Chuyên mục: China

Asia-Pacific free trade talks progressing well: China

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Yahoo! News 21 February 2017

Beijing, Feb 21 (IANS) China’s Trade Minister on Tuesday said talks on the proposed Asia-Pacific free trade agreement are progressing well, after the US withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement last month.

Gao Hucheng said at a news conference in Beijing that talks for setting up the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership — that would include 16 countries from the Asia-Pacific region — are progressing smoothly, and expressed confidence that they will be concluded soon after certain challenges were addressed, Efe news reported. Tiếp tục đọc “Asia-Pacific free trade talks progressing well: China” →

Chinese ballet show draws protests for ‘glorifying Red Army’

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

The Guardian

Minister says staging The Red Detachment of Women is a privilege but protest organiser says government needs to understand what the story is about

Red Detachment of Women
A performance of The Red Detachment of Women in Tianjin, China. Photograph: Jason Lee/Reuters

@naamanzhou

Protesters in Melbourne have called for a boycott of a visiting Chinese ballet performance that they say “glorifies the Red Army”.

The National Ballet of China is performing The Red Detachment of Women, created in 1964, , at the Arts Centre in Melbourne.

The state minister for creative industry, Martin Foley, said staging the ballet was a “privilege”, but protest organiser Frank Ruan described it as “like putting salt on the wounds of some Chinese people”. Tiếp tục đọc “Chinese ballet show draws protests for ‘glorifying Red Army’” →

Chinese weapons, warplanes reaching ‘near-parity’ with West: study

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
This file photo taken on Dec. 14 shows a Chinese J-15 fighter jet preparing to take off from the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier during military drills in the Bohai Sea, off China’s northeast coast. China continues to arm itself faster than other countries to the point of moving towards near parity with the West in some military areas, according to the annual report of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) released on Tuesday. | AFP-JIJI

Japan times

AFP-JIJI Feb 15, 2017

LONDON – China is beginning to export its own weapon designs, including armed drones, worldwide and is reaching “near-parity” with the West in terms of military technology, according to a report on Tuesday.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies said that China’s official defence budget of $145 billion (€137 billion) last year was 1.8 times higher than those of South Korea and Japan combined.

It also accounted for more than a third of Asia’s total military spending in 2016, the IISS annual Military Balance report said, adding that spending in Asia grew by 5 to 6 percentage points a year between 2012 and 2016.

Total global military spending instead fell by 0.4 percent in real terms in 2016 compared to 2015, largely due to reductions in the Middle East.

“China’s military progress highlights that Western dominance in the field of advanced weapons systems can no longer be taken for granted,” IISS director John Chipman said at a presentation in London.

continue reading on Japan times

In China, a Lonely Valentine’s Day for Millions of Men

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW FEB. 14, 2017

A flower market in Beijing on Monday, the day before Valentine’s Day. China’s large gender gap is causing problems for the country’s men, especially poorer, rural ones. Roman Pilipey/European Pressphoto Agency

SHANGHAI — If you’re a “single dog,” a “bare branch,” a “leftover man” or a “leftover woman” — all monikers for unmarried Chinese — you may find Valentine’s Day particularly trying.

Judging by the numbers, quite a few of the long faces on Tuesday should belong to men.

That’s because China’s gender gap remains huge. There were 33.59 million more men than women in China in 2016, according to figures from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics that were issued last month, and 48.78 percent of China’s 1.38 billion people are female, compared with a global average of 49.55 percent.

For men, especially those lower on the socioeconomic ladder, marriage can be hard to attain.

The reasons for the gap are well known: a traditional preference for boys, compounded by the “one child” policy instituted in 1979 that led millions of couples to abort female fetuses. Worried by one of the world’s lowest fertility rates, the government changed the policy last year to permit all couples to have two children.

‘We had to sue’: the five lawyers taking on China’s authorities over smog

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
The  Guardian

In an unprecedented legal case, a group of Chinese lawyers have charged the governments of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei with failing to protect their citizens from air pollution, which is linked to a third of all deaths in the country

Pinterest
Airpocalypse now: time-lapse video of smog posted by Beijing-based Briton Chas Pope on 1 January this year

Who is responsible for China’s chronic and deadly air pollution? That depends on who you ask. Officials blame the weather or outdoor barbecues, activists blame steel companies and coal-fired power plants. But Yu Wensheng blames only one actor: the government.

The 50-year-old lawyer recently launched an unprecedented suit against the authorities in three regions in China, claiming they have failed in their responsibilities. For a government with the motto “Serve the People”, Yu feels the officials are serving other interests by allowing nearly half a billion people to choke on toxic smog. Tiếp tục đọc “‘We had to sue’: the five lawyers taking on China’s authorities over smog” →

China expels 32 South Korean missionaries amid tension over THAAD missile defense system

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Japan  Times

Reuters Feb 11, 2017

SEOUL – China has expelled 32 South Korean Christian missionaries, a South Korean government official said on Saturday, amid diplomatic tension between the two countries over the planned deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in the South.

The 32 were based in China’s northeastern Yanji region near the border with North Korea, many of whom had worked there more than a decade, South Korean media have reported.

South Korea’s foreign ministry said on Friday it briefed Christian groups on the case of the missionaries, adding that they were expelled in January.

The ministry advised the groups on the importance of complying with the laws and customs of the areas where they work, it said. Tiếp tục đọc “China expels 32 South Korean missionaries amid tension over THAAD missile defense system” →

Trump và Tập: chiến tranh thương mại?

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Vũ Quang Việt Thứ Năm,  9/2/2017, 23:10 (GMT+7)

(TBKTSG) – Tổng thống Mỹ Donald Trump đã ký sắc lệnh quyết định rút Mỹ khỏi Hiệp định Đối tác xuyên Thái Bình Dương (TPP), thảo luận lại Hiệp định Thương mại tự do bắc Mỹ (Nafta), xác định từng vi phạm hiệp định thương mại với từng nước để có biện pháp thích hợp.  Còn với Trung Quốc (TQ), Trump tuyên bố đó là nước thao túng hối suất, trợ cấp hàng hóa, ăn cắp công nghệ  và hứa hẹn sẽ  cứng rắn với TQ, sẽ làm “nước Mỹ vĩ đại trở lại”.  TQ dưới sự lãnh đạo của Tập Cận Bình đang làm gì và Trump có thể đối sách như thế nào? Tiếp tục đọc “Trump và Tập: chiến tranh thương mại?” →

Plan for $10 Billion Chip Plant Shows China’s Growing Pull

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By PAUL MOZUR FEB. 10, 2017

Sanjay Jha, the chief executive of GlobalFoundries. The company will build an advanced semiconductor factory in Chengdu, China. Arno Burgi/European Pressphoto Agency

HONG KONG — After Intel and Foxconn said they would build advanced factories in America, it might have seemed as if the United States were gaining high-end manufacturing momentum.

But on Friday, the California-based chip maker GlobalFoundries announced a $10 billion project in China, showing how the center of gravity continues to shift across the Pacific.

The new advanced semiconductor factory, in the central Chinese city of Chengdu, is only the most recent in an array of investments, often by major multinationals, into China with the support of the Chinese government. The projects have become markedly more sophisticated, making more modern microchips, memory chips or flat-panel displays.

China likely to build on reef near Philippines: Minister

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
 ChannelNewsAsia
  • Posted 07 Feb 2017 17:02
  • Updated 08 Feb 2017 02:11

File photo of Chinese navy in the South China Sea. (Photo: AFP)

MANILA: Manila expects China to try to build on a reef off the coast of the Philippines, the country’s defence secretary said on Tuesday (Feb 7), adding this would be “unacceptable” in the flashpoint waterway.

In an interview with AFP, Delfin Lorenzana said he believed China would eventually reclaim Scarborough Shoal, just 230 kilometres from the main Philippine island of Luzon.

Beijing has already built up a number of islets and reefs in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, installing military facilities on several of them.

Analysts say similar installations on nearby Scarborough Shoal could give China effective military control over the disputed Sea – something the US has said it is not prepared to accept. Tiếp tục đọc “China likely to build on reef near Philippines: Minister” →

‘Irrational’ Coal Plants May Hamper China’s Climate Change Efforts

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By EDWARD WONG FEB. 7, 2017

The China Kingho Energy Group’s coal-to-gas plant in Chuluqay, Xinjiang, China, in 2014. Benjamin Haas/Bloomberg

YINING, China — When scientists and environmental scholars scan the grim industrial landscape of China, a certain coal plant near the rugged Kazakhstan border stands out.

On the outside, it looks like any other modern energy plant — shiny metal towers loom over the grassy grounds, and workers in hard hats stroll the campus. But in those towers, a rare and contentious process is underway, spewing an alarming amount of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas accelerating climate change.

The plant and others like it undermine China’s aim of being a global leader on efforts to limit climate change.

The plant, in the country’s far west, converts coal to synthetic natural gas. The process, called coal-to-gas or coal gasification, has been criticized by Chinese and foreign scholars and policy makers. For one thing, it is relatively expensive. It also requires enormous amounts of water, which exacerbates the chronic water crisis in northern China. And worst of all, critics say, it emits more carbon dioxide than traditional methods of energy production, even other coal-based ways.

Debate Flares Over China’s Inclusion at Vatican Organ Trafficking Meeting

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

New York times,  Sinosphere

By DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW FEB. 7, 2017

Dr. Huang Jiefu, co-chairman of the National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee of China, at a meeting on organ trafficking at the Vatican on Tuesday. Andrew Medichini/Associated Press

BEIJING — A politely worded but testy debate has flared over a Vatican conference on human organ trafficking, with a group of ethicists warning that China will use the participation of its most senior transplant official to convince the world that it has overhauled its organ procurement system.

In a letter to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Rome, where the two-day Summit on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism began on Tuesday, 11 ethicists wrote: “Our concern is with the harvesting and trafficking of organs from executed prisoners in China.”

China has admitted that it extracted organs from death row prisoners for decades, in what critics have called a serious violation of the rights of inmates who cannot give genuine consent. Since Jan. 1, 2015, Chinese officials have said they no longer use prisoners’ organs, though doubts persist.

China’s nuclear power capacity likely to overtake America’s within a decade

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Japan Times

by

Bloomberg Feb 1, 2017

China’s rapid nuclear expansion will result in it overtaking the U.S. as the nation with the largest atomic power capacity by 2026, according to BMI Research.

The world’s second-biggest economy will almost triple its nuclear capacity to nearly 100 gigawatts by 2026, making it the biggest market globally, analysts said in a note dated Jan. 27. The nation added about 8 gigawatts of nuclear power last year, boosting its installed capacity to about 34 million kilowatts, according to BMI.

China has committed to boosting nuclear power, which accounted for about 1.7 percent of its total generation in 2015, to help reduce reliance on coal, which accounts for two-thirds of its primary energy. The nation has 20 reactors currently under construction, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Another 176 are either planned or proposed, far more than any other nation, according to the World Nuclear Association. Tiếp tục đọc “China’s nuclear power capacity likely to overtake America’s within a decade” →

Duterte asks China to help patrol piracy-prone southern waters

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Japan Times

Kyodo Feb 1, 2017

MANILA – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday said he had asked China to send naval or coast guard ships to patrol international waters off the southern Philippines to help in the fight against piracy.

In an address to military officers, the Philippine leader said he “asked China if they can patrol the international waters without necessarily intruding into the territorial waters of countries,” referring specifically to the Sulu Sea between Mindanao and Borneo.

“We would be glad if we have their presence there,” he added. Tiếp tục đọc “Duterte asks China to help patrol piracy-prone southern waters” →

China’s Intelligent Weaponry Gets Smarter

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By JOHN MARKOFF and MATTHEW ROSENBERG FEB. 3, 2017

The Chinese-designed multicore processor of the Sunway TaihuLight, the world’s fastest supercomputer. The new supercomputer is thought to be part of a broader Chinese push to begin driving innovation. Li Xiang/Xinhua, via Associated Press

Robert O. Work, the veteran defense official retained as deputy secretary by President Trump, calls them his “A.I. dudes.” The breezy moniker belies their serious task: The dudes have been a kitchen cabinet of sorts, and have advised Mr. Work as he has sought to reshape warfare by bringing artificial intelligence to the battlefield.

Last spring, he asked, “O.K., you guys are the smartest guys in A.I., right?”

No, the dudes told him, “the smartest guys are at Facebook and Google,” Mr. Work recalled in an interview.

Now, increasingly, they’re also in China. The United States no longer has a strategic monopoly on the technology, which is widely seen as the key factor in the next generation of warfare.

The Pentagon’s plan to bring A.I. to the military is taking shape as Chinese researchers assert themselves in the nascent technology field. And that shift is reflected in surprising commercial advances in artificial intelligence among Chinese companies.