Neutering & Defanging Chinese Threat (15-11-2017)

[UlanBatori]

The change from "Asia-Pacific" to "Indo-Pacific" is merely a terminological homogeneity adjustment. Asia is a continent. Pacific is an ocean (or a policy adopted my MMS and BO).

Indo-Pacific means Indian Ocean/Pacific Ocean. Of course it makes Indians go into ecstasy and chinese

[vijaykarthik]

We can always adjust saying we have an ocean and China just has a shallow sea.

[SSridhar]

China, Russia to hold simulated anti-missile drill - Reuters

Probably, preparing the ground for S-400 which are to be delivered to China next year.

The Chinese and Russian militaries will next month hold anti-missile drills in Beijing, China's Defence Ministry said on Friday, amid concern in both countries about the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea.

China and Russia have both expressed opposition to the basing of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in South Korea, which Seoul and Washington say is needed to defend against the threat of North Korean missiles.

China, along with Russia, has repeatedly expressed opposition to the THAAD deployment, saying it will do nothing to help ease tension with North Korea.

China also fears THAAD's powerful radar system can look deep into is territory, undermining its security.

China's Defence Ministry said in a statement a computer drill would take place from Dec. 11 to Dec. 16.

The aim of the exercise was to jointly practice defence against missiles and how to handle “sudden and provocative attacks on the two countries' territories by ballistic missiles and cruise missiles", the ministry said.

“The drill is not aimed at any third party,” it said, without elaborating.

While China and South Korea agreed last month to move beyond their year-long stand-off over THAAD, a dispute that has been devastating to South Korean businesses that rely on Chinese consumers, China has stuck to its opposition to the system.

China and Russia have close military and diplomatic ties, and they have repeatedly called for a peaceful, negotiated solution to the North Korea nuclear and missile crisis.

[vijaykarthik]

If true, its shocking. The many tentacles of Cheen power.

Zimbabwe Coup Plotters Reportedly Asked For China's Permission Before Deposing Mugabe

By Geoffrey Smith November 16, 2017
The men who plotted the overthrow of Zimbabwe’s long-serving President Robert Mugabe asked China for permission first, according to The Times of London.

The Times reported Tuesday that one of the coup leaders, General Constantine Chiwenga, had met China’s defense minister Chang Wanquan in Beijing last Friday, in what it styled as a sounding out of the country that has kept Zimbabwe’s economy afloat in recent years.

It is a stark illustration of how China’s huge expansion of overseas investment and trade is translating into hard power, especially in a continent that was previously the playground of Cold War superpowers and, before them, European colonial powers such as Britain and France.

According to the BBC, Chiwenga and other army leaders placed the 93-year-old president under house arrest Tuesday, while allowing Mugabe’s wife Grace, who had been jockeying to take over from her husband, free passage out of the country. Reuters reported that Mugabe is still resisting pressure to resign.




http://fortune.com/2017/11/16/zimbabwe- ... ng-mugabe/

[Peregrine]

Eleven Gin Pegs aka Ting a Ling is on the War Path!

Human rights repression in China seen worsening under Xi Jinping

BEIJING: After five years of prison and three more confined by guards at home, Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng could take no more.

With the help of friends and a willing driver, Gao escaped his state security captors on Aug. 13 and found shelter in the home of a stranger who made him pork dumplings - the first real meal he'd had in years
.
Gao's freedom was short-lived, however. Less than three weeks later, the police tracked him to the city of Jiexiu in Shanxi province and searched house-to-house until they found him, Li Fawang, a supporter who helped him escape, told The Associated Press. Gao's whereabouts are now unknown.

Gao's plight shows what activists say is a drastically deteriorating situation for rights campaigners under the rule of President Xi Jinping, who emerged from a party congress last month as the most powerful Chinese leader in a generation.

With China's economy continuing to boom and its global influence on the rise, Xi is more than ever convinced that China requires a highly authoritarian, one-party system, analysts say. At the same time, a growing alienation from politics among young Chinese is pushing the party to reinsert itself into its citizens' daily lives.

"The outlook for human rights is grim and we see no sign of improvement," said Maya Wang, Human Rights Watch's Hong Kong-based researcher, who describes the current repression as the worst since 1989's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square. "We feel we haven't hit bottom yet."

Wang and others point to the growing number of secret detentions and closed-door trials and the disregard for due process. Authorities are also increasingly willing to ignore health problems among political prisoners, who campaigners say already face solitary confinement or harsh conditions locked up with hardened criminals who dish out beatings and other abuse.

The United States under President Donald Trump doesn't appear to be offering much support. Trump's failure to raise human rights during his visit to Beijing last week "lent the Chinese government legitimacy when it is one of the worst human rights offenders," Wang said.

China's government rejects accusations of human rights abuses, insisting it runs the country according to law and that no outsider has the right to challenge its "judicial sovereignty." Yet it also dismisses the suitability of a multi-party system or Western notions of "universal rights," warning such notions threaten to undermine Chinese society and undo its economic achievements.

The situation has worsened since the party congress, said Thailand-based Chinese campaigner Wu Yuhua, also known as Ai Wu.

"Conditions are deteriorating, with prisoners of conscience suffering from torture, degradation, harassment and discrimination," Wu said. "I'm very pessimistic about the prospects for human rights in China."

For many rights activists, the death of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo from liver cancer in July was a low point. Despite his 11-year sentence on a conviction of incitement to subvert government power, Liu had remained a symbol of courage and persistence in his belief in a democratic China.

His widow, Liu Xia, had been held a virtual prisoner in her Beijing home throughout Liu's sentence, despite never being charged. Since his death, she's had virtually no contact with friends or family and the authorities will not say where she is currently being held.

Other lesser-known cases also testify to the party's determination to crush dissent.

Writer and rights campaigner Yang Tongyan died at the age of 56 earlier this month after being released on medical parole in August, shortly before completing a 12-year sentence on a subversion charge. He'd already served 10 years for criticizing the 1989 crackdown.

Yang's death underscored "an alarming lack of accountability for the pattern of deaths of activists released on medical parole," Amnesty International said, likening it to the 2014 death from organ failure of campaigner Cao Shunli, who activists said was denied treatment in custody.

Health worries also afflict longtime activist Huang Qi, who operated a website that documented the often-futile efforts of ordinary Chinese to seek help over land seizures, layoffs and local graft. Huang, who was detained last November, isn't expected to go to trial until next year, according to his lawyer Sui Muqing.

In his mid-50s, Huang suffers from ailments including kidney and heart disease and has been barred from buying better food and other supplies from the jail commissary, Sui said.

"The detention center is entirely unable to meet his basic medical needs," Sui said. Huang's mother says she fears her son won't last more than another year behind bars.

Retribution is also handed out to activists' family members.

The teenage son of Beijing lawyer Wang Yu has been blocked from leaving the country, forcing him to set aside plans to study in Australia, his father says. Wang was detained in a nationwide roundup of lawyers and other activists on July 9, 2015, then released but placed under close surveillance in Inner Mongolia and only recently allowed to return to Beijing.

Meanwhile, concern remains high for Gao, 53, who had won international renown for defending members of the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement and fighting for farmers' land rights. His public denunciation of the torture he said he had suffered in detention appears to have made him a particular target for abuse.

When Gao was released from prison in August 2014, the formerly outspoken lawyer could barely walk or speak, raising concerns that one of the most inspirational figures in China's rights movement had been permanently broken. Years of abuse and poor nutrition have caused his teeth to fall out, forcing him onto a liquid diet.

While under extra-legal house arrest, he was constantly watched by dozens of uniformed and plainclothes officers stationed directly outside his rural home in Shaanxi province. Despite that, he managed to communicate sporadically with the outside via messaging apps, even releasing a book about his time in prison, three years of which were in solitary confinement.

"I felt so sorry that I wasn't able to keep him protected," said Li, the friend who helped Gao slip away from his captors. Li was detained for more than a month after Gao's recapture. A second friend who helped in the escape, Zhao Chongguo, continues to be held.

Under Xi, repression against minority groups has also been ratcheted up, with unconfirmed reports of hundreds of Muslim Uighurs and Kazakhs thrown into political reeducation centers. Tibetans also face onerous restrictions and government intrusions, including the inability to travel abroad.

Conditions could get worse still, activists say.

"Xi is determined to control society at all costs and doesn't care what anyone says," said longtime activist Hu Jia, who lives under tight surveillance in Beijing. "His ultimate goal is to preserve Communist Party rule and if someone strives for freedom, they will lose their freedom."

Cheers

[TKiran]

^^^the above article is highly misleading...

There are no civil courts in China. There are no lawyers in China. Small number of criminal courts are there run by party.

Say for example, someone rapes, police catches, there's no investigation, that person is guilty, and the court is there to award the quantum of punishment.

There's no recourse to civil litigation as there are no civil courts.

Westerners think and assume that there are "rights" which are protected by state (China). That's western concept. Total lack of understanding of China.

These are the articles which ordinary Chinese feel "victimization" articles and there is no support to such articles.

There's a party and it takes the responsibility of employment of masses. And that's all.

Can anyone tell honestly, what Trump can do?? Absolutely ridiculous...

[SSridhar]

India, China hold border consultation mechanism meeting - PTI

Beijing, Nov 17: India and China today held their first meeting on the border consultation and coordination mechanism here after the Dokalam standoff and reviewed the situation in all the sectors of their border and exchanged views on enhancing CBMs and military contacts.

The 10th round of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India–China Border Affairs (WMCC) was held in Beijing, a press release from the Indian Embassy here said.

The WMCC was established in 2012 as an institutional mechanism for consultation and coordination for the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the India-China border areas.

It was established to deal with the tensions over recurring border incursions as well as to exchange views on strengthening communication and cooperation, including between the border security personnel.

The India–China border dispute covers the 3,488 km long Line of Actual Control (LAC). While China claims Arunachal Pradesh as Southern Tibet, India asserts that the dispute covered Aksai Chin area which was occupied by China during the 1962 war.

“Today’s talks were held in a constructive and forward-looking manner,” the release said.

“Both sides reviewed the situation in all sectors of India–China border and agreed that maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas is an important prerequisite for sustained growth of bilateral relations,” it said.

The two sides also exchanged views on further confidence building measures (CBMs) and strengthening of military-to-military contacts, it said.

First dialogue after Doklam

The talks between the delegations headed by Pranay Verma, Joint Secretary (East Asia), Ministry of External Affairs and Xiao Qian, Director General, Department of Asian Affairs, were the first such dialogue between the two countries after the 72 day-long stand-off at Doklam in the Sikkim section.

The stand-off which began in mid-June ended on August 28 after Chinese troops stopped building a key road close to India’s Chicken Neck corridor. India objected to the construction highlighting its security concerns. The road was being built by the Chinese troops in the area also claimed by Bhutan.

This is the first round of talks between the two countries after Chinese President Xi Jinping began his second five-year term as the chief of the ruling Communist Party of China last month.

Today’s talks took place ahead of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s planned to visit to India to take part in the Russia, India and China (RIC) Foreign Ministers meeting expected to be held in New Delhi next month.

Chinese officials earlier said Wang is expected to meet his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj as well as top Indian leaders.

Many issues

The contentious issues bedevilling both the countries, including the USD 50 billion China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as well as Bejing’s veto blocking UN listing of JeM leader Masood Azhar as a global terrorist are expected to be discussed during Wang’s talks with Indian leaders.

Ahead of the talks, Chinese officials have expressed optimism that differences over the listing of Azhar by China in the 1267 Committee of the UN Security Council may be resolved soon. China has blocked India’s application last year and vetoed a similar resolution sponsored by the US, the UK and France twice this year.

Also the 20th round of India–China border talks headed by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi, who are the designated Special Representatives, are expected to be held in New Delhi next month.

The dates for both RIC and border talks are yet to be announced.

The Special Representatives were also mandated to discuss all issues related to India–China relations. The delegations at today’s talks comprised of diplomatic and military officials from each side.

“The two sides agreed to hold the next meeting of the WMCC at a mutually convenient time,” the release said.

[SSridhar]

Ready to alter economic corridor route: China - Kallol Bhattacherjee, The Hindu

China may consider alternative routes through Jammu and Kashmir to address India’s concerns regarding the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

In an interaction with experts on Chinese affairs and students, Beijing’s envoy Luo Zhaohui suggested the alternative routes, and said he was keen on accomplishing a bilateral friendship and trade treaty during his stint in India.

“We can change the name of CPEC [China Pakistan Economic Corridor]. Create an alternative corridor through Jammu and Kashmir, Nathu La pass or Nepal to deal with India’s concerns,” said the envoy in a speech at the Centre for Chinese and South-East Asian Studies in the School of Language, JNU, on Friday.

The Ambassador made a detailed presentation of the expectations on both sides and said that while the Dalai Lama’s presence and activities remain an issue for China, Beijing recognised that India’s expectations on the CPEC and Masood Azhar were also issues that both sides need to be deal with.

Dynamic situation

Referring to the dynamic situation in the world, Ambassador Luo said, “There is widespread change in world affairs since the coming to power of President Donald Trump of the U.S.”

“President Trump sealed $250 billion worth of trade deals with China. Would that be possible if China was a threat,” he asked, arguing that China and India as growing economies must cooperate with each other.

“One of my goals is to have a treaty of friendship and free trade with India,” he said, elaborating that both sides need to find more areas to collaborate like the Delhi smog. “Beijing also has smog and two sides can jointly deal with this issue.”

[pankajs]

Forget the military angle for the moment or India taking out CPEC for the moment. They want a direct route to India to make that project viable. Without access to Indian market the project is not going to return THE investment forget the return ON investment.

So who is more strategically invested in the project? China or Bakistan? While Bakistan is supposedly bearing the cost of the project they are not that concerned about India's participant. OTOH, China is trying its level best to get India to join CPEC/OBOR/BRI.

[sudarshan]

Ready to alter economic corridor route: China - Kallol Bhattacherjee, The Hindu

None of these Chinese suggestions addresses India's concern that POK is illegally occupied Indian territory. Then there is the larger concern of Chinese expansionism.

[panduranghari]

Now that Eleven is finally the supreme leader, I expect his 'war on corruption' to slow down. Perhaps internal turmoil is more likely and permitting the corruption will keep his minions in peace to enforce party rule. His detractors and competition is gone. And now the apparatchiks will get paid for paying lip service.

Just for example, within 3 years Modi has done structural changes in the bureaucratic machinery. Even Chinese watchers within and outside the country cannot point to anything of substance achieved by Eleven.

[dinesh_kimar]

^ Ever since Doklam, there has been an impression created by some posters that there was some kind of power struggle between Xi and the PLA, and when Xi's faction won, Doklam was resolved. This may not be entirely true:

1. When Gen VK Singh visited Tibet as Eastern Army Commander, he spoke (wrote) about " political commissars wear the pants in the PLA , not the Generals. If we think the Chinese are doing mere transgressions, without approval all the way upto the CPC, we are kidding ourselves."

2. Xi donned Military fatigues during Doklam and made cryptic remarks which our side interpreted as war. Our TOI paper was full of news of "firing drills in Tibet, new mountain tank, massive troop surge into Doklam, Rahul Gandhi and Vadra meeting Chinese Ambassador, etc" . Apparently, all had Xi's approval. Other anecdotal stuff like Xi's body language with Modi during one of the meetings was not very promising.

3. PLA and Xi probably got spooked with extent of Indian preparations, and intent of seeing it thru. We dont know what the PLA saw and what info they received, but they paused, blinked and requested a meeting. The Chinese explained away their previous actions/statements as "Information war propaganda", and have actually been quite proper with us ever since, apart from some minor matters like Masood Azhar.

They were never this charitable with Phillipines, Vietneam and S. Korea during similar Island disputes.

[SSridhar]

This is only a book review and yet I thought this should be here for the insights it offers. The book under review seems to be worth a read.

A China that Indians must know - Uday Balakrishnan, Business Line

At a little under 800 pages Becoming China:The Story Behind the State is a huge work on a humongous country, its resilient people and their vast history, from way back in time to almost today. The book targets a western audience but could as well have been written with India in mind. Reading it should vastly enhance our appreciation of a country we know so little about and only continue to view as an enemy with the oft repeated warning “Remember 1962!” ringing in our ears.

Jeanne-Marie Gescher, who taught Chinese law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, is a leading expert on China where she has lived and worked since 1989. Her book is based on the valid premise that there is so much more to understanding China than just its economics. Melding myriad myths, philosophy, archaeological finds and straight history, she has produced a remarkably well- rounded thoughtful and credible account of a grand and troubled country.

An engaging narrative

For all its size (and weight!) Gescher’s book is an unexpectedly easy read and is as immediate as such books can get, leaving us at the doorstep of the just-concluded 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. An occasional cliché apart, ‘Becoming China,’ is written in a novelist’s lavish and engaging style — racy, rich in detail with terrific imagery, reminiscent of an extravagant Mario Vargas Llosa novel.

Gescher covers a lot of ground in considerable depth in her book — from China’s early beginnings to today. She walks us through the several dynasties that ruled the country from the Shang in 1600 BCE through to the Qing in 1911, after which it went republican and then Communist.

Through her book we are introduced, to China’s governing classes as well as the events and attitudes which have shaped the country down the ages. The book is peppered with interesting accounts of individuals who, through history, have stood up to the state, or warned it obliquely of impending calamities, most often with disastrous consequences to themselves.

A rare one who got away, was the famous traveller Xuanzang, better known in India as Hiuen Tsang. Officially barred from leaving China, he stole away to India only to be welcomed back by the Emperor, as a hero, sixteen years later in 645AD for ‘pushing knowledge of the western world of India to unimagined heights.’

‘Becoming China’ also brings out how assiduously Chinese communists continue to flog the gross depredations of European, and Japanese imperialism to mask some their own egregious wrongs, many of which have no parallel in human history.

History repeats

The point Gescher plugs away at, in her book, is that history is repeating itself in China and what is happening there today, has precedents in its deep past. China, Gescher contends, has always been all about establishing and sustaining an orderly, obedient society.

To that end, it was probably the first country to systematically count its people through decennial census’ and introduce an internal passport system, Hukou, to regulate internal migration. The Chinese also established a merit based bureaucracy long before anyone else did, albeit on an imagined Confucianism and created vast surveillance systems to manage large numbers over vast spaces.

China’s ham-handed and insensitive handling of its minorities, is well covered in Gescher’s book as also its constant anxiety to secure its borders, understandable, considering that the country has, so often in the past been felled by smaller and more aggressive entities on its periphery.

China’s predilection for grand projects going back over two millennia is well-brought out by Gescher. The construction of the Grand Canal the longest of its kind in the world, happened under the Su Dynasty (581-618 AD). The Great Wall running over thousands of kilometres was built and rebuilt through much of China’s recorded history. While neither led to major environmental disasters, its more recent ones do.

The breaching of the ambitious Banqiao Dam in 1975, killed eighty-five thousand but the news was blanked out of the country’s media. China went ahead with the Three Gorges Dam Project despite valid protests against building it.

A hydrological engineer who had warned against its construction was consigned to a labour camp for ‘re-education.’ A journalist, Dai Qing, who questioned the wisdom of building the dam in a popular book ‘Yangzi, Yangzi,’ was forced to flee her country.

Unsure future

In her book, Gescher refers to the Chinese penchant to embed coded messages of dissent and protest in something as innocuous as a painting of a placid scenery. In ‘Becoming China’ Gescher has planted several coded messages of her own, similar to but far subtler than the ones in a letter Voltaire wrote from the gilded cage of King Fredrick the Great of Prussia’s court: “The King is the life of the company. But. I have operas and comedies, reviews and concerts, my studies and books. But, but. Berlin is fine, the princess charming, the maids of honour handsome. But.’

For all its spectacular achievements, China is unsure where it is headed and, as so often in the past, it has once again reposed its faith in a ‘Big Man’ to show the way. With Xi Jinping’s rise to absolute authority, there is the very real possibility that huge mistakes would be made. Lest one forgets it was under another absolute ruler, Mao, that over forty million humans perished in the greatest man- made famine in human history.

The big take away from Jeanne Maire’s book is that China is not as hot as the world thinks it is. Beneath its astonishing rise, the seeds of its own downfall have already been sown.

In graphic detail, Gescher brings out the massive environmental damage China has inflicted on itself with its growth — at any -cost —policy and comes close to suggesting, that for all its wealth, China has an unresolvable problem on its hands, one that will bring it down.

Given the gargantuan scale of corruption in China, Gescher for one doesn’t believe that Xi’s all-out war to stamp it out will succeed, especially when members of his own family have been beneficiaries of a spoils system that has always favoured the privileged.

Through its history, Gescher tells us, China’s top-down approach to everything has precluded serious discussion and debate, with dissenters either imprisoned, exiled, or killed.

A regimented society is vainly straining at the leash in China, existing as it does, in a country that doubles up as a hi-tech prison.

Reading Gescher’s book leaves one wondering, ‘Can the Chinese ever hope to break out of such a formidable Panopticon?’

MEET THE AUTHOR

Jeanne-Marie Gescher is a British barrister who has worked in China for over 25 years, establishing one of the earliest advisory firms, and the first to include a think tank. She is a Senior Fellow of the SOAS China Institute.

[Peregrine]

China upset as President Kovind visits Arunachal

BEIJING: China on Monday strongly objected to President Ram Nath Kovind's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, saying India should refrain from "complicating" the border dispute when bilateral relations are at a "crucial moment".

President Kovind visited Arunachal Pradesh yesterday.

"The Chinese government never acknowledged the so-called Arunachal Pradesh and our position on the border issue is consistent and clear," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told the media when asked about Kovind's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as Southern Tibet.

China routinely objects to any senior Indian officials' visit to the area.

India has dismissed Beijing's objections, maintaining that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of the country and Indian leaders are as much free to visit the state as they are to any other part of the country.

Both countries are "in the process of settling this issue through negotiation and consultation and seek to reach to a fair and reasonable solution acceptable to all", Lu said.

Pending final settlement all parties should work for peace and tranquillity, he said.

"China firmly opposes the Indian leader's relevant activities in the relevant region when China-India relations are at a crucial moment," he said.

"We hope India could work in the same direction and maintain general picture of bilateral ties and refrain from complicating border issue and work to create favourable conditions for border negotiations and for the sound and stable development of bilateral ties," he said.

The Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China stretches to 3,488 kms.

On November 6, China had raised objection to defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman's visit to the border areas of Arunachal Pradesh.

Both sides held 19 round of talks by the Special Representatives to resolve the boundary dispute. The 20th round is expected to be held next month in New Delhi, though dates have not yet been announced.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi are the designated Special Representatives for the boundary talks.

Cheers

[SSridhar]

New long-range missile may be inducted into PLA next year: Report - PTI

China's next-generation multi-nuclear warhead intercontinental ballistic missile with a proclaimed ability to hit targets "anywhere in the world" may be inducted into the PLA early next year, a media report said today.

The new missile — the Dongfeng-41 — also has a speed of more than Mach 10 and can use decoy devices and chaff to pierce its way through the enemy's missile warning and defence systems.

The missile which underwent another test — the eighth since it was first announced in 2012 — could be in the People Liberation Army's line-up as early as the first half of 2018, state-run Global Times said.

The missile must have matured considerably if it is to start serving in the PLA, Xu Guangyu, a senior adviser of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association said.

The Dongfeng-41 is a three-stage solid-fuel missile with a range of at least 12,000 kms, meaning it could strike anywhere in the world from a mainland site, Xu told the Global Times, adding that, "it can carry up to 10 nuclear warheads, each of which can target separately."

The South China Morning Post reported that China had possibly tested the ICBM in its Western desert area in early November, but it did not give the exact location or date of the test.

Another report on the seventh test-firing of the Dongfeng-41 came from a US satellite tracking system and appeared in the Washington Free Beacon in April 2016.

Song Zhongping, a Phoenix TV commentator and former member of the PLA's Second Artillery Corps (Rocket Force), is of the view that the Dongfeng-41 is very likely already in service, since tests and other checks of missiles can be conducted after deployment as well.

Song said that the deployment of the missile certainly demonstrates China's nuclear deterrence abilities..

"Once the Dongfeng-41 goes into service, China's ability to protect its own safety and to prevent wars would greatly increase," Xu said.

Russian experts feel that the missile deployment aimed at the US as they could reach most of America and Europe.

A commentary in Global Times at that time said the deployment of the DF-41 was a "strategic deterrence tool" and Beijing would "ready itself for pressures" imposed by the new US government headed by President Donald Trump.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force on Sunday showed five models of China's homemade conventional and nuclear missiles.

China has a range of missiles which included the Dongfeng-26 ballistic missile, the Dongfeng-21D land-based anti-ship ballistic missile described as a "carrier killer," and the Dongfeng-16G conventional missile designed for precision strikes against key enemy targets.

[Peregrine]

Construction begins for 150km road that will make it easy for armed forces to reach China border

PITHORAGARH: The work on the all-weather road in Uttarakhand has begun with the construction of the 150-km Tanakpur-Pithoragarh stretch which will make it easier for the armed forces to mobilise troops and armaments to the India-China border, officials said on Monday.

The section is a part of the 'All-Weather Roads Project' launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the state assembly polls earlier this year.

It is likely to be completed by 2019. Mobilisation of forces and their armaments to the last posts on the India-China border in times of emergency will be much easier from the Tanakpur rail-head after the 150-km stretch is completed, officials associated with the project said.

"Construction of the 150-km long Tanakpur to Pithoragarh road is being carried out on war footing to meet the set time the 2019 deadline. The deadline is likely to be easily met as the route has no over bridges or tunnels," said LD Mathela, executive engineer of NH 125.

The cost of the road, will be approximately Rs 1,065 crore, which excludes the cost of three bypasses, he said.

Unlike Garhwal, the nature of soil in the Kumaon region as well as the costs involved are not suitable for building tunnels and over bridges, the official said.

"Non-availability of non-rocky hill portion along the route is also a reason why no tunnels or over bridges are being built on the stretch," he said.

The road is being constructed under the 'Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC)' module in which the designs of the project, outlines by experts, will be availed by the construction company, Mathela said.

"Four companies have been assigned the task of constructing the road. These companies have been enlisted after their experience in constructing all-weather roads was scrutinised," the engineer said.

The 12-meter wide road would be constructed by 2019 for which time and cost has been fixed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), sources said.

"According to the design submitted by the construction companies, the protection of sliding portions on the road will be given equal significance to make it weather resistant," Mathela said.

The official said that 7,000 trees would be uprooted for the construction of the road.

"Once built it will be able to bear the weight and width of all defence armaments required at the time of an emergency at border posts along the India-China border which is 200km from the tail of the all-weather road in Pithoragarh town," he said.

The foundation stone of the 12,000 crore project was laid by PM Modi during the state elections earlier this year.

Cheers

[vijaykarthik]

NK has been put under the list of states which sponsor terror.

Cheen has two tellolist friends now: Pakistan and Nolth Kolea. Deepel than oceans and sweetel than honey. Tallel than mountains.

Excellent. Will Trump also announce a trade war with China?

[vijaykarthik]

China’s aircraft carrier conundrum: hi-tech launch system for old, heavy fighter jets
PLA Navy’s J-15s, based on a Soviet design more than 30 years old, are world’s heaviest carrier-based fighters

China’s second home-grown aircraft carrier could be a world-class warship if it uses a domestically developed hi-tech launch system, but the hefty fighter jets it would have to launch remain a fly in the ointment for the country’s naval power aspirations.
While Beijing is narrowing the aircraft carrier technology gap with the United States, the country’s carrier programme is still hindered by the capabilities of its carrier-based warplanes.
China spent more than a decade developing its first carrier-based fighter, the J-15, based on a prototype of a fourth-generation Russian Sukhoi Su-33 twin-engined air superiority fighter – a design that is now more than 30 years old.
Breakthrough to power most advanced jet launch system on China’s second home-grown aircraft carrier

The J-15, with a maximum take-off weight of 33 tonnes, is the heaviest active carrier-based fighter jet in the world but the sole carrier-based fighter in the People’s Liberation Army Navy. Its weight is one of the key reasons military leaders have pushed for the use of an electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) on China’s third carrier, construction of which is expected to start next year, rather than steam-powered catapults, a military source told the South China Morning Post.

“The maximum take-off weight of the J-15 fighter is 33 tonnes and experiments found that even the US Navy’s new generation C13-2 steam catapult launch engines, installed on Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, would struggle to launch the aircraft efficiently,” the source, who requested anonymity, said.
The US Navy also relied on a heavy carrier-based fighter in the past, the 33.7 tonne F-14 Tomcat. But they were replaced by the lighter F-18 Super Hornet in 2006 after 32 years of service. The maximum take-off weight of an F-18 Super Hornet is 29.9 tonnes according to the website of manufacturer Boeing.
How a luxury Hong Kong home was used as cover in deal for China’s first aircraft carrier

All carrier-based aircraft need to jettison their munitions and burn off their fuel before landing on a carrier to reduce runway damage and the risk of a fire or explosion. The empty weight of the F-18 is 14.5 tonnes, three tonnes less than the J-15, which means the J-15 causes more damage to a carrier runway when it lands.

“If China insisted on using steam-powered catapults to launch the J-15, it would look like forcing a toddler to run with [Chinese hurdler] Liu Xiang and [Jamaican sprinter] Usain Bolt,” the source said. “That would be so embarrassing!
“EMALS’ experimental results showed the new technology is able to catapult the J-15 fighter more easily and more efficiently. In the short-run, it’s impossible for China to produce lightweight fighters, so why not take the better route and use EMALS directly?”

The source said China was confident about its EMALS technology now that it was able to produce its own insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) chips, a key component of the high-efficiency electric energy conversion systems used in variable-speed drives, trains, electric and hybrid electric vehicles, power grids and renewable energy plants.
The technology was developed by China’s first semiconductor manufacturer, Hunan-based Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric, and British subsidiary Dynex Semiconductor after the Chinese company acquired 75 per cent of Dynex’s shares in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis.
China’s first home-grown aircraft carrier could join the navy ahead of schedule

An integrated propulsion system, a technological breakthrough developed by top PLA Navy engineer Rear Admiral Ma Weiming and his team, will enable China’s second home-grown aircraft carrier to use the world’s most advanced launch system for its fighter jets without having to resort to nuclear power.
An aircraft carrier uses a lot of electric power for take-offs and landings and the integrated propulsion system will be able to provide it. Ma has said experimental results showed the system could result in fuel savings of up to 40 per cent for an aircraft carrier.
EMALS, with a higher launch energy capacity, will also be more efficient than steam-powered catapults, allowing for improvements in system maintenance, increased reliability, and more accurate end-speed control and smoother acceleration.

In an interview with China Central Television broadcast on November 3, Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Equipment Research Centre, said China had done “hundreds of [land-based] tests” using EMALS with J-15 fighters in the past few years.
Yin’s comments indicate China might now have mature and reliable EMALS technology. But they also revealed an embarrassing fact: the next generation Chinese aircraft carrier, equipped with a US-style catapult launch system, will still be launching outdated fighter jets.
The US and the former Soviet Union had different combat strategies in mind when they designed their aircraft carriers. For the US Navy, carrier-based fighters were the key weapons of a carrier battle group, while the Soviets opted to add different types of missile launchers and warplanes and relied on an inefficient ski-jump launch ramp.

China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, and its sister warship, the 001A, which was launched in April, both have runways featuring ski-jump ramps, which limit them to launching one fighter jet at a time. The catapults used on US carries can launch up to four aircraft simultaneously.
“There are limits to China’s J-15 as it was developed based on the Su-33, which was designed for the former Soviet navy’s Kuznetsov-class carrier, the predecessor of the Liaoning,” another source close to the PLA Navy said.
The Liaoning, then an unfinished Kuznetsov-class carrier known as the Varyag, was bought by Hong Kong-based businessman Xu Zengping, a PLA Navy proxy, from a Ukrainian shipyard in 1998.
China's first domestically built aircraft carrier is launched at a shipyard in the northeastern port city of Dalian on April 26. Photo: Kyodo
China has been trying to develop a new generation carrier-based fighter, the FC-31, with a maximum take-off weight of 28 tonnes, to replace the J-15, and put J-15 chief designer Sun Cong in charge of the project.
Pictures posted on mainland military websites show that Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, the manufacturer of the J-15, has produced two FC-31 prototypes, with one debuting at the Zhuhai air show in 2014.

However, the two military sources said, the development of the FC-31 had not proceeded smoothly and it had failed to meet the PLA Navy’s requirements, with the key obstacle being what one described as “heart disease”.
“China is still incapable of developing an engine for the FC-31 fighter,” the first source said. “The FC-31 has needed to be equipped with Russian RD-93 engines for test flights.”
The second source said the FC-31’s failure to meet the PLA Navy’s basic requirements for a new generation fighter meant “that in the next two decades, the J-15 will still be the key carrier-based fighter on China’s aircraft carriers”.



http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomac ... Isdrjuah9f

[Chandragupta]

^^^the above article is highly misleading...

There are no civil courts in China. There are no lawyers in China. Small number of criminal courts are there run by party.

Say for example, someone rapes, police catches, there's no investigation, that person is guilty, and the court is there to award the quantum of punishment.

There's no recourse to civil litigation as there are no civil courts.

This is a revelation, I had no clue about this. No civil courts, no appeals in criminal cases even? How do other matters of civil law get dealt in China?

[TKiran]

This is a revelation, I had no clue about this. No civil courts, no appeals in criminal cases even? How do other matters of civil law get dealt in China?

There's no sanctity for written agreements with China. The party guys can change the agreements at any time.

But there's law prevailing in China. It's called "natural law". The "law in China" in one sentence is "HAATH MEIN PAISA, CH**T MEIN L*V*D*"

That law is as old as the profession of prostitution.

That's how the Chinese were able to fool the American corporations. Initially they will agree to all the conditions you put on paper. Later (once profits start) they will say, this condition needs special agreement, they will add some conditions such as "our party guy would be one of the board members", then they will say, we need additional investments, and the government will put the money, and we will have more members on the board, etc., I am not aware of any American corporation, which made profits in China.

[SSridhar]

This is a revelation, I had no clue about this. No civil courts, no appeals in criminal cases even? How do other matters of civil law get dealt in China?

It is all "People's Court" which means they come under the 'People's Congress' (say, Parliament). So, they are all effectively controlled by CPC. Unlike in our country, the judiciary is not an independent branch.

[vijaykarthik]

That's how the Chinese were able to fool the American corporations. Initially they will agree to all the conditions you put on paper. Later (once profits start) they will say, this condition needs special agreement, they will add some conditions such as "our party guy would be one of the board members", then they will say, we need additional investments, and the government will put the money, and we will have more members on the board, etc., I am not aware of any American corporation, which made profits in China.

This is true with their foreign policy and border settlements etc etc too. As I have mentioned multiple times earlier, people need to call out China a lot more and lot frequently and do a lot of media analysis and discussion on their perfidy as a country. Thats something media and the pillars of justice currently refuse to do.

[Peregrine]

Pakistan will be a 'priority' in neighbourhood diplomacy: China

BEIJING: China on Tuesday said Pakistan will be a "priority" in its neighbourhood diplomacy as the two countries are all-weather strategic partners and lend firm support to each other's core interests.

China and Pakistan held their '8th Round of Strategic Dialogue' at Islamabad on Monday co-chaired by Chinese assistant foreign minister Kong Xuanyou and Pakistan foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told media here.

During their talks, Kong said China and Pakistan are all weather strategic cooperation partners, Lu quoted him as saying.

"We have been according each other firm support on issues of core interests. China always regards Pakistan as our priority in the neighbourhood diplomacy," Kong said.

"China's development first and foremost should benefit our good neighbours, sharing will and wall, specially Pakistan. Going forward we will maintain this momentum, further advance China Pakistan relations and forge a closely- knit community of shared future," he said.

The two sides spoke highly of all-weather strategic partnership cooperation and will further implement the consensus reached between the two sides, Lu said.

Both the countries also move forward on the CPEC, (China Pakistan Economic Corridor) and all round cooperation and build community of shared future, he said adding that the two sides also exchanged views on issues of mutual interest.

For her part, Tehmina said strategic dialogue is an important channel for stronger cooperation and would like to give greater play for it and seek greater cooperation benefits, Lu said.

In Islamabad the foreign office said yesterday that Janjua and Kong also exchanged views on issues including the situation in Afghanistan, the new US policy in South Asia and matters relating to the Korean Peninsula.

Both sides held comprehensive discussions on the entire spectrum of bilateral ties. These included: the Belt and Road Initiative and specifically, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor; bilateral trade; defence; counter-terrorism; culture and people-to-people exchanges, it said.

According to officials, in Pakistan alone, China is reported to have committed to invest $50 billion and some estimates even put the amount to more than $60 billion in the ambitious CPEC project, connecting China's Xinjiang province with Balochistan's Gwadar port.

India has protested to China over CPEC as it traverses through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir(PoK) and boycotted a high- profile Belt and Road Forum organised by Beijing in May.

Cheers

[manju]

This is only a book review and yet I thought this should be here for the insights it offers. The book under review seems to be worth a read.

A China that Indians must know - Uday Balakrishnan, Business Line

At a little under 800 pages Becoming China:The Story Behind the State is a huge work on a humongous country, its resilient people and their vast history, from way back in time to almost today. The book targets a western audience but could as well have been written with India in mind. Reading it should vastly enhance our appreciation of a country we know so little about and only continue to view as an enemy with the oft repeated warning “Remember 1962!” ringing in our ears.

Anyone who read this book please post your comments. Want to know whether to buy or not

[vijaykarthik]

Beijing, Washington move closer to trade war as Donald Trump-led investigations target China
‘Washington consensus’ on China flips from encouraging engagement to retaliation and suspicion

US President Donald Trump’s mantra before and since his tour of Asia earlier this month touted the need for countries to accept each other’s unique characteristics to ensure prosperity for the world’s great civilisations.

The message of harmony might have offset discord caused by Trump’s harsh criticism of multilateral trade and investment deals during the trip. When it comes to civilisation, however, the course in Washington appears set for a clash rather than cooperation and mutual respect.
Amid a push by lawmakers to apply greater scrutiny to Chinese investments in the US, multiple investigations launched by Trump’s administration targeting China threatened to destabilise Sino-US close economic and cultural ties, which have underpinned prosperity for the Asia-Pacific region for decades, trade officials and analysts interviewed by the South China Morning Post said.
Investigations launched by US President Donald Trump’s administration targeting China threaten to destabilise close Sino-US economic and cultural ties, according to trade officials and analysts.
At one time, a “Washington consensus” had assumed closer economic integration with China would encourage Beijing to open its markets and provide greater opportunities for foreign companies. That agreement has now changed. Many policymakers in the US capital today say carrots are useless when it comes to dealing with China.
Republicans and Democrats now are wielding sticks.

But He Yafei, China’s former vice-minister of foreign affairs, said US lawmakers “should listen to all segments of the American people, not just the defence department”.
“We understand there are some strategic concerns about China, but we should not be hijacked by this extreme thinking,” He said.
Beijing’s top US envoy spurns critics of Xi-Trump summit results on North Korea and trade

The former diplomat was referring to a recently declassified US defence department study that mobilised lawmakers on both sides of the aisle with its assertion that China’s investment activity in the US “will directly enable key means of foreign military advantage”.
“Washington has been struggling for a long time about what is the best way to get China to adapt and change, what would work and what would also preserve the system, the global trading system that we have,” Scott Kennedy, director of the Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy at the Washington-based think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said.
A visitor experiences 5G video games at the 19th China Hi-Tech Fair in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. President Xi Jinping has made Chinese technological advancement a priority of his administration. Photo: Xinhua
“Trump is less risk averse than all of his predecessors,” Kennedy said. “The logic of the president [when negotiating with US companies operating in China] is that, ‘Yes, maybe you’ll lose some sliver of that current piece of cake that you have access to, but if you want to expand the size of the cake then you might potentially have access to China or elsewhere, then you have to be willing to put this current slice at risk’.”
Proposed changes to the way the US government reviews foreign investment gained more urgency owing to the defence department’s study, a 49-page document called “China’s Technology Transfer Strategy: How Chinese Investments in Emerging Technology Enable a Strategic Competitor to Access the Crown Jewels of US Innovation”.


The report, initially circulated among US lawmakers a few weeks after Trump took office in late January, addressed the government’s concerns about China at a very high level, even suggesting there was potential for a civilisational clash that Trump, in Asia, said countries could avoid if they played by mutually agreed-upon rules.
The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernisation Act, co-authored by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, a Republican, and Dianne Feinstein, a senior Democrat, has broad support in Congress. If enacted, the legislation would expand foreign investment review procedures overseen by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which is chaired by the treasury secretary and seeks input from the departments of defence and homeland security.
Significant changes to the CFIUS review process include giving it authority to review all “non-passive” investments by foreign entities and suspend pending transactions and impose new conditions, retroactively, on completed transactions. CFIUS now only reviews transactions in which a foreign party wants a controlling interest in a US company and makes recommendations to the president on the national security threat posed by a proposed transaction.
New requirements in the bill “have the practical effect of subjecting many Chinese acquisitions to mandatory review”, according to an analysis by US law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, which represents companies facing CFIUS reviews.

“The proposed [Cornyn-Feinstein] bill would constitute the most significant change in the last 10 years to US review of foreign investment and merits close attention, especially in the current environment where there is an increasing degree of protectionist rhetoric,” according to a memo by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, another law firm representing foreign companies investing in the US.
While CFIUS is designed to halt the transfer to US adversaries of advanced “dual-use” technologies – those that can be adapted for military use – lawmakers are calling for the process to cover transactions that would give Chinese companies control over large pools of personally identifiable data. Such data, analysts and other observers warn, could make government officials and active members of the US military vulnerable to blackmail or offers to engage in espionage.

The concern over access to data partly explains the delay in US government approval for Ant Financial’s US$1.2 billion takeover of US money transfer service MoneyGram. The buyer has been trying to secure the approval since April.
Many analysts and policymakers have pointed out that MoneyGram would not be allowed, under China’s laws, to acquire Ant Financial, further pushing the effort to crack down on Chinese investments in the US.
“We are not commenting on the CFIUS process, but we are continuing to work with the various regulatory agencies and remain focused on closing the transaction by the end of the year,” Ant Financial said in September. The company is a financial affiliate of Alibaba Group, which also owns the South China Morning Post.


Other threats to the US-Chinaeconomic relationship include an investigation under section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974 into Chinese regulations that force US companies operating in China to transfer technology and intellectual property rights to local business partners.
The investigation could lead to unilateral US trade remedy actions such as tariffs meant to compensate the US for losses American companies have sustained from Beijing’s trade regulations or a dispute settlement process within the World Trade Organisation.
“The outstanding question is, after the investigation concludes, if there are adverse findings, how our government handles these findings, whether they go forward with consultations to resolve the problem, or go with [a] dispute settlement in the WTO, or take unilateral actions like sanctions against China,” said Anna Ashton, director of business advisory services at the Washington-based US-China Business Council.

“If the government were to take unilateral actions, then there will be a risk that we will be out of compliance of our international obligations,” she said. “Then we will be starting a trade war, perhaps.”
In addition to CFIUS legislation and the section 301 investigation, the US Commerce Department since March has been looking into the impact on national security of imports of steel and aluminium, an initiative aimed at imports from China more than any other country.
Commenting on these investigations in July, Trump said of China: “They’re dumping steel and destroying our steel industry. They’ve been doing it for decades, and I’m stopping it. It’ll stop … There are two ways: quotas and tariffs. Maybe I’ll do both.”


Since Trump returned to Washington, there’s been no official effort on the part of China to defuse the concerns behind Cornyn and Feinstein’s bill or the government investigations.
“I don’t think there are so many projects Chinese are investing in here related to national security,” Li Bin, who heads the economic affairs section of China’s embassy in Washington, said. “In the past there were a few cases but not many.
“Recommendations by the US Congress to strengthen the CFIUS examinations or assessments of Chinese investments, they are not very constructive.”
Crops such as corn are among the largest US exports to China. Photo: Xinhua
The counsellor for economic affairs urged Chinese enterprises and CFIUS to engage more often in discussions that would reveal more “about the nature” of a project and its intentions. “Communication is very important,” Li said, adding that he is not aware of any effort so far to open such dialogue.
Spokesmen for the US chapter of the China General Chamber of Commerce, which represents more than 1,500 mainland Chinese enterprises operating in the country, said they could not find any CGCC members to comment on possible changes to CFIUS or other potential trade action by the US against China.


“The Chinese don’t want to be seen as directly lobbying on American legislation,” CSIS’s Scott Kennedy said. “They also know that the course of legislation is never straightforward and that there is a vigorous debate within the United States. If they are seen as overly poking their fingers into this, they could get burned.”
Still, China has many options when it comes to retaliation, and analysts expect Beijing to use them.
“If there’s trade tension, US companies will face certain risks on a number of grounds, including anti-monopoly laws, anticorruption laws and consumer protection laws,” Sherman Chu, a DLA Piper lawyer who advises companies undergoing CFIUS reviews, said. “Authorities in China have more discretion over how they go about interpreting the rules than they do in the US.
“China’s leaders have said that many international rules were set by other countries when China was weak and had little input. So it’s not a surprise that China hasn’t always been willing to live up to the spirit of these rules,” Chu said.

“There’s a risk of miscalculation resulting in a trade war, and the real question is whether the Trump and Xi administrations will be adroit enough to avoid it.”
Not all of Washington’s “China hands” agree that it is in the US’ interests to ratchet up trade action against Beijing.
“The impression I have is there are still unresolved disagreements within the Trump administration of how to deal with these [bilateral trade-friction] questions,” J Stapleton Roy, US ambassador to China under former presidents George HW Bush and Bill Clinton in the early 1990s, said.
Roy, who was born in China and raised there during the second world war and the communist revolution, is founding director emeritus of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, a Washington think tank.
“If we take unilateral actions against China, China will retaliate with unilateral actions against us,” Roy said. “Where is the net benefit? Who gains from that?”
Speaking at a lunch at the New York-based China Institute last week, vice-minister He addressed the geostrategic concerns around China’s new ranking among global powers.
“China wants to invest much more in the United States, but we’ve met quite strong political resistance,” He said. “I can understand the strategic anxiety on the part of the US about China’s growth. We are ready to move from prosperity to become a powerful nation, one of the global powers.
“For the US to feel anxious about China is understandable, but we should not let that anxiety take over, to become the sole guideline for foreign policy.”

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies ... Isdrjuah9f

[vijaykarthik]

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un ‘snubs’ China in failure to repay diplomatic favour
If confirmed, Kim’s unwillingness to meet Xi Jinping’s special envoy would underline Beijing’s limited influence over its neighbour, analysts say

The failure of North Korean and Chinese officials to arrange a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping’s envoy and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was a snub to Beijing and a further sign of strained ties between the communist neighbours, diplomatic observers said.


Song Tao, head of the Communist Party’s international department, wrapped up his four-day trip to North Korea on Monday, the first visit by a senior Chinese official since 2015.
Both Beijing and Pyongyang have tried to put a positive spin on the trip but have remained tight-lipped about whether the Chinese envoy met the reclusive North Korean leader.
Xi Jinping’s envoy heads home from North Korea but China silent on talks with Kim Jong-un

State media did not say if Song met Kim, a move analysts said suggested that such a meeting did not take place.
Although Song met Choe Ryong-hae, a vice-chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Kim’s right-hand man, and Ri Su-yong, Pyongyang’s top diplomat, analysts said his failure to meet Kim – if confirmed – was a deliberate snub to Xi and again showed Beijing’s limited influence over the unruly regime.

Repeating his comments on Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Tuesday that he had “no more details to offer about the specifics of the visit”.
Lu called for dialogue to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis after the United States rebranded Pyongyang as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Observers said the trip, which US President Donald Trump initially hailed as “a big move”, apparently made little progress in breaking the impasse over North Korea’s nuclear armament programme or stopping the downward spiral of distrust between Beijing and Pyongyang over Kim’s nuclear brinkmanship.
Donald Trump puts North Korea back on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism

Gu Su, a political analyst at Nanjing University, said Kim’s decision not to meet Song was also a departure from diplomatic protocol.
As part of a long-standing tradition between the parties, Song was tasked with briefing the North Korean leaders about China’s Communist Party congress last month, at which Xi was confirmed as the country’s most power leader in decades.
It is a sharp contrast to last year when Xi met Ri as Kim’s special envoy to Beijing after the North Korean ruling party’s congress.

“Reciprocity is an important part of diplomatic protocol, especially among communist parties,” Gu said. “Apparently, Kim was unhappy with Xi’s bonhomie during Trump’s recent China tour and Beijing’s decision to side with Washington on a spate of international sanctions against North Korea. The snub is likely to see Beijing’s relations with Pyongyang reduced to near freezing point.”
Sun Xingjie, an international relations expert at Jilin University, also said the snub was a clear sign that relations between the two communist parties had sustained irreparable damage over North Korea’s repeated nuclear provocations, which Xi has described as a threat to China’s national security.

China’s ties with North Korea have shrivelled this year since Beijing rolled out a series of economic and trade sanctions against its former communist ally. Although both parties still exchanged greetings ahead of the party congress last month, Xi has not met Kim, who came to power with the death of his father in December 2011.
North Korea detonated its sixth and the most powerful nuclear device on the opening day of a summit of emerging economies in Xiamen in September, a move also seen as a rebuff to Beijing.
“Although people may say Song was not as senior in the Communist Party hierarchy as previous Chinese special envoys, I think it is an unequivocal move against Beijing, showing Kim is refusing to discuss the possibility of denuclearisation or make any concessions on his ambitious nuclear and missile programmes,” Sun said.

Song’s trip showed that the world and even China had overestimated Beijing’s influence on Pyongyang, Sun added.
“The North Korean nuclear crisis has reached a point where both countries’ core interests are at stake and apparently neither side can afford to make compromises to solve their structural differences on the issue,” he said.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomac ... Isdrjuah9f

[vijaykarthik]

Mugabe’s exit will make Zimbabwe even closer to China, say Chinese analysts
Man poised to take over as head of state has previous ties to Beijing and the need to open up the economy will create further opportunities for cooperation, say observers


Robert Mugabe’s resignation in Zimbabwe after 37 years in power is likely to bring the African nation even closer to China, according to Chinese analysts.

Former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa is poised to take over as head of state after a military takeover finally forced Mugabe to quit.
China is already Zimbabwe’s fourth largest trading partner and its largest source of overseas investment, but these ties are likely to deepen under the new leadership if it attempts to open up the nation’s stricken economy, analysts said.

Mnangagwa also has ties with Beijing as he received military training in China during Zimbabwe’s fight for independence from colonial and white-majority rule.
Zimbabweans sang and danced in the streets after 93-year old Robert Mugabe announced his resignation on Tuesday.

The military takeover was sparked by the removal of Mnangagwa and fears within factions of the governing ZANU-PF party – particularly in the army – that Mugabe was attempting to make his wife Grace his successor.


The former vice-president received his military training in China in the 1960s and also attended the Beijing School of Ideology, run by the Chinese Communist Party.
Wang Hongyi, an expert at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Mnangagwa had a similar background to Mugabe in that he rose to power after fighting in the country’s struggle for independence.
Mnangagwa, however, appears less of a hardline nationalist in terms of his economic policies, according to Wang.


“Mnangagwa appears to be a more open-minded leader after he spoke openly against Mugabe’s nationalistic policies that have deterred foreign investment,” Wang said.
One example was his opposition to policies two years ago to make foreign firms sell stakes in their Zimbabwe ventures to local firms, said Wang.
Zimbabweans celebrate outside the parliament building in Harare immediately after hearing the news that President Robert Mugabe has resigned. Photo: Associated Press
Mnangagwa also told the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV two years ago that Zimbabwe was working on a massive economic reform programme and was looking to “create an investment environment which will attract the flow of capital”.
Western powers have imposed sanctions on Mugabe’s government over allegations of vote rigging and human rights abuses. Lenders such as the International Monetary Fund have also frozen financial aid since Zimbabwe defaulted on debts in 1999. Zimbabwe’s ostracism by the West has encouraged Mugabe’s government to foster closer ties with China.


Wang at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said Sino-Zimbabwe relations would only benefit if Mnangagwa opens up the economy, now suffering from massive unemployment, but he cautioned that the new president would still rule with an “iron fist”, with ZANU-PF still in control in Zimbabwe.
“He is surely a hardliner or else the coup would not have happened and he would not have the military’s support,” said Wang.
Mnangagwa was national security minister in the 1980s during a brutal crackdown against supporters of the rival ZAPU party, with thousands killed.


Shen Xiaolei, another foreign affairs expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Mnangagwa’s China-friendly attitude would gain him support from local Chinese businessmen in Zimbabwe.
“He is known to be very willing to join activities organised by Chinese groups across Zimbabwe,” Shen said. “If he has learned his lesson from his predecessor, he will be willing to run the country with a more open mind and have friendlier policies for foreign investment.”
Newspapers in Zimbabwe reporting on Mugabe’s resignation. Photo: Associated Press
There are more than 10,000 Chinese people living in Zimbabwe, according to the Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe, running businesses ranging from restaurants to manufacturing.
Chinese investment in Zimbabwe includes extensive spending in the nation’s energy sector.
State-owned Power Construction Corporation of China signed a US$1.2 billion deal to expand a Zimbabwean power station two years ago.


http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomac ... Isdrjuah9f

[Peregrine]

China for more dams on Tibetan rivers instead of Brahmaputra'

BEIJING: China, which is constructing many hydropower projects in Tibet, plans to focus on dam building on rivers close to its provinces and not on the Brahmaputra which sparked concerns in India, state media reported on Thursday.

China had last month rejected as "false and untrue" a media report that it was planning to build a 1,000-km long tunnel to divert water from the Brahmaputra river in Tibet close to Arunachal Pradesh to the parched Xinjiang region.

India, as a riparian state, had flagged its concerns to China about various dams being built by it on the Brahmaputra river, which is known in China as Yarlung Tsangpo.

An article in Global Times said that "the Jinsha, Lancang and Nujiang rivers are famous waterways in Tibet with enormous hydropower potential, but they do not run through India."

"This does not necessarily mean hydropower stations in transboundary rivers flowing from China to India, such as the Yarlung Zangbo River (Brahmaputra), will be isolated from the plan to transfer Tibet's electricity out, but they may be not the first choice," the article said.

The Zangmu dam over the Brahmaputra, which became partially operational in 2014, raised serious concerns in India as the first major hydropower project among few more planned by China on the trans-border river in Tibet.

The dam's reservoir capacity of just 86.6 million cubic meters of water accounts for a tiny portion of the average annual runoff of the Brahmaputra, the article said.

"In any case, India does not need to be oversensitive to Tibet's hydropower development plan," it said.

Tibet wants to accelerate water-resource exploitation and make it a new source of economic growth by selling excess hydropower to economically prosperous regions, it said.

"But there are still a number of challenges. Once hidden costs of transmission are considered, sending electricity over long distances is inherently inefficient.

"To transfer Tibet's electricity out, the exploitation of hydropower resources in the region is likely to be mainly concentrated on the Jinsha River, Lancang River and Nujiang River, which are located close to the border area between Tibet and other Chinese provinces," it said.

India's concerns figured in the official media coverage of the USD three-billion Suwalong project over the Jinsha river which state-run Xinhua news agency is proceeding smoothly.

The Jinsha is a tributary of the Yangtze river. The Suwalong project is located at the junction of Mangkam county of Tibet and Batang county of Sichuan province in southwest China. It will be the largest power station in Tibet upon completion, bigger than Zangmu dam over the Brahmaputra.

The power station has a designed capacity of 1.2 million kilowatts and will be able to generate about 5.4 billion kwh of electricity per year.

A 112-meter-high dam will be built to form a reservoir that can store about 674 million cubic meters of water. Generators are expected to start operations in 2021.

Cheers

[SSridhar]

Anyone who read this book please post your comments. Want to know whether to buy or not

Manju, at 800 pages it is going to take a long time to complete the book. I have ordered one already.

[SSridhar]

Australia urges strong, sustained US engagement in Asia, warns on China - Straits Times

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia called on Thursday (Nov 23) on the United States to build a strong presence in Asia and bolster ties with “like-minded” partners while warning against China’s rising influence.

A more insular United States would be detrimental to the liberal nature of the world’s “rules-based order”, the government said in a 115-page foreign policy white paper.

“Australia believes that international challenges can only be tackled effectively when the world’s wealthiest, most innovative and most powerful country is engaged in solving them,” the government said.

The white paper is a guide for Australian diplomacy and provides a roadmap for advancing its interests.

The election of President Donald Trump represented a step towards a more isolationist world, which could be negative for Australia’s export-dependent economy, commentators have said.

Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership regional trade agreement in January, shortly after he took office.

“Strong and sustained US engagement in the international system remains fundamental to international stability and prosperity,” the government said in the paper.

“Without such engagement, the effectiveness and liberal character of the international order would erode.”

Australia is one of the staunchest US allies and troops from the two countries have fought alongside each other in all major conflicts for generations.

But the economic growth and power that the United States has enjoyed since the end of the World War Two is now being challenged by China, Australia said.

Australia and China have close economic ties but China is suspicious of Australia’s close military relationship with the United States.
Australia warned in the paper of risks it faces, particularly in the “Indo-Pacific region” due to a shift in the balance of power.

It highlighted the South China Sea as a “major fault line in the regional order”, and said it was “partictuarly concerned by the unprecedented pace and scale” of China’s land reclamation and construction activities in the disputed waters.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular briefing on Thursday that the paper was on whole a positive assessment of China’s development, which he said adhered to the global rules-based order, and of relations between China and Australia.

But Lu said the paper did make “irresponsible remarks” on the South China Sea for which China expressed its concerns.

While the government recognised the economic benefits from China’s rise, it was also trying to “wish China away”, said Jane Golley, deputy director at the Australian Centre on China in the World, Australian National University. {Obviously, she is a China admirer}

“To actually drop the word ‘Asia’ from ‘Asia-Pacific’ undoes three decades of diplomatic effort,” Golley said, referring to the use of the phrase “Indo-Pacific” which came up 120 times in the paper. “Asia-Pacific” was not used once.

The United States and some of its allies have recently been talking up their vision of the “Indo-Pacific”, instead of the “Asia-Pacific”, in a play on words aimed at undermining the influence of China.

“There is a small reference to China’s geo-economic strategy in the paper but the emphasis is on the tensions that could create, rather than the economic benefits,” Golley said.

“We’ll have to see how China reacts to this but they’re not going to like this policy.”

Relations between Australia and China sank to a low point this year after Australia rejected high-profile Chinese investments, citing “national interest”.

Australia has also shown little enthusiasm for China’s ambitious Belt and Road initiative, which aims to connect China to Europe and beyond with infrastructure projects.

The initiative was mentioned just once in the paper.

“We are not embracing the future,” Golley said.

[vijaykarthik]

South Korea must keep THAAD’s prying eyes away from China, foreign minister says
Wang Yi meets his South Korean counterpart to pave the way for presidential visit next month

Beijing has again urged Seoul to ensure that a US anti-missile system installed in southern South Korea not infringe on China’s security interests.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi issued the call over the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in talks with his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha in Beijing on Wednesday.
Wang said Seoul should be committed to its earlier statement of not joining the US-led regional missile defence system.
“There is a saying in China that promises must be kept and action must be resolute. We hope that South Korea will continue to properly handle this problem,” he said.
The two foreign ministers were expected to lay the groundwork for a visit by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to Beijing next month.


Kang told Wang that the two nations needed to focus on normalising bilateral ties, something Moon and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on at talks on the sidelines of this month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
She called for China to “resolve difficulties” facing South Korean firms in China and “promote people-to-people exchanges” ahead of Moon’s visit.

Moon’s trip will be the first top-level visit between the two countries since ties were strained by China’s strong opposition to South Korea’s installation of THAAD.
Although Seoul and Washington insisted the sophisticated radar and interceptor missile system was to fend off North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, Beijing argued that THAAD could seriously undermine its security by penetrating into China.
The THAAD dispute froze economic and cultural links until the end of last month when the two sides made separate statements that they had reached some “initial” consensus.

The consensus included South Korea agreeing to not deploy more THAAD batteries, to not consider joining a US-led missile defence system, and to not engage in trilateral military cooperation with the United States and Japan.

It paved the way for meetings between Moon and Xi and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
“We attach importance to such statements by South Korea,” Wang told Kang.
Wang Sheng, a professor of Korean affairs at Jilin University, said both sides had a strong desire to repair the relationship because economic ties were in both sides’ interests.
Wang said they also had some common ground on the North Korean nuclear crisis in that they were both demanding the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
But the installation of THAAD had damaged mutual trust, he said.
“The THAAD issue left a deficit in mutual trust,” Wang said. “So to Beijing it is very important that South Korea keep its word and THAAD must truly not pose a threat to China’s security.”

I would say that trade is a missed opportunity. India vs China, on a per capita basis, consumer expenditure is much higher in India. If China tries to play its trade game with countries, India should ensure that they get into better deals with those countries so the countries has less incentive to get into a bad deal with China. In the long run, the Indian market will be more lucrative than any Chinese market. Why will the govt not utilise it to the hilt?

[Peregrine]

X Posted on the Analyzing CPEC & Terroristan Thread

China soiling its tlousels in all Colouls of the Lainbow as it despelately needs India to join CPEC & OBOR due to Tellolistan, Myanmal, Nepal & Bangladesh inability to develop tlaffic which India would genelate!

China hints it can rename CPEC if India joins OBOR initiative

BEIJING: The Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday responded to a statement by its ambassador in India, Luo Zhaohui, who recently said Beijing is prepared to rename the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to address India's concerns. The ministry neither endorsed nor denied Luo's statement, suggesting that it was encouraging Luo to negotiate with New Delhi over the issue, while ensuring that it did not upset Islamabad either.

The ambassador had said during a speech in Delhi last week that China "can change the name of CPEC" and "create an alternative corridor through Jammu & Kashmir, Nathu La pass or Nepal to deal with India's concerns".

In return, it was suggested that India join its One Belt One Road (OBOR) connectivity plan which desperately needs a boost from China's largest neighbour to its south. Chinese investments in Nepal and Myanmar are meant to pressure India to join the initiative but India has not responded to these overtures so far.

The fact that Luo publicly discussed the possibility of renaming CPEC twice indicates that he was acting on instructions from Beijing and not expressing his personal views, observers said.

The foreign ministry said on Thursday: "CPEC is an economic cooperation Initiative that has nothing to do with territorial sovereignty disputes, and does not affect China's and Pakistan's position on the Kashmir issue."

Experts said that the mention of Pakistan in the statement was significant because Beijing does not want to hurt sentiments in the country until its envoy in New Delhi manages to strike a deal. The fact that it is interested in negotiating with India, sources said, was evident from the foreign ministry not contradicting its envoy in New Delhi.

New Delhi believes Beijing has sided with Islamabad by including Pakistan's name in the project, which passes through a portion of Kashmir described as a part of India.

At the same time, India's refusal to join OBOR is one of the major hindrances in OBOR's growth. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made this clear when India became the first major country not to attend the OBOR forum in Beijing in May, whereas most western countries including the United States had sent official delegations.

"China is ready to strengthen connectivity with all neighbouring countries and promote regional economic cooperation and common prosperity," according to a translation of the ministry's statement which was released in Chinese.

"CPEC is a framework for cooperation focusing on the long-term development of cooperation in all fields. It is in the interest of both China and Pakistan. It is also conducive to promoting regional stability and development," it said.

Cheers

[SSridhar]

X-posted from India-Australia Thread

Growing role for India in Australia's new foreign policy document - Indrani Bagchi, ToI

Australia has embraced the "Indo-Pacific" in its new foreign policy white paper, with a growing role for ties with India and the "quadrilateral" with Japan, US and India+ .

Releasing the white paper, Malcolm Turnbull, Australian Prime Minister said his country was attempting to shape the Indo-Pacific region by linking up with countries who "share our interests and commitment to rules-based institutions."

However, the support for the "quad" is not uniform in the Australian political system. The opposition Labour party has clarified they had not yet signed off on the "quadrilateral" which is bound to act as headwinds for Turnbull's foreign policy - which appears predicated on maintaining close economic and commercial ties with China but strategic and security closeness with US, Japan, and even India.

"A good example is when officials of Japan, India, the US and Australia met in the margins of the East Asia Summit in Manila earlier this month+ . I discussed the importance of this initiative with Prime Minister Modi in Manila at our meeting. Another was my meeting with Prime Minister Phuc in Vietnam earlier this month, where we agreed to work towards signing a strategic partnership," the Australian PM said.

Addressing obliquely the strategic dilemma Australia faces, Turnbull observed, "This is the first time in our history that our dominant trading partner is not also our dominant security partner." China occupies a virtually dominant position in Australia's economy and society, but for security partnerships, the Turnbull government has been actively seeking the revival of the "quad" as well as participation in the Malabar naval exercises. This request was reiterated during the "quad" officials' meeting in Manila recently. Sources said the next meeting is a distance away, perhaps on the sidelines of another multilateral event.

Australia will also come out with an India strategy paper in the coming months which, sources said, would complement today's white paper.

Laying out the Australian vision of the Indo-Pacific, Turnbull said "might is not right." He described "a neighbourhood that is defined by open markets and the free flow of goods, services, capital and ideas. Where freedom of navigation goes unchallenged and the rights of small states are untrammelled. Where our shared natural bounty, our land and water and air, is cherished and protected and disagreements are resolved by dialogue in accordance with agreed rules and established institutions."

Rowan Callick, a columnist for The Australian in China, said even the word Indo-Pacific worries Beijing. "The term Indo-Pacific has become identified with the resurrection of the quadrilateral dialogue between India, Japan, US and Australia, viewed by some in China as a "containment" strategy, a word intended to arouse memories of the "century of humiliation by foreign powers" that occupies a central place in Chinese history books."

[vijaykarthik]

OTOH (on the other hand):

I wish Aus tells Beijing the all relevant parties act calmly and ensure that all relevant interests are taken care of without targeting any one single region.

Beijing criticises Australia over South China Sea policy

China has criticised Australia for making "irresponsible remarks" over the South China Sea in a policy paper.
On Thursday, Australia raised concerns about the "pace and scale" of China's activities in the disputed zone - part of a wide-ranging document setting out Canberra's foreign engagement strategy.
Beijing said the paper was generally positive towards China, but Australia should not get involved in the dispute.
The Australian government played down the criticism on Friday.
In a briefing on Thursday, China's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang noted that Australia had repeatedly pledged not to take sides over the South China Sea.
"Australia is not directly involved in the South China Sea issue," he said.
"So we would like to advise Australia to abide by its commitment and stop making irresponsible remarks on the South China Sea issue."
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told the ABC she had received feedback from Chinese officials that "they respect the stand we have taken".
What is the South China Sea dispute?
Map of South China Sea
Rival countries have wrangled over territory in the South China Sea for centuries, but tension has steadily increased in recent years.
Its islets and waters are claimed in part or in whole by Taiwan, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
Beijing has been building artificial islands on reefs and carrying out naval patrols in waters also claimed by these other nations.
In July 2016, an international tribunal ruled against Chinese claims, backing a case brought by the Philippines, but Beijing said it would not respect the verdict.
The frictions have sparked concern that the area is becoming a flashpoint with global consequences.
More: Why is the South China Sea contentious?
Canberra's foreign strategy
Australia's Foreign Policy White Paper, its first since 2003, is designed to set out the country's international strategy for the next decade.
Among its key points, the document argues the US will remain crucial to Australia's security, but says Canberra must build even deeper links with China.
"Australia will encourage the United States and China to ensure economic tension between them does not fuel strategic rivalry or damage the multilateral trading system," the paper says.
However, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Australia must also take responsibility for its own "security and prosperity".
"More than ever, Australia must be sovereign, not reliant," he writes in the paper's introduction.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-42104814

[SSridhar]

‘BrahMos increases strike range’ - Dinakar Peri, The Hindu

The successful test of the air-launched BrahMos cruise missile greatly enhances India’s strike range not just on the borders but across the Indian Ocean, a senior official intimately involved in the project said.

“China is increasing its presence in the Indian Ocean to safeguard its critical energy lanes. If fired [BrahMos] from Andaman and Nicobar islands, the whole of Malacca Straits gets within striking range. With BrahMos now on Su-30MKIs even Gwadar gets compromised. It gives striking range,” the official said on Thursday.

The air-launched version of the BrahMos was successfully tested for the first time on Wednesday from a modified Su-30MKI of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

An officer observed that the BrahMos inherently gave the capability to strike deep across the borders to take on high value targets without crossing the border. “With the air variant, the strike envelope is further widened and can be executed at short notice,” the officer added.

[SSridhar]

Tibet wants to stay with China, says Dalai Lama - ToI

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said on Thursday that Tibet did not seek independence from China but greater development.

Speaking at an interactive session hosted by the Indian Chamber of Commerce here, he said, "We are not seeking independence... We want to stay with China. We want more development."

He added, "Tibet has a different culture and a different script... The Chinese people love their own country. We love our own country."

He said, "From Yangtze to Sindhu rivers, major rivers ... come from Tibet. Billions of lives are involved. Taking care of the Tibetan plateau is not only good for Tibet but for billions of people."

[SSridhar]

Millions of officials urged to read Xi’s book - PTI

Chaiman Xi.

Millions of officials across China have been asked to study President Xi Jinping’s new book on governance, which contains his speeches, ideological thoughts and instructions, according to a notice issued by the ruling Communist party.

Mr. Xi, 64, who has emerged as the most powerful Chinese leader in the recent times, was conferred a second five-year term by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) at its Congress last month.

He has also acquired the status of Mao Zedong and his successor Deng Xiaoping in the party as he is the only leader after them whose thoughts have been included in the party’s Constitution.

For the second consecutive term, Mr. Xi heads the party, presidency and the military.

A notice released by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee said all regions and departments across the country should study Mr. Xi’s new book on governance.

The second volume of the book Xi Jinping: The Governance of China was published earlier this month.

The notice by the General Office of the CPC on forwarding the opinions of publicity and organisation departments of the CPC Central Committee regarding studying Mr. Xi’s new book was released recently, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

New concepts

Over the three years since the publication of the first volume in September 2014, Mr. Xi has continued to put forward new concepts, thoughts and strategies, enriching CPC theories, the notice said. It depicts the practice of the CPC Central Committee, with Mr. Xi at the core, in uniting and leading Chinese people to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era, it said.

It is a major political task of the whole party to study and carry out Xi Xinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at present and for the next period, the notice said. It also asked party organisations at all levels to study the first and second volumes so as to understand and better implement the new thought.

Studying the book should also be included in training at party schools and party committees at all levels, executive leadership academies and academies of governance, the notice added.

[vijaykarthik]

Tibet wants to stay with China, says Dalai Lama - ToI

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said on Thursday that Tibet did not seek independence from China but greater development.

Speaking at an interactive session hosted by the Indian Chamber of Commerce here, he said, "We are not seeking independence... We want to stay with China. We want more development."

He added, "Tibet has a different culture and a different script... The Chinese people love their own country. We love our own country."

He said, "From Yangtze to Sindhu rivers, major rivers ... come from Tibet. Billions of lives are involved. Taking care of the Tibetan plateau is not only good for Tibet but for billions of people."

Strange - why is he mentioning this now. The best thing he can do before his death is mention that Tibet is disputed and he doesn't accept China taking it over. That way, we can always keep the option open. Why will the Dalai say something as strange as this now?

[TKiran]

Please don't tarnish his highness Dalai Lama, toi has agenda and it's anti-national, we should not fall for toi's agenda,

[SSridhar]

Please don't tarnish his highness Dalai Lama, toi has agenda and it's anti-national, we should not fall for toi's agenda,

TK, do you mean to say, "We are not seeking independence... We want to stay with China. We want more development" was not said by the Dalai Lama and ToI imagined these words?

We all know that the Dalai Lama never advocated independence; he only wanted more autonomy.