Chinese president meets visiting S. Korean counterpart [Xinhua] #RisingChina #SouthKorea

South Korea to push for progress on free trade deal – to lock front row tickets into China’s consumer boom. Annual trade between the two has grown 19% on average since 1992.

Also, see

South Korea Inc. Joins Park on China Visit to Reshape Ties (Bloomberg, June 27, 2013)

President Park Geun Hye arrived in Beijing today with the biggest-ever business delegation to join a South Korean leader’s state visit, signaling the importance she puts on China in boosting her nation’s economic fortunes.

Park will be joined by 71 executives, including Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong Koo, as her nation turns to its biggest trading partner and the world’s second biggest economy to spur growth that fell in 2012 to the slowest pace since 2009.

The four-day visit is a chance for Park, elected to a single five-year term in December, to pin down a free-trade deal as conglomerates such as Hyundai and Samsung Group (005930) look to tap China’s growing consumer class. Expanding trade ties may be crucial for Park to deliver on promises to boost employment to 70 percent by 2017 from 64.2 percent. Bloomberg

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Chinese president meets visiting S. Korean counterpart
Edited by Chen Zhi
Source – Xinhua, published June 27, 2013

Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) holds a welcoming ceremony for visiting South Korean President Park Geun-hye before their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 27, 2013. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with South Korean President Park Geun-hye after their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 27, 2013. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

Chinese President Xi Jinping (C) and South Korean President Park Geun-hye (R, front) meet with youth delegates from both countries after their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 27, 2013. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, Government & Policy, Ideology, Influence, International Relations, New Leadership, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, South Korea, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Xi Jinping, xinhua

3 Daily Chinese Headlines on Rising China [WanderingChina05042013] #RisingChina

3 Daily Headlines on Rising China:

From abroad
#1 Skepticism of China’s rhetoric and intent on global leadership. Source – Slate

Domestic
#2 Bird flu becoming a threat in China, transparency promised. Source – China Daily

Picture paints a thousand words
#3 Photo – to counter all the negative press, a stunning image of a terraced paddy field in SW China – ancient harmony Source – Xinhua/Global Times

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#1 China’s Empty Dreams
If Beijing wants to be taken seriously as a global leader, it needs to begin to deal with the nightmare that is North Korea.
By Anne Applebaum|

Source – Slate, published April 3, 2013, at 7:11 PM

Which is all fair enough: China is a large and rapidly growing economic power. It’s only natural that China should begin to play an important international role. But if that’s what Beijing wants, why doesn’t it seize the opportunity? The Chinese could begin to play a valuable and prominent international role right now, one that would win their government friends and admirers and might even, over time, reduce the U.S. military presence in North Asia by eliminating one of the region’s most serious potential conflicts: Starting today, the Chinese could put an end to the grotesque farce that is the North Korean regime and, together with the United States, usher in the reunification of the Korean peninsula.

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#2 Transparency promised in fight against virus
by Wang Qian
Source – China Daily, published April 5, 2013

14 cases confirmed, five die from new strain of bird flu

China’s health authorities have promised transparency and pledged to mobilize resources nationwide to combat a new strain of deadly bird flu that has killed five people.

By Thursday night, the country’s total number of confirmed bird flu cases increased to 14 – four in Jiangsu, six in Shanghai, one in Anhui and three in Zhejiang. One of the latest victims was a 48-year-old man from Jiangsu province, who transported poultry for a living. He died of H7N9 bird flu in Shanghai on Thursday.

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#3 Paddy fields under golden sunlight in SW China
Xinhua
Source – Global Times, published April 5, 2013

Source – Global Times

This bird eye view shows paddy fields in golden sunlight at Jiangping Village of Wuzhuan Town in Donglan County, southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on April 4, 2013. (Xinhua/Zhou En’ge)

Filed under: 3Daily, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Culture, Domestic Growth, Government & Policy, Hard Power, Health, History, Infrastructure, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Modernisation, New Leadership, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Reform, Soft Power, South Korea, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities

Who owns America? Hint: It’s not China [CNN]

Useful to have some perspective; that China owns most of America’s debt is something bandied about regularly in the media, and in the study of international relations. So it seems that China’s $1.16 trillion held constitutes 8 percent. In comparison, US households hold $959.4 billion, at 6.6 percent. Also, check out Business Insider’s slideshow – The TRUTH About Who Really Owns All Of America’s Debt

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Who owns America? Hint: It’s not China
Source – CNN Global Public Square, July 21, 2011

Editor’s Note: The following piece comes from Global Post, which provides excellent coverage of world news – important, moving and odd.

By Tom Mucha, Global Post

Truth is elusive.  But it’s a good thing we have math.

Our friends at Business Insider know this, and put those two principles to work today in this excellent and highly informative little slideshow, made even more timely by the ongoing talks in Washington, D.C. aimed at staving off a U.S. debt default.

Here’s the big idea:

Many people — politicians and pundits alike — prattle on that China and, to a lesser extent Japan, own most of America’s $14.3 trillion in government debt.

But there’s one little problem with that conventional wisdom: it’s just not true. While the Chinese, Japanese and plenty of other foreigners own substantial amounts, it’s really Americans who hold most of America’s debt.

Here’s a quick and fascinating breakdown by total amount held and percentage of total U.S. debt, according to Business Insider:

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Communications, Domestic Growth, Economics, Education, Finance, Government & Policy, Influence, International Relations, Media, Nationalism, Politics, Public Diplomacy, South Korea, Strategy, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade, U.S.

IBM accused of bribery in China, South Korea [The Register]

Check out the official complaint here at the SEC website.

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IBM accused of bribery in China, South Korea
SEC says thanks for $10m fine
By Timothy Prickett Morgan
Source – The Register, published March 18, 2011

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against IBM, alleging that the company paid bribes to government officials in China and South Korea to secure deals for the sale of mainframe and PCs among different government agencies.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Big Blue violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, the same act that ensnared Sun Microsystems in May 2009 and Hewlett-Packard in September 2010.

The FCPA, which you can learn about from Department of Justicehere, was passed by the US Congress and signed into law more than three decades ago after more than 400 companies admitted that they had paid over $300m in bribes to foreign government officials, politicians, and political parties in the mid-1970s to win deals. The law has been updated twice – in 1988 and again 1998 – and is enforced by the DoJ with the SEC doing the investigating.

Filed under: 52 Unacceptable Practices, Chinese Model, Corruption, Economics, Finance, South Korea, The Register

Wikileaks cables reveal China ‘ready to abandon North Korea’ [Guardian]

Wikileaks manages to shed some light on the contingency plans in case the two Koreas situation gets out of hand. An unstable Korea will surely disrupt East Asian stability, and that in turn will affect the intertwining global production networks. What can be deduced from this report is that China does not necessarily side with North Korea, their commitment is not to a faction, but to regional stability.

China’s objectives were “to ensure they [North Korean leaders] honour their commitments on non-proliferation, maintain stability, and ‘don’t drive [Kim Jong-il] mad’.”

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Wikileaks cables reveal China ‘ready to abandon North Korea’
Leaked dispatches show Beijing is frustrated with military actions of ‘spoiled child’ and increasingly favours reunified Korea
by Simon Tisdall
Source – Guardian, published November 29, 2010

South Korean war veterans protest after North Korea attacked Yeonpyeong Island. The WikiLeaks cables reveal Beijing believes such actions are those of a ‘spoiled child’. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

China has signalled its readiness to accept Korean reunification and is privately distancing itself from the North Korean regime, according to leaked US embassy cables that reveal senior Beijing figures regard their official ally as a “spoiled child”.

News of the Chinese shift comes at a crucial juncture after the North’s artillery bombardment of a South Korean island last week that killed four people and led both sides to threaten war. China has refused to condemn the North Korean action. But today Beijing appeared to bow to US pressure to help bring about a diplomatic solution, calling for “emergency consultations” and inviting a senior North Korean official to Beijing.

China is sharply critical of US pressure tactics towards North Korea and wants a resumption of the six-party nuclear disarmament talks. But the Guardian can reveal Beijing’s frustration with Pyongyang has grown since its missile and nuclear tests last year, worries about the economic impact of regional instability, and fears that the death of the dictator, Kim Jong-il, could spark a succession struggle.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Guardian, Influence, International Relations, North Korea, Politics, Public Diplomacy, South Korea, Wikileaks

War games start, China proposes meeting [Straits Times]

War games start, China proposes meeting
ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS, XINHUA
Source – Straits Times, published November 29, 2010

YEONPYEONG ISLAND (SOUTH KOREA): China tried yesterday to defuse tension over a recent North Korean attack on South Korea by proposing an emergency meeting in Beijing, just hours after the United States and South Korea launched naval war games in a united show of force.

Beijing’s top nuclear envoy called for the meeting among the six nations involved in the stalled North Korean nuclear disarmament talks to calm tempers over the North’s artillery barrage last Tuesday that killed four people on the South’s Yeonpyeong Island.

Nuclear envoy Wu Dawei said in a statement issued in Beijing that the international community, particularly members of the six-party talks – the two Koreas, Japan, the US, China and Russia – were deeply concerned about recent developments. He called for an emergency meeting of chief nuclear negotiators in China early next month.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, International Relations, military, North Korea, Politics, South Korea, Straits Times

Korea tensions soar as deadly attack launched [The Age]

‘Zhang Liangui, a North Korea expert at Beijing’s Central Party School, told The Age that Kim Jong-un, 26-year-old son of dictator Kim Jong-il and his anointed successor, was deliberately destabilising his environment to mobilise the military and consolidate his power. There have been previous skirmishes along the border but the stakes are getting higher.’ The US have stated they will stand firmly by South Korea, whilst China, North Korea’s only ally, is urging peace. Could it be that North Korea’s new regime pays little heed to China’s desire for a stable region?

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Korea tensions soar as deadly attack launched
John Garnaut, Beijing
Source – The Age, published November 24, 2010

Smoke billows from Yeonpyeong island near the border with North Korea. Photo: AP

NORTH Korea’s young dictator-in-waiting has burnished his leadership credentials by launching a deadly artillery raid on South Korean territory, causing Seoul to scramble F16 jet fighters and return fire.

Two South Korean marines were killed and at least 15 people were wounded as shells rained down on Yeonpyeong island, off the north-west coast of South Korea.

Hundreds of terrified residents huddled in bunkers or fled by boat as buildings and trees went up in flames and smoke billowed above the island.

Filed under: Influence, International Relations, military, North Korea, Politics, Sinking of South Korean Warship Cheonan 2010, South Korea, The Age