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01/12/2013

U.S. airlines give China flight plans for defense zone | Reuters

U.S. airlines United, American and Delta, have notified Chinese authorities of flight plans when traveling through an air defense zone Beijing has declared over the East China Sea, following U.S. government advice.

A group of disputed islands, Uotsuri island (top), Minamikojima (bottom) and Kitakojima, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China is seen in the East China Sea, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 2012. REUTERS/Kyodo

The zone has raised tensions, particularly with Japan and South Korea, and is likely to dominate the agenda of a visit to Asia this week of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. He will travel to Japan, China, and South Korea and try to ease tensions, senior American officials said.

However, China\’s declaration of the zone also represents a historic challenge by the emerging world power to the United States, which has dominated the region for decades.

China published co-ordinates for the zone last weekend. The area, about two-thirds the size of the United Kingdom, covers most of the East China Sea and the skies over a group of uninhabited islands at the center of a bitter territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo.

Beijing wants all foreign aircraft passing through the zone, including passenger planes, to identify themselves to Chinese authorities.

On Friday, the United States said it expected U.S. carriers to operate in line with so-called notices to airmen issued by foreign countries, although it added that the decision did \”not indicate U.S. government acceptance of China\’s requirements.

A spokesman for Delta Airlines said it had been complying with the Chinese requests for flight plans for the past week. American and United said separately that they were complying, but did not say for how long they had been doing so.

Airline industry officials said the U.S. government generally expected U.S. carriers operating internationally to comply with notices issued by foreign countries.

In contrast, Japanese carriers ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines have flown through the zone without informing China, under an agreement with the Tokyo government. Neither airline has experienced problems.

The airlines said they were sticking with the policy even after Washington\’s advice to its carriers.

Any sign that the United States was even tacitly giving a nod to China\’s air defense zone would disturb Tokyo, which is hoping for a display of solidarity when Biden visits Japan starting on Monday.

via U.S. airlines give China flight plans for defense zone | Reuters.

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01/12/2013

China, Japan and America: Face-off | The Economist

China’s new air-defence zone suggests a worrying new approach in the region

THE announcement by a Chinese military spokesman on November 23rd sounded bureaucratic: any aircraft flying through the newly designated Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea must notify Chinese authorities in advance and follow instructions from its air-traffic controllers. America’s response was rapid. On November 26th Barack Obama sent two B-52 bombers to fly through the new zone without notifying China (see article). This face-off marks the most worrying strategic escalation between the two countries since 1996, when China’s then president, Jiang Zemin, ordered a number of exclusion zones for missile tests in the Taiwan Strait, leading America to send two aircraft-carriers there.

Plenty of countries establish zones in which they require aircraft to identify themselves, but they tend not to be over other countries’ territory. The Chinese ADIZ overlaps with Japan’s own air-defence zone (see map). It also includes some specks of rock that Japan administers and calls the Senkaku islands (and which China claims and calls the Diaoyus), as well as a South Korean reef, known as Ieodo. The move is clearly designed to bolster China’s claims (see article). On November 28th Japan and South Korea sent aircraft into the zone.

Teenage testosterone

Growing economic power is bound to go hand-in-hand with growing regional assertiveness. That is fine, so long as the behaviour of the rising power remains within international norms. In this case, however, China’s does not; and America, which has guaranteed free navigation of the seas and skies of East Asia for 60 years, is right to make that clear.

How worrying China’s move is depends partly on the thinking behind it. It may be that, like a teenager on a growth spurt who doesn’t know his own strength, China has underestimated the impact of its actions. The claim that America’s bombers had skirted the edge of the ADIZ was gawkily embarrassing. But teenagers who do not realise the consequences of their actions often cause trouble: China has set up a casus belli with its neighbours and America for generations to come.

It would thus be much more worrying if the provocation was deliberate. The “Chinese dream” of Xi Jinping, the new president, is a mixture of economic reform and strident nationalism. The announcement of the ADIZ came shortly after a party plenum at which Mr Xi announced a string of commendably radical domestic reforms. The new zone will appeal to the nationalist camp, which wields huge power, particularly in the armed forces. It also helps defend Mr Xi against any suggestions that he is a westernising liberal.

If this is Mr Xi’s game, it is a dangerous one. East Asia has never before had a strong China and a strong Japan at the same time. China dominated the region from the mists of history until the 1850s, when the West’s arrival spurred Japan to modernise while China tried to resist the foreigners’ influence. China is eager to re-establish dominance over the region. Bitterness at the memory of the barbaric Japanese occupation in the second world war sharpens this desire. It is this possibility of a clash between a rising and an established power that lies behind the oft-used parallel between contemporary East Asia and early 20th-century Europe, in which the Senkakus play the role of Sarajevo.

via China, Japan and America: Face-off | The Economist.

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01/12/2013

Cameron tweets in Mandarin on Weibo for China trip | South China Morning Post

British Prime Minister David Cameron has joined Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, and posted his first message ahead of a visit to Beijing, Downing Street said Saturday.

121111.jpg

“Hello my friends in China. I’m pleased to have joined Weibo and look forward to visiting China very soon,” he said in English and Mandarin in his first message.

It has since been forwarded more than 24,000 times.

Cameron has attracted more than 101,000 followers since setting up his account, which helpfully points out that he has the star sign Libra.

A Downing Street spokesman confirmed to AFP that the account was genuine.

The British premier’s social media savvy has come a long way since he said in 2009 that he was not joining Twitter because “too many twits might make a twat”.

He set up his own Twitter account in October 2012 under the handle David—Cameron, which now has more than 525,000 followers.

Cameron is due to leave for China on Sunday on a trip aimed at fostering good relations with the new leadership in Beijing and forging business links.

He will be accompanied by a delegation of ministers and business leaders on the visit, his first to the Asian powerhouse since President Xi Jinping took office in March.

via Cameron tweets in Mandarin on Weibo for China trip | South China Morning Post.

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25/11/2013

Chinese hospital ship Peace Ark arrives in the Philippines – Xinhua | English.news.cn

China\’s navy hospital ship Peace Ark arrived in typhoon-hit Philippines on Sunday night and is the first foreign vessel of its kind that has reached there, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang confirmed.

Peace Ark, the first 10,000-ton-class hospital ship in the world, with 300 beds and over 100 medical professionals on board, has been put into use in the Philippines, Qin told a daily news briefing on Monday.

Doctors onboard Peace Ark, together with an emergency medical team sent by the Chinese government and an international rescue team dispatched by the Red Cross Society of China have treated hundreds of patients, the spokesman said.

Chinese medical workers will work closely with their Philippine and international counterparts during the rescue process, Qin said.

Qin also announced that the Red Cross Society of China has delivered a new batch of relief supplies worth 5.4 million yuan, including 2,000 tents and drugs, to the Philippine National Red Cross.

Typhoon Haiyan has killed 5,235 people and injured 23,501 others,the Philippine government said. Another 1,613 people remain missing.

via Chinese hospital ship Peace Ark arrives in the Philippines – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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23/11/2013

Japan’s Abe Seeks Asia Alliances to Counter China – Businessweek

Prime Minister Shinzō Abe is the first Japanese premier to visit all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In late November, Emperor Akihito will make the first visit by a Japanese monarch to India. Not on either dignitary’s itinerary—China. And that’s no accident.

Click image to enlarge

Abe, a foreign-policy hawk who’s clashed with the Chinese over the ownership of some Japanese-controlled islands, wants to shore up relations with the swath of nations forming a semicircle around China. Some have their own beefs, including India, which shares a disputed border with China. Abe will visit India next year, and in mid-December will host Asean leaders. It’s all part of his campaign to thwart China’s rulers, who, as he wrote in a column last December, see the South China Sea as “Lake Beijing.”

Click image to enlarge

This is powerful but dangerous talk. China is throwing its considerable weight around more in the region, and it may react aggressively if its neighbors push back too hard. As all sides buy more warships, missiles, and fighter jets, such confrontations could escalate. “Nobody has said this is surrounding China,” says Chiaki Akimoto, director of RUSI Japan, an arm of Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, a think tank. What Abe wants “is just a friendship network with nations around China.”

via Japan’s Abe Seeks Asia Alliances to Counter China – Businessweek.

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21/11/2013

Pan-Asian history textbooks struggle to find common language – FT.com

For decades, disagreements over regional history have been a blight on diplomacy between Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul.

Now, South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye has revived a proposal aimed at soothing the long-running row over the region’s history: a shared syllabus of northeast Asian history, to be used as the basis for teaching in all three countries.

Yet while academics view the idea as desirable in principle, most also dismiss it as unfeasible for the foreseeable future – reflecting a continuing deterioration in regional relations, with festering historical grudges at the core.

Japanese school history books have long been seen by South Korean and Chinese critics as emblematic of efforts to downplay atrocities during Japan’s imperial expansion. Politicians in Seoul complain of a failure to address the wartime sexual enslavement of thousands of Korean women, while Beijing has railed at suggestions that Japan occupied Manchuria in response to Chinese provocations.

The historical grievances have intensified since the election last year of the nationalist prime minister Shinzo Abe, whose provocative remarks have included questioning the notion that Japan truly “invaded” Asian countries such as China and Korea.

In her proposal for a shared history syllabus, unveiled at a conference last week in Seoul, Ms Park cited precedents set by Germany, France and Poland. “We may see the removal of the wall of historical problems, which is the seed of conflict and distrust,” she said.

Japanese education minister Hakubun Shimomura – widely seen as one of Mr Abe’s more rightwing cabinet members – said he “openly welcomed” the suggestion. He added that he hoped it could serve as a catalyst for high-level talks between the three governments, something Mr Abe’s administration has been seeking with little success. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman was more cautious, stressing the need for Japan to “adjust its attitude and gain the trust of its Asian neighbours”.

Ms Park’s spokeswoman presents the proposal as part of her drive for a “northeast Asian peace and co-operation initiative” – but in fact politicians and scholars from the three countries have been toying with this idea for years.

In 1997, Seoul and Tokyo agreed to set up a joint committee of historians whose research could form the basis for educational texts – but the body’s work over the ensuing years “just confirmed how deep are the differences between the historical views of the two peoples”, says Lee Gil-sang, a professor at the Academy of Korean Studies in Seoul.

After four years of work, a 2010 report by a similar Sino-Japanese body exposed a rift over Japan’s historical claim to the Okinawa island group – a debate with implications for the countries’ fierce dispute over the Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu in China.

“It is urgent and necessary to have [a joint history] book considering the growing territorial disputes,” says Su Zhiliang, a professor at Shanghai Normal University who edits Chinese history textbooks.

While officially sponsored efforts have made limited headway, private initiatives have borne more fruit. A group of Chinese, Japanese and South Korean historians jointly produced a history book in 2007, and a second such project was published in all three countries last year. Yet neither text was embraced by any of the three countries’ school authorities.

“The main focus of history teaching in this region is to promote patriotism,” says Mr Lee.

via Pan-Asian history textbooks struggle to find common language – FT.com.

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21/11/2013

After Stingy Aid to Typhoon Haiyan Victims, China Tries Damage Control – Businessweek

With a relief team finally on its way to the Philippines, China is trying to control the damage from its petty response to the Typhoon Haiyan tragedy.

A 17-member disaster relief team from the China Red Cross prepares to depart for the Philippines, in Beijing, on Nov. 20

The Chinese group is getting there late because of political differences between the two governments. The storm may have killed thousands of people and brought to a halt a large swath of China’s neighbor to the south, but since the world’s new economic giant is feuding with the Philippines about disputed islands in the South China Sea, the leadership in Beijing decided to take advantage of a humanitarian catastrophe to teach President Benigno Aquino who’s boss.

China initially offered a paltry $100,000 in aid and, after an international outcry, raised that figure to $1.6 million. It’s as if Dr. Evil decided to go into the disaster-relief business: “One point six million dollars!” Hence the headlines worldwide expressing outrage that China, the world’s second-largest economy, was offering less money than do-it-yourself furniture maker Ikea.

Not the ideal message for a country trying to persuade its neighbors of its trustworthiness. China’s ham-fisted response to Haiyan is a welcome gift for Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe, who has spent much of his first year in office touring countries in the region that have good reason to worry about China’s intentions.

That’s probably why China’s officials and media are trying to change the narrative. Chinese relief workers are on their way to the Philippines now, China’s Foreign Ministry announced today—a week and a half after Haiyan hit. But not to worry, some Chinese blankets and tents started arriving on Monday and Tuesday. “China will also send a medical boat Peace Ark, which belongs to the Chinese navy, to the Philippines,” the Xinhua news agency reported today. “The boat, which has good medical rescue capability and maneuverability, will depart soon.”

Even as the Chinese relief effort finally gets underway, there’s a new message: China is actually the victim here, hurt by Philippine bureaucrats. According to Xinhua, China was slow because the Philippine government hadn’t given its blessing. Indeed, the state-run news agency reported yesterday the emergency medical team was “ready to go” and would “depart for the disaster areas immediately, once China gets permission from the Philippines.”

via After Stingy Aid to Typhoon Haiyan Victims, China Tries Damage Control – Businessweek.

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19/11/2013

India buys third aircraft carrier amid rivalry with China | World news | theguardian.com

India has heightened its rivalry with China by taking possession of its third aircraft carrier, a refurbished Soviet-era vessel.

The Indian Navy's aircraft carrier Viraat is reaching the end of its service

The £1.4bn ($2.3bn) aircraft carrier, handed over on Saturday at a north Russian shipyard, will help India to counterbalance the expansion of the Chinese navy.

The 45,000-tonne ship, built in the final years of the Soviet Union and named the Admiral Gorshkov, will be escorted by warships to India on a two-month voyage from Russia\’s northern coast. It has been renamed INS Vikramaditya.

A recent upgrade means the carrier, originally designed to carry Yak-38 vertical take-off aircraft, has been re-equipped to carry Mig-29K fighter jets. It can carry up to 30 aircraft and will have a crew of around 2,000.

China and India, the world\’s most populous countries, co-existed peacefully for centuries but relations became strained after the Communist party won the Chinese civil war in 1948. There were three conflicts between the neighbours in the second half of the 20th century, although since 1987, Sino-Indian trade has grown rapidly. India views China\’s relations with Pakistan with suspicion and China is concerned over Indian activity in the South China Sea. In March this year, tensions between troops were defused after a three-week standoff along their disputed border.

India signed the deal to buy the carrier in 2004 after a decade of negotiations. Its reconditioning was to be finished in 2009, but the price was increased and delivery postponed until 2012 under a new agreement, according to the Indian navy.

The handover was later delayed by another year.

India\’s first, British-built, aircraft carrier was bought in the 1960s and was decommissioned in 1997. Another ex-British carrier, the INS Viraat, is reaching the end of its service.

In August, India launched its first home-built carrier. The 37,500-tonne INS Vikrant is expected to undergo extensive trials in 2016 before being inducted into the navy by 2018.

India is the world\’s largest arms buyer and Russia\’s biggest arms customer, buying about 60% of its arms needs from there. But it has started to look for new suppliers and aims to build more hardware itself as part of plans to spend $100bn in the next 10 years on modernising its military. It has recently rolled out new military purchase rules to attract local companies into the sector.

The INS Vikramaditya was commissioned into the Indian navy at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, on the White Sea, in a ceremony attended by the Russian deputy prime minister, Dmitry Rogozin, and Indian defence minister, AK Antony.

China put its first-ever aircraft carrier, another retooled Soviet-made craft called the Liaoning, into service in 2011 amid tensions with Japan over contested islands and a show of strength in the South China Sea.

In the past year China has been involved in a series of territorial spats with Japan over islets in the East China Sea; and with the Philippines, Vietnam and others over the South China Sea, the location of essential shipping lanes and important natural resources, including oil and gas.

via India buys third aircraft carrier amid rivalry with China | World news | theguardian.com.

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12/11/2013

China’s meager aid to the Philippines could dent its image | Reuters

To many, China‘s $200,000 against the US’s $20m will look more like an insult than aid. Even the UK has pledged £5m. Let’s hope it is a case of mis-reporting!

“China may have wasted the chance to build goodwill in Southeast Asia with its relatively paltry donation to the Philippines in the wake of a devastating typhoon, especially with the United States sending an aircraft carrier and Japan ramping up aid. People leave on a boat against the backdrop of a destroyed fishing community after the Super typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban city in central Philippines November 12, 2013. REUTERS/Edgar Su

The world\’s second-largest economy is a growing investor in Southeast Asia, where it is vying with the United States and Japan for influence. But China\’s assertiveness in pressing its claim to the disputed South China Sea has strained ties with several regional countries, most notably the Philippines.

China\’s government has promised $100,000 in aid to Manila, along with another $100,000 through the Chinese Red Cross – far less than pledged by other economic heavyweights. Japan has offered $10 million in aid and is sending in an emergency relief team, for instance, while Australia has donated $9.6 million.

\”The Chinese leadership has missed an opportunity to show its magnanimity,\” said Joseph Cheng, a political science professor at the City University of Hong Kong who focuses on China\’s ties with Southeast Asia. \”While still offering aid to the typhoon victims, it certainly reflects the unsatisfactory state of relations (with Manila).\” China\’s ties with the Philippines are already fragile as a decades-old territorial squabble over the South China Sea enters a more contentious chapter, with claimant nations spreading deeper into disputed waters in search of energy supplies, while building up their navies. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claim parts of the South China Sea, making it one of the region\’s biggest flashpoints. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), a 10-nation grouping that includes the Philippines, has been talking to China about a binding code of conduct in South China Sea to ease the friction, but Beijing\’s frugal aid hints at a deeply entrenched rivalry that could make forging consensus difficult.

Even China\’s state-run Global Times newspaper, known for its nationalistic and often hawkish editorial views, expressed concern about the impact on Beijing\’s international standing. \”China, as a responsible power, should participate in relief operations to assist a disaster-stricken neighboring country, no matter whether it\’s friendly or not,\” the paper said in a commentary. \”China\’s international image is of vital importance to its interests. If it snubs Manila this time, China will suffer great losses.\””

via China’s meager aid to the Philippines could dent its image | Reuters.

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08/11/2013

China to loan Pacific island nations $1 billion | Reuters

Having woo-ed all the large countries, China is now wooing the smaller ones too.  See – https://chindia-alert.org/2012/12/31/question-who-did-china-woo-in-2012/ (We have been tracking China’s wooing in 2013 and will post the list in early 2014).

“China will provide a concessionary loan of up to $1 billion to Pacific island nations to support construction projects, state media on Friday cited Vice Premier Wang Yang as saying, a part of the world where Beijing and Taiwan compete for influence.

Political map of Oceania

Political map of Oceania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wang made the announcement at a forum with Pacific island nations in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, the official Xinhua news agency reported. It provided no other details on the loan.

China will also build medical facilities in the region and send medical teams as well as invest in green energy projects, Xinhua cited Wang as saying.

The meeting was attended by representatives from Micronesia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Niue and Fiji, the news agency added.

The Pacific has traditionally been a site of competition for diplomatic recognition between China and Taiwan, the self-ruled island China claims as its own.

In the region, Taiwan maintains formal ties with Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. Taiwan has also supported development projects and provided loans.

However, China and Taiwan have maintained an unofficial diplomatic truce and not tried to court each other\’s allies in the developing world since they signed a series of landmark trade and economic deals in 2008, ushering in improved ties.”

via China to loan Pacific island nations $1 billion | Reuters.

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