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 T
ILMAN
 A
RETZ
’
S BLOG
[ 
http://taretz.blogspot.com 
 ]
 ——— 
Chronology of events in Greater China in 2008
1
Chronology of events in Greater China in 2008
 Jan. 12: Elections for the Seventh ROC Legislative Yuan ( 
lifayuan 
立法院
 ) in Taiwan; for the first time conducted
following a “single
-member district, two-
ballot” system ( 
danyi xuanqu liangpiaozhi 
單一選區兩票制
 ); the ruling DPP suffers a crushing defeat; Chen Shui-bian
陳水扁
resigns as DPP chairman; the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) secures more than two thirds of the seats; both referendums fail due to low turnout Jan. 13
 – 
15: India
’
s PM Manmohan Singh visits the PRC; meets PRC Premier Wen Jiabao
溫家寶
on Jan. 14, PRCPresident Hu Jintao
胡錦濤
and NPC Chairman Wu Bangguo
吳邦國
on Jan. 15 Jan. 13
 – 
18: ROC President Chen Shui-bian visits Guatemala and St. Lucia, with stopovers in Alaska Jan. 14: DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh
謝長廷
 
agrees to take his party’s helm, sworn in as DPP chairman
on Jan. 16
 
 Jan. 16: C
HINA
D
 AILY 
( 
Zhongguo ribao
中國日報
 ) reports that the water levels of the Yangtze River
長江
at Hankou
漢口
fell to the lowest level since records began in 1866 due to drought Jan. 18
 – 
19: British PM Gordon Brown visits the PRC Jan. 19: Ethiopian marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie says he may withdraw from the marathon at the
Beijing Olympics if the city’s air pollution levels do not improve
  Jan. 22: The FMs of the PRC, th
e US, Russia, France, the UK, and Germany meet in Berlin to discuss Iran’s nuclearprogram; Germany’s
FM Frank-
 Walter Steinmeier confirms Germany’s adherence to the “one China” policy 
  Jan. 25: A high-speed passenger hits a group of railway maintenance workers who had arrived too early at their working site near Anqiu
安丘
(Weifang City 
濰坊市
, Shandong province), killing 18 of them Jan. 25
 – 
Feb. 6: Severe winter storms with heavy snow and low temperatures in central and southern China claim atleast 129 lives and disrupt holiday traffic before Chinese New Year (Feb. 7)
 Jan. 26: The PRC’s General Administration of Civil Aviation
( 
Zhongguo minyong hangkong zongju 
中國民用航空總局
,abbrev. CAAC) says it plans to build 97 new airports by 2020 at RMB 450 million Jan. 28: The PRC allows the
USS Blue Ridge 
to dock in Hong Kong harbour; ROC VP Annette Lu
呂秀蓮
embarkson a 6-day visit to the Marshall Islands, Nauru, and the Solomon Islands, with stopovers in the US (Guam)
 Jan. 31: India’s
PM Manmohan Singh arrives in Arunachal Pradesh for a 2-day visit; the PRC protestsFeb. 2: ROC President Chen Shui-bian visits Taiping Island
太平島
, the biggest of the Spratly Islands
南沙群島
; the
ROC navy dispatches almost half of its main warship strength to the area for Chen’s protection
 Feb. 12: American director Steven Spielberg withdraws as artistic advisor to the Beijing Olympics to protest the
PRC’s role in Darfur
 Feb. 17: An explosion in an illegal iron mine disguised as a wild boar farm in Wuan
武安
(Handan City 
邯鄲市
,Hebei Province) kills 24 peopleFeb.
18: The PRC expresses ‘grave concern’ over Kosovo’s declaration of in
dependence, the ROC congratulatesKosovo on its independence
Feb. 19: The PRC’s
National Bureau of Statistics ( 
 guojia tongjiju 
 
國家統計局
, abbrev. NBS)
reports that the nation’s
inflation hit an 11-year high at 7.1 percentFeb. 20: According to a report by V 
OICE OF
 A
MERICA
, a spokesperson of Kosovo expresses his hope to establishdiplomatic relations with Mainland ChinaFeb. 22
 – 
23: 8
th
round of the China-Japan Strategic Dialogue ( 
Zhong Ri zhanlüe duihua 
中日戰略對話
 ) in Beijing,co-chaired by PRC Deputy FM Wang Guangya
王光亞
and his Japanese counterpart Yabunaka Mitoji
藪中三十二
 Feb. 24: KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou
馬英九
and his DPP counterpart Frank Hsieh face off in theirfirst pre-election televised debateFeb. 29: A huge new passenger terminal (Terminal 3) is opened at Beijing Capital International Airport
北京首都國際機場
 March 3: The first plenary session of the Eleventh Chinese People
’
s Political Consultative Conference ( 
Zhongguo ren- min zhengzhi xieshang huiyi 
中國人民政治協商會議
, abbrev. CPPCC) kicks off in Beijing March 4: NPC spokesman Jiang Enzhu announces the PRC will increase military spending in 2008 to RMB 417.8billion, a hike of 17.6 percentMarch 5: The first plenary session of the Eleventh NPC opens in Beijing; a hijacker named Xia Tao
夏濤
armed
 with explosives takes 10 Australian tourists hostage on a bus in Xi’an
西安
(Shaanxi Province), after unsuccess-ful negotiations a PRC police sniper shoots and kills the man, all hostages are unhurt
 
 T
ILMAN
 A
RETZ
’
S BLOG
[ 
http://taretz.blogspot.com 
 ]
 ——— 
Chronology of events in Greater China in 2008
2
March 9: Second Hsieh-Ma TV debateMarch 10: Ethiopian athlete Haile Gebrselassie announces he will not run in the marathon at the Beijing Olympics
because of the city’s air pollution levels
 March 11: Police in India detains more than 100 Tibetan exiles marching in northern In
dia to Tibet’s border in
protest of the Aug. 8
 – 
24 Beijing OlympicsMarch 12: After the death of three children in a flu outbreak, Hong Kong authorities order kindergartens andprimary scholls to be closed for two weeksMarch 13: PRC authorities seal off key monasteries in Lhasa
拉薩
(Tibet)March 14: Violence erupts on an initially peaceful demonstration in Lhasa, PRC riot police open fire and kill at leasttwo Tibetans; Tibetan rioters attack Han Chinese; a curfew is imposedMarch 15: PRC state media report 10 dead after violence in Tibet; according to the India-based Tibetangovernment-in-exile the death toll is 80; the NPC gives Hu Jintao another five-year term as PRC president; Xi Jinping 
習近平
is elected PRC VPMarch 16: The PRC government sets a March 17 midnight deadline for the protesters to surrender; the unrestspreads to Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan provinces; the official death toll rises to 16; the NPC gives Wen Jiabaoanother five-year term as PRC premierMarch 17: The NPC elects four PRC vice premiers
 — 
Li Keqiang 
李克強
, Wang Qishan
王岐山
, Zhang Dejiang 
張德江
, and Hui Liangyu
回良玉
 March 20: DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh proposes to postpone the March 22 presidential election; formerROC President Lee Teng-hui
李登輝
endorses HsiehMarch 21: An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 hits Keriye
于田
(Hotan Prefecture
和田地區
, Xinjiang), nocasualties or major damage reported; US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi meets the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala(India) and blasts the PRC crackdownMarch 22: Direct ROC presidential elections are held (candidates
 — 
DPP: Frank Hsieh with running mate Su Tseng-chang 
蘇貞昌
; KMT: Ma Ying-jeou with running mate Vincent Siew 
蕭萬長
 ); the KMT ticket wins witha decisive margin of more than 2.2 million votes; a referendum held alongside the election is rejected due to low participation (35 percent); PRC authorities issue a list of 21 people wanted for their alleged role in anti-Chinariots in Lhasa which according to official tallies killed 19 persons; the European Parliament suggest an Olympicboycott if violence in Tibet continuesMarch 24: The Olympic flame-
lighting ceremony in Greece is briefly disrupted by activists protesting the PRC’s
crackdown in TibetMarch 26: Frank Hsieh steps down as DPP chairman and urges ROC President-elect Ma Ying-jeou to have the 3-19shooting re-investigated; French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he has not ruled out boycotting the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing over the situation in Tibet; a new passenger terminal (Terminal 2) isopened at Shanghai Pudong International Airport
上海浦東國際機場
 March 27: During a visit for foreign reporters at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa arranged by PRC authorities, dozensof Tibetan monks voice their support for the Dalai Lama and protest Chinese rule in TibetMarch 28: In response to a request from the DPP Central Executive Committee Frank Hsieh agrees to remain DPPchairman until May 25March 31: Third summit of the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation ( 
da Meigong heci quyu jingji hezuo
大湄公河次區域經濟合作
, abbrev. GMS) in Vientiane (Laos) April 1
 – 
2:
 Tibetans stage protests in Nepal’s c
apital Kathmandu April 3: Tibetans riot in Garze
甘孜
(Sichuan Province, also known as Kandze or Ganzi); the PRC asks the Nepalesegovernment to prevent Tibetan groups from operating in Nepal; an envoy of the Dalai Lama urges the PRC toskip Tibet in the Olympic torch relay  April 5: ROC president-elect Ma Ying-jeou pays his respects to late ROC President Chiang Kai-shek 
蔣介石
at
Chiang’s mausoleum in
Dasi
大溪
(Taoyuan County 
桃園縣
, Taiwan)
 April 6: New Zealand’s
PM Helen Clark, accompanied by a 150-member trade delegation, arrives in Beijing for a3-day official visit April 7: PRC Commerce Minister Chen Deming 
陳德銘
and his New Zealand counterpart Phil Goff sign an FTA
in Beijing; IOC President Jacques Rogge says in Beijing he was ‘very concerned’ about the unrest in Tibet butclaims air pollution in Beijing will not endanger athletes’ health at the 2008 Games; protests force security officials to extinguish the Olympic torch (called “flame of shame” by protesters) twice in Paris
 
 
 T
ILMAN
 A
RETZ
’
S BLOG
[ 
http://taretz.blogspot.com 
 ]
 ——— 
Chronology of events in Greater China in 2008
3
 April 9: Australian PM Kevin Rudd arrives in Beijing for a 4-day official visit; in a speech to Beijing University 
students, he urges the PRC government to tackle ‘significant’ human rights problems in Tibet
  April 11: The 5-
day “Seeds of Compassion” conference attended by the Dalai Lama begins in Seattle; the PRC’s
official death toll as a result of unrest in Tibet stands at 22; Liu Chao-shiuan
劉兆玄
confirms he has acceptedMa Ying-
jeou’s invitation to serve as ROC premier
  April 11
 – 
13: BFA annual conference in Boao
博鰲
(Hainan Province); the Taiwanese delegation is led by ROC VP-elect Vincent Siew; a meeting between Siew and PRC President Hu Jintao on April 12 marks thehighest-level cross-strait contact since 1949; the following day the PRC issues a press release saying 
representatives from both sides ‘had agreed to establish a negotiating mechanism under the “one China”principle’
  April 16: PRC FM Yang Jiechi
楊潔篪
departs for a visit to Japan April 17: PRC police beats and detains Tibetan protesters in Tongren County 
同仁縣
(Qinghai Province) April 18: The Zenkoji Temple
善光寺
in Nagano
長野
(Japan) refuses to serve as a starting point of the Olympic
torch relay to protest the treatment of fellow Buddhist monks in Tibet; the ship “An Yue Jiang”
安岳江
sailing under PRC flag and carrying 77 tonnes of ammunition and weaponry bound for landlocked Zimbabwe leavesSouth Africa after a court ruling that the cargo could not be transported across South Africa to its destination;construction of a high-speed railway line connecting Beijing and Shanghai begins April 20: PRC police open fire on a crowd of residents protesting the development of a tungsten mine on their landin the village Saixi
灑西
(Mengdong Township
猛洞鄉
, Malipo County 
麻栗坡縣
, Wenshan Zhuang Hmong  Autonomous Prefecture
文山壯族苗族自治州
, Yunnan Province), killing one person April 21: The Paris City Council decides to make the Dalai Lama and jailed PRC human rights activist Hu Jia
胡佳
 honorary citizens of Paris; the PRC government unleashes a two-
month “patriotic ecucation” ( 
aiguo jiaoyu 
愛國教育
 ) campaign in Tibet to denounce the Dalai Lama April 23: The Sedeq/Seediq ( 
saideke qun 
賽德克群
 ) are officially recognized as fourteenth aboriginal group in Taiwan
 April 24: Taiwan’s Supreme Court
( 
zuigao fayuan 
最高法院
 ) finds Ma Ying-jeou not guilty in an embezzlement caseabout his use of special allowance funds during his tenure as Taipei mayor from 1998 through 2006 April 24
 – 
28: KMT Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kung 
江丙坤
visits the PRC (Shanghai, Kunshan
昆山
[JiangsuProvince], Xiamen
廈門
[Fujian Province], and Shenzhen
深圳
[Guangdong Province]) April 28: Third Northeast Asia Trilateral Forum ( 
dongbeiya mingrenhui 
東北亞名人會
 ) with participants from the PRC, Japan, and South Korea in Beijing; a passenger train travelling from Beijing to Qingdao
青島
(Shandong Province) derails near Zibo
淄博
(Shandong Province) and hits a second train travelling from Yantai
煙台
 (Shandong Province) to Xuzhou
徐州
(Jiangsu Province); 72 dead; in the aftermath several rail officials andparty secretaries are sacked
 April 29: The Lhasa Municipal Intermediate People’s Court ( 
Lasashi zhongji renmin fayuan 
拉薩市中級人民法院
 )sentences 17 people to prison terms ranging from 3 years to life for taking part in riots in the Tibetan capital inMarch 2008; the Tibetan government-in-exile states the unrest in Tibet claimed 203 lives since thedemonstrations began on March 10May 1: The Hangzhou Bay Bridge
杭州灣跨海大橋
is officially openedMay 3: ROC FM James Huang 
黃志芳
and ROC Vice Premier Chiou I-jen
邱義仁
apologize to Tai
 wan’s public
after media reported that the government was defrauded of more than NT$ 1 billion by brokers who hadpromised using the money to secure diplomatic recognition by Papua New Guinea (PNG)May 4: Envoys for the Dalai Lama and PRC representatives hold talks in Shenzhen, both sides reach no agreementMay 5: ROC Vice Premier Chiou I-jen withdraws from the DPP; ROC prosecutors bar Chiou from leaving thecountry; a bus explosion in Shanghai kills threeMay 6: ROC FM James Huang and ROC Vice Premier Chiou I-jen resign from their posts; prosecutors raid theiroffices and homesMay 6
 – 
11: PRC President Hu Jintao visits Japan
May 7: PRC President Hu Jintao and Japan’s
PM Fukuda Yasuo
福田康夫
agree to hold an annual summit between
the nations’ leaders
 May 8: The Olympic torch is lit on the peak of Mt. EverestMay 11: The China Commercial Aircraft Company ( 
Zhongguo shangyong feiji gongsi 
中國商用飛機公司
 ) is establishedin Shanghai
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