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• How China Sees America
• Photo: View of downtown Shanghai from the Shanghai World Financial Center, by Remko Tanis
• Is Apple’s Popularity Waning in China?
• Angola Deports Chinese “Gangsters”
• GDP, Infrastructure, Train Crashes and Tofu Bridges

How China Sees America Posted: 26 Aug 2012 10:27 PM PDT In a lengthy article in Foreign Policy (reposted by China U.S. Focus), Andrew J. Nathan of Columbia University and Andrew Scobell of RAND, give an in-depth look at the current U.S.-China relationship by examining how Beijing views the world and in particular the U.S. The article also presents an alternative for the future where both countries, "create a new equilibrium of power that maintains the current world system, but with a larger role for China." In explaining Beijing's perspective of the U.S., Nathan and Scobell write: First, Chinese analysts see their country as heir to an agrarian, eastern strategic tradition that is pacifistic, defense-minded, nonexpansionist, and ethical. In contrast, they see Western strategic culture — especially that of the United States — as militaristic, offense-minded, expansionist, and selfish. Second, although China has embraced state capitalism with vigor, the Chinese view of the United States is still informed by Marxist political thought, which posits that capitalist powers seek to exploit the rest of the world. China expects Western powers to resist Chinese competition for resources and higher-value-added markets. And although China runs trade surpluses with the United States and holds a large amount of U.S. debt, China's leading political analysts believe the Americans get the better end of the deal by using cheap Chinese labor and credit to live beyond their means. Third, American theories of international relations have become popular among younger Chinese policy analysts, many of whom have earned advanced degrees in the United States. The most influential body of international relations theory in China is so-called offensive realism, which holds that a country will try to control its security environment to the full extent that its capabilities permit. According to this theory, the United States cannot be satisfied with the existence of a powerful China and therefore seeks to make the ruling regime there weaker and more pro-American. Chinese analysts see evidence of this intent in Washington's calls for democracy and its support for what China sees as separatist movements in Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang. Whether they see the United States primarily through a culturalist, Marxist, or realist lens, most Chinese strategists assume that a country as powerful as the United States will use its power to preserve and enhance its privileges and will treat efforts by other countries to protect their interests as threats to its own security. This assumption leads to a pessimistic conclusion: as China rises, the United States will resist. The United States uses soothing words; casts its actions as a search for peace, human rights, and a level playing field; and sometimes offers China genuine assistance. But the United States is two-faced. It intends to remain the global hegemon and prevent China from growing strong enough to challenge it. Also watch a video interview with Nathan about the article, which is excerpted from a new book, "China's Search for Security": For other views on U.S.-China relations, see a Reuters column by Mark Leonard, "The great Sino-American divorce," and an op-ed in the New York TImes by Peter Hays Gries, "Why China Resents Japan, and Us." Read more on the bilateral relationship via CDT. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Andrew Nathan, economic growth, U.S. relations Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Photo: View of downtown Shanghai from the Shanghai World Financial Center, by Remko Tanis Posted: 26 Aug 2012 09:54 PM PDT View of downtown Shanghai from the Shanghai World Financial Center © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Is Apple’s Popularity Waning in China? Posted: 26 Aug 2012 07:58 PM PDT Reuters reported Friday that Apple's share of China's smartphone market almost halved in the second quarter: For the first time, smartphone shipments in China overtook feature phones in the second quarter, with local brands Lenovo Group Ltd and ZTE Corp pushing Apple to fourth place from second, the IDC data showed. Total April-June smartphone shipments rose to 44 million, accounting for 51 percent of China's total mobile shipments of 87 million, IDC said. "There are two things in play," said IDC analyst TZ Wong, referring to Apple's drop in ranking and market share. "One is seasonal, people know the new phone is coming. And the second is that the alternatives are becoming much more attractive than a year ago. The iPhone didn't change much over the year." For The Financial Times' beyondbrics blog, Zhao Tianqi and Kathrin Hille ask why Apple isn't as cool as it used to be in China: One reason Apple is falling behind is Chinese telecoms operators' reluctance to subsidise the iPhone enough to make it competitive. While this affects all makers, Apple is especially exposed because its smartphone is the most expensive. Another headache has been Apple's reluctance to customize the device for TD-SCDMA, the Chinese homegrown 3G standard used by China Mobile, and thus making itself unattractive to subscribers of the world's largest mobile operator. That problem could go away when the iPhone 5 is launched later this year. The device is expected to come with a Qualcomm chip that is TD-compatible. But there are other disadvantages. With a screen expected to measure 4 inches, the iPhone 5 is no longer cutting edge. "That would still be smaller than many of its Chinese competitors, which have 4.3-inch or 4.7-inch screens," says Wang. See also recent CDT coverage of Apple's slowing growth in China. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Apple, consumer electronics, domestic demand, Lenovo, telecommunications, ZTE Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Angola Deports Chinese “Gangsters” Posted: 26 Aug 2012 04:49 PM PDT The BBC reports on the extradition of Chinese nationals who have been making an illicit living in Angola: Angola has extradited 37 Chinese nationals, accused of extortion, kidnappings, armed robberies and running prostitution rings. They allegedly targeted other Chinese, kidnapping businessmen for ransom and sometimes burying victims alive. They lured women to Angola, promising well-paid jobs, but then forced them into prostitution, Chinese police said. Tens of thousands of Chinese live in Angola, and Chinese state-run firms have large interests in the country. As noted above, most of the victims were law-abiding Chinese nationals seeking a livelihood in Angola. AP reports on the experiences of some of those targeted: To protect themselves, Chinese businessmen in Angola hired bodyguards, purchased bullet-proof vehicles, built homes that were difficult to access and disguised themselves when they went out, the article said. The news site said there were 14 kidnapping cases in 2011 and five people died. Out of fear, many Chinese businesses closed down in the country's capital of Luanda and elsewhere, it said. [...]Another China Police article described the experience of two Chinese women lured to Angola with the promise of well-paying jobs in a Chinese restaurant there. Once in Angola, they were forced into prostitution, the article said. The Telegraph describes the Chinese task force assigned to deal with these "gangsters": In April this year Angolan and Chinese authorities signed an agreement to reinforce their battle against the criminals following a plea for help from China's Embassy in Luanda. Then, in July, a Chinese police task force reportedly arrived in Angola to crack down on 12 Chinese gangs and rescue 14 "victims" many of whom had been forced into prostitution. In early August 400 Chinese and Angola launched a series of raids on their targets, making 37 arrests. Twenty-four "accomplices" were arrested in the Chinese provinces of Fujian and Anhui, Xinhua reported. © josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Africa relations, angola, gangsters, organized crime Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

GDP, Infrastructure, Train Crashes and Tofu Bridges Posted: 26 Aug 2012 04:03 PM PDT Earlier this month, Foreign Policy compiled a list of the 75 cities projected to be the "world's most dynamic" by 2025, according to per-capita GDP growth. The list, which is based on a McKinsey Global Institute database of 2,065 cities, is dominated by China's rapidly changing urban landscapes, as an accompanying FP brief explains: [...]Over the next 15 years, the urban world's center of gravity will move farther south and, even more decisively, east. Which is why we've put together this unique index of The Most Dynamic Cities of 2025, some 40 percent of which are in just one country: China. Many are places you've never heard of, from Fuzhou to Wuhan, and speak to the massive transformation of a country that looks to lead the 21st century's urban revolution as much as the United States reinvented the metropolis for the 20th. The West will not be quite eclipsed by 2025 — 13 U.S. cities make the list, though only three in Europe — but the sun is indeed setting.[...] By 2025, 99 new cities are expected to enter the top 600, all from the developing world and overwhelmingly — 72 new cities — from China.[...] [...]Barring some unforeseen disaster, the future of the world's cities will largely be written in Chinese. In a more recent FP article, James Traub reflects on the list described above, to see if China really is "eclipsing the West". He looks closely at one indicator of growth in China: its massive development of infrastructure: China's growth has been investment-driven rather than consumer-driven, as in much of the West. That investment, above all, takes the form of the astonishing building and infrastructure projects that have propelled the growth of China's cities — bullet trains, highways, ports, and giant manufacturing complexes. Local governments issue the debt for these projects, which now stands at a stupefying 10.7 trillion yuan ($1.58 trillion). The city of Tianjin — number three on the McKinsey list, behind Shanghai and Beijing — recently announced plans to invest another $236 billion in industrial development over the next four years. If enough of these speculative investments fail, city and regional governments could face unsustainable debt. A recent Economistarticle, however, argues that those debts have never endangered "the fiscal position of the country as a whole." The claim that China's economy is a house of cards may be an elaborate form of wish fulfillment. China's urban model is powerful but brutal, like China itself. Cities like Shanghai have bulldozed their past on the way to a glittering future. It's not a model to be emulated, at least in the West: Urbanites, at least in the Old World and New Old World, want to live both on the cutting edge and in the past, and great cities like New York and London and Paris let them do so. But that doesn't mean we can't learn from China. While Traub's piece claims that China's investment in infrastructure could serve as a lesson for the West, it also mentions the many pitfalls of rapid development that can be seen in China, exemplified, for example, by the 2011 train crashes in Wenzhou, or more recently by Beijing's infrastructural inability to stand up to heavy rain in parts of the city. While China's investment strategy may indeed be helping its cities dominate lists like the one compiled by FP, poor planning coupled with official corruption often creates disaster, and last week two infrastructural mishaps occured in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. AFP reports on a train accident last Thursday in Jiamusi: Two Chinese passenger trains collided Thursday leaving dozens of people injured, the official Xinhua news agency reported, in the latest accident to hit the country's rail network. At least 24 people were hurt in the collision at Jiamusi station, in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang, Xinhua said, citing a spokesman for the provincial railway bureau. The online arm of the state-run People's Daily newspaper said a train waiting at a station platform was hit from behind by another train coming from Hegang. It was not immediately clear whether the line in question was part of China's high-speed rail network, which has been plagued by accidents and accusations of poor safety standards. On Friday, a day after the Jiamusi collision, a newly opened bridge in Harbin collapsed. AFP reports: Three people were killed and five injured when an eight-lane bridge in northeast China collapsed early on Friday, only nine months after it opened, state media said. The bridge, part of an airport expressway in Harbin city, only opened last November after two years of construction that cost 1.9 billion yuan ($300 million), China News Service reported. A 100-metre (320-foot) section broke off when four heavy trucks drove onto the bridge, plunging them to the ground, said a CCTV news reporter at the scene. The bridge was designed to handle up to 9,800 vehicles per hour. Two people were killed on the spot, a third died later, and five remain in hospital. [...]Thousands of people commented on the collapse on Sina Weibo, a popular Twitter-like service, with most blaming corruption. "Just imagine, some corrupt official takes four-fifths of the project funds, that means the project manager can only make money by skimping on the job," said one user. The New York Times has more on the collapsed bridge, and on the public distrust that incidents like it provoke: According to the official Xinhua news agency, the Yangmingtan Bridge was the sixth major bridge in China to collapse since July 2011. Chinese officials have tended to blame overloaded trucks for the collapses, and did so again on Friday. Many in China have attributed the recent spate of bridge collapses to corruption, and online reaction to the latest collapse was scathing. "Corrupt officials who do not die just continue to cause disaster after disaster," said one post on Friday on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging service similar to Twitter. Another Internet user expressed hope "that the government will put heavy emphasis on this and investigate to find out the real truth, and give both the dead and the living some justice!" A third user was more laconic, remarking, "Tofu engineering work leads to a tofu bridge." Also see prior CDT coverage of China's infrastructural development, high-speed train network and the accidents that occur on its rails, collapsed bridges, "tofu construction" or corrupt officials. © josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: bridge collapse, corruption, GDP growth, high-level corruption, high-speed rail, infrastructure, infrastructure projects, tofu construction, train accidents Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

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