China Watch

Far from going on the defensive over China’s virulent criticisms of him over the decision to sell arms to Taiwan and meet with the Dalai Lama, US President Barack Obama has said he will be much tougher with China to make sure it opens its markets to trade with the US, according to BBC News online Feb 4.

In yet another move to condemn and possibly punish countries for displeasing it, China on Feb 4 criticized Switzerland for its decision to accept two detainees at Guantanamo Bay who are Uighurs from Xinjiang.

The central and provincial governments in China issued hundreds of regulations in 2009, including at least 62 bans from Jan to Nov, to restrict media reporting in the country, said a new report Jan 31 by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

China will likely become a middle ranked developed country and establish a "democratic political civilization" by around 2040, 10 years earlier than anticipated in the three-step modernization plan drawn up by former leader Deng Xiaoping, reported Global times, the international publication of the Communist Party of China’s mouthpiece People’s Daily, Feb 1.

China on Jan 30 decided to suspend scheduled visits between its and US armed forces in retaliation against Washington's decision to sell a package of arms worth about US $6.4 billion to Taiwan.

Hundreds of people gathered in Kazakhstan’s largest city of Almaty on Jan 30 to protest against what they called "Chinese expansionism", reported BBC New online Jan 30.

China said it was "strongly indignant" after US President Barack Obama notified congress Jan 29 his administration’s first proposed arms sales to Taiwan.

Frank Moorhouse, an outspoken an award-winning Australian author, has decided to boycott an upcoming tour of China to protest the jailing of dissident critic Liu Xiaobo, reported the AFP Jan 29.

In keeping with its preoccupation with stability, China on Jan 25 sentenced four more Uighurs to death, bringing to 26 the number of those condemned to die for the Jul 5’09 unrest in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi.

In yet another Anti-pollution protest, about 400 residents of Foshan municipality in Guangdong Province, mobilized by phone and over the Internet, turned up in surgical masks before the local authorities, reported Reuters Jan 25, citing Guangzhou Daily newspaper.

Authorities in Tongle township near the scenic tourist city of Guilin in Pingle county of Guizhou Province had sealed off a village and ordered a news blackout following violent clashes Jan 19 between local residents and some 700 riot police in a land dispute, reported Radio Free Asia online Jan 26.

Four senior Communist Party officials in their 80s and 90s known for their liberal views have issued a daring letter, urging party and government leaders in China to reconsider the verdict and sentence against prominent democracy activist Liu Xiaobo, reported AP and other news services Jan 24-25.

Dutch Foreign Trade Minister Frank Heemskerk has accused China of forcing the Finnish shipbuilder Wärtsilä to move its ship engine and thruster production from the Netherlands to China, reported Radio Netherlands online Jan 21.

Spain will ask the European Union (EU) to consider lifting an arms embargo on China and grant full market economy status to the country when it holds the EU rotating Presidency from Jan 1 to Jun 30, 2010, reported China’s official China Daily newspaper Jun 21.

In yet another land dispute in China, at least a dozen people were injured in a clash between villagers and police in Yangshan county of Guangdong province on Jan 19, reported China’s official China Daily newspaper Jan 21.