China - Jan 2014

1. China has overtaken India to become the largest contributor of Foreign Direct Investment to Nepal over the first six months of the current fiscal year, underlining the rising Chinese economic presence — and strategic influence — in the country.This marked a three-fold rise from the same period in the previous 2011-12 fiscal year, where Chinese investment reached $55 million.
2. In early December, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a bilateral treaty and issued a joint statement that said “China pledges unconditionally not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against the nuclear-free Ukraine and China further pledges to provide Ukraine nuclear security guarantee when Ukraine encounters an invasion involving nuclear weapons or Ukraine is under threat of a nuclear invasion.”In recent years, Ukraine has provided China with the Zubr-class amphibious hovercraft, the Soviet Varyag aircraft carrier (refurbished into China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier), and hundreds of Russian-made aircraft engines. The partnership guarantees that Ukraine will continue to provide China with military technology and technical expertise as Beijing continues military modernization efforts.
3. China has embarked on a program to build its own aircraft carrier

China - Dec 2013

One Child Policy

• The one-child policy was introduced in 1979 in China. 
• Under the earlier family planning policy, couples could have two children only if both parents were from one-child families. In rural areas, couples can have two children if their first born is a girl.
• In Dec 2013 , loosened this policy to  allow couples to have a second child if either parent is an only child.
• The working population will fall by 8 million every year after 2023, with those above 60 years of age reaching 400 million and accounting for one-quarter of the population in the next two decades.

Labour Camps

• Initially introduced in 1950 for minor crimes.
• Under the reeducation through labour system, accused can be held for up to four years without a trial.
• China  formally abolished its controversial labour camps “re-education” system in Dec 2013

China-Japan Relation

Senkakau/Diayou

Conflicts : 

Senkakau / Diayou Island Conflict in East China Sea : 

• There is raging dispute between China and Japan over the sovereignty of Senkakau(Japan) / Diayou(China) islands arise in september 2012.
• China claims sovereignty over the uninhabited islands, while Japan has the administrative control over them.
• Senkakau is a located in East China Sea consisting of group of islands having 5 inhabited and 3 barren rocks island.
• Aside from a 1945 to 1972 period of administration by the United States, the archipelago has been controlled by Japan since 1895. The People's Republic of China (PRC) disputed the proposed US handover of authority to Japan in 1971 and has

India-China Defense Cooperation Agreement

There is no commonly delineated Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China. There are areas along the border where India and China have differing perceptions of the LAC. Due to both sides undertaking patrolling upto their respective perceptions of the LAC, transgressions do occur.  Government regularly takes up any transgression with the Chinese side through established mechanisms.

Both countries signed a Border Defence Cooperation Agreement on 23^rd October, 2013, seeking to facilitate ways and means to implement border defence cooperation; measures to facilitate contacts and to enhance understanding and cooperation between the border

East China Sea Conflcit

Setting up of ADIZ by China 

China announced to set up an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the Senkakau / Diayou islands in East China Sea and notified that Airlines passing by should give prior information to Chinese authorities.Non-compliance to this can result in "emergency defensive measures" i.e military measures.

Aftermath 

Raised tensions in East China sea region where there is raging dispute between China and Japan over the sovereignty of Senkakau / Diayou islands.China claims sovereignty over the uninhabited islands, while Japan has the administrative control over them. The South

China

• 12th Plan stresses hydropower from Yarlung Zangbo(Brahmaputra).

• China has, so far, only begun construction on one major hydropower dam on the main stream of the middle reaches of the Brahmaputra or Yarlung Zangbo as it is known in China – a 510 MW project in Zangmu in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR)
• A 640 MW dam will be built in Dagu, which lies 18 km upstream of Zangmu. Another 320 MW dam will be built at Jiacha, also on the middle reaches of the
  Brahmaputura downstream of Zangmu. A third dam will be built at Jiexu, 11 km upstream of Zangmu.
• Chinese Culture : Peking Opera and ballet
• Chinese maritime surveillance vessels have repeatedly entered Japanese-claimed waters around the islands since last September, when Japan’s government

Russia-China Ties

• Since March 2013, Xi Jinping has traveled overseas three times. His first visit after taking office was to Russia. On the same trip, he took in three African countries and attended the BRICS Summit in South Africa.


• In June 2013 , Xi visited three Latin American countries and held a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama in California. For this forthcoming G20 and SCO trip, Xi will again meet with Putin in St. Petersburg and Bishkek.


• The third trip (for G20 and SCO summit in Russia) will also be Xi’s second visit to Russia in six months, itself rare enough in the neighborhood diplomacy of top Chinese leaders in recent years and not especially common for leaders of other countries either.


• Russia is a diplomatic priority for Beijing. Some Chinese scholars see close links between China and Russia as a counterweight to the U.S.-Japan alliance, offsetting the pressure of the United States and Japan on the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands issue. For Russia, ties with China can also balance U.S. policy.


• It is worth noting that coinciding with Xi's first visit to Russia, Beijing and Moscow signed the largest weapons procurement contract in the past decade, in which China is to buy 24 Su-35 fighters and four Lada-class submarines (although some reports have denied this deal actually going through). Since then, China and Russia have held a "routine" military exercise, again showing the growing sophistication of military cooperation between the two countries.