When that happens, China will really be a competitor to US for role of world Superpower.
26/08/2013
Sonia says food bill is ‘big message’, Mulayam calls it poll gimmick
Times of India: “Declaring Congress’s goal to “wipe out hunger and malnutrition”, Sonia Gandhi asked all political parties on Monday to set aside differences and support the Food Security Bill so that a “big message” could be sent out about India’s capabilities.
English: Sonia Gandhi, Indian politician, president of the Indian National Congress and the widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi. Français : Sonia Gandhi, une femme politique indienne, présidente du parti du congrès indien, et veuve de Rajiv Gandhi, ancien premier ministre de l’Inde. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Opening the Congress innings on the debate in Lok Sabha on food bill, she rejected questions over whether the country had resources to implement the landmark measure.
“It is time to send out a big message that India can take responsibility of ensuring food security for all Indians … our goal is to wipe out hunger and malnutrition all over the country,” Gandhi said about her pet agenda.
Making a strong pitch for smooth passage of the landmark legislation, the UPA chairperson said the measure is a historic opportunity to provide food security to tens of millions of people in the country which will end the problem of hunger once for all.
She sought to dismiss questions over whether the ambitious scheme could be implemented. “The question is not whether we have enough resources or not and whether it would benefit the farmers or not. We have to arrange resources for it. We have to do it,” she said in the House where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was present.
Gandhi said farmers and agriculture have always remained priority of the UPA.
Agreeing that reforming public distribution system (PDS) was a must for the food law, Gandhi noted that there was basic need to remove the leakages to ensure that benefits of the food bill reached the intended beneficiary.
Gandhi said the Congress had made a commitment to the nation in the 2009 election manifesto to bring forward such a legislation. It is one in a series of various rights promised and provided by UPA like Right to Information Act, Right to Education Act, Right to Work Act and Right to Forest Produce Act.
Poll gimmick
Contending that the Food Security Bill was being brought with an eye on elections, UPA’s outside supporter Samajwadi Party on Monday demanded that the measure be kept in abeyance till chief ministers are consulted as it would put additional burden on states.
SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav raised a number of questions over the bill in Lok Sabha and said it would badly hurt farmers as there was no guarantee in the provisions that all the produce would be bought by the government.
“It is clearly being brought for elections … Why didn’t you bring this bill earlier when poor people were dying because of hunger? Every election, you bring up a measure. There is nothing for the poor,” he said participating in the debate on the bill.”
via Sonia says food bill is ‘big message’, Mulayam calls it poll gimmick – The Times of India.
26/08/2013
China’s Bloggers Rally Around Bo Xilai
BusinessWeek: “Official China has been touting it as a breakthrough for government transparency. But has the decision to live blog the five-day trial of Bo Xilai, which closed Monday, backfired? That’s a relevant question as a flood of support for the charismatic former high-flying princeling has erupted on China’s Internet.
China posted portions of the five days of court proceedings in Jinan, Shandong Province, on Sina Weibo (SINA), China’s largest microblogging site. Chinese checking out the trial online got to see an unusually spirited defense put up by the 64-year-old Bo, the former head of China’s southwestern megalopolis Chongqing who almost made it into the top echelons of the Chinese leadership.
The decision to show the trial online demonstrates an admirable new candor, according to state-run media. “The public hearing and the Weibo broadcasts reflect the transparency and openness of the country’s rule of law,” said a commentary on the website of China’s official party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, on Aug. 22.
STORY: Can Bo Xilai Be China’s Comeback Kid?
But that’s not the takeaway for everyone. Instead, many on the Web have written of a newfound admiration for Bo, who has been charged with bribery, embezzlement, and abuse of power (the verdict—likely harsh—will come later, at a time still unspecified),and who fell from official grace last year after a murder perpetrated by his wife came to light.
“I’ve changed my view of him! He is much more gentlemanly than those with power and he really does know the law,” said one tweet by blogger He Jiangbing on Sina Weibo, translated by blog Tea Leaf Nation, which monitors China’s Internet. “This man has remarkable logic, eloquence and memory. As someone who likes smart people, for a moment I almost forgot about his avarice, evilness and ruthlessness,” wrote another microblogger, also on Sina Weibo.
While the decision to tweet key parts of the trial has indeed surprised many, others are less impressed. “The selective postings can only show selective openness and selective justice, and cannot be said to represent the truth,” said Liu Wanqiang, a Guangxi-based journalist, reported the BBC on its website on Aug. 22.
VIDEO: Can Bo Xilai’s Trial Change China’s Government?
In contrast, way back in 1976, the trial of Mao’s widow Jiang Qing, a member of the so-called Gang of Four, was shown live on television for all to view. While few Chinese then had their own TV sets, much of the population gathered communally around televisions to watch and discuss the live proceedings.
Beijing over the past week has launched a crackdown on spreading rumors on the Internet, which some fear will be used to squelch online free speech. Already authorities have announced arrests, including the detention of a muckraking journalist for “criminal fabrication and dissemination of rumors online,” reported the official English language China Daily on Aug. 26. Interestingly, little effort appears to have been made so far to scrub the Internet of the pro-Bo commentary.
“China is a country that respects and protects free speech, but people should also bear in mind that greater online freedom is guaranteed by greater responsibility,” stated the official Xinhua News Agency in a piece calling for greater efforts to police the Web on Aug. 21. “People should maintain moral principles and denounce any activities that harm the reputation and interests of others so as to stop the Internet from decaying into a land of abusive language and rumors.””
26/08/2013
China supports U.N. investigation in Syria, urges caution
China (and Russia) have finally stopped giving President Assad their full support.
(Reuters) – China supports an independent and objective investigation by U.N. experts into allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, China’s foreign minister said on Monday, while urging a cautious response and political resolution to the crisis.
“China has paid close attention to the reports of the use of chemical weapons inside Syria, and China resolutely opposes the use of chemical weapons no matter who uses them,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a statement on the ministry’s website.
“China supports the U.N.’s secretariat to, in accordance with relevant U.N. resolutions, open an independent, objective, fair and professional investigation, to find out what really happened as soon as possible,” Wang said.
U.N. inspectors left central Damascus on Monday to investigate sites of an alleged chemical weapons strike on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, after calls from Western powers for military action to punish what may be the world’s worst chemical attack in 25 years.
Wang did not directly refer to the threats of military action, but urged a careful handling of the matter.
“The only way out for the Syrian issue is a political resolution,” he said. “All parties ought to cautiously handle the Syrian chemical weapons issue to avoid interfering in (efforts) to resolve the Syrian issue politically.”
Syria agreed on Sunday to allow the inspectors to visit the site. But the United States and its allies say evidence has probably been destroyed by heavy government shelling of the area over the past five days. It said the offer to allow inspectors came too late.
Major powers including Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad‘s main ally which has long blocked U.N.-sponsored intervention against him, have urged the Syrian leader to cooperate with U.N. chemical weapons inspectors already in Damascus to pursue earlier allegations.
China said last week that no side should rush to pre-judge the results of any investigation by U.N. chemical weapons experts in Syria, who it said should carry out an objective and impartial inquiry in consultation with the Syrian government.
via China supports U.N. investigation in Syria, urges caution | Reuters.
25/08/2013
Japan tourist visits to Beijing halved amid tensions over islands row
SCMP: The number of Japanese tourists visiting Beijing fell by more than half in the first seven months of the year amid a spike in tensions between the countries, the city’s statistical bureau said Sunday.
Japanese tourist arrivals this year fell to 136,000 up to the end of July, down 53.7 per cent from the same period last year, the bureau said.
The drop follows violent anti-Japanese protests in Beijing and several other Chinese cities in September in response to complaints from the government over Japan’s move to nationalise uninhabited East China Sea islands claimed by China.
Japanese businesses were torched and Japanese-brand cars, most of which are made by Chinese joint venture firms, were smashed and their drivers assaulted.
There were also scattered reports of assaults on Japanese citizens, although none of the attacks were serious.
Tensions remain high between the sides, with their ships conducting regular patrols in waters surrounding the islands, called the Senkakus by Japan and Diaoyu by China. Taiwan also claims the islands and has negotiated an agreement with Tokyo to permit fishing in the area.
The decline in Japanese visitors was part of an overall 13.9 per cent decline in tourist arrivals blamed on the sluggish global economy, as well as a spike in Beijing’s notoriously bad air pollution.
Numbers of tourists from Asian countries fell 25.4 per cent, including a 19.9 per cent fall in visitors from South Korea. Visitors from the Americas fell by just 3.4 per cent.
via Japan tourist visits to Beijing halved amid tensions over islands row | South China Morning Post.
Related articles
- China Summons Japan Ambassador over Shrine Visits (theepochtimes.com)
- China’s military flexes its muscles in the East China Sea amid Japan war shrine tensions (rt.com)
- China Rules Out High-Level Summit with Japan over Island Dispute (voanews.com)
- Japan summons China envoy over ships near disputed isles (channelnewsasia.com)
25/08/2013
Police crack down on Ayodhya yatra
The Hindu: “With the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s 84 Kosi Parikrama Yatra set to begin from the banks of the Saryu River on Sunday, the Uttar Pradesh administration on Saturday cracked down on the Hindu rightwing organisation, arresting over 350 of its activists across the State.
The administration sealed entry points into the district as the VHP remained defiant, determined to go ahead with its yatra, which is being held in support of a Ram Mandir at the disputed site here. The yatra has been banned by the State.
BJP MLA Savitri Bai Phule, VHP’s provincial coordinator Acharya Kushmuni and Mahant Santosh Das alias Sathu Baba, a VHP office-bearer in Varanasi, were taken into preventive custody or put under house arrest, while prominent VHP leader Mahant Ram Saran Das was held at Ram Sanehi Ghat in Ayodhya.
Scores of VHP activists were arrested in various parts of the State, including Kanpur (100), Allahabad (43) and Basti (18). Arrest warrants have been issued against VHP leaders Ashok Singhal, Praveen Togadia and Ram Vilas Vedanti, Faizabad district magistrate Vipin Kumar Dwivedi said.
The police raided the VHP’s suspected hideouts, forcing many of its leaders and activists to go underground. However, according to local sources, senior leaders could appear with seers.
Lucknow IG Subash Chandra, who conducted a tour of vulnerable spots, said, “This yatra goes against tradition. We are fully prepared not to let it happen. Section 144 Cr.PC has been imposed and action will be taken against those violating it.”
Schools have been converted into temporary jails to keep those booked under Section 144.
The administration expected around 40,000 people to participate. However, the VHP maintained that no common people were invited and that politicians would not get on the dais to address the seers or participants. Around 200-250 seers would participate in the yatra, which the VHP defined as a “padhyatra [march] to awaken the Hindus within the cultural boundary [roughly 250 km] of Ayodhya.”
VHP president Praveen Togadia said that it was “not a large congregation” so the State government should not panic. It was actually a march but since the saints termed it “parikrama” it was being viewed as a traditional parikrama. The State justified the ban, pointing out that the traditional period for staging the parikrama had passed in April-May. Sharad Sharma, VHP spokesperson said, “It is the right of the seers to carry out the yatra. This is religious, not political. The government has ruined the atmosphere for its political gains.”
Amid speculation that the VHP might cancel the yatra at the last moment fearing administrative action and considering the law and order situation, Mr. Sharma said, “This will be decided at the last moment. If the seers decide to carry out rituals at the starting point itself, that will be followed. But there is no possibility of cancellation.”
Mr. Sharma lashed out at the SP government for “working under the grip of Azam Khan [Minister]” to appease Muslims, who are a votebank for the party.”
via Police crack down on Ayodhya yatra – The Hindu.
See also:
25/08/2013
Bo Xilai’s trial: Straying from the script
The Economist: “AS REPORTERS gathered in Jinan, the capital of the coastal province of Shandong, none (except perhaps the 19 Chinese journalists who were allowed into the courtroom, presumably because of their organisations’ unquestioning obedience to the Communist Party) had any idea how the authorities would choreograph China’s most sensational trial in decades. Still less did they know how the accused, Bo Xilai, a former member of the Politburo, would play along.
Two other trials related to Mr Bo’s case, that of his wife Gu Kailai and of his one-time police chief, Wang Lijun, suggested that the authorities would reveal only bare details of the proceedings. Those trials were conducted a year ago, before a new leadership came to power in November. Mr Bo’s case was a legacy of the outgoing regime that the incoming party chief, Xi Jinping, would rather not have inherited. But rather than follow the usual secretive pattern Mr Xi (for surely he made the decision) has allowed the court in Jinan to release lengthy transcripts of the hearings. Instead of showing a browbeaten rival meekly accepting allegations of corruption and abuse of power, the transcripts revealed Mr Bo in typical feisty form (see them here, in Chinese).”
via Bo Xilai’s trial: Straying from the script | The Economist.
25/08/2013
Why China Is Better Than You Think
Forbes: “The “imminent” demise of China will have to be postponed…again.
The risk to third quarter growth forecasts in the market are now to the upside.
On Thursday, HSBC’s China Flash PMI data showed a sharp rebound to 50.1 in August from 47.7 in July. Consensus estimates had it rising slightly to 48.2. Today’s manufacturing data is consistent with headline activity indicators such as industrial production, which also recovered in July. It confirms that the economy has stabilized in the short term at least and downside risks seen in the second half of the year have subsided.
Perhaps the best piece of news out of the PMI numbers is that it was driven by domestic demand. New export orders dropped to 46.5 from 47.7 in July, while total new orders rose sharply to 50.5 from 46.6.
Based on this flash PMI, we now see upside risks to our third quarter GDP forecast,” said Nomura Securities senior economist Zhiwei Zhang in Hong Kong. His forecast is for 7.4% growth, declining from the first (7.7%) and second quarters (7.5%).
For the last three years, the Chinese government has been trumpeting its stated goal to move away from its old export-driven export model. China is turning inward. That will come with growing pains as it transitions from a low-cost producer to one that produces value-added, even high end goods made by workers earning middle class incomes who then buy new apartments, cars, refrigerators, and — of course — take trips to south China for Disney and Macao casinos.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/08/22/why-china-is-better-than-you-think/
24/08/2013
China’s Rotational Ruler Model
International Policy Digest: “The only system that can be described as similar to the Chinese “once-in-a-decade transition of power” practice in the 21st century is Plato’s rotational ruler model proposed in The Republic— “those who have come through all our practical and intellectual tests with distinction must be brought to their final trial…and when their turn comes they will, in rotation…do their duty as Rulers…when they have brought up successors like themselves to take their place as Guardians, they will depart…” A comparison shows that three common features and two pragmatic variations can be found between the Chinese system and Plato’s ideal. And this system, if well institutionalized, can achieve an advantage that democracy can produce—regular and peaceful handover of authority.
Before coming to power, Hu Jintao, Xi Jinping and many other Politburo members had gone through certain types of party school training programs and been posted in rotation among several local administrative and/or functional ministerial positions as a sort of on-the-job training. Although the Chinese curriculum is not exactly the same as Plato’s mathematics (10 years), dialectic (5 years) and the post-dialectic “military or other office” apprenticeship (15 years), the fundamental principle is the same, namely, that only purposively trained for statecraft people can become rulers of the state.
The second common feature is that the rulers lead the state “in rotation” which in modern terms means “tenure”. In China, as imposed by Deng Xiaoping and subsequently stipulated in the constitution and certain administrative directives, there is a maximum limit of ten years (two terms of five years each) for an officer to hold a particular position. It has been a national anticipation that when the tenure comes to the end, the rulers in Beijing have to step down and retire. Hu Jintao’s complete retirement from both the state presidency and chairmanship of the party’s Central Military Commission in 2012 indicates that the practice has been institutionalized.
One of the main duties of the rulers is to bring up, assess and select their successors. Here is the third common feature between the Chinese system and Plato’s ideal. The selection of rulers is in no doubt arbitrary but there have been some signs of institutionalization in place. Firstly, it is supposed to be on merit. It has been generally expected that the selected rulers should have good track record in heading at least two provincial governments. Secondly, age is a strict requirement for consideration. Thirdly, like Plato’s “final trial,” the two leading candidates have to serve five years in the Politburo for final assessment before formal assumption of the top posts of state president and premier respectively. So far, authority has been handed over to the persons without kinship to their predecessors. It seems meritocracy is working.
The arrangement that potential rulers are openly recruited in China can be deemed as the first pragmatic variation from Plato’s ideal. While Plato proposes a caste system for his “Guardian herd,” Chinese Communist Party membership is open to all citizens. It provides socio-political upward mobility opportunity to the general public, which is in line with the functional purpose of the two thousand years long Chinese tradition of civil service examination system. The satisfaction of the national aspiration for socio-political mobility through open and fair competition is a key factor for social stability, and even legitimacy.
Nevertheless, the second pragmatic variation from the Platonic model that the Chinese rulers are allowed to hold private property and have family has become the source of rampant corruption. Plato, who understood the weakness of human greed, explicitly prohibited his ideal rulers from having private property and family. Unfortunately, it is impractical and unrealistic. Therefore, it will be a great challenge for Xi Jinping to strike a balance between private property ownership and the declaration of his assets so as to put corruption under control.
The present political succession system in China can be viewed as a pragmatic and experimental implementation of Plato’s ideal in a large scale that it has been institutionalized as a huge human resources management system for public administration, political training as well as selection of helmsmen as rulers.”
via China’s Rotational Ruler Model — International Policy Digest.
23/08/2013
Is China’s Space Program Shaping a Celestial Empire?
Space.com: “China is pressing forward on its human space exploration plans, intent on establishing an international space station and, experts say, harnessing the technological muscle to launch its astronauts to the moon.
Highlighting China’s intent, the country is working with the United Nations to stage a major workshop on human space technology, to be held Sept. 16-20 in Beijing.
The meeting is organized jointly by the U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs and the China Manned Space Agency, co-organized by the International Academy of Astronautics and hosted by the China Manned Space Agency.”
via Is China’s Space Program Shaping a Celestial Empire? | Space.com.
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- China: Space Program And Strategy – Analysis (eurasiareview.com)
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