US-China Relations - 132. page

The International Herald Leader, under Xinhua News, recently published an article accusing the United States of applying its domestic laws to international affairs. For now, this is reflected in the Iranian sanction effort (banning U.S. banks from doing business with countries who keep buying oil from Iran). The article referred to a recent announcement that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made on March 20, 2012. Clinton temporarily relaxed sanctions on the financial organizations of many countries that are U.S. allies. However, under Section 1245 of the National Defense Authorization Act, sanctions remain for countries like China and India, who keep a normal oil trade relationship with Iran. The article claimed that U.S. allies like South Korea and Japan have “silent resentment” even though they have cooperated with the United States. The author expressed the belief that the U.S. is abusing its international superpower status to illegally use its domestic laws to regulate other countries. The author suggested that the U.S. approach is rude and that using normal channels to buy oil from Iran does not break any U.N. resolution. The article listed many other examples of how the U.S. uses domestic laws to serve its foreign policies.

Source: International Herald Leader, April 6, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2012-04/06/c_131508549.htm

Huanqiu published a commentary on March 29, 2012, on the testimony that Don Yamamoto, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, gave before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, regarding China’s role and its influence in Africa. Yamamoto said, “China’s activities in Africa offer important opportunities for the continent, though there are major areas where our interests do not align.” The Huanqiu commentary was critical of this statement, among other things. “The biggest problem is that (China) moves the ‘cheese’ of the West (a sarcastic reference to U.S. inability to adjust to its loss of hegemony), thus violating the interests of the United States. Sino-African cooperation is in line with the interests of China and African countries. One should not ask China and Africa to reduce their cooperation for the benefit of U.S. interests. If the U.S. wants to protect its own interests, then the U.S. should first know what shame is and then have the courage to catch up by doing a better job, rather than being jealous of others and sabotaging or thwarting others.”

Sources: Huanqiu, April 16, 2012
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2012-04/2619402.html
Wikipedia: Who Moved My Cheese?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Moved_My_Cheese%3F

On April 10, 2012, Red Flag Manuscript, a core publication of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee, published an article titled “The U.S. Internet Strategy Poses a Serious Challenge to China: Our Countermeasures.” According to the article, on May 15 and July 14, 2011, the U.S. government issued two documents, the “International Strategy for Cyberspace” and the “Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace.” According to the article, these two documents pose a potential long-term threat to China’s political safety and seriously challenge China’s cultural security.

The article suggested that China use the following countermeasures to deal with the U.S. strategy: protect China’s Internet sovereignty, continue to block and to ban any “harmful information at home and abroad” that “endangers national security and disrupts social stability,” recruit and train more Internet security experts, establish an Internet Security Management System led by the CCP Central Committee, and build multiple global Chinese websites to show the world the new socialist China with Chinese characteristics, which is democratic, civilized, and open.

Source: Red Flag Manuscript, April 10, 2012
http://www.qstheory.cn/hqwg/2012/201207/201204/t20120410_150350.htm

Beijing News recently reported that Zhong Shan, the Deputy Minister of Commerce, said at a conference that, in each of the last 17 years, China has had more trade conflicts than any other country in the world. China is having more types of conflicts in more industries with more countries. Trade protectionism against China is rapidly growing. Since the beginning of this year, 8 trade complaints have been filed against China and there have been 100 incidents in the past 12 months. Since 2008 there have been a total of 600. Zhong emphasized that China is focusing on responding to major cases and is establishing a conflict resolution mechanism that takes full advantage of the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules for self-protection. China has expressed the hope several times that the U.S. government will keep its promise to be against trade-protectionism.

Source: Beijing News, March 24, 2012
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/finance/2012/03/24/190129.html

On March 20, 2012, Xinhua published an article on the eastward shift of the U.S. global strategic focus. The article asserted that, in order for the United States to maintain its hegemony in the world, it is determined to contain China and gradually weaken the Chinese Communist Party. The U.S. will do this not only through military containment, but also by using its economic, judicial, and ideological influence.

The article proposed that, in response, China should implement several diplomatic strategies, one of which is to strengthen China’s international united front. To this end China should: 1) continue to consolidate and develop the Sino-Russian strategic cooperative partnership; 2) further develop the Shanghai Cooperation Organization; 3) stand firmly on the side of the developing countries and oppose the world powers’ interference in the internal affairs of developing countries; 4) ensure that the ‘BRICS’ play an effective role by increasing their mutual trust and strengthening cooperation between them. (Ed. The BRICS include Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.)

Source: Xinhua, March 20, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2012-03/20/c_122855344_2.htm  

China Review News (CRN) recently published a commentary on the impact of the improved U.S. energy independence. The commentary mentioned that the U.S. energy self-sufficiency rate reached 81% in the first 10 months of 2011. The U.S. has transformed itself from a daily importer of 2.5 million barrels of refined oil to a net exporter of refined oil. Only 17% of U.S. imported oil is from the Middle East. Meanwhile, it is estimated that, in 2013, China will rely on imported oil for nearly 60% of its oil consumption. Today, Iran alone supplies 10% of China’s oil imports. China’s energy suppliers are mostly from the Middle East and Africa. In 2010, China’s share of the world’s energy consumption reached 20.82%. The commentary concluded, based on these numbers, that the highly improved U.S. energy independence offered a great opportunity for the U.S. to reshape its global strategy to focus on the East and to build a U.S.-centered Asia-Pacific order.

Source: China Review News, March 12, 2012
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1020/2/4/7/102024759.html?coluid=148&kindid=7550&docid=102024759&mdate=0312000212

Xinhua published a rebuttal to Western comments that China may have softened its stance on the South China Sea issue, which they made in the light of China’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson Hong Lei’s statement that “no countries, including China, have laid claim to the entire South China Sea.” The article holds, “China has never laid claim to the entire South China Sea. Instead China has maintained that it has sovereignty and jurisdiction over the islands in the South China Sea as well as their adjacent waters. This position is consistent and clear. … In fact, [Hong Lei’s] statement is a strong rebuttal to those who, with the ulterior motive to cause confusion, have distorted China’s position on the issue of sovereignty over the South China Sea.” Even countries that have made no claim to sovereignty have taken turns holding joint military exercises or submitting bids for oil and gas in the South China Sea region, thus creating instability.

Source: Xinhua, March 12, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2012-03/12/c_131454775.htm

Xinhua published an article written by Wang Haiyun, Deputy Director of the Chinese Association on the History of Sino-Russian Relations. The article discussed how to break the U.S. encirclement of China. It stressed the need to form international alliances to counter how the U.S. encircles China and hinders its rise. The article stated, “The structural conflicts between China and the U.S. have determined that the U.S. strategy to prevent China’s rise will not undergo any fundamental change. … Although the U.S. still mouths many words about developing a cooperative relationship with China, what it does is totally the opposite. This is the serious reality China must face. … [China] cannot continue to maintain the unrealistic illusion of ‘developing a strategic relationship’ with the U.S.”

“Therefore, China must adjust its international strategy as soon as possible. While trying to maintain the stability of the relationship with the U.S. and avoid turning a localized conflict into a large-scale conflict, [China] must actively explore the strategy and means to break the U.S.’ encirclement. One important thought is to change [China’s] ‘non-alliance’ to a ‘quasi-alliance.’ The U.S. targets China in many different ways. We [China] cannot just fight alone.”

“The main points of the ‘quasi-alliance’ strategy include: 1) Continue to state the ‘three-no’-policy of ‘non-alliance, non-confrontation, and not targeting a third country,’ and, in addition, not publicly forming a military alliance for a certain period of time. 2) Strive to create ‘neighboring friendship areas, strategic stability areas, and economic cooperation areas,’ turning them into our neighboring geographic and strategic allies. 3). Form the image of a ‘dependable but unprovokable’ big country, while enhancing our soft power in the neighboring countries.”

Source: Xinhua, March 11, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2012-03/11/c_122815157.htm