The Agonist - China

China condemns US trade action

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:51:55 -0800

Beijing | November 6

Al Jazeera - China has described as protectionist new US anti-dumping duties on steel pipes and demanded Washington's recognition that it is a market economy.

The reaction came a day after the US imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties ranging up to 99 per cent on $2.63bn in Chinese-made pipes used in the oil and gas industry.

The Chinese commerce department issued its preliminary decision on Friday, a week before Barack Obama, the US president, heads to Asia on a trip that includes stops in Shanghai and Beijing.

"China resolutely opposes the abuse of protectionist measures, and will take measures to protect the interests of our domestic industry," the ministry said on its website.

China plans for humanoid Olympics

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:28:31 -0800

Nov 6

BBC -
China is planning to hold a robot Olympics in 2010.

The international event will be held in the city of Harbin and will see robots take part in 16 different events.

Robots will be able to compete in familiar Olympic sports such as athletics as well as those more suited to machines such as cleaning.

Entry to the competition will be restricted to robots resembling humans. They must possess two arms and legs. Wheels are banned.

The organisers of the games expect from more than 100 universities from around the world to send competitors to the event.

China's military growth the 'minimum requirement', says general

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:36:51 -0700

Washington | Oct 27

AFP - A top Chinese general on Monday defended Beijing's rapid military modernisation, including the development of advanced weapons that threaten US forces in the Pacific, as aimed at meeting its minimum defence requirements.

General Xu Caihou, vice chairman of China's military commission, sought to allay US suspicions over the growing might of the Asian superpower by insisting that Beijing harboured no expansionist ambitions and wanted collaborative international relations.

"We will never seek hegemony, military expansion or an arms race," he told an audience of foreign policy experts at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

But when asked about its development of missiles designed to target US warships in the Pacific, Xu said Western suspicions about China's aims were unfounded.

"It is a limited capability, and limited weapons and equipment for the minimum requirement of its national security," he said, speaking through an interpreter.

Xu, whose position is the rough equivalent to a defence minister, also defended China's double-digit annual increases in defence spending as "quite low" both in real terms and as a percentage of its gross domestic product.

Whereas US defence spending amounts to 4.8 percent of GDP, China's was only 1.4 percent, he said.

The United States has repeatedly urged China to be more transparent about its military spending, warning of a shifting balance of power in the region that could arouse misunderstanding and miscalculation.

China opens a new front in Kashmir

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:22:07 -0700

Oct 20

Asia Times - China, by issuing residents from Indian-administered Kashmir visas different from those given to Indians from other parts of the country, is treating the disputed area as a sovereign entity. This is a surprising departure from Beijing's traditional policy of leaving the Kashmir issue to India and Pakistan to resolve. Delhi suspects a hidden agenda.

Showcase: Infernal Landscapes

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:28:38 -0700

New York Times, By David W. Dunlap & James Estrin, October 14

Any effort to describe the photography of Lu Guang by reference to the work of other artists would almost certainly invoke the name of W. Eugene Smith. (It is, for instance, just about impossible to look at Slide 4 without thinking of “Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath.”)

So it seems especially fitting that Mr. Lu, a Chinese freelancer, is the recipient of this year’s $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his project, “Pollution in China.” The announcement was made Wednesday evening in New York by the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.

It is not just Mr. Smith’s work that comes to mind when looking at Mr. Lu’s depiction of the dark social and environmental consequences of China’s modern industrial revolution. There is a bit of Charles Sheeler and Edward Burtynsky. And Hieronymus Bosch.

“Because China’s economy is moving so fast, the pollution is incredibly severe,” he told us Wednesday through a translation by Orville Schell at the Asia Society. “As I became aware of the pollution as China opened up the western area, I felt that people needed to know about this.”

Terrible Scenes of China's Industrial Great Leap Forward.

Adrift On A Russian Island, Part 1

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:22:19 -0700

Oct 15

Asia Times -

ADRIFT ON A RUSSIAN ISLAND, Part 1
Koreans left high and dry

When Sakhalin Island, off Russia's east coast, became a Japanese colony in 1905, thousands of Koreans were brought in to work in the fishery and timber industries. When the Soviet Union regained the island 45 years later, the Koreans became virtual prisoners, and a stormy coexistence began that lasts to this day.

This is the first article in a two-part report.

Quite the history lesson~ tina

map: http://www.treehugger.com/2009/01/25-week/

Money and Mandarin lessons fuel China's African invasion

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:00:11 -0700

Daniel Howden | Oct 15

The Independent - From Liberia to Ethiopia, Beijing is constructing a 21st century empire thousands of miles from home

This afternoon more than a dozen Liberians are expected at the Samuel Doe sports stadium in the capital, Monrovia. In a makeshift classroom with some plastic chairs and a whiteboard their teacher, Li Peng, is waiting to finish the group's second week of instruction in Mandarin Chinese. Early attendances at the free daily lessons provided by the Chinese embassy have been poor, but officials are blaming heavy rain rather than light interest. The class is still struggling with the basics and few Chinese listeners apart from their teacher would recognise the strange "hellos" and "goodbyes" being called out.

"Learning Chinese may prove difficult," Mr Li admitted. "But if they work hard they will make it."

The West African country set up to settle freed American slaves in 1843 is English-speaking and the going is hard.

"Traditionally, we Liberians are closer to the Americans than we are to the Chinese," he says. "But the irony is that the Chinese are more open to us than the Americans are."

Liberia's government has no Mandarin speakers, and China's ambassador, Zhou Yuxiao, admits that he's uncomfortable that multibillion-dollar accords between the two countries are signed with one side unable to read the documents.

"We feel a little bit guilty at not being able to help Liberians to speak our language," he told the Associated Press.

On the same day last week that the Mandarin lessons were getting under way at the stadium in Monrovia, a much larger crowd was gathering about 300 miles to the northwest at another sports stadium, this time in Conakry, the capital of Guinea. The people had gathered to protest against the military junta and a young army officer, Moussa Dadis Camara, who with wearying predictability has been considering going back on earlier promises to hold free elections.

While Liberian students were grappling with Mandarin vowels more than 150 Guineans were being murdered. Scores of women were then raped. The massacre prompted international outrage, and the African Union meets next week to discuss possible sanctions. But it was revealed this week that China was preparing to throw the regime a lifeline in the form of nearly £4.3bn in oil and minerals deals.

It has left many wondering which is the real face of China in Africa: is it the quest for understanding being led by Mr Li in Monrovia? Or the naked pursuit of raw materials whose sale props up abusive governments like the one in Conakry?

China's engagement in Africa was supposed to have changed, experts say. Beijing's doctrine of "non-interference" in the domestic affairs of other countries was put to one side last year as it helped to nudge Sudan, one of its major oil suppliers, into allowing a beefed-up UN peacekeeping operation in Darfur. Then on a visit earlier this year China's president, Hu Jintao, signalled Beijing's intent to double aid to Africa.

According to Ian Taylor, a senior lecturer in international affairs at the University of St Andrews, the apparent contradiction is the product of a "clueless" approach to Beijing – "a tendency to treat China as if it's 'China Inc'."

Speaking from Beijing, he said: "There is no one Chinese policy towards Africa – it is a mixture of often-competing actors and influences that may or may not gel with official policy."

China reportedly detects deadly nerve gas at border with NKorea

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:48:12 -0700

Tokyo | Oct 9

AFP - China has detected deadly nerve gas at its border with North Korea and suspects an accidental release inside the secretive state, a Japanese news report said Friday.

The Chinese military is strengthening its surveillance activities after detecting the highly virulent sarin gas in November last year and in February in Liaoning province, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported, citing anonymous sources from the Chinese military.

Sarin gas, which was developed in Germany before World War I, was used in the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway by a doomsday cult.

The Chinese special operations forces found 0.015-0.03 microgrammes of the gas per cubic metre when they were conducting regular surveys while there were winds from the direction of North Korea, the report said.

China suspects that there were some experiments or accidents in its neighbouring country, it said.

China, NKorea vow to strengthen friendship

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:23:26 -0700

Seoul | Oct 5

AFP - China and North Korea vowed Monday to strengthen a friendship which they said preserved regional peace, as Premier Wen Jiabao pressed on with a mission to bring Pyongyang back to nuclear disarmament talks.

"History has proven that developing China-North Korea relations is in line with the fundamental interests and common aspirations of the two peoples and conducive to safeguarding regional peace and stability," said a Chinese foreign ministry statement quoting its President Hu Jintao and Wen.

"We are willing to work together with North Korea to... constantly push forward friendly and cooperative relations."

The statement, issued to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations, came on the second day of Wen's high-profile visit to Pyongyang. It made no mention of the North's nuclear programmes.

In the same statement, the North's leader Kim Jong-Il was quoted as calling the bilateral relationship "a common treasure".

Feathered dinosaur fossils find has Chinese scientists all a flutter

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:26:46 -0700

Steven Morris | Bristol, England | September 24

The Guardian - New discovery unearthed in rock formations in north-eastern China confirms birds evolved from dinosaurs, scientists claim

The discovery of five remarkable new fossils has confirmed that birds evolved from dinosaurs, Chinese scientists claimed tonight.

Because the fossils - unearthed in rock formations in north-eastern China - are older than previous discoveries of similar creatures, the find adds weight to the theory that birds descended from predatory dinosaurs.

The fossils all have feathers or feather-like structures. The clearest and most striking of the specimens can be seen to have four wings, extensive plumage and profusely feathered feet.

One of the scientists who made the discovery, Xu Xing, will reveal details of his find in Bristol tomorrow at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontologists.

"These exceptional fossils provide us with evidence that has been missing until now," Xing said. "Now it all fits neatly into place and we have tied up some of the loose ends."

The new finds date back to between 151 and 164 million years ago, which suggest they are older than Archaeopteryx, previously thought to be the oldest undisputed bird.

[...]

The fossils were found in the province of Liaoning. Xing told the Guardian he was shocked when he first saw the best of the specimens. "This was really unexpected. One thing that would shock you is that this is covered with feathers everywhere except the beak and the claw. It is the first feathered species known so far; the earliest known feathered species."

China in Laos: Counting the cost of progress

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 06:50:58 -0700

Daniel Allen | Bangkok | Sept 20

Asia Times - China's role in the development of northern Laos has grown significantly in recent years, but with several unfortunate side effects. Rare wildlife is being poached for Chinese consumption, while land grabs for rubber plantations are destroying not only the environment, but also the livelihoods of the local people.

I was sentenced to life in a Chinese labour camp. This is my story

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:52:03 -0700

Harry Wu | Sept 20

The Independent - Harry Wu was incarcerated for 19 years, a victim of Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution. Now a human rights campaigner, he recalls how the horror began

Harry Wu, was condemned to life imprisonment when aged just 21. He was sent to a laogai, a Chinese labour camp for being a "rightist counter-revolutionary". He was incarcerated for 19 years, survived, went to the United States, and founded the Laogai Research Foundation, which reports and campaigns on labour camps and other human rights abuses in China.

He has described his experiences in a remarkable new book, Nine Lives, which tells the stories of individuals who, operating outside the normal channels, have made the world a better, fairer place. They include Sompop Jantraka, who has rescued thousands of girls from the Thai sex trade, Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian peace campaigner whose daughter was shot by Israeli border police, Rami Elhanan, an Israeli peace campaigners whose 14-year-old daughter was killed by a suicide bomber, Youk Chhang, who has dedicated his life to exposing the atrocities of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, and Chaeli Mycroft, a teenage girl with cerebral palsy who is transforming disability rights in South Africa.

Mr Wu was born in 1937, the son of a banker father who prospered until the 1949 Communist takeover. Thereafter, the family suffered a descent into not-so-genteel poverty. Harry went to university in 1955, and in 1957 came the events which defined his life. This, extracted from Nine Lives, is his story in his own words.

For US, China is the financial bogeyman

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:56:11 -0700

Benjamin A Shobert | Sept 18

Asia Times - An emotive new television advertisement in the United States aimed at awakening people to the long-term perils of rising national debt has an unflattering, none-too-subtle nod to China. The commercial infers that tomorrow's generation of Americans will be beholden to Beijing due to its large holdings of US debt, and that the debt problem is somehow China's fault.

Dalai Lama caught in Sino-Indian dispute

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:52:49 -0700

Sudha Ramachandran | Bangalore | Sept 18

Asia Times - A proposed trip by the Dalai Lama in November to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, part of which China claims as its territory, has ruffled feathers in Beijing. The visit by the Tibetan spiritual leader could lead Sino-Indian relations, already tense over alleged Chinese incursions into Indian territory, to deteriorate even further in the coming months.

"We firmly oppose Dalai visiting the so-called 'Arunachal Pradesh'," Jiang Yu, the spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, told Reuters this week. China claims around 90,000 square kilometers of territory in India's northeast, roughly approximating Arunachal Pradesh. It regards the area as "disputed territory" and refers to it as "Southern Tibet".

With India indicating that it will not buckle to Chinese pressure on the issue as it has in the past, a war of words and heightened tension along the nation's frontiers is on the cards. "Arunachal Pradesh is a part of India and the Dalai Lama is free to go anywhere in India," India's Minister of External Affairs S M Krishna said on Wednesday.

Arunachal Pradesh is India's eastern-most state. During the 1962 Sino-Indian border war, China advanced deep into the state, and after briefly occupying it, withdrew. It has continued to lay claim to the area, expressing this in increasingly strident language and alleged intrusions in the last couple of years. It objects to any Indian assertion of sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh.

Obama to hit China with tough tariff on tires

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 07:10:37 -0700

Rex Nutting | Washington | September 11

MarketWatch - The Obama administration will impose stiff tariffs on imports of Chinese-made tires after finding that a surge of imports has disrupted the U.S. domestic market.

President Barack Obama signed an order on Friday to impose the special punitive tariffs for three years, the White House announced.

media round up after the jump

The action is the first major trade enforcement action of his presidency and comes less than two weeks before a high-profile summit of the leaders of the Group of 20 nations, including China.

It is the first time the U.S. government has imposed special "safeguard" provisions to protect a U.S. industry from Chinese competition.

U.S. tariff decision on Chinese tires comes at huge price

Xinhua, By Jin Jing & Ming Jinwei, September 12

Beijing -- U.S. President Barack Obama decided Friday to impose punitive tariffs on all car and light truck tires coming from China, raising speculation of surging American trade protectionism and potential damage to U.S.-China trade relations.

Obama's decision came amidst enormous pressure from the United Steelworkers and other unions, which claim that tires imported from China have cost at least 5,000 American workers their jobs.

However, the stiff tariff, which will ultimately raise tire prices in the U.S., could affect 100,000 tire-related jobs in America, including such sectors as imports, distribution and retail.

The U.S. International Trade Commission, which ruled that a rising tide of Chinese tires into the U.S. hurts American producers, recommended a 55-percent tariff in the first year, 45 percent in the second year and 35 percent in the third year.

Obama settled on slightly lower penalties -- an extra 35 percent in the first year, 30 percent in the second and 25 percent in the third, said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Locally, tire supplies have already been affected.

[...]

Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., said Obama may have bowed to the pressure to placate the unions and pro-labor Democrats important to the passage of his deadlocked health care reforms.

It is a huge regret that crucial China-U.S. trade relations are once again disrupted by political disputes in the United States.

The biggest price may be the wrong message the U.S. government sent across a world that is still struggling to combat the worst economic recession in decades despite early signs of recovery.

[...]

Vic DeIorio, executive vice president of GITI Tire, the largest tire manufacturer in China, said the U.S. government has jeopardized its image as a supporter of free trade by taking "this unprecedented action."

"The Obama administration is now at odds with its own public statements about refraining from increasing tariffs above current levels," DeIorio said.

China slams US tyre tariffs, threatens retaliation

AFP, September 11

BEIJING — Beijing lashed out at the US on Saturday after Washington slapped steep tariffs on imported Chinese tyres, calling the measure "protectionist" and threatening retaliation in China's first trade spat with the Obama administration.

"China is firmly opposed to this measure of serious commercial protectionism by the United States, which not only violates world trade rules but also the undertakings given by the US at the G20," commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian said in statements posted on the ministry's website.

"In the context of the global economic crisis this sets a very bad example. China reserves the right to retaliate," he said.

China blasts U.S. tire duties as protectionist blow

Reuters, By Chris Buckley and Doug Palmer, September 12

Beijing/Washington - China decried a U.S. decision to impose added duty on Chinese-made tires, saying the move sent a dangerous protectionist signal before a G20 summit and could stoke reactions impeding global recovery.

The vehement denunciation from Beijing came after Washington announced the move that a White House spokesman said was "to remedy the clear disruption to the U.S. tire industry" from cheap Chinese imports.

China's minister of commerce, Chen Deming, indicated he took this latest trade dispute with Washington especially seriously.

"This is a grave act of trade protectionism," Chen said in a statement put on his ministry's website (www.mofcom.gov.cn) on Saturday.

"Not only does it violate WTO rules, it contravenes commitments the United States government made at the G20 financial summit, and is an abuse of special safeguard provisions that sends the wrong signal to the world."

Commentary, Naked Capitalism: US Tire Tariffs: Will China Retaliate?, By Yves Smith, September 11

And it is hard to know what the Chinese will do. On the one hand, China is clearly wedded to mercantilist trade policies and it is hard to see them making serious changes when their economy is flagging. So they could see this as a frontal challenge at a time not of their choosing. The rhetoric from the Chinese, at least as reported in China Daily, says the Chinese regard this move as an affront, but the Chinese so frequently go into high dudgeon mode, it is hard to tell when they are merely posturing and when they are quite serious.

U.S. Commerce to Impose Duties on Chinese Pipe

Bloomberg, By Mark Drajem, September 9

The U.S. Commerce Department decided to impose duties of as much as 31 percent on steel pipe from China, agreeing with American producers such as U.S. Steel Corp. that the imports were supported by unfair subsidies.

The average duties on $2.8 billion in annual imports of the pipe, used in oil and gas wells, will be 21.3 percent, the Commerce Department said in an e-mailed statement today announcing the preliminary decision.

The tariffs may help U.S. Steel and other domestic producers weather a drop in demand for the pipe following the collapse in oil prices last year. It also may be a precursor for a number of trade complaints against China. President Barack Obama must decide a separate case on imported Chinese tires by Sept. 17.

“These are decisions that can’t be avoided, so they’ll be perceived as setting the tone for what the Obama administration trade policy is,” said Timothy Keeler, the former chief of staff for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, in an interview before the decision. Keeler, a lawyer at Mayer Brown LLP in Washington, represents GITI TirePte Ltd., the largest Chinese maker of tires, in the trade case.