torsdag 27. juli 2017

Why North Korea still hates the United States: The legacy of the Korean War


The pause button was hit on the Korean War 64 years ago Thursday. Its legacy of destruction lives on. In just three years, the war claimed the lives of millions of people and forever changed the Korean Peninsula. "We went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway, some way or another, and some in South Korea, too," said former US Air Force commander Gen. Curtis LeMay in 1988, during an interview for an Air Force military history volume.

By the time the armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, North Korea -- which began the war with a population of 9.6 million -- had suffered an estimated 1.3 million civilian and military casualties, according to figures cited by the US Air Force. South Korea, meanwhile, suffered up to 3 million civilian and 225,000 military casualties, from a total population of around 20.2 million in 1950.

Kim Jong Nam: The plot to murder North Korea's exiled son

Two women from humble backgrounds in Indonesia and Vietnam are the only people charged in the world's most high-profile murder mystery. Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong face the death penalty if they are convicted of murdering Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and half-brother of the country's current ruler, Kim Jong Un. Aisyah and Huong, who claim they were duped into doing it, are both expected to plead not guilty to murder at Malaysia's High Court Friday, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, the lawyer for Huong said. "She's a bit anxious about the trial, but she feels confident," he said after visiting Huong Thursday. "She knows she is innocent."

Rasmus Hanssson og Une Aina Bastholm: Knefall for Kina koster



Menneskerettigheter er folkerett. Små land som Norge er avhengige av at det mest mulig er folkerett, ikke nasjoners kjøttvekt, som rår i internasjonal politikk. Kina har ratifisert en rekke menneskerettighetskonvensjoner som de bryter daglig.

Kina truga Vietnam til å stoppe oljeleiting


Kina skal ha truga Vietnam til å stoppe ei nyleg påbegynt oljeleiting i Sør-Kinahavet, i den siste av ei rekke episodar der stormakta hevdar sin rett i det omstridde havområdet. Det er BBC som rapporterer om dette, basert på kjelder i det vietnamesiske diplomatiet og det spanske oljeselskapet Repsol, som var ansvarlege for oljeleitinga i det dei omtaler som blokk 136–03. – Dette er ikkje overraskande, seier seniorforskar ved fredsforskingsinstituttet PRIO, Stein Tønnesson til NRK, og viser til at det har vore ein dragkamp mellom Kina og Vietnam om oljeboring i dette feltet i fleire tiår.

Big year for China's military as PLA to celebrate 90th birthday



The PLA has come a long way since its birth during the armed uprising in the city of Nanchang on August 1, 1927, when it had only 20,000 soldiers. Ninety years later, the country boasts 2 million servicemen, according to a national defense white paper titled "China's Military Strategy," published in 2015. Besides the growth in numbers, the PLA has armed its soldiers with world-class equipment. As of June 2017, the Chinese military had participated in 24 UN peacekeeping missions, sending 31,000 personnel, 13 of whom lost their lives in duty. Since 2008, the Navy has dispatched 26 escort task force groups, including more than 70 ships for escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia. More than 6,300 Chinese and foreign ships have been protected during these missions.

Satellite photos reveal underground construction at Chinese military base in Djibouti

New satellite imagery of China's first overseas military base reveal it to be bigger and more secure than previously thought. Two images provided by Stratfor Worldview and Allsource Analysis show the base in Djibouti, located at a strategic choke point on the Horn of Africa, to be heavily fortified with three layers of security and has about 23,000 square meters (about 250,000 square feet) of underground space, according to analysis provided by Stratfor.

"This type of construction is in line with known Chinese practices in hardening their military bases. The underground structures allow for unobserved activity, as well as offer protection to vehicles or facilities critical to the Chinese mission in Djibouti," Stratfor, a geopolitical intelligence firm, said in an analysis accompanying the images.

Britain's new aircraft carriers to test Beijing in South China Sea

Boris Johnson has committed the UK’s two brand new aircraft carriers to freedom of navigation exercises in the fiercely-contested waters of the South China Sea. In a pointed remarks aimed squarely at China - whose island-building and militarisation in the sea has unnerved western powers - the Foreign Secretary said that when the ships are in service they would be sent to the Asia-Pacific region as one of their first assignments.

“One of the first things we will do with the two new colossal aircraft carriers that we have just built is send them on a freedom of navigation operation to this area,” Johnson said in Sydney on Thursday, “to vindicate our belief in the rules-based international system and in the freedom of navigation through those waterways which are absolutely vital for world trade.”

China closes off big chunk of Yellow Sea for military drills

The Chinese navy is closing off a large portion of the Yellow Sea for two days of large-scale military activities beginning Thursday, according to a state-run newspaper. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) announced that ships will be forbidden from entering a 40,000-square-kilometer (15,444-square-mile) block of ocean off the coastal city of Qingdao, according to the Weihai Evening Post newspaper, which is run by the Weihai city government. The move comes just days before the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA, which will be celebrated on August 1.

onsdag 26. juli 2017

Kina knebler all opposisjon - og verden tier


Et Midtens rike på fremmarsj er seg bevisst sin posisjon som en stadig viktigere global partner og forlanger at også omverdenen skal tie om dem som har tillatt seg å utfordre makten i det den norske Oxford-professoren Stein Ringen har kalt Det perfekte diktatur. Og ledere fra de fleste land nøler med å provosere ved å ta opp den asiatiske stormaktens menneskerettighetsbrudd. Så avgjørende stor vekt legger de på samarbeid om økonomi og handel, løsning av Nord-Korea-konflikten, globale sikkerhetsspørsmål og terrorismeutfordringer og felles klimainnsats.

Skal bli verdensledende

Kinesiske entreprenører og selskaper som har ambisjoner om å bli ledende innenfor kunstig intelligens (artificial intelligence – «AI») vil få full støtte fra staten. Målet er å bygge en industri som er verdt mer enn 10.000 milliarder yuan (12000 milliarder kroner). Ifølge konsulentselskapet PwC vil kunstig intelligens tilføre verdensøkonomien 15.700 milliarder dollar årlig i 2030 – nesten like mye som det amerikanske bruttonasjonalproduktet i 2016.
Det globale bruttonasjonalproduktet vil bli 14 prosent høyere enn det er i 2017 takket være kunstig intelligens, ifølge konsulentselskapet.

Liu Xiaobo’s Three Refusals: No Enemies, No Hatred, No Lies



In the spring of 1989, Liu Xiaobo was a thirty-four-year-old professor of literature and philosophy at Beijing Normal University with a keen interest in political ideas, who when demonstrations broke out, quickly became a habitué of Tiananmen Square. Having written a doctoral thesis on the topic of aesthetics and human freedom, he was a prolific if acidic writer, a loner and iconoclast who believed that the most worthy role of intellectuals was to “enunciate thoughts that are ahead of their time” and to strive for a vision that is able “to stretch beyond the range of accepted ideas.” He believed that a truly autonomous intellectual must be “adventurous” and “a lonely forerunner” whose true worth would be discovered “only after he has moved on far ahead.

Construction in China's 'skyscraper capital' shows little sign of slowing

The city's relationship with high-rises goes back to 1980, when China's reformist leader, Deng Xiaoping, declared that a swath of farmland along the Hong Kong border would become a so-called Special Economic Zone. The decision meant that companies could operate with fewer of the restrictions of a planned economy -- China's first major experiment with free markets since the Communist revolution of 1949. Investors from Hong Kong -- and beyond -- rushed across the border to build factories and other businesses.

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Kinesisk undersøkelse: Halvparten av Kinas millionærer vil ut av landet



– Utdanning og forurensing driver Kinas rikeste til å emigrere, sier forsker Rupert Hoogewerf, som ledet spørreundersøkelsen, til britiske CNBC. Undersøkelsen er utført av kinesiske Hurun Report, som jobber med å spore endringer blant Kinas rikeste innbyggere. Funnene viser at halvparten av kinesiske millionærer med en netto formue på over 1,5 millioner dollar, nærmere 12,2 millioner kroner, ønsker å flytte ut av landet. Majoriteten av disse ønsker å ta med seg familie, flyttelass – og ikke minst formue – til USA.

Why Won’t China Help With North Korea? Remember 1956


President Donald J. Trump’s short-lived honeymoon with Chinese Communist Party Secretary Xi Jinping is over. On June 29, the U.S. imposed sanctions on a Chinese bank, a Chinese shipping company, and two Chinese nationals, all accused of helping North Korea evade the international sanctions regime. “So much for China working with us,” Trump tweeted on July 5, “but we had to give it a try!” And after meeting the newly elected South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late June, Trump announced he had no more “patience” for North Korea, promising a “determined response.” The Administration’s pressure on China is a part of this response, and it has already triggered an angry reaction in Beijing, which called on the United States to “stop wrongful actions” that could hurt Sino-American relations.

tirsdag 25. juli 2017

Man tipped as China's future president ousted as Xi Jinping wields 'iron discipline'


Sun Zhengcai rose from farming studies in Hertfordshire to Communist party elite. Many fear his downfall signals turbulent times in Beijing.He studied agriculture in rural England and was tipped by some as China’s future leader. But on Tuesday morning Sun Zhengcai’s political obituary was splashed across the front page of the Communist party’s official mouthpiece in a damning editorial entitled: “Rule strictly over the party with iron discipline.”

“The investigation into comrade Sun Zhengcai sounds the alarm bell for the party,” the People’s Daily article warned, as it announced that the youngest member of China’s political elite had been ejected from power for a “serious violation of discipline”.

Liu Xiaobo death: 'Even RIP is being deleted by censors'


The death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has prompted tributes around the world, but in mainland China, there has been no coverage in Chinese. On social media, users have noticed attempts from the government censors to mute reaction online. Thousands of users are aware of his death, however, and have found creative ways to post tributes.

The Return of the Show Trial: China’s Televised “Confessions”

The spectacle of forced confessions frequently seen on Chinese TV in the last few years is part of a wider trend in China: The Party-State is silencing alternative and dissident voices, with a new wave of censorship, intimidation, disappearances, arrests, and imprisonments. This current trend is not unique to China. Instead, sadly, it is part of a worldwide authoritarian turn. In many countries around the world, as in similar conjunctures of times past, authoritarians are taking power either by force, or, where elections exist, with a constituency of voters longing for a strongman.

Today's authoritarians share many things, especially their contempt for the truth, for freedom of expression, and for equality before the law, without which there can be no democracy. They congratulate each other on their purported efficiency in “telling it like it is,” and in “getting things done.” They seek to censor and to “guide” public opinion. Authoritarian China currently seems ahead of all others in monitoring, censoring, and managing public opinion, especially in the successful harnessing of a new digital universe of technologies to suppress dissent.

Here's a Window Into How Xi Has Reshaped China


How has President Xi Jinping reshaped China’s political discussion over the past five years? The People’s Daily provides one window. Xi’s name, slogans and policies have come to dominate the pages of the Communist Party’s self-described mouthpiece since he took power in late 2012, according to an analysis by Qian Gang, director of the University of Hong Kong’s China Media Project. That is a pointer to the president’s clout as he approaches a leadership reshuffle later this year, and provides clues about the country’s future direction. Xi’s ubiquity in the People’s Daily has eclipsed his own predecessors, who also advanced their agendas through China’s state-controlled media. Each year, mentions of his name in the paper have exceeded those of former President Hu Jintao at the same point of his final term.

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