Law of the Sea
Taiwan

Taiwan sent coastguard vessels to a disputed area of the East China Sea in response to the Japanese arrest of a Taiwanese skipper for allegedly illegal fishing in Japan's EEZ. Later, Taiwan protested to Japan for the way it handled the Taiwanese boat.

Trade
Dispute Settlement

China requested formal consultations at WTO over the US tariffs on tire imports from China. Whether the case will work out in favour of China is unclear, as the special safeguards measure was included as part of the price for China joining the WTO in 2001.

Trade

Citing a special safeguard provision and reversing previous policies, US President Obama announced that the US would impose a 35 percent tariff on automobile and light-truck tires imported from China, because Chinese imports were "disrupting" the tire market. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce denounced the decision, calling it violation of the WTO rule and America's "relevant commitments made on the G-20 financial summit". US officials said they were merely invoking tools that the US explicitly negotiated with China as part of her acceptance into the WTO. Later, the Chinese Government announced that it would start subsidies and anti-dumping investigations on American exports of automotive products and chicken meat.

Diplomatic Protection

The government-run "technical internship" programme in Japan is supposed to provide educational opportunities to people from developing countries and involves about 200,000 foreign trainees, 70% of whom come from China. A lawyers' group said the programme is corrupted into a form of slave labour,

Taiwan
United Nations

For the first time in 17 years, Taiwan will not make a bid to join the United Nations. Taiwan is recognised by only 23 states and failed in the previous 16 attempts due to China's opposition.

Territory

Two American journalists detained by DPRK for over four months said they crossed into North Korea but were “firmly back inside China" when North Korean border guards chased and apprehended them, then “violently dragged” them back into North Korea. A Chinese FM spokeswoman denied the veracity of the reporters' account, however.

Trade
Dispute Settlement

Complying for the first time with a WTO decision against China, the Chinese Government announced that it would reduce tax on imported auto parts. Along the four-year process of negotiations leading up to the decision of compliance, China may have lost the battle but won the war, as foreign automakers have been moving auto production to China on a large scale, and the Chinese announcement would have "virtually no impact" on them.

Use of Force - Civil War
Refugees

As fighting broke out between the Myanmar central government and the Kokang and other minority groups near the border with China, tens of thousands of refugees (including some Kokang soldiers) fled into China, prompting China's FM spokeswoman to call on Myanmar to "properly solve its domestic issue to safeguard the regional stability of its bordering area with China". Yunnan Province provided emergency shelter, food and medical care to the refugees, while Myanmar apologized for Chinese casualties in the incident and thanked the Chinese government for its friendly treatment of Myanmar residents.

Law of the Sea

In the wake of of naval clashes early this year, China called on the US to reduce and gradually put an end to air and sea military surveillance operations to avoid naval confrontations. "China believes the constant US military air and sea surveillance and survey operations in China's exclusive economic zone had led to military confrontations between the two sides,"the Chinese Defence Ministry said.

Law of the Sea - Continental Shelf

China lodged opposition with the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to Japan's claim to continental shelf in the western Pacific based on what Japan calls Okinotori Island. China argued that, under the UNCLOS, the ''rock of Okinotori, which obviously can not sustain human habitation or economic life of its own, shall have no continental shelf.'' Japan's Okinotori-based claim, if successful, would double Japan's maritime territory. China may want to be careful about this legal game, as China's opposition to the Japanese claim does not appear to increase China's maritime claims, but the emphasis on the appropriate base for continental shelf could backfire on China's claims in the South China Sea.

Territory
Treaty

Apparently, not all treaties made by the corrupt Qing Government and the imperialist Japan were null and void "unequal treaties". A Korean organisation in Australia reportedly asserted Korea's territorial claim to Jiandao (Gando), a small piece of marsh land near China's border with Korea, and called on South Korea to bring the matter to the world court. A 1909 boundary treaty between China and Japan (Gando Convention) confirmed Jiandao as Chinese territory, which some Koreans have tried to invalidate.

Consular Relations
Tibet

Reversing China's previous position, a Tibetan governmental official said India could reopen a consulate in Lhasa, which had been shut down since the border war between the two countries in 1962. Presently, Nepal is the only country with a diplomatic mission in Lhasa. No news on the demand of the US House of Representatives to set up an American consulate in Lhasa (and you would be foolish to wager your house on it).

Human Rights - Racial Discrimination
Hong Kong

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued its conclusions on the racial situation in Hong Kong, criticising the SAR Government for failing to adopt the treaty definition of racial discrimination and adopting the rule that requires domestic helpers to leave the city within two weeks upon termination of their contract.

Climate Change

Calling global warming as "an indisputable fact", China's national legislature adopted a resolution on climate change ahead of the Copenhagen summit. The resolution reiterated China's position on climate change issues, saying China "as a developing country" will firmly "maintain the right to development," and opposes "any form of trade protectionism disguised as tackling climate change". Previously, China and India struck a chord of harmony by blaming developed countries for the lack of progress towards a deal, saying "[t]hey have talked much, but not done much".

International Watercourse
Territory - Indian Border

Various news reports noted India's concern over China's possible development of rivers that flow from the Tibetan Plateau to India. So far, China has not implemented any such development on the Yarlung Zangbo River.

Trade
Dispute Settlement

Handing China a third defeat in WTO dispute settlement in the last 13 months, a WTO panel ruled in a case brought by the US that China violated fundamental WTO rules requiring national treatment as well as China's accession commitments by requiring the US movie studios, book and newspaper publishers, and record labels to go through a state-owned middleman company before they can sell their products to Chinese consumers. China may lodge an appeal on the panel decision, which some lawyers say China has little chance of winning.

Treatment of Aliens

The unfolding legal drama of the Rio Tinto spying case saw a sensational report on a Chinese website affiliated with the State Secrets Bureau that claimed that the British-Australian mining giant engaged in commercial espionage for at least six years, costing China about $100 billion (a figure based on a calculation according to which China should have received all her iron ore imports in the past six years virtually for free). Perhaps realising that the report was too bad to be true, the Bureau announced shortly that it had not authorised anyone to release comments on the case. While the state secret charges sent chills down the spines of multinational executives doing business in China, the Chinese prosecutors suddenly dropped the much more ominous charges of stealing state secrets against the four Rio Tinto employees, including an Australian citizen, and would instead pursue charges of commercial bribery and trade secrets infringement. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd cautioned China to deal fairly, openly and judiciously with the accused because the world would be watching how she handled the case.

Diplomatic Law

Political councilor Liu Jing of the Chinese embassy in Canberra said he was not interfering with Australia's internal affairs when he met managers of the National Press Club in Canberra about Rebiya Kadeer's speech at the Club and said, "You must withdraw the invitation to Ms Kadeer." In reaction, Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told Chinese diplomats to behave "politely and appropriately". Ms. Kadeer in turn wasted no time to capitalise on the speaking opportunity made much more high-profile by the Chinese diplomat's "impolite" act, urging Australia to take the four remaining Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay and ignore the pressure from Beijing,

Human Rights - Racial Discrimination
Hong Kong

The Hong Kong delegation responded to questions at a hearing before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination which focused on Hong Kong's Race Discrimination Ordinance and her new screening procedures for torture claimants. Hong Kong's responses elicited complaints from NGO delegatess.

Territory - Indian Border

With a thinly-veiled criticism of China's historical position on the Indian border dispute, a Chinese newspaper reported that there live now about 1.1 million inhabitants in the disputed Southern Tibet (Arunachel Pradesh), including 300,000-450,000 immigrants from India.

Territory - Indian Border

The "great neighbours" (in the "syrupy" words of China's ambassador to India) of China and India held the 13th round of talks over their border dispute. Before the talks, a Chinese FM spokeswoman took the unusual step of denying a report in Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily which suggested that China was prepared to swap disputed areas with India so that China would have only 28% of the disputed territory. During the negotiations, China reportedly insisted on her claim to the monastery town of Tawang, whilst India argued the Chinese claim went against the 2005 agreement between the two countries on political parameters and guiding principles for the settlement of the border dispute. The Indian argument is interesting, since Article VII of the Agreement provides only that "[i]n reaching a boundary settlement, the two sides shall safeguard due interests of their settled populations in the border areas."

Indian military reportedly deployed extra troops and fighter jets in the area.

Climate Change

China’s negotiator on climate change expressed optimism that a new agreement to reduce greenhouse gases would be reached this year, but maintained China’s opposition to a ceiling on her emissions of greenhouse gases, a step some experts see as crucial to efforts to slow global warming.

Territory - Spratly and Paracel Islands
Law of the Sea

As Vietnam and other SE Asian countries intensified their efforts to assert sovereign claims over the Spratly and Paracel Islands, the Chinese navy reportedly arrested a Vietnamese fishing boat for illegal fishing near the Paracel Islands.

Treatment of Aliens

While bribery cases involving transnational corporations in China were reportedly on the rise, a senior Chinese diplomat made some pointed remarks on the industrial spying case against an Australian executive for Rio Tinto. Although he appealed Australian critics to wait for the facts to come to light, saying, "[i]t is not up to me ... to say what the law requires and what the law permits", he was nevertheless quite sure that "[t]he facts of the case would constitute a violation of Australian laws were the facts (to) happen here in Australia."