Miscellaneous News

Timothy Heath - China's New Governing Party ParadigmPublished on Feb 19, 2015

[For the first time since its founding in 1921, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has adopted a new paradigm for its role in China. Abandoning its former identity as a 'revolutionary party', the CCP now regards itself as a 'governing party' committed to meeting the diverse needs of its people and realizing China's revitalization as a great power. To enhance its ability to realize these aims, the CCP has enacted extensive political and ideological reforms. Central to that effort are changes to how the party develops and oversees strategy and policy. Few studies are available on the CCP's adoption of this new identity and of its political implications. Timothy Heath's new book, China's New Governing Party Paradigm: Political Renewal and the Pursuit of National Rejuvenation, remedies that oversight by explaining the historic context, drivers, and meaning of the governing party paradigm.

Timothy Heath is Senior International and Defense Analyst at the RAND Corporation and a recognized expert on Chinese strategy and political-military topics. He served for five years as the senior analyst in the United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) China Strategic Focus Group and has over fifteen years of experience in the US government as a specialist on China. Mr. Heath has authored many articles and a book chapter on topics related to Chinese security and political issues. He earned his MA in Asian Studies from the George Washington University and speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese.]

I think the US really made a strange decision choosing to oppose AIIB like it is. They should choose their battles more wisely; there are so many other more potentially important avenues to lobby.
Even if AIIB does become an accepted and proliferate entity, it will only be one among many -- it will hardly signal the immediate rise of Chinese political-economic dominance, only add a little more influence.



March 16, 2015 10:49 pm
Europeans defy US to join China-led development bank
George Parker in London, Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in Paris and Geoff Dyer in WashingtonAuthor alerts

President Xi Jinping, fourth from right, meets with guests in October at the AIIB launch ceremony in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing©Reuters
President Xi Jinping, fourth from right, meets with guests in October at the AIIB launch ceremony in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing
France, Germany and Italy have all agreed to follow Britain’s lead and join a China-led international development bank, according to European officials, delivering a blow to US efforts to keep leading western countries out of the new institution.
The decision by the three European governments comes after Britain announced last week that it would join the $50bn Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a potential rival to the Washington-based World Bank.
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Australia, a key US ally in the Asia-Pacific region which had come under pressure from Washington to stay out of the new bank, has also said that it will now rethink that position.
The European decisions represent a significant setback for the Obama administration, which has argued that western countries could have more influence over the workings of the new bank if they stayed together on the outside and pushed for higher lending standards.
The AIIB, which was formally launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping last year, is one element of a broader Chinese push to create new financial and economic institutions that will increase its international influence. It has become a central issue in the growing contest between China and the US over who will define the economic and trade rules in Asia over the coming decades.
When Britain announced its decision to join the AIIB last week, the Obama administration told the Financial Times that it was part of a broader trend of “constant accommodation” by London of China. British officials were relatively restrained in their criticism of China over its handling of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong last year.
Britain tried to gain “first mover advantage” last week by signing up to the fledgling Chinese-led bank before other G7 members. The UK government claimed it had to move quickly because of the impending May 7 general election. The move by George Osborne, the UK chancellor of the exchequer, won plaudits in Beijing.
Britain hopes to establish itself as the number one destination for Chinese investment and UK officials were unrepentant. One suggested that the White House criticism of Britain was a case of sour grapes: “They couldn’t have got congressional approval to join the AIIB, even if they wanted to.”
The US Treasury has voiced concerns about governance at the new bank, especially the environmental and social standards it attaches to its loans. It said it was worried that the AIIB could become a “low-quality” institution.
Privately, US and Australian officials have suggested that the British decision to break ranks and join the bank was driven by commercial considerations and that London was blind to the broader geopolitical implications in the Asia-Pacific region.
South Korean media have reported that Seoul will also now rethink its decision not to join the AIIB. Japan, the US ally in the region that is most worried by China’s growing influence, is not expected to become a member.

Bltizo said:

I think the US really made a strange decision

....Japan, the US ally in the region that is most worried by China’s growing influence, is not expected to become a member.

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huge slap on Washington's face if this is true. all that effort at the risk of being perceived as being obstructive and unprincipled (given that Obama had previously called on China to "take charge") unraveled completely within matter of days. I don't think the United States has been humiliated in this manner since snowden.

the real loser in this one though is japan, by failing to thwart AIIB's ascension, the US will lose some face and maybe some institutional relevance in Asia, but japan's ADB will basically see its influence halved.

Bltizo said:

I think the US really made a strange decision choosing to oppose AIIB like it is. They should choose their battles more wisely; there are so many other more potentially important avenues to lobby.
Even if AIIB does become an accepted and proliferate entity, it will only be one among many -- it will hardly signal the immediate rise of Chinese political-economic dominance, only add a little more influence.

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March 16, 2015 10:49 pm
Europeans defy US to join China-led development bank
...

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Together with other developments such as more trade being settled in anything but USD, these are prices the US is paying for how its leadership chose to handle the financial crisis of '07 on through today, namely to bail out major US investments and financial institutions by "quantitative easing" at the expense of everyone else including the US and foreign publics, savers, and foreign investments.

The US somewhat betrayed the trust placed in it as the lynchpin of the international economic system so now every country that understands how the system works and cherishes at least some degree of economic independence is looking to pare down the US' systemic advantage and influence which was consensually set up. This is about empowering a host of other countries, not just China, which is why they are on board.

Analogical to democracy's diffusive effect on power, these developments will make it more difficult for anyone including the US to have as much economic power as it used to. The US being the only one who had tasted, used, and continues in various ways to rely on this degree of power is naturally opposed to it.

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World Maritime News said:

The European Union has launched a Joint Operational Team (JOT) Mare to tackle the organised criminal groups who are facilitating the journeys of migrants by ship across the Mediterranean Sea to the EU.

Hosted at Europol headquarters in The Hague, JOT Mare will combine Europol’s intelligence resources and the EU Member States’ capabilities to carry out coordinated and intelligence-driven actions against the facilitators.

The influx of migrants via the Mediterranean Sea has been exponentially rising, with 220,000 migrants crossing in 2014. Apart from putting intense immigration pressure on countries such as Greece and Italy, before the migrants arrive they have often taken very risky journeys across the Mediterranean to get there.

Intelligence shows that organised criminal groups are actively facilitating the transport of these irregular migrants across the Mediterranean, and these groups have also been linked to human trafficking, drugs, firearms and terrorism.

More than 3,000 people drowned in the Mediterranean en route to Europe in 2014 and there have been 1,000 deaths in 2015 alone.

“This dedicated maritime intelligence centre, hosted and supported by Europol, has great potential: it will reinforce our actions against people smugglers; against the ruthless criminals who facilitate irregular migration to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea,” European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said.

”We will continue to encourage close cooperation among all national and European stakeholders, in order to pursue further our common objectives and to deliver concrete results.”

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This is a HUGE issue, and we read about it, with thousands taking to the seas to try and get into Europe almost every week.

Here's news about the Myanmar situation:

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CRI English said:

The Chinese army and air force dispatched missile units and fighter jets to Lincang, a city situated on the border, on Sunday.

At the same time, the city government of Lincang asked homes along the border to put up China's national flags to protect themselves.

The moves came after a bomb from Myanmar hit the border city and killed five Chinese people with eight others injured on March 13.

Bodies of the five dead were cremated on Saturday.

Each family of the victims was given 20,000 yuan (3,200 USD) for funeral expenses by the city government.

The spokesperson of China's air force said on Saturday that they had sent fighter jets to the border after the incident, to protect people against more possible air strikes from Myanmar.

The vice-Chair of China's Central Military Commission also went on-record saying the Chinese military will take "firm and decisive action" if any more stray fire incidents take place.

The Myanmar government expressed their regrets over the incident and promised to carry out joint investigations with China on Sunday.

Both the Myanmar government and forces in Kokang denied the bomb was dropped by them.

The government of Myanmar has been locked in a battle with the Kokang ethnic minority in the northeast of the country since late last year.

Regional unrest has seen thousands of people from Myanmar cross over the border into China to seek refuge.

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The Chinese Foreign Minister was also apparently talking about this:

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People's Daily Online said:

BEIJING, March 17-- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Yunnan province, which borders the conflict-hit Myanmar, on Monday to discuss with officials plans to protect the life and property safety of local Chinese, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

The meeting came after a bomb dropped by a Myanmar warplane killed four and injured nine others in Lincang city last week.

"Wang and leading provincial officials exchanged views on the current situation and discussed ways to deal with it," the spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily news briefing, without giving more details.

They studied ways to safeguard border peace, protect life and property safety for local Chinese, and overall bilateral ties, Yunnan Daily reported on Tuesday.

The conflict in north Myanmar's Kokang region has lasted for more than a month, severely impacting the border region's peace and stability. China has urged conflicting parties to "take China's concerns seriously" and show restraint so as to restore order at the border.

Chinese fighter jets patrolled the China-Myanmar border after the deadly bombing in order to "track, monitor, warn and chase away" Myanmar military planes flying close to the Chinese side.

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This was a disturbing news to me. That poor baby.

CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio woman accused of decapitating her 3-month-old daughter had been ordered by a court to stay away from the child, a prosecutor said Tuesday.


Watkins had been forbidden to have contact with the baby after she was hospitalized for psychiatric problems, according to authorities.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said the baby had been placed in an aunt's custody and that a 5-year-old at the house Monday with other children to catch a school bus found the baby's body on a kitchen counter. Police arriving in response to a 911 call found the baby decapitated and stabbed multiple times with a large chef's knife.

Deters said the aunt apparently had let the baby's mother move in with her and the baby about a week earlier. Police found the 20-year-old mother, Deasia Watkins, in bed covered with blood, Deters said. Watkins was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated murder.

"This is one of the most disturbing cases, I have ever seen in my life," Deters said.

County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco said the baby's injuries also included a fractured arm.

"These are images that will be indelibly marked in my memory," Sammarco said.

Deters said the mother hasn't spoken and is in a Cincinnati hospital.

The prosecutor doesn't anticipate seeking the death penalty in the case at this time.

"It was pretty clear to the officers involved that she is suffering from some serious mental issues," Deters said.

The baby's father has not been located, Deters said.

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The first picture made me think of something probably more monstrous which was some zoo was feeding their crocs human flesh. I guess it was karma if the guy was a poacher.

This is an added twist to Microsoft's already interesting move in making Windows 10 a free upgrade for all users of Windows 7 and up. It is essentially catching up with the times considering Google's Android and Apple's iOS have been upgrading for free (with caveats of course) for several years now. The devil is in the details so it will be interesting to see how the entire Microsoft ecosystem is going to work moving forward, and when and what will change with support for older versions of Windows and software in those ecosystems.

Microsoft tackles China piracy with free upgrade to Windows 10
BY BILL RIGBY AND PAUL CARSTEN
SEATTLE/BEIJING Tue Mar 17, 2015 10:34pm EDT

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is making its biggest push into the heavily pirated Chinese consumer computing market this summer by offering free upgrades to Windows 10 to all Windows users, regardless of whether they are running genuine copies of the software.

The move is an unprecedented attempt by Microsoft to get legitimate versions of its software onto machines of the hundreds of millions of Windows users in China. Recent studies show that three-quarters of all PC software is not properly licensed there.

Terry Myerson, who runs Microsoft's operating systems unit, announced the plan at the WinHEC technology conference in Shenzhen, China.

"We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10," he said in a telephone interview with Reuters. The plan is to "re-engage" with the hundreds of millions of users of Windows in China, he said, without elaboration.

Myerson said Windows 10 would be released globally sometime "this summer". That is the first time Microsoft has put a time frame on the release, although it has been expected in autumn, based on Microsoft's release history.

Microsoft said in January it would offer free upgrades to Windows 10 for users of Windows 7 or later in an attempt to hold onto users and make up for lost revenue by selling services such as Office over the Internet.

Microsoft is working with Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's biggest PC maker, to help roll out Windows 10 in China to current Windows users, Myerson said.

It also is offering Windows 10 through security company Qihoo 360 Technology Co and Tencent Holdings Ltd, China's biggest social networking company, which will build a Windows 10 app that will work on smartphones and PCs for its popular QQ gaming and messaging service. QQ has more than 800 million users.

Lenovo said in a statement that it will make phones running Windows software, available through China Mobile, sometime later this year.

Microsoft also said it is working with Chinese handset maker Xiaomi Technology Co Ltd [XTC.UL] - which generally uses a form of Google Inc's Android on its devices - to offer some customers a test version of Windows 10 on their smartphones."

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Ken Wills)

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tragedy in Tunisia :-(
Tunisia museum attack kills at least 19; three gunmen sought