Tillerson sailing toward confrontation on the South China Sea?
Politics & Current Affairs
Top politics and current affairs news for January 12, 2017. Part of the daily The China Project news roundup "China smiles at Vietnam while consumers snap up Japanese products."
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China pushes back after Tillerson warns on South China Sea / Bloomberg
Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. secretary of state, said yesterday at his Senate confirmation hearing that China’s island-building and military equipment deployment in the South China Sea is “akin to Russia’s taking Crimea” from Ukraine. He firmly stated, “We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that first the island-building stops and second your access to those islands is also not going to be allowed.” Though Tillerson offered no details on what that clear signal may entail, Chinese analysts gave a more detailed preview of what China’s response to U.S. military action might be: even more military buildup on the islands, and an air defense identification zone. -
Prominent Chinese university bans staff from criticizing Communist Party in class / SCMP
Among other things, President Xi Jinping’s administration has become known for heightened censorship and stricter ideological control over schools and universities. Today, the South China Morning Post reports that Sun Yat-sen University — named after the revolutionary who overthrew the last imperial regime a century ago, and still known as one of the more progressive or liberal campuses in China — has issued tight new censorship measures for professors. They are now banned from “criticizing the constitution,” “criticizing Chinese Communist Party leaders,” and “spreading religion and superstition.”
