dancingdemos-1.gif (GIF Image, 506x350 pixels) - Scaled (84%)

dancingdemos-1.gif (GIF Image, 506x350 pixels) - Scaled (84%)
They are coming to get us.
China plans to call in 2/3rds of our $3 trillions debt to her.

Gabriel Latner Defender of Israel

Remember Gabriel Latner, the Cambridge student who stunned the world with his defense of Israel at a debate? My transcript of the speech went viral with over 9000 hits.

He is now working at UN Watch, and here you can see him take on the UN Human Rights Council's hypocrisy.

The topic is a debate on racism and discrimination. When Latner mentions human rights abuses in Cuba and China, he is interrupted by those countries' representatives and the Council president warns him not to continue to bring up cases of council members!

Hu Jintao jets into DC; China too Big to Bully

China's too big to be bullied by the US (hat tip Van)

In Tuesday's summit with Hu Jintao, Obama must recognise new realities – however unpalatable

Tim Geithner, the treasury secretary, Robert Gates at defence and Obama himself have all joined Clinton in setting out what the US expects from China.

The problem with America's exhortatory approach to human rights and other issues is that it rarely works.

This unpalatable reality reflects a bigger truth: the US must stop trying to tell China what to do. The time for that has passed. China is too big to be bullied, too canny to be conned, too complicated to be changed from without. And it cannot sensibly be blamed for America's declining global clout. Some self-awareness, a focus on practical, mutually beneficial measures, and a little circumspection would ultimately work better to stop a war of words turning into something worse. That's not to say human rights abuses can be ignored. But grandstanding will not help.

Will the World End? Part 5 of 9

Every time Washington is threatened with annihilation, the authorities sponsor new peace initiatives. Who can forget the Cuban missile crisis?
For years we fiddled with various Cold War ruses to end the Red Menace. The Soviets collapsed under their own accord. The Chinese converted to capitalism eliminating them as a gross threat to our way of life. In fact, they are better at capitalist expansionism than we are.
To continue tension in Asia, we sided with Afghanistan against Russia by selling our nuclear secrets to Pakistan. They needed a decade to develop a meaningful nuclear capability. Since they consider India as the major threat, war between them could destroy the planet without American participation.
[As few as fifty detonations during the war between them could punch holes in the ionosphere. This would end planetary food production for ten years.]

China and 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.

[..]
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".
China Daily News

A Game Changing Missile from China? USN Done

China has developed a missile that can sink an anti-aircraft carrier at a 900-mile range. That's too far for an anti-aircraft carrier to take the missile out of service, and now the United States is scrambling for an answer.

Nothing projects U.S. global air and sea power more vividly than supercarriers. Bristling with fighter jets that can reach deep into even landlocked trouble zones, America's virtually invincible carrier fleet has long enforced its dominance of the high seas.

China may soon put an end to that.

U.S. naval planners are scrambling to deal with what analysts say is a game-changing weapon being developed by China — an unprecedented carrier-killing missile called the Dong Feng 21D that could be launched from land with enough accuracy to penetrate the defenses of even the most advanced moving aircraft carrier at a distance of more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles).

...

Analysts say final testing of the missile could come as soon as the end of this year, though questions remain about how fast China will be able to perfect its accuracy to the level needed to threaten a moving carrier at sea.

The weapon, a version of which was displayed last year in a Chinese military parade, could revolutionize China's role in the Pacific balance of power, seriously weakening Washington's ability to intervene in any potential conflict over Taiwan or North Korea. It could also deny U.S. ships safe access to international waters near China's 11,200-mile (18,000-kilometer) -long coastline.

While a nuclear bomb could theoretically sink a carrier, assuming its user was willing to raise the stakes to atomic levels, the conventionally-armed Dong Feng 21D's uniqueness is in its ability to hit a powerfully defended moving target with pin-point precision.

The Chinese Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to the AP's request for a comment.

I would guess that this has implications for a possible US strike on Iran as well.

Israel Matsav

ABOARD THE USS GEORGE WASHINGTON – Nothing projects U.S. global air and sea power more vividly than supercarriers. Bristling with fighter jets that can reach deep into even landlocked trouble zones, America's virtually invincible carrier fleet has long enforced its dominance of the high seas.

China may soon put an end to that.

U.S. naval planners are scrambling to deal with what analysts say is a game-changing weapon being developed by China — an unprecedented carrier-killing missile called the Dong Feng 21D that could be launched from land with enough accuracy to penetrate the defenses of even the most advanced moving aircraft carrier at a distance of more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles).

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — The USS George Washington supercarrier recently deployed off North Korea in a high-profile show of U.S. sea power. AP Tokyo News Editor Eric Talmadge was aboard the carrier, and filed this report.

___

Analysts say final testing of the missile could come as soon as the end of this year, though questions remain about how fast China will be able to perfect its accuracy to the level needed to threaten a moving carrier at sea.

The weapon, a version of which was displayed last year in a Chinese military parade, could revolutionize China's role in the Pacific balance of power, seriously weakening Washington's ability to intervene in any potential conflict over Taiwan or North Korea. It could also deny U.S. ships safe access to international waters near China's 11,200-mile (18,000-kilometer) -long coastline.

While a nuclear bomb could theoretically sink a carrier, assuming its user was willing to raise the stakes to atomic levels, the conventionally-armed Dong Feng 21D's uniqueness is in its ability to hit a powerfully defended moving target with pin-point precision.

The Chinese Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to the AP's request for a comment.

Funded by annual double-digit increases in the defense budget for almost every year of the past two decades, the Chinese navy has become Asia's largest and has expanded beyond its traditional mission of retaking Taiwan to push its sphere of influence deeper into the Pacific and protect vital maritime trade routes.

"The Navy has long had to fear carrier-killing capabilities," said Patrick Cronin, senior director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the nonpartisan, Washington-based Center for a New American Security. "The emerging Chinese antiship missile capability, and in particular the DF 21D, represents the first post-Cold War capability that is both potentially capable of stopping our naval power projection and deliberately designed for that purpose."

Setting the stage for a possible conflict, Beijing has grown increasingly vocal in its demands for the U.S. to stay away from the wide swaths of ocean — covering much of the Yellow, East and South China seas — where it claims exclusivity.

It strongly opposed plans to hold U.S.-South Korean war games in the Yellow Sea off the northeastern Chinese coast, saying the participation of the USS George Washington supercarrier, with its 1,092-foot (333-meter) flight deck and 6,250 personnel, would be a provocation because it put Beijing within striking range of U.S. F-18 warplanes.

The carrier instead took part in maneuvers held farther away in the Sea of Japan.

U.S. officials deny Chinese pressure kept it away, and say they will not be told by Beijing where they can operate.

"We reserve the right to exercise in international waters anywhere in the world," Rear Adm. Daniel Cloyd, who headed the U.S. side of the exercises, said aboard the carrier during the maneuvers, which ended last week.

But the new missile, if able to evade the defenses of a carrier and of the vessels sailing with it, could undermine that policy.

"China can reach out and hit the U.S. well before the U.S. can get close enough to the mainland to hit back," said Toshi Yoshihara, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College. He said U.S. ships have only twice been that vulnerable — against Japan in World War II and against Soviet bombers in the Cold War.

Carrier-killing missiles "could have an enduring psychological effect on U.S. policymakers," he e-mailed to The AP. "It underscores more broadly that the U.S. Navy no longer rules the waves as it has since the end of World War II. The stark reality is that sea control cannot be taken for granted anymore."

Yoshihara said the weapon is causing considerable consternation in Washington, though — with attention focused on land wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — its implications haven't been widely discussed in public.

Analysts note that while much has been made of China's efforts to ready a carrier fleet of its own, it would likely take decades to catch U.S. carrier crews' level of expertise, training and experience.

But Beijing does not need to match the U.S. carrier for carrier. The Dong Feng 21D, smarter, and vastly cheaper, could successfully attack a U.S. carrier, or at least deter it from getting too close.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned of the threat in a speech last September at the Air Force Association Convention.

"When considering the military-modernization programs of countries like China, we should be concerned less with their potential ability to challenge the U.S. symmetrically — fighter to fighter or ship to ship — and more with their ability to disrupt our freedom of movement and narrow our strategic options," he said.

Gates said China's investments in cyber and anti-satellite warfare, anti-air and anti-ship weaponry, along with ballistic missiles, "could threaten America's primary way to project power" through its forward air bases and carrier strike groups.

The Pentagon has been worried for years about China getting an anti-ship ballistic missile. The Pentagon considers such a missile an "anti-access," weapon, meaning that it could deny others access to certain areas.

The Air Force's top surveillance and intelligence officer, Lt. Gen. David Deptula, told reporters this week that China's effort to increase anti-access capability is part of a worrisome trend.

He did not single out the DF 21D, but said: "While we might not fight the Chinese, we may end up in situations where we'll certainly be opposing the equipment that they build and sell around the world."

Questions remain over when — and if — China will perfect the technology; hitting a moving carrier is no mean feat, requiring state-of-the-art guidance systems, and some experts believe it will take China a decade or so to field a reliable threat. Others, however, say final tests of the missile could come in the next year or two.

Former Navy commander James Kraska, a professor of international law and sea power at the U.S. Naval War College, recently wrote a controversial article in the magazine Orbis outlining a hypothetical scenario set just five years from now in which a Deng Feng 21D missile with a penetrator warhead sinks the USS George Washington.

That would usher in a "new epoch of international order in which Beijing emerges to displace the United States."

While China's Defense Ministry never comments on new weapons before they become operational, the DF 21D — which would travel at 10 times the speed of sound and carry conventional payloads — has been much discussed by military buffs online.

A pseudonymous article posted on Xinhuanet, website of China's official news agency, imagines the U.S. dispatching the George Washington to aid Taiwan against a Chinese attack.

The Chinese would respond with three salvos of DF 21D, the first of which would pierce the hull, start fires and shut down flight operations, the article says. The second would knock out its engines and be accompanied by air attacks. The third wave, the article says, would "send the George Washington to the bottom of the ocean."

Comments on the article were mostly positive.

___

AP writer Christopher Bodeen in Beijing and National Security Writer Anne Gearan in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Yahoo! News

China Makes New Energy Strides

China will take radical measures to increase the use of new energy in the 12th Five Year Plan , a move that reinforces the nation’s commitment to improve the energy mix and reduce pollution.

China: To Be Human

'China: #Tanzuoren - to be human'
by Oi wan Lam, Global Voices

Chinese activist Tan Zuoren was sentenced to 5 year imprisonment and 3 year deprivation of political rights this morning under the charge of inciting subversion of state power. Tan was involved in the investigation of the relation between bean dregs school buildings and the death of school children in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake by interviewing the parents and compiling a victim list. He was arrested last year and the investigation was stopped accordingly. In his first trial, the evident that the prosecutor presented was mainly about his interviews with overseas media about the earthquake. However, all the proceedings today were linked to June 4th incident. A diary about the June 4th Incident published back in 2007 and email communication with overseas Chinese dissident Wang Dang through his yahoo.cn email were presented as evidences. His verdict was read out in less than 10 minutes. (more from AFP)

Although the news has been harmonized in mainland China, many concerned citizens expressed their anger through twitter. Below is a selected translation of the twitter hastag #tanzouren, and the tweets are arranged according to the time line from 9am - 4pm.

Yahoo.cn sells out Tan Zouren, again?

E-mail providers in China have to follow local regulation even though the charges are purely political prosecution and it is not the first time Yahoo.cn has betrayed their clients in exchange for the China market.

daaitoulaam: No wonder Alibaba said Yahoo US was over the line for supporting Google against Chinese govt. Alibaba's Yahoo.cn sells out #tanzuoren, huh?

ruanji 美国雅虎虽然不直接经营中国雅虎，暂时作为一个投入10亿资金的大股东，也应该受到谴责。 #tanzuoren

ruanji Although yahoo.com does not directly manage yahoo.cn but it is a major stock holder and has invested more than a billion in the business. It should be condemned as well.

secretaryzhang “境外敌对分子王丹利用电子邮件与谭作人主动联系”，谭作人使用的邮箱是雅虎中国 zuoren54@yahoo.com.cn #tanzuoren

secretaryzhang "overseas enemy Wang Dang has contacted Tan Zuoren via email", and Tan's email is yahoo.cn: zuoren54@yahoo.com.cn


Anger

Satantara 眼泪无助，愤怒廉价。愤怒会养出心中的暴力政治。民主政治是没有敌人和仇恨的政治( #tanzuoren 语)。他们自己在颠覆自己，不稀你我动手。不说谎，让更多的人知道事实，真相自有万钧之力，改变终会到来。

Satantara No use shedding tear and it is too easy to be angry. Anger will nourish violence. Democracy should not have enemy nor resentment (#tanzouren's expression). They are subverting themselves, we don't need to do that. We do not lie in order let more people knowing the truth. Truth is the most powerful weapon and change will eventually come.

hkxforce 為何揭露豆腐渣工程會是煽動顛覆國家政權罪？因為這個政權本身就是豆腐渣政權。 #tanzuoren

hkxforce Why the exposure of bean dregs construction becomes inciting subversion of state power? because this very state power is a bean dregs power bloc.

szeyan1220 @28481k @LEMONed 高智晟「失踪」，胡佳3年，刘晓波11年，谭作人5年。起到了多大的威吓作用？唤醒了多少人？我只知道，这是一场持久战，而我无论如何不会认输。历史会审判你们。 #tanzuoren

szeyan1220 @28481k @LEMONed Gao Zhisheng vanished, Hu Jia sentenced to 3 years, Liu Xiaobo 11 years, Tan Zuoren 5 years. How many people it has intimated? How many people it has awakened? This is a long term battle and I will not be defeated. History will be the judge.

Feng2084 呼唤非暴力不合作抗争,從今天起，我厭惡任何與暴政苟合的活動！ #tanzuoren

Feng2084 let's call for non-violent civil disobedient act. I despise any act that gives legitimation to the absolute state.

No justice no peace

noooo0000 颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆颠覆..........我就是想颠覆!!!我极想颠覆!!!我必颠覆!!! 一生的梦想--颠覆你!!! #tanzuoren

noooo0000 subversion subversion subversion subversion subversion subversion subversion... I want to subvert!!! I really want to subvert!!! I have to subvert!!! All I am dreaming of is to subvert you!!!

dgatterdam Chinese Government, you imprison your Heros, NO JUSTICE NO PEACE! NO JUSTICE NO PEACE NO JUSTICE NO PEACE #tanzuoren

AlChowh I support any measure to change the status quo,peaceful or violent!!!!#Tanzuoren

sanrencn 我们不能被压制而不反抗，我们不能被淹没，而不呐喊。我们微弱的抗议迟早会壮大起来踏平中共的无道 #Tanzuoren

sanrencn We have to fight back when repressed; we have to scream when drowned. Our small resistance will eventual grow into a strong force that defeat the tyranny of the CCP.

gjlawyer 宣判谭作人之后，这个大地上没有了良知，良知被谭作人带进了牢房；宣判谭作人之后，这个大地上没有了正义，正义是谭作人脚下沉重的铁镣。——恸哭中 via (@cuiweiping) #Tanzuoren

gjlawyer conscience has vanished along with the sentence of Tan Zuoren, Tan brings conscience along with him into the prison; justice has vanished along with the sentence of Tan Zuoren, justice has turned into Tan's heavy foot chain. -- crying out loud via (@cuiweiping)

dante1184 中共正在挑战全中国人的心理极限，追求全人类的无耻之最。畜生不如。去死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死死！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！ #tanzuoren

dante1184 The CCP is testing the limit of Chinese's people's tolerance and it is competing for the most shameless being in this world. It is worse than animal. Go to hell hell hell hell hell hell hell hell hell hell hell hell hell !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subverting the state with diaries

wglxh They say Tan's diaries may subvert the government. I think they mean the government of, for, and by perverts. #Tanzuoren

mranti A tweet is a mini-diary - if a diary can "subvert" a govt. #Tanzuoren

wdrdog 颠覆国家政权，最高可以判处死刑，你我这些 #Twitter 上的发言，都够这个罪，只要他们这样认为。 我们的小命，就这样和谭作人刘晓波们连在了一起。 #Tanzuoren

wdrdog subverting the state power, the maximum sentence can be life imprisonment. What you and me have said in #Twitter can be charged with subversion if they want. Our lives are connected with Tan Zuoren and Liu Xiaobo.

To be human

Feng2084 #tanzuoren 當一個個公民面對強權貪腐的垭口失言噤聲，对生命的哀鸿接近麻木的時候，是你站了出來，然而他們今天對你的審判，是卑鄙与无耻对良知与正义的审判，也是对我们的审判，在这一个罪恶的国家里，我们都有罪。

Feng2084 when citizens were speechless towards the corrupted power, when they were indifferent towards life, you stood out. They have judged you today, it is a judgment of banality and shamelessness towards conscience and justice, it is also a judgment on everyone of us. In an evil country, we all have sin.

wglxh 所有的老师，都是在以各种方式给孩子们给学生们个说法。今天审判谭作人，是审判所有想给下一代一个说法的人。 #Tanzuoren

wglxh every teacher tries to explain the truth to our children and pupils. Today's judgment on Tan Zuoren is also a judgment towards those who try to deliver the truth to our next generation.

horse 今天检查的是我们“作人”的底限在哪里。一起来“作人”吧。 #Tanzuoren

horse today is a test on the baseline of our "being human", let's "be human". (Translator notes: the pronunciation of Tan Zuoren is similar to "Talk about being human" in English.)

A Little Advice to America from an Asian

Over the past several decades China has transformed into a controlled capitalist society. The citizens save a sizable portion of their salaries. The banks make funds available to entrepreneurs under strict rules. China punishes severely bankers and manufacturers who game the system. She controls the allocation and the deployment of the labor force. The workers are quick to strike, if they feel they have been wronged.
China has about 300 millions citizens in the coastal areas who enjoy a western standard of living. Another 900 millions functioning as peasants are gradually being absorbed into the modern economy. Their absorption provides the 8%+ growth rate in productivity the country accomplishes almost every year. The government has fashioned an export-led economic growth financed internally without the IMF or other larcenous sources.
When her export markets failed in 2008, China made quick and wise adjustments to regain stable growth. This demonstrates the dedication to the public good.
Dylan Ratigan has described the present US system as corporate communism. Similar to Stalin's USSR, the US system suffers a major decline into decadence, war and torture. Nobody needs me to describe that.
As a resident of Asia, I must advise Americans to withdraw from the continent ASAP.

Tweeting While in Detention

'China: Tweeting a detention experience'
by Oi wan Lam, Global Voices

Yesterday, Guangzhou blogger Beifeng went hiking with a number of friends in Baiyun mountain. Some of them were wearing a Tee-shirt that carry a slogan from Xinhua Daily in1946 that says: one-party rule will bring disaster everywhere. It is a communist party slogan against the former ruling party Kuomingtang. The group of people were interrogated by six police and brought to the police station for further investigation. The tea-time lasted for more than eight hours and Beifeng reports on the process via twitter. Here is a translation of his tweets:

Some people with the t-shirts that carry the slogan of past "Xinhua Daily" are interrogated by six police. They are on their way to climb Baiyun mountain.

Police officer numbered 018356 is most active.

The police officers want to take them to the police station, but they don't want to go. There is a tension.

Both sides are taking video of each other, the police officiers then ask us to delete the video.

The slogan on the t-shirts is "one party rule will bring disasters everywhere".


Now all of them are invited to Baiyun police station. You can call up for further inquiry.

The reason for taking us away is to check our I.D and the police station of Baiyun branch is located at Guangyuen Chong Road 805.



I didn't wear the t-shirt, I went there to climb the mountain.

Nine of us are brought to the police branch. We are in a big room and there is no police officer there nor CCTV. From time to time, police officers walk pass the door. Probably they are waiting for the city police officers. We are making all kind of jokes in the room.


Still sitting in the police station. A undercover police walks in and asks us about the source of the slogan and asks if we are willing to write down our names. Two of us write their names down. The rain is very heavy outside.



Police comrades are having meeting, and there is only a police officer attending to us. We are bored. A friend is reciting poem from the Bible. Some fall asleep.

A friend just walked out from the police station front door. Ha, this is so funny.

Now the Baiyun police branch close the front door. Remind me of a saying "it is not too late to fix the cell after the sheep has run away". This is hilarious.

The atmosphere is becoming tense and there are more police. They want to keep us for dinner. We ask them to give a reason for detaining us.


Now the eight of us are sitting in the stair way at the front of the police station, passer-by can stop and watch and take picture of us.

An undercover takes us to a meeting room in the second floor. A senior police officer wants to see us. Up till now there isn't any procedural step taken.


Now they are taking note.


The reason for the written interrogation record is disturbing social order.


I left the police station 20 mins ago. Have been detented for 8 hours. Other people should be fine, will report on that later. However, Yeh Du has to stay and have tea (being interrogated) with security police.

“Fucking revolution”
Other people were asked to change into their new clothes and leave the old ones in the police station. I asked them to write a detention slip if they want us to leave our clothes. The police officers refused to do so. After a long negotiation, I took off my clothes and brought the old one home. But I had to wear the new one. I gave them money for the new clothes, they refused. I asked if I could just walk out without clothes, they wouldn't let me. By the way, the t-shirt that I wore had the slogan "Fucking revolution" with Lenin and his middle finger.

This is my first "tea-time" experience. Totally out of my expectation.

In their written record, I asked them to write down at the end: As a tourist in Baiyun mountain, as a citizen in this country, I feel regret that the police had detained me for more than six hours under the circumstance that I have not broken any law. I wish the country can respect every individual's freedom and will not let such incident happen again.


At first they asked me to change the clothes and I asked them to issue an official reciept for object detention. A police said if the object is a propaganda, they would destroy it. Later they suggested to cut it into pieces and brought the scissors in. I still requested the object detention slip. A police officer was getting angry and I told him that it was nothing personal. Then they consulted with the higher rank officers and eventually I could keep my t-shirt.

They asked me why I need the object detention slip, I said because I would get back my clothes.


Probably they could not think of any excuse to detain us, that's why they did not take away our mobile and eventually let one of us escaped. They had two hours meeting and then printed out a question outline. They must have consulted with higher rank police officials to figure that out. I told them that the whole incident would turn into a joke.


Yeh Du is now back home. All eight of us are back home safe.

As the time line of the tweets are not clear, Beifeng added more details in his blog:



The first tweet was written at 14:40, 19th of July. We arrived at the Baiyun police station at around 15:15. The written record started at around 18:00. 8 of us did that separately. I finished at 21:00. Because I insisted to have my clothes back, I stay longer until 22:55.

America Resumes Cold War

America's foolish misadventures in Asia have invited the Russians to restore the USSR. The Georgians started it. The Ambassador is lying.

If the massive US Navy force makes a preemptive strike against Iran, we'll see if Putin is bluffing with his assertion to defend that country.

If China has any common sense, she will collect the $4.6 trillions owed her before the US becomes a radioactive cinder.

Communistic Capitalism

Communistic Capitalism

Naomi Klein, HuffPo

So far, the Olympics have been an open invitation to China-bash, a bottomless excuse for Western journalists to go after the Commies on everything from internet censorship to Darfur. Through all the nasty news stories, however, the Chinese government has seemed amazingly unperturbed. That's because it is betting on this: when the opening ceremonies begin friday, you will instantly forget all that unpleasantness as your brain is zapped by the cultural/athletic/political extravaganza that is the Beijing Olympics.

Like it or not, you are about to be awed by China's sheer awesomeness.

The games have been billed as China's "coming out party" to the world. They are far more significant than that. These Olympics are the coming out party for a disturbingly efficient way of organizing society, one that China has perfected over the past three decades, and is finally ready to show off. It is a potent hybrid of the most powerful political tools of authoritarianism communism -- central planning, merciless repression, constant surveillance -- harnessed to advance the goals of global capitalism. Some call it "authoritarian capitalism," others "market Stalinism," personally I prefer "McCommunism."

Note: The reader might note the similarities between ‘authoritarian capitalism’ and Corporate America. Why are the Americans wallowing in disaster? They have world class expertise in merciless repression and in constant surveillance. Where do they fall down? They have little or no central planning. The corporations do not plan on a comprehensive scale. They are industry specific.

China Finds Child Labor

nytimes.com — China says that it has broken up a child labor ring that provided children from poor, inland areas with work in booming coastal cities, acknowledging that severe labor abuses extended into the heart of its export economy. The abuses reflect the combined pressures of worker shortages, high inflation and a rising currency that have reduced profit margins of some Chinese factories and forced them to scramble for an edge — even an illegal one — to stay competitive.

The Dawning of the Age of the Asian PC

Andrew Leonard, Salon.com

In 2007, sales of personal computers to the Asia-Pacific region topped sales in the United States for the first time ever. According to statistics compiled by Gartner Inc., for the entire year Asia-Pacific shipments totaled 70.7 million units, while only 64.2 million PCs were sold in the United States. The trend continued in the first quarter of 2008, with 19.1 million PCS sold to Asia, and 15.2 million sold in the U.S.

As defined by Gartner, the Asia-Pacific region does not include Japan, but encompasses both China and India. So on a per capita basis the U.S. is still doing quite well, comparatively. But the trend line is significant. First, the data prove that a growing percentage of all of those semiconductors exported to China by Intel do not ultimately end up in computers that are shipped back to the U.S. The relentless focus on global markets by U.S. corporations isn't motivated solely by the cost-savings from outsourcing and offshoring -- there's plenty of money to be made selling real products, too.

Second, if, as noted earlier today, the future productivity increases necessary to keep the global economy growing healthily and enable humanity to avoid Malthusian disaster will be a function of increased knowledge, then we can probably expect a growing proportion of life-saving technological innovation to come from all those new computer users in Asia.

-- Andrew Leonard

Where Has All the Rice Gone?

The Internet is buzzing over the decision by Sam's Club and a few Costco outlets to limit bulk rice purchases to customers. Rice rationing in the United States! How long before food riots in San Francisco?

How the World Works has been accused by some readers of peddling a relentless supply of doom of late, but when the price of the staple food of half the planet's population triples in less than five months, governments get nervous. It's a big story, and unlike in the case of corn (biofuels) or wheat (bad weather) there is no easy villain to blame. World rice production is up, but demand is up more. Production gains are not keeping up with population growth and increased consumption.

With that in mind, here's a rice-related item that's gotten a little less coverage than possible rice hoarding in the world's richest country. According to a report in Monrovia, Liberia's The News, the chief executive officer of China's China-Africa Development Fund pledged 5 billion dollars of investment in African agriculture over the next 50 years -- including, specifically, rice production. (Thanks to China Digital Times for the link.)

Mr. Chi Jianxin, at a head of a Chinese delegation, is in the country to explore investment opportunities in the agricultural sector.

Chi said his company has the financial capacity and expertise to develop and stabilize the food situation in Liberia "particularly in rice production and other cash crops."

During an acquaintance visit with Liberia's Agriculture Minister Chris Toe, the Chinese delegation summed up its exploratory visit in averring that an increased investment in the agricultural sector would provide more food as well as jobs for thousands of Liberians

The announcement isn't going to move the price of rice this year, or next, but it's a pretty clear indicator of which way the world has to go if global food production is to be boosted to match world demand while keeping prices affordable. The developed world, (and in this case, we'll include China in that category, with its $1.68 trillion dollars worth of currency reserves) must find ways to invest in Africa, where there is labor, and land, and a desperate need for inputs, both financial and physical. How about it -- Africa: breadbasket of the world, instead of basket case?

-- Andrew Leonard, Salon.com

Best Ways to See the World by Foot

Rebecca Ruiz, Forbes

Until the relatively recent invention of the steam and internal combustion engines, humans traveled the earth by foot. The slow travel meant that explorers and pilgrims frequently returned with a catalog of stories about far-off lands: some of them wild tales, some honest renderings.

Barbara Klion, a retiree from Harstdale, N.Y., knows what that's like. As an avid walker who has toured Australia, Kenya, and China on foot, her trips are the contemporary version of an age-old tradition.

For years, Klion and her husband, now 75 and 80, traveled independently. In 2003, they decided to try guided walking tours. That's when the couple went to Scotland with the La Jolla, Calif.-based tour operator Classic Journeys.

In Pictures: Best Ways To See The World by Foot

"He had us right back there in the 16th century," Klion says of her guide, who was also a historian, singer and expert on Robert Burns, a famous Scottish poet. "He led us through the highlands, telling the history of Scotland. It rained every single day but we didn't care."

Walkers are generally a committed bunch; they know that seeing the world by foot yields a rare experience. Often travelers bond with interesting locals. They also get a vivid, lasting impression of the landscape. Walking tours can be done in one's figurative backyard, but there are several destinations around the world that expose travelers to the best of nature and culture.

What To Look For
Tim Smith, a guide for the Waterbury, Vt.-based tour company Country Walkers, says the essentials of a quality stroll are a great landscape, tolerable weather, suitable level of difficulty and something, like ecology, history or culture, to get the brain buzzing. These may seem like vague directives, but the fun of walking tours is that they're easily personalized by the traveler.

Someone who appreciates hot climates, wildlife and flat terrain could opt for a walking safari in Zambia's South Luangwa National Park. Walkers can watch hippopotamuses and crocodiles swim in the Luangwa River and yellow-billed storks try to catch fish in the shallow waters of oxbow lagoons.

Travelers who don't mind the cold and enjoy adventure could hike Patagonia, a region of southern Argentina east of the Andes. The area is characterized by its many eco-systems and majestic glaciers. The tour operator Butterfield & Robinson offers a week-long walking tour of Patagonia, including trips to the Los Glaciares National Park and the Perito Moreno Glacier. Walkers accustomed to well-appointed accommodations don't have to worry; the Butterfield & Robinson tour puts travelers up at luxury hotels with spa services and gourmet meals paired with Argentinean wines.

For those concerned about distance and level of difficulty, mileage varies depending on the itinerary, and tour operators and national parks differentiate between easier walks and harder ones. In general, independent travelers can decide how far to go each day, while guests of a tour operator should expect to walk an average of four to eight miles daily. At the Fiordland National Park in New Zealand, for example, there are several easy-to-moderate hikes and three "great walks," giving travelers who want to enjoy views of the rain forest and alpine landscape many options.

Exceptional Excursions
Companies that organize walking tours also work hard to set themselves apart from the competition, often emphasizing an exclusive cultural experience. Sarah Thies, a marketing and communications manager for Classic Journeys, says the company focuses on connections with locals.

What area of the world are you itching to discover? Weigh in. Add your thoughts in the Reader Comments section below.

"They're introducing us to their friends and family members," she says, "and they're opening up their homes to us." This might include visiting a Tuscan shepherd who allows the guests to sample traditional cheeses or discussing wine and politics with a winemaker who opened the first Croatian vineyard after the fall of communism.

Country Walkers builds relationships with local guides who find less-traveled paths and villages. In Nepal, for example, the company stays away from the heavily-trafficked Mount Everest route and instead walks trails also used by villagers.

"We feel when we go to these areas," says Jamen Yeaton-Masi, the director of operations for Country Walkers, "we are walking on the trails that people have been walking on for hundreds of years. It's really like stepping back in time."

Environmentalist Age Eleven

'11-year-old Chinese environmentalist'

by Kelly Proctor, Global Voices

The blog "Crossroads," which looks at corporate social responsibility in China, draws our attention to a an article about an 11-year-old environmentalist in southwest China. The youngster took it upon himself to search for the source of river pollution and caught the attention of reporters and officials.

Last October, Chen was playing on the bank of Jialing River with his parents and found refuse in the water. This spurred him to find out where it came from. After investigating for six months in his spare time, Chen wrote a report on pollution in the river and suggested some measures to clean it up.

Rich also writes about the 11 year old environmentalist, saying

This is another case of how I think China will eventually grow towards cleaning up its environment. Individuals, and collectives, will be motivated on a personal level to investigate contaminations, conduct research, develop solutions, and pressure local officials and businesses.

You may view the latest post at

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/04/21/11-year-old-chinese-environmentalist-and-circuit-board-recycling/

Chinese Troops in Zimbabwe

CHINESE TROOPS IN ZIMBABWE

Olympic thugs to protect Mugabe?

Image courtesy of the irrepressible Beau Bo D’or

It is only a matter of a number of days ago when we witnessed the sight of blue track suited Chinese thugs (as described by Lord Coe) pushing their weight about in Downing Street as the Olympic Torch bade a fiery welcome to the UK. Men chosen from the same division of the National People’s Liberation Army that suppressed political protests in Tibet are making sure that the rest of the world doesn’t get too close to the flame that burns in the hearts of the free competitive athletes from around the globe.

These blue suited marathon running highly trained policemen probably know the identities of the Chinese troops who have been reported as being seen on the streets of Mutare in Zimbabwe, after checking into a hotel resplendent with nice shining pistols.

So why are the Chinese there? Have they been sent to protect and supervise the shipment of 77 tonnes of arms that is sitting off the coast of South Africa, waiting for someone to be brave enough to unload it? Are they the vanguard of a larger force that will help keep Harare’s streets quiet while Mugabe and the Zimbabwean electoral commission “officially” fiddle the result of the recent parliamentary and presidential elections?

It worries me that for all intents and purposes the British government appears to sit back and watch whilst Africa becomes an important outpost in the Chinese sphere of influence (just think of Darfur). It worries me too that we should give the Chinese international behaviour and alliances legitimacy by sending our Prime Minister to Beijing to collect the Olympic torch, if the (reputed) world’s fastest growing economy is intent upon the continuing oppression of it’s own, and other nations’ people, then the Prime Minister ought to dither again, and decide to send his Sports Minister to Beijing instead.

Besides, the torch probably has “made in China” stamped on the bottom anyway.

Links:
[1] http://curly15.wordpress.com/2008/04/19/chinese-troops-in-zimbabwe/

America Missed the Parade

1. 1500-1800hrs, 19 April 2008, at the Bundestag, Platz der Republik, Berlin

2. 1300-1500hrs, 19 April 2008, two routes (from Talie – Hotel de Ville – Bastille) or (Republique – Bastille – Hotel de Ville –Bastille, Paris

3. 1100-1500hrs, 19 April 2008, Downing Street outside of Whitehall, England

4. (No time given) 19 April 2008, Amsterdam, Holland

The protests appear to be well organized, with the coordination of donations, banners, flags, T-shirts…etc. While it is of course impossible to tell how widespread the demonstrations will be, an online keyword search, using Chinese, did produce several hundred hits.

One link Heike provides emphasizes that the protesters are furious and are promising demonstrating will flood Europe with a sea of red flags:

Now, we know why the USA is afraid to demonstrate. China would foreclose on them.

Racist Jack Cafferty [CNN] denounces the Chinese race.

To those responsible at America's Cable News Network:

At 6pm EST on the evening of April 9, your network's anchorperson Jack Cafferty, made racist remarks on the program The Situation Room that insulted and shocked the entirety of the Chinese people. He said, "(the Chinese) they're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years."

The Chinese people of the world fully understand that your country has always upheld the principle of free speech, and respect Jack Cafferty's political stance, but as a public persona and a news professional, what Jack Cafferty said has gone way beyond the line of freedom of speech, and [we] believe that any respectable Chinese person cannot accept this kind of invective towards the entire Chinese race.

Comments:

If Jack was in a Repug hobo village roasting a rat on a skewer for dinner, we could understand his bitterness. As a self-styled news professional, he could have outlined the shortcomings of his race as well.

I hold a modest sum in dollars to pay for my burial. Racists like Jack encourage the Chinese to unload dollars, so I may be buried in paupers’ field.

Skyrocketing Food Prices

'Haiti, Congo, and the politics of hunger'

by Jennifer Brea

Skyrocketing food prices have already sparked riots in Haiti, Egypt and Mozambique this month as a worsening crisis not only threatens to leave thousands vulnerable to starvation, but will test weak and ineffective governments in poor countries around the world.

Two francophone bloggers, one Haitian, one Congolese, respond, but rather than blame the proximate cause--subsidies for biofuels in rich countries--they criticize the politics and the politicians who left their countries this vulnerable to begin with. They write that the riots of these last few weeks and the riots to come, like the crisis itself, are symptomatic of deeper problems that cannot be solved by the simple magic of foreign aid.

Haitian blogger Natifnatal wrote an angry, heartbreaking post as she watched events in Haiti unfolding from thousands of miles away, in Abu Dhabi, which she suggests is a sort of self-imposed exile. It's called "When politicians serve hunger to score points."

These last few weeks, Haiti has returned to the front pages. As far away as you are, the news pulls you in, the images shake you, your throat chokes with embarrassment, and you burn with anger. You are, in effect, angry at the way in which your country is reduced in the press: to , destroying the few shops operating in a country that has not functioned in a long time. You are angry because it is impossible to respond to the reactions of foreigners who are watching like you and who understand nothing. Should I begin with 1492, talking about discovery, slavery, and the prosperity of the ex-Pearl of the Antilles, of the struggle for independence, of Toussaint Louverture? Or should I tell about the degradation that has punctuated our daily lives since 1804: occupation, dictatorship, massacres, the allure of democracy with Aristide that gave way to demogoguery, and then end with the kidnappings, coups d'etat, poverty, indigence, and the hopelessness that haunts us daily. For
those who don't even know the basics can present the equation: hunger + poverty + rising prices=demonstrations + the Prime Minister's resignation + violence, and argue that an increase in food aid would suffice to reduce hunger.

But those of you who know Haiti, who still breathe her air in spite of the distance between you, who still cry silently when you have a parent on the telephone, you know that the situation is far from that simple. You know that these demonstrations are not innocent, that there is an invisible hand behind these acts of violence, that these so-called demands are not the result of accident, that the dismissal of the Prime Minister or cash payments won't change much, and that the rioters are nothing more than pawns in the skilled hands of the maniacs in power.

Because you know the cold truth, and you are sick of it. You have run away from the political machinations, you have broken your ties with Haiti, you have resigned yourself to you condition of being "stateless," these moments are enough to make your pulse race, your heartbeat go irregular, to make you want to pull out your hair, to curse destiny, and prove to you, for the umpteenth time, that you were right to leave.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Musengeshi Katata at Forum Realisance, watching events in Haiti and Egypt, writes a post called, "Today, Haiti. Tomorrow, the world."

Katata touches on the relationship between the current food crisis, the ecological devastation of the planet, energy demand, biofuels, and how India and China, developing rapidly and without the latest in energy-saving technologies, are coming to Africa in search of natural resources.

He asks "Why is Africa so slow to understand that it's only going to get more difficult [to develop] in the future?" and predicts that "the next few years will be bad, so bad that we will ask ourselves if Hell is African" because "rich countries will, as they always have, place the heavy weight of this intensifying crisis on the shoulders of poor countries" [Fr]

But in the end, Katata puts most of the responsibility on African elites themselves, predicting that "many incapable governments and puppet regimes are going to implode" in the coming years unless they recognize their own self-interest lies with protecting the interests of their people.

...the Tsunami, as one of our Internet brothers wrote, will soon reach Africa with, as the World Bank has predicted, the inevitable revolts and famines. How can we present things to our black and African elites so that they will understand that they are asleep at the helm, that their view of things is disastrous and detrimental to their own well-being and future? Must Africans and their descendants continue to let themselves be run by the West, and to fail to see what threatens to happen, after decades and decades of the vicissitudes of chronic need and poverty? It's enough to ask, do blacks refuse to think and draw useful conclusions or are they just incapable?

All of those countries who live off foreign aid, all those under the aid and false promises of the industrialized countries who have not developed their own domestic agriculture will come to know, in the years that follow, hard years of bitterness. The economic crisis that we have known since what will soon be 30 years will intensify and eat away at the meager means of all the poor countries. And those who hope or believe that foreign aid can help ease the situation are fooling themselves yet again: this help, although a salve, is at the same time actually a poison, and in spite of the misery and the poverty, a stepped-up effort cannot make up for this type of shortfall in the future. Because, let's be honest, aid corrupts and enables deceptive appearances; that's what often stops people, as we know, from seeing [the forest for the trees], from seeing the problem as it is and remedying it as wisely as possible...

You may view the latest post at

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/04/18/haiti-congo-and-the-politics-of-hunger/