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Fighters, radar, marine patrols top Asia's military wish-list (Reuters) - Singapore hosted military brass from across Asia this week at the region's biggest arms and aerospace bazaar, almost 70 years to the day since it fell to Japanese forces sweeping across Southeast Asia during World War Two. Japan has since become allied with most other Asian nations. It is now China which is the behemoth others are eyeing with unease. And bigger defense budgets, means sales of fighters, weapons and other tools of death and destruction are higher than ever before. At the Singapore Airshow, salesmen in business suits escorted...

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping praised the partnership with GM and China yesterday, congratulating the auto company for returning to its position as the number one automaker in the world in 2011. "Here I wish to congratulate General Motors for becoming world champion in car sales last year," Jinping said, hailing cooperation between the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and GM. "For two consecutive years, GM sales in China has exceeded its sales in the States," he added.

As US Navy shrinks, China launches more, better war ships HONG KONG — As looming budget cuts force the Pentagon to plan for a smaller US navy, China is accelerating the launch of new, increasingly capable warships as part of a sustained drive to become a major maritime power. Shanghai's Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding Company late last month launched the fourth of China's new 071 amphibious landing ships according to reports carried by Chinese military web sites and the state-controlled media. While most attention has been drawn to the ongoing sea trials of China's first aircraft carrier, military analysts say the...

The U.S. and Turkish foreign ministers vowed on Monday to work toward a peaceful resolution to the Syrian crisis. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the escalating violence across Syria 'deplorable', saying that the government was using "artillery and tank fire against innocent civilians." ... She said the United States is looking forward to joining the Arab League initiative for the Friends of Syria group, which will have its first meeting in Tunisia on Feb 24. "Certainly, Minister Davutoglu and myself will play a very active role in trying to search for solutions," the top U.S. envoy said. ......

0 "is eager to appeal to manufacturing workers who view China’s trade policy" (and) avoid being painted as weak on China by Republican challengers. Mr. Biden to register America’s complaints (grovel) in the somewhat incongruous setting of a Champagne toast. Xi’s stop at the Pentagon, where he met with "Defense Secretary" Leon E. Panetta and the chairman of the (dis) Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey.

Even as visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping got the red-carpet treatment from President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, the White House on Tuesday accused China and Russia of effectively giving Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a "license to kill" the critics of his regime by vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at ending bloodshed in Syria. Obama press secretary Jay Carney did not use the incendiary phrase, which Norah O'Donnell of CBS News put in the mouth of an anonymous administration official, in a TV report Monday and in a question to Carney at his daily...

President Barack Obama says good ties between with United States and China are essential and help the rest of the world. Obama and China's next leader are getting their first chance to size up the other Tuesday. Obama welcomed Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in the Oval Office. He says he is looking forward to future cooperation.

A Strategic Challenge In China’s New Tactical Fighter Exports by Richard Fisher, Jr. Published on February 7th, 2012 REPORTS As part of its campaign to build global strategic influence China is offering increasingly sophisticated weapons exports that it uses to reinforce important political and economic relationships. China is no longer a last resort supplier of cheap but obsolete weapons for isolated regimes; it can now offer a full range of weapons that are increasingly competitive with Western systems in capability and very competitive in terms of price. This increase in both capability and value is creating new weapons sales opportunities...

Canadian Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in the midst of an official visit to China. His mission? To convince Beijing’s mandarins to buy Canada’s Alberta oil sands hydrocarbon production, now that Republican Congressional overreach has effectively sidelined the Keystone XL pipeline, designed to transit the oil to U.S. Gulf of Mexico refineries, for the foreseeable future. Harper faces an uphill struggle, as China is questioning the delays in implementing the Northern Gateway pipeline, to transit Alberta’s oil to Canada’s western coast for transshipment to China. Complicating the picture, Harper has a weak hand of cards, and both he and...

The United States should not let friction over economic and trade policies undermine the hugely important business relationship with China, Vice President Xi Jinping said in an interview published before a scheduled U.S. visit. Xi, widely viewed as China's president-in-waiting, told the Washington Post via written answers to questions that China was of huge economic benefit to the United States. "As economic globalization gathers momentum, China and the United States have become highly inter-dependent economically," Xi said, according to a transcript posted on the newspaper's website on Monday. "Such economic relations would not enjoy sustained, rapid growth if they were...

Yes, I know Athens is burning as some of the more violent demonstrators threw some Molotov cocktails and the media was given some photo ops so the situation can be understood by those too involved with life’s challenges to read. If that sounds acerbic it is because I have been writing about the Greek debt crisis since December of 2009 when the Chinese investment funds reneged on a promise to purchase $25 Billion of Greek bonds and the debt crisis was in full swing. Again, Athens may be the present battleground but the political and financial games are being played...

Dear Mr President: As the presidents of organizations representing US citizens deeply concerned about the state of democracy in Taiwan, we write to you to express our collective disappointment with recent statements and actions by your administration that we feel represented lapses in the political neutrality of the US government with regard to the recently concluded national elections in Taiwan. On Jan. 14, 2012, Taiwanese went to the polls in only the fifth presidential election in that countryÂ’s history. Despite multiple assurances from the US Department of State that Washington would work with whoever is elected through a fair and...

About three weeks ago, Barack Obama nixed the Keystone XL pipeline that would have transported 900,000 barrels of oil per day from the Canadian tar sands to the gulf coast region of the U.S.  The pipeline project would also create 20,000 direct jobs and potentially hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs according to economic analysis.   Spurned by Obama's rejection, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that if Canada's next door neighbor and close ally didn't want Canada's oil, then he'd pursue other markets to "diversify" the market for Canada's natural resources.  It didn't take him long. Harper was in Beijing...

The Internet was abuzz with rumors today that North Korea’s newly installed leader, Kim Jong Un, was assassinated during a trip to Beijing, but U.S. officials are debunking the reports as not true. Several U.S. officials contacted by ABC News said there was no validity to the reports that originated on a Chinese social media site and soon spread to Twitter. “There’s nothing to this, ” said one U.S. official, who added that there were no indications that the reports were true. Another U.S. official said, “Our experts are monitoring the situation and we see no abnormal activity on the...

Let’s say you’re Israel. An enemy dedicated to your destruction is developing the means to wipe you off the face of the earth, with the covert and overt help of world powers like Russia and China. It’s only a matter of months before that enemy achieves its goals – and when it does you will not be able to stop the mushroom cloud rising over your cities. So you come up with a sophisticated military plan to strike your foe in an extraordinarily targeted fashion. And you ask for the help of your longtime ally – virtually your only ally...

RINCETON, NJ -- Americans believe China is the leading economic power in the world today, by a significant margin over the United States. This is the second consecutive year the majority of Americans have viewed China as economically dominant; previously, China held a smaller lead. By contrast, in 2000, Americans overwhelmingly believed the U.S. was the leading economic power.

CONGRESSMAN PLEDGES INVESTIGATION, SEES PATTERN OF OBAMA ADMINISTRATION FAILING TO AID U.S. ALLIES The Obama administration rebuffed a senior Chinese police official in southern China who sought to defect, turning him away after his presence became known to Chinese security forces. An administration official familiar with China affairs said the botched defection of Wang Lijun, a vice mayor and chief crime investigator in Chongquing, was mishandled not only by local American officials in China but also by White House and State Department officials in Washington unwilling to upset China by granting Wang refuge in the consulate. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R.,...

Canada's prime minister on Friday made his strongest comments yet in support of a proposed pipeline from oil-rich Alberta to the Pacific coast, saying his government was committed to ensuring the controversial project went ahead. snip "We have abundant supplies of virtually every form of energy. And you know, we want to sell our energy to people who want to buy our energy -- it's that simple," Harper told a business dinner in Guangzhou.

China says crusading police chief spent day in US consulate amid asylum bid speculation By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, February 10, 6:36 PM BEIJING — Beijing says a celebrity police chief linked to one of the country’s rising political stars spent a day in a U.S. consulate in southwestern China amid speculation that he sought political asylum. The U.S. State Department confirmed that former Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun visited the consulate in the city of Chengdu, but gave no details. The Foreign Ministry spokesman’s office said that Wang entered the consulate on Monday and “remained there for one day.”...

Mystery deepens over high-ranking Chinese deputy mayor and his supposed defection to the U.S. Reuters Feb 9, 2012 – 9:40 AM ET | Last Updated: Feb 9, 2012 9:42 AM ET By Michael Martina The United States said Thursday a former Chinese police chief rumoured to have tried to defect had visited one of its consulates, fuelling a political intrigue analysts say may signal a power struggle in China. The mysterious consular incident in southwest China has cast an unwelcome spotlight on Bo Xilai, a former commerce minister jostling to join the Communist Party’s inner circle, but muted reaction in...

Last month we discussed the rather alarming news that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was planning a trip to China to discuss possible natural resources deals with the economic superpower. It seemed no coincidence that the trip was announced close on the heels of Barack Obama's decision to kick the can down the road on the Keystone XL pipeline yet again. But at that time, I retained some hope that perhaps this was just a warning siren to Obama which would remind him that Canada had plenty of other options should we decide not to do business with them.Apparently Harper...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is again cautioning consumers that chicken jerky products for dogs (also sold as chicken tenders, strips or treats) may be associated with illness in dogs. In the last 12 months, FDA has seen an increase in the number of complaints it received of dog illnesses associated with consumption of chicken jerky products imported from China. Now, four months later, pets are still dying from these treats. And, since the FDA testing has been inconclusive, the pet food companies that sell them aren’t recalling them. Again, that’s even though many pets are dying. Some of...

China and Canada declared Thursday that bilateral relations have reached "a new level" following a series of multibillion-dollar trade and business agreements to ship additional Canadian petroleum, uranium and other products to the Asian superpower. ..................................................... Harper has said building pipelines to the West Coast — such as the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline and a separate one for liquefied natural gas — is a national priority as Canada looks to ship its vast resources to Asia. Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel said the commitment by the Chinese and Canadian governments for a strategic energy partnership will allow Canada to...

It is ironic that in the country that invented gunpowder and possibly the first firearm, the “Fire Spear,” Communist China is complaining again that there are too many guns on Mainland China’s streets. Red Chinese officials have just announced another crackdown on private gun ownership there. Just like the perennial Five Year Plans in the Soviet Union, there have always been annual plans to catch Chinese who own firearms. Self defense there? Forget it. Its a country that is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of firearms, and where many guns wind up in the black market because of lax...

Feb 8, 2012 9:02am China’s ‘Hero Cop’ Vanishes Into ‘Vacation-Style Therapy’ China’s most famous cop has been placed on leave for “vacation-style therapy” after a rumored U.S. asylum bid that had an American consulate surrounded by Chinese police. This morning in China began with chatter that an incident had unfolded overnight outside the U.S. consulate in the western Chinese city of Chengdu. Pictures began to spread across Sina Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, showing Chengdu police blocking off the streets around the consulate. A name, Wang LiJun, began to trend alongside those pictures on the micro-blogging site. By mid-morning, searches...

A tech company suing Apple over use of the iPad name in China has upped its demands - saying it wants $1.6billion and an apology. China-based Proview Electronics won its case against the U.S. giant for alleged infringement for of its trademarked iPad name. But Apple, which had countersued, appealed the decision and the lawsuit is yet to be resolved.

China`s growth could fall to 4-pct. range this year: IMF FEBRUARY 08, 2012 03:05 The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that China`s economic growth could fall to the 4-percent range if the eurozone`s woes deepen, urging Beijing to prepare stimulus measures in response. China`s export-dependent economy is highly exposed through trade links, with a large volume of Chinese exports going to Europe. Lower import demand will reduce corporate profitability and household income, which in turn could lower GDP growth, the IMF said. The contribution of exports to GDP growth in China was minus 0.5 percent last year, and could further...

Chinese J-10 Fighter Unit Makes Maiden Flight with Live Ammunition in Tibet 15:38 GMT, February 2, 2012 On January 31, 2012, at a military airport of the Air Force of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Tibet, an aviation regiment stationed in Tibet equipped with J-10 fighters launched the year 2012’s first training of two-fighter confrontation with live ammunition. At 10:10, with the ear-piercing roaring sound, two J-10 fighters soared to the sky like arrows from the bow. At 12:30, two fighters that had just finished the training landed on the tarmac. Peng Lizhong, head of the second fighter...

NOTE The following news release is a quote: www.ice.gov/news/releases/1202/120206denver.htm FEBRUARY 6, 2012 DENVER, CO Chinese national indicted in Colorado for trying to illegally export to China radiation-hardened computer circuits used in satellite communications DENVER – Philip Chaohui He, aka Philip Hope, a Chinese national, made his initial appearance in U.S. district court on Thursday after he was named in a three-count indictment charging him with attempting to export defense articles without U.S. State Department authorization. The indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney John Walsh, District of Colorado and Michael A. Holt, special agent in charge of the Denver office of...

Following are excerpts from an interview with Colonel-General [ret.] Leonid Ivashov, former member of the Russian Joint Chiefs of Staff, which aired on Russia Today TV on February 1, 2012: Interviewer: Dr. Leonid, do you think that these preparations and very large maneuvers, which will soon be conducted by Russia, are meant as preparation for war, or rather, a military strike against Iran? […] Leonid Ivashov: These maneuvers and training will demonstrate Russia's readiness to use military power to defend its national interests and to bolster its political position. The maneuvers will show that Russia does not want any military...

In a move that was decried by the U.S., France, and Arab countries, Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a U.S.-backed proposal at the UN Security Council to condemn Syrian leader Bashar al-Assed for violence against Syrian citizens. The resolution that had demanded that Assad resign was backed by the Arab League, and the League on Saturday night called on Arab countries to shut down their embassies and consulates in Syria, and remove Syrian ambassadors from their countries. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said that Washington was "disgusted" by the vetoes. The vetoes followed a particularly bloody night...

Updated at 12 p.m. ET: Amid fresh bloodshed in the Syrian city of Homs, the U.N. Security Council on Saturday failed to pass a resolution calling on the Syrian president to step down. Russia and China vetoed the draft resolution endorsing an Arab League call for Bashar Assad to leave power. The unusual weekend U.N. session came as Syrian forces pummeled the city of Homs with mortars and artillery. Activists said more than 200 people were killed in what they called one of the bloodiest episodes of the uprising. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have been killed over...

Unlike Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney has not detailed or spoken of his policy positions in detail. Why? Is Romney an empty suit? Trump said he endorsed Romney based his talking about China and OPEC oil cartel. I have not heard one detailed policy speech about China or oil from Romney. Romney's web page only has cursory mentions of China, no detail. Compare Romney's student council level of speeches with the detailed speeches and web page content give by Newt Gingrich. Newt.org. Trump's speeches and TV appearances are extremely shallow and devoid of any detail. He repeats his sentences over and...

Bears kept in tiny cages by the Chinese who harvest their bile are starving themselves to death as their only way of escaping the misery of their captivity. Bile bears - also known as battery bears - are kept in captivity in China and Vietnam to harvest bile, a digestive juice produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder, for sale as an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. Endangered Asiatic black bears are generally used on bile farms and are now listed as vulnerable on the World Conservation Union's Red List of Threatened Animals.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao says Beijing is considering greater involvement in the eurozone's rescue funds, the temporary European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the upcoming European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Wen made the comments yesterday (2 February) at a joint news conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Beijing, without making explicit financial commitments. He said China, which has made similar positive but non-committal comments in the past, is still studying how it might lend further support. Simultaneously, ambassadors representing the 17 eurozone member states signed the ESM Treaty in Brussels, paving the way for the €500-billion permanent bailout...

Dogs and Locusts: Name-Calling Feud Between Hong Kongers and Mainlanders Ho Ai Li - Straits Times Indonesia | January 27, 2012 Beijing. A Peking University scholar angered Hong Kongers by comparing many of them to dogs. Now Hong Kongers are fighting back in a campaign against the mainlanders, whom they dub “locusts,” as a long simmering feud between the two sides threatens to boil over. Some Hong Kongers are raising funds for a newspaper advertisement against Chinese from the mainland, who have descended on the crowded former British territory in recent years, incurring the resentment of many locals. Members of...

WASHINGTON: Noting that India is increasingly getting concerned about China's posture on its border, a top US intelligence official on Wednesday said that the Indian Army is strengthening itself for a "limited conflict" with China. "Despite public statements intended to downplay tensions between India and China, we judge that India is increasingly concerned about China's posture along their disputed border and Beijing's perceived aggressive posture in the Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific region," director of national intelligence James Clapper said in his prepared testimony before the Senate Select Committee on intelligence. "The Indian Army believes a major Sino-Indian conflict is not...

… There is hardly any other area in which China is as active today as in space technology. In late December, the government in Beijing unveiled a five-year plan that ranges from the increased exploration of the earth via satellite to the preparation of a manned mission to the moon. China's foray into space presents a challenge to the West. The United States is determined not to allow anyone to usurp its dominant position in space. The Europeans and the German government, however, see the Chinese as less of a rival than a potential partner. … Europe's interest in cooperation...

Navy set to be more capable than ever 16:24 AEDT Tue Jan 31 2012 Max Blenkin, AAP Defence Correspondent New warships will give Australia's navy more capability than ever before, with some help from the US Marines, Defence Minister Stephen Smith says. Speaking at the navy's Sea Power Conference in Sydney, Mr Smith noted the navy was set to acquire two new landing helicopter dock (LHD) ships, their largest vessels ever, three advanced air warfare destroyers and 12 next generation submarines. As well, the navy's eight Anzac frigates were being upgraded with new radars and missile defences while 24 new...

U.S. should let Taiwan buy F-16 fighter jet Vice President Joe Biden is in Fort Worth today for two private fundraising events for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. Given that Tarrant County ranks second only to Orange County, Calif., for its deep-red Republican hue, there probably wasn't a need to book the convention center. That's not to say this slice of Texas is devoid of elected Democrats. State Sen. Wendy Davis and state Reps. Marc Veasey and Lon Burnam have all garnered a headline now and then for their work in Austin. Of course, Veasey hopes to have an opportunity...

BEIJING (Reuters) - The Tibetan government-in-exile has colluded with Western governments to distort a recent string of police shootings in Tibetan areas of China in a bid to discredit the government, an official Chinese newspaper said Monday. Protests by ethnic Tibetans, who accuse Chinese authorities of stifling their traditions and religious freedoms, have gathered pace in the mountainous frontiers of southwestern Sichuan province that border on Tibet proper since last Monday.

The resolution, set to be introduced Friday at the RNC’s annual winter meeting by Oklahoma committee member Carolyn McLarty, aims to shoot down what some see as an Obama administration trial balloon in the form of a recent opinion column in the New York Times by Paul V. Kane, a Marine Corps veteran and former international security fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government." Mr. Kane called on Mr. Obama to “enter into closed-door negotiations with Chinese leaders to write off the $1.14 trillion of American debt” currently held by China. Mr. Kane said the write-off would be “in...

Beijing Customers Can Buy Knives Only With ID Card 18:38 28/01/2012 BEIJING, January 28 (RIA Novosti) Tags: Beijing, China Customers in large supermarkets of Beijing has to show their ID cards to buy knives from Saturday, Chinese Fachi wanbao newspaper reported. The requirement to register all knives' buyers has been initiated by city's public security agencies. From now on a customer who wants to buy a knife or any other blade has to tell supermarket's special officer his or her name, ID card number, home address and purposes of knife use. Supermarkets are prohibited to sell knives to teenagers and...

Chinese archaeologists probe origin of domestic horses through DNA www.chinaview.cn 2006-04-01 15:55:19 BEIJING, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese archaeologists are studying the DNA samples extracted from the bones of horses unearthed from ancient sites to probe the origin of domestic horses in China. It's still a mystery to archaeologists when and where horses were first tamed in China, said Cai Dawei, a researcher with the center of archaeological research for China's border area under the Jilin University in Northwest China. The DNA research will offer valuable clues on the study of migration, spread and domestication of horses, Cai said. A...

China's Debt: You'll Grow Out of It By TOM ORLIK Objects in the rearview mirror are often closer than they appear at first. But in the case of the Chinese juggernaut, rapid economic growth means they are actually shrinking at a rapid rate. In 2011, China's gross domestic product came in at 47.1 trillion yuan ($7.4 trillion). That represented nominal growth of 17.5% from 2010, a blistering pace that makes many of the problems of debt and credit that trouble investors and hang over valuations for Chinese stocks appear a little more manageable. /snip Investors also worry about China's credit...

........."China is expected to complete its first exploration of the moon in 2010, and will establish a base on the moon as we did in the South Pole and the North Pole," said the program's chief scientist, Ouyang Ziyuan, according to the official People's Daily. 'For the Benefit of Humanity' Beijing Morning Post quoted him as elaborating that the base would be used to "mine [the moon's] riches for the benefit of humanity."

Remember this? The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan. The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a “preliminary commitment” letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. Ex-I’m Bank says it has not decided...

BEIJING - China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Saturday expressed its deep concern over the United States' anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probe into Chinese exports of wind towers. "The act will not only hamper bilateral cooperation in the field of new energy and harm the interests of US industries, but also go against global efforts to tackle the challenges of climate change and energy security," the MOC said in a statement on its website. The merchandise covered by the investigation is steel towers that support the engine and rotor blades for use in wind turbines with electrical power generation capacities in...

Chinese solar panel manufacturers flooded the US market with their products at the end of last year in anticipation of potential duties on those products, a coalition of US solar manufacturers said on Wednesday, a charge that some top Chinese companies rebutted. The US International Trade Commission voted last month to allow the case to proceed and for the Commerce Department to announce preliminary duties this year. A preliminary decision is expected on Feb. 13. CASM’s statement comes a day after President Barack Obama said in his annual State of the Union speech that he was creating an enforcement unit...