China Blocks UN Report on North Korea

« Chinese President Hu Jintao continues to block proposed UN sanctions against North Korea.
(Peter Wynn Thompson/AFP/Getty Images)

Beijing hastens to defend rogue Pyongyang once again.

 

China announced last Wednesday that it will refuse to allow publication of a UN Security Council report that accuses North Korea of violating nuclear sanctions.

Britain at Odds With Europe Over Ban on Selling Arms to China

« British Prime Minister David Cameron (right) talks with President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy. Britain and the EU are divided over resuming arms sales to China.
(Getty Images)

Britain is clashing with the European Union as Europe edges toward repealing the EU’s ban on selling military technology to China.

 

If European nations can sell weapons to Russia, as France did in December with a €1 billion assault ship deal, then why not to China’s army too? This is the question a growing number of European Union policymakers are asking as Beijing’s influence with EU member states increases.

The issue is significant because the EU banned weapons technology sales to China in 1989, after Beijing’s violent crackdown on dissidents in Tiananmen Square. But with China’s investments helping to prop up several European states, a growing number of continental EU countries want to reconsider the embargo. And on January 27, China urged the EU to lift the ban in order to boost EU-China relations.

Alexander Neill of the Royal United Services Institute said, “EU member states certainly feel pressured by China given the economic contagion which seems to be spreading through the EU at the moment. Many national leaders, I am sure, will think twice about how they engage the Chinese on investment, which is essentially bailing them out of elements of their economic doldrums.”

Last month, an unnamed EU official told reporters that the nations opposed to the embargo had gathered enough momentum to kill the ban by the end of the year.

But Britain, in spite of having accepted some Chinese investments, remains alongside the U.S. in commitment to the restriction, and is isolating itself from Europe to a degree over the issue.

“The UK’s position remains exactly as it has been over the last few years, which is now is not the right time to lift the ban,” Neill said.

Despite Britain’s concerns, in the short term EU-China relations will improve as the two sides work toward counterbalancing American dominance and replacing the current U.S.-dominated global economic framework with a multipolar model.

These what you might have missed while I was away

Youth ‘Booze Culture’ Overwhelms British Hospitals

The alcoholism that’s spreading like a disease through the nation’s youth is a powerful sign of societal breakdown in Britain. Where is it all leading?

Chinese Companies Set to Ramp Up Investment in the U.S.

Another troubling symptom of America’s debt-fueled disease.

» The Egyptian revolt and imperial Islamism American Thinker, Jan. 31, 2011

UPDATE: Russia Boosts Military Cooperation With Ukraine

» Euro crisis: The only way to save the euro is the destruction of its members Telegraph, Jan. 13, 2011

UPDATE: Guess Who Is Smiling on the Protests in Egypt?

Demonstrations against the Mubarak regime benefit this nation more than anyone else. 

More than 200,000 in Cairo demand Mubarak quit
Pakistan court blocks handing over of U.S. "diplomat"
South Korea's conciliatory Lee hints at summit with North
Australia evacuates coastal cities in path of cyclone
In Myanmar's gleaming new capital, uncertain promise
Haiti opens door for return of ex-president Aristide
U.N. says 147 killed in Tunisian uprising
Iraq war casualties rise in January
Irish PM to dissolve parliament, pave way for opposition
U.S. praises Kazakh leader for skipping referendum
 

The Chinafication of Asia

« China is making its presence known throughout Asia.
(Getty Images)

Beijing is not satisfied with the status quo and is maneuvering to expand its reach, especially in Asia. By Jeremiah Jacques

 

“Anybody who ignores China would have to reexamine his head,” said the Philippines Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile last month. And a growing number of Asian policymakers are demonstrating that they agree with Enrile.

Wielding the twin forces of soft-power diplomacy and intimidating military growth, Beijing is rapidly expanding China’s reach throughout Asia. Viewed individually, the gains China has made don’t appear terribly significant, but, when analyzed together, they paint a sobering picture of a rapidly rising Chinese powerhouse and of a dramatic shift in Asia’s balance of power.

China’s “String of Pearls”

China: U.S. Kowtows to the Enemy

It seems the current U.S. administration will go down in history as the first to bow in obeisance to America’s historic enemies.

Now it seems, with America having suffered continuing and increasing ignominy for failing to vanquish any enemy that has attacked it since obtaining victory in World War ii, the current U.S. administration is intent on taking that ignominy one step further.

Take the case of China.

China’s Military Advancements Surpass Western Expectations

« Chinese soldiers walk past a Chinese flag in Shanghai.
(Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images)

The Middle Kingdom’s historic rise continues. 

By Jeremiah Jacques

With increasing consistency, China’s People’s Liberation Army (pla) is surpassing the expectations of Western experts by its rapid developments and capability. The trend speaks both to China’s mushrooming military might and to the West’s lack of vision and naïveté.

Washington officials thought China would not develop an operational stealth fighter jet before 2020. But when U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Beijing last week, the pla conducted a test flight of its new fifth-generation “J-20″ stealth fighter jet. The day before his trip to Beijing, Gates expressed concern about the Chinese military, saying, “They clearly have potential to put some of our capabilities at risk, and we have to pay attention to them ….” The test flight of the J-20 during Gates’s visit lends credence to his forewarning.

Landmark Pipeline Congeals Sino-Russian Ties

The largest oil producer on the globe has directly connected with the world’s leading energy consumer.

Taiwan’s Strides Toward China Accelerate

How long before Beijing has complete control over the island nation?

The Philippines Begins to Reorient

uman rights groups slammed the Philippines for joining the China-led boycott against the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony last Friday which honored an imprisoned Chinese dissident. Since the move followed sharply on the heels of a major military deal between China and the Philippines, Manila’s decision to kowtow to China takes on great significance.

The Philippines demonstrates that it “can no longer ignore China” even if kowtowing to Beijing distances it from the U.S.

Why China Refuses to Deal With North Korea

 For China, Kim Jong Il is another tool through whom it can challenge the United States. 

China, Russia quit dollar

St. Petersburg, Russia - China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday. 
Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.

"About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies," Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.

The two countries were accustomed to using other currencies, especially the dollar, for bilateral trade. Since the financial crisis, however, high-ranking officials on both sides began to explore other possibilities.

The yuan has now started trading against the Russian rouble in the Chinese interbank market, while the renminbi will soon be allowed to trade against the rouble in Russia, Putin said.

"That has forged an important step in bilateral trade and it is a result of the consolidated financial systems of world countries," he said.

Putin made his remarks after a meeting with Wen. They also officiated at a signing ceremony for 12 documents, including energy cooperation.

The documents covered cooperation on aviation, railroad construction, customs, protecting intellectual property, culture and a joint communiqu. Details of the documents have yet to be released.

Putin said one of the pacts between the two countries is about the purchase of two nuclear reactors from Russia by China's Tianwan nuclear power plant, the most advanced nuclear power complex in China.

Putin has called for boosting sales of natural resources - Russia's main export - to China, but price has proven to be a sticking point.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who holds sway over Russia's energy sector, said following a meeting with Chinese representatives that Moscow and Beijing are unlikely to agree on the price of Russian gas supplies to China before the middle of next year.

Russia is looking for China to pay prices similar to those Russian gas giant Gazprom charges its European customers, but Beijing wants a discount. The two sides were about $100 per 1,000 cubic meters apart, according to Chinese officials last week.

Wen's trip follows Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's three-day visit to China in September, during which he and President Hu Jintao launched a cross-border pipeline linking the world's biggest energy producer with the largest energy consumer.

Wen said at the press conference that the partnership between Beijing and Moscow has "reached an unprecedented level" and pledged the two countries will "never become each other's enemy".

Over the past year, "our strategic cooperative partnership endured strenuous tests and reached an unprecedented level," Wen said, adding the two nations are now more confident and determined to defend their mutual interests.

"China will firmly follow the path of peaceful development and support the renaissance of Russia as a great power," he said.

"The modernization of China will not affect other countries' interests, while a solid and strong Sino-Russian relationship is in line with the fundamental interests of both countries."

Wen said Beijing is willing to boost cooperation with Moscow in Northeast Asia, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in major international organizations and on mechanisms in pursuit of a "fair and reasonable new order" in international politics and the economy.

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Asia: Region-Wide Arms Race Is Underway

Asian nations’ military buildups are fueled by a desire to protect themselves from other Asian states, but the intracontinental tensions will soon be trumped by a collective Asian fear of a common outside enemy.

Between 2005 and 2009, the amount spent on weapons purchases throughout Southeast Asia almost doubled, signaling that the nations in the region are equipping themselves for a major conflict.

The figures, from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, show that as historically aggressive and unstable nations like North Korea, China and Pakistan expand their arsenals, the region’s democratic countries feel pressured to follow suit.

U.S. Corporate Giants Go to China for Money

Two of America’s most prestigious companies have recently borrowed money that has to be paid back in Chinese currency. Does this new trend mean that the U.S. dollar will soon lose its reserve currency status?

Caterpillar: Perhaps no U.S. company better personifies America’s industrial might. Giant excavators, bulldozers, backhoes, heavy machinery—the machines that helped build America. On Wednesday, the manufacturer of earthmoving equipment became the first multinational industrial corporation to borrow money that has to be paid back in Chinese currency. The company issued a 1 billion renminbi bond, which will have to be paid back in two years with interest.

The issue is only the second of its kind in U.S. history, and completely dwarfs a similar move made by McDonald’s in August. In that deal, the fast-food chain sold a bond for 200 million renminbi.

According to the Financial Times, Caterpillar’s deal “will give momentum to the … offshore market in renminbi-denominated debt.” Indications suggest that other U.S. companies will soon follow suit. There was so much demand for Caterpillar debt in China that seven times the amount of money Caterpillar sought to borrow was offered to it. The McDonald’s bond was three times oversubscribed.

Mr Cameron is in no position to lecture the Chinese on democracy

The government of Europe is scarcely more accountable than that of China, says Christopher Booker 

Quite a few eyebrows will have been raised last week at the sight of our Prime Minister in China extolling the virtues of democracy. If democracy means anything, it is a system which makes a government accountable to its people and gives them the chance to replace it with another one. That certainly doesn't apply to the one-party state in China.

Chinese Economy Bigger Than U.S. in Two Years?

« High-rise buildings are seen from the financial district of Shanghai.
(Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images)

China’s economy may surpass that of the U.S. in just two years. According to analysts at the Conference Board, an economic research association, China may be the world’s biggest economy by 2012—and nearly half as big again as the U.S. in less than a decade. The Telegraph reports: “[T]he Conference Board’s projections show China as 24.1 percent of world output by 2020, and the U.S. at just 14.8 percent” (November 10).

Shocked?

China Cuts Rare Earth Shipments to U.S. and Europe

China has cut off some shipments of rare earth minerals to the United States and Europe, according to anonymous industry sources cited by the New York Times.

 

The Trumpet warned last month that China’s control of over 95 percent of the world’s rare earth production gave it great power. Earlier this month, we reported that it used rare earth minerals to force Japan into a humiliating surrender in a territorial dispute.

Now the U.S. may be the target. On October 18, China expanded its rare earth embargo beyond Japan by imposing broader restrictions on Europe and the U.S., according to the Times.

 

Chinese Companies Bypassing UN Sanctions on Iran, Says U.S.

Washington has concluded that Chinese businesses are bypassing United Nations sanctions against Iran, and aiding the Islamic Republic in its quest for nuclear weapons and more advanced missile technology.