China's Attack on Religion - WorldWide Religious News

http://wwrn.org/articles/35963
China's Attack on Religion
("The Wall Street Journal," August 17, 2011)
Beijing, China - A Tibetan monk set himself on fire Monday to protest the lack of religious freedom in China, the second such protest in five months. Yesterday the government announced a "strike hard" campaign aimed at the Muslim Uighur minority in the northeastern territory of Xinjiang. Meanwhile, the authorities are tightening control over mainstream Christian churches, stepping up arrests of Catholic priests.
There are few voices exposing the mistreatment of Tibetans and Uighurs, but Catholics have leaders who are beginning to fight back. Last month the Vatican excommunicated two bishops ordained by the state-controlled Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, citing church law that clergymen can only be ordained with the pope's blessing. Benedict XVI also deplored the Communist Party's belligerent handling of the ordinations—which went so far as to kidnap priests who are in communion with Rome and force them to take part in the ordinations. Now Beijing is detaining priests who refuse to comply with the Party's demands.
See the link for more info.

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Christian worshippers;detained; in China

Be sure to see the link for the full story.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/04/2011410105621371604.html
Police officials in China have arrested dozens of Christian worshippers from an unregistered church when they tried to pray outdoors, a rights group said.
The congregants sang hymns and said prayers as police loaded them onto waiting buses in Beijing's western Haidian district, the US-based Christian rights group China Aid said in a statement on Sunday, citing witnesses.
"The Beijing authorities have again demonstrated their total disregard of their citizens' constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to religious freedom," China Aid founder and president Bob Fu said in the statement.
Shouwang church pastor Yuan Ling said by telephone that he was unable to go to the venue because police had put him under house arrest on Saturday night. Yuan said he knew of at least six other church members who were also under house arrest.
Police declined to comment when contacted by AFP news agency and requested written questions be sent to them by fax.
A church member who went to the gathering venue for services and managed to evade police told The Associated Press news agency that about 200 people were taken away and were being held at a local school.
The man, who would give only his English name, Kane, for fear of police reprisals, said their cellphones were also confiscated.

Beijing police halt unapproved church service, detain dozens of worshippers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/beijing_police_halt_house_church_service_detain_dozens_of_worshippers/2011/04/10/AFSVolBD_story.html?wprss=rss_world
Chinese authorities have been on high alert for large public gatherings in the wake of anonymous online calls for anti-government protests modeled on demonstrations in the Middle East and North Africa.
No major protests have occurred in China following the calls, but the security crackdown they sparked has resulted in the arrest or detention of dozens of public interest lawyers, writers, intellectuals and activists.
China’s Communist government allows worship only in state-approved churches, but many Christians belong to unregistered congregations. Such “house churches” are subjected to varying degrees of harassment by authorities.
More than 60 million Christians are believed to worship in China’s independent churches, compared with about 20 million who worship in the state church, according to scholars and church activists.

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Rare Earth Materials And The Incompetence Of Debbie Stabenow

Image via WikipediaWhether or not, anyone actually pay attention to this part of our economy, it is something that most poeple should be pay attention to. Supply and demand and prices go higher world wide. Thie elements here in the U.S. are far more than we need. So why do we just sit on it all?
An interesting artilce from Motorcitytimes. Click the link below to see the full story.

http://motorcitytimes.com/mct/2011/03/rare-earth-materials-and-the-incompetence-of-debbie-stabenow-d-mi

The United States has the worlds third largest reserve of rare earth elements. Considering the importance of these materials to our economy and the ever-increasing demand for them, you would think extracting, processing and exporting rare earth materials would be priority within the United States. If you thought that, you would be wrong.
motorcitytimes.com November 20th, 2010

China currently supplies 95% of the worlds rare earth materials. Predictably, China is openly reducing the export of these materials and since the United States no longer mines or processes our own rare earth materials, we are now at the mercy of China for our supply of these vital materials.

China will issue a second batch of rare earth export quotas later this year, but the total volume for 2011 has yet to be decided, the China Securities Journal said, citing Chinese commerce minister Chen Deming.
Chen said the decision on how much would be adjusted compared to last year was now in the “last stage of research.”
China announced at the end of last year that it would cut quotas for the first half of the year by 35 percent, saying rampant and unregulated production over the last few years had caused significant environmental problems.

This reduction in the supply rare earth materials is a severe problems within our economy since they are an integral part of modern manufacturing. Demand for rare earth materials has sky-rocketed over the last 20 years and will only increase in the future.

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Security tightened as China warns against protests

Image by Getty Images via @daylifehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0_BnPC9G8Y&feature=player_embedded
China's warning that it will not tolerate any Arab-style protests has been backed up by increased security on the streets.

Police in Beijing kept a close watch on Tiananmen Square. Security patrols were stepped up around a main shopping area, where an online call had urged people to protest.

Beijing has tightened censorship and reporting restrictions. Controls and checks on foreign tourists and journalists have also been increased.

A similar clampdown has been reported in Shanghai.

http://www.euronews.net/

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Chinas stealth fighter based on US technology - Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8277090/Chinas-stealth-fighter-based-on-US-technology.html

China's new stealth fighter is based on US technology acquired by Chinese spies during the 1999 Kosovo War, according to Croatia's former military chief of staff.

By David Eimer in Beijing 5:39PM GMT 23 Jan 2011

China unveiled the Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter during a visit to Beijing by Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, this month. The timing of its maiden flight was regarded as a deliberate reminder by China of its growing military might, and caused alarm amongst its Asian neighbours.

Now, the Admiral who was Croatia's chief of staff during the Kosovo War has said he believes that China formulated the technology for its J-20 jet from an American F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter that was shot down over Serbia in March 1999.

"At the time, our intelligence reports told of Chinese agents criss-crossing the region where the F-117 disintegrated, buying up parts of the plane from local farmers," Admiral Davor Domazet-Loso said. "We believe the Chinese used those materials to gain an insight into secret stealth technologies."

The Nighthawk was the world's first stealth fighter, planes that are almost invisible to radar and so able to operate over enemy territory with near impunity.

US cannot accept China military power: state media

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_cannot_accept_China_military_power_state_media_999.html


by Staff Writers Beijing (AFP) Jan 7, 2011 China will eventually have a military powerful enough to compete with the United States, state media said Friday ahead of the visit of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.The claim in a newspaper editorial followed reports that China had completed a prototype of a stealth fighter and after a top US military official said Beijing was stepping up efforts to deploy a "carrier-killer" missile system.
"Whether the reported new weapons are true or not, in the long run, China will own first-class weapons that are capable of competing with the US war machine," said the Global Times, known for its nationalist tone.
Gates arrives in China on Sunday to smooth over tense defence relations between the two countries -- one year after Beijing cut military ties with Washington in protest against US arms sales to rival Taiwan.
"Apparently, the US is not ready to treat China as a major power. They cannot accept the fact that China will sooner or later possess a first-class military," the editorial said.
"They are too used to the old power structure, in which China and other developing countries have long been treated unfairly."

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China preparing for armed conflict ;in every direction; - Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8229789/China-preparing-for-armed-conflict-in-every-direction.html

China is preparing for conflict 'in every direction', the defence minister said on Wednesday in remarks that threaten to overshadow a visit to Beijing by his US counterpart next month.

Photo: AP

By Peter Foster, Beijing 1:30PM GMT 29 Dec 2010

177 Comments

"In the coming five years, our military will push forward preparations for military conflict in every strategic direction," said Liang Guanglie in an interview published by several state-backed newspapers in China. "We may be living in peaceful times, but we can never forget war, never send the horses south or put the bayonets and guns away," Mr Liang added.

China repeatedly says it is planning a "peaceful rise" but the recent pace and scale of its military modernisation has alarmed many of its neighbours in the Asia-Pacific, including Japan which described China's military build-up as a "global concern" this month.

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China proposes emergency talks on Korea crisis - World news - Asia-Pacific - North Korea - msnbc.com

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeGet ready folks this could very well become a major problem.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40401513/ns/world_news-asiapacific

YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea — China called for emergency talks on resolving a crisis on the Korean peninsula on Sunday, and Seoul and Tokyo said they would study the proposal, as the U.S. and South Korean militaries started a massive drill.

Beijing's move to bring the two Koreas to the negotiating table comes after global pressure on China to take a more responsible role in the standoff and try to rein in ally Pyongyang.
China made clear that the talks would not amount to a resumption of six-party disarmament discussions which North Korea walked out of two years ago and declared dead. South Korea said it would carefully consider China's suggestion.

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Both Beijing and Pyongyang have been pressing regional powers to return to talks, in some form or other, for the past few months, in a move analysts say is designed to extract concessions.
China, which agreed with South Korea that the situation was "worrisome," suggested the emergency talks for December among North and South Korea, host China, the United States, Japan and Russia. It did not say whether Pyongyang had agreed to join.
Japan was non-committal. "We want to respond cautiously while cooperating closely with South Korea and the United States," Kyodo news agency quoted Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama as saying.
Beijing has longstanding bonds with Pyongyang, and has sought to shield its small, poor neighbor from a backlash that China fears could draw an even more ferocious reaction from North Korea and dangerously destabilize the region.

Critics in Washington and other capitals say China's approach amounts to coddling a dangerous nuclear-armed state.

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Stunned China Looks Inward After School Attacks

clipped from www.nytimes.com BEIJING — In the wake of a fourth horrific attack on Chinese schoolchildren — this time by a crazed man who on Friday beat five toddlers with a hammer, then set himself on fire with two other children in his arms — this shocked and bruised nation was of two distinctly different minds. After the first attack, in which a man stabbed and killed eight children outside an elementary school in Fujian Province on March 23, the Internet and government media bubbled with outrage, and the state-run Xinhua news service issued a lengthy study of the loner who committed the crime. In Taixing, the city in Jiangsu Province where a knife-wielding man stabbed 28 kindergarten students and three adults on Thursday, critically wounding at least five children, protesting parents took to the streets chanting, “We want the truth! We want our babies back!” “The system still very much tries to pretend everything is going fine,” he said, “and it still hushes things up when there are disturbances.”

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China ready to end dollar peg

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk The head of China’s central bank has given the strongest signal yet that the country will move away from pegging its currency to the dollar, but he said any changes would be gradual. At the annual session of the legislative National People’s Congress in Beijing, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, said that the days of the “special yuan” policy were numbered. He described the dollar peg as a “temporary” response to the global financial crisis, but gave no timescale for any change in policy. The currency has been pegged at about 6.83 yuan per dollar since July 2008. Mr Obama told Bloomberg last month. “My goal over the course of the next year is for China to recognize that it is also in their interest to allow their currency to appreciate because, frankly, they have got a potentially overheating economy.” When China eventually abandons the peg, the country will have to manage its exit strategy carefully

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China faces balancing act in Iran nuclear issue

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clipped from news.yahoo.com BEIJING – Renewed calls for sanctions against Iran for its nuclear ambitions have forced China to engage in a tough balancing act between appeasing its close trading partner and supporting international efforts to isolate Tehran. The arrival of an Israeli government delegation in Beijing on Thursday underscored the important role China plays as one of the five U.N. Security Council members that could veto sanctions for Iran. An Israeli spokesman singled out Iran as a topic for discussion. The group, led by Moshe Yaalon, the Israeli minister in charge of strategic affairs, will meet with China's senior foreign policy adviser Dai Bingguo during the two-day visit. The U.S., Israel and others believe Iran is hiding nuclear weapons development under the guise of a civilian energy program. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, also says it's worried Iran may be working on a nuclear warhead.

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U.S., EU Criticize China for Sentence

Image via Wikipedia

clipped from online.wsj.com BEIJING—A Chinese court upheld an 11-year prison sentence for writer Liu Xiaobo on subversion charges Thursday, prompting swift rebukes from the U.S. and European Union governments that underscore growing international concern over Beijing's human-rights practices. The rejection of his appeal by a Beijing court had been expected. But the response was unusually swift and coordinated, with the U.S. and EU missions in Beijing releasing statements almost immediately after the decision, criticizing it and calling for Mr. Liu's immediate release. "We are disappointed by the Chinese Government's decision," said the U.S. statement, attributed to Ambassador Jon Huntsman. "We believe that he should not have been sentenced in the first place and should be released immediately." The EU said the verdict against Mr. Liu "is entirely incompatible with his right to freedom of expression."

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N. Korea's Kim Jong Il sends nuclear envoy to China

Image by luistxo eta marije via Flickr

clipped from www.usatoday.com SEOUL (AP) — North Korea's Kim Jong Il reportedly dispatched his top nuclear envoy to Beijing on Tuesday to discuss restarting nuclear disarmament talks, a day after pledging Pyongyang's commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. Kim made the disarmament pledge during a meeting Monday with a high-level envoy from Beijing at the start of a week of diplomacy designed to get the six-nation nuclear talks back on track. A high-level U.N. envoy also flew to Pyongyang on Tuesday for a four-day trip. North Korea has made clear it wants U.N. sanctions lifted and a peace treaty with Washington formally ending the 1950-1953 Korean War before it returns to the disarmament talks. Pyongyang cites the U.S. military presence in South Korea as its main reason for building up its nuclear weapons program. Washington says Pyongyang must come back to the talks first before any discussion about political and economic concessions.

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China PLA officers urge economic punch against U.S.

clipped from www.reuters.com BEIJING (Reuters) - Senior Chinese military officers have proposed that their country boost defense spending, adjust PLA deployments, and possibly sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of arms sales to Taiwan. The calls for broad retaliation over the planned U.S. weapons sales to the disputed island came from officers at China's National Defence University and Academy of Military Sciences, interviewed by Outlook Weekly, a Chinese-language magazine published by the official Xinhua news agency. The warnings from the PLA come after weeks of strains between Washington and Beijing, who have also been at odds over Internet controls and hacking, trade and currency quarrels, and President Barack Obama's planned meeting with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader reviled by China as a "separatist." China is likely to unveil its official military budget for 2010 next month, when the Communist Party-controlled national parliament meets for its annual session.

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