Tiger Talk: North Korea – war or peace? 一虎一席谈: 朝鲜半岛 战争还是和平 [Phoenix Television 凤凰网 / Youtube] #RisingChina #NorthKorea #TVCurrentAffairs

A dynamic current affairs programe on Phoenix TV features panelists with competing views of analysis  in discourse over the threat of North Korea on April 27, 2013.

In Mandarin with Chinese subtitles. Running time: 48 minutes.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Culture, Hard Power, Influence, International Relations, Media, military, New Leadership, North Korea, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Social, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Youtube

Is Kim Jong Un in control? [CNN GPS] #ChinaNorthKoreaUS

Combined the US and China could put a quick end to this latest run of gun blazing in the Korean Peninsula. The longer these world leaders dally divided, the more room for North Korea to miscalculate.

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Is Kim Jong Un in control?
By Jason Miks
Source – CNN GPS, 5 April, 2013

South Korean media has reported today that two medium-range missiles have been loaded onto mobile launchers along North Korea’s east coast, and that they are ready to be launched. The report comes at the end of another tense weak on the Korean Peninsula that has seen an announcement by the U.S. that it is sending missile defenses to Guam and a North Korean statement that its army has final approval for nuclear strikes against the United States.

In a Situation Room special, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer spoke with Fareed Zakaria to get his take on North Korea’s rhetoric, how serious the latest threats are, and China’s potential role in easing tensions.

Is it time to send some sort of diplomatic envoy to Pyongyang on behalf of the president of the United States?

Well, the Bush administration actually did try diplomacy. They signed two agreements with the North Koreans. Plenty of people did. The problem is that they cheat on them. They’ve cheated on every one of these.

There’s only one country with whom diplomacy would work with North Korea, and that’s China. The Chinese make up by some estimates 50 percent of North Korea’s food, and about 80 percent of its fuel. There are people in China who literally opened the taps and allowed North Korea to survive.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, CNN, Communications, Foreign aid, Government & Policy, Hard Power, Influence, International Relations, Media, military, New Leadership, North Korea, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, U.S.

[Australia FM] Carr takes aim at N Korea [The Age] #China #NorthKorea

It looks like Australia is going to leverage on North Korea’s latest incarnation of war rhetoric to flex some middle power muscle during its visit to suss out the new Chinese leadership.

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Carr takes aim at N Korea
David Wroe, Defence correspondent for The Age
Source – The Age, published April 2, 2013

Australia will urge China to clamp down on the flow of technology and equipment crossing its borders into North Korea, which could be used by the rogue nation in its nuclear weapons program.

This week Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr will try to persuade his Chinese counterpart, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, to tighten the enforcement of sanctions backed by the United Nations aimed at forcing the hermit state to abandon its goal of becoming a fully fledged nuclear power.

Amid growing fears that the nation’s increasingly aggressive stance towards its southern neighbour could spiral out of control, Senator Carr will raise the issue during a visit of an Australian delegation to China this week led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Filed under: Australia, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Communications, Foreign aid, Government & Policy, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, military, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, New Leadership, North Korea, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, Strategy, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities

Why China still supports North Korea, in six little words #WashingtonPost #China #NorthKorea

Agreed, though I believe it is much harder to contain China with North Korea in the equation. The reality of a friendly brother-in-arm in North Korea with its massive standing army  counts greatly to wider strategic stability. North Korea’s hard power serves as buffer of China’s north eastern front, especially at a time its independent foreign policy of peace prevents it from having formal alliances.

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Why China still supports North Korea, in six little words
by Max Fisher
Source – Washington Post, published February 12, 2013

Source – WashingtonPost. Then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 2001. Not much has changed. (AFP/Getty Images)

North Korea’s latest nuclear test on Tuesday is putting some strain on its all-important relationship with China, which gives its angry little neighbor absolutely essential support: everything from money to energy to diplomatic cover at the United Nations.

But why does China bother to prop up North Korea, anyway? The pariah state is a diplomatic and economic liability, an albatross around China’s neck as it tries to shape itself into a responsible global power.

There a number of reasons, some of them rational and some not, but China’s strategy boils down to these oft-repeated, six little words:

No war, no instability, no nukes.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Hard Power, Influence, International Relations, military, New Leadership, North Korea, Peaceful Development, Politics, Soft Power, Strategy, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities

WanderingChina’s Daily China Brief – February 13, 2013

Greetings readers – Here’s a daily selection of headlines on China worth taking note of.

Forbes talks up China’s intention of upping the ante on geothermal to kick the coal habit. 2012 saw China surpassing the US as the biggest trading nation on the planet by $0.05 trillion according to Bloomberg. The Daily Sheeple then provides an interesting analysis of this turning point in global trade not covered by mainstream media.China Daily/Xinhua repeats China’s resolve to ‘firmly’ oppose North Korea’s nuclear tests and the US National Intelligence Estimate establishes China as the US’s number 1 cyber threat.

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Is China Slowly Giving Up On Coal? (Forbes)

The Beijing skyline is pretty, when you can see it. Take a breathe of that fresh Shanghai air? No thank you.  Poor air quality in China has the locals up in arms, and the government might actually be listening.

China is aiming to produce natural gas of around 50 million tons of coal equivalent (TCE) annually by 2020, a government guideline issued last week from the Ministry of Land and Resources and the National Energy Administration said.

By 2015, geothermal energy shall supply power of 20 million tons of TCE annually as China tries desperately — if not haphazardly — to kick its coal habit.

China Eclipses U.S. as Biggest Trading Nation (Bloomberg)

China surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s biggest trading nation last year as measured by the sum of exports and imports of goods, official figures from both countries show.

U.S. exports and imports of goods last year totaled $3.82 trillion, the U.S. Commerce Department said last week. China’s customs administration reported last month that the country’s trade in goods in 2012 amounted to $3.87 trillion.

 China’s growing influence in global commerce threatens to disrupt regional trading blocs as it becomes the most important commercial partner for some countries. Germany may export twice as much to China by the end of the decade as it does to France, estimated Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Jim O’Neill.

This Is It!: China Surpasses U.S. As Number One Global Trading Power (The Daily Sheeple)

Back in 2008, at the onset of the derivatives and credit collapse, I wrote several economic editorials discussing what I saw as the single most vital trend in the global fiscal system, and how it would cause a disastrous upheaval that would leave the U.S. and the dollar financially sunk. This trend, which seemed to take serious root in 2005, was the massive shift by China from an export dependent source of cheap manufacturing and labor, into a moderate exporter, and consumer hub, and currency powerhouse. In my view at the time, the evidence suggested that China was positioning itself to decouple from its dependence on U.S. markets and the dollar. I was, of course, attacked as a “doom monger” and “conspiracy theorist”. Five years later, the critics have changed their tune…

For the past decade, China has been slowly but surely issuing Yuan denominated bonds and securities around the globe, while simultaneously forming bilateral trade agreements with multiple nations and cutting out the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency. This process has gone mostly ignored by the mainstream financial media. However, I and many other independent analysts could not overlook the red flags. I tried to summarize as much of the situation and facts as I could in my article ‘How The U.S. Dollar Will Be Replaced’, which was published in May of last year:

http://www.alt-market.com/articles/784-how-the-us-dollar-will-be-replaced

The biggest question for me was, if China is one of the largest holders of Forex reserves on the planet, and had the largest savings of any nation, WHY did they feel the need or desire in 2005 to begin issuing Yuan denominated debt? Why begin borrowing capital from foreign creditors? They certainly didn’t need the money. Why were they moving away from export dependency and building a consumer base? And why attempt to proliferate their currency? Wouldn’t the pursuit of global Yuan circulation lead to an eventual increase in valuation? Didn’t the Chinese want their currency cheap so that they could maintain export superiority? What did the Chinese know in 2005 that we didn’t?

 China ‘firmly’ opposes DPRK’s nuclear test (China Daily)

BEIJING, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) — China “firmly” opposes the latest nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), according to a statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

“On Feb. 12, 2013, the DPRK conducted another nuclear test in disregard of the common opposition of the international community,” said the statement, adding that “the Chinese government is firmly opposed to this act.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also summoned DPRK ambassador to China Ji Jae Ryong later on Tuesday to lodge a solemn representation.

China Is America’s #1 Cyber Threat: U.S. Govt. Report (Yahoo Finance)

A new report by the National Intelligence Estimate confirms that China is America’s biggest cyber threat.

The report is classified, but people with knowledge of the findings spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity.

“The United States is the target of a massive, sustained cyber-espionage campaign that is threatening the country’s economic competitiveness,” according to the article. “The report, which represents the consensus view of the U.S. intelligence community, describes a wide range of sectors that have been the focus of hacking over the past five years, including energy, finance, information technology, aerospace and automotive.”

Filed under: Daily China Brief, Economics, Environment, North Korea

Dangerously outside the missile defence loop [Straits Times] #China #NorthKorea

Strategic posturing: why would China muzzle the guard at its eastern gate? Will it further trigger a a loop of proxy containment?

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Dangerously outside the missile defence loop
By Jonathan Eyal, Europe Correspondent
Source – Straits Times, published Dec 17, 2012

CHINA has rejected the international clamour to slap fresh sanctions on North Korea in response to that country’s launch of a long-range rocket last week. Beijing’s main argument is that the launch was “regrettable” but doing anything about it won’t be “prudent”.

China’s prevarication will triumph, if only because neither the United States nor Washington’s Asian allies have any interest in clashing with Beijing over the matter. But that does not mean that the US is paralysed. For every additional North Korean defiance of international law and non-proliferation agreements provides another impetus to a gigantic US-led effort in building missile defence systems. And the main losers from this unfolding technological arms race will be both North Korea and China.

The dream of creating a shield capable of making a country impregnable to enemy missile attacks is almost as old as the rocket industry itself. In common with all military developments, the moment a new capability emerges everyone gets to work on an antidote. During the 1960s, the Soviet Union probably held a lead in missile defence efforts. But by the 1970s, the advantage swung decisively to the US and has remained so ever since.

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Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Government & Policy, Greater China, History, Influence, International Relations, Media, military, New Leadership, North Korea, Peaceful Development, Politics, Russia, Soft Power, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, U.S., China's Rise

China anger as Japan buys island & signs US missile defence deal [Russia Today]

Perspective of Sino-Japanese tension from China’s northern neighbours with a view from Japan-based James Corbett, editor of the Corbett Report website as US missile defence deal is signed – in name to watch over North Korea…

Latest update
China’s ‘unleashing’ of its fishing boats toward the area by lifting a moratorium. Diaoyu Islands fish are Chinese (Global Times, September 27, 2012)

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China anger as Japan buys island & signs US missile defence deal
Source – Russia Times on Youtube, published September 17, 2012

Anti-Japanese protests have swept China, as the volatile dispute over who owns a series of islands escalates. The fallout over the archipelago dispute has been widening between Tokyo and Beijing since Japan decided to bypass China and buy the territories from private investors. This comes as Washington and Tokyo agreed to put a second anti-missile defence radar in Japan, claiming it’ll be focused on deterring North Korean aggression. But James Corbett, editor of the Corbett Report website who lives in Japan thinks the system will be deployed for all the wrong reasons.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Diaoyu Fishing Boat Incident 2010, East China Sea, Government & Policy, Influence, International Relations, japan, Mapping Feelings, Media, military, Nationalism, North Korea, Peaceful Development, Politics, Russia, Soft Power, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), Territorial Disputes, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, U.S., China's Rise, Defense, East China Sea, International Relations, Japan, Public Diplomacy, Strategy, Territorial Disputes, U.S.

[North-Korea] Dealing with comrades [Global Times]

The China-North Korea Friendship Bridge, first constructed by the Japanese between 1937 and 1943 has seen trade traffic increase from 50 to 500 trucks in a decade.

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Dealing with comrades
by Feng Shu
Source – Global Times, published August 29, 2012

The China-North Korea Friendship Bridge crosses the Yalu River, linking Dandong, Northeast China’s Liaoning Province, and North Korea’s second largest city, Sinuiju. Nearly 80 percent of all bilateral trade goes through Dandong. Photo: CFP

As the only entry point into the North Korean Rason free-trade zone, the 560-meter-long bridge linking Quanhe port, Hunchun in Jilin Province, to the port of Won Jing Ri in North Korea is packed every day.

From North Korea, many trucks fully loaded with seafood, clothes and minerals drive into China while traders take food, oil and other daily necessities the other way to meet Korean needs.

“This country is more open to China today. Ten years ago, only around 50 trucks were allowed to go across the border a day. Ten times more cross daily now,” said Ji Huiqin, chairman of Yunda Knitwear Clothing Co., who started to do business in Rason in 2004.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Communications, Domestic Growth, Economics, Foreign aid, global times, Influence, International Relations, North Korea, Peaceful Development, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, Strategy, Trade, China's Rise, Economics, International Relations, North Korea, Trade

China calls for calm after launch [Global Times]

Global Times: Issuing an appropriate response after North Korea’s failed ‘weather forecast’ Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite launch (understood elsewhere to be a veiled ballistic missile test).

China seems to be leading calls for international diplomatic efforts to keep the calm with resumption of Six-Party talks demonstrating rather incredible self-restraint themselves to tolerate such launches fired regularly in their own backyard. What more – this time to mark leadership legitimacy of the latest Kim in power.

For background, see Inside Multilateralism: The Six-Party talks by John Park (2005)

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China calls for calm after launch
By Yang Jingjie
Source – Global Times, April 14, 2012

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (right) claps as he attends the unveiling ceremony of two statues of former leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang on Friday. North Korea's new leader on Friday led a mass rally for his late father and grandfather following the country's failed rocket launch. Kim Jong-un was also elected first chairman of the National Defense Commission Friday. Photo: AFP

China has urged all concerned parties to remain calm and demonstrate restraint over the failed satellite launch by North Korea early on Friday, calling for the resumption of the Six-Party Talks.

KCNA, North Korea’s official news agency, reported that the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite was launched at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in the country’s northwest region at 7:38 am local time on Friday.

“The earth observation satellite failed to enter its preset orbit. Scientists, technicians and experts are now looking into the cause of the failure,” said the KCNA report.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Culture, Foreign aid, global times, Government & Policy, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, North Korea, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, Strategy, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities

China again calls for [North Korea] launch restraint [China Daily]

China Daily: China doing its part as international stakeholder renewing calls for North Korean restraint on brinksmanship. That said, leadership legitimacy for North Korean leaders seem to revolve around both show of force and lineage. It has happened before and it will happen again; except the difference this time is the rare media exposure of a press conference by DPRK’s Committee for Space Technology.

“Through opening to the foreign media, Pyongyang also wants to reduce the risk of escalating tension brought by the launch,” Wang Junsheng, expert of Northeast Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, referring to increased Pyongyang’s openness to the outside world since Kim Jong-un’s ascension.

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China again calls for launch restraint
By Zhao Shengnan
Source – China Daily, published April 11, 2012

DPRK rejects accusations that satellite mission is act of aggression

China renewed its call for restraint on Tuesday as Pyongyang said, in a rare news briefing for foreign journalists, that its planned rocket launch is not an act of aggression.

Experts said that Pyongyang’s unprecedented media openness reflects its intent to play down tension and engage more with the international community.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, China Daily, Government & Policy, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, North Korea, Peaceful Development, Politics, Soft Power, Strategy