India - China: Relations And Developments

[Guest]

China could use nukes against US’

* US calls Chinese general’s nuclear threat ‘irresponsible’

BEIJING: China could use nuclear weapons to retaliate against the United States if it attacked in any conflict over Taiwan, reports said on Friday citing a Chinese general.

“If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China’s territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons,” said General Zhu Chenghu. His comments were reported by the Financial Times and the Asian Wall Street Journal, which attended a briefing with the general organised by a private Hong Kong organisation, the Better Hong Kong Foundation.

“If the Americans are determined to interfere (then) we will be determined to respond,” said Zhu, a professor at China’s National Defence University.

“We will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese.”

Xian is an ancient city in central China. Zhu said the comments represented his personal view and not the policy of the government. Nonetheless, his threat to use nuclear weapons is the most specific by a senior Chinese official in nearly a decade. The Chinese foreign ministry said it was “gathering information” on the issue and refused to comment further. The defence ministry also refused comment. Analysts said the remarks were largely rhetoric but also indicated that Beijing wanted to show the United States it was serious about Taiwan. “China’s leaders, especially the military, think it is important for weaker countries like China to demonstrate their willingness to defend their core interests,” said Joseph Cheng, a political analyst at City University in Hong Kong.

“It’s an old-fashioned strategy that is also meant for domestic consumption. “On the Taiwan issue, the US government tends to adopt a strategic ambiguity approach. On the part of China, it wants to show it is ready to make the sacrifices,” Cheng said. Although China has a no first-strike nuclear policy, Zhu said he believed the policy applied to non-nuclear powers and could be changed, the reports said.

China and Taiwan split in 1949 at the end of a civil war but Beijing still claims it as part its territory and has repeatedly threatened to invade if the island formalises its 56-year separation with a declaration of independence.

Zhu’s comments come ahead of Washington’s annual report on the Chinese military and as a string of US officials have raised concerns about the rise of China’s military.

Meanwhile, the US on Friday shrugged off as ‘irresponsible’ a reported threat by a Chinese general to use nuclear weapons if attacked by the US in a conflict over Taiwan.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the remarks attributed to Gen Zhu Chenghu ‘unfortunate’ and said he hoped they did not reflect the views of the Chinese government.

“I haven’t seen all the remarks but what I’ve seen of them, I’ll say that they’re irresponsible,” McCormack told reporters. afp

[Guest]

<b>China facing epidemic of suicide, depression </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->BEIJING (Reuters) - Suicide is the number one cause of death among people aged 20 to 35 in China, where <b>an estimated quarter of a million people a year -- or 685 a day -- take their lives,</b> state media said Monday.

Each year an additional 2.5 million to 3.5 million Chinese unsuccessfully attempt suicide, which stood as the fifth major cause of death among the country's 1.3 billion people, the China Daily said.

<b>Disproportionate rates of suicide and depression among young people appear to be a direct result of increasing stress in China's rapidly changing society</b>.

<b>"Society is full of pressure and competition, so young people, lacking experience in dealing with difficulties, tend to get depressed,"</b> Liu Hong, a Beijing psychiatrist, was quoted as saying.

<b>More than 60 percent of people who took part in a survey of 15,431 Chinese suffering depression over the past two years were in their 20s or 30s,</b> the newspaper said.

The escalating problem had drawn increasing concern from the government and public alike, leading to the creation of a national, 24-hour free suicide prevention hotline in August 2003.

Since then, more than 220,000 people had called the number, though Canadian Michael Phillips, executive director of the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center, said only one in 10 callers could get through on the first try.

"That is very dangerous because most of the callers are anxious and may commit suicide impulsively," Phillips was quoted as saying.

Lung cancer and traffic accidents are the biggest causes of death in China.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[acharya]

It is the same thing in communist Kerala

[Guest]

This is what happens when a faith system is destroyed by the rulers. Lack of faith or in other words 'opium of masses' religion can provide relief during hardtimes. Destroying Buddhism from China and Tibet will have far reaching consequences in an old society like China.

[Guest]

Chicoms in chaos
Geopolitical expert Jack Wheeler sees Taiwan war around corner
......................................Posted: 2005

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

Dr. Jack Wheeler, creator of a unique intelligence website dubbed "the oasis for rational conservatives," says the Communist government in Beijing is planning a war with Taiwan as a means to suppress the burgeoning wave of rebellion across China.

On his website, To the Point, Wheeler points out there were over 60,000 riots, disturbances and public protests throughout China in 2004. "People can see how corrupt the government is while they barely have enough to eat," Wheeler quotes a demonstration leader as saying. "Our society has a short fuse, just waiting for a spark."


Part of that spark could be caused by the bleak economic outlook that feeds discontent among China's 1.3 billion people.

"All four of China's main banks (all state owned) have more uncollectable debts than they have assets and loans," writes Wheeler. "The Shanghai Composite, China's largest stock market, has gone nowhere for five years.

"Foreign companies and investors may be pouring money into China, but Chinese companies and investors are pouring money out of China. Billions in government and private money is in capital flight and invested in 'safe havens' around the world, rather than plowed back into the Chinese economy to insure its continued growth."

Continues Wheeler: "The Chicoms realize that, as everyone including themselves has lost their belief in communism, their only way to avoid chaos and anarchy is through a frenzied Chinese nationalism. In the past, I have listed a number of possible targets of this nationalism, including Russia's Far East, which Russia stole from China in 1860. Now it is clear that the list is narrowed to one target only: Taiwan.

"The Taiwanese will be portrayed as Chinese apostates, traitors to the Chinese Motherland. It will be as easy as turning on a switch for Beijing to ramp up a jingoistic fury against them. It's the path of least resistance for the Chicoms."

Available only to subscribers of To the Point, Wheeler's column quotes from a meeting he recently had with respected dissident Harry Wu, who spent 20 years in a Chinese labor camp.

"Chinese history is very simple," Wu explained. "It's one dynasty after another – really the same dynasty over and over again with different people and names. The Communist Dynasty established by Mao is no different. It's those periods between dynasties that scares people, for those are periods of anarchy and chaos. China is heading towards one of these frightful periods now. It is coming soon."

[Guest]

Millions all over China convert to Christianity

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->By Richard Spencer
LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
August 3, 2005

BEIJING -- Chinese are embracing Christianity in a social revolution that is spreading through town and countryside to the point where <b>Christians already may outnumber members of the Communist Party of China</b>.

Visits to villages in backward rural provinces or to urban churches in Beijing, where even on weekdays the young and middle-aged gather to proclaim their faith, <b>confirm the ease with which conversions can be won</b>.
"City people have real problems, and mental pain, that they can't resolve on their own. So it's easy for us to convert these people to Christianity," said Xun Jinzhen, who preaches to customers at a beauty salon in Beijing.

"In the countryside, people are richer than before, but they still have problems with their health and in family relationships. Then it's also very easy to bring them to Christianity."

State-sanctioned Protestant and Catholic churches in China count up to 35 million followers, making Christianity the third most practiced religion in the country after Buddhism and Taoism. Islam ranks fourth.

<b>Even more significant is a steadily growing network of underground or "house" churches, which are said to have up to 100 million members. </b>

That compares with an official total of 70 million members of the Communist Party, many of whom have lost faith as the party has moved away from strict ideological principles toward increasing acceptance of free markets.

Among the known converts are at least a few of the most prominent figures from the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations, most of whom are now living in exile.

These include Zhang Boli and Xiong Yan, both of whom were on a list of the 21 most-wanted student leaders that was published shortly after the Beijing massacre, and both of whom have been ordained as priests.

Another is Han Dongfang , who converted through the U.S.-Chinese church movement. He arrived in the United States in 1993 after being released from prison on medical grounds; he had contracted tuberculosis in a Chinese jail and nearly died.

"I think human beings need something at a spiritual level," he said in Hong Kong, where he discusses labor issues for Radio Free Asia. "We don't want to believe we are coming from nowhere, going nowhere."

As a teenager, he was a passionate Marxist but, as an army recruit, became disillusioned over the luxuries enjoyed by the officer class.

"When communism became this corrupted thing, which failed everybody, people still needed a belief. I think that's the reason for Christianity in China," he said.

<b>One of the driving forces of Christianity's growth in China has been its association with healing powers, particularly in rural areas where basic health services are lacking. </b>

One woman last month told a gathering of hundreds at Kuanjie, the official Protestant church in Beijing: "My brother's daughter had a virus, which doctors had never seen before.

"She was on a ventilator and everyone had lost hope. But I prayed for her, and she recovered. Now her family follows Christ, too."
The woman, 33, came from Anhui, a poor province of central China. In her village, she said, the house church had grown from five or six worshippers to 100 in five years.
Mr. Xun, the beauty parlor operator, sees the growth of religion as a response to the increased materialism that accompanied the economic reforms put into place by Deng Xiaoping.
"We have very few people who believe in communism as a faith, so there's an emptiness in their hearts," said Mr. Xun, 37. His mother also is a Christian, and his father, a retired county-level Communist Party secretary, is a sympathetic onlooker.
China's rulers are said to be ambivalent about Christianity's growth. Some see its emphasis on personal morality as a force for stability. House churches, which accept the authority of official organizations, are often left alone.
But many reject the party's control over Christian practice and doctrine, and these are seen as a threat. Overseas groups such as the London-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide say Christians are beaten regularly and one was killed in police custody.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

One sees that the tactics that the soul harvesters use are pretty much the same, Communism or no Communism. Now, if a Chinese Constantine emerges, imagine the consequences for India.

[Bharatvarsh]

China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia by Peter Perdue. Belknap Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2005. Price: US$35, 725 pages.

Taiwan's Imagined Geography: Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683-1895 by Emma Jinhua Teng. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2004. Price: US$49.50, 370 pages.

Reviewed by Macabe Keliher

In the 17th and 18th centuries, China as a state underwent a great transformation, the consequences of which reverberate to the present day. Through extensive and sometimes protracted military conquest, China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911), effectively altered the special understanding the empire ruled from Beijing by doubling the territory under its command and colonizing the lands of what we know today as China.

The territory directly controlled by the Qing's predecessors, the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), only went as far north as Beijing, and the western frontier began at Gansu. Taiwan lay overseas and beyond the fringe. With the rise of the Qing dynasty in the mid-17th century, and its extensive state-building enterprise in the 18th, Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Manchuria and Taiwan came under the jurisdiction of the Chinese empire for the first time in history. Indeed, in less than 200 years the Qing widened their frontiers in a fashion as dramatic, if not more so, than the US. Through literary and scientific works, and state-building institutions, the Qing redefined the entire spatial and ethnic composition of what constituted the Chinese state.

Yet our modern day histories of China either treat the Middle Kingdom as a static socio-political phenomenon of two millennia or fail to address the vast measure of expansion the Qing achieved. Early European Sinologists and the later Harvard crowd have created the image of a 2,000-year stasis of politics and culture that could not for the life of it modernize, and which eventually failed because of the rise and encroachment of the West. Chinese histories have likewise made China out as a great peace-loving nation that fell victim to Western imperialism. In these standard histories, China has always been China, from the Taiwan Strait to the western ridges of the Himalayas.

Such history, however, is akin to writing US history without the mention of westward expansion, or to treating US republicanism as a mere transplanting of the British parliamentary system. A key development in the historical process is missing. Furthermore, this traditional history of China sets it apart from the rest of the world, as a unique and timeless civilization.

In the past decade, China scholars have flexed their creativity to break the chains their academic forefathers have forged, and produced a number of insightful works on the history of China. This new breed of scholars has torn up all that we thought we knew of China's past to reveal a dynamic, evolving, and in many ways modern Chinese state and culture. Works from scholars such as Pamela Crossley and James Hevia showed a state partaking in the formation of nationalism and the subjugation of empire. James Millward's book on Xinjiang, Beyond the Pass (Stanford, 1998), was the first work to look at the incorporation of a non-Han Chinese territory into the Chinese state proper. In these works the specter of Chinese imperialism and colonialism - in the Western sense - becomes clear.

Peter Purdue's new work, China Marches West, and Emma Jinhua Teng's first book, Taiwan's Imagined Geography, take this new trend in China scholarship to the next level in exploration of how the Qing effectively conquered and colonized neighboring regions to make them parts of their empire; parts that are considered integral to China today. As they demonstrate, the Qing conquest of non-Chinese lands through military force, and central rule from a metropolis, are very much the characteristics of an imperial tradition.

The Zunghar state
Key to Perdue's argument in China Marches West - and one of the book's major contributions - is the Zunghar state. In the 15th century, Central Asian nomads had carved out a territory in what we know today as Western China and Mongolia. Over the next two centuries they formed a state called Zungharia, which expanded north into Russia and west to the Pamir Mountains to encompass all of modern day Xinjiang, half of western Mongolia and parts of Siberia. "The Mongols ... created an increasingly state-like apparatus of rule in Central Eurasia, one that grew from a loose tribal confederation to approach the structure of a settled regime". (p 518)

Perdue points out that the Zunghar state was nomadic in its roots and offered the last alternative on the world scene to the settled agriculture society. It is true that it built capital cities, sponsored trade, developed bureaucratic procedures and even promoted agriculture, but the state drew much of its resources from taxes on caravan trade and tribute from its neighbors. Furthermore, in times of drought or hardship, nomads would invade settled areas on the Chinese frontier.

For China's emperors - both in the Ming and Qing - the existence of the Zunghar state, which refused to acknowledge the superiority of the dynasty, threatened not only Chinese territory, but also the majority Han-Chinese metaphysical world order. "If they were allowed to survive they would seriously endanger the nation," Perdue wrote." (p 251)

Thus began the Qing conquest of the west. Military campaigns in the late 17th and early 18th centuries attempted to bring the Zunghars into submission, but truces were broken and rebellions rose. In the 1750s the Qing employed what Perdue calls the "final solution" to the northwest frontier problem. What took place was one of the largest genocidal wars in history, even by today's standards, and the complete extermination of the Zungharian peoples. An estimated 600,000 people were killed and the steppe depopulated.

The Qing set up Xinjiang as a military camp and later employed Mongolian collaborators to govern the region. In the 1760s Han-Chinese civilians began to migrate westward, and by 1781 some 20,000 households were established in Xinjiang. Imperial conquest had succeeded and formal colonization had begun.

The secrets of Qing success
Yet herein lies the puzzle: previous dynasties had for centuries attempted to neutralize the western nomads; how did the Qing not only succeed in neutralizing but completely eliminating them?

Perdue cautions against viewing Qing expansion here as "a linear outgrowth of previous dynasties". Rather, "it represents a sharp break with the strategic aims and military capabilities of the Ming dynasty." (p 507) The Qing had developed the necessary military, economic, and diplomatic institutions not only to wage a successful campaign in the west but to undertake a vast expansionist project that began in the early 17th century and ended in the mid 18th. We must view these institutions and innovations as creations of the Qing, not developments from previous dynasties.

The Qing began as a Manchu tribe {not Han, but Mongol. The Manchu aristocracy always had contempt for the Han} in the northeast. They had organized their society to make war and united all the regional tribes under one banner and then marched on Beijing where the Ming dynasty lay in disarray and crisis in 1644. In possession of the resources of China, the Manchus continued expansion and institutional change. They pushed commercial penetration, agriculture reclamation, revamped transportation networks, mapped the empire, and streamlined the bureaucratic command system. All of these innovations, Perdue argues, allowed the Qing to move their militaries further west then any previous dynasty, and to succeed in battle.

As titillating and provocative as this book is, it is quite unfortunate that the main points become so obscured in a rambling narrative of Chinese history. At 725 pages, China Marches West is like a Charles Dickens novel: intimidating, dense, discursive at times, and full of information or stories that have nothing to do with the main narrative. Half of the book could have been cut out, and a remaining quarter placed in footnotes; Perdue's thesis would be better served. The well-known story of the succession battle for emperor Kangxi's throne, for example, gets rehashed here, though contributes little to our understanding of Qing relations with Zungharia. Or even more turgid, all of part three meanders through military colonies, harvests and currency in the Qing empire. Over 100 pages of tedious statistics and graphs and charts to make what point?

The book reads at times like a collection of neat ideas about China, which the author never takes the time to fully think through. He only teases by dropping the most provocative thesis in the very last sentence of a section or chapter. "[The Qing] conception of space left no room for an autonomous Mongolian state," (p 457) he writes in conclusion to a section on Qing map-making, but never explains why this annuls the possibility of the autonomous Mongolian state. Or the very alluring thesis articulated but not explored that Zungharia represented the last of the alternatives to settled agriculture society.

Indeed, the reader is often at quite a loss of what to make of all this pedantry. Even the narratives of military battles often seem to lead nowhere. Not until chapter 15, the second last chapter of the book - over 500 pages into the thing - does Perdue explain the method of his madness to his readers. Should this chapter have stood at the very front of the text he might have saved his readers much bewilderment and frustration.

Taiwan: From mud ball to green gold
If Perdue's book is Bleakhouse, then Teng's is Heart of Darkness. Concise, clear, direct, poignant. In the opening pages of Taiwan's Imagined Geography Teng tells the reader that the travel writing, pictures and maps on which she basis her analysis mark a transformation in Chinese consciousness over the course of 200 years of a desolate island beyond Chinese territory into an integral part of the Chinese empire. "In examining the process by which Taiwan was incorporated into the imagined geography of the Qing empire, this book helps to explain how an island that was terra incognita for the better part of Chinese history came to be regarded as an integral part of China's sovereign territory." (p 7)

Not until the 17th century does Taiwan make an appearance in the Chinese history books, and then only as an island beyond the seas to which the last of the Ming pretenders fled after a defeat at the hands of the Qing. When they fell to the Qing in 1683, emperor Kangxi wanted nothing to do with the island, and even entertained proposals to depopulate the island and leave it to the snakes and monkeys. Yet in the end, after a year of deliberations, the Qing decided to bring the island under imperial control for much the same reason as they opted to conquer the west: security.

Once this decision was made, Teng argues, "Qing expansion into territory beyond the seas entailed a shift from the established conception of China to a new spatial image of an empire that transgressed the traditional boundaries." (p 3) She shows how the Chinese conception of territorial space changed through cartography and the rise of geography as a precise science. The mapping of territory made it apparent that no longer was the emperor's domain confined to a traditional continental representation, but now stretched overseas.

When Taiwan entered the dynastic map, Teng says, the literature followed. Travel narratives, pictures and more maps arose to acquaint Chinese audiences with the island. These works represented a distant land and different peoples of the frontier to Chinese readers and helped transform this foreign place into a more familiar part of the empire. "Over the course of two centuries of Qing colonial rule, Chinese literati produced a significant corpus of travel accounts, maps and pictures of Taiwan, providing a wealth of knowledge about the once-unknown island and concomitantly transforming its image." (p 27)

By the end of the 19th century, these 200 years of familiarizing the Chinese population with Taiwan had transformed the national consciousness about the island from contempt to inclusion. No longer a "mud ball beyond the seas", Taiwan had become a "land of green gold"; a known and familiar part of the Qing empire.

Teng's concluding chapter, titled "Taiwan as a Lost Part of My China", brings her argument full circle. The writings of Chinese literati in years after the Sino-Japan War of 1895, which forced the secession of Taiwan to Japan, reflect a longing for the beautiful island. Writers of the early 20th century "shedding tears" for this "beautiful land" certainly came a long way from their 17th-century predecessors who held it as but a undesirable island to be discarded.

Nationalist history
Both Taiwan's Imagined Geography and China Marches West have held nothing back to punch holes in the contemporary nationalist myths about China. The People's Republic of China, and the diaspora of Chinese nationalists, claim that all the territory once held under the Qing dynasty make up the absolute totality of the Chinese state. They condemn separatist movements and claim that these lands are an integral part of China.

Neither Taiwan nor Xinjiang are an integral part of China, as these two books show, but rather imperial spoils of the Qing dynasty.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GH06Ad03.html

[shamu]

<!--QuoteBegin-Manu+Aug 4 2005, 03:32 AM-->QUOTE(Manu @ Aug 4 2005, 03:32 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> Millions all over China convert to Christianity

One sees that the tactics that the soul harvesters use are pretty much the same, Communism or no Communism. Now, if a Chinese Constantine emerges, imagine the consequences for India. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Should India/Hindus/Budhists also send some gurus to China to influence this problem due to absence of spirituality in China. Shankaracharya had an opportunity but that was dashed by JJ. May be people like Ammachi and Sri Sri Ravishankar start visiting China too.

They should also ensure that their works have nothing to do with politics/geopolitics going on between India-China and others and it should remain purely spiritual.

Another thing Indian gurus should do is to help old Chinese monastries like Shaolin Temple and others to re-emerge and counter this challenge

[Bharatvarsh]

Bus bomber kills himself, injures 31

From correspondents in Shanghai
August 08, 2005

A SUICIDE bomber died and 31 people were injured when a home-made device was detonated on a bus in south-eastern China, state media reported today.

The blast occurred near the downtown area of Fujian's provincial capital, Fuzhou, around 1730 (AEST), Xinhua news agency reported.The explosion on the single-decker bus was powerful enough to shatter the windows of shops nearby, the agency reported.

Pictures from the scene showed the side of the bus ripped apart and debris strewn across the floor of the vehicle. The injured were shown being stretchered out of windows.

The suspect, a 42-year-old farmer, was believed to be from Putian city in the province.

He had terminal lung cancer, Xinhua reported.

Such attacks are common in China, often carried out by angry residents who feel wronged by society or the communist party government.
In January, a bomb killed 11 people on a bus in north-western Xinjiang region.

That attack was blamed on a worker who held a grudge against his former employer, a coal mining company near the scene of the explosion.

There were 1130 bombings around China last year, according to state press reports.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,161...09,00.html

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Highland terror
China’s unprecedented military build up in Tibet threatens India.

By A.B.Mahapatra

1 August 2005: China is rapidly setting up a massive road and rail network in the Tibetan plateau, a listening post in occupied Aksai Chin, and repositioning likely nuclear missiles against India, in moves not only aimed at overwhelming India militarily, but to enable Chinese coercive diplomacy in respect of the border dispute.

Using the plea of socio-economic development, China has commissioned the construction of a $3.5-billion western highway network linking Lhasa with Urumqi in Xinjiang province that is infested with Islamic separatists, terrorists and fundamentalist groups.

The fully metallic highway will be extended to Kasghar bordering Central Asia and Hotan, and it will be capable of carrying loaded battle tanks and heavy armoured carriers, while selective commercial activity will be allowed on it to flood neighbouring countries, including India, with cheap Chinese products.

Besides the highway, China will operate the 1,236-kilometre Golmund-Lhasa-Quinghai-Tibet Railway (QTR) network next year, even after Swiss mountain tunnel experts gave up the project as unviable. In the next twenty years, the QTR network will reach the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

QTR will bring Tibet under China’s iron grip but simultaneously triple the PLA’s offensive power against India, with reinforcements reaching from the Beijing and Shanghai military regions in eighteen instead of the earlier eighty hours. Besides, the PLA’s Rapid Response Group could be deployed in less than twelve hours to carry out surprise raids on Indian territory from Gansu and Shannxi provinces.

The Indian response is to upgrade the Daulat Beg Oldi outpost in Ladakh with advanced communication systems, but this won’t match the PLA’s military responses, which, on the strength of the QTR network and western highway, will deploy two divisions of troops complete with support systems.

In addition to the troops and rapid deployment strengths, China also plans to resettle five lakh mainly Han nationals in Tibet, both to increase social and commercial activities, and to counter Uighur separatism in Xinjiang and keep down Tibetan uprisings. The Xinjiang region saw three-hundred-and-sixty incidents of anti-Chinese activities last year alone mainly spearheaded by East Turkistan groups. China is reorganising its military responses in Tibet in case the situation goes out of control.

In addition to the road and rail networks, China is building a listening facility in occupied Aksai Chin, under the cover of two massive helipads that can station four helicopter squadrons. Sources say the listening stations will monitor Indian deployments in the region, eavesdrop on forward and intelligence communications of the army, and even intercept US radio traffic in anti-terror operations in Afghanistan and Russian border reconnaissance in the Central Asian republics.

But the helipads on their own will give extraordinary heli-mobility to the PLA, and the PLA airforce already bolstered with four big airstrips is getting two more. “The infrastructure and force build up to neutralise India’s military preparedness is enormous,” said a Western military specialist.

To cap it all, China is relocating its missile bases in Tibet, and a South Korean company under the cover of providing technical assistance is setting up new command and control posts. Already, sources say, <b>China has deployed twenty MRBMs and sixty short-range surface-to-surface missiles targeting Srinagar, Chandigarh, Shimla, Ambala, and Jalandhar, apart from vital military installations in the region</b>.

While the short-range missiles are likely to be conventional warheads, Western sources are not willing to bet on the MRBMs, which might be nuclear-capable. “Otherwise, it does not make sense to deploy them in Tibet against India,” said a Western military expert.

http://www.indiareacts.com/archivefeatur...p?recno=71<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->By David J. Lynch
Thu Aug 11, 7:13 AM ET

An intensifying crackdown on domestic dissent is dashing hopes that China's economic opening will produce greater democracy anytime soon.

Chinese authorities in recent weeks have arrested prominent intellectuals and foreign journalists. They have tightened restrictions on Web sites and praised the killing of anti-government protesters in nearby Uzbekistan, which Human Rights Watch labeled a "massacre." And they've rounded up the leaders of unapproved religious observances.

The current domestic chill is a far cry from what was expected when Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao took command in November 2002. Long groomed for leadership, Hu, 62, was seen as representing a new generation of Chinese rulers. His rise - more than a decade after the massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square - revived hopes of gradual political reform.

Hu's response to a crisis over the severe acute respiratory syndrome ( SARS) virus in April 2003 - firing two top officials and briefly delivering greater openness - seemed to legitimize those dreams.

But hopes of broader change have evaporated. Since adding the title of Chinese president in March 2003, Hu has followed a two-track strategy. Publicly, he emphasizes policies aimed at helping those left behind by China's boom. This populist campaign stresses development of poorer regions long neglected under Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin.

At the same time, Hu pursues an unapologetic effort to rebuild centralized control, including unleashing the security services on domestic and foreign journalists.

Zhao Yan, a researcher for The New York Times, has been jailed since September on unspecified charges of leaking state secrets. Ching Cheong of The (Singapore) Straits Times, was detained April 22 while seeking an unpublished manuscript of interviews with Zhao Ziyang, the Chinese leader deposed in 1989 for opposing the use of force in Tiananmen Square. Just last week, China said it had formally arrested Ching and charged him with spying for Taiwan.

China also recently required all Web sites and blogs to register with the authorities. And the party is using undercover agents to steer online conversations in chat rooms away from criticism of the authorities, according to the Nanfang Zhoumo newspaper. In one city, the newspaper reported, propaganda office officials posing as chat room participants were ordered to: "Develop actively, increase control, accentuate the good and avoid the bad, use it to our advantage."

A stubborn one-party system

After a quarter-century of economic reform, Hu's hard line is confounding the conventional wisdom that economic liberalization inevitably will unravel China's one-party system. Most analysts still expect market freedoms to someday spawn greater political openness. But that evolution appears likely to take longer than once thought.

Today's tight grip is likely to persist through the next Communist Party conference in 2007 and the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, analysts believe. "I would say there's going to be a four-year hiatus. ... Today, the words 'political reform' can barely be mentioned," says Minxin Pei of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

So far, the domestic repression hasn't affected Sino-U.S. relations. In internal party speeches, Hu might castigate unnamed "hostile forces" that want to westernize China. But with the United States as China's top export market, he wants to preserve the lucrative relationship with Washington.

China's economic advance - far from threatening the Communist Party's monopoly on power - is helping the authorities maintain their grip. The security services are flush with cash, equipment and personnel, and the government can afford to lavish comfortable salaries upon potentially restive intellectuals.

"They have more resources to strengthen the police state," Pei says.

As its factories dominate one industry after another, China might appear to be an unstoppable economic behemoth. But the current moves to quell dissent reflect the leadership's private nervousness over Beijing's myriad problems. In recent years, there has been a notable explosion of public protests - over unpaid pensions, official corruption and land seizures - across the country.

It's a reminder that China's Communist Party is trying to accomplish something unprecedented: a permanent marriage of economic freedom with political repression. Hu and his Politburo colleagues have not forgotten the instability that attended the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, where political reform was implemented before the state-run economies were dismantled. That's why Hu welcomed Uzbekistan's tough response to May's embryonic anti-government revolt.

"They're terrified of this happening to them," says Edward Friedman, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin.

Hu's tight grip

Indeed, Hu's signature initiative is aimed at strengthening the party's ability to rule. A throwback to the pre-1978 Maoist era, the effort "to maintain the advanced nature of Chinese Communist Party members" requires the party's 69 million members to attend special lectures and engage in "self-criticism."

"On the ideological level, there's no question Hu's been quite tough. He is pulling things in. He's reining in the intellectual atmosphere," says Boston University's Joseph Fewsmith, an expert on the Chinese leadership.

Because of changes in society, though, Hu's crackdown is irrelevant to all but a small, politically conscious elite. It was easy for the party to exert influence when everyone received their salary, housing, medical care and education through jobs with state-owned enterprises. But now that only 27% of urban residents work for state factories, the old levers of control are no longer as effective. And that means Hu ultimately faces a decidedly uphill battle.

Veteran foreign correspondent David J. Lynch recently returned to the USA after a three-year tour in China, where he opened USA TODAY's Beijing bureau. He now covers global business issues for the Money section.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/u.../retreatinchina<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->War Is Not Far from Us and Is the Midwife of the Chinese Century

Leading CCP official argues for exterminating U.S. population

By Chi Haotian

The following is a transcript of a speech believed to have been given by Mr. Chi Haotian, Minster of Defense and vice-chairman of China’s Central Military Commission. Independently verifying the authorship of the speech is not possible. It is worth reading because it is believed to set out the CCP’s strategy for the development of China. The speech argues for the necessity of China using biological warfare to depopulate the United States and prepare it for a future massive Chinese colonization. “The War Is Not Far from Us and Is the Midwife of the Chinese Century” was published on February 15, 2005 on www.peacehall.com and was published on www.boxun.com on April 23, 2005. This speech and a related speech, “The War Is Approaching Us” are analyzed in The Epoch Times original article “The CCP’s Last-ditch Gamble: Biological and Nuclear War.”

Text of the speech:
Comrades,

I’m very excited today, because the large-scale online survey sina.com that was done for us showed that our next generation is quite promising and our Party’s cause will be carried on. In answering the question, “Will you shoot at women, children and prisoners of war,” more than 80 percent of the respondents answered in the affirmative, exceeding by far our expectations [1].

Today I’d like to focus on why we asked sina.com to conduct this online survey among our people. My speech today is a sequel to my speech last time [2], during which I started with a discussion of the issue of the three islands [3], mentioned that 20 years of the idyllic theme of “peace and development” had come to an end, and concluded that modernization under the saber is the only option for China’s next phase. I also mentioned we have a vital stake overseas. Today, I’ll speak more specifically on these two issues.

The central issue of this survey appears to be whether one should shoot at women, children and prisoners of war, but its real significance goes far beyond that. Ostensibly, our intention is mainly to figure out what the Chinese people’s attitude towards war is: If these future soldiers do not hesitate to kill even non-combatants, they’ll naturally be doubly ready and ruthless in killing combatants. Therefore, the responses to the survey questions may reflect the general attitude people have towards war.

Actually, however, this is not our genuine intention. The purpose of the CCP Central Committee in conducting this survey is to probe people’s minds. We wanted to know: If China’s global development will necessitate massive deaths in enemy countries, will our people endorse that scenario? Will they be for or against it?

As everybody knows, the essence of Comrade Xiaoping’s [4] thinking is “development is the hard truth.” And Comrade Jintao [5] has also pointed out repeatedly and empathetically that “development is our top priority,” which should not be neglected for even a moment. But many comrades tend to understand “development” in its narrow sense, assuming it to be limited to domestic development. The fact is, our “development” refers to the great revitalization of the Chinese nation, which, of course, is not limited to the land we have now but also includes the whole world.

Why do we put it this way?
Both Comrade Liu Huaqing [6], one of the leaders of the old generation in our Party, and Comrade He Xin [7], a young strategist for our Party, have repeatedly stressed the theory regarding the shift of the center of world civilization. Our slogan of “revitalizing China” has this way of thinking as its basis. You may look into the newspapers and magazines published in recent years or go online to do some research to find out who raised the slogan of national revitalization first. It was Comrade He Xin. Do you know who He Xin is? He may look aggressive and despicable when he speaks in public, with his sleeves and pants all rolled up, but his historical vision is a treasure our Party should cherish.
In discussing this issue, let us start from the beginning.

As everybody knows, according to the views propagated by the Western scholars, humanity as a whole originated from one single mother in Africa. Therefore, no race can claim racial superiority. However, according to the research conducted by most Chinese scholars, the Chinese are different from other races on earth. We did not originate in Africa. Instead, we originated independently in the land of China. The Peking Man at Zhoukoudian that we are all familiar with represents a phase of our ancestors’ evolution. “The Project of Searching for the Origins of the Chinese Civilization” currently undertaken in our country is aimed at a more comprehensive and systematic research on the origin, process and development of the ancient Chinese civilization. We used to say, “Chinese civilization has had a history of five thousand years.” But now, many experts engaged in research in varied fields including archeology, ethnic cultures, and regional cultures have reached consensus that the new discoveries such as the Hongshan Culture in the Northeast, the Liangzhu Culture in Zhejiang province, the Jinsha Ruins in Sichuan province, and the Yongzhou Shun Emperor Cultural Site in Human province are all compelling evidence of the existence of China’s early civilizations, and they prove that China’s rice-growing agricultural history alone can be traced back as far as 8,000 to 10,000 years. This refutes the concept of “five thousand years of Chinese civilization.” Therefore, we can assert that we are the product of cultural roots of more than a million years, civilization and progress of more than ten thousand years, an ancient nation of five thousand years, and a single Chinese entity of two thousand years. This is the Chinese nation that calls itself, “descendents of Yan and Huang,” the Chinese nation that we are so proud of. Hitler’s Germany had once bragged that the German race was the most superior race on Earth, but the fact is, our nation is far superior to the Germans.

During our long history, our people have disseminated throughout the Americas and the regions along the Pacific Rim, and they became Indians in the Americas and the East Asian ethnic groups in the South Pacific.

We all know that on account of our national superiority, during the thriving and prosperous Tang Dynasty our civilization was at the peak of the world. We were the center of the world civilization, and no other civilization in the world was comparable to ours. Later on, because of our complacency, narrow-mindedness, and the self-enclosure of our own country, we were surpassed by Western civilization, and the center of the world shifted to the West.

In reviewing history, one may ask: Will the center of the world civilization shift back to China?

Comrade He Xin put it in his report to the Central Committee in 1988: If the fact is that the center of leadership of the world was located in Europe as of the 18th Century, and later shifted to the United States in the mid 20th Century, then in the 21st Century the center of leadership of the world will shift to the East of our planet. And, “the East” of course mainly refers to China.

Actually, Comrade Liu Huaqing made similar points in early 1980s. Based on an historical analysis, he pointed out that the center of world civilization is shifting. It shifted from the East to Western Europe and later to the United States; now it is shifting back to the East. Therefore, if we refer to the 19th Century as the British Century, and the 20th century as the American Century, then the 21st Century will be the Chinese Century.

To understand conscientiously this historical law and to be prepared to greet the advent of the Chinese Century is the historical mission of our Party. As we all know, at the end of the last century, we built the Altar to the Chinese Century in Beijing. At the very moment of the arrival of the new millennium, the collective leadership of the Party Central Committee gathered there for a rally, upholding the torches of Zhoukoudian, to pledge themselves to get ready to greet the arrival of the Chinese Century. We were doing this to follow the historical law and setting the realization of the Chinese Century as the goal of our Party’s endeavors.

Later, in the political report of our Party’s Sixteenth National Congress, we established that the national revitalization be our great objective and explicitly specified in our new Party Constitution that our Party is the pioneer of the Chinese people. All these steps marked a major development in Marxism, reflecting our Party‘s courage and wisdom. As we all know, Marx and his followers have never referred to any communist party as a pioneer of a certain people; neither did they say that national revitalization could be used as a slogan of a communist party. Even Comrade Mao Zedong, a courageous national hero, only raised high the banner of “the global proletarian revolution,” but even he did not have the courage to give the loudest publicity to the slogan of national revitalization.

We must greet the arrival of the Chinese Century by raising high the banner of national revitalization. How should we fight for the realization of the Chinese Century? We must borrow the precious experiences in human history by taking advantage of the outstanding fruition of human civilization and drawing lessons from what happened to other ethnic groups.

The lessons include the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, as well as the defeats of Germany and Japan in the past. Recently there has been much discussion on the lessons of the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, so I will not dwell on them here. Today I’d like to talk about the lessons of Germany and Japan.

As we all know, Nazi Germany also placed much emphasis on the education of the people, especially the younger generation. The Nazi party and government organized and established various propaganda and educational institutions such as the “Guiding Bureau of National Propaganda,” “Department of National Education and Propaganda,” “Supervising Bureau of Worldview Study and Education,” and “Information Office,” all aimed at instilling into the people’s minds, from elementary schools to colleges, the idea that German people are superior, and convincing people that the historical mission of the Arian people is to become the “lords of earth” that “rule over the world.” Back then the German people were much more united than we are today.

Nonetheless, Germany was defeated in utter shame, along with its ally, Japan. Why? We reached some conclusions at the study meetings of the Politburo, in which we were searching for the laws that governed the vicissitudes of the big powers, and trying to analyze Germany and Japan’s rapid growth. When we decide to revitalize China based on the German model, we must not repeat the mistakes they made.

Specifically, the following are the fundamental causes for their defeat: First, they had too many enemies all at once, as they did not adhere to the principle of eliminating enemies one at a time; second, they were too impetuous, lacking the patience and perseverance required for great accomplishments; third, when the time came for them to be ruthless, they turned out to be too soft, therefore leaving troubles that resurfaced later on.

Let’s presume that back then Germany and Japan had been able to keep the United States neutral and had fought a protracted war step by step on the Soviet front. If they had adopted this approach, gained some time to advance their research, eventually succeeded in obtaining the technology of nuclear weapons and missiles, and launched surprise attacks against the United States and the Soviet Union using them, then the United States and the Soviet Union would not have been able to defend themselves and would have had to surrender. Little Japan, in particular, made an egregious mistake in launching the sneak strike at Pearl Harbor. This attack did not hit the vital parts of the United States. Instead it dragged the United States into the war, into the ranks of the gravediggers that eventually buried the German and Japanese fascists.

Of course, if they had not made these three mistakes and won the war, history would have been written in a different fashion. If that had been the case, China would not be in our hands. Japan might have relocated their capital to China and ruled over China. Afterwards, China and the whole of Asia under Japan’s command would have brought into full play the oriental wisdom, conquered the West ruled by Germany and unified the whole world. This is irrelevant, of course. No more digressions.

So, the fundamental reason for the defeats of Germany and Japan is that history did not arrange them to be the “lords of the earth,” for they are, after all, not the most superior race.

Ostensibly, in comparison, today’s China is alarmingly similar to Germany back then. Both of them regard themselves as the most superior races; both of them have a history of being exploited by foreign powers and are therefore vindictive; both of them have the tradition of worshipping their own authorities; both of them feel that they have seriously insufficient living space; both of them raise high the two banners of nationalism and socialism and label themselves as “national socialism”; both of them worship “one state, one party, one leader, and one doctrine.”

And yet, if we really are to make a comparison between Germany and China, then, as Comrade Jiang Zemin put it, Germany belongs to “pediatrics”—too trivial to be compared. How large is Germany’s population? How big is its territory? And how long is its history? We eliminated eight million Nationalist troops in only three years. How many enemies did Germany kill? They were in power for a transient period of little more than a dozen years before they perished, while we are still energetic after being around for more than eighty years. Our theory of the shifting center of civilization is of course more profound than the Hitler’s theory of “the lords of the earth.” Our civilization is profound and broad, which has determined that we are so much wiser than they were.

Our Chinese people are wiser than the Germans because, fundamentally, our race is superior to theirs. As a result, we have a longer history, more people, and larger land area. On this basis, our ancestors left us with the two most essential heritages, which are atheism and great unity. It was Confucius, the founder of our Chinese culture, who gave us these heritages.

These two heritages determined that we have a stronger ability to survive than the West. That is why the Chinese race has been able to prosper for so long. We are destined “not to be buried by either heaven or earth” no matter how severe the natural, man-made, and national disasters. This is our advantage.

Take response to war as an example. The reason that the United States remains today is that it has never seen war on its mainland. Once its enemies aim at the mainland, they enemies would have already reached Washington before its congress finishes debating and authorizes the president to declare war. But for us, we don’t waste time on these trivial things. Comrade Deng Xiaoping once said, “The Party’s leadership is prompt in making decisions. Once a decision is made, it is immediately implemented. There’s no wasting time on trivial things like in capitalist countries. This is our advantage.” Our Party’s democratic centralism is built on the tradition of great unity. Although fascist Germany also stressed high-level centralism, they only focused on the power of the country’s executive, but ignored the collective leadership of the central group. That’s why Hitler was betrayed by many later in his life, which fundamentally depleted the Nazis of their war capacity.

What makes us different from Germany is that we are complete atheists, while Germany was primarily a Catholic and Protestant country. Hitler was only half atheist. Although Hitler also believed that ordinary citizens had low intelligence, and that leaders should therefore make decisions, and although German people worshipped Hitler back then, Germany did not have the tradition of worshipping sages on a broad basis. Our Chinese society has always worshipped sages, and that is because we don’t worship any god. Once you worship a god, you can’t worship a person at the same time, unless you recognize the person as the god’s representative like they do in Middle Eastern countries. On the other hand, once you recognize a person as a sage, of course you will want him to be your leader, instead of monitoring and choosing him. This is the foundation of our democratic centralism.

The bottom line is, only China, not Germany, is a reliable force in resisting the Western parliament-based democratic system. Hitler’s dictatorship in Germany was perhaps but a momentary mistake in history.

Maybe you have now come to understand why we recently decided to further promulgate atheism. If we let theology from the West into China and empty us from the inside, if we let all Chinese people listen to God and follow God, who will obediently listen to us and follow us? If the common people don’t believe Comrade Hu Jintao is a qualified leader, question his authority, and want to monitor him, if the religious followers in our society question why we are leading God in churches, can our Party continue to rule China?

Germany’s dream to be the “lord of the earth” failed, because ultimately, history did not bestow this great mission upon them. But the three lessons Germany learned from experience are what we ought to remember as we complete our historic mission and revitalize our race. The three lessons are: Firmly grasp the country’s living space, firmly grasp the Party’s control over the nation, and firmly grasp the general direction toward becoming the “lord of the earth.”

Next, I’d like to address these three issues.

The first issue is living space. This is the biggest focus of the revitalization of the Chinese race. In my last speech, I said that the fight over basic living resources (including land and ocean) is the source of the vast majority of wars in history. This may change in the information age, but not fundamentally. Our per capita resources are much less than those of Germany’s back then. In addition, economic development in the last twenty-plus years had a negative impact, and climates are rapidly changing for the worse. Our resources are in very short supply. The environment is severely polluted, especially that of soil, water, and air. Not only our ability to sustain and develop our race, but even its survival is gravely threatened, to a degree much greater than faced Germany back then.

Anybody who has been to Western countries knows that their living space is much better than ours. They have forests alongside the highways, while we hardly have any trees by our streets. Their sky is often blue with white clouds, while our sky is covered with a layer of dark haze. Their tap water is clean enough for drinking, while even our ground water is so polluted that it can’t be drunk without filtering. They have few people in the streets, and two or three people can occupy a small residential building; in contrast, our streets are always crawling with people, and several people have to share one room.

Many years ago, there was a book titled Yellow Catastrophes. It said that, due to our following the American style of consumption, our limited resources would no longer support the population and society would collapse, once our population reaches 1.3 billion. Now our population has already exceeded this limit, and we are now relying on imports to sustain our nation. It’s not that we haven’t paid attention to this issue. The Ministry of Land Resources is specialized in this issue.

But the term “living space” (lebensraum) is too closely related to Nazi Germany. The reason we don’t want to discuss this too openly is to avoid the West’s association of us with Nazi Germany, which could in turn reinforce the view that China is a threat. Therefore, in our emphasis on He Xin’s new theory, “Human rights are just living rights,” we only talk about “living,” but not “space,” so as to avoid using the term “living space.” From the perspective of history, the reason that China is faced with the issue of living space is because Western countries have developed ahead of Eastern countries. Western countries established colonies all around the world, therefore giving themselves an advantage on the issue of living space. To solve this problem, we must lead the Chinese people outside of China, so that they could develop outside of China.

The second issue is our focus on the leadership capacity of the ruling party. We’ve done better on this than their party. Although the Nazis spread their power to every aspect of the German national government, they did not stress their absolute leadership position like we have. They did not take the issue of managing the power of the party as first priority, which we have. When Comrade Mao Zedong summarized the “three treasures” of our party’s victory in conquering the country, he considered the most important “treasure” to be developing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and strengthening its leadership position.

We have to focus on two points to fortify our leadership position and improve our leadership capacity.

The first is to promote the “Three Represents” theory [8], stressing that our Party is the pioneer of the Chinese race, in addition to being the pioneer of the proletariat. Many citizens say in private, “We never voted for you, the Communist Party, to represent us. How can you claim to be our representatives?”

There’s no need to worry about this issue. Comrade Mao Zedong said that if we could lead our allies to victory and make them benefit, they would support us. Therefore, as long as we can lead the Chinese people outside of China, resolving the lack of living space in China, the Chinese people will support us. At that time, we don’t have to worry about the labels of “totalitarianism” or “dictatorship.” Whether we can forever represent the Chinese people depends on whether we can succeed in leading the Chinese people out of China.

The second point, whether we can lead the Chinese people out of China, is the most important determinant of the CCP’s leadership position.

Why do I say this?

Everyone knows that without the leadership of our Party, China would not exist today. Therefore, our highest principle is to forever protect our Party’s leadership position. Before June 4, we realized vaguely that as long as China’s economy is developed, people would support and love the Communist Party. Therefore we had to use several decades of peacetime to develop China’s economy. No matter what -isms, whether it is a white cat or a black cat, it is a good cat if it can develop China’s economy. But at that time, we did not have mature ideas about how China would deal with international disputes after its economy is developed.

Comrade Xiaoping said then that the main themes in the world were peace and development. But the June 4 riot gave our Party a warning and gave us a lesson that is still fresh. The pressure of China’s peaceful evolution makes us reconsider the main themes of our time. We see that neither of these two issues, peace and development, have been resolved. The western oppositional forces always change the world according to their own visions; they want to change China and use peaceful evolution to overturn the leadership of our Communist Party. Therefore, if we only develop the economy, we still face the possibility of losing control.

That June 4 riot almost succeeded in bringing a peaceful transition; if it were not for the fact that a large number of veteran comrades were still alive and at a crucial moment they removed Zhao Ziyang and his followers, then we all would have been put in prison. After death we would have been too ashamed to report to Marx. Although we have passed the test of June 4, after our group of senior comrades pass away, without our control, peaceful evolution may still come to China like it did to the former Soviet Union. In 1956, they suppressed the Hungarian Incident and defeated the attacks by Tito’s revisionists of Yugoslavia, but they could not withstand Gorbachev thirty some years later. Once those pioneering senior comrades died, the power of the Communist Party was taken away by peaceful evolution.

After the June 4 riot was suppressed, we have been thinking about how to prevent China from peaceful evolution and how to maintain the Communist Party’s leadership. We thought it over and over but did not come up with any good ideas. If we do not have good ideas, China will inevitably change peacefully, and we will all become criminals in history. After some deep pondering, we finally come to this conclusion: Only by turning our developed national strength into the force of a fist striking outward—only by leading people to go out —can we win forever the Chinese people’s support and love for the Communist Party. Our Party will then stand on invincible ground, and the Chinese people will have to depend on the Communist Party. They will forever follow the Communist Party with their hearts and minds, as was written in a couplet frequently seen in the countryside some years ago: “Listen to Chairman Mao, Follow the Communist Party!” Therefore, the June 4 riot made us realize that we must combine economic development with preparation for war and leading the people to go out! Therefore, since then, our national defense policy has taken a 180 degree turn and we have since emphasized more and more “combining peace and war.” Our economic development is all about preparing for the need of war! Publicly we still emphasize economic development as our center, but in reality, economic development has war as its center! We have made a tremendous effort to construct “The Great Wall Project” to build up, along our coastal and land frontiers as well as around large and medium-sized cities, a solid underground “Great Wall” that can withstand a nuclear war. We are also storing all necessary war materials. Therefore, we will not hesitate to fight a Third World War, so as to lead the people to go out and to ensure the Party’s leadership position. In any event, we, the CCP, will never step down from the stage of history! We’d rather have the whole world, or even the entire globe, share life and death with us than step down from the stage of history!!! Isn’t there a ‘nuclear bondage’ theory? It means that since nuclear weapons have bound the security of the entire world, all will die together if death is inevitable. In my view, there is another kind of bondage, and that is, the fate our Party is tied up with that of the whole world. If we, the CCP, are finished, China will be finished, and the world will be finished.

Our Party’s historical mission is to lead the Chinese people to go out. If we take the long view, we will see that history led us on this path. First, China’s long history has resulted in the world’s largest population, including Chinese in China as well as overseas. Second, once we open our doors, the profit-seeking western capitalists will invest capital and technology in China to assist our development, so that they can occupy the biggest market in the world. Third, our numerous overseas Chinese help us create the most favorable environment for the introduction of foreign capital, foreign technology and advanced experience into China. Thus, it is guaranteed that our reform and open-door policy will achieve tremendous success. Fourth, China’s great economic expansion will inevitably lead to the shrinkage of per-capita living space for the Chinese people, and this will encourage China to turn outward in search for new living space. Fifth, China’s great economic expansion will inevitably come with a significant development in our military forces, creating conditions for our expansion overseas. Even since Napoleon’s time, the West has been has been alert for the possible awakening of the sleeping lion that is China. Now, the sleeping lion is standing up and advancing into the world, and has become unstoppable!

What is the third issue we should clinch firmly in order to accomplish our historical mission of national renaissance? It is to hold firmly onto the big “issue of America.”

Comrade Mao Zedong taught us that we must have a resolute and correct political orientation. What is our key, correct orientation? It is to solve the issue of America.

This appears to be shocking, but the logic is actually very simple.

Comrade He Xin put forward a very fundamental judgment that is very reasonable. He asserted in his report to the Party Central Committee: The renaissance of China is in fundamental conflict with the western strategic interest, and therefore will inevitably be obstructed by the western countries doing everything they can. So, only by breaking the blockade formed by the western countries headed by the United States can China grow and move towards the world!

Would the United States allow us to go out to gain new living space? First, if the United States is firm in blocking us, it is hard for us to do anything significant to Taiwan and some other countries! Second, even if we could snatch some land from Taiwan, Vietnam, India, or even Japan, how much more living space can we get? Very trivial! Only countries like the United States, Canada and Australia have the vast land to serve our need for mass colonization.

Therefore, solving the “issue of America” is the key to solving all other issues. First, this makes it possible for us to have many people migrate there and even establish another China under the same leadership of the CCP. America was originally discovered by the ancestors of the yellow race, but Columbus gave credit to the white race. We the descendents of the Chinese nation are entitled to the possession of the land! It is said that the residents of the yellow race have a very low social status in United States. We need to liberate them. Second, after solving the “issue of America,” the western countries in Europe would bow to us, not to mention to Taiwan, Japan and other small countries. Therefore, solving the “issue of America” is the mission assigned to CCP members by history.

I sometimes think how cruel it is for China and the United States to be enemies that are bound to meet on a narrow road! Do you remember a movie about Liberation Army troops led by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping? The title is something like “Decisive Battle on the Central Plains.” There is a famous remark in the movie that is full of power and grandeur: “The enemies are bound to meet on a narrow road, only the brave will win!” It is this kind of fighting to win or die spirit that enabled us to seize power in Mainland China. It is historical destiny that China and United States will come into unavoidable confrontation on a narrow path and fight each other! The United States, unlike Russia and Japan, has never occupied and hurt China, and also assisted China in its battle against the Japanese. But, it will certainly be an obstruction, and the biggest obstruction! In the long run, the relationship of China and the United States is one of a life-and-death struggle.

One time, some Americans came to visit and tried to convince us that the relationship between China and United States is one of interdependence. Comrade Xiaoping replied in a polite manner: “Go tell your government, China and the United States do not have such a relationship that is interdependent and mutually reliant.” Actually, Comrade Xiaoping was being too polite, he could have been more frank, “The relationship between China and United States is one of a life-and-death struggle.” Of course, right now it is not the time to openly break up with them yet. Our reform and opening to the outside world still rely on their capital and technology, we still need America. Therefore, we must do everything we can to promote our relationship with America, learn from America in all aspects and use America as an example to reconstruct our country.

How have we managed our foreign affairs in these years? Even if we had to put on a smiling face in order to please them, even if we had to give them the right cheek after they had hit our left cheek, we still must endure in order to further our relationship with the United States. Do you remember the character of Wuxun in the movie the “Story of Wuxun”? In order to accomplish his mission, he endured so much pain and suffered so much beating and kicking! The United States is the most successful country in the world today. Only after we have learned all of its useful experiences can we replace it in the future. Even though we are presently imitating the American tone “China and United States rely on each other and share honor and disgrace,” we must not forget that the history of our civilization repeatedly has taught us that one mountain does not allow two tigers to live together.

We also must never forget what Comrade Xiaoping emphasized “refrain from revealing the ambitions and put others off the track.” The hidden message is: we must put up with America; we must conceal our ultimate goals, hide our capabilities and await the opportunity. In this way, our mind is clear. Why have we not updated our national anthem with something peaceful? Why did we not change the anthem’s theme of war? Instead, when revising the Constitution this time, for the first time we clearly specified “March of the Volunteers” is our national anthem. Thus we will understand why we constantly talk loudly about the “Taiwan issue” but not the “American issue.” We all know the principle of “doing one thing under the cover of another.” If ordinary people can only see the small island of Taiwan in their eyes, then you as the elite of our country should be able to see the whole picture of our cause. Over these years, according to Comrade Xiaoping’s arrangement, a large piece of our territory in the North has been given up to Russia; do you really think our Party Central Committee is a fool?

To resolve the issue of America we must be able to transcend conventions and restrictions. In history, when a country defeated another country or occupied another country, it could not kill all the people in the conquered land, because back then you could not kill people effectively with sabers or long spears, or even with rifles or machine guns. Therefore, it was impossible to gain a stretch of land without keeping the people on that land. However, if we conquered America in this fashion, we would not be able to make many people migrate there.

Only by using special means to “clean up” America will we be able to lead the Chinese people there. This is the only choice left for us. This is not a matter of whether we are willing to do it or not. What kind of special means is there available for us to “clean up” America? Conventional weapons such as fighters, canons, missiles and battleships won’t do; neither will highly destructive weapons such as nuclear weapons. We are not as foolish as to want to perish together with America by using nuclear weapons, despite the fact that we have been exclaiming that we will have the Taiwan issue resolved at whatever cost. Only by using non-destructive weapons that can kill many people will we be able to reserve America for ourselves. There has been rapid development of modern biological technology, and new bio weapons have been invented one after another. Of course we have not been idle; in the past years we have seized the opportunity to master weapons of this kind. We are capable of achieving our purpose of “cleaning up” America all of a sudden. When Comrade Xiaoping was still with us, the Party Central Committee had the perspicacity to make the right decision not to develop aircraft carrier groups and focus instead on developing lethal weapons that can eliminate mass populations of the enemy country.

From a humanitarian perspective, we should issue a warning to the American people and persuade them to leave America and leave the land they have lived in to the Chinese people. Or at least they should leave half of the United States to be China’s colony, because America was first discovered by the Chinese. But would this work? If this strategy does not work, then there is only one choice left to us. That is, use decisive means to “clean up” America, and reserve America for our use in a moment. Our historical experience has proven that as long as we make it happen, nobody in the world can do anything about us. Furthermore, if the United States as the leader is gone, then other enemies have to surrender to us.

Biological weapons are unprecedented in their ruthlessness, but if the Americans do not die then the Chinese have to die. If the Chinese people are strapped to the present land, a total societal collapse is bound to take place. According to the computation of the author of Yellow Peril, more than half of the Chinese will die, and that figure would be more than 800 million people! Just after the liberation, our yellow land supported nearly 500 million people, while today the official figure of the population is more than 1.3 billion. This yellow land has reached the limit of its capacity. One day, who knows how soon it will come, the great collapse will occur any time and more than half of the population will have to go.

We must prepare ourselves for two scenarios. If our biological weapons succeed in the surprise attack [on the United States], the Chinese people will be able to keep their losses at a minimum in the fight against the United States. If, however, the attack fails and triggers a nuclear retaliation from the United States, China would perhaps suffer a catastrophe in which more than half of its population would perish. That is why we need to be ready with air defense systems for our big and medium-sized cities. Whatever the case may be, we can only move forward fearlessly for the sake of our Party and state and our nation’s future, regardless of the hardships we have to face and the sacrifices we have to make. The population, even if more than half dies, can be reproduced. But if the Party falls, everything is gone, and forever gone!

In Chinese history, in the replacement of dynasties, the ruthless have always won and the benevolent have always failed. The most typical example involved Xiang Yu the King of Chu, who, after defeating Liu Bang, failed to continue to chase after him and eliminate his forces, and this leniency resulted in Xiang Yu’s death and Liu’s victory (during the war between Chu and Han, just after the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC) was overthrown). Therefore, we must emphasize the importance of adopting resolute measures. In the future, the two rivals, China and the United States, will eventually meet each other in a narrow road, and our leniency to the Americans will mean cruelty toward the Chinese people. 　　 Here some people may want to ask me: what about the several millions of our compatriots in the United States? They may ask: aren’t we against Chinese killing other Chinese?

These comrades are too pedantic; they are not pragmatic enough. If we had insisted on the principle that the Chinese should not kill other Chinese, would we have liberated China? As for the several million Chinese living in the United States, this is of course a big issue. Therefore in recent years, we have been conducting research on genetic weapons, i.e. those weapons that do not kill yellow people. But producing a result with this kind of research is extremely difficult. Of the research done on genetic weapons throughout the world, the Israeli’s is the most advanced. Their genetic weapons are designed to target Arabs and protect the Israelis. But even they have not reached the stage of actual deployment. We have cooperated with Israel on some research. Perhaps we can introduce some of the technologies used to protect Israelis and remold these technologies to protect the yellow people. But their technologies are not mature yet, and it is difficult for us to surpass them in a few years. If it has to be five or ten years before some breakthroughs can be achieved in genetic weapons, we cannot afford to wait any longer.

Old comrades like us cannot afford to wait that long, for we don’t have that much time to live. Old soldiers of my age may be able to wait for five or ten more years, but those from the period of the Anti-Japanese War or the few old Red Army soldiers cannot wait any longer. Therefore we have to give up our expectations about genetic weapons. Of course, from another perspective, the majority of those Chinese living in the United States have become our burden, because they have been corrupted by the bourgeois liberal values for a long time and it would be difficult for them to accept our Party’s leadership. If they survived the war, we would have to launch campaigns in the future to deal with them, to reform them. Do you still remember that when we had just defeated the Koumintang (KMT) and liberated Mainland China, so many people from the bourgeois class and intellectuals welcomed us so very warmly, but later we had to launch campaigns such as the “suppression of the reactionaries” and “Anti-Rightist Movement” to clean them up and reform them? Some of them were in hiding for a long time and were not exposed until the Cultural Revolution. History has proved that any social turmoil is likely to involve many deaths. Maybe we can put it this way: death is the engine that moves history forward. During the period of Three Kingdoms [9], how many people died? When Genghis Khan conquered Eurasia, how many people died? When Manchu invaded the interior of China, how many people died? Not many people died during the 1911 Revolution, but when we overthrew the Three Great Mountains [10], and during the political campaigns such as “Suppression of reactionaries,” “Three-Anti Campaign,” and “Five-Anti Campaign” at least 20 million people died. We were apprehensive that some young people today would be trembling with fear when they hear about wars or people dying. During wartime, we were used to seeing dead people. Blood and flesh were flying everywhere, corpses were lying in heaps on the fields, and blood ran like rivers. We saw it all. On the battlefields, everybody’s eyes turned red with killing because it was a life-and-death struggle and only the brave would survive.

It is indeed brutal to kill one or two hundred million Americans. But that is the only path that will secure a Chinese century, a century in which the CCP leads the world. We, as revolutionary humanitarians, do not want deaths. But if history confronts us with a choice between deaths of Chinese and those of Americans, we’d have to pick the latter, as, for us, it is more important to safeguard the lives of the Chinese people and the life of our Party. That is because, after all, we are Chinese and members of the CCP. Since the day we joined the CCP, the Party’s life has always been above all else! History will prove that we made the right choice.

Now, when I am about to finish my speech, you probably understand why we conducted this online survey. Simply put, through conducting this online survey we wanted to know whether the people would rise against us if one day we secretly adopt resolute means to “clean up” America. Would more people support us or oppose us? This is our basic judgment: if our people approve of shooting at prisoners of war, women and children, then they would approve our “cleaning up” America. For over twenty years, China has been enjoying peace, and a whole generation has not been tested by war. In particular, since the end of World War II, there have been many changes in the formats of war, the concept of war and the ethics of war. Especially since the collapse of the former Soviet Union and Eastern European Communist states, the ideology of the West has come to dominate the world as a whole, and the Western theory of human nature and Western view of human rights have increasingly disseminated among the young people in China. Therefore, we were not very sure about the people’s attitude. If our people are fundamentally opposed to “cleaning up” America, we will, of course, have to adopt corresponding measures.

Why didn’t we conduct the survey through administrative means instead of through the web? We did what we did for a good reason.

First of all, we did it to reduce artificial inference and to make sure that we got the true thoughts of the people. In addition, it is more confidential and won’t reveal the true purpose of our survey. But what is most important is the fact that most of the people who are able to respond to the questions online are from social groups that are relatively well-educated and intelligent. They are the hard-core and leading groups that play a decisive role among our people. If they support us, then the people as a whole will follow us; if they oppose us, they will play the dangerous role of inciting people and creating social disturbance.

What turned out to be very comforting is they did not turn in a blank test paper. In fact, they turned in a test paper with a score of over 80. This is the excellent fruition of our Party’s work in propaganda and education over the past few decades.

Of course, a few people under the Western influence have objected to shooting at prisoners of war and women and children. Some of them said, “It is shocking and scary to witness so many people approving of shooting at women and children. Is everybody crazy?” Some others said, “The Chinese love to label themselves as a peace-loving people, but actually they are the most ruthless people. The comments are resonant of killing and murdering, sending chills to my heart.”

Although there are not too many people holding this kind of viewpoint and they will not affect the overall situation in any significant way, but we still need to strengthen the propaganda to respond to this kind of argument.

That is to vigorously propagate Comrade He Xin's latest article, which has already been reported to the central government. You may look it up on the website.

If you get on the website using key words to search, you will find out that a while ago, comrade He Xin pointed out to the Hong Kong Business News during an interview that: "The US has a shocking conspiracy." According to what he had in hand, from September 27 to October 1, 1995, the Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachëv Foundation, funded by the United States, gathered 500 of the world’s most important statesmen, economic leaders and scientists, including George W. Bush (he was not the US president at the time), the Baroness Thatcher, Tony Blair, Zbigniew Brzezinski, as well as George Soros, Bill Gates, futurist John Naisbitt, etc., all of the world’s most popular characters, in the San Francisco Fairmont hotel for a high-level round table conference, discussing problems about globalization and how to guide humanity to move forward into the 21st century. According to what He Xin had in hand, the outstanding people of the world in attendance thought that in the 21st century a mere 20% of the world’s population will be sufficient to maintain the world’s economy and prosperity, the other 80% or 4/5 of the world’s population will be human garbage unable to produce new values. The people in attendance thought that this excess 80% population would be a trash population and "high-tech" means should be used to eliminate them gradually.

Since the enemies are secretly planning to eliminate our population, we certainly cannot be infinitely merciful and compassionate to them. Comrade He Xin's article came out at the right time, it has proven the correctness of our tit for tat battle approach, has proven Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s great foresight to deploy against the United States military strategy.

Certainly, in spreading Comrade He Xin’s views, we cannot publish the article in the party newspapers, in order to avoid raising the enemy’s vigilance. He Xin's conversation may remind the enemy that we have grasped the modern science and technology, including "clean" nuclear technology, gene weapons technology as well as biological weapons technology, and we can use powerful measures to eliminate their population on a large-scale.

The last problem I want to talk about is of firmly seizing the preparations for military battle.

Currently, we are at the cross road of moving forward or backward. Some comrades saw problems flooding everywhere in our country—the corruption problem, the state-owned enterprise problem, the bank’s bad accounts problem, environmental problems, society security problems, education problems, the AIDS problem, various appeals problem, even the riots problem. These comrades vacillated in the determination to prepare for the military battle. They thought; they should first grab the political reform problem, that is, our own political reform comes first. After resolving the domestic problems, we can then deal with the foreign military battle problem.

This reminds me of the crucial period in 1948 in the Chinese revolution. At that time, the People's Liberation Army’s “horses were drinking water” in Yangtze River, but they faced extremely complex situations and difficult problems everywhere in the liberated areas, and the central authority received emergency reports daily. What to do? Should we stop to manage rear areas and internal matters first before moving forward, or press on to pass the Yangtze River with one vigorous effort? Chairman Mao, with his extraordinary wisdom and mettle, gave the marching order "Carry on the revolution to the end," and liberated all of China. The previously thought "serious" conflicting problems were all resolved in this great forward moving revolutionary wave.

Now, it seems like we are in the same critical period as the “horses were drinking water” in the Yangtze River days in the revolutionary era, as long as we firmly seize the most basic principle of preparing for the military battle. The central committee believes, as long as we resolve the United States problem at one blow, our domestic problems will all be readily solved. Therefore, our military battle preparation appears to aim at Taiwan, but in fact is aimed at the United States, and the preparation is far beyond the scope of attacking aircraft carriers or satellites.

Marxism pointed out that violence is the midwife for the birth of the new society. Therefore war is the midwife for the birth of China’s century. As war approaches, I am full of hope for our next generation.

***

Notes: [1] Sina.com is one of the largest on-line media corporations in China. The on-line survey was launched by sina.com’s branch Sina Military (jczs.sina.com.cn). It started on February 2 and ended on March 1, 2004 and there were 31,872 persons who filled out the survey. The web page for this on-line survey is at “http://jczs.sina.com.cn/2004-02-02/1644180066.html” but this page has been removed and cannot be viewed.

The question was “If you are a solider, and if are under the orders of your commanding officers, will you shoot at women, children and prisoners of war?” 34% of the visitors answered they would shoot under any circumstances even without permission from their commanding officer. 48.6% of the visitors replied that they would shoot when the lives of themselves or their companies are threatened. Only 3.8% of the participants held they would not shoot under any circumstances. Those who agreed to shoot were mostly under the age of 25.

[2] “War Is Approaching Us”

[3] “Three islands” refer to Taiwan, Diaoyu Islands, and Spratly Islands.

[4] Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997). Officially, Deng was the leader of the CCP and China from 1978-89. Actually, after Mao's death in 1976 Deng became the de facto leader of China until Deng finally died in 1997.

[5] Hu Jintao (1942-). Leader of the "fourth generation" of CCP officials. In 2003, Hu became President of the People's Republic of China.

[6] Liu Huaqing (1916-). Commander of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy from 1982 through 1988, vice-chairman of China’s Central Military Commission (until 1997). Liu is considered to be responsible for the PLA’s modernization efforts.

[7] He Xin (1949-). Senior Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

[8] “Three Represents” states that the CCP represents the requirement to develop advanced productive forces, an orientation towards advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people in China. It was put forward by Jiang Zemin, former Chinese president.

[9] Three Kingdoms refer to Wei, Shu, and Wu, three countries that overlapped the land of China during the period A.D. 220-80.

[10] “Three great mountains” were said according to the CCP to have weighed on the backs of the Chinese people—imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic-capitalism.

The original Chinese article is available at: http://epochtimes.com/gb/5/8/1/n1003911.htm

http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/5-8-8/31055.html<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Chinese Teacher, 37 students detained for reading Koran

Press Trust of India

Beijing, August 15, 2005

Authorities in China's Muslim-majority Xinjiang region have detained a Uighur woman and 37 of her students for studying the Koran, a rights group said on Monday.

Aminan Momixi, 56, was teaching the Koran to the students, aged between seven and 20, at her home on August 1 when police burst in and arrested her, the German-based World Uighur Congress said.

Her students, most of whom were primary and secondary school pupils, were also arrested and remain in detention.

Police confiscated 23 copies of the Koran, 56 textbooks on the Koran, a hand-written manuscript and other religious materials, the organisation said.
Momixi was accused of "illegally possessing religious materials and subversive historical information," the Congress said.

A police officer confirmed the detentions and said the group was still being held. She refused to say why.
"This is our internal issue, we cannot disclose the reason," she said.

China bans all religious activities outside state control.

Uighurs are a Turkish-speaking minority of eight million whose traditional homeland lies in the oil-rich Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in northwestern China.

Xinjiang has been autonomous since 1955 but continues to be the subject of crackdowns by Chinese authorities, who have been accused by rights groups of religious repression against Uighurs in the name of counter-terrorism efforts.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1...050004.htm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Bharatvarsh]

China and India Vie for Company With Oil Fields in Kazakhstan
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A joint venture of the China National Petroleum Corporation, China's biggest oil company, and PetroChina, its publicly traded subsidiary, offered roughly $3.2 billion late Monday for PetroKazakhstan, a person close to the negotiations said. The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, India's main state-owned oil company, has already reportedly submitted a bid of $3.6 billion in cooperation with the steel maker Mittal Group.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->While the Chinese bid appeared to be lower than the Indian bid, Chevron's successful pursuit of Unocal this summer despite a higher bid from Cnooc Ltd. of China has shown that the higher bid does not always win in a politically charged industry like energy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/16/business...ness/16oil.html<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Bharatvarsh]

China aim to team up for oil assets
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian and Chinese oil firms will sign agreements aimed at bidding jointly for foreign oil and gas projects and reducing cut-throat competition, a top Indian official told Reuters on Tuesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050816/india_...HNlYwMlJVRPUCUl<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[acharya]

`Big investment key to growth in China'

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Jayati Ghosh of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, New Delhi, has said the difference in the political structures of China and India was responsible for the variation in the developmental pattern of the two countries.

Delivering the second CESS (Centre for Economic and Social Studies) Silver Jubilee Lecture here on Thursday, Prof. Jayati Ghosh said the Chinese development trajectory needed a different lens to study.

Economic growth in the neighbouring country was mostly driven by large-scale investment by the State. This year the country had allotted 42 per cent of the GDP. For infrastructure alone 19 per cent was allotted. Though India too adopted liberalisation, emphasis on industry was less here.

India's economic diversification was also less impressive which was not the case in China, which had now made it the world's workshop.

Its labour came cheap was notional as low wages were cross subsidised by the State subsidised in food, housing and transport.

State provision of these aspects could naturally sustain a labour force on low wage. Again, the human development index in China was much better with crucial variables ensured greater attention.

Compared to these factors, democracy itself had a peculiar economic implications for India, she said.

The country could not go in for extreme policies due to the checks and balances that were inherent to its nature.

Perhaps, a bold expansionary policy was needed to make giant strides, she felt.

S. Mahendra Dev, director, CESS, introduced the guest and C.H. Hanumantha Rao, chairman, presided.

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

Pioneer
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>The Sino-Pakistan missile nexus </b>
G Parthasarathy
On July 18 President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted that India and the United States would "work together to provide global leadership in areas of mutual concern and interest".

President Bush assured that he would work to "achieve full nuclear energy cooperation with India as it realises its goal of promoting nuclear power and achieving energy security". Less than a fortnight later, on July 28, the US, Japan, China, India, South Korea and Australia announced a new "Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate".

This 'partnership' will involve cooperation areas of common interest like energy efficiency, clean coal, bio-energy, liquefied natural gas and civilian nuclear power.

Was this the beginning of a new US, China, India entente? The answer came a week later on August 4 when the American and Chinese envoys to the UN met in New York and decided to work jointly to torpedo efforts by Germany, Japan, Brazil and India to secure permanent membership of the Security Council.

In today's world the US seeks to strengthen India to promote a viable balance of power in Asia and then colludes with China to ensure that India does not get permanent membership of the Security Council!

While the Bush Administration envisages an emerging and expanding role in the entire Asian and Indian Ocean Region and supports Indian efforts for economic integration with East and Southeast Asia, the same cannot be said about China.

China's interest in containing India was evident in the way it ganged up with the Clinton Administration's efforts to "cap, roll back and eliminate" India's nuclear programme. More importantly, China's efforts to 'contain' India have remained a constant feature, manifested in its backing for Pakistan's nuclear weapons and missile programmes ever since 1976.

After providing Pakistan with the designs of nuclear weapons, China proceeded to supply Pakistan with fissile materials, supported its uranium enrichment efforts and provided it with plutonium reprocessing capabilities for miniaturising nuclear warheads.

What is even more significant about the Pakistan-China relationship is the manner in which China has supplied Pakistan with missiles to enable Pakistan to strike at cities all across India.

The first supplies of Chinese missiles to Pakistan took place barely two years after the December 1988 visit of Rajiv Gandhi to China. Chinese supplies of M11 missiles (christened 'Ghaznavi' by Pakistan) with a range of around 300 km commenced around 1991.

Shortly after the visit of Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao to China in 1993, his hosts proceeded to provide Pakistan with nuclear capable medium range DF 15/ M9 missiles, (christened as "Shaheen-I" by Pakistan) with a range of 600 to 750 km. This supply was in violation of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). The M9 has the range to target major population centres in northern India including Delhi.

The M9 supplies compelled the Clinton Administration that invariably turned a blind eye to Chinese proliferation activities to impose sanctions on the manufacturers, the Haiying Electro Mechanical Technology Academy, a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation.

Around 1998, China started providing Pakistan with 1800-2000 km range nuclear capable DF 21/21A missile capable of hitting cities in Kerala and West Bengal - states that produce stalwarts of the CPI(M), who constantly eulogise the virtues of their Chinese comrades!

An interesting feature of Chinese nuclear and missile assistance to Pakistan is that all such assistance is channeled to the National Development Complex in Fatehjang, near the Chinese supplied nuclear power plants at Chashma, in Pakistan's Punjab Province.

This complex is headed by Pakistani nuclear scientist Samar Mubarak Mand, who is designated as the Chairman of Pakistan's Engineering and Scientific Commission and is now emerging as Pakistan's national hero to replace the disgraced Dr AQ Khan.

The Chinese missiles assembled in Fatehjang are invariably tested in Baluchistan. The Shaheen-II was test fired in Sonmiani in the Lasbela district of Baluchistan. The Shaheen-II was also test fired from Baluchistan. Dr AQ Khan was entrusted with assembling missiles of North Korean origin like the Ghauri-I and Ghauri-II.

These missiles were test fired either from Dera Ghazi Khan or the Jhelum district in Pakistani Punjab. It is in this background that one must view the announcement made by Mr Samar Mubarak Mand on August 12 that after the successful test firing of a 500- km range nuclear capable cruise missile in Baluchistan, Pakistan was going to commence serial production of the Babur cruise missiles in October this year.

Pakistan does not have the capabilities to produce cruise missiles indigenously. It is, therefore, evident that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Pakistan has been followed not merely by new Chinese supplies of fighter aircraft, naval frigates and tanks but also by the supply of advanced cruise missiles to that country. China itself acquired the 250-km range "MOSKIT" cruise missile from Russia. It also acquired the 400-km range "DELILAH" cruise missile from Israel.

<b>Finally, between 1999 and 2001, it clandestinely acquired X 55 cruise missiles capable of carrying a 200 kiloton nuclear warhead with a range of 2500-km, from Ukraine.</b> It has brought in hundreds of Russian technicians to develop cruise missiles.

All these efforts are being coordinated by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation that has been a regular supplier of strategic missiles to Pakistan. <b>A significant feature that has emerged in the recent past is that military and missile technology that China acquires from Russia is finding its way to Pakistan</b>. Has New Delhi brought this to the notice of its friends in Moscow?

China's opposition to India's permanent membership of the Security Council, its reservations about joining and being associated in regional forums in Central, East and South East Asia and its nuclear/missile relationship with Pakistan all suggest that there is a continuing Chinese aim to 'contain' India by encouraging Pakistan to seek 'parity' with it. This does not mean that we should not seek to normalise relations with our northern neighbour.

It merely means that we should be realistic about its aims and intentions. It would be good to develop a national consensus on this issue. It would really be heartening if our concerns about Chinese behaviour could be unambiguously conveyed by our CPI(M) stalwarts like Mr Prakash Karat during the course of the many exchanges they have (no doubt with sumptuous servings of Beijing Duck) with their fraternal Communist comrades in the Middle Kingdom.

There is no doubt that there has been yet another major intelligence failure, as our negotiating team evidently had no information about the impending cruise missile test when finalising the text of the Agreement on Prior Notification of Missile Tests with its Pakistani counterparts, earlier this month.

National Security Adviser MK Narayanan was said to be determined to revamp the entire functioning of our external intelligence set up after it was found that it did not have a clue about the palace coup staged by King Gyanendra in Nepal, when the monarch imposed emergency rule.

Sadly, apart from Indira Gandhi, no Prime Minister in recent years has paid adequate attention to developing our human and covert intelligence capabilities. One hopes Mr Manmohan Singh will pay the same attention towards doing this, as he does to other aspects of national security.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

From Ram Narayanan:

In the spate of articles and reports that have been flooding the media in recent weeks, one piece has probably escaped the attention of discerning observers. It’s two weeks old. It’s Kanti Bajpai’s op-ed in THE INDIAN EXPRESS of August 16, 2005 in which he presents the view that India has fallen behind China in the study of international relations.

The time to wake up is NOW!


Enter, the Dragon - China is leaving India far behind in the study of International Relations

[acharya]

China gets proactive diplomatically

P.S. Suryanarayana

Peace, development, and cooperation on a global scale are the focus of China's policy.

AS ASIA's sole permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, China has not only raised its profile but also pledged to "put forward concrete proposals" for overall reforms in the U.N.

Announcing Chinese President Hu Jintao's participation in the U.N.'s 60th-anniversary-related summit in New York between September 14 and 16, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing has identified four aspects of Beijing's focus. These relate to: (1) purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter as also the means to "safeguard the U.N.'s authority;" (2) millennium development goals; (3) "positive and sound reform" to build up the U.N.'s capacity to face threats and challenges; and (4) multilateralism for the "harmonious development of international relations."

Outlining China's push for a proactive role "in the new era," under the diplomatic "banner of peace, development and cooperation," Mr. Li emphasised that "the Cold War mentality, unilateralism and the worship of military might will lead us nowhere."

Unilateralism is a code for the current "project" of the U.S. for "a global imperium," as even a conservative-turned-realist American expert on international relations such as Andrew Bacevich has recognised. The other references by Mr. Li apply to what these scholars have seen as "the progressive militarisation of U.S. foreign policy" in the current post-Cold War period.

Significant against this backdrop is Mr. Li's depiction of China as "a force for world peace and common development [of all countries]." He drew attention to "the golden rule" that Confucius had laid for "state-to-state relations" over 2,000 years ago. Engraved on the walls of the U.N. headquarters, the adage of Confucius reads: "Do not do unto others what you would not want done unto you."

Overarching guidelines

Beneath the overarching guidelines to meet the current trends towards "multi-polarisation" in world politics and "globalisation" in the economic domain, China cites its ties with the U.S., Russia, the European Union, and Japan, on parallel tracks, as being particularly important.

As noted by Mr. Li, Beijing's relationship with Washington has generally stayed on a "stable" course despite "differences," while "the strategic partnership of cooperation between China and Russia continues to deepen" as they promote "multilateralism and greater democracy" in the global arena. "The overall strategic partnership between China and Europe has become richer in substance," while the "complex political relations" between Beijing and Tokyo will need to be addressed in the more-recent context, Mr. Li said.

Asia-Pacific diplomats view the latest shadowboxing between China and Japan over Tokyo's bid for a permanent Security Council seat as a matter of substantive rift, although the two countries have not made this a defining issue in their equation. Part of the reason is seen to be the perception that the end-game over the issue of new permanent members, including India's effort in association with Japan, is not likely any time soon.

On a different plane, the decisive manner in which China and the EU have virtually sorted out their dispute over Chinese textile exports to Europe has proved Mr. Li's point, made earlier, about the richness of substance in the engagement. The accord, in a sense, enhances mutual confidence, although the latest smiles may not entirely wipe out the memories of a tortuous dialogue over the EU's sale of arms to China.

More specifically, in this context, the latest joint military exercise by China and Russia, involving all the three services, is seen in East Asia as an event that has taken their equation to a new zone. While there is speculation that China and Russia might be joined by India in a trilateral military exercise, the Chinese Foreign Office spokesman has said that he has no information about any such possibility.

However, the speculation itself is significant. The India-China engagement remains intense, as exemplified by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil's latest visit to Beijing. And, this eclipses India's apparent anxiety about the final say of the Chinese leaders over its bid for a high-stake role in the U.N. The dynamics of the three-way engagement involving India and China as also Russia are often seen to be related to their political quest for a multi-polar world as an antidote to the U.S. as a hyper-power. However, some Western specialists on China such as Jean-Pierre Cabestan tend to argue that Beijing would actually prefer "an asymmetrical multi-polarity." The reasoning is that China wants to emerge as the sole U.S.-peer, although a multiplicity of powers will help checkmate Washington.

China's counter-point is implicit in Mr. Li's citing of the inter-state dictum by Confucius. China maintains its "peaceful development," a refinement of the earlier policy of "peaceful ascendance," will itself be a stabilising factor in world politics. It is in this context, and also in response to Washington's recent criticisms of China's "military build-up," that Beijing has now issued a comprehensive white paper on its "endeavours for arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation."

China's centrality is emphasised in the white paper as follows: "China needs a long-lasting and stable international environment of peace for [its] development, which, in turn, will promote world peace and progress."

[Guest]

<b>CHINA: SIGNS OF ULTRA-LEFTIST SUPPORT TO MAOISTS OF INDIA AND NEPAL</b>.