Chinese Military,Political and Social Superthread

[CougarKing]

The iconic image from the day after that dreadful day 20 years ago:

 

[CougarKing]

And the anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown is commemorated from an unexpected source: a PLA Soldier who was in one of the units that was there on the night of the crackdown.

Agence France-Presse - 6/7/2009 8:10 AM GMT
Former Tiananmen soldier depicts crackdown through art

An eerie realism permeates Chen Guang's oil paintings of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, for he was one of the first soldiers to arrive in the square on the night Chinas democratic hopes were crushed.

Now a member of Beijings alternative art scene, 37-year-old Chen's hair is greying, but he is determined to pass his recollections on, giving rare testimony of the event from a soldier's perspective.

"My friends, my family, my army buddies, all tell me not to touch this subject. Thats how sensitive it is," he said.

"I hope that through my art, people will understand my experience and understand what happened in China," he said, showing off his work on a laptop -- images of protesters, soldiers and tanks.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, lost their lives when China's communist rulers sent the army in to quell peaceful demonstrations in the capital on June 3 and 4, 1989.

In the week that the 20th anniversary passed without incident in China, a chain-smoking Chen described what the traumatic event felt like for a scared 17-year-old who had spent only a few months in uniform.

Born into a blue-collar family in central Chinas Henan province, he only cared about art and did poorly at school, which was why he joined the army.

Chen, attached to the 65th Group Army headquartered near Beijing, was first in line to face the protesters.

In May, his unit was ordered on to trucks to put down what was branded a "counter-revolutionary rebellion", but once inside the city, the column met a wall of protesters and ground to a halt.

For three days and nights, his unit was stuck on the trucks, surrounded by crowds of students and ordinary citizens who scolded them, but also brought them food and water.

"We soldiers were from all over China, and so were the students," said Chen. "There were youngsters, too, from Henan, and slowly we struck up conversations, and we got to hear their side of the story."

Eventually, the army withdrew the trucks, and when it re-entered the city, on June 3, the soldiers wore civilian clothes to avoid detection.

They travelled in small groups, with orders to meet at the Great Hall of the People, the parliamentary building next to Tiananmen.

"I was in an ordinary bus filled with weapons and ammunition right up to just below the windows, so it looked innocent enough from the outside," said Chen.

After his unit had gathered at Tiananmen, night fell and the crackdown began.

Chen and other soldiers of the 65th were lined up at the east gate of the Great Hall, waiting for orders.

In surrounding streets the gunfire was so loud it reminded him of Chinese New Year firecrackers, but the square itself was quiet. Suddenly around midnight, all the lights went out.

"That was the scariest moment. We knew there was a huge crowd of protesters just opposite us on the square," he said.

"We were aware that weapons had fallen into the hands of the protesters, and we couldnt know for sure if someone out there wasnt armed."

However, the students withdrew in an orderly fashion, and Chen was among the soldiers stepping on to the square without firing a shot.

"We were so relieved," Chen said. "But a few hours later, we learned that soldiers had been killed in the streets, and after several days had passed we also found out that many, many students had died."

The foundation was laid for Chens later career as a Tiananmen artist when on the night of June 3, an officer gave him a camera and ordered him to take photos of his units actions, a routine army procedure.

But he kept about 100 of his photos, which now form the basis of his paintings.

Chen was a soldier for little more than a year before he enrolled at a military-run art school, eventually qualifying for the prestigious Chinese Academy of Fine Art.

As an artist, he has pushed the envelope before, but with his Tiananmen paintings, he is venturing into new, dangerous territory. And he knows it.

"Of course, Im worried, but everything has a risk," he said. "Ive received phone calls from officials about my work but I cant stop just because of that."

He feels this even more keenly when observing how others deal with the past.

"Im still in touch with about a dozen from my old military unit. None meditates about the past the way I do. Some are policemen today, or officials. Theyve got good jobs, and they owe that to what happened back in 89."

 

 

[Edward Campbell]

I think the Chinese are in a bit of a pickle. Their evident impotence on the North Korean file (elsewhere on his page) being just one indicator of their dilemma.

Politically and socially the country – government and people – are, or want to be, on the strategic offensive but, militarily, they have shifted to the strategic defensive.

My “read” – and it’s free, so take it for what it’s worth – is that there was, over the past 15 years a huge debate within the Chinese military and the “young” generals (men in their 60s and 70s) won out over the old  generals (men in 80s and 90s). The result is a massive transformation of the armed forces that involves major cuts in personnel and enormous infusions of new, modern, sophisticated doctrine, training, procedures and equipment. The biggest changes will, I guess be seen in the navy which will have a global, blue water, power projection role and commensurate capabilities.

( I have intentionally used words like massive, huge and enormous because I believe the struggle amongst the generals was, truly, titanic and came with global consequences.)

But there’s a problem: the Chinese people are displaying a renewed sense of nationalism, even jingoism. I think they identify with the sentiments Burns attributed to Robert Bruce’s Scots: they see the approach of proud America’s power and for them (ordinary Chinese) it feels like “Now’s the day and now’s the hour” when they, the Chinese, should “Lay the proud Usurpers low!”

This renewed nationalism was carefully nurtured. China is one of the few countries that “celebrates” humiliation. There are museums and holiday dedicated to the “century of humiliation” (not to be confused with our very own ”decades of darkness”). The aim was to reinforce the idea that the “old regime” (the Qing dynasty and its successors, the Kuomintang or Chinese Nationalist Party) let the Chinese people down and led hem into defeat and humiliation while, after 1950, the Chinese Communist Party gave the Chinese people the tools and “freedom” to reassert their sovereignty and strength. (It wasn’t quite that tidy – here was the “cult of personality” and so on, but ...) The fact is that the programme worked; the Chinese came to see themselves as victims of foreign (largely Anglo-American) barbarism (every Chinese who visits the ruins of the Summer Palace in Beijing gets the message) and they hope or wish, perhaps even long for a return to their “rightful” place as (one of) the world’s leading nation(s).

The political leadership needs to balance the “needs” of an increasingly assertive, nationalistic, expectant population with the limitations imposed by a military establishment that is about half way through a major “retooling.”

The situation is further complicated by the difficult economic relationship between China and the USA, what historian Niall Ferguson calls Chimerica – something he likens to a dysfunctional marriage in which one partner (old and weary) works, earns and saves while the other (young, attractive and sexy) maxes out the credit cards. But they are tied together by “love” and money, and divorce will be too hard and too expensive for either or both.

My sense is that the Chinese people are becoming increasingly anti-American. They blame America for the global financial crisis – the subtext is that the Americans (government and people) cannot be trusted to “care” for the world’s economy. They blame America for Taiwan’s situation – even for the ongoing, soap-opera like, scandals involving the former president. They blame America for the Tibet “problem.” Many (probably most) Chinese are convinced that Tibet is much better off, politically and materially, under Chinese rule than it would be under a Tibetan Buddhist theocracy. They blame America for stirring up the world’s Muslims, including the (sometimes violent) Uyghur separatist movement in Xinjiang province. They blame careless, greedy, high living America for global climate change. Now, their government is telling them that China is being “pressed” to finance America’s bailouts – they, the Chinese, will have to scrimp and save and “do without” e.g. a new refrigerator in order for Americans to drive SUVs and live in huge, air conditioned houses.

Many Chinese are wondering if they have to wait until the bicentennial of the great humiliation (First Opium War (1839)) before they can reclaim their “self respect.” This poses a huge problem for the government and the Chinese Communist Party which must, now, find new ways to suppress popular expectations and, still, maintain – for the Chinese – the all-important social harmony, without which China is ungovernable. It is also a problem for the rest of us: if the CCP fails, if social harmony breaks down, the crisis will not be confined within China’s borders.

 

[a_majoor]

Too true.

China's rapidly growing economy masks many fundamental weaknesses, particularly in uneven distribution of wealth and resources, unbalanced demographic profile and environmental breakdown. External stressors like a global economic slowdown or perceived challenges to the Chinese hegemony (North Korea, Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang province come to mind) only make matters worse.

Since authoritarian regimes are rather brittle, a breakdown in any one area could cause a series of cascade failures and bring down the entire regime and State, something we should view with alarm. This is not to say the Chinese are at all interested in our opinion (except insofar as we foster or at least don't thwart their national interests), but we need to see the situation in China (and everywhere else, for that matter) in terms of how this affects our national interests.

 

[CougarKing]

China starts national anti-terrorism drill "Great Wall-6"

A member of the special police reacts during an anti-terrorism drill in Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, June 9, 2009. China on Tuesday started a national anti-terror exercise "Great Wall-6", which composes a series of specialized drills and will be carried out in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Shanxi and Hebei provinces.(Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Members of the special police put on gas masks during an anti-terrorism drill in Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, June 9, 2009. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Members of the special police check the site of a "dirty bomb" during an anti-terrorism drill in Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, June 9, 2009. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Members of the special police rescue a "victim" during an anti-terrorism drill in Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, June 9, 2009. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Members of the special police check a "suspect" during an anti-terrorism drill in Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, June 9, 2009. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/..._11515206_4.htm

 

[a_majoor]

sewing the seeds......

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/23654/?nlid=2098

China's "Green Dam" Censorware Could Spawn a Zombie Network
The country's latest attempt to control its citizens' Internet use could backfire badly.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
By Erica Naone

Controversy erupted this week over reports that the Chinese government plans to require all computers sold in the country to come with software that screens for objectionable websites. Although initial criticism came from privacy advocates and those most concerned about censorship, experts have also now found that the software could introduce critical security risks to computers across the country.

According to the BBC, the software communicates in plain text with central servers at its parent company. Not only does this potentially place personal information in the hands of eavesdroppers, but it could also allow hackers to take over PCs running the software, creating a massive zombie network that could deliver spam or attack other computers across the globe.

The report adds that the software does not seem to work as intended, sometimes blocking ordinary websites and failing to block others that contain objectionable content. And the software appears to work only on Microsoft Windows, not on Macs or Linux machines.

The news, while disturbing, is unsurprising. It's not the first time that attempts to censor and monitor users have placed personal information at risk. Late last year, for example, researchers at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto uncovered massive surveillance of users of instant-messaging service TOM-Skype, largely because the data being collected was unprotected and accessible over the Internet.

The Internet does not lend itself to central control, and China's government continues to struggle with that fact, both on a philosophical level, as the larger debate on censorship shows, and on a technical level.

 

[Yrys]

China mulls Afghan border request

Chinese and Afghan foreign ministry officials may open up a strategically important and scenic border area,
officials say after a meeting. The two sides met in Beijing this week to discuss the 76km (47 mile) border
that divides the two countries, known as the Wakhan Corridor.

Afghanistan wants the border to be opened as an alternative supply route to help forces battling the Taliban.
The Chinese say they will "earnestly study" the proposal.

'Positive attitude'

"The (terrorism) solution must be comprehensive, regional and international," Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin
Dadfar Spanta said in a speech earlier this week. He said it was his "personal wish" to open the Wakhan
Corridor.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said his country would adopt "an earnest and positive attitude"
on co-operation with Afghanistan "on transport, trade and economy". "We're willing to earnestly study his
suggestions," he said.

The Wakhan Corridor is about 210km long (130 miles) long.

Correspondents say that the idea of using it as an alternative route for supplying US and Nato forces in
Afghanistan has been floated before. They say the call by Afghanistan is likely to fall on deaf ears in China,
which fiercely resists any initiatives viewed as undermining its national sovereignty.

 

[Yrys]

China storm leaves many homeless

Recovery efforts have begun in eastern China following a severe hail storm on Sunday that killed
at least 14 people and destroyed thousands of homes. Hail stones and winds of more than 100km/h
(62mph) lashed the province for nearly 90 minutes, uprooting trees and scattering debris across roads.

The Civil Affairs bureau in Anhui province says more than 10,000 people had to be taken to emergency
shelters. It was the second deadly storm to hit the province so far this month.

In eastern China storms batter the region during the typhoon season each year. Officials in Anhui province,
one of the poorer parts of the country, say this latest bout of severe weather caused around 9,000 homes
to collapse. As well as those who died, more than 180 others were injured. Earlier this month another
severe hail storm killed 23 people in Anhui and injured 200 others.

Officials say they are worried that more extreme weather will follow and new contingency plans
are needed.

 

[Yrys]

Part 1: In search of the real China

I have started my China journey in Yanchi County. Yanchi is all about sheep. It is a major lamb producing
area and home to the Tan Yang breed of sheep, whose wool is so naturally curly it looks like perfectly
coiffed dreadlocks.

For the Tan Yang sheep this means an early and final visit to the halal slaughterhouse in downtown
Yanchi. There is more to lament for the Tan Yang. Here the Great Wall of China runs in a kind of
jagged, sandy mound for hundreds of miles alongside the motorway. It is a haunting sight, dotted
with swallows' nests and shepherds' huts. But the ground is so barren here that the government
has banned sheep grazing. So the Tan Yang have to spend most of their days in the farmyards,
eating their staple diet of cornmeal and liquorice bush.

For the people of Yanchi life is hard, but for 20 years the upside has been perpetual economic growth
and incremental improvement. I meet Li Xiao Li as she carefully removes the skin of a Tan Yang,
taking care not to get blood on her designer jeans. "I want my kids to have a job like yours,"
she tells me. "I keep telling them - don't be like us. Don't live the hard life we've lived."

To send her daughter to school she spends most of her monthly income, and puts the rest aside
to cover health costs.

This is the big problem in China: absent a welfare state, even poor-ish Chinese people save lots
of their money, or spend it on health and education. The actual consumer economy is weak.

Escaping the propaganda

That is a problem now because the export economy has taken a massive hit - exports were 22%
down in the first quarter of this year. China has to try and rebalance its economy towards domestic
demand.

Easy for economists to say, but it would mean a revolution in the life of people like Ms Li. It is to find
out if they can do this that I am on this journey, with legendary Chinese fixer and translator, Edera
Liang, and driver Wang Zhi Gang.

I am trying to dodge the usual obstacles that greet foreign journalists in China - the dinners, the rice wine,
the official briefings from propaganda chiefs - and just see it as it is.

Part 2: The mathematics of migrant labour
Part 3: China's mass consumer culture
Part 4: Sixty years of Communism
Part 5: The chill of China's economic crisis
Part 7: The multiple realities of China

 

[Edward Campbell]

It's a good series but we must all remember that we foreigners, unless we are fluent in Mandarin and one if two of the major dialects and very well schooled in Chinese culture, can only "see" China through the lenses (and prejudices) of our guides and interpreters.

We are, by and large, cautiously aware of the cultural gap between e.g. English and French Canada, and some of us have experienced the "cultural gap" between Canadians, of one sort or another, and Pastuns or Canadians and Serbs and so on. Most of us are, rightfully, cautious about saying that we "understand" Afghanistan or the Balkans or Quebec and we must be equally cautious about thinking that a foreigner, just because (s)he's a journalist, "understands' what (s)he is seeing and hearing in China.

You should be equally cautious about my prognostications. They, too, are suspect because they, too, reflect what I have seen and heard through the "filter" of other people.

 

[Yrys]

Foreign journalists visit Lhasa, People's Daily

this article shows a different visit that the following one :


Tibetan Monks Tell Tale of Escape From China, NY Times

DHARAMSALA, India — Lobsang Gyatso and his fellow Tibetan monks had been biding
their time, walking around the main square of the monastery nestled in the barren
hills of northwestern China. Now the moment had arrived.

As a group of 20 foreign and Chinese journalists climbed out of minivans, Lobsang and
the other monks unfurled banners they had wrapped inside the folds of their crimson
robes and held aloft the banned flag of Tibet.

“We have no human rights now,” one monk told reporters in Chinese.

That daring protest, in April 2008, was transmitted around the world by the journalists
on the government tour, putting a dramatic face on Tibetan defiance. Chinese officials
had brought the journalists to the sprawling Labrang Monastery, in the town of Xiahe to
show that Tibetans were content under Chinese rule, despite the widespread Tibetan
uprising the previous month. The enraged monks, about 15 in all, punctured the official
narrative.

“If we monks hadn’t seized the opportunity to express our feelings, which are feelings in
all Tibetan monks, then we would have missed a chance to tell the world,” said Lobsang,
24, a squat man with a thin goatee who now lives in India. Following Tibetan custom, he
goes by his given name.

The journalists left later that afternoon without knowing the names or the fates of the
protesters. Some would be arrested and beaten, Lobsang said. For him and two other
monks, it was the start of a harrowing year of flight from the Chinese authorities that
ended only last month, when they arrived in this Himalayan hill town where the Dalai
Lama lives in exile.

Over that year, the monks slipped out of their monastery, trekked into the mountains,
slept in nomads’ tents, sneaked into Lhasa aboard a high-altitude train and crossed a
raging river to Nepal. It was only here in a refugee center that they could tell their tale
to a reporter, opening a rare window into the deep-rooted resentment that bloomed last
year into the largest Tibetan uprising in decades.

Chinese officials insist that the protests were orchestrated by the Dalai Lama, the spiritual
leader of the Tibetans. The monks from Labrang say harsh Chinese policies sparked the
tinder, especially limitations on Buddhist practice.

“I and my friends decided on our own to protest,” Lobsang said. “The protests were caused
by human rights issues and Chinese policies toward Tibet. We couldn’t tolerate it anymore.”
He added, “I joined the protests with the idea of saving Buddhism, which is endangered by
Chinese policy. I want His Holiness the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet, but the Chinese don’t
even allow us to display his picture.”

Labrang Monastery is one of the most important centers of religious study in the Tibetan world,
a white-walled labyrinth of monks’ cells and temples dating from the 18th century. It housed
about 500 monks before last year’s protests. Chinese policies in this frontier land called Amdo,
at the nexus of the Tibetan, Hui Muslim and Han Chinese worlds, have traditionally been less
strict than in central Tibet. But even there, the Communist Party employs heavy-handed methods
to control religious practice, said the three monks and two others who fled with them to
Dharamsala. The government limits the number of monks allowed to live in the monastery,
they said. Officials cracked down on festivities honoring the Dalai Lama. When the Chinese-
appointed Panchen Lama visited Labrang several years ago, monks were forced to stay indoors
to prevent disturbances.

Last year, when monks in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, began leading peaceful protests on March 10,
word spread quickly to Labrang. Thousands of monks and lay people in Xiahe marched to government
offices demanding the return of the Dalai Lama. Some protesters broke into buildings and threw stones
at riot police officers. From then on, the government tightened the screws on the monastery, the monks
said. A curfew was imposed. Security officers arrested several monks each night. The monastery began
to empty out. “Some monks ran off to their homes in the countryside,” said Jamyang Jinpa, 24.

The authorities began holding daily hourlong patriotic education classes, in which the monks were forced
to read tracts denouncing the Dalai Lama and pledge loyalty to the Communist Party. “As a Buddhist monk
who believes in the Dalai Lama as our foundation, it was unbearable to read this,” Lobsang said.

On the night of April 8, some monks heard on the radio that foreign journalists were to arrive in Labrang
the next day on a government tour. “We immediately stopped what we were doing that night and started
discussing the protest,” Jamyang said. A half-dozen monks brought out a Tibetan flag and scrawled slogans
on three white banners. “We have no freedom of speech,” read one. They wrote their wills on the back of
the flag because they thought there was a good chance they would be killed by Chinese security forces,
Jamyang said.

When they went to the main temple the next morning, they were struck by a strange sight: Hundreds of
people were milling about the square outside. Most were plainclothes Chinese security officers. “We knew
then that the journalists were coming,” Jamyang said. “We pretended to visit the temple.” When the
journalists and their government escorts pulled up in minivans, the monks dashed across the square,
unfurling their flag and banners. A few words were exchanged in Chinese. Some monks draped white
ceremonial scarves around the necks of several journalists.

“The Chinese people in plainclothes took photos of us, but they dared not stop us in front of the journalists,”
Jamyang said.

That night, security officers searched the cells of the monks involved in the protest, but the monks had
hidden elsewhere. The next night, Jamyang slipped into the mountains and kept walking until dawn. “After
the protest, I felt I would be arrested at any time,” he said. Jamyang spent the first two months mostly
sleeping outdoors, he said, sometimes in ditches that he had dug himself. He tossed away his red robes
and began growing out his hair. In the summer, he wandered to the high pastures and slept in the tents
of nomads. “In my dreams, sometimes I would see myself getting shot and dying,” he said.

Two other monks from the protest, Lobsang and Jigme Gyatso, also fled the monastery in the days after
Jamyang left. The three stayed apart. After nearly a year in hiding, the monks learned of a guide in Lhasa
who could smuggle them into Nepal. Using fake identification cards, they boarded the new high-altitude train
to Lhasa. A driver then sneaked them past checkpoints to the Nepal border, where they crossed a river on
logs. Of the 15 monks who took part in that protest in front of the journalists, only these three have escaped
to India. That they made it here is considered extraordinary given how tightly Chinese authorities clamped
down on Tibet. The refugee center here usually gets 2,500 to 3,000 Tibetans per year, but that dropped to
550 last year. By the end of May, only 176 refugees had arrived, said Ngawang Norbu, the center’s director.

The monks say they have no regrets about holding the protest — to them, there was no other way to show
the world their true feelings about Chinese rule.

“I miss my friends and family in Tibet, but I try to bury my feelings,” Jamyang said. “At the moment, I can’t
return to Tibet, and I don’t know about the future.”

 

[CougarKing]

No doubt this is a response to mainland China's own increased presence in the area.

Taiwan likely to boost South China Sea presence
AFP
AFP - Sunday, June 14

TAIPEI (AFP) - – Taiwan's coastguard said it was likely to increase its presence in a disputed South China Sea archipelago, in response to a significant rise in the number of foreign fishing boats there.

Taiwan's coastguard, which has a base on Taiping, the biggest island in the Spratlys, has reported a steep rise in the number of foreign fishing vessels in the area, media reports said.

"Yes, it's likely," said Shih Yi-che, a spokesman for Taiwan's coastguard, when asked if the service would send more patrol boats to the archipelago, which lies around 1,500 kilometres (937 miles) south of Taiwan.

Taiwan's coastguard operates three patrol boats from Taiping, known as Ba Binh in Vietnam, where it has also built a runway for providing logistical support and humanitarian assistance.

By the end of May, Taiwan's coastguard had counted more than 500 foreign vessels, mostly from China, off Taiping, more than double the number reported for the whole of 2008, media reports said.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's foreign ministry reaffirmed the island's claim to the Spratlys, along with three other archipelagos in the South China Sea, which straddle important shipping lanes.

"The Spratly islands are the territory of the Republic of China (Taiwan), whether from the point of view of history, geography, and international law," acting foreign ministry spokesman James Chang told AFP.

Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, China, Malaysia, and the Philippines claim all or part of the potentially oil-rich Spratlys.
All claimants except Brunei have troops based on the archipelago of more than 100 islets, reefs and atolls, which has a total land mass of less than five square kilometres (two square miles).

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/afp/20090614/ta...ys-beb1011.html

 

[CougarKing]

Another article on China's increasing influence in Africa:

China’s Africa Strategy Blossoms as Relationship Develops

China-Briefing .com
June 8, 2009

NAIROBI, Jun. 8 -China has stepped up its foreign policy of friendship and trade with Africa this year as it seeks to further strengthen its ties throughout the continent. With President Hu Jintao having already visited Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius, China announced a new Beijing summit of African nations aimed at actively developing a strategic China-African partnership. Chinese influence pan-Africa, unencumbered by colonial history, the politics of aid, and an understanding of how sometime dictatorial governments work, is set to rise significantly across the region.

Hu’s visit, coming as it did during the shock waves of the global financial crisis, appears structured to convince African nations that China intends to be rather more than a fair-weather friend. With Africa having been apparently placed at the bottom of the pile of importance by economically battered European nations, China has been quick to assert itself in their absence. Accusations that China has cherry-picked African nations for strategic alliances appear to have been reversed. None of the four nations visited are particularly rich in resources. That means hats off to China’s foreign policy and strategy in Africa, recognizing that rather than national borders, Africa remains, despite previous colonial attempts to draw lines, largely a tribal continent. Doing business based purely on Africa’s national borders and localized mineral or resource wealth doesn’t necessarily cut it. China’s strategy of dealing with Africa carefully, but as a whole, appears to be paying dividends that the previous colonial powers just cannot match due to their inherent historical bias.

China has also uncovered a powerful windfall in its acquisition through trade of trillions of U.S. dollars. While to the West, the appreciation of the dollar has been hurting large sectors of the U.S. economy, for China, away from the prying eyes of Washington, it means both China and several other Asian countries – such as India and Thailand – have acquired significant purchasing power in world markets. Additionally, oil and other commodities have been at their lowest levels for several years, resulting in China finding itself in a powerful bargaining position in what has become a global buyers market to those nations who have the cash. China is signing long-term deals with many African nations for a variety of natural resources. When the global recovery comes, as one day it must, China will find itself in control of considerable portions of the world’s natural resources, including oil. Africa therefore now finds itself in the rare position of being courted by the United States, the EU and Asia; with China currently the top player.

Exporting aggressively, and undercutting traditional, mainly European producers, Asia rapidly began to view Africa as both a large potential export market but also as a source of resources. In some cases, however, Africa still has to learn to insist on quality control measures. As China politically strengthens its position in Africa, many low-end Chinese exports are just not up to standard and the country is generating a reputation for poor quality goods. Friends of mine reference a Chinese made hammer, which after just six blows to knock a wooden peg in the ground to secure a safari camp tent, broke in several pieces – the wooden handle cleaving in two and the metal head fracturing into pieces. I have heard recurring stories across Africa of similar incidents involving cheap Chinese products; the dumping perhaps of shoddy goods long discarded by more sophisticated markets? China still has a large number of low-level, poor quality-producing state-owned enterprises to maintain for the sake of its workers, and it wouldn’t surprise me if such products are now being sent to Africa, where corruption, a lack of QC supervision on imports, and possible political pressure allow such product entry.

Regardless, trade volumes between Africa and Asia have sky-rocketed. Exports from Africa grew annually at 15 percent from 1990 to 1995, and has reached 20 percent plus for each of the past twelve years. African trade with China alone in 2008 was US$106.84billion, up 45 percent over 2007. At present, African trade with Asia is running at about 30 percent of that which it enjoys with the EU and the United States, however, the volume of trade has grown exponentially partly due to improvements in infrastructure and the proximity of the two continents. It takes just five hours to fly from Nairobi in Kenya across the Indian Ocean to Mumbai – the same time it takes to fly from Urumqi to Beijing.

Currently, just five African nations account for 85 percent of all Asian trade, however, with infrastructure developments and political reform occurring in Africa too, bottlenecks that have traditionally gotten in the way of such commerce are gradually – and in several cases quickly - being removed. Asian demand for finished product from Africa is increasing, and has been growing at about 20 percent per year, particularly in textiles and apparel. African imports on the other hand include machinery and equipment, vehicles (including Indian and Chinese made motorbikes and trucks), and electronic goods and appliances. Beijing has encouraged this trade by removing or reducing tariffs on a wide variety of African imports and has signaled it may do so again to further boost trade.

China’s long arm of commerce therefore is moving steadily and strongly to Africa. It is time to take heed.

 

[CougarKing]

Meanwhile... in Hong Kong...

Another challenge to "one country two systems"? Tung-Chee Wah's successors must be worried.

Agence France-Presse - 7/1/2009 11:59 AM GMT
Tens of thousands march for democracy in Hong Kong
Tens of thousands of people took to the sweltering streets of Hong Kong on Wednesday for an annual pro-democracy march, as the city marked the 12th anniversary of its return to China.

The huge crowd, estimated by organisers at 76,000, snaked through the city to demand the early introduction of universal suffrage and also to express frustration at the government on a whole gamut of issues, including its response to the economic slowdown.

Despite temperatures nudging 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit), many protesters gathered at the city's Victoria Park more than an hour before the march, sporting umbrellas to protect them from the scorching sun.

Dennis Chan, a 28-year-old salesman, who joined the march for the third time, said: "We want to let the government know that this is not our government."

The protesters sang the anthem "We Are Ready" and held banners to demand universal suffrage for the city's chief executive and legislature in 2012.

Beijing has said that universal suffrage would not come before 2017 at the earliest.

Organisers were hoping for a turnout that would shock the government in a similar way to the 2003 march, which saw 500,000 people take to the streets.

"The issues this year mirror those in 2003," Lee Cheuk-yan, a march organiser and leading trade unionist, told AFP.

"People are frustrated with a government which is unable to lead them through economic hardship and political crisis, although not to a point where they want the chief executive Donald Tsang to step down."

The 2003 march was galvanised by an economic downturn, the unpopular then-chief executive Tung Chee-hwa and controversy over the introduction of a proposed national security bill.

The show of people power saw the security legislation shelved and was a key factor in Tung's decision to resign the following year.

Opposition to the government, which is mainly driven by pro-democratic political parties, has grown in recent months as the latest global economic crisis has hit the financial and export hub hard.

The city fell into recession in the third quarter of 2008 and the government expects the economy to contract 5.5-6.5 percent in 2009.

Democracy supporters were further buoyed by the record turnout of 150,000 at the candlelight vigil last month to mark the 20th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Among the crowd were also migrant workers who demanded to be included in new minimum wage legislation, one of the many concerns among the marchers.

The protest coincided with celebrations for the 12th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, after the former British colony was returned to China in 1997.

A separate, smaller pro-Beijing parade took place early Wednesday, with marchers waving China's national flag and traditional Chinese dragon dances.

Chief executive Tsang officiated at a flag-raising ceremony and government reception Wednesday morning and said he was confident Hong Kong would sail through the financial crisis and other challenges with the support of China.

"With perseverance and determination, and most importantly with the all-out support of our country, I am sure we will again prove our resilience and mettle," he said at the reception.

A separate march also took place by disgruntled investors who had lost money through complex financial products called "mini-bonds", whose value collapsed when the bank that backed them, US investment house Lehman Brothers, went bust last September.

Amid the serious politics, there were some lighter moments.

A 40-strong "Complaints Choir" took advantage of Hong Kong's freedom -- the city has a different legal system from mainland China including the right to protest -- to perform a five-minute moan about various aspects of life from taxes to bad bosses.

 

[CougarKing]

Unrest in Xinjiang.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090705/world/international_us_china_xinjiang_unrest

Three killed in riot in China's Xinjiang region

1 hour, 20 minutes ago


By Chris Buckley


BEIJING (Reuters) - Three people died in rioting in China's restive far west Xinjiang region on Sunday, state media reported, in a confrontation that underscored the tense divide there between Han Chinese and the Uighur ethnic minority.


The official Xinhua news agency said rioters "illegally gathered in several downtown places and engaged in beating, smashing, looting and burning" in the regional capital Urumqi.


The dead were "three ordinary people of the Han ethnic group," Xinhua said. It did not say how they died.


Nor did the official reports specify the ethnicity of those involved in the unrest or the reasons behind it, and calls to the Xinjiang government spokesperson's office and Urumqi police were not answered.

But other sources told Reuters the clash involved members of the Uighur ethnic minority, many of whom resent the Chinese presence in the region, and the cultural and religious controls imposed by China's ruling Communist Party.


Dilxat Raxit, an advocate of Uighur independence exiled in Sweden, said the unrest was sparked by anger over a confrontation between Han Chinese and Uighur factory workers in far southern China in late June, when two Uighurs died.


"It began as a peaceful assembly. There were thousands of people shouting to stop ethnic discrimination, demanding an explanation. This anger has been growing for a long time," he said of the gathering in Urumqi.


Many Uighurs complain they are marginalized economically and politically in their own land, which has rich mineral and natural gas reserves.


An eyewitness in Urumqi, who requested anonymity, told Reuters the police moved in and the confrontation turned violent.


Rioters overturned traffic rails and smashed buses until thousands of police and anti-riot troops swept through the city, using tear-gas and high-pressure water hoses to disperse crowds.


"Now the whole city is on lock-down," he said.


CRACKDOWN EXPECTED


Alim Seytoff, General Secretary of the Uyghur American Association, based in Washington D.C., said the peaceful protest was led by students angry over the recent factory deaths, and it showed that government efforts to quell Uighur aspirations were failing.


"Urumqi is a tightly controlled city, but the students have access to all sorts of information on the Internet," he said.


"Now, I hear, the authorities have been going through university dorms to hunt down participants. ... There will be a harsh crackdown, but the basic problems won't disappear."


The Chinese video website Youku (www.youku.com) ran footage titled "Urumqi riot" that showed smoke rising from an expressway as a firetruck stopped at the scene.


An overseas Chinese news website, Boxun (peacehall.com), showed pictures it said were of the Urumqi riot, including hundreds of civilians pressed against a row of police, burning wreckage on a city street, and anti-riot police in shields and helmets.

Almost half of Xinjiang's 20 million people are Uighurs. Many of them resent controls imposed by Beijing and an inflow of Han Chinese migrants. The population of Urumqi is mostly Han Chinese, and the city is under tight police security even in normal times.

Xinjiang has been under increasingly tight security in recent years, especially in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, when the region was hit by several deadly attacks that authorities said were the work of militants.
But human rights groups and Uighur independence activists say Beijing grossly exaggerates the threat from militants to justify harsh controls restricting peaceful political demands.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; editing by Myra MacDonald)

 

[Colin Parkinson]

A good read of an interview with Robert Kaplan

http://www.michaeltotten.com/

Kaplan: The biggest takeaway fact about the Sri Lankan war that’s over now is that the Chinese won. And the Chinese won because over the last few years, because of the human rights violations by the Sri Lankan government, the U.S. and other Western countries have cut all military aid. We cut them off just as they were starting to win. The Chinese filled the gaps and kept them flush with weapons and, more importantly, with ammunition, with fire-fighting radar, all kinds of equipment. The assault rifles that Sri Lankan soldiers carry at road blocks throughout Colombo are T-56 Chinese knockoffs of AK-47s. They look like AK-47s, but they’re not.

What are the Chinese getting out of this? They’re building a deep water port and bunkering facility for their warships and merchant fleet in Hambantota, in southern Sri Lanka. And they’re doing all sorts of other building on the island.

More on link

 

[CougarKing]

More unrest in China's westernmost province.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090706/ap_on_re_as/as_china_protest

By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer William Foreman, Associated Press Writer – 35 mins ago
URUMQI, China – Violence in the capital of China's volatile Xinjiang region killed 140 people and injured 828, an official said Monday, following rioting by members of a Muslim ethnic group and a police crackdown on their demonstrations.

The official toll makes the unrest the deadliest single incident of unrest in Xinjiang in recent decades.

The violence in Urumqi apparently happened after a peaceful protest Sunday of about 1,000 to 3,000 people spun out of control, with rioters overturning barricades, attacking vehicles and houses, and clashing with police.

Uigher exile groups said the violence started only after police began violently cracking down on the peaceful protest.

Wu Nong, director of the news office of the Xinjiang provincial government, said more than 260 vehicles were attacked or set on fire and 203 houses were damaged. He said 140 people were killed and 828 injured in the violence.

The official Xinhua News Agency also said 140 people died and that the death toll "was still climbing."

Tensions between Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese are never far from the surface in Xinjiang, China's vast Central Asian buffer province, where militant Uighurs have waged sporadic, violent separatist campaign. The overwhelming majority of Urumqi's 2.3 million people are Han Chinese.

State television aired footage that showed protesters attacking and kicking people on the ground. Other people sat dazed with blood pouring down their faces.

Mobile phone service provided by at least one company was cut Monday to stop people from organizing further action in Xinjiang.

The protest started Sunday with demonstrators demanding a probe into a fight between Uighurs and Han Chinese workers at a southern China factory last month. Accounts differed over what happened next in Urumqi, but the violence seemed to have started when a crowd of protesters — who started out peaceful — refused to disperse.

Uigher exile groups said the violence started when Chinese security forces cracked down on the peaceful protest.
"We are extremely saddened by the heavy-handed use of force by the Chinese security forces against the peaceful demonstrators," said Alim Seytoff, vice president of the Washington-based Uyghur American Association.

"We ask the international community to condemn China's killing of innocent Uihgurs. This is a very dark day in the history of the Uighur people," he said.

The association, led by a former businesswoman now living in America, Rebiya Kadeer, estimated that 1,000 to 3,000 people took part in the protest.

 

[MarkOttawa]

A post at Dust my Broom:

The Dragon and selective diplomatic disapproval
http://dustmybroom.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11994:the-dragon-and-selective-diplomatic-disapproval&catid=65:bastards

Mark
Ottawa

 

[CougarKing]

An Armoured Personal Carrier patrols the main square of Urumqi in Xinjiang province July 6, 2009. At least 140 people have been killed in rioting in the capital of China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, the worst case of ethnic violence in the Muslim area in years. REUTERS/Nir Elias (CHINA CONFLICT POLITICS IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Chinese paramilitary police march by a square closed following riots in Urumqi, western China's Xinjiang province, Monday, July 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Chinese paramilitary police rest inside an armored vehicle at the entrance to a Uighur district which has been closed following riots in Urumqi, western China's Xinjiang province, Monday, July 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Chinese paramilitary police stand guard outside a market which was closed following riots in Urumqi, western China's Xinjiang province, Monday, July 6, 2009.
(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A CCTV grab shows a crowd of men pushing over a police car on a street in Urumqi, the capital of China's Autonomous Region of Xinjiang on July 5. China said at least 140 people were killed in rioting by Muslim Uighurs in its restive Xinjiang region in the deadliest ethnic unrest reported in the country for decades.
(AFP/CCTV)

A CCTV grab shows a crowd clashing with security forces on a street in Urumqi, the capital of China's Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, on July 5. China said at least 140 people were killed in rioting by Muslim Uighurs in its restive Xinjiang region in the deadliest ethnic unrest reported in the country for decades.
(AFP/CCTV)

 

[Cloud Cover]

Unless the guy in the forground has 3 hands, this picture has been phtoshopped for some reason:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090706/China_riots_090706/20090706?hub=TopStories