The talent concern is real, but addressing the problem through cyber militias would be profoundly destabilizing for the region. Militia members may one day walk out the door and not only use their skill and knowledge against other states without authorization, but may also turn them back on home networks. Military planners would also have to worry, especially during a crisis, that militias might ignore orders or target off-limit networks, increasing the risk of escalation and decreasing ability to signal intent to the adversary.

The plausible deniability of patriotic hackers is one of their biggest selling points; states can claim they know nothing about attacks and can do little to stop them. Technological changes that make attribution easier, or other forms of intelligence that have the same impact, would do a great deal to make cyber militias less attractive to policymakers. In the short term, if regional leaders are not going to fight the urge to mobilize their own militias, they at least need to ensure that they know who they should be talking to on the other side if a crisis breaks out and they must be able establish clear lines of communication. In the longer term, ASEAN or other regional groupings would be wise to promote a norm of state responsibility for cyberattacks emanating from within a country’s borders. As the Atlantic Council’s Jason Healey argues, developing this norm will involve state-to-state negotiations and capacity building as well as diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and, possibly, military responses.

Patriotic geeks might be the answer to a lot of policy challenges. But in terms of cybersecurity, it may be best to either bring them completely into the fold, or keep them at arms length.

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Post tags: China, cyberespionage, cybernationalism, hacking, Japan
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The Thai military says the victims were killed upriver before their ships floated downstream into Thailand. But evidence gleaned from Thai officials and unpublished police and military reports suggests that some, if not all, of the sailors were still alive when their boats crossed into Thailand, and that they were executed and tossed overboard inside Thai territory.

Their assailants remain unknown. Initially, the prime suspect was a heavily armed Mekong pirate who terrorizes shipping in Myanmar. But then the investigation turned to nine members of an elite anti-narcotics taskforce of the Thai military.

New patrols by Chinese gunboats were supposed to restore peace to the region. But a visit to the Golden Triangle also found that attacks on Mekong shipping continue.

Incongruously, just across the river from where the ill-fated ships were found moored, on the Laos side of the triangle, Reuters also discovered a vast casino complex catering to Chinese tourists. Its Chinese owner regards it as a “second homeland”; others worry it could morph into a strategic Chinese outpost.

The second and most recent of the patrols mentioned by the Reuters, conducted by Chinese police in cooperation with counterparts from Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, ended earlier this month. In a weekend report, The Bangkok Post called the October murders “the tip of the iceberg of drug-related crime on the Mekong River”, claiming that the violence has caused sailors to avoid the river:

Chen Ling, a mechanic on board a Chinese cargo ship in Jinghong, which in Thai is known as Chiang Rung, in Yunnan province’s Xishuangbanna prefecture in southwest China, has worked with cargo boats on the Mekong River for almost 30 years.

He also worked as a temporary crewman for the Thai-owned Kasa Longkhamcruise boat on the return trip to Thailand, but only on the condition that he travelled back to Jinghong by car rather than the river to ensure his safety.

He told of a recent incident in which a Chinese cruise boat was attacked by an armed group using speed boats. Passengers and crew, including himself, were robbed, although nobody was hurt.

He said the murder of the 13 Chinese sailors had frightened many sailors on the river.

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Post tags: China, drug trafficking, Golden Triangle, Laos, Mekong river, murder, Myanmar, thailand
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Asia’s millionaires will more than double in number to 2.8 million, with 1.4 million high net worth people in China, according to the Asia Wealth Report released yesterday. Chinese millionaires will hold $8.76 trillion of the $15.81 trillion that the region’s millionaires are expected to have, it said.

“In terms of the overall amounts of wealth that will increase, it’s very much a China story,” Stefan Hofer, emerging market equity strategist at Julius Baer, said yesterday at a press conference held for reporters in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Expansion in the world’s fastest-growing major economy created 502,000 millionaires in the country last year, according to the report. State and private investments helped drive a 9.5 percent gain in second-quarter gross domestic product from a year earlier, the government said in July, faster than estimated as growth in industrial output and retail sales accelerated and copper and aluminum production reached records.

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Post tags: Asia, China, millionaires, private investment, raw materials market
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BEIJING – Let’s imagine that China were not ruled by a communist party. Let’s think of it as a fully fledged democracy, just like the United States or similar to a European model. Let’s think that by some strange historical accident, China had been marginal in global economic development until 30 years ago, when some strange economic experiment started and growth exploded to the present rate.

Would ties between China and the US, between China and its neighbors, or with Europe be any different? Probably not, because with China’s development and its impact on the world, there is much more at stake than simply communism.

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Post tags: Al Qaeda, Beijing, China
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Martin Jacques, author of When China Rules the World, tells us that we shouldn’t be surprised at China’s new assertiveness: it is merely returning to a Chinese-style of global governance. We need to understand this new situation in terms of China’s own concepts about foreign relations, rather than Eurocentric theories of diplomacy. Thus along with economic power shifting from West to East, he and others argue that intellectual power is shifting from Europe and America to China.

I agree that a change is taking place, but am not convinced that it is a grand continental shift from a Western to a Chinese world order. Rather, what we are witnessing is a dramatic transition from the PRC’s elite political culture (Marxism and/or Confucianism) to the global popular culture that China shares with the rest of the world.

Simply put, Beijing is not presenting a distinct ‘China model’ of development and justice; the PRC is joining the world society of consumers who not only purchase computers and televisions, but also consume the images and roles that are presented on-screen in film, TV and video. China’s new worldview thus is shaped more by media products than by grand ideologies.

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Post tags: China, consumerism, pop culture
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However it’s not the final accord in the race for Chinese funds. Next day, February 18th, President of Venezuela Hugo Chaves, after winning the right for his lifetime presidential post,

claimed that he would be glad to supply crude oil to China for 200 years. Time will show who will get better deal. Any way China saved huge amount of funds before recession and now squeezes the best out of this advantage.

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Post tags: China, oil, Russia
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The pledge came as the city was again blanketed in a thick haze, with temperatures at the Olympic stadium in the low 30s.

Du Shaozhong from the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau says air quality has been improving.

The city implemented new controls a week ago to reduce the number of cars on the roads.

Cars with odd-numbered plates can drive only on odd-numbered days.

A number of heavy-polluting factories have also been shut down for the duration of the games.

Yet despite the measures, the pollution index for the city has been increasing in recent days.

Mr Du says “extreme weather” is to blame.

© Ying Jiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: China, environment, Olympics, pollution
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[...] Western governments led by London and Washington look at Mugabe’s rule and see such a clear-cut case of evil that they are at a loss to understand why the rest of Africa – or China, for that matter, a Security Council member with fast-deepening ties with the continent – doesn’t rush to join in on their condemnation.

[...] Paranoid African dictators look at the calls to denounce Mugabe and worry they might be next. The more democratically inclined know better. They see Washington’s embrace of dictators in places like Equatorial Guinea, or even former enemies, like the robber baron former Marxists who run Angola, and see a pattern of highly selective outrage. Might the fact that these countries – to name but two – are swimming in oil have something to do with escaping the Mugabe treatment?

China looks at this inconsistency, too, and naturally suspects it is being discriminated against. The only African country that has drawn more Western critical fire than Zimbabwe recently is Sudan, for its genocidal campaign in Darfur. It’s an emerging oil power, too, but unlike so many African kleptocracies, its product flows east, not west.

Also see previous CDT post China’s Role in Zimbabwe.

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In this four minute-long video clip from an event at the Asia Society in New York on June 18th, 2008, corporate lawyer and human rights advocate Scott Greathead outlines China’s stance on the Darfur issue, including Mia Farrow’s “Dream for Darfur” campaign and her boycott of Olympic sponsors. The campaign has announced alternative TV programming during the Olympic Games with Mia Farrow reporting live from refugee camps in Darfur. Viewers are encouraged to switch to that programming during the commercials running in-between televised Olympic events from Beijing, in particular during the commercials by 25-30 global companies that are paying $100 million or more for their Olympic sponsorships.

AfriMonitor: Exploring ChinAfrica

AfriMonitor, a newly formed venture that aims to be a market research portal for the Africa-focused global business audience, has published a Trend Brief entitled “Exploring ChinAfrica” (PDF) which covers a few familiar facts on Sino-African relationships. The site also has a news aggregation section for “China-Africa“.

Kenya Steps Up Bid to Woo Chinese Investors

From Business Daily Africa:

Kenya has stepped up campaigns to woo Chinese traders to invest in the country. The move is aimed at correcting the unfavourable balance of trade between the two nations.

Ministry of Trade data indicates that deficit grew to Sh44.22 billion last year, up from only Sh3.68 billion in 1997. The bid to market Kenya as the most favourable investment destination in the region is the subject of a two-day China-Africa Development Fund (Cadfund) workshop in Nairobi.  

Trade minister Uhuru Kenyatta has  urged the Chinese delegation to consider investing in the export processing zones where investors enjoy an array of tax incentives including a 10 year tax holiday. 

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Post tags: Africa, AfriMonitor, China, Darfur, kenya
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China’s involvement in Africa has provoked much debate and discussion. These have usually been revolved around two core issues. On one side, China is viewed as the new colonizer out to exploit Africa’s natural resources, putting its own economic interests above environmental and human rights concerns. On another side, China’s engagement in Africa is regarded as an extension of ‘South–South solidarity’, bringing economic development to regions generally ignored by Western companies without the conditionalities and political interference of its Western counterparts.  

Whatever the intention may be, the consequences of Chinese investment in Africa have raised a lot of concern from civil society and academic observers. One of these concerns, which is not often addressed in media reports, is China’s environmental footprint on the continent. It was therefore very refreshing to read a Policy Briefing by Peter Bosshard, published by the South African Institute for International Affairs in April 2008, which focuses on the environmental impact of Chinese investment in Africa, but manages to go beyond the stereotypical views usually portrayed.

The debate about China in Africa should in no way negate the history of western involvement in the continent. China is certainly not unique in its disregard for Africa’s environment. Western exploitation of Africa’s resources both past and present has not set a good precedent and the history of natural resource extraction in Africa in general has had a very poor track record. However, as pointed out in Bosshard’s report, the nature of China’s current involvement in Africa is problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, China’s investments in Africa are concentrated in sectors that are environmentally sensitive (such as oil and gas exploration, mining, hydropower and timber extraction). Secondly, China’s strategy is to access resources that have so far not been exploited by European or American companies, either because they were considered insignificant in size, geographically too remote or politically too risky. Projects are therefore being developed in remote, ecologically sensitive regions in countries with weak governance systems. Thirdly, China’s domestic policies have prioritised economic growth over environmental concerns and there is a risk that these practices will be exported to other parts of the world. Recent concerns over environmental exploitation in China itself and the setting of laws and regulations to protect its own environment may even see China’s worst polluters relocate their production to places like Africa. Fourthly, Chinese investors and financiers have not adopted the international environmental guidelines and standards that have been taken up by international financial institutions. [ more ]

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Post tags: Africa, China, environmental protection
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The CTA held a briefing on July 2, 2008 in Brussels on “New Drivers, New Players in ACP Rural Development”.  The discussion focused mainly on agriculture in Africa, with subtopics ranging from the role of private foundations and other private initiatives, to South-South partnerships, particularly focusing on China.

China’s commercial approach is certainly changing development paradigms, and has conflated traditional aid with an investment mentality.  By investing in African infrastructure, agriculture and energy, China is not only helping Africa to develop its resources but also supporting China’s own development.  China’s investments in Africa create additional markets for Chinese goods as well as provide energy and food security for the expanding Chinese economy.  One Chinese representative present called it a “win-win” situation.  Certainly, China’s policy of not attaching any political strings to their aid is refreshing for a region that has experienced little autonomy in that department, and the investment is badly needed.  Yet China’s activities lack transparency and coordination, and if Africa is not sufficiently engaged with China to dictate their terms of their own development, the win-win situation may be one-sided.

Europe is visibly nervous about China’s presence in Africa.  Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development, was quoted earlier in the week as saying that Europe is missing out on the “Great Game” in Africa, in which world powers are vying for a strategic position that would assure access to Africa’s markets and resources.  In response to a question on this comment from Eurodad staff member Lucy Hayes, Commissioner Uwe Wissenbach, Coordinator for Africa-China relations, frankly noted that Europe is burdened by having to be politically correct and cannot pursue its economic interests as openly as China.  In his presentation, Wissenbach noted that the European Union is well-placed to act as coordinator between China and Africa.  Francois Traore, President of the Association of African Cotton Producers, responded to this suggestion by questioning how Europe, with its history of mistakes in Africa, can consider itself well-placed for this role.

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Post tags: ACP-EU, Africa, agriculture, China, CTA, development aid, Europe
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Joining Riz Khan in the discussion are Richard Behar, an investigative journalist whose lengthy Special Report: China in Africa was published in the June issue of Fast Company; Dr. John Afele, former Director of International Program for Africa at the University of Guelph in Canada, and author of Digital Bridges, Developing Countries in the Knowledge Economy; as well as David Shin, former U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, and now a Professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.

Among the topics discussed are the impact of China’s increasing role in Africa on the U.S., the impact of Chinese products on the development of light manufacturing in Africa, the degree to which Africa itself can influence China’s role there, and how Chinese “no-strings-attached” loans may or may not undermine Western development aid usually associated with certain conditions.

The show also answers questions by callers.

* Riz Khan – China in Africa – 25 Jun 08 – Part 1
* Riz Khan – China in Africa – 25 Jun 08 – Part 2

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Post tags: Africa, Al-Jazeera, China, David Shin, John Afele, Richard Behar, Riz Khan
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From Xinhua:

China supports the mediation efforts taken by the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to try to resolve the Zimbabwe issue, Chinese special envoy Liu Guijin said Tuesday.

    Liu, China’s Special Envoy on African Affairs, made the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the high-level segment of the UN Economic and Social Council, which opened here Monday.

    ”We hope that the stakeholders in Zimbabwe” — the ruling party, the opposition and other relevant political force — could “work together and make further efforts to stabilize the volatile situation there,” Liu said.

[...]

“We hope that the situation there in Zimbabwe could be addressed and the relevant stakeholders … with the assistance of the regional countries of the African Union and the international Community” could find a proper solution, he said.

From Bloomberg

Liu Guijin [...] said his government would take its cue from the African Union and Southern African Development Community. “It’s an African problem,” Liu said.

From Xinhua

“We think the issues concerning Zimbabwe should only be resolved by the Zimbabwean people and the international community could play a constructive role by promoting dialogue and reconciliation,” Liu said.

From Reuters:

Liu did not say whether China was prepared to use its veto power on the U.N. Security Council to block a U.S. draft resolution outlining U.N. sanctions against Zimbabwe.

“That is a pre-judgment,” he said in response to a question about a possible Chinese veto. He did not elaborate.

From the Financial Times:

A senior Chinese official on Tuesday defended his country’s aid to African states such as Zimbabwe and Sudan, underscoring Beijing’s resistance to imposing international sanctions in response to Harare’s alleged violations of human rights.

Liu Guijin [...] said: “We don’t attach political conditions [to aid]. We have to realise the political and economic environments are not ideal. But we don’t have to wait for everything to be satisfactory or human rights to be perfect.” [...]

He said that due to existing embargoes and sanctions “people are suffering there”.

[Liu Guijin also] said: “While we are not satisfied with the environment in many developing countries, we don’t have to wait [for it] to be perfect.” He said that a century ago no traditional western donor would have met its own current criteria for granting aid to the developing world.

He said China’s aid policy was aimed at a win-win situation in which both it and the aid recipients would benefit. That strategy lay behind its investments in infrastructure and mineral exploitation in Africa and elsewhere.

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Post tags: Africa, China, Liu Guijin, mugabe, Zimbabwe
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The International Monetary Fund’s country representative for Congo, Xavier Maret, said the $9 billion mining and infrastructure partnership with China signed by Kinshasa this year had raised questions about Congo’s level of indebtedness.

“With this question regarding the Chinese project, on the evaluation of certain problems relating to public debt, it is recommendable to await the results, as well as feasibility studies, to be able to draw conclusions,” he told a news conference in Kinshasa at the end of an IMF mission. [...]

Explaining the fund’s questions over the deal with China, Maret said the IMF wanted to be clear about whether the financial obligations contracted by Congo should be categorised as public or private debt. It also needed to determine the implications of this for debt relief for Congo.

The IMF believed that as the Congolese state was giving certain guarantees to China in return for the loans and investment, the debt should be considered public debt.

Under the terms of the deal, Exim Bank of China has pledged financing for major road and rail construction projects in Congo and for the rehabilitation of its strategic mining sector, badly damaged by years of war, corruption and neglect.

In return, China’s Sinohydro Corp and China Railway Engineering Corp received a 68 percent stake in a joint venture with Congolese state copper miner Gecamines, with rights to two large copper and cobalt concessions. [...]

From Sudan to Angola and South Africa, China has been pumping billions of dollars of loans, investments and aid into Africa in the last two years, looking to lock up oil and mineral supplies for its fast-growing economy.

African governments generally welcome China’s investments as coming unfettered by Western demands for good governance and transparency. Some analysts are already portraying the Chinese as Africa’s “new colonialists” as they scramble for the rich resources coveted in the past by European powers.

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U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged China to match its growing economic and political clout with more funding and troops for peacekeeping operations to meet growing international crises.

China, a relative latecomer to global peacekeeping, has about 1,800 peacekeepers deployed abroad, making it the second largest contributor after France from among the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

“This is an area where China stands tall,” Ban said in a speech given to students at Beijing’s Foreign Affairs University.

“You are one of the U.N.’s leading member states, and you now rank among our top 10 contributors of both funds and peacekeeping forces. China will need to rise even higher in both rankings if we are to meet growing global challenges,” Ban said.

China last year agreed to send a 315-member engineering unit to Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur, where international experts say the conflict between insurgent groups, the Sudanese government and state-backed militias has killed 200,000 people and driven millions from their homes.

The Sudanese government has accepted a hybrid peacekeeping force of 26,000 African Union and United Nations troops, but only 9,000 are on the ground.

China, which sent a first deployment of 142 troops to Darfur last November, will send the remaining engineers in mid-July, Xinhua news agency said on Monday.

China has advised Sudan to cooperate with U.N. efforts to resolve the crisis but has faced widespread Western criticism as the African country’s biggest arms supplier and for not using its oil and investment stakes to press harder for an end to bloodshed in the arid Darfur region.

The U.N. chief, who will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao and other leaders on Wednesday, told Chinese journalists he hoped Beijing would be “more proactive” on other global issues ranging from food security to climate change, the China Daily said.

“I expect that China’s people and government will actively participate, commensurate with your economic development and political responsibility,” the paper quoted Ban as saying.

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Post tags: Africa, African Union, Ban Ki-Moon, China, Darfur, Sudan, UN
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