The Dalai Lama cancels an upcoming visit to the Russian republic of Buryat due to the instability caused by the Russian financial crisis. China opposes the United Nations censure of North Korea's missile launch over Japanese territory in a bid to maintain its influence over the secretive regime. Chinese police drag a dissident screaming from the lobby of a Beijing hotel where U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson delivers a speech urging democracy. 14 Former Chinese President Yang Shangkun, a military strongman who was shunted aside as a rival to the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, dies at 92. U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson meets Jiang after touring Tibet and Shanghai and addressing issues from torture and freedom of speech to retrenchment of women.
China merges four universities into one in a bid to raise educational standards.
The new conglomerate with 30,000 students and 10,000 faculty staff aims to escape the confines of Soviet-style education and be one of the world's best by 2015. China plans to open a new museum under its Forbidden City, former home to emperors. China warns the United States and Japan against pushing a missile defense system to counter future threats from North Korea. Taiwan's top negotiator with China flies into Beijing on what he calls a goodwill visit to pave the way for the highest level meeting between the two rivals in five years. Relocation work is completed on the first of 11 counties due to be submerged in the massive Three Gorges Dam project.