The Baloch House

Wednesday, July 18, 2018China's hydro dam ambitions and their consequencesTOP STORIES

Dear reader,Today, we have an interesting mix of four news stories from China.Pinduoduo is a company to watch, as its three-year-old ecommerce marketplace is now used by nearly a quarter of China’s population, especially those from smaller cities, which don’t get as much mainstream media attention. A year ago, only a third as many had purchased something with Pinduoduo.U.S.-China trade negotiations seem to have frozen before they even started, as 13 days out from the start of $34 billion tit-for-tat tariffs, American officials say the ball is in China’s court, and China waits for more businesses to revolt against the Trump administration.A movie, of all things, is spurring meaningful change in drug policy, as Dying to Survive remains a cultural phenomenon in the country and the demand for cheaper imported drugs grows.Air China is being punished for its vaping co-pilot incident, though not too hars…

Belt and Road at a Glance
Top DevelopmentsChina-Myanmar Sign 15-Point MoU, Despite Debt Concerns
On July 6, China and Myanmar agreed on a 15-point MoU underpinning thedevelopment of a China-Myanmar Economic Corridor. The corridor will reportedly involve infrastructure development projects, such as railways, road projects, industrial zones, and a special economic zone (SEZ). Concerns, however, have been raised about the debt that Myanmar is incurring, particularly as a result of the deep-water Kyaukphyu port project. Sean Turnell, an adviser to Aung San Suu Kyu, said that recent attention on the debt-influenced predicament of Sri Lanka, had intensified awareness within the government of the dangers of taking on too much Chinese lending.Four Chinese Projects Suspended by New Malaysian Government
In early July, Malaysia’s new government suspended four Chinese contracts, valued at $23 billion. The projects include three pipelines under construction by subsidiaries of China National Petrole…

A mass grave containing decomposed dead bodies of at least 4 persons has been unearthed near Panjgur in Balochistan.According to details received by The Balochistan Post, officials of local administration have discovered a mass grave in Darg-e-Dap, Parom in Panjgur.The locals exhumed four bodies from the grave on Tuesday evening. The bodies were later taken to a local hospital.It is not first time mass graves have been unearthed in war-struck Balochistan, where Baloch armed groups have waged a war against Pakistan for ‘outright independence’.On January 25, 2014, three mass graves were found after a shepherdsaw pieces of human bodies and bones in Tootak, Khuzdar. According to locals, a total of 169 bodies were later exhumed from the site. Campaign groups alleged that the bodies were those of Baloch missing persons abducted by Pakistani security forces.The term ‘abducted’ is widely used in Balochistan to connote arrests made by security forces as the arrested are not presented before co…

China's hydro dam ambitions and their consequences
TOP STORIESGIF by Lucas Niewenhuis. View pronunciation video from Jia.Read this in your browser, see our newsletter archives, or view our Access archives for members.Hi, SupChina reader,Jeremy is off on vacation until the 24th.If you’re not an Access member, you’ll have missed our last two daily trade war updates, our analysis of the newest numbers on China’s economy, and additional stories on North Korea, Liu Xia, and the increasingly repressive treatment of muslims in China. You also may have missed Chinese Corner, a weekly roundup by our very own Jiayun Feng of topical, popular Chinese-language writing on the internet. The most recent column covers what Chinese people are reading about issues with used needles, Leukemia drugs, and dealing with an unexpected sibling after the end of the one-child policy.Today, we have a surprising respite from major trade war news, and have highlighted five other stories at the top — though a sel…