China boosts marine surveillance

2 May 2011 Last updated at 07:32 GMT China has been taking an increasingly tough line on its maritime territorial claims in recent months China is to expand its ocean monitoring agency to protect its maritime interests, a senior official has said.

China Marine Surveillance's Sun Shuxian said 1,000 new personnel would be added as well as new equipment.

Sea patrols would be carried out more frequently "to strengthen law enforcement in Chinese-related waters", the China Daily quoted him as saying.

In recent months tension has risen between China and regional neighbours over overlapping maritime claims.

Many of the disputed islands lie in rich fishing grounds or close to areas with oil or gas reserves.

A bitter diplomatic row erupted between China and Japan last year over disputed islands in the East China Sea called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

In the South China Sea, meanwhile, multiple countries including China claim sovereignty over the Spratly and Paracel groupings.

Mr Sun, the agency's deputy director, said that as well as increasing staff, another 36 inspection ships would be added over the next five years.

"New equipment will be installed on part of the inspection fleet to improve law enforcement capacity," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

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Bric China summit seeks influence

14 April 2011 Last updated at 03:25 GMT By Martin Patience BBC News, Beijing India and China have a lot to talk about on the sidelines of the Bric summit The leaders of the so-called Bric nations are meeting in China for a day.

South Africa has become the fifth member of the Bric nations - which currently includes Brazil, Russia, India and China.

The summit is set to focus on reforms to the global financial system - they have 40% of the world's population and almost a fifth of the world's growth.

It is little wonder then that the so called Brics want a greater say in global affairs.

The organisation was formed as a counterweight to Western powers.

And ever since the global financial crisis, the influence of the Brics - particularly of China - has grown.

This summit is set to focus on economic issues such as rules governing international trade.

While the Bric nations have been driving global economic growth it is still unclear whether the organisation itself will become truly influential.

All the countries broadly support free trade and oppose protectionism.

Where they have similar interests - such as climate change - they have taken a united position.

But on many other issues the countries have found little to agree upon.

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China criticises US 'preaching'

10 April 2011 Last updated at 03:47 GMT China's crackdown on dissent has sparked outrage in other parts of the world China has told the US to stop preaching on human rights, after the state department's annual report on the issue criticised China.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the US should concentrate on its own rights issues and stop interfering.

Chinese authorities have launched a major crackdown on dissent recently.

Unveiling the report, US officials expressed particular concern over the recent arrest of the artist Ai Weiwei, an outspoken critic of the government.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also highlighted reports of other intellectuals and activists being "arbitrarily detained" in recent weeks.

Mr Hong said China was happy to talk about rights "on the basis of equality and mutual respect", but added that Beijing "resolutely opposes" meddling in other country's affairs.

"We advise the US side to reflect on its own human rights issues and not to position itself as a preacher of human rights," he said.

"[The US should] stop using the issue of human rights reports to interfere in other countries' internal affairs."

The state department's annual report criticising China, followed swiftly by a tough riposte from Beijing, is now a well-established diplomatic ritual.

But analysts say this year's tit-for-tat exchange has been sharpened by Beijing's crackdown on dissent.

The US report accused Beijing of stepping up restrictions on lawyers, activists, bloggers and journalists.

The Communist rulers were also accused of tightening controls on civil society and stepping up efforts to control the press and internet access.

The Beijing authorities also increased the use of forced disappearances, house arrest, and detention in illicit "black jails" to punish activists, petitioners and their families, the US report says.

Other countries accused of perpetrating serious rights violations in the report included Iran, Iraq, Burma, North Korea, the Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

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China activist 'beaten by police'

11 February 2011 Last updated at 08:31 GMT Damian Grammaticas: "For five months the blind activist says he has lived under this 24 hour surveillance"

A prominent Chinese activist and his wife are reported to have been beaten following the release of a video showing their house arrest.

Chen Guangcheng and his wife, Yuan Weijin, were badly injured by security officials, according to the group Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

It says the beating came after the release of a secretly shot film showing Mr Chen as a prisoner in his own home.

He said he has been under surveillance since his release from jail last year.

Mr Chen - one of China's best-known activists - was imprisoned after claiming the authorities had carried out forced abortions.

'Not life threatening'

Chinese Human Rights Defenders told the BBC that a trusted source informed the organisation about the attack.

"The person said the beating was related to the video that was released," said the defenders' spokeswoman Wang Songlian.

"The beating was not light, but not life-threatening either."

She added that the source had said Mr Chen and his wife had not been allowed to get medical treatment.

The BBC could not independently verify the claims made by the organisation.

The film showing Mr Chen under house arrest was released by the US-based campaign group China Aid

In it the activist said: "I've come out of a small jail and entered a bigger one."

His phone has been cut off, and men and vehicles block access to his house. Anyone who tries to help him is threatened, he said.

"I cannot take even half a step out of my house. My wife is not allowed to leave either. Only my mother can go out and buy food to keep us going," said the activist, who used to offer legal advice to local people.

Mr Chen has been held ever since he completed a four-year prison term in September.

He had accused local officials of coercing up to 7,000 women in his province, Shandong, into forced abortions or sterilisations.

He was convicted though of damaging property and disrupting the traffic.

Last month the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton highlighted Mr Chen's case, calling for his release together with the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and another detained lawyer Gao Zhisheng.

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China rail minister investigated

12 February 2011 Last updated at 15:48 GMT Li Zhijun had been railways minister since 2003 China's Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun has been placed under investigation "for serious disciplinary violations", the state-run Xinhua news agency says.

It gave no details, but in the past similar language has been used to refer to allegations of corruption.

Mr Liu was also replaced as the ministry's Communist Party secretary.

He had been minister since 2003, leading an ongoing multi-billion dollar investment programme in China's railway network.

He has not publicly commented on the allegations against him.

Last year, China publicly admitted in a report that its corruption problem was "still very serious", setting out new measures to tackle it.

The report said that more than 200,000 cases - including embezzlement and bribery - had been investigated since 2003.

The document was released after the introduction of new rules requiring members of the governing Communist Party to report incomes and investments.

However, critics say corruption is ingrained in the system and new regulations will not solve the problem.

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