Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
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Woman jumped over barriers at Guangzhou South station and wedged foot in the gap between train and platform before police dragged her away
Traveller was worried she would be late for the work the next morning after turning up too late to catch the last train to a city hundreds of kilometres away
The woman begged railway staff to let her board the train. Photo: Handout
A woman has been detained after trying to stop a high-speed train from leaving a station in southern China by sticking her foot in the gap between the train and the platform.
The woman, identified only by her surname Wong, arrived at Guangzhou South station at around 11.20pm on Sunday with her brother and a friend and were told they were too late to catch the last train to Changsha South, around 700km (435 miles) to the north.
Wong tried to convince railway workers to let them board the train because she was worried about being late for work the next day, Guangzhou Daily reported.
Footage from the station’s surveillance cameras showed that after arguing with staff, the group jumped over the security barriers and ran up to the train.
Wong started banging on the windows, shouting “open the door”, before sticking her foot in the gap between the train and the platform.
Railway staff and her companions tried to calm her down, but she refused to listen.
“Get up, the train is about to depart so we cannot open the door. The door won’t open!” they told her. “You can still take the next train, get up first.”
“No, I don’t want the next train, you can do it,” Wong said. “Please, I just want to get on this train.”
The woman said she was worried about missing work the next day. Photo: Thepaper.cn
After a few minutes police were called and dragged her away from the train.
She was given nine days’ detention for disturbing order in a public place and impeding the normal flow of traffic, according to online news platform Guancha Syndicate. Her companions were given a disciplinary warning.
Although the train had only been delayed by seven minutes, some web users expressed anger at her behaviour.
“These kind of people should be blacklisted! What about the time of other passengers on the train?” one Weibo user said.
“Now she is late for nine days, she does not need to go to work any more,” another wrote.
HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnamese and Chinese ships have been embroiled in a weeks-long standoff near an offshore oil block in disputed waters of the South China Sea, which fall within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, two Washington-based think-tanks said on Wednesday.
China’s U-shaped “nine-dash line” marks a vast expanse of the South China Sea that it claims, including large swathes of Vietnam’s continental shelf where it has awarded oil concessions.
The Haiyang Dizhi 8, a ship operated by the China Geological Survey, on Monday completed a 12-day survey of waters near the disputed Spratly Islands, according to separate reports by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS)
One of the oil blocks it surveyed is licensed by Vietnam to Spanish energy firm Repsol, which was forced last year and in 2017 to cease operations in Vietnamese waters because of pressure from China.
As the Haiyang Dizhi 8 conducted its survey, nine Vietnamese vessels closely followed it. The Chinese ship was escorted by three China Coast Guard vessels, according to data from Winward Maritime, compiled by C4ADS.
In a separate incident days earlier, the China Coast Guard ship Haijing 35111 manoeuvred in what CSIS described as a “threatening manner” towards Vietnamese vessels servicing a Japanese-owned oil rig, the Hakuryu-5, leased by Russian state oil firm Rosneft in Vietnam’s Block 06.1, 370 km (230 miles) southeast of Vietnam.
That block is within the area outlined by China’s “nine-dash line”. A series of dashes on Chinese maps, the line is not continuous, making China’s claims often ambiguous.
Last year, Reuters exclusively reported that Rosneft Vietnam BV, a unit of Rosneft, was concerned that its drilling in Block 06.1 would upset China.
“On July 2 the vessels were leaving the Hakuryu-5 when the 35111 manoeuvred between them at high speed, passing within 100 metres of each ship and less than half a nautical mile from the rig,” CSIS said in its report.
It was not clear on Wednesday if any Chinese ships were still challenging the Rosneft rig.
In 2014, tension between Vietnam and China rose to its highest levels in decades when a Chinese oil rig started drilling in Vietnamese waters. The incident triggered boat rammings by both sides and anti-China riots in Vietnam.
‘READY TO FIGHT’
In response to reports of this month’s standoff, which first emerged on social media, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on July 12 that China’s position on the South China Sea was “clear and consistent”.
“China resolutely safeguards its sovereignty in the South China Sea and maritime rights, and at the same time upholds controlling disputes with relevant countries via negotiations and consultations,” Geng said, without elaborating.
On Tuesday, Vietnam’s foreign ministry released a statement in response to unspecified “recent developments” in the South China Sea.
“Without Vietnam’s permission, all actions undertaken by foreign parties in Vietnamese waters have no legal effect, and constitute encroachments in Vietnamese waters, and violations of international law,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said.
Neither statements confirmed or elaborated on the standoff.
Neither Rosneft nor Repsol immediately responded to an emailed request from Reuters for comment.
In a new statement on Wednesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng acknowledged that there had been an incident with Vietnam.
“We hope the Vietnam side can earnestly respect China’s sovereignty, rights, and jurisdiction over the relevant waters, and not take any actions that could complicate the situation,” Geng told a regular news conference.
On July 11, as China was conducting its survey of the blocks, Vietnam’s prime minister, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, visited the headquarters of the Vietnam Coast Guard in Hanoi.
State media did not mention the incident, but showed Phuc speaking to sailors on board vessels via a video link.
Phuc told the sailors to “stay vigilant and ready to fight” and to be aware of “unpredictable developments”, the Vietnam Coast Guard said in a statement on its website.
On the same day, Vietnam’s national assembly chairwoman, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, met her Chinese counterpart, Li Zhanshu, in Beijing, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
The two officials agreed to “jointly safeguard peace and stability at sea”, Xinhua said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, shakes hands with residents of a community at Songshan District in Chifeng City, China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, July 15, 2019. Xi went on an inspection tour in Inner Mongolia Monday. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)
HOHHOT, July 15 (Xinhua) — Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, went on an inspection tour in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Monday.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption Air India was the worst-affected by the airspace closure
Pakistan has fully reopened its airspace to civilian flights, nearly five months after it was closed during a dispute with India.
The closure cost Indian airlines tens of millions of dollars, with companies forced to reroute flights.
The state-owned carrier, Air India, suffered the worst losses.
Pakistan shut its airspace in February after India carried out an air strike against what it described as a terrorist training camp at Balakot.
The attack was in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed more than 40 Indian soldiers.
Flights via Pakistan were cancelled and other flights rerouted after Pakistan shut its airspace on 26 February.
“With immediate effect Pakistan airspace is open for all type of civil traffic on published ATS (Air Traffic Service) routes,” according to a Notice to Airmen published on the authority’s website .
Media caption Balakot: India launches air strike in Pakistan
The decision to reopen the airspace is expected to particularly help Air India which had to reroute its international flights.
Indian service providers – Air India, SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir – lost nearly $80m (£63m) due to the closure of the Pakistani airpspace, India’s aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri told the parliament recently.
Villagers clean a house damaged by floods at Jiangbei Village of Banlan Township, Rongan County, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,July 14, 2019. A series of reconstructing and rescuing works have been done since Rong’an was hit by heavy rains recently. (Xinhua/Huang Xiaobang)
BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) — At least 17 people were killed or missing and thousands evacuated as torrential downpours unleashed floods and toppled houses in central, eastern and southern China.
The National Meteorological Center on Sunday renewed a blue alert for rainstorms, predicting heavy rain in Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Yunnan, Sichuan provinces, as well as Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region.
Some of those regions will see up to 120 mm of torrential rainfall, it said.
China has a color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
As of 8 a.m. Sunday, at least 17 people died or were reported missing following rain-triggered floods in central Hunan Province, which also forced more than 470,000 people to be relocated and 179,000 were in urgent need of aid.
Four hydrometric stations along the Yangtze River in Xianning city, central Hubei Province, have reported the river water reaching or surpassing a level that can activate local anti-flood work.
In eastern Anhui Province, rain-triggered floods have affected more than 51,000 people and damaged over 2,700 hectares of crops.
The floods have forced the evacuation of 926 people, and caused a direct economic loss of more than 59.6 million yuan (8.66 million U.S. dollars) in the province.
As of Saturday noon, 330,000 people in 18 counties of Jiangxi Province have been affected by rainstorm-triggered floods, with over 10,500 residents relocated.
Poyang Lake, China’s largest freshwater lake in the lower reaches of the Yangtze, is swelling above the alarming level, according to the hydrographic department in Jiangxi.
The water level of the lake reached 20.08 meters as of 8 a.m. Saturday, 1.08 m above the warning level, as recorded by Xingzi Hydrometric Station on the lake.
In south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, rainstorm has affected more than 360,000 people as of 5 p.m. Sunday, damaging over 35,000 hectares of crops, according to the region’s emergency management department.
The disastrous weather in Guangxi has prompted the region to activate a level-II emergency response and send special work teams and relief materials to the ravaged areas.
In some of the disaster-hit towns, flood water from subterranean rivers has inundated roads.
“After torrential downpours, waters on mountains and underground rivers converge into low-lying lands, which may lead to waterlogging. In affected villages, the water depth in some people’s houses can exceed two meters,” said Liao Bin, an official with Jiuwei Town, Hechi City.
Local authorities have dispatched boats and wooden rafts to transfer the stranded people, set up temporary relocation sites, and deliver living supplies to blocked villages.
Since June, the southwestern province of Guizhou has allocated a total of 16.5 million yuan for its hardest-hit 16 counties.
BEIJING, July 14 (xinhua) — China has seen a record high of rivers reporting floods since this year’s high-water season began, the Ministry of Water Resources said Sunday.
A total of 377 rivers across the country have reported floods exceeding alarm levels, over 80 percent more than the annual number of such rivers registered since 1998 when severe floods hit China, according to Wang Zhangli, deputy director with the ministry’s flood and draught disaster prevention department.
Some 15 small and medium-sized rivers had seen the all-time worst floods, Wang added.
Both north and south China are expected to see some regions suffering intensive rainfalls from July 16 to August 15, while two to three typhoons might hit China during this period.
The ministry has sent over 30 work teams to guide local floods relief work, according to the official.
GUIYANG, July 14 (Xinhua) — A completion ceremony for a new “Red Army Bridge” was hosted this week amid a cheerful tutti of gongs and drums in a small village in Liping County of southwest China’s Guizhou Province.
Shangshaozhai Village, with hundreds of years of history, was once separated from the outside world by a raging river. The only way leading outward was by boat.
Everything changed however in December 1934, when the passing-by Red Army built a wooden bridge together with local villagers.
From October 1934 to October 1936, the Red Army, the forerunner of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), carried out a daring military maneuver that laid the foundation for the eventual victory of the Communist Party of China.
The Red Army marched through raging rivers, snowy mountains and arid grasslands to break the Kuomintang regime’s grip on the country and to continue their fight against Japanese invaders. Some of them marched as far as 12,500 km, enduring hunger, thirst and cold.
Wu Xiyan, 68, said his uncle was among the villagers who cooperated with the Red Army in building the bridge.
“They brought out all the available timber at home, and many of the villagers even volunteered to provide their bed and door boards,” said Wu. “The village truly needed a bridge.”
The bridge deck, one meter wide, is comprised of over 90 pieces of wooden boards. To commemorate the close relations between the Red Army and the local people, it was named “Red Army Bridge.”
Over 80 years on, the bridge remained the solitary channel for more than 600 villagers to exit and enter the village. Despite careful maintenance, it struggled to deal with the strain of local traffic.
Having learned the stories behind the bridge, in September 2017, Sinopec, a major Chinese state-owned enterprise, donated 1.8 million yuan (261,400 U.S. dollars) to build a new bridge for the village.
The new bridge, 4.5 meters wide, enables cars to drive across, with a weight capacity up to 20 tons.
Also named “Red Army Bridge,” the new bridge echoes its predecessor at a distance of 85 years and 50 meters.
The Red Army spirit is a treasure that the village has valued over all these years, said Wu, adding the village has done its best to preserve the old bridge over the years.
In 2012, a former Red Army member, over 90 years old, came to visit the bridge from eastern Zhejiang Province, Wu recalled.
He said the bridge looked exactly the same as what he saw in 1935, according to Wu.
“My uncle once told me the Red Army, passing by Shangshaozhai, promised that a better village would be built for us in the future,” Wu said.
“Over the course of my lifetime, I have been a constant witness to the fulfillment of this serious promise,” Wu said.
It said the economy had “performed within the reasonable range” in the first half of 2019 but that it faced “new downward pressure”.
While China watchers advise caution with Beijing’s official gross domestic product numbers, the data is seen as a useful indicator of the country’s growth trajectory.
Other data showed some signs of improvement in the world’s second largest economy.
Industrial production rose 6.3% in June from a year earlier, while retail sales rose 9.8% year-on-year – both above forecasts in Reuters polls.
Global impact
Slowing growth in China has raised concerns about the potential knock-on effect on the global economy.
Earlier this year Beijing announced plans to boost spending and cut billions of dollars in taxes in an effort to support the economy.
It has also moved to provide a liquidity boost by reducing the amount of cash banks must hold in reserve.
Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, said the latest economic data “shows the slowdown remains intact and markets should expect further stimulus” from China’s central bank later this year.
The US-led trade war is another factor weighing on growth.
“The trade war is having a huge impact on the Chinese economy, and with no end sight as trade negotiations struggle for meaningful progress, we are probably not near the bottom for China’s economy,” he said.
While both sides agreed to resume trade talks at a recent G20 summit in Japan, they have already placed tariffs on billions of dollars worth of one another’s goods, hurting businesses and casting a shadow over the world economy.
The chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), K Sivan, said this was “the most complex space mission ever to be undertaken by the agency”.
If the launch had gone to plan, the lander and rover would have been expected to touch down in early September.
India’s space agency is yet to give more details on why the launch was delayed and how it will affect the timeline.
The country’s first lunar mission in 2008 – Chandrayaan-1 – did not land on the lunar surface, but it carried out the first and most detailed search for water on the Moon using radars.
How will it get to the Moon?
Chandrayaan-2 (Moon vehicle 2) will attempt a soft landing near the little-explored south pole of the Moon.
India is using its most powerful rocket, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk-III), in this mission. It weighs 640 tonnes (almost 1.5 times the weight of a fully-loaded 747 jumbo jet) and at 44 metres (144ft) is as high as a 14-storey building.
The spacecraft weighs 2,379kg (5,244lb) and has three distinct parts: an orbiter, a lander and a rover.
The orbiter, which has a mission life of a year, will take images of the lunar surface, and “sniff” the tenuous atmosphere.
The lander (named Vikram, after the founder of Isro) weighs about half as much, and carries within its belly a 27kg Moon rover with instruments to analyse the lunar soil. In its 14-day life, the rover (called Pragyan – wisdom in Sanskrit) can travel up to a half a kilometre from the lander and will send data and images back to Earth for analysis.
“India can hope to get the first selfies from the lunar surface once the rover gets on its job,” Dr Sivan said.
A new frontier for India’s space programme
By science writer Pallava Bagla
A soft landing on another planetary body – a feat achieved by just three other countries so far – would be a huge technological achievement for Isro and India’s space ambitions.
It would pave the way for future Indian missions to land on Mars and an asteroid. More importantly, it would open up the possibility of India sending astronauts to the Moon. India hopes to carry out a crewed space flight by 2022.
India also wants to assert itself as a space power to be reckoned with – and national pride is riding high as it aims to hoist its flag on the surface of the Moon.
A successful mission to the Moon would also be a win for India’s ambitious space agency, which has had a string of successes recently.
Media caption Is India a space superpower?
In 2014, it successfully put a satellite into orbit around Mars, becoming only the fourth nation to do so. In 2017, India created history by successfully launching 104 satellites on a single mission, overtaking the previous record of 37 satellites launched by Russia in 2014.
All eyes are on Isro again. Global interest in India’s frugal Moon mission is peaking, according to Simonetta Di Pippo, director of the UN office of Outer Space Affairs.
“The mission’s studies of lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, the lunar exosphere, and signatures of hydroxyl and water ice will contribute to scientific progress for all of humankind,” she says.
The Indian space community is nervous and Dr Sivan says “there is churning in his stomach”.
“Unknown-unknowns can kill a mission, [although] no stone has been left unturned to understand all the complexities”.
How long is the journey to the Moon?
The launch is only the beginning of a 384,000km (239,000-mile) journey – the robotic craft is expected to land on the Moon some 54 days later.
Isro chose a circuitous route to take advantage of the Earth’s gravity, which will help slingshot the satellite towards the Moon. India does not have a rocket powerful enough to hurl Chandrayaan-2 on a direct path.
“There will be 15 terrifying minutes for scientists once the lander is released and is hurled towards the south pole of the Moon,” Dr Sivan says.
He explains that those who had been controlling the spacecraft until then will have no role to play in those crucial moments. The actual landing, he adds, is an autonomous operation dependent on all systems performing as they should. Otherwise, the lander could crash into the lunar surface.
Earlier this year, Israel’s first Moon mission crash-landed while attempting to touch down.
Who is on the team?
Nearly 1,000 engineers and scientists have worked on this mission. But for the first time, Isro has chosen women to lead an interplanetary expedition.
Two women are steering India’s journey to the Moon. While programme director Muthaya Vanitha has nurtured Chandrayaan-2 over the years, it will be navigated by Ritu Karidhal.
“Women power is powering India’s Moon ambitions,” Dr Sivan said, adding that at Isro, “women and men are all equal. Only talent matters – not the gender.”
The Indian prime minister refused to back the Chinese leader’s ambitious global infrastructure vision at a summit last week, but the apparent snub is not getting in the way of amicable ties between Asia’s two biggest economies
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BRICS Summit at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center in 2017. Photo: AFP
Their informal summit in Wuhan last year created all the right optics; even their chemistry seemed on point. So, when
met last week on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the bonhomie seemed like it was there to stay.
But a day later, cracks appeared to emerge. India, holding on to its long-stated position, delivered a public snub to China by refusing to endorse its ambitious, trillion-dollar
in Osaka, there have been increasing signs that both countries may now be trialling a fresh approach to diplomacy – one that neither sidesteps contentious issues nor does it allow differences to derail ties.
Chinese President Xi Jinping leads other leaders of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation: Russia’s Vladimir Putin and India’s Narendra Modi at the 2018 summit. Photo: Xinhua
Such an approach would delink the thorny issues – like the
was expected to scrap plans to build jointly with China an ocean observatory overlooking the Indian Ocean. The news came a week after Modi had visited the Maldives capital Male in early June.
For Modi 2.0, India’s US-China balancing act just got trickier
The Maldives’ decision to build the observatory was first mulled in December 2017, raising the Indian establishment’s hackles as it would have given China a presence in the region.
Another irritant between India and China has seemed to be the proposed 16-nation
(RCEP). India has been lukewarm on the free-trade bloc, frustrating the Chinese. Indications have been that China is likely to push for a 13-member bloc at the coming RCEP meeting in Thailand on June 20, excluding India.
BRI and border issues have not managed to overshadow the remaining business between the two countries Narayani Basu
Yet, despite all this, there has been no let down in engagement levels between Modi and Xi. Both leaders are expected to meet at the RIC summit on June 29 to 30, and have at least two more meetings planned this year alone – an informal Xi-Modi summit in India
in October and the BRICS summit on November 13 to 14.
For Narayani Basu, a New Delhi-based author and independent foreign policy analyst with a special focus on China, such sustained engagement between the two countries signals a new level of maturity.
“There has been a fairly successful attempt at delinking historical geopolitical and territorial issues from issues which are economic in nature,” Basu said. “As a result, the BRI and border issues have not managed to overshadow the remaining business between the two countries.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan. Photo: Xinhua
STRONG LEADERS, STRONGER AGENDAS
The approach might also have to do with where both leaders currently stand.
Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have freshly emerged from a landslide
. Through the campaign, Modi portrayed a hardline image of himself and his government, especially on issues of national security. Similarly, Xi has emerged as a stronger leader since his reappointment last year – his approach marked by a higher-than-ever emphasis on economic nationalism and connectivity. Modi made a reference to this in his SCO meeting with Xi.
Basu said Sino-India ties were also being guided by the personalities of both leaders – strong, with harder-than-before agendas.
Did Japan and India just launch a counter to belt and road?
“They both came back on agendas based on consolidation of power, protection of sovereignty and nationalism. These are all issues that will not allow either side to blink easily. “So, even as both leaders are looking to move forward, they also do not want to compromise on their core issues – primary among them being territorial sovereignty,” she said.
The message is loud – India’s opposition to the BRI does not mean India will allow adversarial relations to develop between the two Sana Hashmi
In his SCO summit speech, Modi brought up territorial sovereignty as a thinly veiled reference to China’s BRI, saying India only supported connectivity projects that are based on “respect of sovereignty” and “regional integrity”.
Sana Hashmi, an analyst with Perth-based think tank Future Directions International and author of China’s Approach Towards Territorial Disputes: Lessons and Prospects, agreed that India was not letting historical issues get in the way of its relationship with Beijing.
Hashmi noted that India’s main objections to BRI revolved around one component – the China-
Economic Corridor (CPEC), which runs through the disputed region of Kashmir.
“But to make sure this does not affect the relationship, PM Modi and President Xi are meeting numerous times,” Hashmi said. “The message is loud – India’s opposition to the BRI does not mean India will allow adversarial relations to develop between the two.”
A NEED FOR EACH OTHER
Another factor that has likely prompted the new approach between India and China is their need for each other, particularly as both Asian powers navigate bumpy relationships with US under
and is reeling from the tariffs imposed on Chinese imports to America. India, too, has seen a similar but smaller version of this trade battle play out – things have escalated especially since the Trump administration withdrew its preferential trade treatment towards India. Responding to this, India imposed tariffs on 28 US products over the weekend.
Move over, ‘Made in China’. It’s ‘Made in Bangladesh’ era now
In such a context, a stronger relationship between the two Asian giants might be in mutual interest.
Basu said the scope for the relationship to deliver on, especially economically, is vast.
“Despite the chemistry, India and China’s promises to each other on the economic front haven’t materialised on the ground. Major projects as well as investments in each country are stuck.”
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 