October 31, 2008
Developing countries need urgent help. The IMF is acting quickly, but it needs help, too.
First came the financial earthquake in the US and Western Europe. Now, the aftershocks are shaking the developing world. Countries from Ukraine in Eastern Europe to Pakistan in South Asia need urgent financial attention. Helping them requires a global effort.
It wasn't long ago that many of these countries – known as "emerging markets" in finance lingo – were thought to be immune to financial problems in the developed world. Their governments had decent balance sheets, had paid back international loans, and even stored up funds in "rainy day" reserves. In fact, they were being talked about as engines that could pull America and other wealthy countries out of recession.
But now they're suffering, too. Demand for their goods and commodities is drying up as the great consumer market of the world – the US – folds its wallet.
Even worse, jumpy foreign investors are pulling out of the emerging-market countries, and that's caused currencies in Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, Turkey, South Africa, Hungary, and elsewhere to plummet. With weak currencies as well as foreign capital on the run, banks and companies in such countries – and in some cases, governments themselves – are unable to borrow or pay off loans.
There are multiple dangers here. For starters, America's climb out of recession will be all the more difficult without emerging markets to grab on to. At the same time, banks in Western Europe are neck-deep in shaky loans to these countries. One example: Austrian banks' outstanding loans to Eastern Europe are worth more than half of Austria's economic output, or gross domestic product. Default on these loans would spell financial disaster for East and West Europe.
And don't forget the geopolitical considerations. Several of the former Soviet states that are now democracies are in serious financial trouble. And nuclear-armed Pakistan – a weak democracy that is home to Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists – needs close to $5 billion just for short-term survival.
Thankfully, the world is not standing idly by. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), made up of 185 countries and their donations, is acting with speed, muscle, and flexibility.
Last week, it agreed to loan $2 billion to Iceland and $16.5 billion to Ukraine. This week, it worked with the World Bank and European Union to assemble a hefty $25.1 billion rescue package for Hungary. It is in talks with Pakistan.
One complaint about the IMF is that it sets stringent austerity conditions on its loans, just when countries are hurting. This week, however, it announced $100 billion in short-term credit for countries that are basically sound, but have become victims of capital flight and currency devaluation. No strings attached. That's a wise and welcome move.
The IMF is doing exactly what it was set up to do, but will likely need more help. It has a total of $250 billion that can cover small- and medium-sized countries. But economists predict 15 to 20 emerging markets will need assistance, and if a big one like Brazil comes knocking, the IMF won't have enough.
This is a good topic for the global economic summit next month. As Americans have realized that Wall Street and Main Street are connected, so the developed world needs to understand that it's in this together with the developing one.
===============
SOURCE:
The Monitor's Editorial Board, http://www.csmonitor.com
Friday, October 31, 2008
China and the World VII:China's Military Growth Creates Uncertainty for U.S.
Chinese People's Liberation Army officers march during a welcoming ceremony for visiting King Abdullah II of Jordan in October, 2007
=====================================
China's Military Growth Creates Uncertainty for U.S.
=====================================
In nearly every aspect of military capability — from cruise missiles to submarines, satellites to cluster bombs — China has been working hard to modernize its military. Some see this as a natural result of China's emergence as a rising power, while others see danger to the United States and its interests in Asia.
The evidence of China's military modernization is ample: double-digit increases for military spending since 1989; the rapid expansion of China's cruise and ballistic missile force and the deployment of hundreds of missiles along China's coast across from Taiwan; the rapid expansion of China's submarine force and the modernization of the missiles those submarines carry; and last year, China's destruction of one of its own satellites by a land-based missile, announcing China's unexpected capability in anti-satellite warfare.
There is no doubt that China is a rising military power, says Kurt Campbell, a former Defense Department official who now heads the Center for a New American Security.
"No country has risen to a status of great power as rapidly as China has, I would argue, over the last 20 years," Campbell says.
Cause for Alarm?
With its rapidly expanding economy, its growing thirst for energy and its own perception of itself as an emerging power, it makes perfect sense that China should modernize its military capabilities, says Ralph Cossa, director of the Pacific Forum, a think tank in Honolulu.
"They want to have a force commensurate with their political and economic standing in the world, and we shouldn't be surprised by that. And we shouldn't necessarily be frightened by that," he says.
Still, some in the United States are frightened. They see China's expansion of its military as a direct challenge to the United States. Just peruse the titles of several new books: The Coming War with China, Showdown: Why China Wants War with the United States and China Shakes the World: A Titan's Rise and Troubled Future.
Susan Shirk is not among the alarmists. But in her recently published book, China: Fragile Superpower, Shirk writes: "History teaches us that rising powers are likely to provoke wars."
"Let's remember why they provoke war," she says. "They provoke war because of the reaction of the present-day powers, and not only because of their own behavior. And I have to say that there are reasons to be worried on both scores."
Perhaps no one knows more right now about China's military, and especially its naval capabilities, than Adm. Timothy Keating, head of Pacific Command, based in Honolulu. It's his job to watch China's military. He's been to China several times, seen its weapons systems up close and talked with China's military leaders.
He admits China is developing impressive military capabilities, but "the Chinese are behind us," he says. "Unmistakably, they know it. In their words — I'm quoting some of them — they're 25 years behind us."
Growing Transparency
One of the reasons that some analysts in the United States are so concerned about China's military development is that it is, in part, hidden. Chinese leaders have not explained why they shot down their own satellite last year, why a Chinese submarine last year shadowed the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, or why they talk about acquiring aircraft carriers of their own.
But, Keating says, little by little, China is becoming more transparent about its military.
"Increased transparency can yield to greater trust," he says. "That reduces the potential for misunderstanding. Misunderstanding can lead to conflict or crisis."
No area is more fraught with potential conflict for China and the United States than Taiwan, which China regards as part of its territory. Taiwan's recent presidential election — won by a candidate who wants to improve relations with the mainland — may go a long way to cooling potential conflict there.
But Shirk says China's military modernization has been all about Taiwan and denying the United States military access to it and the surrounding area in case conflict breaks out.
"They want us to really think twice about confronting China's military power in such a contingency," she says.
'Internal Weakness'
China does have the capacity to threaten the actual homeland of the United States: It possesses 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles that carry nuclear warheads and could reach the country. But these missiles are not on high alert, and the warheads are stored separately.
Although China is modernizing these missiles, it believes its nuclear arsenal is a minimal deterrent, and in recent years it has not modified that doctrine.
Campbell says he believes that with the United States focused primarily on the Middle East, recent administrations have not paid enough attention to what is going on with China's military.
"It's not, I think, any outward and, you know, specific steps that China has taken that are cause for immediate American concern," he says. "But it is a pattern of very substantial steps that have led to a rather sharp increase in Chinese power."
China's recent unrestrained crackdown in Tibet adds another element to an understanding of China's military. The People's Liberation Army is used not only against foreign threats but also against internal challenges as China's communist leadership sees them.
In order to maintain the PLA's loyalty to the civilian leadership, Shirk says she believes the military demands and gets its way on military spending. She sees that "as a reflection of China's internal weakness, and that they need to satisfy the military in order to keep the Communist Party in power."
That's why Shirk calls China a "fragile superpower," and the events in Tibet are the most recent evidence of just that.
==================
SOURCE:
Mike Shuster,
NPR's Diplomatic correspondent & roving foreign correspondent,
April 6, 2008
China and the World VI:Russia, China's Fortunes Reversed in Frontier City
Cobbler Yo Xiaoching, who works in Blagoveshchensk, Russia, says it's impossible to find work across the river in China.
Chinese venders at Blagoveshchensk's outdoor market.
He Wenyan, director of the Hua Fu construction company, stands at the top of his Asia Hotel, Blagoveshchensk's tallest building by far. He dominates construction in the city
He Wenyan's Asia Hotel, set to open in May. 
The Chinese city of Heihe, as seen from the Russian side of the Amur River, is expanding quickly.===================================
Russia, China's Fortunes Reversed in Frontier City
===================================
Few places in the world have been more directly affected by China's booming economy than its once-mighty neighbor to the north. In Russia's sprawling Far East, Chinese people and capital are moving in as Russians abandon the depressed region.
Russia's relationship with China is starkly clear in the city of Blagoveshchensk, which sits on the Amur River that divides the two countries.
In the 1960s, the former communist allies fought bloody skirmishes along the river. When relations began to thaw in the 1980s, Chinese people flocked across the border to buy Soviet cars, farm machinery, kitchen utensils — anything they could get their hands on.
Now the trade moves in the opposite direction.
Finding Work
Across the bank of the narrow Amur River from the depressed Blagoveshchensk, the city of Heihe is growing quickly.
On the Chinese side of the river, people overloaded with large plastic bags packed with clothes and other Chinese goods cram onto hovercraft ferries that leave every few minutes. The passengers are mostly Russians, paid by Chinese to carry goods to the other side.
Back in Blagoveshchensk, Chinese venders hock some of the goods at a bustling outdoor market, just as in other cities across Russia's Far East. But the Chinese do more than sell merchandise. They are also finding other lines of work.
Next to one stall, cobbler Yo Xiaoching hammers new soles onto a pair of shoes. He says it's far easier to find work in Russia than in China. The math says it all: Russia's vast, empty Amur region has fewer than a million residents. The Chinese region of Heilongjiang across the river is bursting at the seams with almost 40 million people.
"There's no work on the Chinese side at all," Yo says in Russian. New, strict Russian immigration laws have limited the number of Chinese working in Blagoveshchensk, but Yo says finding employment is still easier on the Russian side of the river.
In addition to clothes and electronics, most of the food for sale comes from China, and Blagoveshchensk also has many Chinese restaurants and cafes. But in a city dominated by old decaying log houses and squat Soviet concrete hulks, the biggest sign of the Chinese presence is construction.
Conflict and Dependence
Set to open in May, the Asia Hotel is the tallest building by far in Blagoveshchensk and it will have the city's only world-class accommodations. The hotel is being built by a Chinese company. When its CEO drives up, he's in a Bentley coupe, the only such car in the Amur region.
Inside the hotel's massive revolving restaurant, He Wenyan says Blagoveshchensk would be far worse off without the Chinese.
"We're good for the Russians," he says. "We're helping sustain their market economy."
But most Chinese in Blagoveshchensk maintain a low profile and keep to themselves. Racist hate crimes are on the rise in Russia, and nationalists speak of a Chinese menace growing on Russia's border. But Blagoveshchensk residents tend to be less suspicious of the Chinese than they were even a few years ago.
On the city's main street, clothes designer Tatyana Sorokina says she feels closer to China than Moscow, in the European part of Russia thousands of miles away.
"That's just a fact of life ... after all, China's just across the river. We depend on the Chinese for so many things. Any development here is good for us," she says.
A Long-Term Threat?
Dependence on China is hardly new. Residents say they wouldn't have weathered Russia's steep economic decline in the 1990s without affordable Chinese products. Nikolai Alexandrovich, 80, says he remembers surviving mainly on potatoes from China during the worst years of Stalinism in the 1930s.
"Today we'd be walking around naked and hungry if it weren't for the Chinese ... because our own authorities are just concerned with battling each other for control and lining their own pockets," he says. "They've only helped Russia's Far East decline."
But while locals feel they have much to gain from the Chinese, analysts warn that the Kremlin is in denial about the long-term threat to Russia's Far East. China is buying Russian arms for its major military buildup and pressuring Moscow to speed the building of oil and gas pipelines to feed China's growing need for energy, even as Russia faces problems meeting its own energy demands.
Sociologist German Zheliabovskii says Moscow doesn't realize that, sooner or later, Russia will have to share land with China.
"Our military alone won't be able to hold the Far East," Zheliabovskii says. "There have to be Russian people living here."
Zheliabovskii points out that Russia only took Blagoveshchensk from the Chinese in 1856 — and that China may soon control the city once again.
Russia's relationship with China is starkly clear in the city of Blagoveshchensk, which sits on the Amur River that divides the two countries.
In the 1960s, the former communist allies fought bloody skirmishes along the river. When relations began to thaw in the 1980s, Chinese people flocked across the border to buy Soviet cars, farm machinery, kitchen utensils — anything they could get their hands on.
Now the trade moves in the opposite direction.
Finding Work
Across the bank of the narrow Amur River from the depressed Blagoveshchensk, the city of Heihe is growing quickly.
On the Chinese side of the river, people overloaded with large plastic bags packed with clothes and other Chinese goods cram onto hovercraft ferries that leave every few minutes. The passengers are mostly Russians, paid by Chinese to carry goods to the other side.
Back in Blagoveshchensk, Chinese venders hock some of the goods at a bustling outdoor market, just as in other cities across Russia's Far East. But the Chinese do more than sell merchandise. They are also finding other lines of work.
Next to one stall, cobbler Yo Xiaoching hammers new soles onto a pair of shoes. He says it's far easier to find work in Russia than in China. The math says it all: Russia's vast, empty Amur region has fewer than a million residents. The Chinese region of Heilongjiang across the river is bursting at the seams with almost 40 million people.
"There's no work on the Chinese side at all," Yo says in Russian. New, strict Russian immigration laws have limited the number of Chinese working in Blagoveshchensk, but Yo says finding employment is still easier on the Russian side of the river.
In addition to clothes and electronics, most of the food for sale comes from China, and Blagoveshchensk also has many Chinese restaurants and cafes. But in a city dominated by old decaying log houses and squat Soviet concrete hulks, the biggest sign of the Chinese presence is construction.
Conflict and Dependence
Set to open in May, the Asia Hotel is the tallest building by far in Blagoveshchensk and it will have the city's only world-class accommodations. The hotel is being built by a Chinese company. When its CEO drives up, he's in a Bentley coupe, the only such car in the Amur region.
Inside the hotel's massive revolving restaurant, He Wenyan says Blagoveshchensk would be far worse off without the Chinese.
"We're good for the Russians," he says. "We're helping sustain their market economy."
But most Chinese in Blagoveshchensk maintain a low profile and keep to themselves. Racist hate crimes are on the rise in Russia, and nationalists speak of a Chinese menace growing on Russia's border. But Blagoveshchensk residents tend to be less suspicious of the Chinese than they were even a few years ago.
On the city's main street, clothes designer Tatyana Sorokina says she feels closer to China than Moscow, in the European part of Russia thousands of miles away.
"That's just a fact of life ... after all, China's just across the river. We depend on the Chinese for so many things. Any development here is good for us," she says.
A Long-Term Threat?
Dependence on China is hardly new. Residents say they wouldn't have weathered Russia's steep economic decline in the 1990s without affordable Chinese products. Nikolai Alexandrovich, 80, says he remembers surviving mainly on potatoes from China during the worst years of Stalinism in the 1930s.
"Today we'd be walking around naked and hungry if it weren't for the Chinese ... because our own authorities are just concerned with battling each other for control and lining their own pockets," he says. "They've only helped Russia's Far East decline."
But while locals feel they have much to gain from the Chinese, analysts warn that the Kremlin is in denial about the long-term threat to Russia's Far East. China is buying Russian arms for its major military buildup and pressuring Moscow to speed the building of oil and gas pipelines to feed China's growing need for energy, even as Russia faces problems meeting its own energy demands.
Sociologist German Zheliabovskii says Moscow doesn't realize that, sooner or later, Russia will have to share land with China.
"Our military alone won't be able to hold the Far East," Zheliabovskii says. "There have to be Russian people living here."
Zheliabovskii points out that Russia only took Blagoveshchensk from the Chinese in 1856 — and that China may soon control the city once again.
==============
SOURCE:
Gregory Feifer,
NPR's Moscow Correspondent,
April 5, 2008
China and the World V:Political Factors Complicate China's Clout in Mideast
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, shown in a 2007 file photo, made China his first foreign visit as leader of the world's largest oil producer
A vendor waits for customers at a shop selling Chinese goods at Dragon Mart in Dubai. Officials say the 1.6 million-square-foot shopping complex may be the largest Chinese trading hub outside mainland China=====================================
Political Factors Complicate China's Clout in Mideast
=====================================
When Saudi Arabia's newly crowned King Abdullah set off on his first foreign visit as leader of the largest oil producer on the planet a few years ago, his destination was not the world's largest oil importer and only superpower, the United States. Instead, in what some saw as a harbinger of a new era, he visited China.
And while the king has his own plane, he followed a popular route: There are now at least twice as many flights between the Gulf region and China than there are between the Gulf and the United States.
With a booming economy fueling a voracious demand for energy, China is soon expected to eclipse the United States as the leading oil importer — with the majority of that oil coming from the Middle East.
China's rise is coming at a time when the U.S. economy is struggling and the U.S. image is badly tarnished in the Middle East. That has some Western analysts talking about a historic shift to the East, but those in the Gulf region say that's not happened just yet.
Controversial Ties
Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates are all shipping huge amounts of oil to China. As China's energy appetite has grown, Beijing increasingly values its ties with the oil-rich and relatively stable countries in the Gulf.
But hunger for oil also has pushed China to seek out ties in a number of the world's trouble spots: Angola, Nigeria, Sudan and Iran. China's economic interests in Sudan and Iran in particular sometimes put it at odds with the West, and China has been forced to modify, at least somewhat, its desire to keep its focus on trade and not politics.
After long ignoring the atrocities of government-backed militias in western Sudan, China recently has begun prodding the government in Khartoum and rebel groups to negotiate. China also has endorsed three United Nations Security Council resolutions sanctioning Iran over its nuclear program.
But those shifts have not been reflected in Beijing's trade and economic policies on the ground. Its new rhetoric notwithstanding, China remains Sudan's biggest weapons supplier, and in Tehran, foreign ministry official Ali Rezaiee told NPR that Chinese investment in Iran is booming despite the U.N. resolutions.
"You know, it's interesting to see all those investments and issues are intact," he says. "They have their own business with us. At the same time, they are under too much pressure from the U.S. side."
But it's not just Washington that's unhappy with China's strengthening economic ties to Iran. Analyst Mustafa Alani at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai says China may soon be forced to sacrifice some of its interests in Iran if it wants to maintain good ties with the Arab world and access to its oil.
"I think the Chinese must understand our deep concern related to the Iranian nuclear program," Alani says. "This is not a marginal issue; this is a major issue here in the region. If China wants to emerge as a major power in the region supplying 60 percent of Chinese energy, they must understand the relation of buyer and seller will not last for long."
'Not a Mature Power'
Alani says the atmosphere in the region is one of extreme uncertainty, with the U.S. image badly damaged by the invasion of Iraq and the ensuing rise of Iran. Some are looking to China to step in, but for now Alani remains skeptical.
"Certainly in the region we feel the United States losing credibility, and we feel that in the near future we're going to see a vacuum in the region," he says. "But we still believe the Chinese [are] not a mature power: Politically, it's still really very weak; strategically, it still is not trusted. We don't feel China is a replacement to United States in any sense."
But economically, the shift is well under way. For centuries, imperial China and the Mideast had thriving economic ties as goods traveled back and forth along the Silk Road. Then, in the mid-20th century, communist China served as an ideological model, and sometimes arms supplier, to Arab nationalists and socialists in the region.
"In the old days, there was a strong admiration for China. We were going through the Algerian revolution and then the Palestinian resistance and what have you, and China was looked on like an inspiration," says Walid Kazziha, who heads the political science department at American University in Cairo.
But analyst Abdel Moneim Said at the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies says that today the message from China is not one of egalitarian redistribution of power and wealth, but quite the opposite.
"Actually, China is giving two bad lessons to the Middle East," he says. "Number one: Violating human rights has nothing to do with development; you can have both. The second is that highly centralized political power does not mean necessarily an impediment for progress. ... Usually China is used as an example against local reformers."
Economic Allure
That model is one that democracy advocates loathe. But the economic allure of the new China is impossible to ignore, which is perhaps nowhere more obvious than at Dragon Mart in the United Arab Emirates.
The 1.6 million-square-foot shopping complex, nearly three-quarters of a mile long, sprawls more or less in the shape of a dragon along the Dubai-Oman Highway. Inside, some 4,000 Chinese firms offer everything from children's toys and "Double Happiness" cigarettes to forklifts and heavy machinery. Officials say it may be the largest Chinese trading hub outside mainland China.
At the same time, Mideast investors finding it harder to conduct business in the United States are increasingly sending their money east. Dubai-based DP World, burned by a political backlash in the United States after it acquired American port holdings, is now funding a half-billion-dollar port project in China. Tens of billions of dollars' worth of oil projects are under way. Inexpensive Chinese cars are selling as fast as they arrive in Egypt, and, to the dismay of Egyptian craftspeople, most pharaonic souvenirs now come with a "Made in China" sticker.
One Gulf economist predicts that regional investment in Asia, including China, could reach a quarter of a trillion dollars within five years. But many of these oil-rich states will be watching China's evolving Mideast policy carefully, hoping that Beijing recognizes that it will have problems becoming and remaining an economic superpower if it doesn't pay more attention to political relations in this sensitive and complicated corner of the world.
And while the king has his own plane, he followed a popular route: There are now at least twice as many flights between the Gulf region and China than there are between the Gulf and the United States.
With a booming economy fueling a voracious demand for energy, China is soon expected to eclipse the United States as the leading oil importer — with the majority of that oil coming from the Middle East.
China's rise is coming at a time when the U.S. economy is struggling and the U.S. image is badly tarnished in the Middle East. That has some Western analysts talking about a historic shift to the East, but those in the Gulf region say that's not happened just yet.
Controversial Ties
Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates are all shipping huge amounts of oil to China. As China's energy appetite has grown, Beijing increasingly values its ties with the oil-rich and relatively stable countries in the Gulf.
But hunger for oil also has pushed China to seek out ties in a number of the world's trouble spots: Angola, Nigeria, Sudan and Iran. China's economic interests in Sudan and Iran in particular sometimes put it at odds with the West, and China has been forced to modify, at least somewhat, its desire to keep its focus on trade and not politics.
After long ignoring the atrocities of government-backed militias in western Sudan, China recently has begun prodding the government in Khartoum and rebel groups to negotiate. China also has endorsed three United Nations Security Council resolutions sanctioning Iran over its nuclear program.
But those shifts have not been reflected in Beijing's trade and economic policies on the ground. Its new rhetoric notwithstanding, China remains Sudan's biggest weapons supplier, and in Tehran, foreign ministry official Ali Rezaiee told NPR that Chinese investment in Iran is booming despite the U.N. resolutions.
"You know, it's interesting to see all those investments and issues are intact," he says. "They have their own business with us. At the same time, they are under too much pressure from the U.S. side."
But it's not just Washington that's unhappy with China's strengthening economic ties to Iran. Analyst Mustafa Alani at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai says China may soon be forced to sacrifice some of its interests in Iran if it wants to maintain good ties with the Arab world and access to its oil.
"I think the Chinese must understand our deep concern related to the Iranian nuclear program," Alani says. "This is not a marginal issue; this is a major issue here in the region. If China wants to emerge as a major power in the region supplying 60 percent of Chinese energy, they must understand the relation of buyer and seller will not last for long."
'Not a Mature Power'
Alani says the atmosphere in the region is one of extreme uncertainty, with the U.S. image badly damaged by the invasion of Iraq and the ensuing rise of Iran. Some are looking to China to step in, but for now Alani remains skeptical.
"Certainly in the region we feel the United States losing credibility, and we feel that in the near future we're going to see a vacuum in the region," he says. "But we still believe the Chinese [are] not a mature power: Politically, it's still really very weak; strategically, it still is not trusted. We don't feel China is a replacement to United States in any sense."
But economically, the shift is well under way. For centuries, imperial China and the Mideast had thriving economic ties as goods traveled back and forth along the Silk Road. Then, in the mid-20th century, communist China served as an ideological model, and sometimes arms supplier, to Arab nationalists and socialists in the region.
"In the old days, there was a strong admiration for China. We were going through the Algerian revolution and then the Palestinian resistance and what have you, and China was looked on like an inspiration," says Walid Kazziha, who heads the political science department at American University in Cairo.
But analyst Abdel Moneim Said at the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies says that today the message from China is not one of egalitarian redistribution of power and wealth, but quite the opposite.
"Actually, China is giving two bad lessons to the Middle East," he says. "Number one: Violating human rights has nothing to do with development; you can have both. The second is that highly centralized political power does not mean necessarily an impediment for progress. ... Usually China is used as an example against local reformers."
Economic Allure
That model is one that democracy advocates loathe. But the economic allure of the new China is impossible to ignore, which is perhaps nowhere more obvious than at Dragon Mart in the United Arab Emirates.
The 1.6 million-square-foot shopping complex, nearly three-quarters of a mile long, sprawls more or less in the shape of a dragon along the Dubai-Oman Highway. Inside, some 4,000 Chinese firms offer everything from children's toys and "Double Happiness" cigarettes to forklifts and heavy machinery. Officials say it may be the largest Chinese trading hub outside mainland China.
At the same time, Mideast investors finding it harder to conduct business in the United States are increasingly sending their money east. Dubai-based DP World, burned by a political backlash in the United States after it acquired American port holdings, is now funding a half-billion-dollar port project in China. Tens of billions of dollars' worth of oil projects are under way. Inexpensive Chinese cars are selling as fast as they arrive in Egypt, and, to the dismay of Egyptian craftspeople, most pharaonic souvenirs now come with a "Made in China" sticker.
One Gulf economist predicts that regional investment in Asia, including China, could reach a quarter of a trillion dollars within five years. But many of these oil-rich states will be watching China's evolving Mideast policy carefully, hoping that Beijing recognizes that it will have problems becoming and remaining an economic superpower if it doesn't pay more attention to political relations in this sensitive and complicated corner of the world.
===============
SOURCE:
Peter Kenyon, NPR's Foreign Correspondent, Cairo,
Middle Eastern and North African countries from Syria to Morocco,
April 4, 2008
April 4, 2008
China and the World IV:Neighbors Feel China's Expanding Power
Motorcycles from China — which cost less than half what Thai motorcycles cost — are easing travel for villagers in rural Laos.
The Sirindhorn Chinese Language and Culture Center at Mae Fah Luang University in northern Thailand, where several graceful pagoda-like buildings sit around a pond on the campus, was built and paid for by the Chinese government. 
At Jakarta's Vihara Dharma Bhakti temple, it's much easier to worship now than it was during the 30-year rule of Suharto, when China — and most things Chinese, including Indonesia's ethnic Chinese minority — was viewed with suspicion.============================
Neighbors Feel China's Expanding Power
============================
As China expands its reach around the world, its power also is growing in its own backyard. The United States exerts considerably less influence than it used to in Southeast Asia, and China is increasingly filling that role, even in countries that were once firmly anti-communist.
For example, it wasn't that long ago that Indonesia and China were mortal enemies.
"The military still believed until yesterday, actually, that the 'yellow fever' is coming down," Harry Tjan Silalahi of Jakarta's Center for Strategic and International Studies says with a laugh. "This threat of the north."
He says a 1965 coup attempt by Indonesia's Communist Party helped convince the Indonesian military of China's expansionist impulses. The coup was brutally suppressed by Indonesia's U.S.-backed military, and more than half a million people — many of them Communists — were killed in the purge that followed.
Indonesia's military leader at the time, Suharto, saw the country's ethnic Chinese minority as a potential fifth column. As a result, public displays of Chinese culture and heritage were banned.
"There were no dragon dances or public celebrations," says Suherman, a caretaker at Jakarta's Vihara Dharma Bhakti temple. "If we wanted to observe the Chinese New Year, we had to do it quietly at home. Even the Chinese characters you see on the walls here were banned during that time because Suharto believed they might contain a hidden political message."
But 10 years after the fall of Suharto, dragon dances are no longer forbidden and the Chinese New Year is an official holiday. Indonesia's ethnic Chinese have their own newspaper, and Chinese firms compete with U.S. and European companies for Indonesia's vast reserves of oil, minerals and gas.
"China is also less aggressive," Harry Silalahi says. "The presence is more non-colonialistic, to put it that way. They come here as scholars, as artists and diplomats."
'Friendship as a Spearhead'
China is using the "soft power" of culture and ideas to make friends all over the region. One example is a Chinese language and cultural center at Mae Fah Luang University in northern Thailand. Several graceful, pagoda-like buildings set around a pond form a center that was built and paid for by the Chinese government.
"Very clever. They are very clever," says Vanchai Sirichana, the university's president. "They understand the way of life here and they understand the people, so the way they do is softer than what Americans did, using friendship as a spearhead to do the business. ... And it's working. In terms of Thai students, you know that five to 10 years ago, most of them [wanted] to go to study in the States. And now, the idea has changed ... to China."
Cheap goods are another example of China's soft power, and they are making life better for some of the region's rural poor.
In Long Lao Mai, a small village in neighboring Laos, villagers eke out a living farming. Headman Saidoa Wu says the arrival of Chinese goods in the markets a few years back was a good thing.
Before, he says, the markets only had goods from Thailand and they were too expensive. Now the villagers can buy secondhand clothes, blankets and kitchenware from China, which are far cheaper — and almost as good, he says.
The biggest change for them is the Chinese motorcycles that can be purchased for $500 — less than half the price of one from Thailand.
"Before, when people were sick, we had to carry them out or wait for the bus, which comes just once a day," he says. "Now, if someone is hurt or sick, we can take them straight to the hospital in Luang Prabang."
Different Benchmarks
Soft power of a different sort can be seen in the Philippines, where a new rail line will link metro Manila to central Luzon — a $500 million project funded by a low-interest loan from the People's Republic of China, one of the newest and biggest donors to the region.
"They obviously have been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. They've had a very successful development experience, and so they have a lot to offer in terms of both knowledge as well as financing," says Larry Greenwood, vice president of the Asian Development Bank in Manila. "Certainly our experience with China has been very positive in the sense that they are very good at helping design and execute projects which have had very good impacts and outcomes in terms of development effectiveness."
Many of the projects funded by China come with few strings attached for the governments involved.
"China brings to the table a different kind of package," says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "They don't have conditions attached to foreign aid. The U.S., the Europeans, they're bent on the promotion of liberal democracies; they have principles about human rights and democratic rule and so on. China does not have the same benchmarks. China understands very well that it wants to build relationships with these countries in Southeast Asia."
Aileen Baviera, dean of the Asian Center at the University of the Philippines, says that while the United States can be a distant ally with other priorities, China is right next door and is going to stay.
China has "learned how to speak the language of the region, of Southeast Asian diplomacy — multilateralism, you know, confidence-building — much more than the United States has," she says.
Suspicion Remains
But not everyone is as sanguine about China's influence or its intentions. Demonstrators in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, have protested what they see as Chinese aggression in the Spratly Islands, an oil-rich area in the South China Sea claimed by both countries.
Such displays are rare in communist Vietnam but were tolerated by the government, in part because they tap into a deep well of nationalism with roots in Vietnam's long and often bitter experience with its neighbor to the north. More than a thousand years of occupation and conflict have left many Vietnamese deeply suspicious of China, now Vietnam's second-largest trading partner.
Vu Thi Thu Trang, 23, says she worries China is using its economic power to nibble away at Vietnam's territorial and cultural integrity.
"I don't trust them at all. China is already the new colonial power in the region. If our government doesn't do something soon, we'll lose our sovereignty and our independence," she says. "If things continue like this, Vietnam culture will be gone. It will simply disappear."
Vietnam's government has a more pragmatic view of its powerful neighbor, whose appetite for raw materials has helped fuel Vietnam's booming economy. That economic integration and interdependence is another example of how China's soft power is transforming the region.
For example, it wasn't that long ago that Indonesia and China were mortal enemies.
"The military still believed until yesterday, actually, that the 'yellow fever' is coming down," Harry Tjan Silalahi of Jakarta's Center for Strategic and International Studies says with a laugh. "This threat of the north."
He says a 1965 coup attempt by Indonesia's Communist Party helped convince the Indonesian military of China's expansionist impulses. The coup was brutally suppressed by Indonesia's U.S.-backed military, and more than half a million people — many of them Communists — were killed in the purge that followed.
Indonesia's military leader at the time, Suharto, saw the country's ethnic Chinese minority as a potential fifth column. As a result, public displays of Chinese culture and heritage were banned.
"There were no dragon dances or public celebrations," says Suherman, a caretaker at Jakarta's Vihara Dharma Bhakti temple. "If we wanted to observe the Chinese New Year, we had to do it quietly at home. Even the Chinese characters you see on the walls here were banned during that time because Suharto believed they might contain a hidden political message."
But 10 years after the fall of Suharto, dragon dances are no longer forbidden and the Chinese New Year is an official holiday. Indonesia's ethnic Chinese have their own newspaper, and Chinese firms compete with U.S. and European companies for Indonesia's vast reserves of oil, minerals and gas.
"China is also less aggressive," Harry Silalahi says. "The presence is more non-colonialistic, to put it that way. They come here as scholars, as artists and diplomats."
'Friendship as a Spearhead'
China is using the "soft power" of culture and ideas to make friends all over the region. One example is a Chinese language and cultural center at Mae Fah Luang University in northern Thailand. Several graceful, pagoda-like buildings set around a pond form a center that was built and paid for by the Chinese government.
"Very clever. They are very clever," says Vanchai Sirichana, the university's president. "They understand the way of life here and they understand the people, so the way they do is softer than what Americans did, using friendship as a spearhead to do the business. ... And it's working. In terms of Thai students, you know that five to 10 years ago, most of them [wanted] to go to study in the States. And now, the idea has changed ... to China."
Cheap goods are another example of China's soft power, and they are making life better for some of the region's rural poor.
In Long Lao Mai, a small village in neighboring Laos, villagers eke out a living farming. Headman Saidoa Wu says the arrival of Chinese goods in the markets a few years back was a good thing.
Before, he says, the markets only had goods from Thailand and they were too expensive. Now the villagers can buy secondhand clothes, blankets and kitchenware from China, which are far cheaper — and almost as good, he says.
The biggest change for them is the Chinese motorcycles that can be purchased for $500 — less than half the price of one from Thailand.
"Before, when people were sick, we had to carry them out or wait for the bus, which comes just once a day," he says. "Now, if someone is hurt or sick, we can take them straight to the hospital in Luang Prabang."
Different Benchmarks
Soft power of a different sort can be seen in the Philippines, where a new rail line will link metro Manila to central Luzon — a $500 million project funded by a low-interest loan from the People's Republic of China, one of the newest and biggest donors to the region.
"They obviously have been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. They've had a very successful development experience, and so they have a lot to offer in terms of both knowledge as well as financing," says Larry Greenwood, vice president of the Asian Development Bank in Manila. "Certainly our experience with China has been very positive in the sense that they are very good at helping design and execute projects which have had very good impacts and outcomes in terms of development effectiveness."
Many of the projects funded by China come with few strings attached for the governments involved.
"China brings to the table a different kind of package," says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "They don't have conditions attached to foreign aid. The U.S., the Europeans, they're bent on the promotion of liberal democracies; they have principles about human rights and democratic rule and so on. China does not have the same benchmarks. China understands very well that it wants to build relationships with these countries in Southeast Asia."
Aileen Baviera, dean of the Asian Center at the University of the Philippines, says that while the United States can be a distant ally with other priorities, China is right next door and is going to stay.
China has "learned how to speak the language of the region, of Southeast Asian diplomacy — multilateralism, you know, confidence-building — much more than the United States has," she says.
Suspicion Remains
But not everyone is as sanguine about China's influence or its intentions. Demonstrators in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, have protested what they see as Chinese aggression in the Spratly Islands, an oil-rich area in the South China Sea claimed by both countries.
Such displays are rare in communist Vietnam but were tolerated by the government, in part because they tap into a deep well of nationalism with roots in Vietnam's long and often bitter experience with its neighbor to the north. More than a thousand years of occupation and conflict have left many Vietnamese deeply suspicious of China, now Vietnam's second-largest trading partner.
Vu Thi Thu Trang, 23, says she worries China is using its economic power to nibble away at Vietnam's territorial and cultural integrity.
"I don't trust them at all. China is already the new colonial power in the region. If our government doesn't do something soon, we'll lose our sovereignty and our independence," she says. "If things continue like this, Vietnam culture will be gone. It will simply disappear."
Vietnam's government has a more pragmatic view of its powerful neighbor, whose appetite for raw materials has helped fuel Vietnam's booming economy. That economic integration and interdependence is another example of how China's soft power is transforming the region.
================
SOURCE:
Michael Sullivan, NPR's Senior Asia Correspondent,
April 3, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
China and the World III:China Tries to Export Culture as Influence Increases
Confucius' 77th generation descendent Kong Deban (right) attends his ancestor's birthday celebrations.
Attendants perform ritual prostrations at Confucius' birthplace in Qufu.
Students attend an etiquette class at Changping Vocational School in Beijing in January. Those selected will become hostesses for medal ceremonies during the Olympics — an event China sees as an opportunity to wow the world.
Attendants hold ritual implements at a celebration marking Confucius' 2,558th birthday at his birthplace in Qufu, Shandong province, on Sept. 28. These days, Confucius has become a sort of Chinese brand.====================================
China Tries to Export Culture as Influence Increases
===================================
As China's influence steadily expands around the globe, the country faces the public relations challenge of ensuring that the rest of the world sees it in a favorable light. China hopes to accomplish this goal through the use of "soft power" by exporting its culture.
One facet of China's effort to win support centers on the ancient philosopher Confucius, who has become something of a Chinese brand. The country has opened hundreds of schools worldwide bearing his name to teach Chinese culture and language.
'Essence' of National Culture
Every year, Chinese officials and family members gather in front of the grand halls and ancient cypress trees of Confucius' home to celebrate his birth, now 2,558 years ago. Attendants in embroidered robes perform ritual prostrations, and students recite Confucian texts.
During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, Confucian statues and books were smashed and burned. Today, however, Confucius is once again a source of national pride.
"Even if Chinese people haven't entirely understood Confucianism, it has been a part of their entire system of thought for thousands of years," Kong Deyong, a 77th-generation descendant of the philosopher, says as he drives to the ceremony. "That's why we say it's the essence of our national culture."
Confucianism was at the heart of what made China the soft-power powerhouse of Asia for centuries. China was mostly unable to physically conquer its neighbors — Japan, Korea and Vietnam. But these nations willingly adopted Confucian culture, as well as Chinese forms of government, art and literature.
Now, China is using the philosopher's name on the more than 200 "Confucius Institutes" it has opened since 2002 in about 60 countries.
Soft Power
In 2006, President Hu Jintao visited a Confucius Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, and sang along with its first graduating class.
Afterward, one of the Kenyan students asked Hu, "Did we sing well?"
"Yes, you did," Hu replied. "That folk song is from my hometown. You sang it well and with Chinese flavor."
The girl told him she wished to come to China to study and work, and Hu said she would be welcome.
The exchange was shown on Chinese state television, making the message clear: Foreigners are respectful of China and its culture.
But China is careful to point out that the Confucius Institutes aren't pushing any ideological agenda.
"Confucius Institutes do not teach Confucianism. They don't promote any particular values," says Zhao Guocheng, an Education Ministry official in charge of the institutes. "They're just an introduction to Chinese culture, and they're established at the invitation of foreign people who want to understand China."
In a major speech last year, however, Hu pointed to soft power as a national goal for the first time. "We must enhance culture as part of the soft power of our country to better guarantee the people's basic cultural rights and interests," he said.
Exporting Values
The ultimate soft-power competition is sports, and China is betting that hosting the Beijing Olympics this summer will be an unprecedented opportunity to wow the world.
From athletes and police to volunteers and taxi drivers, the capital's residents are practicing putting their best foot forward.
In Beijing's suburbs, a school for airline attendants is training the young women who will present medals at the Olympics. Dressed in matching red uniforms, they balance English textbooks on their heads for good posture and clench chopsticks between their teeth to get their smiles just right.
One trainee, Cao Xiuting, sees the whole thing as a great opportunity.
"It will give me an opportunity to improve myself and my sense of service. And as a Chinese, I'd like to use my smile to show our foreign friends that we are a nation of etiquette," she says.
Of course, China has had success exporting some parts of its culture without any effort on Beijing's part — like Kung Fu movies, basketball star Yao Ming or mushu pork.
But Ge Jianxiong, a historian at Shanghai's Fudan University, points out that exporting values is harder than exporting, say, mushu pork, because there isn't really that much difference among nations' values.
"Some here say, 'Since ancient times, the Chinese people have been industrious, brave and caring towards the old and the young.' I ask them, 'What nation on earth is not brave, industrious and caring towards the old and young?'" he says.
In official propaganda, China's leaders espouse a harmonious society, at home and abroad.
Critics call this an awkward and unconvincing shibboleth. China's leadership developed the "harmonious society" idea, they say, to paper over the simmering unrest in Chinese society caused by autocratic government, corruption and a yawning gap between rich and poor.
"What kind of ideas and values will China promote to get the world's support?" asks Ding Xueliang, a researcher with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "China is poor in this respect. It's not that Chinese are stupid or lack the potential. It's that its government propaganda system is incapable of producing concepts that are attractive to societies with freedom of expression."
A 'Beijing Consensus'?
Opinion polls suggest that China's public image has recently taken a bruising, particularly in the West. A February poll by Gallup showed that 55 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of China, compared with 42 percent who have a favorable one. Last year, the two groups were roughly even.
The situation is different in Asia, where Gallup found a median of 46 percent of respondents approved of China's leadership, compared with 34 percent approval of U.S. leadership.
Some people also say that China's rapid economic growth is a model worth emulating, but Ding disagrees.
"All you have to do is to look at the cost. It's extremely high," he says. "The reason there are all these social protests and all this pollution is because economic growth is the sole objective, while the costs have been ignored."
Some pundits talk of a "Beijing consensus" — a combination of economic reform, pragmatic diplomacy and undemocratic government — to be emulated by other countries. But Beijing itself hasn't backed this idea.
Wu Jianmin, president of China's Foreign Affairs University, says the formula makes him uncomfortable.
"We're still trying to find our own way. To speak of a Beijing consensus or a Washington consensus is too simplistic. There may be some good aspects to Beijing's way, but they may only be suited to China's situation," he says.
A Confucian rule says, "Don't do unto others what you wouldn't wish upon yourself." Confucius' message on soft power was clear: Lead by moral authority, not force. Keep your own house in order, and others will follow your example.
Whether China's leaders have learned these lessons remains to be seen.
One facet of China's effort to win support centers on the ancient philosopher Confucius, who has become something of a Chinese brand. The country has opened hundreds of schools worldwide bearing his name to teach Chinese culture and language.
'Essence' of National Culture
Every year, Chinese officials and family members gather in front of the grand halls and ancient cypress trees of Confucius' home to celebrate his birth, now 2,558 years ago. Attendants in embroidered robes perform ritual prostrations, and students recite Confucian texts.
During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, Confucian statues and books were smashed and burned. Today, however, Confucius is once again a source of national pride.
"Even if Chinese people haven't entirely understood Confucianism, it has been a part of their entire system of thought for thousands of years," Kong Deyong, a 77th-generation descendant of the philosopher, says as he drives to the ceremony. "That's why we say it's the essence of our national culture."
Confucianism was at the heart of what made China the soft-power powerhouse of Asia for centuries. China was mostly unable to physically conquer its neighbors — Japan, Korea and Vietnam. But these nations willingly adopted Confucian culture, as well as Chinese forms of government, art and literature.
Now, China is using the philosopher's name on the more than 200 "Confucius Institutes" it has opened since 2002 in about 60 countries.
Soft Power
In 2006, President Hu Jintao visited a Confucius Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, and sang along with its first graduating class.
Afterward, one of the Kenyan students asked Hu, "Did we sing well?"
"Yes, you did," Hu replied. "That folk song is from my hometown. You sang it well and with Chinese flavor."
The girl told him she wished to come to China to study and work, and Hu said she would be welcome.
The exchange was shown on Chinese state television, making the message clear: Foreigners are respectful of China and its culture.
But China is careful to point out that the Confucius Institutes aren't pushing any ideological agenda.
"Confucius Institutes do not teach Confucianism. They don't promote any particular values," says Zhao Guocheng, an Education Ministry official in charge of the institutes. "They're just an introduction to Chinese culture, and they're established at the invitation of foreign people who want to understand China."
In a major speech last year, however, Hu pointed to soft power as a national goal for the first time. "We must enhance culture as part of the soft power of our country to better guarantee the people's basic cultural rights and interests," he said.
Exporting Values
The ultimate soft-power competition is sports, and China is betting that hosting the Beijing Olympics this summer will be an unprecedented opportunity to wow the world.
From athletes and police to volunteers and taxi drivers, the capital's residents are practicing putting their best foot forward.
In Beijing's suburbs, a school for airline attendants is training the young women who will present medals at the Olympics. Dressed in matching red uniforms, they balance English textbooks on their heads for good posture and clench chopsticks between their teeth to get their smiles just right.
One trainee, Cao Xiuting, sees the whole thing as a great opportunity.
"It will give me an opportunity to improve myself and my sense of service. And as a Chinese, I'd like to use my smile to show our foreign friends that we are a nation of etiquette," she says.
Of course, China has had success exporting some parts of its culture without any effort on Beijing's part — like Kung Fu movies, basketball star Yao Ming or mushu pork.
But Ge Jianxiong, a historian at Shanghai's Fudan University, points out that exporting values is harder than exporting, say, mushu pork, because there isn't really that much difference among nations' values.
"Some here say, 'Since ancient times, the Chinese people have been industrious, brave and caring towards the old and the young.' I ask them, 'What nation on earth is not brave, industrious and caring towards the old and young?'" he says.
In official propaganda, China's leaders espouse a harmonious society, at home and abroad.
Critics call this an awkward and unconvincing shibboleth. China's leadership developed the "harmonious society" idea, they say, to paper over the simmering unrest in Chinese society caused by autocratic government, corruption and a yawning gap between rich and poor.
"What kind of ideas and values will China promote to get the world's support?" asks Ding Xueliang, a researcher with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "China is poor in this respect. It's not that Chinese are stupid or lack the potential. It's that its government propaganda system is incapable of producing concepts that are attractive to societies with freedom of expression."
A 'Beijing Consensus'?
Opinion polls suggest that China's public image has recently taken a bruising, particularly in the West. A February poll by Gallup showed that 55 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of China, compared with 42 percent who have a favorable one. Last year, the two groups were roughly even.
The situation is different in Asia, where Gallup found a median of 46 percent of respondents approved of China's leadership, compared with 34 percent approval of U.S. leadership.
Some people also say that China's rapid economic growth is a model worth emulating, but Ding disagrees.
"All you have to do is to look at the cost. It's extremely high," he says. "The reason there are all these social protests and all this pollution is because economic growth is the sole objective, while the costs have been ignored."
Some pundits talk of a "Beijing consensus" — a combination of economic reform, pragmatic diplomacy and undemocratic government — to be emulated by other countries. But Beijing itself hasn't backed this idea.
Wu Jianmin, president of China's Foreign Affairs University, says the formula makes him uncomfortable.
"We're still trying to find our own way. To speak of a Beijing consensus or a Washington consensus is too simplistic. There may be some good aspects to Beijing's way, but they may only be suited to China's situation," he says.
A Confucian rule says, "Don't do unto others what you wouldn't wish upon yourself." Confucius' message on soft power was clear: Lead by moral authority, not force. Keep your own house in order, and others will follow your example.
Whether China's leaders have learned these lessons remains to be seen.
============
SOURCE:
Anthony Kuhn, NPR's Beijing Correspondent,
April 2, 2008
April 2, 2008
China and the World I :China Alters Its Role in World Economy, Diplomacy
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi recently said that China would shoulder more responsibility for world affairs.
Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers wear sky-blue United Nations berets, signifying membership in a Chinese peacekeeping unit destined for Darfur, as they prepare to leave Xinzheng International Airport in November. ==========================================
China Alters Its Role in World Economy, Diplomacy
China Alters Its Role in World Economy, Diplomacy
==========================================
Anyone reading the headlines these days can see that China's growing influence is being felt across the globe and in all areas of life. Much of that increasing involvement comes through the world economy.
After years of attracting foreign investment, China is now investing overseas itself, prospecting for new markets and raw materials for its intensive economic growth. In the process, it has taken on new risks, responsibilities and a national interest beyond its own borders.
One overseas entrepreneur is Jacob Wood, born Hu Jieguo in Shanghai, who has spent the last 30 years building an African business empire called the Golden Gate Group. It includes hotels, restaurants and construction and real estate firms. Golden Gate employs 20,000 people, most of them Nigerians.
Wood enjoys the status of an honorary Nigerian chieftain, which came in handy last year, when kidnappers seized several groups of Chinese oil workers in Nigeria. Wood used his honorary position to help negotiate for their release, and he suggested that oil companies try adopting corporate responsibility.
"We tried to help them," Wood says. "But also we tell them, you know, for next time what they should do, right? We should do more ... community jobs. Build schools, build hospitals for them. Like everybody love you. Not like people feel you come here just to take oil."
Getting Involved
China's new role overseas is changing its long-stated policy of noninterference in other countries' affairs.
In the past, "Whenever the issue of peacekeeping came up, China would either not participate or abstain," says Wu Jianmin, who served as a junior diplomat at the United Nations in 1971, when China had just retaken its U.N. seat from Taiwan. "We felt that peacekeeping did not fit our idea of nations minding their own business."
Now, Wu notes, China has 8,000 peacekeeping troops overseas. The message seems to be that it's now acceptable to interfere in other countries' affairs, as long as there's a United Nations mandate.
"We are a part of the existing international system," Wu says. "We are its beneficiaries. The international system is evolving and we are participating in it and constructing it."
Analysts say China is gradually becoming more responsive to international demands to put diplomatic pressure on authoritarian regimes such as Sudan, North Korea and Myanmar (still referred to by many as Burma). China's special envoy on Sudan's Darfur refugee issue, Liu Guijin, recently responded to foreign criticism that Beijing is shielding Khartoum from censure.
"China's basic policies on the Darfur question are not substantially different from those of Western nations," he said. "We agree that the international community should speak with one voice and exert equal influence on the Sudanese government and rebel forces ... or, as Western nations prefer to say, exert pressure."
Downplaying Capabilities
Western governments are far from satisfied with China's contributions on the Darfur issue. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi recently said that China would shoulder more responsibility for world affairs, but he cautioned that this was not just to please specific countries.
"Frankly speaking, China, as a developing country, cannot undertake a level of obligation that goes beyond its capacity," he said. "I would like to emphasize that we are not taking international responsibilities to serve the interests of certain countries."
Even the downplaying of its capabilities has become a part of China's foreign policy.
Jin Canrong, an international relations expert at People's University in Beijing, says that China portrays its relations with other countries as a win-win game and aspires to wield power humbly. But Jin adds that as China becomes more powerful and confident, these pledges are coming under increasing criticism.
"One direct cause for this is Taiwan's pro-independence provocations," he says. "People on the mainland think: 'We've been putting up with these troublemakers for too long, we ought to just whack them.' There are others who say there's no point in downplaying China's capabilities when everyone knows what they are."
China's government has quietly ditched the official term "peaceful rise" to describe its re-emergence as a major power. Critics say that sticking to this description would limit China's options. Other skeptics point out that such a peaceful rise has no precedent in human history.
After years of attracting foreign investment, China is now investing overseas itself, prospecting for new markets and raw materials for its intensive economic growth. In the process, it has taken on new risks, responsibilities and a national interest beyond its own borders.
One overseas entrepreneur is Jacob Wood, born Hu Jieguo in Shanghai, who has spent the last 30 years building an African business empire called the Golden Gate Group. It includes hotels, restaurants and construction and real estate firms. Golden Gate employs 20,000 people, most of them Nigerians.
Wood enjoys the status of an honorary Nigerian chieftain, which came in handy last year, when kidnappers seized several groups of Chinese oil workers in Nigeria. Wood used his honorary position to help negotiate for their release, and he suggested that oil companies try adopting corporate responsibility.
"We tried to help them," Wood says. "But also we tell them, you know, for next time what they should do, right? We should do more ... community jobs. Build schools, build hospitals for them. Like everybody love you. Not like people feel you come here just to take oil."
Getting Involved
China's new role overseas is changing its long-stated policy of noninterference in other countries' affairs.
In the past, "Whenever the issue of peacekeeping came up, China would either not participate or abstain," says Wu Jianmin, who served as a junior diplomat at the United Nations in 1971, when China had just retaken its U.N. seat from Taiwan. "We felt that peacekeeping did not fit our idea of nations minding their own business."
Now, Wu notes, China has 8,000 peacekeeping troops overseas. The message seems to be that it's now acceptable to interfere in other countries' affairs, as long as there's a United Nations mandate.
"We are a part of the existing international system," Wu says. "We are its beneficiaries. The international system is evolving and we are participating in it and constructing it."
Analysts say China is gradually becoming more responsive to international demands to put diplomatic pressure on authoritarian regimes such as Sudan, North Korea and Myanmar (still referred to by many as Burma). China's special envoy on Sudan's Darfur refugee issue, Liu Guijin, recently responded to foreign criticism that Beijing is shielding Khartoum from censure.
"China's basic policies on the Darfur question are not substantially different from those of Western nations," he said. "We agree that the international community should speak with one voice and exert equal influence on the Sudanese government and rebel forces ... or, as Western nations prefer to say, exert pressure."
Downplaying Capabilities
Western governments are far from satisfied with China's contributions on the Darfur issue. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi recently said that China would shoulder more responsibility for world affairs, but he cautioned that this was not just to please specific countries.
"Frankly speaking, China, as a developing country, cannot undertake a level of obligation that goes beyond its capacity," he said. "I would like to emphasize that we are not taking international responsibilities to serve the interests of certain countries."
Even the downplaying of its capabilities has become a part of China's foreign policy.
Jin Canrong, an international relations expert at People's University in Beijing, says that China portrays its relations with other countries as a win-win game and aspires to wield power humbly. But Jin adds that as China becomes more powerful and confident, these pledges are coming under increasing criticism.
"One direct cause for this is Taiwan's pro-independence provocations," he says. "People on the mainland think: 'We've been putting up with these troublemakers for too long, we ought to just whack them.' There are others who say there's no point in downplaying China's capabilities when everyone knows what they are."
China's government has quietly ditched the official term "peaceful rise" to describe its re-emergence as a major power. Critics say that sticking to this description would limit China's options. Other skeptics point out that such a peaceful rise has no precedent in human history.
=======
SOURCE:
Anthony Kuhn, NPR's Beijing Correspondent,
March 31, 2008
China and the World Overview: China's Growing Influence
A visitor takes a picture with his mobile phone of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Global trade and communications are making China's growing influence felt worldwide. AFP/Getty Images=======================================
China and the World Overview: China's Growing Influence
=======================================
Every day seems to bring a new statistic about China: The communist giant has become the world's third-largest trading nation; it has the most cell phone subscribers in the world; it emits the most carbon gases.
Some media refer to this as the rise of China. Chinese people see this as their country's rightful return to the dominant position it occupied in Asia for much of the past 2,000 years. That's with the exception of a 150-year slump, when China was ravaged by Western imperial powers and its own civil war.
While China's influence was previously limited mostly to East Asia, now global trade and communications make its reach and impact worldwide. China has not articulated a clear plan or strategy for the role it wants to play in the world, leading to some misgivings and apprehension.
Much of China's growing reach comes from its economy, which is entering a new "outward bound" phase. After years of functioning as a foreign investment-driven export platform, China is moving up the value chain. Its companies are searching for new markets and technologies. They are using the foreign currency earned from trade to snap up foreign assets, from companies and securities to energy supplies. Many of the resources it is acquiring are in Third World countries, where instability and bad governance have kept Western multinationals from operating.
The increases in international trade, tourism and cultural exchanges have given China a substantial national interest overseas. Under the more orthodox communism of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, national interest was considered a bourgeois concept, inimical to the international solidarity of the proletariat. While China has not clearly defined its national interest, there is no doubt that it has one. Several years ago, China's Foreign Ministry created a department to protect the safety of Chinese nationals living and working overseas, indicating that the government recognizes these interests and must protect them.
Under Mao, China saw the international order as dominated by Western imperialism, and sought to export revolution against that order. Now, China sees itself as a key member of the international order, with an interest in helping to write the world's rules and maintain its status quo.
Beijing has also come to realize that growing hard power — that is, political, economic and military strength — must be accompanied by soft power. If other countries mistrust its intentions, more power will lead to less security. China's progress in building soft power is visible in the growing numbers of young people studying the Chinese language.
In many media reports, China is portrayed as an economic success story for its rapid development and achievements in pulling millions of people out of poverty. It also represents a somewhat darker success story: the Communist Party's track record of economic reform without loosening its stranglehold on political power.
But China has had difficulty deciding what values it stands for and can promote. To the official Chinese mindset, the way to build soft power is to crank out more and better propaganda. Critics argue that the salient feature of government propaganda is that it tends to fly in the face of reality. With soft power, analysts point out, it's what you do, not what you say.
Carnegie Institute for International Peace scholar Ding Xueliang draws a parallel with China's military. It has formidable military power within its own borders, but it lacks the ability to project that power — for example, through the use of aircraft carriers. Likewise, China is rich in cultural resources, but has had difficulty harnessing these resources to build soft power commensurate with its hard power. The Summer Olympics in Beijing will be a telling test of how China presents itself to the world. The unrest in Tibet will test its ability to respond with confidence and deftness in the face of protests and public relations blunders that are likely to occur. All that we can be sure of now is that China and the Olympics are sure to leave their marks on each other.
==================
SOURCE:
Anthony Kuhn, Foreign Correspondent, Beijing,
NPR.org, March 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Capacities of wind turbines installed in India from 225 KW to 1650 KW
Sunday, October 26, 200818:52 IST
Fact Shee
Wind power projects aggregating 9522 MW have been installed in the country till end of last month. State-wise wind power installation capacity is given in the Annexure-I.
As compared to the achievement of about 5456 MW of wind power during the Tenth Five Year Plan, a target for capacity addition of 10,500 MW has been fixed for the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The capacities of wind turbines installed in the country ranges from 225 kw to 1650 kw. Adequate manufacturing facility exists in the country for achieving the above target.
A total of 216 potential locations have so far been identified in 13 States/UTs which could be considered suitable for installation of wind turbines. Of these, five new locations have been identified in 3 States during the last three years. State-wise details are given in Annexure-II.
Annexure-I
Annexure-II..............in the Link below
http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=44245
PIB Press Releases
Sunday, October 26, 2008
PM’s STATEMENT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh at the 2nd Plenary Session of 7th ASEM Summit, in Beijing, China on October 25, 2008.Saturday, October 25, 2008
11:55 IST
Following is the text of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s statement on Sustainable Development in Beijing today: “Sustainable development is among the biggest challenges of our times. However, a lot of cooperative work is needed to transform it from a mere buzz word to an operational strategy for development. We know that Asia is home to the largest concentration of the world’s poor. Poverty eradication at this scale requires a collaborative global effort to promote development and in particular to create job opportunities. If we fail, we will continue to live in a world of instability and conflict.The development strategies that we adopt have to result in a fair, equitable and balanced distribution of the economic dividend. At the same time, it must also preserve and protect the environment. Only then can we make faster progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. We therefore need to put in place a global action plan to promote both food and energy security for managing the challenges of both accelerated growth and its environmental sustainability. Unfortunately, the international community has not lived up to its commitments for technology transfer and additional financing since the Rio Conference. We should pursue innovative mechanisms for raising finance for development and creating a favourable IPR regime. Climate change threatens our environment and our development. A holistic approach is needed to tackle this problem. We cannot do so by perpetuating the poverty of the developing countries, or by preventing their industrialization. The challenge ahead is to put in place development strategies which improve living standards, create opportunities for job creation and are also environment friendly. Thus, common but differentiated responsibility should be the cardinal principle of negotiations to find practical and pragmatic solutions within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Progress on the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol has been slow. Emissions of developed countries have actually increased by 2.6 % from 2000 to 2005. We should call upon our European partners to do more in this regard. The developing world is committed to doing its share.I believe that the principle of convergence of per-capita emissions of developing countries with advanced developed countries is catching the imagination of the international community. We should recognize that each citizen of the world has equal entitlement to the global atmospheric space. Our dependence on fossil fuels is a cause of many problems. Greater effort is needed to promote clean and renewable sources of energy, including nuclear energy. The world therefore needs a new compact to increase efficiency in the use of available energy resources. Without peace there can be no sustainable development. Terrorism, extremism, and intolerance threaten our social cohesion. We need to continuously strengthen international cooperation to combat terrorism. We must bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of terrorism to justice. Finally, globalization, if it is to succeed, must be fair and benefit the whole of humanity. Development has to be inclusive. It must reduce disparities of income and wealth. It should create ever widening circles of stake-holders. It should respect pluralism and diversity. Asia is growing rapidly and has proven capabilities as a provider of goods, services and knowledge. Europeans are world leaders in the scientific, technological and financial areas. We have therefore much to learn from each other. We seek on this historic occasion a meeting of minds and of these complementarities to bring both stability and prosperity to our two continents and to the world at large.” ****
Following is the text of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s statement on Sustainable Development in Beijing today: “Sustainable development is among the biggest challenges of our times. However, a lot of cooperative work is needed to transform it from a mere buzz word to an operational strategy for development. We know that Asia is home to the largest concentration of the world’s poor. Poverty eradication at this scale requires a collaborative global effort to promote development and in particular to create job opportunities. If we fail, we will continue to live in a world of instability and conflict.The development strategies that we adopt have to result in a fair, equitable and balanced distribution of the economic dividend. At the same time, it must also preserve and protect the environment. Only then can we make faster progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. We therefore need to put in place a global action plan to promote both food and energy security for managing the challenges of both accelerated growth and its environmental sustainability. Unfortunately, the international community has not lived up to its commitments for technology transfer and additional financing since the Rio Conference. We should pursue innovative mechanisms for raising finance for development and creating a favourable IPR regime. Climate change threatens our environment and our development. A holistic approach is needed to tackle this problem. We cannot do so by perpetuating the poverty of the developing countries, or by preventing their industrialization. The challenge ahead is to put in place development strategies which improve living standards, create opportunities for job creation and are also environment friendly. Thus, common but differentiated responsibility should be the cardinal principle of negotiations to find practical and pragmatic solutions within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Progress on the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol has been slow. Emissions of developed countries have actually increased by 2.6 % from 2000 to 2005. We should call upon our European partners to do more in this regard. The developing world is committed to doing its share.I believe that the principle of convergence of per-capita emissions of developing countries with advanced developed countries is catching the imagination of the international community. We should recognize that each citizen of the world has equal entitlement to the global atmospheric space. Our dependence on fossil fuels is a cause of many problems. Greater effort is needed to promote clean and renewable sources of energy, including nuclear energy. The world therefore needs a new compact to increase efficiency in the use of available energy resources. Without peace there can be no sustainable development. Terrorism, extremism, and intolerance threaten our social cohesion. We need to continuously strengthen international cooperation to combat terrorism. We must bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of terrorism to justice. Finally, globalization, if it is to succeed, must be fair and benefit the whole of humanity. Development has to be inclusive. It must reduce disparities of income and wealth. It should create ever widening circles of stake-holders. It should respect pluralism and diversity. Asia is growing rapidly and has proven capabilities as a provider of goods, services and knowledge. Europeans are world leaders in the scientific, technological and financial areas. We have therefore much to learn from each other. We seek on this historic occasion a meeting of minds and of these complementarities to bring both stability and prosperity to our two continents and to the world at large.” ****
Remarks by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on International Financial Crisis at the ASEM Summit at Beijing
The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh addressing at the 3rd Plenary Session of 7th ASEM Summit, in Beijing, China on October 25, 2008.Saturday, October 25, 2008
10:29 IST
Following is the text of the remarks by the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh at the ASEM Summit at Beijing yesterday: The international financial crisis has resulted from three failures: (a) A regulatory and supervisory failure in major developed countries;(b) A failure in risk management in private financial institutions;(c) A failure in market discipline mechanism These are not my views but those of the distinguished Managing Director of the IMF, with which I agree. We must analyse objectively how and why these failures have occurred with such ferocity. This is necessary to put in place a new set of rules which will prevent reoccurrence of such failures. The sad truth is that in this age of globalisation we have a global economy of sorts but it is not supported by a global polity to provide effective governance. The resulting crisis of liquidity, accumulation of bad assets, shortage of capital and collapse of confidence threatens to spill over into the real economy by way of reduced demand for goods and services particularly exports, reduced access to trade and suppliers credits superimposed on other crises – food and fuel price rises that have strained budgets and balance of payments leading to rising inflation and living costs in many developing countries. The President of the World Bank has identified at least 30 developing countries whose balance of payments will experience a severe deterioration in the wake of this financial crisis. The immediate task is to declog the credit markets the world over. Coordinated global action is essential to restore a measure of confidence in the credit markets. From the standpoint of developing countries, international financial institutions, particularly the IMF and World Bank, need to put in place exogenous shock facilities to provide assistance to the affected countries more quickly and in larger amounts with less service conditionalities and greater flexibility. Countries with strong foreign exchange positions could make additional resources available to the international financial institutions on appropriate terms to finance their operations. As a counter cyclical device, increased infrastructure investments in developing countries, if backed by increased resources flows from multilateral financial institutions such as the IBRD and Regional Development Banks, can act as a powerful stabilizer. The IMF should revisit the potentially powerful instrument of creating liquidity through fresh allocation of Special Drawing Rights in favour of multilateral development finance institutions. The reform and reconstruction of the financial system has to be a collective international effort since borders no longer confine financial institutions or can keep out financial turmoil. Given the growth in cross-border investment, trade and banking in the last three decades, the world must ponder over the need for a global monitoring authority to promote global supervision and cooperation in the increasingly integrated world in which we live. In devising a reform agenda, one must bear the wise saying of John Maynard Keynes regarding the economically damaging role of excessive speculative activity. To quote Keynes : “Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. When the capital development of a country becomes a byproduct of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done" Clearly, there has been a massive failure of regulatory and supervisory powers. Speculators have had a free run for far too long a period. International institutions like the IMF have also not covered themselves with glory. There has been an unacceptable failure of effective multilateral supervision of major developed economies and in particular of what has been going on in their financial markets. India’s banking system is sound and well capitalized. It is not exposed to the type of assets which have given rise to this crisis. Our real economy will grow at the rate of 7 to 7.5 percent this year despite the global slowdown of export demand and capital inflows. We have injected fresh liquidity in the system. We realize that we cannot remain totally unaffected when the global economy and financial system are in deep trouble. Our stock markets and the exchange rate of the rupee are under pressure due to capital outflow of foreign institutional investors. Sooner or later, the real economy is bound to experience the pain. We are therefore sincere in our desire to cooperate and coordinate our actions with the world community to find effective and pragmatic solutions to the formidable challenges the world economy is now faced with.” ****
Following is the text of the remarks by the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh at the ASEM Summit at Beijing yesterday: The international financial crisis has resulted from three failures: (a) A regulatory and supervisory failure in major developed countries;(b) A failure in risk management in private financial institutions;(c) A failure in market discipline mechanism These are not my views but those of the distinguished Managing Director of the IMF, with which I agree. We must analyse objectively how and why these failures have occurred with such ferocity. This is necessary to put in place a new set of rules which will prevent reoccurrence of such failures. The sad truth is that in this age of globalisation we have a global economy of sorts but it is not supported by a global polity to provide effective governance. The resulting crisis of liquidity, accumulation of bad assets, shortage of capital and collapse of confidence threatens to spill over into the real economy by way of reduced demand for goods and services particularly exports, reduced access to trade and suppliers credits superimposed on other crises – food and fuel price rises that have strained budgets and balance of payments leading to rising inflation and living costs in many developing countries. The President of the World Bank has identified at least 30 developing countries whose balance of payments will experience a severe deterioration in the wake of this financial crisis. The immediate task is to declog the credit markets the world over. Coordinated global action is essential to restore a measure of confidence in the credit markets. From the standpoint of developing countries, international financial institutions, particularly the IMF and World Bank, need to put in place exogenous shock facilities to provide assistance to the affected countries more quickly and in larger amounts with less service conditionalities and greater flexibility. Countries with strong foreign exchange positions could make additional resources available to the international financial institutions on appropriate terms to finance their operations. As a counter cyclical device, increased infrastructure investments in developing countries, if backed by increased resources flows from multilateral financial institutions such as the IBRD and Regional Development Banks, can act as a powerful stabilizer. The IMF should revisit the potentially powerful instrument of creating liquidity through fresh allocation of Special Drawing Rights in favour of multilateral development finance institutions. The reform and reconstruction of the financial system has to be a collective international effort since borders no longer confine financial institutions or can keep out financial turmoil. Given the growth in cross-border investment, trade and banking in the last three decades, the world must ponder over the need for a global monitoring authority to promote global supervision and cooperation in the increasingly integrated world in which we live. In devising a reform agenda, one must bear the wise saying of John Maynard Keynes regarding the economically damaging role of excessive speculative activity. To quote Keynes : “Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. When the capital development of a country becomes a byproduct of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done" Clearly, there has been a massive failure of regulatory and supervisory powers. Speculators have had a free run for far too long a period. International institutions like the IMF have also not covered themselves with glory. There has been an unacceptable failure of effective multilateral supervision of major developed economies and in particular of what has been going on in their financial markets. India’s banking system is sound and well capitalized. It is not exposed to the type of assets which have given rise to this crisis. Our real economy will grow at the rate of 7 to 7.5 percent this year despite the global slowdown of export demand and capital inflows. We have injected fresh liquidity in the system. We realize that we cannot remain totally unaffected when the global economy and financial system are in deep trouble. Our stock markets and the exchange rate of the rupee are under pressure due to capital outflow of foreign institutional investors. Sooner or later, the real economy is bound to experience the pain. We are therefore sincere in our desire to cooperate and coordinate our actions with the world community to find effective and pragmatic solutions to the formidable challenges the world economy is now faced with.” ****
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