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Geo-Strategic Trend - 202. page

China News: Xi Jinping Pushes China-Australia Free Trade Agreement

China News recently reported that, on October 17 in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Australian Governor-General Quentin Bryce. Xi suggested that more and more room for cooperation is developing in the China-Australia strategic partnership. Xi called for a breakthrough in the negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement. In addition to that, Xi also suggested active cooperation in such areas as energy resources, infrastructure development, financial services, environmental protection, and the biomedical field. At the same time, Xi indicated that he expects deeper coordination and alignment with Australia in international organizations like the United Nations, the G20, and APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation). Bryce expressed the belief that Australia is a reliable energy resource provider for China and that Australia and China share considerable mutual interests. She suggested that Australia is willing to work with China to reach an agreement in the free trade negotiations sooner rather than later.
Source: China News, October 17, 2013
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2013/10-17/5393969.shtml
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Li Keqiang: Moving the China-ASEAN Strategic Relationship One Step Forward

Xinhua reported that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered a speech on October 9 at the 16th China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Leadership Summit. Li called for a long-term view of their strategic partnership and for strengthening two common political grounds: (1) Improve strategic mutual trust; (2) Deepen cooperation in economic development.

Li also pushed seven key areas of cooperation: (1) Actively work toward signing the Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation; (2) Start the process of improving the China-ASEAN free trade zone; (3) Speed up the infrastructure constructions of interconnectivity; (4) Strengthen regional financial and risk management cooperation; (5) Steadily improve maritime cooperation; (6) Enhance security oriented exchanges and cooperation; (7) Intensify cooperation in the areas of culture and technology.

Source: Xinhua, October 9, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2013-10/09/c_117641820.htm
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The Second Presidium Meeting of the World Media Summit

Leaders and representatives from some world-renowned media organizations met on Thursday in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province.

The leaders and representatives from Xinhua News Agency, News Corporation, The Associated Press (AP), Reuters, ITAR-TASS News Agency, Kyodo News, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Turner Broadcasting System Inc., Google, Al Jazeera Media Network, The New York Times Company, NBC News, MIH Group, and Kasturi and Sons Limited attended the 2nd Presidium Meeting of the World Media Summit (WMS). Executive President of the WMS and President of Xinhua Li Congjun presided over the 2nd WMS Presidium Meeting and delivered the keynote speech.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency initiated the World Media Summit in order to "build a new partnership between traditional media and new emerging media in the 21st century." Xinhua and eight other media organizations including News Corporation, AP, Thomson Reuters, ITAR-TASS, Kyodo News, BBC, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and Google Inc. co-launched the first WMS, held from October 8 to 10 in 2009.

Source: Xinhua, October 9, 2013.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2013-10/09/c_117642987.htm

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People’s Daily: The Only Thing the U.S. Wants Is To Be the Dominant Power in the Middle East

People Daily published an article commenting that U.N. resolution 2118 will not be able to restrict the U.S. from taking military action against Syria in the future. The following is an excerpt from the article:

On September 27, 2013, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2118 on the issue of Syria’s chemical weapons. This means that the U.S. will temporarily suspend its military strike against Syria. … The result did not come easily. It was not only a fight between the United States and the international peace forces, but also a contest between the U.S. and the Russian military power. However, this compromise represents only a temporary peace. The resolution also left a "back door" for the U.S. to strike Syria [in the future]. 

A U.S. military strike against Syria has the intention of accelerating the shift in strategic focus "eastward." … In order to speed up the adjustment of its strategic focus, the United States needs to accelerate its deployment of troops to shift in direction from the Middle East to the Asia Pacific. However, today the United States does not have a commanding control over the security of the Middle East. This is an important reason that restricts the United States from deploying its troops eastward. Following the removal of Saddam, Gaddafi, and other stumbling blocks, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad became the next block in the Middle East that the United States is eager to move away. "Chemical Weapons" is merely an excuse for the United States to occupy the moral high ground. 
Reading carefully, one sees that the resolution contains content allowing that the Security Council can take measures under the "UN Charter" Chapter VII in the event of non-compliance with the resolution. This is a major concession that Russia made. The United States specifically emphasized this point, implying that the U.S. has left itself a "back door" to further strike Syria [in the future]. This means that even after the destruction of the Syrian chemical weapons, the U.S. will still likely find an excuse for its military strike operations. It’s like the old Libya: after it surrendered the right to develop and produce nuclear weapons, the U.S. still overthrew the Gaddafi regime.  
In the future battle between the United States and Russia, military pressure against the Bashar al-Assad regime will be the U.S.’s determined policy. Syria’s chemical weapons will be the main theme for the battle. The U.S. will likely continue to seek other moral justification for war. Russia and others in the international community may use the tactics of "an eye for an eye [letting them have a taste of their own medicine]." That is, using the grounds that Syrian has given up its chemical weapons, they may support Syria with international public opinion to curb the possibility of the United States taking military action. 
Source: People’s Daily, October 2, 2013 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2013/1002/c172467-23098146.html
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China News: Xi Jinping Met with Karzai

China News reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on September 27 in Beijing. Xi expressed the willingness to work closely with Afghanistan to deepen the “strategic-partner relationship.” He offered a five-point suggestion: (1) Maintain high level contact between the governments, lawmakers, and political parties of the two countries; (2) Strengthen cooperation in trade, resource development, and infrastructure-building; (3) Enhance mutual security support on fighting drugs, international crimes, and the “Three Evils” (terrorism, separatism and religious extremism); (4) Provide Afghanistan training for various types of expertise; (5) Strengthen cooperation in the United Nations and strengthen the importance of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Karzai thanked China for all the help provided and welcomed China to participate in Afghanistan’s energy resource development programs. 
Source: China News, September 27, 2013
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2013/09-27/5332637.shtml
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China Review News on the Necessary Adjustment of China’s Diplomatic Policies in Southeast Asia

On September 22, 2013, China Review News published a commentary on the necessary adjustment to China’s diplomatic policies in Southeast Asia. According to the commentary, as China is becoming a world power, it has to deal with complicated relationships with China’s neighboring countries. The United States, by comparison, has always enjoyed the advantage of “no wars with its neighbors.” Although China has the power to handle any neighbors now, China needs to focus on its domestic economic development. Therefore, China should balance its domestic development and its international relations with its neighbors in the following ways:

  1. Strengthen China’s domestic system building, economic development and social control, and its management.
  2. Convince the neighboring countries to trust China’s political commitment, its promise of safety and the direction of its economic development.
  3. Share international responsibilities and authority in the Asia-Pacific region and take care of small countries’ interests appropriately so as to increase China’s international influence and its legitimacy in the world.

Source: China Review News, September 22, 2013
http://www.zhgpl.com/doc/1027/4/9/0/102749041.html?coluid=1&kindid=0&docid=102749041&mdate=0922000405

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China News: China is Canada’s Largest Investment Source

China News recently reported that the Association for Canadian Studies in China (ACSC) held its international academic forum in Guangzhou on September 21. Participants at the Forum explained that, as of the end of the year 2012, 183 Chinese companies had invested in Canada, with a total investment of US$43.8 billion. Canada’s largest source for foreign investments was China. Over one hundred scholars from Canada, the United States, Australia, India, and China attended the Forum. Based on their research, as of the end of April 2013, China had become Canada’s second largest trade partner, the second largest source for imports, and the third largest export destination. Canada is China’s thirteenth largest trade partner. ACSC was founded in 1984. It is a research institute at the national level dedicated to Canadian studies. It has over 40 research centers scattered in many Chinese universities and science research organizations. 
Source: China News, September 21, 2013
http://finance.chinanews.com/cj/2013/09-21/5304037.shtml
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Beijing Denounces British Officials as “Interfering in Hong Kong’s Internal Affairs”

Hugo Swire, a Minister of State for the Foreign Office of the UK, published an article on Saturday, September 14 in the South China Morning Post indicating that he supports Hong Kong’s universal suffrage and that "Britain stands ready to support in any way we can." The article resulted in an array of counterattacks from China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Tuesday that China will never allow any external forces to interfere in the internal affairs of Hong Kong and damage Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability. "We have the determination and ability to defend our national security." As early as Monday, Hong Lei had already accused Swire of making "irresponsible remarks" and expressed strong dissatisfaction. Global Times, a newspaper owned by the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily, accused the British of "impure motives."

On Tuesday Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao published a long article titled "British Espionage Activities in Hong Kong," referring to British intelligence officers’ "blatant" actions in Hong Kong. The article said, "Ever since the reunification, the UK intelligence agency’s activities in Hong Kong not only have not dwindled down, they continue to strengthen. The ‘operation center’ is currently located inside the British Consulate-General on 1 Supreme Court Rd. Admiralty." The author also questioned the reason behind the fact that the Consulate-General building was designed by the same person that designed the MI6 headquarters building in London.

The article said that British intelligence agencies are very focused on buying and getting key personnel to defect. "To achieve their target, they have followed some key figures for a long time, as long as several years or even more than a decade." The article also claimed that Britain has detailed material on senior Hong Kong officials under British authorities. "With such information, they exerted long-term control over a group of senior officials during the transition. Once it is necessary, they will then use the media in Hong Kong to issue negative news to attack their targets. Former Secretary for Development Mak Chai-kwong was alleged to have fraudulently claimed a housing allowance for five years starting in 1985. All the evidence was from the allegations of civil servants’ information decades ago. Who else has such capabilities other than the British authorities?"

In addition, another pro-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong, Wen Wei Po, also published an article saying that, ever since the turnover of the sovereignty of Hong Kong 16 years ago, "a large number of MI6 spies have returned to Hong Kong, infiltrating into political parties, organizations, the judicial system, trade associations, the media, and vital government bodies, so as to snatch the right to govern Hong Kong."

Source: BBC Chinese, September 17, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/09/130917_china_reax_uk.shtml

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