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02/10/2013

For China, Turkey missile deal a victory even if it doesn’t happen | Reuters

Turkey‘s $4 billion order for a Chinese missile defense system is a breakthrough for China in its bid to become a supplier of advanced weapons, even though opposition from Washington and NATO threatens to derail the deal.

The logo of China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp (CPMIEC) is seen at its headquarters in Beijing in this September 27, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/Files

The winning bid from the China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp (CPMIEC) to deliver its FD-2000 air defense missile system in a joint production agreement with Turkey is the first time a Chinese supplier has won a major order for state-of-the-art equipment from a NATO member. U.S., Russian and Western European manufacturers were also in the fray.

The decision last week to award the contract to CPMIEC, a company that is under U.S. sanctions for dealings with Iran, North Korea and Syria, surprised global arms trade experts and senior NATO officials.

“It is quite significant I would say, if it materializes,” said Oliver Brauner, a researcher on China’s arms exports at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).”It would certainly be a landmark deal.”

Turkey signaled on Monday that it could back away from its decision after Washington said it had “serious concerns” about the deal with a sanctioned company for a system that would not be compatible with NATO’s other weapons and networks.

And, in a reminder that Ankara faces stiff opposition from its alliance partners in Europe, a NATO official in Brussels said it was important that equipment ordered by member countries is compatible.

“It is premature at this stage to say whether Turkey’s acquisition will be able to operate with the NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defence System,” the official said.

NATO’s disappointment with Turkey is heightened by the fact that the United States, Germany and the Netherlands each sent two Patriot batteries earlier this year after Ankara asked for help in beefing up its air defenses against the threat of missiles from Syria.

Ankara could call off the air defense deal under pressure, but some Chinese and foreign commentators suggested it would still be a symbolic victory for Beijing.

They say Turkey’s willingness to choose the FD-2000 over established rivals confirms the rapid technical improvement and competitiveness of China’s missile and aerospace sector.

Chinese military experts say the system performed well in live tests for the Turkish Defence Ministry.

It also signals that China’s sprawling defense industry is poised to become a low cost supplier of high technology weaponry alongside its rapidly expanding sales of basic military equipment including small arms, artillery, armored vehicles, general purpose vehicles and older generation missiles.

via For China, Turkey missile deal a victory even if it doesn’t happen | Reuters.

Tags: Ankara, China, NATO, North Korea, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Syria, Turkey, United States

01/10/2013

China’s Synthetic Natural Gas Plants Could Accelerate Climate Change – Businessweek

Northern China’s reliance on burning coal for heat and energy contributes to the heavy haze that shrouds city buildings, especially in winter, and shortens the life spans of northerners as compared with their southern counterparts by as much as five years, according to a recent study (PDF) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A worker moves coal briquettes onto a pedicab at a coal distribution business in Huaibei, central China's Anhui province on January 30, 2013.

Beijing and other Chinese cities won’t see frequent blue skies until coal burning is dramatically curtailed in adjacent industrial regions. In September, China’s State Council released a significant new environmental target: trimming coal’s contribution to overall energy output from 67 percent in 2012 to 65 percent in 2017, even as the country’s economy and energy demand continue to grow.

STORY: Growing Concerns About Pollution And Public Health In China

Unfortunately, one scheme to limit coal burning by converting China’s plentiful coal supplies into synthetic natural gas (SNG) presents a host of other ecological worries. To date, China’s government has approved construction of nine large SNG plants in northern and western China, which are projected to generate 37 billion cubic meters of gas each year when completed. At least 30 more proposed plants are awaiting approval.

None of these planned plants are located near large Chinese cities, so the emissions generated in producing the gas will not hang directly over metropolises. But that doesn’t mean the coal-to-gas conversion process is clean. According to a new study (PDF) in Nature Climate Change, the entire life cycle of harvesting coal and turning it into gas produces from 36 percent to 82 percent more total greenhouse gas emissions than burning coal directly—depending on whether the gas is used to generate electricity or power vehicles.

While the most-polluting stages of energy generation could be moved farther from China’s population centers—perhaps allowing for more brighter, cleaner days in Beijing—the net effect could be to accelerate global climate change, argue the study’s authors, Chi-Jen Yang and Robert Jackson of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.

via China’s Synthetic Natural Gas Plants Could Accelerate Climate Change – Businessweek.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Economics, Electricity, energy, greenhouse gas, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, China, China’s State Council, Greenhouse gas, greenhouse gas emissions, Natural gas, Nature Climate Change, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Public Health In China, SNG, State Council of the People's Republic of China, Western China

01/10/2013

China-U.S. Military Ties Grow as They Eye Each Other at Sea – Bloomberg

China’s official People’s Daily newspaper lambasted the U.S. when it led the most recent RIMPAC naval drill, the Pacific Ocean military simulation held every other year. The 22-nation exercise reflected Washington’s bid to “contain the military rise of another country,” it said.

Chinese Sailors

Next year, Chinese ships will join the Rim of the Pacific exercise for the first time. During a visit to the Pentagon last month, Foreign Minister Wang Yi described military ties as a “bright spot” in the U.S.-China relationship.

Enlarge image

Chinese sailors stand on board a frigate berthed in Shanghai. Photographer: Guillaume Klein/AFP/Getty Images

Wang’s words and China’s participation reflect a changed attitude as the world’s two biggest militaries boost contacts despite competing for influence in the Asia-Pacific, home to shipping lanes and resource reserves. The closer ties will be tested as China grows more assertive in a region dotted with nations that would call for U.S. help if attacked.

“The competition and conflicts between China and the U.S. will still be there, but it will prevent them from escalating to an unmanageable level,” Yan Xuetong, dean of the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said by phone. “It is preventable diplomacy rather than positive cooperation.”

U.S.-China ties will be on display at next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders meeting in Bali. China’s territorial disputes in the South China Sea may be discussed, along with changing U.S. and Chinese roles in the region.

Rising Competition

Military competition between the the U.S. and China is on the rise even as the two foster closer links, with China’s defense budget more than doubling since 2006. Though its military spending is less than one-fifth of the U.S., China has developed drones, stealth fighters and an aircraft carrier while deploying a type of anti-ship ballistic missile the U.S. says is meant to threaten U.S. carriers in the region.

That buildout comes as China has pushed its territorial claims more forcefully in the South and East China seas and as the U.S. Navy plans to move more forces to the region in a strategic shift. Four Chinese Coast Guard ships entered Japan-controlled waters around disputed islands about 9 a.m. and left about 11 a.m. today, Japan’s Coast Guard said in e-mailed statements.

China’s naval expansion “is largely about countering” the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Captain James Fanell, deputy chief of staff for intelligence and information operations at the U.S. Pacific Fleet headquarters in Hawaii, said in a January presentation at a conference in San Diego.

Mutual Defense

“They want to have the capability to make sure that events do not occur in those three seas that they do not approve of,” said Bernard Cole, a former Navy officer who teaches at the National War College in Washington, referring to the Yellow, East and South China seas. “The problem from a U.S. perspective is that we have mutual defense treaties with South Korea, Japan and the Philippines.”

Recent contacts offer a counterpoint to unease on both sides. In August, China’s Defense Minister Chang Wanquan visited the Pentagon and the commander of China’s navy, Admiral Wu Shengli, got a tour of a U.S. Los Angeles-class attack submarine in San Diego in September. Also last month, three Chinese ships joined search-and-rescue exercises with the U.S. off Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

RIMPAC is held by the U.S. Pacific Fleet in seas around the Hawaiian islands. The exercises once trained for conflict with the Soviet Union and later included Russia as a participant. China was an observer to the drills in 1998.

Attend Exercise

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi announced China would attend the exercise after a summit between President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping in California in June. During the talks, the two vowed to build “a new type of military relations,” Yang said, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

“This is to us a very visible manifestation of the idea that a rising China can provide a positive contribution to international security,” U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy James Miller said of China’s participation in RIMPAC when he visited Beijing Sept. 10.

Still, closer ties between the U.S. and the People’s Liberation Army can be reversed, Richard Bitzinger, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said by phone. The visits and the RIMPAC exercises are the “warm fuzzies of military diplomacy,” he said.

U.S. reconnaissance as well as arms sales to Taiwan remain problems in the military relationship with China, Zhao Xiaozhuo, a researcher with the PLA Academy of Military Science, wrote in the People’s Daily in August.

Sensitive Information

China’s participation in RIMPAC sparked concern in the U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, a Virginia Republican, introduced an amendment to the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act seeking to limit Chinese exposure to “sensitive information obtained through military-to-military contacts.”

“This it not like turning over an entirely new leaf, this is just one small step forward to develop a slightly more positive relationship with the PLA,” Bitzinger said. “There’s going to be steps forward and steps backward. And every time there’s a step backward generally U.S.-allied ties get stronger.”

via China-U.S. Military Ties Grow as They Eye Each Other at Sea – Bloomberg.

Posted in China alert, Defence, GeoPolitics, Good news, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Barack Obama, China, Pacific Ocean, People's Liberation Army, RIMPAC, United States Pacific Fleet

30/09/2013

Xi Jinping hopes traditional faiths can fill moral void in China | South China Morning Post

President Xi Jinping believes China is losing its moral compass and he wants the ruling Communist Party to be more tolerant of traditional faiths in the hope these will help fill a vacuum created by the country’s breakneck growth and rush to get rich, sources said.

Xi, who grew up in Mao’s puritan China, is troubled by what he sees as the country’s moral decline and obsession with money, said three independent sources with ties to the leadership.

He hopes China’s “traditional cultures” or faiths – Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism – will help fill a void that has allowed corruption to flourish, the sources said.

Sceptics see it as a cynical move to try to curb rising social unrest and perpetuate one-party rule.

A monk in a temple in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province. President Xi Jinping wants the ruling Communist Party to be more tolerant of traditional faiths. Photo: Reuters

During the early years under Communism, China’s crime rate was low and corruption rare. By contrast, between 2008 and last year about 143,000 government officials – or an average of 78 a day – were convicted of graft or dereliction of duty, according to a Supreme Court report to parliament in March.

Xi intensified an anti-corruption campaign when he became party and military chief in November, but experts say only deep and difficult political reforms will make a difference.

Meanwhile, barely a day goes by without soul-searching on the internet over what some see as a moral numbness in China – whether it’s over graft, the rampant sale of adulterated food or incidents such as when a woman gouged out the eyes of her six-year-old nephew this month for unknown reasons.

“Xi understands that the anti-corruption (drive) can only cure symptoms and that reform of the political system and faiths are needed to cure the disease of corruption,” one of the sources told Reuters, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions for discussing elite politics.

via Xi Jinping hopes traditional faiths can fill moral void in China | South China Morning Post.

Tags: China, Communist China, Communists, Confucianism, Jiaxing, Xi JinPing

30/09/2013

Chinese inspectors uncover widespread corruption in “shock and awe” probe | South China Morning Post

Ten teams of inspectors sent around the nation four months ago as part of the leadership’s anti-graft drive have wrapped up their field trips, finding “corruption problems” in most places they visited.

china-politics-corruption-bo-murder-files_sha1221_38231721.jpg

They inspected units in Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Hubei and Guizhou, as well as the Ministry of Water Resources, the Import-Export Bank of China, the China Grain Reserves Corporation, Renmin University and the China Publishing Group.

The teams have provided feedback to the inspected bodies and alerted the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) to signs of possible corruption, according to a statement released on the official website run jointly by the CCDI and the Ministry of Supervision.

The central inspection teams aim to spot corruption and create an atmosphere of “shock and awe” [among officials] to curb rampant corruption, said Wang Qishan, China’s anticorruption tsar, before despatching the teams in mid-May.

The most eye-catching destination was Chongqing, still smarting from the upheavals of the downfall of its former party chief Bo Xilai . Bo was sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption and abuse of power.

In a comment about the new Chongqing municipal government, Xu Guangchun, head of the Fifth Central Inspection Team, said the municipality had failed to impose sufficient checks and supervision over its top leaders, and certain leading cadres did not have firm political beliefs and failed to reach moral standards.

Xu also warned about “corruption risks” in state-owned enterprises in the municipality, pointing to rampant “fly-style” corruption – committed by lower-ranking officials – within the organisations.

via Chinese inspectors uncover widespread corruption in “shock and awe” probe | South China Morning Post.

Posted in China alert, corruption | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Bo Xilai, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, China, Chongqing, Jiangxi, Renmin University of China

30/09/2013

India and Pakistan Agree to Take Steps to Ease Tension – WSJ.com

India and Pakistan have agreed to take steps to reduce tension on the disputed part of their border, in a much-anticipated meeting that senior officials said made advances in the tense relations between these nuclear-armed neighbors.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif met in New York on Sunday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The talks went better than expected, officials from both sides said.

A series of deadly events in the weeks leading to the discussions had heightened tensions in the countries’ already-fraught relationship.

Washington believes normalizing relations between India and Pakistan would help stabilize the region, as the hostility between the two countries feeds a detrimental competition for influence in Afghanistan. And Islamabad‘s concern over its eastern border with India prevents it from dealing with the al Qaeda-influenced militant groups that menace its northwest.

“There is clearly a desire from both sides to have a much better relationship,” said India’s national security adviser, Shivshankar Menon, briefing reporters after the meeting. “We have actually achieved a new stage; we do have some understanding on how to move forward.”

Earlier Pakistan Extends Olive Branch to India. Mr. Sharif, who came to power in June and has a history of pursuing peace with India, had asked for the meeting.

For his part, Mr. Singh has a record of defying hawks at home to reach out to Pakistan. But how far he can go is limited by elections his party faces in India next year. Any supposed softness on Pakistan will be exploited by his conservative opponents.

via India and Pakistan Agree to Take Steps to Ease Tension – WSJ.com.

Posted in India alert, Neighbour conflict, Politics, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Tags: India, India–Pakistan relations, manmohan singh, Nawaz Sharif, New York, Pakistan, Shivshankar Menon, United Nations General Assembly

29/09/2013

Chinese pilgrims head for Saudi Arabia – China Daily

BEIJING – A total of 290 Chinese Muslims took off in a charter flight here for Saudi Arabia on Saturday evening for the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, according to the State Administration for Religious Affairs.

English: A picture of people performing (circumambulating) the . This picture taken from the gate of Abdul Aziz seems to divide the Kaaba and the minarets into mirror images of one another. Français : Pélerins en train de réaliser la Circumambulation (ou Tawaf) autour de la Ka’ba. Photo prise depuis la porte Ibn Saud, d’où la vue présente une symétrie en miroir presque parfaite. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These passengers, coming from various regions including the provinces of Hubei, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Heilongjiang and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, marked the last group of more than 11,800 Chinese Muslims who have all left for this year’s pilgrimage, said a statement released Saturday by the administration.

The Mecca pilgrimage, also known as the Hajj, is a Muslim religious tradition that specifies that all able-bodied Muslims who can afford to travel to Saudi Arabia must visit Mecca at least once in their lifetime. According to the administration, professional medical experts were sent together with the pilgrim team to ensure the health of pilgrims.

via Chinese pilgrims head for Saudi Arabia |Society |chinadaily.com.cn.

Tags: chinese muslims, Guangdong, Hajj, Heilongjiang, Hubei, inner mongolia autonomous region, Mecca, mecca pilgrimage, Muslim, pilgrimage to mecca, Saudi Arabia, State Administration for Religious Affairs

28/09/2013

Chinese police rescue 92 abducted children – BBC News

Chinese police have rescued 92 abducted children and held 301 suspected members of a huge trafficking network, the authorities say.

They say two women were also freed in an operation involving police forces in 11 provinces of the country.

The traffickers are believed to have targeted children in the south-western Yunnan and Sichuan provinces and then sold them in other regions.

Child-trafficking has become a serious problem in China, correspondents say.

Critics blame the country’s one-child policy and lax adoption laws, which they say have created a thriving underground market for buying children.

Some families buy trafficked women and children to use as extra labour and household servants, as well as brides for unmarried sons.

Last year, more than 24,000 abducted women and children were freed in China, according to the public security ministry.

It said that some of those kidnapped had been sold for adoption or forced into prostitution.

Greater freedom of movement as a result of China’s economic reforms is thought to have made it easier for trafficking gangs to operate.

via BBC News – Chinese police rescue 92 abducted children.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Good news, One-child policy, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Child abduction, China, Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China, Police, Sichuan, Trafficking of children, Yunnan

27/09/2013

Xi Jinping tightens his grip with echoes of Chairman Mao at his worst

The Times: “Xi Jinping has marked his first half-year as President of China by resurrecting some of the finest leadership traditions of the late Chairman Mao: public humiliation, political backstabbing and crackling paranoia between officials.

Mao Zedong (1893-1976) leader of chinese communist party

The campaign, which was given a test-run in Hebei province yesterday under the glare of Mr Xi himself, involves a revival of the widely despised “criticism and self-criticism” drives established in the post-revolutionary 1950s.

The unbearably tense sessions, which force officials to decry their own shortcomings before highlighting the faults of their closest colleagues, have been given a makeover for the early 21st century and rebranded as “Democratic Life Meetings”.

But they have lost none of their old edge. Though nominally cast as a way to bring operational problems to light, the sessions were always intended to enforce discipline. The return of the practice comes as Mr Xi appears to be channelling key tracts of rhetoric and ideology from Mao Zedong.

In his first six months at China’s helm, the new President has intensified a Mao-style control of information, he has unabashedly allowed critics of the regime to be rounded up, he has called for Mao-style indoctrination for school children and told regional officials that “revolutionary history is the best nutrition for Communists”.

Even his much vaunted anti-corruption campaign has drawn on the vocabulary employed by Mao: Mr Xi has asserted the need to bring down both the “tigers” and “flies” of corrupt officialdom in a direct echo of comments by Chairman Mao six decades ago.

Hu Xingdou, a political economist at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said that while Mr Xi’s economic policies were in the mould of the great reformer Deng Xiaoping, the new leader was a Maoist when it came politics.

The criticism sessions, which could be rolled out to affect tens of thousands of senior officials across the country, are part of Mr Xi’s reference to the overtly Maoist leadership model known as the “mass line” that seeks to focus policy on the needs of ordinary Chinese.

“At the moment, the ruling party feels it needs Maoism, and it is hard to say whether it is Xi’s own idea or not. There are too many social contradictions in China and the Party does need some type of authority in order to rule, otherwise the boat will overturn,” he said.

The latest round of criticism and self criticism sessions were conducted among the top echelon of Communist Party officials in Hebei: the 12-member provincial standing committee.

With a shirt-sleeved and unsmiling, Mr Xi quietly taking notes, and with state-run television cameras rolling, the party secretary of Hebei, Zhou Benshun, condemned a senior colleague’s personal ambition and her consuming need to look good in the eyes of supervisors. This misguided focus, he said, would lead to the local government “doing something irrelevant to the public interest”.

Obliged then to come up with a genuine set of personal failings of his own. Mr Zhou had to list his foibles as the most powerful man in Asia glowered inches away from him.

“I have not done enough to orient my achievements around ordinary people’s interests,” he said. “Sometimes my policy making is too subjective and carried out without a deep knowledge of the people. I haven’t been practical enough in my ideology. My fighting sprit is slack and my drive to work hard is falling away.”

His blunt appraisals were merely the opening gambit in a session in which nobody escaped criticism – much of it openly tailored to Mr Xi’s previous tirades against formalism, waste and corruption.

As the accusations flew, one member was accused of being too impatient, another said that the committee generally issued too many documents. With possibly negative implications for his career, the local head of the disciplinary inspection commission was accused by colleagues of underplaying the importance of punishment.

Several offered up broad condemnations of waste in the province, pointing out that Hebei had spent Rmb3.3 million (£335,000) hiring celebrities to sing and dance at the New Year Evening Gala in February.

Sun Ruibin’s self criticism, meanwhile, appeared carefully attuned to the public disgust at corrupt officials. “As a municipal party secretary I was given a big cross-country 4×4 car,” he said. “I felt perfectly at ease about it, although it was in clear violation of rules and regulations.”

In its write-up of the Hebei sessions, Chinese state media quoted a senior Hebei official who, perhaps unsurprisingly, felt that the revival of the criticism and self-criticism seminars was a good thing.

“After we were promoted and were officials for a long time … we started feeling good and arrogant,” he said, “We began just glancing at ‘shop fronts’ and rarely checking out ‘the backyards’ and ‘corners’ during inspection trips.””

via Xi Jinping tightens his grip with echoes of Chairman Mao at his worst | The Times.

Posted in China alert, Internal politics, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing Institute of Technology, chairman mao, China, communist party of china, Deng Xiaoping, Hebei, Mao, Mao Zedong, Maoism, political economist, politics, Xi JinPing

27/09/2013

Post Rahul wrap, Congress takes a U-turn

The Hindu: “Party hints at withdrawal of the controversial measure.

With Rahul Gandhi slamming the ordinance against disqualification of convicted lawmakers, the government is expected to take back the controversial measure, the Congress indicated on Friday.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi addresses a press conference as party general secretary Ajay Maken looks on, in New Delhi on Friday. Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

“Rahulji’s opinion is the opinion and the line of Congress… Now Congress party is opposed to this ordinance. The views of the Congress party should always be supreme,” party general secretary and communication department in-charge Ajay Maken said when asked about the fate of the ordinance in the wake of Mr. Gandhi’s views and whether it is likely to be withdrawn.

The Congress clearly appeared flummoxed by Mr. Gandhi’s stand as Mr. Maken, at a meet-the-press programme at the Delhi Press Club, completely backtracked from his statement praising the ordinance as “perfect”, made minutes before the party vice-president took the stage and denounced the measure calling it “complete nonsense” and “wrong” on the part of the government.

Mr. Maken sidestepped questions on whether Mr. Gandhi’s remarks meant a “rebellion” against the government or a public snub to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his government.

“Rahul Gandhi is our leader. His views are views of the Congress party. The situation with any issue evolves with time and it has evolved and no one should have any objection to it,” he merely said in reply to such questions.

“What Rahul Gandhi said is the most important thing… that this ordinance will not help us fight corruption. He is our leader and I think this is our official political stand. Rahulji’s opinion is the opinion and the line of Congress… Now Congress party is opposed to this ordinance,” he said.”

via Post Rahul wrap, Congress takes a U-turn – The Hindu.

Posted in India alert, Politics | 1 Comment »

Tags: Congress, congress party, Gandhi, Government, Indian National Congress, manmohan singh, mr gandhi, politics, prime minister manmohan singh, rahul gandhi

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon