On the morning of January 1, 2007, Chinese authorities arrested over 200 protesters on Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen public security, armed police and plainclothes officers were on the scene to interrogate and arrest demonstrators.

Voicing a variety of complaints, the majority of these protesters came from all across China. Demonstrators were arrested in several groups near the exit of an underground tunnel leading to the Square. Police hauled off five vehicles full of protesters.

Tiananmen Square was not the only location where New Year’s dissidents have been apprehended. Laying bait for attests, authorities infiltrated several villages, circulating rumors of a planned protest at Shijing Hill on New Year’s Day. Caught in this trap, individuals later found at Shijing Hill were taken into police custody. Beijing human rights advocate Liu Anjun believes that a dozen people were arrested at Shijing Hill and are being kept by local authorities.

Just before the New Year, several groups of demonstrators protesting outside of Chinese primer Wen Jiabao’s house were apprehended by authorities. Their whereabouts are currently not known. (more…)

China said Friday it will strengthen its military to thwart any attempt by Taiwan to push for independence, but vowed that it was committed to the peaceful development of the world’s largest army.

A report issued by the State Council, China’s Cabinet, also said the country’s defense policy will focus on protecting its borders and sea space, cracking down on terrorism and modernizing its weapons.

“China will not engage in any arms race or pose a military threat to any other country,” the 91-page white paper said. “China is determined to remain a staunch force for global peace, security and stability.”

The communist nation’s 2.3 million-strong military is the world’s largest but has been criticized for its lack of transparency about its buildup.

Its reported 2006 budget is $35 billion, but analysts believe the true figure, which doesn’t include weapons purchases and other key items, is several times higher. By comparison, President Bush has signed a bill authorizing $532 billion in defense spending for the 2007 fiscal year that began Oct. 1. (more…)

BEIJING — Chinese president and commander-in-chief Hu Jintao urged the building of a powerful navy that is prepared “at any time” for military struggle, state media reported on Thursday.

At a meeting of delegates to a Communist Party meeting of the navy on Wednesday, Hu said China, whose military build-up has been a source of friction with the United States, was a major maritime country whose naval capability must be improved.

“We should strive to build a powerful navy that adapts to the needs of our military’s historical mission in this new century and at this new stage,” he said in comments splashed on the front pages of the party mouthpiece People’s Daily and the People’s Liberation Army Daily. “We should make sound preparations for military struggles and ensure that the forces can effectively carry out missions at any time,” said Hu, pictured in green military garb for the occasion.

China’s naval expansion includes a growing submarine fleet and new ships with “blue water” capability, fuelling fears in the United States that its military could alter the balance of power in Asia with consequences for Taiwan. (more…)

China has no plans to change its one-child policy, Premier Wen Jiabao said, adding family planning was critical to China’s modernization plans.

The official Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday quoted Wen as saying the “government will adhere to the basic policy of family planning with improved services and stronger leadership.”

He added that family planning was crucial to China’s modernization and the building of a “harmonious society,” a catchphrase meant to mean a more equal distribution of riches in a country with a growing wealth gap.

Wen told a conference on population and family planning that the family planning priority was China’s highly populated countryside, where maintaining a low birth rate was crucial.

He said more rewards and subsidies were needed for rural people, including social insurance to encourage birth control.

Up to 800 million of China’s 1.3 billion people live in the countryside, where children, especially boys, are considered the best way to make up for the country’s limited social safety net. (more…)

Police beat daughter of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng

Geng Ge, the daughter of Beijing-based human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng who is currently under secret trial, complained that the Chinese state security officers that had been following her family and her beat her up on Saturday, December 16, and caused bruises on her back and thighs. Chinese human rights activists condemn the state security officers’ violence on the teen.

After attending an additional class at school at noon on Saturday, December 16, 2006, 13-year-old Geng Ge planned to see her classmate off at a nearby bus station. The state security officers that had been tailing her stopped her from seeing her friend off. Geng Ge was upset and kicked one of the officers’ bicycle on the rear tire. The officer became very angry and approached Geng Ge, trying to punish her. Geng Ge then became angry and threw a box of fried noodles she had bought earlier at him. Next, three male and three female officers started to attack Geng Ge together. (more…)

The United States will cease to be the lone superpower within thirteen years, and both the European Union and Britain will have to accept that the transatlantic strategic partnership will no longer work. This is the shock prediction of one of the top figures of the British foreign policy establishment.

In his farewell address as director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, known as Chatham House after its prestigious address in London’s plush St. James district, Prof. Victor Bulmer-Thomas said that the swift emergence of China as the second megapower would transform the world’s strategic map.

“Just as the world is currently shaped to a large extent by the international priorities of the United States, so it will be shaped to a significant degree by the international priorities of the two megapowers in 2020,” he told a blue ribbon audience of British officials and politicians and international diplomats. (more…)

U.S. prosecutors charged a former Chinese national with stealing military-related trade secrets and using them in sales proposals to China and the Malaysian and Thailand air forces, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said on Thursday.

Xiaodong Sheldon Meng, 42, a Canadian citizen, stole combat and commercial simulation software and other materials from his former employer, San Jose, California-based Quantum3D, according to a statement issued by U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan’s office.

“The economic espionage charges allege that Meng, formerly a resident of Beijing, China, and a resident of Cupertino, California, stole the trade secrets from Quantum3D with the intent that they would be used to benefit the foreign governments of China, Thailand, and Malaysia,” the statement said. (more…)

The politically sensitive trade deficit with China swelled to a record $24.4 billion in October, as imports from there surged to $29.3 billion, also a record.

The trade gap with China for the first 10 months of the year totaled $190.6 billion, keeping it on track to easily surpass last year’s record of $202 billion.

“It looks as if our deficit with China will be about $240 billion this year, about a 15 percent increase,” said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.

The galloping trade deficit with China is one of the main reasons for top-level meetings on Thursday and Friday in Beijing. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is leading a team of Bush administration cabinet officials and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for talks with senior Chinese officials on trade and economic concerns. (more…)

A Chinese lawyer who is well-known for taking on politically sensitive cases is reported to have been put on trial for subversion.
Gao Zhisheng’s own lawyer said the trial had taken place in Beijing on Tuesday and that a verdict was pending.

Mo Shaoping said he had not been informed about the proceedings beforehand and had been refused the right to defend Mr Gao.

If found guilty, Mr Gao could face up to 15 years in prison.

He has angered the authorities for representing religious activists and farmers with land disputes. (more…)

The United States sees potentially escalating trade friction with China next year as Beijing is stepping up restrictions on foreign investment and recent U.S. Congressional elections create uncertainty, a U.S. trade official said on Friday.

“There’s potential next year for greater friction in the trade relationship,” Franklin Lavin, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, told a business lunch during a visit to Hong Kong.

Lavin said the United States’ record trade deficit with China was not in itself a problem but barriers to market access for U.S. companies in China were.

“From the Department of Commerce’s point of view a pure bilateral trade deficit is not intrinsically a sign of a problem,” he said. “We look at market access: can U.S. businesses fairly compete?” (more…)

Beijing - A court in southwestern China has secretly executed a man who took part in an environmental protest which turned into a riot, a lawyer and a family member said on Wednesday.

Three others were jailed, one of them for life, they said.

The four had been among thousands of people who took to the streets in Sichuan province in 2004 in anger over a hydropower project that would flood 100 000 people out of their homes.

Chen Tao, who was accused of “deliberately killing” a riot police officer during the protest, was executed, Cai Dengming, whose son was Chen’s co-defendant, told Reuters.

“When I went to the Ya’an jail to visit my son this week, the officer there told me that Chen Tao had been executed,” Cai said by telephone. (more…)

Chinese scholars talk about newly broadcast heavy-weight episodes from China’s Central TV station

From Nov 13 to Nov 24, the Chinese Central TV (CCTV) station broadcast its twelve episode series “Emerging Superpower” during prime time. The program prompted significant speculation due to its background as well as content.

Background

The 12 episode series “Emerging Superpower” provides an analysis of the rise and fall of nine countries in world history, including Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, England, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and the United States. Qian Dan, the program’s executive producer told Xinhua News, “The main reason CCTV produced this series is because of a speech made by the nation’s leader Hu Jintao. He said that we must learn from the experiences of foreign countries in their development path and find our way of development based on their history.” (more…)

U.S. buyout firm Carlyle Group [CYL.UL] said on Wednesday it is keen to invest in more privately owned companies in China in the next three to five years to reap more from that segment of the fast-growing economy.

The Washington-based firm raised a $800 million Asia-wide fund at the end of last year, targeting investments mainly in three countries in the region: South Korea, India and China, said Sean He, a Carlyle managing director in Asia Pacific.

Carlyle has so far invested in total $77.5 million of the fund in three separate projects in China, including a local flooring firm, an outdoor advertising company and a credit service provider, said He, who runs the fund.

All three firms are privately-held Chinese companies, he told a small group of reporters on the sidelines of an investment forum in Shanghai, China’s financial hub. (more…)

China has overtaken Japan to become the second biggest spender on research and development behind the US, a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development revealed.

The country is expected to invest $136bn in research and development this year after growing by more than 20 per cent in the past year, ahead of the the $130bn from Japan but still well behind the $330bn the US will invest, the OECD said.

The report is the latest indication of the dramatic rise in research spending in China, which is beginning to cause concerns among western governments. (more…)

Flights in and out of the international airport for Shanghai, China’s business capital, were suspended for at least several hours Friday, with airline staff saying military exercises were thought to be responsible.

The disruptions began around 2 p.m. (0600 GMT) local time, with flights to Pudong International Airport delayed, canceled or diverted to other airports in the region. About four hours later, flights were beginning to board.

The city government said flights were suspended “to control air traffic volume.” City officials would give no further explanation and neither would airport staff.

A man who answered Pudong airport’s flight information hotline said that the restrictions had been lifted by late Friday and that flights Saturday would not be affected.

Ground staff for Japan Airlines Corp. and All Nippon Airways Co. said the disruptions were due to military games. (more…)