China: Top Artist and Architect Ai Weiwei Put Under House Arrest

UPDATE 1315 GMT: The Guardian of London reports, "Hundreds of supporters of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei gathered for a party at his condemned studio in Shanghai today, as he remained under house arrest 650 miles away in Beijing."

Chinese avant-garde artist and architectural designer Ai Weiwei is being kept under house arrest for at least another 24 hours to prevent him from attending a party commemorating the forced demolition of his newly-built studio in Shanghai.

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China and Blogging: Breaching the Great Firewall? (The Economist)

China’s military mouthpiece, the Liberation Army Daily, is not a fan of microblogging. On October 19th it said Twitter had caused chaos during Iran’s political turmoil last year, and gave warning that such instant information-sharing tools posed “hidden dangers” to national security. Having blocked access to Twitter, however, China is encouraging home-grown versions. Both the government and its critics have become avid users.

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China Economy Weekly: Economic Restructuring; Interest Rates Rise Amidst Inflation Worries

China Restructuring Economy:  China is seeking breakthroughs in economic restructuring while maintaining stable and relatively fast economic growth, the central committee of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) said on Monday.

"China will further boost people's incomes, enhance social construction and deepen reform and opening-up," said the Party's communique. This would facilitate "substantial progress in transforming the economic development pattern, and markedly promote China's comprehensive national strength, international competitiveness and better shield against risks.

China's Goal for New Strategic Industries: Beijing has announced plans to develop new strategic industries, saying their value-added output of would account for 8% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015 and 15% by 2020.

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China This Week: 11th Five-Year Plan; Sino-US Judicial Cooperation; Beijing on Iran and Israel

The Next Five-Year Plan:  China must make "major breakthroughs" in economic restructuring and maintain stable and relatively fast economic growth, as well as advance "vigorous but steady" political reform, Communist Party leaders have said.

Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee, delivered a report at the four-day Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th Communist Party Central Committee. The meeting examined and approved proposals for formulating the nation's next Five-Year Plan, commencing in 2011.

Navigation in South China Sea: A high-ranking Chinese military officer has responded to Washington's demand for more involvement in the South China Sea, saying that freedom of navigation is never a problem in that region.

"We believe the situation in the region is stable and all the passing ships and planes have a sufficient amount of freedom and security," Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of general staff of the People's Liberation Army, said at a security forum on Friday.

Ma's remarks came two weeks after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the US has a stake in disputes in the area because of international commerce.

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China Economy Weekly: Sino-US Economic Ties; Exchange Rate Moves; Beijing Stake in US Gas and Oil

China Rejects US Clean Energy Probe:  China's Ministry of Commerce has hit back on Sunday at US plans toinvestigate its clean energy policies, calling the move "groundless and irresponsible".

The US move against China's clean energy sector came on the same day that the US Treasury Department postponed, for at least a month, a report on whether China is manipulating its currency for an unfair trade advantage.

The US Treasury said it was withholding its semi-annual report on foreign exchange rate practices until crucial summits are held in November, giving diplomatic pressure on China more time to achieve results.

VP Erges Closer Financial, Economic Ties with US:  Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping pledged Wednesday to enhance bilateral ties with the United States while urging closer financial, economic and trade cooperation between the two nations.

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China This Week: Sino-Russian Partnership; Cooperation With EU, Beijing Going to the Moon

China, Russia Talk Energy, Security, Finance:  China and Russia have issued a joint statement on strategic partnership in energy. 

The two sides pledged cooperation on crude oil, natural gas, coal, electric power, nuclear energy, energy efficiency, and renewable energy, and they looked for a quick consensus on the construction of the Sino-Russian natural gas pipeline. The two sides agreed to promote the development of coal mines, supported by railway and port construction, and to work together on trading of electric power and grid enhancement.

In a statement signed by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Beijing and Moscow called on Asian and Pacific countries to step up efforts to maintain regional security and stability amid mounting threats and challenges in the Asia-Pacific region.

Both sides also agreed to expand bilateral financial cooperation, including mutual trading between the renminbi (RMB), the Chinese currency, and the ruble.

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China This Week: Promises at the UN, Trawler Dispute with Japan, Family Planning

China and UN Co-operation: Speaking at the United Nations, Premier Wen Jiabao gave Beijing's pledge for a more active role in UN affairs.

Meeting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Wen said China has maintained coordination and cooperation with the UN to combat a series of global challenges such as climate change, as well as "hot spot" international and regional issues.

Wen also said China will continue to boost its efforts to ensure fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Wen also announced an Africa-China partnership to strengthen international AIDS prevention and treatment efforts.

According to UN statistics, an estimated 700,000 Chinese people have HIV, with 85,000 suffering from AIDS. There were 50,000 new infections and 20,000 deaths reported in China in 2007.

Wen's meeting with President Obama on Thursday focused China-US trade, the yuan exchange rate, the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, and climate change.

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China and Japan: How A Fishing Boat Led to a Headline Confrontation (Ford)

Several years ago, I worked with a talented Chinese student who wrote a Master's dissertation on the "textbook crisis" about Chinese objections to the portrayal of history in Japanese textbooks. Anger over the representation of Japan's invasion of China in the 1930s led to violent protests and Beijing's threats to reduce ties with Tokyo./p>

I was reminded of this all week as the Sino-Japanese tension escalated over Japan's interception of a Chinese trawler and detention of the captain. Amidst the mounting concern --- some Western media even speculated about what the US would do if China invaded Japan --- I expected the situation to be resolved. And on Friday, my prediction looked good when Japan released the Chinese captain.

Still, the episode illustrates how an apparently minor incident can be elevated to the status of diplomatic crisis....

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