Blogs » Politics » Bo Xilai Trial May, May Not Start Monday
Blogs » Politics » Bo Xilai Trial May, May Not Start Monday |
- Bo Xilai Trial May, May Not Start Monday
- Ban on Nu River Dams Washed Away
- China and Japan Move to Cool Down Diaoyu Dispute
- Fines for Food Waste and the “Clean Plate Campaign”
- Presidential Inbox: Integrating Global Health Into the Pivot Strategy
- Photo: Majong Shop, by Land of no cheese
- Ministry of Truth: Ban on Live Global Dialogue
- Presidential Inbox: A Strategy to Counter North Korea’s Nuclear Defiance
- Chinese Graduates Say No Thanks to Factory Jobs
- John Kerry Calls for Stronger Partnership with China
- Redefining the Meaning of “Chinese”
- Censorship Vault: Sorry for the Trouble
- “Waking Up From the Beijing Dream”: An Online Account of Love, Corruption, and Unwritten Rules
- Spotted on China’s Web: Who Really Changed America, Obama or the Smartphone?
- Presidential Inbox: U.S. Policy in Northeast Asia
- Children, Who Is This Man?
- China’s Patent Game for Clean-Energy Cars
- Photo: The Waiting Merchant, by Mr Paz
- Survey: Manufacturing Growth Highest in Two Years
| Bo Xilai Trial May, May Not Start Monday Posted: 25 Jan 2013 04:20 PM PST The South China Morning Post has poured lukewarm water on earlier reports, originating in state media, that the trial of fallen Chongqing Party Chief Bo Xilai will begin on Monday.
Comments about Bo's likely fate from Li Jingtian, executive vice president of the Central Party School, were similarly inconclusive. From Tom Orlik and Gerard Baker at The Wall Street Journal:
See more on the Bo case to date, some of it more certain than the above, via CDT. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Ban on Nu River Dams Washed Away Posted: 25 Jan 2013 03:28 PM PST China's State Council has announced plans to resume hydropower development on the Nu (Salween), Lancang (Mekong) and Jinsha (a tributary of the Yangtze) rivers. Outgoing premier Wen Jiabao had repeatedly intervened to block damming of the Nu, and the plans have therefore been seen as a sign of his waning influence. From Li Jing at the South China Morning Post:
Though both Li and International Rivers' Peter Bosshard described the news as "shocking", there were signs that Wen's protection might be slipping in February 2011, when state media reported that damming would resume. One major concern over the new dams is the south-west's high level of seismic activity. Reservoirs can increase the risk of earthquakes and landslides: a Probe International study released in December found that the 2008 Sichuan earthquake which killed some 80,000 people was likely caused by the weight of water behind the Zipingpu dam. For more details on the Nu, Lancang and Jinsha see International Rivers, as well as Anchalee Kongrut's overview of damming along the Lancang/Mekong at Economic Observer. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| China and Japan Move to Cool Down Diaoyu Dispute Posted: 25 Jan 2013 03:15 PM PST China Daily reports on CCP general secretary Xi Jinping's recent meeting with a Japanese envoy in Beijing, in which standing tensions over the Diaoyu Islands were indirectly addressed:
While the China Daily report chose to quote Xi emphasizing consistency in China's stance on the islands, New York Times coverage notes that the leader's comments were soft when compared to previous official statements:
Natsuo Yamaguchi, the envoy who met with Xi, represented Japan's new coalition government led by Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, a man whose "hawkish" campaign statements concerning the Diaoyu Islands were a cause for concern in China. Japanese coverage of the meeting notes that Yamaguchi delivered a letter on Abe's behalf requesting a face-to-face meeting between the two leaders, and that Xi responded agreeably. From The Asahi Shimbun:
Upon returning to Tokyo, Yamaguchi expressed optimism about an eventual resolution to the territorial dispute. Reuters reports:
Another report from Reuters tells of an imminent U.N. investigation into the validity of China's claims on the group of islands:
As China and Japan appear to be softening their rhetoric, Taiwan – another claimant to sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands – is reasserting its claims. The Asahi Shimbun reports on confrontation between the Japanese Coast Guard and a fishing boat full of Taiwanese activists on January 24:
© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Fines for Food Waste and the “Clean Plate Campaign” Posted: 25 Jan 2013 02:31 PM PST Yuan Longping, an agricultural scientist at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the "father of hybrid rice", has publicly endorsed the implementation of fines for wasted food. Yuan, famous for developing the first varieties of high-yield hybrid rice in the 70s, shared last year's Confucius Peace Prize with former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, after coming in just shy of Vladimir Putin in 2011. The South China Morning Post reports:
The abundance of wasted food in China – a country where some are struggling even to meet their nutritional needs – has prompted an online campaign against food squandering, as pointed out by a recent tweet from Xinhua. Below are two images circulating the Weibosphere as part of the "clean plate campaign":
© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Presidential Inbox: Integrating Global Health Into the Pivot Strategy Posted: 25 Jan 2013 01:50 PM PST  Mr. President, as you begin your second term, you and your Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping both face the challenge of building a mature and mutually beneficial bilateral relationship. There is no need to belabor the strategic importance of the Sino-American relations for the United States. Indeed, one may argue that it is precisely the strategic dynamics driven by China's rise that led to your critical decision to pivot to Asia. While we are told that a critical element of the U.S. pivot strategy is to nurture partnerships to address important common challenges, our rebalancing efforts thus far have focused almost solely on security and trade. They are certainly crucial in promoting U.S. economic growth and regional stability, but our relationship with China and other Asian countries has become so multifaceted and complex that other issues, like health and the environment, challenge us to promote jointly the welfare of people in the Asia-Pacific region, which still accounts for a majority of the global disease burden. As a result of the epidemiological transition, non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes are increasingly becoming the dominant cause of mortality. China, which has surpassed India to become the world's diabetes capital, also accounts for 20 percent of the world's total cancer-caused deaths. By increasing individual and household impoverishment and hindering socioeconomic development, the non-communicable diseases are a major cause of poverty and an urgent development challenge in the region. In addition to the rising threat of non-communicable diseases, the Asia-Pacific region also faces growing health security threats. With extensive animal trade and cross-border human movement, the region remains a center of global concern for the emergence of pandemic influenza or a SARS-type novel, zoonotic respiratory virus. The lowered barriers to entry and reduced costs of bioengineering only increase the risks of accidental or intentional release of dangerous pathogens. In addition, there has been an increase in drug-resistant infections (e.g., artemisinin-resistant malaria and drug-resistant tuberculosis) and vector-borne diseases including dengue and Japanese encephalitis. These infectious diseases threaten U.S. military forces in the region, disturb international trade and travel, and even undermine regional stability. As you and Senator Lugar wrote in a 2005 New York Times op-ed, a major disease "outbreak could cause millions of deaths, destabilize Southeast Asia…and threaten the security of governments around the world." Your concern was recently echoed by Mr. Xi Jinping, who said, "at present, world health problems are in close relationship with international issues, including politics, economy and social development, and have an impact on international relations and foreign policies." Building an enhanced global health agenda into the pivot strategy would contribute to a win-win outcome, which is precisely what Beijing hopes to achieve in what it calls a "new major country relationship." As a Chinese scholar said, the ability to achieve such a relationship depends, among others, on how the two countries "develop their potential" for win-win cooperation. Health is an area that is politically neutral and about which each side feels strongly. Indeed, demographic and epidemiological transition and China's move toward universal health coverage not only generated huge demand for more and better healthcare, but also ushered in forces supporting private and overseas investment in a sector that is traditionally monopolized by government actors. Given the U.S. comparative advantage in pharmaceutical-related research and development as well as healthcare management and service quality, health system transition in China would generate more business opportunities for U.S. companies and contribute to the narrowing trade deficit with China. Equally important, tackling a common health challenge helps countries in the region build trust and reduce tensions around more contentious policy issues such as territorial dispute. While substantial cooperation over health may provide Beijing an additional reason to focus more on domestic welfare and internal transition, improved U.S.-China relations contributes to regional security, which helps strengthen the United States' position in the region. In your first term, Mr. President, your administration was active in conducting health diplomacy by proposing a set of innovative guiding principles and objectives as well as launching new initiatives. While the results of these programs were mixed, the inclusion of an enhanced global health agenda within the pivot strategy would serve to strengthen your leadership in this area and the administration's ability to effectively handle health diplomacy. When integrated into the pivot strategy, such an agenda would include:
Mr. President, since Beijing is not used to making any major initiatives on the global health front, you should feel free to raise these issues with Mr. Xi at the next summit. Once you both reach an understanding on these issues, the Strategic & Economic Dialogue would be an ideal venue for moving this agenda forward. Depending on the issue areas, several government working groups can be established, including officials from the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, Department of Health and Human Services, Defense Department, and the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, and the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Health, the State Food and Drug Administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and PLA General Logistics in China. Forty years ago, when the first batch of American health workers were allowed to visit China, Milo Leavitt, then director of the Fogarty International Center, noted in Medicine and Public Health in the People's Republic of China that "for those who believe that the universal desire for health and relief from disease and suffering may be the strongest key to peace and international cooperation, it is significant and heartening to observe that physicians were among the first groups granted permission to visit the People's Republic of China." If cooperation over health contributed to the opening of China in the early 1970s, now it can and should play a much larger role in building strategic trust and contributing to the success of your pivot strategy. We look forward to your leadership in shaping this global health agenda. |
| Photo: Majong Shop, by Land of no cheese Posted: 25 Jan 2013 12:18 PM PST  Majong Shop © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Ministry of Truth: Ban on Live Global Dialogue Posted: 25 Jan 2013 12:10 PM PST The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by central government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to these instructions as "Directives from the Ministry of Truth."
CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation. Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Presidential Inbox: A Strategy to Counter North Korea’s Nuclear Defiance Posted: 25 Jan 2013 11:30 AM PST  Mr. President, your first administration played "small ball" with North Korea. The policy of "strategic patience" succeeded in weathering North Korean provocations and limited exposure to the political risks that would have accompanied a high profile effort to address North Korea's nuclear development. However, the crime and punishment approach to North Korea's 2009 satellite launch and nuclear test through UN Security Council sanctions, statements, and resolutions has failed to stop North Korea's growing nuclear and long-range delivery capabilities. Your secretary of defense warned that North Korea is developing a missile capability that would eventually be able to reach the United States and has acquired road-mobile transportation vehicles that make such missiles easier to hide and harder to take out. Several rounds of low-key dialogue in 2011 and 2012 resulted in the ill-fated Leap Day agreement that again failed to restrain North Korean long-range rocket launches; UN condemnation and sanctions appear to have only fueled North Korean defiance. North Korea has responded to the latest UN resolution with threats to conduct further satellites, long-range rockets, and "a nuclear test of higher level." If North Korea conducts a third nuclear test, more sanctions and more resolutions seem inevitable, but will likely be equally feckless in restraining North Korea from its current course. Given steady North Korean progress in developing its missile and nuclear programs, your administration should pursue a more active strategy designed to shape North Korea's environment. This approach should include the following steps: 1) Redouble efforts to cut off North Korea's remaining potential nuclear customers You presided over a shrinking North Korean customer base during your first term as a result of political transitions in Libya and Myanmar. But North Korea forged an MOU with Iran last year on scientific and technical cooperation and the two countries continue to exchange technical personnel. Your administration should make it a priority to cut this link through stricter implementation of UN Security Council resolutions and enhanced intervention to thwart North Korean-Iranian cooperation. 2) Forge a unified policy approach with South Korea Your first administration saw unprecedented policy coordination with South Korea led by your close personal relationship with outgoing South Korean president Lee Myung-bak. It will be necessary for you to develop an equally close relationship with his successor Park Geun-hye to forge a unified policy approach that embeds denuclearization into a broader diplomatic and political effort designed to foster North Korea's peaceful integration into the region. This will mean active U.S. support for South Korean efforts to build practical cooperation with Russia and China on North Korea-related transport and energy projects. 3) Together with South Korea, discuss peninsular geostrategy, and not just denuclearization, with China First term efforts to forge cooperation with China on North Korea foundered in part because the United States and China were talking past each other on North Korea. China's focus on peninsular stability was a function of a geostrategic view of the peninsula as a zero-sum competition for influence between China and the United States, while Washington talked denuclearization without sufficient attention to China's geostrategic concerns. President-elect Park Geun-hye has stressed the importance of strong Sino-U.S. cooperation, wants to stabilize inter-Korean relations, and has advocated establishing a China-U.S.-ROK dialogue. Embracing this approach would provide an improved basis for forging trilateral cooperation measures designed to help North Korea, rather than allowing divisions for North Korea to exploit. 4) Encourage More North Koreans to Experience Reality Outside the Country North Korea's publicly stated terms for negotiation of a new relationship with the United States are unrealistic. Denuclearization will remain an essential precondition for normalization of U.S.-DPRK relations. But this does not mean that North Koreans should be blocked from participating in non-governmental cultural and educational exchanges in the United States or with other countries. In fact, the United States should facilitate opportunities for such exchange with the hope that North Korean educational experiences will sow the seeds of North Korea's transformation and build confidence between the two peoples. It also means continued advocacy for international measures to hold North Korea to account for its atrocious human rights record, which fails to meet minimally acceptable international standards. Ultimately, the impetus for breaking the impasse in U.S.-DPRK relations and achieving North Korea's regional integration will likely come not from governments, but from the North Korean people themselves. |
| Chinese Graduates Say No Thanks to Factory Jobs Posted: 25 Jan 2013 10:52 AM PST China now produces eight million new college graduates each year, four times as many as ten years ago. The job market, however, has not adjusted accordingly. While the graduate glut sharpens competition for white collar jobs even as it drives down wages, the educated unemployed are put off plentiful factory jobs by heightened expectations, lack of prestige, and fear of damage to long-term career prospects. The resulting frustration may prove a long-term challenge to social stability, writes Keith Bradsher at The New York Times:
See more about China's "ant tribe" of un- or underemployed graduates via CDT. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| John Kerry Calls for Stronger Partnership with China Posted: 25 Jan 2013 09:48 AM PST At his Senate confirmation hearings, John Kerry, who is expected to be confirmed as U.S. Secretary of State, outlined his expectations for the U.S.-China relationship, acknowledging that while problems persist, he hopes to see more cooperation on a number of global issues. From UPI:
Kerry also noted China's role in Africa as an area where the U.S. needs to step up efforts to compete. From the same article:
The Chinese government, for its part, responded favorably to Kerry's comments. From a Xinhua article:
Kerry's predecessor, Hillary Clinton, discussed U.S.-China relations from a business perspective in an interview with BloombergBusinessweek. Responding to a question about what leverage the U.S. has in fighting intellectual property theft by China – an issue that Kerry noted was a remaining hurdle in the relationship – Clinton said:
Read more about Hillary Clinton and U.S.-China relations, via CDT. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Redefining the Meaning of “Chinese” Posted: 25 Jan 2013 09:48 AM PST Didi Kirsten Tatlow quotes Taiwan specialist Mark Harrison's suggestions that China could learn from Taiwan in building a more inclusive Chinese identity. From the New York Times:
See more on Taiwan relations via CDT. © Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Censorship Vault: Sorry for the Trouble Posted: 25 Jan 2013 09:40 AM PST In partnership with the China Copyright and Media blog, CDT is adding the "Beijing Internet Instructions" series to the Censorship Vault. These directives were originally published on Canyu.org (Participate) and date from 2005 to 2007. According to Canyu, the directives were issued by the Beijing Municipal Network Propaganda Management Office and the State Council Internet management departments and provided to to Canyu by insiders. China Copyright and Media has not verified the source. The translations are by Rogier Creemers of China Copyright and Media.
These translated directives were first posted by Rogier Creemers on China Copyright and Media on January 25, 2013 (here). This post is the 60th in the series. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| “Waking Up From the Beijing Dream”: An Online Account of Love, Corruption, and Unwritten Rules Posted: 25 Jan 2013 08:51 AM PST  (2493™/Flickr) When Chinese news agency Xinhua announced the dismissal of Yi Junqing, head of the Communist Party's Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, the story appeared to fall neatly into a pattern of corruption exposes that followed China's 18th Party Congress, where the next generation of the country's leaders was recently chosen. It has the mistress-money-power combination that has become a hallmark of corruption with Chinese characteristics, but the story and the way it has been told set it apart. Yi was not brought down by a hidden camera or ownership of dozens of houses; his career was fated to end the day his lover, a married 34-year-old post-doctoral researcher at the bureau, posted a 120,000-word account of their affair online. Titled "Waking up from the Beijing Dream, to float or sink – a record of Yi Junqing's Nth Lover" (一朝忽觉京梦醒，半世浮沉雨打萍 ——衣俊卿小n实录), the account reads as part diary, part dime novel. It gives all the gritty and mundane details of the pair's professional and sex life over the course of their year-long affair. After the piece went viral on the Chinese internet, it was quickly removed and Chang Yan, the author and protagonist, claimed it was a work of fiction written under extreme emotional distress. Given the number of confirmable details in the piece, that explanation fell flat. Five weeks later, Bureau Chief Yi was out of a job. Media attention in both China and the West has largely focused on what the piece says about the fallen official. The juicy details are enticing, but even more revealing is the account it provides of a woman trying to navigate a male-dominated, pseudo-academic bureaucracy governed by a murky set of "unspoken rules" (潜规则). It gives outsiders a glimpse into what happens when Marxist academics gain control over a large government bureaucracy, the many perks that it has to dole out, and the game of sexual politics that may be played to win these perks.  These images, showing Ms. Chang at left and Mr. Yi at right, have been widely circulated on Chinese social media. (Via Weibo) Chang Yan's account stretches from March 2011 through December of 2012, chronicling the days from her first interview at the bureau up until publication of her expose. In the year leading up to publication, Chang and Yi allegedly slept together seventeen times, all while exchanging gifts, promises and more than a little cash. The narrative is clear, but interesting and puzzling questions surround the mechanisms and motives for the Chang and Yi's relationship. While Bureau Chief Yi appears to be in it for the predictable combination of sex and money (and maybe love), Chang's motivations are far more fluid. The relationship begins as part of Ms. Chang's efforts to ingratiate herself to the bureau and gain a coveted Beijing residence permit, or hukou, in the process. But for much of the story she appears to be blindly feeling her way through a man's world, a bureaucracy packed with older male academics and several young female post-docs hoping to make their mark on Marxist studies. Chang is by no means a novice — she admits to giving many bribes and faking documents for her post-doc university application — but she still finds herself being toyed with by men who have been playing the game for far longer. Yi and Chang first met at her interview for a post-doctoral position at the Compilation and Translation Bureau, a Party body dedicated to the Marxist theoretical foundations of government policies. Chang was hurt when Yi dismissed her proposed research topic, and she left the interview determined to win over the man, a spot at the bureau, and a Beijing hukou. That process began in June of 2011 with a 10,000 RMB (approximately US$1,600) gift from Chang designed to "test the waters." Over the summer of 2011, the once professional relationship took on a more personal tone with text messages and a gift of earrings from Yi to Chang. Over their first dinner together, Yi boasted that he wasn't the kind of teacher who would take on doctoral students for just a thirty or fifty-thousand RMB bribe. In the journal Chang writes, "At the time I thought he was a real straight-shooter. Now I can read between the lines: 30 or 50 is too little, 80 or 100,000 would do the trick." Over that same dinner Chang finds herself puzzling over the main question: "Does he want money, or me?" She didn't get her answer that night, and at a conference that summer she went up to Yi's room in an attempt to resolve the question:
Chang found herself caught up in a game with unspoken rules and no clear answer as to who was doing the refereeing. She had passed her first interview, but the process of entering the bureau and switching hukou was turning out to be far more complicated. At a bureau banquet, Chang spoke with the bureau's head of human resources, who made sure to emphasize that she still lived in the bureau-provided apartment, and without their help would not gain a position. That night, she cried while trying to figure out who was behind the threats.
Eventually a combination of sushi and sake led to the beginning of Yi and Chang's physical relationship. Still unclear of where she stood, Chang capped off their first sexual encounter by giving Yi 50,000 RMB in cash. At their second meeting, Yi riffed on the connections he had and the many bigger postings that could be in his future. It was then that Chang began to fall for the man she'd previously just been using:
But those magnanimous feelings didn't last. Within just three months of their first time together, the relationship was already descending into a tangle of love, jealousy and blackmail that ended with a strange ultimatum from Chang demanding monetary payment. Chang quickly regretted the ultimatum and took it back, but the event set in motion a 10-month unraveling that would culminate in her publishing the account. As the months passed and her hukou issue remained unresolved, she grew increasingly jealous of other women, including Yi's other female post-doctoral students. Even so, the pair's secret rendezvous continued largely as before, and in April of that year Chang even made another gift of 30,000 RMB to her lover/professor in hopes of moving things along. But by the summer of 2012, the relationship had begun to deteriorate with all the grace of an ugly high school break up. Chang continued to threaten to "make them both famous" by publicizing the affair, and eventually extorted 1 million RMB from the bureau chief. Even that act of blackmail couldn't keep apart the lovers seemingly hell-bent on career-suicide. Yi used intermediaries to try to prod Chang into returning to her university in Shanxi, but she dug in her heels. The two continued sleeping together regularly. Chang's narrative ends on August 30, 2012, but relays the following three months by posting all of the couple's thousands of text messages. The messages are often nothing more than a hard copy of the typical sidewalk temper tantrum between Chinese couples. As with most temper tantrums, Yi's attempts at appeasement only fanned the flames that would eventually devour both his and Chang's careers. In early December, 2012, Chang put the full account online, and last week Xinhua announced that Yi had been removed from his post for his "improper life style." In explaining the reasons for posting her account, Chang portrayed herself as someone wading into the dark corners of China's academic establishment:
The expose contributes much to an outsider's understanding of the intersection between China's bureaucracy and the country's ivory towers. But it's clear that Chang's motivations are in no way selfless. She writes honestly and with great self-awareness, but ultimately chooses to tell her story because she chose to play a high-stakes game with her sexuality and her identity. Unfortunately for Chang, she possessed only a vague knowledge of that game's unspoken rules, and ultimately emerged a loser. |
| Spotted on China’s Web: Who Really Changed America, Obama or the Smartphone? Posted: 25 Jan 2013 08:27 AM PST On Sina Weibo, China's major Twitter-like platform, a user with the handle "this is America" (@这里是美国) shared the below image on January 23, two days after U.S. President Barack Obama's second inauguration. The accompanying caption reads: "Who really changed America?" Obama's second inaugural did not capture the same amount of attention on China's social media that the Democratic convention or November 6 general election garnered. Nonetheless, over 2,000 users commented on the below image. Perhaps surprisingly, among those comments sampled, Blackberry received about the same number of mentions as Apple, Steve Jobs, or the iPhone. According to Reuters, Apple ranks only sixth in smartphone sales in China.  (via Weibo)
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| Presidential Inbox: U.S. Policy in Northeast Asia Posted: 25 Jan 2013 07:40 AM PST  President Obama, As you consider America's foreign policy challenges, I would urge you to pay particular attention to Northeast Asia. I believe U.S. policy will be tested in this part of Asia, and that our maritime commitments in particular will require clear and committed action. There are leadership transitions there too that deserve some of your personal engagement in building trust. Let me suggest three areas where I think significant policy attention is warranted. First, your new foreign policy team will need to embrace your Asia strategy as fully as their predecessors. Asia demands our full and long-term strategic attention and articulating the future direction of the Asia pivot will be essential to maintaining regional confidence in the United States. For those of us who care deeply about U.S. policy towards Asia, your first term Asia team could not have been better. Your second term Asia team will need to be given far deeper resources if they too are to successfully execute your Asia strategy. Strong leadership and deep Asia experience and expertise will continue to be the prerequisites for success, especially in relations with Tokyo, Seoul, and Beijing. In Northeast Asia, where tensions have risen considerably over the past year, our ability to lend our allies a steadying hand will be most needed and most appreciated. Second, Northeast Asia has undergone a broad leadership transition. New leaders in Beijing, Tokyo, Pyongyang, and soon in Seoul will mean that we will need to take time to build new relationships. I'm least optimistic about Pyongyang. Kim Jong-un seems to be committed to less cooperation rather than more, and his actions suggest little reason for optimism about change in North Korea's military ambitions. December's successful missile test, as well as his recent response to the enhanced UN sanctions, suggest we are in for a bumpy ride in 2013. On the positive side, leadership changes in Seoul and Tokyo bring in two leaders committed to their relationship with Washington, and ready to work closely with the United States on a whole range of issues, including how to cope with North Korea. Yet relations between these two close allies are strained and will take time to heal. We should do all that we can to support that process, and sustain the energy of our trilateral policy cooperation. It is the new generation of leaders in China that will deserve your most careful consideration. It is too early to tell if Xi Jinping will prove to be a good partner for the United States in Asia and beyond. But the most immediate test of his new government may be whether he proves to be a good neighbor. For many on the periphery of a rising China, these are uncertain times. Our interests on the Korean peninsula, and more recently on the territorial dispute with Japan, differ considerably from China's. On both of these issues, we must persuade Beijing that maintaining peace and stability in Northeast Asia is our common cause. If needed, Beijing must be reminded that we will defend our treaty allies from coercion and provocation, and we should be unambiguous in our commitment to the defense of Japan should Beijing escalate its island dispute with Tokyo to the level of armed conflict. Yet we must also lead the effort to develop mechanisms and institutions that will facilitate dispute resolution and confidence building in Asia. Continuing to energize the ASEAN-based institutions for multilateral problem-solving will be important. An annual meeting of defense ministers would be particularly helpful at this time. The East China Sea deserves American attention also, and we should reach out to Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo to consider crisis management practices and a regime for maritime confidence-building. There is far too much at stake for all of us not to try to de-escalate and regularize maritime interactions there. Finally, President Obama, let me turn to a relationship that anchors our Asia strategy and without which we cannot implement the rebalancing that you envision. The U.S.-Japan alliance has for half a century demonstrated the power of postwar reconciliation, and the relationship today between the American and Japanese people is strong and our shared interests abiding. We saw that in the Japanese response to 9/11 and Katrina, and you reciprocated when the need was greatest in Japan in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit on March 11. Japan today faces a rising China, a nuclear North Korea, and difficult political relations with its neighbors in South Korea and even Russia. In the face of these challenges, there are many in Japan who think it is time to change course; to reconsider Japan's postwar diplomacy and strategic choice of military self-restraint. There is, I believe, a growing perception within Japan that their postwar commitments have not been rewarded with friendship and respect, and that they continue to be punished for events that cannot today be undone. I believe the Japanese people will wisely reaffirm their postwar convictions, but U.S. policy will play a large role in shaping both the substance and the tenor of that Japanese debate. If our alliance with Japan is strong, then the concerns about today's challenges in Northeast Asia will be met carefully and calmly. Your leadership will be needed to set higher sights for this vital partnership. We must fulfill our promise to close Futenma Air Station in Okinawa, and rid our relationship of this debilitating squabble. We must encourage Japan to stand with us on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But neither of these issues should define our relationship with Tokyo. Historical reconciliation is a tremendous challenge for the peoples of Northeast Asia, and in today's changing strategic environment, nationalism can easily become corrosive. Our role cannot simply be one of strategic partner; we must also consider our own role in shaping the destiny of Northeast Asia. Your ambassador, John V. Roos, began our process of healing the wounds of World War II by commemorating the tremendous loss of life in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and in doing so, he earned the profound admiration of the Japanese people. When so many in the region today are having difficulty in finding an adequate expression of forgiveness for that terrible chapter of history, you have the opportunity to lead the way—to illuminate the path toward acknowledging the terrible costs of war. Northeast Asia continues to require your close attention, Mr. President. The last several years have demonstrated that some of our most important alliance commitments are coming under strain as a dynamic shift in the regional balance of power is fostering anxious nationalisms. Your Asia policy team will need to be steady and creative; will need to be bold and subtle; and, most of all will need to know how to work comfortably within this new and emerging Asia |
| Posted: 25 Jan 2013 06:39 AM PST Chinese author Mo Yan shot to international fame when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in October 2012, and his success was wildly celebrated in his home country. No doubt many harbor hopes that Mo Yan can inspire a new generation of young writers in China. Before they can be inspired by Mo Yan, however, they might need to learn who he is first. In photos of an elementary school quiz posted on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, children were asked to identify a picture of Mo Yan and write down their thoughts. Here are what some fifth graders in Nanjing came up with: "This man seems conceited because he looks at people sideways. It seems that he looks down on others. We cannot be like that, because that would cause failure." "He is Zhou Libo [a stand-up comedian]. He is quite a talker and is pretty funny. He is beloved by the people." "He is Zhao Benshan [a skit comedian]. I want to tell him that I am quite impressed with your skills, but I feel sorry that you withdrew from the CCTV's Chinese New Year Gala." "He is a human being."
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| China’s Patent Game for Clean-Energy Cars Posted: 25 Jan 2013 12:06 AM PST With over 2000 patents for alternative-energy cars filed last year, China is biting into the market for clean transportation. From Jeff Spross at Think Progress:
See more on green technology via CDT. © Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Photo: The Waiting Merchant, by Mr Paz Posted: 25 Jan 2013 12:05 AM PST
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| Survey: Manufacturing Growth Highest in Two Years Posted: 25 Jan 2013 12:00 AM PST China's factory sector growth reached a two-year high in January, according to a preliminary survey released on Thursday, as the economy continues to demonstrate signs of a rebound. From Reuters:
The Wall Street Journal points out that HSBC's PMI reading, which focuses more on small and medium-sized private business as opposed to the SOE-focused official PMI, has been above 50 for three straight months:
Meanwhile, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the head of China's National Economic Research Institute claimed that China is in the midst of a recovery:
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