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Old 09-06-2007, 00:21 AM   #1 (permalink)
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Beijing denies launching cyberspace attack

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From The Times
September 5, 2007

Beijing denies launching cyberspace attack

Tim Reid in Washington

China denied reports yesterday that its military had hacked into the US Defence Secretary’s computer system at a time of growing concern in the West about Beijing’s attempts to disrupt foreign computer networks.

The allegations mean that the US joins Britain and Germany in being the target of suspected Chinese cyber attacks.

The Pentagon acknowledged to The Times that earlier this year part of its computer system was temporarily shut down because of a “detected penetration”, but it refused to confirm or deny a report that the Chinese military had been behind the attack.

A shutdown of part of the House of Commons computer system last year could also have been the work of a Chinese gang, it was reported last night, with one expert saying that Chinese attacks on Whitehall computers were now a “constant ongoing problem”.

The concerns emerged a week after Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, raised reports of Chinese infiltration of German government systems when she met Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Premier. Mr Wen said after their meeting: “We in the Government took [the reports] as a matter of grave concern.”

President Bush is due to meet Hu Jintao, the Chinese President, in Australia tomorrow. The two are in Sydney for the Apec summit. It is not known if Mr Bush will raise the allegations.

Responding to a report that the People’s Liberation Army hacked into a computer system in the office of Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said: “Some people are making wild allegations against China. They are totally groundless and also reflect a Cold War mentality.

“We believe computer hacking is an international problem. China is also often the victim of hackers’ attacks. China has all along been opposed to and forbids criminal activities undermining computer networks. China is ready to strengthen cooperation with other countries, including the US, in countering internet crimes.”

The Pentagon said this year that Chinese military exercises in 2005 included hacking “primarily in first strikes against enemy networks”.

In July officials in the State Department said that large-scale hacking operations had penetrated computer systems in several parts of the world.

The hackers appeared to target the department headquarters and offices dealing with China and North Korea.

A Pentagon spokesman told The Times that a “number of nations and groups are actively developing” ways of hacking into its computer system. “We have seen attempts by a variety of state and non-state-sponsored organisations to gain unauthorised access to, or otherwise degrade, Department of Defence information systems.”

However, computer experts said that China had a large number of insecure computers and networks that hackers in other countries could use to disguise their locations and launch attacks.

In a separate development Ms Jiang denied a report that Chinese-made weapons had been used by Taleban fighters in Afghanistan.

Beijing denies launching cyberspace attack - Times Online
China's growing military, economic and yes, even political clout is being underestimated by the world and also many of us here in the forum.

Its foray into Africa is taken lightly and so is the fact that she is supporting many renegade and rebellious factors around the world, including the Taliban (as is mentioned in this report too!)

China has infiltrated the US defence industry and has 'stolen' many a top secret technologies of the US ( hhttp://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1282533) and now she has hacked into the Pentagon cyberspace.

She is now the real rival to the US and may one day, and not too far in the future become a serious rival to the US as a superpower!

Should she become a superpower, it will be an interesting situation to see how the world divides itself into the camps.
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Old 09-06-2007, 00:28 AM   #2 (permalink)
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China ready to leap from industrial to information-age economy

Can its creativity and innovation be centrally planned?
By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the September 5, 2007 edition

Beijing - After 30 years of securing China's role as the cut-rate factory to the world, its central planners are pouring money and political will into becoming an innovation economy.

But like other Asian tigers before it, China is finding making the shift from textile mills to Silicon Valley isn't easy. The biggest challenge is nurturing technological creativity in a society run from the top down, says a chorus of foreign and local experts.

"The stakes are extremely high," says Lan Xue, head of the Institute of Science and Technology Policy at Beijing's Tsinghua University. "The environmental costs make it impossible to go on growing like this; we have to transform growth so it is based on technology and innovation."

China, however, "has a long way to go to build a modern, high-performance national innovation system," according to a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based think tank. "China is just about to change from an investment and low-cost driven economy to one driven more by innovation," says Zhang Gang, one of the authors of the report, released here last week. "The nature of this transition is a great challenge." The government has poured large amounts of money into meeting this challenge, doubling its expenditure on research and development as a percentage of GDP from 1995 to 2005 – when it reached $30 billion – to become the sixth-largest spender in the world. Since 2000, China has ranked behind only the United States in the number of scientific researchers, and in 2005 they published more scientific papers than their colleagues anywhere except in the US, Britain, Germany, and Japan.

Last year the government unveiled a plan to make China an "innovation-oriented" society by 2020, and premier Wen Jiabao has harped on this subject repeatedly in recent speeches.

"They missed the IT [Information Technology] revolution and they missed out on [micro] chips" says Fred Simon, a technology expert at the State University of New York in Albany. "If there is a biotech or nanotech revolution coming, they won't want to be left behind. They have to figure out how to plug in very, very quickly."

"China has excelled in mobilizing resources for science and technology on an unprecedented scale and with exceptional speed, and is now a major R&D player," the OECD report finds. But this "has not yet translated into a proportionate increase in innovative performance."

One key problem, says Dr. Zhang, is that "the government has so far followed planned economy, top-down thinking" to promote innovation. "This has its limits," he adds.

While Chinese officials are seeking to make individual enterprises the main drivers of technological innovation, they are running into difficulties, the OECD report says, because "the vast majority of domestic firms have not put innovation at the core of their business strategy" and are unaccustomed to innovating.

A lack of capital is also a major hindrance to the creation of the sort of small hi-tech startups that have been the fount of so much innovation in the United States, experts say. Chen Kejian, a 20-something software developer who founded a company in Beijing with a group of friends three years ago, can testify to that.

"There is no chance a Chinese bank would invest in our company," which rewrites Microsoft and RealPlayer code to run on handheld mobile devices, says Mr. Chen. "In China, banks come to you when you are successful. But when you really need the money, they never lend it."

Chen is also a witness to another dissuasive factor behind the lack of innovation in China – the ease with which rivals can pirate new technology without being prosecuted. "We have not applied for any patents because they are useless here," he says. "Even if I sued a company violating my intellectual property rights and won, I could not be sure the judgment would be enforced."

Though Chinese R&D is rich in government funds and researchers, scientists "are not well connected with [business] enterprises," says Professor Lan. "China's national innovation system has not been very efficient: The different pieces are not well connected."

The government is seeking to remedy this by creating "grand alliances" between government-funded labs and key industries, and the authorities have offered tax incentives and other funds to encourage firms to innovate.

Many analysts, though, say that what the government does not do is as important as what it does, and that officials should not interfere with research, allowing scientists more freedom.

"The system must have a certain flexibility and adaptability," says Zhang. Chinese scientists who have moved abroad, he points out, have thrived "in an environment that allows them to be creative and free thinking."

"Chinese are not inherently uncreative," adds Dr. Simon, who is technology adviser to the coastal city of Dalian. "It's the institutional milieu" in both state-owned and private Chinese firms, "that does not promote innovative behavior," he argues. "The system does not reward you for taking the risk to go outside the lines."

Scientists returning from abroad could be the key to changing Chinese corporate and government attitudes to scientific research. "They understand what kind of creative juices are stirred by a free and open environment," says Simon. "If they can bring that culture in, they will become vanguards for change."

The government itself seems to have adopted this thinking. Earlier this year a former engineer with Audi in Germany, Wan Gang, was appointed minister of science and technology, the first in that position who did not to belong to the ruling Communist Party.

Mr. Wan has much to change, not least the fear of failure that is built into the education and research system and which inhibits scientists from going out on a limb. He has started by promoting a new law, currently before the National People's Congress, China's parliament, that promises "scientists and technicians who have initiated research with a high risk of failure will still have their expenses covered if they can provide evidence that they tried their best when they failed to achieve their goals."

Cultural changes go deeper than legislation, Lan acknowledges, and "this kind of thing always takes time, but China is changing." Simon agrees. "There is tremendous room for opening up parameters of individual thinking that is not being utilized," he says. "Fundamental cultural changes take a long time, but China is constantly being bombarded by pressures that make this a necessity."

China ready to leap from industrial to information-age economy | csmonitor.com
China is Lambert the sheepish lion?

Think again!

Mods: Please move this thread to the correct forum!
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Old 09-06-2007, 00:37 AM   #3 (permalink)
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Samuel R. Berger and Eric P. Schwartz

US must reassert global leadership

By Samuel R. Berger and Eric P. Schwartz | September 5, 2007

IN THE CAPITOL of East Timor, a gleaming Presidential Palace is rising, near a sparkling new seaside compound for the Foreign Ministry. How can a struggling, newly independent East Timor afford such impressive projects? They are gifts from the government of China, along with army barracks, new uniforms for Timor's soldiers, and a range of technical assistance and exchange programs.

Of course, China has every right to extend its influence in East Timor through the fulsome use of its accumulating resources. But this application of Chinese "soft power" is ironic, as it was the United States that helped to midwife the birth of Timor's democracy in 1999 by deploying thousands of troops in support of a peacekeeping force that helped guarantee Timorese independence. Six years later, consumed by the economic and military pressures of our grinding engagement in Iraq, the United States led the charge to remove a follow-up UN force that ensured stability in Timor, while cutting bilateral aid by nearly 40 percent between 2001 and 2006.

Certainly, Timor is not a national security priority for the United States. But the story of East Timor is being played out around the world by China and other powers, as the United States scales back its engagements in Asia, Latin America, and Africa under the weight of our preoccupation with Iraq. These developments have serious and perhaps irreversible strategic consequences.

While we have burned in Iraq, others have fiddled. China's diplomacy goes far beyond East Timor. The Chinese are providing several billions of dollars in aid for roads, ports, and bridges from Laos to Cambodia to the Philippines, far outstripping US aid and engagement in the region, and rivaling World Bank and Asian Development Bank aid programs. China also has advanced its interests in Africa; the prospect of trade and aid brought more than 40 African heads of state to a Beijing summit last year. The result was $5 billion in new loans and credit, nearly $2 billion in immediate trade and investment deals, and the prospect of increased cooperation on oil, gas, and mineral resources to help fuel China's rapid economic expansion.

Similarly, President Vladimir Putin is using muscle and money to lay the groundwork for Russian dominance over former Soviet neighbors, as well as European energy resources. Though the United States was making inroads a decade ago among Central Asian nations as we sought to encourage their economic and political alignment with the West, more recently Putin has concluded regional energy deals that drastically strengthen Russian influence - including an agreement with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan for a gas pipeline along the Caspian coast to Russia. Russia's diplomatic gains put in peril US and European-supported energy pipeline projects that would promote diversification of supplies. The agreements have belatedly caught the attention of senior US officials, but the horse is out of the barn.

Iraq was Secretary Robert Gates's rationale for postponing a long-planned visit to Latin America, another region where the United States is ceding power and influence. Last March, in a graphic demonstration of changing US fortunes there, tens of thousands of citizens of Argentina - not so long ago one of America's closest allies in the region - cheered Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez as he denounced the United States at a Buenos Aires rally timed to coincide with President Bush's trip to the region. To be sure, most Latin Americans are skeptical about Chavez's pretensions to regional leadership and his authoritarianism. But stagnant US aid flows, neglect of issues such as immigration and trade reform, and diplomatic back-of-the-hand have generated broad distrust of US policy throughout the region, which has made it easier for Chavez to pursue his populist and anti-American vision.

The sad fact is that the United States is bogged down on the wrong playing field, leaving a vacuum in the rest of the world. Others are moving in to fill that void, to the long-term geopolitical disadvantage of the United States. The time has come to disentangle ourselves from the misadventure in Iraq and reassert America's leadership and global engagement.

Samuel R. Berger was national security adviser from 1997 to 2000. Eric P. Schwartz was senior director for multilateral and humanitarian affairs at the National Security Council during this period.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

US must reassert global leadership - The Boston Globe
China is strengthening her influence in her neighbourhood as she is doing in the rest of the world where the 'guard' is down!

Single minded distraction of Iraq is prove costly for the US in every aspect!

This Chinese attempt to woo Timor will surely put Australia into a tizzy!

Last edited by Ray : 09-06-2007 at 00:42 AM.
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Old 09-06-2007, 09:08 AM   #4 (permalink)
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Damn Chinese, trying to hack to get information..LOL! and you get the usual.."it wasent us".

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Should she become a superpower,
Not until she can manage her population and resources.

Even in africa, they are complaining of low quality imports.

There are many obstacles which they have to overcome in the near future, before they can become significant players in the international economic scene on a sustained basis.

People suspect that the rich have acquired their wealth through official connections and corruption. Protests by workers and farmers occur every day
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Old 09-06-2007, 09:56 AM   #5 (permalink)
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ray,

something that i am not sure will exactly warm the cockles of your heart (nor mine, as barnett also advocates abandoning taiwan), but the ideas of thomas barnett are being flung around by a few people at the pentagon these days (not very seriously, but...).

Wire Opinion - THOMAS P.M. BARNETT: Why prioritizing China over India in military cooperation makes sense - sacbee.com

Why Bad News for the US isn't Good News for China... - The China Blog - TIME
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Old 09-06-2007, 13:34 PM   #6 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by Ray View Post
China's growing military, economic and yes, even political clout is being underestimated by the world ... ...
So im not the only one who shares this opinion
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Old 09-06-2007, 14:24 PM   #7 (permalink)
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In another thread i posted an opinion expressing concerns on China's aggressiveness and it's rising power and i was given a shellacking. The west should work up. I think the US is very much aware of this but everybody else especially Europe is just sleeping and leaving everything to the US.

In my opinion what the US needs to do is change policy and start selecting its partners. Instead of splashing money everywhere to every humanitarian catastrophy, it should start serious, active, discreminationating policies. What the US doesn't understand is that the same money that it is giving to rogue governments (in the name of humanitarian assistance or other) is the same money that is used by the same states to plot against America. I know this may sound controvercial but then let those countries' 'friends' come to their rescue.

There are several countries which are either pro-US or are on the borderlines that America should be concentrating its resources on to cement strong relations, and above all, to bring about economic prosperity. Strong viable economies in these countries are probably the safest means of security for US and it will make them less gullible to unti-democracy forces and other undesirable elements.

Preferential treatment policies have worked in times past and im sure they can work again today. Japan, RoC, Germany and Israel are some of the successful examples to our evidence today and these countries have remained staunch allies of the US. Their successes have meant less worry for the US in the security front as they are able to look after themselves.

There are a number of countries that the US can court under an aggrassive policy of this nature instead of trying to please and be there for everyone under the sun.
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Old 09-06-2007, 14:53 PM   #8 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by Danielk View Post
Damn Chinese, trying to hack to get information..LOL! and you get the usual.."it wasent us".



Not until she can manage her population and resources.

Even in africa, they are complaining of low quality imports.

There are many obstacles which they have to overcome in the near future, before they can become significant players in the international economic scene on a sustained basis.

People suspect that the rich have acquired their wealth through official connections and corruption. Protests by workers and farmers occur every day
I haven't heard of any complaints about low quality Chinese products to Africa. Sure would love to know about it. Chinese stuff is cheap and indeed some are real low quality. To use them while the last and then discard for another still is money's worth!

They are roaring in the international economic scene. Chinese goods are swamping the world markets.

It does not matter how the Chinese are getting rich. The protest are their internal matter and they are handling it without any problem (not that it affects the exports and adding to their coffers). Corruption and connections to do well is universal and not that it is only in China. Halliburton is just a case in point.

Let's look at solid reasons instead.
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Old 09-06-2007, 15:11 PM   #9 (permalink)
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ray,

something that i am not sure will exactly warm the cockles of your heart (nor mine, as barnett also advocates abandoning taiwan), but the ideas of thomas barnett are being flung around by a few people at the pentagon these days (not very seriously, but...).

Wire Opinion - THOMAS P.M. BARNETT: Why prioritizing China over India in military cooperation makes sense - sacbee.com

Why Bad News for the US isn't Good News for China... - The China Blog - TIME
astralis,

It makes you wonder where Mr. Barnett and others were during the 20 years between 1970 and 1990, when PRChina was indeed a higher priority in military cooperation than India (and Taiwan marked as a de facto pariah nation with South Africa)

As a person very much impressed by his "Gap World Theory", it now makes me wonder if he ever really bothered to understand how that Gap is contained at its boundaries? The man takes too much for granted.

Last edited by Cactus : 09-06-2007 at 15:15 PM.
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Old 09-06-2007, 15:35 PM   #10 (permalink)
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Astralis,

Barnett misses out the major issue - China is the last one to play a second fiddle to anyone!

She had stopped playing the second fiddle to the USSR and so what chance is that they would accept the US as a mentor or even an equal partner?

Wishful thinking and a psychological fear that wants a bad dream to go away with some pro active day dreaming (couldn't exactly find the words to say what I mean)!

Something like meeting a bully in a cul de sac and wanting to disarm him by extending a hand to shake and hoping that it works!

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Old 09-06-2007, 16:53 PM   #11 (permalink)
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It would surprise me GREATLY if the PRC, and the USA, and the UK, and the..... were not ALL beavering away at each others computer systems.

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Old 09-06-2007, 19:09 PM   #12 (permalink)
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I haven't heard of any complaints about low quality Chinese products to Africa. Sure would love to know about it. Chinese stuff is cheap and indeed some are real low quality. To use them while the last and then discard for another still is money's worth!
The Associated Press: China's Influence Spreads Around World
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Old 09-07-2007, 01:30 AM   #13 (permalink)
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Daniel,

from your link:

Quote:
China is also facing some of the unease that powers before it have encountered. In Africa and Asia, some complain that massive China-funded infrastructure projects involve mostly Chinese workers and companies, rather than create jobs and wealth for the local population. And Moeletsi Mbeki, a political commentator and brother of South African President Thabo Mbeki, likens the trade of African resources for Chinese manufactured goods to former colonial arrangements.

"This equation is not sustainable," Mbeki said at a recent meeting of the African Development Bank in Shanghai. "Africa needs to preserve its natural resources to use in the future for its own industrialization."
China has to showcase its work and hence the use of Chinese workers. There is a Chinese poster out here who has worked in Africa for PRC. He has commented on how the Chinese are ordered to ingratiate themselves with the local population including learning their customs and habits and following them.

Mbeki is the new black elite and they have their own axe to grind and are far from the grassroot

Quote:
Violent protests over SA housing

Scores of protesters in Protea South, a sprawling shanty town of tin shacks and lean-tos outside Johannesburg, chanted "More homes" and "We want water".

They complained that more than a decade after the fall of apartheid and the promise of prosperity, they still live in desperate poverty.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Violent protests over SA housing
What does Mbeki have to say for this? China is to blame?

Are these skilled workers to set up industries? If China employs them, will industries come up, Mbeki should be asked as he sits in his air conditioned comfort as the rich ruling black elite!

Quote:
The backlash is also coming on the consumer front, with Chinese goods earning a dubious reputation for quality. In the United States, there is a furor over the standard of Chinese imports. In Bolivia, vendors peel off or paint over any indication that their wares were "Hecho en China," Spanish for "Made in China."

A woman selling bicycles in El Alto, a poor city outside the capital, La Paz, insisted they were made in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan or even India. With some prodding, she acknowledged the truth. "They're all Chinese," she said, declining to give her name lest it hurt her business. "But if I say they're Chinese, they don't sell."
It is fashionable amongst the western countries and even posters on this forum to talk about how people in the third world languish under $ 1 existence. Let's apply it here too!

Do let us know whether such $ 1 existence people will buy cheap Chinese goods or the more expensive ones from India, Korea, Taiwan or the western world? I sure would appreciate an answer.

I am above the $ 1 existence and my grandson is driving a battery operated tricycle right now, that I had bought him recently. The Indian ones were beyond my budget! He is happy and I am happy!

Nokia recently called back cellphone batteries made in Japan since they exploded. The Chinese one of the same number was declared safe!

Most of these alarmist stuff about Chinese good is pure propaganda to improve sluggish industries of other countries and their masters!

Quote:
Even those who benefit from China's growth express some wariness. Aerospace giant Boeing expects China to be the largest market for commercial air travel outside the United States in the next 20 years, buying more than $100 billion worth of commercial aircraft, U.S. trade envoy Karan Bhatia said in a recent speech.
If all Chinese goods were shoddy, surely Boeing would not put its reputation and sales up for the massacre!

Quote:
"Right now, we're hiring every week," noted Connie Kelliher, a union leader. "Things couldn't be better."

Yet Boeing workers remain wary of China's ambitions to build its own planes. next year China plans to test-fly a locally made midsize jet seating 78 to 85 passengers. It also has announced plans to roll out a 150-seat plane by 2020.

"It's kind of a double-edged sword," Kelliher said. "You want the business and we want to get the airplane sales to them, but there's the real concern of giving away so much technology that they start building their own."

That's what happened to Western and Japanese automakers, which made inroads in the Chinese market only to see their designs copied and technologies stolen. Already, China's vehicle manufacturers are venturing overseas, exporting 325,000 units last year — mostly low-priced trucks and buses to Asia, Africa and Latin America.

"We're taking a bigger piece of the pie," said Yamilet Guevara, a sales manager for Cinascar Automotriz, which has opened 20 showrooms in Venezuela in the past 18 months, offering cars from six Chinese makers. "They ask by name now. It's no longer just the Chinese car. It's the Tiggo, the QQ."

China's biggest car company, Chery Automobile Co., just announced a deal with the Chrysler Group to jointly produce and export cars to Western Europe and the United States within 2 1/2 years.

Given the speed of China's ascent, it's perhaps not surprising that China itself is trying to calm some of the fears. Its slogan for the Beijing Olympics: "Peacefully Rising China."
This is the reason for the anti Chinese goods campaign that is being seen in the recent times. China is copycating and selling cheap and hurting industries elsewhere!

I am an Indian and I should have good reason to not buy Chinese goods. But then I also say that let there be free economy and let competition flourish!

Last edited by Ray : 09-07-2007 at 01:32 AM.
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Old 09-07-2007, 01:32 AM   #14 (permalink)
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The Media – a Tool of Propaganda

The Media-a Tool of Propaganda
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Old 09-07-2007, 03:05 AM   #15 (permalink)
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Another indication of China's growing clout in the international field!



Quote:
China Takes Command of U.N. Peacekeeping Mission in Western Sahara

Adam Wolfe | Bio | 05 Sep 2007
World Politics Review Exclusive

NEW YORK -- A Chinese general was appointed to command a United Nations peacekeeping mission for the first time on Aug. 27. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Maj. Gen. Zhao Jingmin to lead the mission in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, where U.N. peacekeepers have monitored a ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario Front, an armed separatist group, since 1991. Zhao will replace Gen. Kurt Mosgaard of Denmark, who completed his tour of duty Sept. 3, according to U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas.

Zhao has an impressive biography and his appointment is not expected to generate any controversy in the Security Council. A U.N. press release notes that Zhao has previously served as an observer in Western Sahara and as part of the U.N. mission to Iraq and Kuwait following the first Gulf War. He also speaks fluent French and English.

The appointment of a Chinese general to lead a U.N. peacekeeping mission reflects China's growing role in U.N. peacekeeping operations. However, the fact that Zhao will command a relatively low-profile mission also demonstrates the current limitations of that role.

More at:

World Politics Review | China Takes Command of U.N. Peacekeeping Mission in Western Sahara
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