Managing Chinese Threat

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ramana
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

Post by ramana »

Surasena, You may not beleive this but in 2003 we in Bay Area BRF had a presentation on population dynamics and the pyramid and why the 1 child was bad policy and the need for idnia to not have birth control!!!!! It was otucome of a book discsussion. Maybe old timers might recall it.
RoyG
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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Ramanaji,

Could this be an opportunity for Muslims from Xing Xiang to push eastward? Perhaps we can play a role in nurturing an Islamic movement and create trouble for them internally. The power of the womb.
Peregrine
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Managing Chinese Threat

Post by Peregrine »

Sweeter than the sweetest Honey Fliend loves Muslims of the Land of the Pule and Home of the Tellolist Vely Much :

China sentences 32 in Xinjiang for 'terror' videos
BEIJING: China sentenced 32 people in its western Xinjiang region to prison terms for downloading or sending "violent terror" videos, state media said, as authorities crackdown on people they say are Islamists and separatists behind recent attacks.

Three people were given life sentences on Thursday and 29 people were sentenced to between four and 15 years in prison, said the region's official government news website Tianshan.
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Peregrine
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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RoyG wrote:Ramanaji,

Could this be an opportunity for Muslims from Xing Xiang to push eastward? Perhaps we can play a role in nurturing an Islamic movement and create trouble for them internally. The power of the womb.
Roy Ji :

No way Jose!

There are Fifty Islamic Countries. China has been getting a major part of its Crude and possibly LNG from the Persian Gulf Islamic Countries. As you are aware there are Fifty and More Islamic countries. The Chinese have reduced the Muslim Population Content of Xinjiang from possibly over 90% in 1949 to about 45% or less now. There hasn't been a Dickie Bird from the Islamic Countries.

There endth the lesson.

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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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Japan-US Defence Pact to reflect new shift by Japan on collective self-defence - Japan Times
Japan and the United States have agreed that Tokyo’s landmark decision to reinterpret the Constitution to expand the role of its armed forces should be reflected in new bilateral defense cooperation guidelines due out by the end of the year.

After talks Friday with Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Washington “strongly supports” what he said was a historic decision by the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to lift the government’s long-held ban on collective self-defense.

“This bold, historic, landmark decision will enable Japan to significantly increase its contribution to regional and global security and expand its role on the world stage,”
Hagel told a joint news conference.

Onodera said he explained to Hagel the Cabinet’s decision to enable the Self-Defense Forces to defend allies under armed attack through collective self-defense. He also said Tokyo and Washington agreed to compile a midterm report on the guideline revision, the first in 17 years, to “raise transparency” and keep Japan’s neighbors updated.

“We will accelerate our work to make (the revision) epoch-making,” Onodera said.

The public remains divided over whether the government, bound to an exclusively defense-oriented policy under the Constitution, should give up pacifism so it can to exercise the right to collective self-defense, which might drag it into a war.

Despite the Cabinet’s landmark decision on July 1, Japan needs to prepare the legal basis for its execution by revising several laws to authorize the future use of the U.N. right.

Abe decided to change the interpretation held by past governments, which determined that Japan cannot exercise the right because doing so would exceed the requirement for using “the minimum” amount of force needed for Japan’s defense.

Abe has indicated he will take the time required to seek public support for the contentious issue, after his support ratings sank in opinion polls. “It’s going to be a huge amount of work on everything from the gray zone to collective self-defense,” Abe told reporters Friday in Papua New Guinea, the last leg of a three-nation tour. Gray zone incidents are those that stop short of full-fledged military attacks.

The guidelines, which were compiled in 1978 and then revised in 1997 to cope with threats from North Korea, detail the roles of the U.S. military and SDF in the event of a “contingency.”

“Japan’s collective self-defense decision and the revised defense guidelines will allow Japan to participate more actively in areas such as ballistic missile defense, counterproliferation, counterpiracy, peacekeeping, and a wide range of military exercises,” Hagel said, adding that Tokyo and Washington can work more closely on maritime security.

Japan and China are at odds over the sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, called Diaoyu in China and Tiaoyutai by Taiwan, raising concerns about an unwanted clash.

Onodera said he agreed with Hagel that any attempt to change the status quo by using force is unacceptable in the East and South China seas, where China is involved in multiple territorial disputes with countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines.

On North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs, Onodera and Hagel agreed that Pyongyang’s activities pose a threat to Japan, the United States and South Korea.

The two meanwhile reaffirmed the plan to shift U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa in line with a bilateral agreement, Onodera said.]
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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China friendless in its anti-US drive - Japan Times
Nearly three decades after Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping famously instructed his diplomats to “be good at maintaining a low profile and never claim leadership,” a new generation of rulers has made it clear that they are ready to shed humility and show off their country’s rising military and political power.

From Southeast Asian waters that may hold billions of barrels of oil to uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, China has stepped into territorial disputes with neighbors including Japan, South Korea and the Philippines — and in some cases provoked them, some would say. At the same time, Beijing has pledged to build what it says will be a new security framework for Asia, replacing U.S.-dominated alliances that have defined the post-World War II period.

“We should work for a new architecture of Asia-Pacific security cooperation that is open, transparent and equality-based,” Chinese President Xi Jinping told dignitaries from India and Myanmar last month. “The notion of dominating international affairs belongs to a different age, and such an attempt is doomed to failure.”

Yet despite Xi’s depiction of China as a “peaceful, amiable and civilized lion,” the country’s moves have so far set off alarms across the region and pushed other Asian countries to seek backup from Washington. Promises to build a self-governing Asian community of nations have amounted to little more than words. The reality has been what many see as Chinese bullying.

Xi, who has shown similar boldness at home since rising to power last year, is at the heart of the new strategy. For the first time in decades, Chinese officials are emphasizing an “active” foreign policy that sets the regional agenda while touting China’s maritime strength.

“This is a very strong theme with him,” said Christopher Johnson, a former China analyst with the CIA who is now chairman of China studies at a U.S. think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It’s bound up in his view of himself as not only the savior of the party but kind of an instrument of history, with the goal being this great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

That means showing “strong willingness to counter U.S. influence in the region,” said Alice Ekman, head of China research at the French Institute of International Relations. Chinese officials have been especially critical of the Obama administration’s touted “pivot to Asia,” with diplomats openly mocking America’s ability to police the region.

“We are seeing at several levels — economic, institutional, political, security — a reinforced competition between China and the U.S. in the region since Xi’s arrival.” Ekman said at a recent lecture in Beijing on China’s foreign policy.

She said China’s growing dominance of the global economy, and its neighbors’ dependence on Chinese trade, is central to the strategy. “China’s moves in the region are based on the following hypothesis: Time moves in favor of China as long as the economic attractiveness of China will reinforce the balance of power in favor of China,” she said.

Xi’s immediate goal is to give his country’s forces tactical military superiority within what is called the first island chain off China’s shores, from Japan down to Indonesia, Johnson said.

In May, Chinese officials sent an oil rig into parts of the South China Sea claimed by both China and Vietnam, setting off repeated confrontations between the two countries’ ships and sparking anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam. In the nearby Spratly archipelago, the Chinese have been adding sand to reefs and rocks so they can build military installations despite claims to the outcroppings by both Vietnam and the Philippines.

Farther north, China provoked rebukes from Japan, South Korea and the U.S. in November after declaring an air defense identification zone, which requires foreign planes to identify themselves to Chinese forces across much of the East China Sea. China and Japan are disputing control of a scattering of rocky islands there, and Japan protested after Chinese fighter jets flew close to Japanese surveillance planes observing a joint China-Russia naval drill in May.

China is also locked in long-standing territorial disputes with India along its southern border and has committed itself to defending, with military force if necessary, what it calls its core interests — chief among them, reuniting with the self-governing island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims, and holding on to Tibet.

China has appeared to be more active in defending territorial claims than it has been in pursuing a new alliance of Asian countries. At a China-hosted summit in May of some four dozen countries and international groups, Xi touted what he said would be a new Asian security network that would exclude the U.S., but he left the meeting with few solid steps to actually building such a framework.

Australian Cabinet minister Malcolm Turnbull said China has found itself largely alone, at least diplomatically, as it shows its teeth to the region. “It has really no allies in the region, apart from North Korea,” Turnbull was quoted as saying at a recent security and economic leadership conference. “And the consequence has been how China’s neighbors are drawing closer to the United States than ever before.”

With tensions high over China, U.S. President Barack Obama paid high-profile visits to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines in April. He reassured governments that the U.S. would honor agreements to defend them.

Japanese leaders took matters into their own hands a week ago when they reinterpreted the pacifist Constitution to let them expand the use of the military to defend allies. The move strengthens Japan’s alliance with the U.S. but also opens the door to new alliances with like-minded Asian countries.

“In the South China Sea, I think Chinese leaders have one purpose: They want to do as much damage as possible to U.S. credibility,” said Huang Jing, a China expert at Singapore National University’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. “China understands that if China appears soft, there’ll be no end of it, so China will appear tough and will not make compromises … and (China believes) the U.S. will not come to help when push comes to shove.”

In capitals across Asia, he said, China is forcing governments to make a difficult choice: Will they bet on a future dominated by a newly confident China or one based on longtime U.S. assurances
The upping of the Chinese ante in Senkaku, Philippino reefs, in Indian Ladakh and the setting up of the ADIZ are to show that the US has no stomach to confront China and China is the primordial power in this region. Coming on the back of this aggression is the announcement of the new security architecture and the revival of Panchsheel to bludgeon parties into submission and proclaim China's sincerity.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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Modi-Xi meet to open a new chapter in ties - Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping along the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Brazil will provide the two leaders the opportunity to lay the framework for a new chapter in bilateral ties.

With the two leaders known in their respective countries for their strong leadership styles, the meeting, which will take place on Tuesday (Monday evening in Brazil), has been accorded more than usual importance: the talks, according to officials on both sides, will also be unusually substantive for an interaction taking place on the sidelines of a multilateral summit. Both leaders are expected to discuss a wide range of strategic and economic issues, as well as common concerns on multilateral matters such as the situation in Afghanistan and the imminent withdrawal of U.S. forces.

In China, most attention has focussed on trade ties. Mr. Modi is seen here as among the most business-friendly of India’s leaders, in part because of his four visits as Gujarat Chief Minister and his State’s courting of investment. His last visit saw the signing of a record $500-million deal for an energy park by the Chinese firm TBEA.

India and China on June 30 signed a first-ever MoU to formalise the setting up of China-dedicated industrial parks in India, with four such parks being considered. An industrial park cooperation working group to finalise locations and investment policies has been set up.

The move comes as both sides attempt to revive bilateral trade, which fell by 12 per cent last year — after a decade of rapid growth — to $66 billion, even as the imbalance in China’s favour expanded to a record $29 billion.

The deficit this year is on track to surpass last year’s figure. According to newly released trade figures for the first half of 2014 available with The Hindu , exports to China amounted to only $9.16 billion out of two-way trade of $33.82 billion in the first six months.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong told presspersons here that he expected the Modi-Xi meeting to “have implications for advancing bilateral relations and further promote cooperation between the two countries”.

Lan Jianxue, a strategic affairs expert at the China Institute for International Studies (CIIS), a Foreign Ministry-affiliated think-tank and a former diplomat at the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, said in an earlier interview with The Hindu that he saw Mr. Modi as “a business-friendly politician” who would boost economic ties and had been engaging with Chinese entrepreneurs.

For the two governments, the priority now should be to “reconnect immediately and reach as much consensus as possible on the future road map,” he said.

He said both sides should not only “respect the existing effective mechanisms between two sides regarding political, economic, strategic, cultural issues and the boundary question” but also “explore the new dividend Mr. Modi and his administration would bring towards China-India relationship”.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

Post by kmkraoind »

SSridhar wrote:The upping of the Chinese ante in Senkaku, Philippino reefs, in Indian Ladakh and the setting up of the ADIZ are to show that the US has no stomach to confront China and China is the primordial power in this region. Coming on the back of this aggression is the announcement of the new security architecture and the revival of Panchsheel to bludgeon parties into submission and proclaim China's sincerity.
Top priorities of US: 1) US. 2) English speaking Christian Anglo-Saxon countries like UK, Canada, OZ and NZ. 3) White EU Christians.

Apart from them, US will give a damn about Japan or India. During World Wars, they only entered, when their nationals were attacked directly. They entered Cold war to maintain their MNCs and so called democracy. Trust me, US will give up their lives to any Asian country. But they will maintain a delicate balance between China vs Rest of Asia, so that they will get their cheap goods, oil and man power. Keeping that in mind, Bharath should roll its dice. At present India should utilize the short period of delicate balance to grow fast so that it can develop both economically and politically and build a viable MIC to counter China. If China become restless, then the future is unpredictable.

The best course of action during these calm period is, let US-Japan and PRC compete for India's patronage and milk that situation to India's advantage. Let both blocks invest heavily in India in that process. IMO.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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Modi to press for equal shareholding in BRICS bank - PTI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch his first multilateral engagement in this seaside city of Brazil, meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of tomorrow's BRICS Summit at which India will press for equal shareholding for its five member countries in the proposed $ 50 billion BRICS Development Bank so that no shareholder dominates.

As the football World Cup fever recedes in this soccer crazy nation, Modi will join Putin, Xi, South African President Jacob Zuma and the host President Dilma Rousseff in deliberations over the proposed bank, international financial architecture and other issues at Fortaleza, one of the host cities of the World Cup which ended yesterday with Germany emerging the world champions.

India is keen on the issue of equal share holding since it does not want a repeat of the distortions that have crept into Bretton Woods institutions like International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in which rich countries like the US and Japan have a strangle hold.

Modi will also discuss the possible outcomes of the two- day summit on other issues like reforms of the UN Security Council and international financial architecture.

Sources said India's primary goal is equal shareholding for all the members -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The BRICS Development bank, an idea which was conceived in Delhi in 2012 and approved in Durban last year, is to be set up with an initial corpus of $ 50 billion, with scope for expansion up to $ 100 billion when new members are added.

For the initial $ 50 billion, India wants equal contribution by all the five members of $ 10 billion. This is because India doesn't want the development bank to fall into the ownership pattern of IMF and World Bank, with a distorted share holding.

The other priority for India are about the presidency of the bank and the name to be given for it. Apparently, India would like it to be called the New Development Bank, an expression used by Modi in his departure statement yesterday.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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Minesweeping in Mideast ‘OK under changes’, says Abe in the Diet
The Cabinet’s recent decision to reinterpret the pacifist Constitution means that Japan would be allowed to engage in a minesweeping operation in the Strait of Hormuz even without a cease-fire in place, as long as three self-imposed legal conditions would be met, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a special Diet session Monday.

Abe was attending the first Diet session following the historic announcement July 1 that the government would reinterpret war-renouncing Article 9.

Abe’s remarks indicate that Maritime Self-Defense Force ships could be dispatched to a minesweeping operation in support of an ally should a country such as Iran attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz — through which about 80 percent of crude oil exports to Japan pass.

The minesweeping operation was among the scenarios the Abe administration cited in exercising the right to collective self-defense. But coalition partner New Komeito had insisted that such an operation could be carried out by using police powers.

The new conditions stipulate that Japan can come to the aid of a friendly nation if: 1) the attack poses a clear danger to Japan’s survival; 2) the attack could fundamentally overturn Japanese citizens’ constitutional rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and 3) there’s no other way of repelling the attack. In addition, the use of force is limited to the minimum extent deemed necessary, under the new constitutional interpretation.

But many people are concerned about how far the scope of the SDF’s overseas operations could be expanded, given the vagueness of the three conditions.

During the Diet session, Abe maintained that an oil shortage due to a conflict in the Middle East could bring about a situation that would meet the three conditions.

“If there would be short supplies of petroleum and if that poses vital threats to our citizens’ lives, I believe there could be a situation where existence of our nation could be threatened,” Abe told the Lower House Budget Committee.

The right to collective self-defense allows a country to come to the aid of an ally under armed attack, even if the state itself is not being attacked. The war-renouncing Constitution had long been interpreted as banning the exercise of this right because it would exceed “the minimum necessary ” use of force for self-defense.

But Abe’s remarks on Monday suggest Japan may send its military as far as the Middle East despite the war-renouncing Article 9, if a war there caused an oil shortage for Japan.

Abe said closure of the Strait of Hormuz would pose a great economic threat to Japan, and that could pose a threat to the country’s “survival.”

He also stressed the use of force allowed under Article 9 will be limited, saying that Japan will not join a multinational military operation based on resolutions by the U.N. Security Council, such as those passed regarding the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq War.

“(The use of force) will be limited to self-defense means to protect the existence and citizens” of Japan, Abe said.

Given those restrictions, Japan remains unable to fully exercise the right the collective self-defense as other U.N. member states are able to, he said. Loosening the limits on SDF operations further would require a revision of the Constitution, not a reinterpretation, Abe said.

“We will maintain the (current) exclusively defense-oriented posture,” he said.
Slowly and surely, Abe is focussed on being a normal nation-state, unshackling itself from the crippling pacifist constitution. Everyone knows what Abe's aims are: to be able to deter a rampaging China.
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Abe looking at permanent law allowing dispatch of SDF overseas - Japan Times
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday his administration will consider creating a permanent law allowing dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces overseas, a comment that could lead to a further rift between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, New Komeito.

The move would allow the government to send the SDF on overseas missions by bypassing Diet debate and without having to re-enact special legislation each time.

“We’d like to consider in detail what form it should take, a permanent or special law. We need to have thorough consultations and coordinate with the ruling coalition,” Abe told the Upper House Budget Committee.

In a historic move, Abe’s Cabinet on July 1 reinterpreted the war-renouncing Constitution to allow Japan to exercise the long-prohibited right to collective self-defense.

New Komeito had long been cautious about expanding the SDF’s role, but it eventually conceded and approved the reinterpretation of the Constitution to enable the use of the right to collective self-defense, allowing Japan to come to the aid of an ally under armed attack.

The Cabinet approval also expanded SDF activities in peacekeeping operations and scrapped the geographical restriction of so-called noncombat zones, allowing the SDF to engage in operations where actual combat is not taking place.

Despite the landmark decision on collective self-defense, the administration needs to prepare the legal groundwork to accommodate the change by revising more than 10 laws, including one on SDF operations. The permanent legislation will be one of the bills that Abe’s government plans to submit to the ordinary Diet session early next year.

The war-renouncing Article 9 and its defense-oriented posture have long limited SDF activities.

Even when the SDF has been sent overseas, their missions have been strictly limited to logistical support, and the government had to pass temporary legislation for each SDF mission sent abroad.

In 2001, the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi enacted laws that lasted for a limited period of time only, to enable the SDF to refuel U.S. military vessels taking part in the war in Afghanistan. The government also passed a similar temporary law in 2003 in order to dispatch SDF personnel to Iraq to engage in reconstruction efforts there.

Permanent legislation would allow the government to decide to dispatch the SDF at any time because it would no longer require enactment of temporary legislation.

The July 1 policy change on collective self-defense will be reflected in revised U.S.-Japan defense cooperation guidelines due out by the end of the year, Abe said, after Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera and U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel agreed on the plan in Washington on Friday.

On Tuesday, Japan and the United States held talks at the vice-ministerial level in Tokyo on a review of the defense cooperation guidelines, last revised in 1997. Onodera and Hagel confirmed that a mid-term progress report will be compiled as early as September.

Information from Kyodo added
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China tells US to stay out of South China Sea disputes - Reuters
China told the United States on Tuesday to stay out of disputes over the South China Sea and leave countries in the region to resolve problems themselves, after Washington said it wanted a freeze on stoking tension.

Michael Fuchs, US deputy assistant secretary of state for Strategy and Multilateral Affairs, said no country was solely responsible for escalating tension in the region. But he reiterated the US view that "provocative and unilateral" behaviour by China had raised questions about its willingness to abide by international law.

China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, which is believed to contain oil and gas deposits and has rich fishery resources. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also lay claim to parts of the sea, where about $5 trillion of ship-borne trade passes every year.

China's Foreign Ministry repeated that it had irrefutable sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, where most of the competing claims overlap, and that China continued to demand the immediate withdrawal of personnel and equipment of countries which were "illegally occupying" China's islands.

"What is regretful is that certain countries have in recent years have strengthened their illegal presence through construction and increased arms build up," the ministry said in a statement.

China would resolutely protect its sovereignty and maritime rights and had always upheld resolving the issue based on direct talks with the countries involved "on the basis of respecting historical facts and international law", it added.

China "hopes that countries outside the region strictly maintain their neutrality, clearly distinguish right from wrong and earnestly respect the joint efforts of countries in the region to maintain regional peace and stability", it added, in reference to the United States.

Recent months have seen flare-ups in disputes over rival offshore claims. Anti-Chinese riots erupted in Vietnam in May after China's state oil company CNOOC deployed an oil rig in waters also claimed by Vietnam, which has also accused China of harassing its fishermen

China's official Xinhua news agency said authorities had on Tuesday deported 13 Vietnamese fishermen and released one of two trawlers seized recently for illegally fishing close Sanya on the southern tip of China's Hainan island.

Relations between China and the Philippines have also been tested in recent months by their dispute over a different area. A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Manila said the Philippines strongly supported the UScall for all sides to stop aggravating the tension.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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Chinese armtwisting of Nepal?

Did a senior Tibetan Buddhist leader's funeral plans fall foul of Himalayan power politics?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 05620.html
The Sharmapa held a senior position within the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, yet he was not without controversy
Andrew Buncombe

Asia Correspondent
Monday 14 July 2014

Two weeks ago, the remains of Shamar Rinpoche, a senior yet controversial Tibetan Buddhist teacher, were flown from Delhi to a monastery in north-east India where his coffin was met by brightly-dressed monks playing trumpets and cymbals.

Shamar Rinpoche, 62, who held the title Sharmapa, had died of a heart attack in Germany in June. His supporters wanted to fulfil his wishes and transport his body first to Kalimpong, in India’s north-east, and then to Nepal for a funeral service at an institute he had established.

But his supporters around the world fear their teacher may have fallen foul of power politics playing out in the Himalayas. Having initially granted the go-ahead for his body to be taken to Nepal, the authorities in Kathmandu have now withdrawn permission. It has been reported they did so under pressure from neighbouring China, which does not want to encourage Tibetan Buddhism in Nepal.

“It’s a very dramatic situation,” said Khenpo Mriti, administrator of the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute in Delhi, where the Sharmapa’s coffin was kept after arriving from Germany. “We are in trauma and in trouble. We do not know what to do.”

The Sharmapa held a senior position within the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, yet he was not without controversy. In 1992, he broke from the opinion of many other senior teachers and declined to recognise the person identified as the 17 Karmapa, who heads the Karma Kagyu school.

Indeed, he instead identified his own candidate. Today, the Karma Kagyu school remains split over who is its true head. The Chinese government recognises the Karmapa that the Sharmapa refused to recognise.

Despite this, his supporters were planning a large funeral service for him in Nepal and were due to transfer his body there on Monday Representatives of other branches of Tibetan Buddhism, including the Dalai Lama’s school, were expected to attend.

Over the weekend, the Kathmandu Post newspaper reported that a source in the Nepalese home ministry said the decision to withdraw permission was taken under pressure from the Chinese embassy. It claimed the Chinese objected to a representative of the Dalai Lama attending and did not want a large rally to take place.

A spokesman for the Dalai Lama said a representative based in Nepal would likely have attended the funeral.

Since he fled Tibet in 1959 and set up a Tibetan government in exile, the Dalai Lama has been repeatedly denounced by the Chinese authorities. Meanwhile, his so-called Middle Way of trying to secure autonomy but not independence for Tibet has made little progress. In the last few years, dozens of Tibetans have immolated themselves over China’s actions.

Nepal, which sits between India and China, has long been the subject of efforts to lever influence by both of its huge Asian neighbours. In recent years, it has sought to control the Tibetan freedom movement and has regularly detained monks and their supporters.

Robert Barnett, director of the Modern Tibet Studies Programme at Columbia University in New York, said the Sharmapa had not held a position in the Tibetan government and had not been a political figure.

There was much about Nepal’s actions that did not make sense, he said. Yet he added: “Nobody would be in the least bit surprised if Nepal were put under pressure by China.”

A spokesman for Nepal’s home ministry, Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, confirmed permission had been given and then subsequently withdrawn.

Mr Dhakal said officials at the Nepalese Embassy in Delhi had granted permission when it was believed the Sharmapa held a Nepalese passport. He said it was then discovered he held a Bhutanese passport and officials said permission could not be given as there was no legal provision for allowing foreigners to travel to Nepal for a funeral.

Asked whether Nepal had acted under pressure from China, he said: “No, no, no. That’s not true – 200 per cent not true.”

In an interview at his office at the Buddhist institute in Delhi, Mr Mriti, the administrator, said supporters of the Sharmapa were deeply upset by what had happened. “The Sharmapa did lots for Nepal. He had requested his remains be cremated in Nepal. That is the main reason we are trying to take him to Nepal.”
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Modi meets Xi Jinping - Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu
China’s President Xi Jinping on Tuesday invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit China in November and called for a “negotiated resolution” to the boundary dispute “at an early date” as the two leaders held their first ever meeting in Brazil.

In Fortaleza to attend the BRICS Summit, Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi met for 80 minutes — extending beyond the scheduled 40 minutes — in what was described by officials as a substantive and frank discussion. Mr. Modi termed the meeting “very fruitful” and said on Twitter that “a wide range of issues” had been discussed.

Mr. Xi said he was looking forward to his September visit to India, and also welcomed Mr. Modi to visit China in November when Beijing will host the APEC leaders’ meeting. It is possible that Mr. Modi may visit Beijing in December. The Chinese President said he was willing to work with Mr. Modi to “constantly enhance the China-India strategic and cooperative partnership to a higher level and jointly safeguard our strategic period of opportunities.” Both countries, he said, were “long lasting strategic and cooperative partners, rather than rivals.” “If the two countries speak in one voice, the whole world will attentively listen; if the two countries join hand in hand, the whole world will closely watch,” he said. Mr. Xi called for a “negotiated solution to the border issues at an early date,” says the Xinhua news agency.

Mr. Modi said there was a need for finding a solution and maintaining peace on the border. He made the point that incidents on the border should not undermine relations.
Clearly, China has two goals: One to stop India from getting closer to the anti-China axis developing in East & South-East Asia and Two, to make India remain neutral, even if it does not join, in the China-Russia axis against the US.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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India will not join any group this or that for sure , We did not join the SU during Cold War even when US were openly hostile to us via Pak.

India will remain neutral and its in our interest too.
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The Biggest Challenge for BRICS' success, big brother China - Reuters

Coming from Reuters, we know that this is a western attempt to divide BRICS especially after the announcement of the new bank to challenge the hegemony of the US. But, there is also truth in this. China dwarfs all the other nations put together in BRICS. The presence of China in this group completely skews the balance, but this is something we have to play hardball with. This is a very tough diplomatic challenge for us to manage China. As posted above (from an ex-IFS officer), IBSA is important for us too.
In two years of tough negotiations to create the new BRICS development bank, the main stumbling block was not a lack of resources or commitment, but fellow partner China.

The Chinese initially wanted a bigger share of the bank that was formally launched on Tuesday by the leaders of the five BRICS countries in a direct challenge to the West's tightly-held grip over global finances, officials involved in talks said. In the end, Brazil and India prevailed in keeping capital participation equal among members, but fears linger that China, the world's No. 2 economy, could try to assert greater influence over the $100 billion bank to expand its political clout abroad.

"It is inevitable that the Chinese will dominate the new bank," said Riordan Roett, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University. "The Chinese don't get involved in these ventures unless they are going to have, not total control, but a significant amount of influence."

Known for their striking differences in economics and politics, the BRICS face the challenge of containing China's drive to control institutions that were supposed to give each partner an equal voice.

Internal discord became evident on Tuesday when the group struggled to overcome a last-minute stalemate in negotiations as China and India vied for the headquarters of the bank. To overcome the snag, Brazil withdrew its request for the bank's first presidency in favor of India, a senior official involved in the discussions said.

The bank will be based in Shanghai, China's business hub. The objective of the bank is to break away from a model that gives little voting rights to emerging economies and perpetuates the dominance of the United States and Europe over the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

"This is a big challenge for the BRICS. Sometimes when you get down to the actual negotiations and countries want more say, they forget about some of their lofty aspirations when they were criticizing the IMF and World Bank," said Kevin Gallagher, professor of international relations at Boston University.

China already has the largest share of the new reserve fund, also launched on Tuesday and known as the Contingent Reserves Arrangement. It pledged $41 billion while Brazil, Russia and India promised $18 billion each and South Africa $5 billion.

Chinese Clout

Although China's economy has slowed in recent years, it remains the world's main engine of growth. Brazil, India and Russia have slowed even more sharply since the group's first adopted the BRIC acronym in the past decade. Much-smaller South Africa joined the group in 2010.

China's economy is bigger than that of all the other BRICS combined and represents the bulk of the group's foreign trade.

"It is only natural for China to have more influence at the bank because of the importance of its economy," said Paulo Wrobel, professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro's BRICS Policy Center.

China's economic might has at times put it at odds with some of its own BRICS partners.

An avalanche of Chinese manufactured imports into Brazil over the last three years prompted the South American country to raise trade barriers to keep its manufacturers from going under. In private, other members have frowned at China's slow-moving liberalization of its currency, the yuan, which makes its exports much cheaper.

So officials from the other smaller economies have tried to prevent China from growing too powerful in the new institutions. The bank's internal rules seek to prevent any single member from holding too much sway.

"The idea is to have a professional institution ruled by the best banking practices and shared governance that will keep that risk at bay," Luciano Coutinho, head of Brazil's own development bank BNDES, told Reuters on the sidelines of the summit.

The BRICS will hold a minimum stake of 55 per centat the lender, but some analysts say China could increase its hold by bringing in new member countries from its sphere of influence.


However, others argue that is in China's best interest to be a team player - at least for now.

"For China there is interest in making it look like this is not a Chinese dominated bank because that will allow it to finance projects that otherwise it couldn't," said Oliver Stuenkel, a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo. "The bank is a way to depoliticize Chinese credit."
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Dealing with an 'expansionist' China - G.Parthasarathy, Business Line
Addressing an election rally in Arunachal Pradesh on February 22, Narendra Modi called on China to shed its “mindset of expansionism”. “Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and will remain so. No power can snatch it from us. I swear in the name of this soil that I would never allow this State to disappear, break down, or bow down. China should shed its expansionist mindset and forge bilateral ties with India for peace, progress and prosperity of both nations,” he said. This message was reinforced with the appointment of Kirin Rijiju from Arunachal Pradesh as Minister of State for Home Affairs.

China made the predictable noises, with Prime Minister Li Keqiang congratulating Modi on his appointment and President Xi Jinping sending Foreign Minister Wang Yi to deliver a personal greeting.

Did these gestures signal any substantive change in China’s policies, either on its outrageous territorial claims on Arunachal Pradesh, or the continuing intrusion of its troops across the Line of Actual Control? The answer is clearly in the negative.

On the eve of Vice-President Hamid Ansari’s visit to the Middle Kingdom, China published yet another official map depicting the entire State of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory. While the UPA government had claimed that new “mechanisms” had been agreed upon to curb cross-border intrusions, the intrusions continued. Given these developments, the NDA Government should carefully consider reviewing and re-orienting the existing policies on China.

Rejigged response

Any talk of more robust military responses to Chinese adventurism is ill-advised. The NDA Government has unfortunately inherited a situation where India’s armed forces are inadequately equipped and lacking in numbers. It would take a minimum of five years before the armed forces will be able to present a more self-confident response to Chinese adventurism.

New Delhi should now re-orient its diplomacy by taking note of the fact that Chinese assertiveness and aggression are directed not only against India, but towards all its maritime neighbours.

Just as China’s claims on Arunachal Pradesh have no legal or historical basis, its claims on its boundaries with all its maritime neighbours are in violation of the UN Convention on the Laws of the Seas (Unclos).

China has used force to seize disputed islands claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam and to explore for offshore oil and gas.

Tensions with Japan are escalating because of China’s claims to the Senkaku Islands, controlled by Japan since 1894. China’s unilateral declaration of an “air defence identification zone” beyond its borders has been rejected by South Korea and Japan.

Strategic containment

Its territorial claims on maritime borders face challenges from South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Yet another major source of concern has been the Chinese policy of “strategic containment” of India, primarily based on enhancing Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, missile, maritime, air power and army capabilities. This is an issue which India inexplicably and rarely, if ever, highlights either bilaterally or internationally.

This policy of “strategic containment” through Pakistan has been reinforced by China’s readiness to provide weapons and liberal economic assistance to all of India’s Saarc neighbours. Worse, bending to Chinese pressures, India has periodically avoided proposed joint military exercises with Japan and the US.

A measured response would be for India to step up military cooperation with Vietnam, including supplying it with Brahmos Cruise Missiles. Given the fact that Russia is a major arms supplier to Vietnam, President Vladimir Putin’s concurrence can surely be obtained for such supplies to Vietnam. Russia has, after all, given its concurrence to China’s supply of Russian-designed advanced RD 93 fighter aircraft engines to Pakistan.

Will growing trade relations with China soften its approach to border claims or its “strategic containment” of India, as some in India appear to believe?
Unyielding position

Bilateral trade with China today amounts to around $66 billion, with India facing a growing trade deficit currently around $29 billion. China’s annual bilateral trade with Japan amounts to $314 billion and with South Korea, $235 billion. China is also the largest trade and investment partner of Vietnam. Both Japan and South Korea also have substantial investment ties with China.

Despite this, China has remained unyielding on its territorial claims on these countries, not hesitated to use force and threatened to cut its investment ties with Vietnam after recent tensions.

To believe that China will embark on a path of reason on border issues because it sells a few bullet trains and invests in infrastructure in India would be, to put it mildly, naïve. On the contrary, India needs to ensure that unrestricted, duty-free access of Chinese products in areas like energy and electronics does not adversely affect indigenous development and production, or undermine energy, communications and cyber security.


While dialogue, economic cooperation and interaction with China in forums like BRICS and G20 are mutually beneficial, there is a need to review our approach to border issues.

China has no intention of exchanging maps specifying its definition of the Line of Actual Control, either in Ladakh or Arunachal Pradesh. India should now insist that the border issue has to be resolved in accordance with the “guiding principles” agreed to in 2005.

The boundary has to be along “well defined and easily identifiable natural geographic features”. Second, any border settlement should “safeguard due interests of their settled populations in the border areas”.

Proceeding according to these “guiding principles” enables India to reinforce its claims that the border lies along the Karakoram Range in Ladakh and the McMahon Line in Arunachal Pradesh.

Given China’s agreement to safeguard the “interests of settled populations,” its claims to Arunachal Pradesh are untenable.

The writer is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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Image
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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India has distributed maps of Tibet to all Indians in its border states and will be showing the capitol of Tibet on an official tour of the TIbetian country
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So, now, can we at least hope that China will at last exchange maps with India after 55 years of refusing to do so?
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Just to add to what Abhishek_sharma has already posted . . .
China's PLA distributes new 'battle maps' in border areas - Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu

Does not 15 million copies sound too much for a total military of 2.2 million of which Lanzhou Command may be only one fifth in size ?
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has begun distributing as many as 15 million new “battle maps” to troop units in western border regions — including the disputed Aksai Chin area — in an effort to enhance patrolling to bolster Chinese territorial claims.

The PLA Daily reported on Friday that the new maps — the first major update in maps in 30 years — were transferred to “frontline troop units” on July 9, with 15 million “paper-made battle maps” slated for distribution under the Lanzhou Military Area Command.

The Lanzhou MAC is one of seven military regions. The entire Xinjiang region as well as the disputed Aksai Chin area and the western section of the border with India fall under its command.

In recent years, the Chinese government has issued a number of new maps to more clearly enforce China’s territorial claims. Recently, maps issued showing in detail China’s claims on the disputed waters and islands of the South China Sea angered several countries that are parties to the dispute.

All official Chinese maps show the Aksai Chin region and all of Arunachal Pradesh as Chinese territory. This has been the case, according to Chinese sources, since at least the early 1990s, shortly after Arunachal Pradesh became a State in 1987, so the maps will not have any significant bearing on either territorial claims or on the status of on-going negotiations to resolve the boundary dispute.

Both India and China also have differing perceptions of where the Line of Actual Control (LAC) runs.
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India to open first Yoga centre in China - Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu
The Indian government is planning to open up a first ever Yoga resource centre in China as part of a new move to capitalise on the fast-growing popularity of the practice in a country where there are an estimated several hundred thousand practitioners.

On Saturday, Beijing hosted a first ever Yoga festival, with an expected 5,000 Chinese set to take part in four days of workshops, covering everything from breathing exercises and specific asanas to meditation lessons.

With a rapidly growing following for yoga in China — almost every major city now has several yoga centres — India is hoping to more clearly link the widening interest in Yoga to Indian traditions.

“For many Chinese, Yoga first came here in some ways as an American export, people saw celebrities like Madonna doing Yoga and then started getting an interest,” said Yin Yan, who founded YogiYoga, China’s biggest Yoga teaching centre which holds classes in 57 cities and has trained more than 15,000 Chinese as Yoga teachers.

Ms. Yin said what was often missing in many Chinese Yoga classes was the “meditative” aspect. “Yoga is not just a physical exercise, so what we are trying to do is give Chinese an authentic learning experience,” said Ms. Yin, who runs YogiYoga along with her husband Manmohan Singh Bhandari, a Yoga teacher from Rishikesh.

The Indian government is hoping to play a role in that exercise, starting with bringing renowned teachers from India to visit the centres here.

This week, the Ministry of Health’s Department of Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) arranged for two teachers from the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga and one expert from the Central Council for Research in Yoga & Naturopathy to hold workshops as part of the four-day Beijing festival.

Ambassador Ashok Kantha, who launched the Yoga festival, said the idea was “to engage in a dialogue that will help disperse all the doubts of the practitioners and helping them align with the roots of this ancient Indian practice” and “popularise Yoga in China with Indian traditions”.

Yoga teachers such as B.K.S. Iyengar — whose books have been translated into Mandarin and sold tens of thousands of copies — have wide following here. Mr. Iyengar told The Hindu during a visit to Beijing that he saw China as a future home for Yoga. When he travelled to Guangzhou to give a lecture, he was stunned to find that organisers had rented out a stadium — more than 1,300 students had come to listen to him.

AYUSH is planning to open a resource centre at the Indian Embassy in Beijing, which will liaise with Chinese Yoga centres such as YogiYoga, arrange for Indian Yoga teachers to visit and provide resources on teaching Yoga and on Ayurveda.
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Extent of new Futenma site for the US ‘hidden from public’ by Japan - Japan Times
The Japanese government has “hidden from the public” that a controversial U.S. military base relocation within Okinawa is planned in an area larger than disclosed, a newly obtained U.S. briefing document shows.

The central government is moving to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from a residential area in Ginowan to the less populated Henoko district in Nago, both on Okinawa Island. It was recently revealed that the replacement facilities will be built not only in the coastal area as publicized, but inland as well.

This is corroborated by a document compiled by the U.S. military in February 2010 as a briefing paper for key Congress members and listing the “political challenges” involved.

The paper, disclosed Saturday, cites the planned construction of facilities in the inland area of Henoko as among the “sensitivities” for the Japanese government.

It also says development of the inland area, referred to as the “area west of Route 329,” is being kept “hidden from (Japanese) public.”

The government’s secrecy is certain to backfire by exacerbating Okinawans’ bitterness on the relocation issue, and the heavy presence of the U.S. military in the prefecture.

A separate 2008 internal U.S. government document, a copy of which was also obtained by Kyodo News, shows more than 30 facilities, including housing and an athletic field for U.S. servicemen, will be constructed in a wooded area west of Route 329.

The wooded area is currently part of U.S. Marine Corps Camp Schwab. The central government has only informed the public that the area, currently employed for U.S. military drills, will be used to supply soil for landfill work related to construction of the Futenma replacement facility in the coastal area.

According to a U.S. government source, the 2010 briefing document reflected that the Defense Ministry was negative about releasing the information. The source also said U.S. government officials have been “baffled” that the Defense Ministry is still denying plans exist to build facilities in the inland area.

Observers say this is not the first time the Japanese government has tried to withhold key information regarding U.S. bases in Okinawa.

Leading up to the deployment of MV-22 Osprey aircraft at Futenma in 2012, the government denied the U.S. Marine Corps’ deployment plan for more than 10 years, fearful of fueling anger among local residents, despite Washington requesting that Tokyo make the details public.

The Osprey issue is also outlined in the U.S. briefing paper. Although the Japanese government knew about the plan, it repeatedly told the public it was not aware of the details until the U.S. Defense Department announced in June 2011 that the tilt-rotor aircraft, which have a checkered safety history abroad, would be deployed at the Futenma base in the latter half of 2012.

The briefing paper noted the Japanese government was acting like it “cannot mention” the Osprey issue.

A U.S. government source, referring to the Henoko development plan, said, “The Japanese government is repeating the same thing it did at the time of the Osprey deployment,” adding the United States is growing frustrated with Japan’s handling of the issue.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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SSridhar wrote:India to open first Yoga centre in China - Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu
Not definitely the first of its kind - may be the first by Indian government. Art of Living has a large residential ashram (spread over 165 acres) in China that was built by a Chinese devotee of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar-ji and inagurated by Sri Sri about 4 years ago.

http://www.artofliving.org/art-livings-china-ashram

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-ar ... na-1456265

I heard that when Sri Sri visited China, a local communist representative was there in all programs and the maximum number of attendees was capped due to Chinese law for religious / spiritual organizations (to avoid them getting large followings). So he had to conduct shorter version of his talks / meditations on a repeated basis instead of conducting one single event of longer duration with large number of audience.

Open / public association between H.H. Sri Sri Ravishankar-ji and H.H. The Dalai Lama also reduced after this event. May be a coincidence.
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China ship spies on U.S.-led RIMPAC naval drills - Japan Times
China sent a surveillance vessel to waters off Hawaii even as the country participated for the first time in the world’s largest international naval exercise led by the U.S.

The auxiliary general intelligence ship is outside U.S. territorial seas, yet within the 200-nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone
, Capt. Darryn James, chief spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in an e-mailed statement Sunday. The vessel is not associated with the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, or Rimpac, that’s now underway, he said.

“U.S. naval forces continually monitor all maritime activity in the Pacific, and we expect this ship will remain outside of U.S. territorial seas and not operate in a manner that disrupts the ongoing Rim of the Pacific maritime exercise,” James said.

Still, James said he was unaware of any participant doing something similar since the drills began in 1971.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time a nation has ever sent a surveillance ship near Hawaii while also having invited ships participating in the Rimpac exercise,” James said.

China sent the second-largest contingent to this year’s Rimpac, after being invited to participate by the U.S. for the first time. Designed to foster international cooperation as China’s navy expands its capabilities, the presence of the surveillance vessel has raised questions among some of the other countries taking part.

“This is not the first time we’ve been under surveillance while we’re operating or exercising,” said Per Rostad, commanding officer of the Royal Norwegian Navy’s Fridtjof Nansen. “However, one might say it’s a bit novel when you participate in an exercise with participating units,” said Rostad, who worked alongside the Chinese navy to transport chemical weapons from Syria.

While China is taking part in this year’s Rimpac, its forces are being kept out of most of the exercises’ core combat components. The country has sent four ships — missile destroyer Haikou, frigate Yueyang, supply ship Qiandaohu and the Peace Ark medical ship.

“You don’t really see exercises on this scale in Europe,” Rostad said. “The amount of fighter aircraft, maritime patrol aircraft, the amount of submarines, the amount of different types of targets to fire ordnance.”

International law provides freedom of navigation through a country’s Exclusive Economic Zone. The U.S. recognizes and respects the right of all nations to exercise freedom of navigation and overflight beyond any coastal nation’s territorial seas according to international law, James said, in reference to the Chinese surveillance ship.

China has long complained about U.S. surveillance activities off China’s coast within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone. In 2009, China said that a U.S. Navy surveillance ship conducted activity in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the Yellow Sea that violated international and Chinese laws. The USNS Victorious didn’t seek China’s permission, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said at the time.

The exercises come at a time when tensions are high between Beijing and U.S. allies such as Japan and the Philippines over China’s pressing of territorial claims in the South and East China Seas. They also come after a dispute with Vietnam that led to one of the worst breakdowns in ties since they fought a brief war in 1979.
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http://www.dawn.com/news/1120668/china- ... t-projects
ISLAMABAD: Secretary of the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms, Hassan Nawaz Tarar on Monday said that China has asked the Government of Pakistan to submit details of all the development projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Support Project.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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Looks like there is a tussle between Xi Jinping and the PLA.

Xi Jinping wants to broaden PRC strategic options while PLA wants to narrow them for tactical positions.

Lets see how it plays out.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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There should be no exchange of maps between India and China, nor should India be seen as "enthusiastic", let alone "desperate", for a solution to the border problem. Let all our claims, declared or hidden, remain valid!

Chinese understand only power that flows through money, guns, tech, propaganda and intelligence.

GoI should let a thousand groups bloom in India claiming everything from Tibet as independent to Tibet as part of India to Indian Flag in the Forbidden City. Internet should be awash with everything from pity to hatred to ridicule of the Chinese govt, system and even people. India should be immersed in anti-Chinese propaganda.

That makes any GoI overture to the Chinese, be it even small, look like a giant step ahead, and would be appreciated by the Chinese.

Through "Friendship" Indians make all overtures towards Chinese look cheap, meaningless and ignorable! If one wants respect from the Chinese treat them like filth!
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Aard Harami Link

Attractive People Sharing Upbeat News About Tibet
BEIJING — There’s a lot to admire about Tom Hugo, and not just the washboard abs that are a glaring feature of his Twitter account profile photo.
For starters, Tom Hugo seems to be well-versed in Chinese, and he evidently cares deeply about the Tibetan people, judging from the profusion of messages he has posted on Twitter in recent months: There are photographs of Tibetans in “unique exotic dress,” articles showcasing the Tibetan people’s deep appreciation for China’s governance of the region and video clips that portray happy Tibetans singing and dancing on state-run television.“Tibetans hail bumper harvest of highland barley,” read the headline on one recent posting.There’s only one problem with Tom Hugo’s Twitter account: It’s fake.The visage accompanying the account belongs to a Brazilian model named Felipe Berto, and nearly every video, article and photograph the ersatz Tom Hugo tweets comes via propaganda websites linked to the Chinese government.The ruse is not an isolated one. In recent days, Free Tibet, an advocacy group based in London, has identified nearly 100 similar sham accounts whose sole purpose appears to be disseminating upbeat news and treacly stories about Tibet and Xinjiang, the region in far-western China whose native Uighurs, like the Tibetans, have bridled under Beijing’s heavy-handed rule.
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Re: Managing Chinese Threat

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RajeshA wrote:There should be no exchange of maps between India and China, nor should India be seen as "enthusiastic", let alone "desperate", for a solution to the border problem. Let all our claims, declared or hidden, remain valid!

Chinese understand only power that flows through money, guns, tech, propaganda and intelligence.

GoI should let a thousand groups bloom in India claiming everything from Tibet as independent to Tibet as part of India to Indian Flag in the Forbidden City. Internet should be awash with everything from pity to hatred to ridicule of the Chinese govt, system and even people. India should be immersed in anti-Chinese propaganda.

That makes any GoI overture to the Chinese, be it even small, look like a giant step ahead, and would be appreciated by the Chinese.

Through "Friendship" Indians make all overtures towards Chinese look cheap, meaningless and ignorable! If one wants respect from the Chinese treat them like filth!
Very well put. Couldn't agree more..
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Colombo clarifies on Chinese aid - Meera Srinivasan, The Hindu
Sri Lanka will never act in a manner prejudicial to India’s national interests, Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris told Parliament {But, he skirted the answer, Is it a 'yes' or 'no' for the proposed Chinese strategic investment in Tricomalee } here on Tuesday.

Mr. Peiris’ remarks came in response to a query from Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP), who referred to newspaper reports that Sri Lanka was planning to set up an aircraft maintenance base in Trincomalee with a $40-million investment from China.

Trincomalee is perceived as a strategic location and India's National Thermal Power Corporation is currently partnering Sri Lanka in building a power plant in Sampur, Trincomalee, extending a $ 200 million-line of credit for the project.

The Colombo-based Sunday Times , in its political column last week, said New Delhi had voiced concerns over allowing China National Aero-Technology Import-Export Corporation to set up operations in Trincomalee.
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China plans railway to India, Nepal borders by 2020 - Economic Times
China plans to extend a railway line linking Tibet with the rest of the country to the borders of India, Nepal and Bhutan by 2020 once an extension to a key site in Tibetan Buddhism opens, a state-run newspaper reported on Thursday.

China opened the railway to Tibet's capital Lhasa in 2006 . . .

The Global Times, published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, said that an extention to Shigatse, the traditional seat of Tibetan Buddhism's second-highest figure, the Panchen Lama, would formally open next month.

That link is scheduled for its own extension during the 2016-2020 period to two separate points, one on the border of Nepal and the other on the border with India and Bhutan, the newspaper cited Yang Yulin, deputy head of Tibet's railways, as saying, without providing details.
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Senior Japan, China officials in secret talks - Japan Times
A senior Japanese official responsible for Asian affairs secretly visited China in mid-July to explore the possibility of arranging a meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Xi Jinping later this year on the sidelines of a regional summit, diplomatic sources said on Wednesday.

The official held talks with Xiong Bo, a deputy director general of the Asian Affairs Department at China’s Foreign Ministry, telling him that Abe would like to hold his first formal meeting with Xi at this year’s summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, to be held in Beijing in November, according to the sources.

The secret visit took place as contacts between officials of the two countries have become slightly more active in recent weeks, though China has been critical of the Abe government on historical issues.

Abe, who has been in office since late 2012, has been unable to hold formal talks with Xi and other Chinese leaders due to a territorial dispute over islands in the East China Sea and his visit in December to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine.

During the meeting in Beijing, once of the sources said Xiong inquired as to whether Abe had decided whether he or not he would pay another visit to the controversial Tokyo shrine, which is seen as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism as it honors convicted Japanese war criminals along with millions of war dead.

“Although many influential Japanese politicians recently came to China and suggested that the prime minister will no longer visit the shrine, I would like to know his real intentions,” the source with the knowledge of the meeting quoted Xion as saying at that time.

On the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, called Diaoyu in China, Xiong proposed that “there can be a different way of saying” when they talked about Beijing’s claim that the two countries had a tacit agreement, in the course of negotiations on the normalization of bilateral diplomatic ties in 1972, to shelve the sovereignty issue, according to the source.

Japan, which has denied there was such an agreement
, has consistently taken the position that the islands are an integral part of its territory and therefore no territorial dispute officially exists between Tokyo and Beijing.

Since this spring, a series of Japanese delegations have visited Beijing in the hope of finding ways to thaw icy relations between the world’s second- and third-largest economies.

China has started saying it is keen to promote exchanges with ordinary Japanese people, companies and political parties.

When transport minister Akihiro Ota, a former leader of New Komeito, the junior coalition partner of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, visited Beijing in late June, he also agreed with Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong that the two countries would expand such exchanges.

Several days after Ota became the first Japanese minister to visit the Chinese capital since Abe’s government was formed in December 2012, Junichi Ihara, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, held informal talks with his new Chinese counterpart Kong Xuanyou, also in Beijing.

Before there can be a meeting with Abe, China has been telling Japanese lawmakers that the prime minister must first promise not to visit the war-related shrine and that his government needs to admit that a sovereignty dispute exists over the uninhabited islands.
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First Indian Navy & Air Force Attaches Take Charge in Beijing - Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu
In a sign of expanding military-to-military engagement between India and China, permanent representatives of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Navy have, for the first time, taken office in Beijing.

Group Captain Ashish Srivastava of the Indian Air Force and Captain Sushant Dam of the Indian Navy will begin their terms as the Air and Naval attachés in the Indian Embassy in Beijing on Friday.

Earlier, India only had a Defence attaché from the Indian Army, along with a Deputy Defence attaché, posted in Beijing.

The question of expanding India’s military representation had been discussed by both sides over several years, with China finally agreeing to the move this past year. Traditionally, India has only had attachés from all three services in the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia.

That China will join those countries underscores the increasing importance — and widening engagement— between the two militaries. Especially on the naval side, the need for representation had become apparent as both sides have stepped up exchanges even as their navies are more frequently encountering each other on the high seas.

The absence of a permanent naval attaché in Beijing posed logistical obstacles, with the defence attachés having to liaise with the People’s Liberation Army Navy over plans for exercises and visits — a situation that even the Chinese side acknowledged was unusual.
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The Impact of the Chinese Rail Lines upto India Border - Ananth Krishnan, The Hindu
The Party-run Global Times quoted experts as saying the projects would also have an impact on the boundary dispute with India.

“The Indians have lately been working on adding infrastructure in the South Tibet region, in order to strengthen control,” Liu Zongyi, a scholar at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the newspaper, referring to Arunachal Pradesh which China claims as “South Tibet”.

“They have been sensitive to how the Chinese government moves in the southwestern area of Tibet,” he said, adding that “the bargaining chips will be increased on the Chinese side if people in the South Tibet region see better economic development in southwestern Tibet.” He told the Global Times that “the growing railway network will increase Chinese activities in this area, balancing Indian moves.”
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Differences came out during Modi-Xi Jinping meeting ahead of BRICS summit - Dipanjan Roy Chowdhury, Economic Times
Longstanding differences between India and China came to the fore when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met at Fortaleza a day ahead of the BRICS Summit in Brazil last week, officials have told ET.

While China showed interest in supporting India's mega infrastructure projects, differences over each other's strategic interests in the South China Sea region and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) cropped up in the 80-minute meeting, an official said.

When the Chinese side raised the issue of India's presence in the oil blocks in the South China Sea region, the Indian negotiators flagged concerns over China's support to a railway project in the PoK. India is upset with China's new feasibility study launched to build a rail link between Pakistan and China through PoK. India reminded China that the territory has been illegally occupied by Pakistan and said that it would continue to oppose international funding for any project in PoK.

China has allocated funds for preliminary research on building an international railway connecting its westernmost city of Kashgar in Xinjiang with Pakistan's deep-sea Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea via PoK. China and Pakistan have already signed a multi-billion dollar deal to construct an economic corridor through PoK connecting Kashgar with Gwadar by improving the existing Karakorum road link.

Though the rail project has been in the works for some time, the announcement came as China and India were set to celebrate 60 years of Panchsheel last month. Vice President Hamid Ansari had flagged up the concern when he visited Beijing in June for participation at that event. Earlier, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj raised the issue of Chinese investments in PoK when she met her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Delhi.

India, officials said, is not impressed with China's suggestion to withdraw from ONGC's current investments as well as proposed participation in the oil blocks granted by Vietnam. While China describes the area as disputed, India maintains that freedom of navigation as per international norms must be allowed in that region. India conveyed this to the Chinese side when the matter was raised at the Modi-Xi meeting.

Meanwhile, China has withdrawn its controversial oil rig from Vietnam's exclusive economic zone last week. The issue had deepened schisms between Hanoi and Beijing. President Pranab Mukherjee is expected to visit Vietnam in mid-September, the same month when Xi Jinping will visit India.
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China reacts cautiously to trilateral Malabar exercise - PTI
Keeping a close watch on Malabar exercises involving the navies of India, Japan and the US, a wary China today reacted cautiously to the drills hoping that they would be conducive to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

"We have noticed the report," the Chinese Defence Ministry said in e-mail response to a query from PTI about its reaction to the Malabar exercises which began off Japan's coast yesterday. "We hope defence cooperation among relevant countries can be conducive to peace and stability in the region," it said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei in a more detailed response to PTI said countries in the region should help to build a more harmonious Asia-Pacific with mutual trust.

"China actively promotes the Asian Security Concept that is based on common, comprehensive and sustainable security. A harmonious and stable Asia-Pacific region built on the basis of mutual trust among all countries is in line with the common interests of all countries in this region," Hong said.

"But at the same time it also requires all sides to put in an effort. We have noticed the relevant moves and hope that the actions by the relevant countries could follow this direction and should help in building mutual trust among the countries of the region and regional peace and stability," he said.

China had in the past objected to the participation of Japan and other countries in the Malabar series naval drills held mainly between India and the US. The last exercise involving Japan was held in 2009.

Japan continues to be a very sensitive point for China as the relations between the two nose-dived in the recent past due to a dispute over islands in East China Sea. Their navies and military jets jostled with each other to assert their claims over the unmanned islands.

Beijing's ties with Washington also bogged down over the US support to Japan as well as to the Philippines and Vietnam over the South and East China Sea maritime disputes.
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