For the first time, 49 high-ranking officials in Guangdong province were sent to an emergency management training class for a period of 5 days. The training covered contingency plans for overseas incidents as well as information and press control in emergencies.
Source: Secret China, April 21, 2009
http://www.secretchina.com/news/289248.html
During an interview, the author of the book "Losing the New China," Ethan Gutmann, shared his view on Falun Gong’s "protest" outside of the Chinese central government compound, Zhongnanhai, 10 years ago. Gutmann said that after an in-depth investigation and many personal interviews, he had concluded that the "4/25 incident" was a setup by the Communist Chinese leader at the time, involving the intentional misrepresentation of Falun Gong practitioners’ actions to present grievances legally and openly at the Court of Appeals (near Zhongnanhai). He affirmed that the 4/25 incident was "just an excuse" on the part of the Chinese Communist Party leader at the time, and that the Falun Gong practitioners had fallen into a trap orchestrated by the Party used to justify a persecution that was already in the making. Subsequent investigation by Gutmann revealed that over the years, many Falun Gong practitioners have been killed as a result of the persecution as well as killed for their organs. He believes that the death toll has very possibly reached beyond 100,000, of which about 10,000 have been used for organ transplants.
Gutmann has been recently denied a visa into China.
Source: Epoch Times, April 17, 2009
http://epochtimes.com/gb/9/4/17/n2497771.htm
China National Radio reported that China and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement on oil cooperation in Beijing on Tuesday. Under the intergovernmental agreement, China will provide a $25 billion loan to Russia, Russia will use oil as collateral. Russia will sell China 15 million metric tons of oil from 2011 to 2030, using the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline.
Energy Resources are currently the number one target of China’s overseas investment. Since the beginning of 2009 China has signed several "loan for oil" cooperation agreements with other countries, including a $10 billion loan to Brazil on February 18, a $4 billion loan with Venezuela on February 21, and a $1 billion loan with Angola on March 13. On April 5, President Correa of Ecuador announced a possible deal of exchanging crude oil for a $1 billion loan from China.
On April 16, China National Petroleum Corporation signed a contract to provide a $5 billion loan to Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGaz National Co. to jointly buy AO Mangistaumunaigas, an oil and gas company in Kazakhstan.
Source: China National Radio, April 21, 2009
http://www.cnr.cn/gundong/200904/t20090421_505310249.html
Global Times English Edition will start its first publication on April 20, 2009. The Global Times English website will also start on the same day. Global Times English Edition will be the second comprehensive English newspaper published in China. It will report the world from the Chinese angle and convey Chinese people’ s stance and viewpoint on major issues around the world.
Global Times, a newspaper under the People’s Daily, began publishing in 1993 and is one of the newspapers with the largest number of subscribers in China.
Source: Xinhua, April 19, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newmedia/2009-04/19/content_11217348.htm
After China launched the second satellite of its Compass Navigation Satellite System (CNSS) on April 15, Xinhua published articles stating that China is building up its own satellite navigation system. Ten satellites will be launched in this year and next year, a global navigation system with over thirty satellites covering the entire world will be in place by 2015.
Xinhua stated that the global navigation system is largely for military use. It also mentioned that CNSS will help break the US’ monopoly in the world’s global positioning and navigation system business.
The positioning accuracy of the newly launched satellite is at the centimeter level.
Source: Xinhua, April 17, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-04/17/content_11197152.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2009-04/16/content_11192384.htm
On Sunday March 8, 2009, five Chinese civilian ships confronted the U.S. naval surveillance vessel Impeccable in international open waters 75 miles south of China’s Hainan Island, home of China’s most advanced submarine base. The article dissects the incident from historic background to explore possible implications on U.S.-China relationship.
Outlook Weekly, a magazine by Xinhua News, published an article suggesting that “there is a strongly rising public opinion that the Chinese currency RMB should become an international currency to match China’s world power status.”
The article cautioned that although the world suffered the damage brought by the US Dollar monopoly in recent years, there are still a great deal of risks for RMB internationalization. Risks mentioned in the article are: reduced capability for the central government to control Chinese macro economy, lowered stability of the economy, much heavier international responsibilities.
Source: Outlook Weekly, April 4, 2009.
http://news.sohu.com/20090408/n263256840.shtml
Outlook Weekly, a magazine by Xinhua News, reported on China’s effort to restructure its international financial strategies. The core strategy is to reduce the dependency on the US dollar. This strategy consists of three aspects: internationalization of RMB, currency and financial cooperation within East Asia and international currency system reform.
The Chinese State Council decided on April 8 that Shanghai and four cities of Guangdong Province will start a trial on international settlement in RMB. Another action taken by the Chinese government was currency exchange with six countries or administrative regions.
Source: Outlook Weekly, April 15, 2009.
http://news.sohu.com/20090415/n263396439.shtml