In 2004, there was a plan to put 13 dams along the Nu River, one of the most biodiverse regions of China.  The total output of the dams would surpass that of the Three Gorges Dam, and would be used to supply electricity to Southwest China.  Wen Jiabao put a stop to the projects that year after a public outcry from environmentalists and foreign governments alike.  Later in 2005, some smaller proposals received approval.  It seems that construction has begun on at least one of the dams.  Is there another way for this region to develop and use hydropower for its electricity needs without building dams which harm the natural and social environment?  Maybe the picture seems bleak and the future inevitable, but there are a few signs and examples of a more sustainable route…

Information about the Nu River in Yunnan is also described in the China River Project:

The Nu River flows some 3059 kilometers from the slopes of Tangula Mountain in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau to the northeast corner of the Indian Ocean. For approximately 700 kilometers of this length, it carves what has been called the “Grand Canyon of the East.” The river is flanked by the Gao Li Gong Shan range to the west, and the Bi Luo Snow Mountain and Mei Li Snow Mountain Ranges to the east, forming a canyon of 4500 meters in depth.

The Nu River flows through Yunnan Province in China before it broadens and enters eastern Burma, where it is more commonly known as the Salween River. The Salween River forms a portion of the Burmese-Thai border and empties into the Andaman Sea in Kayin State.

[...] The Nu River is threatened by a proposed cascade of thirteen hydropower dams, which would generate as much power as China’s Three Gorges Dam and would displace local ethnic communities.

For other posts regarding China’s construction of dams and hydropower plants in CDT, follow the hydropower and dams tags.

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China’s buildings officially account for 19% of China’s total energy consumption but according to various Chinese academics, buildings probably account for more like 23%. This is expected to rise to 30% by 2010, broadly in line with the US.

Unfortunately, the paper does not state explicitly what percentage of total CO2 emissions is accounted for by buildings, but since China’s fuel source is so predominantly coal driven, it’s probably fair to say that buildings currently account for about a third of total CO2 emissions. However, according to a presentation at JUCCCE by Marc Porat, CEO of CalStar Cement and Chairman of Serious Materials (see below for more info on CalStar), buildings- both their operation and construction- account for 52% of total CO2 emissions in China.

This is significant, especially when coupled with the data from the global McKinsey Carbon Abatement Cost Curve, which calculates building efficiency to be one of the cheapest sources of carbon abatement available globally. Buildings are therefore a key leverage point for reducing carbon emissions in a cost-effective manner.

To understand how China is tackling the challenge of carbon emission, you can follow the CDT green building tag for more posts.

Although it is difficult to say conclusively that the two events are linked, reports of tighter control, stepped-up patrols and increased paramilitary presence in Lhasa, the regional capital, and along major transport arteries coincide with a key strategy meeting attended by exiles in northern India this week.

“We’ve monitored an even more intense crackdown in the past couple of weeks,” Kate Saunders, communication director with the advocacy group International Campaign for Tibet, said today. “The Chinese authorities have clearly been very rattled by the fact they were taken unaware this spring and summer.”

Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama has called on his host country, India, to help Tibet. From Times of India:

“India and Tibet is having the relationship of a ‘guru and chela’ (teacher and disciple) and when chela (disciple) is in trouble, the guru (teacher) must look after him,” the Nobel laureate said here.

It has also been reported that a top policymaker for the Chinese government on Tibet has been fired, though the reasons are not yet clear. Reuters reports:

Bi Hua was asked to step down recently as director of the No. 7 bureau of the Party’s United Front Work Department, the independent sources with knowledge of the case said, requesting anonymity for fear of repercussions.

It was not clear what prompted Bi’s removal from the helm of the bureau, which oversees Tibetan affairs.

The Ministry of Health said on Thursday that 1,041 infants around China were still receiving hospital treatment for kidney damage caused by tainted powdered milk.

One was in serious condition, the ministry said.

[...] Another 50,741 infants have recovered and been discharged since mid-September, when a scandal erupted over milk containing a chemical, melamine.

China is stealing sensitive information from American computer networks and stepping up its online espionage, according to a US congressional panel.

Beijing’s investment in rocket technology is also accelerating the militarisation of outer space and lifting it into the “commanding heights” of modern warfare, the advisory group claims. The strident warning, which may have a chilling effect on relations between the two Pacific powers, comes in the annual report of the US-China economic and security review commission due today.

A summary of the study, released in advance, alleges that networks and databases used by the US government and American defence contractors are regularly targeted by Chinese hackers. “China is stealing vast amounts of sensitive information from US computer networks,” says Larry Wortzel, chairman of the commission set up by Congress in 2000 to investigate US-China issues.

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“The Chinese government has started to loosen its control on the negative information,” said one of the sources, an academic close to the propaganda authorities who declined to be identified. “They are trying to control the news by publicizing the news.”

A Communist Party official confirmed that the policy on dissemination of news had gradually changed this year.

“It’s almost impossible to block anything nowadays, when information can spread very quickly on the Internet,” said the official, who was not identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media. “We also noticed that it will benefit us if we report the news first.”

“We feel deep regret that the US insists on unilaterally taking these steps,” [Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Qin Gang] told a regular news briefing.

“We hope the US can pay great attention to Chinese concerns, as these steps will have an effect on bilateral trade,” he added.

“We hope the US… can lift the ban as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has opened an office in Beijing - the first time an office has been opened outside of the U.S.  This office is intended to ensure the product safety of China-made exports destined for U.S. markets, and will be staffed with FDA food experts and inspectors:

“In the past we have always been at our borders to try and catch things that were not safe or did not meet our standards,” US Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the Beijing office. “In the future our new strategy is to build safety into products at every step of the way.”

After meetings with Chinese officials on Tuesday, Leavitt said both countries would work on a joint initiative to use better technology for detecting contamination, demand greater corporate responsibility and increase sharing of data and information.

The Health and Human Services (HHS) press release states:

“We’re opening up a new era, not just new offices,” [HHS] Secretary Leavitt said. “By having a presence in other parts of the world, we can work more closely with manufacturers and other governments, better share best practices and further ensure that quality and safety are built into food and consumer products at the point of manufacture.”

“A permanent FDA presence in China will help us address the challenges presented by globalization,” Commissioner von Eschenbach said. “We look forward to working with the Chinese government and manufacturers to ensure that FDA standards for safety and manufacturing quality are met before products ship to the United States.”

The FDA has plans to build offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou, as well as cities in India, Latin America and Europe.

See also the news video US to create FDA Office in Beijing.

For more information, see CDT’s past posts on food safety.

Land acquisition and city relocation

[...]“2008年11月17 日上午9时30分开始，甘肃省陇南市武都区东江镇30多名拆迁户再次集体到陇南市委上访，要求对陇南市行政中心搬迁后他们面临的住房、土地和今后的生活等 问题做出答复。11月17日下午，大批群众和居民在陇南市委门前集体上访，陇南市委和相关部门的干部及时进行了接访，但未与上访人员意见达成一致。当晚， 聚集和围观群众陆续增加，围堵至凌晨，未见到主要领导。由于未知原因，人群冲入市委院内，打碎玻璃，砸毁汽车，烧毁部分办公室，引发了这次次的严重冲突。”

At 9:30am of Nov 17, more than 30 petitioners from Dongjiang town, Wudu district, Lungnan City paid the petition visit to the city committee. Because of the land acquisition, people are homeless and landless, now that the city is to relocated to another district, they demand the city committee to explain the situation and whether the government have any relief plan for them. In the afternoon, more people gathered in front of the city committee. Although the city officials had arranged a meeting with the petitioners, there was no consensus. More and more people gathered outside the city committee in the evening until midnight expecting to see city leader. For some unknown reason, some people rushed into the courtyard of city committee, broke the windows and vehicles and set fire on part of the office. Such action leaded to this serious confrontation.

Police’s trap

A secondary school youth from Wudu gave more background on this confrontation in the comment section:

“原因是搬迁之事政府在很早以前就出来辟谣，告诉群众不要相信谣言，况且还为此逮捕了６名所谓的传谣者．更重要的是自从王义 来武都做市委书记以后，拆了很多的民房，尤其是武都东江镇，毫不夸张的说一个很大的镇子被移为平地，数万人没了自己的家，王义给群众的答案是要把东江建成 陇南新城，群众没有说什么他们相信政府，东江镇的居民全部住进了临时安置房，没有人抱怨，因为他们相信党会让他们过的更好！可是王义要一走了之，要那么多 人永远无家可归，大家说人们能不愤怒吗？．５１２武都人民都没有被吓倒，１１月１７日武都人真的愤怒了，他们自发聚集在市委抗议，武都人是很文明的，开始 只喊喊口号＂反对搬迁＂没人那么过激，然而在１７日夜群众愤怒了．在１７日夜有几个维持执安的成县武警把几个群众抓到市委大楼拳打脚踢，致使重伤，群众忍 无可忍冲进大楼只是想救出群众，抓出打人者，可是没等人走近又是一阵警棒石块，这才越闹越大．到目前已有上百人被捕，很多人受了伤，生命垂危，更可气的 是，调来的军车上竟写着＂反恐精英＂在抗震救灾在中人民解放军树立的深厚情谊被王义在一夜之间瓦解了！”

The government had been preaching to the people not to believe in rumor and they had arrested 6 so-called rumor makers. Since Wang Yi became the secretary of city committee, a lot of residential buildings had been demolished, especially in Wudu Dongjiang town. It is not exaggerating to say that the whole town had been demolished and thousands of people lost their home. Wang Yi explained to the people that Dongjiang would become Lungnan new city center. People believed the government and willingly moved into temporary housing. No one complained because they believed in the party’s good will to improve their life. However, now that Wang Yi decided to move away and left behind so many homeless people. How can they not be angry? During the 5.12 earthquake, people wasn’t panicking. In Nov 17, people were really angry, they protested in front of the city committee spontaneously. People in Wudu are very civilized, at first they just shout slogan: “no relocation”. However, later at night, some police from Cheng County pushed a number of protesters into the city committee building and beat them hard. People couldn’t stand anymore, they rushed in to rescue their fellow and tried to get hold of the attackers. However, the police insiders received them with rods and stones. Then the situation became out of control. More than a hundred people had been arrested now, many were injured, some are fatal. It is more agitating that the military vehicles moving in carry a slogan “counter terrorist force”. The image of earthquake rescuing team has vanished over night.

Information blocked

Another comment urges people to help spreading the news:

“到11月18日，至少已经有数十名无辜群众遭暴打致死。消息都封锁了，很多更真实的照片都发不出来。而在这个帖子里，竟然 是政府的御用笔杆在那里乱打官腔，群众的感情他们根本就是在当做垃圾,而百姓的言论遭到大量的封锁，只能发布在少数冷门论坛里，根本无法引起外界重视。我 们死了很多同胞，至少我们不希望他们死的太冤，在死后还要被冠以“暴民”的帽子。市委书记拆完了，招商了，引资了，要调离拍屁股走人了，很难不能让人相信 他背后的动作。甘肃省委不明真相，封锁消息，这种大事连四百公里外的省会兰州都没有多少人知道！天理何在？我们的意见，我们的冤屈难道就这样被强权和官僚 们压制！？无奈之下，只能希望大家口口相传，让更多的人知道真相。希望能够引起关注。就在刚才，大街上防暴警察还在向群众释放催泪瓦斯，官逼民反，民不得 不反。天理何在，希望大家了解真相，让更多的人都了解真相，大家都转帮忙传一下。谢谢。”

In Nov 18, tens of protesters had been beaten to death. Information had been blocked and photos could not be released. However, this post (translator note: from another forum) has adopted the official stand - they disregarded people’s emotion and much of their opinions had been blocked. Their voices could only appear in a small number of forum with very few visitors. They couldn’t attract public attention. We have lost a number of fellows and we hope that their deaths deserve some respect, not to be called as “rioters”. The secretary of the city committee had done with the demolition, had done with contracting out project and business, had done with attracting capital, now he is ready to go and leave people behind. He have lost his credibility. The Gansu province committee doesn’t know the truth and blocks the information. Such big incident was not even reported in Lanzhou. Where is our justice? Should our opinion and our sufferings be repressed by the bureaucrats like that? We can only depends on people to pass on the information and raise concern. Just now, the riot police are still firing tear gas to the people. The people have to resist. I wish you will understand the truth and let it known to others. Please pass on the information, thank you.

The Chinese portions of these quotes were originally aggregated in a post by Chinese blogger Beifeng.  Beifeng’s post appears to have been deleted.  The link which Lam provides to Beifeng’s blog, hosted on Bullog.cn, leads to an error page:

However, Beifeng’s original Chinese post has been reproduced on two other BBS forums.

See CDT’s previous post on the Longnan riots.

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A monk leaps over a stream, by zdzarski.junior

In both provinces, officials attributed the unrest to local disagreements or land disputes rather than to the economic slowdown. But leaders have also expressed concern about factory closings, promising to compensate many of those who have lost their jobs in the downturn.

Wang Jinli, a 50-year-old Wudu farmer, said she saw police beat residents in front of the Longnan party secretary’s offices Monday and Tuesday, then watched as ambulances took the injured away. “They used their sticks to beat passersby no matter whether they were young or old,” Wang said, adding that more than 100 people had been arrested.

“Although I don’t have money, the economic recession is related to everyone,” she said. “Right now, people can make a living even by picking up garbage, but if they move the city government, where will we find garbage? We eat rice and flour now, but if the center moves away, we will all be eating corn. It will move the economy back 20 years.”

AFP also reports on a statement on the riots put out by the local government:

At least 60 people, including police and officials, were injured during the riots, according to a statement on the government website of Longnan city in Gansu province, where the violence occurred.

“Protesters used iron rods, chains, axes, hoes… to attack officials and policemen at close proximity,” the statement said.

They also threw stones, bricks and flowers pots at the officials and police in front of the local government building, and attempted to hijack a fire truck that came to put out a blaze they started, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, China Daily reports on statements by the nation’s top public security official encouraging local cops to build “harmonious” relations with the people:

Speaking at a teleconference with local police heads, State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu said police should “be fully aware of the challenge brought by the global financial crisis and try their best to maintain social stability”.

They must improve methods of law enforcement using “harmonious thinking to ease conflicts”, and by having “a harmonious attitude toward people”, he said.

In an earlier article, Meng said: “In handling mass incidents, we must be clear that the chief tasks of the public security authorities are to maintain order at the scene, ease conflicts, avoid excessive steps and prevent the situation from getting out of control.”

Update: In related news, in responding to a reporter’s question about whether labor unrest was the top concern for the Human Resources and Social Security Ministry, the top minister acknowledged that the employment situation is “grim,” according to a Xinhua report:

Human Resources and Social Security Minister Yin Weimin on Thursday described China’s job picture as “grim” and said the global financial crisis could have further negative effects on employment.

Yin also said in response to a reporter’s question that labor unrest was the ministry’s “top concern”.

Worsening global conditions had begun to weigh on the job market last month, with unemployment resulting as some enterprises, especially smaller labor-intensive ones, shut down or suspended production, Yin told a press conference in Beijing.

Also, 30 people have reportedly been arrested for the Gansu riots.

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Some may say that I am crazy. I reply that I would have gone crazy if I didn’t write down what’s on my mind. I’ve been to many places and taken on various jobs. My jobs are mostly related to public administration, public service, and to the search for truth…I can’t emphasize more the significance of blogging to my life. It is a bridge that connects my past with my present, and with my future. It’s a bridge that connects me with my mother and my offspring. It’s a spiritual home I built for myself.

…Why do I say that blogging connects us with our mothers and our future? Just think about it for a moment: without blogging, how could we know where Yang Jia’s mother was? We would have no way to know her whereabouts because not a single newspaper would publish stories on her.

Without the help of the Internet, how could the mothers of the enslaved child laborers in the brick kilns of Shanxi find their children?

Without the Internet, the state-controlled mainstream media would fool us. They might make us believe that the more people died in the earthquake, the better it was, since “a nation would become stronger after the test of disasters.” They might have made us expect that the devastating earthquake would bring about a new China. Because of the Internet, we are able to tell that a new China has not been born out of the earthquake. Mothers who had lost their children to the earthquake were weeping alone at the school backpacks left behind by their kids…

Without the Internet, how would the mother in Shenzhen expose the high-ranking official who harassed her 12-year-old daughter and reviled the family?

Without the Internet, we could never have believed that thousands of loving mothers had fed their babies with poisonous milk power, and helplessly watched their darlings struggling in pain, till they eventually left this world.

Thanks to the Internet, the suffering of the mothers aroused sympathy. Their outcry was echoed. And their tears were wiped away by us with the help of the connected computers. Because of the Internet, and because of blogging, we see a ray of hope, and we can’t help dreaming.

Dr. Martin Luther King claimed 45 years ago that “I have a dream.” His dream was simply that his children could go to school together and play together with white children. He sacrificed his life for this dream. But it’s worthwhile, for his dream has been realized in the United States today.

At the time that Dr. King’s dream came true, we suddenly realized that we once had dreams as well. In the year of 2009, will we remember our old dreams? Sixty years ago, we dreamed that “the Chinese people have finally stood up”; twenty years ago, we dreamed that…. Let’s rekindle our dreams again!

Dr. King had only one dream, but I have many. Some of them might sound laughable. Some might make people feel like crying … So I won’t tell you about them today. But I know that many friends share the same dreams with me.

Although I don’t talk about them today, it doesn’t mean that I have given up on the dreams. We can never make dreams come true if we don’t have any. As long as we have dreams, we won’t lose hope. With hope we can say, Yes, we can make a difference.

Yes, we can!

Our ancestors had various dreams of their own in the long history of the Chinese people. They could only bury them deep in their heart, however. Now the Internet and blogging have come to us. I will continue to talk about my dreams on my blog, carefully nurture them, and share them with you……

That’s all I want to say to you today. I hope I will see you again next year at the conference, or on the Internet, or in the blogosphere. I hope we can meet again in our dreams, meet again in the future, a future we create together.

Yes, we can!
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Hecaitou is very prominent among Chinese bloggers and is well-known for his wit. This was his first time attending the blogger conference. This is an excerpt of his impressions of the first day of the conference, translated by CDT’s Lucy Lin:

The annual conference is basically an anniversary for bloggers. Almost all the active bloggers on the Chinese Internet showed up, and more than fifty business cards were exchanged. Participants shook hands, nodded to each other, smiled, took photos, and talked enthusiastically. A person wearing a poor-quality suit standing at the side constantly took pictures of the participants of the conference. No one knew who he was or why he was there. About 20% of the participants were foreigners, and another significant subgroup was media personnel. The shutter sounds from cell phones and cameras could be heard offstage at the slightest movement. During the Chinese Bloggers Conference, the shutter sound is the basic language for human interaction.

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The person “wearing a poor-quality suit” in Hecaitou’s post refers to what appears to be a plainclothes officer, who is also described in the post below, by Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer and blogger, translated by CDT’s Lucy Lin:

On the morning of November 15, the Fourth Annual Chinese Bloggers Conference was being held at the Xing Fang 60 at the Guangzhou Xinghai Institute. When I arrived there at around 9:00am, lots of people were already lining up outside the convention waiting to be registered. At that moment, suddenly a police vehicle came and a policeman stepped out. He told the staff, “Someone reported that there is an assembly here with lots of people. Go find the person in charge and have him explain the situation.”

Seeing that the police had come, the young staff members quickly went to find the organizer of the conference.

The police asked, “Why didn’t you report this? A conference with so many people must get approval first.”

When I heard that the conference must receive approval from the police, I was very surprised. According to this logic, must we obtain approval from the police for the National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference?!

I really wanted to retort, but someone persuaded me not to, in case the police made a fuss out of it and found fault with me.

Mr. Mao, the organizer of the conference, explained the situation to the police, and the police finally left after reviewing the conference agenda.

Because there wasn’t enough space at the convention site, one of the panel discussions had to be moved to another school. After the announcement was posted, the school suddenly received a notice from the upper department in charge, saying that the panel could not be held there. The host of the conference was forced to cancel the panel in order not to cause any trouble for the school.

On the afternoon of November 16, someone noticed that there was an uninvited stranger at the conference. Therefore, some reporters purposely sought to talk to the stranger and asked for an exchange of business cards. This man did not want to exchange business cards and was indifferent. He was even more afraid of having his picture taken.

A genuine participant would politely exchange business cards with others upon request at such a gathering. Even if he had no business card, he would still be willing to leave his contact telephone number and converse with people at the same time, for we were all bloggers or internet technology innovators, who share the same hobby and interests.

I also went to see this uninvited stranger when I heard about him, and I felt that this person definitely wasn’t a conference participant.

This was the fourth Annual Chinese Bloggers Conference, with the primary subject being technological innovations, a generally moderate topic, seldom touching on sensitive subjects. Why were the police interested in such an annual conference? Was it because that there were foreigners in attendance?

This time I participated in the conference as an honored guest. Since I did not have to go on the stage and participate in the discussion as I did last year, I was much more relaxed without any real tasks to complete.

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This morning the Los Angeles Times reported on a riot in Gansu that was touched off over disagreements on city planning issues. The report comes on the heels of an uptick in news in the last week on local protests in China. It is unclear if this increased coverage represents an actual increase in local protests (based on reports from the Chinese government in recent years, there are hundreds of local protests each week in China) or if the economic crisis has simply increased the relevance of these protests.

But much of the coverage we’ve been reading has been less concerned with how representative these protests are; rather China watchers are focusing on what the government’s response to both protestors and media coverage tells us about a new CCP public relations attitude. Below, a selection of recent reports.

From the AP:

China’s retail sales remained robust in October, a positive sign for Chinese leaders who want to boost consumer spending to insulate the economy from a global slowdown.

Retail spending rose 22 percent in October from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. That was down from September’s 23.2 percent growth but still one of the strongest months on record.

In addition to consumer spending, FDI was also up on an annualized basis.  From Bloomberg:

Foreign direct investment in China climbed 35.1 percent to $81.1 billion in the first 10 months of 2008 from a year earlier.

[...]The government’s Nov. 9 pledge to boost spending on housing and infrastructure to sustain growth may encourage overseas investors to keep channeling money into the fourth- biggest economy. PepsiCo Inc., the world’s largest snack maker, said it plans to invest $1 billion in China in the next four years to increase production and sales.

Inflation has steadily decreased, and it was recently announced by the National Bureau of Statistics that China’s inflation rate fell to 4 percent in October, consistent with this forecast from TIME:

After wrestling to control rising inflation over the past 18 months, the government reported recently that China’s Producer Price Index “declined sharply to 6.6% year-on-year in October, from 9.1% in September,” Ulrich of JPMorgan wrote in her report. She noted that the Consumer Price Index, which will be released this week, will also moderate further from last month’s level of 4.6%, which was the fifth successive monthly decline.

Farmers in Shanghai unload shocks of chives at the marketplace.

Tempering expectations of the $586 billion stimulus package’s efficacy, TIME also reports that:

“I think that we’ll see a couple of weak quarters in 2009,” Simpfendorfer says. While the size of the package was welcome, “it’s the speed of its implementation that is really important,” he says. “My concern is that the contraction in demand will take place before the fiscal policies have time to take effect.” To an economy heavily dependent on exports, that period between stimulus and response could have significant implications. With up to 2.5 million migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta forecast to lose their jobs in the coming months as the worldwide economic crunch deepens and many already flooding back home to their villages, some political analysts have expressed concern that social unrest in rural areas could worsen.

An official from the Culture Ministry visited the editor-in-chief of Yanhuang Chunqiu magazine at his home on Friday, seeking his resignation.

The official told editor Du Daozheng that a retired leader had taken offence at the magazine’s favourable treatment of Mr Zhao, whose name has been taboo in the media for 19 years.

But 85-year-old Du has been a feisty stalwart of the Communist Party since 1937 and his publication enjoys protection through progressive senior party officials.

Mr. Du refused the official’s suggestion that he retire, and “said the matter had become a major issue and may trigger intervention from senior party officials,” according to The Age. Read more about Du Daozheng and Yanhuang Chunqiu in a post last year from CDT’s Biganzi.

Mr. Stuart died in Washington in 1962. He had written in his will that he hoped his remains would some day be buried in China, where he had been born the son of Christian missionaries in 1876 and had helped found a prominent university, but where he was no longer welcome.

For decades, the answer from Beijing seemed to be no.

But on Monday, 46 years after his death and after years of sensitive negotiations about the political implications of such a burial, Mr. Stuart’s ashes were laid to rest at a cemetery near the eastern city of Hangzhou, about two hours south of Shanghai.

A small ceremony honoring Mr. Stuart on Monday was attended by Chinese and American officials, including the mayor of Hangzhou and the United States ambassador, Clark Randt Jr., as well as several alumni of Yenching University in Beijing, the institution Mr. Stuart helped found.

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China will impose a long-awaited fuel tax “very soon,” the head of National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) Energy Research Institute said in comments reported on Tuesday by the China Daily.

“The announcement will come very soon, and actually specific plans have already been suggested to the government long ago,” Han Wenke, director general of the research body, was quoted as saying.

More than a decade in the works, the fuel tax — experts expect 25 percent or more will be heaped upon retail pump prices — is meant to replace road tolls as a means to fund highway construction.

Woeser’s fans have plenty of reasons to worry that she’ll be thrown in jail soon.

The famed Tibetan writer has sued the Chinese government. She’s investigating the March uprising in Tibet. She articulates the repression that many Tibetans feel, flouting the official line that they like Chinese rule – all from a modest, high-rise apartment in Beijing.

The government here bans her work. But from Tennessee to Tibet, her fans hang on every unauthorized poem, essay, and blog. To them, she risks her life to tell the “real” Tibetan story – a narrative that unites the Tibetan community even as it diverges over politics, a hot topic this week at a rare summit in Dharamsala, India, called by the Dalai Lama.

“She brings a unique combination of experience and ability at the moment, [and] she’s willing to stand up,” says Elliot Sperling, a Tibet expert at Indiana University in Bloomington. Her writings “contribute significantly to the general perception of what’s going on in Tibet.”

In February, the Fuan textile factory became one of the first major casualties of China’s anti-pollution campaign when the multimillion-dollar company was shut down for dumping waste from dyes into a neighboring river and turning it red.

But as the country’s economy began to cool this fall and job losses mounted, the company was resurrected. Encouraged by the government, Fuan changed its name, moved to a new location and quietly reopened.

With the global economy at the edge of recession, China appears to be turning away from previous pledges to improve its record on environmental protection. In this, China is hardly alone: A climate-change proposal in Europe that a few months ago seemed like a sure thing has now divided the continent because of its anticipated expense, and worldwide, money for the development of renewable energy sources has been drying up.

Two police officers have been arrested over the beating death of a college student in a nightclub in northeastern China — a move apparently aimed at quelling increasing public anger at a force often accused of corruption and abuse of power.

Recent weeks have seen a series of riots and attacks against government offices and police, sparked by alleged assaults on citizens and more general complaints over corruption and opaque decision-making. The arrests in the industrial center of Harbin come as the government has expressed concern that a souring economy could further stoke the unrest.

Harbin police on Tuesday called a news conference to announce the arrests of Liu Linan and Qixin over the beating death of Lin Songling, a 22-year-old student at the provincial university of physical education. Both were identified as officers with the city police’s railway division.

Tibetan exiles worked Tuesday to hammer out a new strategy for their fight against Chinese rule, as Beijing warned that embracing a pro-independence policy was “doomed” to failure.

More than 500 prominent Tibetans have gathered at the government in exile’s base in northern India to debate whether to ditch the Dalai Lama’s push for “meaningful autonomy” in favour of a demand for full independence.

B. Tsering, a delegate and president of the Tibetan Women’s Association, said the week of discussions could re-define the movement.

“Everyone feels the big responsibility entrusted to us,” she said after the first sessions of debate. “And there is concern that we are trying to come up with a solid strategic plan in just a few days.

Read also China stance on Tibet clouds exile talks in India from AP.