China signals no South China Sea backdown as foreign minister goes to U.S.

Mon Feb 22, 2016 4:27am EST
BEIJING | BY BEN BLANCHARD

Reuters

China's South China Sea military deployments are no different from U.S. deployments on Hawaii, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Monday, striking a combative tone ahead of a visit by Foreign Minister Wang Yi to the United States this week.

The United States last week accused China of raising tensions in the South China Sea by its apparent deployment of surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island, a move China has neither confirmed nor denied.

China's Pivot To Latin America: Beijing's Growing Security Presence In America's Backyard

FEB 20, 2016 @ 08:40 PM 3,030 VIEWS

Paul Coyer , CONTRIBUTOR
I cover foreign policy with a focus on Eurasia.

FORBES

China’s extremely ambitious efforts under Xi Jinping to extend its reach around the globe and to put its economic clout to work aggressively pursuing its strategic goals have had considerable impact on Latin America. As I’ve written previously, the nature of Chinese economic engagement with Latin America, despite having some beneficial aspects, has also had long term negative economic and normative effects in the region and has strengthened anti-American regimes. China’s growing military presence in the region is having a similar effect, and, although it is still relatively limited, is serving to undermine, aided by Washington’s neglect, the United States’ strategic position in its own Hemisphere.

China 'has deployed missiles in South China Sea' - Taiwan

3 hours ago

BBC

China has deployed surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island in the South China Sea, Taiwan says.

Satellite images taken on 14 February appear to show two batteries of eight missile launchers and a radar system on Woody or Yongxing Island in the Paracels.

The presence of missiles would significantly increase tensions in the acrimonious South China Sea dispute.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said reports were a Western media invention.

But Mr Wang defended "the limited and necessary self-defence facilities" on islands inhabited by Chinese personnel as "consistent with the right for self-preservation and self-protection.... under the international law".

U.S. Warship Enters Waters Claimed by China Without Approval

  Alan Bjerga

January 30, 2016 — 5:53 PM EET Updated on January 31, 2016 — 8:58 AM EET

Bloomberg

The Pentagon confirmed it sent a ship into waters claimed by China, calling it a “freedom of navigation” operation meant to challenge attempts by that country and others to restrict navigation in the area.

The USS Curtis Wilbur got to within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Triton Island in the South China Sea, Defense Department spokesman Mark Wright said by e-mail Saturday.

The island, administered by China, is part of the Paracel islands chain in the South China Sea also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou ignored a rebuke from the U.S. and visited an island in the contested area earlier this week, reiterating claims to the disputed waterway.

China Deepens Its Footprint in Iran After Lifting of Sanctions

By THOMAS ERDBRINKJAN. 24, 2016

The New  York Times

ZARRINABAD, Iran — Rising from the yellowish, treeless plains so typical for central Iran stands a square labyrinth of pipes and conveyor belts, topped by a silver chimney that glitters in the summer sun.

Sanctions against Iran failed to halt the construction of the complex, a steel mill that went into operation in September and now churns out ingots and billets. The sanctions also did not stop Sheng Kuan Li, a Chinese businessman, from pouring $200 million into the project.

Xi’s new model army

Xi Jinping reforms China’s armed forces—to his own advantage

Jan 16th 2016 | BEIJING

The Economist

CHINA’S biggest military shake-up in a generation began with a deliberate echo of Mao Zedong. Late in 2014 President Xi Jinping went to Gutian, a small town in the south where, 85 years before, Mao had first laid down the doctrine that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is the armed force not of the government or the country but of the Communist Party. Mr Xi stressed the same law to the assembled brass: the PLA is still the party’s army; it must uphold its “revolutionary traditions” and maintain absolute loyalty to its political masters. His words were a prelude to sweeping reforms in the PLA that have unfolded in the past month, touching almost every military institution.

Opposition leader’s landslide win in Taiwan puts onus on China to respond

The Washington Post

By Simon Denyer January 17 at 2:44 PM 

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — A stunning victory for Taiwan’s opposition and the election of the island’s first female president Saturday signal a new era and send a clear message: Taiwan is coming of age as a democracy.

The question is whether Beijing is listening, and how it will respond.

Even as the final votes were being tallied, President-elect Tsai Ing-wen was reaching out to China and calming any fears the giant neighbor might have.

Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party considers Taiwan to be a sovereign, independent nation, but it sees no need to anger Beijing by making a formal declaration of independence. But Tsai went further, promising in her victory speech that she would rise above party politics, maintain peaceful and predictable relations with Beijing, and avoid doing anything provocative.

After Nuclear Test, South Korea Urges China to Rein In North

The New York Times

By CHOE SANG-HUNJAN. 13, 2016

SEOUL, South Korea — A week after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test, President Park Geun-hye of South Korea urged China on Wednesday to do more to rein in the North, amid growing criticism that Ms. Park’s policy of building stronger ties with Beijing was not showing results.

“China has repeatedly said publicly that it would not tolerate North Korea’s nuclear weapons,” Ms. Park said in a nationally televised speech. “I think China is fully aware that if such strong will is not matched by necessary measures, we cannot prevent fifth and sixth nuclear tests by the North or guarantee real peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.”

As Taiwan’s Workers Flock to China, Concerns About Economy Grow

By AUSTIN RAMZYJAN. 13, 2016

The New York Times

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Jason Lee spent most of the last decade building a business in a field for which Taiwan is famous. With three friends, he founded an animation studio here, churning out TV shows and special effects for games and films.

But costs rose and orders dried up, and they closed up shop in 2011. A few years later, Mr. Lee left Taiwan for mainland China, where he was hired to run an animation studio in the city of Qingdao. Five months ago, he started his own studio there. He has 20 employees, a number he hopes to double after the Chinese New Year next month — growth he could not have imagined in Taiwan.

U.S. may send more strategic weapons to Korean peninsula: South Korea

Mon Jan 11, 2016 4:51am EST Related: WORLD, SOUTH KOREA

SEOUL | BY JU-MIN PARK AND JEE HEUN KAHNG

Reuters

The United States and its ally South Korea were discussing on Monday sending more strategic U.S. weapons to the Korean peninsula, a day after a U.S. B-52 bomber flew over South Korea in response to North Korea's nuclear test last week.

North Korea said it set off a hydrogen bomb last Wednesday, its fourth nuclear test since 2006, angering China, the North's main ally, and the United States, which said it doubted the device was a hydrogen bomb.

A New Economic Era for China Goes Off the Rails

By KEITH BRADSHERJAN. 7, 2016

The New York Times

HONG KONG — When President Xi Jinping of China convened a group of top officials to discuss the economy last month, the highly publicized meeting was seen as a moment of triumph.

A stock market plunge last summer, and a messy currency devaluation that followed, had faded from global view. In the relative calm, he seemed to usher in a new era of economic management, promising policy coordination at the highest levels to prevent another bout of turmoil.

Less than three weeks later, his plans have been derailed as China’s stock market and currency once again rattle investors around the world. The latest rout sets up a challenge for Mr. Xi, who has positioned himself as the master of the country’s economy.

Be Scared of China's Debt, Not Its Stocks

107 JAN 7, 2016 5:34 PM EST

By Noah Smith

Bloomberg

China’s stock market is crashing again. After two days this week with big and rapid declines -- the latest of which shut off trading only a few minutes after the open -- Chinese stocks are back in the neighborhood of their mid-2015 lows. The raft of administrative measures that the Chinese government has used to prop up its markets since the big plunge last year seems to only have postponed further declines, rather than prevented them.

Stocks Fall Sharply on China Slowdown Worries

Stoxx Europe 600 falls 2.2%, led by 3.3% drop in Frankfurt’s exporter-heavy DAX index

The Wall Street Journal

By RIVA GOLD

Jan. 4, 2016 4:20 a.m. ET

1 COMMENTS

Global stocks sold off sharply on the first trading day of 2016 following fresh signs of an economic slowdown in China.

Weaker-than-expected manufacturing data and a falling currency triggered declines in mainland Chinese stocks so steep that authorities halted trading there for the rest of the day.

European stocks also fell sharply, with the Stoxx Europe 600 down 2.2% in early trade, led by a 3.3% drop in Germany’s exporter-heavy DAX index.

China Lands Test Flight in Disputed Island Chain

Vietnam, Philippines unhappy about flight to new airfield in the South China Sea’s Spratlys

 The Wall Street Journal

By TE-PING CHEN

Updated Jan. 3, 2016 3:54 p.m. ET

105 COMMENTS

BEIJING—China said it landed a test flight on a newly completed airfield in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, a sign of its growing military capabilities in the region.

The flight drew a quick protest from Vietnam, which said China had “seriously violated” its sovereignty. A Philippines foreign ministry spokesman said Manila, another claimant in the Spratlys, also planned to lodge a protest with the Chinese.

What China Can Learn From Greece

By SERGEI GURIEVDEC. 9, 2015

The New  York Times

As a political economist, I make my living studying the impact of politics on economics. My friends and co-authors who are political scientists focus on how economics affects politics. Which is more relevant in real life? Do countries with bad politics suffer from poor economic outcomes because bad economic policies are driven by bad politics? Or because persistent economic difficulties make reasonable politics hard to sustain?

Every year offers examples of both kinds. The year 2015 was no exception, producing two very important stories: Greece and China. Both are dramatic and multifaceted.

Euro to Bear Brunt of Yuan's Inclusion in Reserve-Currency Club

 Netty Idayu Ismail

 Lillian Chen

Bloombgerg

The euro’s worst year in a decade is looking even grimmer after the Chinese yuan’s inclusion in the International Monetary Fund’s basket of reserve currencies.

The 19-nation currency’s weighting in the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights basket will drop to 30.93 percent, from 37.4 percent, the organization said Monday. The yuan will join the dollar, euro, pound and yen in the SDR allocation from Oct. 1, 2016, at a 10.92 percent weighting.

The euro has tumbled 13 percent against the dollar this year, the most in a decade, and central banks have reduced the proportion of the currency in their reserves to the lowest since 2002. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi signaled on Oct. 22 that policy makers are open to boosting stimulus, after embarking on a 1.1 trillion-euro ($1.2 trillion) asset-purchase program in March.

China Unveils Biggest Army Overhaul in Decades to Project Power

By  Bloomberg News

November 26, 2015 — 12:56 PM EET Updated on November 27, 2015 — 3:40 AM EET

President Xi Jinping announced a major overhaul of China’s military to make the world’s largest army more combat ready and better equipped to project force beyond the country’s borders.

Under the reorganization, all branches of the armed forces would come under a joint military command, Xi told a meeting of military officials in Beijing Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Bloomberg in September reported details of the plan, which may also seek to consolidate the country’s seven military regions to as few as four.

Could Greece Pivot To Russia And China?

Raoul Ruparel Contributor

Forbes

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras heads to Moscow tomorrow amongst significant noise around a potential Greek pivot towards Russia and China. But how realistic a proposition is this? The short answer is, not very. Most of the noise is precisely that, just noise. But it is worth exploring in more detail just why this is the case and what it means for the current negotiations around Greece’s position in the Eurozone and EU-Russia relations.

David Ignatius: A U.S.-China ‘reset’?

The Washington Post

By David Ignatius Opinion writer December 16 at 7:11 PM

This year began with some Chinese and American foreign-policy analysts looking back a century to World War I and wondering if confrontation was inevitable between a rising power and a dominant one. But now there has been progress on climate, trade and security issues and what seems a modest “reset” of the Sino-American relationship.

Future disagreements between the United States and China are inevitable. But the surprise of a high-level dialogue here last weekend was the interest by both sides in exploring what the Chinese like to call “win-win” cooperation.

COLUMN-China is the elephant in the situation room

Mon Dec 24, 2012 5:43pm GMT

 http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/12/24/bremmer-china-idUKL1E8NO3DF20121224

(Reuters) - Earlier this month the U.S. National Intelligence Council released its Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds report - a document that comes out once per presidential administration - mapping out likely geopolitical trends over the next two decades or so. As usual, it's a must-read, offering comprehensive analysis of the disparate factors that will drive global politics through 2030.

Further, the NIC took bold steps to correct some previous weaknesses in past reports. In the past the report nailed the "what" more often than the "when." That is particularly the case with its treatment of the United States, for which "past works assumed U.S. centrality." This time around the NIC sets an increasingly "multi-polar world" - which I call the G-Zero - as the backdrop of its report, acknowledging that the lack of global leadership has accelerated in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008-09. America's status as a "hegemonic power" is eroding, and no country is likely to take its place.