China - Robert Maguire on Diigo

06 Nov 09

For the first time since 1993, Taiwan is not to ask its little band of 23 diplomatic partners to propose it for UN membership. This is not because Taiwan has suddenly given up: it has always known membership was out of the question, since China refuses to recognise its statehood. Rather, Taiwan’s new approach typifies the effort that has marked the 16-month tenure of President Ma Ying-jeou: to ease tensions with China without dashing all hopes for greater international recognition.
It wants to become, like Palestine, an observer at the International Civil Aviation Organisation. And it wants to join the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is even prepared to be flexible over the contentious issue of the name the island uses.
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- Taiwan was asked to join the World Health Organisation (WHO) as an observer, under the name “Chinese Taipei”. This was the first time it had taken part in a UN event in 38 years.
- The urgency of tackling climate change makes Taiwan’s exclusion on political grounds look egregious; likewise the importance of air safety—Taiwan’s international airport is the world’s 15th-largest air-cargo hub.

05 Nov 09

Beijing Blanketed by Freak Government-Made Snow : TreeHugger

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Matthew Yglesias » Reconstruction for the USA

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With that kind of money you could entirely build out a national network of true high-speed rail. One year’s worth of defense spending gets you that
Does anyone doubt that the net benefit of $100 billion spent on high-speed rail is easily higher than that for the last $100 billion spent on defense?
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- What was the cost, human and economic, of the I-35 bridge collapse? Of the Metro crash and resulting limitations on service? Of the Bay Bridge shutdown? And of course, investments in infrastructure constitute positive contributions to the economy, which ultimately strengthen our ability to direct resources toward defense.
- So the real point would be something like if we took 10 percent of the defense budget and re-allocated that to infrastructure, we could have a national HSR network in ten years. And we’d still be spending over triple what our nearest rival spends.
- I can’t vouch for the authenticity of the quote, but someone told me he heard a Chinese official tell him “over the past decade you’ve spent $1 trillion on Iraq and Afghanistan, we’ve spent $1 trillion building the future of China.” I don’t really think we should view that contrast in a paranoid light, but if you do want to take a paranoid view of the American national security situation it makes a lot more sense to worry about that than to worry that someone in a cave might build a bomb

02 Nov 09

The Associated Press: As US looks for exit in Afghanistan, China digs in

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At a former al-Qaida stronghold southeast of the Afghan capital, a state-owned Chinese company is at work on a $3 billion mine project to tap one of the world's largest unexploited copper reserves, a potential financial boon for an impoverished country mired in war.
Aynak
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- China Metallurgical, better known as MCC, has a poor track record with mining projects in other countries, according to Yeager and other critics. In neighboring Pakistan, for example, where MCC operates a copper mine, there's been little benefit to the local economy. But that information was ignored during the deliberations, they say.

29 Oct 09

Culture (Not Just Genes) Drives Evolution : Discovery News

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Culture, not just genes, can drive evolutionary outcomes, according to a study released Wednesday that compares individualist and group-oriented societies across the globe.
most people in countries widely described as collectivist have a specific mutation within a gene regulating the transport of serotonin, a neurochemical known to profoundly affect mood.
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- In China and other east Asian nations, for example, up to 80 percent of the population carry this so-called "short" allele, or variant, of a stretch of DNA known as 5-HTTLPR.
- Earlier research has shown the S allele to be strongly linked with a range of negative emotions, including anxiety and depression.
  
  Critically, it is also associated with the impulse to stay out of harm's way.
- By contrast, in countries of European origin that prize self-expression and the pursuit of individual over group goals, the long or "L" allele dominates, with only 40 percent of people carrying the "S" variant.
- Ancient cultures in Asia, Africa and Latin America highly exposed to deadly pathogens, they conjecture, may have tended toward collectivist norms in order to better combat disease.

27 Oct 09

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

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If I'm razzing on Anita Dunn, I should also razz on John McCain, Newt Gingrich, George W. Bush, and Lee Atwater. More than happy to

26 Oct 09

That's Impossible: Politics from Taiwan

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So they say. The report, in which China Times quotes unnamed military sources, claims that Taiwan's military has rented access to a privately-owned high quality satellite to spy on China, and has been doing so for years now. The data is extensive, including photos showing detail down to 0.6m, and allows Taiwan to maintain real time understanding of China's troop and equipment movements.
The article implies that the US must know about and be passively allowing Taiwan to maintain this contract, otherwise, the report alleges, the Taiwanese officials involved wouldn't have gotten visas to go to the US in the process of dealing with this satellite company

Foreign Policy: Inside the Ivory Tower

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1,743 scholars
Most revealing? Nearly 40 percent of respondents reported that these scholars have “no impact” on foreign policy or even the public discourse about it. Indeed, the only academics judged less effectual in the policy realm were historians.
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- In 2006, 48 percent of respondents reported that contemporary case studies conducted by academics were “very useful” to policymakers, but by 2008 only 39 percent of respondents thought policymakers would find this work useful.
- It’s a largely liberal internationalist agenda, one that names the most important foreign-policy priorities facing the United States as: global climate change (37 percent), the war in Iraq (35 percent), global reliance on oil (34 percent), armed conflict in the Middle East (32 percent), and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (27 percent). A large majority of the experts favor increases in foreign aid (85 percent), free trade agreements (70 percent), and increased spending on the global aids epidemic (59 percent). Although these scholars oppose using military force against Iran even as it allegedly pursues a nuclear weapons program, a clear majority favors humanitarian intervention in Sudan if conducted under the aegis of an international institution such as nato or the United Nations. (It’s worth noting that had the survey been sent in December, after the global economic collapse, financial issues likely would have secured a higher spot.)
- So, which countries pose the greatest threat to the U.S. position today? Forty-three percent of respondents agreed that China’s growing military power could threaten international stability. In fact, specialists predict that the strategic importance of East Asia generally will continue to grow. Although only 30 percent see the region as the one of greatest concern for the United States today (up from 19 percent in 2006), 68 percent reported it would be the region of greatest strategic importance in 20 years.
- According to the scholars in this year’s survey, a U.S. commitment to take the lead on international climate treaties is long overdue. Although the election of President Obama—who has described the global climate change threat as “a matter of urgency”—promises movement on U.S. environmental policy, it might not be nearly high enough on Obama’s to-do list for these experts. Not only do academics consider the environment to be the greatest threat we face today, they predict it will be an even more important foreign-policy challenge for the United States in 10 years.

23 Oct 09

http://www.bobhenneman.info/china.htm

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22 Oct 09

India and China Create Alternative Climate Treaty : TreeHugger

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The two biggest polluters of the developing world have drafted an 'alternative' to the UN's climate treaty. It's an agreement to work together on climate issues, to reduce greenhouse gases and share clean technology. The deal could strengthen their position in climate talks, and foster a cooperative relationship on climate and energy issues.

The nations, which have the two largest populations in the world, have both refused to sign any climate treaty with industrialized countries that would force them to adhere to binding emissions reduction targets. They say that such targets would stifle their growing economies..

Amazing Pictures, Pollution in China | ChinaHush

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8. In the Yellow Sea coastline, countless sewage pipes buried in the beach and even extending into the deep sea. April 28, 2008
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- 9. In Ma’anshan, Anhui province (安徽马鞍山), along the Yangtze River there are many small-scaled Iron selection factories and plastic processing plants. Large amounts of sewage discharged into the Yangtze River June 18, 2009
- 16. Hebei Province Shexian Tianjin Iron and steel plant (河北省涉县天津钢铁厂) is a heavily polluting company. Company scale is still growing, seriously affecting the lives of local residents. March 18, 2008

20 Oct 09

China News: U.S. Official Invited To Visit Taiwan | China Digital Times (CDT)

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U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has been invited to Taiwan in what would be Washington’s first high-level visit to the island since 2000, officials said Tuesday.

The View from Taiwan: Of Missiles and Men

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Taiwan Today reports via the pro-KMT UDN
In addition to increasing their military threat to Taiwan, Chinese communist leaders have been covering up their political intent with the proposed signing of a peace accord, hoping to lower the island’s resistance and induce Taiwan to surrender without the use of force, the report says.
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- AP also reported on this
- In its biennial defense report issued Tuesday, the defense ministry said the confidence-building measures have failed to materialize due to unabated Chinese hostility toward Taiwan.
- "China has increased the frequency of its military exercises to pressure us since October 2008 when the U.S. government announced the sale of an arms package to us," the report said. "At this stage, (China) has developed the strategic capabilities to stop foreign forces from intervening in cross-strait conflicts."
- The U.S. is required by its own laws to provide Taiwan with weapons of a defensive character.
- There is no legal requirement in the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) to supply Taiwan with weapons, though many commentators continue to believe there is. Chris Nelson, a former Dem staffer who was in on the drafting of the TRA, had this to say in 2007:
- In fact, the US is not obligated to defend Taiwan by law
- TRA only obligates the US to consider arms sales under certain circumstances, period.
- So you add it all up, and not even at the beginning did the TRA mandate that the US defend Taiwan under any circumstance, nor that arms must be sold, simply because of requests by Taiwan.
- Recall that Beijing's Anti-Secession law which "obligates" China to attack Taiwan was invented to echo the erroneous perception that the Taiwan Relations Act obligates the US to sell weapons to Taiwan -- the way orcs were created in mockery of elves.
- Will China take down the 1,500 missiles it has facing Taiwan? Ma has repeatedly asked, and US analysts have repeatedly hinted, that it should do so.
- Those missiles are aimed not only at military targets in Taiwan, but also at the hearts of US military and political analysts.

19 Oct 09

Supply and Debate | Foreign Policy

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politics oil energy economy china russia india development US statistics reference peak oil

Data from the International Energy
Agency (IEA) and the U.S. Energy Department show that the global flow of crude
oil peaked in 2005 and is now sliding steadily. The world will never run out of
oil altogether, but oil's flow is in decline.
There might still be ample
reserves left in the ground when production falls to half of today's use. But
these remaining reserves are either very low-quality heavy oil, which is
difficult to process, or tainted with toxic elements that make them hard to
refine into usable petroleum products.
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- Until the
  world's oil producers allow third-party audits of the flow rates of the world's
  largest oil fields, which they have so far been reluctant to do, it is
  impossible to know just how dire a situation we are in. I believe that such an
  audit would prove peak oil, but either way it is certainly irresponsible to
  make optimistic projections without hard data.
- Yergin's company, ihs Cambridge
  Energy Research Associates, as well as the iea and my own group, Global Energy
  Systems (GES), have analyzed the world's giant oil fields, and all have drawn
  approximately the same conclusion: Those fields that provide today's production
  will, in 20 years, have lost production equivalent to five times the current
  production of Saudi Arabia.
- There is a very strong connection
  between access to oil and political, economic, and military strength. Of the
  world's four centers of power, three -- China, the European Union, and the United
  States -- are heavily dependent on imported oil. Only Russia is self-sufficient in
  supply. This, combined with China's ever-expanding energy needs, will provide
  the primary sources of conflict in Yergin's "new world of oil."
- He does suggest that my article is unaware of the growth of Chinese
  demand. I find this puzzling, as I write: "But now, the growth is in China,
  India, other emerging markets, and the Middle East. Between 2000 and 2007 ...
  [almost] 85 percent of that growth [in world oil demand] was in emerging
  markets." As he does observe, China now imports more than half of its oil, and
  that share will increase. But one thing that he does not address is why China's
  domestic oil production has increased 10 percent since 2004.

18 Oct 09

Matthew Yglesias » The Concentration of World Output

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for some reason they write during the course of this discussion that “the United States has in recent years sporadically attempted to lower its emissions,” which is false, and then implies that the issue is that China and India won’t go along.
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- Back to Levitt & Dubner, for some reason they write during the course of this discussion that “the United States has in recent years sporadically attempted to lower its emissions,” which is f

Vote: Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the freedom, security, and stability of Taiwan. (H CON RES 200)

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14 Oct 09

Liu Bolin - The Real Life Invisible Man | Oddity Central - Collecting Oddities

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11 Oct 09

History of Weed - Part II • VideoSift: Online Video *Quality Control

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09 Oct 09

What’s Your Consumption Factor? - New York Times

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What really matters is total world consumption, the sum of all local consumptions, which is the product of local population times the local per capita consumption rate.
The estimated one billion people who live in developed countries have a relative per capita consumption rate of 32. Most of the world’s other 5.5 billion people constitute the developing world, with relative per capita consumption rates below 32, mostly down toward 1.
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- A real problem for the world is that each of us 300 million Americans consumes as much as 32 Kenyans.
- With 10 times the population, the United States consumes 320 times more resources than Kenya does.
- There will be more terrorist attacks against us and Europe, and perhaps against Japan and Australia, as long as that factorial difference of 32 in consumption rates persists.
- People who consume little want to enjoy the high-consumption lifestyle.
- Per capita consumption rates in China are still about 11 times below ours, but let’s suppose they rise to our level. Let’s also make things easy by imagining that nothing else happens to increase world consumption — that is, no other country increases its consumption, all national populations (including China’s) remain unchanged and immigration ceases. China’s catching up alone would roughly double world consumption rates. Oil consumption would increase by 106 percent, for instance, and world metal consumption by 94 percent.

07 Oct 09

General Electric: Tear Down That Wall! The Green Tariff Wall, That Is - Environmental Capital - WSJ

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US politics china india green technology tech wind GE tarrifs trade turbines climatechange energy

Embracing protectionism, after a fashion, is shaping up as one way to pass climate legislation and start saving the planet.
Wrong move, says General Electric
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- GE’s argument: Cleaning up the world means installing more—not less—clean-tech gear. And that means fewer—not more—restrictions on clean-energy trade, even as the U.S. is desperate to jumpstart its domestic clean-energy industry and close a perceived gap with rivals such as China.
- Countries such as China, Mexico, Russia, India, and South Korea all slap higher tariffs on wind turbines than the U.S. does. Other countries, especially China, also use other trade weapons, from “Buy Chinese” provisions to questionable bidding procedures for energy projects that seem to always exclude foreign firms.
- “Liberalization of trade for green products and services offers a rapid, high-impact step governments can take to lower the cost of cleaner energy technologies, resulting in more economically viable solutions for reducing greenhouse gases,” Mr. Richards testified.
- In other words, GE’s recipe for creating a healthy clean-tech sector is simple: Keep it open, and keep it profitable.

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