Chinese Foreign Policy: A Chronology April - June 2009 - Defence ...

10 April 2009 Rayong, Thailand - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is to attend the East AsiaSummit and related meetings in Pattaya, including the 12th summit between ASEAN andChina, Japan and South Korea; the 4th East Asia Summit, and China-Japan-South KoreaBreakfast Meeting. His entourage includes Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Chairman of theNational Development and Reform Commission Zhang Ping, Finance Minister Xie Xuren,Commerce Minister Chen Deming, Director of the Research Office of the State Council XieFuzhan, Chinese Ambassador to the ASEAN Xue Hanqin, Vice Secretary-General of theState Council and Director of the Premier's Office Qiu Xiaoxiong and Assistant ForeignMinister Hu Zhengyue.10 April 2009 Beijing - The Ministry of Commerce said in an online statement that China hasprotested at the European Union's decision to impose anti-dumping duties on seamless steelpipes imported from China and expected the EU to end its anti-dumping investigation. TheEuropean Commission announced on 8 April 2009 that it would impose anti-dumping dutieson Chinese seamless steel pipes; it represents the culmination of an anti-dumping probelaunched by the European Commission on 9 July 2008. The duty rates stood at slightly morethan 15 per cent for Hubei Xinye Steel and Shangdong Luxing Steel Pipe and 24.2 per centfor the general imports from other Chinese steel companies.Ministry of Commerce Spokesman Yao Jian issued a statement concerning the request byUS domestic industry to conduct an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation of oil wellpipe products from China.10 April 2009 Xu Qiliang, commander of the Air Force of the Chinese People's LiberationArmy (PLA) and member of China's Central Military Commission, left China for official goodwillvisits to Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia. Xu will visit at the invitation of Pakistani Chief ofStaff of the Air Force Rao Qamar Suleman; Turkish Air Force Commander AydoganBabaoglu; and Chief of the Air Force of Malaysia Tan Sri Dato' Sri Azizan Bin Ariffin,according to sources with the PLA Air Force.10 April 2009 Beijing - Vice Premier Wang Qishan met his Mongolian counterpartMiegombyn Enkhbold, and pledged to deepen bilateral cooperation on energy andinfrastructure: "China-Mongolia relations have developed smoothly since the two countriesforged diplomatic ties 60 years ago, featuring increasing political mutual trust and frequenthigh-level visits." Enkhbold was attending the 11th meeting of the Sino-Mongolian JointCommission of Trade and Economy.10 April 2009 China, Japan, Russia and the ROK conducted an exercise off the east Chinacoast, practising an oil spill emergency. The drill was conducted to address extensive driftingoil leaks after an oil tanker bumped into a cargo ship off the southern coast of ROK, said anofficial with Shandong Maritime Safety Administration. China, Japan and Russia providedtechnical support and resources to handle the spillage as soon as they received ROK's callfor help. The exercise which lasted nearly three hours, used English as its working languagefor communications.11 April 2009 Beijing - Premier Wen Jiabao returned to China one day ahead of schedule,after the Thai government postponed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)related summits. Wen Jiabao was interviewed by Hong Kong media, and gave a positiveappraisal of China's current economic situation:“At present, all statistics show that China's domestic demand is rising. The indicatorsinclude the investment in fixed assets, consumption, imports and exports, investment,stock market transaction volumes, sales manager index, enterprise sales index, andother industrial indexes in the first three months of this year. These indicatorsrebounded and rose every passing month in 2009 as compared with the sameperiods of last year.”8