More than all the Tea in China | Capitol Commentary

http://capitolcommentary.com/2010/09/07/more-than-all-the-tea-in-china

China, America's banker.

The United States is a debtor nation and China owns about $1.00 for every $10.00 of U.S. debt.  Politicians might be very trendy today calling out U.S. banks for having been so reckless in their spending but, ironically, now China is doing the same thing to our politicians in Washington, D.C.  China has always bought U.S. debt in the form of Treasury securities and now is the largest holder of U.S. debt in the world having recently surpassed Japan.  One of the many differences between Japan being the largest U.S. debt holder and China is that we did not write China’s constitution and do not have military bases in their country.  With the massive spending bill having been signed into law by President Obama ($787 billion and counting) China is getting antsy that America is squandering their resources:

“We have made a huge amount of loans to the United States. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I’m a little bit worried,” [Chinese Premier] Wen said at a news conference following the closing of China’s annual legislative session. “I would like to call on the United States to honor its words, stay a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets.”

So this is what has become of such a fine nation as the United States!  To be fair to President Obama, reckless spending of taxpayer monies did not begin under his administration but he certainly did not improve the situation by signing into law the largest spending bill in the history of this country, a sum larger than the total costs of the war in Iraq and Afganistan.  As when any bill collector calls there were soothing words in response:

Related articles by Zemanta

• Is China gearing up to start World War III? (zdnet.com)
• Thank You Treasury Bubble, China Can't Nuke The Bond Market Anymore (businessinsider.com)
• Chinese Government Predicts Plummeting Exports Ahead (businessinsider.com)
• Chinese billionaires shy away from Bill Gates charity dinner (telegraph.co.uk)
• China seeks to avoid shouting matches with U.S. (reuters.com)
• The GOP hearts China (washingtonmonthly.com)
• China, U.S. seek to ease tensions;Hu visit on agenda (reuters.com)
• China Mobile stake being sold by Vodafone (financialpost.com)
• FACTBOX-Tensions between China and the U.S. (reuters.com)
• High-seas collisions trigger Japan-China diplomatic spat (calgaryherald.com)

Seven Global Cyber-Guardians Now Hold Keys to the Internet

Image via Wikipedia

With Obama now able to have a kill switch to our Internet. Now 7 more from around the World embrace an RFID Smart Card to be able to turn it all back on.
Curiosity should be setting in about now as to what the real plans and controlling terms they all have for this World Wide Network.
Be sure to check out all the links. I have a lot more coming soon.

clipped from www.popsci.com You may have heard the rumor that swirled briefly last month about an Internet “kill switch” that could power down the Web in the case of a critical cyber attack. Those rumors turned out to be largely overblown, but it turns out there are now seven individuals out there holding keys to the Internet. In the aftermath of a cataclysmic cyber attack, these members of a “chain of trust” will be responsible for rebooting the Web. A minimum of five of the seven keyholders – one each from Britain, the U.S., Burkina Faso, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, China, and the Czech Republic – would have to converge at a U.S. base with their keys to restart the system and connect eveything once again. We’re imagining a large medieval chamber filled with techno-religious imagery where these knights cyber must simultaneously turn hybrid thumb drive/skeleton keys in a massive router, filling the room with the blinking light of connectivity.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Seven People Have Been Entrusted With The Keys To The Internet [Security] (gizmodo.com)
• Elite Seven Chosen As Guardians of the Internet (escapistmagazine.com)
• Internet 'Key Holders' Are Insurance Against Cyber Attack (livescience.com)
• Seven People Entrusted With The Keys To The Internet from KORE rpg " rpg (korpg.com)
• Would YOU Let Seven People Hold The Key To the Interent? (backupify.com)
• There Are Seven Keymasters Who Can Restart the Internet [The Internets] (gawker.com)
• The Canadian who holds the key to the Internet (thestar.com)
• "Digital Seven" Tasked With Securing the Net in Case of Emergency (cbsnews.com)
• Buzz Out Loud 1279: Seven keys to rule us all (podcast) (cnet.com)
• Brit scientist is web guardian (thesun.co.uk)

Pipeline repaired as China works to contain spill

Image via Wikipedia

While so many are concerned about the Gulf. I often wonder if anyone has heard about China's Oil Spill. The Oil spills seem to be a growing trend lately.

clipped from www.chicoer.com BEIJING—China National Petroleum Corp. said Thursday a vital pipeline has resumed operations after an explosion caused the country's largest reported oil spill. Cleanup efforts—marred by the drowning death of a worker, his body coated in crude—continued over 165 square mile (430 square kilometer) stretch of water blanketed in thick, dark oil Thursday, after an official warned the spill posed a severe threat to sea life and water quality. The slick emptied beaches as its size doubled Wednesday. China Central Television earlier reported an estimate of 1,500 tons of oil has spilled. That would amount roughly to 400,000 gallons (1,500,000 liters)—as compared with 94 million to 184 million gallons in the BP oil spill off the U.S. coast. But 40 oil-skimming boats and about 800 fishing boats were also deployed to clean up the spill, and Xinhua said more than 9 miles (15 kilometers) of oil barriers had been set up to keep the slick from spreading.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Pipeline Repaired as China Works to Contain Spill (abcnews.go.com)
• Pipeline repaired as China works to contain spill (sfgate.com)
• Pipeline repaired as China works to contain spill (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Oil flows again in China pipeline after blast (msnbc.msn.com)
• Oil Spill In Dalian, China (yewknee.com)
• Large China oil spill threatens sea life, water (sfgate.com)
• Oil spill in Dalian, China (boston.com)
• China's spreading oil spill a 'severe threat' (cbc.ca)

Weeks of floods in south China kill 379

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Weeks of floods in south China kill 379

2 minutes ago from todaysworld

• 
  
  read more on www.irishtimes.com
  Local residents navigate a boat in a flooded area in Changkai town of Fuzhou, Jiangxi province, at the weekend. Floods in China have killed 379 people this year and left 141 missing, the flood control authority said. Photograph: Reuters/China Daily
• 
  
  read more on www.irishtimes.com
• 
  
  read more on www.irishtimes.com
  WATER LEVELS are receding in southern China after weeks of floods that have claimed 379 lives, but emergency workers are still trying to repair water defences because some rivers and lakes remain dangerous.
  In one case, workers yesterday finished repairing a breach in the Changkai dyke near Fuzhou, in Fujian province, that had forced the evacuation of 100,000 people, the Xinhua news agency reported.
• 
  
  read more on www.irishtimes.com
  Flooding along the Yangtze river and other major waterways is an annual event, but this year the rains have brought havoc to the southern provinces, including Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiangxi. Some parts of Guangdong are seeing the worst rainfall in 500 years.
  Some 68.7 million people in 22 provincial-level regions have been affected, three million people have been evacuated, while 4.36 million hectares of farmland has suffered from the deluge, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.
  The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said river levels were going down in Jiangxi and Hunan, but levels in the Ganjiang River and Poyang Lake were higher than normal and remained dangerous, while Hunan's Dongting Lake was also still rising.
  Persistent heavy rains this year have left 379 people dead, 141 missing and resulted in economic losses estimated at 82.4 billion yuan (€9.8 billion), the headquarters said.

Share 

0comments       

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Todays World

Related articles by Zemanta

• Death toll in flood-stricken south China nears 400 (calgaryherald.com)
• Death toll in flood-stricken China nears 400 (msnbc.msn.com)
• Death toll in China flooding climbs to 377 (ctv.ca)
• China's Floods Leave 211 Dead, Displace 2.4 Million (Update2) (businessweek.com)
• Toll in China flood rises to 132 (cnn.com)
• Flood-hit dyke in south China suffers new breach (reuters.com)
• Heavy rains in south China trigger dyke threat (reuters.com)
• Scores die in China flash floods (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Dyke burst adds to China's flooding woes (cnn.com)

Official says torrential rains, flooding kill 70 in southern China

clipped from www.foxnews.com Flooding caused by the heavy rains — which started a month earlier than normal — damaged more than 80,000 homes and damaging large swaths of cropland, affecting more than 10 million people across 13 provinces and cities, the State Flood Control and Disaster Relief Headquarters said on its website. "South China has already entered its flood season, one month earlier than in past years. The biggest floods have yet to come," Sun Jun of the National Meteorological Center was cited as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency. The areas include the provinces of Guangdong, Chongqing, Sichuan, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan and Zhejiang. In some areas, such as Guangdong province, the thunderstorms have cut power lines, toppled homes and bridges, submerged roads and caused rivers to overflow, forcing the relocation of 145,000 people in less than a week, Xinhua said. China's huge land mass means severe storms can cause floods in one region, while other parts of the country experience droughts.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Floods kill 70 in southern China (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Floods kill 70 in southern China (ctv.ca)
• Floods Kill 70 in Southern China (abcnews.go.com)
• 58 feared killed in southern China storms (calgaryherald.com)
• Man kills eight in China stabbing rampage (nationalpost.com)
• China suffers new knife attack (telegraph.co.uk)
• Man stabs 28 children at kindergarten in China (msnbc.msn.com)
• Man Stabs 28 Children at Kindergarten in China (time.com)
• Man stabs 28 kids at kindergarten in China (msnbc.msn.com)

China thwarts Google's detour around censorship

clipped from news.yahoo.com SAN FRANCISCO – Google's attempted detour around China's Internet censorship rules was met with countermeasures Tuesday by the communist government, which blocked people on the mainland from seeing search results dealing with such forbidden topics as the pro-democracy movement. China's maneuver, as well as its public rebuke of Google's decision to stop censoring searches for the government, rattled some of the company's investors, advertisers and users. The chief concern is whether Google poisoned its business in one of the world's most promising Internet markets. One analyst critical of Google's move predicted the maneuver will cause the company's stock to fall by as much as $50 — or about 10 percent — in the coming weeks. The stock fell $8.50, or 1.5 percent, to $549 Tuesday. Last month, Google said it no longer felt comfortable complying with the country's demands that it censor Web content deemed objectionable by the communist rulers.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Google's China Exit About to Cause a Revolution? (marketingpilgrim.com)
• Google quits censoring search in China (cnn.com)
• Google redirecting Chinese traffic (sfgate.com)
• Google Stops Censoring in China, But Beijing Will Get Last Word (wired.com)
• Google and China: not a pullout, not an end to censorship, but a shutdown of Google.cn (boingboing.net)
• Search engine shuffle: Google stops censoring Web for China, leaving Beijing to do it itself (taragana.com)

China says drought now affecting 50 million people

clipped from www.reuters.com BEIJING (Reuters) - A severe drought across a large swathe of southwest China is now affecting more than 50 million people, and forecasters see no signs of it abating in the short term, state media said on Friday. The drought began last autumn, and is the result not only of less rainfall but also unseasonably high temperatures, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing a central government meeting on the situation. It is affecting the provinces and regions of Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan and the municipality of Chongqing. These parts of China are known for their sugar and rubber plantations. More than 16 million people are having difficulty accessing safe drinking water, it added. "The drought has lasted for more than five straight months and is still developing," Xinhua said. "It is having a serious impact upon people's lives, industry and agriculture as well as general economic development. Losses are severe."

Related articles by Zemanta

• South China drought worsens, threatening crops (ctv.ca)
• South China Drought Worsens (abcnews.go.com)
• South China drought worsens, threatening crops (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Beijing Blanketed After Sandstorm Sweeps In (news.sky.com)
• Chinese Teacher Pricked 63 Children With Syringe (huffingtonpost.com)
• Bus plunges down ravine in south China, killing 7 (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• China celebrates the Year of the Tiger (telegraph.co.uk)

Demand rising for weather modification

clipped from www.chinadaily.com.cn BEIJING: China will step up weather modification in key regions to help relieve drought, the director of the China Meteorological Administration has said. As drought and hailstorms pose severe threats to rural income and food supply, there is a rising demand for technology to cushion the impact, Zheng Guoguang told China Daily. Weather modification technology has also been used to ensure clear skies for important events, and will possibly be used for the upcoming Shanghai World Expo. Modifying weather involves seeding clouds with grains of dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) or tiny particles of silver iodide to stimulate rainfall or dissipate the clouds. It is also used to help prevent or control forest fires and ease acute water shortages in some areas, he said. Zheng said he expects weather modification projects will contribute to the country's efforts to increase grain production capacity by 50 million tons annually.

Related articles by Zemanta

• China looks to master control of the weather (nationalpost.com)
• China's Weather Modification Office: A Government Entity That Controls The Weather (neatorama.com)
• Organizers prep for 70 mln Shanghai Expo visitors (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Blizzard Tests China's Preparedness (online.wsj.com)
• Beijing gets early snow after scientists seed rain clouds (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Nature helped as snow hits Beijing (guardian.co.uk)

China Holds More U.S. Debt than Indicated

Image via Wikipedia

clipped from newsmax.com Despite recent government reports that China's holdings of U.S. Treasury debt declined during the second half of last year, the Asian economic giant almost certainly owns far more Treasury securities than official statistics indicate. After peaking at $801.5 billion, China's holdings of U.S. Treasury securities declined to $755.4 billion at the year's end, dropping the communist power into the position of second-largest holder of Treasury debt after Japan's $768.8 billion, official government data reveal. Mr. Johnson, a former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund, estimated that China owns about $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities, or nearly half the $2.37 trillion stock of Treasury debt held by "foreign official" owners. He argued that the "balance of terror," which was connected with the nuclear policy of mutually assured destruction adopted by both adversaries, proved to be "a source of stability."

Related articles by Zemanta

• How Badly Do We Need China to Buy Our Debt? (seekingalpha.com)
• Foreign Demand for Teasury Securities Falls (abcnews.go.com)
• China Still Biggest Foreign Buyer of US Securities (abcnews.go.com)
• China, rest of world back off of US debt (americablog.com)
• Will China Really Dump U.S. Debt? (curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com)

China lodges protest over Dalai Lama’s meeting with President Obama

clipped from www.timesonline.co.uk China responded angrily yesterday to President Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama and demanded steps to undo the damage. The language used by Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, stopped short of retaliatory action, reflecting Beijing’s desire to limit the impact while serious issues such as US arms sales to Taiwan remain on the table. Mr Ma said the meeting with the Tibetan god-king, who has lived in exile in India since an abortive uprising against Beijing in 1951, “hurt the national feelings of the Chinese people and seriously undermined China-US relations”. He demanded that the US “adopt measures to wipe out the baneful impact and stop conniving and supporting anti-China separatist forces that seek Tibet independence”. China’s response will have been decided to some extent by Mr Obama’s low-key welcome to the Dalai Lama.

Related articles by Zemanta

• China summons US ambassador to protest Barack Obama's meeting with Dalai Lama (telegraph.co.uk)
• China: Obama's Dalai Lama Meeting Hurt Our 'Feelings' (huffingtonpost.com)
• China Protests Obama-Dalai Lama Meeting (abcnews.go.com)
• China complains to US about Obama-Dalai Lama meeting (guardian.co.uk)
• China anger at Dalai Lama visit (news.bbc.co.uk)

Dalai Lama's White House visit about appearances

clipped from news.yahoo.com WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama plans a muted meeting with the Dalai Lama on Thursday in deference to Chinese anger that he is welcoming the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader into the White House at all. Chinese officials will be watching closely to see how great a stage Obama offers to his fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The Chinese want to know: How long will the meeting last? Will the first lady attend? Will the White House put out a written statement or answer questions about the visit at daily press briefings? Will cameras be allowed to film any part of the encounter? China's feelings matter because the Obama administration needs Beijing's help to confront nuclear standoffs in Iran and North Korea, to fight climate change and to boost the world's economy. With China in mind, the White House appears to be opting for a low-key meeting. There is unlikely to be a joint public appearance or photo opportunity before reporters.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Dalai Lama's White House visit about appearances (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Dalai Lama-Obama Meeting Will Be Closely Watched By China (huffingtonpost.com)
• Obama Ignores China Fury To Meet Dalai Lama (news.sky.com)
• Tibetans herald Obama-Dalai Lama meeting with fireworks (guardian.co.uk)
• Obama to welcome Dalai Lama (cnn.com)

Renewed focus on China position on Iran sanctions

Image via Wikipedia

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com BEIJING -- Tougher statements from Russia are putting renewed focus on China's reluctance to agree to new a new set of international sanctions against Iran. China - which relies on Iran for much of its energy supplies - maintains that now isn't the right time to discuss such measures and that the door to negotiations with Iran remains open. Russia has also been dubious about sanctions, but Moscow officials on Tuesday said Iran's decision to enrich uranium to higher levels has raised new doubts about Tehran's nuclear program. World powers fear the Iranian nuclear program might be a cover for building atomic weapons. Iran says the program is peaceful and aims to generate power for its growing population. Chinese companies also have major investments in Iranian energy extraction and the construction of roads, bridges and power plants.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Renewed focus on China position on Iran sanctions (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Should the US link Iran to Taiwan to get China on board? (trueslant.com)
• U.S. ready to offer Iran alternative to nuclear plan (cnn.com)
• Iran says UN criticism prompted new nuclear plans (ctv.ca)