Current Events Summary 2.2 (China)

Throughout the year, the state power in China has consistently declined. China started the month of December by having their first ever "high-level economic dialogue" with Japan. Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan and Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura co-chaired the meeting by discussing issues such as macro-economic policies, energy-saving and environmental protection, trade and investment,and economic cooperation. Not long after the visit from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, China denied permission for an American aircraft carrier battle group to visit Hong Kong. The New York Times claims it was because of the Bush administration’s proposal to sell upgrades to Patriot anti-missile batteries to Taiwan. Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said that President Bush’s meeting with the Dalai Lama in Washington in October had damaged ties between the two countries. Not to mention that China is still concerned with past conflict with the U.S. such as when port visits in Hong Kong were suspended in 1999 when the United States bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and again after the accidental 2001 mid-air collision.
As a result to the "One China" foreign policy, the Dalai Lama, leader of Tibet, wants freedom for his country and to escape the grasp of the Chinese government. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman commented on their opposition of the issue. "Dalai is a political exile cloaked under religion but engaged in splittist and peace-sabotaging attempts. Japanese opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa met with Chinese President Hu Jintao to discuss trade and diplomatic relations. Mr. Ozawa told reporters that he travels to Beijing annually as part of grassroots exchange program. Japan's efforts were acknowledged by China's President Hu Jintao in a meeting with Foreign Minister Masahiko Komuraon. Jintao commented to Ozawa, "You have worked hard to develop China-Japan relations. We applaud this... We can say your visit has been successful in pushing for more progress in trade and commerce and in the overall relations between our nations."

China also recently met with the Vietnamese to discuss plans to create a four-lane highway from Hanoi to Kunming to promote trade between the two countries. Unfortunately, the construction of this road will require the demolition of about 1,900 homes and force the resettlement of some 25,000 people. Bai Chunli, one of China's top chemists, became the first Chinese scientist honored by the Royal Society of Chemistry of the United Kingdom for his innovative research on chemistry. An RSC chief executive officer granted the certificates of the honorary fellow of the RSC to Bai in Beijing. Bai has earned most of the major national science awards and was named an RSC fellow in 2006.