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The use of convict labourers on overseas projects is damaging China’s international reputation China has devised a novel strategy to relieve pressure on its overcrowded prisons: employ convicts as labourers on overseas projects in the developing world. The practice has exposed another facet of China’s egregious human rights record which, when it comes to the overseas operations of Chinese …
By guardian.co.uk

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Chinese naval forces have carried out a series of drills in the South China Sea, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday, strategic waters which are disputed by a number of Southeast Asia countries.
By news.yahoo.com

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Beijing, July 29 : Chinese military conducted two exercises near the Yellow Sea on Sunday to test the troop’s long-range striking precision.
By newkerala.com

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Search for remains of armada which came to grief on a pioneering voyage to Kenya 600 years ago It’s another chapter in the now familiar story of China’s economic embrace of Africa. Except that this one begins nearly 600 years ago. A team of 11 Chinese archaeologists will arrive in Kenya tomorrow to begin the search for an ancient shipwreck and other evidence of commerce with China dating back to …
By guardian.co.uk

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TAIPEI – Recently in Taipei, as yet another delegation from mainland China cut the ribbon to an investment fair and Taiwan’s hotel industry anticipated ever-rising numbers of mainland tourists, the island’s President Ma Ying-jeou had his eyes fixed on monitors.
By atimes.com

Tags: com, hotel industry, investment, investment fair, ma ying jeou, mainland china, news, searchTAIPEI, Taipei, War

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Jul.28 (China Military News cited from Postmedia News and written By Aileen McCabe) — Opposition is gathering in China to Washington’s renewed “national interest” in the territorial disputes over more than 200 tiny islands in the South China Sea.

In an editorial Tuesday, the official China Daily accused the U.S. of trying to “rekindle the feud” over ownership of the islands and warned its neighbours in Southeast Asia that Washington’s policy is “directed against China and intended to stir up trouble in those countries that have territorial disputes with the nation.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apparently took China by surprise when she told a forum of Southeast Asian nations in Hanoi last Friday that the U.S. considered it to be in its own interest to help settle the myriad of claims over the island territories.

Her statement was good news for many of the nations embroiled in disputes that are sometimes over little more than specks of rocky land. China’s rise as economic giant in the region and its increasing military might have countries like Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines worried about their longtime claims.

Now China is, too, it seems.

“It is crystal clear that the United States is attempting to coerce Southeast Asian nations into blowing out of proportion the South China Sea issue. This is a dangerous move,” the China Daily wrote.

In its editorial, the Global Times was even more blunt.

“With growing economic power China and the U.S. may encounter more clashes in China’s adjacent sea. Few Southeast Asian countries would like to get in the middle of Sino-U.S. tensions, but like many other regions they are caught in a dilemma: economically close to China, yet militarily guarded against China.

“Southeast Asian countries need to understand any attempt to maximize gains by playing a balancing game between China and the U.S. is risky,” it said.

While often not much more than rocky outcrops, the islands and islets are rich fishing grounds and on important shipping lanes for much of the merchandise and energy that comes in and out of the region. As well, there are growing expectations about oil and gas deposits in the sea under and around them.

China seized the Paracel Islands from Vietnam in the mid-1970s and now calls them the Xisha Islands and includes them on maps as part of Hainan island province. This year it announced plans to begin developing them for tourism.

Vietnam has never given up its claim, however, and the Philippines also dispute ownership of several of them.

The long string of Spratly Islands are claimed in their entirety by Vietnam, China and Taiwan and partially by several of their neighbours. China and Vietnam fought a brief naval battle over them in 1988 which claimed the lives of 70 Vietnamese sailors, but nothing was resolved.

In a statement Sunday, the Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi warned the U.S. against “internationalizing” the neighbourhood dispute. “It will only make matters worse and the resolution more difficult,” he said.

This war of words is playing out just as the U.S. and South Korea wrap-up the first phase of their controversial naval exercise in the Sea of Japan (or East Sea). The massive war games which involve about 20 ships, 200 aircraft and 8,000 personnel are a show of strength in response to the sinking of a South Korean warship this spring, apparently by the North Koreans.

China, which has yet to accept the international report blaming its ally, North Korea, for the attack, opposed the exercises vigorously earlier this month, but toned down its criticism when it became apparent the manoeuvres would go ahead regardless.

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By admin

Tags: china defense, Daily, dispute, economic giant, June, region, South China Sea, southeast asian countries, southeast asian nations, territorial

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Jul.28 (China Military News cited from AFP) — China has staged a large-scale military exercise on its east coast, state media reported, just as South Korea and the United States conduct their own major naval drill opposed by Beijing.

Artillery troops of the Nanjing Military Region, responsible for defending the nation’s eastern seaboard, conducted live ammunition exercises near the Yellow Sea, the official China News Service said.

The exercises included long-range rocket fire drills, it said in a report late on Tuesday.

Advertisement: Story continues belowThe primary aim was to conduct battlefield intelligence and reconnaissance exercises using equipment such as unmanned drone aircraft and radar, it said.

The military also tested a new type of rocket-fired artillery during the exercise, other media reports said.

It was unclear whether the exercise had been pre-planned or was in response to the joint naval drill currently underway between the United States and South Korea. Nor did the reports say exactly when the Chinese exercises took place.

China has expressed concern over the July 25-28 drill, which was initially supposed to be held in the Yellow Sea separating China and the Korean peninsula, but was later relocated to the Sea of Japan following Beijing’s protests.

The US-South Korean exercise is being conducted as a warning to North Korea – China’s ally – following the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed by Seoul and its allies on a North Korean submarine.

China is North Korea’s closest ally and trade partner and has refused to join international condemnation of Pyongyang for the incident.

It has warned against further actions, such as the US-South Korean military drills, that it fears could raise tensions in the region.

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By admin

Tags: ally, china news service, chinese exercises, drone aircraft, eastern seaboard, exercise, fire, international condemnation, news, October

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Jul.24 (China Military News cited from Washington Post and written by John Pomfret) — The Obama administration’s announcement Thursday that it will resume relations with Indonesia’s special forces, despite the unit’s history of alleged atrocities and assassinations, is the most significant move yet by the United States to strengthen ties in East Asia as a hedge against China’s rise.

The push comes at the same time that the administration’s tone with China has turned tougher, especially on the nettlesome issue of human rights. In recent speeches and interactions with Chinese authorities, the administration has abandoned an earlier approach of patience and quiet engagement.

The decision to resume relations with Kopassus, the elite special forces of the Indonesian military, prompted strong criticism from advocates for human rights.

“In the Bush administration, we saw them seek military allies regardless of human rights abuses in pursuit of the war on terror,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. This administration, she said, “will seek military alliances regardless of human rights abuses — in response to China.”

Yang Jiechi meets Hillary Clinton in Vietnam’s capital

Other analysts said that given Indonesia’s transition toward democratic governance, it makes sense to reengage with powerful elements of its military, in part to build up counterweights to China’s increasing power in the region. China’s rise is also a significant factor in the Obama administration’s moves to strengthen ties with traditional allies, such as South Korea and Japan, as well as with Malaysia and Laos and even with Vietnam, a former foe. It also was a factor in the recent opening to Burma.

“Indonesia is the anchor country of ASEAN,” said Ernie Bower, an expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, on the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “And there’s a recognition that you need to have a strong foundation in ASEAN to deal with China over time.”

In some cases, China’s diplomatic missteps have helped the administration improve ties with Asian nations. China’s decision not to criticize North Korea directly for allegedly sinking a South Korean warship and killing 46 South Korean sailors on March 26 is believed to have contributed to a significant warming of relations between Washington and Seoul. China’s continued opposition to planned U.S.-South Korean military exercises has only further helped bolster U.S. strategic ties with Seoul.

The buzzing of two Japanese warships by Chinese military helicopters in April was used by Japanese officials as political cover to support more fully Tokyo’s alliance with the United States. That event, coupled with the sinking of the South Korean warship, dampened talk, at least for the time being, within the ruling Democratic Party of Japan about refashioning the alliance with the United States and forging better relations with China.

But as Thursday’s move with Indonesia illustrates, it is not just traditional allies that have felt the Obama administration’s embrace.

Relations with Malaysia, for instance, have improved significantly despite concerns about the upcoming trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who is facing sodomy charges that many Malaysians and Western observe believe were trumped up to damage him politically.

In April, Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, met with President Obama on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. The country earlier had passed an export control act that U.S. officials hope will make Malaysia less of a transshipment point for military-related technology to Iran. On Thursday, Malaysia deployed its first military unit to Afghanistan, to provide medical and dental services to Afghans.

Laos, considered by some in Washington to be all but a client state of Beijing, dispatched this month its highest-level delegation to the United States since 1975 with the visit of Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith.

The Obama administration also ended eight years of Bush administration policy on Burma, also known as Myanmar, by reaching out to that nation — in part because of a concern that it was becoming a vassal to China. So far, that policy has yielded few gains, and the administration is considering whether to slap tougher sanctions on Burma and whether to back a U.N. war- crimes or genocide investigation against that country’s leaders.

Analysts noted that as the Obama administration has moved to strengthen its ties to the rest of Asia, it has adopted a tougher tone with China on human rights.

The administration entered office with a new approach on China over human rights.

It postponed a meeting with the Dalai Lama in an attempt to set a good tone with Beijing in the run-up to a summit between Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao in November. And it signaled that it would deal with human rights issues with Beijing generally behind closed doors because the United States needs China’s help on so many other issues, such as nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea, dealing with the global financial crisis and climate change.

But starting in January, with a strong speech on Internet freedom by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during which she criticized China five times, the administration has changed tactics. China has helped drive that change by handing out long sentences to dissidents whose cases were directly raised by Obama in his meeting with Hu and by sentencing an American, Xue Feng, to eight years in prison on apparently bogus charges of espionage. Clinton continued her criticism of China in a speech in Krakow on civil society on July 3.

“The President and Secretary Clinton have articulated a notion of principled engagement with China and around the world,” said Michael H. Posner, assistant secretary of state for human rights, democracy and labor, “and our task now is to continue putting meat on the bones.”

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By admin

Tags: anchor country, bush, country, decision, factor, human rights abuses, John Pomfret, military alliances, military allies, tone

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The Chinese military conducted two exercises near the Yellow Sea, while the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK) engaged in a joint military drill that concluded on Wednesday (July 28), State …..
By asianewsnet.net

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The Chinese military conducted two exercises near the Yellow Sea, while the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK) engaged in a joint military drill that concluded on Wednesday, State media said.
By english.peopledaily.com.cn

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China views the military exercises in the Sea of Japan as a threat to its territorial integrity. Beijing’s indignation appears calibrated to push back at U.S. dominance in the region. China views the military exercises in the Sea of Japan as a threat to its territorial integrity. Beijing’s indignation appears calibrated to push back at U.S. dominance in the region.
By latimes.com

Tags: com, dominance, korea war, military exercises, news, region, s south, sea of japan, territorial, territorial integrity

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China may have no intentions of using its growing military might, but that is of little comfort for Western countries. From the World Trade Organization to the United Nations, Beijing is happy to use its soft power to get what it wants – and it is wrong-footing the West at every turn.
By freeinternetpress.com

Tags: Beijing, com, footing, news, Power, trade, West, west article, western countries, world trade organization

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Molycorp Inc. is trying to convince investors it can loosen Chinas grip on everything from smart bombs to hybrid cars by reopening the largest non-Chinese deposit of rare-earth metals in the world.
By businessweek.com

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This week a Chinese delegation is visiting leading US companies to promote inward investment to the country’s new Liangjiang Economic Zone. The new zone, located in the southwest region of China’s Chongqing district, was unveiled last month as west China’s new frontier of development.
By biz.yahoo.com

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Dharamsala, July 28: China has announced new financial assistance to Nepal to strengthen security agencies in better monitoring and prevention of Tibetan refugees from engaging in “anti-China activities” on its soil, Nepalese media reported.
By phayul.com

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China’s angry response to a U.S.-led confrontation over the disputed South China Sea raises the specter of a fresh rift between Beijing and Washington just as wounds from a combative start to the year are healing.
By abs-cbnnews.com

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China has staged a large-scale military exercise on its east coast, state media reported, just as South Korea and the United States conduct their own major naval drill opposed by Beijing.
By news.yahoo.com

Tags: article, com, conduct, east coast state, media article, military exercise, news, news yahoo, South Korea, State

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Jul.28 (China Military News cited from The wall street journal) — Hillary Clinton had the temerity to offer a few anodyne suggestions about the South China Sea at the Asean Regional Forum meeting in Hanoi last week. Soon after, China’s Foreign Minister lashed out at the U.S. Secretary of State, and dyspeptic editorials from the state media are coming fast. Hear, hear: The U.S. is finally pushing back against China’s bullying in Southeast Asia.

Mrs. Clinton urged the creation of a binding code of conduct for the six states claiming disputed islands in the South China Sea, including China, as well as an institutional process for resolving those claims. “The United States has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia’s maritime commons and respect for international law in the South China Sea,” Mrs. Clinton said.

This seems reasonable enough, since one-third of the world’s shipping transits through the South China Sea, its waters are rich fishing grounds, and the seabed is believed to hold huge oil and gas reserves. But Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi took this as an “attack” on China, saying that “nobody believes there’s anything that is threatening the region’s peace and stability.”

That’s not how Southeast Asians see it. Vietnam sought to put the South China Sea code of conduct on the agenda at the ARF meeting, over China’s objections. China ejected Vietnam from one of the Spratly Islands in 1988 in a sea battle that claimed more than 70 Vietnamese lives, and there have been more recent skirmishes.

China has established a worrying M.O. in these waters, sometimes referred to as “talk and take.” In 1992, Beijing signed the Asean Declaration on the South China Sea, designed to protect the status quo. But three years later, it seized Mischief Reef from the Philippines and eventually built a military outpost there.

Chinese PLA Soldiers in Yongshu Dao, one island in South China sea

The islands dispute is heating up again because Chinese officials and scholars have begun to classify the country’s claims as part of its “core interests”—a category previously reserved for Tibet and Taiwan. On China’s maps, it draws a U-shaped line around almost the entire sea, encroaching on other nations’ continental shelves. Beijing’s historical claims to the islands are tenuous and probably wouldn’t withstand scrutiny under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which China is a signatory.

Of greater concern to maritime powers without a direct claim to the islands is the principle of free navigation. Last year, Chinese boats sought to drive a U.S. Navy surveillance vessel, the USNS Impeccable, out of international waters south of Hainan Island. This month, Beijing intimidated the U.S. into not sending the aircraft carrier USS George Washington into the Yellow Sea for exercises. Essentially China would like to extend its territorial waters, which usually run to 12 miles, to include the entire exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 miles.

Only U.S. involvement can give Asean enough confidence to insist that Beijing submit to international law. After years of Washington placating Beijing, the danger of allowing China to bully its neighbors seems to be sinking in. Undoubtedly more friction is to come, but Asean and its friends have an opportunity to unite to show Beijing that its claims are unacceptable.

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By admin

Tags: ASEAN, asean declaration, asean regional forum, chinese foreign minister, code, com, June, law, mischief reef, South China Sea

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China has staged a large-scale military exercise on its east coast, just as S.Korea and the US conduct their own major naval drill, state media reports.
By news.brisbanetimes.com.au

Tags: article, brisbanetimes, com, conduct, east coast, exercise article, Korea, military exercise, news, State

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Molycorp Inc. is trying to convince investors it can loosen Chinas grip on everything from smart bombs to hybrid cars by reopening the largest non-Chinese deposit of rare-earth metals in the world.
By businessweek.com

Tags: businessweek, com, grip, hybrid cars, IPO, Metals, news, rare earth metals, smart bombs