People's Republic of China Nov 22, 2009

[rahuls]

I heard from some chinese that NTDTV is blocked in China as it has connections with Falungong members, not sure how far this is true.

[Suraj]

NTDTV is affiliated with, or strongly sympathetic to, Falun Gong. They also seem to be related to the Pan Blues (Kuomintang) in Taiwan, based on personal conversation with TW people, and therefore would espouse a nationalist Chinese perspective that isn't much different from the communist (mainland) Chinese one when it comes to their view of territorial claims. On the other hand, the KMT have no hope of retaking the mainland, so whatever NTDTV claims about Sino-Indian border issues has no credibility of any sort. If they make a big scene, a simple response it to tell them to first retake the mainland from the communists, and then come and argue with us.

[Sanjay M]

These days, KMT and Beijing are blowing kisses to each other, and they're on the same page on foreign policy. Rather than ineffectually telling the KMT to shut up, we should seek to challenge democratic credentials of KMT's returning One Party State if they continue to act like Beijing's parrot. Given the precarious political situation the mainlander minority faces in lording over Taiwan, it would be relatively easy for us to set a cat among the pigeons there, since any resulting instability would see tensions ripple across the region in a way that enhances India's value as a regional counterweight.

[A_Gupta]

Would there be any interesting security consequences of China being Christian?
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/ ... -in-china/

David Aikman is the author of a book, Jesus in Beijing (2003), in which he predicts a breathtaking future for Chinese Christianity. In a recent lecture which I attended, Aikman mentions a Communist party official who told him of a confidential estimate of 130 million. Aikman thinks that by about 2030 Christianity will have achieved cultural and maybe political hegemony in China.

[Sanjay M]

^^^ You always hear the Atlanticists ambitiously and giddily dreaming that Chinese will all deracinate to become loyal Roman Catholics. And then they will all loyally bow to Europe/Rome, and then this will see the Russians squeezed on both Eastern and Western fronts. This is like Brzezinski's wet dream that he fantasizes about, and which has him passionately and sweatily moaning at night.

A big Catholic pincer against Russia on its Eastern and Western borders, with the Islamists coming up from below. This would be the hedge against Europe's loss of America as their strategic vassal.

[TonyMontana]

^^^ You always hear the Atlanticists ambitiously and giddily dreaming that Chinese will all deracinate to become loyal Roman Catholics. And then they will all loyally bow to Europe/Rome, and then this will see the Russians squeezed on both Eastern and Western fronts. This is like Brzezinski's wet dream that he fantasizes about, and which has him passionately and sweatily moaning at night.

A big Catholic pincer against Russia on its Eastern and Western borders, with the Islamists coming up from below. This would be the hedge against Europe's loss of America as their strategic vassal.

I LOL'd. The Chinese are quick to adapt, but slow to change. Big difference. If, and that's a big IF, Christianity takes over China, it will be done with "chinese characteristics".

[Suraj]

These days, KMT and Beijing are blowing kisses to each other, and they're on the same page on foreign policy. Rather than ineffectually telling the KMT to shut up,

Ineffectually ? We aren't telling them anything. As to the other way around, what exactly are they effectively conveying to New Delhi ? Nothing. The KMT can blab hot air about AP and Aksai Chin all it wants out of some NY-based TV channel. Their words aren't worth anything until they retake Zhongnanhai.

we should seek to challenge democratic credentials of KMT's returning One Party State if they continue to act like Beijing's parrot. Given the precarious political situation the mainlander minority faces in lording over Taiwan, it would be relatively easy for us to set a cat among the pigeons there, since any resulting instability would see tensions ripple across the region in a way that enhances India's value as a regional counterweight.

Playing the Taiwan card against PRC is absolutely something India ought to do more. There are so many schisms between various factions, it's not hard to find the right horses to back at various times.

[Sudip]

China Tightens Grip on Tibet's Business Class

[krisna]

Xinjiang explosion

Officials said an ethnic Uighur drove a three-wheeled vehicle loaded with explosives into a crowd of people in the country's far west Xinjiang region on Thursday.

"But what the officials made very clear is that was intentional and that this was not an accident.

"The other thing that we are getting is that all of the dead and injured are ethnic minorities. In other words, no one of Han Chinese ethnicity was hurt or killed in the incident.

"So it is unclear at the moment what the intentions were."

Xinjiang has suffered ethnic conflict and separatist violence in the past. Last July, minority Turkic Muslim Uighers and China's majority Han clashed in ethnic riots, leaving nearly 200 people dead.

[anjan]

The Economist: Contest of the century

As China and India rise in tandem, their relationship will shape world politics. Shame they do not get on better

The Chinese trolls are out in numbers in the comments sections. I find it really funny how angry they get when being compared to India. I suspect that it's half the reason why the West increasing does it.

[ramana]

A-Gupta, The revolts agaisn the Emperor in the mid-1800s were all Christian based. Some think Mao was also a convert.

Read K.M. Pannikar's "Western Dominance in Asia"

[brihaspati]

Sinification of Christianity under a neo-Mao like "sinification of Marxism" and unleashed back on the western world - by a no longer insular and "inward looking onlee" China : that should be the worst nightmare of the preachers from west since the Gnostics!

[abhishek_sharma]

Is China Turning Japanese?
China is now the world's second largest economy. Here's why Beijing, not Washington, should be worried.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... ese_future

[Hari Seldon]

^^^ Yup, the jesuits for one, am told, feared their missionaries going native in exotic places and their worst fears came true with a number of their agents losing their way in Dharmadesam only.

Anyway, a new age chini xtianism - call it the church of Hesus and mao - could attempt a takeover or hijack of xtianity itself, perhaps, who knows? Oh, I forget, in the Taiping rebellion in cheen, the rebellion's fuhrer pronounced himself younger brother of christ or something.....

Maybe, in the next cheen-russia alliance, the orthodox church can align with the church of cheena? So many possibilities...

Meanwhile the crafty clueless chankian indics are at it trying to incorporate sri christ as some avatar of Vishnu only. And so on.

If religion is a tool of political powerplay, then expect some of the west's choicest tools to be contested only.

Islamic theology however, seems to me to be immune to hijacking only. So pure and true and watertight its injunctions be. I sometimes can't help but be impressed (and depressed) with the cleverness of its design.

JMTs and other standard disclaimers apply, as usual.

[wrdos]

Hmmm, >30% of the Xinjiang Police population are in fact from Uighur or other minorities. They are also targets of the terrorism.

In the several terrorism attacks right before the Beijing Olympic in 2008, also nearly half of the victims were Uighur people.

Xinjiang explosion

Officials said an ethnic Uighur drove a three-wheeled vehicle loaded with explosives into a crowd of people in the country's far west Xinjiang region on Thursday.

"But what the officials made very clear is that was intentional and that this was not an accident.

"The other thing that we are getting is that all of the dead and injured are ethnic minorities. In other words, no one of Han Chinese ethnicity was hurt or killed in the incident.

"So it is unclear at the moment what the intentions were."

Xinjiang has suffered ethnic conflict and separatist violence in the past. Last July, minority Turkic Muslim Uighers and China's majority Han clashed in ethnic riots, leaving nearly 200 people dead.

[paramu]

Meanwhile the crafty clueless chankian indics are at it trying to incorporate sri christ as some avatar of Vishnu only.

If somebody does this, that will show how clueless he/she is. There are many evidences to suggest that Buddha lived. But there is no proof that jesus lived on this earth.

[naren]

Meanwhile the crafty clueless chankian indics are at it trying to incorporate sri christ as some avatar of Vishnu only. And so on.

Yes, He is. Havent you heard, He survived crucifixion and lived in Kashmir for 120 years ? No after life. No kingdom of God. No second coming. No nothing

[SSridhar]

India asks China to act on the fake medicine case

Concerned over Chinese-origin fake “Made in India” medicines, which were seized in Nigeria in June, the Indian Government has raised the issue with Chinese authorities in India and China.

The Commerce Ministry has registered its concern with the Chinese Embassy in India and through the Indian embassy in China, an official familiar with the development told Business Line.

The authorities were asked to take action against those involved in misrepresenting products for wrongful gains, the official added.

Similar seizures had taken place a year ago as well, and India had taken up the issue then too with the Chinese authorities.

[Juggi G]

MPs Worried Over Threat from China

MPs Worried Over Threat from China
Published: Thursday, Aug 19, 2010, 20:24 IST
Place: New Delhi | Agency: PTI

Concern was voiced in Parliament today over the growing military threat from China in the wake of reports that it has moved longer range missiles close to Indian borders.

While a BJP member spoke in the Lok Sabha about Pentagon report on Chinese threat to India, a Congress member in the Rajya Sabha talked about the growing disparity in defence preparedness between the two countries.

Raman Deka (BJP) said during the Zero Hour that China has moved new advanced longer range CSS-5 missiles close to the borders with India.

Seeking a response from defence minister, he wanted better preparedness by India as there was not much infrastructure on the borders with China.

"We have not forgotten the 1962 war", he said adding there were no proper roads for the army to immediately move in case of any eventuality.

He said it was necessary for the government to take a "stringent view" of the Chinese moves and assure people that the country was safe.

In the Rajya Sabha, Ashwini Kumar (Congress) said India's Defence Preparedness against China was 1:5.

He said while the budget for China's defence is $150 billion, it was only $32 billion for India. While China has eight nuclear submarines, India has only one, he said.

"It is high time that rising India stops being apologetic about its need to increase its defence expenses," he said.

Kumar, who was supported by BJP members, said while India has to build good relationship with China, it did not mean that "we remain oblivious to the urgency of our defence preparedness...we must revisit our defence preparedness."

[Carl_T]

An Uighur Intellectual who won't back down.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/world ... china.html

[VinodTK]

Rising dragon, but whither the tiger?

Though China outranked Japan as the No. 2 economy a decade ago in purchasing power parity terms, by attaining this new economic ranking— higher gross domestic product (GDP) in absolute terms—China has regained the pre-eminent position it held in the 1820s when it was by far the world’s biggest economy and accounted for 30% of global GDP. Despite the formidable size of its economy then, China was outgunned and outmanoeuvred within 20 years by Britain during the Opium Wars of the 1840s primarily on account of the sorry state of its defence preparedness and technological backwardness.

This is one of the lessons that the modern mandarins of Beijing have imbibed; their defence budgets reflect this learning.

I wish the Indians leaders & bureaucrats read their history and follow the Chinese example.

[svinayak]

x post

Having said all that, I still have to wonder why the cheenis held off teaching us another '62 type lesson. Something must be holding them back. Of course, they could attack tomorrow and rubbish this theory but IMO we have a very limited window to clean up our act (2015-2020) latest. Only.

That is part of the strategy. PRC is part of the larger global plan to control the world economy, currency and demand so that other countries (read India) fall in line with the global elites.

[TonyMontana]

x post

That is part of the strategy. PRC is part of the larger global plan to control the world economy, currency and demand so that other countries (read India) fall in line with the global elites.

[Citation Needed]

[SSridhar]

The limitations of Chinese military power - by Dwayne A. Day in The Space Review

This past week the DoD released its annual report Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China. This is a new name for the report, which previously was called Military Power of the People’s Republic of China, but was euphemistically called “Chinese Military Power” by many, in a nod to a well-known series of bi-annual reports produced in the 1980s titled Soviet Military Power. (Somewhat humorously, despite the name change, the DoD used the shorthand “CMPR” for the new report’s file name.)

China’s space power

. . . there is relatively little information on China’s space program—a couple of pages at most, nearly identical to the text in the 2009 edition.

Over the years, the China report has promoted or demoted the threats of various Chinese weapons capabilities without any explanation. It has used dubious sources. And it has entirely missed reporting on actual Chinese space systems in development. Most notably, the 2003 version of the report stated that China was developing a direct-ascent anti-satellite weapon that could be fielded in the 2005–2010 timeframe. But the 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 reports did not mention the direct-ascent ASAT. Then, in January 2007, the Chinese tested such a weapon and created a large cloud of debris in orbit around the Earth. Later leaks from the Pentagon indicated that the intelligence community had been monitoring the weapon’s development and flight testing for some time. The lesson is clear: sometimes the report deliberately omits information about Chinese military activities, presumably to prevent the Chinese from knowing what the US intelligence community knows. That was a case of the page on ASATs being deliberately blank.

There is less information on Chinese space developments in the 2010 version than there was in the 2009 version. For example, the 2010 version has only a third as much text on China’s manned space program as the 2009 version. Whereas the 2009 version referred to China’s robotic lunar activities and plans, the 2010 version omits them, presumably because they are civilian and have no bearing on Chinese military capabilities. Both the 2009 and 2010 versions mention that China’s human space program has the goal of developing a permanently-manned space station by 2020 (and no mention about China landing a man on the Moon in the next decade, an occasionally-repeated claim made by some media sites and bloggers, for which there is no evidence).

Also omitted from the new version is discussion of China’s smallsat development work. There was a paragraph about small satellites in the 2009 version and it is unclear why this was not included in the latest version. Indeed, some media and bloggers have equated China’s smallsat development in general to a military threat, although their logic was dubious since nothing about a satellite’s size makes it inherently more or less dangerous than a differently-sized satellite. However, in the past, the China report has stirred up controversy by claiming that China was developing “parasitic microsatellites” that could attach themselves to American satellites and interfere with or destroy them. That claim was based upon the flimsiest of data and called into question the methodology and quality of the report, or at least its space section. Eventually the claim was omitted.

Something else missing from the report is any mention of China’s small Shenlong spaceplane research and development program. Is there no information in the report because the US intelligence community knows nothing about Shenlong, or is there no information because they don’t want the Chinese to know what they know? Alternatively, there could simply be nothing to report. But the lack of information itself is a puzzle.

The 2010 report contains more text than the 2009 version on China’s reconnaissance satellite efforts, noting that “China currently accesses high-resolution, electrooptical and synthetic aperture radar commercial imagery from all of the major providers including Spot Image (Europe), Infoterra (Europe), MDA (Canada), Antrix (India), GeoEye (United States), and Digital Globe (United States).” Needless to say, this imagery is being used by China’s military. As an old wag once said, the capitalists will sell the rope by which to hang them. Perhaps those concerned about China’s increasing military power should turn their attention to the western companies selling China high-resolution reconnaissance imagery.

The report has very little information on the development of China’s new Wenchang launch site, although presumably American satellites have been watching the construction there closely.

One recent development that occurred too late for inclusion, but will be interesting to watch, is the apparent Chinese effort to conduct automated rendezvous of two spacecraft in low Earth orbit, Shijian-12 and SJ-6F. The two satellites may have come within only a few hundred meters of each other in recent days, and there is even some evidence that they actually made contact on August 19. So far this has been unmentioned in the West. A Russian media article quoted the highly-regarded Russian space researcher Igor Lissov who said that there was no indication that the rendezvous was connected to China’s manned space program, raising the prospect that it might be an effort to develop satellite inspection or anti-satellite capabilities. Maybe this will be mentioned in next year’s

The threat from space

One of China’s recent military developments that received a lot of attention was the country’s work on an anti-ship ballistic missile which could fly up to 1,500 kilometers before homing in on a target such as an American aircraft carrier. Because it is ballistic, it would pose a greater challenge to defenders than a conventional sea-skimming cruise missile. In the past few months a DoD official stated for the first time that China was not only developing such a weapon, but was actually testing it, although some later comments indicated that the Chinese have so far not conducted full-scale tests.

American military officials have commented that they do not believe that China has mastered the C4ISR {Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Information, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance} required to usefully employ an anti-ship ballistic missile when they develop one. Admittedly, China has built some advanced radars for searching for ships, and made some general improvements in its maritime patrol aircraft.

But China has also stepped up its launching of surveillance satellites, launching its tenth Yaogan series satellite since 2006 on August 10. But understanding capabilities requires more than simply counting satellites in orbit, because the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts—or less, if China does a bad job of integrating its systems.

Understanding China’s newly-emerging C4ISR capability is undoubtedly a major challenge for the American intelligence community. But perhaps they can be forgiven if they don’t exactly want to put what they know into a report delivered to Congress—and the public—once a year.

[DavidD]

The limitations of Chinese military power - by Dwayne A. Day in The Space Review

What is this writer retarded? There's a public version of the DoD report and there's a classified one presented to the congress, of course some info will be omitted from the public version. In fact, the public version is pretty useless as it mostly just rehashes some old info from the public domain.

[Philip]

Enjoy this! China creates a new world record for the longest ever traffic jam.In the good old days of Chairman Mao,there was no pollution in Chinese cities as almost everyone used bikes or walked,but with its growth,based upon damnable western concepts of giving the motor car more importance to human beings,the Chinese are now enjoying that great American symptom of supposed progress,"gridlock".Instead,the PRC would be better off (so too would India) dramatically improving its public transportation network and rail services,both for inter-city and for urban transportation needs.

Chinese drivers stuck in the longest traffic jam
Authorities in China are racing to unscramble the world's longest traffic, a 60-mile tailback stretching from the capital Beijing to the northern province of Inner Mongolia.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... c-jam.html

[derkonig]

^^^
What?!!! Jam in PRC? You can't be serious. Don't they have maglev? Aren't their trains hurtling past at 400000000 kmph? Dont they have TFTA roads that stretch right upto Mt.Everest & even into that sprittist Tibet? Didn't Phook Sundari put up the pics of their TFTA highway system where everything moves in the direction & speed all scheduled down to the last centimetre by central planning? Tell me o tell me its not true.

[Karan Dixit]

“China currently accesses high-resolution, electrooptical and synthetic aperture radar commercial imagery from all of the major providers including Spot Image (Europe), Infoterra (Europe), MDA (Canada), Antrix (India), GeoEye (United States), and Digital Globe (United States).” Needless to say, this imagery is being used by China’s military. As an old wag once said, the capitalists will sell the rope by which to hang them.

This is serious. We should not be selling anything to China which can be used by Chinese military.

[anchal]

AoA! Some good news trickling in after lotsa doom and gloom

http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/aug/ ... border.htm

The government is considering the deployment of the 2,000 km range Agni-II and 350 km range Prithvi III surface-to-surface ballistic missiles close to the Chinese border, Defence Ministry sources said in New Delhi.

The sources said that additional land was being procured by the Army in North-West Bengal and adjoining states for deployment of these missiles

[krisna]

Embraer sends crew to probe China plane crash

A crew of technicians at Embraer, the world's largest maker of regional jets, flew on Tuesday to China to investigate a crash of one of its ERJ-190 planes, which has been called the Asian nation's worst accident in recent years.

The passenger plane, which belonged to Henan Airlines, overshot the runway in the airport of Heilongjiang, northern China and burst into flames, killing 43 of 96 people aboard.

[krisna]

Quarter of a million evacuated as river floods in northern China

FLOODING HAS forced more than 250,000 people out of their homes in northern China, near the North Korean border, as the Yalu river reached its highest level in more than a decade.

Floods halt shipping at China's Three Gorges dam

Authorities have halted shipping through China's massive Three Gorges Dam on the upper reaches of the Yangtze river because the dam will experience another flood peak Tuesday

This has been the worst year in a decade for floods and landslides in China, with widespread evacuations and washed out villages.

[krisna]

How Nature and Policy Produce China’s Record Floods

According to Dr. Wang, the leaders of Chinese regional governments hope to use development, in particular the development of water resources, to display political achievements. They often pay attention only to immediate personal benefits they gain from construction projects and ignore the long-term interests of the citizenry.

The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters published statistics on July 30 that said that this year in China a total of 28 provincial cities have experienced floods, destroying 9,172 thousand hectares (approximately 23,000 acres) of crops and affecting 137 million people, killing 991, leaving 558 missing, collapsing 1.07 million houses, and threatening 10 million people, with direct financial losses of 193.5 billion yuan (approximately US$28.5 billion).

compare baki floods

Dr. Wang believes the overdevelopment of China’s rivers, including the building of large numbers of water reservoirs, has led to China’s river landscape losing the ability to regulate itself. And that is the biggest reason for the seriousness of the floods this summer. Currently in China, there are 86,000 reservoir construction projects, the highest number in the world.

In China, regional governments can apply for funding to build reservoirs in the name of producing electricity and prevent flooding. A high-ranking expert who wished to remain anonymous told The Epoch Times that the hydrological bureaus in the regional governments actually welcome floods because “this way the central government will invest more funds to engineering projects.”

“It’s like bad doctors who wish more people will become ill so they can make more money,” the expert said.

China Floods May Be Sign of Wider Problems

China's future lies in its water. But after the drought in the southwest during the first half of the year, many note that its water resources have reached an impasse. “The Chinese nation has reached a most dangerous time—no water, and hence no agriculture,” in Wang’s words.

Northern China experienced severe drought in 2009, which the massive (and still unfinished) South-North Water Transfer Project was supposed to solve. It is planned to divert water from the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to meet the development requirements of northwest and northern China.

Under the banner of “developing Tibet,” Wang says, the regime sends officials, who belong to the Han ethnic group and have lived outside of Tibet their whole lives, on several year-long assignments. As such, they concern themselves only with short-term accomplishments to gain promotions.

Previously, the Tibetan grassland was so thick that even the rats could not dig holes in it, Wang says, but now they dominate the area. The underground water level has dropped as a result.
“In fact, the Han officials’ stationary [grazing] policy has failed several times in history and has caused the collapse of dynasties. The Han Dynasty is an example.”

Experts say that generally the usage rate of a river should not exceed 15 percent of its volume, five percent being the ideal. According to Wang, however, the usage rate of many rivers in China is 100 percent, meaning that the capacity of the reservoirs has reached the flowing capacity of the river.

He illustrated China’s river predicament with a vivid example: “We all know that the kidneys cleanse the human body. If one sells one’s kidney for profit, it is just like the profit from hydropower stations. Since one has lost one’s cleansing organ, he has to buy a machine to clean his blood. The same situation applies to the river where water filtration plants have to be built.”

In the Chinese context, this is all in pursuit of GDP growth. “A person with a healthy kidney does not need a blood-cleansing machine, but produces no GDP. He sells his kidney to increase the GDP. Then he buys a blood-cleansing machine, which even increases the GDP more,” Wang said.

“The Chinese regime’s way of calculating things is different from that of other countries.”

[Philip]

The perfect example is whar China did during the " Cultural Revolution".In order to show massive steel production,and meet party targets,the Chinese took metal utensils,machine parts,virtually anything made from steel regardless of whether it was of use to them in their daily lives and sent it to factories that melkted the lot and produced third rate ingots incapable of being used for any worthwhile purpose.The coming Chinese inability to feed itself is the world's greatest threat to instability as this will make China terribly agressive and seek what it needs for its people oitside its national boundaries.

[Philip]

More on the "Great Wall" of traffic of China!

The 100km traffic jam just seems to be getting worse with its unravelling expected to end only by the month end.500+ cops are being drafted in to prevent the spate of highway crimes taking place all along the jam.This reminds me of the "Doctor Who" episode where he is caught in a vehicle jam which was going on for years!

Excerpt:

The ten-day traffic jam driving China mad

Motorists are currently stuck in the world's worst roadworks, with 60-mile tailbacks and days of delays

By Clifford Coonan
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Congestion in Beijing: China's double-digit economic growth has played havoc with its infrastructure

In a list of the top places to spend the summer, a motorway just outside Beijing beneath a pall of smog and battered by ferocious heat would probably not feature. But some have little choice. For five days, thousands of Chinese motorists have been stuck in the world's worst traffic jam that stretches for 60 miles. And even worse, the 10-day queue is expected to remain backed up until at least the end of the month.

The mother of all road works have spawned a temporary and very slow-moving community. Truck drivers, their vehicles packed with coal from Inner Mongolia, wash themselves in the scorching heat by the roadside, play cards to pass the time, and sleep beneath their lorries. Occasionally they get back into the vehicles to move forward a few inches – then turn off the engines and get out again.

The ultimate driving nightmare has led to authorities posting 400 police officers in the area to prevent the frustrations of drivers from boiling over and to try to prevent criminals taking advantage of stationary vehicles to rob motorists. "One night, around eight robbers attacked six trucks and cars, and ran away with a total 60,000 yuan (£7,000). One of the old drivers we know was even injured and the windshield of his truck was broken," a woman with the surname Ding, the wife of one of the drivers, told the Beijing Morning Post.

•Clifford Coonan: Gridlock hell is an everyday event in Beijing

Many of the drivers are remarkably resigned to such huge tailbacks as China's double-digit economic growth played havoc with the country's infrastructure. They are accustomed to long delays – though not quite this long. Some have been stuck in the jam for five days, China Central Television reported.

Road construction projects are struggling to keep up with the demands put upon them by the country's need for raw materials to be moved around the country.

There is no sign of things getting better anytime soon. Major road construction under way means that this stretch of highway could be backed up until the end of the month. In one section of the jam, vehicles can move little more than a half a mile a day, according to Zhang Minghai, the director of Zhangjiakou city's traffic management bureau.

Video: Road to hell
One driver was furious at the extortionate prices being asked for basic provisions by the roadside hawkers who have moved in. A bottle of water can cost about £1 – about 10 times the usual cost. "And if you don't buy from them, they will hit your window with bricks," said Mr Zhang.

The Beijing-Tibet Highway has always been a busy thoroughfare for transporting coal, iron ore, fruit and vegetables and other goods. The roads worst affected, the Beijing-Tibet Expressway and the G110, are two of the major routes leading to Beijing and are for lorries carrying less than four tonnes.

One driver named Lu was bringing coal from Hohhot, in Inner Mongolia, to Hebei province, near Beijing – a journey that normally takes a day, but has so far taken four. "I can only wash with the water stored in the water-box of the truck, and I need to ration it. I brought some instant noodles with me, but I don't have the hot water to cook them. The hot water they sell costs almost... the same as the instant noodles," he said.

Another driver from Shandong province in north-west China said how he had been eating instant noodles and ham sausages at every meal. "Also there is no toilet, so everyone just uses the roadside – everyone's getting used to it," he said.

August is the time of year when coal is traditionally moved. It is mostly transported by road, even though there are plans to expand the rail network to allow more to be moved by train. Coal accounts for 69 per cent of the primary energy in China.

During last year's massive economic stimulus plan, money went into upgrading the country's road network, and, while there have been major improvements, some are toll roads and lorry drivers prefer to use cheaper secondary roads, which remain in poor repair. It's not just China's roads that are experiencing difficulties. Although the construction of new ports has eased the situation somewhat, it was only three years ago that scores of container ships carrying iron ore were backed up outside China's main ports.

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[arindam]

Not sure if this is posted somewhere else or not.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 442437.cms

China denies visa to top general in J&K

However, Delhi was stunned when Beijing responded to his nomination by saying that it was unwilling to "welcome" Gen Jaswal because he "controlled" a disputed area, Jammu and Kashmir.

Beijing, in fact, also denies visas altogether to the residents of Arunachal, claiming them to be Chinese citizens. Still, it did not have any hesitation in "welcoming" Gen J J Singh as the head of the Eastern Command in May 2007.

[svinayak]

Not sure if this is posted somewhere else or not.

China denies visa to top general in J&K
However, Delhi was stunned when Beijing responded to his nomination by saying that it was unwilling to "welcome" Gen Jaswal because he "controlled" a disputed area, Jammu and Kashmir.
Beijing, in fact, also denies visas altogether to the residents of Arunachal, claiming them to be Chinese citizens. Still, it did not have any hesitation in "welcoming" Gen J J Singh as the head of the Eastern Command in May 2007.

India has to deny entry to PRC president Hu since he controlled Tibet directly when he was province head.

[Suppiah]

For all its toilet paper quality of journalism and tabloid instincts, we should be grateful to sections of our media for highlighting such issues. If we only read Chennai yellow pages and Stalinist yellow journalists and their 'american' owners such news gets blacked out...

[ManjaM]

Chinese army in control of much of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, says expert

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_ch ... rt_1429779

The storm over China’s denial of a visa to an Indian general serving in Jammu & Kashmir may be only a “diversionary sideshow” compared to another far more serious development — the “effective control” by the Chinese army of large swathes of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), strategic analysts told DNA.


“A large tract of territory in PoK is now under the effective control of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA),” a Singapore-based analyst who returned recently from Afghanistan said on the condition of anonymity.

The development holds “enormous significance” for India’s security interests on its north-western border, far more than the “storm in a Chinese tea-cup” over China’s denial of a visa to Lt-Gen BS Jaswal, he added.

Indian officials say they are aware of the presence of Chinese troops in PoK. An external affairs ministry spokesperson told DNA on Friday: “We are aware of the activities in PoK.We have categorically stated that the entire state of Jammu & Kashmir is a part of India and any activity should take place with our permission.”

Asked if the government was specifically aware of the presence of the Chinese army and other agencies in building roads, he said: “We are aware of it and we have made our views known.”

Asked about the Chinese response, he added, “We have made our position clear and the Chinese are aware of it.”

The denial of visa, on the ground that Jaswal was in operational command of Jammu & Kashmir, which China considers disputed territory, provoked a strong response from India on Friday.

The Chinese ambassador was called to the foreign ministry and visas denied to some Chinese military personnel. Demarches were also sent to Beijing to protest the denial of a visa to Lt Gen Jaswal.

China has in the past circulated maps depicting Kashmir as a ‘country’ separate from India, and controversially granted stapled visas to travellers from the state.

Some analysts point out that China’s latest provocation comes amidst increasing signs of Chinese assertiveness on other frontiers. “It’s difficult to say how this decision was made by China’s intricate bureaucracy, but it comes at a time when Beijing is flexing its muscle in various territorial disputes,” reasons Jonathan Holslag, research fellow at the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies and author of China and India: Prospects for Peace.

“Clearly, China has upped the stakes in the conflict over Arunachal Pradesh, but now Kashmir too is rising again to prominence as a bargaining chip and a crucial strategic corridor,” Holslag noted. China, he added, is “increasingly visible in all kinds of construction and water management projects” in PoK.

Other analysts see China’s pin-pricks vis-a-vis Kashmir and its on-the-ground activities in Pakistan as part of a strategy to keep India preoccupied with its western border, and away from China.

“China’s consistent strategy for more than a decade has been to keep India distracted towards the north,” says John Lee, a foreign-policy research fellow at the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies and a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Lee reckons that the visa denial may be tied to a “perception within Chinese strategic circles that India did not respond positively to China’s ‘soft’ approach of recent years - and, on the contrary, strengthened strategic relations with the US and with countries in South East Asia.”

Chinese strategic circles are pitching for a “hardening” of China’s relationship with India “because they believe they don’t have much to lose, given what’s happened in the last few years.”

China believes India is becoming much more assertive strategically in south-east Asia, he adds.
Prof Dibyesh Anand of the University of Westminster in London points out that in recent years there has been a strident articulation of China’s “core national interests”, and the “change of tack in Kashmir” - if confirmed as official policy - could be “part of this assertion”.India, adds Anand, should seek clarification not only on the denial of the general’s visa but on China’s position on Jammu & Kashmir.

“When China insists that India repeatedly iterate its recognition of the Tibet Autonomous Region as part of China, there’s no reason why India cannot seek a similar clarification.” And if, he adds, China views the entire Jammu & Kashmir as disputed territory, “India needs to rethink its entire China policy - because this will clearly be an interference in India’s internal affairs and in bilateral relations with Pakistan.”

But looking beyond the latest episode, Anand says that a resolution of the Sino-Indian border dispute is critical. “Cooperative relations between the two countries will not count for much so long as the border dispute is alive.” And, in his estimation, the border dispute is “not only about strategic priorities but more importantly about nationalist narratives.” In these narratives, China sees India as an “irritant, a country willing to work with the US to harm China.” India, on the other hand, sees China as “untrustworthy and working closely with Pakistan.”

And Indian and Chinese leaders, says Anand, “have shown no interest in changing these nationalist narratives.”

Holslag believes that “as much as China is struggling with a growing sense of strategic claustrophobia, other powers are fretting about what they perceive as China’s growing assertiveness.” These security dilemmas, he adds, “will become more pressing in a region where balances of power alter rapidly, especially when territorial interests are at stake.”

As for India’s response to the latest provocation, “escalation management is the key,” says Holslag. India, he notes, has responded “proportionately by blocking a few visits, while keeping most military exchanges on track.” But with continued “wrangling over Pakistan, proliferating trade disputes, hardening positions in border negotiations, and growing nationalism,” Sino-Indian relations will become “increasingly difficult to manage,” he reckons.

[arindam]

X-posting from china military watch...

Tit for tat......

Visa row: India reads out riot act to Chinese envoy

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 447854.cms

India summoned the Chinese ambassador on Friday and has refused to allow visits of two Chinese military officials to protest against Beijing's refusal of a visa to a general in the Indian Army.

India was also cold to China's fence-mending bid by offering to send a colonel-level official to New Delhi for talks with joint secretary (international cooperation) in the defence ministry. With passions running high, there was no certainty that the government would allow the visit scheduled for September 7.

Chinese ambassador Zhang Yan met joint secretary (east Asia) Gautam Bambawale in the foreign office to discuss the issue against the backdrop of outrage in India over the the provocation and Beijing's anxiety to de-escalate tensions. The message India gave was that China was solely responsible for the current fracas and that the onus of untying the knot rested with it, said sources.

[krisna]

India Seeks Aid in Blocking China-Pakistan Atomic Deal

New Delhi is using "back channels" in seeking assistance from six Nuclear Suppliers Group nations: Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland. The six nations previously collaboration in an unsuccessful bid to prevent the group from giving New Delhi a waiver to import nuclear materials and technology.

There is a specific plan to make them realize what is going on as they opposed [the] nuclear commerce waiver for India right till the end in 2008," a source said. "We want to see how they react now as China has completely ignored them in going ahead with its plan to supply fresh reactors to Pakistan."

Many of the less-powerful NSG states are privately furious over Beijing's handling of the matter, according to an official. New Delhi hopes to use this anger in mounting a wider NSG campaign against the deal.

New Delhi maintains Beijing cannot grandfather the new reactors into the Chashma site as it has not mentioned the matter since joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group. China only declared its intentions once India had already achieved a breakthrough in winning an NSG waiver to rejoin the international civilian nuclear marketplace after years as an atomic pariah

whether china is undeterred or not , pressure must be applied in every field diplomatically and keep an aggressive posture. Keep the ammo dry.