The choice of Gansu was foregone. During the Ming dynasty, the western borders of Imperial China ended Jiayuguan where the Great Wall also ends. Jiayuguan was also a crucial junction on the Silk Route. This is in the Gansu province of North-Western China and near the space-port city of Jiuquan. The Ming dynasty was swept off power by the Manchus from the north-east who established the Qing dynasty in the eighteenth century. The Qings feared Central Asian tribes and wanted to establish a buffer for China in the north-west. That was how Xinjinag was annexed. When the Qing dynasty collapsed in 1912, Xinjiang also separated from Chinese control into their original fractured fiefdoms centered around the cities of Urumqui, Hotan, Kashgar etc. In fact, the term ‘Uyghur’ (meaning ‘united’) itself was coined only around the 1930s.China has launched a massive $79.8 billion infrastructure project in the northwest province of Gansu which will facilitate trade and people exchanges between China and central Asia as part of its ambitious Silk Road plan.
Though the province does not share its borders with any central Asian countries, it will be an important stretch of the Silk Road Economic Belt, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.
The six-year development project will add more than 60,000 kilometres of road, including 4,070 km expressways, and improve the connectivity of the existing transportation network, it said.
The provincial authorities have not released the funding source, but officials said that local government-backed financing vehicle Gansu Provincial Highway Aviation Tourism Investment Group had invested in the project.
Road construction receives fiscal support from the central government.
The province is also expected to build 12 civilian airports in the next six years, expanding the reach of its air service to 82 per cent of the province's population, at 25.57 million in 2010.
Since the third quarter of last year, China has approved a slew of transportation projects to boost regional connectivity.
It also launched a $40 billion fund backed by the country's foreign reserves to support infrastructure building in countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.
The Silk Road projects involved a maze of roads and ports connecting Asia, Europe and Africa.
China has invited India to join President Xi Jinping's pet project that would revive the ancient trade route by building a wide network of new silk roads on land and seas to enhance global connectivity.
The projects were expected to revive China's trade links specially its sagging exports besides globally enhancing its sphere of influence.
India which has been invited to take part in the Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar (BCIM) and the Maritime Sill Road (MSR) said it will selectively back the initiative.
While India is taking part in the meetings for BCIM, it is yet to give its response on MSR.
Neutering & Defanging Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
China kicks off $79.8 billion Silk Road infrastructure project in northwest province of Gansu - PTI, Economic Times
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
It is in our interest to make sure AP is not considered disputed territory anymore to be able to draw upon resources from everywhere to develop it. It is a low hanging fruit right now, to ask PRC to formally accept it as Indian territory before going any further on trade and allowing for other PRC investments in India. We hold the land and there is no way for PRC to get an upper hand in retaking it or holding on to it considering the terrain...the very reason they did a unilateral withdrawal in 1962.KLNMurthy wrote:Why are we even talking about justifying the status of Arunachal to China?
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Whether China accepts Arunachal as Indian territory or not, we would continue to have to invest there in defense infrastructure. And we would always have to be cautious and wary about Chinese investment and trade deficit. Development resources for Arunachal would always have to be over and above defense expenditure there.Bade wrote:It is in our interest to make sure AP is not considered disputed territory anymore to be able to draw upon resources from everywhere to develop it. It is a low hanging fruit right now, to ask PRC to formally accept it as Indian territory before going any further on trade and allowing for other PRC investments in India. We hold the land and there is no way for PRC to get an upper hand in retaking it or holding on to it considering the terrain...the very reason they did a unilateral withdrawal in 1962.KLNMurthy wrote:Why are we even talking about justifying the status of Arunachal to China?
Do you perhaps think China is not capable of causing trouble there or elsewhere even if it formally accepted Arunachal 's status?
And what will you give up in exchange for this useless certificate from China about territory which we already have?
India's official policy is that not an inch of our territory will be given up. I don't understand the fascination on this forum for pointlessly negotiating away something that is already ours, and which we are strong enough to keep.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
You are assuming something which was never said. Who is talking of giving up territory, definitely not me, which they cannot take away in the first place even if they wanted to in Arunachal. If they could they would have done so by now.
I do not see anything wrong in making PRC accept formally Arunachal's status just like they did for Sikkim, before further engagement with them on trade and investments elsewhere in India.
I do not see anything wrong in making PRC accept formally Arunachal's status just like they did for Sikkim, before further engagement with them on trade and investments elsewhere in India.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Aksai chin is India's plain and simple. It was gifted illegally by the Pakistan. India should never let that claim on the table for anything. That said IMHO it is a lost cause as possession is 90% of ownership.
As for Tibet, it was a lost cause long back. Only people who bring it up are the Hollywood liberals just to show their liberal mojo. Only ROC is out of PRChinese hands and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.
As for Tibet, it was a lost cause long back. Only people who bring it up are the Hollywood liberals just to show their liberal mojo. Only ROC is out of PRChinese hands and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Aksai Chin was not gifted by Pakistan to China, China intruded into Indian territory and did not leave. It was too late by the time India noticed the occupation.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
^China had completed the road through Aksai Chin connecting Kashgar in Xinjiang with Lhatse in Tibet as early as c. 1958. Indian intelligence warned GoI of this development sufficiently early, but it was ignored until after the road was completely built. India's 'forward policy' was a result of this road.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
What was gifted was the 5300 Sq Km Shaksgam Valley by Pakistan in c. 1963. In return, China 'gifted' Pakistan with 2000 Sq Km Oprang Valley and dropped claims on an additional 1500 Sq Km of pasture used traditionally by Kashmiri shepherds.matrimc wrote:Aksai chin is India's plain and simple. It was gifted illegally by the Pakistan.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/ ... scmp_today
What kind of double stds. I am sure that all the checks will have been done before they were promoted. Now that they are caught and taken away, it might be get interesting and murkier. How long before Mr Eleven is hounded by the next round of upcoming premier and his cohorts?
What kind of double stds. I am sure that all the checks will have been done before they were promoted. Now that they are caught and taken away, it might be get interesting and murkier. How long before Mr Eleven is hounded by the next round of upcoming premier and his cohorts?
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Hoho.
http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/in-south ... dia-743991
Admiral Harry Harris Jr, whose area of responsibility extends to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, said, "The South China seas are international waters and India should be able to operate freely wherever India wants to operate. If that means the South China Sea, then get in there and do that."
http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/in-south ... dia-743991
Admiral Harry Harris Jr, whose area of responsibility extends to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, said, "The South China seas are international waters and India should be able to operate freely wherever India wants to operate. If that means the South China Sea, then get in there and do that."
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
A view on why China will continue to grow faster than India:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall ... han-india/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall ... han-india/
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Do you want some "grain"? -- http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-31723157
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Obama Attacks China for Creating US-Inspired Spying Apparatus
President Obama has harsh words for China’s proposed counterterrorism law. This despite the fact that the new rules are modeled largely on the US regulations, and more directly, on the precedent set by the NSA’s spying apparatus.
President Obama has harsh words for China’s proposed counterterrorism law. This despite the fact that the new rules are modeled largely on the US regulations, and more directly, on the precedent set by the NSA’s spying apparatus.
China released a few demands last week. If US tech companies want to do business in China – and given the market size, yes, tech companies want to do business in China – then they’ll have to place servers in China. They’ll also have to provide encryption keys, and allow the Chinese government special surveillance access into their systems.
President Obama is, understandably, a little wary. Tech companies are weary. Giving a global superpower “backdoor” access to servers used by millions of people feels a bit like Big Brother. It’s uncomfortably dystopian.
But as the Snowden documents revealed, this is exactly the kind of unfettered access enjoyed by the United States.
“This is something that I’ve raised directly with President Xi,” Obama told Reuters. “We have made it very clear to them that this is something they are going to have to change if they are to do business with the United States.”
This is a very different tune than the one sung earlier this year, when both President Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron expressed their intention to pressure tech giants into cooperating with Western intelligence agencies.
“We’re still going to have to find ways to make sure that if an al-Qaeda affiliate is operating in Great Britain or the United States that we can try to prevent real tragedy,” Obama said during a joint news conference. “And I think the companies want to see that as well. They’re patriots, they have families that they want to see protected.”
Coincidentally, this dire need for national security is the same tactic taken by the Chinese government. In calling for this counterterror law, leaders in Beijing cite the dangers posed by religious extremists in the region of Xinjiang.
“As you might imagine tech companies are not going to be willing to do that,” Obama told Reuters.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
The US cannot avoid such demands from China or India. Both these huge markets will invariably make this kind of unavoidable demand. Remember the Blackberry issue ?Austin wrote:Obama Attacks China for Creating US-Inspired Spying ApparatusChina released a few demands last week. If US tech companies want to do business in China – and given the market size, yes, tech companies want to do business in China – then they’ll have to place servers in China. They’ll also have to provide encryption keys, and allow the Chinese government special surveillance access into their systems.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Mudslides on the Karakoram Highway:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015- ... 024102.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015- ... 024102.htm
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Except that I don't know how to post photos into Google MapsKLNMurthy wrote:Eeph I may venture a gentle suggeshun from the caves of Ulan Bator:Bade wrote:The near term goals should be to make China accept Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India. Do check on Wikipedia to get the demography both by ethnic or religious groupings, there is no valid claim possible from PRC for any part of Arunachal including Tawang.
As for Manasarovar it was not officially Indian held territory, so the best is to support Tibetan autonomy from PRC as a near term goal.
Aksai Chin will take longer to resolve. What will a few decades do. Even this will have to wait for a Tibetan state to appear to weaken PRC's hold on the region. But the time will come. Borders are never permanent by any stretch...
Why are we even talking about justifying the status of Arunachal to China?
All this "getting China to do this and that" unfortunately is as misguided as "inducing Russia to heel and 'changing Putin's behavior" by slapping sanctions etc. China is a great People's Democlatic Lepubric. It has a BILLION people. About half a BILLION of those are slaves of the Pee Ell Ay, and sit on the Internet, say Google Maps, and enter photos of parts of their great land, with captions in chaste Mandarin.
So what prevents the citjens and ennarreyes of another Democlatic Lepubric from doing the same? Go visit the Arundhati Canyon in Northern Arunachal (formerly misnamed 'Tibet'). Lake Arunachalam. The Teesta Pass Between the Setalwad Twin Peaks. Mount Appu. The charming village of SalaGrama North.
Post the REAL names (NOT ones given by illiterate westerners or Chinese) there in both English and Indian languages. In Devanagari, or Malloostani or Kannada or Telugu or Gujarati script.
Remember how the Polls on See Enn Enn were won? Hard work. Vote early. Vote often. Just do it.
To paraphrase the saying on the Ziggy poster in my office:
To give you an idea of how much de-jenerashun has seeped down from the North, I wrote somewhere the Truth - that "Kanchenjunga" was just a ******** version of the real name of that glorious sight of the shining slopes: KAnchana Ganga. The River of Gold.Talking is like rockin' in a rockin' chair
It gives u something 2 do, but doesn't get u anywhere.
Someone 'corrected me' with this convoluted explanation saying that it was a Chinese word for (something - I forget).
How bad can it get? We need to do some quick revisions to the maps. As the old saying goes:
The answers are all up to me
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
BTW, if anyone wants 400% jay-new-wine fotos of those glaciers, valleys etc to post (I don't mean the Twin Peaks, sorry) pls let me know.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
OT:
UB - I thought Kanchenjunga was a corrupted speak for Kanchen-dzonga. Tibetan.
If memory serves me well, its supposed to mean Iron Fortress. And since its built like a tank, the name suits it well too. Since when did China have anything to do with that word. Seems silly and insane.
Just like right term for Darjeeling is Dorje Ling [meaning land of the thunderbolt or the Shiva temple of the thunderbolt (Dorje)] named after the Brits soldiers saw the Shiva temple in the place when they accidentally arrived there. And ended up paying 52 Rupees to the Sikkim king to enjoy the place... and the rest as they say is history.
lets move back to topic again.
UB - I thought Kanchenjunga was a corrupted speak for Kanchen-dzonga. Tibetan.
If memory serves me well, its supposed to mean Iron Fortress. And since its built like a tank, the name suits it well too. Since when did China have anything to do with that word. Seems silly and insane.
Just like right term for Darjeeling is Dorje Ling [meaning land of the thunderbolt or the Shiva temple of the thunderbolt (Dorje)] named after the Brits soldiers saw the Shiva temple in the place when they accidentally arrived there. And ended up paying 52 Rupees to the Sikkim king to enjoy the place... and the rest as they say is history.
lets move back to topic again.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
C what I mean? This evil Macaulayite ejjikashun has corrupted everyone. Who invented the name "Tibet"?UB - I thought Kanchenjunga was a corrupted speak for Kanchen-dzonga. Tibetan.
People who live there call it
because that's whereBod བོད་,
"The English word Tibet or Thibet dates back to the 18th century.[11] Historical linguists generally agree that "Tibet" names in European languages are loanwords from Semitic Ṭībat orTūbātt (طيبة، توبات) (טובּה, טובּת), itself deriving from Turkic Töbäd; literally: "The Heights" (plural of töbän).[12]"The ancient Bautai people recorded in the Egyptian Greek works Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century CE) and Geographia (Ptolemy, 2nd century CE),[8] itself from the Sanskrit form Bhauṭṭa
So there is no question of the "Tibetan" word this or that being more original thanHumans inhabited the Tibetan Plateau at least 21,000 years ago.
That was what it was called as the frozen oceans drained slowly off the peaks that rose during the massive earthquake of BCE 9,999,3043 when the Himalayas rose out of the oceans one fine day after the asteroid that created the Moon slammed into Earth.Kanchana Ganga
Q.E.D.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
He He HeUlanBatori wrote:That was what it was called as the frozen oceans drained slowly off the peaks that rose during the massive earthquake of BCE 9,999,3043 when the Himalayas rose out of the oceans one fine day after the asteroid that created the Moon slammed into Earth.Kanchana Ganga
Q.E.D.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
China needs more carriers to secure Indian Ocean routes: PLA hawk
http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subc ... 0304000097
http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subc ... 0304000097
China must continue to develop aircraft carriers to maintain the security of its Indian Ocean routes, says People's Liberation Army hawk Yin Zhuo.The 69-year-old rear admiral made the comments Monday, a day before the commencement of the annial "two sessions" of the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing.
As a member of the CPPCC National Committee, China's top political advisory body, Yin said the PLA's continued development of aircraft carriers is imperative given that neighboring countries all have ongoing carrier programs in place. South Korea is still in the planning stages, though Japan already has two carriers and India will soon have three or four, he said. China on the other hand only has one, the Lianoning, commissioned in 2012.China's seas are expansive and coupled with economic interests in distant waters, the PLA Navy's speed and power need to improve in order to catch up to those of other nations, Yin said, adding that the safety of the country's Indian Ocean routes can only be secured through more aircraft carriers.A day earlier, Yin stated that the PLA Navy requires at least six aircraft carriers to meet strategic needs. The rear admiral also shot down comparisons between President Xi Jinping's "belt and road" initiative to the Marshall Plan — the American initiative to aid European and Asian economics after World War II. Such a comparison reflects an ignorance of history, he said, noting that the Marshall Plan, rejected by the Soviets, contributed to the onset of the Cold War that lasted for more than 40 years.On the other hand, the motive behind China's Silk Road Economic Belt, a land-based belt from China via Central Asia and Russia to Europe, and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, a maritime route through the Strait of Malacca to India, the Middle East and East Africa, is strictly one of peace and economic cooperation, Yin said, adding that the project will not alter the world's current security patterns.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Now you do:UlanBatori wrote:..
... Except that I don't know how to post photos into Google Maps
https://support.google.com/plus/answer/2622947?hl=en
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
http://www.niticentral.com/2015/03/02/c ... ign=buffer
China defends docking of its submarines in Sri Lanka
China defends docking of its submarines in Sri Lanka
From K J M Varma Beijing, Mar 2 (PTI) China today strongly defended the docking of its submarines at Colombo port as well as the high interests rates charged for its loans asserting that these were done at the instance of the previous government, brushing aside concerns expressed by new Sri Lankan Foreign Minister.“We had the consent of the Sri Lanka side in advance,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters responding to Mangala Samaraweera’s comments that the new government will not permit the docking of Chinese submarines.After reports that one of the Chinese submarines docked at the Colombo port during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last year, the new Sri Lankan government said it will not permit such dockings.Two submarines – one said to be nuclear powered – docked at the Colombo port last year during Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, a move that raised concerns in India.Hua reiterated that Chinese submarines were on way to take part in the anti-piracy operations at the Gulf of Aden in Somalia through Sri Lanka and used the ports for re-supply.“These are normal and transparent activities. It also followed the international practices,” she said.“It is to my knowledge that policy of Sri Lanka side is to support the global anti-piracy campaign. It welcomes the docking of submarines from the friendly countries,” it said.Hua also defended high interest rates charged for China’s USD five billion loans to Lanka over which Samaraweera had expressed concern.“Chinese loans to Sri Lanka are at the request of the Sri Lankan side and based on the principle of mutual benefit. It is an arrangement on the consensus building. The loan arrangement serves the interest of Sri Lanka and its people,” she said.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
What is the interest rate the PRC is charging SL?
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Over 3 percent when loans are available at 1/3 rate.ramana wrote:What is the interest rate the PRC is charging SL?
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Bravo.UlanBatori wrote:Q.E.D.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
This is a veiled way of saying that China needs more aircraft carriers to deal with India. This is all about India not pirates. After all why would you need a fleet of carriers (or for that matter submarines) to deal with pirates in small boats? This may be a case of the new Great Game underway in the China Seas (East and South) expanding into the Indian Ocean. Perhaps prompted by perceptions of India and the US getting closer and India's more muscular foreign policy under the Modi Government?
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
This is a veiled way of saying that China needs more aircraft carriers to deal with India. This is all about India not pirates. After all why would you need a fleet of carriers (or for that matter submarines) to deal with pirates in small boats? This may be a case of the new Great Game underway in the China Seas (East and South) expanding into the Indian Ocean. Perhaps prompted by perceptions of India and the US getting closer and India's more muscular foreign policy under the Modi Government?Jhujar wrote:China needs more carriers to secure Indian Ocean routes: PLA hawk
http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subc ... 0304000097
China must continue to develop aircraft carriers to maintain the security of its Indian Ocean routes, says People's Liberation Army hawk Yin Zhuo.The 69-year-old rear admiral made the comments Monday, a day before the commencement of the annial "two sessions" of the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing.
As a member of the CPPCC National Committee, China's top political advisory body, Yin said the PLA's continued development of aircraft carriers is imperative given that neighboring countries all have ongoing carrier programs in place. South Korea is still in the planning stages, though Japan already has two carriers and India will soon have three or four, he said. China on the other hand only has one, the Lianoning, commissioned in 2012.China's seas are expansive and coupled with economic interests in distant waters, the PLA Navy's speed and power need to improve in order to catch up to those of other nations, Yin said, adding that the safety of the country's Indian Ocean routes can only be secured through more aircraft carriers.A day earlier, Yin stated that the PLA Navy requires at least six aircraft carriers to meet strategic needs. The rear admiral also shot down comparisons between President Xi Jinping's "belt and road" initiative to the Marshall Plan — the American initiative to aid European and Asian economics after World War II. Such a comparison reflects an ignorance of history, he said, noting that the Marshall Plan, rejected by the Soviets, contributed to the onset of the Cold War that lasted for more than 40 years.On the other hand, the motive behind China's Silk Road Economic Belt, a land-based belt from China via Central Asia and Russia to Europe, and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, a maritime route through the Strait of Malacca to India, the Middle East and East Africa, is strictly one of peace and economic cooperation, Yin said, adding that the project will not alter the world's current security patterns.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Japan, China to hold first security talks in four years - Reuters, The Hindu
Japanese and Chinese officials will hold their first security talks in four years in Tokyo later this month, Japan's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, the latest sign of a possible improvement in ties strained by a territorial dispute.
Relations between the world's second- and third-largest economies have been damaged by conflicting claims to a group of tiny East China Sea islands and the legacy of Japan's wartime occupation of its larger Asian neighbour.
Patrol ships and fighter jets from both countries have shadowed each other regularly near the uninhabited islands that are controlled by Japan, prompting fears that an accidental collision could escalate into conflict.
The security meeting, to be held on March 19, will involve top officials from the two countries' foreign and defence ministries, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The last such meeting was in January 2011 in Beijing.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for the first time in November, on the sidelines of an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, in a step forward towards repairing their ties.
The same month, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, agreed to resume the security talks that began in 1993.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
From NightWatch for the night of Mar 05, 2015
Japan: Prime Minister Abe's government is changing the higher command and control structure for Japanese forces. Under the new structure, the Minister of Defense will have a Chief of Staff of the Joint Staff. The Chief will control three organizations: the self-defense fleet, a ground defense command and an air defense command. The maritime, ground and air self-defense force staffs are merged into the new structures.
Ministry officials presented a proposal on 4 March to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's National Defense Policy Division that would establish the ground defense command by fiscal 2017.
Comment: Japanese press noted that the maritime and air self-defense commands already are unified in that assets can deploy nationwide. Under the system for the ground self-defense forces, Japan's five armies are not deployable quickly outside their assigned areas.
The ground forces lagged the technical services in establishing a modern command structure. The larger context of the latest restructuring is that Japan is transitioning to a real warfighting command and control structure.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
US Flags Threat
Ahead of the first Indo-U.S. Space Security Dialogue, the U.S. on Thursday expressed concern over China developing disruptive counter-space technologies.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
US cannot counter China in Asia without India's support: MK Narayanan - PTI, Economic Times
Former National Security Adviser MK Narayanan today said the US cannot counter China in the Asian region without India's support.
"India is the only country in the Asian region capable of standing against China," Narayanan said while delivering a keynote address at a two-day conference on 'US Rebalance and the Asia Pacific Region', here [Kochi].
He said Chinese "exceptionalism poses a danger" to all countries which have an interests in Asia and India's approach to the situation that prevails in the region is different.
Citing loopholes in the way Washington operates in the region to counter China, Narayanan said, "The US cannot hope to go it alone or hope to succeed only with the support of smaller nations. India must factor very highly in the designs of the United States."
There are certain incompatibilities between Washington's rebalancing strategy and India's priorities, he said in the conference also attended by former RAW chief PK Hormis Tharakan.
The former West Bengal Governor said India's effort is to see that the situation in the region "does not reach a point where China feels it could threaten India's position in Asia".
He said India does not want to see itself as a nation seeking to contain China individually or in association with the United States in the region.
Referring to the defence capabilities of both the nations, Narayanan said the current reality is that despite the Chinese military build up, China does not have any major advantage vis-a-vis India.
Speaking on the occasion, US Consul General Phillip Min said, "India's Act East policy and our rebalance to Asia are complementary approaches based on our shared democratic values and respect for the stability and prosperity that the rules-based international system has brought to the world."
"And as the United States implements our rebalance, we see India as a fundamental provider of economic growth and security across the region," Min said.
The two-day conference, which began today, is hosted by the US Consulate General, Chennai, in association with the Center for Public Policy Research (CPPR).
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Transforming Border Roads Organisation: MoD pushes to fast-track projects but challenges remain along Indo-China border - Deepshikha Hooda, Eonomic Times
The government has begun a major restructuring of the Border Roads Organisation as it rushes to accelerate the long overdue construction of strategic roads along India's frontiers, but senior Army officials and defence experts say the projects face several key challenges and the overhaul in itself is an uphill task. The Defence Ministry has undertaken several measures to fast-track the laying of border roads since former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar took charge of the department in November.
"Regulations for border infrastructure have handicapped the construction of roads leading to the country's borders," Parrikar admitted at the Confederation of Indian Industries' Investment Summit recently.
The BRO is especially worried about the slow pace of work on road projects along the Indo-China border. In Ladakh alone, of the 14 roads that were sanctioned to be built along the China border, only two have been completed.
India has hostile relations with most of its northern neighbours, and while diplomatic efforts are on to ease tensions, the border roads are a strategic defence requirement to ensure faster and easier movement for ground troops and improve defence and surveillance layouts to prevent transgressions. Besides, these roads would also be a major connectivity boost for civil populations inhibiting the remote border areas.
While several critical projects have run into bottlenecks created by BRO's structure of "two masters" -the Defence Ministry has technical control and command of projects, and the Ministry of Roads Transport and Highway controls funds and handles administration - the organization faces a host of other roadblocks that the government is hurrying to remove.
For one, the government last year got rid of some hurdles related to obtaining environmental clearances to lay the roads, including doing away with 'public hearings', an integral part of the clearances procedure, to ensure faster sanctions.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
David Shambaugh predicts collapse of Communist China.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-coming- ... 1425659198
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-coming- ... 1425659198
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
Full article
The Coming Chinese Crackup
The endgame of communist rule in China has begun, and Xi Jinping’s ruthless measures are only bringing the country closer to a breaking point
On Thursday, the National People’s Congress convened in Beijing in what has become a familiar annual ritual. Some 3,000 “elected” delegates from all over the country—ranging from colorfully clad ethnic minorities to urbane billionaires—will meet for a week to discuss the state of the nation and to engage in the pretense of political participation.
Some see this impressive gathering as a sign of the strength of the Chinese political system—but it masks serious weaknesses. Chinese politics has always had a theatrical veneer, with staged events like the congress intended to project the power and stability of the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP. Officials and citizens alike know that they are supposed to conform to these rituals, participating cheerfully and parroting back official slogans. This behavior is known in Chinese as biaotai, “declaring where one stands,” but it is little more than an act of symbolic compliance.
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Despite appearances, China’s political system is badly broken, and nobody knows it better than the Communist Party itself. China’s strongman leader, Xi Jinping , is hoping that a crackdown on dissent and corruption will shore up the party’s rule. He is determined to avoid becoming the Mikhail Gorbachev of China, presiding over the party’s collapse. But instead of being the antithesis of Mr. Gorbachev, Mr. Xi may well wind up having the same effect. His despotism is severely stressing China’s system and society—and bringing it closer to a breaking point.
Predicting the demise of authoritarian regimes is a risky business. Few Western experts forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union before it occurred in 1991; the CIA missed it entirely. The downfall of Eastern Europe’s communist states two years earlier was similarly scorned as the wishful thinking of anticommunists—until it happened. The post-Soviet “color revolutions” in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan from 2003 to 2005, as well as the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, all burst forth unanticipated.
China-watchers have been on high alert for telltale signs of regime decay and decline ever since the regime’s near-death experience in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Since then, several seasoned Sinologists have risked their professional reputations by asserting that the collapse of CCP rule was inevitable. Others were more cautious—myself included. But times change in China, and so must our analyses.
The endgame of Chinese communist rule has now begun, I believe, and it has progressed further than many think. We don’t know what the pathway from now until the end will look like, of course. It will probably be highly unstable and unsettled. But until the system begins to unravel in some obvious way, those inside of it will play along—thus contributing to the facade of stability.
Communist rule in China is unlikely to end quietly. A single event is unlikely to trigger a peaceful implosion of the regime. Its demise is likely to be protracted, messy and violent. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Mr. Xi will be deposed in a power struggle or coup d’état. With his aggressive anticorruption campaign—a focus of this week’s National People’s Congress—he is overplaying a weak hand and deeply aggravating key party, state, military and commercial constituencies.
The Chinese have a proverb, waiying, neiruan—hard on the outside, soft on the inside. Mr. Xi is a genuinely tough ruler. He exudes conviction and personal confidence. But this hard personality belies a party and political system that is extremely fragile on the inside.
Consider five telling indications of the regime’s vulnerability and the party’s systemic weaknesses.
First, China’s economic elites have one foot out the door, and they are ready to flee en masse if the system really begins to crumble. In 2014, Shanghai’s Hurun Research Institute, which studies China’s wealthy, found that 64% of the “high net worth individuals” whom it polled—393 millionaires and billionaires—were either emigrating or planning to do so. Rich Chinese are sending their children to study abroad in record numbers (in itself, an indictment of the quality of the Chinese higher-education system).
Just this week, the Journal reported, federal agents searched several Southern California locations that U.S. authorities allege are linked to “multimillion-dollar birth-tourism businesses that enabled thousands of Chinese women to travel here and return home with infants born as U.S. citizens.” Wealthy Chinese are also buying property abroad at record levels and prices, and they are parking their financial assets overseas, often in well-shielded tax havens and shell companies.
Meanwhile, Beijing is trying to extradite back to China a large number of alleged financial fugitives living abroad. When a country’s elites—many of them party members—flee in such large numbers, it is a telling sign of lack of confidence in the regime and the country’s future.
Second, since taking office in 2012, Mr. Xi has greatly intensified the political repression that has blanketed China since 2009. The targets include the press, social media, film, arts and literature, religious groups, the Internet, intellectuals, Tibetans and Uighurs, dissidents, lawyers, NGOs, university students and textbooks. The Central Committee sent a draconian order known as Document No. 9 down through the party hierarchy in 2013, ordering all units to ferret out any seeming endorsement of the West’s “universal values”—including constitutional democracy, civil society, a free press and neoliberal economics.
A more secure and confident government would not institute such a severe crackdown. It is a symptom of the party leadership’s deep anxiety and insecurity.
Third, even many regime loyalists are just going through the motions. It is hard to miss the theater of false pretense that has permeated the Chinese body politic for the past few years. Last summer, I was one of a handful of foreigners (and the only American) who attended a conference about the “China Dream,” Mr. Xi’s signature concept, at a party-affiliated think tank in Beijing. We sat through two days of mind-numbing, nonstop presentations by two dozen party scholars—but their faces were frozen, their body language was wooden, and their boredom was palpable. They feigned compliance with the party and their leader’s latest mantra. But it was evident that the propaganda had lost its power, and the emperor had no clothes.
In December, I was back in Beijing for a conference at the Central Party School, the party’s highest institution of doctrinal instruction, and once again, the country’s top officials and foreign policy experts recited their stock slogans verbatim. During lunch one day, I went to the campus bookstore—always an important stop so that I can update myself on what China’s leading cadres are being taught. Tomes on the store’s shelves ranged from Lenin’s “Selected Works” to Condoleezza Rice’s memoirs, and a table at the entrance was piled high with copies of a pamphlet by Mr. Xi on his campaign to promote the “mass line”—that is, the party’s connection to the masses. “How is this selling?” I asked the clerk. “Oh, it’s not,” she replied. “We give it away.” The size of the stack suggested it was hardly a hot item.
Fourth, the corruption that riddles the party-state and the military also pervades Chinese society as a whole. Mr. Xi’s anticorruption campaign is more sustained and severe than any previous one, but no campaign can eliminate the problem. It is stubbornly rooted in the single-party system, patron-client networks, an economy utterly lacking in transparency, a state-controlled media and the absence of the rule of law.
Moreover, Mr. Xi’s campaign is turning out to be at least as much a selective purge as an antigraft campaign. Many of its targets to date have been political clients and allies of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin . Now 88, Mr. Jiang is still the godfather figure of Chinese politics. Going after Mr. Jiang’s patronage network while he is still alive is highly risky for Mr. Xi, particularly since Mr. Xi doesn’t seem to have brought along his own coterie of loyal clients to promote into positions of power. Another problem: Mr. Xi, a child of China’s first-generation revolutionary elites, is one of the party’s “princelings,” and his political ties largely extend to other princelings. This silver-spoon generation is widely reviled in Chinese society at large.
Finally, China’s economy—for all the Western views of it as an unstoppable juggernaut—is stuck in a series of systemic traps from which there is no easy exit. In November 2013, Mr. Xi presided over the party’s Third Plenum, which unveiled a huge package of proposed economic reforms, but so far, they are sputtering on the launchpad. Yes, consumer spending has been rising, red tape has been reduced, and some fiscal reforms have been introduced, but overall, Mr. Xi’s ambitious goals have been stillborn. The reform package challenges powerful, deeply entrenched interest groups—such as state-owned enterprises and local party cadres—and they are plainly blocking its implementation.
These five increasingly evident cracks in the regime’s control can be fixed only through political reform. Until and unless China relaxes its draconian political controls, it will never become an innovative society and a “knowledge economy”—a main goal of the Third Plenum reforms. The political system has become the primary impediment to China’s needed social and economic reforms. If Mr. Xi and party leaders don’t relax their grip, they may be summoning precisely the fate they hope to avoid.
In the decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the upper reaches of China’s leadership have been obsessed with the fall of its fellow communist giant. Hundreds of Chinese postmortem analyses have dissected the causes of the Soviet disintegration.
Mr. Xi’s real “China Dream” has been to avoid the Soviet nightmare. Just a few months into his tenure, he gave a telling internal speech ruing the Soviet Union’s demise and bemoaning Mr. Gorbachev’s betrayals, arguing that Moscow had lacked a “real man” to stand up to its reformist last leader. Mr. Xi’s wave of repression today is meant to be the opposite of Mr. Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost. Instead of opening up, Mr. Xi is doubling down on controls over dissenters, the economy and even rivals within the party.
But reaction and repression aren’t Mr. Xi’s only option. His predecessors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao , drew very different lessons from the Soviet collapse. From 2000 to 2008, they instituted policies intended to open up the system with carefully limited political reforms.
They strengthened local party committees and experimented with voting for multicandidate party secretaries. They recruited more businesspeople and intellectuals into the party. They expanded party consultation with nonparty groups and made the Politburo’s proceedings more transparent. They improved feedback mechanisms within the party, implemented more meritocratic criteria for evaluation and promotion, and created a system of mandatory midcareer training for all 45 million state and party cadres. They enforced retirement requirements and rotated officials and military officers between job assignments every couple of years.
In effect, for a while Mr. Jiang and Mr. Hu sought to manage change, not to resist it. But Mr. Xi wants none of this. Since 2009 (when even the heretofore open-minded Mr. Hu changed course and started to clamp down), an increasingly anxious regime has rolled back every single one of these political reforms (with the exception of the cadre-training system). These reforms were masterminded by Mr. Jiang’s political acolyte and former vice president, Zeng Qinghong, who retired in 2008 and is now under suspicion in Mr. Xi’s anticorruption campaign—another symbol of Mr. Xi’s hostility to the measures that might ease the ills of a crumbling system.
Some experts think that Mr. Xi’s harsh tactics may actually presage a more open and reformist direction later in his term. I don’t buy it. This leader and regime see politics in zero-sum terms: Relaxing control, in their view, is a sure step toward the demise of the system and their own downfall. They also take the conspiratorial view that the U.S. is actively working to subvert Communist Party rule. None of this suggests that sweeping reforms are just around the corner.
We cannot predict when Chinese communism will collapse, but it is hard not to conclude that we are witnessing its final phase. The CCP is the world’s second-longest ruling regime (behind only North Korea), and no party can rule forever.
Looking ahead, China-watchers should keep their eyes on the regime’s instruments of control and on those assigned to use those instruments. Large numbers of citizens and party members alike are already voting with their feet and leaving the country or displaying their insincerity by pretending to comply with party dictates.
We should watch for the day when the regime’s propaganda agents and its internal security apparatus start becoming lax in enforcing the party’s writ—or when they begin to identify with dissidents, like the East German Stasi agent in the film “The Lives of Others” who came to sympathize with the targets of his spying. When human empathy starts to win out over ossified authority, the endgame of Chinese communism will really have begun.
Dr. Shambaugh is a professor of international affairs and the director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His books include “China’s Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation” and, most recently, “China Goes Global: The Partial Power.”
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
PLAN port visits since 1985
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
I read this yesterday. To me - and I am no Sinologist, the article is wishful thinking.nageshks wrote:David Shambaugh predicts collapse of Communist China.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-coming- ... 1425659198
the game will continue until the economy cracks.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015- ... 045378.htm
BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- China hopes to finish negotiations on upgrading a free trade zone with ASEAN member states and another trade pact involving the ASEAN and five other economies in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a government work report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday.
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
From Suhasini Haider, so...
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/i ... 969962.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/i ... 969962.ece
China is “changing its language towards the Dalai Lama” as also its “tonality” towards Tibet, says former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
“It is important from New Delhi’s perspective that Tibet, Dharamsala and the Dalai Lama, represent a significant constituent element of the long unresolved border questions between India and China,” Mr. Rudd told The Hindu in an exclusive interview, adding that the changed attitude could create “space for the resolution of the border dispute” between India and China.
Mr. Rudd’s words are significant as he is a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat who has been accused of being too “Sino-centric” as he deals frequently with the Chinese government. He was in Delhi as president of the Asia Pacific Policy Institute and met National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, who is expected to travel to Beijing soon for border talks.
Saying that he wouldn’t presume to give advice to either country, Mr. Rudd called Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping, who are due to meet in Beijing in May, as “strong leaders.” “Many in Delhi may disagree, and think China wants to use the border to exert leverage, but I don’t think China views it that way. It has insecure unresolved maritime borders with all its neighbours on one side, and so a secure land border is very important.”
However, while Mr. Rudd identified the “Tibet border” on the LAC in Jammu and Kashmir, he didn’t refer to the unresolved border issue along Arunachal Pradesh. Mr. Rudd cited the “turnaround” in Russia-China relations after the Gorbachev-Deng Xiaoping summit in 1989 as an example of how India and China could resolve their issues that have seen them fight a war in 1965 {??? 1962!}
Re: Managing Chinese Threat (09-08-2014)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 489002.cms
NEW DELHI: India is working closely with China and other countries of the Asia-Pacific region in setting the agenda for the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction (DRR) that will replace the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) at the UN's conference on DRR starting next week in Sendai, Japan.
New Delhi is taking a lead role in the region with home minister Rajnath Singh co-chairing the Asian ministerial conference ahead of signing of the new UN framework. The Asian meet will be co-chaired by UN head of DRR, Margareta Wahlstrom, and will have ministers from China, Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia and Thailand as other members.
The UN framework will set ambitious targets for member countries to make a paradigm shift towards a new development model that prevents and reduces disaster risk and strengthens resilience.
Wahlstrom said the post-2015 UN framework will set "action-oriented guidance to governments, private sector and civil society in general on how best to tackle the underlying drivers of risk such as poverty, climate change, poorly planned urban growth, land use and the decline of protective eco-systems." The Sendai declaration will act as a policy framework to be adopted by signatory countries and commitments from governments towards DRR initiatives.
It is important for New Delhi to have the framework agreement modelled to its needs as it could impact infrastructure projects worth $1 trillion targeted to be built in the next five years.