China Watch

After overtaking Britain and France in 2005 and Germany in 2007, China has now dislodged Japan to become the world’s second largest economy.

A Calgary Conservative MP has accused Chinese authorities of attempting to buy influence over Canadian politicians, including himself, and government officials with financial incentives and prostitutes, suggesting some officials may have been compromised, reported CBC.ca Jul 30.

China has been hit by worst torrential rains and floods in the last one decade, claiming the lives of 928 people and leaving 477 others missing as of 9:00 am Jul 28, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Jul 28.

A "culture war" has broken out in China’s southern city of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, over the officials’ attempt to sideline the local language, known as Cantonese, in favour of Mandarin, which is promoted by Beijing.

China has again exercised censorship at the UN, getting more than 100 photos of victims of violence, including two Tibetan nuns, removed from a gun sculpture exhibition which opened in Vienna on Jun 3, reported Montreal Gazette Jul 21.

For just having been interviewed by a Hong Kong news publication in Aug’09, China on Jul 23 sentenced an ethnic Uighur journalist and intellectual to a 15-year jail term for alleged endangering of state security.

Three Chinese police officers have been disciplined for beating up in Jun’10 the wife of a senior local official, mistaking her to be a petitioner. Chen Yulian, 58, was attacked by six public security officers as she tried to enter her husband's office building in Wuhan, Hubei province.

China has been hit by worst torrential rains and floods in the last one decade, claiming the lives of 701 people and leaving 347 missing since the beginning of the year, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Jul 21.

China is proud of its tag as the world fastest and biggest growing economy but protests being found to have become the world’s biggest energy user, or greenhouse gas emitter, overtaking the USA.

China has refused to allow a Buddha rally planned to be staged in the form of a car rally from Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha in southern Nepal, to Shanghai, the venue of the world’s biggest  trade fair, because it would have to pass through Tibet, reported IANS news service Jul 19.

Crowds of angry villagers estimated at up to 10,000, or possibly at as high as 30,000 at one stage, held violent protests in Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province from Jul 14 to 18.

China is to develop the Xinjiang Uyghur region into its most significant base for oil and gas production, refining and chemicals manufacturing, oil storage, and engineering and technology services over the next 10 years, reported the official China Daily newspaper Jul 20, citing China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC).

China has refused to renew the professional licenses of several prominent rights lawyers during the recent annual inspection for the renewal of lawyers’ licenses, reported Radio Free Asia online Jul 18.

President Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang has claimed that his closer ties to China had resulted in the most relaxed cross-straits relations in 60 years.

China on Jul 13 issued a routine reaction to India’s foreign secretary Ms Nirupama Rao’s meeting with the Dalai Lama and the top exile Tibetan administration officials in Dharamsala on Jul 10.