 15, The US steel
industry, Ohio lawmakers and two veteran US trade policy experts
urged Congress to pass legislation to push back against China's
"undervalued" currency by slapping duties on Chinese imports that
threaten American jobs. The senior Republican on the House of
Representatives Ways and Means Committee said a proposed bill to
press China to revalue its currency would not address fundamental
Chinese trade barriers.
(Reuters, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 15, Greenpeace said
China's coal-fired plants produce enough toxic ash to fill an
Olympic-sized swimming pool every two-and-a-half minutes, creating
contaminants that travel far and wide.
(AFP, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 16, China warned that
the worst offenders of food safety rules would get the death penalty
in a new crackdown on an industry that has spawned embarrassing and
deadly scandals in products ranging from seafood to baby formula.
(AP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 18, In China
protesters in several cities marked a politically sensitive
anniversary, the start of a brutal Japanese invasion in 1931, with
anti-Japan chants and banners, as authorities tried to stop anger
over a diplomatic spat between the Asian giants from getting out of
control.
(AP, 9/18/10)
2010 Sep 19, China said it has
suspended high-level contacts with Japan over the extended detention
of a Chinese fishing boat captain arrested after a Sep 7 collision
near disputed islands.
(AP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 20, In China JCRB.com,
a legal issues website administered by China's Supreme Court, said a
Jinfulai Dairy Company executive in Yangquan city of Shanxi province
and six other people were arrested after authorities discovered 26
tons of milk powder tainted with a toxic chemical.
(AP, 9/20/10)
2010 Sep 21, Eighteen people
have died and 48 are missing after Fanapi churned through southern
China, while 65 people were killed in monsoon rain in India and
100,000 displaced after a lake burst in southern Pakistan. Two
people went missing and thousands of homes flooded when a record
rainstorm hit parts of South Korea during a national holiday.
(AFP, 9/22/10)
2010 Sep 23, China detained
four Japanese citizens for allegedly videotaping at a military
installation in Hebei province. 3 of the men were released on Sep
30. The 4th was held as investigations continued. The 4th Japanese
contractor was freed on Oct 9.
(SFC, 10/1/10, p.A4)(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Sep 24, Japan said it
would free Zhan Qixiong (41), a Chinese fishing boat captain, whose
arrest in disputed waters over two weeks ago sparked the worst row
in years between the Asian giants.
(AFP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 25, Japan refused to
apologize for detaining a Chinese boat captain, showing no signs of
softening in a dispute between the two economic powers after Japan
gave ground and released him. China made a second call for an
apology and compensation from Tokyo, demanding "practical steps" to
resolve the diplomatic row.
(Reuters, 9/25/10)(AFP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 26, Chinese
authorities said five people have been sickened with pneumonic
plague in Tibet and that the deadly disease has killed one of them.
(AP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 27, In eastern China 2
men were sentenced to death for abducting and trafficking 40
infants. They were sentenced for their involvement in a ring that
abducted dozens of baby boys from Sichuan and Yunnan provinces and
sold them to villagers in neighboring Fujian for up to $6,000 each.
(AP, 9/28/10)
2010 Sep 29, China repeated
promises of exchange rate flexibility but offered no new measures
that might avert a possible vote by the U.S. House of
Representatives on currency legislation.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Sep 29, The World Trade
Organization ruled that a US ban on Chinese poultry is illegal,
giving Beijing a win in the first international commerce ruling
against the administration of President Barack Obama.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Sep 30, The South China
Morning Post quoted Derek Reveron, a cyber expert at the US Naval
War School, as saying: "The Stuxnet worm is a wake-up call to
governments around the world." China’s state media had reported this
week that the Stuxnet computer worm has wreaked havoc, infecting
millions of computers around the country.
(AFP, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 1, China launched its
second lunar exploration probe, boosting the country's efforts to
rise as a major space power eventually capable of landing a man on
the moon and perhaps one day exploring far beyond.
(Reuters, 10/1/10)
2010 Oct 1, Spanish energy
giant Repsol announced the sale of 40 percent of its Brazilian
affiliate to China's Sinopec for 7.1 billion dollars, securing
funding for the development of oil fields in Brazil.
(AP, 10/1/10)
2010 Oct 2, China offered to
buy Greek government bonds in a show of support for the country
whose debt burden triggered a crisis for the euro zone and required
an international bailout. Premier Wen Jiabao made the offer at the
start of a two-day visit, where he says he expects to expand ties in
all areas.
(Reuters, 10/2/10)
2010 Oct 2, In China 8 workers
were killed and three others were injured when the residential
building toppled in Xi'an, the capital of northwestern Shaanxi
province.
(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 3, In China 6 people
were killed when the wall of a factory under construction fell in
Qingzhou city, Shandong province. 5 people were injured, 2 of them
severely.
(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 6, Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao told the EU to stop piling pressure on Beijing to revalue its
currency, saying a rapid shift could unleash disastrous social
turmoil.
(Reuters, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 6, The US and EU said
that UN climate talks in Ttianjin, China, were making less progress
than hoped due to rifts over rising economies' emission goals, while
China pushed back and put the onus on rich nations.
(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 7, In China a new
regulation that took effect saying mine bosses who don't go
underground with their workers will be severely punished in the
latest bid to improve safety in the world's deadliest mines.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 7, China says at least
38 people in the southern part of the country have been infected
with a mosquito-borne virus that causes an illness similar to dengue
fever. This was thought to be China's largest-ever outbreak of the
chikungunya virus, which can cause fevers, joint pain, headaches and
rashes.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 7, In Italy Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao sealed Sino-Italian business deals worth €2.25
billion ($3.15 billion), after fending off European pressure to
raise the value of the yuan.
(AFP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 8, China said on rich
nations must lock in fresh vows to slash greenhouse gas output to
unblock talks for a new climate change deal, while some negotiators
said Beijing was holding progress hostage.
(Reuters, 10/8/10)
2010 Oct 8, The Nobel Committee
named imprisoned Chinese scholar Liu Xiaobo the 2010 Peace Prize
winner for "his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human
rights in China." The decision by the five-member committee
appointed by the Norwegian Parliament came over the objection of the
Chinese government, which considers Liu a criminal.
(AP, 10/8/10)
2010 Oct 9, China and the
United States clashed on the final day of climate change talks in
Tianjin, accusing each other of blocking progress ahead of a major
summit next month on global warming.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 9, In China a
collision between an intercity bus and a cement truck on a foggy
eastern China highway killed at least 17 people outside Nanjing
city.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 10, In China the wife
of construction worker Luo Yanquan (36) was taken kicking and
screaming from their home by more than a dozen people and detained
in a clinic for three days by family planning officials, then taken
to a hospital and injected with a drug that killed her baby. Xiao
Aiying (36) delivered the dead baby on Oct 14.
(AP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 11, China blocked
European diplomats from meeting with the wife of the jailed Nobel
Peace Prize winner, cut off her phone communication and canceled
meetings with Norwegian officials, acting on its fury over the
award.
(AP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 11, Chinese state
media reported that more than 440,000 people have been evacuated in
Hainan after the heaviest rains for decades inundated 90 percent of
the Chinese island in the South China Sea.
(AFP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 15, China's Communist
Party opened its secretive annual meeting to discuss the nation's
next five-year economic plan against the backdrop of unusually
outspoken calls for political reform.
(AFP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, China's basketball
association fined a series of coaches and players in the national
team after a bench-clearing brawl put an end to a friendly match
with Brazil. The fight had erupted the night of Oct 12 at a game in
central Henan province.
(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 16, Thousands of
Chinese marched in the streets in sometimes violent protests against
Japan and its claim to disputed islands. Thousands of protesters
marched through Tokyo to demonstrate against what they called
China's invasion of disputed islands that both countries claim.
Beijing expressed "deep concern" at anti-China protests by Japanese
nationalists over a diplomatic spat centered on a group of disputed
islands.
(AP, 10/16/10)(Reuters, 10/16/10)(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 16, In central China
rescuers battled dangerous levels of gas, tons of coal dust and the
risk of falling rocks as they worked to free 11 miners trapped by an
explosion at a mine. 26 miners were confirmed killed at the
state-run Pingyu Coal & Electric Co. Ltd mine.
(AP, 10/16/10)(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 16, In China Li Qiming
(22) reportedly hit two students with his car at a university campus
in the northern province of Hebei. Chen Xiaofeng (20) was killed.
The drunk man shouted "sue me if you dare" when a crowd stopped him
from fleeing. On Oct 26 state media reported that Qiming, the son of
a senior police officer, was arrested after the incident sparked
outrage on the Internet. The young woman’s father, Chen Guangqian,
said on Nov 18 that Li Gang gave him 460,000 yuan, or more than
$69,250. On Jan 30 Qiming was sentenced to six years in prison.
(AFP, 10/26/10)(AP, 11/18/10)(AP, 1/30/11)
2010 Oct 17, The Washington
Post reported that the United States believes some Chinese firms are
helping Iran improve its missile technology and develop nuclear
weapons and has asked Beijing to prevent such activity.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 17, Zambian police
said managers at a Chinese-run coal mine who shot at workers
protesting poor working conditions will be charged with attempted
murder. 12 workers at Collum Coal Mine in the southern town of
Sinazongwe were injured a day earlier when mainly Chinese managers
fired randomly at the protesting workers.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 19, China's central
bank surprised with its first increase of interest rates in nearly
three years. The People's Bank of China said it was raising
benchmark rates by 25 basis points, taking one-year deposit rates to
2.5 percent and one-year lending rates to 5.56 percent. The impact
was felt by markets across the board. Oil and gold prices tumbled,
stocks turned negative in Europe and the dollar jumped.
(Reuters, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 19, Tibetan students
in western China marched to protest unconfirmed plans to use the
Chinese language exclusively in classes, an unusually bold challenge
to authorities that reflects a deep unease over the marginalization
of Tibetan culture.
(AP, 10/20/10)
2010 Oct 21, China rejected a
UN report that says Chinese bullets were used in attacks on
peacekeepers in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, calling the charge
groundless.
(AFP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 21, At least 160,000
people were evacuated from southern China as Typhoon Megi, one of
the most powerful storms to hit the region in years, bore down,
bringing with it the threat of devastation.
(AFP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 22, In China Kigali
and Beijing agreed to enhance their military cooperation during a
visit to China by Rwandan Defence Minister James Kaberebe. Kaberebe
held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie, as part of
a five-day visit to China.
(AFP, 10/23/10)
(AFP, 10/22/10)(AP, 10/23/10)(SFC, 10/25/10,
p.A2)
2010 Oct 22, In Taiwan at least
7 people died when a temple collapsed in Suao, a coastal town in the
northeast Ilan county. Torrential rains unleashed by Typhoon Megi
triggered landslides that also left dozens missing and hundreds
stranded. 19 Chinese bus passengers were among 23 people still
missing on the island. As many as 31 people were left dead.
(AFP, 10/22/10)(AP, 10/23/10)(SFC, 10/25/10,
p.A2)
2010 Oct 22, In Virginia Glenn
Shriver (28) of Detroit pleaded guilty to trying to get a job with
the Central Intelligence Agency in order to spy for China and to
hiding contacts and money he got from Chinese intelligence agents.
Shriver acknowledged that he met with Chinese officials about 20
times beginning in 2004 and that he received a total of about
$70,000 from Chinese intelligence officers. His plea agreement
called for a sentence of 48 months in prison.
(Reuters, 10/22/10)
2010 Oct 22, Mexican
authorities said federal police have captured Huang Chen Yaowei, the
suspected leader of a gang that trafficked Chinese migrants through
Mexico to the US.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 26, China rolled out
its fastest train yet and announced that the Three Gorges Dam, the
world's biggest hydroelectric project, is now generating electricity
at maximum capacity. Inauguration ceremonies were held for the
super-fast line from Shanghai's western suburb of Hongqiao to the
resort city of Hangzhou. The train will cruise at a top speed of 220
mph (350 kph), making the 125-mile (200-km) trip in 45 minutes.
(AP, 10/26/10)
2010 Oct 28, In China Guo
Xianliang, an engineer from the southern province of Yunnan,
disappeared while on a business trip in the southern city of
Guangzhou. He had been handing out fliers on the streets and in
public parks there. Police told Guo's wife on Nov 2 that Guo had
been criminally detained.
(AP, 11/3/10)
2010 Oct 28, In China 4
driverless vehicles arrived at the Shanghai Expo ending an 8,000
mile test drive from Italy.
(SFC, 10/29/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 28, Nvidia Corp. said
China’s National University of Defense Technology has designed the
world’s fastest supercomputer. Its Tianhe-1A set a performance
record of 2.507 petaflops per second.
(SFC, 10/29/10, p.C5)
2010 Oct 28, Liang Congjie
(78), historian and modern China’s first environmentalist, died. In
1994 he and 3 colleagues founded Friends of Nature, China’s first
legal NGO and the first committed to protecting the country’s
environment.
(Econ, 11/20/10, p.100)
2010 Oct 29, A feud between
China and Japan deepened at the East Asian Summit in Vietnam, as
China accused its rival of making false comments and hopes for
landmark talks between their leaders evaporated.
(AFP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 30, In China
Alexandria Mills, a soft-spoken 18-year-old from Louisville,
Kentucky, was named the winner in the 60th Miss World Competition,
held on Hainan Island. Second place went to Emma Wareus of Botswana,
and Adriana Vasini of Venezuela came third.
(AP, 10/31/10)
2010 Oct 31, China wrapped up
its record-breaking World Expo with a lavish display of national
pride, as organizers of the mammoth event pledged to continue
pursuing more sustainable, balanced growth. Over 72 million visitors
surpassed the record 1970 fair in Osaka, Japan, which drew 64
million.
(AP, 10/31/10)(SFC, 11/1/10, p.D2)
2010 Nov 1, China kicked off a
once-a-decade census. Some 6 million people were mobilized to
conduct a 10-day survey.
(AP, 11/1/10)(Econ, 11/6/10, p.56)
2010 Nov 4, China's President
Hu Jintao landed in Paris for a three-day state visit set to see the
signing of billions of dollars in deals for nuclear, aviation and
energy technology. The visit resulted in more than $20 billion-worth
of contracts, including an agreement by China to buy 66 more Airbus
jets.
(AFP, 11/4/10)(Econ, 11/13/10, p.51)
2010 Nov 5, China and India
received long-sought recognition as global economic heavyweights as
the International Monetary Fund gave them and other emerging powers
a significantly larger role in stabilizing the world economy. IMF
chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn announced planned reforms to the fund's
voting power after a meeting of the organization's board in
Washington, DC.
(AP, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 5, France and China
reached a "real convergence" over the need to reform the global
financial system after two days of talks between President Nicolas
Sarkozy and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao. France told China
that balanced trade and close cooperation was the best way to shield
the world from future crises and the menace of protectionism, and
China promised its support for Paris as it takes over the G20
presidency this month.
(Reuters, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 7, In Portugal Chinese
President Hu Jintao pledged to support Portugal's efforts to emerge
from financial crisis, but he did not commit to purchasing
Portuguese debt as was widely anticipated.
(AFP, 11/7/10)
2010 Nov 8, Britain’s PM David
Cameron departed for a 2-day trip to China. He brought along 4
cabinet ministers and 50 businessmen. Cameron hoped to double trade
with China over the next five years.
(Econ, 11/13/10, p.65)
2010 Nov 9, China signaled its
intention to drain excess cash from its financial system by
unexpectedly raising the yield on bills at a central bank auction
and announcing new rules to curb hot money inflows.
(Reuters, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 9, A UN report
suggesting North Korea may have supplied Syria, Iran and Myanmar
with banned nuclear technology headed to the Security Council. The
latest report by the so-called Panel of Experts on Pyongyang's
compliance with UN sanctions was delivered to the Security Council's
North Korea sanctions committee in May, but did not move for nearly
six months due to Chinese objections.
(Reuters, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 10, In China a Beijing
court imposed a 2˝ 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 said wild tigers could become extinct in 12
years if countries where they still roam fail to take quick action
to protect their habitats and step up the fight against poaching.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 23, China acknowledged
that it is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, as it called
on the United States to ensure climate change talks opening next
week make progress.
(AFP, 11/23/10)
2010 Nov 24, The Vatican
denounced China for ordaining a bishop without papal consent,
accusing the government-backed church of gravely damaging the faith
and warning that the bishop risked excommunication. The Vatican also
accused Chinese authorities of committing "grave violations of
freedom of religion and conscience" by forcing Vatican-approved
bishops to attend the ordination ceremony of Rev. Joseph Guo Jincai.
(AP, 11/24/10)
2010 Nov 25, China’s state
media said Shanghai is suffering from its worst November air quality
in five years after the local government lifted pollution controls
that were in place for the six-month World Expo. China started
publishing hourly air-quality information for major cities across
the country as the world's top source of greenhouse gas emissions
tries to rein in its notorious pollution.
(AFP, 11/25/10)(AFP, 11/26/10)
2010 Nov 27, In China an
"extraordinary" Asian Games closed after 15 days of thrills and
spills that saw China reinforce its sporting credentials as 45
countries and territories took part. China’s final gold tally
reached 199 and its total medals to 416, both Asian Games records.
(AFP, 11/27/10)
2010 Nov 28, China called for
emergency talks on resolving a crisis on the Korean peninsula, and
Seoul and Tokyo said they would study the proposal, as the US and
South Korean militaries started a massive drill.
(AP, 11/28/10)
2010 Nov 29, In eastern China a
man detonated explosives near the president of Tianjin Normal
University, killing himself and possibly injuring the president in
an apparent suicide bombing.
(AP, 12/2/10)
2010 Nov, In China Tan Yong
attacked his wife Li Yan (39) with an air gun, but she grabbed it
from him and used the butt of the weapon to kill him. He had
previously hurt three other wives. Yan was later convicted of murder
and sentenced to death. In 2015 the Ziyang Intermediate People's
Court re-sentenced her to death with a two-year reprieve, meaning
the penalty is likely to be commuted to life in prison.
(AFP, 4/24/15)
2010 Dec 3, Chinese police
detained the wife of Hada, the co-founder of a Mongolian separatist
movement, and raided the family bookstore just days before the
activist is to be released from 15 years in prison.
(AP, 12/4/10)
2010 Dec 3, A Chinese passenger
train set a new record for speed, hitting 302 miles per hour (486 km
per hour) during a test run.
(AP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 3, A Chinese cargo
ship with 24 Chinese passengers and crew members sank off the coast
of the Philippines. At least 14 crewmen were rescued and 10 were
missing.
(www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6B30U120101204)(SFC, 12/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 3, Rio Tinto, an
Anglo-Australian mining firm, announced a joint venture with
Chinalco, to hunt for minerals in China.
(Econ, 12/18/10, p.130)
2010 Dec 4, In southwestern
China an explosion caused by illegally stored chemicals killed seven
people and injured 37 at an Internet café.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, In southwest China
at least 22 people died and one person was severely burned when a
spreading grassland fire swept through a mountainous Tibetan region.
(Reuters, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 6, The US, South Korea
and Japan all urged China to help rein in its ally North Korea and
vowed solidarity in defending Seoul from any further attacks from
the North.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, China hit back at
the United States and its Asian allies for their refusal to talk to
North Korea, saying dialogue was the only way to calm escalating
tension on the divided Korean peninsula.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Norway Nobel
officials said China and 18 other countries have declined to attend
this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring imprisoned Chinese
dissident Liu Xiaobo, as China unleashed a new barrage deriding the
decision.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 9, In China the
inaugural Confucius Peace Prize was awarded to former Taiwan
vice-president Lien Chan at a chaotic press conference held by a
handful of Chinese university professors. Lien's office in Taiwan
declined comment, saying they had no knowledge of the award. Chinese
poet Qiao Damo, one of the "candidates", told reporters the lack of
any word from Lien represented "silent acceptance" of the prize,
prompting laughter from assembled journalists.
(AFP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 9, Communist allies
North Korea and China proclaimed their unity as the North's leader
Kim Jong-Il held his first meeting with a senior Chinese envoy since
the region's worst crisis in years erupted.
(AFP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 10, China's central
bank raised the amount of money the country's lenders must keep on
reserve for the third time in a month, following a spate of robust
data that strengthened the case for policy tightening.
(Reuters, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 10, Dignitaries in
Norway celebrated this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, imprisoned
Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, with an empty chair. Xiaobo,
derided by Beijing as a political farce, dedicated it from his
prison cell to the "lost souls" of the 1989 Tiananmen Square
crackdown.
(AP, 12/10/10)(Reuters, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 13, A Chinese vessel
carrying fertilizer and heavy fuel collided with a German cargo ship
off northwestern Denmark. The Hong Kong-flagged Cleantec was listing
and its 24-man crew was ready to be evacuated.
(AP, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 13, The US government
welcomed a World Trade Organization ruling that upheld President
Barack Obama's controversial decision last year to slap duties on
Chinese-made tires to protect US workers from a market-disrupting
surge in imports.
(Reuters, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 13, A classified US
document, dated Feb 26, 2010, released by WikiLeaks said Venezuela’s
government sold China oil for as little as $5 a barrel and was upset
that China apparently profited by selling the fuel to other
countries. Another embassy report on Sept. 23, 2009, said Venezuela
has been manipulating its oil price index. Other cables indicated
significant problems at PDVSA.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 14, A report, "High
and Dry," by the Shan Sapawa Environmental Organization and the Shan
Women's Action Network, said local trade and transport on the river
in northern Myanmar near a border trade crossing with China has been
severely affected by unpredictable daily changes in the water level
since the completion in mid-2010 of the 360-foot (110-m) tall
Longjiang Dam about 19 miles (30 km) upstream.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 15, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao's travelled to India to build trust between two Asian
powers with increasingly close economic ties despite their ongoing
competition for regional influence.
(AP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 15, In southwest China
local authorities told state press that Zeng Lingquan, the operator
of an unlicensed shelter for disabled people, sold at least 70
mentally ill workers into slavery in recent years. Lingquan was
arrested on Dec 13.
(AFP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 15, In China workers
blasted through the last part of a tunnel that connects the Tibetan
county of Metok to China's major thoroughfare.
(AP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 16, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao pressed on with a charm offensive in India, offering
support for New Delhi's bid for a greater role in the United Nations
and agreeing on an ambitious target of $100 billion annually in
trade between the rising Asian powers by 2015.
(Reuters, 12/16/10)(SFC, 12/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 16, China’s General
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine
said in a statement that it has banned poultry and poultry product
imports from Manitoba, Canada, after an outbreak of low-pathogenic
H5N2 bird flu there.
(Reuters, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 17, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao made a rare visit to Pakistan aimed at expanding trade
ties and the flow of Chinese investment into the country.
(AP, 12/17/10)
2010 Dec 18, A 63-ton Chinese
fishing boat capsized after ramming into a 3,000-ton South Korean
coastguard ship trying to curb its illegal fishing activities,
leaving one Chinese crew member dead and another missing.
(AFP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 18, Pakistan and China
concluded nearly 15 billion dollars' worth of deals, as visiting
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Beijing would "never give up" on the
troubled nuclear-armed Muslim country.
(AFP, 12/18/10)
2010 Dec 20, China's state news
agency said eight people have been sentenced to prison terms of up
to two-and-a-half years for selling fake rabies vaccines that
contributed to the death of one boy. A court in southwestern Guangxi
region sentenced Zhang Dazhi to 30 months' jail while seven others
were handed one-year prison terms.
(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 20, Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg toured the offices of Baidu, China's top search engine,
during a visit that has sparked speculation the social networking
magnate is looking for business opportunities in the world's largest
Internet market.
(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 21, China urged North
Korea to follow through on its offer to allow UN nuclear monitors
into the country as a way to alleviate international tensions during
a standoff with the South.
(AP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 23, China's capital
announced that it will sharply limit new vehicle registrations to
try to ease massive traffic jams that are rapidly turning Beijing's
streets into parking lots.
(AP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 23, China said it will
boost further its already expanding economic ties with Africa, which
reached a record two-way volume of more than $100 billion this year.
(AP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 23, Nigeria said it
has signed loan deals with China worth 900 million dollars that will
be used to finance rail and communication projects in Africa's most
populous nation.
(AFP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 24, In China a new
lottery system was introduced aimed to reduce the number of cars in
the notoriously gridlocked capital. Beijing counted 4.76 million
vehicles, up from 2.6 million in 2005. The first batch of 20,000
plates will be awarded by lottery on Jan. 25. Every month a new
batch of plates will become available.
(AP, 1/1/10)(Econ, 1/1/11, p.34)
2010 Dec 24, South Africa's
minister of international relations and cooperation said South
Africa has been invited by China to join the four-member "BRIC"
grouping of fast-growing emerging markets. South Africa is the
world's 31st-largest economy, according to World Bank data for 2009
and is less than a quarter the size of the smallest BRIC economy,
Russia.
(Reuters, 12/24/10)
2010 Dec 25, China’s state
media said police are offering cash and other rewards to encourage
the country's millions of Internet users to help solve criminal
investigations. China announced a 25-basis point increase in
benchmark one-year interest rates, providing much-needed reassurance
that it was determined to rein in price pressures.
(AFP, 12/25/10)(Reuters, 12/27/10)
2010 Dec 25, In China village
leader Qian Yunhui (53) was killed under the wheel of a truck in
Yueqing, Zhejiang province. On Jan 4 police charged the driver, Fei
Liangyu, with accidental death. Thousands of netizens accused local
government officials of killing Qian to silence his six-year
campaign against fixed elections and illegal land expropriation,
which was quickly denied by local authorities. On Feb 1, 2011, Fei
was sentenced to three and a half years' imprisonment.
(Econ, 1/8/11,
p.41)(http://tinyurl.com/4uwql4b)(AP, 2/1/11)
2010 Dec 27, In China 14
children died when the vehicle taking them to school plunged into a
creek in the central province of Hunan. In Guizhou province 7 people
died and 15 were injured after a truck crashed into a gas station in
fog, causing a pileup involving more than 100 cars.
(AP, 12/27/10)
2010 Dec 28, China said it is
reducing the amount of rare earths it will export for the first half
of the year by more than 10 percent, likely to be an unpopular move
worldwide since the minerals are vital to the manufacture of
high-tech products.
(AP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 28, A Chinese
journalist died from injuries sustained in a gang beating that some
say was linked to his investigative work. Sun Hongjie, a senior
reporter at the Northern Xinjiang Morning Post, died at a hospital
in the city of Kuitun 10 days after he was beaten by six men at a
construction site.
(AP, 12/28/10)
2010 Dec 28, In Thailand US and
Thai officials arrested a group of 12 Chinese nationals accused of
obtaining fake visas to try to gain entry to the United States. The
visas bore the same numbers as authentic ones issued by the US
Embassy in Warsaw to Polish citizens.
(AP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 30, In China Zeng
Jinchun was shot to death for taking more than $4.7 million in
bribes. He was the ruling Communist party's top corruption inspector
for Chenzhou city in the central province of Hunan. Zeng was found
guilty of taking the 31 million yuan in bribes in return for handing
out mining contracts and job promotions over a decade ending in
2006.
(AP, 12/30/10)
2010 Dec 29, China’s Xinhua
News Agency reported that a fire at a factory belonging to the
Quanxin Pharmaceutical Co. in southwestern China's Yunnan province
caused a blast that killed at least five people and injured eight
others.
(AP, 12/30/10)
2010 Dec, In China Dai
Qingcheng (46) was given the death penalty for raping 116 women
between 1993 and 2009 in Anhui province in eastern China.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2010 Dec, Laos said China would
build a $7.2 billion high-speed railway from the border to its
capital, Vientiane. Construction was due to begin in April, 2011.
The 262-mile railway was expected to take fie years just to lay the
tracks.
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.49)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.49)
2010 Dec, In 2017 the New York
Times reported that Chinese government "systematically dismantled"
CIA spying operations in China starting late this year and killed or
imprisoned at least a dozen CIA sources over the next two years.
(AP, 5/21/17)
2010 In China Sports writer Li
Chengpeng authored “Chinese Football: The Inside Story." It detailed
match-fixing and bribery across the country and brought down the
wrath of angry trainers, “patriotic readers," and government
censors.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.35)
2010 Stefan Halper authored
“The Beijing Consensus: How China’s Authoritarian Model Will
Dominate the Twenty-First Century."
(Econ, 6/25/11, SR p.3)
2010 Jonathan Holslag authored
“China And India: Prospects for Peace."
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.89)
2010 Fraser Howie and Carl
Walter authored “Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of
China’s Extraordinary Rise."
(Econ, 12/11/10, p.105)
2010 Yu Jie authored “China’s
Best Actor, Wen Jiabao." It was published in Hong Kong, but was
banned on the mainland.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.35)
2010 Richard McGregor authored
“The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers."
(Econ, 6/19/10, p.84)
2010 China opened a 4-km bridge
from the mainland to the island of Pingtan, directly across from
Taiwan. By 2011 China hoped to develop the island together with
Taiwan as a duty free enclave.
(Econ, 5/19/12, p.52)
2010 A prediction was made that
China’s paramount leader will either have been elected or selected
by an elected multi-party national parliament.
(SFC, 5/26/96, Z1 p.6)
2010 Zhang Jingli, one of four
deputy heads of China’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA),
was removed from his post at the food and drug safety watchdog. He
was under investigation over alleged bribery linked to US
pharmaceuticals giant Johnson & Johnson. In early 2011 he was
stripped of his party membership.
(AFP, 1/6/11)
2010 China began introducing
donation schemes for human organs as its source of organs from
prisoners fell due to fewer executions. A national organ bank was
set up fight corruption in the organ-allocation system.
(Econ, 8/24/13, p.42)(Econ., 3/14/15, p.48)
2010 Xiaomi, a Chinese maker of
smart phones, was founded. In 2013 it was valued at $10 billion.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.69)
2010 China-based Great Leap
Brewing, a craft beer brewer, first set up shop in Beijing.
(Econ, 9/9/17, p.65)
2010 China completed an
800,000-volt line from Xiangjiaba dam in Yunnan province to
Shanghai. This was the country’s first use of ultra high voltage
direct current (UHVDC).
(Econ, 1/14/17, p.72)
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)
2010 In China some 61 million
children below the age of 17, referred to as “liushou ertong," were
left behind in rural areas as their parents sought work in cities.
(Econ, 10/17/15, p.26)
2010 China's population grew to
1.34 billion people.
(AP, 2/28/11)
2011 Jan 2, In China seven crew
members were missing and feared drowned after their fishing boat
sank in the Xijiang River in the southern province of Guangdong.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 3, China’s state
television reported that Chinese scientists have mastered the
technology for reprocessing nuclear fuel, potentially yielding
additional power sources to keep the country's economy booming.
(AP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 4, In China a gunfight
in Tai’an City of Shandong Province left four police officers dead
and five people injured.
(http://english.caing.com/2011-01-05/100214120.html)
2011 Jan 4, Zambian prosecutors
applied for arrest warrants after the mining officials Xiao Li Shan
and Wu Jiu Hua failed to attend the preliminary hearing regarding
the Oct 15 shooting of nearly a dozen miners at a Chinese-run coal
mine.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 5, China’s state media
said Beijing and Shanghai will be among the first places to put
marriage databases online this year. The plan is to have records for
all of China online by 2015. Officials were putting marriage records
online so lovers and spouses could check for cheaters. The Ministry
of Civil Affairs a few years ago said such a project would be
operational by last year. The plan now is to have records for all of
China online by 2015.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 9, Chinese Vice
Premier Li Keqiang kicked off a business-focused state visit to
Britain with the sealing of a renewable energy deal between Scottish
and Chinese companies.
(AFP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 11, China's
radar-eluding stealth fighter, the J-20, made its first-known test
flight, marking dramatic progress in the country's efforts to
develop cutting-edge military technologies.
(AP, 1/11/11)(Econ, 1/15/11, p.43)
2011 Jan 11, In China a mammoth
31-foot sculpture of the ancient philosopher Confucius was unveiled
off one side of Tiananmen Square. Three months later the statue was
removed.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-01/12/c_13687988.htm)(Econ,
12/17/11, p.72)
2011 Jan 12, Tajikistan agreed
to give away a portion of its territory to neighboring China in a
bid to put an end to a land dispute dating back more than a century.
Foreign Minister Khamrokon Zarifi portrayed it as a victory, saying
China had initially claimed more than 11,000 square miles (28,000
square km).
(AP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 14, A Chinese court
announced it will retry a farmer sentenced to life in prison for
evading highway tolls after a massive public outcry over his heavy
punishment. Farmer Shi Jianfeng had been convicted of fraud and
sentenced to life in prison for using fake military license plates
and uniforms to deceive toll collectors and avoid paying over
$530,000 in tolls. A judge and two court officials were soon
suspended in a probe into Jianfeng’s life sentence.
(http://www3.washingtontimes.com/topics/shi-jianfeng/)(AP, 1/16/11)
2011 Jan 14, In China Liu
Huaqing (95), the father of the modern Chinese navy, died.
(AP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 16, Chinese President
Hu Jintao, ahead of a visit to Washington, urged an end to a "zero
sum" Cold War relationship with the United States and proposed new
cooperation, but resisted US arguments about why China should let
its currency strengthen.
(Reuters, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 17, China’s state
media said thousands of villagers angry at government plans to build
an artificial island in southern China forced the project's
suspension last week, clashing with workers and smashing vehicles.
(Reuters, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 17, Mozambique
officially received its new $70-million (€53-million) national
sports stadium from the Chinese government after a series of false
starts delayed its completion.
(AFP, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 19, President Barack
Obama announced a deal to step up cooperation with China on nuclear
security. The United States and China reached agreement on export
deals worth $45 billion. The agreements included a $19 billion deal
with Boeing in which China will purchase 200 Boeing aircraft. The
deals were announced at the formal start of a four-day state visit
to the US by Chinese President Hu Jintao. President Barack Obama
issued a finely tuned call for greater respect for human rights in
his speech to welcome his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.
(AP, 1/19/11)(Reuters, 1/19/11)
2011 Jan 21, China’s ICBC bank
agreed to buy 80% of the Bank of East Asia’s retail branch network
in New York and California for $140 million.
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.74)
2011 Jan 24, A Chinese
newspaper said that transnational crime gangs are trafficking a
growing number of Chinese women to Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa
where they are forced into prostitution.
(AP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 25, Mexican
authorities said they have seized more than 23 tons of a chemical
used in the manufacture of synthetic drugs, during an inspection of
a shipment from China. The ethyl phenylacetate was declared as a
different product on arrival at the Pacific port of Manzanillo.
(AFP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 26, Chinese
oceanographers gathered for a 2-day meeting in Shanghai to discuss
the South China Sea-Deep, a $22 million project funded over 8 years
for the exploration of the South China Sea.
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.90)
2011 Jan 28, China introduced
its first home-ownership tax in the cities of Chongqing, .4%-.6% of
the property’s value, and Shanghai, .5$-1.2%.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.52)
2011 Jan 31, In Shanghai,
China, relatives of Liu Yonghua, a patient who died, rampaged with
knives through a hospital, seriously wounding six people and trying
to throw a doctor out a window.
(AP, 2/1/11)
2011 Feb 1, China Harbor
Engineering Company, a subsidiary of state-owned China
Communications Construction Company, signed a 1.2-billion-dollar
contract to build Khartoum's new international airport.
(AFP, 2/15/11)
2011 Feb 3, In northeast China
a fire set off by fireworks to celebrate the Lunar New Year
destroyed a five-star hotel in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning
province.
(AP, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 8, China raised
interest rates by .025% for the second time in just over six weeks,
intensifying a battle in the fast-expanding economy against
stubbornly high inflation that threatens to unsettle global markets.
(Reuters, 2/8/11)(Econ, 2/12/11, p.84)
2011 Feb 9, Chinese officials
said they were preparing for a severe, long-lasting drought in
several parched provinces, causing wheat prices to spike on the
prospect of the world's largest consumer putting pressure on a
global supply that's already squeezed.
(AP, 2/9/11)
2011 Feb 10, PetroChina said it
is purchasing half of a prolific shale gas project from Canada's
Encana Corp for C$5.4 billion ($5.4 billion), marking the largest
Chinese investment yet in a foreign natural gas asset.
(Reuters, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 10, The US computer
security firm McAfee Inc said in a report that hackers working in
China over the last 2-4 years broke into the computer systems of 6
European and US energy companies to steal bidding plans and other
critical proprietary information.
(Reuters, 2/10/11)(SFC, 2/25/11, p.D5)
2011 Feb 11, China’s foreign
Minister Yan Jiechi said that China plans to increase economic
cooperation with longtime African ally Zimbabwe in mining,
agriculture and other ventures. He met with Pres. Mugabe in Harare.
Mugabe thanked Yang for China's training of his guerrillas to help
in "demolishing colonialism" before independence from British
colonial rule in 1980.
(AP, 2/11/11)
2011 Feb 12, China’s the Xinhua
News Agency reported that Liu Zhijun (58), who has been head of the
railway ministry since 2003, is under investigation for "severe
violations of discipline" and has been removed from his position as
the ministry's Communist Party chief. He will be replaced by Sheng
Guangzu (62), head of the General Administration of Customs.
(AP, 2/13/11)
2011 Feb 17, China warned the
United States not to use calls for uncensored access to the Internet
as a pretext to interfere in the domestic affairs of other
countries.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 18, China raised
required reserves to a record 19.5 percent, adding to an
increasingly aggressive effort by Beijing to stamp out stubbornly
high inflation.
(Reuters, 2/18/11)
2011 Feb 19, Chinese
authorities cracked down on activists as a call circulated for
people to gather in more than a dozen cities Feb 20 for a "Jasmine
Revolution." Rights lawyer Teng Biao disappeared. Officers searched
his home and seized two computers, a printer, articles, books, DVDs
and photos of another rights lawyer, Chen Guangcheng. Biao was
released on April 29.
(AP, 2/19/11)(AP, 4/29/11)
2011 Feb 20, In China
opposition campaigners said the government has detained top
activists and deployed heavy security in large cities after the
launch of a web campaign calling for protests echoing popular
uprisings in the Arab world. Police mounted huge security operations
in Beijing, Shanghai and several other cities following microblog
messages urging citizens to take part in silent walk-past protests.
(AFP, 2/20/11)(Econ, 3/5/11, p.46)
2011 Feb 23, Chinese activists
said officials have rounded up Internet users who had reposted a
call for protests and charged them with subversion as the
authoritarian government continued its campaign to crush any Middle
East-style democracy movement. Unidentified organizers had issued a
renewed appeal to gather peacefully in parks or near monuments at 2
p.m. on Sundays. China's Vice President Xi Jinping urged greater
outreach by the ruling Communist Party to handle issues related to
education, employment, health care and housing.
(AP, 2/23/11)(AP, 2/24/11)
2011 Feb 23, In China
Xinjiang-based wlmqwb.com website reported that the country’s
highest court has approved the executions of four men convicted in a
series of murders in the restive western region of Xinjiang
described as acts of "terrorist violence." The four were accused of
killing 9 people in 3 separate incidents between August and November
of last year.
(AP, 2/23/11)
2011 Feb 25, China widened its
Internet policing after online calls for protests like those that
swept the Middle East, with social networking site LinkedIn and
searches for the US ambassador's name both blocked. Access to
LinkedIn resumed on Feb 26.
(AP, 2/25/11)(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 25, China dropped the
death penalty for more than a dozen nonviolent crimes and banned
capital punishment for people over the age of 75 in largely symbolic
moves that are not expected to significantly reduce executions.
(AP, 2/25/11)
2011 Feb 27, In China large
numbers of police, and new tactics like shrill whistles and street
cleaning trucks, squelched overt protests for a second in a row
after more calls for peaceful gatherings modeled on recent
democratic movements in the Middle East.
(AP, 2/27/11)
2011 Mar 1, China told
journalists they must "cooperate" with police and respect the
country's laws, after several foreign reporters were roughed up in a
crackdown on calls for anti-government rallies. The government
blamed foreign reporters for a weekend ruckus with police who tried
to prevent them covering a planned protest in Beijing, as rights
groups slammed China for curtailing press freedoms.
(AFP, 3/1/11)(Reuters, 3/1/11)
2011 Mar 1, China’s National
Museum in Beijing re-opened following a nearly 4-year refurbishment
that cost some 2.5 billion yuan.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-03/01/c_13755545.htm)
2011 Mar 1, Taiwan and China
have cooperated as Taiwan’s coast guard personnel rescued a
businessman, surnamed Hsia (40), on an uninhabited Taiwanese islet
after his kidnappers deposited him there. He was kidnapped in the
southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in early January and held for a
$3.3 million ransom.
(AP, 3/2/11)
2011 Mar 2, The Philippine
military deployed two warplanes near a disputed area in the South
China Sea after a ship searching for oil complained it was harassed
by two Chinese patrol boats. The Chinese vessels later left without
confrontation at the Reed Bank, which is near the disputed Spratly
Islands that are claimed by the Philippines, China and other
nations.
(AP, 3/3/11)
2011 Mar 3, Chinese police
further intensified pressure on foreign reporters, warning them to
stay away from spots designated for Middle East-inspired protests
and threatening them with expulsion or a revoking of their
credentials.
(AP, 3/3/11)
2011 Mar 5, China’s national
People’s Congress (NPC) opened in Beijing.
(Econ, 3/5/11, p.46)
2011 Mar 6, In China at a
hastily called news conference in Beijing, Li Honghai, vice director
of the city's Foreign Affairs Office, said reporters must apply for
and receive government permission to conduct any newsgathering
within the city center. It was the latest sign of the government's
determination to prevent the formation of a Middle East-style
protest movement.
(AP, 3/6/11)
2011 Mar 9, President Barack
Obama said he had chosen Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to be the
next US ambassador to China, replacing Jon Huntsman, a Republican
who is stepping down and mulling a run for the presidency.
(Reuters, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 10, In China Guo
Weidong (38), an Internet activist, was detained at his home in
Haining. He was charged with subversion for spreading calls for
Middle-Eastern style anti-government protests.
(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 10, In China an
earthquake toppled more than 1,000 houses and apartment buildings in
the southwest near the border with Myanmar, killing at least 24
people and injuring more than 200.
(AP, 3/10/11)
2011 Mar 11, In China a gas
explosion from a coal mine in the southwest killed 19 miners in
Guizhou province's Liupanshui city.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 12, In China 19-21
people were killed in a collision between a passenger bus and a
truck in Wanlang township on the outskirts of Baishan city in
northeast Jilin province.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 17, Rigzin Phuntsog
(16), a Tibetan monk at the Kirti monastery in China’s Sichuan
province, died one day after he set himself on fire in an
anti-government protest. He was beaten and kicked by police,
prompting hundreds of monks and others to rally. In August
authorities said they will charge three Buddhist monks with murder
over the death of Phuntsog.
(SFC, 3/18/11,
p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/4nsxj9p)(AFP, 4/13/11)(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Mar 22, China called for
an immediate cease-fire in Libya.
(AP, 3/22/11)
2011 Mar 23, A Chinese
state-run news website said 7 people, allegedly involved in plotting
terrorist activities, have been sentenced to death for robbery and
murder in China's far western region of Xinjiang. The report said
the 7 were among a dozen people who met and raised funds between
June 2008 and October 2010 to carry out "violent, terrorist"
activities.
(AP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 23, China’s state
auditors reported that $28 million had been embezzled from its 1,300
km high-speed line between Beijing and Shanghai.
(Econ, 4/2/11, p.34)
2011 Mar 25, In China Ying
Jianguo, general manager of Taizhou Suqi Storage Battery Co. Ltd.,
was taken into custody in the city of Taizhou in Zhejiang province.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported 139 cases of lead poisoning
near the plant. More testing soon found at least 168 villagers,
including 53 children, had high lead levels.
(AP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 27, Yang Hengjun (46),
a Sydney-based spy novelist, phoned an assistant from Guangzhou
airport in southeastern China to say three men were following him.
Yang was later able to briefly phone a sister in Guangzhou to say
"he's having a long chat with his old friends." This was a
prearranged signal that Yang had been taken by the secret police.
Yang was an official in the Chinese Foreign Ministry before moving
to Australia. His novel, "Fatal Weakness," deals with espionage
between China and the United States and has been published on the
Internet in China. On March 31 Hengjun said he is OK and apologizing
for causing trouble.
(AP, 3/29/11)(AP, 3/31/11)
2011 Mar 30, China executed 3
Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking. Sally Ordinario-Villanueva,
Ramon Credo and Elizabeth Batain were arrested separately in 2008
carrying packages of at least 4 kilograms of heroin.
(SFC, 3/31/11, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/4oluzcf)
2011 Mar 30, China ordained a
new Catholic bishop approved by the Vatican for the first time since
ties between the sides soured last year. Paul Liang Jiansen was made
bishop of the southern city of Jiangmen.
(AP, 4/11/11)
2011 Mar 31, In China French
President Nicolas Sarkozy and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
called for more flexible exchange rate regimes as G20 nations met on
global monetary reform in Nanjing.
(AFP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 2, Chinese officials
said over 500 of the country’s 1,176 dairies were being shut down in
an attempt to clean up the scandal-plagued dairy industry.
(SSFC, 4/3/11, p.A4)
2011 Apr 2, Swedish wireless
equipment maker LM Ericsson said it is suing Chinese rival ZTE Corp.
for alleged infringement of several of its patents in handset and
network technology.
(AP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 3, Chinese police in
Beijing detained outspoken Chinese artist and social critic Ai
Weiwei preventing him from taking a flight to Hong Kong. He helped
design Beijing's famed "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium but has since
irritated the Communist Party government with his activism. On April
7 China confirmed that it has Weiwei, but insisted his case involves
"economic crimes" and not human rights.
(AFP, 4/4/11)(SFC, 4/4/11, p.A2)(AP, 4/7/11)
2011 Apr 5, China’s central
bank raised interest rates again.
(Econ, 4/9/11, p.84)
2011 Apr 8, China’s government
and state media said 3 babies have died and 36 people, mostly
children, fallen ill after drinking possibly tainted milk in the
country's latest food scare.
(AFP, 4/8/11)
2011 Apr 10, Chinese state
media reported that Intentional poisoning was behind the tainted
milk that killed three children and caused 36 others to become ill
in northwestern Gansu province last week. Police suspected that a
couple poisoned milk from a local farmer, causing three deaths,
because of anger over business disputes. Police soon found that
nitrite was added to milk from Ma Wenxuan's farm near the city of
Pingliang in Gansu province.
(Reuters, 4/10/11)(AP, 4/12/11)
2011 Apr 12, In southwestern
China clashes erupted between security forces and locals at the
Kirti Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Sichuan province, under lockdown
after a monk set himself on fire and died on March 17.
(AFP, 4/13/11)
2011 Apr 14, In China 10 people
were killed over the last 24 hours at a bathhouse and car wash in
Anshan city in Liaoning province. Police soon arrested suspect Zhou
Yuxin (33), the owner of both businesses. The dead included Yuxin’s
wife, father and son.
(AP, 4/15/11)
2011 Apr 17, In China 47
members of the underground Shouwang church were detained in Beijing.
Its leaders were kept under house arrest as part of a crackdown on
the unregistered congregation. Tensions had escalated earlier this
month when the church was evicted from its usual rented place of
worship.
(AP, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 17, In southern China
violent thunderstorms have lashed parts of the industrial heartland
of Guangdong province, leaving 18 people dead and scores injured.
(AP, 4/18/11)
2011 Apr 20, China’s Legal
Daily newspaper said authorities in Shenyang have found bean sprouts
tainted with banned food additives to make the vegetables grow
faster and look shinier. Police had seized 40 tons of bean sprouts
treated with the chemical compounds sodium nitrite and urea, as well
as antibiotics and a plant hormone called 6-benzyladenine.
(AP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 21, Chinese police
raided the Kirti monastery, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery where
tensions have run high over the March 17 death of a monk named
Phuntsog. Police took 300 monks to an unknown location and two
villagers trying to block the monks' removal were killed.
(AP, 4/23/11)
2011 Apr 22, In China truck
drivers protested for a third day over rising fuel costs and fees,
disrupting the flow of goods in Shanghai, China's busiest port city.
(AP, 4/22/11)
2011 Apr 25, Chinese oil
refining giant Sinopec said it has demoted Lu Guangyu, a top
executive, who bought 1.6 million yuan (148,463 pounds) of wine and
spirits after details of the purchase leaked onto the Internet and
sparked an uproar over extravagance at the state-owned firm.
(Reuters, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 25, In China an
illegal garment shop in southern Beijing caught fire, killing 17
migrant workers and their family members who may not have been able
to escape the four-story building because of bars on the windows.
(AP, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 26, Australian PM
Julia Gillard, visiting China, raised a range of human rights
concerns in talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who denied China
had taken a "backward step."
(AFP, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 28, China released
2010 census numbers indicating a total mainland population of 1.34
billion.
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.43)
2011 May 1, China’s Health
Ministry's amended guidelines on the management of public places
that now ban smoking in more venues like hotels and restaurants were
implemented.
(AP, 5/1/11)
2011 May 1, In northeastern
China a fire at a hotel killed 11 people and injured 35, in Tonghua,
an industrial city by the North Korean border. Arson was suspected
at the hotel owned by the Nasdaq-listed Chinese budget chain Home
Inns & Hotels Management Inc.
(AFP, 5/1/11)(AP, 5/2/11)(AFP, 3/29/12)
2011 May 4, The Chinese Embassy
in Oslo said Sino-Norwegian relations are "in difficulty" because
the peace prize was given to "a Chinese criminal ... and the
Norwegian government supported this wrong decision." Norwegian
salmon exporters were having their fish held up for days or even
weeks by Chinese food safety inspectors, devastating its freshness.
(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 5, China’s Xinhua News
Agency said in a brief report that a Panama-registered cargo ship
with 24 Chinese sailors was hijacked by seven pirates in the Arabian
Sea.
(AP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 7, Chinese farmer Liu
Mingsuo came out and counted 80 burst watermelons. By the afternoon
it was 100. Two days later he didn't bother to count anymore.
Watermelons began bursting by the score in Jiangsu province, after
farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather.
About 20 farmers were affected, losing up to 115 acres (45 hectares)
of melon.
(AP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 9, In Australia
organizers of the Sydney Writers' Festival said Chinese authorities
have barred dissident writer Liao Yiwu from traveling to Australia
for a festival for "security reasons" and advised him against
publishing his works abroad.
(AFP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 10, In China a Mongol
herder named Mergen was run over by a truck driven by an ethnic Han
Chinese in Inner Mongolia. Mergen and other herders had been
attempting to block a caravan of coal-hauling trucks in the Xilin
Gol area. The killing sparked protests. 4 days later another Mongol
was killed in a similar confrontation elsewhere. The truck driver
was later executed and his co-driver sentenced to life in prison.
(AFP, 5/25/11)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.48)(Econ, 7/14/12,
p.40)
2011 May 12, Chinese
authorities arrested 40 people for allegedly trafficking at least 22
babies for sale. The ring bought babies in Yunnan, one of China's
most impoverished provinces, and sold them to families in relatively
prosperous Fujian.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, In China Xu
Maiyong (52), a former vice mayor of the wealthy resort city of
Hangzhou, was sentenced to death on corruption charges, one of the
harshest sentences handed down to a high-level Chinese official in
recent years.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 15, In China a one dog
per family policy went into effect in Beijing.
(SSFC, 5/15/11, p.A5)
2011 May 16, The US Treasury
Department said that China cut its holdings by $9.2 billion to $1.14
trillion, its 5th straight month of trimming.
(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 May 17, China downplayed a
UN report saying North Korea remains "actively engaged" in exporting
ballistic missiles, components and technology to numerous customers
in the Middle East, saying it was not an official Security Council
report.
(AP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 17, Pakistan's PM
Yousuf Raza Gilani declared China his country's best friend in an
apparent dig at Washington as he began a visit to China. China is
Pakistan’s main arms supplier. Pakistan last week opened a
330-megawatt nuclear power plant in central Punjab province with
Chinese help and said Beijing had been contracted to construct two
more reactors.
(AFP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 18, China’s Cabinet
acknowledged that its $23 billion Three Gorges Dam
required action to curb pollution, counter risks of possible natural
disasters and improve life for the 1.4 million people who were
forced to relocate.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 18, China and Pakistan
signed three agreements in Beijing on economic and technology
cooperation, banking and mining.
(AP, 5/18/11)
2011 May 20, In China 2 workers
were initially killed and 16 injured in the explosion at the plant
of a Foxconn subsidiary in Chengdu. A seriously injured worker died
two days later. The iPad 2 was being made in the building hit by the
blast.
(AFP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 20, A company China
says is controlled by artist Ai Weiwei was accused of massive tax
evasion in the government's clearest disclosure yet about its
investigation of the activist detained more than six weeks.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 20, Pakistani defense
officials said China has agreed to provide Pakistan with 50 more
fighter jets in a deal clinched during Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gilani's trip to Beijing.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 21, The leaders of
Japan, China and South Korea travelled to Fukushima in a show of
solidarity over the ongoing nuclear crisis, visiting evacuees left
homeless by the quake and tsunami.
(AFP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 21, North Korean
leader Kim Jong Il was said to have visited an industrial city in
northeastern China and appeared headed to Beijing by train on the
second day of a mysterious trip to his country's most important
ally.
(AP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 22, In Japan the
leaders of China and South Korea agreed to bolster efforts to aid
disaster recovery as they met with the Japanese prime minister to
smooth over differences on Tokyo's handling of its post-tsunami
nuclear crisis.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 23, A spokesman for
the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said the
group has halted payments for program in China amid mismanagement by
a public agency.
(AFP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 23, North Korean
leader Kim Jong-Il visited a development zone in eastern China, as
he pursued a secretive trip aimed at seeking answers for his
nation's crippled economy.
(AFP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 24, North Korea’s
reclusive leader Kim Jong Il reportedly traveled to an eastern
Chinese city to study Beijing's economic reforms, while a US
government team was in North Korea on a rare trip to assess food
shortages.
(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May 25, North Korean
leader Kim Jong-Il arrived in Beijing and was seen en route to what
was believed to be a summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(AFP, 5/25/11)
2011 May 26, China Central
Television said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il said he would adhere
to the goal of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula during talks with
Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(AFP, 5/26/11)
2011 May 26, In southern China
homemade bombs exploded at three government buildings in Fuzhou
city, Jiangxi province, killing 3 people and wounding at least 9
others in what state media said was a revenge attack by Qian Mingqi
(52), a middle-aged jobless man, who was killed in one of the
explosions.
(AP, 5/26/11)(SFC, 5/27/11, p.A2)
2011 May 27, China bestowed a
pomp-filled welcome on Myanmar's Pres. Thein Sein, conferring
legitimacy on the country's new, nominally civilian government and
ensuring continued Chinese access to its neighbor's natural
resources.
(AP, 5/27/11)
2011 May 28, Chinese police
sealed off parts of two county seats in Inner Mongolia for a second
day in what residents described as a kind of martial law after
protests triggered by the death of a Mongolian herder run over by a
Chinese truck driver.
(AP, 5/28/11)
2011 May 28, In central China
an explosion at a bus company killed an employee and injured at
least two others, days after a bombing spree in another city rattled
the country. A blast at a chemical plant in Zibo city, Shandong
province, killed three people and injured eight others. The plant
was owned by Shandong Baoyuan Chemical Co. Ltd.
(AP, 5/28/11)(AP, 5/29/11)
2011 May 29, Chinese state
media said China will expand a ban on free shopping bags as it tries
to further curb its addiction to plastic in a bid to rid the country
of "white pollution" that clogs waterways, farms and fields.
(AFP, 5/29/11)
2011 Jun 3, In Libya a series
of at least 10 NATO strikes hit in and around Tripoli, targeting
military barracks close to Gadhafi's sprawling compound, a police
station and a military base. A rebel military leader said his troops
had broken the siege of two towns in the western Nafusa mountain
range, Yefren and Shakshuk. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that
China's ambassador to Qatar had recently met with the head of
Libya's rebel council.
(AP, 6/3/11)
2011 Jun 3, Mexico’s federal
Attorney General's Office said authorities in the Pacific port of
Manzanillo seized 69 tons (63 metric tons) of two chemicals used to
make synthetic drugs. 34 tons of monomethylamine arrived May 6 on
one ship and the other ship carrying 35 tons of ethyl phenyl acetate
arrived April 10. Both ships were from Shanghai, China.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 4, In China the
anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crushing of the
pro-democracy movement was entirely ignored by the state-controlled
media. The square was open under heavy security. Activists said
security forces had rounded up a number government critics ahead of
the anniversary of the, adding to an already harsh crackdown on
dissent.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 9, In northern Myanmar
fighting began 9 when government troops allegedly shelled a Kachin
base in a bid to force the rebel fighters from a strategic region
where China is constructing major hydropower plants.
(AP, 6/16/11)
2011 Jun 10, Flooding in
central China was reported to have killed 41 people.
(SFC, 6/11/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 12, China’s state
media reported that over 600 people have been sickened by lead
poisoning in tinfoil processing workshops in Yangxunqiao, Zhejiang
province.
(SFC, 6/13/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 12, In China riots
broke out near the southern city of Guangzhou as hundreds of migrant
workers protested what they felt was unfair treatment by Chinese
security guards. What started the riot was an incident where guards
were said to have pushed a pregnant street hawker to the ground,
leading to protests by more than 1,000 migrants.
(Reuters, 6/12/11)
2011 Jun 13, In China severe
flooding caused by days of torrential rains has led to 105 deaths.
The heavy rains have also resulted in a number of mudslides, with
the province of Hunan the hardest hit.
(AP, 6/13/11)
2011 Jun 15, In China the “The
Beginning of the Great Revival," a celebration of the founding of
China’s Communist Party, opened at every Cineplex in the country. It
was produced by the for profit China Film Group.
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.72)
2011 Jun 16, In northern
Myanmar more than 10,000 people were reported to have fled fighting
between government troops and the Kachin ethnic minority group's
militia. They were living in temporary camps near the Chinese border
as refugees.
(AP, 6/16/11)
2011 Jun 18, China’s official
media said floods and lightning killed at least eight people as
heavy rains pounded southern China, destroying homes and blocking
roads.
(AP, 6/18/11)
2011 Jun 19, China’s state
media reported that more than 5 million people have been displaced
or otherwise affected by flooding in eastern China that is also
pushing up food prices. Rescuers searched for 11 workers who were
buried when an office building they were renovating in Wuxi city,
Jiangsu province, collapsed on top of them.
(AP, 6/19/11)
2011 Jun 19, Chinese public
relations consultant Chen Hong closed down his website which let
people post anonymous tips on official bribery after censors stepped
in blocking access to the site for people inside China. His website,
http://www.ibribery.com, had drawn 200,000 unique visitors in two
weeks.
(AP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 19, An Indian general
led a delegation to Beijing as the two countries moved to resume
exchanges between their militaries after a yearlong freeze.
(AP, 6/19/11)
2011 Jun 20, Chinese President
Hu Jintao made a rare visit to Ukraine to sign a strategic
partnership declaration as Beijing seeks to revive ties with the
ex-Soviet state after years of neglect. Hu Jintao oversaw the
signing of business deals worth $3.5 billion.
(AFP, 6/20/11)(AP, 6/20/11)
2011 Jun 20, Chinese
authorities said more than 40 miles (70 km) of dikes are in danger
of overflowing in eastern Zhejiang province where floods have caused
$1.2 billion in losses.
(AP, 6/20/11)
2011 Jun 21, China said that a
meeting with Mahmud Jibril, the Libyan rebels' diplomatic chief, who
is in Beijing for a two-day visit, was an effort to seek a quick
solution to the crisis in the North African nation, a situation it
said could not go on.
(Reuters, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 21, In China Sun
Shuning was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing Yan
Wenlong on May 15 during a dispute between coal mine operators and
local residents protesting pollution. The case that fueled the
biggest ethnic protests in Inner Mongolia in two decades.
(AP, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 21, In China Pastor
Shi Enhao (55), a deputy chairman of the Chinese House Church
Alliance, was detained in the eastern city of Suqian in Jiangsu
province. The national group of underground congregations was
established to provide mutual support and intercede with authorities
who routinely threaten and harass unofficial churches. Enhao was
sentenced a month later for organizing illegal religious gatherings.
(AP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jun 22, The online
pranksters at Lulz Security say they've taken down two government
Web sites in Brazil as they continue with their global
"Anti-Security" campaign.
(AP, 6/22/11)(http://tinyurl.com/3ddjml6)
2011 Jun 22, In China renowned
Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei was released on bail after
confessing to tax evasion following more than three months in
detention.
(AP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 23, China's
state-controlled Catholic church said it will move swiftly to
appoint new bishops in dioceses where there are none, in a step that
is certain to worsen frictions with the Vatican. Filling the more
than 40 empty bishop's seats is an urgent task because the vacancies
are causing serious problems in the handling of church affairs.
(AP, 6/23/11)
2011 Jun 24, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao embarked on a three-country tour of Europe, mired in
currency and sovereign debt woes. After talks with Hungary’s PM
Viktor Orban and a reception at a Budapest university, Wen moves on
to London and Berlin before returning home.
(AFP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jun 25, China’s PM Wen
Jiabao, during a visit to Budapest, announced Beijing would purchase
Hungarian government bonds and extend a one-billion-euro credit to
the country.
(AFP, 6/25/11)
2011 Jun 26, China said it and
Vietnam have agreed to settle their dispute over the South China Sea
through negotiations, as protesters in Hanoi marched for the fourth
straight week to voice their outrage at their country's more
powerful neighbor.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 26, Prominent Chinese
political activist Hu Jia (37), imprisoned for sedition, was
released at the end of his more than three-year sentence. Jia, known
for his activism with AIDS patients and orphans, faced continued
surveillance.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 26, Chinese premier
Wen Jiabao, reportedly a big Shakespeare fan, made a pilgrimage to
the Bard's birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon, as part of a 3-day
visit to reinforce economic links between the two countries.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 27, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao and British PM David Cameron signed trade deals worth
Ł1.4 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. Dr. Cui Weicheng, founder and director of the Hadal Science
and Technology Research Center (HAST) had organized the construction
of the craft.
(AFP, 7/26/11)(Econ, 8/27/16, p.61)
2011 Jul 27, China’s Ministry
of Public Security said police had rescued 81 children from a major
child trafficking ring in Hebei province.
(SFC, 7/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 29, Yahoo Inc.,
Japan's Softbank Corp. and the China’s Alibaba Group said they have
agreed on a compensation plan involving the Web payment service
Alipay.
(AP, 7/29/11)
2011 Jul 31, Chinese police
shot dead 5 terrorist suspects and 6 civilians in Xinjiang
province, bringing to 18 the death toll in weekend violence in
the troubled ethnic region. This followed a day of clashes in
Kashgar that killed 7 people and injured 22. Minority Uighurs have
been blamed for previous violence in the region.
(AP, 7/31/11)(SFC, 8/1/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 1, Chinese authorities
shot dead two Uighur men suspected of fomenting deadly ethnic unrest
in Kashgar and vowed a further crackdown on "religious extremists."
The deaths bring to 21 the number of people reported killed in
Kashgar since the weekend. China blamed Islamic radicals trained in
Pakistan for the attacks. Many of Xinjiang's roughly nine million
Turkic-speaking Uighurs are unhappy with what they say has been
decades of political and religious repression, and the unwanted
immigration of the Han, China's dominant ethnic group.
(AFP, 8/2/11)(SFC, 8/2/11, p.A3)
2011 Aug 2, China's eastern
city of Hangzhou offered its taxi drivers a subsidy of one yuan
($0.16) per trip in a bid to end a two-day strike in the tourism
hub.
(AFP, 8/2/11)
2011 Aug 3, China warned that
tortured efforts to raise the US limit on borrowing had failed to
defuse Washington's "debt bomb", and signaled it would further
diversify its holdings away from the dollar.
(AFP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 4, Computer security
firms McAfee and Dell SecureWorks said Chinese hackers had attacked
over 72 networks beginning in 2006. McAfee dubbed the attacks
“Operation Shady RAT."
(SFC, 8/5/11, p.D6)
2011 Aug 7, Typhoon Muifa blew
down power lines and billboards in the Chinese financial hub of
Shanghai and aimed at a northeast port city where beaches were
closed and sandbags were piled on the waterfront. At least one death
was reported with one person missing.
(AP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 8, Sudan said it has
granted a petroleum exploration license to China after visiting
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and President Omar al-Bashir held talks
in Khartoum.
(AFP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 9, China’s Foreign
Minister Yang Jiechi ended a two-day visit to Khartoum and headed
for Juba, the capital of South Sudan, in the first trip by a senior
Chinese official to the world's newest nation.
(AP, 8/9/11)
2011 Aug 10, China suspended
all new railway construction projects. Controversy and safety
concerns swirled over the nation's high-speed network following the
July 23 fatal crash, which left 40 people dead.
(AFP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 10, China launched its
first aircraft carrier, a refitted former Soviet craft, for a maiden
run. Last month China confirmed that it was refitting an old,
unfinished Soviet carrier hull (the Varyag) bought from Ukraine's
government in 1998. Sources said China was also building two of its
own carriers.
(Reuters, 8/10/11)(Econ, 8/13/11, p.38)
2011 Aug 11, Chinese security
forces launched a two-month "strike hard" crackdown against
violence, terrorism and radical Islam following renewed ethnic
violence in the restive western region of Xinjiang. It will last
through Oct. 15, and includes around-the-clock patrols of trouble
spots, identity checks and street searches of people and vehicles.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 11, Chinese designated
lama Gyaltsen Norbu (21), the hand-picked 11th Panchen Lama, arrived
at Xiahe, home of the Labrang Monastery. He left on Aug 16 following
a cool welcome.
(SFC, 8/12/11, p.A2)(Econ, 8/20/11, p.39)
2011 Aug 12, A Chinese bullet
train manufacturer recalled 54 trains in a new embarrassment for a
problem-plagued prestige project following a July crash that killed
40 people.
(AP, 8/12/11)
2011 Aug 14, Chinese state
media said authorities in the northeastern port city of Dalian
ordered a petrochemical plant be shut down after more than 12,000
people demonstrated over pollution concerns. Calls to relocate the
plant grew after waves from Tropical Storm Muifa broke a dike
guarding it on August 8 and raised fears that flood waters could
release toxic chemicals. A gas blast in a coal mine killed 10 people
in Panxian county in Guizhou province.
(AP, 8/14/11)(AP, 8/15/11)(Econ, 8/20/11, p.41)
2011 Aug 15, In western China
Tsewang Norbu (29), a Buddhist monk, died after setting himself on
fire in Sichuan province's Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture an
ethnically Tibetan region.
(AP, 8/15/11)
2011 Aug 18, In China a fight
broke out in Beijing between the visiting Georgetown University
men's basketball team and the Bayi Rockets, the army's Chinese
Basketball Association team, forcing play to end early. Video
footage spread on the Internet and worldwide TV news.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 19, China banned 100
songs from being featured on websites, barring artists ranging from
Lady Gaga to the Backstreet Boys apparently for being out of tune
with the country's cultural authorities.
(AFP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 22, Liu Qi, China’s
party secretary for Beijing, told Internet companies to tighten
control over material online as Beijing cracks down on dissent and
tries to block the rise of Middle East-style protests. He issued the
warning following a visit to Sina Corp., which operates a popular
microblogging site.
(AP, 8/24/11)
2011 Aug 23, In China at least
15 people were killed when a blaze ripped through a dormitory
building belonging to a ceramics factory in the Shengfeng Ceramics
Factory in Foshan city.
(AFP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 23, In China 15 people
were hurt and cars were damaged after more than 30 relatives of a
patient who died at the hospital in Jiangxi province forced their
way inside the building. Patient Fan Runyin was admitted to the
hospital on August 19 after suffering a brain hemorrhage. Relatives
said he died on the operating table.
(AFP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 23, The Geneva-based
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it is
lifting the freeze on funding to China to ensure AIDS work in the
country continues while it works with government officials,
representatives from United Nations' agencies and private groups to
resolve the dispute.
(AP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 26, North Korean
leader Kim Jong Il renewed a push to restart talks on swapping aid
for his country's nuclear disarmament during a stop in northeastern
China on his return journey from Russia.
(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Aug 29, The UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned about a new mutant strain of
the deadly bird flu H5N1 virus (H5N1 - 2.3.2.1.) in China and
Vietnam, saying there could be a "major resurgence" of the disease.
(AFP, 8/29/11)
2011 Aug 29, Chinese
authorities jailed a Buddhist monk for 11 years over the March 17
self-immolation death of Rigzin Phuntsog. A court in the southern
province of Sichuan handed long jail sentences to two more monks the
next day over Phuntsog’s protest at their Kirti monastery.
(AFP, 8/31/11)
2011 Aug 29, In China a female
staff member slashed children with a knife at a daycare center for
migrant workers in Shanghai's suburban Minhang district, wounding
eight children.
(AP, 8/29/11)
2011 Aug 29, In China a mine
shaft in the city of Dazhou flooded as 30 miners were working
underground. 18 escaped, 10 were killed and 2 miners remained
trapped.
(AFP, 9/3/11)
2011 Aug 30, In China the body
of Xie Yexin, who worked as an anti-corruption official in the
central province of Hubei, was discovered in his office with 11 stab
marks to his body next to a knife wrapped in a paper napkin.
State-run media said Yexin had taken his own life.
(AP, 9/2/11)
2011 Aug 30, Philippine
President Benigno Aquino flew to China, on a mission to secure
billions of dollars in business deals as the two sides look to move
beyond a territorial row.
(AFP, 8/30/11)
2011 Sep 6, In China police
detained Li Tianyi (15) in Beijing after witnesses said he and a
friend leapt from their BMW sports cars and beat a man and woman for
three minutes while their son looked on. General Li Shuangjiang
(72), a famous singer and music department dean at the Beijing-based
PLA Academy of Arts, soon apologized for his son's actions.
(AP, 9/9/11)
2011 Sep 7, China’s Ministry of
Industry and Information Technology named Google's China website
operator, Beijing Guxiang Information Technology Co. Ltd., as one of
137 firms whose licenses were renewed following adjustments in their
operations.
(AFP, 9/7/11)
2011 Sep 9, China’s state news
reported that over 14 million people were short of drinking water
due to drought in the southwest. Large tracts of farmland were
reported damaged.
(SFC, 9/10/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 9, In southern China
12 people, including 9 schoolchildren, died when a ferry carrying 50
people capsized in a river in Shaoyang city, Hunan province. The
ferry, designed to carry 14, sank after it cut across dredging
cables that appeared to then become wrapped around its propeller.
(AFP, 9/10/11)(AFP, 9/11/11)
2011 Sep 13, China held trials
in Kashgar and Hotan and convicted 6 Uighur men of being behind the
summer bloodshed in the Xinjiang region that left dozens. 4 men were
sentenced to death and 2 were given 19-year prison sentences.
(SFC, 9/16/11, p.A7)
2011 Sep 13, Benin President
Thomas Boni Yayi held talks in China with his counterpart Hu Jintao
on further Chinese investment in the West African nation.
(AFP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 14, In China farmer
Wang Hongbin (30), described as mentally ill, rampaged with an ax
through the streets of Gongyi, Henan province, killing 6 people, 2
of them children.
(SFC, 9/15/11, p.A8)
2011 Sep 17, In southwestern
China a crowded tourist bus overturned on a mountainous road,
killing seven people and injuring 30 others in Sichuan province. In
the northwest a landslide caused by heavy rain plowed into two small
factories, killing at least 10 people and leaving 22 others missing
in Shaanxi province.
(AP, 9/17/11)(AP, 9/18/11)
2011 Sep 19, China shut down a
solar panel factory after hundreds of angry residents staged days of
violent protests over pollution, the second such incident in as many
months.
(AFP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 19, Mauritanian
President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz called for closer ties with China
during a visit to the Chinese-Arab economic and trade forum in
Yinchuan. Both countries signed an agreement granting the
Mauritanian armed forces financial support worth 20 million yuan
(2.3 millions euros, 3.1 million dollars).
(AFP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 20, General Motors Co.
agreed to deepen cooperation with its flagship Chinese partner on
development of electric vehicle knowhow amid pressure from Beijing
to hand over proprietary technology.
(AP, 9/20/11)
2011 Sep 20, The World Health
Organization warned countries that a dangerous strain of polio,
WPV1, has spread to China from Pakistan.
(SFC, 9/21/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 20, Benin announced
that China has given it $34 million in loans and grants, part of
which will fund an anti-piracy patrol drive off the coast, where
hijackings have surged this year.
(AFP, 9/22/11)
2011 Sep 22, In southern China
hundreds of protesters attacked a police station and ransacked
vehicles in Guangdong, leaving dozens injured in the latest unrest
to hit the industrial heartland. The rioters were angered by a
government land deal and rumors that police officers had killed a
child.
(AP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 23, Chinese blogger
Daniel Wu, praised for posting pictures of Chinese officials and
their luxury watches online, said he has been forced out of action
due to outside "pressure." His commitment to exposing the officials
had been praised earlier this month by the state-run Xinhua
news agency, which said the fight against corruption should follow
his method.
(AFP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 26, In China 2 Tibetan
monks, Lobsang Kalsang and Lobsang Konchok (believed to be 18 or 19
years old), set themselves on fire at the Kirti Monastery in a
protest over China's tight rein over Buddhist practices, as the
Chinese government reiterated it will choose the next Dalai Lama.
Both were rescued by police, suffered slight burns and were in
stable condition.
(AP, 9/26/11)
2011 Sep 29, British police and
medical regulators said Russian gangs and their Chinese associates
are making billions of dollars from selling fake and unlicensed
medicines over the Internet, putting thousands of people at risk.
More than 2.5 million doses of counterfeit, controlled and withdrawn
drugs were seized across 79 countries in seven days of raids
coordinated by international police organization Interpol under an
operation codenamed Pangea that ended on Sep 27.
(Reuters, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 29, In Sweden the
winners of Right Livelihood Awards, sometimes referred to as the
alternative Nobel prizes, were announced. Human rights activist
Jacqueline Moudeina of Chad; Spanish-based nonprofit GRAIN; and
American midwifery educator Ina May Gaskin will share the
euro150,000 ($205,000) cash award. Chinese solar power pioneer Huang
Ming received an honorary award for developing "cutting-edge
technologies."
(AP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 29, China ordered
manufacturers of potentially toxic products to conduct safety and
environmental checks after a recent spate of major anti-pollution
protests triggered fears of more unrest.
(AFP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 29, China’s People’s
Daily reported that 12 officials in Hunan province have been fire
over allegations that family planning officials between 1999 and
2006 had kidnapped children in Longhui county and put them up for
adoption.
(SFC, 9/30/11, p.A3)
2011 Sep 29, China launched an
experimental module into space, taking its first step towards
building a space station. Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace", took off
from the Gobi desert in the northwest, propelled by a Long March 2F
rocket.
(AFP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 29, Typhoon Nesat made
landfall on the eastern tip of China's Hainan island.
(AP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep, China’s government
shut down the popular “Happy Girl," a TV talent show that allowed a
studio audience to vote for contestants. The show had replaced
“Super Girl" in 2009, which had allowed viewers to vote for
contestants via text messages.
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.53)
2011 Oct 1, In China angry
Tibetans protested in Seda, a county seat in eastern Sichuan
province, a tense area of southwestern China on the country's
National Day after a Tibetan flag and a photo of the Dalai Lama were
torn down.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 4, China and Russia
vetoed a UN Security Council resolution threatening action against
Syria's deadly crackdown on protests.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 4, In China a coal
mine explosion killed at least 13 workers in Guizhou province.
(SFC, 10/5/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 5, Suspected drug
traffickers hijacked two Chinese cargo ships on the Mekong River in
northern Thailand. The bodies of 13 crew members were found near
Chiang Rai in northern Thailand on Oct 7,8 and 10. In Nov, 2012,
Burmese drug lord Naw Kham and 3 of his associates were sentenced to
death by a court in Kunming. 9 Thai soldiers were believed to have
been accomplices.
(AP, 10/10/11)(Econ, 11/10/12, p.43)
2011 Oct 5, Russia's
intelligence service said it has detained an alleged Chinese spy who
tried to obtain designs of an advanced missile system as part of
Beijing's efforts to update its weaponry. Prosecutors submitted the
case to the Moscow City Court today, although the man was detained
late last October.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 6, The UN said
increased access to technology that allows parents to know the sex
of their fetus has left Asia short of 117 million women, mostly in
China and India.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 7, In southwest China
2 teenagers set themselves on fire near a Tibetan Buddhist monastery
in Aba town amid rumors that dozens of monks were ready to sacrifice
their lives. Choepel and Khayang were former monks from Sichuan
province's Kirti monastery.
(AFP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 7, In China 3 major
road accidents killed 56 people on the last day of a weeklong
holiday, including 35 people who died when a bus collided with a car
on a northern expressway.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 9, China's President
Hu Jintao called for Taiwan and the Chinese mainland to reunite, as
he marked the 100th anniversary of the revolution that ended the
nation's long imperial history.
(AFP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 10, China suspended
shipping through Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle after Oct 5
attacks by suspected drug traffickers on two Chinese cargo ships
left 13 people dead or missing on the Mekong River.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 12, China said it is
to invest up to 4 trillion yuan ($600 billion) over the next decade
to overcome a huge water shortage that threatens the country's
economic growth.
(AFP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 14, A Chinese air
force JH-7 jet crashed at an air show outside the northern city of
Xi'an, leaving one of the pilots missing and presumed dead.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 15, China's top
Communist Party leaders opened a four-day meeting which will be
devoted to the country's "cultural development." Analysts said the
meeting is largely to strengthen the party's tight control over the
media and the Internet.
(AFP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, Flooding in
Cambodia was reported to have killed at least 247 people as China
began delivering the first of some $7.8 million in flood relief aid.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 17, In western China
Tenzin Wangmo (20), a Tibetan nun, committed self-immolation in a
call for religious freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama. She was
the 9th Tibetan to commit self-immolation and the first women to
kill herself in this way.
(SFC, 10/18/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 18, China’s ruling
Communist Party, at the close of a four-day annual policy meeting,
approved a program to enhance its popularity at home and image
abroad at a time when the leadership is struggling with domestic
unrest and a delicate succession.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, Tibetan monk
Yonten Gyatso, a senior monk and human rights activist in the
restive Aba county, southwestern Sichuan province, was arrested. He
was sentenced on June 18 by Aba Intermediate People's Court, but his
family and the news organization that he contributes to only heard
about it on Aug 22. They said he was beaten, tortured and imprisoned
after his arrest.
(AFP, 8/23/12)
2011 Oct 19, Reports from China
said many of the 6 million migrant workers employed in a massive
railway buildup have not been paid for months, with some 10,000
kilometers (6,200 miles) of projects halted due to a lack of money.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, The Philippine
navy apologized to China for accidentally ramming one of its fishing
boats a day earlier near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South
China Sea.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 20, China said that it
will allow four of its most developed cities and provinces to issue
bonds on a trial basis, giving cash-strapped local governments a
much-needed funding boost.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 21, In China Wang Yue,
a 2-year-old girl who was twice run over by vans and then ignored by
passers-by on a busy market street on Oct 13, died today, one week
after the accident and after days of bitter soul-searching over
declining morality in the country. Police soon arrested two drivers
suspected of running over a toddler. Hu Jun (24) was charged with
causing the wrongful death of the girl.
(AP, 10/21/11)(AP, 10/23/11)(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 23, In Hong Kong more
than 1000 protesters, including pregnant women, marched to oppose
the growing number of mainland Chinese women coming to the city to
give birth. Women from mainland China are keen to have babies in
Hong Kong because it entitles their child to rights of abode and
education.
(AFP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 25, China’s state
media reported that China will replace popular television
entertainment with so-called "healthy" programming, reflecting
regulators' latest move to tighten media control. The State
Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) ordered
broadcasters to stop showing "excessive entertainment", and to air
at least two hours of news each evening from January 1.
(AFP, 10/25/11)(AFP, 1/3/12)
2011 Oct 25, In China another
monk set himself ablaze outside a Tibetan monastery in southwestern
Sichuan province's Ganzi prefecture. This was the 10th
self-immolation this year protesting against Chinese rule over the
Himalayan region. London-based Free Tibet group said it was unable
to confirm the monk's age or name and was unsure of his condition.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, Chinese Vice
Premier Le Keqiang met with South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak
during a two-day trip to Seoul. South Korea's central bank said it
has agreed with its Chinese counterpart to expand their currency
swap deal as a backstop against global economic turmoil.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, In China a group
of children's clothing company owners protesting in the town of
Zhili in Zhejiang province swelled to more than 600 people. Hundreds
of migrant small business owners have protested over a tax dispute,
some of them torching vehicles.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, China’s state
media said hundreds of angry home buyers have launched a series of
protests in the commercial hub of Shanghai this week, as owners
decried falling prices for their properties.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 28, China blocked
online access to news of riots by thousands of people who clashed
with police in an eastern manufacturing city in what began as a
protest over taxes.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 29, In central China a
police officer was suspected of driving a police van drunk and
killing five people in a crash that sparked angry crowds to smash
and flip police cars in the latest burst of public anger against the
authorities. The van crashed into two street lamp poles that fell,
fatally crushing five victims and injuring three more.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 30, Chinese state
media said China will maintain its strict "one-child" policy,
despite calls for the rules to be relaxed.
(AFP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 31, China, Laos,
Myanmar and Thailand signed a regional security agreement pledging
to share intelligence and to engage in joint patrols along a stretch
of the Mekong between China and the Golden Triangle.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.45)
2011 Nov 1, China’s government
announced a punitive $2.4 million tax bill on artist and government
critic Ai Weiwei. He was given 15 days to come with the money.
Donations began to come in from people and over $550,000 was donated
by Nov 6.
(SFC, 11/7/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 1, A survey by the
Bank of China and the Hurun Report said nearly half of China's
wealthiest citizens are considering emigrating, with the United
States and Canada the most popular destinations.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, China’s state media
reported that police in Henan province have arrested 114 people in a
crackdown on a counterfeit drugs ring, seizing $30 million worth of
fake medications and more than 65 million medicine bottles.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, China launched an
unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft, the latest step in its efforts to
place a permanent space station in orbit. The Shenzhou 8 docked with
the Tiangong 1 module on Nov 3.
(SFC, 11/1/11, p.A2)(SFC, 11/4/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 1, In China a massive
explosion near an expressway ramp in Fuquan, Guizhou province,
killed at least seven people and injured about 200 while also
destroying several homes. The blast was caused by three
explosives-laden vehicles that caught fire.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 2, Transparency
Int’l., a Berlin-based campaigning group, published an update of its
2008 Bribe Payers Index. Russia and China scored worst. The index
ranked 28 countries accounting for 80% of global trade and
investment.
{Germany, Corruption, Russia, China}
(Econ, 11/5/11, p.72)
2011 Nov 3, Chinese state media
reported that a Buddhist nun, identified as Qiu Xiang (35), has died
after setting herself on fire, in the 11th case of self-immolation
among Tibetans in western China in recent months.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Chinese rescuers
began battling against the clock to save coal miners trapped
underground in Henan province after a sudden explosion of rocks
killed 8 of their colleagues. The rock burst in Henan happened
moments after a 2.9 magnitude earthquake shook Sanmenxia city, where
the mine is located. 52 miners were rescued over the next 2 days.
Day later 2 miners died from their wounds raising the death toll to
10.
(AP, 11/4/11)(AP, 11/5/11)(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 3, Human Rights Watch
said Chinese mining companies in Zambia ignore labor protections,
demanding up to 18 hours of labor a day and flouting health and
safety rules.
(AFP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 6, Japan's coastguard
arrested the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that allegedly
intruded into Japanese territorial waters.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 10, In China hundreds
of rescuers took turns descending into an illegally operated coal
mine to search for Chinese miners trapped by a gas leak that killed
34 others at the Sizhuang Coal Mine in Qujing city in Yunnan. 9
remained missing.
(AP, 11/10/11)(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 10, A Chinese court
jailed musician Su Yue (56) for life for a scam in which he conned
investors out of $9 million by claiming he was commissioned to hold
shows attached to the Olympics. Su made his name with the folk songs
"Loess Plateau" and "Blood-stained Glory", originally written to
commemorate troops who were killed in the brief 1979 war against
Vietnam but later was used in memory of those who died in the 1989
Tiananmen Square democracy protests.
(AFP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, A Taiwanese man
demanded Chinese authorities return his left hand, which he said was
amputated after a savage robbery and then kept by mainland police as
evidence. Hu Chi-yang (59) said he was attacked by three men in the
southeastern Chinese province of Fujian last week. He said they
robbed him of about $600 in cash and nearly cut his left hand off to
get at his ring and Rolex watch. On Nov 28 police in Fujian said
they believed Hu's injuries were self-inflicted, saying the cuts
were precise and that blood collected at the alleged crime scene
contained traces of anesthetic.
(AFP, 11/10/11)(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 14, In northwestern
China an explosion in a restaurant, likely caused by a natural gas
leak, killed at least 7 people and injured another 31 in Xi'an,
capital of Shaanxi province.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 15, Shanghai sold
bonds under a new pilot scheme raising $1.1 billion. China’s
provincial and municipal governments had been prohibited from
borrowing since 1994.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.78)
2011 Nov 15, The EU said it has
tightened controls on imports of Chinese rice products after a
growing number of shipments were contaminated by unauthorized
genetically-modified rice.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 16, Outspoken Chinese
artist Ai Weiwei said he feels like he has paid a ransom, after
depositing $1.3 million into a government account while he contests
a huge tax bill months after being held in police detention.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, In western China
an overloaded school minibus crashed head-on with a truck, killing
21 people including 19 kindergarten children on their way to class
in Gansu province.
(AP, 11/16/11)(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 16, US President
Barack Obama arrived in Australia and announced a new security
agreement with Australia. Obama said the US would keep sending a
clear message that China needs to accept the responsibilities that
come with being a world power. Obama also announced that US Marines
would begin rotating through Darwin as part of the US military pivot
to Asia.
(AP, 11/16/11)(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A2)
2011 Nov 16, On board the USS
Fitzgerald in Manila Bay US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario signed a declaration
calling for multilateral talks to resolve maritime disputes such as
those in the South China Sea, contrasting China's policy of
negotiating one-on-one with the Philippines and other Asian
claimants.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 17, China's unmanned
spacecraft Shenzhou VIII returned to Earth, state media reported,
after completing two space dockings that have pushed forward the
nation's ambitious space program.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 19, China’s Premier
Wen Jiabao told US President Barack Obama that China would increase
the flexibility of the yuan while stressing that reforms had already
had an effect. The spoke on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in
Indonesia.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 19, In eastern China
14 workers were killed in an explosion at a chemical plant.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 23, Turkmenistan
signed an agreement with China to boost natural gas deliveries. This
will see the central Asian nation supply about half of China's gas
needs. The gas agreement was one of 14 signed following talks in
Beijing between Turkmen President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov and
Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 25, The Chinese
government donated a gift of 23 buses during a ceremony in
Macedonia's capital. News of the donation ignited a torrent of
criticism. Many asked: How could China make the donation to a
foreign country when Chinese schools contend with shoddy transport?
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, Chinese automaker
Chery Automobile Co. and partner Israel Corp. launched the 50-50
joint venture Qoros Automotive Co., seeking fresh appeal both
overseas and in the slowing local market. Israel Corp. is Israel's
largest holding company, with interests mainly in chemicals,
shipping and energy.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 29, China's central
government raised the country's rural poverty line by more than 80
percent as part of efforts to increase aid to its struggling
low-income population. Veteran activist Chen Xi (57) was arrested.
He was accused of writing 36 essays that incited subversion. On Dec
23 he charged with subversion. On Dec 26 he was sentenced to 10
years in prison.
(AFP, 11/29/11)(AP, 12/24/11)(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Nov 29, China pledged more
than $2.3 million in military assistance to Uganda during a
high-profile visit to Kampala by Beijing's defense minister.
(AFP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov, In China Neil Heywood
(b.1970), a British citizen, was found dead in his hotel in
Chongqing. Authorities said he died of alcohol poisoning and
cremated the body without an autopsy. Heywood had long history of
advising Western companies on China and had connection with the
family of Bo Xilai established through his Chinese wife.
(SFC, 3/27/12,
p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Heywood)
2011 Dec 2, In the Philippines
6 fishermen, from China's southern island province of Hainan, were
arrested in waters off western Palawan province's Balabac township,
for catching endangered sea turtles. Officials said the fishermen's
mother ship may have escaped when their speedboat was intercepted.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 2, The Seychelles
invited Beijing to set up a military base on the archipelago to beef
up the fight against piracy there.
(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 6, A Chinese court
jailed Australian businessman Matthew Ng for 13 years on bribery and
embezzlement charges. Ng, an executive working for travel services
group Et-China in southern China, was arrested last November.
Chinese media have said the case against Ng relates to his role in
Et-China's battle with a Guangzhou government-owned travel company
for control of domestic travel agency GZL.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 7, Chinese authorities
said police last week had arrested 608 suspects and rescued 178
children in busts of two separate child trafficking networks.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, China inserted
itself into the fight over oil between Sudan and its former
territory South Sudan, sending a special envoy to try to break a
deadlock between two rivals who often appear on the brink of renewed
conflict.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 8, China executed a
Filipino drug trafficker (35) despite a clemency appeal by
Philippine Pres. Benigno Aquino III.
(SFC, 12/9/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 8, Mexican authorities
say they have seized 226 tons (205 metric tons) of a chemical used
in synthetic drugs. The methylamine was found over several days this
month in the port of Lazaro Cardenas in 11 containers shipped from
China.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 9, In China two
exchange students accepted the Confucius Peace Prize on behalf of
Russian PM Vladimir Putin, who was honored for enhancing Russia's
status and crushing anti-government forces in Chechnya.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, In northeastern
China two tourists from Hong Kong were killed and 36 others were
hurt when their bus overturned after colliding with a farm vehicle
in Jilin province.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, In China 9 people
were killed and seven seriously injured in the far west region of
Xinjiang when a long-distance bus collided with a heavy-duty truck.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 11, In China Xue Jinbo
(42) died after two days in police custody. He had led protests in
the fishing village of Wukan in opposition to government land
confiscations and was arrested on Dec 9.
(SFC, 12/16/11, p.A13)
2011 Dec 12, China executed
Janice Linden (35), a South African woman, by lethal injection for
drug smuggling after rejecting last-minute pleas for clemency from
her government. She was convicted of trying to sneak three kg (6.6
pounds) of methamphetamine into the country in her luggage through
the southern city of Guangzhou in 2008. Amnesty International says
China executes more people every year than the rest of the world
combined.
(AFP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, In eastern China a
school bus taking primary students home slipped off a country road
into an irrigation ditch, killing 15 children in Jiangsu province.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 12, A Chinese captain
stabbed two South Korean coast guard officers, killing one, after
his fishing boat was stopped for illegally fishing in South Korean
waters.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 16, China's government
gave the first sign that prominent civil rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng
is alive, saying he would be sent to prison for three years for
violating his probation. Zhisheng, an advocate of constitutional
reform, was convicted in 2006 of subversion and disappeared 20
months ago. On Jan 1, 2012, his brother said Gao has been imprisoned
in Shaya prison in the far western region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 12/16/11)(AFP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 16, Beijing city
authorities issued new rules requiring microbloggers to register
their real names before posting online, as the Chinese government
tightens its grip on the Internet.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 19, Nigeria launched a
communications satellite into space to replace one that failed in
2008. The satellite was launched from Xichang in southwest China.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 20, In southern China
police fired tear-gas and beat demonstrators who stormed government
buildings to protest against a power plant in Haimen, Guangdong
province.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 21, In China villagers
of Wukan gave up their protests over land confiscations after the
Guangdong party leadership promised to look into their complaints.
On Jan 15, 2012, protest leader Lin Zuluan was appointed as the
village’s new party chief.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.24)
2011 Dec 22, In southern China
witnesses said police have begun arresting protesters after two days
of violent clashes, as the local government warned against further
"illegal" demonstrations.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 23, In China police
fired tear gas at hundreds of people and detained a team of Hong
Kong journalists in the southern town of Haimen, the scene of
violent protests earlier this week. Activist Chen Wei (42) was
sentenced to nine years in prison on subversion charges.
(AFP, 12/23/11)(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 23, In China Huang
Guang, a local forestry official, poisoned a cat meat hotpot shared
with billionaire Long Liyuan, who made his fortune running a
forestry company in wealthy Guangdong province. On Jan 2 Yangjiang
city authorities reported the arrest of Guang.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2011 Dec 25, China and Japan
announced an agreement to let Japan buy Chinese sovereign debt. No
sum or timetable was disclosed.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.59)
2011 Dec 26, China's biggest
milk producer, Mengniu Dairy Group, said it has destroyed a batch
found to have excessive levels of a cancer-causing toxin, in another
safety scare for the country's dairy industry. The problem was
reportedly discovered before the milk containing high levels of
aflatoxin was sold to the public. An expert review identified the
mildewed feed as the cause of the excessive levels of aflatoxin in
milk.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 28, In China police in
Xinjiang province opened fire and killed seven suspects, and wounded
and arrested four others. The Xinjiang government said that a
"violent terrorist group" had kidnapped two people in the
northwestern region's remote Pishan county, prompting a stand-off
with police. An exile group, described the incident as a protest by
local Uighurs prompted by mounting discontent over a police
crackdown and religious repression in the area.
(AFP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 29, China executed 12
people today, including a man who bombed a local tax office. Liu
Zhuiheng had been convicted and sentenced to death for detonating
explosives outside a tax office in Changsha city in Hunan province
in July, 2010. The attack left 4 people killed and 17 others
wounded.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 30, Chinese
prosecutors in the eastern city of Xiamen indicted Lai Changxing for
allegedly masterminding a network that smuggled everything from
cigarettes to cars and oil and bribed dozens of government workers
between 1996 and 1999. Lai became China's most-wanted man after he
fled to Canada in 1999 and fought extradition for 12 years until he
was deported in July.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, China’s food
safety regulator in Shenzhen said it had found excessive levels of
aflatoxin in peanuts sold in three stores, and in cooking oil in
four restaurants.
(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 30, In northern China
Muslim villagers in Taoshan, Ningxia region, clashed with police
after their mosque was demolished. At least 2 people were killed.
The Hui villagers were part of a Mandarin speaking community of some
10 million descended from Silk Road traders.
(SFC, 1/4/12, p.A4)
2011 Dec 30, The Republic of
Congo said it has banned 69 Chinese fishing boats from its waters
for illicit activities.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 31, In China a bus
driver who contracted the bird flu virus died Shenzhen. This was the
nation's first reported human case of the deadly disease in 18
months.
(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dan Breznitz and Michael
Murphree authored “Run of the Red Queen: Government, Innovation,
Globalization, and Economic Growth in China."
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.73)
2011 Michael Dunne authored
“American Wheels, Chinese Roads: The Story of General Motors in
China."
(Econ, 5/26/12, p.67)
2011 Aaron Friedberg authored
“A Contest for Supremacy: China, America and the Struggle for
Mastery of Asia."
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.56)
2011 Henry Kissinger authored
“On China."
(Econ, 5/21/11, p.86)
2011 Liel Leibowitz authored
“Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to
School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization." It told the
story of the Chinese Educational Mission, which existed from 1872 to
1881.
(SSFC, 2/13/11, p.G4)
2011 Liao Yiwu, exiled Chinese
poet, published his memoir “For a Song and a Hundred Sons: A Poet’s
Journey Thjrough a Chinese Prison" in Taiwan and Germany. Earlier
versions were were seized by police in 1995 and 2001. It was
translated to english in 2013.
(SSFC, 7/7/13, p.F4)
2011 In China the Fushun
Traditional Culture School was founded by an ex-convict who had
served time for murder and was approved by local authorities as a
“public welfare organization."
(SSFC, 2/4/18, p.A7)
2011 The Chinese company
Megvii, an artificial intelligence firm, was founded and developed
face recognition technology. The name stands for mega vision.
(Econ, 9/9/17, p.59)
2011 In China the Zhihu
website, meaning “do you know", began operating as a copy of Quora,
an American site. By 2016 it was the country’s most popular
question-and-answer portal with 100 million active monthly users.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.40)
2011 In China Zhao Haibin, a
police chief in Guangdong province, was accused of owning 192
properties. The case came to light after he was reported by a
businessman who was involved in a dispute with the officer.
(Econ, 2/9/13,
p.46)(https://ethixbase.com/blogs/tag/zhao-haibin/)
2011 In China the city of
Yining became the first part of Xinjiang province to ban the wearing
of face-covering veils in public.
(Econ, 11/7/15, p.40)
2011 China overtook America as
the world’s biggest electricity producer.
(Econ, 1/5/13, p.54)
2011 Muddy Waters, an American
research firm, published a report labeling Sino-Forest, a
Canada-based company with timber assets in China, a
multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme. In 2016 the company faced fraud
charges.
(Econ, 5/14/16, p.65)
2011 The US passed legislation
forbidding NASA from cooperating with China or any Chinese company
and hosting official Chinese visitors at any NASA facility. The
legal language was inserted into a funding bill by Congressman Frank
Wolf, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice,
Science and Related Agencies.
(http://tinyurl.com/n568kkz)(Econ, 10/12/13,
p.95)
2012 Jan 3, China’s official
Xinhua news agency said the number of entertainment shows airing
during prime time every week had plunged to 38 from 126, in line
with an order the state broadcasting watchdog issued in October.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 3, In China 13 people
were killed in Hunan province when a truck crossed a highway divider
and crashed head-on into a bus traveling in the opposite direction.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In southern China a
bus went out of control and slipped from a snow-covered bridge,
killing at least 18 people in Guizhou province.
(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 4, Chinese
steelworkers began a 3-day strike at a state-controlled enterprise
in the Qingbaijiang district of Sichuan province. Workers managed to
get a small wage increase.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.21)
2012 Jan 4, British company
Everything Everywhere said it is launching a mobile virtual network
in Britain in partnership with telecoms giant China Telecom,
targeting Chinese residents and visitors.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 5, China’s state media
said Poyang Lake, the country’s largest freshwater lake, has shrunk
to its smallest size in years due to drought, endangering the
ecology in the area and fishermen's livelihoods.
(AFP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 6, China’s government
bowed to a vocal online campaign for a change in the way air quality
is measured in Beijing, one of the world's most polluted cities. The
Beijing Environmental Bureau said it would provide hourly updates of
PM2.5 measure ahead of the Lunar New Year, which starts on January
23, in response to the flood of public anger.
(AFP, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 6, In China a man was
fatally shot in the head shortly after withdrawing 200,000 yuan
($31,700) in cash from a bank in Nanjing. Zeng Kaigui, a one-time
policeman suspected in a series of slayings and robberies dating
back to 2004, was suspected in the fatal shooting.
(AP, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 6, In southwest China
two Tibetan men set themselves on fire near the restive Kirti
monastery, the 13th and 14th to hit Tibetan areas in less than a
year. An 18-year-old died in a hotel room while another man, aged
22, was being treated in hospital.
(AFP, 1/6/12)(AFP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 8, In China a monk
named Sopa (42) died after drinking kerosene and throwing it over
his body. His body exploded in pieces before police took it away in
Dari county in Qinghai province. Xinhua News Agency identified the
dead monk as Nyage Sonamdrugyu. The reason for the discrepancy in
identification was not known.
(AP, 1/9/12)
2012 Jan 9, The presidents of
China and South Korea agreed to work together to achieve peace and
stability on the Korean peninsula, in their first summit since Kim
Jong Il's death opened the chance for major changes in North Korea.
(AP, 1/9/12)
2012 Jan 11, It was announced
that China and India are signing on as partners in the Thirty Meter
Telescope when it’s built on the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea
volcano in 2018.
(SFC, 1/12/12, p.A6)
2012 Jan 13, Apple said it was
suspending sales of the new iPhone at its China stores after fans
desperate to get their hands on it fought with security and threw
eggs at an official outlet.
(AFP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 14, In southwest China
a Tibetan set himself on fire and police fired on hundreds of
locals, possibly killing one, as they attempted to rescue the burned
body from officials near the restive Kirti monastery in Sichuan
province's Aba county. This was the 16th self-immolation attempt in
Tibetan areas inside a year and the fourth in nine days.
(AFP, 1/14/12)
2012 Jan 14, China agreed to
provide Nepal with $119 million in aid during a surprise visit to
the tiny Himalayan nation by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
(AP, 1/14/12)
2012 Jan 14, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao held talks with Saudi officials in Riyadh on the first
stop of a Gulf tour, as tensions over Iran's nuclear program sparked
fears of major oil supply disruptions.
(AFP, 1/15/12)
2012 Jan 17, In China Zhu Yufu
(58), a writer and democracy advocate, was charged with subversion
in Hangzhou for writing a poem urging citizens to gather to defend
their freedoms. In February Yufu was sentenced to 7 years in prison.
(SFC, 1/18/12, p.A3)(SFC, 2/11/12, p.A2)
2012 Jan 17, In China around
1,000 people from Wanggang village gathered in front of a government
building in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, in protest against Li
Zhihang, their allegedly corrupt Communist Party secretary. The next
morning officials said they would probe their case and would
announce the result of the investigation by February 19.
(AFP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 17, Britain said it
has signed deals with China to research stem cells and smart grids,
after Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne held 2-day talks
with officials in Beijing aimed at attracting investment.
(AFP, 1/17/12)
2012 Jan 18, A Chinese court in
Wuhan city sentenced democracy activist Li Tie to 10 years
imprisonment for subversion. A provincial court upheld the death
sentence against Wu Ying (31), one of China’s wealthiest
businesswomen. She was convicted on Dec 18, 2009, of illegal fund
raising.
(SFC, 1/19/12, p.A2)(Econ, 1/28/12, p.45)
2012 Jan 21, In China Beijing
environmental authorities started releasing more detailed air
quality data that may better reflect how bad the Chinese capital's
air pollution is.
(AP, 1/21/12)
2012 Jan 22, In southwest China
a man who contracted the bird flu virus died, the second human death
from the virulent disease in the country in just under a month.
(AFP, 1/22/12)
2012 Jan 23, A billion-plus
Asians welcomed the Year of the Dragon with a cacophony of
fireworks, hoping the mightiest sign in the Chinese zodiac will
usher in the wealth and power it represents.
(AFP, 1/23/12)
2012 Jan 23, In China Police
opened fire on Tibetans protesting against religious repression,
killing at least one person and injuring more than 30 others in
Sichuan province's Luhuo county.
(AFP, 1/23/12)
2012 Jan 24, In China two
Tibetans were reportedly killed and several more were wounded when
security forces opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Seda county
in politically sensitive Ganzi prefecture in Sichuan province.
(AP, 1/25/12)
2012 Jan 27, Chinese security
forces arrested a youth named Tarpa after he posted a leaflet in
Sichuan's Aba prefecture "stating that the reason for the
self-immolation protests was that Tibet must be free and the Dalai
Lama must return, and until these demands were met, there was no way
for the campaign to be stopped." Security forces fired at Tibetans
trying to stop Tarpa’s arrest, killing one and wounding several
others, in the third reported deadly clash in a politically
sensitive Tibetan region in a week.
(AP, 1/27/12)
2012 Jan 28, In Ethiopia
African leaders inaugurated a new $200 million headquarters that was
funded by China as a gift. They said the massive complex in Addis
Ababa is a symbol of China's rapidly changing role in Africa.
(AP, 1/28/12)
2012 Jan 28, In Sudan's South
Kordofan state rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement-North (SPLM-N) captured 29 Chinese workers after a battle
with government forces. Nine members of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF)
were also being held. On Feb 7 all 29 Chinese workers were released
and flown to Kenya. Sudan's foreign ministry spokesman said that in
addition to the 29 freed Chinese, 17 others had earlier been
"released" by the Sudan Armed Forces but one other Chinese died.
(AFP, 1/29/12)(AFP, 2/7/12)
2012 Jan 30, Sudanese officials
said the army has freed 14 Chinese road construction workers, part
of a group reportedly abducted by militants on Jan 28 in a remote
region in the country's south. China had an estimated 10,000 workers
in Sudan.
(AP, 1/30/12)(Econ, 1/21/12, SR p.35)
2012 Jan 30, The World Trade
Organization ruled that China’s policies to restrict exports of
several metals, like bauxite and magnesium, violated its WTO
obligations.
(Econ, 2/4/12, p.75)
2012 Jan 31, China said that it
has detained seven company executives after tons of industrial waste
including cadmium, a toxic metal, polluted some 200 miles of the
Longjiang river, threatening water supplies for millions of people.
Unnamed experts were quoted saying that the amount of illegally
released waste in the waterway was unprecedented at an estimated 20
tons.
(AFP, 1/31/12)(SSFC, 2/5/12, p.A6)
2012 Jan 31, Egyptian Bedouins
took 25 Chinese factory workers hostage in the northern Sinai
Peninsula. The group demanded the release of militants jailed for a
2005 bombing in Sharm el-Sheikh at the tip of the Egyptian Sinai.
All 25 workers were released by the next day.
(AFP, 1/31/12)(AFP, 2/1/12)
2012 Jan 31, South African
Airways launched non-stop flights to Beijing. China became South
Africa's top trade partner in 2009.
(AFP, 1/31/12)
2012 Feb 3, In southwestern
China an explosion at a coal mine killed 13 miners and injured six
at the Diaoyutai mine outside Yibin city in Sichuan province. One
miner remained missing.
(AP, 2/3/12)(AFP, 2/4/12)
2012 Feb 3, In China three
Tibetans set themselves alight in remote Phuhu village in the
southwestern province of Sichuan. One died and two others were
seriously hurt.
(AP, 2/5/12)
2012 Feb 4, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel wrapped up a 3-day visit to China where she tried to
reassure her hosts on the strength of the euro and Europe's ability
to overcome its debt crisis. She expressed regret that Chinese
police blocked a human rights lawyer from meeting her and said the
Communist government should have the confidence to allow dissent.
(AFP, 2/4/12)(AP, 2/4/12)
2012 Feb 4, In eastern China a
group of tourists visiting the Jinan Wildlife World had a narrow
escape after up to 8 Bengal tigers attacked their bus, puncturing
its tires and destroying the windscreen in Shandong province.
(AFP, 2/7/12)
2012 Feb 6, Chad announced it
was reopening a major oil refinery it had earlier ordered shut
because of a price dispute with its Chinese part-owners. The
Djarmaya refinery was ordered closed on January 19.
(AFP, 2/6/12)
2012 Feb 8, China and Canada
signed a series of deals to boost modest levels of bilateral trade
and finished negotiations on a foreign investment protection pact
after 18 years of talks.
(Reuters, 2/8/12)
2012 Feb 8, In China a Tibetan
(19) set himself on fire in Sichuan province's Aba prefecture. He
was a former monk from the local Kirti monastery, which has been the
scene of protests over recent months. The monk was taken to
hospital. Radio Free Asia said Tibetan protests erupted in two
counties in Qinghai province, with about 1,000 people marching in
each.
(AP, 2/9/12)
2012 Feb 8, In China reports
circulated that Wang Lijun, the deputy mayor overseeing security in
Chongqing, may have tried to defect to the US. He was reportedly
arrested in Chengdu and flown to Beijing for questioning.
(SFC, 2/9/12, p.A5)
2012 Feb 9, In China security
forces shot dead two Tibetan brothers who were on the run after
protesting against Chinese rule.
(AFP, 2/12/12)
2012 Feb 10, Chinese PM Wen
Jiabao pledged religious freedom and cultural protection in Tibet,
just hours after security forces reportedly killed two Tibetans who
protested China's rule.
(AFP, 2/10/12)
2012 Feb 10, In Hong Kong
mainland woman Xu Li (29) was charged in a magistrates' court for
her role as a "birth agent," the first prosecution of its kind as
the southern city cracks down on the practice.
(AFP, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 11, In China Tenzin
Choedron (Choedon), an 18-year-old nun, set herself on fire in
Sichuan province and later died, the latest in a spate of such
incidents among ethnic Tibetans protesting Beijing's rule.
(AFP, 2/12/12)
2012 Feb 11, Canada set the
seal on improving ties with China by agreeing to a 10-year loan for
two giant pandas, traditionally an indication of official approval
from Beijing.
(Reuters, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 14, China's Premier
Wen Jiabao said his country was ready to increase its participation
in efforts to resolve Europe's debt crisis, after meeting EU
president Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission president Jose
Manuel Barroso in Beijing.
(AFP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 14, Pres. Obama met
with Xi Jinping (58), China’s vice president. Jinping was expected
to become the next leader of China.
(Econ, 2/18/12, p.36)
2012 Feb 14, In South Korea
over one hundred people rallied near the Chinese Embassy to protest
China’s state security police for arresting dozens of North Korean
defectors who face torture, imprisonment and even death if returned
to their homeland.
(SFC, 2/15/12, p.A2)
2012 Feb 15, China's top
central banker expressed confidence in the euro and pledged to
continue buying European sovereign debt, as the Asian giant seeks to
shore up support for its biggest trading partner.
(AFP, 2/15/12)
2012 Feb 15, Chinese health
authorities and state media said 4 workers have died and about 30
have fallen ill from suspected glue poisoning that caused severe
nerve damage. The victims worked in Guangzhou city in shoe and bag
factories with poor ventilation, most of them illegal, and started
falling ill last year after handling poor quality glue.
(AFP, 2/15/12)
2012 Feb 15, In China 15 miners
were killed and three others hurt when the mine carriages they were
in plunged into a tunnel in Hunan province.
(AP, 2/16/12)(AFP, 3/23/12)
2012 Feb 16, In Iowa China's
leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping reached out to heartland America with
billions of dollars in farm deals.
(AP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 16, An animal
protection group said 4 Chinese nationals have been arrested in
Zimbabwe on cruelty charges after they cut up and ate rare
tortoises. The 4 men were found to have entered Zimbabwe illegally
and worked without permits in the small scale mining district of
Bikita. They awaited deportation.
(AFP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 17, In western China
Tibetan Buddhist monk Tamchoe Sangpo set himself on fire at Bongtak
monastery in Qinghai province amid a wave of such protests against
China's handling of the vast Tibetan areas it rules.
(AP, 2/18/12)
2012 Feb 18, A Chinese court
sentenced two top former Football Association officials to more than
a decade in jail, in a graft scandal that brought the football
league to its knees.
(AFP, 2/18/12)
2012 Feb 18, Syrian security
forces fired live rounds and tear gas at thousands of people
marching in a funeral procession that turned into a protest in
Damascus, killing at least one person. The Observatory said two
other people were killed, one in Homs who died from sniper fire and
another in the north, who was shot by security forces conducting
raids. Visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun called on all
parties to stop violence. Jamal Bish, a city councilor in Aleppo was
reported killed.
(AP, 2/18/12)(AFP, 2/19/12)
2012 Feb 20, China's Vice
President Xi Jinping bade farewell to Ireland after a three-day
visit during which Dublin sought to provide Beijing with a financial
foothold in the EU.
(AFP, 2/20/12)
2012 Feb 20, In northeastern
China an explosion at a steel plant killed 13 people and injured
another 17, in Liaoning province's Anshan city.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 21, A senior Tata
executive said India’s Tata Motors has selected a partner to build
an assembly plant for its luxury British car brands Jaguar and Land
Rover in China.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 22, China allegedly
used force to threaten 11 Vietnamese fishermen preventing them from
entering the Paracel islands to avoid a storm. A Vietnamese report
on Feb 29 said Chinese forces assaulted the fishermen and tried to
take their property.
(AP, 3/1/12)
2012 Feb 23, In China the
United States and North Korea resumed talks delayed by the death of
North Korea's longtime leader Kim Jong Il two months ago, with the
US envoy saying he and his counterpart covered US food aid and other
topics.
(AP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 27, South Korean
legislator Park Sun-Young (55), who has staged a week-long hunger
strike outside China's embassy, vowed to fast until death unless
Beijing ends its policy of repatriating North Korean refugees.
(AFP, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb 28, In China riots in
the volatile region of Xinjiang left at least 12 people dead.
(AFP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 28, In China an
explosion at a chemical plant near Shijiazhuang city, capital of
Hebei province, left 25 people dead and 46 injured.
(AFP, 3/4/12)
2012 Feb 28, In Pakistan a
Chinese woman was shot dead with a male companion in Peshawar. They
were killed by gunmen on motorbikes while walking in the Kohati
bazaar.
(AFP, 2/28/12)
2012 Feb 29, China's cabinet
ordered new air-quality standards to measure the most dangerous form
of particulate matter, following a public outcry over worsening air
pollution.
(AFP, 2/29/12)
2012 Feb 29, The Philippines
said it would push ahead with plans to expand oil and gas
exploration in waters also claimed by China, as it brushed off a
fresh Chinese warning.
(AFP, 2/29/12)
2012 Feb, China swung into a
huge trade deficit of $31.48 billion this month, as the West's
economic troubles hit the world's second-largest economy.
(AFP, 3/9/12)
2012 Feb, China increased
access to US films from 20 to 34 per year, but only if the
additional 14 are shown in 3D or large format.
(Econ, 4/28/12, p.50)
2012 Mar 1, Chinese state press
said Chen Quanguo, China’s top leader in Tibet, has ordered
increased controls over the Internet and mobile phones, ahead of
upcoming sensitive anniversaries in the restive region.
(AFP, 3/1/12)
2012 Mar 2, US authorities
charged 29 people who were conspiring to illegally import
counterfeit luxury fashion goods and deadly drugs worth hundreds of
millions of dollars from China and Taiwan. Some 20 arrests took
place in New Jersey, Florida, Texas, New York, and in the
Philippines, as part of an international investigation.
(AFP, 3/2/12)
2012 Mar 3, In northwestern
China a Tibetan teenager died after setting herself on fire. The
girl, said to be aged between 16 and 19 years old, set herself
alight at a vegetable market in Maqu county in Gansu province.
(AFP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 3, Chinese forces
intercepted two Vietnamese fishing boats near the disputed Paracel
islands. The Chinese soon demanded 70,000 yuan ($11,000) for the
release of 21 fishermen.
(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 4, China said its
military spending would top $100 billion in 2012, a double-digit
increase on last year. The figure marks a slowdown from 2011 when
spending rose by 12.7%.
(AFP, 3/4/12)
2012 Mar 4, In China a widowed
mother of four died after setting herself on fire near the restive
Kirti monastery in Aba county in Sichuan province, taking to at
least 25 the number of such incidents in Tibetan-inhabited areas in
the past year.
(AFP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 5, China lowered its
growth target to 7.5%.
(Econ, 3/10/12, p.83)
2012 Mar 5, China said it will
send a new envoy to Syria and is ready to support international aid
under the auspices of the United Nations or another "impartial"
organization.
(AFP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 6, Chinese rights
activist Liu Ping (47) went missing after she was detained by
security officials in Beijing. She had angered officials with her
advocacy of free elections as well as support of labor and women’s
rights.
(SFC, 3/20/12, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/7jom58l)
2012 Mar 10, In southwest China
a Tibetan teenager set himself on fire and died on the sensitive
anniversary of the Dalai Lama's flight into exile in 1959. The
18-year-old monk was from the restive Kirti Monastery and
self-immolated in Aba town in Sichuan province.
(AFP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 13, Japan said it had
won approval from Beijing to buy Chinese government bonds for the
first time, in a move aimed at binding Asia's two biggest economies
and traditional rivals closer together.
(AFP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 13, Japan, the EU and
the US brought a case to the World Trade Organization (WTO) alleging
that China was exporting too little of tungsten, molybdenum and 17
rare earth elements.
(Econ, 3/17/12, p.86)
2012 Mar 14, China national
legislature enacted new safeguards for criminal suspects in
amendments for the revised Criminal Procedure Law. The legislature
upheld the right of police to hold certain suspects in secret
residential locations for up to 6 months. Nearly 8% of the delegates
abstained or voted against the legislation.
(SFC, 3/15/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 15, In China Bo Xilai
(62), the Communist Party secretary in Chongqing, was removed from
his post. Critics had said his anti-corruption had parallels with
the Cultural Revolution that gripped China from 1966-1976.
(SFC, 3/16/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 15, In China Xu Ming,
one of the richest people in China, was detained by a powerful body
which investigates corruption within the ranks of the ruling
Communist party. His company Shide Group sponsors a Chinese football
club.
(AFP, 4/3/12)
2012 Mar 16, In southwestern
China Lobsang Tsultrim (20), a Tibetan monk, set himself on fire
before being beaten and dragged away by Chinese security forces by
the Kirti monastery, Sichuan province.
(AFP, 3/16/12)(AFP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 17, In China Tibetan
farmer Sonam Thargyal (44) fastened cotton padding to his body and
doused himself with kerosene before setting himself on fire in
Tongren, a monastery town in western China's Qinghai province. He
had been close friends with a monk who survived a self-immolation
attempt on March 14, also in Tongren. The monk, Jamyang Palden, was
believed to be alive but critically injured.
(AP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 18, In China Ling Gu,
the son of a loyal aide to President Hu Jintao, was killed in a
Ferrari accident which initially garnered only minimal coverage in
China's state media. Two young women were also injured. A report on
Sep 3 said Ling was half-naked when the crash occurred and his two
passengers were naked or half-dressed, suggesting they had been
involved in some kind of high-speed sex game. Ling Jihua made a
botched attempt to cover-up the incident. His youngest brother Ling
Wancheng, director of the Communist party’s General Office, later
fled to the US.
(AP, 9/4/12)(SFC, 8/4/15, p.A10)
2012 Mar 19, In China Lobsang
Tsultrim (20), a Tibetan Buddhist monk, died in detention. He set
himself on fire on March 16 in Aba town, a flashpoint for such
protests.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 21, The Chinese
government said that lawyers are now required to swear allegiance to
the Communist Party, a move criticized by prominent human rights
lawyers who have defended the authoritarian government's critics.
(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 22, China said it will
abolish the transplanting of organs from executed prisoners within
five years and try to spur more citizens to donate.
(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 22, In China 17 miners
were trapped in a northeast colliery following a gas blast that left
five dead in Liaoning province. Last week, 13 people died after a
capsule plunged into a pit at an iron ore mine in eastern China
after a steel rope holding it broke.
(AFP, 3/23/12)
2012 Mar 23, In China Li
Mengnan (17) randomly attacked medical staff with a fruit knife
after accusing a doctor of refusing to provide treatment for a
chronic spinal condition. He killed the intern, Wang Hao (28), and
injured three others before trying to kill himself. On Oct 19
Mengnan was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 10/19/12)
2012 Mar 26, In India Tibetan
exile Jamphel Yeshi lit himself on fire and ran shouting through a
demonstration in New Delhi, just ahead of a visit by China's
president. Yeshi sustained burns on 98 percent of his body and his
condition was critical. Jamphel Yeshi died on March 28.
(AP, 3/26/12)(AFP, 3/28/12)
2012 Mar 29, China executed
three arsonists held responsible for the deadly May 1, 2012, hotel
fire, that killed 11 people and injured more than 30 others.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 30, In China two
Tibetan monks, identified as Tenpa Darjey and Chimey Palden, set
themselves on fire in the western city of Maerkang in the latest in
a wave of self-immolations protesting against Chinese rule.
(AP, 3/31/12)
2012 Mar 31, China’s official
Xinhua news agency said authorities have closed 16 websites for
spreading rumors of "military vehicles entering Beijing and
something wrong going on there. China made a string of arrests and
punished two popular microblogs after rumors of a coup linked to a
major scandal that brought down a top politician.
(AFP, 3/31/12)
2012 Mar 31, China opened the
record breaking 4,000-ft-long Aizhai Bridge in Hunan province.
Construction began in October 2007. It is the world's highest and
longest tunnel-to-tunnel bridge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aizhai_Bridge)
2012 Apr 1, Taiwan said it will
double its quota of independent Chinese tourists to allow up to
1,000 visitors a day, effective April 28, less than a year after
lifting a ban on solo travel from the mainland.
(AFP, 4/1/12)
2012 Apr 2, China International
Mining Group Corporation said it will invest $21.2 million (€15.8
million) to restart the Bindura Nickel Corporation's Trojan mine in
Zimbabwe, which closed in 2008 during the country’s political
turmoil.
(AFP, 4/2/12)
2012 Apr 4, China's state media
reported that Premier Wen Jiabao has called for the break-up of a
banking "monopoly" on lending that has squeezed private businesses
as the global economy slows.
(AFP, 4/4/12)
2012 Apr 6, China’s Xinhua News
Agency said authorities have indicted five people in central China
for involvement in illegal organ trading after a teenager sold one
of his kidneys to buy an iPhone and an iPad.
(AP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 6, Two Chinese
political websites, Mao Flag and Utopia, said they had been ordered
by authorities to shut for a month for criticizing state leaders,
the latest move in a broad government crackdown on the Internet.
(AFP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 6, A Chinese cargo
ship was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Oman, not far off the
south of Iran. The Xianghuamen, owned by Yuanyang shipping company,
was sailing with a crew of 28. Iran’s navy rescued the 28 crew
members and detained 9 Somali pirates.
(AFP, 4/6/12)(AP, 4/6/12)
2012 Apr 6, Chinese dissident
Fang Lizhi (76), a key figure in the pro-democracy movement behind
the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, died in the United States.
(AFP, 4/7/12)
2012 Apr 9, China’s Supreme
People's Court clarified and tightened rules governing forced land
expropriations in a bid to "protect the public interest and
guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of expropriated home
owners."
(AFP, 4/10/12)
2012 Apr 10, China announced
that Bo Xilai was being suspended from the Communist Party’s
Politburo and Central Committee, and that his wife, Gu Kailai, was a
suspect in the death of Briton Neil Heywood last November.
(SFC, 4/11/12, p.A3)
2012 Apr 10, A Chinese court
sentenced disabled activist Ni Yulan and her husband to jail for
"provoking trouble," a year after the couple were detained during a
widespread crackdown on dissent. Ni and Dong, who have long helped
victims of government-backed land grabs in China, were detained in
April last year.
(AFP, 4/10/12)
2012 Apr 10, China's 3 top
Internet portals pledged to work with the government to banish
online rumors, as jittery authorities cracked down on the web
following widespread rumors of a coup.
(AFP, 4/10/12)
2012 Apr 10, A Philippines
warship found Chinese fishing boats inside the Scarborough shoal
with an illegal haul of giant clams, coral and live sharks. Two
Chinese civilian patrol boats blocked the mouth of the shoal to stop
the Philippines navy from arresting the fisherman.
(Econ, 4/28/12, p.44)
2012 Apr 12, China deployed a
third ship in an area of the disputed South China Sea where a tense
standoff with Philippine vessels has dragged on, sparking alarm in
Manila. On April 10 a Philippine warship attempted to arrest several
Chinese fishermen accused of illegal entry and poaching, but was
prevented by the arrival of two Chinese surveillance ships.
(AP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 12, China’s state
media said 42 websites have been closed and more than 210,000 posts
deleted since mid-March in a crackdown on online "rumors", as a
major political scandal rocked the country.
(AFP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 13, In China an
outbreak of H5N1 bird flu was discovered in Touying township of the
Ningxia region after over 23,000 chickens began showing symptoms.
Some 95,000 chickens were quickly culled.
(AFP, 4/18/12)
2012 Apr 16, In San Francisco
the annual Goldman Environmental Prizes were presented 6
individuals. They included Sofia Gatica of Argentina work on
diseases related to agrochemicals; Caroline Canon of Alaska for her
village efforts against oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean; Ma Jun of
China for his efforts on air and water violations by major
manufacturers; Ikal Angelei of Kenya for her efforts to protect Lake
Turkana; Evgenia Chirikova of Russia for her efforts to protect the
Khimki Forest; and Father Edwin Gariguez of the Philippines for
advocating against mining developments on indigenous lands.
(SFC, 4/16/12, p.A10)
2012 Apr 19, The US military
said 2 ethnic Uighur men from western China, held for almost a
decade without charge at Guantanamo Bay, have been resettled in El
Salvador.
(SFC, 4/20/12, p.A2)
2012 Apr 20, China signed
accords on energy cooperation and the Arctic in Iceland as Premier
Wen Jiabao started a tour of northern Europe that will focus on
Chinese investment in a continent eager for funds and to trade with
the rising world power.
(Reuters, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 20, North
Carolina-based Boxun.com was forced to move to a new web hosting
service after its previous host said the attacks were threatening
its entire business. The website has reported extensively on China's
biggest political turmoil in years, underscoring the pivotal role
the Internet has played in the unfolding scandal.
(AP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 20, Hackers claiming
to come from China defaced the website of the Philippines' top
university to assert their country's claim over the hotly disputed
South China Sea.
(AFP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 22, China and Russia
launched their first joint naval exercises, with 6 days of war games
in the Yellow Sea that come amid tensions between China and its
Asian neighbors over territorial claims.
(AFP, 4/22/12)
2012 Apr 22, Chinese blind
lawyer Chen Guangcheng (40), one of the country’s best-known rights
activists, made a daring escape from house arrest in Shandong
province. By the end of the week he recorded a video detailing the
abuses he and his family have suffered and expressed serious
concerns for his wife and young son, still being held at the
family's home. Chen reportedly found refuge in the US Embassy.
(AFP, 4/27/12)(SFC, 4/28/12, p.A3)
2012 Apr 23, Chinese state
media said Guangdong party authorities have punished eight Wukan
officials for corruption following a three month inquiry, including
the previous Communist party chief, after their land grabs sparked
an unprecedented uprising.
(AFP, 4/23/12)
2012 Apr 23, Chinese state
media said police have arrested nine people and detained 54 others
in a crackdown on chromium-tainted gel capsules made from industrial
waste. On April 22 Xinhua News said that police have seized 77
million gel capsules and shuttered 80 production lines in Hebei
province.
(AP, 4/23/12)
2012 Apr 25, South Sudan freed
14 Sudanese prisoners of war as a "goodwill gesture" despite weeks
of fierce fighting along their contested border. South Sudan’s Pres.
Kiir cut short his visit to China amid violence with Sudan, as
Beijing announced plans to send a peace envoy.
(AFP, 4/25/12)
2012 Apr 27, In China the
nephew of activist Chen Guangcheng defended himself from intruders
who broke into the family home in eastern Shandong province
apparently searching for his uncle following his April 22 dramatic
escape from house arrest. The nephew later faced a charge of
"intentional murder," despite the fact no one died in the encounter.
(AFP, 5/11/12)
2012 Apr 28, South Sudan
government spokesman Barnaba Mariel Benjamin said China has agreed
to loan the country eight billion dollars for infrastructure
development.
(AFP, 4/28/12)
2012 Apr, In China Wang
Guoqiang, the communist party chief of Fengcheng, Liaoning province,
left the country with as much as 200 million yuan ($32 million). He
allegedly fled to the United States amid a party investigation into
a company run by a former classmate which had dealings with the
city.
(AFP, 8/29/12)
2012 Apr, Chinese deputy party
chief Zhi Haijie set up a new surveillance system in Lhasa, Tibet.
Officials called it a “grid system of social management."
(Econ, 6/22/13, p.50)
2012 May 2, Chinese activist
Chen Guangcheng left the US embassy, where he had sought protection
after fleeing house arrest, following a deal with Beijing on his
safety, US officials said. Beijing pledged that the legal campaigner
and his family would be treated "humanely" and moved to a safe
place, hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in
China for pre-arranged talks.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 3, Chinese police
detained and beat two supporters of Chen Guangcheng at the hospital
where the blind activist was being treated.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 3, China's Bright Food
said it is buying 60% of Weetabix from British owner Lion Capital in
a deal valuing the breakfast cereal giant at Ł1.2 billion (1.48
billion euros, $1.94 billion).
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 3, The Philippine
military accused China of sending more ships to the disputed
Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, describing the move as an
insult that would further inflame tensions.
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 4, The United States
said that China had indicated it would let blind activist Chen
Guangcheng and his family leave the country soon, raising hopes of a
resolution to a damaging diplomatic crisis.
(AFP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 6, Chinese activist
Chen Guangcheng, isolated in a Beijing hospital, appealed for
official help to leave the country after a US-brokered diplomatic
solution paved the way for his departure. Chen has been offered a
fellowship from New York University.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 7, South Korean
officials said they have seized thousands of smuggled drug capsules
filled with powdered flesh from dead babies. The capsules were made
in northeastern China from babies whose bodies were chopped into
small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder.
(AP, 5/7/12)
2012 May 8, A North Korean boat
hijacked three boats with 29 Chinese fishermen on board and demanded
1.2 million yuan ($190,000) for their release. The fisherman were
freed May 20 after being held for 13 days.
(AP, 5/17/12)(AFP, 5/21/12)
2012 May 8, Qatar-based
Al-Jazeera said it has shut its English-language bureau in China
after its correspondent became the first foreign journalist to be
expelled from the country since 1998. Beijing's refusal to renew the
visa of US citizen Melissa Chan sparked anger among press groups,
which linked the decision to a documentary by the international news
channel on forced prison labor in China.
(AFP, 5/8/12)
2012 May 9, The United States
opened its banking market to China's biggest bank ICBC, for the
first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese
state-controlled company.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 10, In northwestern
China at least 44 people were killed when a brief but violent
hailstorm and torrential rain swept through a mountainous region of
Gansu province. 26 people remained missing.
(AFP, 5/13/12)(SFC, 5/14/12, p.A2)
2012 May 13, Leaders of China,
Japan and South Korea, during their 5th annual trilateral summit,
said they will work together to calm tensions on the Korean
peninsula.
(SFC, 5/14/12, p.A2)
2012 May 14, The United States
consulate in Shanghai began issuing its own pollution statistics,
giving a much more pessimistic assessment of the city's air quality
than official Chinese data.
(AFP, 5/15/12)
2012 May 15, In China police in
Beijing launched a 100-day campaign urging citizens to report on
foreigners illegally living or working in the capital, after a
British man allegedly tried to rape a woman.
(AFP, 5/15/12)
2012 May 15, China began
issuing new versions of its passports to include electronic chips.
Inside the passports an outline of China printed in the upper left
corner includes Taiwan and the entire South China Sea hemmed in by
the dashes. This was later seen as a provocation since it would
require other nations to tacitly endorse those claims by affixing
their official seals to the documents.
(AP, 11/23/12)
2012 May 17, The US Commerce
Department imposed levies of between 31 and 250 percent on Chinese
producers and exporters after saying it had found they sold solar
cells in the United States at artificially low prices, known as
dumping.
(AFP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 18, Beijing blasted a
"protectionist" US decision to slap hefty anti-dumping duties on
Chinese solar cell makers.
(AFP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 18, In China Lai
Changxing was convicted and sentenced by the Intermediate People's
Court in Xiamen, the port city which was his base. On top of the
life sentence for smuggling and a concurrent 15-year sentence for
bribery, the court ordered all of Lai's personal property seized.
The court's verdict said the operation totaled $3.3 billion, evaded
$1.7 billion in duties and other taxes and bribed 64 officials
between 1996 and 1999.
(AP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 19, Blind activist
Chen Guangcheng and his family left China on a plane bound for the
United States to pursue studies at an American university.
(AFP, 5/19/12)
2012 May 23, NY-based Human
Rights Watch said a branch of Chinese city governments, set up to
monitor everything from unlicensed street vendors to unauthorized
construction, is rife with abuse of power, stoking already high
social tensions.
(AP, 5/23/12)
2012 May 25, Chinese media
reported that police in southwest China have detained a man
suspected of murdering 11 boys and young men, chopping up their
bodies and selling the flesh to unsuspecting consumers. Zhang
Yongming (56) was detained two weeks ago in his home village of
Nanmen in Yunnan and is being investigated over the murder of a
19-year-old man in late April and the disappearance of several
others. Yongming, a convicted murderer, was released from prison in
1997.
(AFP, 5/25/12)(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 25, In China Ya Weilin
(73), the father of a man killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square
crackdown, hanged himself in protest after two decades of failed
attempts to seek government redress. Ya's son Ya Aiguo (22) was shot
in the head by martial-law troops in Beijing after he had gone out
shopping with his girlfriend.
(AP, 5/28/12)
2012 May 27, Chinese
authorities said police have arrested Li Xingong, the former deputy
director of the party committee in Yongcheng city, Henan province,
on suspicion of raping at least 10 underage girls. The case has
sparked a storm of Internet anger.
(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 27, Two Tibetan men
set themselves on fire outside a temple in Lhasa and one died.
Xinhua named the dead man as Tobgye Tseten, from Gansu province. The
incident marked the first significant protest in Lhasa since riots
broke out there in 2008. Chinese security forces rounded up hundreds
of residents and pilgrims in the wake of the incident.
(AFP, 5/28/12)(AFP, 5/31/12)
2012 May 28, Chinese state
media said former railways minister Liu Zhijun will face prosecution
for alleged corruption, following reports he took bribes of more
than 800 million yuan ($127 million). The ruling party's
disciplinary watchdog said it had expelled Liu Zhijun from the party
and handed his case to judicial authorities for handling.
(AFP, 5/28/12)
2012 May 30, In China a woman,
identified as Rechok (33), set herself on fire outside a Buddhist
monastery in an ethnically Tibetan region of western Sichuan
province.
(AP, 5/31/12)
2012 Jun 1, China and Japan
started direct currency trading as Beijing marked another stage on
its journey to foster the yuan's use internationally in line with
its growing economic clout.
(AFP, 6/1/12)
2012 Jun 2, Hong Kong health
authorities urged the public not to panic after the southern Chinese
city reported its first human case of bird flu in 18 months in a
two-year-old boy.
(AFP, 6/2/12)
2012 Jun 2, In north China's
Shaanxi province authorities forced Feng Jianmei to abort her
7-month pregnancy because she was unable to pay a 40,000 yuan
($6,270) fine for exceeding China's "one-child" population control
policy. Graphic images of the abortion were later posted online
showing the bloody corpse of her baby and caused an uproar in the
country. On June 15 a deputy mayor visited Feng and her husband in
the hospital, apologized to them and said officials would be
suspended amid an investigation. In July the couple agreed to a
compensation settlement from local authorities for 70,000 yuan
($11,000).
(AFP, 6/13/12)(AP, 6/15/12)(AFP, 7/11/12)
2012 Jun 3, In China police
beat and detained political activists marking the 23rd anniversary
of the brutal crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy protests.
Officers used violence against activists in the southeast province
of Fujian and detained them. A day earlier over 30 people who came
to Beijing "to petition" were held and forced to return to their
home province.
(AFP, 6/3/12)
2012 Jun 5, China told foreign
embassies to stop publishing their own reports on air quality in the
country, escalating its objections to a popular US Embassy Twitter
feed that tracks pollution in smoggy Beijing.
(AP, 6/5/12)
2012 Jun 5, Chinese authorities
alerted foreign travel agencies that they would no longer be issuing
entry permits to Tibet.
(ABCNews, 6/7/12)
2012 Jun 6, In China 12
children were hurt in a clash at an Islamic school in the restive
Xinjiang region, amid an escalating crackdown on "illegal" religious
activities. The exiled World Uyghur Congress (WUC) group disputed
the government version of events, citing sources on the ground as
saying police tossed tear gas into the school.
(AFP, 6/6/12)
2012 Jun 6, In China ailing
Chinese labor activist Li Wangyang (62), imprisoned for two decades,
some of it doing hard labor, died in a hospital, reportedly hanging
himself one year after being released from jail.
(AP, 6/6/12)
2012 Jun 6, Russian Pres.
Vladimir Putin visited China and emphasized burgeoning military ties
on the second day of a visit to his nation's eastern neighbor.
(AP, 6/6/12)
2012 Jun 7, China cut its
benchmark lending rate by a quarter percentage point to 6.31 percent
for the first time since 2008 to support growth in its cooling
economy.
(AP, 6/7/12)
2012 Jun 7, Chinese President
Hu Jintao announced an SCO plan whereby China, Russia and four
Central Asian states would grant Afghanistan observer status in
their regional group. This was announced at the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization's annual summit in Beijing.
(AP, 6/7/12)
2012 Jun 8, China’s central
bank cut its benchmark deposit and lending rates to help stimulate
the economy.
(Econ, 6/16/12, p.81)
2012 Jun 9, China’s state media
reported that authorities have fired or disciplined 12 police
officers — including Jinning county police chief Da Qiming and
Jincheng township police chief Zhao Huiyun, who were sacked last
month, — for inadequately investigating a series of murders in
southwest China in which victims were dismembered and buried.
(AP, 6/9/12)
2012 Jun 11, China Post and
Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) simultaneously issued a
statement announcing that Tao Liming (d.2016), Chief Executive, and
Chen Hongping, Director of Banking Operations at PSBC, were
assisting the relevant authorities in the investigation of their
personal economic wrongdoings.
(http://tinyurl.com/grfet2w)(Econ, 7/23/16, p.61)
2012 Jun 11, In China young and
old residents of the metropolis of Wuhan were advised to stay
indoors after a thick haze blanketed the city of nine million
people. Xinhua described the haze as grey-yellow in color and said
it was seen in 7 cities in Hubei province, including Wuhan.
(AFP, 6/11/12)
2012 Jun 13, China jailed two
ex-chiefs of its football association, four former national team
players and two others, in the culmination of a major crackdown on
corruption in the scandal-plagued sport.
(AFP, 6/13/12)
2012 Jun 13, Chinese dairy
maker Yili started recalling batches of baby formula after
authorities found they contained high levels of mercury. The recall
covered baby formula produced from November 2011 to May 2012.
(AFP, 6/14/12)
2012 Jun 13, Cambodia arrested
French architect Patrick Devillers, with ties to disgraced Chinese
politician Bo Xilai, in a new twist to China's biggest political
scandal in decades. Devillers was released on July 17 and flew to
China voluntarily to help its investigation.
(AFP, 6/19/12)(AFP, 7/18/12)
2012 Jun 15, A manned Chinese
submersible set a new record for the country's deepest sea dive,
over 6,000 meters, showing Beijing's technological ambitions as it
also readies for its first manned space docking. The "Jiaolong"
craft dived over 19,685 feet into the Mariana Trench in the western
Pacific Ocean.
(AFP, 6/15/12)
2012 Jun 16, China launched its
most ambitious space mission yet carrying its first female astronaut
and two male colleagues on a Shenzhou 9 capsule in an attempt to
dock with an orbiting module and work on board for more than a week.
(AP, 6/16/12)
2012 Jun 18, Three Chinese
astronauts entered an orbiting module for the first time, in a key
step towards the nation's first space station.
(AFP, 6/18/12)
2012 Jun 20, In China 17 people
were killed and three seriously injured when a long-distance bus
overturned and plunged down a deep ravine in Fujian's Ningde city.
(AP, 6/20/12)
2012 Jun 20, In China Ngawang
Norphel (21) set himself on fire along with another Tibetan youth,
Tenzin Kaldrup, who died at the protest in Chendou county in the
western province of Qinghai. Norphel died of his burns on Aug 1.
(AFP, 8/2/12)
2012 Jun 21, China said it
summoned Vietnam's ambassador and strongly protested a law adopted
by the Vietnamese parliament that places the disputed Spratly and
Paracel islands under Hanoi's sovereignty. China also announced it
had elevated the administrative status of the Nansha (Spratly) and
Xisha (Paracel) islands from a county to a prefectural-level
district.
(AFP, 6/21/12)
2012 Jun 21, Chinese PM Wen
Jiabao held talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Jigmi Y. Thinley on
the sidelines of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio
De Janeiro. They agreed to establish diplomatic relations and
resolve a long-standing border dispute.
(AFP, 6/22/12)
2012 Jun 22, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao arrived in Uruguay, his first stop on a multi-nation
visit to South America.
(AFP, 6/22/12)
2012 Jun 24, A manned Chinese
submersible, the Jiaolong, broke through the 7,000-meter mark for a
new national deep water dive record in the Mariana Trench in the
western Pacific Ocean on its fourth dive since arriving in the area
earlier this month. The dive came on the same day China successfully
completed its first manual space docking.
(AFP, 6/24/12)
2012 Jun 24, The Philippines
alleged that a Chinese vessel accidentally rammed a local fishing
boat north of a disputed South China Sea shoal, killing one and
leaving four others missing. The fishing boat set out from the
northern coastal town of Bolinao, in Pangasinan province on June 18
and was reported to have sunk two days later.
(AFP, 6/24/12)
2012 Jun 25, In China scores of
people were injured when police in Shaxi township in Guangdong
province broke up clashes between migrant workers from Sichuan
province and the local population in the latest unrest to hit the
nation.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 25, In Argentina
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met President Cristina Fernandez in
Buenos Aires as part of a South American tour that included visits
to Brazil and Uruguay and will end in Chile this week. Wen said the
Asian giant is interested in a possible free-trade deal with the
Mercosur regional trade bloc.
(AP, 6/25/12)
2012 Jun 26, In China the
Chongqing municipal People's Congress accepted the resignation of
Wang Lijun from the National People's Congress. Wang had launched
the downfall of his former boss Bo Xilai when he fled to a US
consulate in February.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 26, China executed
four convicted drug traffickers and sentenced at least 15 others to
death as the nation marked global anti-drug day.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 28, Cameroon and China
signed a large infrastructure deal that will see Beijing lend the
African country €368 million to build its first new motorway since
independence in 1960.
(AFP, 6/28/12)
2012 Jun 28, Amnesty
International said both South Sudan's army and rebel groups are
using weapons imported from China, Ukraine and neighboring Sudan in
fighting that has claimed dozens of civilian lives. Amnesty said the
army was using Ukrainian-supplied T-72 battle tanks and that the
rebel SSLA laid Chinese-made anti-vehicle mines and were firing
Sudanese-made ammunition.
(AFP, 6/28/12)
2012 Jun 29, Chinese President
Hu Jintao urged Hong Kong's restive people to embrace the motherland
as he visited the financial citadel for the 15th anniversary of its
return to rule by Beijing.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 29, China's first
female astronaut, Liu Yang (33), and two other crew members emerged
smiling from the Shenzhou 9 capsule that returned safely to Earth
from a 13-day mission to an orbiting module that is a prototype for
a future space station.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 29, In China
Passengers and crew foiled an alleged hijacking attempt by six
people on a plane in the far-western Xinjiang region. Local sources
said that the plane turned back after Uighurs and Hans began
fighting after a disagreement over seat assignments.
(AP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 29, In southern China
a tanker truck filled with gasoline collided with a truck, setting
off an explosion and a massive fire that left 20 people dead and 14
others hurt.
(AP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jun 30, China’s Civil
Affairs Ministry said at least 50 people have been killed from
mudslides in the south. Another 42 people were missing.
(SSFC, 7/1/12, p.A6)
2012 Jun 30, Hong Kong police
used pepper spray to disperse crowds demonstrating against Chinese
President Hu Jintao, ahead of the 15th anniversary of the
territory's handover amid tight security.
(AFP, 6/30/12)
2012 Jul 1, Hong Kong's biggest
protest for nearly a decade packed the former British colony's
streets in a defiant reception for its new leader and a show of
popular anger after 15 years of Chinese rule. The vast rally came
after Leung Chun-ying, a millionaire property consultant seen as
close to China's communist authorities, was sworn in as chief
executive in front of Chinese President Hu Jintao -- who had his
speech interrupted.
(AFP, 7/1/12)
2012 Jul 2, China's state media
reported that the booming southern city of Guangzhou has imposed a
cap on the number of cars allowed to be sold in an effort to curb
worsening traffic and pollution. It became the third Chinese city,
after Beijing and Guiyang, to introduce registration plate limits in
an effort to combat the escalating number of cars on China's roads.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 2, In China the High
Court of the southern province of Guangdong said Apple has paid $60
million to end a dispute with Shenzhen Proview Technology over who
could use the iPad name in China, giving the US tech giant more
certainty in selling its tablet computer in the Chinese market.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 3, Chinese police
clashed for a second day with protesters in Shifang, who stopped the
construction of a heavy metals factory over environmental concerns.
Authorities bowed to violent protests and cancelled plans to build
the controversial metals factory.
(AFP, 7/3/12)(AFP, 7/4/12)
2012 Jul 4, China’s giant and
controversial Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River started working
at full capacity as the last of its 32 generators went into
operation.
(AFP, 7/4/12)
2012 Jul 4, In China a coal
mine in Hunan province flooded trapping 16 miners. Rescue workers
pulled 8 miners out of the coal mine in Leiyang city on July 8, but
another 3 were believed to be still trapped.
(AFP, 7/5/12)(AFP, 7/8/12)(SFC, 7/9/12, p.A2)
2012 Jul 5, China pledged
financial aid to Cuba as it undertakes historic economic reforms,
promising visiting President Raul Castro a new credit line as well
as help in health care and technology.
(AFP, 7/5/12)
2012 Jul 6, China's state-run
Catholic church ordained Father Yue Fusheng as Bishop in the
northeastern city of Harbin in defiance of the Vatican.
(AFP, 7/6/12)
2012 Jul 7, In China the Rev.
Thaddeus Ma Daqin was consecrated as auxiliary bishop of Shanghai.
Ma announced that he would no longer work for the Chinese Patriotic
Catholic Association (CCPA), the government body that oversees
Catholics in China.
(SFC, 7/11/12, p.A6)(Economist, 9/8/12, p.42)
2012 Jul 8, China started work
on a 30-billion-yuan ($4.8-billion) tourism project in Lhasa city,
as it seeks to draw more travelers to the restive Tibet region.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 8, In China a gas
blast at a coal mine in the central province of Hunan killed seven
people, the latest in a string of accidents in the country's
dangerous mining industry.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 11, A Chinese ship,
bow number 560, on "routine patrol" became stranded near Half Moon
Shoal in the Spratly Islands, 60 nautical miles from the western
Philippine island of Palawan. The ship was refloated on July 15.
(AFP, 7/14/12)(AP, 7/15/12)
2012 Jul 11, New Zealand
launched a search for hundreds of Chinese students who arrived in
the country on fraudulently-obtained visas.
(AFP, 7/11/12)
2012 Jul 15, The Chinese
province of Hunan urged parents to seek immediate treatment for
children showing symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease after
official figures showed 112 people died from the illness last month.
(AFP, 7/15/12)
2012 Jul 18, China’s Ministry
of Health issued a new code of conduct banning medical staff from
prescribing unnecessary tests and the prescription of expensive
tests to boost income.
(Econ, 7/21/12, p.38)
2012 Jul 19, China said it
would offer $20 billion in new loans to Africa, underscoring the
relationship's growing importance, as Chinese companies agreed to
operate more responsibly on the resource-rich continent.
(AFP, 7/19/12)
2012 Jul 19, At the United
Nations permanent Security Council members Russia and China vetoed
resolutions on Syria for the third time in nine months.
(AFP, 7/19/12)
2012 Jul 20, A Beijing court
rejected dissident artist Ai Weiwei's lawsuit over a $2.4 million
fine imposed on his company for tax evasion. He said the case is
part of an intimidation campaign to stop him from criticizing the
government.
(AP, 7/20/12)
2012 Jul 21, In China at least
54 people died, including 37 in Beijing, during torrential
rainstorms which battered much of northern and southwestern China
over the last 24 hours. Heavy rainfall was expected to last for
another day. On July 26 the toll in Beijing was increased to 77.
(AFP, 7/21/12)(AP, 7/22/12)(AFP, 7/23/12)(AFP,
7/26/12)
2012 Jul 23, China’s
State-controlled CNOOC Ltd launched a takeover bids by agreeing to
buy Canadian oil producer Nexen Inc for $15.1 billion, forcing
Ottawa to decide whether national security concerns outweigh its
desire for foreign investment in its energy resources.
(Reuters, 7/23/12)
2012 Jul 23, China Petroleum
and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) agreed to purchase a 49% stake in the
North Sea assets of Talisman Energy, a Canadian firm, for $1.5
billion.
(Econ, 7/28/12, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/c9v3ypx)
2012 Jul 24, China upgraded
Sansha to prefecture level. The area was created by bureaucrats in
2007 to oversee and administer one million square miles of the South
China Sea. A new mayor declared Sansha, population of just 1,000, to
be China's newest municipality. The city administration is on tiny
Yongxing island, 350 km (220 miles) southeast from China's tropical
Hainan Island. Vietnam and China both claim the Paracels, of which
Yongxing, little more than half the size of Manhattan's Central
Park, is part.
(SFC, 7/24/13, p.A14)(Econ, 4/19/14, SR p.15)(AP,
7/24/12)
2012 Jul 24, In China Rosalia
Amarilla (31), a clothes vendor from Paraguay, stepped into the
international terminal of Beijing's cavernous main airport, wearing
more than 7 pounds (3 kg) of cocaine stuffed into her underwear and
bra. She was caught and later sentenced to death on drug trafficking
charges.
(AP, 1/24/15)
2012 Jul 26, China’s state news
agency said Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai, the former political
leader whose downfall sent shockwaves through China, has been
charged with murdering British businessman Neil Heywood last
November. Zhang Xiaojun, previously described as an orderly who
worked for the high-flying couple, will also be prosecuted on the
same charge.
(AFP, 7/26/12)
2012 Jul 28, Authorities in
eastern China dropped plans for a waste water discharge project
after thousands of protesters angry about pollution took to the
streets in Qidong, Jiangsu province. On Jan 30, 2013, 14 defendants
were prosecuted on charges of encouraging mass violence against
government buildings and intentionally damaging property in
Qidong.
(AP, 7/28/12)(AP, 1/31/13)
2012 Jul 28, In China serial
killer Zhang Yongming (56) was sentenced to death for murdering 11
people in Jinning county between 2008 and 2012.
(SSFC, 7/29/12, p.A6)
2012 Aug 1, It was reported
that authorities in China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang
have banned Muslim officials and students from fasting during
Ramadan, prompting an exiled rights group to warn of new violence.
(AFP, 8/1/12)
2012 Aug 1, In northeast China
a teenager (17) killed nine people and wounding four others in a
knife attack in Liaoning province's Xinbin county. Police nabbed him
as he was preparing to jump from a building in an apparent suicide
attempt.
(AFP, 8/2/12)
2012 Aug 2, Chinese state media
said courts in the restive Xinjiang region with a large Muslim
population have jailed 20 people for up to 15 years for using the
Internet to incite separatism and "holy war."
(AFP, 8/2/12)
2012 Aug 4, In southern Zambia
coal miners killed a Chinese mine manager and injured his colleague
in a riot over wages at the Collum Coal mine in Sinazongwe known for
tensions with the Chinese investor.
(AFP, 8/5/12)
2012 Aug 5, China’s Xinhua news
reported that authorities have detained nearly 2,000 people in
recent weeks as part of nationwide crackdown on the sale of
counterfeit drugs.
(SFC, 8/6/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 6, Macau police said
they have arrested 150 people in raids at casinos and hotels across
the Chinese territory following a spate of violence that raised
fears of a revival of gang warfare in the world's most lucrative
gambling market.
(AP, 8/6/12)
2012 Aug 7, In China Dolkar Kyi
(26) immolated herself at Tso monastery in Kanlho prefecture (Gannan
in Chinese), Gansu province, after chanting slogans calling for the
return of the Dalai Lama.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 7, DreamWorks
Animation said it plans to build a $3.2 billion "entertainment zone"
in Shanghai, as the US film giant seeks to bolster its presence in
the booming Chinese market.
(AFP, 8/7/12)
2012 Aug 8, In eastern China
Typhoon Haikui slammed into in Zhejiang province south of Shanghai,
the country's third in a week, killing at least two people and
causing more than $1 billion in damage.
(AFP, 8/8/12)
2012 Aug 9, In China Gu Kailai,
the wife of disgraced politician Bo Xilai, said she lured a British
businessman Neil Heywood to a hotel in the southwestern mega-city of
Chongqing, where she got him drunk and poisoned him.
(AP, 8/9/12)
2012 Aug 10, Four Chinese
police officers admitted in court to covering up the killing of a
British businessman to protect Gu Kailai, the wife of a senior
politician charged with his murder. The officers covered up her
involvement in Neil Heywood's death by "forging interview scripts
and hiding evidence," agreeing to say he died of excessive alcohol
consumption.
(AFP, 8/10/12)
2012 Aug 13, In far west China
a Kirti monk named Lungtok and another man, identified as Tashi, set
themselves alight in Sichuan province's Aba prefecture. Police beat
a Tibetan man to death during a clash that broke out after the two
Tibetans set themselves on fire.
(AP, 8/14/12)
2012 Aug 14, Chinese police
killed a fugitive armed robber and suspected serial killer dubbed
China's most dangerous man, ending a huge manhunt. Zhou Kehua (42),
suspected of killing nine people, spent eight years on the run
before being shot dead in Chongqing.
(AFP, 8/14/12)
2012 Aug 15, China and South
Korea pressed Japan to face up to its wartime past, as festering
territorial disputes flared and Asia marked the anniversary of
Tokyo's World War II surrender.
(AFP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 15, The Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission said that car importer Ateco
Automotive ordered dealers to stop selling certain vehicles by
China’s Great Wall Motor Co. and Chery Automobile after asbestos was
found inside engine and exhaust gaskets.
(AP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 15, Japan made 14
arrests after pro-China activists from Hong Kong landed on Senkaku
(aka Diaoyu) island at the center of a bitter territorial dispute.
On Aug 17 half of the group were put aboard a commercial airliner in
the Okinawan main city of Naha and arrived in Hong Kong. The other
half were taken back to their boat in Ishigaki.
(AFP, 8/15/12)(AFP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 18, In China Yu
Wenxia, Miss China, won the Miss World crown for 2012, defeating
more than 100 other hopefuls the world's biggest beauty pageant in
at a glittering ceremony in Ordos, a Chinese mining city on the edge
of the Gobi desert.
(AFP, 8/18/12)
2012 Aug 18, A flotilla of
boats carrying Japanese nationalists and lawmakers set sail for
islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and as Diaoyu in China, at the
heart of a vitriolic diplomatic row with China, despite warnings
from Beijing. China demanded that Japan cease actions "harming" its
territorial sovereignty.
(AFP, 8/18/12)
2012 Aug 19, Japanese
nationalists raised flags on an island at the heart of a corrosive
territorial row, sparking street protests in China and an angry
reaction from Beijing.
(AFP, 8/19/12)
2012 Aug 20, A Chinese court
handed Gu Kailai, the wife of disgraced political leader Bo Xilai, a
suspended death sentence for murder in a case that has rocked the
Communist party ahead of a 10-yearly power handover. Zhang Xiaojun,
an employee of the Bo family charged with helping Gu to poison
Heywood, was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in jail while
four police officers were convicted of attempting to cover up the
murder.
(AFP, 8/20/12)
2012 Aug 21, Sierra Leone said
it has signed a $15 million (12 million euro) loan agreement with
China for the installation of a fiber optic cable which will boost
Internet capabilities.
(AFP, 8/21/12)
2012 Aug 22, In China students
at Shanghai’s Sheshan Catholic seminary learned that classes would
be suspended indefinitely.
(Economist, 9/8/12, p.42)
2012 Aug 23, Philippine police
arrested more than 350 people over a major telephone scam that
swindled people out of millions of dollars in Taiwan and mainland
China.
(AFP, 8/23/12)
2012 Aug 24, In northeast China
3 people were killed and five injured when an eight-lane bridge
collapsed, only nine months after it opened in Harbin city.
(AFP, 8/24/12)
2012 Aug 24, In Myanmar Kachin
rebels said China has pushed thousands of Kachin refugees from
Yunnan province back across the border into a province wracked by
fighting between government troops and ethnic guerillas.
(AFP, 8/24/12)
2012 Aug 26, Chinese police
brought back 37 suspected Chinese gangsters from Angola. They had
been arrested for alleged crimes against other Chinese.
(SSFC, 8/26/12, p.A5)
2012 Aug 26, In northern China
a double-decker bus rammed into a tanker loaded with highly
flammable methanol, causing both vehicles to burst into flames and
killing 36 people close to the city of Yan'an in Shaanxi province.
In the southwest 11 people were killed and another was seriously
hurt when a van crashed into a truck Sichuan province.
(AP, 8/26/12)(AP, 8/27/12)
2012 Aug 27, In China Tibetans
Lobsang Kalsang (18), a Buddhist monk, and former monk Damchoek (17)
died in hospital after setting themselves on fire in Aba town.
(AFP, 8/28/12)
2012 Aug 27, In northwest China
a commercial van slammed into a truck, killing nine people.
(AP, 8/27/12)
2012 Aug 29, In China 154
miners were working underground at the Xiaojiawan coal mine in the
city of Panzhihua, Sichuan province, when a blast occurred. At least
43 people were killed and 3 remained trapped.
(AFP, 9/1/12)
2012 Aug 31, Chinese dissident
Wang Xiaoning (62), convicted based on evidence provided by US
Internet giant Yahoo!, was released from prison after serving a
10-year term for subversion.
(AFP, 8/31/12)
2012 Aug, Yao Ming, former
basketball star and a goodwill ambassador to WildAid, a nonprofit
dedicated to ending illegal wildlife trading, took a trip to Kenya,
where he spent several days interacting with wildlife officials and
seeing some of the effects of poaching. Ming accepted to work as an
ambassador for elephant conservationists hoping to convice the
Chinese public not to buy trinkets from African ivory.
(Econ, 11/3/12, p.48)(http://tinyurl.com/au6uxs5)
2012 Sep 4, Congo and China
signed accords worth 975 million euros as part of a project to
rebuild parts of the capital Brazzaville devastated by a deadly
munitions depot blast in early March.
(AFP, 9/4/12)
2012 Sep 4, Indian Defense
Minister A.K. Antony announced that joint military exercises between
India and China will be resumed after a four-year gap, after talks
in New Delhi with his Beijing counterpart.
(AFP, 9/4/12)
2012 Sep 5, China’s state media
reported that former Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun, whose flight
to a US consulate set off China's biggest political scandal in
years, has been charged with crimes including defection and bribe
taking.
(AP, 9/5/12)
2012 Sep 5, Japanese media
reports said Japan’s government has agreed to buy three of the five
privately owned islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in
Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, from the Kurihara family for 2.05
billion yen ($26 million). China responded by calling the reported
purchase "illegal and invalid."
(AP, 9/5/12)
2012 Sep 6, The European Union
launched an anti-dumping probe into Chinese solar panels after an
industry association claimed the products were being exported for
less than it costs to make them.
(AP, 9/6/12)
2012 Sep 7, In southwest China
twin earthquakes collapsed houses and triggered landslides in a
remote mountainous part of the borders of Guizhou and Yunnan
provinces, killing at least 81 people and injuring over 800.
(AP, 9/7/12)(AP, 9/8/12)(AP, 9/9/12)
2012 Sep 8, Hong Kong officials
backed down on plans to make students take Chinese patriotism
classes following a week of protests in the former British colony
sparked by fears of pro-Beijing "brainwashing."
(AP, 9/8/12)
2012 Sep 11, China announced
that for the first time it is allowing foreigners to apply for
positions as government officials in tourism, transportation,
health, commerce and information technology.
(www.globaltimes.cn/content/732631.shtml)
2012 Sep 11, Japan's Cabinet
formally announced that the government will purchase several
disputed islands from a private Japanese family. China sent two
patrol ships to the waters near the disputed islands in a show of
its “undisputable sovereignty."
(AP, 9/11/12)(SFC, 9/12/12, p.A6)
2012 Sep 12, Nigeria’s Finance
Ministry said China is offering it $1.1 billion in loans to help the
West African nation build airport terminals, a light rail line for
its capital city and communication system improvements.
(AP, 9/12/12)
2012 Sep 15, In China protests
against Japan over its control of disputed islands spread across
more than two dozen cities and turned violent at times, with
protesters burning Japanese flags and clashing with Chinese
paramilitary police at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing before order
was restored.
(AP, 9/15/12)
2012 Sep 17, The US government
lodged a trade complaint alleging that China unfairly subsidizes
car-part exports.
(Economist, 9/22/12, p.37)
2012 Sep 18, In China the trial
of former Chengdu police chief Wang Lijun ended. He confessed to
defection as well as 3 other charges including abuse of power,
taking bribes and bending the law for personal gain. On Sep 24 Lijun
was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(SFC, 9/19/12, p.A4)(AP, 9/24/12)
2012 Sep 28, China's communist
leadership expelled Bo Xilai (63) from the ruling party and sought
to bury him with charges ranging from corruption to sexual affairs,
aiming to sweep away their most damaging scandal in decades while
finally scheduling their long-awaited leadership transition for
November.
(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Sep 28, China launched a
second satellite built for Venezuela's government. The $140 million
remote sensing satellite soared into orbit atop a rocket from the
northwestern Chinese province of Gansu. It will provide images for
tasks such as mapping croplands, counter-drug efforts and monitoring
floods.
(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Sep 28, President Barack
Obama, citing national security risks, blocked a Chinese company
from owning four wind farm projects in northern Oregon near a Navy
base where the US military flies unmanned drones and
electronic-warfare planes on training missions.
(AP, 9/28/12)
2012 Oct 4, In China the
Tiantou Elementary School was buried when the hillside collapsed in
Zhenhe, a village in Yunnan province. 18 elementary school students
were killed. A 19th victim was found the next day.
(AP, 10/5/12)
2012 Oct 5, In China some 3-4
thousand workers at the Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou reportedly went
on strike over increased quality control standards. Foxconn, maker
of Apple’s iPhones, said the next day that production continued
without interruption.
(SSFC, 10/7/12, p.A5)
2012 Oct 8, A US House
Intelligence Committee warned in a report that American companies
should avoid doing business with China's two leading technology
firms because they pose a national security threat to the United
States. The panel said US regulators should block mergers and
acquisitions in this country by Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ZTE
Corp, among the world's leading suppliers of telecommunications gear
and mobile phones.
(AP, 10/8/12)
2012 Oct 11, Guan Moye
(b.1955), aka Mo Yan, became the first Chinese writer to win the
literature Nobel Prize. He is best known in the West for "Red
Sorghum", which portrays the hardships endured by farmers in the
early years of communist rule and was made in a film directed by
Zhang Yimou.
(AP, 10/12/12)(Econ, 10/20/12, p.42)
2012 Oct 13, In northwestern
China's Gansu province Tamdrin Dorjee (52) died at the scene near
Tsoe Monastery after setting himself on fire in protest of Chinese
rule. Free Tibet said the man is the grandfather of the 7th
Gungthang Rinpoche.
(AP, 10/13/12)
2012 Oct 21, In northwest China
Tibetan Lhamo Kyeb (27) called for the Dalai Lama’s return and died
after setting himself on fire near the Bhora monastery in Gansu
province.
(SFC, 10/22/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 23, In China Dorje
Rinchen (58), a Tibetan farmer, set himself on fire and died on the
main street in Xiahe near the Labrang Monastery.
(AP, 10/24/12)
2012 Oct 24, China approved new
nuclear power plants as part of plans to reduce reliance on oil and
coal, ending the moratorium it imposed to review safety in the wake
of Japan's Fukushima disaster last year.
(AP, 10/24/12)
2012 Oct 25, In China Tibetan
cousins Tsepo (20) and Tenzin (25) called for independence for Tibet
as they set fire to themselves in front of a government building in
their village in Biru county north of Lhasa.
(AP, 10/27/12)
2012 Oct 25, The NY Times
furnished evidence that family members of China’s PM Wen Jiabao has
accumulated some $2.7 billion during his decade in office.
(Econ, 11/3/12, p.45)
2012 Oct 26, China blocked
access to the NY Times website after the paper published an article
claiming the family of Premier Wen Jiabao has amassed assets worth
$2.7 billion through a web of investments, mostly accumulated after
he rose to high office in 2002.
(SFC, 10/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 26, Chinese lawmakers
stripped disgraced politician Bo Xilai of his last official
position, formally expelling him from the country's top legislature
and clearing the way for criminal proceedings against the
once-rising political star.
(AP, 10/26/12)
2012 Oct 26, In China thousands
of people in Ningbo city, Zhejiang province, clashed with police
during a protest over the proposed expansion of a petrochemical
factory that they fear would spew pollution and damage public
health.
(AP, 10/27/12)
2012 Oct 28, The local Chinese
government in Ningbo relented and agreed that a petrochemical
factory would not be expanded, only to see the protesters refuse to
halt their demonstration.
(AP, 10/28/12)
2012 Oct 31, Spanish
infrastructure company Ferrovial said an arm of China's sovereign
wealth fund has taken a 10 percent stake in the holding company
controlling Britain's largest airport Heathrow.
(AP, 10/31/12)
2012 Nov 4, In China a
closed-door meeting of the Central Committee ended. It endorsed
decisions to expel Bo and former Railways Minister Liu Zhijun from
the Communist Party and approved final preparations for the party's
upcoming congress, which opens Nov 8.
(AP, 11/4/12)
2012 Nov 4, In China a Tibetan
artist died after setting himself on fire in Tongren, Qinghai
province, in protest over Chinese rule.
(SFC, 11/5/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 7, In China 4
self-immolations took place. Three Tibetan teenage monks, aged
15-16, set themselves on fire outside a police office in southwest
Sichuan province. At least one died. A 23-year-old Tibetan nomadic
woman, Tamdin Tso, died after self-immolating in western Qinghai
province.
(AP, 11/8/12)
2012 Nov 7, In China Miyun
county police took away Internet blogger Zhai Xiaobing and seized
his computer. His Nov 5 tweet suggested the next movie in the "Final
Destination" horror franchise would be about the Great Hall of the
People collapsing on party delegates. A Miyun county police officer
later told The Associated Press that Zhai was being investigated for
"spreading terrorist information. Zhai's supporters call the
allegation absurd and more than 400 people signed an online petition
calling on police to release him.
(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Nov 8, China's ruling
communists opened a pivotal congress to initiate a power handover to
new leaders with a nod to their revolutionary past and a broad
promise of cleaner government while keeping off-stage the main even.
President Hu Jintao warned that unrestrained graft threatened to
topple the party's continued rule.
(AP, 11/8/12) (AP, 11/9/12)
2012 Nov 8, In China Jinpa
Gyatso, a Tibetan nomad in western Qinghai, died after setting
himself on fire.
(AP, 11/8/12)
2012 Nov 9, In China Wang Yang,
a senior Communist Party leader, said asset disclosure for Chinese
officials is likely to be slowly phased in over time, as the
government grapples with the fraught task of rooting out the
corruption that has fed widespread public anger.
(AP, 11/9/12)
2012 Nov 10, In northwest China
Gonpo Tsering, an 18-year-old Tibetan villager, died after setting
himself on fire in front of a monastery in the city of Hezuo. This
was the latest of a half-dozen such self-immolations reported during
the past week as the country's communist leadership undergoes a
once-a-decade transfer of power.
(AP, 11/10/12)
2012 Nov 12, In China a
24-year-old Tibetan man set himself on fire at a prayer ceremony in
Tongren county in western Qinghai province, becoming the seventh
person in six days to self-immolate in the region.
(AP, 11/12/12)
2012 Nov 13, In eastern China
Yao Defen (39), the world's tallest woman at 7 feet and 7 inches,
died at her home in Anhui province.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Nov 14, China’s President
Hu Jintao stepped aside as ruling party leader to clear the way for
Vice President Xi Jinping to take the helm as part of only the
second orderly transfer of power in 63 years of Communist rule.
(AP, 11/14/12)
2012 Nov 15, In China Xi
Jinping assumed the leadership as the ruling Communist Party
confronts slower economic growth, a public clamor to end corruption
and demands for change that threaten its hold on power. It was
revealed the Hu Jintao had stepped down not only as the Party’s
general secretary but also as head of China’s army.
(AP, 11/15/12)(Econ, 11/17/12, p.43)
2012 Nov 15, As China unveiled
its new leadership in Beijing with promises of a better life for
all, five runaway boys seeking shelter and warmth died of carbon
monoxide poisoning in a garbage bin in Bijie city, 25 km from their
home village of Caqiangyan.
(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Nov 18, In Cambodia Asean
leaders decided to ask China to start formal talks "as soon as
possible" on crafting a legally binding accord aimed at preventing
an outbreak of violence in disputed South China Sea territories.
ASEAN leaders also adopted a human rights declaration despite
last-minute calls for a postponement by critics.
(AP, 11/18/12)
2012 Nov 19, French oil firm
Total SA said it has sold a stake in an offshore oil field in
Nigeria for $2.5 billion to Chinese state oil company Sinopec Corp.
The cash deal requjired approval by Nigerian authorities.
(AP, 11/19/12)
2012 Nov 20, China’s Xinhua
News Agency reported that two Tibetan herdsmen had killed themselves
by setting themselves on fire in two separate incidents.
(AP, 11/23/12)
2012 Nov 22, In northwest China
Libong Tsering (19), a Tibetan man, set himself on fire in Qinghai
province. The latest death brings to at least 78 the number of
Tibetans who have self-immolated since 2009 in protest against
China's strict control over Tibet's Buddhist culture.
(AP, 11/23/12)
2012 Nov 24, In China a coal
mine accident in the southwest killed 18 workers and trapped five
more in the state-owned Xiangshui coalmine in Guizhou province.
(AP, 11/24/12)
2012 Nov 24, India began
issuing Chinese citizens visas embossed with maps of India showing
all territories claimed by New Delhi. The move was in response to
China’s newly revised passports that show disputed territory near
their shared border as part of China.
(SSFC, 11/25/12, p.A6)
2012 Nov 20, A 5-year-old sex
tape of an 18-year-old woman allegedly hired by developers to sleep
with a city official exploded on the Chinese Internet when
screenshots of it were uploaded by a Beijing-based former journalist
Zhu Ruifeng to his Hong Kong-registered website, an independent
online clearing house for corruption allegations.
(AP, 11/27/12)
2012 Nov 25, In China 4 more
self-immolations by ethnicTibetans were reported over the last two
days in Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai provinces. At least 20 students
were hospitalized after a protest turned violent in Qinghai
province's Hainan prefectur.
(AP, 11/27/12)
2012 Nov 29, A British
environmental group released a report saying China is helping to
propel a $4 billion trade in illegally harvested timber and spurring
the destruction of fragile ecosystems across the globe.
(SFC, 11/30/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov, In China Wang Qishan
took over the party’s Central Commission for Discipline
Inspection (CCDI), China's top anti-corruption authority.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.49)
2012 Dec 1, The Philippines
denounced Chinese plans to search ships sailing through what Beijing
says is its territory in the South Chine Sea.
(SSFC, 12/2/12, p.A5)
2012 Dec 4, In southern China a
fire in a clothing factory apparently caused by arson killed 14
people in Shantou city, Guangdong province. The victims were all
women aged 18-20. The next day suspect Liu Shuangyun said he started
the fire due a longtime dispute over less than $500 in unpaid wages.
(AP, 12/4/12)(SFC, 12/6/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 4, Vietnam said it
would begin new patrols in the South China Sea after it accused a
Chinese fishing boat of cutting a seismic cable attached to one of
its vessels exploring for oil and gas. India also said it would
consider sending navy vessels to protect its interests in the area.
(SFC, 12/5/12, p.A3)
2012 Dec 7, Canada’s PM Stephen
Harper approved China's biggest ever foreign takeover, a $15.1
billion bid by state-controlled CNOOC Ltd for energy company Nexen
Inc., but drew a line in the sand against future buys by state-owned
enterprises. He also approved a smaller deal for a Canadian gas
producer by Petronas, Malaysia’s state energy company.
(Reuters, 12/7/12)(Econ, 12/15/12, p.38)
2012 Dec 9, Chinese state media
said police have detained a monk and his nephew in Sichuan province
and accused them of instigating the self-immolations of eight ethnic
Tibetans on the instructions of the Dalai Lama and his followers.
(AP, 12/9/12)
2012 Dec 12, Chinese religious
officials said they have revoked the title of new Catholic Bishop Ma
Daqin in Shanghai. He outraged officials by immediately dropping out
of the government agency that oversees the country's officially
sanctioned church.
(AP, 12/12/12)
2012 Dec 14, China provided the
United Nations with detailed claims to waters in the East China Sea,
apparently padding out its legal argument in an ongoing territorial
dispute with Japan.
(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Dec 14, Chinese
authorities said they have arrested a legislator found to have four
wives. Li Junwen (43), an appointed representative from Xiaodian and
the Communist Party head of the village of Xiquan, Shanxi province,
also had 10 children, and had been detained on suspicion of document
forgery.
(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Dec 14, In China Min
Yongjun (36), a resident of Guangshan, burst into the home of an
elderly woman and stabbed her with a kitchen knife. He then took a
kitchen knife and hacked at more 22 children as they entered their
rural Chenpeng Village Primary School. On Dec 13, 2013, Yongjun was
sentenced to death.
(AP, 12/15/12)(AFP, 12/13/13)
2012 Dec 18, Chinese state
media reported that police have detained more than 500 people from a
fringe Christian group for spreading rumors about the world's
impending end on Dec 21.
(AP, 12/18/12)
2012 Dec 24, In China a van
carrying 15 children to kindergarten plunged into a roadside pond
killing 11 children in Guixi city, Jiangxi province.
(SFC, 12/25/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 25, In China 72
prominent Chinese scholars and lawyers released a petition urging
the country's new Communist Party leaders to undertake moderate
political reforms including separating the party from government.
(AP, 12/26/12)(Econ, 1/5/12, p.32)
2012 Dec 25, Argentina's coast
guard cutter Thompson fired warning shots at two Chinese trawlers,
blocking their escape into international waters. Ten tons of squid
were found in the holds of the Lu Rong Yu 6177 and 6178 after they
were hauled into port.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2012 Dec 26, China opened the
world's longest high-speed rail line, which runs 2,298 km (1,428
miles) from the country's capital in the north to Guangzhou, an
economic hub in the Pearl River delta in southern China.
(AP, 12/26/12)
2012 Dec 28, China’s national
legislature amended its law on the elderly to require that adult
children visit their aged parents "often" — or risk being sued by
them.
(AP, 12/28/12)
2012 Dec 28, China passed a new
law requiring real-name registration of internet subscribers.
(Econ, 1/5/13, p.33)
2012 Dec 28, In China an
overloaded minibus fell into a ravine killing 5 children and 5
adults in the Guangxi region.
(SSFC, 12/30/12, p.A6)
2012 James Fallows authored
“China Airborne," a look at China’s recent unprecedented
achievements and its inherent limitations.
(SSFC, 5/20/12, p.M5)
2012 China passed its first
national mental health law.
(Econ, 7/11/15, SR p.3)
2012 Chinese multinational
Dalian Wanda acquired AMC Theaters, an American cinema chain, for
$2.6 billion.
(Econ, 9/28/13, p.62)
2013 Jan 1, In China the
Southern Weekly of Guangdong province was forced to add a provided
commentary glorifying the Chinese Communist Party with its annual
new year editorial, which was intended to call for proper
implementation of the country's constitution. The new year editorial
with the title Dream of China, Dream of Constitutionalism, calling
for the cementing of rights into a constitution, was replaced with
praise of the Chinese Communist Party.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Southern_Weekly_incident)(Econ,
1/16/16, p.26)
2013 Jan 8, In China
free-speech protesters in masks squared off against flag-waving
communist loyalists in Guangzhou as a dispute over censorship at a
newspaper spilled into the broader population, with authorities
shutting microblog accounts of supporters of the paper.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, The Japanese
government summoned China's ambassador to protest four Chinese
maritime surveillance ships that spent about 13 hours in waters near
disputed islands claimed by both countries.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 11, In China a
landslide smothered 14 homes in Zhaojiagou village, Yunnan province.
At least 46 people were killed.
(SSFC, 1/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 12, Four Chinese
workers were abducted in Sudan's North Darfur region by unidentified
gunmen. They were released on Jan 16. Eleven Sudanese workers who
were abducted together with the Chinese remained hostages.
(AP, 1/14/13)(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 13, In China people
refused to venture outdoors and buildings disappeared into Beijing's
murky skyline as the air quality in the notoriously polluted capital
went off the index.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 22, The Philippines
took a desperate legal step against China's claims to virtually the
entire South China Sea, formally notifying the Asian superpower that
Manila is seeking international arbitration to declare Beijing's
moves in the potentially oil-rich waters "unlawful."
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 25, Washington and
Beijing agreed that any North Korean nuclear test will lead to North
Korea's further isolation and set back efforts to restart regional
talks.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, In China a scandal
involving Chinese city officials having sex with women hired by
developers who secretly videotaped the trysts to extort construction
deals broadened with state media announcing that 10 more officials
have been fired.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, A senior Japanese
envoy handed China's leader, Xi Jinping, a cordial letter from PM
Shinzo Abe in the highest-level contact between the sides since
tensions spiked in September over an island dispute, though the
meeting yielded little beyond commitments to hold further contact.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 29, Thick,
off-the-scale smog shrouded eastern China for the second time in
about two weeks, forcing airlines to cancel flights because of poor
visibility and prompting Beijing to temporarily shut factories and
curtail fleets of government cars.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 30, China’s Beijing
government put into place emergency measures to try to combat thick
smog which has encased the city.
(SFC, 1/31/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 31, Chinese courts
convicted eight Tibetans over accusations they incited others to
self-immolate in the first such prosecutions to become publicly
known, showing Beijing's resolve to stamp out the protests by
criminalizing both the protesters and their supporters.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2012 Jan 31, Chinese police
detained Liu Hui, the brother-in-law of jailed Nobel Peace Prize
winner Liu Xiaobo, on fraud charges in what the family said is the
latest act of official retaliation. In March he was formally charged
over a real estate dispute.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Jan 31, The NY Times said
Chinese hackers repeatedly penetrated its computer systems over the
past four months, stealing reporters' passwords and hunting for
files on an investigation into the wealth amassed by the family of a
top Chinese leader.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan, In China out
promoting his latest book, “Everybody in the World Knows," former
sports writer Li Chengpeng was told by authorities that he could
take “no questions from readers, no talking at all… not even ‘happy
new year’ or ‘thank you"’.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.35)
2013 Feb 1, Chinese car maker
Geely said it has bought Manganese Bronze, the maker of London's
black taxis since 1948, for 11 million pounds, safeguarding jobs and
production of the vehicles in Britain.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, In central China an
elevated portion of highway collapsed after a truck loaded with
illegal fireworks for Lunar New Year celebrations exploded, killing
at least 10 people and sending vehicles plummeting 30 meters to the
ground.
(AP, 2/1/13)(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, China’s Xinhua News
reported that 13 people died after an overloaded bus tumbled down a
slope. Over 50 people were killed in the last 24 hours in 4 major
accidents.
(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A6)
2013 Feb 3, In China Gong Aiai
(49), a former bank official from Shaanxi province, was arrested on
suspicion of acquiring 41 houses in Beijing.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.46)(
www.wiki86.com/view/9976143.htm)
2013 Feb 5, In China a court in
Beijing sentenced 10 people to prison terms for running a black
jail. “Custody and repatriation" centers, which held petitioners
along with beggars and vagrants, were scrapped in
2003.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.45)
2013 Feb 5, Chinese phone maker
Huawei and Microsoft launched a new smartphone in Africa, which they
say is the world's fastest growing mobile phone market. The Huawei
4Afrika phone runs Windows Phone 8 and comes pre-loaded with
applications designed for the African market.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 6, Taiwan banks began
offering deposit accounts in Chinese currency following a clearing
agreement between China central bank and Taipei signed last August.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.69)
2013 Feb 8, A Chinese court
sentenced a Tibetan man to 13 years in prison for goading a monk to
self-immolate. The sentence by a court in Qinghai province followed
a news report that the government has detained 70 people in the
province's ethnic Tibetan areas.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 10, The Chinese New
Year, celebrated as the beginning of the year of the Snake,
officially began.
(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A10)
2013 Feb 12, North Korea said
it tested a “miniaturized" nuclear device in the remote, snowy
northeast, taking a crucial step toward its goal of building a bomb
small enough to be fitted on a missile capable of striking the US.
China summoned the North's ambassador for a dressing-down.
(AP, 2/12/13)(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 13, In Nepal a Tibetan
protester doused himself with gasoline, set himself ablaze and
chanted anti-China slogans as he ran down a street in Kathmandu.
Police and residents were able to put out the flames and rush the
man to a hospital. He died the next day.
(AP, 2/13/13)(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 17, The NY Times
reported that a 60-page analysis by Mandiant, a US computer security
firm, has traced one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking
groups to Shanghai and the gates of Unit 61398 of the Chinese
military.
(SFC, 2/20/13, p.D1)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.12)
2013 Feb 25, In China a Tibetan
monk set himself on fire in protest against
Chinese rule near dozens of pilgrims who had
gathered for prayers to mark the end of the Tibetan New Year
festival in Gansu province. Another had set himself ablaze a day
earlier at a monastery in Qinghai province. Both died. A third monk
was taken to a hospital after setting himself alight in a separate
incident.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 27, China’s state news
announced the arrests of 5 Tibetans accused of inciting a series of
self-immolations late last year.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 28, China's military
said that overseas computer hackers targeted two of its websites an
average of 144,000 times per month last year, with almost two-thirds
of the attacks originating in the United States.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb, China launched a
crackdown aimed at cleaning up tits thriving, but dirty, recycling
industry.
(SFC, 10/4/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 1, China’s State
Council spelled out fresh curbs on property speculation, sending the
housing market into a tizzy.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.74)
2013 Mar 1, China executed four
foreigners for killing 13 Chinese sailors in an attack on the Mekong
River on Oct 5, 2011, following a live nationwide broadcast showing
them being led to their deaths.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 2, China’s Xinhua News
Agency reported that a massive sulfuric acid leak at a warehouse in
Liaoning province has killed at least 3 people.
(SSFC, 3/3/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 5, In China the
National People’s Congress opened for a 12-day session. Premier Wen
Jiabao and Pres. Hu Jintao will stand down at the end for incoming
Premier Li Keqiang and Pres. Xi Jinping. China's government pledged
to repair the country's ravaged environment and boost public
services under its new leadership, an acknowledgment that quality of
life was sidelined during the outgoing administration's decade of
breakneck economic growth.
(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, The United States
and China reached a deal that "significantly expands" UN sanctions
on North Korea for its third nuclear test, eliciting a renewed
threat by Pyongyang to scrap an armistice that ended the 1950-53
Korean War.
(Reuters, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 7, Chinese officials
castigated the Tibetan Kirti monastery, at the center of a wave of
self-immolations, saying it has been inciting the fiery protests.
They also indicated that authorities will not relax controls over
the region.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 9, North Korea
formally rejected a UN Security Council resolution that demands an
end to its nuclear arms program, as China called for calm, saying
sanctions were not the "fundamental" way to resolve tensions on the
Korean peninsula.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 10, China announced
plans to streamline government ministries, doing away with the
powerful Railways Ministry and creating a super-agency to regulate
the media and realigning other bureaucracies in a bid to boost
efficiency. Plans included the merger of the family planning
bureaucracy with the health ministry to form a new Health and Family
Planning Commission.
(AP, 3/10/13)(Econ, 3/16/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 11, In China Shanghai
officials said the number of dumped adult and piglet carcasses
retrieved in tributaries of the Huangpu river had reached 2,813. The
city government, citing monitoring authorities, said the drinking
water quality has not been affected. Authorities have been pulling
out swollen and rotting pigs since March 8. By March 21 the dead pig
count reached over 16,000.
(AP, 3/11/13)(SFC, 3/23/13, p.A2)(Econ, 12/20/14,
p.70)
2013 Mar 14, In China Xi
Jinping was elevated to the presidency by the rubber-stamp national
legislature, giving him the last of the three titles held by his
predecessor, Hu Jintao.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 15, In China Li
Keqiang was confirmed as premier.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 16, In China Lobsang
Thokmey (28) became the 108th Tibetan to self-immolate in the last 4
years in protests against Chinese rule and religious restrictions.
He set himself on fire in Kirti monastery, Sichuan province.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 17, China’s National
People’s Congress came to a close.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 18, Chinese police
arrested the husband of a Tibetan woman who died last week after
setting herself alight in protest.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 18, The Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute, a Swedish think tank, said
China has bypassed Britain as the world's fifth largest arms
exporter.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 20, China’s Suntech
Power Holdings Ltd., one of the world's biggest solar panel
manufacturers, was forced into bankruptcy court, becoming the latest
casualty of a painful slump in the global solar industry.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 22, US officials in
Beijing for two days of talks to lobby China on enforcement of new
UN sanctions against North Korea said that they were heartened by
Chinese expressions of resolve. Spurring Beijing to cooperate, the
US officials said, is a concern that North Korean behavior had begun
threatening China's interests in a region vital to its economic and
security.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 26, Two courts in
northwest China convicted and sentenced 20 people accused of
militant separatism in the Xinjiang region. All 20 were believed to
be ethnic Uighurs.
(SFC, 3/28/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 26, China and Brazil
signed a deal to do up to $30 billion of trade in their local
currencies, as the five-nation BRICS forum of emerging market powers
worked to lessen dependence on the US dollar and euro.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 28, China’s State
Council, the country’s highest executive organ of state power,
released a code of conduct for officials in hopes for a more
pransparent government.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 29, In China a large
landslide trapped 83 workers, believed to have been asleep, at the
state-owned Jiama (Gyama) copper and gold mining company in Tibet.
Chances for survivors were slim. The mine, which formally opened in
2010, was owned by China Gold Int’l. Resources.
(AP, 3/29/13)(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A2)(SFC, 4/1/13,
p.A2)(Econ, 4/6/13, p.54)
2013 Mar 31, Chinese officials
confirmed that three recent cases of influenza were due to a new
strain called H7N9.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.83)
2013 Mar, Chinese-led criminal
gangs conspired with corrupt Tanzanian officials to traffic huge
amounts of ivory, some of which was loaded in diplomatic bags on
Pres. Xi's plane during a presidential visit.
(AP, 11/6/14)
2013 Apr 2, A Tibetan spokesman
said Jigme Gyatso, a noted political prisoner, was released by
Chinese authorities after 17 years in prison on charges of
endangering national security and separatism.
(SFC, 4/3/13, p.A2)
2013 Apr 6, Chinese officials
in Shanghai reported two more cases of H7N9 bird flu, raising the
number of cases in eastern China to 18, including 6 deaths. It was
later reported that 27 days elapsed between the first death from
H7N9 and its public announcement.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.A3)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.47)
2013 Apr 7, China warned
against "troublemaking" on its doorstep, in an apparent rebuke to
North Korea, and the US said it was postponing a missile test to
help calm high tension on the divided Korean peninsula.
(Reuters, 4/7/13)
2013 Apr 8, Australia and China
agreed to make their currencies directly exchangeable in a deal that
advances internationalization of the yuan and reduces costs for
companies. PM Julia Gilliard said the Australian dollar will become
only the third major currency to have direct convertibility with the
yuan, after the US dollar and Japanese yen.
(AP, 4/8/13)
2013 Apr 8, A Chinese
steel-hulled vessel hit an atoll at the Tubbataha National Marine
Park, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site on Palawan island. On
April 13 Philippine authorities found inside the ship more than
10,000 kg (22,000 pounds) of meat from a protected species, the
pangolin or scaly anteater. On April 19 the ship was extricated and
towed to Puerto Princesa.
(AP, 4/15/13)(SSFC, 4/21/13, p.A4)
2013 Apr 9, Australia’s PM
Julia Gillard capped a 6-day trip to China with the formation of a
“strategic partnershnip," a commitment to hold annual talks between
their leaders.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.44)
2013 Apr 10, California Gov.
Jerry Brown, on a trade mission to Beijing, announced that a Chinese
investor has agreed to help pay for a $1.5 billion development deal
in Oakland to transform 65 acres of industrial waterfront.
(SFC, 4/11/13, p.A1)
2013 Apr 11, China reported its
10th death from H7N9 bird flu.
(SFC, 4/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Apr 13, China and the US
committed to a process aimed at ridding North Korea of its nuclear
weapons.
(AP, 4/13/13)
2013 Apr 13, Chinese officials
said a girl (7) has died in Beijing from H7N9 bird flu, becoming the
11th victim tied to the new strain.
(SSFC, 4/14/13, p.A4)
2013 Apr 15, China signed a
free-trade deal with Iceland as PM Johanna Sigurdardottir made a
6-day visit there. This was China’s first free-trade with a European
nation. Some saw China’s goal as better access to shipping routes
through the Arctic.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.50)
2013 Apr 16, China's defense
ministry made a thinly veiled attack on the United States for
increasing tensions in the Asia-Pacific by ramping up its military
presence and alliances in the region.
(Reuters, 4/16/13)
2013 Apr 17, A Chinese factory
fishing ship caught fire just off the coast of Antarctica and 97
crew members were rescued by a nearby Norwegian vessel as Chile's
military mobilized to prevent any environmental damage.
(AP, 4/18/13)
2013 Apr 18, Scientists
reported the discovery of a cache of dinosaur embryos in southern
China. The bed of lufengosaurus bones dated to the early Jurassic,
about 190-197 million years ago.
(SFC, 4/19/13, p.D7)
2013 Apr 19, The US's annual
global human rights report was issued by the State Department. It
said China had imposed new registration requirements to prevent
groups from emerging that might challenge government authority.
(AP, 4/21/13)
2013 Apr 20, In China a
powerful earthquake struck the steep hills of Lushan county, Sichuan
province, leaving at least 188 people dead and more than 11,000
injured.
(AP, 4/21/13)(AP, 4/22/13)
2013 Apr 21, China slammed the
human rights record of the US in response to Washington's April 19
report on rights around the world, saying that US military
operations have infringed on rights abroad and that political
donations at home have thwarted the country's democracy.
(AP, 4/21/13)
2013 Apr 21, Stephen A.
Schwarzman, founder of the private equity firm Blackstone, said he
would give $100 million as a personal gift and raise another $200
million to endow the Schwarzman Scholars program at Beijing's
Tsinghua University.
(AP, 4/21/13)
2013 Apr 21, The Chinese
factory fishing ship Kai Xin, that burned last week off Antarctica,
sank without anyone on board.
(AP, 4/23/13)
2013 Apr 23, Chinese marine
surveillance vessels drove away Japanese nationalists who had
entered the waters of the Diaoyu Islands.
(SSFC, 4/28/13, p.A4)
2013 Apr 23, In China Jia
Jiuxiang, vice president of the Sanmenxia City Intermediate People's
Court in Henan province, died under mysterious circumstances, his
body bruised after 11 days in the custody of anti-graft
investigators of the ruling Communist Party.
(AP, 4/24/13)
2013 Apr 23, In northwestern
China a violent clash between authorities and assailants described
as a terrorist gang left 21 people dead near Kashgar, Xinjiang
province. Local sources said that police sparked the incident by
shooting a Uighur youth during an illegal search of homes.
(AP, 4/24/13)(Econ, 5/25/13, p.45)
2013 Apr, China said it will
open the Paracel Islands to tourists. China had expelled Vietnam
from the islands in 1974. A representative from the Vietnamese
Foreign Ministry’s National Boundary Commission gave a diplomatic
note to a representative of the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi demanding
that China cancel its plan to bring tourists to the Paracel
archipelago.
(Econ, 4/13/13,
p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracel_Islands)
2013 Apr, In China’s Yu Qiyi
(42), chief engineer of a state-owned company in the eastern city of
Wenzhou, died after he was allegedly stripped naked and held down in
a bathtub by investigators as they attempted to extort a confession
to corruption. State media reported his death on Sep 4. On Sep 30 a
court in the city of Quzhou sentenced six Communist Party officials
to between four and 14 years in jail for the death of Qiyi.
(AFP, 9/4/13)(Reuters, 10/14/13)
2013 May 1, Indian officials
said that for two weeks Chinese soldiers have moved into the
barren Depsang Valley in the Ladakh region and refused to move back
over the so-called Line of Actual Control, that divides Indian-ruled
territory from Chinese-run land, leaving India on the verge of a
crisis with China.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 2, China’s Ministry of
Public Security said police have broken a crime ring that passed off
more than $1 million in rat and small mammal meat as mutton.
(Reuters, 5/2/13)
2013 May 5, North Koreans
seized a Chinese fishing boat in what the boat owner maintained were
Chinese waters. The gun-toting North Koreans demanded a 600,000 yuan
($100,000) ransom.
(AP, 5/20/13)
2013 May 6, China’s Pres. Xi
Jinping met with Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing and
urged dialogue in Middle East peace negotiations.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.52)
2013 May 6, Israeli PM Benjamin
Netanyahu met with his security Cabinet and then departed to China
for a scheduled visit.
(AP, 5/6/13)
2013 May 7, In China Premier Li
Keqiang and Pres. Xi Jinping met for talks in Beijing with Israel’s
PM Netanyahu.
(SFC, 5/8/13, p.A6)
2013 May 7, The Bank of China
said it has issued a bank account closing notice to North Korea’s
Foreign Trade Bank.
(SFC, 5/8/13, p.A3)
2013 May 9, Chinese officials
said film director Zhang Yimou is being investigated for a potential
violation of family planning laws. He reportedly has fathered up to
7 children with 4 women.
(SFC, 5/10/13, p.A7)
2013 May 10, The official China
Internet Network Information Center explained in state media reports
that a microblog belonging to He Bing, liberal professor at the
China University of Political Science and Law, had been suspended
because he was "intentionally spreading rumors."
(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 May 10, In China 12 miners
were killed in a coal mine blast in Guizhou province.
(SFC, 5/13/13, p.A2)
2013 May 11, In China 28 miners
were killed in a coal mine blast in Sichuan province.
(SFC, 5/13/13, p.A2)
2013 May 12, China’s ruling
Communist Party's disciplinary agency said in a one-sentence
statement on its website that Liu Tienan, deputy head of the
Cabinet's National Development and Reform Commission, is being
investigated for "suspected serious disciplinary violations." On Aug
8 the party’s antigraft agency said that an investigation had found
Liu took bribes and abused his power. He was expelled from the CP
and faced prosecution.
(AP, 5/12/13)(SFC, 8/9/13, p.A2)
2013 May 13, In China several
rights lawyers attempting to visit one of the unofficial detention
centers — also known as "black jails" — in the southwestern city of
Ziyang were beaten by unidentified men.
(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 May 15, The Arctic
Council, meeting in Sweden, agreed to expand membership and provide
observer status to 6 new nations including China, India, Italy,
Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
(SFC, 5/16/13,
p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Council)
2013 May 16, In southern China
more than 2,000 people unfurled banners in Kunming and shouted
"Protest! Protest!" to oppose plans for a petroleum refinery. Local
authorities allowed the large environmental rally to go forward in
order to let the public vent frustration.
(AP, 5/16/13)
2013 May 19, China's new
Premier Li Keqiang visited India on his first foreign trip as the
neighboring giants look to speed up efforts to settle a decades-old
boundary dispute and boost economic ties.
(AP, 5/19/13)
2013 May 20, It was reported
that a businesswoman in southern China has been sentenced to death
on charges of defrauding investors. Lin Haiyan was convicted of
"illegal fundraising" for collecting 640 million yuan ($100 million)
from investors by promising high returns and low risk, according to
a statement by the Intermediate People's Court in Wenzhou. It said
the scheme collapsed in October 2011 and 428 million yuan could not
be recovered.
(AP, 5/20/13)
2013 May 20, New Zealand PM
John Key said a frozen meat issue is a technical hiccup that he
expects will be resolved this week. Hundreds of tons of frozen
mutton, lamb and beef from New Zealand have been stranded for 2-3
weeks on Chinese docks after China halted their import due to a
certification dispute.
(AP, 5/20/13)
2013 May 21, Chinese boat owner
Yu Xuejun said gunmen wearing North Korean military uniforms
released his fishing boat after holding its crew since May 5,
beating up the captain and stealing the vessel's fuel. He added that
the hijackers did not get the 600,000 yuan ($100,000) ransom they
had demanded.
(AP, 5/21/13)
2013 May 21, In India Chinese
Premier Li Keqiang told Indian business leaders that developing
stronger economic ties between their two nations would have huge
benefits for both sides.
(AP, 5/21/13)
2013 May 22, China's Premier Li
Keqiang began a two-day visit to Pakistan by praising the
relationship between the two Asian powers in glowing terms.
(AP, 5/22/13)
2013 May 24, North Korean Vice
Marshal Choe Ryong Hae delivered a letter from leader Kim Jong Un to
Chinese President Xi Jinping and told him Pyongyang would take steps
to rejoin stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, in an
apparent victory for Beijing's efforts to coax its unruly ally into
lowering tensions.
(AP, 5/24/13)
2013 May 27, Australian
Broadcasting Corp. television reported that the plans for the 630
million Australian dollar ($608 million) Australian Security
Intelligence Organization building had been stolen through a
cyberattack by Chinese hackers on a building contractor.
(AP, 5/28/13)
2013 May 27, A US report said
Chinese hackers have gained access to designs of more than two dozen
major US weapons systems.
(Reuters, 5/28/13)(Econ, 6/8/13, p.50)
2013 May 29, In China Sri
Lanka’s Pres. Mahinda Rajapaksa met with Premier Li Keqiang in
Beijing. Loans and declarations of profound friendship were secured.
(Econ, 6/8/13, p.63)
2013 May 29, It was reported
that Wan Long, chairman of China’s Shuanghui International has made
a 4.7 billion bid for Virginia-based meatpacker Smithfield Foods.
The purchase was endorsed by Smithfield's board but still require
approval from shareholders and US regulators.
(AP, 5/31/13)(http://tinyurl.com/k4sdobs)(Econ,
6/8/13, p.38)
2013 May 31, China’s President
Xi arrived for a state visit to the twin-island nation of Trinidad
and Tobago, a leading supplier of natural gas. Xi planned to seek to
deepen trade and investment in energy when he meets with Trinidadian
PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
(AP, 5/31/13)
2013 Jun 2, China’s President
Xi Jinping arrived in Costa Rica, the only country in Central
America to have diplomatic relations with China.
(AP, 6/2/13)
2013 Jun 2, In China Chen
Xitong, who as Beijing's mayor backed the military crackdown on the
Tiananmen Square democratic movement but later expressed regret for
the loss of life, died days before the 24th anniversary of the
crackdown.
(AP, 6/4/13)
2013 Jun 3, In northeastern
China a fire raged through a poultry plant in Jilin province's
Mishazi township, trapping workers inside a cluttered slaughterhouse
and killing 121 people. On Dec 26, 2014, two fire chiefs and two
poultry farm bosses were convicted and sentenced to prison terms of
up to nine years.
(AP, 6/3/13)(AP, 12/27/14)
2013 Jun 4, The European
Union said it is imposing anti-dumping levies on imports of Chinese
solar panels. The 27-country bloc will impose a tariff of about 12%
immediately. It will increase that to 47% starting in August.
(AP, 6/4/13)
2013 Jun 5, Nicaragua’s
National Assembly president said a concession to build a canal
linking the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea will be awarded to a
Chinese company. The government planned to grant the Chinese company
a concession for 100 years.
(AP, 6/5/13)
2013 Jun 6, Ghana's immigration
service said 161 Chinese nationals, who were arrested for illegal
gold mining this week, will be deported to China.
(AP, 6/7/13)
2013 Jun 7, In China a fire
ripped through the bus as it traveled on an elevated road in Xiamen
during evening rush, killing 47 people, including Chen Shuizong, and
injuring 34. Police identified Shuizong (b.1954) as the person
responsible saying he was unhappy with life and set the fire to vent
his anger.
(AP, 6/8/13)
2013 Jun 7, Pres. Obama
welcomed China’s Pres. Xi Jinping as he arrived in southern
California for a 2-day summit.
(SFC, 6/8/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 9, In China Liu Zhijun
(60), who oversaw the ministry's high-profile bullet train
development, wept as he admitted his guilt and sought leniency at
his trial on corruption charges.
(AP, 6/9/13)
2013 Jun 9, A Chinese court
sentenced the brother-in-law of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner
Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison — an unusually harsh punishment for
a business dispute that the activist's wife immediately decried as a
vendetta against the whole family.
(AP, 6/9/13)
2013 Jun 13, China’s state
media reported that automated controls guided the Shenzhou 10 space
capsule in its successful docking with the Tiangong-1 space lab. The
astronauts will enter the module next week to conduct experiments
during their 12-day mission.
(AP, 6/13/13)(SFC, 6/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 19, China’s Communist
Party newspapers and websites proclaimed that Pres. Xi will fight
"formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance." Xi commanded
wayward cadres to purify themselves of corruption and summed it up
in a pithy slogan: “Look in the mirror, take a bath."
(AP, 6/19/13)
2013 Jun 19, Chinese
conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group said it would spend $1.6 billion (1
billion pounds) to buy British yacht maker Sunseeker and develop an
upmarket London hotel, the latest example of a trend for Chinese
companies to acquire top luxury global brands.
(AP, 6/19/13)
2013 Jun 19, Vietnam’s Pres.
Truong Tan Sang left Hanoi to pay his first state visit to China as
President. The two countries signed a new strategic partnership
during the visit.
(http://tinyurl.com/k69vwr7)(Econ, 10/19/13,
p.49)
2013 Jun 22, In China Fan
Jiemin (62) shot to death 5 people and killed another with a tool at
a chemical plant in Shanghai. The plant had been closed over
pollution complaints.
(http://english.caixin.com/2013-06-24/100545440.html)
2013 Jun 23, The WHO said the
new H7N9 strain of bird flu in China has killed 37 people with more
than 130 sickened.
(SFC, 6/24/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 24, American executive
Chip Starnes (42) said he has been held hostage for four days at his
medical supply plant in Beijing by scores of workers demanding
severance packages like those given to 30 co-workers in a phased-out
department. Starnes left the Beijing factory on June 27 after
he and a labor representative said the two sides had reached
agreement in a pay dispute.
(AP, 6/24/13)(AP, 6/27/13)
2013 Jun 26, In China
assailants attacked police and other people with knives and set fire
to police cars in the restive far-western Xinjiang region
killing 17 people including 9 police or security officials. Officers
shot and killed 10 of the assailants in Lukqun, Turpan prefecture.
(AP, 6/26/13)
2013 Jun 26, A Chinese space
capsule landed safely in Inner Mongolia with 3 astronauts after a
15-day trip to a prototype space station.
(SFC, 6/27/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 27, In China Pres. Xi
Jinping and South Korean Pres. Park Geun-hye called for a swift
resumption of six-nation North Korean nuclear disarmament talks
after a summit that brought together Pyongyang's archrival and its
biggest ally.
(AP, 6/27/13)
2013 Jun 28, In Hotan,
China, a city in Xinjiang, violence erupted for the second time in
three days, barely hours after the government called the earlier
unrest a "terrorist attack" and raised the death toll to 35.
(AP, 6/28/13)
2013 Jun 29, China's state
media warned that a "counterstrike" against the Philippines was
inevitable if it continues to provoke Beijing in the South China
Sea, potentially Asia's biggest military trouble spot.
(Reuters, 6/29/13)
2013 Jun 29, Chinese state
media said more than a hundred people, riding motorbikes and
wielding knives, attacked a Hotan police station in the ethnically
divided western region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 6/30/13)
2013 Jun 30, Chinese
paramilitary troops began round-the-clock patrols in the country's
northwestern region of Xinjiang following a series of bloody clashes
that have killed at least 56 people over the last several months.
State media blamed religious extremists.
(AP, 6/30/13)(Reuters, 6/30/13)
2013 Jun, In China the mammoth
New Century Global Center, the world’s largest building, opened in
the southwestern city of Chengdu with 1.7 million square meters (19
million square feet) of floor space (about 329 football fields)
edging out the previous record-holder, the Dubai airport.
(AP, 7/12/13)
2013 Jun, China unveiled a
series of reforms to restrict air pollution. Companies as well as
government planned to spend $275 billion over the next five years
cleaning up the air.
(Econ, 8/10/13, p.18)
2013 Jun, In China an algae
called Enteromorpha prolifera again engulfed the coast around
Qingdao covering an area of nearly 11,500 square miles.
(SFC, 7/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Jul 1, In Hong Kong tens
of thousands took to the streets in protest, demanding their widely
disliked Beijing-backed leader resign and pressing for promised
democratic reforms so they can choose their own top representative.
The annual protest march has become increasingly popular in recent
years.
(AP, 7/1/13)
2013 Jul 2, China announced
rewards of up to 100,000 yuan ($16,000) for information leading the
arrest of those responsible for the deadliest violence in four years
in the vast far-western region of Xinjiang, dominated by Muslim
Uighurs.
(Reuters, 7/2/13)
2013 Jul 5, In China the Global
Harbor shopping all opened in Shanghai. Its floor space of 480,000
square meters was equal to nearly 70 football fields.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Harbor)(Econ, 9/26/15, p.71)
2013 Jul 6, Chinese police
opened fire on a crowd of Tibetans celebrating the birthday of the
Dalai Lama in Sichuan province. 9 people were injured.
(SFC, 7/10/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 8, China handed down a
suspended death sentence on a former railways minister for
corruption, a case seen as a test of President Xi Jinping's resolve
to crack down on pervasive graft.
(Reuters, 7/8/13)
2013 Jul 9, In western China
rescuers in Sichuan province pulled 3 people from a raging river
following the collapse of the Qinglian bridge amid heavy flooding
that has forced thousands to evacuate their homes. The two-lane
bridge was built in 1967 and a replacement span was under
construction. At least 12 workers were killed when a rainstorm
caused the collapse of an unfinished coal mine workshop they were
building in Jinzhong.
(AP, 7/9/13)(AP, 7/10/13)
2013 Jul 10, In China
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and Chinese President Xi
Jinping presided over the signing of accords between their
governments to facilitate $1.1 billion in low-interest loans for
much-needed infrastructure in Nigeria.
(AP, 7/10/13)
2013 Jul 10, Flooding in
western China triggered a landslide that killed at least 18 people
with 107 missing in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province. More than 2,000
people were rescued after being trapped for several hours in a
highway tunnel between Dujiangyan and Wenchuan. By the end of the
week the toll of dead and missing climbed beyond 200.
(AP, 7/10/13)(AP, 7/11/13)(Reuters, 7/12/13)
2013 Jul 10, Chinese
archaeologists said they have discovered some of the world's oldest
known primitive writing, dating back 5,000 years, in eastern China,
and some of the markings etched on broken axes resemble a modern
Chinese character.
(AP, 7/10/13)
2013 Jul 11, China's police
ministry accused executives of pharmaceutical supplier
GlaxoSmithKline of conducting a large, long-running bribery campaign
to persuade doctors to prescribe drugs.
(AP, 7/11/13)
2013 Jul 12, In China hundreds
of protesters took to the streets of Jiangmen, Guangdong province,
demanding that a project for a uranium processing plant be scrapped.
The next day plans for the plant were abruptly canceled.
(Reuters, 7/13/13)(SFC, 7/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 15, In China the Hunan
Provincial People's High Court ruled in favor of Tang Hui, who last
year was sentenced to 18 months in a labor camp for petitioning for
harsher penalties for the men who abducted, raped and prostituted
her 11-year-old daughter.
(AP, 7/15/13)
2013 Jul 16, Chinese
authorities detained Xu Zhiyong, a well-known rights lawyer, in a
move activists described as the widening of a crackdown on
individuals calling for greater accountability to fight graft.
(AP, 7/17/13)
2013 Jul 19, China said it is
ending controls on bank lending rates in a move toward creating a
market-oriented financial system to support economic growth.
(AP, 7/19/13)
2013 Jul 19, China arrested
activist Yang Lin (45) on a charge of subversion. His brother and a
rights group reported the arrest on Aug 11. This was the second such
arrest in less than two months and the latest sign that the
authorities are hardening their stance toward dissent.
(Reuters, 8/11/13)
2013 Jul 19, Wu Dengming (73),
Chinese environmental activist, died. He was the founder of the
Chongqing Green Volunteer League (1995).
(Econ, 8/10/13, p.78)
2013 Jul 20, In China
motorcycle taxi driver Ji Zhongxing detonated a homemade bomb at
Beijing's main airport after eight years of frustration trying to
seek redress for an attack by city guards that left him paralyzed
and in debt. On Oct 15 Zhongxing was sentenced to six years in
prison.
(AP, 7/24/13)(SFC, 10/16/12, p.A2)
2013 Jul 20, China’s central
bank ended all restrictions on lending rates,which previously had a
floor of 70% of the PBOC benchmark rate.
(Econ, 7/27/13, p.61)
2013 Jul 22, In northwest China
two earthquakes shook an arid, hilly farming area sparking
landslides that destroyed or damaged thousands of brick-and-mud
homes in Gansu Province. At least 95 people were killed and more
than 400 injured.
(AP, 7/22/13)(AP, 7/23/13)(SSFC, 7/28/13, p.A4)
2013 Jul 23, In China a man who
was told by officials they couldn't register his fourth child
because he didn't pay a penalty for breaking family planning laws
stabbed to death 2 government workers and injured 4 others.
(AP, 7/24/13)
2013 Jul 25, China charged
disgraced senior politician Bo Xilai with bribery, abuse of power
and corruption, paving the way for a potentially divisive trial that
President Xi Jinping will want smoothly handled as he pushes major
economic reforms.
(Reuters, 7/25/13)
2013 Jul 27, China and the EU
announced a truce on solar panel and related component tariffs. The
EU planned to set a minimum sales price and a quota. An August 8
deadline loomed on the dispute.
(Econ, 8/3/13, p.36)
2013 Jul 29, China National
Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said it has switched on a pipeline
bringing natural gas from Myanmar. The project has raised concerns
in Myanmar's nascent civil society about whether its giant
neighbor's resource grabs will benefit local people.
(AP, 7/29/13)
2013 Jul 30, In China Japan's
top career diplomat met China's foreign minister in the latest bid
to ease strains between Asia's two biggest economies over a bitter
territorial row. A Chinese official newspaper said Beijing had ruled
out a leaders' summit.
(Reuters, 7/30/13)
2013 Aug 1, Chinese authorities
declared a “level 2" weather emergency as temperatures climbed to at
least 140 degrees in some parts of the country. Shanghai counted at
least 10 people dead from heatstroke over the last month and
measured a 28th day above 95 degrees.
(SFC, 8/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 6, In China a panel of
the Shanghai Communist Party Committee said that three Shanghai
Supreme Court officials had "participated in prostitution"
after being invited to dinner. A fourth court official had accepted
female companionship but did not take a woman to a room. A
whistleblower had filed a police complaint in April, but "the case
went nowhere" and he therefore decided to post the video online
instead of going to the police again. His case triggered the
investigation.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 7, China fined six
companies, including Mead Johnson Nutrition Co, Danone and New
Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, a total of $110 million following an
investigation into price fixing and anti-competitive practices by
foreign baby formula makers.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 8, In Afghanistan 3
Chinese citizens, 2 men and a woman, were murdered in an apartment
in Kabul. One Afghan man was also found dead. One Chinese citizen
remained missing.
(Reuters, 8/10/13)(AP, 8/11/13)
2013 Aug 10, Spain’s Interior
Ministry said that 75 people have been arrested in a joint operation
by Spanish and French police. They included 51 in Spain and 24 in
France. Two Barcelona-based suspected heads of the gang, that
allegedly smuggled Chinese citizens into Europe and the United
States, were among those arrested.
(AP, 8/10/13)
2013 Aug 12, In China the
Xinjiang government said a court has sentenced two people to death
and another to life imprisonment over deadly violence last April.
Two defendants were given 9-year jail sentences.
(Reuters, 8/12/13)
2013 Aug 14, Typhoon Utor
struck the south coast of China, forcing airlines to cancel flights
and halting stock exchange trading in the financial center of Hong
Kong after leaving a trail of destruction in the Philippines.
(Reuters, 8/14/13)
2013 Aug 18, China’s Xinhua
News Agency said 12 deaths reported in Liaoning province. That added
to a total of 25 deaths reported earlier in Heilongjiang and Jilin,
the other two provinces in China's northeast. In the south, six
people were reported were killed by flooding and landslides in
Guangdong province.
(AP, 8/18/13)
2013 Aug 20, A Chinese
policeman was killed in an "anti-terrorism" operation in the restive
region of Xinjiang. Overseas reports said 22 Uighurs were shot dead.
(AFP, 8/29/13)
2013 Aug 23, Chinese security
forces killed at least 12 men and wounded 20 others during a raid on
an alleged terrorist facility in Jigdejay village near Kashgar in
the far western Xinjiang region.
(SFC, 9/19/13, p.A4)
2013 Aug 25, China was hit by
the "largest ever" attack on its Internet structure, crashing the
country's .cn servers.
(AFP, 8/26/13)
2013 Aug 26, China announced
that Wang Yongchun, the deputy general manager of China Nat’l.
Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), was under investigation for “severe
discipline violations."
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.48)
2013 Aug 26, Chinese media said
the Amur River, which marks the border between China and Russia, has
experienced its worst flooding in a century, cutting off roads to
some areas.
(AP, 8/26/13)
2013 Aug 28, In China Li Tianyi
(17), the teenage son of a prominent Chinese general, denied the
charge of gang rape, inflaming public anger in a case that has
stirred resentment against the offspring of the political elite who
are widely seen as spoiled. In 2011 he drove a BMW into another car
in Beijing, beat up the couple inside the vehicle and then scoffed
at bystanders about calling the police. Tianyi was one of five
accused of assaulting a woman in a Beijing hotel in February. On Sep
26 a court sentenced Tianyi to 10 years in prison for his role in
the rape. Two juvenile accomplices, who pleaded guilty, were given
suspended sentences and released.
(Reuters, 8/28/13)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.53)
2013 Aug 28, In China Hong
Xiaorou (4) was killed in Fujian province when a bulldozer hit her
despite her grandmother screaming for the vehicle to stop as her
family resisted a land grab. Authorities said Hong's death was an
accident and that they had detained those responsible.
(Reuters, 8/29/13)
2013 Aug 30, Chinese official
Yang Dacai, former head of the work safety administration in Shaanxi
province, went on trial for corruption. His penchant for luxury
watches sparked outrage after he was pictured smiling at the scene
of a fatal accident. On Sep 5 Dacai was sentenced to 14 years in
prison.
(AFP, 8/30/13)(Reuters, 9/5/13)
2013 Aug 31, In China a 5.8
magnitude earthquake hit a remote part of Yunnan province near the
popular tourist area of Shangri-La, killing 5 people and injuring 24
more.
(AFP, 8/31/13)
2013 Aug, China issued a secret
directive known as Document Number Nine that spoke of the threat
posed by ideas such as universal values, civil society and press
freedom.
(http://tinyurl.com/lxt9a2y)(Econ., 2/28/15,
p.37)
2013 Sep 1, China announced
investigation proceedings for Jiang Jiemin, the government minister
responsible for state owned assets, for “discipline violations," a
party euphemism for corruption.
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.47)
2013 Sep 2, In China people
began noticing dead fish along a 19-mile stretch of the Fuhe River
in Hubei province. High levels of ammonia pollution from a plant
owned by the Hubei Shuanghuan Science and Technology Co. was blamed.
(SFC, 9/5/13, p.A7)
2013 Sep 9, China charged
well-known businesswoman Ding Shumiao (58), who has ties to a
disgraced former railways minister, with bribery and illegal
business activities.
(Reuters, 9/9/13)
2013 Sep 9, China unveiled
tough measures to stop the spread of what the government calls
irresponsible rumors, threatening three years in jail if untrue
posts online are widely reposted, drawing an angry response from
Chinese internet users.
(Reuters, 9/9/13)
2013 Sep 9, In southern China
an explosion outside a primary school in Guilin, in the Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region, killed two people and injured 44 others,
most of them schoolchildren. The blast occurred as a man riding a
motorcycle passed the school gate while children were arriving for
classes.
(AFP, 9/9/13)
2013 Sep 12, China's government
said it will protect from retribution and attacks people who use the
internet to report corruption, but only those who use an officially
sanctioned website to do so.
(Reuters, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 12, A court in China's
far western region of Xinjiang sentenced three ethnic Uighurs to
death for acts of "violent terrorism", including murder and being
part of a terrorist organization.
(Reuters, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 18, China’s state
media said China will crack down on penalties paid by families
flouting strict family planning rules after a National Audit Office
probe found $260 million in fines had been levied illegally.
(Reuters, 9/18/13)
2013 Sep 22, China and
Venezuela signed several finance and development agreements during a
visit to Beijing by Pres. Nicolas Maduro.
(SFC, 9/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep 22, Wang Jianlin, the
head of Chinese multinational Dalian Wanda, announced plans to build
a $50 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) entertainment complex in Qingdao.
(Econ, 9/28/13, p.63)
2013 Sep 22, Severe Typhoon
Usagi left 2 dead as it made landfall in southern China shutting
down one of the world's busiest sea ports in nearby Hong Kong and
throwing flight schedules into disarray.
(AP, 9/22/13)
2013 Sep 23, In Chinese
officials said Typhoon Usagi has killed 25 people in the southern
province of Guangdong, 13 of them in the city of Shanwei.
(AP, 9/23/13)
2013 Sep 24, China published a
list that included military-like hardware and chemical substances
that would be banned from export to North Korea for fear they could
be used in the construction of nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons.
(SFC, 9/25/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep 25, In China Xia
Junfeng (36), who sold grilled meat skewers in the northern city of
Shenyang, was put to death in a highly controversial case in a
country that executes thousands each year. Xia had said he stabbed
two officials to death in self-defense after they beat him with
their fists and an iron mug.
(Reuters, 9/25/13)
2013 Sep 26, In China the
teenage son of two celebrity singers for the Chinese military was
convicted of rape and sentenced to 10 years in prison, in a case the
public closely watched for signs of leniency because of his family
ties.
(AP, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 26, Dubai said that it
has signed a memorandum of understanding with China Sonangol to
build a crude oil refinery aimed at meeting rising domestic demand.
(AFP, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 27, A Uganda official
said China's state-owned CNOOC has secured a $2-billion deal to
develop a petroleum field in Uganda and help propel the east African
nation into the club of oil-producing countries.
(AFP, 9/27/13)
2013 Sep 28, China’s Ministry
of Public Security said police have rescued 92 abducted children and
detained 301 suspects in the latest operation to crack down on child
trafficking.
(SSFC, 9/29/13, p.A7)
2013 Sep 29, China’s Shanghai
Free Trade Zone (SFTZ) was launched.
(Econ, 10/5/13, p.49)
2013 Sep 30, Tropical storm
Wutip lashed central Vietnam after sinking at least two Chinese
fishing boats near the Paracel Islands, leaving 75 fishermen
missing.
(AP, 9/30/13)
2013 Sep 30, In China a disused
factory building collapsed burying 16 construction workers in Wuan
city, Hebei province.
(SFC, 10/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep, China unveiled its
“One Belt, One Road" (OBOR) initiative, a development strategy that
focuses on connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian countries.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Belt_One_Road_Initiative)
(Econ, 8/5/17, p.49)
2013 Oct 3, China’s state media
said swarms of hornets have killed 42 people in the northwest in
recent months. Hua Baozhen, a professor of entomology at Northwest
Agriculture Forestry University, attributed the attacks mostly to a
decrease in the number of the hornets' natural enemies, such as
spiders and birds, due to ecological changes.
(AFP, 10/3/13)
2013 Oct 4, China and Malaysia
agreed elevate bilateral ties to a "comprehensive strategic
partnership", aiming to boost military cooperation and nearly triple
two-way trade to $160 billion by 2017.
(Reuters, 10/4/13)
2013 Oct 6, In China about 60
people were injured when security forces fired into a crowd of
Tibetan residents who were demanding the release of a fellow
villager detained for protesting orders to display the national
flag. Police also fired tear gas at those protesting in Biru county
in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
(AP, 10/8/13)
2013 Oct 7, Typhoon Fitow
barrelled into China's east coast, packing winds of more than 200
kilometres (125 miles) an hour, after hundreds of thousands of
people were evacuated and bullet train services were suspended.
(AFP, 10/7/13)
2013 Oct 8, In China Akong
Tulku Rinpoche, a prominent monk who fled Tibet in 1959 and
co-founded the West's first Tibetan monastery (Samye Ling in
Scotland), was killed along with two other people in Chengdu. Police
said three Tibetan men visited a house where the trio were staying
and stabbed them to death in an argument over money. In 2016 a
Chinese court sentenced two men to death for killing Rinpoche.
(AFP, 10/9/13)(AP, 1/31/16)
2013 Oct 9, Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang called for a South China Sea of "peace, friendship and
cooperation" as he extended a hand in Brunei to APEC leaders wary of
Beijing's territorial claims in the strategic waters.
(AFP, 10/9/13)
2013 Oct 13, China’s PM Li
Keqiang arrived in Vietnam for a 3-day visit.
(Econ, 10/19/13, p.49)
2013 Oct 13, Companies involved
in a $1.27 billion project to develop a business district around
Britain’s Manchester airpor announced that Chinese construction
giant Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG) has signed a
deal with British firms to develop the area.
(AFP, 10/13/13)
2013 Oct 14, China said it
would give rewards amounting to 5 billion yuan ($816.91 million) for
curbing air pollution in six regions where the problem is serious,
underscoring government concern about a source of public anger.
(Reuters, 10/14/13)
2013 Oct 15, Britain’s
chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborn, announced a deal with
China intended to make Britain the main offshore hub for trading in
China’s currency and bonds and for foreign institutions investing in
China. In exchange China’s banks would be allowed to enter Britain
as branches of the their parents rather than as subsidiaries.
(Econ, 10/19/13, p.62)
2013 Oct 16, Chinese state
media reported that an Australian tourist and 3 Tibetans died in an
avalanche on Mt. Everest.
(SFC, 10/16/12, p.A2)
2013 Oct 18, In China Professor
Xia Yeliang (53), a liberal economist who had been an outspoken
critic of China's ruling Communist Party, was told that professors
and school leaders had voted to end his contract. He had drawn the
ire of school officials for his blog posts calling for democratic
reforms and rule of law in China. Yeliang was a signatory to Charter
08, a 2008 petition calling for sweeping political change.
(Reuters, 10/18/13)(Econ, 2/15/14, p.40)
2013 Oct 18, Swiss customs
agents said they have seized one million fake tablets of
anti-anxiety drug Xanax at the Zurich airport, which were destined
for Egypt. The counterfeit tablets, packed in four crates and
weighing 400kg, had originated in China, according to Swissmedic,
the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products.
(AFP, 10/18/13)
2013 Oct 21, A disciplinary
body of China’s Communist Party said anti-graft authorities have
punished 8 people at a state-owned rail construction firm for
spending more than $100 million on hospitality last year.
(Reuters, 10/21/13)
2013 Oct 21, In
China visibility shrank to less than half a football field and
small-particle pollution soared to a record 40 times higher than an
international safety standard in the northern city of Harbin as the
region entered its high-smog season.
(AP, 10/21/13)
2013 Oct 22, Chinese state
media reported that China has convicted nearly 150,000 people for
corruption since 2008, citing figures from the state prosecutor
which underlined the scale of graft in the country.
(Reuters, 10/22/13)
2013 Oct 22, Western countries
accused China of arresting activists, curbing Internet use and
suppressing ethnic minorities, as the United Nations formally
reviewed its rights record for the first time since Xi Jinping
became president.
(Reuters, 10/22/13)
2013 Oct 23, In Beijing China’s
PM Li Keqiang and India’s PM Manmohan Singh sounded a new optimistic
tone in their relationship as they oversaw the signing of 9
agreements including a Defense Cooperation Agreement.
(AP, 10/23/13)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.47)
2013 Oct 23, Wang Qishan,
China's top official battling deeply-ingrained corruption, warned
staff their jobs were on the line if they failed to root out abuses,
telling them to "shock and awe" their targets.
(Reuters, 10/23/13)
2013 Oct 23, China’s state-run
New Express tabloid printed a front-page commentary begging police
in the south-central city of Changsha to set reporter Chen Yongzhou
free under the headline: "Please release him." Chen was detained
after writing more than a dozen stories criticizing the finances of
Zoomlion, a major state-owned construction equipment maker.
(Reuters, 10/23/13)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.54)
2013 Oct 23, Chinese police
officers were injured in clashes with villagers in southwestern
Yunnan province. Some 200 residents in Guangji village near the
provincial capital Kunming stopped 11 officers on a highway after
police had summoned two people a day earlier for alleged crimes.
(Reuters, 10/23/13)
2013 Oct 23, In China 2
children were killed and another four injured after a wall at their
primary school collapsed in Yunnan province.
(AFP, 10/24/13)
2013 Oct 25, In China ousted
politician Bo Xilai lost his appeal against a life sentence for
corruption in his final public appearance before prison.
(AP, 10/25/13)
2013 Oct 27, Japan's PM Shinzo
Abe warned China against forcibly changing the regional balance of
power, as reports said Tokyo had scrambled fighter jets in response
to Chinese military aircraft flying near Okinawa.
(AFP, 10/27/13)
2013 Oct 28, In China a
sport utility vehicle plowed through a crowd in Tiananmen Square
before crashing and catching fire, killing the 3 occupants and 2
tourists and injuring 38 visitors and security officers. The SUV was
driven by Usmen Hasan, a man whose name suggested he is an ethnic
Uighur. His wife and mother were also with him in the car, along
with devices filled with gasoline. China blamed the attack on the
East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Eight people connected with
the incident were soon arrested with help from the Xinjiang
government.
(AP, 10/28/13)(Reuters, 10/29/13)(AP,
10/30/13)(Econ, 11/9/13, p.50)(SSFC, 6/1/14, p.A5)
2013 Oct 28, Chinese pianist
Lang Lang (31) became a UN messenger of Peace.
(SFC, 10/30/13, p.F4)
2013 Oct 29, Niger said it has
accepted a controversial $1 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank
of China (China Exim Bank) to finance development projects.
(AFP, 10/29/13)
2013 Oct 31, Chinese state
media said the last county in China to be accessible by modern land
transport was finally linked up to the rest of the country with a
new 117-km road that has taken decades to build. The 19,000 people
of deeply isolated Medog in southeastern Tibet have until now had to
depend on horses for land travel and trade.
(AFP, 10/31/13)
2013 Nov 1, China jailed for
life Tian Xueren, a former vice governor of the northeastern
province of Jilin and former banker, for taking more than $3 million
in bribes, in the government's latest move to crack down on
deep-rooted corruption.
(Reuters, 11/1/13)
2013 Nov 1, In China 11 people
died and 17 were injured by an explosion in a fireworks factory in
Guangxi province. Police detained two people.
(AFP, 11/2/13)
2013 Nov 1, In Tasmania int’l.
negotiations ended after China, Russia and Ukraine scuttled plans to
create the world's largest ocean sanctuary in Antarctica. The
sanctuary plans were led by the Antarctic Ocean Alliance which
campaigns for protecting the Antarctic seas. For the sanctuary
proposals to pass, they needed backing from all 200 delegates from
25 member countries, many of which have conflicting interests.
(Reuters, 11/1/13)(SFC, 11/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Nov 2, China, the only
country that still systematically takes organs from executed
prisoners for use in transplant operations, said it plans to end the
controversial practice by the middle of next year.
(Reuters, 11/2/13)
2013 Nov 2, An Iranian media
website said China has agreed to finance $20 billion in development
projects in Iran using oil money not transferred to the Islamic
Republic because of international sanctions.
(AP, 11/2/13)
2013 Nov 3, China's ruling
Communist Party announced the removal of the military chief of
restive Xinjiang from the region's governing council, following an
Oct 28 car crash in Beijing's Tiananmen Square blamed on Islamist
militants from Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 11/3/13)
2013 Nov 5, China's state media
said the People's Liberation Army has discovered in a corruption
probe that its troops "illicitly kept" more than 8,000 apartments
and 25,000 vehicles.
(Reuters, 11/5/13)
2013 Nov 6, In China a series
of bombs packed with ball bearings exploded outside a provincial
headquarters of the ruling Communist Party, killing at least one
person in Taiyuan, Shanxi province.
(AFP, 11/6/13)
2013 Nov 6, In China supporters
of jailed politician Bo Xilai established a new political party, the
Zhi Xian Party, to support the former high-ranking official who was
handed a life sentence for corruption in September.
(AFP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 7, China’s state media
said China will provide a concessionary loan of up to $1 billion to
Pacific island nations to support construction projects in a part of
the world where Beijing and Taiwan compete for influence. Vice
Premier Wang Yang had made the announcement at a forum with Pacific
island nations in Guangzhou. The meeting was attended by
representatives from Micronesia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu,
the Cook Islands, Tonga, Niue and Fiji.
(Reuters, 11/8/13)
2013 Nov 9, China's ruling
Communist Party began its Third Plenum, a key 4-day meeting to
dictate the direction of the world's second-biggest economy for the
next decade.
(AFP, 11/9/13)
2013 Nov 12, China's Communist
Party promised to deepen economic reforms to give the market a
"decisive" role in allocating resources at the end of a
closely-watched meeting. A document on reforms was approved but not
made public until Nov 15.
(AFP, 11/12/13)(Econ, 11/23/13, p.47)
2013 Nov 12, China, Cuba,
Russia and Saudi Arabia won seats on the UN Human Rights Council,
despite fierce international criticism of their records.
(AFP, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 12, The Sao Tome
government and Chinese representatives signed an agreement to
open a trade mission to promote projects in Sao Tome and Principe,
16 years after it broke off relations over the tiny Central African
island nation's diplomatic recognition of Taiwan.
(Reuters, 11/14/13)
2013 Nov 15, The final overview
of China’s “third plenum" was published. China’s ruling Communist
Party said it will loosen family planning rules that limit many
couples to a single child in the first substantial change to the
unpopular policy in nearly three decades, as leaders seek to address
a rapidly aging population. It also said the country's
much-criticized labor camp system would be abolished. Leaders
pledged to open state-dominated industries wider to private
competition and ease limits on foreign investment in e-commerce and
other businesses in a sweeping reform plan aimed at rejuvenating a
slowing economy.
(AP, 11/15/13)(Econ, 11/23/13, p.16)
2013 Nov 15, Yemeni President
Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said China will build power plants in Yemen
with total output capacity of 5,000 megawatts and expand the Arab
country's main container ports.
(Reuters, 11/16/13)
2013 Nov 16, In China 9
attackers and 2 auxiliary police officers were killed in an attack
on a police station in Serikbuya township, near the historic Silk
Road city of Kashgar, Xinjiang province. The clash reportedly
erupted after a Uighur youth was shot dead, with 8 others
subsequently being killed.
(AFP, 11/17/13)
2013 Nov 19, Spain's National
Court said it has issued arrest orders for former Chinese president
Jiang Zemin and four other Chinese officials as part of a probe into
alleged genocide by China against Tibet.
(AP, 11/19/13)
2013 Nov 20, China confirmed
the deployment of a state-of-the-art hospital ship to the
Philippines following foreign and domestic criticism that it was
slow and less than generous in its response to one of the world's
biggest typhoons, which killed at least 4,000 people.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Animal rights
group PETA urged shoppers to boycott products made from angora
rabbit fur, after it released footage of fur being plucked from the
skins of live rabbits on Chinese farms.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 21, China’s highest
court issued demands that judges bar confessions abtained through
torture and avoid the death penalty when the evidence is shaky.
(SFC, 11/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Nov 22, In China an oil
pipeline exploded in the coastal city of Qingdao killing 47 people.
(AFP, 11/22/13)(Reuters, 11/23/13)
2013 Nov 23, China declared an
Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) bolstering its claim to
islands that Japan says it owns. The zone also included a reef know
as Ieodo, claimed by China and South Korea. China warned that it
would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that
failed to identify themselves properly in airspace over them.
(Reuters, 11/23/13)(Econ, 11/30/13, p.12)(Econ,
12/7/13, p.42)
2013 Nov 24, Japan warned of
the danger of "unpredictable events" and South Korea voiced regret
following China's unilateral declaration of an air defence zone over
areas claimed by Tokyo and Seoul.
(AFP, 11/24/13)
2013 Nov 26, In China the
Xinjiang Daily reported that students in western Xinjiang region
will not graduate unless their political views are approved, as the
country wages what school administrators called an ideological war
against separatism.
(Reuters, 11/26/13)
2013 Nov 26, Pakistan’s PM
Nawaz Sharif ceremonially broke ground on a $9.59 billion nuclear
power complex to be built in Karachi with China’s help. China
National Nuclear Cooperation (CNNC) promised to grant a loan of at
least $6.5 billion to finance the project which will have two
reactors with a capacity of 1,100 megawatts each.
(SFC, 11/27/13, p.A2)(Reuters, 12/24/13)
2013 Nov 28, Chinese media said
authorities have broken up six rings that smuggled around $164
million worth of cars into the country over the past three years,
including more than 80 top-end models such as BMWs and Rolls-Royces.
(Reuters, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 28, Kenya launched
construction of a Chinese-funded 13.8 billion dollar (10-billion
euro) flagship railway project, hoping to dramatically increase
trade and boost Kenya's position as a regional economic powerhouse.
(AFP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 28, South Korean and
Japanese flights through China's new maritime air defense zone added
to the international defiance of rules Beijing says it has imposed
in East China Sea but that neighbors and the US have vowed to
ignore.
(AP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 30, China urged India
not to aggravate problems on the border shared by the two nations, a
day after the Indian president toured a disputed region and called
it an integral part of the country.
(Reuters, 11/30/13)
2013 Nov, Chinese officials
signed two agreements to import 500,000 cattle and three million
pigs from Romania over the next few years.
(AP, 11/31/13)
2013 Dec 2, China government
said it has punished almost 20,000 officials in the last year for
breaching rules to cut down on bureaucracy as well as pomp and
ceremony.
(Reuters, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 2, A producer for
China's state broadcaster CCTV said that he had been fired after he
criticized the network's role in a controversial crackdown on online
rumors. Wang Qinglei made the statement in an open letter, which has
since been scrubbed from Chinese social media.
(Reuters, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 2, Zhang Yimou (62),
one of China's top movie directors, admitted having three children
with his current wife, according to a studio media posting,
apologising after months of speculation he broke the country's
controversial family planning laws.
(AFP, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 2, China launched
Chang’e-3, its first moon rover mission, the latest step in an
ambitious space program seen as a symbol of its rising global
stature.
(AFP, 12/2/13)(Econ, 12/7/13, p.82)
2013 Dec 3, The US voiced
solidarity with Japan against China's claim to airspace over
disputed islands, vowing not to tolerate the aggressive move as VP
Joe Biden prepared to deliver that message personally to Beijing.
(AP, 12/3/13)
2013 Dec 4, China accused
Washington of taking Japan's side in a tense clash over disputed
islands in the East China Sea, underscoring rising regional friction
as visiting Vice President Joe Biden met with Beijing's leaders.
(AP, 12/4/13)
2013 Dec 4, In eastern China
hazardous air pollution forced schools to shut or suspend outdoor
activities in at least two cities, where residents complained of the
yellow skies and foul smells that are symptomatic of the country's
crippling smog crisis.
(Reuters, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 4, British PM David
Cameron faced demands for the return of priceless artefacts looted
from Beijing in the 19th century, the last day of his visit to
China.
(AFP, 12/4/13)
2013 Dec 6, In China
authorities in Shanghai ordered schoolchildren indoors and a halt to
construction as the city, shrouded in yellow haze, suffered its
worst bouts of air pollution.
(SFC, 12/7/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 6, In China a woman
died of the H10N8 strain of bird flu, the first ever reported human
case of the virus.
(Reuters, 12/18/13)
2013 Dec 9, In China legal
scholar Zhang Xuezhong was notified of his dismissal from East China
Univ. of Political Science and Law in Shanghai after he refused to
apologize for writings that championed protections guaranteed by
China’s Constitution.
(SFC, 12/11/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 10, China's cabinet,
the State Council, announced that it was removing 82 powers from a
number of central government ministries, including the powerful
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry
of Environmental Protection. The Ministry of Human Resources said
the retirement age, currently at 60 for men and 55 for female white
collar workers, would be gradually raised.
(Reuters, 12/10/13)(SSFC, 12/15/13, p.A20)
2013 Dec 10, In China a dozen
residents of Wuhan, Hubei province, drank pesticide in Beijing to
protest the demolition of their homes. All 12 survived and were
treated for poisoning.
(SFC, 12/12/13, p.A6)
2013 Dec 11, Chinese sources
said authorities have put Zhou Yongkang, one of the most powerful
politicians of the last decade, under virtual house arrest while the
ruling Communist Party investigates accusations of corruption
against him.
(Reuters, 12/11/13)
2013 Dec 12, US authorities
said three Chinese nationals have been charged in two separate cases
of trying to steal seed-technology, trade secrets under development
in the United States.
(Reuters, 12/12/13)
2013 Dec 13, China formally
charged Xu Zhiyong, a prominent campaigner for officials to reveal
their wealth, after police accused him of breaking the law by
organizing demonstrations. Zhiyong, who has also pushed for greater
civil rights, was arrested in August in a case that exposed
shortcomings in the government's drive against deep-rooted
corruption.
(Reuters, 12/13/13)
2013 Dec 13, In western China a
gas explosion at a coal mine killed 21 workers in Xinjiang
region's Changji prefecture.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 14, Chinese state
media said authorities have detained 1,300 people for producing and
selling fake medicine as part of an intensified government
crackdown.
(Reuters, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 14, China successfully
carried out the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the
moon in nearly four decades. The Chang’E 3 deployed a small rover
called Yutu (Jade Rabbit), which traveled for 114 meters befor
getting stuck.
(AP, 12/14/13)(Econ., 3/14/15, p.82)
2013 Dec 14, Japan and
Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN) called for freedom of the air and
sea, as China's military assertiveness raises regional tensions.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 15, In China 16
people, including 2 police officers, were killed in a clash in the
Xinjiang region, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority.
(AFP, 12/16/13)
2013 Dec 16, Sources said
China’s Pres. Xi Jinping and other party leaders have authorized a
corruption probe against Zhou Yongkang, a former head of the
domestic security apparatus.
(SFC, 12/16/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 16, US Secretary of
State John Kerry announced that the United States will boost
maritime security assistance to the countries of Southeast Asia amid
rising tensions with Beijing.
(AP, 12/16/13)
2013 Dec 18, China's foreign
minister paid a rare visit to Israel, reflecting the burgeoning
trade ties between the two countries. But the trip was clouded by
fresh accusations that Israel's prime minister had compromised the
global war on terrorism under heavy Chinese pressure.
(AP, 12/18/13)
2013 Dec 20, China's ruling
Communist Party said it was investigating Li Dongsheng, a vice
minister of public security, for alleged disciplinary violations,
the latest official to be targeted in a high-profile campaign to
root out corruption. state media said Cao Jianliao, a top official
in Guangdong province, is being investigated for "serious discipline
violations", which is often a euphemism for corruption.
(AFP, 12/20/13)(Reuters, 12/20/13)
2013 Dec 22, NY-based Tiffany
& Co. said it was ordered to pay Swatch Group AG about 402
million Swiss francs ($449 million) in compensation over a
contractual dispute. The Netherlands Arbitration Institute also
required Tiffany to pay more than $9 million for the Swiss
watchmaker's legal fees and the cost of arbitration.
(AP, 12/23/13)
2013 Dec 23, China's ruling
Communist Party told the already tightly monitored state media that
they should not be reporting on "wrong points of view" and instead
cover positive stories that promote "socialist values."
(Reuters, 12/23/13)
2013 Dec 24, China's top
legislative committee voted to abolish "re-education through labor"
camps introduced more than half a century ago, saying they had
served their purpose.
(AFP, 12/24/13)
2013 Dec 25, China's ruling
Communist Party unveiled a five-year plan to fight pervasive graft,
with particular attention on corruption that triggers protests or
happens in the course of economic reforms.
(Reuters, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 25, Chinese media
reported the arrest of Chu Jian, a vice president of a prestigious
university, for "suspected economic problems." He was appointed in
2005 as vice president of Zhejiang University in the eastern city of
Hangzhou.
(Reuters, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 27, China’s
environment ministry said it will raise standards for the production
of cement, batteries, leather and heavy metals as part of its
efforts to cut air, water and soil pollution.
(Reuters, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 27, A Chinese court in
Hunan province sentenced four municipal security officers to prison
for a clash that left Deng, a watermelon seller, dead and triggered
a public outcry.
(AP, 12/27/13)
2013 Dec 28, China formally
allowed couples to have a second child if one parent is an only
child, the first major easing of its 3-decade-old restrictive birth
policy.
(AP, 12/28/13)
2013 Dec 28, China's national
legislature voted to abolish a much-criticized penal system that
allowed police to lock up people for up to four years without due
process.
(AP, 12/28/13)
2013 Dec 28, Chinese state
media said 512 lawmakers in Hengyang city, Huana province, have
resigned after being implicated in a bribery scandal, while another
56 provincial legislators have been sacked. Xinhua said the total
amount of the bribes was more than 110 million yuan ($18.1 million)
and the money was used to swing the results of elections.
(Reuters, 12/28/13)
2013 Dec 29, Chinese police
seized nearly three metric tons (3.3 tons) of the drug crystal
methamphetamine and arrested 182 people in raids on Boshe village,
Guangdong province, notorious for producing narcotics.
(Reuters, 1/2/14)(SFC, 1/4/14, p.A2)
2013 Dec 30, Chinese police
shot dead eight people during a "terrorist attack" in the western
region of Xinjiang, raising the death toll from violent clashes
there to at least 35 since November.
(Reuters, 12/30/13)
2013 Dec 30, China published
results of an August-September audit on local government
liabilities. It show a total local debt of $1.8 trillion at the end
of June. The addition of explicit and implict debt guarantees raised
the total to $2.95 trillion, about a third of the country’s GDP.
(Econ, 1/4/14, p.32)
2013 Dec 31, In China six
herders who tried to defend grazing land from expropriation by a
forestry firm were sentenced in the resource-rich Inner Mongolia
region. The case has sparked protests.
(Reuters, 1/5/14)
2013 Frank Dikotter authored
“The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution,
1945-57."
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.80)
2013 Orville Schell and John
Delury authored “Wealth and Power" China’s Long March to the
Twenty-First Century."
(SSFC, 8/4/13, p.F3)
2013 The Chinese adventure film
“Journey to the West" was released. It grossed over $205 million.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.105)
2013 China reported that
inspectors had found nearly half the rice tested in restaurants and
canteens in the southern city of Guangzhou was laced with cadmium.
(Econ 6/10/17, p.18)
2013 Miniso, a Chinese
home-goods store, was founded by Chinese entrepreneur Ye Guofu
and Japanese designer Junya Miyake.
(Econ 6/24/17, p.59)
2014 Jan 1, China began
requiring the disclosure of offshore holdings.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.35)
2014 Jan 1, In San Francisco an
arson attack destroyed the main entrance of the Chinese Consulate.
On Jan 3 Yan Feng (39), who lives south of the city, surrendered to
police after confessing to the attack.
(SSFC, 1/5/14, p.A5)(AFP, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 2, A Chinese
helicopter rescued all 52 passengers from the MV Akademik
Shokalskiy Russian research ship that has been trapped in Antarctic
ice since Christmas Eve after weather conditions finally cleared
enough for the operation. The passengers were all transported to an
Australian icebreaker in the area.
(AP, 1/2/14)
2014 Jan 5, In China
worshippers at the Beida Mosque in Guyuan, Ningxia region, were
handing out traditional cakes when a rush for food triggered a
stampede that left 14 dead.
(AP, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 6, China destroyed
about 6 tons of illegal ivory from its stockpile in an unprecedented
move wildlife groups say shows growing concern about the black
market trade by authorities in the world's biggest market for
elephant tusks.
(AP, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 6, China, the biggest
investor in South Sudan's oil industry, called for an immediate
ceasefire in the world's newest state as rebel and government
negotiators haggled over the scope of peace talks meant to end three
weeks of fighting.
(Reuters, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 6, China temporarily
lifted a 14-year-old ban on selling video game consoles, paving the
way for Sony Corp, Microsoft Corp and Nintendo Co Ltd to enter the
world's third largest video game market in terms of revenue.
(Reuters, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 7, A Chinese
icebreaker and a Russian research vessel -- broke free from thick
Antarctic ice where they had been trapped for days.
(AFP, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 8, China's foreign
minister said Beijing was tackling illegal gold mining in Ghana,
after hundreds of his compatriots were arrested and sent home for
extracting the mineral without permission.
(AFP, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 9, Chinese officials
said famed film director Zhang Yimou must pay more than $1.2 million
in fines for having three children in violation of China's strict
family planning rules.
(AP, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 10, China defended its
new fishing restrictions in disputed waters in the South China Sea
against criticism from the United States, saying the rules were in
accordance with international law.
(Reuters, 1/10/14)
2014 Jan 10, The Philippines
and Vietnam condemned a new Chinese law that requires foreign
fishermen to seek Beijing's approval to operate in much of the South
China Sea, but China's Foreign Ministry insisted it has the right do
so.
(AP, 1/10/14)
2014 Jan 11, In southwest China
a fire raged for nearly 10 hours and razed an ancient Tibetan town
popular with tourists, burning down hundreds of buildings as fire
engines were unable to get onto the narrow streets of Dukezon, part
of scenic Shangri-La county in Deqen prefecture.
(AP, 1/11/14)
2014 Jan 13, In southern China
an explosion at an illegal gambling hall in Kaili, Guizhou province,
killed 14 people and injured seven others.
(AP, 1/13/14)
2014 Jan 14, Chinese doctor
Zhang Shuxia, who abducted and sold newborn babies, was given a
suspended death sentence in a case that drew widespread outrage with
child trafficking a chronic problem in the country.
(AFP, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 14, In China a fire at
the Dadong factory in Wenling, Zhejiang province, killed 16 people.
Safety exits were blocked.
(SFC, 1/15/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 15, China's commercial
capital, Shanghai, introduced emergency measures to tackle air
pollution, allowing it to shut schools and order cars off the road
in the case of severe smog.
(Reuters, 1/15/14)
2014 Jan 15, Chinese police
detained economics Prof. Ilham Tohti, an outspoken scholar of the
Turkic Uighur ethnic minority. They raided his home in Beijing,
seizing computers, cellphones and even his students' thesis
manuscripts. On Jan 25 Tohti was accused of leading a separatist
group that advocates violence to overthrow Chinese rule in Xinjiang.
In late July Tohti (44) was charged with separatism.
(AP, 1/16/14)(AP, 1/25/14)(SFC, 7/31/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 15, Chinese police in
Urumqi arrested Akbar Imin, a Uighur AIDS activist, for endangering
national security in the troubled far western region of Xinjiang,
home to the largely Muslim Uighur people. His arrest was only made
public in March.
(Reuters, 3/10/14)
2014 Jan 17, China began to
implement the loosening of its controversial one-child policy as
Zhejiang province announced it has made it legal for couples to have
two children if one parent is an only child.
(AFP, 1/17/14)
2014 Jan 17, China called on
the Philippines to meet it halfway on new Chinese fishing rules in
the disputed South China Sea, adding that Beijing was always willing
to make efforts to resolve such issues via talks.
(Reuters, 1/17/14)
2014 Jan 17, China announced 4
more cases of H7N9 bird flu.
(SFC, 1/18/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 21, An official
Chinese newspaper said China will base a 5,000-ton civilian patrol
ship on Woody Island, which China calls Sansha city, on the Paracel
Islands in the disputed South China Sea and begin regular patrols, a
move likely to add fuel to territorial disputes with neighbors.
(Reuters, 1/21/14)
2014 Jan 21, China executed a
man who held six women as sex slaves in an underground prison and
killed two of them, in a crime which shocked the nation. Li Hao (36)
was convicted of murder and rape in Luoyang Intermediate People's
Court in the central province of Henan in 2012.
(Reuters, 1/21/14)
2014 Jan 22, The Chinese
government condemned a report on the wealth of the country's elite
being hidden in overseas tax havens as illogical and having ulterior
motives, as the government blocked websites and censored mention of
the story online.
(Reuters, 1/22/14)
2014 Jan 22, The
Washington-based Int’l. Consortium of Investigative Journalists
(ICIJ) said it has obtained documents showing the identities of
nearly 22,000 owners of companies and trusts in the British Virgin
Islands, Samoa and other offshore centers. It said they include the
brother-in-law of China’s Pres. Xi, former Premier Wen Jiabao’s son
and son-in-law and relatives of other ruling party figures.
(SFC, 1/23/14, p.A4)
2014 Jan 23, In China the
parents of activist Xue Mingkai were detained in Qufu city, Shandong
province. After being held for six days, Xue and his wife, Wang
Shuqing, fled and sought protection at a local prosecutor's office
but were caught and separated. Days later, Wang was informed by
authorities that her husband was dead. Authorities said he had
killed himself by jumping from the fourth floor of a prosecutor's
building. Many people suspected murder.
(Reuters, 2/4/14)
2014 Jan 23, In Kyrgyzstan 11
people, believed to be members of a militant group of ethnic
Uighurs, were killed after illegally crossing the border from China.
(Reuters, 1/24/14)
2014 Jan 24, Chinese police
shot dead six people during a "terrorist" attack in the restive
western region of Xinjiang and six more died when explosives they
were carrying detonated.
(Reuters, 1/26/14)
2014 Jan 26, A Chinese court
sentenced Xu Zhiyong, one of the country’s most prominent rights
advocates, to four years in prison. He had campaigned for the rights
of children from rural areas to be educated in cities and for
officials to disclose their assets.
(Reuters, 1/26/14)
2014 Jan 28, In China an Indian
oil tanker being repaired at a shipyard at Haizhou Shipyard in the
port city of Zhousha exploded and caught fire, killing 7 Chinese
workers.
(AP, 1/28/14)
2014 Jan 28, Hong Kong culled
around 20,000 chickens after finding the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus
in poultry imported from mainland China. Fears over avian flu have
grown following the deaths of two men from the H7N9 strain in Hong
Kong since December.
(AFP, 1/28/14)
2014 Jan 29, Google said it is
ridding itself of a financial headache by selling Motorola
Mobility's smartphone business to Lenovo for $2.9 billion. The deal
came less than two years after Google bought Motorola Mobility for
$12.4 billion in the biggest acquisition of Google's 15-year
history.
(AP, 1/30/14)
2014 Jan 31, China celebrated
Lunar New Year, the year of the horse, a celebration also known as
the Spring Festival.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.36)
2014 Jan 31, Activists from
around China began arriving at the eastern town of Qufu during the
Chinese New Year holiday to demand an investigation into the death
of a fellow activist's father at a government building on Jan 29.
(AP, 2/7/14)
2014 Feb 5, It was reported
that a new strain of avian influenza, H10N8, has been confirmed in
two people in China. Cases of H7N9 were reported to be surging with
some 300 cases and more appearing every day.
(SFC, 2/5/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 10, Spanish High Court
Judge Ismael Moreno sought international arrest orders for former
Chinese President Jiang Zemin, ex-PM Li Peng and others on
allegations of genocide in Tibet.
(Reuters, 2/10/14)
2014 Feb 11, China and Taiwan
held talks in Nanjing, their highest level talks since splitting
amid a civil war in 1949.
(SFC, 2/11/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 12, China's Cabinet
announced that 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) has been set aside
this year to reward cities and regions that make significant
progress in controlling air pollution, highlighting how the issue
has become a priority for the leadership.
(AP, 2/13/14)
2014 Feb 12, In China a strong
and shallow 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the far western region
of Xinjiang, but in a sparsely populated area.
(AFP, 2/12/14)
2014 Feb 14, In China 11
"terrorists" were reported killed during an attack in Wushi County
in the Aksu Prefecture of Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 2/14/14)
2014 Feb 14, The Chinese
government sacked the police chief of the southern "sin city" of
Dongguan following a candid report by the state broadcaster on the
underground sex industry there.
(Reuters, 2/14/14)
2014 Feb 14, In eastern China a
wedding hall collapsed killing 10 people in Yazhuang village,
Zhejiang province.
(SFC, 2/15/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 15, In Germany the
film “Black Coal, Thin Ice" won the Golden Bear award for best film
at the 64th Berlin Film Festival. It was directed by Diao Yinan of
China.
(Econ, 2/22/14, p.38)
2014 Feb 20, China's capital
Beijing issued an emergency pollution alert for the first time,
warning residents to reduce outdoor activities and construction
sites to control dust given a forecast of heavy smog over the next
three days.
(Reuters, 2/20/14)
2014 Feb 23, Chinese Foreign
Minister Wang Yi held talks in Baghdad on issues ranging from trade
to arming Iraq's hard-pressed security forces, on the first such
visit in over a decade.
(AFP, 2/23/14)
2014 Feb 25, A Chinese
state-run newspaper, the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily, reported that man
in a smog-ridden northern city has become the first person in China
to sue the government for failing to curb air pollution.
(Reuters, 2/25/14)
2014 Feb 27, In southwestern
China a bus in Guiyang caught fire near an elementary school with
about 50 people inside. 6 people were killed. A man suspicious of
his wife's infidelity later admitted to setting the fire.
(AP, 2/28/14)
2014 Feb 27, The Philippines
called on Malaysia, Vietnam and other claimants to join its legal
challenge to China's massive territorial claim in the South China
Sea.
(AP, 2/27/14)
2014 Feb 28, China’s Public
Security Ministry said police have rescued 382 abducted babies and
arrested 1,094 suspects in a national operation that busted four
major Internet-based baby trafficking rings.
(SFC, 3/1/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 1, In southwestern
China a group of knife-wielding men attacked the Kunming Railway
Station in Yunnan province. The rampage killed 31 people and wounded
141. Police fatally shot four of the assailants, putting the overall
death toll at 33. Xinjiang separatist forces were blamed. The
Ministry of Public Security later said a "terrorist gang" of six men
and two women led by a person identified as Abdurehim Kurban was
responsible for the attack. 4 attackers were killed and 4 faced
death sentences.
(AP, 3/1/14)(AP, 3/2/14)(AP, 3/3/14)(Reuters,
3/29/14)
2014 Mar 1, In China a crash in
the Yanhou Tunnel in Shaanxi province involved more than 40
vehicles, including those carrying hazardous materials. At least 31
people were killed and a resulting fire burned for three days.
(AP, 3/13/14)
2014 Mar 4, Chinese
millionaires pleaded for the Canadian government not to throw away
the immigration applications of thousands of Chinese nationals as
part of its plans to end a backlogged investor program.
(AP, 3/4/14)
2014 Mar 4, In China the
Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science and Technology Co. declared
that it lacked the cash to make the full interest payment on a
corporate bond. This was China’s first domestic market bond default
since the central bank started regulating the market in 1997.
(Econ, 3/8/14, p.75)
2014 Mar 5, China’s PM Li
Keqiang vowed to act against corruption and to declare war on
pollution.
(Econ, 3/8/14, p.70)(Econ, 3/15/14, p.13)
2014 Mar 5, EcoMotors, a
startup backed by Bill Gates and Khosla Ventures, unveiled a joint
venture with a division of China FAW Group to produce 100,000 new
two-stroke engines a year.
(Econ, 3/8/14, p.70)
2014 Mar 5, In northeastern
China a fire on a public bus in Jilin province left 10 people dead
and 17 injured.
(SFC, 3/6/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 7, Chinese authorities
allowed the country's first corporate bond default, inflicting
losses on small investors in a painful step toward making its
financial system more market-oriented.
(AP, 3/7/14)
2014 Mar 8, China declared a
"red line" on North Korea, saying that China will not permit chaos
or war on the Korean peninsula, and that peace can only come through
denuclearization.
(Reuters, 3/8/14)
2014 Mar 8, In southwest China
a small plane belonging to a flight academy crashed into a farm
field, killing both people on board.
(AP, 3/8/14)
2014 Mar 8, Malaysia Airlines
Flight MH370 fell off radar screens less than an hour after it took
off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. Vietnamese air force planes
spotted two large oil slicks close to where the Boeing 777 went
missing early today. The aircraft carried 239 people. Foreign
ministry officials in Rome and Vienna confirmed that names of two
nationals listed on the manifest matched passports reported stolen
in Thailand. The flight was carrying 154 people from China and
Taiwan, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians and six Australians among
the 227 passengers.
(AP, 3/8/14)(Reuters, 3/8/14)
2014 Mar 10, The Philippines
air dropped food and water to soldiers stationed on a grounded
transport ship on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal. A day earlier
China blocked two Filipino supply ships from reaching the troops.
(Reuters, 3/12/14)
2014 Mar 11, China’s banking
regulators approved a pilot scheme to allow privately owned banks in
various parts of the country. The China Banking Regulatory
Commission said ten companies, including Internet giants Alibaba and
Tencent, have been picked to invest in China's first five privately
owned banks.
(AP, 3/11/14)(Econ, 3/15/14, p.70)
2014 Mar 12, Thailand police
rescued about 200 suspected Muslim Uighurs, believed to be from
China's troubled far-western region of Xinjiang, from a human
smuggling camp in southern Thailand.
(Reuters, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 13, Police in
southwestern China took away veteran activist Huang Qi, who runs a
rights monitoring website, and seized his computers and mobile
phones in Chengdu.
(AP, 3/13/14)
2014 Mar 14, In China a fellow
dissident and lawyers said prominent Chinese human rights activist
Cao Shunli, detained in September for staging sit-ins at the
country's foreign ministry, has died after being denied medical
treatment in detention.
(Reuters, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 14, In southern China
a fight between two food stall owners at a market left 5 people
hacked to death and one person fatally shot by police in Changsha. A
witness said the stand operators were Uighurs selling flatbread.
(AP, 3/14/14)
2014 Mar 16, China’s government
released its “people-centered" plan on urbanization. Under this some
100 million migrants will be given urban hukou (certificates) and
access to urban services by the end of the decade. This would still
leave some 200m unregistered.
(Econ, 3/22/14, p.17)(Econ, 4/19/14, p.12)
2014 Mar 16, In China a monk
from the Shaderi Monastery in Huangnan Tibetan autonomous
prefecture, Qinghai province, set himself on fire.
(AP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 16, In central China 4
people died in a fire at a hospital's in-patient building in
Huangshi city, Hubei province.
(AP, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 16, In China Bishop
Fan Zhongliang (97) died at his home in Shanghai. He was ordained by
Pope John Paul II but not recognized by Chinese authorities, and
spent more than 30 years in prisons and labor camps over the course
of his life, starting in 1955.
(Reuters, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 18, China's education
ministry ordered a nationwide investigation into whether schools are
giving students medication without permission after a protest in
Xi’an by parents of kindergarteners who were given an antiviral
drug.
(AP, 3/18/14)
2014 Mar 18, The United States
and European Union (EU) accused China of using arrests and
harassment to silence human rights activists, also voicing
consternation at the death in custody of a prominent dissident.
(Reuters, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 19, Hundreds of
Taiwanese activists were locked in a tense standoff with police
after they stormed parliament to try to stop the government
ratifying a contentious trade agreement with China.
(AFP, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 19, Tango, a mobile
messaging app-maker, announced it has raised $280 million in a new
funding round led by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding
Ltd.
(Reuters, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 21, US first lady
Michelle Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first day
of her weeklong visit to China, in a sign that the leaders of the
world's two largest economies are seeking to build stronger bonds.
(AP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 21, In eastern China a
fire in Dujiatuan village, Shandong province, killed a farmer and
injured three other farmers. Police later said a real estate
developer and a village official directed arsonists who set the fire
on a the farmer’s tent pitched to guard his land against
development.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 21, Four Chinese
rights lawyers were tortured by police after they were rounded up
following protests outside a detention center in Jiansanjiang, a
farming community in the northeast. They had joined several people
shouting to demand information about relatives believed locked up
inside because they were members of Falun Gong — banned as a cult
though they claim to be a peaceful spiritual movement.
(AP, 4/15/14)
2014 Mar 22, A satellite image
released by China offered the latest sign that wreckage from a
Malaysia Airlines plane lost on March 8 could be in a remote stretch
of the southern Indian Ocean.
(AP, 3/22/14)
2014 Mar 23, China and the
Netherlands signed a trade pact pledging Dutch dairy expertise to
help Chinese producers boost the quality and quantity of their milk.
It was part of a raft of deals and memoranda of understanding inked
on the 2nd day of a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who
is in the Netherlands with a large trade delegation.
(AP, 3/23/14)
2014 Mar 25, China's eastern
city of Hangzhou said will start restricting car sales on March 26,
joining major cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, in the fight
against snarling traffic and heavy smog in the world's largest
automobile market.
(Reuters, 3/25/14)
2014 Mar 26, In southern China
a fire in a lingerie factory killed 11 people in Puning County,
Guangdong province.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 26, The World Trade
Organization ruled that China has violated international trade rules
with its restrictions on the export of 17 "rare earths" and two
other minerals that have key industrial and high-tech uses.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 27, China’s Defense
Ministry said it will beef up its internet security after recent
reports that the US government spied on a major telecommunications
firm.
(Reuters, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 27, China’s Xinhua
state news said a Wuhu city court has sentenced to death a rapist
who posed as a female on social networks to lure 16 girls to meet
him. Wang Yong (40) was sentenced earlier this month for raping the
girls aged 12 to 16 starting in 2009.
(AP, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 27, In China a man
(34) involved in a property dispute stabbed six people to death in a
Beijing district and injured others.
(AP, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 29, A Philippine
government ship slipped past a Chinese coast guard blockade and
brought food and fresh troops to a marooned navy ship used as a base
by Filipino troops to bolster the country's territorial claims in
the disputed South China Sea.
(AP, 3/29/14)
2014 Mar 30, In southern China
hundreds of protesters marched against a chemical plant and
environmental degradation. The Maoming city government called the
demonstration a "grave violation" by criminals causing chaos.
Residents were protesting the production of paraxylene, a chemical
used to make fabrics and plastic bottles at a plant run by the local
government and state-owned Sinopec Corp, China's biggest refiner.
(Reuters, 3/31/14)
2014 Mar 30, In Belgium China’s
Pres. Xi Jinping received a royal welcome and an honorary knighthood
in Brussels at the start of a 3-day visit that will see him become
the first Chinese leader to visit EU headquarters.
(AFP, 3/30/14)
2014 Mar 30, In China Phuntso
Wangye (b.1922), a veteran Tibetan Communist leader, died in
Beijing. He had founded the Tibetan Communist Party and later become
an outspoken critic of Beijing's hardline policies towards the
Himalayan region. His book “A Long Way to Equality and Unity" was
recently published in Hong Kong.
(Reuters, 3/30/14)(SFC, 3/31/14, p.C3)
2014 Mar 30, The Philippines
filed a case against China at an arbitration tribunal in The Hague,
subjecting Beijing to international legal scrutiny over the
territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 3/31/14)
2014 Mar 31, Chinese
prosecutors brought corruption charges against a top general. A
military prosecutor charged Lt. Gen. Gu Junshan with embezzlement,
bribery, misuse of state funds and abuse of power. Liu Han, a mining
tycoon, his brother and 34 associates stood trial on allegations of
running a vast criminal gang in Sichuan province that gunned down
rivals, maintained fleets of Ferraris and bribed police to avoid
prosecution.
(AP, 3/31/14)
2014 Mar, Chinese hackers broke
into the computer networks of the US Office of Personnel Management
with the intention of accessing the files of tens of thousands of
federal employees who had applied for top-secret security
clearances. Hackers gained access to some of the agency's databases
before the threat was detected and blocked.
(AP, 7/10/14)
2014 Mar, In China rumors that
the government owned Sheyang Rural Commercial Bank was low on cash
sparked a bank run.
(Econ, 5/7/15, SR p.3)
2014 Apr 1, China's Defense
Ministry said inspectors have uncovered widespread irregularities
and suspected corruption among military units based around Beijing,
a sign that a widening anti-graft campaign that is turning to the
sprawling 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, In China protests
against a proposed chemical plant in Maoming city, Guangdong
province, spread to Guangzhou, the provincial capital, even as
authorities signaled they may back down on construction plans in
attempt to head off more unrest.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, China's foreign
ministry expressed anger after Ilham Tohti, a prominent detained
Uighur academic, won a human rights award in the United States,
saying that he was a suspected criminal.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, Human Rights Watch
said China has pressured Nepal to impose tough controls on thousands
of Tibetan refugees, including arbitrary detention, excessive use of
force and intrusive surveillance.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 2, In southern China
local authorities said torrential rains have left 14 people dead.
Rains have battered Guangdong and Hong Kong since March 29,
grounding some flights in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
(AP, 4/2/14)
2014 Apr 2, Suspected Filipino
Abu Sayyaf insurgents seized Gao Huayuan (29) a Chinese tourist, and
Marcy Dayawan (40), a hotel receptionist, from the Singamata Reef
Resort in eastern Malaysia and then fled in a speed boat. The
kidnappers soon demanded a ransom of 500 million pesos ($11.3
million). On May 30 Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak said both victims have
been freed.
(AP, 4/3/14)(AFP, 4/5/14)(AP, 4/10/14)(AP,
5/30/14)
2014 Apr 4, China’s energy
administration said it will close 1,725 small-scale mines with a
total capacity of 117.48 million tons in 2014 as part of its program
to phase out low-quality coal production.
(Reuters, 4/4/14)
2014 Apr 5, Chinese state media
reported that kindergarten headmaster Shi Haixia and a man were
sentenced to death in a poisoning case that left two girls dead.
Haixia was upset that a rival school had better enrollments and
injected rat poison into a bottle of yogurt. She then asked her
accomplice to place it on the road in late April 2013, with a
notebook and a pencil in a plastic bag on the way to the other
kindergarten in Pingshan County, Hebei province.
(AP, 4/5/14)(AFP, 4/6/14)
2014 Apr 5, In China workers in
Guangdong province walked out of factories owned by Yue Yuen, a
Taiwanese maker of branded shoes. The walkout grew to involve tens
of thousands of workers.
(Econ, 4/26/14, p.41)
2014 Apr 7, In China the
Xiahaizi mine in Yunnan province suddenly filled with water
following an explosion, leaving 22 miners trapped. The death toll
rose to 20 with the recovery of another 14 bodies nearly two weeks
after the accident.
(AFP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 8, The defense chiefs
of China and the US faced off over Beijing's escalating territorial
disputes in the region, with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
telling his Chinese counterparts they do not have the right to
unilaterally establish an air defense zone over disputed islands
with no consultation.
(AP, 4/8/14)
2014 Apr 8, A Shanghai
collector paid a record $36 million for a rare Ming Dynasty cup
that's touted as the "holy grail" of China's art world.
(AP, 4/8/14)
2014 Apr 8, China and Brazil
signed a corn-import deal.
(Econ, 4/12/14, p.27)
2014 Apr 9, Malaysia awarded a
manufacturing license to a $618 million venture that will assemble
fuel-efficient SUVs for China's Great Wall Motor Co. Privately owned
Go Automobile Manufacturing will invest 2 billion ringgit ($618
million) over the next four years to expand its manufacturing plant
in northern Kedah state.
(AP, 4/9/14)
2014 Apr 10, China unveiled a
plan to give foreign investors greater access to its stock market by
allowing investors in Shanghai and Hong Kong to trade shares on each
other's exchanges.
(AP, 4/10/14)
2014 Apr 10, In China 8 school
children died in a bus crash on the island province of Hainan on
their way to a school outing. The driver was later arrested for
allegedly causing the casualties.
(Reuters, 4/10/14)(AP, 4/25/14)
2014 Apr 11, In China residents
of the western city of Lanzhou rushed to buy bottled water after
authorities said the city's drinking water contained levels of
benzene, a cancer-inducing chemical, standing at 20 times above
national safety levels. The local environmental bureau blamed a
crude oil leak from a pipeline owned by a unit of China National
Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) for the water contamination.
(Reuters, 4/11/14)(Reuters, 4/13/14)
2014 Apr 12, In China’s
Xinjiang region Abdubasit Ablimit (17) was shot after he reportedly
tried twice to seize weapons from police at a checkpoint in Aksu
prefecture. He died of his wounds the next day. Another account that
circulated after said Ablimit was killed after running a red light
in an apparent attempt to avoid paying a fine.
(AP, 4/17/14)
2014 Apr 13, Chinese state
media reported that authorities have seized more than 10,000 illegal
guns in the southwestern province of Guizhou, marking its largest
haul of illegal firearms. Fifteen people suspected of being part of
a criminal gang involved in the manufacturing and trafficking of
firearms were arrested.
(Reuters, 4/13/14)
2014 Apr 13, Chinese
conglomerate Sanpower said it has agreed to buy a majority stake in
British department store House of Fraser in a deal worth Ł480
million (578 million euros, $800 million).
(AP, 4/13/14)
2014 Apr 13, Glencore, based in
Switzerland, said it has signed an agreement to sell its entire
interest in the Peruvian Las Bambas copper mine to a consortium led
by MMG Ltd., a mining company controlled by state-owned China
Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Co. Ltd.
(AP, 4/14/14)
2014 Apr 15, In southern China
thousands of workers at a giant Yue Yuen Industrial shoe factory
shrugged off an offer for improved social benefits, prolonging one
of the largest strikes in China in recent years amid signs of
increased labor activism as the economy slows.
(Reuters, 4/15/14)
2014 Apr 15, In China a
government owned company that bred bears for traditional medicines
agreed to convert itself in to a sanctuary. Some 70 bear farms, with
bears caged for their bile, were believed to be still operating in
the country.
(SFC, 4/16/14, p.A4)
2014 Apr 17, A strike at the
Chinese factories Yu Yuen Industrial, the world's biggest athletic
shoe maker, snowballed to about 30,000 workers in Dongguan, making
it one of the largest-ever work stoppages at a private business in
China.
(AP, 4/17/14)
2014 Apr 17, China’s
environment ministry said a nationwide soil survey has shown that as
much as 16.1 percent of China's soil and 19.4% of farmland was
contaminated by organic and inorganic chemical pollutants. This was
nearly one-fifth of China’s farmland.
(Reuters, 4/17/14)(SFC, 4/19/14, p.A4)(Econ
6/10/17, p.25)
2014 Apr 17, China introduced
its first armed police patrols in Xi'an. Shanghai and Qingdao police
began to carry 9 mm pistols on Apr 20.
(AP, 4/21/14)
2014 Apr 18, A Chinese court
sentenced four anti-corruption protestors to between two and
three-and-a-half years in jail over their role in small-scale
demonstrations, furthering a crackdown on rights activists. The four
were associated with the New Citizens Movement, a loose network
whose members held peaceful protests in Beijing last year.
(AFP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 18, In Vietnam a
Chinese man who was being repatriated from Vietnam along with 15
other migrants seized a gun from a border guard, triggering a
gunfight and standoff in which five Chinese and two Vietnamese
guards died.
(AP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 19, A Chinese maritime
court in Shanghai seized a ship owned by Japanese shipping firm
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, a move that Japan warned could have an adverse
impact on its businesses in China. The court said the company had
failed to pay compensation stemming from a WWII contractual
obligation. On April 24 China said Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd
has paid about $29 million for the release of the ship.
(Reuters, 4/21/14)(Reuters, 4/24/14)
2014 Apr 20, In India 2 victims
were found dead aboard the Chinese-built carrier Tuo Fu 3 anchored
near Haldia city in the Bay of Bengal. They had reportedly collapsed
immediately after entering the cargo hold filled with coal and
accumulated methane gas.
(AP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 22, US Naval officials
and two dozen Asia-Pacific nations adopted the code For Unplanned
Encounters, an agreement aimed at improving communication at sea to
reduce the possibility of conflict amid rising friction between an
increasingly assertive China and its neighbors. The agreement was
approved unanimously at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium in the
eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao.
(AP, 4/22/14)(SFC, 4/23/14, p.A2)
2014 Apr 22, Tesla Motors Inc.
delivered its first eight electric sedans to customers in China. CEO
Elon Musk said the company will build a nationwide network of
charging stations and service centers as fast as it can.
(AP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 22, In the Philippines
about 80 activists protested at the Chinese consulate in Manila,
demanding that China stop intruding into Philippine territory in the
South China Sea. Philippine marine officer Mike Pelotera said he and
his men saw Filipino fishermen being "bullied" away from the Second
Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea at least eight times from
December to March.
(AP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 24, China passed
amendments to the country's environmental protection law that will
impose tougher penalties on polluters in the most sweeping revisions
to the law in 25 years.
(Reuters, 4/24/14)
2014 Apr 25, China’s Sina.com
temporarily closed its literature site after being accused of
hosting pornography, and authorities confirmed they were revoking
two crucial licenses, ensnaring one of China's top web portals in an
intensifying online crackdown.
(AP, 4/25/14)
2014 Apr 26, China’s Ministry
of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said it aims to start
building more than 7 million units of public housing this year,
signaling the latest government move to counter high property
prices.
(Reuters, 4/26/14)
2014 Apr 26, In China a
spokeswoman for a leading online video site, Youku, said it has
received notification not to show sitcom "The Big Bang Theory,"
political and legal drama "The Good Wife," crime drama "NCIS" and
legal drama "The Practice."
(AP, 4/27/14)
2014 Apr 26, In China labor
activists said most of the thousands of striking workers in Dongguan
have returned to work enabling Adidas to resume production. Some
10,000 remained on strike at the Taiwanese owned Yue Yuen Industrial
Holdings Ltd.
(SSFC, 4/27/14, p.A7)
2014 Apr 28, In China a man
distressed by his divorce case intentionally rammed a car into
electric scooters and pedestrians near a school in the southeast,
killing 6 people, including 3 children. Police subdued Lin Jianxin
(37) with a water gun in Zhuangtou village, Fujian province.
(AP, 4/28/14)
2014 Apr 28, In China the
large, officially approved, Sanjiang Protestant Church was
demolished in Wenzhou. It had been built six years earlier at a cost
of $4.8 million, but officials said it had violated building codes.
(Econ, 5/3/14, p.40)
2014 Apr 29, The US targeted
companies from China and Dubai for allegedly helping Iran evade
weapons and oil sanctions, a signal Washington will keep pressure on
Tehran over its nuclear program.
(Reuters, 4/29/14)
2014 Apr 30, In China an
explosion shook a railway station in the restive far-western region
of Xinjiang as President Xi Jinping wrapped up a four-day visit to
the area. Authorities the next day said that two religious
extremists carried out the terror attack by detonating explosives,
in an apparent suicide bombing that killed one other person and
wounded 79. It was later reported that 3 government officials were
knifed to death and their bodies dumped in a lake during the
president’s visit.
(AP, 4/30/14)(AP, 5/1/14)(Reuters, 5/16/14)
2014 May 1, China deployed a $1
billion deep sea rig near the Paracel Islands and the flotilla of
escort ships, some armed, in a gradual campaign of asserting its
sovereignty in the South China Sea. After China stationed the oil
rig, Vietnam immediately dispatched marine police and fishery
protection vessels but they were harassed as they approached.
(AP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 2, A Venezuelan
fishing boat found 11 Chinese sailors floating in a raft about 1,000
miles west of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. 2 soon died of their injuries.
(SFC, 5/5/14, p.A2)
2014 May 3, In southern China a
stone arch bridge under illegal construction, collapsed, killing 11
people and injuring several others in Liangkengkou village,
Guangdong province.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang set off for a four-country tour of Africa (Ethiopia,
Nigeria, Angola and Kenya), acknowledging "growing pains" in
China-Africa relations amid labor conflicts and other problems
stemming from Chinese investment.
(AP, 5/4/14)
2014 May 4, A Chinese vessel
intentionally rammed two Vietnamese Sea Guard vessels in a part of
the disputed South China Sea where Beijing has deployed a giant oil
rig, sending tensions spiraling in the region.
(Reuters, 5/7/14)
2014 May 5, China’s state media
said a court has convicted a man, identified by the surname Li, of
spying and sentenced him to 10 years in prison for leaking
classified military documents to a foreign spy, named Feige, who
also approached more than 50 other people around China.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 5, Beijing-based
Peking University announced plans for China's second international
program modeled after the Rhodes Scholarship.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 5, Vietnam demanded
China stop oil drilling operations in a disputed patch of the South
China Sea, saying that Beijing's decision to deploy a deep sea rig
over the weekend was illegal.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 6, Chinese police shot
and wounded a suspect who attacked passengers at a busy railway
station in the southern city of Guangzhou, leaving six people
injured in the third high-profile assault on civilians at a train
station in a little more than two months.
(AP, 5/6/14)
2014 May 6, The Philippines
seized a Chinese fishing boat and its 11 crewmen on charges of
catching endangered sea turtles in disputed South China Sea waters,
prompting China to demand their release and accuse Manila of being
provocative. On May 12 all nine men were charged with poaching over
500 endangered sea turtles.
(AP, 5/7/14)(SFC, 5/13/14, p.A3)
2014 May 7, Tibet’s exiled
Dalai Lama began a three-day stay in Norway. Unlike on his previous
visits, no government officials will meet with him to avoid
upsetting China.
(AP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 8, China accused
Vietnam of intentionally colliding with its ships in the South China
Sea, but called for talks to end a bitter row sparked by Beijing's
parking of a giant oil rig in contested waters.
(Reuters, 5/8/14)
2014 May 8, Chinese police shot
dead an assailant who attacked a police vehicle with knives in the
far western region of Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 5/8/14)
2014 May 10, China’s state
media reported that President Xi Jinping has called for the
acceleration of land transfers to help modernize the country's
agriculture.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 10, Protesters in
eastern China clashed with police at a rally against plans to build
a huge waste incinerator in Yuhang that residents fear will be
harmful to their health and add to pollution. The Yuhang government
said that all work on the incinerator has stopped, and that it would
invite the public to participate in a decision whether to press
ahead with the scheme.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 10, In Myanmar
Southeast Asian foreign ministers voiced "serious concerns" over
naval clashes between Vietnam and China as the ASEAN’s top official
urged Beijing to step up efforts to advance talks on maritime
security.
(Reuters, 5/10/14)
2014 May 11, In eastern China
heavy rain caused a retaining wall to collapse at a recycling plant
in Qingdao city, killing 18 people.
(AP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 11, Myanmar hosted the
Southeast Asian summit (ASEAN) as Vietnam and the Philippines
pushed for stronger action to confront China's aggressive behavior
in the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 11, China signed a
deal with East African leaders to build a $3.8 billion rail link
between Kenya's Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and Nairobi, the first
stage of a line that will eventually link Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi
and South Sudan.
(AFP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 13, In Vietnam several
thousand workers protested at Chinese-owned factories, vandalizing
some of them, as anger flared at Beijing's deployment of an oil rig
in waters claimed by Vietnam.
(AP, 5/13/14)
2014 May 14, Chinese police
said they have charged the former British boss of drugmaker
GlaxoSmithKline PLC's China business and other colleagues with
corruption, after a probe found the firm made billions of yuan from
elaborate schemes to bribe doctors and hospitals. Mark Reilly and
two Chinese executives, Zhang Guowei and Zhao Hongyan, were also
suspected of bribing officials in the industry and commerce
departments of Beijing and Shanghai.
(Reuters, 5/14/14)
2014 May 14, In northwestern
China a pipeline in a coal mine collapsed, killing 11 people in the
city of Yulin, Shaanxi province. 24 people came out alive and 2
remained missing.
(AP, 5/16/14)
2014 May 14, In Vietnam a
1,000-strong mob stormed the Taiwanese owned Formosa steel mill in
Ha Tinh province and hunted down Chinese workers, killing one,
attacking scores more and then setting the complex alight in
response to Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in the long-disputed
South China Sea. State-owned China Metallurgical Group later
reported that 4 of its workers were killed. Some 600 Chinese crossed
into Cambodia over the land border in southern Vietnam.
(AP, 5/15/14)(AP, 5/20/14)(SFC, 5/21/14, p.A2)
2014 May 15, A Chinese court
sentenced Vincent Wu, a Chinese-American businessman, to 20 years in
prison on charges of heading a mob that kidnapped rivals and
operated illegal casinos, and rejected his claim that he was
tortured by police. About two dozen other defendants in the case
received sentences of between 19 months and 19 years
(AP, 5/15/14)
2014 May 15, China’s Caixin
business magazine reported that Wei Pengyuan, a senior official of
the National Energy Administration’s coal department, was under
arrest. So much cash ($16m) was found at his home in Beijing that
investigators brought in 16 machines from a bank to count it all.
(http://tinyurl.com/l8kd336)(Econ, 6/28/14, p.38)
2014 May 16, In China the
leader of a baby trafficking ring that brought 23 boys and pregnant
women from Vietnam was sentenced to death. The court in the southern
region of Guangxi gave another 23 members of the group sentences
ranging from less than two years to life in prison.
(AP, 5/16/14)
2014 May 16, Filipinos and
Vietnamese residents in Manila staged a joint protest against
China's incursions into South China Sea territories claimed by their
countries.
(AP, 5/16/14)
2014 May 16, Suspected Boko
Haram rebels from Nigeria attacked a Chinese work site near Waza in
northern Cameroon and at least 10 people were believed to have been
kidnapped.
(Reuters, 5/17/14)(Econ, 7/26/14, p.43)
2014 May 17, China's public
security chief urged Vietnam to take tough measures to stem
anti-China violence and punish rioters following deadly attacks
there earlier this week.
(Reuters, 5/17/14)
2014 May 17, Vietnam's PM
Nguyen Tan Dun ordered an end to all "illegal protests" in the
country after a week of violent demonstrations against China's
deployment of an oil rig in a disputed section of the South China
Sea.
(AP, 5/17/14)
2014 May 18, In China Liu
Zhanbin, the chief executive of Sanjing Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.,
jumped to his death. He was under investigation on suspicion of
taking bribes.
(AP, 5/19/14)
2014 May 18, Vietnam smothered
anti-China protests with a massive security clampdown after deadly
riots triggered by a territorial dispute with Beijing spooked
foreign investors and the country's leadership alike. Beijing said
it had evacuated 3,000 nationals from Vietnam and was sending the
first of five ships to pull out others wanting to leave.
(AP, 5/18/14)
2014 May 19, Chinese media said
the government of the industrial city of Tianjin will limit the
number of vehicles allowed on roads during heavy smog. Last month
Tianjin banned new steel and cement plants as part of a program to
reverse damage done to its environment.
(Reuters, 5/19/14)
2014 May 19, The US indicted
five members of the Chinese military on charges they stole US
secrets through hacking to help state-run companies. Attorney
General Eric Holder said they hacked into six US nuclear power,
metals and solar products industries: Alcoa World Alumina,
Westinghouse Electric Co., Allegheny Technologies, U.S. Steel Corp.,
United Steelworkers Union, and SolarWorld.
(AFP, 5/19/14)(AP, 5/19/14)
2014 May 19, Hundreds of
Chinese workers left Vietnam on ships chartered by their government
after deadly unrest broke out last week amid a dispute over
sovereignty claims in the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/19/14)
2014 May 20, China warned the
US was jeopardizing military ties by charging five Chinese officers
with cyberspying and tried to turn the tables on Washington by
calling it "the biggest attacker of China's cyberspace."
(AP, 5/20/14)
2014 May 20, China's Xinjiang
Supreme Court jailed 39 people in a special operation to curb the
spread of audio and video materials inciting terrorism. They were
convicted of crimes including organizing and leading terrorist
groups, inciting ethnic hatred, ethnic discrimination and the
illegal manufacturing of guns.
(AP, 5/21/14)
2014 May 21, China signed a
landmark deal to buy Russian natural gas worth about $400 billion,
giving a boost to diplomatically isolated President Vladimir Putin
and expanding Moscow's ties with Asia.
(AP, 5/21/14)
2014 May 21, China’s
state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp. said it is ready to deliver
the country’s first homegrown regional airliner, the ARJ21-700, to
Chengdu Airlines.
(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.D2)
2014 May 21, Vietnamese PM
Nguyen Tan Dung said Vietnam and the Philippines are determined to
oppose Chinese infringement of their territorial waters.
(Reuters, 5/21/14)
2014 May 22, In China two
vehicles with explosives ploughed into an open market in Urumqi,
Xinjiang province, in the deadliest act of violence in the region in
years. At least 43 people were killed including 4 suicide bombers.
One suspect was captured.
(Reuters, 5/22/14)(Reuters, 5/23/14)(AP, 5/24/14)
2014 May 22, China and Russia
vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution to refer Syria to the
International Criminal Court for war crimes committed by both sides
in its civil war.
(AFP, 5/22/14)
2014 May 23, China warned Japan
to stay out of a growing dispute with its neighbors over the South
China Sea, as the Philippines implicitly accused Beijing of delaying
talks aimed at a solution.
(Reuters, 5/23/14)
2014 May 23, In China Liu Han,
a former mining tycoon, was sentenced to death for leading a crime
gang that killed rivals. Han had been chairman of the Sichuan
Hanlong Group, an energy conglomerate with stakes in Australian and
US mines.
(AP, 5/23/14)(SFC, 5/24/14, p.A3)
2014 May 23, In Vietnam a woman
(67) died after setting herself on fire in downtown Ho Chi Minh City
in protest against China's deployment of an oil rig in waters
claimed by Hanoi.
(AP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 23, The WTO ruled that
China's anti-dumping duties on imports of American-made cars and
sport-utility vehicles violate international trade rules.
(AP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 23, In China a tour
bus carrying 26 people fell into a section of the Jiulong River in
Fujian province killing at least 2 people. Five people remained
missing. 24 passengers were from Taiwan.
(AP, 5/24/14)
2014 May 25, In
northwestern China two trucks collided, killing 10 people and
injuring 32 in Wujiaqu city, Xinjiang region.
(AP, 5/25/14)
2014 May 26, China announced
that it has arrested more than 200 terror suspects over the past
month in the restive Xinjiang region, highlighting its commitment to
a security crackdown even as a bloody attack last week raised
questions about its effectiveness. Police foiled a terror plot by
detaining five suspects and seizing 1.8 tons of bomb-making
materials in the Hotan section of the Xinjiang region.
(AP, 5/26/14)(AP, 5/27/14)
2014 May 26, China’s government
said 37 people have died and six left missing in widespread flooding
that's hit hundreds of thousands of people in a swath of southern
China.
(AP, 5/26/14)
2014 May 26, China's government
said it plans to take 6 million older, polluting vehicles off the
road this year in an effort to revive stalled progress toward
cleaning up smog-choked cities.
(AP, 5/27/14)
2014 May 26, South Korea and
China agreed recent nuclear activity by North Korea posed a serious
threat to the peace and stability of the region and Pyongyang must
not conduct a nuclear test, after a meeting of their top diplomats
in Seoul.
(Reuters, 5/26/14)
2014 May 26, Some 40 Chinese
fishing boats surrounded a Vietnamese fishing boat before one of
them rammed it and it sank not far from where China has parked an
oil rig in the disputed South China Sea. Vietnamese fishing boats
operating nearby rescued the 10 fishermen on board.
(Reuters, 5/27/14)
2014 May 27, A Chinese court
announced guilty verdicts for 55 people on charges of terrorism,
separatism and murder in a stadium filled with 7,000 people in Yili,
Xinjiang province. At least one convict received a death sentence
before the audience made up of local residents and officials.
(AP, 5/28/14)
2014 May 28, In eastern China
members of the "All-powerful spirit" religious cult beat a woman to
death at a McDonald's restaurant in Zhaoyuan. The attack was caught
on video and 6 members of the cult were soon arrested. Five members
of the Church of Almighty God, aka Eastern Lightning" went on trial
on Aug 21. In October two defendants were sentenced to death, a 3rd
to life in prison, and two other to seven and ten years in prison.
(http://tinyurl.com/o575hgg)(Econ, 8/30/14,
p.40)(AFP, 10/11/14)
2014 May 29, China’s health
officials said they expect 2 million extra babies per year as a
result of loosening its “one child" birth limits.
(SFC, 5/30/14, p.A2)
2014 May 31, US Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel warned an international security conference at
the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that the US "will not look the
other way" when nations such as China try to restrict navigation or
ignore international rules and standards.
(AP, 5/31/14)
2014 Jun 3, China showed off
its first high-speed rail link to the restive region of Xinjiang,
promising that it could guarantee the security of an important
economic project despite a recent serious escalation in violence.
(Reuters, 6/3/14)
2014 Jun 4, China rejected an
arbitration tribunal's ruling giving it six months to respond to a
case filed by the Philippines over disputed waters, saying it has no
plans to take part.
(Reuters, 6/4/14)
2014 Jun 5, Chinese state media
said authorities have sentenced 81 people on terror-related charges,
nine of them to death, and made 29 new arrests in a huge crackdown
in the far west following deadly attacks blamed on Muslim
extremists.
(AP, 6/5/14)
2014 Jun 5, China offered $16
million in humanitarian assistance for refugees from the conflict in
Syria as part of Beijing's growing engagement with the Arab world.
(AP, 6/5/14)
2014 Jun 5, China freed Tibetan
filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen (40), who made a 2008 documentary about
Tibetan nomads expressing discontent over China's rule, after
serving six years for separatism. Wangchen was freed in the western
city of Xining, capital of Qinghai province.
(AP, 6/6/14)
2014 Jun 7, The Chinese
government said it will deploy eight inspection teams across the
country to investigate how regional governments are implementing 19
central policies and will hold accountable those found wanting.
(Reuters, 6/7/14)
2014 Jun 8, In China a raid by
officers on small bathhouses and other businesses associated with
prostitution sparked clashes lasting hours in the southern city of
Guangzhou.
(AP, 6/8/14)
2014 Jun 8, China's foreign
minister visited India's new leaders in hopes of spurring stalled
trade and easing decades of tensions between the Asian nations.
(AP, 6/8/14)
2014 Jun 9, China denounced
Vietnam and the Philippines for getting together on the
Vietnamese-held island of Southwest Cay, a disputed island in the
South China Sea, to play soccer and volleyball, calling it "a clumsy
farce" and demanded both countries stop causing trouble.
(Reuters, 6/9/14)
2014 Jun 10, China’s government
issued a “white paper" asserting that autonomy granted to Hong Kong
in 1997 was entirely dependent on China’s leaders.
(Econ, 7/5/14, p.37)
2014 Jun 10, In China convicted
criminal Zhang Zeqing, was shot and killed by police in Qianjiang,
Hubei province. He had taken 50 elementary school students and a
teacher hostage and had agreed to exchange them for the deputy mayor
of the surrounding town of Haokou, but was shot after he poured
gasoline over the official.
(AP, 6/10/14)
2014 Jun 11, A delegation of
Thai military commanders travelled to China for talks on regional
security and joint training amid Western reproach of the army's
seizure of power in a coup last month.
(Reuters, 6/11/14)
2014 Jun 14, China’s corruption
watchdog said Su Rong, the vice-chairman of China's top
parliamentary advisory body, has been put under investigation for
serious "disciplinary violations," usually Chinese Communist Party
shorthand for graft.
(Reuters, 6/14/14)
2014 Jun 14, China began
building a school on tiny Yongxing island in the South China Sea to
serve the children of military personnel and others for the
settlement of Sansha, created in 2012. It is part of the Paracel
chain, which is also claimed by Vietnam.
(AP, 6/15/14)
2014 Jun 14, The Philippines
said it filed a protest last week with Beijing for reclaiming land
on a disputed South China Sea reef, the fourth such complaint in
three months.
(AFP, 6/14/14)
2014 Jun 16, Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang arrived in Britain on a 3-day visit that included a planned
meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and talks aimed at boosting fragile
diplomatic relations.
(AP, 6/16/14)
2014 Jun 17, In China an
accidental explosion killed 17 soldiers as they were stacking
ammunition in Hengyang, Hunan province.
(SFC, 6/19/14, p.A2)
2014 Jun 17, Chinese premier Li
Keqiang began his visit to Britain with a meeting with Queen
Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. He then traveled to central London
for a formal inspection of British soldiers and a meeting with PM
David Cameron at his office in Downing Street. Mr Li, who was
accompanied by a large business delegation, formally agreed during
the trip to commercial deals and investments worth Ł14bn ($24
billion) in areas such as energy and finance.
(AP, 6/17/14)(Econ, 7/19/14, p.11)
2014 Jun 19, China said it is
moving a second oil rig closer to Vietnam's coast, showing its
determination to press its territorial claims and continue searching
for resources in disputed waters despite a tense confrontation with
Vietnam over another oil rig to the south.
(AP, 6/19/14)
2014 Jun 19, In eastern China a
court sentenced to up to 6 ˝ years in prison three activists who
were part of a nascent civil rights movement that has urged
government officials to publicly disclose their assets. A court in
southern Guangxi region sentenced to death He Shenguo, who killed
two government workers and injured four other people in an argument
related to the one-child policy.
(AP, 6/19/14)
2014 Jun 19, Chinese PM Li
Keqiang arrived on an official three-day visit to Greece, which the
Greek government hopes will lead to trade and investment deals that
will boost the recession-plagued economy.
(AP, 6/19/14)
2014 Jun 19, Chinese
authorities arrested 11 North Koreans who had fled their country and
will likely deport them back to the North where they could face
severe punishment.
(AP, 7/2/14)
2014 Jun 20, In China
assailants stabbed two police officers guarding a security
checkpoint in a village in Qaraqash county, Xinjiang, and set fire
to a room in which three other officers were sleeping, killing all
five.
(AP, 6/24/14)
2014 Jun 21, In China police in
Kashgar prefecture in Xinjiang's southwest shot dead 13 assailants
who rammed a truck into a police office building and set off
explosives in an attack that also wounded three officers.
(AP, 6/21/14)
2014 Jun 22, China’s Ministry
of Civil Affairs said five days of rainstorms in the south have left
26 people dead and another three missing and led to direct economic
losses of 4 billion yuan ($650 million).
(AP, 6/23/14)
2014 Jun 23, Chinese
authorities said they broke up 32 terror groups and arrested more
than 380 suspects in the far west in the first month of a crackdown
aimed at demonstrating the Communist Party's resolve to maintain
order in the Xinjiang region. Many suspects received rapid trials
and stiff sentences, including death penalties. Security forces also
seized several hundred explosive devices.
(AP, 6/23/14)
2014 Jun 24, In China Wei
Jianghong, chairman of a state-owned copper smelter and a delegate
to the national legislature, jumped to his death in Anhui province.
The suicide was attributed to “excessive work pressure and mental
stress."
(Econ, 6/28/14, p.38)
2014 Jun 25, China sent its
first ever ministerial-level official to Taiwan for four days of
meetings.
(SFC, 6/26/14, p.A2)
2014 Jun 27, China’s state
media said a court has sentenced 25 members of Quannengshen, or the
Church of Almighty God, a banned religious, group to prison terms of
up to eight years, the largest in a series of prosecutions against a
group that China calls an illegal cult.
(Reuters, 6/27/14)
2014 Jun 27, Five Chinese
fishermen were missing after a trawler sank in waters to the north
of islands disputed with Japan in the East China Sea in what
appeared to be an accident.
(Reuters, 6/27/14)
2014 Jun 27, In Hong Kong more
than 800 lawyers protested over a requirement for judges to be
patriotic to China. In what was seen as a thinly veiled threat ahead
of a 10-day referendum, Beijing had released a policy document that
said, among other things, that Hong Kong's autonomy comes at the
discretion of the central government and included a requirement for
judges to be patriotic to China.
(AP, 6/29/14)
2014 Jun 28, Chinese President
Xi Jinping feted neighbors India and Myanmar, dusting off the 60th
anniversary of a now rather obscure agreement signed in the early
days of the Cold War to pledge a rising China's commitment to peace.
(Reuters, 6/28/14)
2014 Jun 28, In Taiwan Zhang
Zhijun, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister, canceled two events
after protesters threw paint on his motorcade.
(SSFC, 6/29/14, p.A6)
2014 Jun 30, In China former
top Gen. Xu Caihou was expelled from the ruling Communist Party to
face bribery charges. Three other senior officials, including a
former deputy police minister, also were expelled from the party to
face corruption charges.
(AP, 6/30/14)
2014 Jun 30, China said it will
re-open its embassy in Mogadishu 23 years after evacuating its
diplomats as Somalia plunged into civil war.
(AP, 6/30/14)
2014 Jun 30, In China a leaking
oil pipeline caught fire in the northeastern port city of Dalian,
forcing the evacuation of nearly 20,000 residents.
(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jun 30, In Hong Kong the
results of a 10-day referendum indicated overwhelming support for
the Legislative Council to reject any electoral reform proposed by
China that does not meet int’l. standards. About 23% of registered
voters participated.
(SFC, 6/30/14, p.A4)
2014 Jul 1, In Hong Kong tens
of thousands marched through the streets of the former British
colony to push for greater democracy in a rally fueled by anger over
Beijing's recent warning that it holds the ultimate authority over
the southern Chinese financial center.
(AP, 7/1/14)
2014 Jul 2, China's top
anti-corruption body said Ji Wenlin, a former aide to embattled
retired domestic security boss, Zhou Yongkang, has been expelled
from the Communist Party after taking "huge bribes" and committing
adultery.
(Reuters, 7/2/14)
2014 Jul 3, Chinese President
Xi Jinping began a two-day visit to Seoul. The leaders of China and
South Korea simultaneously snubbed North Korea, bolstered their
already booming trade relationship and gave the US and Japan a look
at Beijing's growing influence south of the Korean Demilitarized
Zone.
(AP, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 3, A China-based tour
operator said North Korea will reopen some of its domestic scheduled
air routes for the first time in years, another sign of moves to
bolster tourism in the isolated country.
(Reuters, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 3, Chinese patrol
ships arrested six Vietnamese fishermen in waters off China's Hainan
Island. An official in the district where the fishermen came from,
said the arrests took place in disputed waters near the Gulf of
Tonkin.
(AP, 7/4/14)
2014 Jul 4, In China Zhang
Shaojie, the pastor of a Christian church in Henan province, was
sentenced to 12 years in prison in what supporters say is a
crackdown aimed at curbing fast-growing religious activity.
(AP, 7/4/14)
2014 Jul 5, In northwestern
China 17 miners were trapped following a gas explosion at a coal
mine in the Xinjiang region. On July 7 official media reported that
all 17 had died.
(AP, 7/6/14)(AP, 7/7/14)
2014 Jul 7, China’s state media
said authorities have taken down more than 40 groups called "violent
terror gangs" and arrested more than 400 people in the restive
western region of Xinjiang since the government began a crackdown in
May.
(Reuters, 7/7/14)
2014 Jul 9, The United States
and China vowed to improve their economic and security cooperation,
saying they wouldn't let persistent differences over maritime
claims, cyberhacking and currency hamper a relationship critical to
global peace and prosperity.
(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 10, In China courts in
the western region of Xinjiang sentenced 32 people to prison, three
of them for life, for terror charges stemming from downloading and
spreading violent Internet content that authorities have blamed for
inspiring a recent string of deadly attacks.
(AP, 7/12/14)
2014 Jul 10, China and the
United States agreed to boost military ties and counter-terrorism
cooperation during high-level annual talks in Beijing, but there was
little immediate sign of progress on thorny cyber-security or
maritime issues. They also agreed that China will reduce its
intervention in the currency market when conditions are ripe and
promised closer cooperation on climate change and North Korea.
(Reuters, 7/10/14)(AP, 7/10/14)
2014 Jul 11, In China Rui
Chenggang, a celebrity anchorman for China Central Television
(CCTV-2), was abruptly absent from the live cast of a nightly
business news program. State prosecutors reportedly removed Rui from
his workplace.
(AP, 7/12/14)(Econ, 7/19/14, p.40)
2014 Jul 11, US authorities
said they have charged Chinese businessman Su Bin with hacking into
the computer systems of US companies with large defense contracts,
including Boeing, to steal data on military projects, including some
of the latest fighter jets. He had worked in cahoots with two
unnamed Chinese hackers to get the data between 2009 and 2013.
(AP, 7/11/14)
2014 Jul 12, It was reported
that Chinese regulators have banned the country's journalists from
sharing information they have obtained on the job with overseas
media or publishing it in any venue, such as blogging sites, outside
the media they are employed. The regulations were detailed in a June
30 document but released this week.
(AP, 7/12/14)
2014 Jul 14, Chinese state
media reported that authorities have indicted British and American
investigators hired by GlaxoSmithKline on charges of illegally
obtaining and selling private information, as the Briton blamed the
pharmaceutical company for misleading and using him.
(AP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 14, China’s state
media reported that teachers are now banned from receiving gifts
from students and their parents to curb the buying of favors, often
in exchange for giving students special treatment.
(Reuters, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 14, Chinese state
media reported that police have uncovered a series of illegal World
Cup betting cases involving almost $3 billion, as authorities
struggled to control the country's growing gambling problem.
(AFP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 14, In southwest China
part of a railway tunnel collapsed, trapping an estimated 14 workers
in Yunnan province's Funing county.
(AP, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 15, China’s top
anti-corruption watchdog said Zhang Youren, a former senior
executive at a state-owned military giant, has been expelled from
the ruling Communist Party for taking bribes and other "massive"
corruption.
(Reuters, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 15, In southern China
an explosion went off on a bus that then caught fire in Guangzhou,
killing 2 people and injuring at least six.
(AP, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 15, In Brazil leaders
of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)
met for their 6th annual summit. They created two financial
institutions: The New Development Bank (NDB) to finance
infrastructure with $50 billion to start and the $100 billion
Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) to tide over members in
financial difficulties.
(AP, 7/15/14)(Econ, 7/19/14,p.62)
2014 Jul 15, Hong Kong's Chief
Executive Leung Chun-ying formally asked Beijing for legal changes
that would ultimately let residents of the southern Chinese city
elect his successor, but he downplayed calls for the public to
nominate candidates free of China's vetting.
(AP, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 16, Vietnam said China
has moved an oil rig out of waters claimed by Hanoi. Two months of
drilling had triggered a near-breakdown in ties between the
neighbors and led to deadly protests in Vietnam.
(AP, 7/16/14)
2014 Jul 17, China’s Ministry
of Civil Affairs said heavy rains and landslides over the past week
have killed at least 45 people in southern China and left 21 others
missing.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, In Brazil China's
President Xi Jinpin pressed a charm offensive with Latin America,
signing deals with Brazil, meeting regional leaders and proposing a
$20 billion infrastructure fund that highlights Beijing's growing
interests in the region.
(AP, 7/18/14)
2014 Jul 18, In southern China
Typhoon Rammasun hit the island of Hainan as over 26,000 people
evacuated the area. 9 people were killed and 5 left missing on
Hainan. Another 9 were killed as the storm plowed through the
Guangxi region on the mainland.
(SFC, 7/19/14, p.A2)(SFC, 7/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 18, In Argentina
visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping announced huge investments in
hydroelectric power, shipbuilding, railways and a deal to help
Argentina build its fourth nuclear plant.
(AFP, 7/19/14)
2014 Jul 22, In China the
Paper, a new digital news platform, was launched as an offshoot of
the Oriental Morning Post in Shanghai.
(Econ, 12/13/14, p.46)
2014 Jul 22, In northeastern
China a man tied up two bedridden patients and a mentally disabled
one and used a dull razor to castrate them. A 60-year-old victim
lost both his testicles while the other two victims, aged 53 and 80,
lost one each. A suspect was soon detained.
(AP, 7/24/14)
2014 Jul 23, Chinese police
detained five people from a unit of US food supplier OSI Group, in a
case involving expired meat sold to fast food giants including
McDonald's and KFC. The Chinese supplier also had provided 20% of
the meat for chicken nuggets in Japan.
(AFP, 7/23/14)(SFC, 7/23/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 23, China’s state
media said Beijing has closed the first of four large coal-fired
power plants set to be de-commissioned as part of the city's efforts
to cut air pollution, citing the local planning agency.
(Reuters, 7/23/14)
2014 Jul 23, Chinese state
media said the government would target pornography on smartphones
and punish pornographic app creators.
(SFC, 7/24/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 23, In China tropical
storm Matmo made landfall. It brought heavy rains and winds to parts
of eastern China following another typhoon that killed at least 56
people in the country's south. Matmo left 9 dead in Jiangxi province
and 4 dead in Guangdong province.
(AP, 7/24/14)(SFC, 7/28/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 25, Chinese state
media said the government has investigated more than 25,000 people
for corruption in the first six months of 2014.
(Reuters, 7/25/14)
2014 Jul 28, In China at least
13 police officers and 20 Uighurs were killed and injured in an
alleged "terrorist attack" in the far western Xinjiang region, home
to the mainly Muslim Uighur minority. Chinese police shot dead
dozens of knife-wielding attackers after they staged assaults on two
towns in the Xinjiang region. On Aug 3 state media said that 37
civilians and 59 "terrorists" were killed in the attack in Xinjiang.
(AFP, 7/29/14)(Reuters, 7/29/14)(SFC, 7/31/14,
p.A6)(AP, 8/3/14)
2014 Jul 28, In China police
took down the cross of the Longgang Huai En Church in the eastern
city of Wenzhou, known as China’s Jerusalem, saying it violated
height limits. Church leaders said the government is trying to
suppress the fast growing Protestant religion.
(SFC, 7/29/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 29, China's ruling
Communist Party said it has put former security chief Zhou Yongkang
(71) under investigation, the most senior official to fall for
decades.
(AFP, 7/29/14)(SSFC, 8/3/14, p.A4)
2014 Jul 30, In China Aini
Aishan (18) reportedly organized an attack on Jume Tahir. He was
arrested two days later in Hotan, Xinjiang province. Tahir was the
state-appointed imam of China's biggest mosque and often spoke in
support of government policies. In late September two Uighur
teenagers were sentenced to death for their role in the murder of
Tahir.
(AP, 8/25/14)(SFC, 9/29/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 31, A Chinese man said
he was suing a psychological clinic for carrying out electric shocks
intended to turn him straight.
(SFC, 8/1/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 1, China acknowledged
the existence of a new intercontinental ballistic missile said to be
capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads as far as the United
States. The Dongfeng-41 (DF-41) is designed to have a range of
12,000 km (7,500 miles).
(AFP, 8/1/14)
2014 Aug 1, Police in China's
Xinjiang region shot dead 9 suspected terrorists and captured one.
(AFP, 8/1/14)
2014 Aug 1, Japan named five
uninhabited small isles belonging to an island group in the center
of a dispute with China as part of efforts to reinforce its claim, a
move likely to spark anger from Beijing and another claimant,
Taiwan.
(AP, 8/1/14)
2014 Aug 2, In eastern China a
suspected dust explosion at an automotive parts factory that
supplies General Motors killed 75 people in Kunshan. The death toll
climbed to 146 when other workers died in the hospital. This was the
country's worst industrial accident since 2005. On December 30
China's Cabinet announced the firing of the top two officials of
Kunshan. 20 others were placed under judicial review for possible
indictment. By 2016 Chinese courts jailed 14 government officials
and company executives for up to seven-and-a-half years over the
factory explosion.
(AP, 8/2/14)(SFC, 8/5/14, p.A2)(AP, 12/30/14)(AP,
2/3/16)
2014 Aug 3, In southern China a
magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Yunnan province toppled thousands of
homes. The death toll soon climbed to nearly 600 people with more
than 1,800 injured.
(AP, 8/3/14)(SFC, 8/4/14, p.A3)(AFP, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 4, China’s state media
said the government is offering more than 300 million yuan ($49
million) for residents of Xinjiang, the homeland of mainly Muslim
Uighurs, who help a crackdown on "terrorists." A total of 4.23
million yuan was already handed out to individuals and government
agencies who helped in the killing and capture of 10 "suspected
terrorists" in Hotan prefecture last week.
(AFP, 8/4/14)
2014 Aug 4, China's
smog-plagued capital announced plans to ban the use of coal by the
end of 2020 as the country fights deadly levels of pollution,
especially in major cities.
(AP, 8/5/14)
2014 Aug 5, Chinese police
authorized the arrest of a student, surnamed Chang, who was
found to have "gathered intelligence" for "foreign personnel" more
than 50 times over nearly two years for some $32,000.
(AFP, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 5, A Philippine court
found 12 Chinese fishermen guilty of illegal fishing in Philippine
waters in April 2013, sending them to jail for six to 12 years, the
first convictions since tension between the neighbors flared over
rival claims in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 8/5/14)
2014 Aug 6, China executed two
South Koreans, convicted of smuggling 14 kg (30 lb) of
methamphetamines from North Korea in 2010 and 2011, and planned to
soon execute a third.
(Reuters, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 6, China’s state media
said Karamay city in the western region of Xinjiang, has banned
people with head scarves, veils and long beards from boarding buses,
as the government battles unrest with a policy that critics said
discriminates against Muslims.
(Reuters, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 7, China’s state media
said plans are in place to build lighthouses on five islands in the
South China Sea, in defiance of calls from the United States and the
Philippines for a freeze on such activity to ease tension over rival
claims. At least two of the islands appear to be in waters also
claimed by Vietnam.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, South Korea's
Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said China has
confirmed it had blocked "some foreign messaging applications
through which terrorism-related information" was circulating. These
included KakaoTalk and Line. It named other blocked apps as Didi,
Talk Box and Vower. The service disruptions in China began a month
ago.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 8, A Chinese court
sentenced Peter Humphrey, a private British investigator, to 2˝
years in prison and his business-partner wife, Yu Yingzeng, to two
years after they pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining private
records of Chinese citizens as they researched corporate fraud. In
early 2013 Glaxo Pharma had asked their Hong Kong-based company,
China Whys, to investigate whether a former employee was passing
information of suspected fraud to Chinese authorities.
(SFC, 8/9/14, p.D4)
2014 Aug 9, In China a tour bus
on a highway in Tibet fell off a 10-meter (30-foot) cliff after
crashing into an SUV and a pickup, killing 44 people and injuring 11
others.
(AP, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 11, China accused the
US of deliberately stoking tensions in the South China Sea as it
rejected Washington's proposal for a freeze on provocative actions
in the region.
(AFP, 8/11/14)
2014 Aug 12, In China actor Gao
Hu (40), who had a small part as a soldier in Zhang Yimou's 2011
movie "The Flowers of War," was detained by police for possession
and use of marijuana and methamphetamine, part of a wave of
detentions in China's sternest crackdowns on illegal drug use in two
decades.
(AP, 8/13/14)
2014 Aug 12, Chinese security
forces opened fire on unarmed Tibetan protesters, wounding at least
10 people, before they detained the protesters and rounded up more
male villagers in the southwestern province of Sichuan. One
protester identified as Lo Palsang committed suicide while in
custody while another unnamed person died from untreated wounds. 3
more protesters died later in jail after being denied medical
treatment.
(AP, 8/20/14)
2014 Aug 14, In China 23
workers were trapped after a coal mine flooded at the Anzhishun Coal
Mine in Jixi City, Heilongjiang province.
(SFC, 8/15/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 14, Hong Kong's Law
Society passed an historic vote of no-confidence in its president
over pro-Beijing comments, revealing a determination by the
traditionally conservative lawyers to confront perceived threats
from China to the legal independence in the free-wheeling, global
financial hub.
(Reuters, 8/15/14)
2014 Aug 15, China’s state
media reported that two HIV-positive passengers and a friend are
suing a Chinese airline for refusing to let them on board, in the
country's first such lawsuit.
(AFP, 8/15/14)
2014 Aug 16, China’s state
media reported that police have arrested seven people in the
northwest allegedly involved in a scheme that forced school children
to donate blood.
(AFP, 8/16/14)
2014 Aug 17, Indian border
police noticed Chinese troops in a disputed and unpopulated area of
Ladakh during a patrol of the informal border that separates India
and China.
(AFP, 8/19/14)
2014 Aug 17, In South Korea
Pope Francis made his strongest gesture yet to reach out to China,
saying he wants to improve relations and insisting that the Catholic
Church isn't coming in as a "conqueror" but is rather a partner in
dialogue.
(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 18, China's government
said it has concluded Mercedes-Benz violated anti-monopoly law and
charged excessive prices for parts, adding to a growing number of
global automakers snared in an investigation of the industry.
(AP, 8/18/14)
2014 Aug 18, China’s CNOOC
discovered a gas field at a depth of about 1,500 meters, about 150
km south of Hainan island. It was unclear whether the discovery
would become commercially viable.
(AP, 9/16/14)
2014 Aug 19, In China an
explosion ripped through the Dongfang coal mine in the city of
Huainan. On Nov 12 authorities confirmed the deaths of 21 missing
miners who were trapped in the mine collapse, bringing the death
toll to 27.
(AP, 11/12/14)
2014 Aug 21, China's Xi Jinping
began a two-day trip to neighboring Mongolia, the first Chinese
president to visit in more than a decade. China and Mongolia pledged
to almost double their annual two-way trade to $10 billion by 2020.
(AFP, 8/21/14)(AP, 8/21/14)
2014 Aug 22, Chinese President
Xi Jinping told Mongolia that Beijing respected its independence and
integrity as he concluded a visit looking to forge closer ties with
China's resource-rich but often suspicious neighbor.
(AFP, 8/22/14)
2014 Aug 21, In southern China
at least seven people were stabbed in an apparently random attack in
Guangzhou.
(SFC, 8/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 22, The Obama
administration accused a Chinese fighter jet of conducting a
"dangerous intercept" of a US Navy surveillance and reconnaissance
aircraft off the coast of China in international airspace.
(AP, 8/23/14)
2014 Aug 23, Chinese state
media reported the execution of eight people convicted on terrorism
charges in the restive western region of Xinjiang, including three
men authorities say were behind a deadly attack in the heart of
Beijing in which an SUV plowed through a crowd.
(AP, 8/23/14)
2014 Aug 23, Chinese
authorities blocked the annual Beijing Independent Film Festival
from opening, seizing documents and films from organizers and
hauling away two event officials in a sign that Beijing is stepping
up its already tight ideological controls.
(AP, 8/25/14)
2014 Aug 25, Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe (90) was welcomed in Beijing by his
counterpart Xi Jinping as Africa's longest-ruling leader sought more
Chinese investment in his nation's stagnant economy.
(AFP, 8/25/14)
2014 Aug 26, In China a bus
collided head-on with a truck in the country's northwest, killing 13
people and injuring many others in Gansu province.
(AP, 8/26/14)
2014 Aug 27, China moved to
limit 2017 elections for Hong Kong's leader to a handful of
candidates loyal to Beijing.
(Reuters, 8/27/14)
2014 Aug 27, China and Vietnam
said they're committed to negotiating maritime disputes to avoid a
recurrence of tensions that spiked when China deployed an oil rig in
waters claimed by Hanoi.
(AP, 8/27/14)
2014 Aug 27, A landslide in
southwest China killed at least 15 people, with 8 missing and 22
injured.
(Reuters, 8/30/14)(SFC, 8/30/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 29, China's top
leaders decided to cut salaries and restrict expense accounts and
other perks of executives at state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as they
pursued a crackdown on corruption and extravagance.
(AFP, 8/29/14)
2014 Aug, Chinese police
arrested an employee of commodity trader Trafigura as part of an
investigation into an alleged $32 million gasoline trade fraud. Tian
Meng (39), who works at Trafigura's oil marketing team in Beijing,
was being held without charge in the northern city of Cangzhou.
(Reuters, 12/4/14)
2014 Sep 1, In central China a
man (40) stabbed students and teachers with a knife at a school,
killing 3 children and injuring 6 people before jumping to his death
at the Dongfang primary school in Chengguan, Hubei province.
(AP, 9/1/14)(SFC, 9/2/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 2, The American
Chamber of Commerce in China said foreign companies in China feel
increasingly targeted for unfair enforcement of anti-monopoly and
other laws and might cut investment if conditions fail to improve.
(AP, 9/2/14)
2014 Sep 4, Zimbabwe launched a
$533-million project with China to scale up electricity generation
at one of its major power plants in a bid to ease perennial energy
woes.
(AFP, 9/4/14)
2014 Sep 5, Chinese e-commerce
company Alibaba Group sought to raise up to $24.3 billion in an
initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, which would
value the company at $163 billion. Those are both IPO records.
(AP, 9/5/14)
2014 Sep 6, China reported that
flooding in the southwest over the past week has left 44 people dead
and 18 missing, and has caused massive damage to housing and crops.
(AP, 9/6/14)
2014 Sep 7, China’s Xinhua News
Agency reported that authorities have killed some 4,900 dogs in
Baoshan, Yunnan province, after blaming five human deaths on rabies.
The city of vaccinated another 100,000 in its anti-rabies campaign
and issued an urgent order calling for authorities to tightly
regulate dogs and kill stray ones.
(AP, 9/7/14)
2014 Sep 8, Iowa State
University student Shao Tong (20) disappeared. On Sep 26 police
found a car connected with Shao, a junior chemical engineering
student from China, and then found a body in the trunk.
(AP, 9/27/14)
2014 Sep 11, The Shanghai
Co-operation Organization (SCO) opened its 14th annual summit. The
2-day meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, included the groups six
member countries: China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan. The SCO agreed to adopt procedures for expansion
with India and Pakistan likely to join next year.
(Econ, 9/20/14, p.39)
2014 Sep 12, A boat from the
northern China seaport city of Dalian, with six crew on board, was
seized by North Koreans while fishing in the Yellow Sea between
China and the Korean Peninsula. The North Koreans demanded a fine of
250,000 yuan ($40,700) for releasing the boat and its crew, but on
September 17th the six crew returned to their fishing village with
wounds on their bodies from being beaten.
(Reuters, 9/23/14)
2014 Sep 14, In southern China
residents of Huizhou protested against a proposed garbage
incinerator for a 2nd straight day. 24 people were detained a day
earlier in the Guangdong province protests.
(AP, 9/14/14)(Reuters, 9/14/14)
2014 Sep 14, In China police
detained writer Huang Zerong (81), better known as Tieliu, on the
vague charge of causing trouble. Police also arrested Jaycee Chan
(31), the son of film star Jackie Chan, on drug charges. Taiwanese
movie star Ko Kai was also arrested. Police said both tested
positive for marijuana.
(SFC, 9/16/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 15, China's President
Xi Jinping enlisted the Maldives' backing for a "21st century
maritime silk road" as he began a tour of South Asia in the
strategically located Indian Ocean island chain.
(AFP, 9/15/14)
2014 Sep 16, Germany-listed
Ultrasonic AG said in a statement it has been unable to reach its
chief executive, Qingyong Wu, and chief operating officer, Minghong
Wu, since the weekend. The company said most of its cash was in
China and Hong Kong has been transferred beyond its control.
(AP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, Chinese President
Xi Jinping landed in the Indian prime minister's home state of
Gujarat for a three-day visit expected to focus on India's need to
improve worn out infrastructure and reduce its trade deficit.
(AP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, Chinese
authorities put Ilham Tohti, a prominent scholar from the
mostly-Muslim Uighur minority, on trial for separatism as critics
warned the prosecution will worsen tensions in violence-wracked
Xinjiang.
(AFP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, In China Lhamo
Tashi burned himself to death in Hezuo city in the Tibetan
prefecture of Gannan in the northwestern province of Gansu.
(AP, 9/22/14)
2014 Sep 17, Japan agreed to
cut purchases of eel fry from neighboring countries by 20 percent as
part of moves to protect the endangered species. The agreement with
China, South Korea and Taiwan called for reducing eel hauls by 20
percent for one year, beginning in November.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 17, US Senate
investigators blamed China for nearly two dozen successful hacker
break-ins of computer networks belonging to Pentagon contractors. A
yearlong investigation announced by the Senate Armed Services
Committee identified at least 50 intrusions since 2012 against
unspecified contractors working for the US Transportation Command.
(AP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, In Iowa Shao Tong
(20), a Chinese national and international student at Iowa State
University, was reported missing. Her body was found Sept. 26. An
autopsy said she'd been asphyxiated. Authorities said she had been
killed after a weekend with Li Xiangnan at a motel. Li returned to
China following the slaying. Xiangnan (23) surrendered to police in
Wenzhou on May 13, 2015, and was arrested on June 19 to face a
charge of intentional homicide. On March 23, 2016, Li Xiangnan
pleaded guilty to killing Shao Tong. In June he was sentenced to
life in prison.
(AP, 6/30/15)(AP, 3/24/16)(AP, 6/23/16)
2014 Sep 18, In eastern China
an official hanged himself after being sacked following a corruption
probe into his presence at an extravagant banquet. Lou Xuequan (50)
had been Communist Party chief of a district in Nanjing city.
(Reuters, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 18, Indian PM Narendra
Modi stood beside Chinese President Xi Jinping at a news conference
and said he raised India's concerns about repeated incidents at the
border. Both leaders said peace and stability along the border were
necessary for economic growth and development in the region.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 19, China fined drug
maker GlaxoSmithKline $492 million for bribing doctors in the
biggest such penalty ever imposed by a Chinese court.
(AP, 9/19/14)
2014 Sep 19, Alibaba made its
long-awaited Wall Street debut on the heels of a record stock
offering at $68 per share.
(AFP, 9/19/14)
2014 Sep 21, China's police
ministry said 88 fugitives wanted on charges of corruption and other
economic offenses have been extradited or returned on their own from
the United States and other countries in the midst of an anti-graft
crackdown.
(AP, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 21, China’s Xinhua
News Agency said three police officers and four other people have
been convicted of torturing suspects to obtain confessions. Multiple
explosions in Luntai county, Xinjiang, killed at least 2 people and
injured many others. 50 people, including 40 assailants, were killed
in what authorities called a terror attack.
(AP, 9/22/14)(AP, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 22, Thousands of Hong
Kong college and university students boycotted classes to protest
Beijing's decision to restrict voting reforms, the start of a
weeklong strike that marks the latest phase in the battle for
democracy in the southern Chinese city.
(AP, 9/22/14)
2014 Sep 22, In southern China
an explosion at a fireworks factory killed six people and injured 38
others at the Nanyang Export Fireworks Factory, Liling city, Hunan
province.
(AP, 9/22/14)
2014 Sep 23, A Chinese court
found economics professor Ilham Tohti, an ethnic Uighur Muslim,
guilty of separatism and sentenced him to life in prison.
(AP, 9/23/14)
2014 Sep 23, Indian military
officials said that Chinese troops have set up a camp about 3 km (2
miles) into territory claimed by India in the Chumar region of the
Ladakh plateau more than a week ago. Indian soldiers have set up
their own base nearby and have been told not to back down.
(Reuters, 9/23/14)
2014 Sep 24, In China Liu
Tienan (59), the former deputy head of China's top planning agency,
confessed in court to extensive bribery involving several companies
including a Toyota Motor Corp. joint venture.
(Reuters, 9/24/14)
2014 Sep 25, China and Spain
signed business deals worth $4 billion on as Spanish PM Mariano
Rajoy visited the Asian powerhouse to seek support for Spain's
struggling economy.
(AP, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 25, Chinese police
detained Shen Hao, publisher of the 21st Century Business Herald,
and general manager Chen Dongyang, weeks after some editors and
reporters for the publication's website were detained on allegations
of extortion.
(AP, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 25, China said it will
send 700 troops to join a UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan,
where fighting has threatened Beijing's oil investments.
(Reuters, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 26, China's top
anti-graft body said Gao Jianyun, a senior internet regulator, has
been expelled from the ruling Communist Party on graft charges.
(Reuters, 9/26/14)
2014 Sep 26, In China a man
fatally stabbed four students as they were walking to their
elementary school in Lingshan County, Guanxi province. Police
searched for 56-year-old suspect who attacked the children from a
motorcycle. 6 schoolchildren died and 25 were injured in a stampede
at the Mingtong Primary School in the southern city of Kunming.
(AP, 9/26/14)
2014 Sep 26, Intel said it will
pay up to $1.5 billion for a 20 percent stake in a Chinese venture
that will design and make Intel-branded chips for mobile phones and
other electronics.
(AP, 9/26/14)
2014 Sep 27, In Hong Kong tens
of thousands of people massed in the heart of the city to demand
more democracy, as tensions grew over Beijing's decision to rule out
free elections in the former British colony. Riot police arrested
dozens of students who stormed the government headquarters compound
during a night of scuffles.
(Reuters, 9/27/14)(AP, 9/27/14)
2014 Sep 28, Instagram, the
popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc., was reported
blocked in China amid pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
(Reuters, 9/28/14)
2014 Sep 29, China reported
that policeman Li Shunlin died last week after about 20 Vietnamese
citizens attacked him and other officers who had impounded a vessel
suspected of smuggling in southern China.
(AP, 9/29/14)
2014 Sep 29, Hong Kong
democracy protesters defied volleys of tear gas and police baton
charges to stand firm in the center of the global financial hub, one
of the biggest political challenges for China since the Tiananmen
Square crackdown 25 years ago.
(Reuters, 9/29/14)
2014 Sep 30, President Xi
Jinping and other Chinese leaders solemnly presented flower baskets
at the People's Heroes Monument in central Beijing to mark Martyr's
Day, one of three new holidays created this year in a renewed focus
on World War II.
(AP, 9/30/14)
2014 Sep 30, It was reported
that China's government has kicked off a media campaign in support
of genetically modified crops, as it battles a wave of negative
publicity over a technology it hopes will play a major role in
boosting its food security.
(Reuters, 9/30/14)
2014 Sep 30, The
Chinese-registered cargo ship Lurongyu 2859 sank in the Sea of
Japan. Five crew members were rescued. Nine people were believed
missing.
(AP, 10/1/14)
2014 Oct 3, In Hong Kong
violent scuffles broke out in Mong Kok, a famous and congested
shopping district, as hundreds of supporters of Chinese rule stormed
tents and ripped down banners belonging to pro-democracy protesters,
forcing many to retreat.
(Reuters, 10/3/14)
2014 Oct 6, In southern China 5
people were killed in an explosion at an illegal fireworks factory
in Lanjiang village, Guizhou province.
(AP, 10/6/14)
2014 Oct 7, In southwestern
China a strong, shallow 6.0 earthquake shook Yunnan province. At
least one person was killed as aftershocks continued to strike the
area.
(AP, 10/8/14)
2014 Oct 9, China’s
disciplinary body said that Wan Qinglian, the former party head of
the southern city of Guangzhou, was being referred for criminal
prosecution on accusations of having demanded and received a
"gigantic amount" of bribes.
(AP, 10/9/14)
2014 Oct 10, In China days of
heavy smog shrouding northern swathes of the country pushed
pollution to more than 20 times recommended limits, despite
government promises to tackle environmental blight.
(AFP, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 10, A South Korea
coast guardsman fatally shot the captain of a Chinese fishing vessel
who resisted the inspection of his ship for suspected illegal
fishing.
(AP, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 11, Hong Kong students
leading pro-democracy protests issued an open letter to Chinese
President Xi Jinping, urging him to consider political reforms in
the city and blaming the city's unpopular leader for the
demonstrations. Thousands of people returned for sit-ins in Hong
Kong's main protest zone.
(AP, 10/11/14)
2014 Oct 11, China’s social
media began reporting that authorities have ordered books by
Chinese-American scholar Yu Ying-shih to be removed from sale, as
Beijing expresses its displeasure with writers showing support for
pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong and elsewhere.
(AP, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 11, In northwestern
China a landslide buried a dormitory for highway construction
workers as they slept inside, killing 19 and injuring two others in
Shaanxi province.
(AP, 10/11/14)
2014 Oct 12, Chinese police
stormed into a conference room outside Beijing where rights lawyers
were meeting to discuss wrongful cases and broke up the gathering.
Chinese scholar and rights advocate Guo Yushan, founder of an
influential non-governmental think tank, was detained on the
criminal charge of provoking troubles.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In China four
ethnic Uighurs armed with knives and explosives killed at least 22
people, mostly Han Chinese, in Kashgar Prefecture. Dozens were
injured before police shot and killed the attackers.
(SFC, 10/20/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 13, China’s state
media said a court in western Xinjiang region has sentenced to death
12 people blamed for terrorist attacks that killed 37 people in
July.
(AP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 13, In China Comcast
NBCUniversal and a consortium of four Chinese state-owned companies
announced the approval of the development of a $3.3 billion
Universal theme park in Beijing that would be the first major
foreign-owned theme park in the Chinese capital.
(AP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 14, In southwest China
8 people died in a clash between construction workers and villagers
in Jinning county, Yunnan province, over a land dispute. 4 of the
construction workers were burned to death.
(Reuters, 10/15/14)(SFC, 10/17/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 17, China’s Vice
President Li Yuanchao called on China and Vietnam to enhance
political trust and manage maritime disputes in a meeting with
Vietnamese Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh in Beijing.
(AP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 20, China was reported
to have donated $6 million to help stave off food shortages in
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the countries worst affected by
the Ebola virus.
(AP, 10/20/14)
2014 Oct 24, Twenty-one Asian
nations signed on to a China-driven initiative to create a new
development bank for Asia that's aimed at boosting infrastructure
investment of all kinds. The $100 billion Asian Infrastructure
Development Bank (AIIB) will be a rival to the Asian Development
Bank.
(AP, 10/25/14)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.61)
2014 Oct 24, In northwestern
China a coal mine shaft collapsed just before midnight, killing 16
miners outside the Xinjiang regional capital of Urumqi.
(AP, 10/25/14)
2014 Oct 27, China and Vietnam
agreed to use an existing border dispute mechanism to find a
solution to a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, saying
they did not want it to affect relations.
(Reuters, 10/27/14)
2014 Oct 27, China’s Xinhua
news agency reported that private clubs in historical buildings,
parks and other public facilities have been banned because they were
hindering the fight against corruption.
(Reuters, 10/27/14)
2014 Oct 28, China's Communist
Party published a lengthy resolution calling for an extensive and
profound revolution in the way the country is governed. Endorsed by
the Central Committee five days earlier it pledged to speed up
legislation to fight corruption and make it tougher for officials to
exert control over the judiciary. State media said prosecutors have
indicted Xu Caihou, former deputy chairman of the ruling Communist
Party's powerful Central Military Commission, on bribery charges.
China's top prosecuting body said that whistleblowers who expose
corruption and other wrongdoing would receive legal protection
against reprisals.
(Reuters, 10/28/14)(AP, 10/28/14)(Econ, 11/1/14,
p.43)
2014 Oct 28, Afghanistan's
President Ashraf Ghani began a 4-day visit to China. Ghani met
President Xi Jinping in Beijing and pledged to help China fight
Islamist extremists.
(Reuters, 10/28/14)
2014 Oct 31, In China a senior
prosecutor said investigators have found more than 200 million yuan
($33 million) in cash at the home of an energy official accused of
receiving bribes, in the country's largest cash seizure ever. The
cash was seized at the home of Wei Pengyuan, deputy chief of the
coal bureau under the National Energy Administration.
(AP, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct 31, A man in
southeastern China slashed a first-grader to death and severely
injured two others in Luojia village, Jiangxi province.
(AP, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct 31, In China Han Lei
(40), a man who killed a two-year-old girl after a row with her
mother over a parking space in Beijing in July, 2012, was executed.
(AFP, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct 31, In Australia the
Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources
(CCAMLR) wound up a 10-day meeting in Hobart without the consensus
needed for a deal to conserve and manage the marine ecosystems in
the Southern Ocean. China and Russia thwarted an international
attempt to create the world’s largest ocean sanctuary in Antarctica.
(Reuters, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct, China’s overall debt
rose to about 250% of GDP, up from 150% six years earlier.
(Econ, 10/18/14, p.77)
2014 Nov 1, It was reported
that China's legislature has designated Dec. 4 as Constitution Day
amid a drive to strengthen the authority of the country's legal
system.
(AP, 11/1/14)
2014 Nov 1, China successfully
recovered an experimental spacecraft that flew around the moon and
back in a test run for the country's first unmanned return trip to
the lunar surface. The eight-day trip marked the first time in
almost four decades that a spacecraft has returned to Earth after
traveling around the moon.
(AP, 11/1/14)
2014 Nov 2, China’s state media
said China has successfully tested a self-developed laser defense
system against small-scale low-altitude drones.
(Reuters, 11/2/14)
2014 Nov 3, In China a bus
rolled over on Shanghai’s Donghai Bridge, one of the longest
cross-sea bridges in the world, killing six people and injuring 43
others.
(AP, 11/3/14)
2014 Nov 5, A consortium led by
China Railway Corp. won a contract to build Mexico’s first
high-speed train. The $3.7 billion project will link Mexico City
with Queretaro by 2017. Pena Nieto’s government cancelled the
contract on Nov 7 following an investigation into Grupo Higa, a
Mexican partner in the consortium, which also provided Nieto and his
wife use of a $7 million mansion on the western edge of Mexico City.
Grupo Higa had granted Angelica Rivera, Pena’s wife, a loan to buy
the mansion in 2012.
(SSFC, 11/9/14, p.A4)(SFC, 11/10/14, p.A4)(SFC,
11/11/14, p.A2)
2014 Nov 7, China said it has
reached agreement with Japan to ramp up high-level contacts. China
and Japan jointly announced that they are seeking to improve
relations and set up a system to prevent minor maritime
contingencies from escalating into true warfare.
(AP, 11/7/14)(SFC, 11/8/14, p.A3)
2014 Nov 7, South Africa said
it has signed a nuclear energy cooperation agreement with China as
the government looks to expand the critical power supply system.
(AFP, 11/7/14)
2014 Nov 8, China’s President
Xi Jinping announced the creation of a $40 billion Silk Road
infrastructure fund to boost connectivity across Asia.
(Reuters, 11/8/14)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.61)
2014 Nov 8, The foreign
ministers of China and Japan held talks ahead of a hoped-for meeting
between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe
after more than two years of frozen high-level contacts.
(AP, 11/8/14)
2014 Nov 8, Ministers from
Pacific Rim countries endorsed a call to formally start work on a
free-trade initiative seen as an effort by China to raise its
influence in trade policy. 21 Asia Pacific countries agreed to
cooperate on the extradition of corrupt officials, enhance asset
recovery efforts and establish an anti-corruption transparency
network to share intelligence on graft.
(AP, 11/8/14)(Reuters, 11/8/14)
2014 Nov 8, The central banks
of China and Canada said they have agreed to a currency swap worth
200 billion yuan ($32.67 billion) or C$30 billion, effective for
three years.
(Reuters, 11/9/14)
2014 Nov 9, Chinese President
Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin promised
ever-closer cooperation as they met for the 10th time in less than
two years. They signed agreements to boost energy cooperation,
including an understanding to develop a second major route to supply
the Chinese side with Russian gas following an initial $400 billion
deal in May.
(AP, 11/9/14)
2014 Nov 10, Chinese President
Xi Jinping welcomed world leaders to this year’s Asia-Pacific
Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit.
(Econ, 11/8/14, p.47)
2014 Nov 10, South Korea said
it has agreed to sign a free trade deal with China that will remove
tariffs on more than 90 percent of goods over two decades but won't
include rice or autos.
(AP, 11/10/14)
2014 Nov 10, Pres. Obama
announced in Beijing that China and the US had reached a reciprocal
agreement to extend visa validity periods to as long as a decade.
(SFC, 11/11/14, p.A5)
2014 Nov 11, China’s Pres. Xi
Jinping said an Asia-Pacific summit has endorsed a Beijing-backed
route towards a vast free trade area in the region.
(AFP, 11/11/14)
2014 Nov 12, China and the
United States agreed to new limits on carbon emissions starting in
2025, but the pledge by the world's two biggest polluters appears to
be more politically significant than substantive.
(Reuters, 11/12/14)
2014 Nov 13, Speaking in
Myanmar China's PM Li Keqiang proposed a friendship treaty with
Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN) and offered $20 billion in loans
but held firm on the line that Beijing will only settle South China
Sea disputes directly with other claimants.
(Reuters, 11/13/14)
2014 Nov 15, Three Hong Kong
student leaders were stopped from boarding a flight to Beijing to
take their fight for greater democracy directly to the Chinese
government after airline authorities said their travel permits were
invalid.
(Reuters, 11/15/14)
2014 Nov 15, In Liberia about
160 Chinese health workers arrived, where they are due to staff a
new $41 million Ebola clinic that, unlike most other foreign
interventions, is being built and fully run by Chinese personnel.
(Reuters, 11/16/14)
2014 Nov 16, In China a fire in
a carrot-packaging plant killed 18 people at the Longyuan Food Co.
facility in Shouguang, Shandong province.
(AP, 11/16/14)
2014 Nov 17, China’s official
government news agency Xinhua said a campaign dubbed “Operation Fox
Hunt" has arrested 288 fugitives suspected of committing economic
crimes as part of an aggressive anti-corruption effort aimed at
individuals who have fled abroad. The Chinese government has given
overseas graft suspects a deadline of December 1 to surrender. By
May 2015 some 680 fugitives from 69 countries were repatriated.
(Reuters, 11/17/14)(Econ., 5/2/15, p.38)
2014 Nov 17, Australia and
China signed a preliminary free-trade deal that would give
Australia's service industry unsurpassed access to the Chinese
market and Australian agriculture advantages over competitors from
the United States, Canada and the European Union.
(AP, 11/17/14)
2014 Nov 18, In China villagers
in Sanjiang township, part of Haikou City near the northern coast of
Hainan Island, clashed with police and smashed vehicles after the
local government began construction on a center to house patients
with leprosy and sexually transmitted diseases. Construction on the
facility was suspended pending talks to eliminate misunderstandings.
(Reuters, 11/18/14)
2014 Nov 19, Chinese officials
announced limits on growth in energy consumption aimed at making the
country less dependent on coal.
(AP, 11/19/14)
2014 Nov 19, In eastern China
an overloaded makeshift school bus collided with a truck, killing 11
kindergarteners and the bus driver.
(AP, 11/19/14)
2014 Nov 20, China’s state
media reported that police have arrested 39 people as they broke up
a telephone scam ring in Guangdong province that tricked Malaysians
into wiring them money.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, In northeastern
China 6 nurses and a janitor were killed in a knife attack at the
Beidaihe Sanatorium, a military hospital and resort in the seaside
town of Beidaihe. A 27-year-old employee was detained.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 21, China's central
bank cuts interest rate by 0.25 percentage point, and its one-year
loan rate by 0.4 percentage point.
(Marketwatch, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 21, It was reported
that the Chinese government and banks will finance Chinese companies
to build $45.6 billion worth of energy and infrastructure projects
in Pakistan over the next six years.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 21, Jane’s, a leading
defense publication, said satellite images show China is building an
island on a reef in the disputed Spratly Islands large enough to
accommodate what could be its first offshore airstrip in the South
China Sea.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 22, In western China a
magnitude-5.9 earthquake struck a lightly populated, mountainous
area. At least 5 people were killed and 54 injured.
(AP, 11/22/14)(AP, 11/23/14)
2014 Nov 24, China’s state
media said authorities in the northern region of Inner Mongolia
arrested 31 people on suspicion of trafficking women because they
had held 14 people, 11 of them from Myanmar.
(Reuters, 11/24/14)
2014 Nov 24, A Philippine court
fined nine Chinese fishermen $102,000 each after they were caught
last May with hundreds of sea turtles in a disputed shoal in the
South China Sea.
(Reuters, 11/24/14)
2014 Nov 25, In China an office
of the State Council released a draft of the country’s first
anti-domestic violence law.
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.47)
2014 Nov 26, In China a fire
sparked by underground tremors tore through a mine run by the
state-owned Fuxin Coal Corp. 26 miners were killed and several
others left with life-threatening injuries in Liaoning province.
(AP, 11/26/14)
2014 Nov 26, China's official
Xinhua News Agency said that a tiger, named Ustin, bit and killed 15
goats and left another three missing On Nov 23-24. Russian experts
rescued five tiger cubs two years ago. Ustin was one of three
released by Pres. Putin in May in a remote part of the Amur region.
(AP, 11/26/14)
2014 Nov 27, In China at least
11 people were killed in the second deadly coal mine accident to hit
the country in two days. 19 people were working in a mine in the
southern province of Guizhou when an explosion ripped through the
shaft early this morning.
(AP, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 27, In southern China
a man in his 20s stabbed several people at the entrance to a
supermarket in Nanning. Nine people were rushed to the hospital with
two seriously injured.
(Reuters, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 28, China’s Standing
Committee of Beijing Municipal People's Congress passed draft
regulation to ban smoking in all indoor public spaces effective on
June 1, 2015.
(AP, 11/29/14)
2014 Nov 28, In China the
standing committee of Xinjiang's parliament, banned the practice of
religion in government buildings and stipulated penalties of between
5,000 and 30,000 yuan ($4,884) for individuals who use the Internet,
mobile phones or digital publishing to undermine national unity,
social stability or incite ethnic hatred.
(Reuters, 11/30/14)
2014 Nov 28, In China a group
of "terrorists" launched an attack on civilians in Shache county,
Xinjiang region, leaving 15 people dead and 14 wounded. 11
"terrorists" were also reported shot dead during the violence.
(AFP, 11/29/14)(AP, 11/30/14)
2014 Nov 30, China’s government
proposed to insure all banking deposit accounts for up to 500,000
yuan (($81,300).
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.82)
2014 Nov 30, Police in Kenya
arrested 37 Chinese nationals with advanced communications equipment
in a house in an upscale Nairobi neighborhood following a fire that
left one person dead. 40 more Chinese nationals were arrested on Dec
3 and police consulted technical experts to see if they were
committing espionage.
(AP, 12/4/14)
2014 Dec 3, In northeastern
China an employee of the central bank shot and killed two colleagues
at the branch he was working at in Dashiqiao city, Liaoning
province.
(Reuters, 12/3/14)
2014 Dec 4, China marked its
first Constitution Day as part of President Xi Jinping's drive to
show that the country embraces rule of law while ensuring that the
ruling Communist Party holds on to its unrivaled authority.
(AP, 12/4/14)
2014 Dec 5, Chinese
authorities arrested ex-domestic security Chief Zhou Yongkang and
barred him from the ruling Communist Party.
(Reuters, 12/5/14)
2014 Dec 8, A Chinese court
sentenced eight people to death on charges of leading terror groups
and setting off explosives in two attacks that left 46 people dead
in the far western region of Xinjiang. The Urumqi Intermediate
People's Court in Xinjiang also handed out suspended death sentences
to five others.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 8, In eastern China 5
middle school students were killed after a wall collapsed on them at
Tongren Middle School in Huaibei city.
(AP, 12/8/14)
2014 Dec 9, In China a rights
lawyer said seven students of Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti have been
jailed for 3-8 years for inciting seperatism.
(SFC, 12/10/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 9, The Save the
Elephants group reported that street prices for illegal ivory are
soaring in China, where newly wealthy middle and upper class
citizens are buying carved ivory and whole tusks as a status symbol
of their riches.
(AP, 12/9/14)
2014 Dec 9, Former Cuban leader
Fidel Castro was awarded China's Confucius Peace Prize, portrayed by
organizers as an alternative to the Nobel Prize. The prize was
handed to a Cuban foreign student representative at a ceremony at a
Beijing hotel.
(AP, 12/11/14)
2014 Dec 9, In China Liu Tienan
was jailed for life for receiving some $6 million in bribes. Mr. Liu
was sacked in August 2013 as deputy head of the National Development
and Reform Commission after a disgruntled mistress blew the whistle
on him.
(AP, 12/10/14)(Econ, 12/13/14, p.46)
2014 Dec 10, In China
authorities in Urumqi, the capital of the restive western region of
Xinjiang, introduced a law banning veiled robes in public amid
measures taken by Beijing to curb Muslim extremism. The new law was
passed by the Urumqi legislature's standing committee but needs
endorsement at the regional level before going into effect.
(AP, 12/11/14)
2014 Dec 10, China General
Nuclear Power, established in 1994, floated shares on the Hong Kong
stock exchange. Shares in China's largest nuclear power producer
surged almost 20 percent on its debut.
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.18)(http://tinyurl.com/p59lh8h)
2014 Dec 12, China opened a key
section of a massive and ambitious plan to transport water from
wetter central and southern parts of the country up to its arid
north, including Beijing.
(Reuters, 12/12/14)
2014 Dec 13, China marked its
first national memorial day for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. President
Xi Jinping said China and Japan should set aside hatred and not
allow the minority who led Japan to war to affect relations now.
(Reuters, 12/13/14)
2014 Dec 13, In China at least
12 people were killed and three badly injured in a six-car pileup on
a major north-south highway near Heyuan, Guangdong province.
(AP, 12/13/14)
2014 Dec 13, In China ten
workers were stopped by guards and police when they attempted to
enter the construction site in northern Shanxi province to be paid.
Zhou Xiuyun (47), a female construction worker, was killed in an
ensuing brawl in which police also broke Zhou's husband's ribs. One
officer was later accused of causing the death of Zhou Xiuyun. Two
others were arrested for allegedly abusing their power.
(AP, 12/31/14)
2014 Dec 14, In China 10 miners
were found dead hours after they were trapped underground in an
explosion at a mine in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.
(AP, 12/14/14)
2014 Dec 15, A court in
northern China cleared a man of the rape and murder of a woman in a
public toilet 18 years after he was executed for the crime. Huugjilt
was 18 when he was sentenced to death and executed for the 1996
crime. State media had previously reported that a convicted serial
rapist and killer confessed to the murder in 2005 after receiving a
death sentence for other crimes, but was never tried for this
killing and has still not been executed. On Dec 17 Feng Zhiming,
police officer who oversaw the case, was arrested and charged with
torture to coerce confession, dereliction of duty and taking bribes.
(AP, 12/15/14)(AP, 12/18/14)
2014 Dec 15, In China a former
senior provincial official told a court he took around 13 million
yuan ($2.1 million) in bribes consisting largely of precious stones.
Ni Fake, a former deputy governor of the eastern province of Anhui,
reportedly had a craving for jade.
(AFP, 12/16/14)
2014 Dec 16, Chinese PM Li
Keqiang visited Afghanistan to meet with Afghanistan's chief
executive officer, Abdullah Abdullah.
(Reuters, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 17, In China Ji
Jianye, a former mayor of Nanjing, was indicted on corruption
charges amid a widening anti-graft crackdown.
(AP, 12/17/14)
2014 Dec 17, China secured a
deal to construct a high-speed train link between the Belgrade and
Budapest that will cut travel time between the Serbian and Hungarian
capitals from eight hours to less than three.
(AP, 12/17/14)
2014 Dec 19, In China
Shanghai-based lawyer Zhang Peihong said he was notified by
prosecutors in northeastern Yanbian prefecture of the arrest of
Peter Hahn (74), a Korean-American Christian who ran a vocational
school for Chinese and Korean youth for more than a decade in the
border town of Tumen.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 19, A Beijing court
sentenced a former employee of the Forbidden City to be executed for
stabbing two of his supervisors to death on the museum's grounds.
Zheng Zhibiao had argued at his trial in early December that he had
been concerned over a lack of protection of artifacts held at the
former palace of China's emperors.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 19, A Beijing court
ordered a psychological clinic to pay compensation to a homosexual
man for administering electric shocks in an attempt to make him
heterosexual, an unprecedented ruling on so-called conversion
therapy.
(AFP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 19, China said it
would build an 867-km rail network in Thailand and buy two million
tons of its rice. Premier Li Keqiang was attending a two-day summit
of leaders of Mekong River region countries.
(Reuters, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 20, State media
reported that China has offered more than $3 billion in loans and
aid to neighbors Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos to
improve infrastructure and production, and to fight poverty.
(Reuters, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 21, China’s state news
agency Xinhua reported that authorities have detained over 30,000
people during a two-month clamp down on pornography and gambling.
(Reuters, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 21, Chinese police in
the southwestern province of Guangxi stopped a group of "religious
extremists" from illegally crossing into neighboring Vietnam after
shooting one person dead and detaining 21.
(AP, 12/24/14)
2014 Dec 21, US cybersecurity
researchers said malicious software likely linked to China is being
used to infect visitors to a wide range of official Afghan
government websites.
(Reuters, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 22, China's ruling
Communist Party announced a corruption investigation into Ling
Jihua, a one-time senior aide to former president Hu Jintao, as
President Xi Jinping opens another front in his sweeping battle
against deep-rooted graft.
(Reuters, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 22, China issued
rules, effective March 1, requiring real-estate owners to register
their holdings with authorities, a major step in the fight against
official corruption that should make it harder for property
speculators to evade regulations.
(Reuters, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 22, Chinese
prosecutors indicted the son of Hong Kong action film star Jackie
Chan on the charge of sheltering others to use drugs, more than four
months after he was detained.
(AP, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 22, A Chinese military
plane crashed in the country's northwest and at least two
people were killed.
(AP, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 22, Nicaraguan
officials and a Chinese company broke ground on a $50 billion
transoceanic waterway predicted to rival the Panama Canal.
(AP, 12/23/14)
2014 Dec 23, In China Tsepe Kyi
(20, a Tibetan woman, died after setting herself on fire in protest
at China's rule of the Himalayan region.
(AFP, 12/23/14)
2014 Dec 23, Antigua PM Gaston
Browne said that China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation
will modernize St. John's port and harbor.
(AP, 12/24/14)
2014 Dec 26, In China a monk
was shot in the arm after police used teargas and opened fire during
a clash with Tibetans outside a police station in the western
province of Sichuan.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, China said it will
increase official aid to Nepal by more than five times from fiscal
2015-16, to develop infrastructure in the landlocked nation.
(Reuters, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 26, In Vietnam senior
Chinese and Vietnamese officials agreed to settle their maritime
disputes without resorting to “megaphone diplomacy," during a
meeting in Hanoi.
(Reuters, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 26, Data from Google's
Transparency Report showed online traffic from China to Gmail fell
precipitously and dropped to nearly zero on Dec 27. There was a tiny
pickup on Dec 29. Tests later showed that China's government had
blocked Google IP addresses in Hong Kong used by people on the
mainland to access Gmail services.
(AP, 12/29/14)
2014 Dec 27, China's capital
received its first flows from the South-North Water Diversion
Project, one of the most ambitious engineering projects in Chinese
history.
(AFP, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 29, In China a
scaffolding collapse at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University
High School killed 10 construction workers and injured four others.
On Dec 21, 2015, 14 construction managers were sentenced to prison
terms of three to six years for the deadly scaffolding collapse.
(AP, 12/29/14)(AP, 12/21/15)
2014 Dec 30, Chinese state
media reported that a man, identified as a rich businessmen surnamed
Xu, has been jailed for 13 years for buying and eating endangered
tigers and making wine made out of their blood.
(Reuters, 12/31/14)
2014 Dec 30, A court in eastern
China issued the country's biggest environmental fine resulting from
public interest litigation against polluters. The Jiangsu provincial
high court ordered six companies to pay 160 million yuan ($26
million) for discharging waste chemicals into rivers.
(AP, 12/30/14)
2014 Dec 31, In southern China
a gas explosion at an auto parts factory killed 17 people and
injured 33 others in Foshan city.
(AP, 12/31/14)
2014 Dec 31, Hong Kong
authorities began destroying 15,000 chickens at a poultry market and
suspended imports from mainland China after some birds were found to
be infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu.
(AP, 12/31/14)(SSFC, 1/3/15, p.A2)
2014 Dec 31, In China a
stampede during New Year's celebrations in Shanghai's historic
waterfront area killed 36 people in the worst disaster to hit one of
China's showcase cities in recent years.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2014 Leta Hong Fincher authored
“Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China."
(Econ, 5/3/14, p.74)
2014 Howard French authored
“China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New
Empire in Africa."
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.76)
2014 Bill Hayton authored “The
South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia."
(Econ, 9/13/14, p.89)
2014 Nicholas Lardy authored
“Markets Over Mao: The Rise of Private Business in China."
(Econ, 10/25/14, p.89)
2014 Louisa Lim authored “The
People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited."
(Econ, 5/31/14, p.74)
2014 Evan Osnos authored “Age
of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China."
(SSFC, 6/1/14, p.F1)(Econ, 5/31/14, p.75)
2014 Dan Washburn authored “The
Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream."
(Econ, 6/14/14, p.75)
2014 Zhang Chunxian, China’s
Communist Party chief of Xinjiang, introduced the bianmin card, a
kind of internal passport card for people from Xinjiang who were
living away from their home district. It was abolished in May, 2016.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.39)
2014 Chinese entrepreneur Ding
Ning started a company called Ezubao and it quickly became the
country’s largest peer-to-peer lender. Ning was arrested in January
2016 as the government froze its assets and declared Ezubao to be a
Ponzi scheme.
(Econ, 7/9/16, SR p.9)
2014 Northern China suffered
its worst drought in 60 years. Ground water in some areas had fallen
from 70 feet just a few years ago to as much as 260 feet this past
summer.
(SFC, 9/25/14, p.A4)
2015 Jan 4, China’s corruption
watchdog said it is investigating Yang Weize, the Communist Party
chief of Nanjing, as the country's corruption crackdown drags in a
growing number of top officials.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 5, South Korean media
reported that a young North Korean soldier crossed the border in
late December and stole money and food at a house before killing
four residents in China's northeastern city of Helong.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 12, Chinese police
shot and killed six would-be bombers in the latest violence to
strike the restive far northwestern region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, In China taxi
drivers began protesting against high cab rental fees and emerging
competitors such as Uber in several provincial cities.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Chinese officials
said Bai Enpei, formerly the party boss of Yunnan province, has been
fired from his position at China's parliament after investigators
found he accepted bribes in huge amounts.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 15, In China pollution
levels soared in Beijing to readings more than 20 times WHO
recommended limits, as an annual bout of intense smog returned to
haunt the capital despite government vows to address the plague.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, In China 4
Singaporeans, an Indonesian, a Malaysian, an Indian, 14 Chinese and
a Japanese were among 22 people dead following the overturning of
the tugboat during a test voyage in the river's Fubei Channel in the
eastern province of Jiangsu. 3 people survived.
(AP, 1/16/15)(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 19, Chinese shares
plunged about 8 percent after the country's securities regulator
imposed margin trading curbs on several major brokerages.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 20, In Myanmar a
Chinese embassy spokesman in Yangon said more than 100 Chinese
citizens trapped by fighting between government troops and
insurgents in the north, have been arrested and are being held by
the Myanmar government.
(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 23, It was reported
that China is blocking VPN services that let users skirt online
censorship of popular websites such as Google and Facebook amid a
wider crackdown on online information.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Chinese police
said they've arrested five people in connection with a phony bank
that used bogus offices and tellers to bilk depositors out of $32
million.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 28, Myanmar opened
trial operations of a deep sea port off its western coast, part of a
$2.45 billion port and pipeline project that will carry crude oil
from the Middle East to China.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 29, A Chinese coast
guard ship allegedly rammed and damaged three Philippine fishing
boats at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. On Feb 4 the
Philippines protested to Beijing.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 2, China’s Ministry of
Environmental Protection named the country’s ten most polluted
cities of 2014. Seven were located in Hebei province, which
surrounds Beijing.
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.41)
2015 Feb 2, A Chinese court
said a father and daughter have been executed for attacking and
killing a woman who had refused to join their outlawed "All-powerful
Spirit" group during an altercation last May 28 at a McDonald's
outlet in Shandong province.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 4, China announced
that users of blogs and chat rooms will be required to register
their names with operators and promise in writing to avoid
challenging the Communist political system, further tightening
control over Internet use.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Chinese and
Argentine leaders signed a batch of agreements in Beijing, including
collaboration on two new nuclear power plants.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, TransAsia Airways
Flight GE235, a turboprop ATR 72-600 with 58 passengers and
crew, careered into a river shortly after taking off from a downtown
Taipei airport. 31 people were confirmed dead with 12 missing and 15
rescued. 31 of those on board were tourists from China’s
southeastern city of Xiamen.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)(AP, 2/4/15)(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 5, In China
authorities in Shanghai said police have seized 2.4 tons of
methamphetamine and arrested 28 people in one of the country's
largest drug busts.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, In China a fire at
a wholesale market killed at least 17 people and injured nine others
on the fourth floor of the market in southern Guangdong province.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 10, China promised to
help build a hydroelectric power plant in a violent Afghan border
region, as well as road and rail links to Pakistan, in the latest
sign it is taking a more active role in Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 12, China offered to
mediate in stalled efforts to engage the Afghan Taliban in peace
negotiations.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 16, In China a party
watchdog said Su Rong, a former provincial party leader and former
vice chairman of China's top political advisory body, has been
expelled from the ruling Communist party and stripped of all
government positions. Su Rong was accused of taking bribes in return
for government positions and will likely face criminal charges.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Chinese New
Year holiday began today due to the insertion of a lunar leap month
last year.
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.40)
2015 Feb 19, Chinese were
seeing in the Year of the Sheep as fireworks and firecrackers
ushered in the Lunar New Year across Asia.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In China Luo
Renchu (64) attacked elderly residents and staff at the privately
run home in Hunan province. He killed 3 elderly residents with a
brick and injured 15 other people after arguing with his boss over
unpaid wages. On April 1, 2016, Renchu was sentenced to death for
killing 9 people.
(AP, 2/21/15)(AP, 4/2/16)
2015 Feb 24, In China 22 people
were killed and 38 injured in a bus accident in Bachu County,
Xinjiang region.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 26, China imposed a
one-year ban on ivory imports with immediate effect amid criticism
that its citizens' huge appetite for ivory has fueled poaching that
threatens the existence of African elephants.
(AP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 28, China's central
bank cut interest rates for the second time in three months, adding
to signs that the country's leaders are worried the economic
slowdown is deepening too sharply. The People's Bank of China
announced a rate cut on one-year loans by commercial banks by 0.25
percentage point to 5.35 percent. The interest rate paid on a
one-year deposit was lowered by 0.25 point to 2.50 percent.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In China former
vice governor Ni Fake, known for his appetite for jade and arts, was
sentenced to 17 years in prison on corruption charges. Fake, former
vice governor of the eastern province of Anhui, was found guilty of
taking more than $2 million in bribes.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In China the
online video documentary “Under the Dome" was released. It pointed
out the role of large state-owned enterprises in creating the
semi-permanent smog that cloaked many cities in the country. It was
viewed by some 200 million people before it was blocked by
authorities.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.44)(Econ., 4/25/15, p.77)
2015 Feb, China’s Pres. Xi
Jinping unveiled his “Four Comprehensives," a list of
political goals for the country: Comprehensively build a moderately
prosperous society; Comprehensively deepen reform; Comprehensively
govern the nation according to law; Comprehensively strictly govern
the Party.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Comprehensives)(Econ., 3/7/15,
p.45)
2015 Feb, China and South Korea
reached agreement on a free-trade deal.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.36)
2015 Feb, Didi Chuxing, a
Chinese ride-hailing service, was formed by the merger between
taxi-hailing firms Didi Dache (backed by Tencent Holdings Limited)
and Kuaidi Dache, backed by Alibaba Group. In 2016 Didi acquired the
local unit of US-based Uber.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didi_Chuxing)(Econ, 1/30/15,
p.57)(Econ, 8/6/16, p.7)
2015 Mar 1, Hong Kong police
arrested 33 people after scuffles broke out at a protest in a border
town, in the latest example of heightened tensions over the growing
influx of mainland Chinese shoppers in the city.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 2, Chinese military
prosecutors released a list of 14 generals convicted of graft or
placed under investigation in an accelerating nationwide
anti-corruption drive.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 5, China’s Pm Li
Keqiang called for about 7% growth this year at the opening of the
opening of the annual session of the National People’s Congress.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.43)
2015 Mar 8, China-based
Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI) launched its new Phantom 3 range of
drones with prices starting at $1,000.
(SFC, 5/14/15, p.58)
2015 Mar 9, Beijing police said
five women activists have been criminally detained for planning to
put up anti-sexual harassment posters in three Chinese cities.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 10, The top Communist
official in China's Xinjiang said that extremists from the mainly
Muslim region have been apprehended after returning from fighting in
Syria with the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Indian police
detained about a hundred Tibetans who were protesting outside the
Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on the anniversary of a failed 1959
uprising against China's rule in Tibet.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 13, A bomb from a
Myanmar aircraft reportedly fell in Chinese territory and killed 4
Chinese people. Myanmar denied that any bomb from its forces had
fallen in China and said the rebels might have fired into China to
create misunderstanding.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In China an
earthquake in the eastern city of Fuyang killed two people and
damaged thousands of homes.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 15, In China Xu Caihou
(71), the highest-ranking military officer to fall victim to
President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive, died of cancer.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, The Stockholm
Int’l. Peaced Research Institute reported that China has overtaken
Germany as the world’s third largest arms exporter with a 5% share,
behind the US at 31% and Russia at 27%.
(SFC, 3/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 17, Germany, France
and Italy followed Britain in announcing that they plan to join the
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a proposed Chinese-led Asian
regional bank, swinging Europe's biggest economic powers behind a
project that is viewed with concern in Washington.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 19, In China Sandy
Phan-Gillis of Texas was detained while attempting to cross from the
southern city of Zhuhai to Macau. She was arrested the next day on
suspicion of spying and stealing state secrets from 1996-1998. Her
husband later said she is a hard working businesswoman who spends
huge amounts of time on non-profit activities that benefit
Houston-China relations. On July 11, 2016, the Nanning Intermediate
People's Court accepted the case against Phan "Sandy" Phan-Gillis.
(Reuters, 9/22/15)(AP, 8/30/16)
2015 Mar 19, In South Korea the
foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea held their first
trilateral talks in four years.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.46)
2015 Mar 20, Beijing shut down
the third of its four coal-fired power plants as part of its
campaign to cut pollution, with the final one scheduled to close
next year.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In China a female
(28) was shot to death in the city of Chifeng. Zhao Liping (63), who
once presided over police affairs for Inner Mongolia, was soon
detained on a charge of intentional homicide. Zhao had reportedly
disposed of the body, which was later recovered in a village in
Chifeng.
(AP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 21, The foreign
ministers of South Korea, Japan and China agreed that a summit
meeting of their leaders, on hold for nearly three years because of
tensions over history and territory, should be held soon to mend the
countries' ties.
(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 May 22, It was announced
that China National Chemical Corp. (CNCC), a state-owned
conglomerate, would buy Pirelli, an Italian tire maker, for $7.7
billion.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.70)
2015 Mar 23, In central China a
flood in a shale mine left at least five miners dead and one
missing.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 24, In China a meeting
of the Communist Party's politburo hosted by President Xi Jinping
approved three free-trade zones in the southern province of
Guangdong, eastern province of Fujian and northern city of Tianjin.
(AFP, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 26, The Philippines'
top diplomat said that China has been rushing construction projects,
including massive land reclamation, in the disputed South China Sea
in hopes of forestalling any legal moves against its vast
territorial claims.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 28, China’s Pres. Xi
Jinping opened a major regional economic conference at the Boao
Forum on Hainan Island and argued for strong Chinese-led efforts to
promote Asian economic and political cooperation. Mr. Xi described
his One Belt, One Road" vision for regional and global cooperation.
(SSFC, 3/29/15, p.A6)(Econ., 4/11/15, p.41)
2015 Mar 28, Brazil said it has
accepted China's invitation to join a Beijing-backed international
infrastructure bank.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 30, China’s government
said nearly 70 "illegal" courses have been closed, seemingly
enforcing a decade-old ban for the first time.
(AFP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar, Beijing police
arrested an environmental reporter and his associates in an apparent
extortion scandal. The group's ringleader, surnamed Chen, was
accused of blackmailing businesses into paying hundreds of thousands
of yuan to delete embarrassing online reports about their activities
on a website for environmental news.
(AP, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 2, In China Guangdong
police arrested 22 people after demonstrators forced their way into
a high-speed rail station in a protest about land and housing
issues.
(Reuters, 4/3/15)
2015 Apr 3, In China
prosecutors charged former national security chief Zhou Yongkang
with corruption and leaking of state secrets, setting the stage for
him to become the highest-level politician to stand trial in China
in more than three decades.
(AP, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 3, Xue Feng (50), a
Chinese-born American geologist was released from prison in China
and returned home to Houston after serving more than eight years on
charges of procuring state secrets. Xue was detained in November
2007, and sentenced in 2010 on charges of illegally gathering
information on China's oil industry.
(AP, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 4, Beijing police took
more than 30 people to hospital after they consumed pesticide during
a "lie-in" protest on a shopping street near the center of the
capital.
(Reuters, 4/4/15)
2015 Apr 4, In southwest China
a bus plunged into a ravine in Nayong county Guizhou province,
killing 21 people and injuring three others. In the northwest a farm
vehicle careened while making a turn on a mountain road, killing 12
people and injuring five in Kangle country, Gansu province.
(AP, 4/5/15)
2015 Apr 5, In southern China 7
members of a family on a holiday outing drowned when a 17-year-old
girl fell into a reservoir and several relatives dove in after her
in a deadly attempt to rescue her in Shantou, Guangdong province.
(AP, 4/6/15)
2015 Apr 7, China's finance
ministry said Iran has been approved as a founding member of the
Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Bank (AIIB).
(AFP, 4/7/15)
2015 Apr 8, In China Shanghai
authorities said the city’s Deputy Secretary Dai Haibo has been
removed from his post.
(Reuters, 4/8/15)
2015 Apr 8, In China a nun set
herself on fire while crying out for the Dalai Lama to return to
Tibet. Yeshi Khando (47) of Ngangang Nunnery circled Kardze
Monastery in Sichuan province and then self-immolated near the
police station.
(AP, 4/11/15)
2015 Apr 9, China sketched out
plans for the islands it is creating in the disputed South China
Sea, saying they would be used for military defense as well as to
provide civilian services that would benefit other countries.
(Reuters, 4/9/15)
2015 Apr 9, Chinese state media
reported that Shi Tao, a former top executive at Volkswagen's China
joint venture with FAW Group Corp, was sentenced to life in prison
for accepting bribes. He accepted bribes from 48 individuals and
companies from 2006 and amassed 26.7 million yuan in property
derived from unclear sources before being discovered in a 2013
audit.
(Reuters, 4/9/15)
2015 Apr 10, China’s official
Xinhua news agency reported that the United States has promised
support for China's campaign to hunt corrupt officials fleeing
abroad, after meetings between security officials from the world's
two largest economies.
(Reuters, 4/11/15)
2015 Apr 10, Canadian
researchers said China has expanded its Internet censorship efforts
beyond its borders with a new strategy that attacks websites across
the globe. The new strategy, dubbed "Great Cannon," seeks to shut
down websites and services aimed at helping Chinese citizens
circumvent the "Great Firewall".
(AFP, 4/10/15)
2015 Apr 12, In China hundreds
of people in southern Guangdong province protested against the
expansion of a coal-fired power plant.
(Reuters, 4/12/15)
2015 Apr 13, Chinese
authorities curbed some travel from mainland China to Hong Kong to
cool tensions over a growing influx of shoppers that has angered
residents of the Asian financial hub.
(AP, 4/13/15)
2015 Apr 13, Lawyers said
Chinese authorities have unexpectedly decided to release three women
activists, taken into custody on the weekend of March 8,
International Women's Day, and detained on suspicion of "picking
quarrels and provoking trouble." Li Tingting (25) and Wu Rongrong
(30) were also released.
(Reuters, 4/13/15)(SFC, 4/23/15, p.A4)
2015 Apr 15, The Philippines
foreign secretary said his country is seeking more "substantive"
support from its long-time security ally United States on how to
counter China's rapid expansion in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 4/15/15)
2015 Apr 16, Recent satellite
images from Airbus Defense and Space were published showing China
has made rapid progress in building an airstrip suitable for
military use in contested territory in the South China Sea's Spratly
Islands and may be planning another.
(Reuters, 4/17/15)
2015 Apr 16, Apple said it is
investing in Chinese solar power and preserving forests that make
environmentally friendly paper.
(AP, 4/16/15)
2015 Apr 17, A Beijing court
sentenced Gao Yu (71), a veteran Chinese journalist, to seven years
in prison on charges of leaking a document detailing the Communist
Party leadership's resolve to aggressively target civil society and
press freedom as a threat to its monopoly on power.
(AP, 4/17/15)
2015 Apr 20, China's President
Xi Jinping arrived in Pakistan to oversee the signing of agreements
aimed at establishing a Pakistan-China Economic Corridor. China and
Pakistan launched a plan for energy and infrastructure projects in
Pakistan worth $46 billion.
(Reuters, 4/20/15)
2015 Apr 20, Kaisa Group
Holdings Ltd., a struggling Chinese property developer, said it has
defaulted on dollar-denominated debt, exposing international
creditors to potential losses as it grapples with a slumping
property market amid a slowdown in the world's second biggest
economy.
(AP, 4/20/15)
2015 Apr 20, Chinese customs
authorities said they have detained over 250 members of two gangs
earlier this month involved in smuggling in 440,000 tons of fuel
using retooled fishing boats or vessels done up to look like boats
that carry out cleaning work on oil tankers.
(Reuters, 4/20/15)
2015 Apr 21, Greenpeace East
Asia released a report saying that Chinese government data shows
that 90% of Chinese cities have failed to meet national air quality
standards for the first three months of this year.
(SFC, 4/22/15, p.A5)
2015 Apr 22, Japanese PM Shinzo
Abe held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of
a summit in Indonesia.
(Reuters, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 23, In China Li
Chuncheng, the deposed leader of one of China's most populous
provinces, confessed to charges of bribery and abuse of power. He
was the latest senior official linked to retired security boss Zhou
Yongkang, the most senior person charged with corruption.
(Reuters, 4/23/15)
2015 Apr 23, China’s Ministry
of Culture said officials are launching a campaign to crack down on
stripteases and other lewd shows that have become popular at
funerals in some rural areas.
(AP, 4/23/15)
2015 Apr 23, The Philippine
fisheries bureau said that fishermen aboard three vessels with clear
Chinese coastguard markings boarded two fishing boats in Scarborough
Shoal earlier this month and took the crew's catch. The next day
China called the claim "inconsistent with the fact".
(AFP, 4/24/15)
2015 Apr 25, In China a
55-year-old man surnamed Zhao, his 26-year-old daughter and another
man aged 67 were killed in Longcheng township along the North Korean
border, not far from where at least 7 villagers were reported killed
last year by border guards who had crossed the Tumen River in search
of money and food.
(AP, 4/30/15)
2015 Apr 29, China's biggest
lender by assets, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, said it
has signed an infrastructure pact worth $2 billion with the oil-rich
west African nation of Equatorial Guinea.
(Reuters, 4/29/15)
2015 Apr 30, China’s Politburo
announced that it would move forward on the integration of Beijing
with the nearby port city of Tianjin.
(Econ, 5/30/15, p.42)
2015 Apr, Ninebot, a Chinese
transport-robotics startup backed by Xiaomi and Sequoia Capital,
bought Segway of the US.
(Econ, 9/12/15, p.16)
2015 May 1, In China angry
Muslims in Qinghai province smashed windows in Xining city after
pork sausages and ham were found in a delivery van. This was
reported along with a story that Chinese authorities have ordered
Muslim shopkeepers and restaurants in a Xinjiang region
village to sell alcohol and cigarettes as part of an effort to
weaken the hold of Islam in the region.
(SFC, 5/6/15, p.A6)
2015 May 2, In northern China
police fatally shot Xu Chunhe as he was on his way to Beijing to ask
the central government to help house and take care of his children
and elderly mother. His relatives received approval for the aid
three days after the killing.
(AP, 5/6/15)
2015 May 5, China said it will
expand its bans on coal burning to include suburban areas as well as
city centers in efforts to tackle air pollution.
(Reuters, 5/5/15)
2015 May 5, Shanghai, China,
announced new rules to keep the spouses and children of top
government officials from entering private business and profiting
from their government connections.
(SFC, 5/6/15, p.A2)
2015 May 8, Newly released
images showed Vietnam has carried out significant land reclamation
at two sites in the disputed South China Sea, though the scale and
pace is dwarfed by that of China.
(Reuters, 5/8/15)
2015 May 13, In southern China
more than 10,000 workers at a state-owned machinery manufacturer
protested low wages and company plans to lay off thousands of staff
after posting losses for three years. Workers started taking to the
streets of Deyang on May 11 with banners protesting against corrupt
and incompetent managers.
(AP, 5/13/15)
2015 May 13, Chinese state
media said forest police in Yunnan province have arrested 10 people
for killing a female wild giant panda, buying and selling its parts.
(AP, 5/13/15)
2015 May 14, Chinese President
Xi Jinping hosted Indian PM Narendra Modi in his ancestral home town
at the start of a three-day visit to China as the two Asian giants
work to boost economic ties despite decades of mistrust.
(Reuters, 5/14/15)
2015 May 15, China and India
proposed fresh measures to stabilize their border during PM Narendra
Modi's visit to China. India’s Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar has
ordered a mountain strike force to be 25-30,000 strong, initially
planned at 90,000.
(Reuters, 5/15/15)
2015 May 15, In China
prosecutors in Beijing formally charged lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, a giant
in the weiquan (rights protection) movement with inciting ethnic
hatred or discrimination, picking quarrels and provoking troubles.
He had been in custody for more than a year.
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.35)
2015 May 15, In north-central
China a bus fell from a cliff in Shaanxi province. 25 people were
killed instantly and 10 died in a hospital.
(AP, 5/15/15)
2015 May 16, In China Indian PM
Narendra Modi got down to business on the final day of his trip,
saying his country was open for investment as firms signed deals
worth more than $22 billion.
(AFP, 5/16/15)
2015 May 16, In northern China
a chemical leak killed 8 people and injured two others in Yangcheng
County, Shanxi province. The carbon disulfide leak occurred at a
plant belonging to the Ruixing chemical company.
(AP, 5/17/15)
2015 May 16, In southern
California Hao Zhang was arrested after arriving from China for a
scientific conference. A 32-page indictment charged him and five
others, still in China, with economic espionage in a case that went
back to 2006.
(SFC, 5/20/15, p.A10)
2015 May 17, In southwestern
China more than 30 police officers and 38 civilians were injured
over the last 24 hours during protests by residents who feared that
a planned railway would bypass their community.
(AP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 20, The Chinese navy
warned a US surveillance plane flying over artificial islands that
Beijing is creating in the disputed South China Sea to leave the
area eight times. The mission over Fiery Cross Reef showed sand
being sucked from the bottom of the sea and sprayed onto the
island-in-the-making by Chinese dredgers. The Philippines and
Vietnam both say they own Fiery Cross Reef.
(Reuters, 5/21/15)(Econ, 5/30/15, p.37)
2015 May 20, In China Li Hejun,
one of the country’s wealthiest billionaires, inaugurated a giant
exhibition center near Beijing’s Olympic Forest Park.
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.53)
2015 May 20, In southwest China
a nine-story residential building collapsed in Guiyang city
following a landslide. 16 people remained missing.
(AP, 5/20/15)
2015 May 21, Chinese officials
said at least 15 people have been killed and thousands more forced
from their homes by flooding in southern and central China and more
rain has been forecast for coming days.
(AP, 5/21/15)
2015 May 22, China and Peru
agreed to study the feasibility of a controversial 5,300 km (3,300
miles) transcontinental railroad that will connect Peru's Pacific
coast with Brazil's Atlantic coast as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang
arrived in Peru, on the third leg of a Latin America visit. Brazil
and China already agreed this week on such a study.
(Reuters, 5/23/15)
2015 May 24, Chinese
authorities said the death toll in the latest round of flooding has
risen to at least 52, including two schoolchildren aboard a bus
carrying more than twice its authorized passenger load that plunged
into a pond.
(AP, 5/24/15)
2015 May 25, China announced it
will cut import taxes on clothing, cosmetics and some other goods by
half in a new tactic to spur consumer spending and economic growth.
(AP, 5/25/15)
2015 May 25, In central China a
fire swept through a privately run home for the elderly killing 38
people and leaving much of it a charred ruin in Pingdingshan, Henan
province.
(AP, 5/26/15)
2015 May 26, China said it
would project its military power further beyond its sea borders and
more assertively in the air, defending the construction of
artificial islands which sparked concern in Washington. China
outlined a strategy to boost its naval reach and held a
groundbreaking ceremony for two lighthouses in disputed waters.
(AFP, 5/26/15)(Reuters, 5/26/15)
2015 May 28, China executed Li
Jishun, a former elementary school teacher in Gansu province, for
molesting or raping 26 students, some as young as 4. The case
underscored the vulnerability of rural children left behind by
parents seeking jobs in cities.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 29, Chinese
authorities destroyed 662 kg of ivory that was seized after being
smuggled into the country. Zhao Shucong, head of the State Forestry
Administration, said China will strictly control ivory processing
and trade until the commercial processing and sale of ivory products
are eventually halted.
(AP, 5/29/15)(SFC, 6/26/15, p.A3)
2015 May 29, China confirmed
its first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in a South Korean
businessman who ignored instructions to stay home after his father
was diagnosed with the disease.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 29, The United States
said that China had placed mobile artillery weapons systems on a
reclaimed island in the disputed South China Sea. US officials say
Chinese dredging work has added some 2,000 acres to five outposts in
the resource-rich Spratly islands in the South China Sea, including
1,500 acres this year.
(Reuters, 5/29/15)
2015 May 29, Japanese and
European leaders agreed to step up defense and economic ties, and
expressed concern about rising tensions in the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 30, The United States
called for an immediate end to China's intensifying reclamation
works in the South China Sea and vowed to continue sending military
aircraft and ships to the tense region.
(AFP, 5/30/15)
2015 May 31, Swiss pilot Andre
Borschberg took off from Nanjing, China, for a six day flight to
Hawaii in the solar powered Solar Impulse. This was the 7th of
twelve flights in the round the world journey. Borschberg made an
unscheduled stop in Japan on June 1 to wait out bad weather.
(SFC, 6/1/15, p.A2)(SFC, 6/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 1, In China the cruise
boat Eastern Star was hit by a freak tornado and capsized on the
Yangtze River with 456 people onboard. By the next day only 14
people, including the ship's captain, were found alive since the
ship capsized. The disaster left at least 103 people dead and nearly
340 missing. The numbers were later reduced to 12 survivors and 442
dead.
(Reuters, 6/2/15)(Reuters, 6/3/15)(AP,
6/5/15)(AFP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 1, In China the
official Hebei Daily newspaper said China’s biggest steelmaking
province, Hebei, will order its big industrial emitters to pay for
the pollution they discharge via a regional trading scheme beginning
next year.
(Reuters, 6/1/15)
2015 Jun 1, In China a ban on
smoking in public places in Beijing went into effect.
(SFC, 6/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 1, South Korea and
China signed a free trade deal that will remove tariffs on more than
90 percent of goods over two decades.
(AP, 6/1/15)
2015 Jun 3, Britain’s Tidal
Lagoon Swansea Bay plc (TLSB) named China Harbour Engineering
Company Ltd (CHEC) as preferred bidder for a ÂŁ300 million ($548
million, 412 million euros) contract the world's first artificial
tidal lagoon.
(AFP, 6/3/15)
2015 Jun 4, American officials
said China-based hackers are suspected of breaking into the computer
networks of the US government personnel office and stealing
identifying information of at least 4 million federal workers. The
attack was uncovered in April and had apparently been going on for
several months. On July 9 the Obama administration said hackers
stole Social Security numbers from more than 21 million people and
snatched other sensitive information. On Sep 23 the Office of
personnel Management said hackers also got the fingerprints of 5.6
million federal employees.
(SFC, 6/5/15, p.A10)(Econ, 6/13/15, p.29)(SFC,
7/10/15, p.A7)(SFC, 9/24/15, p.A7)
2015 Jun 6, Chinese and
Japanese finance ministers held talks in Beijing to deepen economic
cooperation that had been delayed for about two years over strained
relations between the Asian giants.
(AP, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 6, China's foreign
ministry said Hungary has become the first European country to sign
a cooperation agreement for the new "Silk Road" initiative to
develop trade and transport infrastructure across Asia and beyond.
(Reuters, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 7, The death toll from
a Chinese cruise ship which capsized during a storm in the Yangtze
River on June 1 jumped to 431, with 11 still missing.
(Reuters, 6/7/15)
2015 Jun 9, In China a boy (13)
and his three younger sisters died after drinking liquid pesticide
at home in their village of Tiankan. They had been abandoned by
their parents and neglected by government workers. Two village heads
were soon fired and three other officials — including the district
education chief — were suspended from their work and were being
investigated.
(AP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 10, In southern China
two girls aged 8 and 14 died in Hunan province after drinking a cola
laced with pesticide. A boy (12) was soon identified as the prime
suspect in the poisoning.
(AP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 11, In China a court
sentenced the former security chief to life in prison after
convicting him of corruption in a secretly held trial. Zhou Yongkang
(72) was spared the death penalty in a decision seen as a show of
leniency toward the former Politburo Standing Committee member. He
and family members were found to have pocketed more than $20
million.
(AP, 6/11/15)(Econ, 6/20/15, p.46)
2015 Jun 11, Chinese border
guards shot and killed one person who was allegedly trying to
illegally cross from North Korea.
(AP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 12, US officials said
hackers linked to China appear to have gained access to the
sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and
military personnel for security clearances, describing a second
cyberbreach of federal records that could dramatically compound the
potential damage.
(AP, 6/12/15)
2015 Jun 15, Egypt and China
signed an agreement for $10 billion-worth of new projects.
(Econ, 6/20/15, p.47)
2015 Jun 16, China announced it
would soon stop new island building in the disputed waters of the
South China Sea, but said it will continue to develop the outposts
it controls in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.
(SFC, 6/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 17, The Chinese
government rolled out more details of the building work it is
undertaking in the disputed South China Sea, listing lighthouses,
communications stations and other facilities for civilian and
emergency use.
(Reuters, 6/17/15)
2015 Jun 17, Japan warned China
that its extensive land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea
does not make ownership a done deal.
(AFP, 6/17/15)
2015 Jun 18, Hong Kong's
legislature vetoed a China-backed electoral reform package
criticized by opposition pro-democracy lawmakers and activists as
undemocratic, easing for now the prospect of fresh mass protests in
the financial hub.
(Reuters, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 18, A Tanzanian
government minister described elephant poaching on as a national
disaster, and urged China to curb its appetite for ivory.
(Reuters, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 19, China said heavy
storms that swept through several southern provinces this past week
killed 18 people and left four more missing.
(AP, 6/20/15)
2015 Jun 20, Italian
prosecutors sought to indict 297 people and the Bank of China in
connection with a massive money-laundering investigation. The Bank
of has denied any wrongdoing.
(SFC, 6/22/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 22, In China
restaurateurs in Yulin, in the largely rural and poor Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region, held an annual dog meat festival despite
international criticism of the event as cruel and unhygienic. At
least 10,000 dogs were expected to be slaughtered.
(AP, 6/22/15)(Econ, 6/20/15, p.46)
2015 Jun 22, China inaugurated
a new land crossing into Tibet for Indian pilgrims who wish to visit
one of the holiest sites in both Hinduism and Buddhism.
(Reuters, 6/22/15)
2015 Jun 22, In western China
at least 18 people were killed in a knife and bomb attack in
Kashgar, a predominantly Uighur city in the Xinjiang region. Some 10
million Uighurs lived in the Xinjiang region, making up 60% of its
residents.
(SFC, 6/25/15, p.A4)(Econ, 6/27/15, p.11,35)
2015 Jun 23, State Councilor
Yang Jiechi said China will work with the United States and other
countries on cybersecurity issues.
(Reuters, 6/23/15)
2015 Jun 23, In China former
soldiers reportedly staged a sit-in outside a major military base
complaining about a lack of proper benefits and pensions. Hundreds
were reported detained at the protest outside the Central Military
Commission, which has overall command of the military, in Beijing.
(Reuters, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 25, China's Defense
Ministry said that it was unaware of any protest after a report that
thousands of former soldiers had staged a sit-in on June 23 outside
a major military base complaining about a lack of proper benefits
and pensions.
(Reuters, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 25, China's Defense
Ministry declined to confirm a report that it was in talks for a
military base in Horn of Africa country Djibouti.
(Reuters, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 25, In central China
an early morning fire killed 13 people in an apartment building n
Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province.
(AP, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 26, In eastern China a
bus overturned on a highway and was hit by an oncoming truck,
killing at least 10 people in Wuhu city, Anhui province.
(AP, 6/26/15)
2015 Jun 27, China cut interest
rates for 4th time in 6 months to boost sluggish national economy.
(AP, 6/27/15)
2015 Jun 29, China's Premier Li
Keqiang said he wants to see Greece remain in the euro zone and
promised that Beijing would make investments in the European Union's
new infrastructure fund.
(Reuters, 6/29/15)
2015 Jun 29, In China envoys of
governments that plan to join a Chinese-led Asian bank endorsed a
structure that gives Beijing the biggest voting stake at the start
but no veto power.
(AP, 6/29/15)
2015 Jun 30, China's Ministry
of Civil Affairs said four days of heavy rain have caused severe
flooding in central China, killing at least 15 people and leaving 19
others missing.
(AP, 6/30/15)
2015 Jun 30, A total of 173
people, mostly women and children, from the minority Chinese Muslim
community of Uighurs arrived in Turkey from Thailand, where they
were being held after fleeing China. They were being resettled in
the central city of Kayseri, which boasts a strong Uighur community.
(AP, 7/2/15)
2015 Jul 1, The Chinese
government adopted a new national security law. The bill replaced
one passed in 1993.
(SFC, 7/2/15, p.A3)(Econ, 7/4/15, p.35)
2015 Jul 1, In northeastern
China a bus carrying a group of South Koreans fell off a highway
bridge, killing 7 South Koreans and 2 Chinese.
(AP, 7/1/15)
2015 Jul 3, In China a
magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit a rural part of far western Xinjiang
region, killing 6 people, injuring dozens and destroying or damaging
thousands of homes.
(AP, 7/3/15)
2015 Jul 6, Customs officials
at Zurich airport seized 262 kg (578 pounds) of ivory that three
Chinese men had dispatched from Tanzania, contraband that may have
come from up to 50 elephants. The tusks had been sawed into 172
pieces to fit into luggage.
(AP, 8/4/15)
2015 Jul 7, Trading in over 90%
of the 2,774 shares listed in Chinese exchanges was suspended or
halted. Shares had fallen by a third in less than a month.
(Econ, 7/11/15, p.13)
2015 Jul 7, The Philippines
asked an international tribunal at The Hague to declare China's
claims to virtually all the South China Sea invalid.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jul 9, China began
rounding up civil-rights lawyers and support staff for
interrogation. By mid-July many of around 120 detainees were
released but 31 were still missing or believed to be in custody.
(Econ, 7/18/15, p.37)
2015 Jul 9, Thailand sent back
to China more than 100 ethnic Uighur refugees, drawing harsh
criticism from the UN refugee agency and human rights groups over
concerns that they face persecution by the Chinese government.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 10, China's national
weather service said super Typhoon Chan-hom is expected to make
landfall by early tomorrow at the eastern province of Zhejiang, and
has issued its highest-level alert. Authorities have evacuated tens
of thousands of people, canceled scores of trains and flights and
shuttered seaside resorts.
(AP, 7/10/15)
2015 Jul 11, In China Typhoon
Chan-hom slammed ashore in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, paralyzing
transport links and devastating farmland as authorities evacuated
more than a million people. The storm killed 5 people in the
Philippines earlier in the week
(AP, 7/10/15)(SSFC, 7/12/15, p.A4)
2015 Jul 11, In central China a
fire late today at a residential building in Wuhan city killed 7
people and injured 12 others.
(AP, 7/11/15)
2015 Jul 12, China's
anti-corruption watchdog said Xi Xiaoming, vice president of the
Supreme People's Court, has come under investigation for corruption,
becoming one of the most senior judicial officials to be swept up by
the country's anti-graft dragnet.
(Reuters, 7/12/15)
2015 Jul 12, In northern China
a warehouse containing fireworks exploded, killing at least 3 people
and injuring more than a dozen others in Ningjin county, Hebei
province.
(AP, 7/12/15)
2015 Jul 12, In China Tibetan
lama Tenzin Delek Rinpoche (65) died in prison 13 years into serving
a sentence for what human rights groups say were false charges that
he was involved in a bombing in a public park.
(AP, 7/13/15)
2015 Jul 13, In China police in
Shenyang killed 3 Uighur men said to belong to a terrorist
organization.
(SFC, 7/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 14, China's state
media accused more than two dozen human rights attorneys rounded up
in recent days of being troublemakers intent on illegal activism.
(AP, 7/14/15)
2015 Jul 14, China said it has
begun building a 314-meter (1,030-ft) high dam which will be among
the world's tallest. The Shuangjiankou dam on a tributary of the
Yangtze river will be completed in 2022.
(AFP, 7/15/15)
2015 Jul 15, In China Wan Li
(99), a politician known for his reform policies, died in Beijing.
Wan was best known for the reform policies that he began
implementing in the late 1970s, especially in rural China.
(AP, 7/15/15)
2015 Jul 17, Chinese state
media said police have detained Wang Lin, a well-connected
self-proclaimed master of the spiritual martial art of Qigong, on
suspicion of the murder of a disciple. The case has gripped China
with lurid tales of wealth and magic. Wang was detained in Jiangxi
province over the alleged kidnapping and death of a businessman,
provincial legislator and disciple called Zou Yong earlier this
month.
(Reuters, 7/17/15)
2015 Jul 18, Chinese police
shot dead one man and injured another during an apparent protest at
a construction site in Luoyang city.
(AFP, 7/19/15)
2015 Jul 20, China's state
media said Ling Jihua, former President Hu Jintao's top aide, has
been stripped of his party membership, removed from all government
positions, and will be criminally prosecuted on corruption charges.
(AP, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 20, In eastern China
an unemployed man suffering from a liver ailment blew himself up in
an explosion that also killed one other person and injured 24
outside Huxi Park in Heze city, Shandong province.
(AP, 7/21/15)
2015 Jul 20, In northern China
the colliery at Hegang, Heilongjiang province, flooded trapping 15
miners with at least 4 killed. Investigators blamed the accident on
a downpour. Six men were rescued on July 27 with five still trapped.
(AFP, 7/26/15)
2015 Jul 21, A former chief
librarian at a Chinese university admitted in court to stealing more
than 140 paintings by grandmasters in a gallery under his watch and
replacing them with fakes he painted himself. For two years up until
2006, Xiao Yuan substituted famous works including landscapes and
calligraphies in a gallery within the library of the Guangzhou
Academy of Fine Arts.
(AP, 7/21/15)
2015 Jul 22, Chinese artist and
social critic Ai Weiwei received his passport back after it was
seized by authorities in 2011 in apparent retaliation for his social
and political activism.
(SFC, 7/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 22, A court in
northern Myanmar sentenced 153 Chinese nationals to life in prison
after convicting them of illegal logging in a case that has already
strained relations with Beijing.
(AP, 7/22/15)
2015 Jul 24, Prominent exiled
Chinese dissident Wu'er Kaixi announced his candidacy for a seat in
Taiwan's parliament, saying he wants to serve as a check on the
ruling Nationalist Party and help shore up the island's global
status.
(AP, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 25, A court in
northeast China sentenced five people to prison for spreading the
teachings of Quannengshen, a banned religious group that's been
linked to a killing of a woman in a McDonald's restaurant last year.
(AP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 27, Delta said it will
pay $450 million to buy a stake in China Eastern Airlines as the
Atlanta-based airline seeks to expand into China's fast-growing
travel industry.
(AP, 7/27/15)
2015 Jul 29, Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with top Chinese officials amid tensions
over China's treatment of its Uighur minority and sensitive
negotiations surrounding the possible purchase of a Chinese missile
system.
(AP, 7/29/15)
2015 Jul 30, China said it will
prosecute Guo Boxiong (73), a former top military officer, for
corruption. He was a vice chairman of the powerful Central Military
Commission until he stepped down in 2012.
(Reuters, 7/30/15)
2015 Jul 31, Beijing was
awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics, capitalizing on its previous 2008
Summer Games experience and defying concerns about its air quality
and lack of natural snow.
(CSM, 7/31/15)
2015 Jul 31, An ASEAN official
said China and Southeast Asian nations have agreed to set up a
foreign ministers' hotline to tackle emergencies in the disputed
South China Sea.
(AP, 7/31/15)
2015 Aug 3, Chinese officials
said authorities over the weekend seized thousands of bottles of
spirits laced with chemicals used to make erectile dysfunction drugs
such as Viagra.
(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 3, In China Wu Shengfu
(51) the general manager of China First Heavy Industries (CFHI), was
found hanging in his office in the northeastern city of Qiqihar as
anti-corruption investigators probed his firm.
(AFP, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 4, China’s Catholic
Church ordained Joseph Zhang Yinlin as coadjutor bishop of Anyang,
Hebei province. The appointment was approved by the Vatican.
(http://tinyurl.com/zknhsqv)
(Econ, 4/9/15, p.45)
2015 Aug 4, ASEAN countries
backed a US call to halt land reclamation in the South China Sea,
underlining unease in the region over Beijing's continued expansion
on disputed islands.
(Reuters, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 4, Thailand police
said they have arrested five people suspected of trafficking Thai
women into sex slavery in China and believed to be part of a ring
that has also trafficked women into Malaysia and Singapore.
(Reuters, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 5, China’s foreign
minister, at a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers, said
reclamation work in the South China Sea has been halted. China and
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed to speed
up consultations on a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 8/5/15)
2015 Aug 8, In China Typhoon
Soudelor hit the city of Putian in Fujian province late today.
Strong winds caused power outages to more than 1.41 million
household in the province.
(AP, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 9, Typhoon Soudelor
dumped heavy rain and winds on the Chinese mainland, leaving a total
of 22 people dead or missing, collapsing homes and trees and cutting
power to more than a million homes in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces.
(AP, 8/9/15)
2015 Aug 10, In China a
military court gave a suspended death sentence to General Gu
Junshan, the highest-ranking military officer to be tried since
China's president began cracking down on corruption in the country's
vast army. Junshan, the People's Liberation Army's former head of
logistics, was found guilty of abuse of power, embezzlement,
accepting bribes and misusing state funds and received a death
sentence with a two-year reprieve.
(AP, 8/10/15)
2015 Aug 10, Alibaba said it is
taking a 20 percent stake in Chinese electronics store chain Suning
in a move that helps the Chinese e-commerce powerhouse expand in the
brick-and-mortar arena.
(AP, 8/10/15)
2015 Aug 11, China devalued its
tightly controlled currency by 3% following a slump in trade,
allowing the yuan's biggest one-day decline in a decade.
(AP, 8/11/15)(Econ, 10/3/15, SR p.12)
2015 Aug 11, In southwestern
China an accident at a coal and gas mine killed 10 people in Guizhou
province.
(AFP, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 12, China cut the
yuan's value against the dollar for the second consecutive day. The
yuan hit a four-year low falling for a second day.
(Reuters, 8/12/15)(AFP, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 12, In northern China
more than 60 people were missing after a landslide buried the living
quarters of a mining company under one million cubic meters of earth
in Shanyang county, Shaanxi province.
(AFP, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 12, In China two huge
explosions tore through an industrial area where toxic chemicals and
gas were stored in the northeastern port city of Tianjin. Tianjin
Dongjiang Port Ruihai International Logistics was identified as the
owner of the site. On Aug 15 police confirmed for the first time the
presence of deadly sodium cyanide at the site of the blast as a
series of new explosions were heard and small fires broke out. In
September the final death toll was set at 173 with no hope of
finding 8 missing. Residents whose homes were destroyed were offered
2,000 yuan ($312) for three months.
(Reuters, 8/13/15)(AP, 8/14/15)(Reuters,
8/15/15)(AP, 8/22/15)(AP, 8/31/15)(Econ, 8/22/15, p.38)
2015 Aug 13, In Beijing a man
slashed a Chinese woman to death and injured her French companion in
one of the city’s busiest shopping districts in broad daylight. The
man (25), family name Gao, was arrested.
(AP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 18, China’s Ministry
of Public Security said police have arrested 15,000 people on
suspicion of cybercrimes as the government tightens its control over
the Internet.
(AP, 8/18/15)
2015 Aug 20, China’s state
media reported that flooding in three central provinces has left at
least 13 people dead and 13 others missing and disrupted the lives
of nearly 1 million people.
(AP, 8/20/15)
2015 Aug 22, In eastern China
an explosion at a chemical plant killed one person and injured nine
others. The facility, owned by Shandong Runxing Chemical Technology
Co., produced adiponitrile, which can give off toxic fumes when
burned.
(AP, 8/23/15)
2015 Aug 24, Chinese border
patrol officials seized 620 wild turtles and tortoises, 510 of them
considered endangered, that were found alive in a shipment of frozen
seafood from Vietnam.
(AP, 8/30/15)
2015 Aug 25, China cut interest
rates for a fifth time in nine months in a new effort to shore up
slowing economic growth. European and US shares rebounded on
bargain-hunting as China cut rates.
(AP, 8/25/15)
2015 Aug 27, China accused 11
transport and customs officials and several municipal authorities in
Tianjin of “dereliction of duty" and “abuse of power" over a
chemical explosion on Aug. 12 that killed some 140 people in the
northeastern city.
(CSM, 8/27/15)
2015 Aug 27, Chinese state-run
media reported that courts in the restive, western region of
Xinjiang have jailed 45 people on terrorism-related charges,
including 18 convicted of organizing illegal border crossings.
(AP, 8/27/15)
2015 Aug 27, In China debris
from a Long March-4 rocket carrying a remote sensing satellite
crashed into a villager's home minutes after the launch from Shaanxi
province.
(AFP, 8/28/15)
2015 Aug 28, In China workers
were overcome with toxic gas from a paper mill's waste pool in Hunan
province and seven of them died.
(AP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 29, China's National
People's Congress approved a prisoner amnesty as part of
commemorations of World War II's end that could see thousands of
inmates such as war veterans or juveniles released.
(AP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 29, China said
legislators have approved amendments to the country’s 15-year-old
air pollution law that grants the state new powers to punish
offenders and create a legal framework to cap coal consumption.
(Reuters, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 29, In China about 15
tons of sulfuric acid spilled early today from a crashed tanker
truck in the eastern province of Zhejiang. The driver and a
passenger in the truck were killed when it veered off the road into
farm land near the resort city of Hangzhou.
(AP, 8/29/15)
2015 Aug 31, The Chinese
Ministry of Public Security said it has punished at least 197 people
in recent days for spreading rumors online.
(SFC, 9/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Aug 31, In China a fire at
the Shandong Binyuan Chemical Co Ltd, in Lijin county, killed 13
people. It was extinguished before dawn the next day.
(Reuters, 9/1/15)(AP, 9/6/15)
2015 Aug, In China four men
posing as corruption investigators snatched agriculture official
Zhang Wei and his wife from their home, telling them they had been
targeted by President Xi Jinping's campaign against corruption.
Police in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang later arrested
three of the alleged perpetrators.
(AFP, 10/20/15)
2015 Sep 1, Chinese President
Xi Jinping welcomed Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, an
accused war criminal, as an "old friend", as China's foreign
ministry defended his invite to a military parade to mark the end of
World War Two.
(Reuters, 9/1/15)
2015 Sep 3, China unveiled new
"carrier-killer" missiles and announced a 300,000 cut in troop
numbers at a spectacular WWII anniversary parade.
(AFP, 9/3/15)
2015 Sep 7, China said it would
remove personal income tax on dividends for shareholders who hold
stocks for more than a year.
(Reuters, 9/7/15)
2015 Sep 8, The Motorola unit
of Lenovo launched the first smart watch, supported by Google and
powered by its Android operating system, that understands Chinese
voice commands.
(Econ, 9/12/15, p.58)
2015 Sep 9, In China Hu
Qinggang (43), apparently upset with a court verdict, stabbed four
judges with a knife smuggled into a courthouse in Shiyan city, Hubei
province.
(AP, 9/9/15)
2015 Sep 11, It was reported
that nearly 39,000 people Chinese nationals were awaiting
deportation for violating US immigration laws. Some 900 of them were
classed as violent offenders.
(Reuters, 9/11/15)
2015 Sep 11, In central China a
slick of rice wine spilled from a truck caused a traffic accident
that killed 12 people.
(AP, 9/11/15)
2015 Sep 13, China's Communist
Party issued a long-awaited blueprint for overhauling bloated state
industries while retaining the party's dominance in the economy.
(AP, 9/14/15)
2015 Sep 18, In China at least
5 police officers were stabbed to death by separatists in a knife
attack at a coal mine in the violence-prone far western region of
Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 9/22/15)
2015 Sep 18, The US repatriated
Yang Jinjun to China. He was on a Chinese list of 100 wanted
corruption suspects published in April. He had fled to the United
States in 2001, was the general manager of a company called Minghe
Group in Wenzhou city and was wanted on suspicion of corruption and
bribery.
(Reuters, 9/18/15)
2015 Sep 20, China’s first
high-speed passenger railway line to the borders of North Korea and
Russia opened.
(SSFC, 9/27/15, p.A4)
2015 Sep 20, In Ethiopia the
first modern tramway opened in Addis Ababa, marking the completion
of a massive Chinese-funded infrastructure project hailed as a major
step in the country's economic development.
(AFP, 9/22/15)
2015 Sep 21, China issued a
reform plan laying out the basis of future policy.
(Econ, 10/3/15, p.46)
2015 Sep 21, The British
government said it will underwrite 2 billion pounds ($3.1 billion)
in Chinese financing for a new nuclear power plant in southwest
England, as it encourages major Chinese investment in the UK nuclear
sector.
(AP, 9/21/15)
2015 Sep 22, Chinese President
Xi Jinping began his US state visit in the West Coast hub of Seattle
aiming to woo American businesses and take the edge off the White
House's wariness of the Asian giant.
(AFP, 9/22/15)
2015 Sep 23, Chinese media
reported that local companies have agreed with Boeing to buy 300
jets and build an aircraft assembly plant in China in deals signed
during President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States.
(AP, 9/23/15)
2015 Sep 23, In Seattle, Wa.,
Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos,
billionaire investor Warren Buffett and other top American and
Chinese business leaders, vowing that his country would work to
remove barriers to foreign investment and improve intellectual
property protections.
(AP, 9/24/15)
2015 Sep 24, Kuang Wanfang, a
Chinese woman who served a US prison term for money laundering was
returned to China, just ahead of a meeting between President Barack
Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Wanfang, the wife of a
former official of the state-owned Bank of China, was wanted in a
bribery investigation.
(AP, 9/24/15)
2015 Sep 25, US President
Barack Obama welcomed China's Xi Jinping to the White House with
pointed remarks about human rights, cyber espionage and Beijing's
territorial ambitions. The United States announced agreements with
China on a military hotline and rules of behavior to govern
air-to-air encounters. Obama laid out a fresh threat of sanctions
for economic espionage emanating from China, even as he and
President Xi Jinping pledged their countries would not conduct or
support such hacking.
(AFP, 9/25/15)(Reuters, 9/25/15)(AP, 9/26/15)
2015 Sep 25, China’s Pres. Xi
Jinping announced that China would launch a national carbon-trading
scheme in 2017.
(Econ, 10/3/15, p.63)
2015 Sep 25, In southern China
a highway crash involving two trucks, a coach bus and a van killed
22 people and injured 13 in Hunan province.
(AP, 9/25/15)
2015 Sep 26, In NYC Chinese
President Xi Jinping, speaking at a sustainable development summit
of world leaders at the UN, announced that Beijing will establish an
assistance fund with an initial pledge of $2 billion to help
developing countries implement a global sustainable development
agenda over the next 15 years.
(Reuters, 9/26/15)
2015 Sep 28, At the 70th annual
UN General Assembly Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping made a $1 billion
pledge for UN peace efforts.
(SFC, 9/29/15, p.A4)
2015 Sep 29, Vietnamese fishing
boat captain Dang Dung and the nine crew members were sleeping after
a night of fishing near the Paracels islands when a Chinese vessel
slammed the side of their boat and five Chinese men jumped aboard.
The men carried knives and took away his boat's navigation devices,
fishing equipment and their catch. His boat sank about 12 hours
later, and the crew then spent four hours floating with life vests
before being rescued by another Vietnamese fishing boat. It was not
clear if the Chinese vessel belonged to the government.
(AP, 10/15/15)
2015 Sep 30, In southwest China
17 package bombs exploded in the city of Liuzhou, killing at least 7
people and injuring 51. Police called it a criminal act. On Oct 2
state media said the man killed 10 people and injured 51 others, had
died in the blasts and had disputes with local villagers and
companies. Another bomb exploded a day later killing one person.
Police later identified quarry worker Wei Yinyong (33) as the
mastermind behind the 18 bombings.
(Reuters, 9/30/15)(SFC, 10/1/15, p.A5)(AP,
10/2/15)(SFC, 10/3/15, p.A3)
2015 Oct 4, In China Typhoon
Mujigae made landfall near Zhanjiang, Guangdong province. It left a
trail of destruction and flooding and prompting authorities to issue
their highest "red alert" emergency response. At least 9 people were
killed.
(Reuters, 10/4/15)(AP, 10/5/15)
2015 Oct 5, Irish-born William
Campbell (85) and Japan's Satoshi Omura (80) won half of the Nobel
Prize for Medicine for discovering avermectin, a derivative of which
has been used to treat hundreds of millions of people with river
blindness and lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis. China's Tu
Youyou (84) was awarded the other half of the prize for discovering
artemisinin, a drug that has slashed malaria deaths.
(AP, 10/5/15)
2015 Oct 6, In Myanmar Bao
Zhuoxuan (16), also known as Bao Mengmeng, and two men helping him
were taken away by local police from a guest house in a border town.
The son of a rights lawyer detained in China's sweeping crackdown on
civil society disappeared after trying to escape to the United
States. Zhuoxuan was later reported to be under 24-hour police
surveillance at his grandparents' house in Inner Mongolia.
(AP, 10/10/15)(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 7, A Chinese Navy
destroyer, a Chinese frigate and a Chinese supply vessel sailed into
Poland's navy port of Gdynia on the first such visit ever.
(AP, 10/7/15)
2015 Oct 9, In eastern China a
gas explosion in a coal mine killed 2 miners and left eight others
trapped in Shangrao county, Jiangxi province.
(AP, 10/10/15)
2015 Oct 10, China vowed to
continue building in disputed reefs of the South China Sea.
(AFP, 10/10/15)
2015 Oct 10, In eastern China a
liquefied gas container exploded in a restaurant, causing a fire and
killing 17 people in Wuhu city, Anhui province.
(AP, 10/10/15)
2015 Oct 12, In China Jiang
Jiemin, who earlier led the country's biggest petroleum company, and
a deputy party chief in populous Sichuan province were convicted of
corruption and sentenced to 16 and 13 years in prison, respectively.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, Chinese
authorities announced the arrests of 16 suspected members of a
smuggling ring and the seizure of hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of
ivory along with rhino horns and bear paws.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 13, A Chinese court
sentenced Wang Yongchun, a former senior executive of China National
Petroleum Corp., to 20 years in prison after finding him guilty of
corruption. A court in central China jailed Guo Yongxiang, a former
senior provincial official, for 20 years after finding him guilty of
corruption.
(AP, 10/13/15)(Reuters, 10/13/15)
2015 Oct 14, Researchers
reported that 47 fossilized human teeth found in China’s Hunan
province dated back to at least 80,000 years. Earlier fossils from
southern Asia were only about 45,000 years old.
(SFC, 10/15/15, p.A5)ccccc
2015 Oct 15, In China the Hurun
Report said the number of mainland Chinese billionaires has risen
this year by 242 to 596, surpassing the 537 billionaires of the
United States.
(SFC, 10/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 15, China announced a
one-year ban on the import of ivory hunting trophies from Africa.
(Econ, 11/21/15, p.44)
2015 Oct 16, China hosted
Southeast Asian defense ministers in an effort to burnish its
reputation in a region wary of its territorial ambitions.
(AP, 10/16/15)
2015 Oct 16, Officials from
China and a domestic consortium signed an agreement to build the
first high-speed rail line in Indonesia. The deal was estimated at
$5.5 billion.
(AP, 10/16/15)
2015 Oct 19, Chinese President
Xi Jinping began a four-day state visit to Britain as part of a push
to increase trade ties between the two countries.
(AP, 10/19/15)
2015 Oct 20, China sold its
first sovereign bond in London, worth over $3 billion.
(Econ, 10/24/15, p.53)
2015 Oct 21, China’s Communist
Party Central Committee officially banned golf for its 88 million
Communist Party members. Also banned was excessive eating and
drinking and having improper sexual relations.
(SFC, 10/23/15, p.A3)(Econ, 10/31/15, p.44)
2015 Oct 21, PM David Cameron
said Britain and China have signed deals worth around 40 billion
pounds ($62 billion), during a state visit by Chinese President Xi
Jinping. Britain sanctioned a $9.3 billion investment by a Chinese
state power company in a nuclear power plant being built at Hinkley
Point by EDF, a French company.
(Reuters, 10/21/15)(Econ, 10/24/15, p.53)
2015 Oct 21, In eastern China
an explosion at a chemical factory killed 9 people and injured two
others.
(AP, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 21, In the Philippines
2 Chinese diplomats were killed and the consul-general was wounded
by a Chinese attacker armed with a pistol during a birthday
celebration at a restaurant.
(AP, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 22, Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe was awarded China's alternative to the Nobel
Peace Prize for what the prize committee called his inspired
national leadership and service to pan-Africanism. Mugabe received
only 36 of 76 votes, but was awarded the prize following a meeting
of the committee's 13-member review board.
(AP, 10/22/15)
2015 Oct 23, Chinese President
Xi Jinping has ended his state visit to Britain after being greeted
by hundreds of enthusiastic and well-organized well-wishers in the
northwest England city of Manchester.
(AP, 10/23/15)
2015 Oct 23, China cut interest
rates to support stuttering growth and announced that it was setting
banks free in theory to offer depositors whatever interest they
like.
(Econ, 10/31/15, p.69)
2015 Oct 25, China said it will
provide Nepal with 1.3 million liters (340,000 gallons) of gasoline
to help it cope with severe fuel shortages as a result of restricted
supplies from neighboring India.
(AP, 10/2515)
2015 Oct 27, The United States
defied China by sending a warship close to artificial islands the
rising Asian power is building in disputed waters, prompting Beijing
furiously to denounce what it called a threat to its sovereignty.
(AFP, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 29, At The Hague an
int’l. tribunal ruled that it can take on a case between China and
the Philippines over disputed territory in the South China Sea.
(SFC, 10/30/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 30, China sentenced
the head of what it calls a cult to life in prison on charges
including rape and fraud, continuing a crackdown on what it views as
dangerous illegal movements. A court in the southern province of
Guangdong sentenced Wu Zeheng, founder and leader of the
Buddhist-inspired Huazang Dharma group, and fined him 7.15 million
yuan ($1.13 million).
(Reuters, 10/31/15)
2015 Oct 30, A Chinese court
ordered ConocoPhillips to pay 1.68 million yuan ($265,000) to 21
fishermen who said their livelihoods suffered from oil spills in
northern China in 2011.
(AP, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 30, In central China a
two-story building collapsed into rubble while workers were trying
to prop up the second floor during renovations, killing 17
construction workers and injuring 23 in the Wuyang County town of
Beiwudu, Henan province.
(AP, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 31, South Korean
President Park Geun-hye met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to
discuss trade issues, a day before their three-way summit with
Japanese PM Shinzo Abe that aims to repair relations strained by
historical and territorial matters.
(AP, 10/31/15)
2015 Oct, Li Xin, formerly a
website editor for a Chinese media group, fled to India, where he
told The Associated Press that he could no longer bear working as a
secret informant for the Chinese government. He later traveled to
Thailand and went missing on Jan 11, 2016.
(AP, 1/22/16)
2015 Oct, Hong Kong Gui Minhai,
the owner of the Mighty Current publishing house, reportedly
surrendered to mainland authorities. Friends suspected he was
abducted for political reasons by Chinese agents from his apartment
in Pattaya, Thailand, and smuggled into China. Minhai later said in
detention that he had surrendered 10 years after he fled China after
killing a woman while driving drunk. Three other members of the the
shop had disappeared while visiting the Chinese mainland.
(AP, 1/17/16)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.35)
2015 Nov 1, The leaders of
China, Japan and South Korea pledged to work toward greater economic
integration at their first joint meeting in over three years. China
and Japan agreed to restart mutual visits of their foreign ministers
and hold bilateral high-level economic dialogue early next year in a
meeting between Premier Li Keqiang and PM Shinzo Abe in Seoul, South
Korea.
(Reuters, 11/1/15)
2015 Nov 2, China and France
agreed to push for long-term monitoring of a UN accord to combat
climate change due in Paris next month by reviewing cuts in
greenhouse gas emissions every five years.
(Reuters, 11/2/15)
2015 Nov 3, President Xi
Jinping said that China needs at least 6.5 percent economic growth
in coming years to become "moderately prosperous." Premier Li
Keqiang told visiting French President Francois Hollande that China
has used up too much energy and too many resources in its quest for
growth, adding it has a "duty to humanity" to clean itself up.
(AP, 11/3/15)(AFP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 5, In Hanoi Chinese
President Xi Jinping and Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu
Trong agreed to limit their differences and maintain peace and
stability, as the two Communist neighbors attempt to repair ties
strained over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
(AP, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 6, Chinese state
television reported that China and Vietnam have agreed to maintain
peace and stability in the South China Sea and not take any acts
that "complicate" the issue.
(Reuters, 11/6/15)
2015 Nov 6, Cambodia's defense
minister said China has provided Cambodia with shoulder-fired
anti-aircraft missiles, as the two countries agreed on new military
aid to boost close ties.
(Reuters, 11/6/15)
2015 Nov 7, China and Taiwan
must not let proponents of Taiwan's independence split them, China's
President Xi Jinping told Taiwan's president at the first meeting
between leaders of the two sides since China's civil war ended in
1949. Hundreds of angry protesters massed outside Taiwan President
Ma Ying-Jeou's office, condemning his warm exchange with China's
leader in a summit in Singapore that has fueled fears the democratic
island will be swallowed up by its giant rival.
(Reuters, 11/7/15)(AFP, 11/7/15)
2015 Nov 8, In China air
quality reached extremely hazardous levels in Shenyang as northern
China began to burn coal to heat homes for winter.
(SFC, 11/9/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 11, Chinese Internet
users spent billions of dollars in the planet's biggest online
shopping splurge, as "Singles’ Day" hit new heights, despite slowing
growth in the world's second-largest economy.
(AFP, 11/11/15)(Econ, 11/12/16, p.61)
2015 Nov 11, The Mekong-Lancang
Cooperation forum (China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and
Vietnam) was created by China to promote sustainable development and
boost the quality of life for the millions of people living in the
Mekong subregion. The forum was seen as a rival to the Mekong River
Commission, formed in 1995, but excludes China and Myanmar.
(http://tinyurl.com/y88vgs57)(AP, 1/10/18)
2015 Nov 13, In China a torrent
of mud and rocks unleashed by heavy rains buried nearly 30 homes in
a village in Zhejiang province. 4 people were confirmed dead soon
after the landslide. The death toll from a landslide soon rose to 21
people with 16 others still missing.
(AP, 11/15/15)
2015 Nov 17, Chinese state
media said police have arrested 98 people connected to online
gambling networks that handled $78 billion in bets. Police in the
southern provinces of Hunan and Guangdong have shut down 12
"gambling dens" since July, but only now announced the arrests.
(Reuters, 11/17/15)
2015 Nov 17, The UN refugee
agency criticized Thailand for deporting two refugees who were about
to be resettled in a third country. The US branch of Amnesty
International issued a statement on Nov 16 identifying them as Jiang
Yefei and Dong Guangping, and said they were most likely sent to
China on Nov 13.
(AP, 11/17/15)
2015 Nov 18, US President
Barack Obama demanded China end artificial island building in the
hotly contested South China Sea, upping the pressure on Beijing at
the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) gathering in
Manila.
(AFP, 11/18/15)
2015 Nov 19, China cut interest
rates on loans by small lenders that finance the country's
entrepreneurs in a new move to shore up lackluster economic growth.
(AP, 11/19/15)
2015 Nov 19, Chinese scientists
warned of the "epidemic potential" of deadly and fast-spreading
bacteria resistant to last-line antibiotics. Prof. Jian-Hua Liu and
colleagues found a gene, called MCR-1, that makes bacteria resistant
to a class of antibiotics, known as polymyxins, used to fight
superbugs. Although currently confined to China, they said the MCR-1
bacteria were likely to spread worldwide.
(AFP, 11/19/15)
2015 Nov 20, Police in China
said they have cracked the country's biggest-ever underground
banking network, which handled illegal foreign exchange transactions
worth 410 billion yuan ($64 billion).
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Chinese
authorities announced that police have killed 28 members of a
"terrorist group" in the mainly Muslim Xinjiang region.
(AFP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, In China a fire
broke out late today at a mine operated by state giant Longmay
Mining Holding Group in Heilongjiang province's Jixi city. At least
21 people died at the mine operated by northeast China's biggest
state-owned coal company.
(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 24, China’s Xinhua
news agency reported that the world's largest animal cloning factory
is under construction in in the northern port of Tianjin, with plans
to churn out dogs, horses and up to a million beef cattle a year.
(AFP, 11/24/15)
2015 Nov 24, A Tanzanian court
charged four Chinese nationals for smuggling rhino horns.
(Reuters, 11/25/15)
2015 Nov 26, China said that it
planned to establish a military facility in Djibouti to resupply
navy ships serving in the area.
(SFC, 11/27/15, p.A7)
2015 Nov 26, In China Gao Yu
(71), a journalist imprisoned on a state secrets conviction, was
released for medical reasons after pleading guilty during a
closed-door appeal hearing.
(AP, 11/26/15)
2015 Nov 26, Anastasia Lin,
Canada's outspoken Miss World contestant, said she was barred from
entering China to take part in this year's pageant and accused
Beijing of overreach in extending its campaign of censorship even to
beauty contests.
(AP, 11/26/15)
2015 Nov 27, A court in
southern China sentenced Yang Maodong to six years in prison in what
his lawyer described as an unfair trial with an extra criminal
charge added at the last minute. The leading activist had organized
rallies for media freedom.
(AP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 28, China’s state news
said police have busted an online gun selling operation, seizing
1,180 guns and more than 6 million bullets. Gun possession by
ordinary people is illegal in China.
(Reuters, 11/28/15)
2015 Nov 28, In China air
pollution in Beijing reached hazardous levels as smog engulfed large
parts of China despite efforts to clean up the foul air.
(AP, 11/28/15)
2015 Nov 28, In eastern China a
gas leak at a steel parts factory killed 5 people and left seven
others hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning in Shandong
province. 5 more people died the next day.
(AP, 11/29/15)
2015 Nov 30, China and Taiwan
said they have swapped three high-level convicted spies in a sign of
goodwill linked to the first meeting ever between their presidents.
China first sent back the two Taiwanese men, Chu Kung-hsun and Hsu
Chang-kuo on Oct 13. Taiwan followed with the release of Li Zhihao.
(AP, 11/30/15)
2015 Nov 30, Beijing suffered
its worst air pollution of the year, with monitoring sites
throughout the city reporting extremely hazardous levels of
pollutants.
(AP, 11/30/15)
2015 Dec 1, Beijing grappled
with severe air pollution for a 5th straight day and ordered
hundreds of factories to shut and allowed children to skip school as
choking smog reached over 25 times safe levels.
(AFP, 12/1/15)(SFC, 12/2/15, p.A7)
2015 Dec 1, The Bank of China
appealed a decision by a New York court to fine it $50,000 a day for
withholding information about counterfeiters' bank accounts in
China.
(AP, 12/3/15)
2015 Dec 1, In Zimbabwe China’s
President Xi Jinping witnessed the signing of 10 economic
agreements, including on expanding the southern African nation's
largest thermal power plant.
(Reuters, 12/2/15)
2015 Dec 2, China’s cabinet
announced that the country will reduce emissions of major pollutants
in the power sector by 60 percent by 2020.
(Reuters, 12/2/15)
2015 Dec 2, Chinese President
Xi Jinping held talks with South Africa's President Jacob Zuma that
were expected to focus on boosting investment and trade worth around
$20 billion dollars a year.
(Reuters, 12/2/15)
2015 Dec 3, In China Cai
Rongsheng, former admissions officer at Renmin University in
Beijing, admitted to taking $3.6 million in bribes at a trial in
Nanjing.
(AP, 12/3/15)
2015 Dec 4, Chinese President
Xi Jinping, speaking at a summit of the Forum on China-Africa
Cooperation in South Africa, told African leaders his country would
pump $60 billion into development projects, cancel some debt and
boost agriculture under a three-year plan that will extend Beijing's
influence in the continent.
(Reuters, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 5, Chinese media
reported that Zhang Yun (56), head of the country’s 4th largest
state bank, has resigned citing personal reasons amid reports of his
involvement in a corruption investigation.
(SSFC, 12/6/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 6, In western China
some 100 masked men attacked a government office, smashing vehicles
and equipment and leaving 13 people injured in a regional dispute
over farmland. The attack was part of a disagreement between
residents of Gansu province and the vast Inner Mongolia region it
borders to the north.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 7, Beijing issued its
first-ever red alert for smog, urging schools to close and invoking
restrictions on factories and traffic that will keep half of the
city's vehicles off the roads.
(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 8, In China Half of
Beijing's private cars were ordered off the streets and many
construction sites and schools closed after authorities in Beijing
responded to scathing public criticism with their first-ever red
alert for pollution.
(AFP, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 9, China’s government
said it will pay bonuses from Jan. 1 to companies meeting coal
efficiency standards. Beijing residents stayed indoors, schools were
closed and limits on cars, factories and construction sites kept
pollution from spiking even higher.
(Reuters, 12/9/15)(AP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 10, The Asian
Development Bank (ADB) said it has agreed to loan China $430 million
to support government efforts to reduce coal use and tackle the
choking smog that regularly envelops the capital and other major
cities.
(Reuters, 12/10/15)
2015 Dec 11, Chinese e-commerce
giant Alibaba said it's buying Hong Kong's leading English-language
newspaper, the South China Morning Post, as part of a plan to create
a global platform for news about China.
(AP, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 11, China’s business
magazine Caixin reported that police have arrested a former chief of
one of the country’s top investment banks. Xue Rongnian, who headed
Ping An Securities from 2008 to 2011, was arrested on suspicion of
insider trading in connection to two cement businesses.
(AGFP, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 11, China’s Fosun
Group said Chairman Guo Guangchang (48), one of the country’s
richest men, was assisting relevent judicial organs with an
investigation. His disappearance a day earlier had forced suspension
of trading in company shares.
(SFC, 12/12/15, p.A4)
2015 Dec 12, China’s state
media reported that the government will loosen some restrictions on
the free movement of workers within the country, long stymied by
registration papers that limit access to critical social services.
(AFP, 12/12/15)
2015 Dec 15, In China smog in
Shanghai hit its highest level since January, prompting schools to
ban outdoor activities and authorities to limit work at construction
sites and factories as polluted air spreads around the country.
(Reuters, 12/15/15)
2015 Dec 16, Indonesia deported
49 Taiwanese and one Chinese citizen who were members of a
cross-border telephone and Internet fraud ring.
(AP, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 17, China’s
environment ministry said police have detained 10 company officials
for fabricating pollution data, as the government steps up
inspections of businesses amid growing public discontent over
pollution.
(Reuters, 12/17/15)
2015 Dec 17, China's biggest
airline said it is buying more than a hundred Boeing 737 jets in a
deal worth about $10 billion that comes just months after the US
plane maker announced plans to build a Chinese finishing plant for
the aircraft type.
(AP, 12/17/15)
2015 Dec 17, National Electric
Vehicle Sweden, the electric vehicle company born out of the ashes
of Swedish automaker Saab, said it has inked a $12 billion deal with
Chinese leasing firm Panda New Energy Co.
(AP, 12/17/15)
2015 Dec 17, Tanzania sentenced
four Chinese men to 20 years in jail each after they were convicted
of smuggling rhino horns.
(Reuters, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 18, China's capital
Beijing issued its second smog red alert of the month on Friday,
triggering vehicle restrictions and forcing schools to close.
(AP, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 19, Beijing was
enveloped in eye-watering, throat-irritating smog as the second red
alert of the month went into effect.
(AP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 19, In China Spain's
Mireia Lalaguna Royo (23) was named the winner of the Miss World
2015 competition in the southern island resort of Sanya.
(AP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 20, In southern China
a landslide swept through an industrial park and triggered a gas
explosion in the city of Shenzhen. 33 buildings were buried in a sea
of mud. 76 people were left missing. Migrant worker Tian Zeming was
pulled out alive on Dec 23 after he was buried for more than 60
hours. On Jan 9 charges were brought against 16 people who owned or
helped operated the landfill. On Jan 18 state media said a dozen
government officials were charged in the tragedy that left at least
69 dead and eight people missing. In July, 2016, 53 people were
detained for the tragedy that left 73 people dead.
(AFP, 12/20/15)(AP, 12/21/15)(AP, 12/22/15)(AP,
12/23/15)(SFC, 1/19/16, p.A3)(Reuters, 7/15/16)
2015 Dec 21, China's top
prosecutor said prosecutors in eastern Shandong province filed a
lawsuit last week against a county-level environmental protection
department, accusing it of "failing to fulfil its regulatory duties"
in its supervision of a local sewage firm. This marked the first
time prosecutors had sued a government department in a public
interest case.
(Reuters, 12/21/15)
2015 Dec 21, China’s government
said it ordered 2,100 factories to suspend or reduce production as
part of its "red alert" measures to deal with smog in Beijing.
(AFP, 12/21/15)
2015 Dec 24, China’s state
media reported that more than 100 million people have been warned to
stay indoors after at least 10 Chinese cities issued red alerts for
smog.
(AFP, 12/24/15)
2015 Dec 24, In China Shen Hao,
the former chairman of the company that publishes one of the
country’s most prominent business newspapers, was sentenced to
prison for coercing companies into paying to avoid negative
coverage. Former chief financial officer, Le Bing, was convicted of
embezzlement and given a suspended two-year sentence.
(AP, 12/24/15)
2015 Dec 25, In China Wan
Qingliang, a former top official for the prosperous city of
Guangzhou, wept in court as he confessed to taking $ 17 million in
bribes.
(AP, 12/25/15)
2015 Dec 25, In China’s eastern
province of Shandong a gypsum mine owned by Yurong Commercial and
Trade Ltd. Co. caved in. All 29 workers were accounted for. One
person was killed and 17 remained trapped at two sites and could not
be immediately rescued. On Dec 27 the owner of the mine drowned
after jumping into a well in an apparent suicide. On Jan 29 four
miners were rescued after spending 36 days trapped underground.
(AP, 12/26/15)(AP, 12/27/15)(AP, 1/30/16)
2015 Dec 26, Japanese
authorities said that for the first time, an armed Chinese coast
guard vessel entered its territorial waters off islands claimed by
both countries.
(AP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 27, China officially
ended its one child policy with the signing into law of a bill
allowing all married couples to have a second child as it attempts
to cope with an ageing population and shrinking workforce.
(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 27, China's
rubber-stamp national legislature approved the country's first
anti-terrorism law, amid concerns that its requirements that tech
companies share information with the government could hurt business
interests and further infringe upon human rights.
(AP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 27, China's
legislature approved the country’s first national anti-domestic
violence law. It will take effect in March.
(AP, 12/28/15)
2015 Dec 27, China’s ruling
Communist Party announced that Chang Xiaobing, chair of China
Telecom, has been placed under investigation on suspicion of
corruption.
(AP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 27, In China Xu
Yuan'an, head of the City Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement
Bureau for Shenzhen's Guangming New District, where a Dec 20 huge
landslide left scores of people missing, killed himself.
(AFP, 12/28/15)
2015 Dec 28, China fined seven
foreign shipping companies that carry vehicles for automakers a
total of $65 million on price-fixing charges in its latest effort to
end anti-competitive behavior in the auto industry.
(AP, 12/28/15)
2015 Dec 29, In northern China
Wei Pengyuan, a low-ranking energy official accused of hiding more
than $30 million in cash at home in one of the country's most
sensational corruption cases, admitted his guilt during a court
appearance.
(AP, 12/29/15)
2015 Dec 30, Chinese rescuers
in Shandong province using infrared cameras to peer into darkness at
a wrecked mine found eight surviving miners who were trapped for
five days after a collapse so violent it registered as a seismic
event. Nine others remained missing.
(AP, 12/30/15)
2015 Dec 30, A China-Taiwan
hotline went into service connecting the heads of the two
Cabinet-level agencies responsible for their relations.
(SFC, 12/31/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 31, Ursula Gauthier,
the China correspondent for France's L'Obs news magazine, left
Beijing. She was obliged to leave for criticizing government policy
in violence-wracked Xinjiang. She had questioned official
comparisons between global Islamist violence and unrest in the
homeland of the mainly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority.
(AFP, 1/1/16)
2015 Dec, Sibur, a Russian
petrochemical firm co-owned by Gennady Timchenko, sold 10% of its
shares to Sinopec, China’s largest state-owned oil refinery, for
$1.3 billion. In 2016 Sibur sold another 10% to China’s state-backed
Silk Road Fund.
(Econ 7/29/17, p.36)
2015 Daniel Bell authored “The
China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy."
(http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10418.html)(Econ, 9/5/15, p.50)
2015 In China Wang Daqi (30)
authored “Burden of Wealth" in which he profiled several of his
monied peers.
(Econ, 7/4/15, p.36)
2015 Chen Guangcheng authored
“The Barefoot Lawyer: A Blind Man’s Fight for Justice and Freedom in
China."
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.83)
2015 Andrew Small authored “The
China-Pakistan Axis: Asia’s New Geopolitics."
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.74)
2015 Xue Xinran (b.1958),
British-Chinese journalist, authored “Buy Me the Sky: The Remarkable
Truth of China’s One-Child Generation." It was translated to English
by Esther Tyldesley and David Dobson.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.75)
2015 The Hugo Award for the
best science-fiction novel went to “The Three-Body Problem" (2008)
by Liu Cixin of China. A film adaptation of the same name was
scheduled for release in July, 2016.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem)
2015 Six Rooms (6.cn), a
Chinese live-streaming internet service co-founded by Liu Yan, was
sold for close to $400 million to a Chinese entertainment
conglomerate. Live-streaming emerged in China following the
financial crisis of 2007-08.
(Econ, 2/11/17, SR p.10)
2015 By the end of this year
China’s total debt reached about 240% of GDP.
(Econ, 3/5/15, p.71)
2015 In China some 20,000
workers at the Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone worked to complete a
2nd terminal and runway. Officials expected the planned aerotropolis
to have five runways by 2030 serving some 70 million passengers
annually.
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.47)
2015 Vanke, one of China’s
biggest property firms, had revenues this year of over $30 billion.
In 1988 Vanke CEO Wang Shi decided to donate his shares in the
company to charity.
(Econ, 7/9/16, p.54)
2015 Wind power in China
tripled since 2010 to 3% of the electricity generation. Coal still
accounted for near two-thirds of the country’s electricity.
(Econ, 8/1/15, p.39)
2015 Shanghai, China, produced
the most household rubbish in the country with 22,000 tons per day.
(Econ., 4/25/15, p.42)
2015 China’s contribution to
the UN this year reached $140 million, about the same as Britain or
France.
(Econ, 10/3/15, p.45)
2015 Chinese inward investment
in Britain reached $3.3 billion this year.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.56)
2015 Shenzhen-based Chipscreen
Biosciences received Chinese approval for a cancer drug called
Epidaza.
(Econ, 3/18/17, p.68)
2015 In China a startup called
Ofo launched the first bike-sharing service that allowed users use
bicycles and leave them anywhere and to pay using a smart-phone.
(Econ, 4/22/17, p.38)
2015 In Argentina the
government of Pres. Cristina Fernandez Kirchner signed a $1 billion
agreement to buy Chinese fighter jets and ocean-going patrol
vessels. Pres. Kirchner also approved a deal giving the Chinese the
right to build a satellite tracking station in Argentina.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.28)
2015 Tuberculosis claimed the
lives of an estimated 1.8 million people around the world this year,
60% of whom lived in China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and
South Africa.
(AFP, 3/23/17)
2016 Jan 1, In Hong Kong more
than 1,500 people protested on New Year's day calling for the city's
leader to resign and airing grievances over issues from expensive
construction projects to internet freedoms. Protester’s focused on
the 40-km structure linking Hong Kong with Macau and the mainland
city of Zhuhai.
(AFP, 1/1/16)(Econ, 2/13/15, p.37)
2016 Jan 4, Chinese authorities
detained Peter Dahlin, a Swedish national who worked on legal aid
and rule of law issues, on suspicion of endangering state security.
(Reuters, 1/12/16)
2016 Jan 5, European equities
staged a timid rebound, winning moderate support after Beijing
pumped cash into the money market to soothe worries over the slowing
Chinese economy.
(AFP, 1/5/16)
2016 Jan 5, In China a man
upset over a financial dispute set fire to a moving bus and fled as
the flames trapped people inside, killing 17 and injuring 32.
Several hours later police caught Ma Yongping (33) on a construction
site in Yinchuan, Ningxia region.
(AP, 1/5/16)
2016 Jan 6, China landed two
civilian test flights on an island it has built in the South China
Sea, four days after it angered Vietnam with a landing on the same
runway in the disputed territory.
(Reuters, 1/6/16)(AP, 1/7/16)
2016 Jan 6, China urged North
Korea to honor its commitment to denuclearization and called on
Pyongyang to stop taking any action that could cause a deterioration
of the situation on the Korean peninsula.
(Reuters, 1/6/16)
2016 Jan 7, China’s top
securities regulator said it will suspend "circuit breakers" after
trading curbs were again triggered when share prices tumbled more
than seven percent, halting share trading early for the second time
this week. The circuit breaker suspension would come into effect on
Jan 8.
(AFP, 1/7/16)
2016 Jan 7, Chinese authorities
said 11 workers trapped underground in a coal mine collapse have
died in Shaanxi province.
(AP, 1/7/16)
2016 Jan 8, It was reported
that a Chinese village has abruptly demolished a statue of communist
China's founder, Mao Zedong, after images of the structure covered
in gold paint and looming 37 meters (120 feet) high over farmland
attracted heated discussion on social media.
(http://tinyurl.com/hmdubfp)(AP, 1/11/16)
2016 Jan 9, China’s state news
reported that Beijing will close 2,500 small polluting firms this
year in its latest effort to combat pollution.
(Reuters, 1/9/16)
2016 Jan 10, China’s official
Xinhua News Agency said Chinese universities have agreed to expand
annual enrollments of ethnic minority students from the
tension-fraught western region of Xinjiang to 10,000 by 2020, up
from the current school year's 6,800.
(AP, 1/10/16)
2016 Jan 11, In Pakistan
representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United
States gathered in Islamabad hoping to lay the roadmap to peace for
the war-shattered Afghan nation.
(AP, 1/11/16)
2016 Jan 12, Chinese
conglomerate Wanda Group signed a $3.5 billion deal to buy Hollywood
studio Legendary Entertainment, the maker of blockbusters "Jurassic
World" and "Godzilla", dubbing it China's biggest-ever cultural
takeover.
(AFP, 1/12/16)
2016 Jan 12, A court in
northern China sentenced Li Dongsheng, a former vice minister of
public security, to 15 years in jail for accepting bribes.
(AP, 1/12/16)
2016 Jan 13, Chinese lawyers
said several rights lawyers, including a woman who represented
high-profile women's rights advocates, have been formally arrested
on state subversion charges about six months after they were taken
away.
(AP, 1/13/16)
2016 Jan 13, In China an
explosion at a machinery factory killed four workers in the eastern
city of Shanghai.
(AP, 1/14/16)
2016 Jan 14, In central China 5
people were killed and seven injured in an explosion at a fireworks
factory in Henan province just weeks ahead of the Chinese New Year.
(AP, 1/14/16)
2016 Jan 15, China’s Haier
Group, the world's biggest home appliance maker, said it is buying
General Electric Co.'s appliance business for $5.4 billion to expand
its US and global presence.
(AP, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 16, China’s government
and private debt stood at about $25 trillion or 240% of GDP.
(Econ, 1/16/16, p.23)
2016 Jan 18, Representatives
from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States gathered in
Kabul and called on the Taliban to resume peace talks with the
Afghan government.
(AP, 1/18/16)
2016 Jan 19, Chinese President
Xi Jinping arrived in Saudi Arabia, the first stop on a trip to
raise the economic giant's political profile in a troubled Middle
East.
(AFP, 1/19/16)
2016 Jan 19, Vietnam said China
has moved an oil rig into disputed waters in the South China Sea, in
a possible repeat of a 2014 stand-off between the communist
neighbors.
(AP, 1/20/16)
2016 Jan 20, In southern China
a massive explosion at a fireworks plant killed 3 people and injured
53, while shattering windows of homes in the area.
(AP, 1/20/16)
2016 Jan 20, In Saudi Arabia
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Saudi King Salman attended a
ceremony to mark the opening of the YASREF joint-venture refinery, a
symbol of Beijing's deepening involvement in the Middle East.
(AFP, 1/20/16)
2016 Jan 21, In China General
Motors Co. opened a Cadillac factory in Shanghai to target the
country's growing but crowded luxury car market. The 8 billion yuan
($1.2 billion) factory operated with its main Chinese partner,
Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp., will have an annual production
capacity of 160,000 vehicles.
(AP, 1/21/16)
2016 Jan 21, China signed
agreements to invest nearly $18 billion in Egypt as President Xi
began a three-day visit. Xi’s Middle East tour will include a stop
in Iran.
(AP, 1/21/16)
2016 Jan 23, President Hassan
Rouhani said Iran and China have agreed to expand bilateral ties and
increase trade to $600 billion in the next 10 years, during a visit
to Tehran by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
(Reuters, 1/23/16)
2016 Jan 25, Unusually cold
weather in eastern Asia was blamed for more than 65 deaths,
disrupted transportation and brought the first snow to a subtropical
city in southern China in almost 50 years. The semi-official Focus
Taiwan news website reported that 85 people had died because of the
cold.
(AP, 1/25/16)
2016 Jan 26, A Chinese fishing
boat capsized and killed at least one passenger near a small island
off South Korea's southwest coast. Four other passengers were
believed to be inside the boat, which wasn't approved by South
Korean authorities to fish in the country's waters.
(AP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 27, US Secretary of
State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed on the
need for a significant new UN Security resolution targeting North
Korea after its Jan. 6 nuclear test, though there were few signs of
concrete progress.
(Reuters, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 27, Chinese dissident
artist Ai Weiwei closed down his exhibition in the Danish capital
after lawmakers passed a controversial bill allowing authorities to
seize valuables from asylum seekers.
(AFP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 30, In South Korea the
education ministers of South Korea, Japan and China held the first
three-way meeting among the countries that often spar over how their
wartime past is described in textbooks.
(AP, 1/30/16)
2016 Jan 31, Chinese media
reported the arrest of Ding Ning, the maverick founder of Ezubao, a
peer-to-peer lender and China's largest online finance business, and
20 of his employees on suspicion of fleecing 900,000 investors of
$7.6 billion, in what could be the biggest financial fraud in
Chinese history.
(AP, 2/1/16)(Econ, 2/6/16, p.41)
2016 Jan, China said children
born in violation of its one child rule would be given a
registration document needed for everything from getting a place at
school to opening a bank account.
(Econ, 2/27/16, p.36)
2016 Jan, Chinese authorities
arrested Gu Yuese, the outspoken pastor of the Chongyi Church in
Zhejiang province, the country’s largest government-approved
Protestant church. Mr. Gu had been critical of the government’s
campaign to remove crosses from the roofs of churches.
(www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-35457150)(Econ, 4/9/16, p.46)
2016 Feb 1, Chinese President
Xi Jinping presided over the creation of five new military regions,
part of the streamlining of the 2.3 million-member People's
Liberation Army while also signaling his firm control over the armed
forces.
(AP, 2/1/16)
2016 Feb 1, In China Chen Man
walked free having spent the last 23 years in jail after a court
overturned a murder and arson conviction, the latest wrongful
verdict to be overturned in the country.
(Reuters, 2/1/16)
2016 Feb 3, State-owned China
National Chemical Corp. offered $43 billion in an agreed takeover
for Swiss pesticide and seed giant Syngenta, in what would be by far
the biggest-ever overseas acquisition by a Chinese firm.
(AFP, 2/3/16)
2016 Feb 4, In China four more
high-ranking party members were kicked out, bringing to 67 the
number known to have been investigated, expelled or sentenced this
year alone.
(Econ, 2/13/16, p.38)
2016 Feb 15, Iran's state TV
said the first Chinese commercial train has arrived in Tehran to
revive the Silk Road, an ancient network of trade routes running
through Asia. The 12-container train arrived in Tehran after a
14-day journey from eastern China.
(AP, 2/15/16)
2016 Feb 17, Taiwan and US
officials said China has deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile
system to one of the disputed islands it controls in the South China
Sea.
(Reuters, 2/17/16)
2016 Feb 18, Apple Inc.
launched its smartphone-based payment system in China where the
electronic payments market is already dominated by an arm of
e-commerce giant Alibaba.
(AP, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 17, Europol said
Spanish police have arrested five directors of Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) after they raided the lender's
Madrid offices as part of an investigation into alleged money
laundering.
(Reuters, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 19, Vietnam protested
to China at a "serious violation" of its sovereignty over Beijing's
apparent deployment of an advanced missile system on a disputed
South China Sea island, while Australia and New Zealand urged
Chinese restraint.
(Reuters, 2/19/16)
2016 Feb 19, China government
said it plans to make it easier for foreigners to live and work in
the country under new rules for obtaining permanent residency, amid
efforts to stimulate the flagging economy with more inward
investment.
(AP, 2/19/16)
2016 Feb 19, Spanish police
arrested a sixth executive of China's ICBC bank as part of a money
laundering and tax fraud probe.
(AP, 2/19/16)
2016 Feb 22, A South Korean
newspaper reported that Chinese banks including a branch of China's
biggest bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have
frozen accounts belonging to North Koreans.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 23, China's Foreign
Ministry reasserted Beijing's right to develop its South China Sea
island outposts following a US think tank's report that China has
built new radar facilities in the disputed Spratly Islands.
(AP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 24, US officials said
China has deployed fighter jets to Woody Island in the disputed
Paracel Islands chain over the past few days, the same contested
island in the South China Sea to which it also has sent
surface-to-air missiles.
(AFP, 2/24/16)
2016 Feb 25, Well-known Chinese
rights lawyer Zhang Kai appeared on state television confessing to
crimes after a months-long disappearance, the latest case in China's
widening crackdown on dissent. He had represented a group of
Christians who were detained for suspected financial crimes last
year after they resisted the demolition of crosses.
(Reuters, 2/26/16)
2016 Feb 26, In China a court
in eastern Zhejiang province sentenced pastor Bao Guohua to 14 years
in prison and his wife, Xing Wenxiang, to 12 years after concluding
that they had illegally organized churchgoers to petition the
government and disturb social order. The husband and wife had led a
Christian congregation that opposed a government campaign to remove
crosses atop churches.
(AP, 2/28/16)
2016 Feb 27, G20 finance
officials meeting in Shanghai promised to use "all tools" to shore
up sagging global growth and to avoid devaluing their currencies to
boost exports, but made no pledges of joint action.
(AP, 2/27/16)
2016 Feb 27, Meeting in Laos
foreign ministers from the 10 countries of the Association of South
East Asian Nations (ASEAN) said that they were "seriously concerned"
by recent developments in the disputed South China Sea region and
will seek a meeting over the issue with China.
(AP, 2/27/16)
2016 Feb 28, Chinese
authorities shut down microblogging accounts belonging to Ren
Zhiqiang, a real estate mogul and frequent government critic, after
he lambasted state media organs for swearing fealty to the ruling
Communist Party.
(AP, 2/28/16)
2016 Feb 29, In China Li Sijun
(45) a knife-wielding assailant hacked at children in a schoolyard,
wounding 10 before killing himself in Haikou, Hainan province.
(AFP, 2/29/16)
2016 Feb 29, In China Kalsang
Wangdu, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, died after he set himself on fire
near the Retsokha monastery in Sichuan province in a protest against
Chinese rule.
(SFC, 3/3/16, p.A2)
2016 Feb 29, In Laos unknown
suspects described as militants opened fire on a temporary work
space being used by a Chinese company in the northern province of
Luang Prabang. One Chinese citizen was killed and three injured in a
shooting.
(AP, 3/2/16)
2016 Mar 2, Cambodian National
Police and Chinese police took part in rounding up 105 Chinese
citizens at the Golden Crown Casino's hotel, releasing 67 after
confirming they were not on wanted lists. Police said the people
arrested are suspected of involvement in scams carried out against
Chinese citizens over Internet phone services.
(AP, 3/3/16)
2016 Mar 2, Thailand police
seized 895,897 counterfeit brand-name sunglasses at a warehouse
where they also arrested two Chinese nationals accused of importing
them from China. the sunglasses were purported to be famous brands
such as Ray-Ban, Oakley, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior.
(AP, 3/3/16)
2016 Mar 3, Russia-based
Gazprom said The Bank of China will give it a 2 billion euro ($2.2
billion), five-year loan, the state-run energy company's largest
loan agreement from a single credit institution.
(AP, 3/3/16)
2016 Mar 5, China’s National
People’s Congress Opened. Premier Li Keqiang delivered his annual
address before parliament, laying out the government's development
agenda in a 13th five-year economic plan. The official Xinhua news
agency reported that the government plans to invest about $17
billion in 100 projects in the violence-prone far western region of
Xinjiang.
(Econ, 3/5/16, p.41)(AP, 3/5/16)(Reuters,
3/5/16)(Econ, 3/12/16, p.42)
2016 Mar 5, China published a
new five-year plan with aims to keep energy consumption within 5
billion tons of standard coal equivalent by 2020.
(AP, 3/5/16)
2016 Mar 5, China said it will
build a second railway line connecting restive and remote Tibet with
others parts of China that will link Tibetan capital Lhasa with the
southwestern city of Chengdu.
(Reuters, 3/5/16)
2016 Mar 6, China’s state media
quoted Pres. Xi Jinping as saying China will never allow the tragedy
of Taiwan being "split" off from the rest of the country, offering a
strong warning to the island against any moves towards independence.
(Reuters, 3/6/16)
2016 Mar 7, China’s state media
reported that police in the northern city of Baoding have broken up
a major toxic waste case that came to light when a restaurant owner
died after inhaling poisonous gases coming from his kitchen drain. A
parking lot near the restaurant had allowed factories to dump highly
toxic waste into its drain pipes for illegal gains.
(AP, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 8, Washington began
restricting the access of one of China's biggest telecoms equipment
makers, ZTE Corp., to American components after concluding the
state-owned company improperly exported US technology to Iran.
(AP, 3/8/16)
2016 Mar 9, The Bangladesh
central bank said it is working to recover some $100 million
allegedly stolen by Chinese hackers from an account at the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York. The money was apparently transferred to
accounts in the Philippines. At least 30 transfer requests were made
Feb. 5 using the Bangladesh Bank's SWIFT code, out of which five
succeeded in effecting transfers.
(AP, 3/9/16)
2016 Mar 11, China’s state
media reported that civilian flights will begin to and from Sansha
city, on Woody Island in the Paracel archipelago, a disputed South
China Sea island within a year, as the government expands
infrastructure on islands and reefs also claimed by other countries
in region.
(Reuters, 3/11/16)
2016 Mar 12, In northeastern
China thousands of miners, who say they have not been paid for
months, staged a rare protest in Shuangyashan city, days after the
provincial governor made the apparently false claim that no miner
working for the province's largest publicly owned mining company was
owed any back wages.
(AP, 3/13/16)
2016 Mar 15, China's Foreign
Ministry said water will be released from Jinghong dam in the
southwestern province of Yunnan to help alleviate a drought in parts
of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 15, Beijing-based
journalist Jia Jia, linked with an online petition calling for the
Chinese president's resignation, disappeared from the Beijing
airport on his way to Hong Kong. The petition criticized Xi's
handling of economic and domestic affairs and noted that more and
more factions of the Communist Party oppose the president's
tightening grip over speech, government bureaucracy and dissent
within the party. Jia was reported freed on March 26.
(AP, 3/19/16)(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 17, China expressed
its opposition to unilateral sanctions against North Korea saying
they could raise tension, a day after the United States imposed new
curbs on the isolated country in retaliation for its nuclear and
rocket tests.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, China established
diplomatic ties with Gambia, once a Taiwan ally.
(Econ, 3/26/15, p.46)
2016 Mar 18, China state media
said the environment ministry has ordered an investigation after a
provincial environmental protection body fined a polluting factory
just 603 yuan ($90) for dumping waste water. The chemical plant in
Gaoyou city in Jiangsu province was given the fine for dumping water
with an abnormal pH level.
(Reuters, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 19, Facebook founder
and CEO Mark Zuckerberg held a rare meeting with China's propaganda
chief, at a time when Chinese authorities are tightening control
over their cyberspace. Zuckerberg was in Beijing to attend an
economic forum.
(AP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 19, An Indonesian
fisheries ministry patrol ship intercepted a Chinese fishing vessel
within Indonesia's exclusive economic zone which overlaps with the
southernmost reaches of the South China Sea. Indonesia arrested
eight fishermen for illegal fishing. The fishing vessel Kway Fey was
being towed when a Chinese coastguard vessel collided with it,
allowing its escape by a 9th crewman.
(AP, 3/21/16)(AP, 3/23/16)(Econ, 4/16/16, p.34)
2016 Mar 20, In India the prime
minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile called for China to
engage in dialogue on autonomy for his people's homeland, as tens of
thousands of Tibetans around the world voted for new leaders of a
government that Beijing does not recognize.
(AP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 22, In China Hilary St
John Bower (60), who had worked as an English language instructor at
the Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, was killed. He had been
dead for more than a week by the time he was reported missing on
March 30.
(Reuters, 4/13/16)
2016 Mar 22, The UN Security
Council agreed to a Chinese request to remove sanctions on four
ships the United Nations had blacklisted for ties to Pyongyang's
arms trade. The agreement came after China secured assurances the
vessels would not use North Korean crews.
(Reuters, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 23, China’s state
media reported that police in Shandong province have detained 37
people implicated in a scandal involving the selling of poorly
refrigerated and probably ineffective vaccines.
(AP, 3/23/16)
2016 Mar 23, China and Nepal
said they have agreed to conclude a commercial deal on the supply of
petroleum products from China to Nepal. This followed a visit to
Beijing by Nepali PM K.P. Oli.
(Reuters, 3/23/16)
2016 Mar 23, In northern China
a coal mine accident killed 19 miners on an underground platform in
Shouzhou city, Shanxi province.
(SFC, 3/24/16, p.A2)
2016 Mar 23, In a plea
agreement filed today in Los Angeles Chinese national Su Bin (50)
pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets from the companies,
including plans for transport planes and fighter jets, while
operating an aviation and aerospace company in Canada from
2008-2014. He admitted to conspiring with two unnamed persons in
China to try to acquire plans for F-22 and F-35 fighter jets and
C-17 transport aircraft. On July 13 Bin was sentenced to nearly four
years in prison.
(AP, 3/25/16)(SFC, 7/15/16, p.D3)
2016 Mar 24, In China a
colleague said four staff of the Wujie News website, which carried
an anonymous letter earlier this month calling on President Xi
Jinping to resign, have been missing for over a week. Wujie, known
as Watching in English, was founded in 2015 with funding from
Internet giant Alibaba. It has not published any original articles
on its website since March 16.
(AFP, 3/24/16)
2016 Mar 28, Japan switched on
a radar station in the East China Sea, giving it a permanent
intelligence gathering post close to Taiwan and a group of islands
disputed by Japan and China, drawing an angry response from Beijing.
The new Self Defense Force base is on the island of Yonaguni.
(Reuters, 3/28/16)
2016 Mar 28, Chinese President
Xi Jinping arrived in the Czech Republic for a visit aimed at
boosting economic and political ties.
(AP, 3/28/16)
2016 Mar 28, China's state
media said the military will end so-called paid for services within
the next three years, the latest move to modernize the armed forces
amid a reform and anti-corruption push.
(Reuters, 3/28/16)
2016 Mar 29, Czech Rep. Pres.
Milos Zeman signed a strategic partnership with China's Pres. Xi
Jinping during a visit that was marked by official honors and public
protests.
(AP, 3/29/16)
2016 Mar 29, Israel said it has
opened talks with China on a free trade deal which could see
commerce double between the two countries. During the meeting in
Jerusalem, 13 other agreements were signed on a range of topics.
(AFP, 3/29/16)
2016 Mar 30, US Deputy
Secretary of Defense Robert Work said the United States has told
China it will not recognize an exclusion zone in the South China
Sea.
(Reuters, 3/30/16)
2016 Mar 31, In China 2 forest
rangers died in a forest fire caused by people burning fake paper
money and incense in a traditional ceremony to honor dead ancestors
in the eastern city of Qingdao.
(AP, 4/1/16)
2016 Mar, China passed its
first charity law to allow registration with the government,
legalize funding and protect donors.
(Econ, 7/9/16, SR p.12)
2016 Apr 4, In China activists
from a coalition of groups said that they will continue press for
annual June 20 dog meat festival in Yulin to be banned as well as
legislation outlawing the slaughtering of dogs and cats and the
consumption of their meat.
(AP, 4/4/16)
2016 Apr 5, China banned most
imports of North Korean coal and iron ore, the country's main
exports, in a significant increase in pressure on the North under UN
sanctions against its nuclear and missile tests.
(AP, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 5, China denounced
accusations arising from a massive leak from a Panamanian law firm
as "groundless" and moved to limit coverage of documents that may
have exposed financial wrongdoing by some of the world's rich and
powerful.
(Reuters, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 5, Thirteen North
Koreans working at a restaurant in China defected. They traveled to
a Southeast Asian country before being flown to South Korea.
{China, South Korea, North Korea}
(AP, 4/8/16)(AP, 4/11/16)
2016 Apr 6, China’s Pres. Xi
Jinping launched another ideological campaign named “Two Studies,
One Action," aimed to strengthen the Marxist stance of Communist
Party members and keep them in line with party leadership.
(Econ, 4/23/16, p.35)
2016 Apr 6, It was reported
that Chinese author Cao Wenxuan and German illustrator Rotraut
Susanne Berner have been awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Prize
for children's literature during the Bologna Children's Book Fair.
(AP, 4/6/16)
2016 Apr 7, Vietnam demanded
China move a controversial oil rig on and abandon plans to start
drilling in waters where jurisdiction is unclear, the latest sign of
festering unease among the two communist neighbors.
(Reuters, 4/7/16)
2016 Apr 8, A court in southern
China jailed four activists who had publicly supported Hong Kong's
pro-democracy Occupy Central movement and who had criticized the
Chinese Communist Party on social media.
(Reuters, 4/8/16)
2016 Apr 9, Kenya deported a
group of 8 Taiwanese to China after they were acquitted in a
cybercrime case. On April 12 a 2nd group of 37 was deported in a
move that drew an angry reaction from Taipei.
(Reuters, 4/12/16)
2016 Apr 12, China said it will
release more water from a dam in its southwestern province of Yunnan
to help alleviate a drought in parts of Southeast Asia, following an
initial release begun last month.
(Reuters, 4/12/16)
2016 Apr 13, In China a court
in Changsha rejected a landmark case by two men who had sought
permission to get legally married, a decision that shines the light
on gay rights in the world's most populous nation.
(Reuters, 4/13/16)(Econ, 8/13/16, p.29)
2016 Apr 14, Chinese human
rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang posted a photo of a letter from the
Beijing City Legal Affairs Department to his micro-blog that said
his law license was pulled in accordance with regulations. It cited
his conviction in December for disturbing public order and inciting
ethnic hatred.
(AP, 4/14/16)
2016 Apr 15, Malaysia deported
20 Taiwanese criminal suspects to Taiwan despite Beijing's request
that they be sent to China, amid an ongoing battle over jurisdiction
involving the self-ruled island. A Malaysia official said another 32
Taiwanese wire fraud suspects sought by China also will be sent to
Taiwan.
(AP, 4/15/16)
2016 Apr 17, A Chinese
spokesman criticized Taiwan after the self-ruled island released 20
fraud suspects just one day after they were deported from Malaysia,
citing a lack of evidence.
(AP, 4/17/16)
2016 Apr 17, A Chinese military
aircraft on patrol over the South China Sea received an emergency
call to land at Fiery Cross Reef to evacuate three seriously ill
workers. It was the first time China's military had publicly
admitted landing an aircraft on Fiery Cross Reef.
(Reuters, 4/18/16)
2016 Apr 18, China's central
government said it will investigate a report that close to 500
students became sick with illnesses including cancer at a school
built near recently shut chemical plants in the eastern city of
Changzhou.
(AP, 4/18/16)
2016 Apr 18, Taiwan’s
delegation was ejected from a meeting of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development's steel committee after China
complained, part of an apparent hardening of Beijing's attitude
toward the island it claims as its own territory.
(AP, 4/19/16)
2016 Apr 19, China’s state
broadcaster CCTV said Huang Yu (41), a former computer technician at
a Chinese research firm specializing in encryption, has been
sentenced to death for selling 150,000 classified documents that
revealed key secrets about military and government data encryption
to an unidentified foreign spy agency.
(AP, 4/19/16)
2016 Apr 20, China's statistics
bureau said in estimates published today that the mainland
population reached 1.373 billion at the beginning of November, up
33.77 million since the last census was held in 2010.
(Reuters, 4/20/16)
2016 Apr 21, China’s ruling
Communist Party's anti-graft watchdog said Gong Qinggai, a former
deputy head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, will be prosecuted for
"serious discipline violations".
(Reuters, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 23, President Xi
Jinping told a key meeting on religion that Chinese religious groups
must obey the staunchly atheist ruling Communist Party.
(AFP, 4/24/16)
2016 Apr 23, In China police
stopped five Western diplomats who were trying to visit lawyer Ni
Yulan in Beijing after she had been prevented from travelling to the
United States to accept an award for her rights work. Yulan was
awarded the US State Department's International Women of Courage
Award for her work defending people forcibly evicted from their
homes.
(AP, 4/23/16)
2016 Apr 25, In northern China
a coal mine flooded in Tongchuan city, Shaanxi province, leaving 11
miners missing.
(AP, 4/25/16)
2016 Apr 27, China's top
anti-graft authority said it has found irregularities at the
country's second-largest lender, China Construction Bank Corp.
(Reuters, 4/27/16)
2016 Apr 28, China passed a law
tightening controls over foreign non-governmental organizations by
subjecting them to close police supervision, a move officials say
will help the groups but critics charge is the latest attempt by
authorities to clamp down on perceived threats to the ruling
Communist Party's control.
(AP, 4/28/16)
2016 Apr 29, In China a
roadside activity center was crushed by stones from an overturned
truck, leaving 14 people dead in the southern province of Guizhou.
The accident was apparently caused by the failure of the truck's
brakes.
(AP, 4/30/16)
2016 Apr 30, China laid out
firm conditions for improved ties with Japan, telling Tokyo's
visiting foreign minister Fumio Kishida that there could be "no
ambiguity or vacillation" in meeting Beijing's demands over
historical interpretation, relations with Taiwan and other key
matters.
(AP, 4/30/16)
2016 Apr, In China Pony Ma (aka
Ma Huateng b.1971), the founder of Tencent, a Chinese gaming and
social media giant, said he will donate shares worth over $2 billion
to his firm’s charitable foundation.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.57)
2016 May 1, China extended its
value-added tax (VAT) from the sale mainly of goods to all major
service sectors, including construction and finance.
(Econ, 5/7/16, p.38)
2016 May 1, Taiwanese officials
protested Malaysia's deportation of 32 of the self-ruled island's
nationals to China this weekend to face wire fraud charges, the
latest in a series of disputes that has raised new friction between
China and Taiwan.
(AP, 5/1/16)
2016 May 2, China's Communist
Party said it has placed Ren Zhiqiang, a property mogul and
outspoken government critic, on probation for a year after he
criticized state media for pledging absolute loyalty to the party.
(AP, 5/2/16)
2016 May 3, A Chinese state-run
newspaper reported that the influential Communist Youth League has
had its budget slashed by more than 50 percent for this year, after
the organization came under fire in official media over graft
scandals and inefficiency.
(Reuters, 5/3/16)
2016 May 4, China’s state media
said China and Laos have agreed to step up security cooperation
after attacks on Chinese nationals in the poor, landlocked Southeast
Asian nation in recent weeks, as Laos' new president visited
Beijing.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 7, China's navy
searched for 17 sailors missing after their fishing boat collided
early today with another vessel in the East China Sea. A passing
fishing boat pulled the bodies of two sailors from the ocean. State
media said the other ship in the collision, the Malta-flagged cargo
vessel Catalina, appeared not to have stopped but continued sailing
in a southwestern direction.
(AP, 5/7/16)
2016 May 7, In China
environmentalist Lei Yang (29) died in Beijing while under police
custody. He had been detained on suspicion of soliciting
prostitution at a foot parlor. On June 30 an independent autopsy
found that Lei Yang had apparently choked to death. On Dec 23
Beijing prosecutors said they had dropped criminal charges against
five police officers over the death of Yang. On Dec 29 police said
the five officers involved have been fired.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Lei_Yang)(Econ, 7/9/16, SR
p.11)(AP, 12/23/16)(AP, 12/29/16)
2016 May 8, In China a
landslide triggered by heavy rain hit a hydroelectric power station
that was under construction in southeastern Fujian province. At
least 34 people were killed with four missing.
(Reuters, 5/8/16)(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 8, In China a man
identified only by his surname, Guo, was detained in the western
region of Xinjiang. He had allegedly killed six members of a family
in 1991 "over a trivial matter." His wife, Wang, was also detained
on suspicion of shielding a criminal.
(AP, 5/15/16)
2016 May 12, It was reported
that China's ruling Communist Party has expelled Zhang Kunsheng,
former assistant foreign minister, for graft, including joining
private clubs, accepting gifts and bribes, and trading power for
sex. Kunsheng was sacked from his government post last January and
put under investigation.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)
2016 May 13, It was reported
that the purported personal details of numerous Chinese business
moguls and politically-connected elite were posted this week to an
anonymous Twitter account, an embarrassing leak for authorities that
has raised concerns about the security of official records.
(Reuters, 5/13/16)
2016 May 18, Chinese appliance
maker Midea made a $5.2 billion takeover offer for German industrial
robot maker Kuka, a move that it says would help it capture a larger
share of the "future service robots market."
(AP, 5/18/16)
2016 May 20, China reported
that 135 people have been arrested in 22 provinces for illegally
buying and selling vaccines.
(AP, 5/21/16)
2016 May 20, In southern China
at least 8 people were killed and another four went missing in a
strong storm that hammered the city of Xinyi. Officials said the
storm brought the heaviest rainfall since 1954, when authorities
started to collect weather data.
(AP, 5/21/16)
2016 May 22, In central China
some 500 people protested in Zhengzhou city in what they say is a
lack of university student placements in Henan province, in the
latest protest over education reform.
(AP, 5/22/16)
2016 May 27, Indonesia's navy
fired shots at a Chinese trawler when it refused to stop fishing in
Indonesian waters, and then seized the vessel and its eight
crewmembers.
(AP, 5/30/16)
2016 May 27, In Japan G7
countries expressed concern over China's increasingly assertive
activity in the East and South China seas, renewing their warnings
against one-sided attempts to change the situation, and stressed the
importance of peaceful resolutions.
(AP, 5/27/16)
2016 May 31, In London the Walk
Free Foundation's Global Slavery Index said about 45.8 million
people around the world are trapped in modern slavery. India
reportedly had the largest number of modern slaves, 18.35 million,
followed by China with 3.39 million and Pakistan with 2.13 million.
(AP, 5/31/16)
2016 May, A Chinese regulator
ordered Apple Inc. to stop selling two versions of its iPhone 6 in
Beijing after finding they look too much like a competitor. This was
only reported in mid-June by the Chinese press. Apple said sales are
going ahead while it appeals. Apple also suffered another setback
this month when a court ruled that a Chinese company is allowed to
use the iPhone trademark on bags, wallets and other leather goods.
Apple said it would appeal.
(AP, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 1, Japan’s Mitsubishi
Corp. apologized to Chinese workers who were forced to work in its
predecessor company’s mines during WWII.
(SFC, 6/2/16, p.A2)
2016 Jun 4, China said that it
will ignore the decision of an international arbitration panel in a
Philippine lawsuit against Beijing's sweeping territorial claims in
the South China Sea. The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled last
year that it has jurisdiction over the case despite China's
rejection.
(AP, 6/4/16)
2016 Jun 4, In southwestern
China a leisure boat capsized on Bailong Lake during strong winds,
killing one child and leaving another 14 people missing in Sichuan
province.
(AP, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 4, In Hong Kong tens
of thousands of people poured into Victoria Park to remember the
victims of the Chinese military's bloody June 4, 1989, crackdown on
student-led pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. In
Beijing, authorities tightened security around Tiananmen Square,
highlighting the enduring sensitivity over the events among the
Communist Party leadership.
(AP, 6/4/16)
2016 Jun 7, Chinese State
Councillor Yang Jiechi, the country's top diplomat, said China has
the right to uphold its sovereignty over the South China Sea, and
that it will respect freedom of navigation and overflight there.
(Reuters, 6/7/16)
2016 Jun 8, China said
Zeng Ziheng (44), a man on its list of 100 most wanted corruption
suspects abroad, has voluntarily returned from Canada where he fled
in 2011.
(Reuters, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 10, In China animal
rights activists calling for an end to the slaughter and eating of
dogs at a Chinese festival delivered a petition with 11 million
signatures to authorities in Beijing.
(Reuters, 6/10/16)
2016 Jun 12, In China Liu
Xiaohua, a leading official in Guangdong province, apparently hanged
himself at his home in the provincial capital of Guangzhou. His
death came as the province's anti-corruption watchdog body has been
redoubling its probes of government and state industry leaders.
(AP, 6/13/16)
2016 Jun 14, Chinese and
American officials said they're committed to bridging their
differences on cybersecurity and moving to implement recent
agreements, as they held talks amid complaints over China-based
hacking operations that the US says may have already cost US
companies tens of billions of dollars.
(AP, 6/14/16)
2016 Jun 15, A Chinese court
jailed the wife and a son of Zhou Yongkang, a former senior
politician sentenced to life in prison a year ago for corruption
amid an ongoing anti-graft campaign. Zhou's son, Zhou Bin, was
sentenced to 18 years in prison for taking 222 million yuan ($34
million) in bribes and running an illegal business trading in
restricted commodities. Jia Xiaoye will serve nine years for taking
bribes. She was fined 1 million yuan ($150,000).
(AP, 6/15/16)
2016 Jun 16, In China the new
$5.5 billion Shanghai Disneyland opened with a lavish celebration.
(SFC, 6/17/16, p.A3)
2016 Jun 17, Chinese President
Xi Jinping arrived in Serbia for a visit meant to boost relations
with the friendly nation and assert China's intention to increase
its presence in the Balkans and Europe.
(AP, 6/17/16)
2016 Jun 17, It was reported
that China has ordered at least 255 Shanghai-based industrial
facilities, including part of a major oil refinery operated by
Sinopec Corp, to shut for 14 days to reduce pollution ahead of
the Aug. 24 - Sept. 6 G20 summit.
(Reuters, 6/17/16)
2016 Jun 17, China’s product
quality agency announced that Honda Motor Co.'s Chinese joint
venture is recalling 1 million sedans and SUVs to replace possibly
faulty air bags made by Takata Corp.
(AP, 6/17/16)
2016 Jun 17, In China police
swept in late today to surround sensitive government buildings and
take away Lin Zuluan, the democratically elected leader of Wukan
village in Guangdong province. He had planned protests on June 18
against illegal land grabs.
(AP, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 17, In Hong Kong more
than 100 activists marched on China's liaison office to protest
against the detention of five booksellers. A day earlier Lam
Wing-kee told reporters he had been arrested and detained in China
for more than eight months, and that one of his colleagues, Lee Bo,
a British national, was abducted from Hong Kong by mainland Chinese
authorities.
(Reuters, 6/17/16)(Econ, 6/25/16, p.38)
2016 Jun 18, In Hong Kong over
4,000 people marched to protest against China's detention of five
booksellers whose shop published gossipy books about Chinese
leaders, including President Xi Jinping.
(Reuters, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 18, The Indonesian
navy opened fire at a Chinese fishing boat in the South China Sea,
injuring a fisherman and detaining its seven-man crew, for illegally
fishing in Indonesian waters.
(AP, 6/19/16)
2016 Jun 18, In Serbia China’s
President Xi Jinping signed a declaration on strategic partnership
with Serbia's President Tomislav Nikolic and oversaw the signing of
21 agreements and memorandums ranging from economy, infrastructure,
energy and finance to defense industry, technology, culture and
media.
(AP, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 19, In southern China
residents of Wukan, where police have been deployed, took to the
streets to protest the detention of the village's democratically
elected leader and historic seizures of land.
(AP, 6/19/16)
2016 Jun 20, China’s government
said severe floods in the south have killed at least 22 people and
left 20 missing June 18, with the rains expected to continue for the
next three days. Three days of heavy rain last week had already
killed 14 people.
(Reuters, 6/20/16)
2016 Jun 21, In southern China
Yulin city went ahead with an annual dog-meat eating festival
despite heavy criticism and protests from animal rights activists.
(AP, 6/21/16)
2016 Jun 22, In China a
six-nation security forum opened in Beijing as a multilateral forum
involving high-level policymakers, defense ministry officials,
military officers, and researchers from China, Japan, North and
South Korea, Russia, and the United States.
(AP, 6/22/16)
2016 Jun 22, The Chinese
fishing village of Wukan staged a fourth straight day of protests
against what residents say was the unlawful arrest of the village
chief. The village of 15,000 once again united to march for the
release of Lin Zuluan.
(Reuters, 6/22/16)
2016 Jun 22, US, European and
Chinese regulators in Beijing said they will jointly enforce product
safety in online commerce.
(AP, 6/22/16)
2016 Jun 23, It was reported
that schools across China have been ordered to remove running tracks
made from toxic materials that have been blamed for sickening
students, in the latest in a long line of product scandals blamed on
corruption and weak oversight.
(AP, 6/23/16)
2016 Jun 23, In eastern China a
violent storm and freak tornado killed 98 people and injured
hundreds as it flattened power lines, overturned cars and ripped
roofs off houses in Yancheng, Jiangsu province.
(Reuters, 6/24/16)(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jun 24, Cambodia deported
39 suspected criminals to mainland China, including 25 Taiwanese
whom Beijing insists it has jurisdiction over despite protests from
Taipei.
(AP, 6/24/16)
2016 Jun 25, The Chinese
government said it had stopped a communication mechanism with Taiwan
because of the refusal of the self-ruled island's new government to
recognize the "one China" principle, in the latest show of tension
between the two.
(Reuters, 6/25/16)
2016 Jun 26, China recovered an
experimental probe launched aboard a new generation rocket, marking
another milestone in its increasingly ambitious space program that
envisions a mission to Mars by the end of the decade.
(AP, 6/26/16)
2016 Jun 26, In central China
at least 35 people, including two children, died after a tour bus
crashed and caught fire in Hunan province.
(AP, 6/26/16)
2016 Jun 28, China’s first
locally produce regional jet made its debut flight carrying 70
passengers. The ARJ21 initiative was launched in 2002 and was
scheduled to deliver its first plane in 2007, but that was pushed
back due to technical problems.
(AP, 6/28/16)
2016 Jun 29, Xinhua News Agency
reported that China has replaced its internet regulator Lu Wei, the
hard-liner responsible for leading the government's efforts to
tighten control over domestic cyberspace and export the ruling
Communist Party's philosophy of web control. His successor will be
his deputy, former propaganda official Xu Lin.
(AP, 6/29/16)
2016 Jun, The China-based Asia
Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) held its initial annual
meeting in Beijing and approved its first $509 million worth of
projects.
(Econ, 7/2/16, p.66)
2016 Jun, The OPPO R9, price at
around $400, overtook the iPhone as China’s best-selling handset.
China’s BBK Electronics started the OPPO firm in 2009.
(Econ, 2/4/17, p.58)
2016 Jul 1, Chinese President
Xi Jinping urged the 88-million-strong Communist Party to embrace
its Marxist roots as he delivered an emphatic call for ideological
discipline and a vigorous defense of party rule on the party's 95th
anniversary.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, China's securities
regulator said it would ban initial public offerings (IPOs) by
companies which have violated environmental protection rules over
the previous 36 months.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In southwest China
10 people were killed in a mudslide and 12 others remained buried
under debris in a mountainous region of Guizhou province.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, In northern China
an overnight sleeper bus fell off an expressway into a ditch after a
tire burst, killing 26 people at the Baodi section on the
Tianjin-Jixian expressway.
(AP, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 1, Military-ruled
Thailand said it will buy three submarines worth around $1 billion
from China a move that signals warming ties with the regional
superpower as relations with the United States cool.
(Reuters, 7/1/16)
2016 Jul 2, In northern China a
coal mine flooded and trapped 12 miners.
(AP, 7/2/16)
2016 Jul 3, In China protest
against an incinerator in Lubu town, Guangdong province, turned
violent and police were injured as people attempted to break into
government offices.
(AP, 7/3/16)
2016 Jul 3, Chinese authorities
said three days of heavy rain in southern China have left 50 people
dead and another 12 missing and destroyed thousands of homes, as
areas along the Yangtze River braced for more floods. The death toll
soon rose to 128 with damages to more than 1.9 million hectares of
crops and direct economic losses of more than 38 billion yuan ($5.70
billion).
(AP, 7/3/16)(Reuters, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 4, In China Ling
Jihua, former top presidential aide and consummate Chinese political
insider, was sentenced to life in prison for taking bribes,
illegally obtaining state secrets and abusing his power in a
downfall set off by an alleged cover-up of his son's death in a
speeding Ferrari.
(AP, 7/4/16)
2016 Jul 9, In China the
remains of super typhoon Nepartak made landfall in eastern Fujian
province, bringing high winds and heavy rain, and forcing the
relocation of hundreds of thousands of people.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 10, Following a
two-day meeting in Shanghai trade ministers from the G20 nations
called on their governments to roll back anti-trade measures that
have become more pervasive than any time since 2009.
(AP, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 10, Chinese officials
in Fujian province said at least 2 people were dead and 17 others
missing after Typhoon Nepartak battered the coast with heavy rain
and strong winds that toppled homes and triggered landslides. On
July 18 news media reported that the government has fired three
officials in Fujian province after tropical storm Nepartak killed 83
people and left 19 others missing.
(AP, 7/10/16)(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 12, A Chinese civilian
aircraft successfully carried out calibration tests on two new
airports in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 12, An international
tribunal at The Hague rejected China's extensive claims in the South
China Sea in a landmark ruling that also found the country had
aggravated the regional dispute and violated the Philippines'
maritime rights by building up artificial islands that destroyed
coral reefs and by disrupting fishing and oil exploration. China
immediately rejected it.
(AP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 13, China warned other
countries against threatening its security in the South China Sea
after an international tribunal handed the Philippines a victory by
saying Beijing had no legal basis for its expansive claims there.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 13, Two Chinese
civilian aircraft landed at two new airports on reefs controlled by
China in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The aircraft
then returned to the southern Chinese island province of Hainan.
China also said it had completed four lighthouses on disputed reefs
and was launching a fifth.
(Reuters, 7/13/16)(SFC, 7/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 14, Hong Kong’s
government ruled that candidates for territory legislature elections
in September must sign a declaration acknowledging that Hong Kong is
an “Inalienable part" of China.
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.35)
2016 Jul 14, Vietnam protested
China’s recent activities in the disputed South China Sea.
(SFC, 7/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 15, State media said
China aims to launch a series of offshore nuclear power platforms to
promote development in the South China Sea, days after an
international court ruled Beijing had no historic claims to most of
the waters.
(Reuters, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, Chinese
prosecutors said a human rights lawyer and three activists have been
indicted on subversion charges.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, In eastern China 8
people in Longkou city, Shandong province, were killed when the
construction elevator they were in plummeted from an apartment
building.
(AP, 7/17/16)
2016 Jul 15, Britain listed the
East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), aka Turkestan Islamic Party
(TIP), as a terrorist organization. This pleased China, which had
demanded Western support for its fight against a group it says seeks
to split off its western region of Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 15, UNESCO put four
new sites on its World Heritage List. The new sites, announced in
Istanbul, include China's Zuojiang Huashan rock art cultural
landscape, Iran's ancient aqueducts known as Qanat, and India's
archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara. The World Heritage
Committee also selected Micronesia's artificial islets of Nan Madol
and simultaneously placed it on the List of World Heritage in
Danger.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 18, China’s Southern
Weekly newspaper reported that a total of 313 HIV-positive people
have been contacted by callers claiming to be government officials
offering financial allowances in exchange for their banking
information. The bank details were used to steal money from their
accounts, while those who identified the offer as attempted fraud
were threatened with the online publication of their details.
(AFP, 7/19/16)
2016 Jul 19, Chinese state
newspapers began criticizing scattered protests against KFC
restaurants and other US targets in an apparent attempt to head off
large-scale street demonstrations sparked by an international
tribunal's ruling that denied Beijing's claim to virtually the
entire South China Sea.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 19, In Taiwan a tour
bus carrying 24 visitors from China burst into flames on a highway
near Taipei, killing all 26 people on board. On July 29
investigators said the driver, identified only by his surname Su,
was drunk when the accident happened.
(AP, 7/19/16)(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 20, In China 5 people
died when a seaplane they were traveling in crashed into a bridge in
Shanghai on its maiden flight to Zhoushan, an island in the eastern
province of Zhejiang.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 24, In China G20
finance officials promised to protect the world economy from the
shockwaves of Britain's EU referendum and to boost sluggish growth.
G20 envoys also rejected trade protectionism, an issue that has
risen in prominence as US Republication presidential candidate
Donald Trump stirred unease with talk about restricting access to
American markets.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, China's Ministry
of Commerce said that it has imposed anti-dumping duties on steel
imports from Japan, South Korea and the European Union. Imports of
grain-oriented electrical steel, used in the manufacture of large
generators and electricity transformers, will be charged duties
ranging from 37.3 percent to 46.3 percent. The duties will continue
to be levied for five years. The ministry said an investigation has
found that underpriced steel was hurting Chinese industry.
(AP, 7/24/16)
2016 Jul 24, In China the
Beijing municipal branch of the national Cyberspace Administration
ordered some of China‘s biggest internet companies to stop
publishing independent reports on politically sensitive topics.
(Econ, 7/30/16, p.34)
2016
Jul 24, Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN) failed to agree on maritime
disputes in the South China Sea after Cambodia blocked any mention
to an international court ruling against Beijing in their statement.
Within a week China gave Cambodia an aid package worth around $600
million.
(Reuters, 7/24/16)(Econ, 1/21/17, p.30)
2016 Jul 25, Ten members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) issued a watered-down
rebuke against China for territorially expanding in the South China
Sea. This amounted to less than a slap on the wrist, and exposed the
deep divisions in a regional body that prides itself on unity.
(AP, 7/25/16)
2016 Jul 25, A Chinese military
court sentenced Guo Boxiong (74), a former top general, to life in
prison for taking bribes.
(SFC, 7/26/16, p.A3)
2016 Jul 26, LeEco, a Chinese
technology company, agreed to buy US televisioon maker Vizio for at
least $2 billion.
(SFC, 7/27/16, p.C1)
2016 Jul 27, In China a court
in Shenzhen sentenced four people, including Hong Kong magazine
publisher Wang Jianmin and editor Guo Zhongxiao, to prison on
charges of running an illegal business after they reportedly sent
copies of their sensitive political magazines to mainland China.
(SFC, 7/28/16, p.A3)
2016 Jul 29, Chinese regulatory
authorities conditionally approved Belgian brewer Anheuser-Busch
InBev’s giant takeover of SABMiller, clearing one of the last major
hurdles for the $103 billion deal to go ahead. AB InBev has agreed
to a series of concessions to win the authorities' green lights,
including selling SABMiller's 49 percent stake in Snow Breweries,
China's biggest beermaker.
(AFP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, The European Union
said that it had set definitive anti-dumping duties on certain
Chinese steel bars at rates higher than initially proposed,
following a 2015 investigation prompted by complaints from European
steelmaking association Eurofer. The announcement drew an immediate
response from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, which said the EU
"unfairly" set new tariffs based on higher profit margin targets for
European producers.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul, Du Daozheng (93),
publisher of the Chinese liberal Yanhuang Chunqiu magazine, said the
government has suspended the 25-year-old journal. It had specialized
in historical critique and was taken over by hardliners. Its feisty
staff resigned.
(SFC, 7/21/16, p.A4)(Econ, 10/29/16, p.37)
2016 Aug 1, China released Wang
Yu, a prominent human rights lawyer arrested in July 2015, on bail
amid protests outside a northern city court, where supporters of
other jailed lawyers and activists condemned the secrecy surrounding
the government's yearlong campaign against legal activism. Her
release coincided with videos of an alleged confession by Wang
posted on the websites of two Hong Kong media outlets in which she
renounced her legal work.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 1, Uber Technology
Ltd. and its main Chinese competitor said they are combining their
ride-hailing operations in China, ending a costly battle to attract
riders. Didi Chuxing said it would acquire Uber China and operate it
as a separate brand. Uber in exchange will receive a 17.7% percent
stake in Didi.
(AP, 8/1/16)(Econ, 8/6/16, p.49)
2016 Aug 2, China's Supreme
Court said people caught illegally fishing in Chinese waters could
be jailed for up to a year, issuing a judicial interpretation
defining those waters as including China's exclusive economic zones.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 2, China sentenced
prominent activist Zhai Yanmin (55) to three years in jail with a
four year reprieve for subverting the state, in a case linked to a
crackdown on human rights lawyers.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 3, China's state media
reported that the Jade Rabbit lunar rover, which won a large
following on social media, has been retired after a record 31 months
of collecting data from the moon's surface. China’s rover arrived on
the moon on Dec. 14, 2013, aboard the Chang'e 3 lunar lander and was
designed to operate for just three months.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 3, China hosted a
meeting with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. The four
countries agreed to set up an anti-terrorism alliance, as China
seeks to boost coordination with neighbors to tackle what it says is
a growing domestic militant threat.
(Reuters, 8/4/16)
2016 Aug 4, China sentenced
Zhou Shifeng, a prominent civil rights lawyer, to seven years in
prison on charges of subversion.
(SFC, 8/5/16, p.A2)
2016 Aug 6, Japan issued a new
protest to Beijing after Chinese coastguard ships and about 230
fishing vessels sailed close to what Tokyo considers its territorial
waters around disputed islets in the East China Sea.
(Reuters, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 8, In eastern China
residents of in Lianyungang protested for a third day against
possible plans to build a nuclear fuel reprocessing center, as
police banned public gatherings in hopes of preventing more
demonstrations.
(AP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 11, In China an
explosion at a power plant killed at least 21 people and injured
five in Dangyang city, Hubei province.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, The top diplomats
from Japan and the Philippines called on China to avoid intimidating
actions and follow the rule of law in disputed waters where Beijing
has defied an arbitration ruling that invalidated its expansive
territorial claims.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, A Chinese fishing
boat sank after colliding with the Greek-flagged ship off the
Japan-controlled Senkaku islands, which China also claims. Japanese
coast guard ships rescued six crew members and searched for another
eight missing.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 12, The Chinese
Swimming Association said Chen Xinyi tested positive for the
diuretic hydrochlorothiazide after she finished fourth in the
women's 100-meter butterfly in the Rio Olympics on August 7, missing
a bronze medal by nine-hundredths of a second.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 16, China launched
Micius, the world’s first quantum communication satellite into space
from the Jiuquan launch base in the northwestern Gobi desert. It was
named after a Chinese philosopher of the 5th century. Experts said
this will push forward efforts to develop the ability to send
communications that can't be penetrated by hackers.
(AP, 8/16/16)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.67)
2016 Aug 16, China's Cabinet
announced that preparations to connect the Hong Kong and Shenzhen
stock exchanges are "basically completed." Charles Li, CEO of Hong
Kong Exchanges and Clearing, the city's stock market operator said
the link would likely launched by Christmas.
(AP, 8/17/16)
2016 Aug 23, The European
Commission reimposed anti-dumping duties on three Chinese exporters
of solar modules and cells citing breaches to terms of an agreement
they had reached with Brussels not to sell below a minimum price.
(Reuters, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, New Zealand police
said former pharmaceutical executive William Yan (47), who Chinese
authorities accuse of embezzling money and fleeing to New Zealand,
has settled his case for $31 million in a deal that represents an
unusual level of cooperation between the two countries. Police said
the money would be split between the New Zealand and Chinese
governments, with the amount each would get still to be determined.
(AP, 8/23/16)
2016 Aug 23, The police chief
of the Philippines told a Senate hearing that China, Taiwan and Hong
Kong were major sources of illegal drugs, and Chinese triads were
involved in trafficking. Ambassador Zhao Jianhua said that police in
China and in the Philippines have exchanged visits recently for
joint training and intelligence sharing in growing cooperation
between the Asian countries in the fight against illegal drugs.
(Reuters, 8/24/16)(AP, 8/24/16)
2016 Aug 26, China’s corruption
watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, charged
Wang Baoan, head of the National Bureau of Statistics (2015-2016),
with a variety of sins including moral decay and superstitious
activities.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.61)
2016 Aug 26, Hong Kong’s South
China Morning Post reported that Wang Jianping (62), deputy chief of
the joint staff department under the powerful Central Military
Commission, has been taken into custody in Chengdu in southwestern
Sichuan province for violating party discipline. Wang's wife and
secretary were also detained.
(Reuters, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 28, In southern China
10 people were killed and dozens injured when a bus overturned on a
highway in Nanning, Guangxi Autonomous Region.
(AP, 8/28/16)
2016 Aug 29, Zhang Chunxian,
China’s Communist Party chief of Xinjiang, was moved to a new, yet
undisclosed job. He was succeeded by Chen Quanguo.
(Econ, 9/3/16, p.39)
2016 Aug 30, Cambodian police
arrested 64 people from mainland China and Taiwan, accusing them of
taking part in an internet scam. They were accused of defrauding
victims in China using phone calls made over the internet.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, In Kyrgyzstan a
van driven by a suicide bomber exploded after ramming through a gate
at the Chinese embassy in Bishkek, injuring three people. Only the
suicide bomber died.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug, In China Zhang Liwei
was detained by police on suspicion of stabbing three people to
death with accomplices in 2000. Zhang had fled nearly 2,000 km south
to Anhui, changing his name and finding work as a temple cook and
ticket-seller. Later he moved to the Longxing temple in Fengyang
county, shaving his own head and proclaiming himself a monk.
(AFP, 8/31/16)
2016 Sep 2, A Philippines
foreign ministry official said Southeast Asian countries and China
will establish hotlines and adopt communications protocols to avoid
potential naval clashes in the disputed waters of the South China
Sea.
(Reuters, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 4, Chinese President
Xi Jinping urged G20 world leaders to avoid "empty talk" and
confront sluggish economic growth and rising protectionism as their
summit opened Sunday in the scenic city of Hangzhou.
(AFP, 9/4/16)
2016 Sep 4, Voters turned out
in force for Hong Kong's most crucial election since the handover
from Britain in 1997. Pro-democracy candidates won 30 of 70 seats in
the Legislative Council, gaining a foothold in the southern Chinese
city's legislature and setting the stage for a new round of
political confrontations with Beijing. Pro-democracy and
environmentalist candidate Eddie Chu won more votes than any other
candidate. Chu soon faced death threats stemming from his campaign
promises.
(AP, 9/4/16)(AP, 9/5/16)(SFC, 9/21/16, p.A5)
2016 Sep 5, China's government
said it opposed efforts by certain candidates and organizations in
Hong Kong elections to promote independence.
(Reuters, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, China agreed to
cooperate more closely with its trading partners on its politically
volatile steel exports as G20 leaders ended a summit with a forceful
endorsement of free trade and a crowded agenda that included the
Koreas, Syria and refugees.
(AP, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 5, At the G20 meeting
in China Russia and Saudi Arabia announced that they would start
working together to stabilize the market, including limiting output.
(Reuters, 9/5/16)
2016 Sep 7, Hong Kong
politician Ken Chow of the pro-business Liberal Party said he was
pressured to bow out of a city election to clear the field for a
candidate favored by the Chinese government, which, if confirmed,
could offer rare evidence of interference by Beijing in city
politics.
(Reuters, 9/8/16)
2016 Sep 7, In Laos the ASEAN
summit issued a mild rebuke of China over its expansionist
activities in the disputed South China Sea, and indirectly urged it
to show restraint and not raise tensions.
(AP, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 8, China's Ministry of
Finance punished at least five car makers, accusing them of cheating
its program to subsidize electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles,
receiving roughly 1 billion yuan ($150 million) in illegal
subsidies. By the next day it was reported that more than 20
additional car makers, including Nissan and Hyundai, were listed for
breaking rules on green car subsidies, widening a scandal over a
$4.5 billion annual payout program.
(Reuters, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 8, President Barack
Obama put the long-simmering dispute in the South China Sea front
and center on the agenda at the regional ASEAN summit, as it became
clear that most of the other leaders gathered in the Laotian capital
were going to let China off with a mild rebuke over its territorial
expansion in the resource-rich waters. Obama pledged more money to
Laos to remove unexploded American bombs.
(AP, 9/8/16)(Econ, 1/21/17, p.69)
2016 Sep 10, In China a new
scholarship program, founded in 2013 by Wall Street tycoon Stephen
Schwarzman and intended to rival the prestigious Rhodes Scholarships
and build understanding between China and the world, opened its
doors at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University.
(AP, 9/10/16)
2016 Sep 12, The Chinese and
Russian navies launched eight days of war games in the South China
Sea, in a sign of growing cooperation between their armed forces
against the backdrop of regional territorial disputes.
(AP, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, A gay Chinese
student activist lodged a suit against the Ministry of Education
over school textbooks describing homosexuality as a mental disorder,
the latest step by China's small but growing gay rights movement.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, China's main
border post with reclusive North Korea was packed with trucks
carrying everything from bricks to exhaust pipes, as it re-opened
for business for the first time since Pyongyang angered the world
with its fifth nuclear test.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 12, About 10,000
Taiwan tourism operators and workers marched to a square in front of
the presidential hall to demand that the government take steps to
help their businesses, hard hit by worsening ties with mainland
China.
(Reuters, 9/12/16)
2016 Sep 13, China's national
legislature expelled 45 deputies representing the northeastern
province of Liaoning over allegations of electoral fraud.
(AP, 9/13/16)
2013 Sep 13, Chinese police
fired rubber bullets at villagers in Wukan, Guangdong province, and
arrested about 70 people in an overnight crackdown to suppress
demonstrations in the fishing village that became internationally
known five years ago for protesting land seizures.
(AP, 9/13/16)(AP, 9/14/16)
2013 Sep 14, In China reporters
from two Hong Kong newspapers, the South China Morning Post and the
Chinese-language Ming Pao, were assaulted while conducting
interviews with Wukan villagers and later detained for several
hours. Wukan remained under siege two days after police arrested 13
protesters on allegations that they incited violence and arrest.
(AP, 9/15/16)
2016 Sep 14, Parts of Taiwan
came to a standstill as super typhoon Meranti brought the strongest
winds in 21 years. China issued a red alert for waves as the storm
bore down on the mainland.
(AFP, 9/14/16)
2016 Sep 15, China launched the
Tiangong 2, its second space station, atop a Long March 7 rocket
from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
(SFC, 9/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Sep 15, In northern China
4 people, including two children, died in a plane crash during an
air show in Hebei province.
(AP, 9/16/16)
2016 Sep 15, In China Typhoon
Meranti swept into Fujian province after hitting Taiwan, leaving a
total of two dead and dozens injured. Meranti killed at least 28
people in China, one in Taiwan and cut power to more than a million
homes.
(AP, 9/15/16)(AP, 9/17/16)(SSFC, 9/19/16, p.A5)
2016 Sep 16, In northwestern
China the government of Gansu province said that three officials
face possible dismissal and three others have been reprimanded over
the case of Yang Gailan, a villager (28) who axed her four young
children to death and killed herself because she couldn't feed them.
Yang's husband killed himself a week later.
(AP, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 17, China’s government
raised their alert to "orange" for Typhoon Malakas, just as
southeastern provinces continue to clean up after an earlier,
stronger storm.
(Reuters, 9/17/16)
2016 Sep 19, The Australian
government said it has reached a 39.3 million Australian dollar
($29.6 million) settlement with the owners of Chinese coal carrier
Shen Neng1 to pay for environmental damage to the Great Barrier Reef
caused when the ship went off course in April 2010 and grounded on
Douglas Shoal.
(AP, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 19, Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang said China plans to provide an additional $100 million in
assistance to help deal with the global refugee and migrant crisis
and is also considering setting aside a $1 billion fund for the
purpose.
(Reuters, 9/19/16)
2016 Sep 20, China reported
that state-run Baosteel and Wuhan Iron and Steel are to be joined.
Wuhan was reported to be in financial distress.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.64)
2016 Sep 20, A Cambodian court
sentenced two Chinese citizens to life in prison after finding them
guilty of producing and trafficking heroin and methamphetamine in
one of the country's biggest drug cases. Deng Yuan Ping (53) and Ly
Yong (42) were found guilty of smuggling 55 kg (120 pounds) of the
illicit drugs worth an estimated $3 million from Laos in June last
year. Two Cambodian men involved in the case also received life
sentences, one in absentia.
(AP, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 22, In China Xia Lin,
a lawyer who defended activists and others involved in politically
sensitive cases, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on fraud
charges, in what is believed to be the harshest penalty handed down
in years against those few willing to take on the ruling Communist
Party.
(AP, 9/22/16)
2016 Sep 23, Six Chinese
agencies announced a coordinated effort to tackle internet and
telecoms fraud, the government's latest bid to get to grips with an
explosion of such crimes it says have led to huge financial losses.
(Reuters, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 24, In Spain Asian
cinema dominated awards at the San Sebastian film festival, with
veteran Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's "I am not Madame Bovary"
taking the top Golden Shell prize while Fan Bingbing won the best
actress gong for her role in the same film.
(AFP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 25, In China the
500-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world’s
largest radio telescope, began working in the mountainous region of
Guizhou.
(AFP, 9/25/16)
2016 Sep 27, China’s state
media said members of what the government calls a cult for causing
deaths, organizing the group and illegally collecting money, have
been jailed, part of a crackdown on what Beijing views as dangerous
religious movements. Yao Xiangzhi, a member of Mentuhui, or
"Disciples Sect" in the central province of Hubei, caused the death
of another cult member by denying him freedom, food and drink for a
week while people prayed for his recovery from schizophrenia.
(Reuters, 9/27/16)
2016 Sep 28, In China Yang
Qingpei argued with his parents over money and killed them. Fearing
he would be identified as the killer, he then murdered 17 neighbors
in the village of Yema. He was arrested the next day in the
provincial capital of Kunming, about 200 km (120 miles) away, a few
hours after the bodies from different households were discovered.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Sep 28, Typhoon Megi made
landfall in China’s southern province of Fujian with winds of close
to 120 km per hour (75 mph). A landslide following heavy typhoon
rains slammed into a village in Zhejiang province, swallowing up
dozens of houses in the villages of Sucun and Baofeng in Suichang
county. At least eight people died and around 19 were still missing.
(Reuters, 9/28/16)(AFP, 10/1/16)
2016 Sep 29, In China Dutch
artist Daan Roosegaarde opened what he calls the world's largest air
purifier in Beijing, beginning the first leg of a China tour to
raise awareness of environmental problems. The seven-meter-high
(7.66-yard-high) Smog Free Tower, part of the Smog Free Project
started by the artist, creates a bubble of clean air enabling
citizens to experience clean air for free.
(Reuters, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep, Wang Jianlin, a
property developer and China’s richest man, called soaring property
prices in many big Chinese cities: “the biggest bubble in history."
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.13)
2016 Oct 1, China’s revisions
to foreign investment laws came into effect.
(Econ, 10/1/16, p.62)
2016 Oct 1, China shut down a
website called Consensus Net, a publisher of articles on economic,
social and political reform since its founding in 2009.
(http://tinyurl.com/y9o9vr4n)(Econ, 2/18/17,
p.37)
2016 Oct 1, The IMF's basket of
reserve currencies included China’s renminbi, also known as the
yuan. The other currencies in the basket are the US dollar, the
Japanese yen, the British pound and Europe's common currency, the
euro. The last change to the basket was the addition of the euro in
1999.
(AP, 9/30/16)
2016 Oct 5, In Iowa Mo Hailong
(aka Robert Mo), a businessman from China, was sentenced to three
years in prison. He had pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets
from US seed corn companies DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto. In December
a federal judge ordered Hailong to pay $425,000 to DuPont and
Monsanto.
(AP, 10/6/16)(SFC, 12/23/16, p.A5)
2016 Oct 7, The Associate Press
said it has identified 12 Chinese businesses that said they would
export a synthetic opioid known as carfentanil to the United States,
Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium and Australia
for as little as $2,750 a kilogram (2.2 pounds), no questions asked.
Carfentanil burst into view this summer, the latest scourge in an
epidemic of opioid abuse that has killed tens of thousands of people
in the United States alone.
(AP, 10/7/16)
2016 Oct 9, In China former
provincial Communist Party boss Bai Enpei was sentenced to death
with a two-year reprieve as part of the country's ongoing crackdown
on corruption. Bai had been a senior lawmaker with the national
legislature and formerly served as the top-ranking official in the
western provinces of Qinghai and Yunnan.
(AP, 10/9/16)
2016 Oct 10, Chinese
authorities unveiled plans to let companies give equity in
themselves to banks to pay down soaring debt levels that economists
warn might hamper the country's already slowing growth.
(AP, 10/10/16)
2016 Oct 10, In eastern China
22 people were killed in the collapse of a group of decrepit homes
on the outskirts of the city of Wenzhou.
(AP, 10/10/16)(AP, 10/11/16)
2016 Oct 11, In China police in
Beijing blocked off streets near a major military building, as
hundreds of people wearing green camouflage uniforms chanted and
waved national flags to protest against the loss of their posts.
(Reuters, 10/11/16)
2016 Oct 11, In Switzerland the
annual Martin Ennals Award was bestowed to imprisoned Chinese Muslim
minority economics professor Ilham Tohti (46), shining new attention
on a case that has brought strong international condemnation. Tohti
was jailed for life two years ago for campaigning for the rights of
the Muslim Uighur people. The award, founded in 1994, is bestowed by
10 rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch.
(AP, 10/11/16)(Reuters, 10/11/16)
2016 Oct 13, Chinese President
Xi Jinping arrived in Cambodia for a two-day visit, praising the
close ties that have seen Cambodia side with Beijing on the South
China Sea, and signed dozens of economic agreements.
(Reuters, 10/13/16)
2016 Oct 14, Chinese President
Xi Jinping began a visit to Bangladesh during which the two
countries signed loan agreements for $20 billion for Chinese
investment in infrastructure and energy and coordinating efforts in
tackling terrorism and climate change.
(AP, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 14, In southwestern
China a gas explosion inside a coal mine killed seven people and
injured two more.
(AP, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 17, Two Chinese
astronauts began the country's longest crewed space mission yet,
blasting off on a spacecraft for a 30-day stay on the Tiangong 2
experimental space station as China steadfastly navigates its way to
becoming a space superpower.
(AP, 10/17/16)(SFC, 10/20/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 18, Typhoon Sarika
lashed China's southern resort island of Hainan, with torrential
rain and winds of up to 162 kilometers per hour (100 mph) forcing
authorities to evacuate almost half a million people and halt
transport services.
(Reuters, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 18, Philippine
President Rodrigo Duterte arrived in China to improve ties and
restore trust between the sides following recent tensions over their
South China Sea territorial dispute.
(AP, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 20, China scored a
major diplomatic victory, wielding its economic might and political
clout to coax the Philippines into resuming a bilateral dialogue on
their South China Sea territorial dispute following months of
acrimony. That was followed with an announcement by Philippine Trade
Secretary Ramon Lopez at a bilateral economic forum that his country
and China will sign $13.5 billion of deals this week. The
Philippines Presidential Communications Office said Xi committed
more than $9 billion in low-interest loans to the country.
(AP, 10/20/16)
2016 Oct 21, Police in China's
central city of Wuhan detained a person, surnamed Rong, for
spreading rumors in what a state-run newspaper said was a video
purportedly showing a demonstration involving workers at Wuhan Iron
and Steel (Wugang).
(Reuters, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 21, Typhoon Haima
barreled into southern China after hammering the northern
Philippines with ferocious wind and rain, triggering flooding,
landslides and power outages and killing at least 13 people.
(AP, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 24, In northwestern
China a powerful blast at a prefabricated house killed at least
seven people and injured 94 in the town of Xinmin, Shaanxi province.
(Reuters, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 24, It was announced
that HNA Group is snapping up a 25 percent ownership stake of the
Hilton hotel chain for about $6.5 billion, the latest attempt by a
Chinese interest to acquire real estate in the US.
(AP, 10/24/16)
2016 Oct 25, A US Coast Guard
search plane located the 97-foot sailboat of Chinese sailor Guo
Chuan (51) 600 miles northwest of Oahu. He had departed San
Francisco on October 18 in an effort to break a world record and
reach Shanghai in 18 days. Rescuers boarded the boat a day later and
found Chuan missing.
(SFC, 10/28/16, p.D2)
2016 Oct 26, In Hong Kong newly
elected pro-democracy lawmakers Yau Wai-ching (25) and Sixtus Leung
(30) defied an order barring them from taking their oaths after
being disqualified earlier for insulting China, sparking more unruly
scenes in Hong Kong's legislature. The session was adjourned until
next week.
(AP, 10/26/16)
2016 Oct 27, ZTO Express, a
China-based delivery company, raised $1.4 billion in an IPO on the
New York Stock Exchange, the largest offering this year. The stock
closed down 15% at $16.75.
(SSFC, 10/30/16, p.D2)
2016 Oct 27, China's Communist
Party elevated President Xi Jinping to the position of "core"
leader, underscoring his clout and strengthening his dominance ahead
of a reshuffle in the top ranks next year.
(AP, 10/27/16)
2016 Oct 29, A senior US
official said China's imports of North Korean coal run counter to
global sanctions, adding that a US missile system deployed in South
Korea should "motivate" Beijing to pressure Pyongyang over its
nuclear program.
(Reuters, 10/29/16)
2016 Oct 31, China said
it will invest 946.3 billion yuan ($140 billion) by 2020 to relocate
its poorest citizens from remote, inland regions to more developed
areas.
(Reuters, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, China's Foreign
Ministry confirmed a decision to allow Philippine fishermen access
to a disputed shoal following a visit to Beijing by the Philippine
president.
(AP, 10/31/16)
2016 Oct 31, In western China a
gas explosion ripped through the privately owned Jinshangou coal
mine killing 33 miners in the Chongqing region. Two miners were
rescued.
(AP, 10/31/16)(SFC, 11/2/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct, In China the head of
Crown's VIP International team, Jason O'Connor, was among three
Australian and 15 Chinese employees detained for suspected gambling
crimes. Jenny Chiang (33), a Shanghai-based Chinese citizen, was
released on Nov 11.
(AP, 11/12/16)
2016 Nov 1, Yum China Holdings
Inc., the owner of KFC and Taco Bell, completed the spinoff of its
China division. It began trading as YUMC on the New York Stock
Exchange as a separate company.
(AP, 11/1/16)
2016 Nov 1, Chinese President
Xi Jinping met with Taiwan's opposition leader, underscoring
Beijing's message to the island's independence-leaning
administration that it won't have access to the mainland's highest
levels of power if it doesn't accept that Taiwan is part of China.
(AP, 11/1/16)
2016 Nov 1, China and Malaysia
said their navies will cooperate more in the politically sensitive
South China Sea in an agreement signed today during a visit by
Malaysia's PM Najib Razak, who is seeking stronger ties with Beijing
as he tries to offset a financial scandal at home.
(AP, 11/1/16)
2016 Nov 1, China's J-20
stealth fighter made its public debut at an air show in Zhuhai, in
the latest sign of the growing sophistication of the country's
military technology.
(AP, 11/1/16)
2016 Nov 3, China successfully
launched its new Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang launch
center. It will be used to launch components for the Tiangong 2
space station, due to come into full service in 2022.
(SFC, 11/5/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 4, China's Dalian
Wanda Group said it has added another entertainment trophy to its
stable of overseas acquisitions, paying $1 billion for Dick Clark
Productions, the TV company that produces the Golden Globes and the
"Miss America" pageant.
(AP, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 5, Leading members of
China's parliament said two Hong Kong lawmakers-elect who called for
the city's independence from China had damaged the territory's rule
of law and posed a grave threat to China's sovereignty and security.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 6, Hong Kong police
fired pepper spray and protesters threw bottles and road cones in
clashes near China's representative office where activists had
gathered to demonstrate against Beijing's attempts to stop a
fledgling independence movement.
(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 7, China's top
legislature took the rare step of intervening directly in a local
Hong Kong political dispute by effectively barring two legally
elected separatist lawmakers from taking office, setting the stage
for further turmoil in the semiautonomous city.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 No 7, China adopted a new
cyber-security law affecting both domestic and foreign firms
operating on the Chinese mainland effective June 2018.
(Econ, 11/12/16, p.42)
2016 Nov 11, Alibaba, a Chinese
e-commerce giant, posted nearly $18 billion in sales for the day,
breaking last year’s record for Singles’ Day shopping.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.65)
2016 Nov 15, China executed Jia
Jinglong (30), a protester against forced expropriation in Hebei
province. In 2013 his home was destroyed under official
expropriation 18 days before his wedding. In Feb, 2015, he shot a
local party chief in the back of the head at a New Year party.
(Econ, 11/26/16, p.86)
2016 Nov 17, It was reported
that JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay $264.4 million in
fines to federal authorities to settle charges that it hired friends
and relatives of Chinese officials in order to gain access to
banking deals in that country.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 18, Two Chinese
astronauts returned from a monthlong stay aboard the country's space
station, China's sixth and longest crewed mission and a sign of the
growing ambitions of its rapidly advancing space program.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 21, In China about
half a dozen listed Chinese companies, mainly in the pharmaceutical
sector, said they have temporarily halted production in the northern
city of Shijiazhuang as part of a Chinese government anti-pollution
drive.
(Reuters, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, Chinese President
Xi Jinping began a state visit to Peru by laying a floral wreath at
a monument to the South American nation's independence heroes. Peru
is home to China's biggest mining investment in Latin America.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 21, In China
well-known legal activist Jiang Tianyong (45) went missing after he
traveled to the city of Changsha, Hunan province, to visit relatives
of an arrested human rights lawyer, Xie Yang. Tianyong has spoken
out about a government crackdown on legal defenders and has been
involved in high-profile cases of dissidents who have irked Chinese
authorities, including the case of blind activist Chen Guangcheng.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Nov 24, In eastern China a
platform under construction at a power plant collapsed early today,
killing 74 people in Fengcheng, Jiangxi province. 13 people were
soon detained over the collapse of the scaffolding.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)(AP, 11/25/16)
2016 Nov 26, China’s official
Xinhua news agency reported that police in Jincheng city, Shanxi
province, have arrested 94 members of a $72 billion cross-border
gambling ring whose activities stretched into Southeast Asia.
(Reuters, 11/26/16)
2016 Nov 26, In Taiwan veteran
Chinese director Feng Xiaogang picked up the best director award for
his social satire "I Am Not Madame Bovary" at the 53rd Golden Horse
Awards, considered the equivalent of the Oscars for
Mandarin-language cinema.
(AP, 11/27/16)
2016 Nov, New York’s Dept. of
Financial Services (DFS) imposed a $215 million fine on the
Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) for suspect financial transactions
and sanction violations.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.63)
2016 Dec 1, The French-German
human rights award in Berlin was presented to Wang Qiaoling, whose
husband Li Heping, a prominent lawyer, was detained by Chinese
authorities in 2015.
(Reuters, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, China appealed to
Washington and Berlin to avoid injecting politics into the proposed
670 million euro ($740 million) acquisition of German semiconductor
maker Aixtron SE by Fujian Grand Chip, following a report President
Obama plans to oppose it as a security risk.
(AP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 3, China's Taiwan
Affairs Office said US President-elect Donald Trump's call with
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen was a "petty" move by Taiwan that does
not change its status as part of China.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 3, In northern China a
coal mine explosion killed 32 people in Chifeng city in the Inner
Mongolia region. News of the blast came just hours after 21 miners,
who were trapped for four days after an explosion hit their
unlicensed coal mine in Heilongjiang province, were confirmed dead.
Four people were arrested in connection with that disaster.
(AP, 12/3/16)(SSFC, 12/4/16, p.A4)
2016 Dec 8, China’s state media
said China will fine anyone who spreads fake news in its western
region of Xinjiang, as part of new measures to maintain stability in
an area prone to ethnic unrest.
(Reuters, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, China's Fujian
Grand Chip Investment Fund dropped its takeover bid for chip
equipment maker Aixtron after the United States blocked the deal on
security grounds, throwing the German company's future into doubt.
(Reuters, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, A Tibetan Buddhist
monk set himself on fire in northwest China's Maqu region in what
appeared to be the latest such radical protest against Beijing's
rule. Tashi Rabten became the 145th Tibetan to self-immolate since
2009.
(AP, 12/9/16)(AFP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 10, In China six
workers were killed after being hit by an express cargo train on the
railway line connecting Beijing and the southern city of Guangzhou.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 10, Two Chinese
filmmakers won the top awards at the Marrakesh film festival, with
Zang Qiwu's "The Donor" on the controversial issue of organ
transplants taking the coveted Golden Star. The best director award
went to China's Wang Xuebo for "Knife in the Clear Water".
(AFP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, Philippine
President Rodrigo Duterte said that he has decided to accept an arms
deal being offered by China under concessional terms, in the latest
sign of cozying relations between the once-hostile neighbors.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 11, US President-elect
Donald Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to
stick to its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of "one
China," questioning nearly four decades of policy in a move likely
to antagonize Beijing.
(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, China expressed
"serious concern" after US President-elect Donald Trump said the
United States did not necessarily have to stick to its long-held
stance that Taiwan is part of "one China", calling it the basis for
relations.
(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 14, A court in eastern
China sentenced Yang Weize, the former Communist Party chief of the
major city of Nanjing, to 12-1/2 years in jail, after finding him
guilty of corruption.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, China said it will
seek the extradition of more than 200 of its citizens arrested in
Spain in a crackdown on gangs that ran call centers that swindled 16
million euros ($17 million) from compatriots at home.
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, A Chinese official
warned the government could slap a penalty on an unnamed US
automaker for monopolistic behavior sending shares downward of US
automakers General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 14, A US think tank,
citing new satellite imagery, reported that China appears to have
installed weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems,
on all seven of the artificial islands it has built in the South
China Sea.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 15, A Chinese naval
vessel seized an American underwater drone about 50 nautical miles
northwest of Subic Bay off the Philippines just as the USNS Bowditch
was about to retrieve the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV). The
United States said the drone was operating lawfully. On Dec 17
China's Defense Ministry said it had been in talks with the United
States about returning the drone.
(Reuters, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 15, The Obama
administration launched its 15th challenge against Beijing at the
Word Trade Organization, escalating a long-simmering debate over
practices that US officials say limit American farmers' ability to
export rice, wheat and corn to the Asian powerhouse.
(AP, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 16, China enacted a
five-day smog red alert for Beijing and other northern cities
banning half of all vehicles from city streets and ordering
factories, schools and construction sites closed.
(SSFC, 12/18/16, p.A4)
2016 Dec 16, Chinese officials
said US assertions that China is the top source of the synthetic
opioids that have killed thousands of drug users in the US and
Canada are unsubstantiated.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 17, Beijing's city
government ordered 1,200 factories near the Chinese capital,
including a major oil refinery run by state oil giant Sinopec, to
shut or cut output after authorities issued the highest possible air
pollution alert.
(Reuters, 12/17/16)
2016 Dec 18, Chinese
authorities in Tianjin grounded dozens of flights and closed most
highways after severe smog blanketed the city, one of more than more
than 40 in China's northeast to issue pollution warnings in the past
48 hours.
(Reuters, 12/18/16)
2016 Dec 19, China and Norway
announced the resumption of diplomatic relations during a surprise
visit to Beijing by Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende. This
came six years after Beijing froze ties with Oslo over the awarding
of the Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident.
(AFP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 20, China handed back
to the United States an underwater drone it had seized last week in
an incident that raised tensions in a relationship that has been
tested by President-elect Donald Trump's signals of a tougher policy
toward Beijing.
(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, Sao Tome and
Principe severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan. On Dec 22 PM
Patrice Trovoada said this was the correct decision given China's
importance as a strategic partner and the need to improve the lives
of Sao Tomeans.
(AP, 12/22/16)(SSFC, 12/25/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 21, China's Ministry
of Public Security unveiled a list of areas where foreign
non-governmental organizations (NGO) are allowed to operate, from
legal advice to equality of the sexes, ahead of the enforcement of a
new law.
(Reuters, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, In China four
people were killed when a minibus drove into a market in a northern
part of Beijing and many others have sustained injuries.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 21, China's smoggiest
city Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, closed schools as
much of the country suffered its sixth day under an oppressive haze,
sparking public anger about the slow response to the threat to
children's health.
(AFP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 22, Sao Tome and
Principe PM Patrice Trovoada said that breaking relations with
Taiwan earlier this week was the correct decision given China's
importance as a strategic partner and the need to improve the lives
of Sao Tomeans.
(AP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 23, Chinese
authorities confirmed that prominent legal activist Jiang Tianyong
has been detained on suspicion of inciting subversion of state
power.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 23, China fined
General Motors Co.'s main joint venture in China $29 million on
charges it suppressed competition by enforcing minimum sales prices
for dealers, the latest in a string of penalties against foreign
auto brands under the country's anti-monopoly law.
(AP, 12/23/16)
2016 Dec 24, In China a
firework explosion in Yanzihe village, Hebei province, killed or
left missing eight people and injured 16.
(AP, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, China's largely
rubber-stamp parliament passed a law that will levy specific
environmental protection taxes on industry for the first time from
2018, as part of a renewed focus on fighting the country's pollution
woes. A law that levies taxes on pollution ignored carbon dioxide,
one of the major contributors to global warming.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)(AFP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 25, China’s state
media reported that three doctors in Shanghai and one in Hunan
province have been suspended pending investigations over allegations
they took kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, The Chinese city
of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, said it will suspend trade of live
poultry as of midnight in the interests of public health after
neighboring provinces reported cases of human bird flu infections.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 25, China’s Beijing
police said they had investigated hundreds of cases of suspected
prostitution, in a rare public announcement on a crackdown against
illegal vice.
(Reuters, 12/25/16)
2016 Dec 26, A court in central
China jailed Xiao Tian, a former deputy sports minister who once sat
on China's Olympics committee for 10 and a half years, after finding
him guilty of bribery.
(Reuters, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, China and Sao Tome
and Principe officially resumed diplomatic relations in a triumph
for Beijing over rival Taiwan after the African island nation
abruptly broke away from the self-ruled island last week.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Chinese
authorities handed down prison sentences to nine protesters in
Wukan, a fishing village that's received international attention for
its demonstrations against land seizures.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, Representatives of
Russia, China and Pakistan met in Moscow and warned that the
influence of Islamic State (IS) was growing in Afghanistan and that
the security situation there was deteriorating.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 28, In China companies
running 605 coal-fired power plants were fined a total of 328
million yuan ($47 million) by the country's economic planning agency
for breaching environmental rules and falsifying data to claim green
subsidies.
(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2016 Dec 28, In China attackers
drove a car into a government building in the far western region of
Xinjiang and set off an explosive device killing one person. All
four of the attackers were shot dead.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 30, China’s government
said it will ease restrictions on foreign investment in sectors
ranging from banking and internet services to rail equipment and
motorcycles, in response to mounting complaints from foreign
business groups and governments.
(AP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, Central China
Television (CCTV) unveiled several new mobile apps under the China
Global Television Network (CGTN) brand, and visitors to CCTV's
non-Chinese language websites were directed to a new
http://www.cgtn.com site. The broadcaster says it made the move to
"integrate resources and to adapt to the trend of media
convergence," with foreign language channels, video content and
digital media falling under the new group.
(AP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 30, China’s government
said it will ban all ivory trade and processing by the end of 2017,
in a move hailed by conservationists as a "game changer" for African
elephants.
(AFP, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 30, A Chinese court
said Disney has won a copyright dispute over a Chinese knock-off of
its animated movie 'Cars', a rare victory for a foreign firm in a
country famous for counterfeits.
(AFP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 30, In China the
Beipanjiang Bridge, the world's highest, opened to traffic,
connecting two provinces in the mountainous southwest. The bridge
cut travel times between Xuanwei in Yunnan to Shuicheng in Guizhou
from more than four hours to around one.
(AFP, 12/30/16)
2016 Dec 31, Chinese media
reported that Gao Baoyu, the chairman of China's Ying Kou Port
Group, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for accepting around 26.8
million yuan (3.13 million pounds) in bribes. China’s corruption
watchdog said it has recovered 2.3 billion yuan ($331.27 million) in
losses from graft in the first 11 months of this year from across
more than 70 different regions and countries.
(Reuters, 12/31/16)
2016 Dec 31, China’s official
Xinhua news agency reported that 16 people, including two surgeons,
have been jailed for between two and five years for trafficking in
human organs, a practice still widespread in the country.
(AFP, 12/31/16)
2016 Philip Ball authored “The
Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China."
(Econ, 9/10/16, p.69)
2016 Duncan Clark authored
“Alibaba: the House That Jack Built."
(Econ, 4/9/16, p.82)
2016 British China-watcher
Kerry Brown authored “CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping."
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.66)
2016 Berenice Guyot-Richard,
historian at London’s King’s College, authored “Shadow States:
India, China and the Eastern Himalayas: 1910-1962."
(http://tinyurl.com/ybwfkqkb)(Econ 7/29/17, p.34)
2016 Wang Jianlin (b.1954), the
head of Chinese multinational Dalian Wanda, authored “The Wanda Way:
The managerial philosophy and values of one of China's largest
companies."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Jianlin)
2016 Arthur Kroeber, adjunct
professor at the Columbia University School of International and
Public Affairs, authored “China’s Economy: What Everybody Needs to
Know."
(Econ, 4/22/17, SR p.9)
2016 John Pomfret authored “The
Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China."
(Econ, 12/3/16, p.72)
2016 David Shambaugh, American
political scientist, authored “China’s Future."
(Econ, 3/26/16, p.95)
2016 The Han ethnic group of
mainland China numbered about 1.2 billion with other minorities at
about 110 million.
(Econ, 11/19/16, p.18)
2016 A recent study said air
pollution in China contributes to the deaths of 1.6 million people
each year.
(Econ, 11/26/16, p.11)
2017 Jan 1, In northern China
heavy smog caused hundreds of flights to be canceled and highways to
shut, disrupting the first day of the New Year holiday.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, China’s state news
agency Xinhua reported that a court in the eastern province of Anhui
has handed out sentences of up to 20 years in jail for 67 people
involved in a mafia-style gang that engaged in gambling, extortion
and violence.
(Reuters, 1/1/17)
2017 Jan 1, In China new
regulations went into effect regarding the country’s salt industry,
easing a monopoly that has existed in some form for more than 2,000
years.
(AP, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 2, Beijing and other
cities across northern and central China were shrouded in thick
smog, prompting authorities to delay dozens of flights and close
highways.
(AP, 1/2/17)
2017 Jan 3, Taiwan strongly
objected to the deportation from Vietnam to China of four Taiwanese
nationals suspected of telecommunications fraud, saying the move was
carried out under pressure from Beijing.
(Reuters, 1/3/17)
2017 Jan 4, In China Chen
Zhongshu, the land and resources chief of Panzhihua city in Sichuan
province, allegedly shot and injured two leaders of the city as the
pair held a meeting in a conference center, and later killed
himself.
(AP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, In southern China a
man armed with a kitchen knife stabbed 11 children at a kindergarten
in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, seriously wounding three, the
latest such attack in recent years. Police said Qin Peng’an had felt
bullied in his village and stabbed the children out of anger and
revenge.
(AFP, 1/4/17)(SFC, 1/5/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 4, The Israeli
government said China has agreed for thousands of migrant
construction laborers to work in Israel in a bid to alleviate a
housing crisis.
(AFP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 5, Zimbabwe's wildlife
agency said it has sold 35 elephants to China to ease overpopulation
and raise funds for conservation, amid criticism from animal welfare
activists that such sales are unethical.
(AP, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 7, Beijing announced
that China's foreign exchange reserves fell by $320 billion last
year, as authorities sought to support the yuan against a soaring
dollar which is encouraging capital outflows.
(AFP, 1/7/17)
2017 Jan 10, China's top
economic planner pledged to continue cutting steel and coal
production, which have been a source of trade friction with many
countries.
(AP, 1/10/17)
2017 Jan 14, In China Beijing's
Mayor Cai Qi said the air quality target for 2017 is to keep PM2.5
at an annual average of around 60 micrograms per cubic meter, more
than double the acceptable standard set by the World Health
Organization (WHO).
(Reuters, 1/14/17)
2017 Jan 14, In China linguist
Zhou Youguang (b.1906) died. He is considered the father of modern
China's Pinyin Romanization system.
(AP, 1/14/17)(Econ, 1/21/17, p.72)
2017 Jan 17, In in Davos,
Switzerland, the annual World Economic Forum opened. Chinese
President Xi Jinping gave the opening address urging the world to
"say no to protectionism" and warning that "no one will emerge as a
winner in a trade war.
(AP, 1/17/17)
2017 Jan 18, The first direct
freight train service from China to Britain arrived in London,
another leg in Beijing's plans for closer trade ties with Europe
along a modern-day Silk Road.
(AP, 1/18/17)
2017 Jan 18, China’s National
Energy Administration announced cancelation 103 coal-fired power
plants.
(SFC, 1/19/17, p.A3)
2017 Jan 20, In central China
at least 12 people were killed after a hotel was buried in a
landslide in Nanzhang county, Hunan province.
(AP, 1/20/17)(SFC, 1/23/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 22, China’s state
planner ordered the closure of 111 golf courses, after a multi-year
campaign to tackle illegal development in the sector. A further 18
golf courses have been ordered to return illegally occupied land,
and 47 have been told to stop construction.
(Reuters, 1/22/17)
2017 Jan 22, The documentary
film “Plastic China" premiered at the Utah Sundance Film Festival.
Director Jiu-liang Wang captured a Chinese countryside covered
almost entirely in imported plastic.
(http://tinyurl.com/yc93w8of)
2017 Jan 23, In China Xu Xiang,
an investor who pumped up stocks, was found guilty of market
manipulation. He was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail and
fined $1.6 billion, a record in China for economic crimes.
(Econ, 2/18/17, p.38)
2017 Jan 26, China released a
new list of items banned for export to North Korea, ranging from
wind tunnels to plutonium, following a new round of United Nations
sanctions and complaints from US President Donald Trump that Beijing
was not doing enough to pressure its communist neighbor.
(AP, 1/26/17)
2017 Jan 27, Xiao Jianhua
vanished after crossing the Hong Kong border to China. In 2016 The
Hurun Report, a China rich list founded in 1999 by Rupert Hoogewerf
in Britain, named Xiao Jianhua as China’s 32nd wealthiest man with a
fortune of $6 billion.
(Econ, 2/4/17, p.38)(Econ, 2/18/17, p.38)
2017 Jan 27, The European
Commission imposed anti-dumping duties on steel products from China
and Taiwan to stop them flooding Europe's struggling steel market.
(AP, 1/27/17)
2017 Jan 28, China marked that
start of the lunar Year of the Rooster as families reunited for
festivities, fireworks and food.
(AP, 1/28/17)
2017 Jan 29, China’s Xinhua
news agency reported that the national audit office found that 17.6
billion yuan ($2.56 billion) earmarked for water pollution
prevention work in 2016 was not effectively used.
(AP, 1/29/17)
2017 Jan, China’s government
admitted that Liaoning province had faked its fiscal data from 2011
to 2014. About half of the province’s legislators have been removed
for obtaining their positions through fraud.
(Econ, 1/28/17, p.63)
2017 Jan, China expelled 32
South Korean Christian missionaries this month. Some 1000 South
Korean missionaries worked in China.
(AP, 2/11/17)
1968 In Foshan, China, He
Xiangjian founded Medea to make plastic bottlecaps, glass bottles
and rubber balls. In 2016 it gobbled up Kuka, a German robotics firm
in a deal worth nearly $5 billion.
(Econ, 4/8/17, SR p.8)
2017 Jan, China’s city of
Shenzhen and Hong Kong agreed to develop the Lok Ma Chau Loop as an
innovation and technology park.
(Econ, 4/8/17, SR p.12)
2017 Jan – 2017 Feb, In China
some 140 people died of avian influenza. Officials later said a tiny
genetic change in the H7N9 strain has allowed the virus to more
easily infect humans.
(SSFC, 3/26/17, p.C14)
2017 Feb 2, In eastern China 9
people were buried in the collapse of a group of homes. Four homes,
each between four and five stories tall, tumbled in the city of
Wenzhou, Zhejiang province.
(AP, 2/2/17)
2017 Feb 3, China’s central
bank raised a series of short-term interest rates.
(Econ, 2/11/17, p.63)
2017 Feb 4, China issued its
first strategic plan for territory development and preservation,
outlining the protection of arable land reserves and islands. The
plan demanded the retention of 1.825 billion mu of arable land by
2030, an area equivalent to about the size of South Africa.
(Reuters, 2/4/17)
2017 Feb 5, China’s state news
agency Xinhua cited mayor Cai Qi as saying Beijing will intensify
its battle against choking air pollution this year and aims to cut
coal use by 30 percent.
(Reuters, 2/5/17)
2017 Feb 5, In eastern China a
fire at the Zuxintang foot massage parlor killed 18 people and
injured two others in Tiantai county, Zhejiang province.
(AP, 2/5/17)
2017 Feb 9, President Donald
Trump reaffirmed Washington's long-standing "one China" policy in a
call with Beijing's leader.
(AP, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 9, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said that China has taken steps to end its
once-widespread practice of harvesting organs from executed
prisoners but that it's impossible to know what is happening across
the entire country.
(AP, 2/8917)
2017 Feb 11, In China EHang, a
drone-making startup, performed a 1000 UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)
formation light show named “Meteor Sky" at the Guangzhou city center
on the sky of the famous Canton Tower.
(http://www.ehang.com/news/249.html)(Econ,
3/11/17, p.64)
2017 Feb 14, The government of
China awarded Pres. Trump valuable rights to his own name in the
form of a 10-year trademark for construction services.
(SFC, 2/16/17, p.A2)
2017 Feb 14, In China residents
in an oil town near the border with Russia protested against a
planned aluminum plant over pollution fears.
(AP, 2/14/17)
2017 Feb 14, In central China a
gas explosion at the Zubao Coal Mine in Hunan province killed at
least nine people. The official death toll climbed to 10 after
investigators found a miner who had been listed as "injured".
(AP, 2/18/17)
2017 Feb 14, In China three
attackers with knives killed five people and injured another five
before being shot dead by police in a remote oasis town in Xinjiang
province.
(Econ, 2/25/17, p.38)(Econ 5/6/17, p.42)
2017 Feb 16, China's Ministry
of Public Security said it is banning carfentanil and three similar
drugs as of March 1, closing a major regulatory loophole in the
fight to end America's opioid epidemic.
(AP, 2/16/17)
2017 Feb 17, The Spanish
government said it had approved the extradition of 269 "Chinese
citizens" as part of a year-long investigation into an Internet
fraud ring operated from several Spanish cities, including Madrid
and Barcelona.
(Reuters, 2/18/17)
2017 Feb 18, China announced
that it will temporarily stop its imports of coal from North Korea
for the rest of this year (including coal for which customs
applications have been made but not yet processed). China will
suspend all imports of coal from North Korea starting Feb. 19 as
part of its efforts to implement UN sanctions against the country.
(AFP, 2/18/17)(Reuters, 2/19/17)
2017 Feb 19, The United Arab
Emirates' main state oil company said it has signed a deal giving
China National Petroleum Company an 8 percent stake in a major
onshore oil project. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company said CNPC
will pay an initial $1.77 billion for the concession operated by the
Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operations, also known as
ADCO.
(AP, 2/19/17)
2017 Feb 21, Chinese police and
media reports said a prefecture in restive Xinjiang region has
ordered all vehicles to be equipped with GPS-like tracking software.
An official said the policy was needed so that drivers "can be
tracked wherever they go" and residents had until June 30 to comply.
(AFP, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 22, China announced
plans to have 50,000 football academies by 2025 as part of an
ambitious blueprint to grow into a soccer superpower.
(AP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 24, Guyana said it is
investigating allegations that the Chinese embassy has been using
its diplomatic status to bring in tax-free goods from China and
distribute them to local merchants.
(AP, 2/24/17)
2017 Feb 26, China’s police
ministry said more than 800 people have been arrested in a crackdown
on unlicensed banking operations as Beijing tries to stem outflows
of money from the country.
(AP, 2/27/17)
2017 Feb 26, In Spain Chinese
telecoms giant ZTE unveiled what it said is the world's first
smartphone compatible with the lightening-fast 5G mobile internet
service on the eve of the start of the Mobile World Congress.
Networks expect to have 5G up and running by 2020.
(AFP, 2/26/17)
2017 Feb 27, China’s latest
combat drone flew for the first time. The Wing Loong II can carry up
to 1,058 pounds of bombs and missiles. State media said it was
expected to become a leading export.
(SFC, 3/2/17, p.A2)
2017 Feb 28, Chinese
authorities said that Ismael Arciniegas (72), a retired Colombian
journalist, was killed by lethal injection after a last-ditch
diplomatic effort by Colombia to save his life failed. He was
arrested in 2010 trying to smuggle four kg of cocaine into China in
exchange for $5,000.
(AP, 2/28/17)
2017 Feb 28, South Korea’s
Lotte Mart supermarket chain signed a deal allowing America to build
the THAAD anti-missile system on land owned by the company. The
company’s businesses in China were adversely affected with sudden
tax and safety inspections and a scarcity of buyers.
(Econ, 3/18/17, p.41)
2017 Feb, A sophisticated
hacking group that pursues Chinese government interests broke into
the website of a private US trade group. The hackers left a
malicious link on web pages where members of the National Foreign
Trade Council (NFTC) register for upcoming meetings, according to
researchers at Fidelis Cybersecurity and a person familiar with the
trade group.
(Reuters, 4/6/17)
2017 Mar 1, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said it has noticed changes in the bird flu virus
now spreading in China, but says the risk of the disease spreading
easily between people remains low. It also said scientists have
identified genetic changes suggesting the viruses are resistant to
Tamiflu, the recommended treatment for the illness, in about 7
percent of recent cases.
(AP, 3/1/17)
2017 Mar 1, British Land said
Chinese property magnate Cheung Chung Kiu has agreed to buy its
London's distinctive "Cheesegrater" skyscraper for Ł1.15-billion.
(AFP, 3/1/17)
2017 Mar 4, China said it will
raise its defense budget by about 7 percent this year, continuing a
trend of lowered growth amid a slowing economy despite regional
tensions over the South China Sea and other issues.
(AP, 3/4/17)
2017 Mar 4, Senior Chinese
government adviser Luo Fuhe warned that the country's internet
censorship is hampering scientific research and economic
development, in a rare public criticism of a sensitive policy that
the government has vigorously defended.
(AP, 3/4/17)
2017 Mar 5, Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang pledged to make the country's smoggy skies blue again and
"work faster" to address pollution caused by the burning of coal for
heat and electricity at the opening of the annual National People's
Congress.
(AP, 3/5/17)
2017 Mar 5, China's top
economic official trimmed the country's growth target and warned of
dangers from global pressure for trade controls as Beijing tries to
build a consumer-driven economy and reduce reliance on exports and
investment.
(AP, 3/5/17)
2017 Mar 7, The US Justice
Department said the Chinese firm ZTE Corp. has agreed to plead
guilty and pay the United States $892 million for violating
sanctions against Iran. ZTE Corp. had illegally shipped sensitive
US-made equipment to Iran.
(AP, 3/7/17)
2017 Mar 8, China's foreign
minister said that North Korea could suspend its nuclear and missile
activities in exchange for a halt in joint US-South Korea military
drills, in an unusually public proposal that analysts said showed
Beijing's growing alarm over the tensions.
(AP, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 8, The European
Anti-Fraud Office said that from 2013 to 2016, criminals evaded
customs duties with false invoices and wrong declarations upon
arrival in the UK The textiles and shoes shipped from China were in
fact destined for black market sales on the European mainland.
(AP, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 8, China approved 38
trademarks for President Donald Trump, saying it followed the law in
processing the applications at a pace that some experts view as
unusually quick.
(AP, 3/9/17)
2017 Mar 13, President Rodrigo
Duterte said he has told the military to assert Philippine ownership
of a large ocean region off the country's northeastern coast where
Chinese survey ships were spotted last year.
(AP, 3/13/17)
2017 Mar 15, China wrapped up
its annual National People’s Congress. On its final day it
passed legislation titled the General Principles of Civil Law.
(Econ, 3/18/17, p.42)
2017 Mar 16, In China Saudi
Arabia's King Salman oversaw the signing of deals worth as much as
$65 billion on the first day of a visit to Beijing.
(Reuters, 3/16/17)
2017 Mar 17, In China poultry
trading in Hunan’s provincial capital of Changsha went into effect.
An outbreak of H7N9 bird flu virus originated from a farm with about
29,760 infected birds. Over 170,000 birds were culled as a result.
At least 162 deaths have been reported since last October.
(Reuters, 4/2/17)
2017 Mar 19, It was reported
that a Chinese court has sentenced the police boss of Guta district
of Jinzhou City, Liaoning province, to 17 years in prison for his
part in a bribes-for-projects scandal, proceeds from which were used
to buy two homes in Australia, according to court documents.
(Reuters, 3/19/17)
2017 Mar 22, Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang arrived in the Australian capital, Canberra, on a mission to
expand bilateral ties.
(AP, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 22, China's largest
real estate developers launched a green index to manage their
cement, steel and iron suppliers as the world's second-largest
economy steps up its fight against climate change.
(Reuters, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 22, In central China
two students died and more than 20 others were injured in a stampede
during a morning bathroom break at an elementary school in Puyang
county, Henan province.
(AP, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 24, Chinese Internet
giant Tencent paid $1.8 billion for a 5% stake in the US-based Tesla
car company.
(Econ, 4/8/17, p.59)
2017 Mar 24, In central China
accidents at two neighboring gold mines in Henan province killed 11
people.
(Reuters, 3/25/17)
2017 Mar 25, China’s official
Xinhua news agency reported that China has captured 2,566 fugitives
who had fled to more than 90 countries and regions and recovered 8.6
billion yuan ($1.25 billion) of illicit funds from 2014 to 2016.
(Reuters, 3/25/17)
2017 Mar 25, In southern China
an operation platform collapsed at a power plant under construction
in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, killing nine people.
(Reuters, 3/25/17)
2017 Mar 25, China prevented
Feng Chongyi, an associate professor at the University of Technology
Sydney, from returning to Sydney because he's suspected of
endangering national security. Feng had been wrapping up a
three-week trip researching human rights lawyers. Chinese
authorities have staged a wide-reaching crackdown on human rights
lawyers across the country since July 2015. On April 1 Feng Chongyi
was allowed to return to Australia.
(AP, 3/26/17)(AP, 4/2/17)
2017 Mar 26, China's Premier Li
Keqiang arrived in New Zealand for high-level talks at a time that
both countries are pushing to expand free trade.
(AP, 3/26/17)
2017 Mar 28, Air Koryo, North
Korea's national carrier, connected Pyongyang with the northeastern
Chinese city of Dandong on a twice-weekly inaugural flight.
(Reuters, 3/28/17)
2017 Mar 29, In China a French
national was assaulted in Shanghai with a knife days after police in
Paris shot a Chinese man dead in his home, triggering protests in
parts of the French capital and demands by Beijing for an
explanation.
(Reuters, 3/31/17)
2017 Mar 30, Zambia’s Pres.
Edgar Lungu said a Chinese bank will help finance the construction
of 2,000 homes for local military personnel who face a critical
shortage of housing.
(Reuters, 3/30/17)
2017 Mar, The Chinese TV show
“In the Name of the People," a 55-part series about China’s battle
against corruption, began broadcasting.
(Econ 5/13/17, p.68)
2017 Mar, China’s government,
under pressure from the US and the UN, agreed to make four variants
of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, illegal. Illicit fentanyl first
started to appear in the 1980s.
(Econ 5/20/17, p.13)
2017 Mar, Chi-Med, a biotech
firm in Shanghai, received positive results in a late-stage trial of
Fruquintinib, its drug for colorectal cancer.
(Econ, 3/18/17, p.68)
2017 Mar, China was now the
11th biggest donor to the Int’l. Development Association (IDA), the
arm of the World Bank that helps the world’s poorest countries.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.62)
2017 Apr 1, China announced
that it is going to establish a special economic area in a province
neighboring Beijing as part of a plan to integrate the capital with
its surrounding areas. China revealed plans for the 100-square km.
Xiongan New Area, a “new first-class international city" in Hebei
province.
(AP, 4/1/17)(Econ, 4/8/17, p.38)
2017 Apr 1, In northern China
an explosion in a residential building Shanxi province this evening
killed at least nine and injured six. The blast was believed to have
been caused by illegally stored explosives.
(Reuters, 4/2/17)
2017 Apr 5, China and Finland
will increase cooperation under the China-European Union framework,
President Xi Jinping said after arriving in Finland for his first
visit as head of state.
(Reuters, 4/5/17)
2017 Apr 6, Chinese President
Xi Jinping urged cooperation with the United States on trade and
investment, inviting President Donald Trump to visit China in a
cordial start to their first meeting likely to broach sensitive
security and commercial issues.
(Reuters, 4/7/17)
2017 Apr 6, A real estate agent
said China's Peking University is buying a 19th-century manor house
near Oxford in southern England to use as a campus in a
multimillion-dollar deal. Foxcombe Hall is to become a branch of
Peking University's HSBC Business School.
(AP, 4/6/17)
2017 Apr 6, The European
Commission imposed anti-dumping duties on steel products from China
to stop them flooding Europe's struggling steel market.
(AP, 4/6/17)
2017 Apr 7, President Donald
Trump pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping to do more to curb North
Korea's nuclear program and help reduce the gaping US trade deficit
with Beijing in talks as he toned down the strident anti-China
rhetoric of his election campaign.
(Reuters, 4/8/17)
2017 Apr 9, The navies of India
and China carried out a joint operation to rescue the bulk carrier,
OS 35, a merchant ship hijacked the previous evening by Somali
pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates had fled overnight.
(AFP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 10, China and South
Korea agreed to slap tougher sanctions on North Korea if it carries
out nuclear or long-range missile tests, as a US Navy strike group
headed to the region in a show of force.
(Reuters, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 10, China's capital
stepped up a campaign against foreign espionage, offering rewards
ranging from $1,500 to $73,000 to citizens who blow the whistle on
suspected spies.
(Reuters, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 10, The first-ever
freight train from Britain to China started its 18-day, 12,000-km
(7,500-mile) journey along a modern-day "Silk Road" trade route as
Britain eyes new opportunities after it leaves the European Union.
The first train from China to Britain arrived on January 18, filled
with clothes and other retail goods.
(AP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 12, Pres. Donald Trump
said he won’t label China a currency manipulator and voice
confidence that Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping will help him deal with
North Korea’s mounting threat.
(SFC, 4/13/17, p.A4)
2017 Apr 13, China's Foreign
Minister Wang Yi said Palestinians must be allowed to build an
independent state, after meeting Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad
al-Maliki, who pushed Beijing to do more in the Middle East peace
process.
(Reuters, 4/13/17)
2017 Apr 13, Chinese national
Zhang Xiangzhong (48) broke away from his tour group in Taiwan. The
civil rights activist sought political refugee status, but was soon
flown back to China after Taipei officials said he lacked legal
grounds to stay in Taiwan.
(AP, 4/20/17)
2017 Apr 14, A report by the
World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Development Program (UNDP)
said smoking-related diseases will claim 200 million lives in China
this century and plunge tens of millions into poverty.
(AFP, 4/14/17)
2017 Apr 16, China's Tianjin
Port Co Ltd said it will impose measures to curb the trucking and
storage of coal months earlier than expected. The port said by April
19 it will stop receiving coal by truck and by the end of the month
it will clear its storage warehouses of the fuel as it complies with
government orders in its war on smog.
(Reuters, 4/17/17)
2017 Apr 17, China's official
Xinhua News Agency reported that Xiang Junbo (60), the country’s top
insurance regulator, has been removed from his position for
suspected serious disciplinary violations.
(Reuters, 4/17/17)
2017 Apr 17, China’s Central
Commission for Discipline Inspection said that Li Shiqiao, suspected
of corruption, had been "persuaded to return" and surrender after
almost a decade on the run in Canada. He had been a manager at a
real estate company in the city of Ningbo and fled to Canada in
April 2009.
(Reuters, 4/17/17)
2017 Apr 18, A court in
northern China jailed Pan Yiyang for 20 years. The former senior
provincial government official had bribed a now disgraced former
aide to retired president Hu Jintao.
(AP, 4/18/17)
2017 Apr 19, Chinese state
media said President Xi Jinping has announced a military restructure
of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to transform it into a leaner
fighting force with improved joint operations capability.
(Reuters, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 19, China's foreign
ministry said that Interpol has issued a "red notice" seeking the
arrest of Guo Wengui (aka Miles Kwok), a Chinese billionaire who has
threatened to expose corruption at the highest levels of the ruling
Communist Party at a critical juncture. The South China Morning Post
reported that Guo is suspected of giving $8.8 million in bribes to
Ma Jian, a former deputy head of China's intelligence service who
was charged with corruption in February. His VofA interview came to
an abrupt end 80 minutes into the program, well before the scheduled
three hours was up.
(AP, 4/19/17)(Econ, 4/29/17, p.33)
2017 Apr 19, China and the EU
held their first high-level talks since US Pres. Donald Trump took
office in January. Top diplomats pledged closer cooperation,
highlighting their common interests in peace and security and
pushing a message of free trade and open engagement in contrast to
fears that the US is turning inward.
(AP, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 20, A Chinese court
jailed Gong Qinggai, a former deputy head of the country's Taiwan
Affairs Office, for 15 years for taking bribes and abusing his
position.
(Reuters, 4/20/17)
2017 Apr 20, China launched its
first unmanned cargo spacecraft on a mission to dock with the
country's space station, marking further progress in the ambitious
Chinese space program.
(AP, 4/20/17)
2017 Apr 21, In China a woman,
surnamed Ma, died in a traffic accident in the city of Zhumadian.
Two drivers who hit her were held under investigation. A video later
emerged showing a speeding taxi knocking the pedestrian off her feet
and sending her hurtling through the air. Dozens of people stand
gawking or walk past. A full minute passes, and another speeding
vehicle, this time an SUV, trampled the prone woman.
(AP, 6/11/17)
2017 Apr 23, China's foreign
minister called for the complete denuclearization of the Korean
peninsula amid rising tension over North Korea's missile and nuclear
programs.
(AFP, 4/23/17)
2017 Apr 23, Israel said it has
signed a deal with China to bring Chinese construction workers to
Israel, but the workers will reportedly be barred from building in
West Bank settlements at China's insistence.
(AP, 4/23/17)
2017 Apr 25, China offered to
help tackle a diplomatic row between Bangladesh and Myanmar over the
flight of minority Rohingyas.
(Reuters, 4/25/17)
2017 Apr 25, A Chinese court
sentenced a US citizen to three-years and six-months in prison for
espionage but then ordered her deported. Sandy Phan-Gillis, who has
Chinese ancestry and is a naturalized US citizen, was arrested in
March 2015 while about to leave mainland China for the
Chinese-ruled, former Portuguese colony of Macau, and had been held
without charges since then.
(Reuters, 4/25/17)
2017 Apr 27, China's top
anti-graft watchdog released new information on 22 fugitives who are
hiding out abroad down to the street names where they may live, as
China ramps up pressure on corruption suspects who have fled
overseas.
(Reuters, 4/27/17)
2017 Apr 27, China passed a
revised mapping law to bolster understanding of its territorial
claims and to create hefty new penalties to "intimidate" foreigners
who carry out surveying work without permission.
(Reuters, 4/27/17)
2017 Apr 27, Uighur activists
reported that authorities in China’s Xinjiang region are prohibiting
parents from giving children at least 29 Islamic names, including
Muhammad, Jihad and Islam.
(SFC, 4/28/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 28, US citizen Sandy
Phan-Gillis, arrested in March 2015 while about to leave mainland
China for Macau, arrived in Los Angeles. She had been convicted of
espionage and was held without trial for two years. She was deported
after being sentenced this week to three-and-a-half years in prison
for espionage.
(Reuters, 4/29/17)
2017 Apr, North Korea's global
coal exports sunk to zero this month, as China choked off imports
from Pyongyang to ramp up pressure on its nuclear-armed neighbor.
(AFP, 6/9/17)
2017 Apr, Miniso, a Chinese
home-goods store, opened a store in Pyongyang, North Korea, eight
months after its first South Korean store began operating. Miniso
opened its first in Guangzhou, China, in 2013.
(Econ 6/24/17, p.59)
2017 May 2, China announced it
is tightening rules for online news as censors try to control a
flood of information spread through instant-messaging apps, blogs
and other media sources that are proliferating across the country.
The rules take effect June 1.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 2, Greenpeace said
authorities in West Africa have detained eight Chinese vessels for
fishing illegally and the boat owners could be subject to millions
of dollars in fines. Inspectors from Guinea, Sierra Leone and
Guinea-Bissau boarded the ships off their respective coasts. They
found them to be violating regulations on catching protected fish
and using nets with small holes to facilitate bigger hauls.
(Reuters, 5/3/17)
2017 May 4, China said it wants
to be good neighbors with North Korea, after the isolated country's
state news agency published a rare criticism of Chinese state media
commentaries calling for tougher sanctions over the North's nuclear
program.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)
2017 May 4, Russia blocked
access to Chinese social media app WeChat, developed by Tencent
Holdings, for failing to give its contact details to Roskomnadzor,
the Russian communications watchdog.
(Reuters, 5/6/17)
2017 May 5, The first large
Chinese-made passenger jetliner, the single-aisle C919, completed
its maiden test flight, a milestone in China's long-term goal to
break into the Western-dominated market. The plane can be configured
for 155-175 passengers.
(AP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 5, The UN’s human
rights office denounced China's "ongoing crackdown" and detention of
lawyers and activists and called on authorities to release all those
being held for exercising what it called fundamental freedoms.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)
2017 May 6, Japan and China
agreed to bolster economic and financial cooperation.
(Reuters, 5/6/17)
2017 May 6, Taiwan detained two
Mainland Chinese fishermen after the island's coastguard fired
rubber bullets at them and wounding them in the legs. China demanded
their immediate release.
(Reuters, 5/6/17)
2017 May 6, China's most recent
nod for a Trump trademark, covering clothing, came today, bringing
to 40 the number of marks China has granted or provisionally granted
to the president and a related company, DTTM Operations LLC, since
his inauguration.
(AP, 5/31/17)
2017 May 6, In China Nicole
Meyer, the sister of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's
son-in-law, made a pitch to attract $150 million in financing for a
Jersey City housing development to more than 100 Chinese investors
in Beijing. The pitch offered them the chance to get US immigrant
visas if they put money in the real estate project. The
controversial EB-5 program allows wealthy foreigners to, in effect,
buy US immigration visas for themselves and families by investing at
least $500,000 in certain development projects.
(Reuters, 5/7/17)(SSFC, 5/7/17, p.A5)
2017 May 8, Chinese human
rights lawyer Xie Yang pleaded guilty to charges of incitement to
subversion and disturbing legal proceedings and asked the court to
grant him a lenient sentence based on his repentance. His wife, who
has fled to the US, called the entire trial a sham.
(AP, 5/8/17)
2017 May 8, In China the Syrian
ambassador to China said up to 5,000 ethnic Uighurs from China's far
western region of Xinjiang are fighting in various militant groups
in Syria adding that Beijing should be extremely concerned about it.
(AP, 5/8/17)
2017 May 9, China released
prominent human rights lawyers Xie Yang and Li Heping. Both were
detained nearly two years ago and released after they allegedly
confessed in court to collaborating with foreign organizations and
media to smear and subvert Communist Party rule.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, Qian Qichen (90),
former Chinese vice premier and top diplomat, died in Beijing. He
oversaw the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China.
(AP, 5/10/17)
2017 May 9, In eastern China
eleven young children, five South Korean and six Chinese, were
killed along with their driver when their bus crashed and burst in
to flames in a tunnel in Shandong province.
(Reuters, 5/9/17)
2017 May 10, In western China a
moderate earthquake killed eight people in the Xinjiang region.
(SFC, 5/11/17, p.A2)
2017 May 12, Washington and
Beijing announced an agreement giving US beef, natural gas and
certain financial services access to China's massive market in a
deal highlighting the warm ties nurtured by their presidents. The US
in exchange will allow cooked Chinese poultry to enter US markets.
(AFP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 13, Chinese President
Xi Jinping offered visiting Greek PM Alexis Tsipras strong support,
saying the two countries should expand cooperation in
infrastructure, energy and telecommunications.
(Reuters, 5/13/17)
2017 May 13, Chinese government
officials said provinces are gearing up for more investment in
railways and ports at home to expand international trade in response
to President Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt and Road initiative.
(Reuters, 5/13/17)
2017 May 14, In China leaders
from 29 countries attended the Belt and Road forum, as well as the
heads of the UN, IMF and World Bank at the opening of a two-day
gathering in Beijing. President Xi Jinping pledged $124 billion for
his new Silk Road plan to forge a path of peace, inclusiveness and
free trade, and called for the abandonment of old models based on
rivalry and diplomatic power games.
(Reuters, 5/14/17)
2017 May 15, The WannaCry
"ransomware" cyber-attack hobbled Chinese traffic police and schools
as it rolled into Asia for the new work week, while authorities in
Europe said they were trying to prevent hackers from spreading new
versions of the virus.
(Reuters, 5/15/17)
2017 May 17, Two Chinese
fighter jets intercepted an American military plane over the East
China Sea. The US aircraft, a WC-135 Constant Phoenix, was
conducting a "routine mission" in international airspace. The WC-135
is a so-called "sniffer plane" designed to scan the atmosphere for
signs of nuclear activity.
(AFP, 5/19/17)
2017 May 18, China unveiled the
Z-19E, an indigenously developed attack helicopter, as it eyed a
lucrative export market and ramps up an ambitious modernization
program.
(AP, 5/18/17)
2017 May 18, China and
Southeast Asian countries agreed to a framework for a long-mooted
code of conduct for the disputed South China Sea, as both sides step
up efforts to ease tension in the strategic waterway.
(Reuters, 5/18/17)
2017 May 19, It was reported
that Chinese authorities in southwestern Sichuan province have
evicted followers and razed hundreds of homes at Larung Gar, one of
the world's largest centers of Tibetan Buddhist learning in a
months-long operation that has drawn protests from Tibetans in
exile.
(AP, 5/19/17)
2017 May 20, The New York Times
reported that Chinese government "systematically dismantled" CIA
spying operations in China starting in late 2010 and killed or
imprisoned at least a dozen CIA sources over the next two years.
(AP, 5/21/17)
2017 May 21, Chinese state
media reported that the government will shut down poultry markets in
certain districts of Binzhou city, Shandong province, and Zigong
city, Sichuan province, after H7N9 bird flu infections were detected
in two men.
(Reuters, 5/21/17)
2017 May 22, China confirmed
that it is investigating six Japanese citizens, following a Japanese
news report that Chinese authorities in March had detained six men
possibly for spying.
(AP, 5/22/17)
2017 May 23, In China Google’s
AlphaGo computer defeated Ke Jie, China’s national go champion.
Censors blocked access to the online broadcast by Google, which
organized the game in Wuzhen, a town west of Shanghai, during a
forum on artificial intelligence.
(AP, 5/24/17)
2017 May 23, In China Nobel
Peace Prize laureate and dissident Liu Xiaobo (61) was diagnosed
with late-stage liver cancer.
(AP, 6/26/17)
2017 May 23, Hong Kong's
anti-graft agency arrested 21 government contractors on suspicion of
falsifying test results for the strength of concrete used in a
bridge across the Pearl River estuary to southern mainland China.
(Reuters, 5/23/17)
2017 May 24, The Moody's
ratings agency cut China's credit rating due to surging debt,
prompting a protest by Beijing and highlighting challenges faced by
Communist leaders as they overhaul a slowing economy.
(AP, 5/24/17)
2017 May 24, In Pakistan armed
men pretending to be policemen kidnapped Chinese language teachers
Lee Zing Yang (24) and Meng Li Si (26) in Quetta. Their deaths were
confirmed on June 12.
(Reuters, 5/24/17)(AP, 6/12/17)
2017 May 25, China accused the
United States of trespassing after a US warship sailed near a reef
claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea, the first such operation
by President Donald Trump's administration in the disputed waterway.
(AFP, 5/25/17)
2017 May 26, Philippine
officials seized 604 kg (1,332 lbs.) of methamphetamine after being
tipped off by their Chinese counterparts. This was the largest such
bust since China launched a crackdown on drug-smuggling in
cooperation with the Philippines.
(Reuters, 5/29/17)
2017 May 27, Charles Chen
Yidan, Chinese tech entrepreneur, announced the launch of the Yidan
Prize with the mission to create a better world through education.
The first two winners, announced in September, included Carol Dweck
of Stanford and Vicky Colbert of the Fundacion Escuela Nueva in
Colombia.
(http://www.yidanprize.org/en/tp-the-founder.php)(SFC, 9/20/17 p.D3)
2017 May 27, Airbus began
building its first helicopter assembly plant in China, and the
European plane maker planned to produce 18 machines a year there in
hopes the country will soon open up its low-altitude airspace.
(AFP, 5/28/17)
2017 May 28, China’s official
Xinhua news agency reported that civil servants will face new
restrictions when changing jobs as authorities move to prevent them
from using official posts to make personal profit. Those in
leadership positions or at the county level and above will not be
allowed to work in businesses or for-profit organizations related to
their previous administration for three years after resignation.
(Reuters, 5/28/17)
2017 May 30, A group of Senate
Democrats sent a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump requesting
information about a raft of trademark approvals from China this year
that they say may violate the US Constitution's ban on gifts from
foreign governments.
(AP, 5/31/17)
2017 May 31, China Labor Watch
executive director Li Qiang said he lost contact with three
investigators over the weekend. They were investigating a Chinese
company that produces Ivanka Trump-branded shoes in China and were
working with a US nonprofit to publish a report next month alleging
low pay, excessive overtime and possible misuse of student labor.
(AP, 5/31/17)
2017 May 31, Chinese
authorities charged rights activist Jiang Tianyong with subversion
of state power, six months after he disappeared and lost contact
with his family. Jiang previously worked with foreign media and
rights groups to publicize the plight of China's human rights
lawyers, many of whom were detained in an intense crackdown launched
in July 2015.
(AP, 6/6/17)
2017 May 31, A Chinese court
said the former chairman of China's major steel maker Wuhan Iron and
Steel (Group) Corp has been sentenced to 15 years in jail for taking
bribes. Deng Qilin was also fined 5 million yuan ($734,235.95).
Earlier today, a Chinese court jailed for life the former head of
the statistics bureau Wang Baoan after finding him guilty of
corruption.
(Reuters, 5/31/17)
2017 May 31, A senior EU
official said the European Union and China will reaffirm their
commitment to the Paris climate change accord this week regardless
of whether US President Donald Trump pulls out of the pact.
(AP, 5/31/17)
2017 May, In China Beijing's
Mayor Cai Qi (61) was launched to the post of Communist Party chief
of Beijing.
(Econ 7/15/17, p.39)
2017 May, China’s biggest
lesbian dating app, with 5 million users, was shut down.
(Econ 6/24/17, p.36)
2017 Jun 1, China’s new
cybersecurity law came into effect.
(Econ 6/3/17, p.60)
2017 Jun 1, In China rules too
effect baring private or foreign companies from directly
disseminating news or investing in online news services.
(SFC, 6/24/17, p.D1)
2017 Jun 1, Germany and China
vowed to expand their partnership and pledged to continue fighting
climate change as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Berlin, sending
a signal to Washington hours before US President Donald Trump
announces if he will quit a global climate deal.
(Reuters, 6/1/17)
2017 Jun 2, Premier Li Keqiang
said China is opposed to Pyongyang's missile launches and will
support any new United Nations sanctions against the country.
(Reuters, 6/2/17)
2017 Jun 2, A key Chinese
regulator issued a notice demanding broadcasters distribute programs
that promote "core socialist values", and "forcefully oppose"
content that celebrates money worship, hedonism, radical
individualism and feudal thought.
(Reuters, 6/3/17)
2017 Jun 2, The EU said that it
would increase cooperation with China to curb climate change after
President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Paris accord on
climate change, triggering a furious global backlash.
(AFP, 6/2/17)
2017 Jun 2, Hong Kong
pro-democracy leaders unveiled a bottle of Chinese baijiu marking
the date June 4, 1989, when communist leaders sent tanks and troops
to retake Beijing's Tiananmen Square from student-led protesters.
The bottle of forbidden liquor was produced last year by Chinese
activists to mark the military crackdown and arrived in Hong Kong
after a trip around the world. Four Chinese dissidents were arrested
last year for bottling the baijiu in a bid to raise awareness about
the crackdown.
(AP, 6/2/17)
2017 Jun 3, It was reported
that China's sovereign wealth fund (CIC) is expanding its presence
in Europe by acquiring a warehouse company in a 12.25 billion euro
($13.8 billion) deal. CIC was founded in 2007 to invest a portion of
China's foreign reserves. It has more than $810 billion in assets.
(AP, 6/3/17)
2017 Jun 5, In eastern China
eight people were killed and nine injured in an explosion and fire
early today at a chemical plant in eastern Shandong province.
(AP, 6/5/17)
2017 Jun 6, China's government
rejected a US State Department call to release three activists
detained while investigating a factory that produced shoes for
Ivanka Trump and other brands. The men were detained last week after
working undercover in a Chinese factory to check into worker abuses.
The three men were released on June 28.
(AP, 6/7/17)(AP, 6/28/17)
2017 Jun 6, China and
California signed an agreement to work together on reducing
emissions, as Gov. Jerry Brown warned that "disaster still looms"
without urgent action.
(AP, 6/6/17)
2017 Jun 7, In China more than
50 companies began showcasing a new generation of robots at this
week's Shanghai CES electronics show, built to serve as companions
at home, attendants at shopping malls or just provide entertainment.
(AP, 6/8/17)
2017 Jun 8, Russia's President
Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed close ties
between the two nations during their meeting on the sidelines of a
summit of an alliance dominated by Moscow and Beijing. The leaders
are attending a two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO), which also includes India, Pakistan and several
ex-Soviet Central Asian nations.
(AP, 6/8/17)
2017 Jun 9, China and Pakistan
said they are investigating the Islamic State group's claim that two
Chinese teachers abducted on May 24 in Baluchistan province have
been killed, after a video appearing to show the pair was sent to
journalists.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 9, In China chairman
Wu Xiaohui of the Anbang insurance company, which bought New York
City's Waldorf Hotel, was detained by regulators.
(AP, 6/13/17)
2017 Jun 10, In Shanghai,
China, hundreds of homeowners protested at a sudden change in
planning regulations that would lower property values. Officials
arrested ringleaders and censors scrubbed mentions of the protest
from the internet.
(Econ 6/17/17, p.16)
2017 Jun 11, Thai police
arrested three Chinese men for operating a "click farm," using
hundreds of cellphones and several hundred thousand SIM cards to run
up "likes" and views on WeChat, a Chinese social media mobile
application.
(AP, 6/13/17)
2017 Jun 12, Panama established
formal diplomatic ties with China and broke with Taiwan in a major
victory for Beijing that bolsters its claims of sovereignty over
what it regards as a renegade island.
(http://time.com/4815921/panama-china-taiwan-beijing-diplomacy/)
2017 Jun 12, It was reported
that China has granted provisional approval for four additional
Ivanka Trump trademarks since April 20, and her brand has continued
to seek more intellectual property protection in China, with at
least 14 applications filed around the time she took on an official
White House role as advisor to her father on March 29.
(AP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 15, In eastern China
eight people were killed and 59 injured in an explosion at the front
gate of the Chuangxin Kindergarten in Fengxian, Jiangsu province, as
relatives were picking up their children at the end of the school
day. Police soon identified a male suicide suspect (22) primarily
using security camera footage and DNA collected at the scene of the
blast.
(AP, 6/15/17)(AP, 6/16/17)
2017 Jun 17, In China nearly
10,000 young people packed a theater by the Huangpu River in
Shanghai to watch a singing hologram by virtual reality singer Luo
Tianyi. More than 1 million people watched the performance on
AcFun, a video streaming service. Five days after the concert
China’s television and film watchdog asked local authorities to shut
down the video and audio streaming services on AcFun and Sina Weibo.
(Econ 7/1/17, p.38)
2017 Jun 19, China said it
would ban a designer drug called U-47700 and three others, following
US pressure to do more to control synthetic opioids blamed for
fast-rising overdose deaths in the United States.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 19, In Beijing a
meeting opened of foreign affairs officials from Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa, known collectively as the BRICS
nations with climate change, trade and terrorism high on the agenda.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 21, A notorious
Chinese dog meat festival opened in the southern city of Yulin with
sellers torching the hair off carcasses, butchers chopping slabs of
canines and cooks frying up dishes, dispelling rumors that
authorities would ban sales this year.
(AFP, 6/21/17)
2017 Jun 21, Top diplomats and
defense chiefs from the United States and China began a day of talks
in Washington looking for ways to press North Korea to give up its
nuclear and missile programs.
(Reuters, 6/21/17)
2017 Jun 24, Chinese state
media said China and the United States agreed that efforts to
denuclearize the Korean Peninsula should be "complete, verifiable
and irreversible", reporting the results of high level talks in
Washington this week.
(Reuters, 6/24/17)
2017 Jun 24, In southwest China
some 112 villagers were feared dead, 17 hours after a landslide
buried their homes. A day of searching by rescuers recovered ten
bodies in Xinmo, Sichuan province. A day later 93 remained missing.
(Reuters, 6/24/17)(Reuters, 6/25/17)
2017 Jun 24, Chinese Foreign
Minister Wang Yi has arrived in Pakistan on a two-day visit to
discuss bilateral ties and stability with neighboring Afghanistan.
(AP, 6/24/17)
2017 Jun 26, A Chinese court
sentenced 16 Australian and Chinese employees of a casino company to
nine to 10 months in prison after they pleaded guilty to
gambling-related charges. This included three Australians from the
sales and marketing team of Australia's Crown Resorts Ltd. On July
12 China released 10 employees of Australia's Crown Resorts Ltd.,
including two Australian citizens, after they completed nine months
in prison. This included time served prior to trial.
(AP, 6/26/17)(AP, 7/12/17)
2017 Jun 26, A gay man in
central China successfully sued a mental hospital over forced
conversion therapy. Activists hailed the ruling as the first such
victory in a country where the LGBT rights movement is gradually
emerging from the fringes.
(AP, 7/4/17)
2017 Jun 27, Chinese pop star
Wang Leehom christened the new cruise chip Norwegian Joy in
Shanghai. It was built for Norwegian Cruise Line by Meyer Werft in
Germany.
(Econ 7/1/17, p.59)
2017 Jun 27, The US State
Department placed China on its global list of the worst offenders in
human trafficking and forced labor, a step that could aggravate
tensions with Beijing that had eased under President Donald Trump.
(Reuters, 6/27/17)
2017 Jun 29, Chinese President
Xi Jinping arrived in Hong Kong and said China would work to ensure
a "far-reaching future" for Hong Kong's autonomy, but he faces a
divided city with protesters angered by Beijing's perceived
interference as it marks 20 years of Chinese rule.
(Reuters, 6/29/17)
2017 Jun 29, The Trumps
administration said it has blacklisted the Bank of Dandong, a small
Chinese bank, for illicit dealings with North Korea.
(SFC, 6/30/17, p.C2)
2017 Jun 30, China strongly
protested a US plan to sell $1.4 billion worth of arms to Taiwan and
demanded that the deal be canceled.
(AP, 6/30/17)
2017 Jun 30, China’s Foreign
Minsitry said the joint declaration with Britain over Hong Kong,
which laid the blueprint over how the city would be ruled after its
return to China in 1997, was a historical document that no longer
had any practical significance. Britain said the declaration
remained in force and was a legally valid treaty to which it was
committed to upholding.
(Reuters, 6/30/17)
2017 Jun 30, Chinese President
Xi Jinping, visiting Hong Kong for the 20th anniversary of its
return to Chinese rule, said the city's "one country, two systems"
formula faces "new challenges" as pro-democracy campaigners ramped
up protests.
(Reuters, 6/30/17)
2017 Jul 1, Chinese President
Xi Jinping swore in Hong Kong's new leader with a stark warning that
Beijing won't tolerate any challenge to its authority in the divided
city as it marked the 20th anniversary of its return from Britain to
China. In the afternoon, tens of thousands gathered in sweltering
heat in a sprawling park named after Britain's Queen Victoria,
demanding Xi allow universal suffrage.
(Reuters, 7/1/17)
2017 Jul 2, In southwest China
at least eight people died and another 35 were injured in a natural
gas pipeline explosion in Guizhou Province.
(Reuters, 7/2/17)
2017 Jul 2, A Chinese rocket
launch failed this evening due to abnormality during the flight
following what appeared to be a successful liftoff of the Long
March-5 Y2.
(AP, 7/2/17)
2017 Jul 4, China's Ministry of
Civil Affairs said at least 56 people have been killed and another
22 reported missing as heavy rains continue to pummel southern
China, flooding towns, cutting off power and halting traffic.
(AP, 7/4/17)
2017 Jul 4, China said it would
allow medical experts from the United States and Germany to help
treat dissident Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo (61) for late-stage liver
cancer, in a softening of its stance ahead of this week's G20 summit
in Germany.
(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 4, China and Russia
proposed that North Korea declare a moratorium on nuclear and
missile tests while the United States and South Korea refrain from
large-scale military exercises.
(AP, 7/4/17)
2017 Jul 5, China’s official
Xinhua News Agency reported that work has begun on a second $47
billion, 1,060 mile railway line to Tibet.
(SFC, 7/6/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 5, China-based Baidu
announced a first version of its self-driving-car software, called
Apollo.
(Econ 7/15/17, p.54)
2017 Jul 5, In Germany China’s
President Xi Jinping and Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to work
together more closely on a range of issues, two days ahead of the
G20 summit in Hamburg.
(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 5, Airbus said it has
won a major order from China of 140 planes for $22.8 billion, during
a visit by President Xi Jinping to Berlin.
(AP, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 5, US President Donald
Trump denounced China's trade with North Korea and cast doubt on
whether Beijing is working with Washington to counter the North
Korean nuclear threat.
(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 8, Chinese President
Xi Jinping stressed to US President Donald Trump China's adherence
to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue via talks according to
state news agency Xinhua.
(Reuters, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 9, Two foreign
specialists who visited Liu Xiaobo said that the cancer-stricken
Nobel Peace Prize laureate can safely travel abroad for treatment,
apparently contradicting statements by Chinese experts who say a
medical evacuation would be unsafe for China's best-known political
prisoner.
(AP, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 9, The owners of Hong
Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) announced its sale
to COSCO, a state-owned Chinese shipping giant, for $6.3 billion.
(Econ 7/15/17, p.58)
2017 Jul 11, China dispatched
members of its People's Liberation Army to the Horn of Africa nation
of Djibouti to man the rising Asian giant's first overseas military
base, a key part of a wide-ranging expansion of the role of China's
armed forces.
(AP, 7/11/17)
2017 Jul 12, Apple said it has
set up its first data center in China as part of a $1 billion
investment there. The center in Guizhou province will be operated
with a local data management company.
(SFC, 7/13/17, p.C2)
2017 Jul 13, Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Liu Xiaobo (61), China's most prominent political prisoner,
died advanced liver cancer at a hospital in the country's northeast.
(AP, 7/13/17)
2017 Jul 13, China turned over
to Cambodia 100 buses to be used to expand public transportation in
its capital, Phnom Penh.
(AP, 7/13/17)
2017 Jul 15, China named rising
political star Chen Miner as Communist Party boss in southwestern
Chongqing, cementing his reputation as a favorite of President Xi
Jinping ahead of a leadership reshuffle at a key party congress in
the autumn.
(Reuters, 7/15/17)
2017 Jul 15, Chinese legal
activist Xu Zhiyong was released from prison at the end of a
four-year sentence. He had helped found the New Citizens Movement,
which at the time organized monthly dinners to discuss China's
constitution and other legal issues.
(AP, 7/15/17)
2017 Jul 16, In eastern China
at least 22 people were killed when a two-storey residential
building in Changshu, Jiangsu province, caught fire. Authorities
apprehended a man suspected of setting fire.
(Reuters, 7/16/17)(AP, 7/16/17)
2017 Jul 16, China’s Ministry
of Agriculture approved two more genetically modified (GMO) crops
for import, the second such move in the past month to expand access
to biotech seeds as part of Beijing's 100-day trade talks with
Washington. Syngenta's 5307 insect-resistant corn sold under the
Agrisure Duracade brand and Monsanto's 87427 glyphosate-resistant
corn, sold under the Roundup Ready brand were approved for a period
of three years.
(Reuters, 7/17/17)
2017 Jul 16, Police in central
China arrested American college student Guthrie McLean on charges of
intentional injury following a June 10 altercation with a taxi
driver. McLean was trying to protect his hearing-impaired mother
from a local taxi driver in a dispute.
(AP, 7/20/17)
2017 Jul 17, The South China
Morning Post reported that Sun Zhengcai (53), once considered a
potential future leader, is being investigated by the party's
anti-graft arm. The Central Commission of Discipline Inspection has
not formally announced any probe of Sun. On July 24 the Chinese
Communist Party announced that Sun Zhengcai was under investigation
for graft.
(AP, 7/17/17)(SFC, 7/25/17, p.A3)
2017 Jul 17, Chinese state
media said flooding in in the northeast has left 18 dead and 18
missing. Xinhua News Agency said the government had sent over 32,000
rescue workers to central and eastern parts of Jilin province.
(AP, 7/17/17)
2017 Jul 18, China notified the
World Trade Organization that by the end of this year it will ban
imports of 24 types of rubbish, as part of a campaign against
"foreign garbage" and environmental pollution.
(Reuters, 7/18/17)
2017 Jul 18, Users of WhatsApp
in China and security researchers reported widespread service
disruptions amid fears that the popular messaging service may be at
least partially blocked by authorities in the world's most populous
country.
(AP, 7/18/17)
2017 Jul 19, Activists from
China's Uighur community said scores of students from the ethnic
minority detained by police in Egypt are being moved to a massive
prison complex in Cairo for interrogation by Chinese officials.
(AP, 7/19/17)
2017 Jul 19, In China 30 to 50
people entered the Shanghai office of Sydney-headquartered
brokerage, Union Standard Group Forex (USGFX), and prevented 20
staff members from leaving in protest against losses made on
currency trades. Those being held were released on July 24.
(Reuters, 7/21/17)(Reuters, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 20, China outlined a
development strategy designed to make it the world’s leading
artificial intelligence power by 2030.
(Econ 7/29/17, p.11)
2017 Jul 21, In China an
explosion at a restaurant on a busy street in eastern city of
Hangzhou killed two people and injured 45.
(Reuters, 7/21/17)
2017 Jul 21, Shanghai
registered its hottest day since records began in 1872. The new
record of 106 degrees broke the previous record of 105 set in 2013.
(SSFC, 7/30/17, p.C14)
2017 Jul 22, In southern China
a crane at a construction site collapsed in Guangzhou city killing
seven people. Authorities the next day suspended all construction
projects in the city pending inspection.
(Reuters, 7/23/17)
2017 Jul 24, Thai police said
they have arrested a gang of 44 people from China and Taiwan for
running an elaborate phone scam that conned $3 million from scores
of victims mainly in China.
(AFP, 7/24/17)
2017 Jul 25, Hong Kong
announced a controversial plan to allow mainland officials to
enforce Chinese laws inside a Hong Kong train station set to open
next year. Critics said the immigration set-up will encroach on the
city's autonomy and endanger existing freedoms.
(Reuters, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 28, In China Yang
Xiuzhu, a former deputy mayor of Wenzhou in the booming eastern
province of Zhejiang, confessed at her trial to corruption and
bribery charges. She had fled China in 2003 and was on the run for
more than 13 years.
(Reuters, 7/28/17)
2017 Jul 28, A court in
southwest China said it has sentenced to death Yang Qingpei (27) for
killing 19 people, including his parents and several other
relatives, in a bloody rampage with a pickaxe last September 28.
(AP, 7/28/17)
2017 Jul 29, China’s graft
watchdog said Ren Biao, one of China's most wanted fugitives accused
of forgery and fraudulently obtaining loans, has returned to the
country and handed himself over to the police. A major shareholder
of an energy supply company in eastern China's Jiangsu province, Ren
fled to the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis in January 2014.
(Reuters, 7/29/17)
2017 Jul 29, Sri Lanka's
government signed a long-delayed agreement to sell a 70 percent
stake in a $1.5 billion port to China in a bid to recover from the
heavy burden of repaying a Chinese loan obtained to build the
facility.
(AP, 7/29/17)
2017 Jul 31, One of China’s
"most-wanted" overseas fugitives turned herself in after spending 19
years in the United States. Huang Hong (50) was a Beijing-based
accountant for a state-owned firm from the neighboring province of
Hebei accused of misappropriating public funds. She had fled to the
US in 1998.
(Reuters, 7/31/17)
2017 Jul 31, Indonesian police
said they have detained 148 Chinese nationals and some Indonesians
over the weekend accused of carrying out a sophisticated scam that
netted around $450 million by tricking their compatriots into paying
to make legal cases go away.
(Reuters, 7/31/17)
2017 Jul, China enacted its
first traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) law, laying down standards
for TCM drugs and the ingredients that go into them.
(Econ, 9/2/17, p.37)
2017 Jul, Drilling by the
Deepsea Metro I ship was suspended in Vietnam's Block 136/3 after
pressure from China, which said the concession operated by Spain's
Repsol overlaps the vast majority of the waterway that it claims as
its own. Co-owners of the block included Vietnam's state oil firm
and Mubadala Development Co of the UAE.
(Reuters, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 1, China's Ministry of
Agriculture said the Inner Mongolia region has culled 66,500
chickens following an outbreak of bird flu that has affected 35,000
birds.
(Reuters, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 1, A group of Bitcoin
activists managed to create a 2nd version of the crypto currency
called Bitcoin Cash, backed by Chinese “miners." Units soon traded
at a price of $460 while Bitcoin classic stood at about $2,700 per
unit.
(Econ, 8/5/17, p.57)
2017 Aug 2, Cambodian officials
arrested 175 Chinese citizens after a tipoff from Chinese police
about their suspected involvement in an internet phone scam.
(AP, 8/4/17)
2017 Aug 3, China's Foreign
Ministry said India has been building up troops and repairing roads
along its side of the border amid an increasingly tense stand-off in
a remote frontier region beside the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.
(Reuters, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 3, In China Turkey's
top diplomat vowed to root out militants plotting against China,
signaling closer cooperation against suspected Uighur militants
hailing from China's far west who have long been a sore point in
bilateral relations.
(AP, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 3, In China two
vessels collided in the Pearl River estuary. Some 1,000 tons of palm
oil spilled into the water after the vessels collided, out of a
total of 9,000 tons and soon began to settle on the beaches of Hong
Kong.
(Reuters, 8/9/17)
2017 Aug 3, Indonesia sent 143
suspects to either the Chinese cities of Chengdu or Tianjin. Taiwan
protested to Indonesia for sending more than 100 telecoms fraud
suspects, including 22 Taiwan nationals, to China.
(Reuters, 8/3/17)
2017 Aug 5, China's anti-graft
watchdog said Yao Zhongmin, the former head of the supervisory board
at China Development Bank, the country's largest policy lender, has
been jailed for 14 years and fined 3.5 million yuan ($520,276) for
receiving bribes.
(Reuters, 8/5/17)
2017 Aug 5, China repatriated
seventy seven fraud suspects from Fiji, as it battled an explosion
of scamming over the telephone that has cost victims billions of
dollars.
(Reuters, 8/6/17)
2017 Aug 5, Communist Party
official Zhang Jinbiao, the party secretary for Hotan who oversaw a
portion of China's restive northwestern Muslim region of Xinjiang,
was dismissed on charges including that he failed to do enough to
fight extremism.
(AP, 8/6/17)
2017 Aug 6, Chinese Foreign
Minister Wang Yi, on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Manila,
urged his North Korean counterpart to abide by UN resolutions and
stop provoking "the international community's goodwill" with missile
launches and nuclear tests.
(AP, 8/6/17)
2017 Aug 7, China’s state news
agency Xinhua said thunderstorms have battered northeastern Liaoning
province for several days, killing three people and prompting the
evacuation of almost 190,000.
(Reuters, 8/7/17)
2017 Aug 8, In China a
7.0-magnitude earthquake late today struck a remote, mountainous
part of southwestern province of Sichuan, killing at least 19
people, including eight tourists, and injuring 247. The death toll
rose to 23 as more bodies were recovered.
(Reuters, 8/9/17)(AFP, 8/11/17)
2017 Aug 8, McDonald's said it
will nearly double the number of restaurants in China in the next
five years, eventually surpassing Japan as the hamburger chain's
second-biggest market outside the US. The announcement came a week
after it completed a previously announced deal to sell most of its
operations in China.
(AP, 8/8/17)
2017 Aug 9, China and Malaysia
broke ground on a $13 billion rail project linking peninsular
Malaysia's east and west, the largest such project in the country
and a major part of Beijing's Belt and Road infrastructure push.
(Reuters, 8/9/17)
2017 Aug 9, Hong Kong stepped
up efforts to clean up a massive palm oil spill, with authorities
scooping up more than 90 tons of foul-smelling, styrofoam-like
clumps six days after two vessels collided in the Pearl River
estuary.
(AP, 8/9/17)
2017 Aug 10, In northwestern
China at least 36 people were killed and 13 others injured in a
crash on an expressway in Shanxi province.
(SFC, 8/11/17, p.A2)
2017 Aug 11, China’s Cyberspace
Administration said it has launched probes into three of its largest
social networking platforms over the suspected dissemination of
violence and obscenity.
(AP, 8/11/17)
2017 Aug 11, Hong Kong
pro-democracy activist Howard Lam said he was briefly abducted and
tortured by suspected mainland Chinese security agents who stapled
his legs as a warning against sending a signed photo of soccer star
Lionel Messi to the widow of dissident Liu Xiaobo. Before Liu's
death of cancer on July 13, Lam had written to FC Barcelona to ask
for a signed photo of the Argentine player that he could forward to
Liu because he thought it would cheer him up. On August 15 Hong Kong
police arrested Lam on suspicion of providing false information.
(AP, 8/11/17)(AP, 8/15/17)
2017 Aug 14, China's Commerce
Ministry issued a ban effective Aug 15 on several imports from North
Korea, including coal, iron ore, lead concentrates and ore, lead and
seafood, a move that is in line with UN sanctions announced this
month.
(Reuters, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 14, A Chinese court
said human rights activist Wu Gan, best known as "Super Vulgar
Butcher," has admitted in a closed-door trial that his actions
"violated the law." He rose to prominence by harnessing social media
to draw attention to causes ranging from wrongful imprisonment to
freedom of speech.
(Reuters, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 14, The Philippine
defense minister said China has assured the Philippines it will not
occupy new features or territory in the South China Sea, under a new
"status quo" brokered by Manila as both sides try to strengthen
their relations.
(Reuters, 8/15/17)
2017 Aug 15, China criticized
President Donald Trump's order for a possible US trade investigation
of Beijing's technology policies as a violation of global rules and
said it will "resolutely safeguard" Chinese interests.
(AP, 8/15/17)
2017 Aug 15, The IMF warned
that China's massive debt is on a "dangerous" path, raising the risk
of a sharp slowdown in growth, and urged Beijing to speed up
structural reforms.
(AFP, 8/15/17)
2017 Aug 18, China launched its
first "cyber court" to settle online disputes, as the legal system
attempts to keep up with the explosion of mobile payment and
e-commerce.
(AFP, 8/18/17)
2017 Aug 18, China's State
Council released a document saying the government is moving to curb
domestic companies' investments abroad in property, sports,
entertainment and other fields, following a series of high-profile,
multibillion-dollar acquisitions by Chinese firms.
(AP, 8/18/17)
2017 Aug 18, Furious Chinese
businesspeople said that Beijing's decision to enforce UN sanctions
on North Korean seafood imports would hobble the economy of the
entire northeastern city of Hunchun, sparking a rare public protest
earlier this week after the surprise move suddenly choked off border
trade.
(AP, 8/18/17)
2017 Aug 18, Cambridge
University Press, one of Britain's most respected academic
publishers, said it has blocked online access in China to hundreds
of scholarly articles and book reviews on Chinese affairs after
coming under pressure from Beijing. On Aug 21 The China Quarterly
said the publisher has agreed to restore more than 300 politically
sensitive articles that had been removed.
(Reuters, 8/18/17)(SFC, 8/22/17, p.A4)
2017 Aug 19, China boycotted
the opening ceremony of the World University Games hosted by Taiwan
in the latest reflection of deteriorating relations between the two
sides.
(AFP, 8/19/17)
2017 Aug 22, US Treasury
officials said the United States is imposing sanctions on Chinese
and Russian companies and individuals for supporting North Korean
weapons programs, including those dealing in Pyongyang's energy
trade and helping North Korean entities gain access to the US and
international finance system.
(Reuters, 8/22/17)
2017 Aug 24, The head of
Macau's observatory stepped down after chaos and confusion followed
one of the strongest typhoons on record. Typhoon Hato left at least
22 dead in southern China.
(Reuters, 8/24/17)(AP, 8/27/17)
2017 Aug 27, China’s ruling
Communist Party's anti-corruption watchdog said Mo Jiancheng, the
head of the anti-graft committee for the Ministry of Finance, has
been put under investigation himself for suspected graft.
(Reuters, 8/27/17)
2017 Aug 28, In southern China
a landslide buried dozens of homes, killing one person and leaving
37 missing on the outskirts of the city of Bijie, Guizhou province.
(AP, 8/28/17)
2017 Aug 28, India's foreign
ministry said India and China have agreed to an "expeditious
disengagement" of troops in a disputed border area where their
soldiers have been locked in a stand-off for more than two months.
(Reuters, 8/28/17)
2017 Aug 29, Hyundai Motor Co.,
South Korea's largest automaker, said it has halted auto production
at its plants in China as tensions between Seoul and Beijing over a
US anti-missile system hurt its sales and left it unable to pay a
supplier.
(AP, 8/29/17)
2017 Aug, Chinese police found
pangolins in the trunk of a smuggler's car. 33 of the trafficked
animals — endangered scaly mammals from southern China — were still
alive, but died within a few months under government captivity.
(AP, 1/25/19)
2017 Aug, Oman and China signed
a $3.6 billion loan to help Oman fund government spending for the
year.
(Econ, 9/2/17, p.41)
2017 Sep 1, China's parliament
passed a new nuclear safety law aimed at improving regulation in the
nuclear power sector as new projects are built across the country.
(Reuters, 9/1/17)
2017 Sep 1, In China anyone who
mocks the national anthem now faces up to 15 days in police
detention after parliament criminalized such acts in a new law that
covers Hong Kong and Macau.
(Reuters, 9/1/17)
2017 Sep 1, Brazilian President
Michel Temer visited China as his country seeks investments to shore
up its flagging economy. Temer met with Chinese President Xi Jinping
in Beijing ahead of next week's summit of BRICS nations in the
southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen.
(AP, 9/1/17)
2017 