China #2

Pivot Insanity: Why is Obama Goading China?   -  by Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41993.htm

"All eyes are going to be focused on China where our mad hatter Secretary of Defense is trying to start a third world war."

Patrolling the Hood From (China) Sea to Shining Sea  -  by Pepe Escobar

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41992.htm

"The Masters of War at the self-described 'Don't Do Stupid Stuff' Obama administration are now announcing they're ready to dispatch military aircraft and ships within 18 kilometers of 7 artificial islands China has built up in the Spratly Islands.

Pentagon madmen provoking every major geostrategic competitor all at once."

Not the first time there are no innocent super-powers.

I am concerned about China and its attitude to its neighbours and its apporach to Africa not better than the others. On the other hand it is nice to see a power not routed in Europe or a European vision of the world.

Seven Days in May?  -  by Mike Whitney

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/06/17/seven-days-in-may-/

"China's rise is not inevitable. It depends on things that China cannot completely control, like Washington's provocations..."

epaulo13 wrote:

..includes video footage of the protest

Week-long mass protest rocks Shanghai

The Shanghai region is one of the most important motors of Chinese capitalism. However, the city’s political conservatism is as clear as its economic strength. Unlike cities in the Pearl River Delta, such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Shanghai rarely is the location of mass protests or sizeable industrial actions.

However, things might be changing. At the end of June, tens of thousands of locals rallied for seven days in Shanghai’s Jinshan District. They were protesting against the planned construction of a new paraxylene (PX) plant. This is probably the largest rebellious street mobilisation in the city since the 1989 student movement.

PX is a flammable hydrocarbon used in the manufacture of plastic bottles and polyester clothing. It is a dangerous chemical to handle or inhale. China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of the substance.

The expansion of PX projects is generating mass urban unrest in China. In the past eight years, protests broke out in seven cities. Demonstrations in Dalian and Ningbo turned into violent confrontations between anti-riot police and demonstrators....

https://redflag.org.au/article/week-long-mass-protest-rocks-shanghai

eta:

quote:

However, a heavy-handed strategy is effective only in dealing with small number of protesters. It’s easy to disperse and persecute several hundred. But when people gather in their tens of thousands, they do not fear the tear gas and batons. Then the local officials have only two options: order the police and soldiers to crack down or cancel the construction of the plant.

Neither the local bureaucrats nor the big bosses in Beijing want to risk provoking uprisings in major cities, so they often choose the second option. This has been the case several times in relation to PX plants.

 

You could also argue that the poeple are a little less patient given the currently deteriorating economy.

I would expect the government would want to try to leave these plants to local authorities rather than have to make such decisions centrally. this allows an easier management when things get out of hand.

The economic conditions add another stress that the government is trying to contain. Economies have their fluctuations and it is difficult for China to resist cycles of downturns that happen everywhere. China's economy is different but not immune.

I don't expect either of these situations to be getting out of control any time soon but I do see that the government will need to manage them carefully. Some of the people I live with are currently in Shanghai -- I think I'll hear about this when they return next month.

A somewhat cooler take -

Chinese shares continue to slide:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33438416

Is it China's economy that's set to one day rise to the top, or their culture?

With a billion+ people, the only real surprise should be that it took their economy this long.  But I don't think the time is coming soon where we'll all need to speak Mandarin if we don't want to be left behind in the new global reality.

Quote:

Really, after all its not like foreign imperial powers controlled the country for over a hundred years with the Japanese being the last brutal rulers.

Yes.  Of course that's why their economy was so stagnant for so long.

Hey, ever seen some Chinese steel?

It didn't take China long to rise to the top. Until the early 19th C, China was on top. The brief era of European dominance is ending and China will be returning to the top soon enough. Which doesn't mean Chinese world domination, just it's going to return to being the largest economy, as it has been for most of human history. 

China Marks 70th V-Day Anniversary With Spectacular Parade (Photos, Video)

http://www.rt.com/news/314176-china-military-parade-wwii/

China's future - the history lesson that is being ignored:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-history-lesson-that-is-being-ignored-...

Four years old but still timely.

WWWTT wrote:

swallow wrote:

It didn't take China long to rise to the top. Until the early 19th C, China was on top. The brief era of European dominance is ending and China will be returning to the top soon enough. Which doesn't mean Chinese world domination, just it's going to return to being the largest economy, as it has been for most of human history. 

'"The century of shame!"

Roughly from the time of the first opium wars to the final peoples revolutionary victory.

Also roughly 20% of the world's population is Chinese, so why not Chinese world domination?

If I had a choice between western colonialism and China, go with communist China!

WWWTT

 How about a third option, 20% of the population shouldn't dominate the other 80%, West or East, that's why we need a democractic world government with a international charter of rights and freedoms.

Washington's South China Sea Provocation and the Spectre of World War III

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/10/28/pers-o28.html

"The US naval incursion yesterday within the 12-nautical-mile limit of territory claimed by China in the South China Sea was a deliberate and reckless provocation that threatens to trigger a far broader conflict between the two nuclear-armed powers..."

Of course, the 12-mile limit claimed by China has no validity, since it's based on an artificial island built by China, in a sea many miles from China but closer to the Philippines and Vietnam, and the Southeast Asian countries often feel threatened by an aggressive and expanding Chinese government militarism. 

[img]https://chinadailymail.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/25-nine-dashed-line-i...

But it's not 12 miles off China's coast. It's in the Spratley Islands, much nearer to other countries - the Philippines and Malysia, in this case - than to China. 

It's as if the US govenrment built an artificial island between Vancouver Island and the BC mainland, and then complained that someone was violating that artificial island's 12-mile limit. 

Obviously the US is an imperial power. So, in this situation, is China. An anti-imperialist position might also imply standing up for Vietnam, or the Philippines, or Malaysia, whose waters are being invaded by China as it claims the "nine-dash line" in the South China Sea that dates back to the old dynasties. If you want to go the penis metaphor, American and Chinese penises are colliding in other people's waters. 

Quote:

I'm waiting for China and Russia to do naval excercises 12 miles off shore of Vancouver and Seatle.

That would be 12 miles from millions of actual Canadians and Americans who've lived in Vancouver and Seattle for generations.

As opposed to 12 miles from some coral reefs covered in guano.

[url=http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2015/10/30/1516559/tribunal-sides-phil... tribunal rules in favour of Philippines in legal dispute with China over South China Sea sovereignty - case will now go to arbitration despite China's claim tnhat is is not bound by UN Convention on the Law of the Sea[/url]

The US, along with Australia, is probably the biggest rogue power on the law of the sea, yes. It's unfortunate that China is joining them rather than agreeing to negotiate with the Philippines. But suire, China has learned effective bullying from the world's number one bully, the US government. 

How come no sympathy for the little guys like Vietnam and the Philippines, kropotkin? 

Are all countries with corporate ties to the US, therefore US puppets? Is China therefore a US puppet also? 

UN Tribunal To Adjudicate South China Sea Legal Dispute

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/10/31/phil-o31.html

"...Over the past five years, Washington has sought through its 'pivot to Asia' to diplomatically, economically and militarily isolate and encircle China, seeking ultimately to dismember the country and subordinate it to the interests of US finance capital as a semi-colony. With each new provocation, the outbreak of war becomes increasingly likely.

It was in this context of provocation and Washington's drive to war, that the PCA issued its decision on Manila's case. The PCA is not a neutral arbiter in the dispute. It serves the interests of the imperial powers and its decision is a thoroughly political one. Manila's case has been drawn up and argued by Washington attorneys. Not a single legal argument before the PCA was made by a Filipino.

Manila's case seeks to invalidate China's claim by examining the maritime boundaries established by individual islands and atolls, disregarding the archipelagic nature of China's claim.

This tack was dreamed up in Washington and serves as the pretext both for the legal case and the provocative US naval operations. The PCA ruling is a blow to China and strengthens the propaganda of Washington which will use it to provide a legal figleaf to escalate its war mongering..."

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

Yes..but no; only when it fits... Get it?

In the Dominion of Canada you would say.

Ready Aye Ready  or

For God and Country.

In the US of A you say.

Manifest Destiny or

US Love it or Leave or

My Country Right or Wrong

Its easy to see where you get your world view from. You probably have never studied a period in history where you didn't admire the conqueor.

Sorry the links were to emphasis that it is about the oil. You know the same commodity that has reduced Iraq, Libya and Syria to ruins. Control over the oil fields by American firms is what is the basis of the US National Interest in the region.  I would rather see the black poison stay in the ground but barring that it is up to the countries with claims to the area to settle this dispute. I think that the US has no role to play in the region except as an imperial power. I don't like naked agression and that is what this latest naval incursion is.

US Pursuing 'Expansionist Agenda' in Asia Pacific: American Pundit (and vid)

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/11/03/436077/US-stance-South-China-Sea-

"The US is pursuing an 'expansionist agenda' in the Asia-Pacific region and its position on the South-China Sea has 'nothing to do with the laws of the sea,' an American political pundit says.

'The irony of course is that the US has never protested Chinese claims to the South China Sea when they emanate from Taipei, but has a conniption fit when they emanate from Beijing. This double standard fully exposes the hypocrisy of the US position and its lack of legitimacy,' Prof Dennis Etler said."

About that Taiwan-China meeting thing, it's more of a piece of theatre than anything else. Taiwan President Ma had no authority to negotiate anything, yet absolutely nothing to lose. He has been a lame-duck president since the massive and drawn-out "Sunflower Protests" of spring 2014, which were precipitated by a secretive trade deal with China that his KMT tried to ram through without proper democratic review. The Nov. 7 meeting in Singapore was an outgoing hurrah for Ma in an international spotlight - a credential for his post-presidential lecture tours perhaps. As for his KMT, it's trailing badly in polls ahead of next year's presidential and national legislative elections, so this meeting is not a huge gamble for Ma's party either.

And as for China's Pres. Xi Jinping, whatever his timing for calling this meeting (it was very impromptu), surely he is happy to have the domestic image boost that comes from it -- and what else could it produce when all the media in the People's Republic is state(=party)-run. 

So now voters in Taiwan may be even more motivated to support the independence-leaning, albeit moderate and cautious, DPP (Democratic Progressive Party). Xi and the PRC will shriekingly accuse the new Taiwan president of being a "splittist" upon her victory. But actually the most serious threat from Taiwan to China, or more accurately to the CCP, is not the island's desire for independence, which can be prevented by bloody war. The greatest threat to the ruling elite in China, ie. the CCP, is Taiwan's still-maturing democratic way of governance.

NDPP wrote:

The role of Yanqui attack dog is not good for peace or the way of neighbours.

That role started declining in the 70's. Yes, the US Taiwan Relations Act can still serve as a pretext for US military activity in the region, for example in 1996. The average person in Taiwan however does not wish to fill the role of Yanqui attack dog. But if it so wishes the PRC leadership can increase support within Taiwan to play that role by issuing belligerent rhetoric, making provocative moves or increasing the number of missiles pointed across the strait. Or by trying to hoodwink the Taiwan public into seemingly benign agreements such as the failed trade pact in 2014, or in any other way meddling in Taiwan's democratic processes.