Maritime Confrontation Focuses Attention on Troubled State of US-China Defense Diplomacy

Writing for the Jamestown Foundation, Richard Weitz of the Hudson Institute says a recent maritime incident highlights the “troubled state of China-U.S. defense diplomacy.” Dr. Weitz:

The recriminations that flared between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the United States over the latest Sino-American maritime confrontation makes evident how little progress has been made in Sino-U.S. defense dialogue during the past two decades. Clashes between U.S. and Chinese military units operating in the sea and air near China have become a recurring disruption in the bilateral relations. They will burden the Obama administration as it seeks to develop Sino-American security relations in the coming years.

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Henan Workers Block Major Road, Demand Money

Workers have staged demonstrations for money they say their factory owes them, vowing to take their protest to Beijing. Radio Free Asia reports:

Hundreds of workers, including former soldiers, drafted to work at a factory in the central Chinese province of Henan have brought traffic to a standstill after they staged a sit-in outside the factory gates to demand payments and benefits they say they were owed after being laid off.

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China Cracks Down on Rights Activists

Chinese authorities have intensified the crackdown on human rights activists across the country in the lead up to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.

Amnesty International has documented at least a hundred cases of activists who have been detained or faced violence from authorities. Several of these cases are related to the surveillance of activists ahead of the anniversary.

In the first four months of 2009, Amnesty International has documented at least four cases of lawyers who were threatened with violence by the authorities as they defended their clients, at least ten cases where lawyers were hindered from meeting or representing clients, and at least one case in which a lawyer has been detained for doing his work.

“If anything, the crackdown on human rights activists is escalating as we approach the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Beijing pro-democracy protests,” said Roseann Rife, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific deputy director. “Most worrying is the complete disregard for national laws and the obstructions thrown in front of lawyers trying to do their jobs.”

Detentions and Violence

Activists across the country have been arbitrarily detained and have faced violence when defending land rights, housing rights, and labor rights. Signatories to Charter 08, a petition calling for legal and political reform, continue to face questioning across the country. Liu Shasha, a young woman signatory and an oil plant worker in Henan, was detained for four days for printing and disseminating the charter on the street.

Qi Zhiyong, who was left disabled by a gunshot injury during the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, told reporters in a recent text message that he had been detained by the police. He has previously been threatened with arrest if he did not leave Beijing prior to the start of the Olympic Games. It’s believed Qi’s treatment and detention were associated with the 20th anniversary of the death of Hu Yaobang, a reformist leader. Hu’s death marked the beginning of the pro-democracy protests twenty years ago.

Beijing lawyers Cheng Hai and Zhou Peng were recently attacked by at least four individuals who claimed to be from a government agency charged with coordinating the offices of the police and courts. The lawyers were on the way to meet their client’s family when they were attacked.

On the same day, another two lawyers, Wu Jiangtao and Li Renbin, were also blocked from meeting the family of their client, Falun Gong detainee Wei Cheng, when they arrived at northern Changchun city in Jilin province. Police put Wei Cheng’s family and relatives under surveillance and threatened them with imprisonment if they hired a lawyer.

Activist Chen Yunfei, based in Chengdu city, Sichuan province was questioned for six hours, and warned not to try to organize activists during the June 4 anniversary. Police have had his living compound under surveillance since April 20, 2009.

“Authorities must stop this harassment of people trying to address legitimate human rights issues in China,” said Rife. “Issues like environmental rights, the right to participate, the right to a fair trial and rights of the person, which were all reaffirmed in the recently released National Human Rights Action Plan.”

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

Security Council extends UN’s Western Sahara mission for another year

The Security Council today extended for one year the mandate of the United Nations mission tasked with organizing a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara and monitoring the ceasefire between Morocco and the Frente Polisario.

Humanity taking back seat to politics in Gaza - UN humanitarian chief

Helping Gaza’s most vulnerable must be a top priority, the United Nations humanitarian chief urged today, lamenting that basic human needs are not being met and that reconstruction is stalled, nearly four months after the end of hostilities there.

Extending Sudan mission, Security Council urges bolstering of north-south peace

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) for another year, urging all parties to fully comply with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended a 21-year civil war between north and south Sudan.

China-Kuwait Petro-Project Plagued by Politics

China’s largest joint venture with a foreign company is plagued by politics and environmental concerns.

The proposed $9 billion Sino-Kuwaiti oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Guangdong province has been held up by mounting concerns over the environmental impact on the area, which is home to 95 million people. The proposed site in Nansha, a suburb of Guangzhou, is close to state protected wetlands and the densely populated and already polluted Pearl River Delta region, including Hong Kong and Macao.

Kuwait Petroleum International has teamed up with China’s biggest oil refiner Sinopec Corp. to develop the project. But powerful Communist Party officials have turned it into a political football, according to China Confidential sources in Hong Kong. They say one official wants the site moved again–it was already forced out of Huangpu, another Guangzhou suburb–to benefit a group of well-connected investors.

Another party official is said to be using the project, which has been mired in controversy since its inception in 2005, to press for the ouster of some Sinopec senior managers.

The planned refinery will be capable of processing 300,000 barrels per day of Kuwaiti crude. An ethylene cracker unit will have an annual production capacity of 1 million tons.

Kuwait’s crude oil exports to China increased 43% in March from a year earlier to 177,000 bpd, providing 4.6% of China’s total crude oil, according to government data.

DR Congo: top UN humanitarian official condemns new ‘terror and upheaval’

The top United Nations humanitarian official today condemned a resurgence of violence against civilians in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), amid a serious of offensives against a Rwandan militia group.

Security Council urges Cypriot leaders to step up UN-backed reunification talks

The Security Council today urged the political leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities to accelerate momentum gained in United Nations-backed talks aimed at reunifying the Mediterranean island.

Cyprus: UN mediator ‘cautiously optimistic’ over complex reunification talks

The United Nations envoy charged with supporting progress in ongoing talks aimed at reunifying Cyprus said today that the “grand vision” for the Mediterranean island remains complicated but he is hopeful that it will happen.