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Geo-Strategic Trend - 205. page

Xi Jinping: The South China Sea Issue Should not Interfere with China-Vietnam Relations

On June 19, 2013, China News reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping recently met with Vietnamese President Zhang Jin in Beijing. Xi suggested that the two nations should prevent the issues of the South China Sea from interfering in the relationship between the two neighbors. Xi said China is determined to solve the issues in a political manner such as bilateral negotiations and friendly discussions. China called for stopping any activity that would further complicate the situation and for avoiding the internationalization of the issues. President Zhang agreed to the friendly negotiation approach and suggested that Vietnam is willing to participate actively in the joint delimitation effort as well as the peaceful joint development plan. Vietnam also does not want the issues to be a threat to the relationship between the two countries. The China News report described the meeting as “friendly and frank.”
Source: China News, June 19, 2013
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2013/06-19/4947354.shtml
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Global Times: Russia Signed Long-Term Oil Supply Deal with China

Global Times recently reported that, on June 21, Russia’s largest oil company, Rosneft Oil, signed a long-term oil supply contract with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Deputy Premier Zhang Gaoli were both present at the ceremony. The contract is for Russia to supply 365 million tons of crude oil to China over the next 25 years. The total contract value is around US$270 billion. The contract was based on a framework agreement between the two governments which signed in March 2013. 
Source: Global Times, June 21, 2013
http://world.huanqiu.com/exclusive/2013-06/4051963.html
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Overseas Chinese Media Share the “China Dream”

On June 8 in Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province, He Yafei, the deputy director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office under the State Council, and Liu Beixian, President of the China News Agency, met with personnel from overseas Chinese language media for a face-to-face discussion. The overseas Chinese media executives from Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Malaysia, and other countries shared their "China Dream."

The "China Dream" is not a narrowly defined dream of the Chinese people, but the dream of all mankind and of the whole world," said Liu Yang, the President of VCChina, a Belgian Chinese radio station. Gao Jin, the chairman of the Romania based Europe Bridge Media (欧桥传媒) also believed that overseas Chinese should combine the "China Dream" with the dream of the hosting countries. He Wanmi from Malaysia’s Sin Chew Daily (星洲日報) said, "I am a third generation Chinese in Malaysia. My fellow Chinese there are deeply rooted in the local country, but we still identify ourselves as part of the Chinese culture." Chen Weirong, the President of New Zealand’s Chinese Herald (中文先驱报) said that New Zealand’s Chinese care very much about the "China Dream." Some proposed that Chinese characters are an important carrier of Chinese culture and suggested establishing a "Chinese Character Day."

He Yafei offered three wishes for the overseas Chinese media: that the Chinese media objectively report China and tell the "China story" and the "China Dream" to the world; that Chinese media become the promoters of the Chinese culture and national spirit; and that the Chinese media become the bridge and pioneers in public diplomacy to facilitate communication between China and other nations.

Source: China News Service, reprinted on the website of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, June 19, 2013.
http://www.zytzb.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/tzb2010/S2012/201306/740513.html

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Global Times: China Accused of Having a Political Motivation for Helping Nicaragua Build Canal

Global Times recently reported that the Congress of Nicaragua passed a proposal to allow the government to award an exclusive commercial contract to the Hong Kong headquartered HKND Group to construct the Nicaragua Canal. The Nicaragua Canal Project is to build the world’s largest and deepest inter-oceanic canal. It will compete head to head against the Panama Canal. Western media, such as Time Magazine, questioned whether China’s motivation behind the bid had geo-political considerations. The US$40 billion agreement with the Chinese company included fifty years of special operational rights which can be extended for another fifty years. Spanish media also suggested that the lack of transparency in the congressional vote as well as the impact of environmental damage are all issues that may require further discussion. The chairman of the 10-month-old HKND Group claimed the company had "rich experience" in developing and managing large infrastructure-building projects. Reuters suggested that China has a "strong enough economy" to invest into modernized ocean based transportation opportunities and that it’s about time. Time Magazine also commented that China has been expanding its influence in the U.S. backyard for some time now. However, Nicaragua is still one of the very few countries that maintains an official relationship with Taiwan. 
Source: Global Times, June 15, 2013
http://world.huanqiu.com/exclusive/2013-06/4028674.html
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People’s Daily: The Black Hands Loomed out, Shorting Gold to Save Dollars

People’s Daily overseas edition published an article that stated that the current bear market in gold results from a conspiracy between U.S. financial institutions and the Federal Reserve. 

Since April this year, the international price of gold has continued to fall. In contrast, with the improvement in U.S. economic data, the U.S. dollar has gradually grown stronger. So what is the source of this shorting power that caused the price of gold to plummet? 
Honng Hao, a scholar at the Securities and Futures Institute of the Central University of Finance, believes that U.S. financial institutions actually manipulate the international price of gold. Once the 12-year long gold bull market bubble bursts, the United States can negate a large number of its printed dollars. To digest large quantities of printed money, the best way is to burst the asset bubbles and transfer the loss to the investors. 
Yao Tongxin, Deputy Director of the China Center for Strategic Studies at Peking University believes that the real black hands behind the scene are the Wall Street financial giants who are working together with the Federal Reserve. They have jointly controlled this round’s crash in the price of gold. The purpose of manipulating the price of gold is not just to profit through the shorting mechanism. They had a larger strategic plan in mind. That is to destroy investor confidence in gold and allow the dollar to continue to grow in strength through suppressing the price of gold, thus enhancing the dollar’s credit and in the end allowing the U.S. debt chain and financial cycle to continue. 
Source: People’s Daily (overseas edition), June 12, 2013 
http://finance.people.com.cn/n/2013/0612/c1004-21815613.html
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Ghana Detains over a Hundred Chinese Citizens for Illegal Gold Mining Operation

Recently, the Government of Ghana carried out a large-scale action against illegal gold mining. As of June 5, Ghana had arrested 124 Chinese citizens suspected of illegal gold mining. Officials from Shanglin County of the Guangxi Autonomous Region said that the vast majority of the 124 people detained in Ghana are from Shanglin. 

The people of  Shanglin have a history of mining gold. Since 2006, many people from Shanglin have steadily gone to Ghana to engage in gold mining activities. According to incomplete official statistics, so far, the number of people who have gone to Ghana for gold mining is estimated at 12,000. [1] 
Why did the Police in Ghana implement such a large scale arrest? Guangxi Shanglin County Propaganda Department chief Li Daoyong said that some clashes among the gold miners in Ghana could have been the trigger. In particular, since April of this year, there have been incidents in which Guangxi gold miners in Ghana killed fellow miners and shot and killed locals, causing discontent among the masses and problems with local security issues.[2] 
Sources: China Security Times and People’s Daily, June 6, 2013 
[1] http://kuaixun.stcn.com/2013/0606/10526531.shtml 
[2] http://world.people.com.cn/n/2013/0606/c157278-21754499.html
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China’s New Ambassador to the United States Comments on China-U.S. Relations

Recently, Cui Tiankai, China’s new ambassador to the United States, gave an exclusive interview to Foreign Affairs magazine on the subject of China-U.S. relations. The U.S. Foreign Affairs magazine published the article on May 15, 2013. Then on May 20, 2003, China.com published an article about the interview. The title was “Cui Tiankai Ambassador: China Welcomes a Third Party to Mediate the Sino-Japanese Territorial Dispute.”

Cui Tiankai suggested that the United States not shift its military presence to the Asia Pacific area, warning the United States not to intervene in the Diaoyu Islands issue. According to Cui, China would welcome a third party to resolve the dispute between China and Japan under certain conditions. He stated that China has no intention of changing the existing international order but supports necessary reform of the international system. As for cyber security, Cui suggested that both the U.S. and China sit down and engage in constructive dialogues so as to avoid a recurrence of similar cyber attacks.

Source: China.com, May 20, 2013
http://news.china.com/zh_cn/dydzd/gdxw/11127676/20130520/17842566.html  
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/world/asia/china-suggests-us-is-stirring-tensions-in-asia.html?_r=0
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/discussions/interviews/beijings-brand-ambassador

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Global Times: China Builds BDStar Ground Stations in Pakistan

Global Times recently reported that the Beijing BDStar Navigation Technology Company is building ground stations in Pakistan to better support the BDStar (also known as Beidou) Satellite Navigation System. BDStar is the Chinese satellite global positioning system, intended as a competitor to the U.S. GPS system. The BDStar system has been adopted by Thailand, Laos, Brunei, and Myanmar. Pakistan will be the fifth country in Asia to adopt it. Pakistani military experts expressed the belief that the Chinese system will play a significant role in improving military navigation capabilities and missile accuracy. Nuclear deterrent capability enhancements and the new submarine positioning service are also in the plan. The BDStar is also expected to be implemented in civilian functions such as agriculture, aviation, transportation, and mapping, as well as disaster prevention and mitigation. Agreements for the wide deployment of the BDStar system are expected to be signed when China’s Premier visits Pakistan on May 22 and 23.
Source: Global Times, May 20, 2013
http://mil.huanqiu.com/paper/2013-05/3948748.html
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