Asia Times
By Peter J Brown

Just a few days after United States Navy Admiral Robert Willard, commander of the US Pacific Command, departed from Beijing in late May after a face-to-face meeting with Lieutenant General Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) general staff, China waved off a visit by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

China announced that this was not a “convenient time” for Gates to visit. Willard’s talks with Ma in Beijing were part of the second round of the ongoing China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue. Willard was there as part of the huge US delegation that was headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Immediately prior to the dialogue, China had been contemplating two very different expressions of the current state of US-China

relations under the Barack Obama administration. The president’s 52-page US National Security Strategy (NSS) issued in early May, for example, was an engagement-centric, restrained and diplomatic overview. The NSS spoke of US relations with China using carefully crafted words such as “we will encourage China to make choices that contribute to peace, stability and prosperity as its influence rises”. The NSS did not rock the boat and was really not a formal strategy, unless repeating the word “engagement’ more than three dozen times is acceptable as such.

A few days after the NSS was unveiled, however, “AirSea Battle: A Point-of-Departure Operational Concept” (ASB) was presented by four analysts from the Washington DC-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA). It was almost a polar opposite of the NSS in its treatment of China.

The ASB, which was 123 pages long and fell just short of being an actual blueprint for an armed confrontation between the countries, made a case for “offsetting actions” on the basis that “the strategic balance in the Western Pacific will become unfavorable and unstable”. Missions involving US Navy ships, submarines and the US Air Force (USAF) “in the early days of a war”, were examined.

ASB has taken years to evolve, and among other things, ASB is an indicator of the CSBA’s growing influence in Gates’ inner circle. US Navy Under Secretary Robert Work, a former US Marine Corps artillery colonel, is a former CSBA analyst. A participant on Obama’s Pentagon transition team in 2008, Work became the navy’s second-highest-ranking civilian in May 2009. He was recently described by Defense News as “a deeply experienced military strategist and wargamer”.    more …

Asia Times
Jun 16, 2010
By Wu Zhong, China Editor

HONG KONG – China’s power center in Beijing has in recent years encouraged regional authorities to introduce anti-corruption policies to combat official corruption and increase transparency. It’s become known as the “Sunshine” policy.

Some people wonder why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cannot devise a national “Sunshine” policy and enforce it. The US has so-called “Sunshine” laws that require that government data be made available to the public. After all, though regions have an increasingly greater say in economic affairs, political power in China is centralized under the CCP’s control.

In reality, however, things are not as simple. Though China is ruled by the CCP and its political power is centralized, this does not guarantee that regions follow Beijing’s word to the letter. In

any society there are privileged people and interests, and China is no exception. Any new policy that affects these interests naturally meets with opposition.

Even with his unchallengeable authority, it was difficult for paramount leader Deng Xiaoping to start the country’s process of economic reform and opening up – nearly every step was a hard struggle. In today’s China, there is no “strongman” like Deng, and there are even more interest groups, due to the economic growth and wealth redistribution of the past three decades.

Given rampant official corruption, one could say that party officials are the largest interest group. Officialdom is also the biggest opposition to plans for a “Sunshine” law that the government proposed last year that would see officials declaring their assets and those of their spouses and children.

The policy was opposed by the CCP’s central committee, and the power center has since tried to “encourage” localities to implement anti-graft policies in the hope of “bottom-to-top” change. Many reforms in the past 30 years started at the grassroots level.

With or without a proper understanding of Beijing’s intentions, some governments at the grassroots have began to introduce transparency measures. The most impressive example is Baimiao township under Bazhou district of Bazhong city, Sichuan province. A township is the lowest-ranking administrative unit in China’s bureaucratic hierarchy.    more …

BBC News
By Chris Hogg
BBC News, at the Boao Forum for Asia, Hainan, China

Allowing the yuan to strengthen against the dollar would hurt the Chinese economy in the short-term, a senior Chinese official has told the BBC.

But Yi Xiaozhun, a vice-minister in the commerce ministry, said he expected the currency to rise in the longer-term.

He accused other countries of trying to force its appreciation now.

There has been speculation that China is preparing to allow the yuan to appreciate before President Hu Jintao arrives in Washington next week.

Mr Yi was speaking at the Boao Forum for Asia, a gathering of senior officials and business figures from across Asia on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.

China’s commerce ministry is close to the country’s exporters, and reports suggest its officials have been lobbying hard against those inside the Chinese government who say the value yuan should now be allowed to rise.

Politicised debate

China, in effect, pegged its currency to the weakening US dollar in late 2008 when the effects of the global economic crisis started to be felt here .

That has given the country’s exporters an unfair advantage ever since, critics say, because when the value of the yuan is artificially low, their goods appear cheaper.

Some American politicians and academics… have politicised this argument
Yi Xiaozhun, Chinese commercy ministry vice-minister

Mr Yi says the crisis is not yet over, and so an increase in the value of the yuan now would hurt China’s economy.

He argues the biggest headache for China is that this is no longer simply an economic problem but has become the focus of relations between the two countries.

“Some American politicians and academics, because of hardship at home, have politicised this argument,” he says.

“They are blaming other countries, including China, for their own problems. This is unreasonable.”

The vice commerce minister refuses to be drawn on what is the appropriate exchange rate for the yuan and the dollar.     more …

Reuters
Tue Apr 6, 2010

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou demanded on Tuesday that China remove missiles aimed at the island before any peace talks, comments that could slow recent momentum in relations, including two-way trade that has reached $109 billion.

Beijing must scrap or move missiles, which Taiwan suspects are piling up in China some 160 km (100 miles) away, to begin any discussion on a peace accord, an idea welcomed by both sides when Ma took office in 2008, the president told a group of U.S. scholars.

“We demand that mainland China scrap or remove missiles aimed at Taiwan,” Ma said, as quoted by Taiwan’s Central News Agency. “Otherwise, Taiwan will not take any further steps to discuss a peace accord with the mainland.”

His uncharacteristically strong remarks are seen helping to build a tough-on-Beijing image for Taiwan’s ruling Nationalist Party ahead of tense year-end local elections against Taiwan’s main opposition party, which generally takes a more anti-China line.    more …

Asia Times
Mar 18, 2010
By Peter J Brown

For the first time in well over a decade, China has limited rising spending on defense to a less than double-digit increase. In early March, Beijing announced that the 2010 defense budget would total approximately 532 billion yuan (US$78 billion), with the 7.5% increase representing half the 14.9% rise approved in 2009.

China is accustomed to being accused of not providing accurate information. Jia Yong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee (CPPCC), recently described these allegations as “groundless”.

Japan has consistently expressed concerns about China’s military spending. In light of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s 2008 promise that China “would not spark an arms race with its neighbors or pose a military threat”, Asia Times Online asked
several experts to assess the impact of the new defense budget on Japan. We put the question to them twice in somewhat different statements.

An immediate response came from Michael Green, Japan Chair and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.

“It is the nature of Chinese deployments and operations rather than the official number that is at issue,” said Green. “But the lower number doesn’t hurt China’s image!”     more …

Bo Xilai has turned the city of Chongqing – home to such multinationals as Intel and Hewlett-Packard – upside down in the biggest crackdown on crime in China’s recent history. The zealous Communist Party chief has endeared himself to people across the country for his unflinching graft-busting. For party leaders in Beijing, though, Bo’s anti-corruption drive disguises naked political ambitions that need to be stopped. – Kent Ewing     more …

BBC News, Beijing
18 March 2010
By Damian Grammaticas

Gao Zhisheng ( file photo)
China’s spokesman said he would not discuss missing lawyer Gao Zhisheng

China has accused Britain of putting on a political show after a UK review of human rights around the world was highly critical of Beijing.

The report, issued on Wednesday, named China as one of some 20 nations where there was cause for serious concern about human rights.

Burma, Zimbabwe and North Korea were also named as countries of concern.

The report said there had been a marked deterioration in some areas of human rights in China.

China’s response was blunt. Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the fact that all the nations singled out were developing countries showed the report was “simply a political show”.     more …

Asia Times
Mar 13, 2010
By Brian McCartan

VIENTIANE – Low water levels on the upper Mekong River have renewed criticism over hydropower dams China has erected on the waterway’s upper reaches. Environmental groups and governments have pinned blame on China’s inward-looking water management policies, although some experts say the real culprit is unusually severe drought conditions in southwestern China, northern Thailand and Laos.

Chinese authorities have said water levels in the country are at their lowest in 50 years, and they reject as groundless reports blaming their dams for the parched state of the river. The Mekong River Commission (MRC), an inter-governmental body that promotes and coordinates sustainable management and development of the Mekong River basin, said in a February 26 statement that levels in the upper Mekong are lower than in 1993, which came on the heels of the most serious regional drought on record in 1992.

Although Beijing says it takes into account the needs of downstream countries and has set up joint monitoring stations along the river, there is still considerable doubt about its sincerity in maintaining the river’s normal flow. The MRC, for its part, has little direct leverage over Beijing, leaving member countries to approach China either through the United Nations or their individual diplomatic missions.     more …

Reuters
Ben Blanchard – Analysis

BEIJING (Reuters) – Big on spit and polish and parades but short on experience, new technology and force coordination, China’s military has far to go before its bite begins to approach its increasingly loud, and for some fearsome, bark.

China has invested billions of dollars in its armed forces and is developing advanced fighters and missiles, considering building its first aircraft carrier and is trying to slim its bloated ranks down to a lean, high-tech military.

The 2010 Defense budget unveiled last week was 7.5 percent higher than last year, a modest rise by China’s recent standards, but impressive compared to other big powers.

Those rises have raised alarm in Taiwan, the self-ruled island China claims as its own, the rest of the region, and especially in the United States, the world’s only superpower with a military reach that far exceeds China’s.

In a report to Congress published last month, the Pentagon said it was concerned by China’s missile buildup and increasingly advanced capabilities in the Pacific region.

Yet while China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) looks increasingly fierce on paper, analysts — and even Chinese army officers — say it will be a long time before the country has the means to effectively challenge U.S. power, if ever.

“What is their readiness level? How effective are these things they’ve developed themselves?” said Drew Thompson, of the Nixon Center, a think tank in Washington.

“Is their indigenous technology really working, or does it simply exist like a lot of things in the Chinese system, on paper? I would posit it probably leans more toward the latter.”

After a spike in tension that has stoked nationalist Chinese calls for a hard shove back against U.S. influence, some PLA officers are also trying to discourage chest-thumping.

“There’s no way China can threaten the United States,” Lt. Gen. Li Dianren, a professor at the National Defense University, told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual session of parliament.

“Anyone with even a bit of common sense knows that our capabilities do not come even close to matching those of the U.S. In terms of economics, technology and the military, the gap is huge. How can we threaten them?” he added.    more …

The New York Times
February 25, 2010
By ANDREW JACOBS

BEIJING — A top Chinese military official reaffirmed China’s resolve to punish the United States over its decision to sell weapons to Taiwan and suggested on Thursday that there would be even greater consequences should Washington fulfill a longstanding request by Taiwan for advanced fighter jets.

The official, Huang Xueping, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, warned the United States to “speak and act cautiously” if it wanted to avoid further damage to bilateral ties, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. Mr. Huang said that earlier threats to suspend military cooperation and exchanges between the countries “remain unchanged,” but he did not elaborate on what such sanctions would entail.

In previous statements, the Chinese government has said that it would cancel visits between top military leaders and retaliate against American companies engaged in weapon sales to Taiwan.

In recent weeks, Chinese officials and editorials in the state-controlled media have been fulminating over the Pentagon’s $6.4 billion arms package to Taiwan, which would include Black Hawk helicopters, communications equipment and 114 Patriot missiles. Earlier this month a group of high-ranking military officers urged China to dump some of its holdings in United States Treasuries.

The arms deal, announced last month but in the works since the George W. Bush administration, falls under a law passed by the U.S. Congress in 1979 that requires the United States to make “arms of a defensive character” available to Taiwan.

China considers the island part of its sovereign territory and it warns that it would use force if necessary to prevent Taiwan from becoming an independent nation. The two have been rivals since 1949, when the Kuomintang forces of Chiang Kai-shek lost the Chinese civil war and fled across the Taiwan Strait.     more …