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

10/09/2013

Russia to invest $1 billion in rare earths to cut dependence on China

Reuters: “Russia will invest $1 billion in rare earths production by 2018 in a bid to become less dependent on China, which controls more than 90 percent of global supply of the elements used in sectors including defense, telecommunications and renewable energy.

A labourer operates a bulldozer at a site of a rare earth metals mine at Nancheng county, Jiangxi province March 14, 2012. REUTERS/Stringer

The United States, Japan and the European Union have complained to the World Trade Organization about China’s efforts to control the sector, saying China is trying to use its stranglehold over supply to drive up prices and gain a competitive advantage.

Rostec and IST group, an investment company belonging to Russian tycoon Alexander Nesis, have agreed to invest $1 billion in rare earths production by 2018, they said in a statement on Tuesday.

Rostec aims to cover Russian demand for these raw materials by 2017, the company added.

“The (Russian) President (Vladimir Putin) and the government have set a task to expand rare earths production as Russia’s stocks are almost depleted,” a source in state industrial and defense conglomerate Rostec told Reuters on Tuesday.

“Stocks need to be replenished as the main producer, China, has increased prices sharply,” the source said.

TriArkMining, a joint venture (JV) between Rostec and IST, has won the right to acquire 82,653 tonnes (1.1023 tons) of monazite concentrate, stored in warehouses of state-owned Uralmonatsit in the Sverdlovsk region of Russia’s Urals.

The JV plans to extract about 40,000 tonnes of rare earths from the monazite concentrate stored in the warehouses over the course of seven or eight years starting from 2015, the companies said.

The stock is rich in heavy rare earths, such as dysprosium and terbium, crucial for high-power magnets needed by the auto, defense and clean energy industries.

Heavy rare earths are scarcer than cerium and other light rare earths, making them much more valuable.

Russia consumes about 1,500 tonnes of rare earths per year and annual demand is expected to reach 6,000 tonnes by 2020, Rostec said.

The company, which has eight firms producing a wide range of defense products, sees rare earths as a strategic raw material.

China will cap rare earth production at 93,800 tonnes for 2013 as part of efforts to rein in unlicensed production in the sector, it said last week.”

via Russia to invest $1 billion in rare earths to cut dependence on China | Reuters.

Posted in China alert, Economics, GeoPolitics, Technology | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, president vladimir putin, Rare earth element, Russia, russian president vladimir, russian president vladimir putin, russian tycoon, sverdlovsk region, United States, Vladimir Putin, World Trade Organization

06/09/2013

China urges U.N. role on Syria after U.S. says gives up

reuters: “China’s Foreign Ministry urged a role for the U.N. Security Council in resolving the crisis in Syria on Friday after the United States said it had given up trying to work with the council on Syria, accusing Russia of holding it hostage.

A Free Syrian Army fighter poses for a picture as he holds an RPG launcher in Raqqa province, eastern Syria September 4, 2013. Picture taken September 4, 2013. REUTERS/Nour Fourat

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power’s remarks on Thursday left no doubt that Washington would not seek U.N. approval for a military strike on Syria in response to an August 21 chemical attack near Damascus.

She said a draft resolution Britain submitted to the five permanent council members last week calling for a response to that attack was effectively dead.

Asked about those comments, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the Security Council needed to be used.

“China supports the important role that the U.N. Security Council plays in properly resolving the Syria issue,” Hong told a daily news briefing in Beijing.

“We hope that relevant parties can continue communications and coordination and hold deep consultations so as to resolve the relevant issue in a peaceful way,” he added.

China has called for a full and impartial investigation by U.N. chemical weapons inspectors in Syria into the August 21 attack, and has warned against pre-judging the results. It has also said that whoever uses chemical weapons had to be held accountable.

“China believes that a political solution is the only realistic way out on the Syria issue. Given the current circumstances, a political solution is of utmost importance,” Hong said.

“We also hope the international community can work together and push for the holding of an international conference on the Syria issue at an early date.”

Russia and China have both vetoed previous Western efforts to impose U.N. penalties on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

But China has also been keen to show it is not taking sides and has urged the Syrian government to talk to the opposition and take steps to meet demands for political change. It has said a transitional government should be formed.”

via China urges U.N. role on Syria after U.S. says gives up | Reuters.

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

Tags: Bashar al-Assad, China, chinese foreign ministry spokesman, foreign ministry spokesman, middle-east, politics, Russia, Syria, UN Security Council, United Nations Security Council, United States

04/09/2013

Manmohan seeks break with developed world’s policies

The Hindu: “Prime Minister refers to an orderly exit from unconventional monetary policies in the backdrop of splits between emerging markets and the U.S. and the slowing growth of India.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for an “orderly exit” from unconventional monetary policies being pursued by the developed world to avoid damaging growth prospects of the developing world. File photo

Amid imminent phasing out of the fiscal stimulus by U.S. Federal Reserve, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday called for an “orderly exit” from unconventional monetary policies being pursued by the developed world for the last few years to avoid damaging growth prospects of the developing world.

In a statement before leaving for the 8th G20 Summit in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, he also underscored the importance of the grouping of industrialised and major developing economies to promotes policy coordination among major economies in a manner that provides for a broad based and sustained global economic recovery and growth.

The Prime Minister made a reference to an orderly exit from unconventional monetary policies in the backdrop of splits between emerging markets and the U.S. over its winding down of stimulus and the slowing growth of India and other four BRICS countries.

Dr. Singh said though there are encouraging signs of growth in industrialised countries, there is also a slowdown in emerging economies which are facing the adverse impact of significant capital outflow.

“I will emphasise in St. Petersburg the need for an orderly exit from the unconventional monetary policies being pursued by the developed world for the last few years so as to avoid damaging the growth prospects of the developing world,” he said.

Brazil, India, Russia, China and South Africa — grouped in the BRICS bloc seen as an alternative economic powerhouse — all go into the meeting experiencing slowing growth, embattled currencies and huge capital outflows.

The Indian rupee has lost one-fifth of its value against the US dollar this year following major capital outflows triggered mainly due to the moves by the Fed Reserve.

India is also suffering a decade-low growth and GDP rose just 4.4 per cent in the first quarter this fiscal, the weakest performance since 2009.

Dr. Singh said he will once again emphasise at the Summit that the G20 should ensure primacy of the development dimension in his deliberation, focus on job creation, promote investment in infrastructure as the means of stimulating global growth and create potential in developing countries to sustain higher growth in the medium term.”

via Manmohan seeks break with developed world’s policies – The Hindu.

Posted in Economics, India alert | Leave a Comment »

Tags: BRIC, economic powerhouse, Federal Reserve System, fiscal stimulus, growth prospects, India, Indian rupee, manmohan singh, Monetary policy, policy coordination, prime minister manmohan singh, Russia

22/06/2013

Russia, China sign ‘unprecedented’ $270 bn oil deal

Fox News: “Russian oil giant Rosneft and Chinese state firm CNPC signed Friday a $270 billion deal to supply China with oil over 25 years as Russian President Vladimir Putin pushes to diversify the country’s energy customer base away from Europe.

The agreement between Russia, the world’s largest energy producer and China, the world’s largest energy consumer — one of the biggest deals in the history of world oil industry — was signed by Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin and CNPC head Zhou Jiping in the presence of Putin.

“An estimated value of the contract in current market parameters is absolutely unprecedented — 270 billion dollars,” Putin said in a speech to investors at the annual Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum after overseeing the signing of the deal together with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli.

Under the deal, the heavily-indebted Rosneft is slated to receive an upfront payment of around $70 billion, Putin said.

Under another deal, CNPC will acquire 20 percent in an Arctic liquified natural gas project in which France’s Total has 20 percent and Russian independent gas firm Novatek holds the rest.

Putin has made a priority of stabilising Russia’s sometimes prickly relations with its giant eastern neighbour at a time when its ties with the West are becoming ever more problematic.

Russia wants to diversify its base of energy customers away from crisis-hit Europe and is aware it has not fully exploited the colossal potential of Asian markets, China in particular.

“Consumption will be growing in China. And in Japan consumption will be growing, too,” Putin said. By contrast, he added: “Europe is going through some certain difficulties.””

via Russia, China sign ‘unprecedented’ $270 bn oil deal | Fox News.

Posted in Economics, GeoPolitics, oil & gas | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, Novatek, Putin, Rosneft, Russia, Vladimir Putin

28/05/2013

* China Building Beachhead in Europe With $5 Billion Belarus City

Business Week: “China is building an entire city in the forests near the Belarusian capital Minsk to create a manufacturing springboard between the European Union and Russia.

China Building Beachhead in Europe With $5 Billion Belarus City

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko allotted an area 40 percent larger than Manhattan around Minsk’s international airport for the $5 billion development, which will include enough housing to accommodate 155,000 people, according to Chinese and Belarusian officials.

Lukashenko, who’s led his former Soviet state of 9.5 million for two decades, is turning to China to help revive a $60 billion economy that’s needed $6.5 billion of bailouts from the International Monetary Fund and Russia since 2009. The hub will put Chinese exporters within 170 miles of EU members Poland and Lithuania and give them tax-free entry into Russia and Kazakhstan, which share a customs union. It will also let them draw from a workforce that’s 99.6 percent literate and makes $560 a month on average, half the Polish wage.

“This is a unique project,” Gong Jianwei, China’s ambassador to Belarus, said on state television May 17, after the project won regulatory approval. “Nobody will be able to build anything like this industrial park anywhere else in Europe anymore. The infrastructure is so powerful.”

The “modern city on the Eurasian continent,” as it’s called in marketing documents, will be built around the M1 highway that links Moscow and Berlin via Belarus and Poland. A speed-rail network will tie the airport to the center of the city, which will be powered by a $10 billion nuclear plant, Belarus’s first, which Russia agreed to finance and build by 2018. The first stage of the park is scheduled to be completed by 2020, with the second stage taking another 10 years.”

via China Building Beachhead in Europe With $5 Billion Belarus City – Businessweek.

Posted in China alert, Economics, GeoPolitics, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Belarus, China, European Union, International Monetary Fund, Minsk, Russia

11/05/2013

* Indian indigenous aircraft carrier to be launched in August: Antony

Times of India: “Indian Navy‘s indigenously-built aircraft carrier would be launched on August 12 this year, while INS Vikramaditya (purchased from Russia) will arrive before the end of 2013, Union defence minister A K Antony said here on Saturday.

“INS Vikramaditya is going to be a reality, as promised the ship would be delivered before the end of this year,” Antony told reporters after the commissioning of fighter aircraft MiG29K into Navy at INS Hansa here.

“While on one side Vikramaditya is coming this year, on August 12 we are going to launch indigenous aircraft carrier at Cochin,” he said, without elaborating further.

The carrier when it was Admiral Gorshkov (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Asserting that the country was giving a thrust to modernisation of defence forces, Antony said, “Navy modernisation is one area where we are going fast-paced now.

“Almost all the navies of important countries want close cooperation with the Indian Navy,” he said, adding that “Indian Navy is well-prepared, most modern and (one of) the most capable navies of the world.

“(Over) Last many years, there has been well-planned induction wherein we are replacing old platforms and adding new ones,” he said.”

via Indigenous aircraft carrier to be launched in August: Antony – The Times of India.

Indian Navy to mark 60 years of naval aviation (vancouverdesi.com)
India to commission its first supersonic naval fighter squadron of MiG-29K jets (nosint.blogspot.com)
The Future Chinese Carrier Force (news.usni.org)
Fighter aircraft MiG29K commissioned into Indian Navy (indiavision.com)
Indian aircraft carrier programme: The makings of a global naval power (indrus.in)

Posted in Defence, India alert, Military, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: admiral gorshkov, aviation, India, indian navy, INS Hansa, INS Vikramaditya, K Antony, naval fighter squadron, navies of the world, navy, Russia, Vikrant-class aircraft carrier

27/04/2013

* Turkey becomes partner of China, Russia-led security bloc

One day Europe may well come to regret not wqelcoming Turkey into the EU.

Reuters: “NATO member Turkey signed up on Friday to became a “dialogue partner” of a security bloc dominated by China and Russia, and declared that its destiny is in Asia.

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech during the Global Alcohol Policy Symposium in Istanbul April 26, 2013. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

“This is really a historic day for us,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Kazakhstan’s commercial capital Almaty after signing a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Secretary General Dmitry Mezentsev.

“Now, with this choice, Turkey is declaring that our destiny is the same as the destiny of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) countries.”

China, Russia and four Central Asian nations – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – formed the SCO in 2001 as a regional security bloc to fight threats posed by radical Islam and drug trafficking from neighboring Afghanistan.”

via Turkey becomes partner of China, Russia-led security bloc | Reuters.

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Tags: Almaty, Asia, China, Kazakhstan, politics, Russia, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Turkey

05/04/2013

* Chinese overtake Germans as biggest spending tourists

China Daily: “Chinese tourists have overtaken Germans as the world’s biggest-spending travellers after a decade of robust growth in the number of Chinese holidaying abroad, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) said on Thursday.

Chinese tourists, known for travelling in organised tours and snapping up luxury fashion abroad, spent $102 billion on foreign trips last year, outstripping deep-pocketed travellers from Germany and the United States.

Chinese tourists spent 41 percent more on foreign travel in 2012 than the year before, beating the close to $84 billion both German and U.S. travellers parted with last year.

Tourists from other fast-growing economies with swelling middle classes, like Russia and Brazil, also increased spending in 2012. In recession-hit Europe, however, French and Italian tourists reined in their holiday budgets.

“The impressive growth of tourism expenditure from China and Russia reflects the entry into the tourism market of a growing middle class from these countries,” said UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai.”

via Chinese overtake Germans as biggest spending tourists |Economy |chinadaily.com.cn.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Tourism | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Brazil, China, economy, Germany, Russia, Tourism, United States, World Tourism Organization

10/03/2013

* China to buy super quiet Russian submarines to counter US aircraft carrier

China Daily Mail: “According to Russian Foreign TV News Net’s report on March 5, Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun believed the Taiwan military’s allegation that Mainland China has entered into a contract with Russia on the purchase of Amur-class (the export version of Lada-class) diesel-electric submarines.

Kilo Class Submarine

It is a part of China’s plan to achieve modernisation of its troops and build up a marine superpower and aims at countering US aircraft carriers and preventing them from interfering with Taiwan affairs.

Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun pointed out: the Russian Lada-class submarine is an upgraded version of the Kilo-class ones, which are well-known for their extremely low noise. China will import four export-version Lada-class submarines, of which two will be build in Russia while the other two, in China. It is expected that a submarine supply agreement that really meets the requirements will not be concluded for two to three years.

Having been certain that China-made Type 041 Yuan-class submarines generate too loud a noise, China has decided to order Russia’s new-type submarines. It is said that in 2004, China successfully developed its Yuan-class submarines on the basis of imported technology of Kilo-class submarine and has vigorously used such submarines in its military drills over the past 5 years. However, due to relatively loud noise, the submarines have been discovered and recorded by US military’s SONAR and radar system.

The Japanese media believed: China is drafting a strategy to protect the nation and prevent enemy invasion across the first island chain, including the Japanese Archipelago, Taiwan and the Philippines. For that purpose, China plans to use guided missiles and submarines. In case of potential emergence of conflict in the Taiwan Strait, under specific circumstances, China could prevent the US from interfering with China’s internal affairs.

Taiwan’s military is worried that China’s import of new-type submarines from Russia will bring more trouble to US aircraft carriers in the Taiwan Strait area. China already has 60 submarines. In addition to the Kilo-class submarines imported from Russia from 1994 to 2002, China has its first batch of China-made Song-class submarines developed by China on its own. Most of the Kilo-class submarines and similar submarines developed by China on its own are deployed in the East China Sea Navy’s base in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province. It is expected that the Amur-class submarines imported from Russia will also be deployed there.”

Sources: mil.huanqiu.com “China is said to buy super quiet upgraded version of Kilo-class submarines to counter US aircraft carriers” (translated by Chan Kai Yee)

via China to buy super quiet Russian submarines to counter US aircraft carrier | China Daily Mail.

The Game No One Wants China To Start (humesbastard.wordpress.com)
SUBMARINES: Back From The Dead (strategypage.com)
The dragon gets a bear hug (thehindu.com)
Russia plans to sell multipurpose submarines abroad (rbth.ru)

Posted in China alert, Defence, GeoPolitics, Military, Politics, Technology, Territorial dispute | 1 Comment »

Tags: China, diesel electric submarines, Kilo class submarine, Russia, submarine supply, Taiwan, Taiwan Strait

10/03/2013

* From Auspicious Forest to Happy Establishment: A Literally Translated Map of China

The Atlantic: “One of the pleasures of studying the Chinese language is realizing that a huge number of words actually consist of combinations of smaller words.

For example, the word for camera, zhaoxiangji, literally translates as something like “mutual flash machine”. Which, if you think about it, makes sense but…yeah. Never mind.

Along these lines, this nifty map of unknown origin, but pulled from the Shanghaiist Facebook feed shows China with the names of its provinces and nearby countries translated literally into English. Most of them are kind of meh, but a few amusing ones stick out: Liaoning Province is called, quite ominously for a province bordering North Korea, “distant peace”. North Korea itself is referred to as “Morning Calm”, which, given the country’s recent behavior, doesn’t seem to fit at all. Far-western, bone-dry Qinghai Province translates into “Blue Sea”, which would be fine except that its thousands of miles from the coast. Guizhou, one of China’s poorest provinces, is nonetheless referred to as “Expensive State”.

Then there’s Russia which, oddly, translates to “Land of Rowers”, conjuring up an image of a fur coat wearing crew team spiriting down the Volga.Though it isn’t on this map, its often remarked that the Chinese word for the United States, meiguo, translates to “beautiful country”. Alas, this has less to do with an appreciation of the American landscape than the fact that meiguo sounds vaguely similar to America. All this goes to show how little the literal meanings of place names even matter. For example, what does the name “Hong Kong” evoke? For me, its tall buildings, finance, British customs, kung fu movies, and great dim sum. Fragrant harbor? Not quite. But that’s exactly what Hong Kong means.

via From Auspicious Forest to Happy Establishment: A Literally Translated Map of China – Matt Schiavenza – The Atlantic.

Posted in China alert, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, Chinese language, Hong Kong, Names of Korea, North Korea, Qinghai, Russia, United State

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