‘Parched’ Chinese city plans to pump water from Russian lake via 1,000km pipeline

Urban planners in Lanzhou have drawn up proposals to pipe water into the chronically dry region from Siberia’s Lake Baikal.

Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is the deepest freshwater lake on earth. Photograph: Kirill Shipitsin/TASS

China is reportedly considering plans to build a 1,000km (620 mile) pipeline to pump water all the way from Siberia to its drought-stricken northwest.

According to reports in the Chinese media, urban planners in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, have drawn up proposals to pipe water into the chronically parched region from Russia’s Lake Baikal, the deepest freshwater lake on earth.

Li Luoli, an academic who is one of the plan’s cheerleaders, claimed the mega-project – roughly the equivalent of pumping water from Lake Como to London – was both theoretically feasible and “certainly beneficial” to China. Tiếp tục đọc “‘Parched’ Chinese city plans to pump water from Russian lake via 1,000km pipeline”

US rebuffs China over North Korea talks

UNITED NATIONS: The United States on Wednesday (Mar 8) rebuffed China’s appeal for talks with North Korea, saying leader Kim Jong-Un was behaving irrationally and that it was reassessing its approach to dealing with Pyongyang.

China, Pyongyang’s main ally, earlier called on North Korea to suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for a halt to the annual US-South Korean military drills.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Beijing that the proposal could help bring the United States and North Korea back to negotiations and avert what he termed a “head-on collision”.

After a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council, US Ambassador Nikki Haley said North Korea’s actions called for a different response. Tiếp tục đọc “US rebuffs China over North Korea talks”

US deploys missile defence system to South Korea

Al Jazeera

China is warning it will take measures against a US missile defence system deployed in South Korea, with the stated objective of countering threats from North Korea.

The equipment needed to set up Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence system (THAAD), a missile defence system, have arrived in South Korea, according to American and South Korean defence forces.

The deployment announcement was made on Tuesday, a day after North Korea test-launched four ballistic missiles into the sea near Japan.

Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, said in the statement that “continued provocative actions by North Korea, to include yesterday’s launch of multiple missiles, only confirm the prudence of our alliance decision last year to deploy THAAD to South Korea”. Tiếp tục đọc “US deploys missile defence system to South Korea”

30 dead in fighting in Myanmar town near China border

YANGON: At least 30 people were killed on Monday (Mar 6)  in a day of intense fighting in a town on Myanmar’s border with China, authorities said, after rebels dressed in police uniforms launched a surprise raid.

Artillery and small arms fire continued throughout the day in Laukkai, a main town in the Kokang region of the northeastern state of Shan.

The clashes are some of the worst to break out in the Chinese-speaking Kokang region since fighting in 2015 left scores dead and forced tens of thousands to flee across the border into China.

Myanmar is already torn by various ethnic insurgencies. But the Kokang conflict has raised tensions with its giant neighbour.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s government is desperate to end the decades-long borderland conflicts, but intensifying fighting threatens peace efforts. Tiếp tục đọc “30 dead in fighting in Myanmar town near China border”

Chinese protest against South Korea’s Lotte Group after land deal for THAAD missile-defense system

AFP-JIJI, Reuters Mar 5, 2017

Dozens of people holding posters showing late Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong protested in northeastern Jilin province on Sunday, calling for a boycott of South Korean goods as part of a backlash against the country’s Lotte Group.

The retail giant has faced growing opposition in China since signing a deal last Tuesday to provide land for a U.S. missile-defense system.

The plan to install the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system was prompted by threats from North Korea, but Beijing fears the move will undermine its own military capabilities.

“No to THAAD! Boycott Korean goods!” chanted the protesters. Tiếp tục đọc “Chinese protest against South Korea’s Lotte Group after land deal for THAAD missile-defense system”

BBC crew attacked in China and forced to sign confession

Journalist says crew trying to interview villager about land reform had cameras smashed and confiscated

A BBC camera crew reporting in China was attacked and later forced by police to apologise and sign a confession for trying to conduct an “illegal interview”, one of its reporters has said.

John Sudworth, a journalist with the BBC, and his team were attempting to interview a villager in rural China who claims her father was killed during a land dispute with the government. As they walked towards her house, a group of men blocked their way, pushed Sudworth and smashed and snatched the crew’s cameras. Tiếp tục đọc “BBC crew attacked in China and forced to sign confession”

ISIL video threatens China with ‘rivers of bloodshed’

Al Jazeera

SITE Intelligence Group says footage from Uighur fighters in western Iraq warns China of upcoming attacks.

Chinese police take part in drills in Tacheng, in Xinjiang region, in 2016 [China Daily/via Reuters]

ISIL fighters from China’s Uighur ethnic minority have vowed to return home and “shed blood like rivers” in what security experts said marked the first such threat against Chinese targets.

The threat came in a half-hour video released Monday by a division of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) featuring fighters from China’s Uighur minority, said the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which analysed the footage.

China has for years blamed exiled Uighur “separatists” for a series of violent attacks in its western Xinjiang region – the Muslim Uighur homeland – and warned of the potential for them to link up with violent groups.

In the video, a Uighur fighter issued the threat against China just before executing an alleged informant.

“Oh, you Chinese who do not understand what people say. We are the soldiers of the Caliphate, and we will come to you to clarify to you with the tongues of our weapons, to shed blood like rivers and avenging the oppressed,” according to SITE’s translation.

The footage also showed fighters, including heavily armed children, giving speeches, praying, and killing other “informants”. Tiếp tục đọc “ISIL video threatens China with ‘rivers of bloodshed’”

China drills again near Taiwan as island warns of threat

BEIJING/TAIPEI: Chinese jets and warships carried out exercises near Taiwan and into the Western Pacific on Thursday, as the self-ruled island’s defence minister warned of a growing threat from its giant neighbour.

Democratic Taiwan is increasingly concerned over China’s military designs, especially recent rounds of Chinese drills near Taiwan. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to take control of what it deems a wayward province. Tiếp tục đọc “China drills again near Taiwan as island warns of threat”

China ‘anti-terror’ rallies: thousands of troops on streets of Urumqi

More than 10,000 forces gather in capital of violence-stricken region of Xinjiang for second time in just over a week

Paramilitary policemen board a plane in Urumqi as they head for an anti-terrorism oath-taking rally in Kashgar.
Paramilitary policemen board a plane in Urumqi as they head for an anti-terrorism oath-taking rally in Kashgar. Photograph: China Stringer Network/Reuters

Thousands of troops have poured on to the streets of one of west China’s most important cities for the second time in just over a week, as a senior Communist party leader heralded an “all-out offensive” against terrorism in the violence-stricken region.

More than 10,000 rifle-toting forces gathered at the heart of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, for the latest in a series of spectacular mass “anti-terror rallies”. Tiếp tục đọc “China ‘anti-terror’ rallies: thousands of troops on streets of Urumqi”

Sea Change Awaits Trump in Thailand

Asia Sentinel

Sea Change Awaits Trump in Thailand

Thai Army: the east is red

Kingdom can no longer be counted on in a confrontation with China

Three months after his election, a month after inauguration, Donald Trump has not publicly mentioned Thailand.  Yet in a looming foreign policy crisis over the South China Sea, the seeds of which the president partly inherited and has partly sowed, the kingdom is poised to play an outsized and oppositional role.

China has territorial disputes over the South China Sea with five Southeast Asian nations and a sixth with Taiwan.  In July 2016, a UN maritime tribunal ruled China’s means of demarcating territory unlawful.  Beijing’s defiance notwithstanding, this ruling put most of China’s claims on shaky legal ground, to say nothing of its 3,000 acres of artificial islands constructed since 2013.

As candidate, Trump used the presidential debates to deliver an economic indictment against China—manufacturing threat, currency manipulator, climate change propagandist—and announced plans to increase the US Navy’s fleet from 272 to 350 ships.  If the China claims were aimed at viewers and votes, the naval announcement was likely the more clearly heard in Beijing. Tiếp tục đọc “Sea Change Awaits Trump in Thailand”

Việt Nam phản đối quy chế nghỉ đánh bắt cá của Trung Quốc ở Biển Đông

VE – Thứ ba, 28/2/2017 | 18:18 GMT+7

Hà Nội khẳng định quy chế mới về nghỉ đánh bắt cá trên biển của Trung Quốc xâm phạm nghiêm trọng chủ quyền của Việt Nam và vi phạm luật pháp quốc tế.

viet-nam-phan-doi-quy-che-nghi-danh-bat-ca-cua-trung-quoc-o-bien-dong

Người phát ngôn Bộ Ngoại giao Việt Nam Lê Hải Bình. Ảnh: Quý Đoàn

Bộ Nông nghiệp Trung Quốc ngày 27/2 đơn phương thông báo lệnh cấm đánh bắt cá ở Biển Đông từ 12h ngày 1/5 đến 12h ngày 16/8. Phạm vi cấm đánh bắt cá do Trung Quốc đơn phương vạch ra trên Biển Đông là từ 12 độ vĩ Bắc đến Vịnh Bắc Bộ và “giao tuyến hải vực Mân Áo”, tức vùng biển từ Phúc Kiến đến Quảng Đông, tọa độ từ 117º31’37.40″E,23º09’42.60″N đến 120º50’43″E,21º54’15″N). Lệnh cấm này cũng được áp dụng ở Vịnh Bắc Bộ, vùng biển Bột Hải, Hoàng Hải và Đông Hải.

Tiếp tục đọc “Việt Nam phản đối quy chế nghỉ đánh bắt cá của Trung Quốc ở Biển Đông”

Singapore has consistently abided by ‘One China policy’: DPM Teo

Commenting on the “broad and longstanding relationship” between the two countries, DPM Teo said that the two countries have worked well together to advance common interests, despite different perspectives on some issues.

Both countries also have a common interest in building a peaceful and growing region, and “this is much greater than any occasional differences of views”, he added.

He said that each of Singapore and China’s Government-to-Government projects have supported China’s developmental priorities at key stages. Tiếp tục đọc “Singapore has consistently abided by ‘One China policy’: DPM Teo”

Why China is building islands in the South China Sea

Vox – 17 thg 2, 2017

China claims they aren’t military bases, but their actions say otherwise.

China is building islands in the South China sea and its causing disputes among the other nations in the region; Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, and Indonesia. The US has many allies in the region and uses its massive Navy to patrol international waters, keeping shipping lanes open for trade.

Vietnam Is Getting Closer To Its Rival China Because Neither Side Trusts Trump

Forbes
Ralph Jennings, Contributor
I cover under-reported stories from Taiwan and Asia.

Less than a year ago Vietnam was counting on U.S. support in building up a defense against China. Vietnam and China have clashed over land for centuries. Now the Asian neighbors bitterly dispute much of the sea closest to their shores, with China taking more control as the world’s No. 2 economy and No. 3 military power. U.S. ex-president Barack Obama, probably hoping to contain China, lifted a decades-old ban on arms sales to Vietnam last year and from 2014 to 2016 his government spent $46 million on upgrading Vietnam’s military. Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam Is Getting Closer To Its Rival China Because Neither Side Trusts Trump”

China orders GPS tracking of every car in troubled region

Hundreds of thousands of vehicles affected by edict covering part of Xinjiang following outbreaks of violence – and no petrol for owners who don’t comply

Cars on the road in China.
Chinese authorities have ordered hundreds of thousands of motorists to install GPS tracking devices in their vehicles. Photograph: China Stringer Network/Reuters

Security officials in China’s violence-stricken north-west have ordered residents to install GPS tracking devices in their vehicles so authorities are able to keep permanent tabs on their movements.

The compulsory measure, which came into force this week and could eventually affect hundreds of thousands of vehicles, is being rolled out in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture of Xinjiang, a sprawling region that borders Central Asia and sees regular eruptions of deadly violence.

The move comes amid an apparent spike in killing that authorities blame on Islamist extremists and separatists but experts say is also fuelled by ethnic friction between Han Chinese migrants and members of the predominantly Muslim Uighur minority to whom Xinjiang is home. Tiếp tục đọc “China orders GPS tracking of every car in troubled region”