Across the country, China is seeing a resurgence of local ethnicity and culture, most notably among southerners such as the Cantonese and Hakka, who are now classified as Han.

For centuries, China has held together a vast multi-cultural and multi-ethnic nation despite alternating periods of political centralization and fragmentation. But cultural and linguistic cleavages could worsen in a China weakened by internal strife, an economic downturn, uneven growth, or a struggle over future political succession.

The initial brawl between workers in a Guangdong toy factory, which left at least two Uighur dead on 25 June, prompted the mass unrest in Xinjiang on 5 July, which ended with 156 dead, thousands injured, and 1500 arrested, with on-going violence spreading throughout the region.

The National Day celebrations scheduled for October 2009, seeks to highlight 60 years of the “harmonious” leadership of the Communist Party in China, and like the 2008 Olympics, its enormous success. The rioting threatens to de-rail these celebrations.

Officially, China is made up of 56 nationalities: one majority nationality, the Han, and 55 minority groups. The 2000 census revealed a total official minority population of nearly 104m, or approximately 9% of the total population.

BBC

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Around a dozen cases, 3 deaths, as pneumonic plague kills up its heels in NW China. This is a disease that hygiene can help prevent. Get rid of the rodents and their fleas and plague disappears.

Plague is spread in two main forms, pneumonic – which is the form reported in China, and bubonic. Pneumonic plague is spread like many respiratory diseases, by being coughed or sneezed on by a sick person.

Bubonic plague can be found in the United States, almost entirely in the Southwest. It is spread by the bites of fleas, usually fleas from rats, mice or other rodents. The number of human cases varies with the natural increases or decreases in rodent populations. The NIH reports 10-20 cases of bubonic plague in the U.S. on average each year. 1 of 7 cases is fatal.

Pneumonic plague appears as a rapid onset pneumonia, with all the related symptoms, fever, shortness of breath, coughing and sometimes bloody sputum. It is very contagious for people who have close contact with the patient. The Y. pestis bacteria cannot survive longer than about an hour in open air and sunlight so personal contact is the most risky.

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The crowd defended the body against waves of policemen. However, on Saturday, a fire was lit inside the hotel, but the corpse was saved. Tu’s cousin apparently armed himself with two barrels of gasoline and threatened to blow himself up if the body was taken.

The police restored order yesterday, imposed a curfew and took the body to a funeral parlour. Today, the website of the local government has been defaced by hackers.

What’s extraordinary is the speed in which the riot blew up, and the venom directed against the local authorities. Whatever was behind Tu’s death, there’s clearly something rotten in Shishou.

But after months of calm, there have been a spate of reported riots recently. Is this because media restrictions have been lifted, allowing news of riots to spread, or has there been a genuine increase in social tension in the countryside?

It is impossible to tell. China no longer publishes the figures for how many riots take place each year, but most people put the figure at around 80,000 and the vast majority go totally unnoticed.

Telegraph

A Chinese soldier was shot dead outside a military garrison in the south-western city of Chongqing, state media have reported.

The 18-year-old soldier, Han Junliang, was on sentry duty when he was attacked by one or more assailants, who shot him dead then stole his submachine gun.

The police and military have launched a joint investigation, the report said.

Private gun ownership is illegal in China. The government has acknowledged trouble in dealing with armed gangs.

Analysts say there are tens of thousands of smuggled weapons or guns illegally manufactured inside China.

BBC

BBC map of overlapping claims in South China Sea, including the largest, by China.

China plans to step up naval patrols in disputed waters in the South China Sea to protect its interests, Chinese state media quoted an official as saying.

The fisheries administration chief cited an increase in illegal fishing and other countries’ “unfounded claims” in seas that China claims as its own.

China sent a fisheries patrol ship to the South China Sea last week, and said it could deploy more similar vessels.

The patrols come after US and Chinese ships were involved in a confrontation.

“Faced with a growing amount of illegal fishing and other countries’ unfounded territorial claims it has become necessary to step up the fishery administration’s patrols to protect China’s rights and interests,” the China Daily quoted official Wu Zhuang as saying.

BBC

That trade surplus with the U.S.? China is using part of it to buy oil from the Russians. After the infrastructure is built, maybe the Chinese will just step in and take it.

BBC

Russia and China have signed a $25bn (£17.54bn) deal that will see Beijing supplied with oil from Siberian fields in exchange for loans to Russian firms.

China Development Bank will lend $15bn to Russian state oil firm Rosneft, and $10bn to pipeline firm Transneft.

In return Russia will supply 15 million tons – 300,000 barrels a day – of oil annually for 20 years.

China is the world’s second biggest oil importer, and has looked to diversify its imports away from the Middle East.

China’s exports fell more than expected in January, down 17.5% from a year earlier, marking the biggest drop in more than 10 years, figures have shown.

Imports were down 43.1% in the month compared with a year ago, as China’s economy continued to be hit by the global economic slowdown.

Analysts say the slowdown could prompt more factory closures and job losses.

China’s global trade surplus widened to $39.1bn last month, after recording a surplus of $39bn in December.

BBC

The Ponzi scheme that is the Chinese economy is gravely threatened. Exports cannot fall for any length of time or the cash flow necessary to keep the economy super stimulated dies. Commodity prices must remain low and supply high. And the tens of millions of rural Chinese who work in the “new” economy must remain content.

We are seeing a variety of challenges to these imperatives. Month to month, the Chinese may be able to manage but if any of these turn into a long term trend, watch out.

As I have predicted in the past, the reaction by the boys in Beijing will be violent. Taiwan and the Russian Far East are most at risk but internal crackdowns will also be in the mix.

China Central Television says it’s sorry for causing chaos in Beijing’s business district during a massive fire that engulfed part of its new tower building.

The broadcaster apologized Tuesday for the confusion and congestion caused by Monday night’s fire, which struck its new, still-unoccupied, 30-story building, being built to house CCTV’s television studios and the luxury Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the state-owned Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

One firefighter died and seven others were hurt battling the blaze, which authorities say was caused by an unauthorized Chinese lunar New Year fireworks display set off at the site, the news agency said.
In a statement on its Web site, the broadcaster said it “feels sorrowful for the great loss that the fire inflicted on national assets. CCTV sincerely apologizes for the traffic congestion and inconvenience that affect residents nearby.”

Luo Yuan, spokesman and deputy chief of Beijing Fire Control Bureau, told Xinhua that CCTV hired people from a fireworks company to ignite several hundred large festive firecrackers in an open space outside one of its nearly completed buildings, sparking the blaze.

Marketwatch

Parts of China are experiencing their worst drought in half a century, threatening the water supply of millions of people and putting the winter harvest at risk, state media reported.

The dry spell has spread rapidly across seven key agricultural provinces, triggering calls from President Hu Jintao and other top leaders to step up support for the affected areas.

”The duration, scope and impact of the drought are rare,” said China Meteorological Administration chief Zheng Guoguang.

At least 3.7 million people and 1.9 million head of livestock are affected.

About 9.5 million hectares of farmland, representing 43 percent of the country’s winter wheat supplies, are also affected.

No rain has been forecast for the next 10 days.

The Standard Newspaper

China says 20 million migrant workers have lost their jobs during the economic downturn – three times greater than had been suggested previously.

A survey carried out in 15 provinces suggests around 15% of the total migrant labour pool is now unemployed.

Each year between five and seven million new workers from rural areas come to China’s biggest cities looking for work.

They join a migrant worker labour pool estimated at around 130 million.

There are fears that large numbers of unemployed workers could lead to social unrest.

BBC

China faces surging protests and riots in 2009 as rising unemployment stokes discontent, a state-run magazine said in a blunt warning of the hazards to Communist Party control from a sharp economic downturn.

The unusually stark report in this week’s Outlook (Liaowang) Magazine, issued by the official Xinhua news agency, said faltering growth could spark anger among millions of migrant workers and university graduates left jobless.

“Without doubt, now we’re entering a peak period for mass incidents,” a senior Xinhua reporter, Huang Huo, told the magazine, using the official euphemism for riots and protests.

“In 2009, Chinese society may face even more conflicts and clashes that will test even more the governing abilities of all levels of the Party and government.”

Reuters

China has used its trade surplus with the US to fund its military expansion and to pay for the 10% plus growth it claims for its economy. What happens when the money dries up?

China’s exports have dropped into their biggest decline in a decade.

Exports in December were down 2.8% from the same time last year, a bigger decline than November’s 2.2% drop, the China Daily said.

The numbers provided fresh evidence of a serious trade slump that has caused a wave of factory closures and staff layoffs, analysts said.

The communist leadership has expressed fears of social unrest as economic problems worsen.

BBC

The mainland said on Wednesday [January 7 2009] that it will continue pushing forward dialogue and consultation with Taiwan in the new year by “firmly holding the main theme of peaceful development of the cross-Straits relations”.

Yang Yi, spokesman of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, made the remark at a press conference here.

Yang spoke highly of the recent speech of Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, at a December 31 workshop to mark the 30th anniversary of the mainland’s “Message to Compatriots in Taiwan”.

Hu’s speech summed up 30 years’ experience in developing cross-Straits relations in a comprehensive way, and he made a series of new proposals to develop the relationship, according to the official.

“This important speech is of great significance for us to accomplish Taiwan-related work and open up a new situation in the peaceful development of the cross-Straits relations,” the official said.

Yang discussed progress in developing cross-Straits ties in 2008.

Last year, the ties began entering the track of peaceful development as the pro-independence force failed in a “memorandum” on Taiwan joining the United Nations.

Also, the Taiwan situation showed positive changes, he said, without further elaboration.

Last year, the two sides lifted a decades-long ban on direct trade, mail and transport links; Taiwan compatriots gave selfless support to the quake survivors in the mainland; a pair of pandas arrived in Taiwan as a mainland gift and the mainland announced new measures to deepen cross-Straits cooperation and deal with the global financial crisis, according to the official.

The spokesman said that the mainland has always attached great importance to giving financial assistance to Taiwan-funded companies in the mainland. As of the end of 2007, mainland banks had lent more than 700 billion yuan (102 billion U.S. dollars) to such companies.

Three mainland banks have also agreed to offer 130 billion yuan in new loans to Taiwan-funded companies in the next two or three years.

China Daily

The Chinese National Petroleum Company (CNPC) started work on a $3 billion oil project in Iraq on Friday, the first foreign firm to begin such work since dictator Saddam Hussein nationalised the industry decades ago.

A CNPC delegation formally opened the al-Ahdab oi field project in Iraq’s eastern province of Wasit, officials there said.

“It’s a significant event which signals the first contribution of a foreign company in developing Iraq’s oil fields for three decades,” Wasit governor Latif al-Tarfa told Reuters by telephone.

“The Chinese engineers have located the spot where they will construct a field work site, and all the company’s equipment will reach the southern port of Basra soon.”

Reuters

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Organised crime is on the rise in China, and courts across the country saw a 160% annual increase in gang-related crime in 2007.

“Gang-related crimes have become a threat to our social stability and the economy,” one un-named official from the Public Security Bureau told the China Daily.

“Murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, assault… they dare do anything,” the official said.

He said the construction, transport and mining sectors were all areas that attracted gang crime, but warned that other industries were also increasingly being affected.

With the economic downturn, Chinese authorities are worried that the problem will get even worse, and the new campaign aims to make sure this does not happen.

The official said the authorities would “keep a close eye” on crime resulting from the slowing economy.

Migrant workers are the backbone of China’s economic success, and these farmers-turned-factory workers have been the first to feel the effects of the economic slowdown.

To make matters worse, more than six million students will try to enter China’s workforce during 2009, half a million more than last year.

As many as 10 million people are expected to lose their jobs, and thousands of factories have already closed, says the BBC correspondent in Beijing, Quentin Sommerville.

The government is expecting trouble during 2009, and China’s huge security apparatus is signalling it is prepared to crackdown on anything that disrupts social stability, our correspondent says.

BBC