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IDF trying to boost China ties ahead of Iran sanctions vote

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  • #16
    Hmm, Interesting. Especially when China has just admonished North Korea for the death of a few Chinese soldiers on the boarder. Perhaps China is starting to loose patience with these fools that create the problems and run to China to help them out of punishment.;)

    North Korea border guard shoots dead three in China - Telegraph
    Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

    Comment


    • #17
      Yep, it is a firestorm over there in Chinese forums.









      China Protests After 3 Killed at North Korean Border (Update1)
      June 08, 2010, 4:27 AM EDT
      More From Businessweek


      (Adds comment in fourth paragraph.)

      June 8 (Bloomberg) -- China made a formal diplomatic protest to North Korea after border guards shot dead three of its citizens and injured another in the early hours of June 4.

      China is investigating the incident, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters today in Beijing. The victims, all from or near the border city of Dandong, were shot inside North Korean territory. Their ages and gender weren’t immediately available, the ministry said.

      The relationship between North Korea and China is under increasing scrutiny as the United Nations Security Council prepares to consider South Korea’s claims that the North torpedoed one of its ships. China, an ally of North Korea for 60 years, has resisted pressure from the U.S. to join in condemnation of Kim Jong Il’s regime.

      “The Chinese government must be becoming increasingly wary of how its own people view its relationship with North Korea to have made this rare public acknowledgement of the incident,” said Kim Yong Hyun, professor of North Korean studies at Seoul- based Dongguk University. “There’s little danger of this creating a huge diplomatic spat between the two countries.”

      Chinese aid props up Kim’s government, which is struggling with food and goods shortages, a collapse in trade and the impact of UN sanctions imposed last year after North Korea tested a second nuclear device.

      The shooting was first reported on June 4 by North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, a Seoul-based group run by defectors from the communist country.

      Three Chinese, who were trying to smuggle copper from North Korea, were shot while approaching the border city of Sinuiju on a boat, the group said on its website.

      The deaths, which North Korea Intellectuals said occurred on the night of June 3, came as North Korea tightened border security, the group said.

      Television footage shot by Bloomberg on June 4 at the Tumen River Bridge border crossing, at the other end of China’s 1,415 kilometer (880 mile) border with North Korea showed several men running across the bridge looking over their shoulders back toward North Korea. It wasn’t possible to ask them about their behavior.

      Similar shootings have happened in the past, although neither government has publicly disclosed incidents after North Korea compensated China with iron ore or fisheries goods, the group said.

      Tension on the Korean peninsula mounted after the 1,200-ton Cheonan split in two and sank on March 26, killing 46 sailors. A month-long investigation by an international panel led by South Korea concluded that the North Koreans were responsible.

      While the U.S. and Japan lined up behind South Korea, China’s leaders have so far refused to accept the findings of the report.

      --Michael Forsythe in Beijing and Bomi Lim in Seoul. Editors: Ben Richardson, Bill Austin

      To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Forsythe in Beijing at [email protected]

      To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bill Austin in Tokyo at [email protected]
      “the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all” -- Joan Robinson

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      • #18
        Xinhui,

        Have they clarified yet which it was either citizens or soldiers? This morning it read soldiers on a few sites and now it seems they were citizens?

        Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Not good at all.
        Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

        Comment


        • #19
          citizens, both beidu and google stated citizens
          “the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all” -- Joan Robinson

          Comment


          • #20
            Originally posted by xinhui View Post
            citizens, both beidu and google stated citizens
            Perhaps maybe then they were doing the "twist"?;)
            Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

            Comment


            • #21
              Sanctions passed the Security Council. They won't stop anything but perhaps they can help bring a sane goverment to power before the insane is nuclear.
              Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.”
              ~Ronald Reagan

              Comment


              • #22
                WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is welcoming the U.N. Security Council's new sanctions against a defiant Iran over its nuclear program, saying it sends an "unmistakable message" to Tehran.

                Obama called them the toughest sanctions ever faced by the Iranian government, even though the final version was not as tough as what his administration initially proposed.

                Speaking at the White House shortly after the U.N. vote, Obama said that Iranian leaders continue to "hide behind outlandish rhetoric" while moving ahead with "deeply troubling" steps on a path toward nuclear weapons.

                The resolution passed 12-2 with Turkey and Brazil voting "no" and Lebanon abstaining.

                *Meaning that all the major powers are concerned and can move forward.;)
                Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                Comment


                • #23
                  Shocking that both Brazil and Turkey voted no
                  Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

                  Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

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                  • #24
                    No, not at all they did a lot of work in good faith and it resulted in nothing. A No vote meant nothing and had home front advantages. I think this vote makes us more secure than a shield we didn't need in Poland. It had more optimal locations and Obama has garnered more than a bit of Russian cooperation.
                    Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.”
                    ~Ronald Reagan

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Write up from today's NYT


                      LOL, tell that to the fan boys at democrazy-now.

                      “After that, the Chinese realized the Jewish lobby does not control the White House and they started to treat us like a younger brother of the United States,” said Yitzhak Shichor, a professor of Asian Studies at Haifa University. “We have been cut down to size. We may make a lot of noise, but we’re the size of a medium-sized Chinese city.”
                      June 8, 2010
                      Israel Makes Case to China for Iran Sanctions
                      By ANDREW JACOBS

                      JERUSALEM — During the many months China has wavered over whether to join the American-led effort to impose sanctions on Iran, Israeli officials have been waging their own quiet campaign to convince the Chinese that Iran should be punished for its renegade nuclear program.

                      But unlike the United States, which has played on China’s sense of responsibility as a member of the United Nations Security Council, Israeli officials have been making their case without diplomatic niceties.

                      In February, a high-level Israeli delegation traveled to Beijing to present alleged evidence of Iran’s atomic ambitions. Then they unveiled the ostensible purpose of their visit: to explain in sobering detail the economic impact to China from an Israeli strike on Iran — an attack Israel has suggested is all but inevitable should the international community fail to stop Iran from assembling a nuclear weapon.

                      “The Chinese didn’t seem too surprised by the evidence we showed them, but they really sat up in their chairs when we described what a pre-emptive attack would do to the region and on oil supplies they have come to depend on,” said an Israeli official with knowledge of the meeting and who asked for anonymity so as not to upset his Chinese counterparts.

                      Whether the Israeli show-and-tell persuaded Beijing to join the proposed sanctions announced by the White House late last month may never be known. But the episode demonstrates how Israel — a small country with limited influence on China — has found ways to engage an emerging superpower whose geopolitical heft is increasingly vital to the Jewish state.

                      Across the world, countries large and small have been seeking to gain the affections of China as its economic might and diplomatic swagger become harder to ignore. In recent years, Chad, Malawi and Costa Rica have switched their official allegiance to Beijing from China’s longtime rival Taiwan. France, Germany and the United Kingdom frequently vie with one another to win trade deals with China, undermining the negotiating power of the European Union. And last December, 20 Uighur refugees who had sought United Nations protection in Cambodia were deported to China. The United States and human rights groups howled in protest; a day later, the Chinese vice president arrived in Cambodia with $1.2 billion in economic aid.

                      Some countries have found they can engage China through gentle inducements. Norway has leveraged its influence as a bridge to NATO and though its seat on the Arctic Council, an international forum that China is eager to join. “As a small state, we’ve been quite successful in engaging the Chinese on a number of issues where we have some strength,” said Oystein Tunsjo, a research fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies.

                      Ties between Israel and China are collegial but Israeli officials have been working hard to regain Beijing’s favor since a bungled arms deal in 2000 infuriated Chinese leaders. More recently, they have also had to compete against China’s growing thirst for Middle East oil, which makes up half the country’s petroleum imports. With its single-minded focus on securing the energy required for continued economic growth, Beijing has shifted some of its diplomatic ardor to the countries of the Middle East, some of which are Israel’s sworn enemies.

                      Alarmed by the shift, Israel has stepped up its soft-power diplomacy through academic, cultural and medical exchanges. “Israel is not a great supplier of the kinds of natural resources that China can find among some of our neighbors but we do have a lot to offer them, and there is a strong sense of mutual respect,” said Amos Nadai, the Israeli ambassador to Beijing.

                      Israeli officials cite some commonalities: their histories as ancient civilizations and the transformative economic growth that has defied conventional wisdom and a yearning for regional stability. Although as vividly demonstrated in the crisis over last week’s deadly commando raid on a flotilla of activists — not to speak of Iran’s nuclear program — Israel is not afraid to threaten that stability in the face of an existential threat.

                      When it comes to tangible goods, Israel sells China irrigation systems, high-tech products and telecommunications equipment. Trade between the two countries reached $4.5 billion last year, up from $3.8 billion in 2006, but three-fourths of that is Chinese exports to Israel.

                      The imbalance would be less pronounced if not for the two-decade-old American-led embargo on arms sales to China that has stymied Israel’s most lucrative export. In private, Israeli officials express frustration over the ban but they acknowledge that their relationship with Washington trumps the desire to do more business with China.

                      Oddly enough, the close ties between Israel and the United States have become something of an Achilles' heel for the Jewish state. During the 1990s, when Beijing was diplomatically isolated after the violent crackdown on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese sought closer relations with Israel because they thought it might bring them closer to the United States. “This was an illusory period during which China thought the Jewish and Israeli lobbies could open doors for them in Washington,” said Yoram Evron, a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies.

                      Israel’s outsized allure also stemmed from China’s regard for the country’s military prowess and a deeply held affection for Karl Marx and Albert Einstein, cornerstones of a Chinese fascination with Jews.

                      How much they value the relationship with the United States was underscored in 2000, when under American pressure Israel canceled a $1 billion arms deal, years in the making, to sell China an advanced airborne tracking system. Even though Israel later agreed to pay a $350 million penalty, the diplomatic damage was immense — and then compounded in 2005, when Washington blocked another Israeli arms deal with Beijing involving drone aircraft.

                      “After that, the Chinese realized the Jewish lobby does not control the White House and they started to treat us like a younger brother of the United States,” said Yitzhak Shichor, a professor of Asian Studies at Haifa University. “We have been cut down to size. We may make a lot of noise, but we’re the size of a medium-sized Chinese city.”

                      During the first decades after Mao’s Communist revolution, China’s interests in the Middle East were largely tethered to ideology. The Chinese government saw itself as a standard-bearer for the developing world — and a champion of the Palestinian cause. In the 1980s, when China began embracing economic reforms and a more pragmatic diplomatic strategy, China’s approach to the minefield of Middle East politics involved greater equanimity — and neutrality.

                      But oil and soaring trade with the Arab states have helped shift the calculus. Last year, China surpassed the United States in exports to the Arab world. And while not a dominant factor in its foreign policy decisions, it is worth noting that China is home to more than 20 million Muslims, including a restive population of Turkic-speaking Uighurs in Xinjiang, a region that borders five predominantly Islamic countries.

                      “Chinese Muslims working as translators play a constructive role in the Middle East, which adds an extra dimension to China’s relationship with the region,” said Ben Simpfendorfer, the chief China economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong. “It’s difficult for anyone to sit on the fence when it comes to the Middle East, and this is a challenge that China will increasingly face in the future.”

                      Recent events provide some hint as to which way China might tilt. Last year, Beijing endorsed a report by the United Nations Human Rights Council that accused Israel of war crimes during its attack on the Gaza Strip. In recent months, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has repeatedly condemned Israeli construction in largely Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. The vote and the condemnations are notable, given China’s often stated aversion to measures that involve another country’s internal affairs.

                      In an assessment echoed by several other government-affiliated academics, Yin Gang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Society Sciences in Beijing, said its interests in the Arab world would continue to drive Beijing’s foreign policy. “China will try to achieve a basic balance in the Middle East but Israel cannot give China much help on the international political stage,” he said. “The truth is, it is just a very small country.”

                      Xiyun Yang contributed reporting from Beijing.

                      Israel Makes Case to China for Iran Sanctions - NYTimes.com
                      Last edited by xinhui; 09 Jun 10,, 19:37.
                      “the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all” -- Joan Robinson

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