China protests Mongolia visit by Dalai Lama

China said today that it had lodged a complaint with the Mongolian government about a visit to the vast and remote country by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who Beijing considers a dangerous separatist.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China had made “stern representations” to the government in Ulan Bator about the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

“We have always opposed any country providing a platform for the Dalai Lama to engage in activities to split China in any form,” he told a daily news briefing.



“The Dalai Lama always uses the opportunity of furtive visits to publicise Tibetan independence, smear the Chinese government and play up issues related to Tibet.”

The Dalai Lama, fresh from a visit to Japan, arrived in the Mongolian capital yesterday for a short lecture tour at a invitation of a Buddhist group.

Ulan Bator has restricted the Dalai Lama to one lecture today in the city’s new 4,000-seat Buyant-Ukhaa sports complex, which was built using Chinese aid.

Further lectures due to be delivered tomorrow and Thursday will be relocated to a less controversial location, Mongolian Transportation Minister Battulga Khaltmaa told reporters following a cabinet meeting.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Dalai Lama denies being a separatist, saying he only seeks autonomy for his homeland through peaceful means.

Buddhist monastic life, which took hold in Mongolia in the 1500s, was nearly wiped out within 15 years of communist rule, mostly during Stalinist purges in the 1930s when an estimated 17,000 lamas were executed.

But since the country emerged from decades of Soviet dominance in 1991, the Yellow Hat sect of Buddhism ― also practised in Tibet ― is making a comeback, and the Dalai Lama is recognised as one of the country’s spiritual leaders.

China has been accused by human rights groups of using its growing economic clout to pressure trading partners into refusing visits by the Dalai Lama. His plans to visit South Africa earlier this year were cancelled amid accusations that the government had refused to process his visa.

Mongolia won its political independence from China in 1912, but Beijing did not recognise its sovereignty until 1946, and many in Mongolia are concerned about Beijing’s growing economic hegemony.

Mongolia’s booming, mining-dependent economy is almost completely reliant on its southern neighbour, with 90 per cent of its exports going to China in the first half of this year.

During a previous tour by the Dalai Lama of Mongolia in 2002, China retaliated by closing the border rail crossing for two days, leaving 500 passengers stranded and severing one of the country’s few links with the outside world.

Mining companies based near the Chinese border said they were not aware of any disruptions to border transport so far.

China warns of turmoil over Iran, mute on sanctions

A general view shows the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, about 1,215km south of Tehran, in this file photo of November 30, 2009. China warned on November 9, 2011 against turmoil in the Middle East from action over Iran’s nuclear programme.


China warned today against turmoil in the Middle East from action over Iran’s nuclear programme, but declined to comment on the possibility of new sanctions following a UN report that Iran appears to have worked on designing an atomic weapon.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China was “studying” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, and repeated a call to resolve the issue peacefully through talks.







“I wish to point out that China opposes the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and disapproves of any Middle Eastern country developing nuclear weapons. As a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran bears the responsibilities of nuclear non-proliferation,” he told a daily news briefing.

“The Iranian side should also demonstrate flexibility and sincerity, and engage in serious cooperation with the agency,” Hong said, referring to the IAEA.

“I want to stress that avoiding fresh turmoil in the Middle Eastern security environment is important for both the region and for the international community.”

Hong made no mention of sanctions, and indicated China was in no rush to take the matter back to the United Nations Security Council, saying only that all sides should do more to promote dialogue and cooperation.

“I’ve already pointed out that China has consistently advocating using dialogue and cooperation to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue,” he said, when asked about the possibility of new unilateral US sanctions on Iran.

Chinese policy-makers are caught between their demand for Iranian oil and worry that the United States and its allies will demand harsher sanctions against Iran, even risk military action, after the IAEA concluded Iran appeared to have worked on designing an atomic weapon.

China has kept close ties with Iran but has also backed past UN Security Council resolutions criticising Iran’s position on nuclear issues and authorising limited sanctions.

But China has repeatedly resisted Western proposals for sanctions that could seriously curtail its energy and economic ties with Iran. As one of the Security Council’s five permanent members, China holds the power to veto any resolutions.

China has also denounced the United States and European Union for imposing their own separate sanctions on Iran, and said they should not take steps reaching beyond the UN resolutions.

“WHITE HOT”

A Chinese state newspaper said a standoff between Iran and the West over Iran’s nuclear plans could erupt in military conflict.

“It is clear that contention between the various sides over the Iranian nuclear issue has reached white hot levels and could even be on the precipice of a showdown,” the overseas edition of the People’s Daily said in a front-page commentary.

If Iran refused to back down in the face of growing US conviction that it was developing nuclear weapons, “the risks of war will grow”, said the paper, noting reports that Israel could consider a military strike on Iranian nuclear sites.

The People’s Daily is the top newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party and broadly reflects official thinking, as well as the anxieties weighing on Beijing after the latest UN nuclear agency report.

China’s official Xinhua news agency also suggested that Beijing would respond warily to the report. The UN watchdog still “lacks a smoking gun”, Xinhua said in a commentary.

“There are no witnesses or physical evidence to prove that Iran is making nuclear weapons,” it said.

“In dealing with the Iran nuclear issue, it is extremely dangerous to rely on suspicions, and the destructive consequences of any armed action would endure for a long time.”

China is likely to face difficult choices as it tries to keep steady ties with the United States, which is likely to introduce new unilateral sanctions on Iran.

“If these sanctions harm China’s substantive interests, then China will have to respond in some way,” said Li Hong, the secretary general of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, a government-controlled body.

“It would certainly have an impact on bilateral relations,” Li said in an interview.

ONUS ON CHINA?

Iran is China’s third-largest crude oil supplier, shipping 20.3 million tonnes in the first nine months of the year, up by almost a third on the same time last year, according to Chinese data. Overall trade between the two countries grew to US$32.9 billion in value in the first nine months, up by 58 per cent.

“The onus will really be on China, as the only country whose economic relations with Iran have grown,” Suzanne Maloney an expert on Iran at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, said in a telephone interview.

Over the past year or more, China has quietly stalled on oil and gas investments in Iran, seeking to ward off stricter unilateral sanctions from Washington while preserving a foothold in Iran. But that implicit deal will come under growing pressure, especially from Congress, said Maloney.

“They’ve had a compromise for the past 18 months of a go-slow in investment. But it’s difficult to see how that bargain can hold in the wake of the latest revelations,” said Maloney.

Citing what it called “credible” information from member states and elsewhere, the IAEA said Iran appeared to have carried out activities applicable to developing nuclear weapons, such as high explosives testing and developing a trigger that could be used for an atomic bomb.

This week and last, China urged Iran to show flexibility over its nuclear programme and warned that the use of force to resolve the issue was the last thing the Middle East needed.

Li from the Chinese arms control association said Beijing was worried about the tension, but war remained a slim risk.

“Overall, I think the international conditions show governments couldn’t stomach armed conflict over Iran,” he said.

“The US economy is in poor shape, and Europe has its debt crisis,” he said. “Iran is not like Libya; it has the strength to counter attack.”

Meanwhile, France said today it wanted to bring together members of the UN Security Council after an International Atomic Energy Agency report said Iran had worked to develop an atomic bomb design.

“Convening of the UN Security Council is called for,” Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told RFI radio.

“We cannot accept this situation which is a threat,” said Juppe, adding that France was ready to toughen sanctions.

“We need hard sanctions that prevent Iran from continuing to obtain resources that allow it to pursue its activities in violation of all international rules,” said Juppe.

China shuts 50 microblogs for porn, vulgarity

China has shut 50 microblogs for distributing pornography and carrying “vulgar content,” state media said today, as the government steps up monitoring of the internet.

“The microblogs were shut down for violations that include carrying pornographic images and videos, information for prostitution, as well as illegal advertising for sex-related drugs and productions,” Xinhua news agency said.

“Members of the public reported the microblogs, which were then investigated and closed by authorities,” it added, citing an unidentified official at one of the country’s internet regulators, the State Internet Information Office.



The government has called for stricter policing of the nation’s wildly-popular Twitter-like microblogs that more than 200 million Chinese use. Homegrown micro-blogging sites have also served as lively arenas for public discussion over government policies and scandals.

The spread of porn and vulgar material has been effectively contained since a crackdown on Internet- and cellphone-based pornography was launched in 2009, Xinhua said.

“Authorities will continue to take measures to cut down on new channels used for spreading pornography and vulgar material.”

It provided no other details.

China’s microbloggers showed their potency in a string of recent official scandals, particularly an online uproar in the wake of a high-speed bullet train crash in July that killed 40 people. Microbloggers led the charge in challenging rail officials’ evasive accounts of the disaster.

Chinese state media have demanded that Internet companies, regulators and police do more to cleanse websites of “toxic rumours.”

China heavily filters the Internet, and blocks popular foreign sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

US will not offer new F-16s to Taiwan

Taiwan Air Force F-16 fighter jet takes off from the closed-off section of Sun Yat-sen freeway at Chang-hua county in central Taiwan, in this May 15, 2007 file photo

US President Barack Obama has decided against selling new F-16 jets to Taiwan but will give the island an arms package worth US$4.2 billion (RM12.6 billion), the Washington Times reported.

The newspaper quoted administration and congressional officials as saying the US Congress will be briefed later today on the proposals.



The White House declined comment, the newspaper said. Officials in Taiwan had no immediate comment.

The Obama administration had said it would decide by October 1 on Taiwan’s request to buy 66 late-model F-16 fighter planes built by Lockheed Martin Corp.

Since 2006, the United States has balked at providing Taiwan the F-16 C/D models, potentially valued at more than US$8 billion, apparently for fear of angering China, which regards the self-ruled island as its own.

China’s top official newspaper warned last week that “madmen” on Capitol Hill who want the United States to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan were playing with fire and could pay a “disastrous price”.

The package proposed by the administration will include weapons and equipment to upgrade Taiwan’s existing F-16 A/B model aircraft, the Washington times said.

China warns outside nations to stay out of sea dispute-paper

A militant group warned Wednesday that the Philippine government's proposed oil and gas exploration activities off Palawan, particularly in areas near the Spratlys, may trigger a shooting war between the Philippines ...China vehemently opposes external powers meddling in territorial disputes over the South China Sea, the main military newspaper said on Tuesday, after Vietnam asked for international help to defuse tensions ...

China paper warns Google may pay price for hacking claims

Google says China-based hackers were responsible for a spate of phishing attacks on Gmail users. —

Google has become a “political tool” vilifying the Chinese government, an official Beijing newspaper said today, warning that the US Internet giant’s statements about hacking attacks traced to China could hurt its business.

The tough warning appeared in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, the leading newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, indicating that political tensions between the United States and China over Internet security could linger.

Last week, Google said it had broken up an effort to steal the passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including US government officials, Chinese human rights advocates and journalists. It said the attacks appeared to come from China.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry rejected those accusations, and the party newspaper warned Google against playing a risky political game.



By saying that Chinese human rights activists were among the targets of the hacking, Google was “deliberately pandering to negative Western perceptions of China, and strongly hinting that the hacking attacks were the work of the Chinese government,” the People’s Daily overseas edition, a small offshoot of the main domestic paper, said in a front-page commentary.

“Google’s accusations aimed at China are spurious, have ulterior motives, and bear malign intentions,” said the commentary, written by an editor at the paper.

“Google should not become overly embroiled in international political struggle, playing the role of a tool for political contention,” the paper added.

“For when the international winds shift direction, it may become sacrificed to politics and will be spurned by the marketplace,” it said, without specifying how Google’s business could be hurt.

A Google spokeswoman said the US firm had no comment on the remarks.

The latest friction with Google could bring Internet policy back to the foreground of US-China relations, reprising tensions last year when the Obama administration took up Google’s complaints about hacking and censorship from China.

Google partly pulled out of China after that dispute. Since then, it has lost more share to rival Baidu Inc in China’s Internet market, the world’s largest by user numbers with more than 450 million users.

Google said last week that the hacking attacks appeared to come from Jinan, the capital of China’s eastern Shandong province and home to an intelligence unit of the People’s Liberation Army.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates over the weekend warned that Washington was prepared to use force against cyber-attacks it considered acts of war.

In February, overseas Chinese websites, inspired by anti-authoritarian uprisings across the Arab world, called for protests across China, raising Beijing’s alarm about dissent and prompting tightened censorship of the Internet.

China already blocks major foreign social websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Terrifying moment a crazed father threatened to impale his tiny daughter with a Samurai sword

This was the dramatic moment when a crazed motorist staged a tense stand off with cops - by threatening his own daughter with a razor sharp samurai sword.

The horrific scene was captured after Zhang Gang, 34, caused an accident with another car and instead of stopping to exchange details tried to speed off.

But police who were in the area chased the hit and run motorist - finally stopping him 15 minutes later just outside a farmer's market at Yongren country, in Yunan province.


 

Terror: Crazed motorist Zhang Gang threatens his daughter May with a samurai sword

Stand-off: Zhang gestures at police as he holds his petrified daughter in the air

Terror: Crazed motorist Zhang Gang threatens his daughter May with a samurai sword

A police negotiator attempts to reason with Zhang as stunned locals watch on

Zhang, who was with his wife Lu and daughter May in the car, refused to surrender and demanded police get out of the way.

Local farmer Lu Yin said: 'I heard the car coming at speed and then slam on the brakes when two police cars blocked the road.

Then this man leapt out carrying a huge sword and waving what I thought was a doll.

'But then I realised it was a little child. She seemed shocked but then she started crying when she heard her daddy shouting.

'He had the razor sharp sword at her chest the whole time and was shouting 'Let me go or I'll kill her I swear it - I will show no mercy.'

'Then he climbed back in the car with the kid and still with the sword at her chest demanded he be allowed to drive off.'

But a trained police negotiator was soon on the scene and started speaking to the road rage dad and several of his relatives were also sent over - allowing specially trained officers to get into position and storm the vehicle - freeing the little girl unharmed.

Witness Lu Yin said: 'They were talking to him for an hour to calm him down - but the operation to free the girl was over in seconds.'

Tiananmen mothers say government hints at payment, no apology

This Saturday marks the 22nd anniversary of the military sweep of protesters in Beijing.

Mothers of civilians killed during pro-democracy protests near Tiananmen Square more than two decades ago said today authorities had raised the issue of compensation but offered no apologies or public account of the military crackdown.

A group of 127 mothers signed a letter, drafted ahead of Saturday’s 22nd anniversary of the military sweep of protesters in Beijing, which said public security officials had approached one unnamed victim’s family twice since February about payment.

“The visitors did not speak of making the truth public, carrying out judicial investigations, or providing an explanation for the case of each victim. Instead, they only raised the question of how much to pay ... ” the letter said.



On June 4, 1989, after weeks of protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, troops backed by tanks crushed the demonstrations, prompting global condemnation.

The government has never released an official casualty count, but estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand dead.

Yang Dongquan, head of China’s State Archives Administration, told reporters today that the government had put a 30-year lock on documents from the period.

“We’re still in a waiting period,” he said, on a rare official trip for foreign media to his department, hidden down an unassuming back ally in central Beijing.

“We’ve not yet reached the time to open them up,” Yang added. “The rules state 30 years, at least. It can still be delayed even after 30 years, if the archive authorities decide it. It’s the same rule for every country.”

After the crackdown, the government called the movement a “counter revolutionary” plot, but has more recently referred to it as a “political disturbance”.

The Tiananmen Mothers say they have documented 203 people killed in the crackdown, but that many victims and their families have not been identified.

The group has campaigned for years for the government to open dialogue and publicly acknowledge the victims, but says its grievances have mostly been ignored despite individuals being subject to surveillance and “personal restrictions”.

“The bottom line is this: the souls of those killed during June Fourth shall not be defiled; their families shall not be dishonoured ... all matters can be discussed except these two,” the letter said.

The anniversary of the June 4 protests comes as popular uprisings have swept across the Arab world in recent months, making the ruling Chinese Communist Party jittery about any sign of instability at home.

Issued through the US-based advocacy group Human Rights in China, the letter said the mothers were surprised that officials had initiated “private, individual conversations” with families at a time when the government is skittish about instability.

“The Chinese government has referred to these popular protest movements categorically as “turmoil”; at no point has it mentioned the calls for freedom and democracy.

“It is afraid that the situation in the Middle East and North Africa will spread to Mainland China, and worried that it will give rise to events similar to the 1989 Democracy Movement,” they said, adding that the human rights situation in China was at its worst since the 1989 protests.

North Korea leader’s armoured train arrives in Chinese capital

 North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (right) and his youngest son Kim Jong-un (left) gesture next to a military official during a gala evening to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang on October 10, 2010.

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il’s armoured train arrived in Beijing today, setting the stage for a summit with Chinese leaders that he will want to underscore the bond between his isolated state and Asia’s biggest economy.

A motorcade later swept down central Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue under unusually tight police guard, suggesting the secretive Kim was in the Chinese capital.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said Kim was there “apparently for a summit meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao”.

Neither China nor North Korea has confirmed the visit.



This would be the third trip to China in just over a year for Kim, who in previous years rarely travelled abroad and then only in his personal train, reportedly scared of flying.

Impoverished North Korea has recently been scouring the world for food aid and analysts say Kim is keen to ensure China’s support for his youngest son to eventually take over the family dynasty that has ruled the North since its founding.

As ties with South Korea and most of the outside world have soured, Pyongyang has been forced to rely increasingly on Beijing for economic and diplomatic support.

“He seems to want to tacitly remind China’s current leadership of their solidarity and call on them to fulfill their obligation as a big brother,” a South Korean newspaper, the JoongAng Daily, said.

“That’s in sharp contrast with the Chinese government’s purpose of inviting Kim: to stress economic reform.”

A number of analysts say China, keen to keep North Korea from collapse but concerned by its deep economic decline, has been prodding Pyongyang’s leaders to finally start economic reforms.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Tokyo on the weekend that Kim was in China to study “economic development”, Yonhap reported, citing a South Korean presidential aide.

The reclusive Kim’s latest train journey to China began on Friday and took him through China’s frigid northeast to the prosperous eastern province of Jiangsu.

Kim visited China, his country’s sole major supporter, last year in early May and then in August. In the past, neither side has openly confirmed his visits until they are over.

Beijing sees North Korea as a strategic buffer against the US and its regional allies. It has sought to shore up ties with the North in recent years with more aid and trade and visits there by leaders.

China hails death of bin Laden, defends partner Pakistan

A vendor sells masks of al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in Nanjing, Jiangsu province May 3, 2011. China hailed on Tuesday the death of bin Laden in a US raid while defending its regional partner Pakistan against accusations it had done too little against terror threats

China hailed today the death of Osama bin Laden in a US raid while defending its regional partner Pakistan against accusations it had done too little against terror threats.

Beijing and Washington have gone through bouts of friction over Taiwan and Tibet, regional security and most recently China’s clampdown on dissent and human rights activists.

China showed no appetite, however, for turning the US raid that killed bin Laden on Pakistani soil into a point of dispute.





“We have noted the announcement and believe that this is a major event and a positive development in the international struggle against terrorism,” Jiang said about the White House’s announcement that bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader who orchestrated the September 11 attacks, was killed in a US raid, Chinese newspapers reported today.

Next week, officials from China and the United States meet in Washington for a Strategic and Economic Dialogue, annual talks to help manage disagreements over trade, currency issues and foreign policy.

But the Chinese spokeswoman, Jiang, made a point of standing by Pakistan, Beijing’s closest partner in south Asia, which has faced criticism from US lawmakers and others that the discovery of bin Laden hiding so close to Islamabad showed Pakistan had done too little to fight terror threats.

That criticism has raised the possibility of a widened rift between Washington and Islamabad.

“Pakistan stands at the forefront of the international struggle against terrorism,” Jiang told a regular news conference, after her initial statement on bin Laden had appeared.

“The Pakistani government’s determination to fight terrorism is staunch and its actions have been vigorous. Pakistan has made important contributions to the international struggle against terror,” she said.

“China will continue staunchly supporting Pakistan developing and implementing its own anti-terror strategy based on its own national conditions.”

China has said separatist militants in its far west Xinjiang region have been supported by foreign extremists.

Critics of Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang, which shares a border with Pakistan, have said it has exaggerated those links to justify political and religious controls on the restive Muslim Uighur minority.

China and Pakistan call each other “all-weather friends” and their close ties have been underpinned by longstanding wariness of their common neighbour, India, and a desire to hedge against US influence in the region.

China is building nuclear reactors in Pakistan despite grave misgivings from other countries, which fear proliferation and safety risks.

Bin Laden’s death and any rift between the United States and Pakistan will not affect Beijing’s policies towards Islamabad, said Guo Xian’gang, vice president of the China Institute of International Studies, a government think tank.

“China’s role in Pakistan won’t change because of this. In the eyes of the Chinese government and people, bin Laden was a terrorist ringleader,” said Guo. “But I do think we have to understand that his death does not mean the death of al Qaeda – there’s still the real risk of counter-attacks.”

China is a member of the 15-nation UN Security Council that yesterday welcomed the news “that Osama bin Laden will never again be able to perpetrate such acts of terrorism”.

“China has always opposed all forms of terrorism,” said Jiang. “China advocates that the international community enhance international anti-terror cooperation and adopt comprehensive steps to treat both the symptoms and the root causes of terrorism.”

Stop hoarding salt, China tells radiation-scared shoppers

China’s economic agency told shoppers today to stop panic buying salt, blaming baseless rumours that the iodine in it can stop radiation sickness.

The Chinese government has repeatedly said the country’s residents will not be exposed to radiation from a nuclear plant in northeastern Japan which engineers are frantically trying to bring under control after it was damaged by last Friday’s earthquake and tsunami.

But in a sign of increasing public worries about the risks, people across much of China have been buying large amounts of iodised salt, emptying markets of the usually cheap and plentiful product.



The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s economic policy agency, said price regulators could investigate and punish price gouging.

“In recent days, some areas have been affected by rumours that have sparked intensive buying of salt, and some lawless merchants have leapt at the opportunity to raise prices,” said the NDRC in an emailed statement.

“Don’t believe rumours, don’t spread rumours, and don’t panic buy,” said the notice.

The spike in demand may be born of a misunderstanding of reports noting that the thyroid gland is susceptible to radioactive iodine – just one of several types of radiation that could be produced by the crippled reactors – and that potassium iodide tablets can block the radioactive iodine if taken before exposure.

Salt containing iodine, however, would not shield against the radiation, medical experts said in newspaper reports today, adding there was no reason for alarm in China, which is thousands of kilometres away from the reactors.

Still, some Chinese residents formed long lines to buy salt, and the state distribution company has vowed to speed up supply.

At a Hua Pu Supermarket in Beijing, shoppers bought salt faster than the staff could stock shelves with it.

One woman carrying a package of salt was stopped and asked by others where she got it.

“This bag of salt was given to me by my friend who bought it this morning,” said the woman, who declined to give her name. “I heard they queued for a long time, and each person was only allowed to buy five bags.”

Dalai Lama resigns

The Dalai Lama has announced that he will step down from his role as the political leader of the Tibetan exile government.

China casts wide security net ahead of leadership show

China’s President Hu Jintao (L) and US President Barack Obama inspect honour guards during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in this file photo of November 17, 2009. China is locking down droves of people it fears could spark social unrest and tightening media controls ahead of the annual session of parliament.

China is locking down droves of people it fears could spark social unrest and tightening media controls ahead of the annual session of parliament, worried that uprisings in the Middle East could encourage dissent.

Protests that have toppled authoritarian Arab governments have reinforced Chinese leaders’ vigilance about defending one-party control, a priority since the Party crushed pro-democracy protests in June 1989.

Those official anxieties are sure to multiply as President Hu Jintao prepares to hand power to a successor generation from late 2012.

Some foreign reporters were assaulted over the weekend in central Beijing, where an online message from abroad had urged a pro-democracy gathering inspired by the “Jasmine Revolution” in the Arab world. Police smothered the designated area and no protest happened.



But recent directives on many Chinese government websites show the country’s citizens themselves – from dissidents to ex-soldiers and the mentally ill – face strict controls.

“Foreign journalists are having a taste of the recent escalation of the security crackdown against anyone or anything considered potentially politically sensitive by the authorities,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a senior researcher in the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group.

“This is an across-the-board attempt to asphyxiate all critical voices ahead of the leadership transition,” Bequelin said today.

The Party has become adept at orchestrating campaigns of control around major events, such as the National People’s Congress starting on Saturday. This year’s directives tell officials nationwide to be extra vigilant ahead of the parliament, meant as a picture-perfect show of political unity.

“We must strengthen control over the whole range of target people so they are under constant watch and prevented from going to Beijing to gather and stir up trouble,” said one such order, found on the website of Jincheng, a city in Shanxi province, 580km from Beijing. (http://www.jcei.gov.cn)

“Strengthen monitoring and control of the Internet and prevent hostile elements at home and abroad, and other malicious-minded people, from exploiting the internet to collaborate and incite others,” it said.

Dozens of similar calls for tight security could easily be found on other local government websites.

“This year it’s even more tense than before because of the Jasmine Revolution stuff,” said Liu Feiyue, a human rights activist in the central province of Hubei, who monitors cases of confinement and detention. He said he knew of six or so people detained on subversion charges, which are often used to jail dissidents.

“This will escalate control and monitoring of people in China,” Liu said of the calls for “Jasmine” gatherings promoted on Boxun.com, an overseas Chinese-language website that Beijing blocks. “The vast majority of ordinary people wouldn’t know about it, but the authorities are always on edge.”

President Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao have vowed to build a more “harmonious society” by narrowing inequalities and improving the incomes and welfare of farmers and workers. Those efforts have helped dilute tensions, and most observers dismiss the idea that China risks imminent massive unrest.

But Hu has recently said the government must craft smarter, smoother ways to control an increasingly mobile and vocal population. He and other leaders see their country entering a turbulent time of political transition, urbanisation and economic transformation, and they resist relaxing controls.

Local governments often deal with what are called “destabilising elements” by putting them under guard.

The targets of detention, monitoring and house confinement go beyond dissidents, human rights advocates and other obvious targets. Directives also single out decommissioned soldiers, ex-prisoners, petitioners with grievances over land confiscations and home demolitions, and even people believed to have mental illnessness – all seen as potential sparks of unrest.

“Strengthen stability control of decomissioned soldiers, former prisoners and labour-reeducation inmates, mentally ill people and others who may affect social stability,” said a directive on the government website for Gaoling County, about 1,200km from Beijing. (www.gao-ling.gov.cn)

The Communist Party spends heavily on domestic security, and experts have said that budget now rivals spending on the military. Liu, the rights activist, said security spending was likely to keep rising.

“These social controls have been in place before, but now there’s a sense that they becoming more institutionalised and permanent,” said Liu, whose own website was recently shut down.

US to boost naval forces as China develops carrier: Admiral

 US aircraft carrier USS George Washington anchored in Hong Kong waters upon its arrival in this file photo of October 29, 2009. The United States will continue to upgrade its naval forces in the Pacific to counter China’s growing military strength

The US navy will continue to upgrade its military capabilities in the Pacific given its steadfast commitment to the region, a US vice-admiral said today, while urging China’s growing navy to avoid provocation.

China’s swelling defence budgets, rapid development of advanced systems including aircraft carriers and anti-satellite missiles, and its growing naval aggression in bordering seas, have unnerved regional neighbours and the United States in recent years.






“It is our sincere hope that as China continues to develop a blue-water navy, one which may soon include an aircraft carrier, it will employ that navy in a way that is responsible and constructive,” said Vice-Admiral Scott Van Buskirk during a visit to Hong Kong.

The vice-admiral who commands the US Navy’s 7th Fleet – the largest forward deployed military force with up to 70 ships and 300 aircraft – also urged China not to utilise such military hardware in a “threatening or provocative manner.”

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said last month a US military presence in the Pacific is essential to restrain Chinese assertiveness.

Following on from Gate’s comments that China’s military advances in cyber and anti-satellite warfare technology could challenge the ability of US forces to operate in the Pacific, Van Buskirk said the United States would upgrade its hardware there.

A new Littoral combat ship (LCS) will be deployed to the area soon, carrier fighter squadrons upgraded, attack submarine attack capabilities increased, and surface destroyers rekitted to “boost their ability to detect and kill enemy submarines”, Van Buskirk said.

Faster P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft will replace P-3 Orion planes in the next two years.

“We remain committed. We remain engaged,” he said.

While Gates breakthrough visit to Beijing last month reestablished high-level strategic level ties, Van Buskirk said much more needed to be done at a tactical level to ensure encounters at sea wouldn’t escalate or lead to conflict.

“We’re just not as successful in receiving return communications,” said Van Buskirk of attempts by US ships to hail Chinese vessels on the high seas.

Chinese demand ban on goldfish magic trick watched by hundreds of millions on TV amid claims of animal abuse

A magic trick with goldfish that was watched by hundreds of millions of Chinese on TV during the Lunar New Year celebrations may have involved abuse including implanted magnets and should be banned, according to animal rights activists.

The trick was performed during a China Central Television gala on January 30, eve of the Lunar New Year festival. The gala is China's most watched broadcast of the year.

Goldfish are a symbol of wealth in China, but the image of six of them swimming in perfect synchronisation under magician Fu Yandong's direction alarmed many Chinese, who worried that magnets were implanted in the fish or that they were controlled by electric current.

Canada hit by cyberattack from China computers: CBC

The Canadian government was hit by an unprecedented cyber attack from Chinese-based computers last month that penetrated two key economic ministries, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp reported yesterday.

The CBC cited sources as saying the hackers broke into computer systems at the Finance Department and Treasury Board. Once the attack was detected, Internet access in both ministries was cut off.

The Finance Department is preparing the federal budget, which will be delivered next month.



The CBC said the hackers had apparently managed to take control of computers in the offices of senior government executives as part of a scheme to steal the passwords that unlock entire government data systems.

A spokesman for Treasury Board Minister Stockwell Day said officials had detected an unauthorised attempt to access the ministry’s computer networks.

“There are no indications that any data relating to Canadians was compromised,” he said in an e-mail. He did not say whether the attacks had been traced back to Chinese servers, as the CBC reported.

No one from the office of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty responded to a request for comment.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu denied there was a China link to the hacking.

“What you mentioned is purely fictitious and has an ulterior motive,” he told a regular news briefing in Beijing when asked about the accusations.

“China attaches great importance to computer security and consistently opposes and cracks down on hacking activities according to relative laws and regulations,” Ma added. “Hacking is an international problem and China is affected also.”

Canada’s spy service complains regularly about what it says is industrial espionage by China and other states.

US cables released by WikiLeaks show diplomats blaming China for hacking into Google systems that prompted the Internet giant to pull back from mainland China.

In 2009, The Wall Street Journal said cyber spies who appeared to be based in China had breached the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter project.

The CBC story comes at an awkward time for Canada’s minority Conservative government, which has markedly toned down its criticism of China’s human rights record as it tries to boost bilateral trade ties.

China in talks to build Colombian rail link to rival Panama Canal

China is in talks with Colombia to build a rail link that would join the South American country's Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

The railway would rival the Panama Canal, which has brought masses of trade to Colombia's South American neighbour.

Ships using the canal account for roughly five per cent of world trade.

The 140-mile 'dry canal' would run from the Pacific coast to a new city near Cartagena, pictured, on the northern Atlantic coast of the country

The planned rail line would run alongside the Panamanian border

China is proposing to build a railway in Colombia that would rival the Panama Canal, pictured, which has brought masses of trade to Colombia's South American neighbour

The proposed 140-mile 'dry canal' would run from the port of Cupica on the Pacific coast, through the gulf of Uraba and onto a new city near Cartagena on the northern Atlantic coast of Colombia.

It would help to boost trade with Asia while also helping in the export of material to the rest of South America.

The Asian superpower is particularly interested in importing coal from Colombia, which is the fifth biggest producer of the raw material in the world.

China is heavily dependent on coal for its power stations and steel industry and imported 164.83 million tons of the raw material last year.

The proposed line would help in carrying coal from mines to the Pacific coast.

The talks are 'quite advanced', Colombia's president Juan Manuel Santos told the Financial Times.

China is Colombia's second-biggest trade partner, with over $5bn of business done between the two countries in 2010.

'The studies [the Chinese] have made on the costs of transporting per tonne, the cost of investment, they all work out,' said Santos.

Also on the cards is a 490-mile railway line which would run to the port of Buenaventura on the west coast, allowing quick and easy exports of material from Colombia's heartland across the Pacific.

U.S. threatened to take military action against China over arms race in space

* WikiLeaks documents reveal battle for supremacy above the Earth in 2007
* Both superpowers destroyed their own satellites with missile strikes in show of strength

The U.S. warned China it could take military action in response to Beijing’s use of space missiles, it has emerged.

Leaked diplomatic documents reveal that the U.S. shot down one of its own satellites to demonstrate its ballistic power after China had destroyed its own weather satellite.

And despite being threatened with military action in 2007 by then U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, China carried out another missile test only last year.

The military standoff has been likened to the ‘star wars’ strategic missile plan conceived by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

According to diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and published by the Daily Telegraph, China and the U.S. jostled for position behind closed doors over the issue of missile defence.

China shot down a weather satellite stationed 530 miles above the earth in January 2007, sending over 2,000 pieces of space debris into orbit.

The strike was the first anti-satellite test since 1985 but despite widespread international criticism of China’s actions, then-Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jinchao stressed: ‘There’s no need to feel threatened by this.’

Cause for conflict: China and the U.S. engaged in a military standoff over space missile tests

The field of conflict: An artist's impression of a weather satellite, similar to that shot out of the sky by China with a missile




The U.S. state department appeared to not agree, with Clark Randt, the American Ambassador in Beijing complaining about the test to Chinese assistant foreign minister He Yefei.

Officials working for Ms Rice later told China: ‘A Chinese attack on a satellite using a weapon launched by a ballistic missile threatens to destroy space systems that the United States and other nations use for commerce and national security. Destroying satellites endangers people.’

Officials warned: ’Any purposeful interference with US space systems will be interpreted by the United States as an infringement of its rights and considered an escalation in a crisis or conflict.

‘The United States reserves the right, consistent with the UN Charter and international law, to defend and protect its space systems with a wide range of options, from diplomatic to military.'

While the U.S. said China’s testing of an anti-satellite missile contravened ‘the spirit of cooperation’ of international space operations in the 21st century, just over a year later Washington launched its own test strike.

A malfunctioning U.S. satellite was shot down in February 2008, with the public explanation that its fuel tank was defective and would be hazardous if the satellite retuned to earth.

However, diplomatic missives at the time indicate the strike was militarily-sanctioned, with the American Embassy in China receiving ‘direct confirmation of the results of the anti-satellite test’ from U.S. military commanders in the Pacific.

Leaked embassy cables reveal the shooting of satellite USA 193 angered Beijing.

A memo sent from the Beijing embassy in Februarty 2008 said the Chinese 'repeatedly emphasised that the United States should provide information on the planned satellite interception prior to releasing the information to CNN'.

Tensions were evident in June 2008 with Chinese delegates at a defence summit claiming the superpowers were ‘neither allies nor adversaries’.

However, China carried out a fresh test last year, according to documents sent from the office of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in January 2010.

A diplomatic cable said the Chinese destruction of a CSS-X-11 missile about 150 miles above the earth could be judged to have ‘furthered both Chinese ASAT [anti-satellite] and ballistic missile defense technologies’.

The cable also outlined the concern of the ‘Obama administration’ over China’s stance on space weaponry.

Warning: China's president Hu Jintao (left) angered the U.S. by testing an anti-satellite missile, with officials working for then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threatening Beijing with military action

Female Chinese students resort to eating roundworm eggs to ensure they look thin for job interviews

Bad diet: Chinese students have been swallowing roundworm eggs which hatch in the stomach. It can cause severe health problems

Female students in China have been eating roundworm eggs to lose weight for job interviews - because employment is so hard to come by.

They hatch in the stomach, allowing those who take them to shed pounds without exercising or dieting in the Xiamen, China.

But swallowing the worms is extremely dangerous - and definitely not to be recommended for those wanting to shed the pounds in the New Year.

With jobs shortages across the country, women in China are under pressure to appear thin if they are to have any chance of landing a role.

Employment stands at 22 per cent - and the size of the labour pool has grown by 112 million people over the last decade to more than one billion people.

Other students are staring at pictures for hours on end to suppress their appetite so they can shed excess weight.



A student called Xiaomei said that women are using a 'special soap' that helps them with their diets. Some are having up to 10 showers each day.

The treatments have no scientific basis and are likely to damage health.

In the 1990s Chinese women would take special teas and pills to lose weight. Acupuncture also emerged as a popular choice.

But many students struggle to find work as the world's most populous nation faces big unemployment problems with only 780 million labourers in jobs.

However, the work problem is largely confined to rural areas. Jobs in cities are being created quickly as China undergoes a rapid urbanisation.

'China is facing huge employment pressures at present and for the foreseeable future,' Yi Chengji, spokesman for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said.

'As China's urbanisation quickens, employment pressures from the many surplus rural labourers are getting bigger and bigger.

'Currently there are about 100 million surplus rural workers that need to be transferred (to urban jobs).'

The country's urban population will rise to over 700 million people by 2015, outstripping the rural population for the first time.

According to an employment paper, there were 9.21 million registered urban jobless in China at the end of 2009, resulting in just a 4.3 per cent urban unemployment rate.

China rebuffs Vatican on religious freedom

The Vatican must “face the facts” about religious freedom in China, the Foreign Ministry said today, rebuffing the pope’s Christmas Day message, which decried the persecution of Catholics in China.

“We hope the Vatican can face the facts of China’s religious freedom and the development of Catholicism in China, and take concrete actions to promote positive conditions for China-Vatican relations,” ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news briefing. She did not elaborate.

Pope Benedict on Saturday — Christmas Day — denounced limits on freedom of worship in China and encouraged Catholics there to persevere.





An editorial yesterday in the English-language edition of the Global Times, run by Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily, was more blunt it its criticism, saying the pope acted “more like a Western politician than a religious leader”.

“The Vatican has to face the fact that all religious beliefs are free in China, as long as they do not run counter to the country’s laws,” it said, adding that citizenship supersedes religious identity.

China’s 8 to 12 million Catholics are divided between a state-sanctioned church that names bishops without the Vatican’s approval and an underground church wary of government ties.

China rankled the Vatican earlier this month when it forced several Chinese bishops and priests loyal to the pope to attend a meeting of a state-backed church that does not have the pope’s approval.

Last month, the Vatican condemned China for naming a bishop without the pope’s approval, calling the episode a “painful wound” hampering dialogue between the Holy See and Beijing.

China says it protects religious freedom, but does not recognise the authority of the pope and refuses to establish formal relations with the Vatican until the Holy See — the Church’s governing body — severs ties with Taiwan, which China considers a renegade territory.