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Iran and China are making "disturbing" gains in Latin America and Washington can no longer afford to shun leaders from nations like Venezuela and Bolivia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (AFP)--The United States risks losing influence to China because it is too slow to deliver aid to needy nations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Thursday. Speaking to a congressional committee, Clinton cited the example of an emergency deal signed by China last month to help bail Jamaica out of its financial crisis. "They (Jamaica) have just signed a memorandum of understanding with China...and now they have got a government-to-government relationship with China," Clinton said. "We have to be sure we have in place the safeguards so that the money goes where we intend it to go," Clinton told...

A contrite President Barack Obama apologized to Europeans for what he called “a history of American arrogance.” “I am told by my advisors that the United States’ Army twice invaded the European continent during the 20th century, obliterating many cities by aerial bombardment, and destroying many precious artifacts” Obama said. “For this, let me express my sincere regrets on behalf of the American people.” The President said he was shocked and appalled to learn that the US still has troops and weapons stationed in Europe. “The continued occupation of what should be sovereign nations is, indeed, a stain I will...

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa barred the Dalai Lama from a peace conference in Johannesburg this week, saying Monday it did not want to endanger the government's relationship with China. The move prompted sharp criticism from the Nobel Committee, among others. Thabo Masebe, spokesman for President Kgalema Motlanthe, said now was not the time for such a high-profile visit from the Tibetan spiritual leader and added that South Africa hoped to avoid being "the source of negative publicity about China."

President-elect Mauricio Funes Wednesday said he will consider establishing diplomatic relations with China when he takes office on June 1. Funes, who heads the FMLN leftist rebel group-turned political party, said he would discuss San Salvador's links with Beijing with Taiwan's envoy as well as with Chinese officials in the Salvadoran capital. But he insisted the "type of relation" his incoming government will establish with Taiwan and Beijing "will be dealt with later on" in his administration. Funes said however that he is "interested in closer" trade relations with China, given its immense market of more than 1.3 billion people....

China released its sixth biennial Defense White Paper on 20 January 2009 marking a double-digit increase in its budgetary allocation to $58.8bn in 2008 for the 20th year in a row. In tandem with the emerging power’s rising influence and security vulnerabilities, the 2008 Chinese Defence white paper elevates the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) into echelons of power and decision-making in foreign policy. Now, this has security implications for the way Africa is going to relate with its biggest trading partner. The rapid economic expansion of China has not only afforded Beijing more leverage around the globe, but also expanded...

Two Chinese destroyers and a supply ship will set sail for the Gulf of Aden on Friday to protect Chinese merchant ships from an increasing number of pirate attacks in the waters off the coast of Somalia, navy officials said Tuesday. China has reportedly been working to rapidly modernize its fleet. Two helicopters and special operations forces will also head to the region, the Chinese officials said. Chinese media reported the plans last week. It will mark the first time that the country's naval vessels have left Chinese waters in centuries. The Chinese ships will join a multinational naval force...

A continent that withstood European colonialism welcomes Chinese conquest. By Peter Hitchens It is the optimism of Africa that is so heartbreaking. In the alleyways of townships where human waste dribbles among the potholes, in mud villages where tiny homes cluster round anthills, the same scene replays. Out of dim hovels come scrubbed children in dazzlingly clean uniforms, hurrying to disciplined schools where they hope to better themselves. On Sundays, platoons of beautifully dressed, joyous women make their way proudly to full churches, carrying themselves like royalty. In the great cities, a thousand tiny businesses compete good-naturedly for scanty trade....

A disaster awaits us, one more devastating and detrimental to our existence than anything we have before encountered. While Obama sits in Chicago picking over the rancid carcass of the Clinton administration in hopes of finding another stooge to fill his cabinet, to our south a storm is brewing. The Russian Bear, now fully awakened from its decades long hibernation, is once again seeking to extend its influence and military might into the western hemisphere. The danger we face from the sinful alliance between the Russians and that criminal Chaves poses a threat not only to US hegemony in our...

TEHRAN, Nov 23 (Reuters) - An Iranian militia held civil defence drills on Sunday to prepare for any hostile air strikes and the military said it could close a waterway crucial for world oil supplies if Iran was attacked. The exercises organised by student members of the Basij militia were held at hundreds of schools across the country and involved transporting wounded people and putting out fires after a fictitious bombardment by enemy planes. The United States and Israel have hinted they could take military action if Iran presses ahead with a nuclear programme they believe is aimed at making...

China on Wednesday said it will actively carry out military exchanges and defense dialogue and cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie on Tuesday pledged to increase military cooperation with Ecuador. Liang, also a State Councilor, made the remarks during his talk with Ecuador Minister of Defense Javier Ponce.

BEIJING -(Dow Jones)- China and Venezuela may open a key bilateral investment fund to left-leaning governments across Latin America in a bid at eroding U.S. allegiance in the region, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday.

Within minutes of touching down in Beijing, Chavez declared himself an "anti-imperialist" and made constant allusions to his battles with the Bush administration, saying China's rise "has shown the world that one doesn't have to attack anyone to become a great power." A self-styled revolutionary, Chavez hailed Mao Zedong, the communist founder of modern China, whom many Chinese view as irrelevant nowadays as they chase wealth. "We are offering tribute in the land of Mao," the former army paratrooper said. "I am a Maoist." Last Sunday, before leaving on a five-nation journey that began in Cuba and also will take...

China’s influence in Africa is extending to Nigeria, a country that has historically exported the majority of its oil to Western countries. In Nigeria, the majority of the exported oil is currently destined for the U.S. and Western Europe. China, however, is becoming increasing important to the African country. ............................. In exchange for a $4 billion investment on infrastructure, CNPC was given first refusal rights on four oil blocks. Over the past few years, through continued patience and geopolitical prowess, the pendulum has been swinging in China’s direction. Nigeria has reportedly favored Asian investors, who are more willing to offer...

BEIJING, May 14 -- China announced Monday that it had launched a Chinese-manufactured communications satellite into orbit on behalf of Nigeria, marking the first time China has built a commercial satellite and put it into orbit on contract for another country. The launch, in Monday's pre-dawn hours from the Xichang space center in southwestern Sichuan province, was viewed as another sign of China's increasing prowess in space and its determination to be among the world's great powers seeking to utilize the reaches of outer space for benefits on Earth. The country's space agency, which is managed by the military, sent...

FROM MATHIAS OKWE, ABUJA REPRIEVE may not be long in coming to the nation's pitiable infrastructure as China has promised to help out with about $50b (six trillion naira). The fund according to the Finance Minister, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman is to help rehabilitate the nation's contemptibly poor infrastructure. Already, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed between the Africa Finance Company (AFC) on the one hand; and the Managing Directors of Zenith Bank, Oceanic Bank and First Bank on the other on behalf of other Nigerian financial institutions with the Chinese Export Credit Guarantee Agency called SINOSURE for the...

The entire world may not have sat up and taken notice in the last week, and that is probably just fine with China, which has just made a major move into central Africa. With its agreement to lend $5 billion to Congo, what might have often looked like a grab-bag approach to the African continent by a country with only sporadic involvement there has finally taken on a distinct outline. .............................................. It must be said that China has chosen a daunting proving ground for its long-held ideas about engagement with the developing world, which could be summed up as "it's...

On June 5, 1873, in a letter to The Times, Sir Francis Galton, the cousin of Charles Darwin and a distinguished African explorer in his own right, outlined a daring (if by today's standards utterly offensive) new method to 'tame' and colonise what was then known as the Dark Continent. 'My proposal is to make the encouragement of Chinese settlements of Africa a part of our national policy, in the belief that the Chinese immigrants would not only maintain their position, but that they would multiply and their descendants supplant the inferior Negro race,' wrote Galton. 'I should expect that...

Zimbabwe’s EnablerBy Brett D. Schaefer and John J. Tkacik, Jr.The Heritage Foundation | 7/17/2008 For decades, China has been a stalwart ally of Robert Mugabe. This relationship began in the 1970s, when China armed Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) guerrillas against white rule in Southern Rhodesia.[1] Subsequently, it was no surprise when China and Russia vetoed a July 12 United Nations Security Council resolution to sanction Mugabe and key figures in his government for their role in unleashing a campaign of violence and intimidation that forced opposition presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangarai to withdraw from last month's Zimbabwean run-off...

The anthropologist Margaret Mead once observed that in the 1930s, when she was busy remaking the idea of culture, the notion of cultural diversity was to be found only in the 'vocabulary of a small and technical group of professional anthropologists'. Today, everyone and everything seems to have its own culture. From anorexia to zydeco, the American philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah has observed, there is little that we don't talk about as the product of some group's culture. In this age of globalisation many people fret about Western culture taking over the world. But the greatest Western export is not...

A high court in South Africa ruled on Wednesday that Chinese-South Africans will be reclassified as “black,” a term that includes black Africans, Indians and others who were subject to discrimination under apartheid. As a result of this ruling, Chinese will be able to benefit from government affirmative action policies aimed at undoing the effects of apartheid.

PHNOM PENH - China, hungry for strategic influence and natural resources, is asserting itself as a major investor in Cambodia, sparking concerns that a huge inflow of Chinese cash will fuel existing corruption and exploitation in one of the world's poorest countries. The relationship between the two countries is long and mixed, given Maoist China's unflagging support for the late supreme Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, whose Marxist faction is blamed for the deaths of more than a million Cambodians from 1975-79. But in recent years, ethnic Chinese families close to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen have played a key...

Concurrent with China's latest shipments of arms and munitions to Zimbabwe (see), two dozen uniformed and armed Chinese soldiers were seen patrolling the streets of the eastern border town of Mutare, with Zimbabwean troops, during a strike by Mugabe's political opposition. The Chinese Embassy denied that there were any Chinese troops in the area, but suggested that local Chinese-owned companies hired contractors to protect their interests. Over the last few years, thousands of Chinese have moved to Zimbabwe, where they have become active in retailing, manufacturing, mining and farming. They have a lot to protect and apparently have formed a...

HARARE - A general strike called by the MDC to pressure the Zimbabweans government and the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) to release presidential results appeared to have faltered in all major cities despite the despair within the majority over the lack of results, almost three weeks on. People were seen going about their usual business, maybe due to fear the weight of the state security officers deployed ahead of the strike could descend on them or because the economic crisis does not allow people to drop earnings at all. Soldiers and police fanned out across Zimbabwe early in the day...

NEW DELHI: Despite the huge diplomatic snub by China as it summoned India's ambassador at 2am on Saturday to protest against Tibetan activists breaking into the Chinese embassy in Delhi, the government here is silent on the reported deployment of Chinese troops in Nepal. According to reports, China stationed forces on the Nepalese side of the border with Tibet last week, in order to keep tabs on protests by Tibetans in Nepal over the past few days. The Chinese forces were in plainclothes, but armed with small weapons, sources said. This has rung alarm bells in India's security apparatus, but...

WE HAVE recently witnessed violent protests in Tibet. I support the struggle of the people of Tibet. The question that arises now is what is the case all about and how is India affected by this conflict? Recently, Indian Prime Minister visited Arunachal Pradesh. While addressing a rally in Itanagar, he said that Arunachal Pradesh is India’s land of rising sun. China lodged its protest on Manmohan Singh’s assertion over this claim of India. China has always said that Arunachal Pradesh is part of China. Officials on Indian side are numb since then over an issue, which has potential to...

MONROVIA, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Liberians called for "more trade, less aid" on Wednesday as they prepared to welcome U.S. President George W. Bush, who winds up his African tour with a visit to Washington's staunchest ally on the continent. Scores of workers in overalls repainted buildings, cleaned streets and hung posters of Bush and his wife Laura in the war-damaged capital Monrovia ahead of the visit on Thursday by the U.S. leader, the first by an American president in 30 years. Bush arrives on the final leg of a five-nation African tour, during which he has promoted his multi-billion-dollar...

Iran Eyes the China Card February 06, 2008 Washington Post Kayhan Barzegar China’s presence in Iran and the Middle East might be a potential threat for the United States given its current regional policies – but it is an opportunity for emerging nations like Iran. For rising nations, like Iran, that tend to follow their own independent route to advancement, the best situation is a multi-polar world in which potential global powers like China can offer investments and technology to protect rising nations from the U.S. and Europe’s pressing strength. From an Iranian perspective, therefore, China’s increased presence in Iran,...

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is holding a four-day meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, starting Friday. While the summit will doubtless end with the usual flurry of statements emphasizing peace and prosperity for member states, the gathering will be most notable for what is absent from the declarations, a vision of what the grouping actually entails, particularly as regards energy exports. Within the SCO, both the Russian Federation and China have security concerns; they share a commonality with their fellow SCO members about rising Islamic militancy in Eurasia, but after that their security concerns diverge, with Russia primarily looking westward toward NATO’s...

Hume, Father of Postmodernism and Anti-rationalism—Part 3 by Reginald Firehammer Multiculturalism and Ignorance The first of Hume's two destructive concepts referred to in the previous part of this article is found in "Section V, Sceptical Solution of These Doubts, Part I" where he introduces what he calls a "principle" that is his explanation and justification for believing in cause and effect. "This principle is Custom or Habit. For wherever the repetition of any particular act or operation produces a propensity to renew the same act or operation, without being impelled by any reasoning or process of the understanding, we always...

UNITED NATIONS - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega accused the U.S. of imposing a worldwide dictatorship and defended the right of Iran and North Korea to pursue nuclear technology in a speech Tuesday before the U.N. General Assembly meeting. Ortega also angrily denounced President Bush for criticizing Cuban leader Fidel Castro during his speech earlier in the day. Ortega, who took office in January, said little had changed since he last addressed the world body as the Marxist leader of Nicaragua's Sandinista-run government two decades ago. "The presidents of the U.S. change. And they may come to office with the greatest...

Newly declassified U.S. government documents confirm the U.S. government suspected China was helping Algeria build a secret facility in 1991 for developing nuclear weapons. The 15-megawatt reactor is now a research center about 80 miles south of the Algerian capital of Algiers, and has been brought under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) controls. However, the once-classified reports show the joint Chinese-Algerian nuclear project was kept secret from the 1980s until its existence was first disclosed by The Washington Times on April 11, 1991. The disclosure set off international protests and diplomatic pressure involving eight nations, and a major interagency effort...

Commentary: China silently nuclearizing South Asia MANIPAL, Sep. 17 M.D. NALAPAT Column: Future Present In 1999 this columnist put forward the theory of a "proxy nuclear state," a country that has had nuclear capability grafted onto it by an outside power. Thus far, China has developed two such states -- North Korea (to harry Japan) and Pakistan (to contain India). A third, Bangladesh, is well on the way, with Iran a likely candidate for a future in which tensions with the United States reach the 1950s level. China's warming strategic relationship with Russia has resulted in Moscow going along as...

I kid you not.Go see for yourself, to the link above, at US.GOV, the official website of the United States of America.Go to the right. Read the text closely. For oldertimer Freepers, get out your reading glasses.

No one alive at the close of the 19th century could have missed the "scramble for Africa". A motley collection of robber barons, imperialist ideologues, explorers, rogues and adventurers - the likes of Cecil Rhodes and the appalling Leopold II, King of the Belgians - carved up the continent in the name of five European powers. Today, few appear to have noticed that a second "scramble for Africa" is under way. This time, only one giant country is involved, but its ambitions are every bit as momentous as those of Rhodes and company. With every day that passes, China's economic...

The leaders of China and Kazakhstan have agreed to finance and build a network of pipelines to supply the world's fastest-growing major economy with oil and gas from the Caspian Sea region. "The Caspian will be linked to western China," Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev told reporters in the capital Astana on Saturday after meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao. "These are major projects, and today we reached agreement on these issues." Kazakhstan's Atasu-Alashankou oil route will be extended and a gas link from Turkmenistan to China through Kazakhstan will be built, Bloomberg News quoted Nazarbayev as saying. The gas link...

Let's connect some dots. While Americans were celebrating the Fourth of July, a formal alliance to dethrone the United States as the sole global superpower was announced in Tehran. And Venezuela and Iran have helpers. The binder for the "axis of friendship," as President Ahmadinejad called it, is oil. But the Axis (why in the world do they want to call themselves that?) enjoys the informal support of two major powers who'd also like to see the U.S. brought down in the world: Russia, a fallen superpower and major oil producer, and the nation in line to become the next...

The Chinese state oil giant, CNOOC, has won permission to search for oil in part of Somalia, underlining China's willingness to brave Africa's most volatile regions in its hunt for natural resources. Somalia has been a no-go area for US oil companies since it descended into anarchy in the early 1990s. This year the capital, Mogadishu, has seen its worst violence in 16 years as insurgents seek to topple a fragile interim government.

Beijing's support for the Burmese junta has strengthened over the past few months as China's leaders see Rangoon as a corner stone of their strategy towards South-East Asia . The recent trip by the acting Burmese Prime Minister, Thein Sein to Kunming, Beijing and Shanghai underlines the new relationship which has emerged. Both countries are intent on strengthening their bilateral trade and investment ties as well as developing social and cultural exchange programmes. But on the political front, irritations remain – with Beijing quietly pressing Rangoon to introduce concrete political reform as soon as possible. "It is no coincidence that...

SAO PAULO, May 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. military must keep up its aid to Latin America or risk giving China and Russia the chance to gain a foothold in the region, a senior U.S. defense official has warned. Stephen Johnson, the new U.S. assistant defense secretary for the Western Hemisphere, also said Washington must not waver in its support for Colombia in the fight against guerrillas and drug traffickers. His comments came as U.S. congressional Democrats show reluctance to approve a trade deal and extend amultimillion-dollar aid package to Colombia due to concerns about the human rights record of...

HARARE - Desperate for foreign currency, the corrupt Mugabe regime is now dishing out prime agricultural land to the Chinese, having grabbed it from commercial farmers under the pretext of giving land to the people. The Chinese have also been given mining concessions and future tobacco crops in exchange for foreign currency and farm machinery. But because of rampant corruption and the artificially maintained chasm between the official and parallel rates of exchange, most of the forex will end up in the pockets of Zanu (PF) fatcats, while agriculture, mining and industry collapse. Analysts say Mugabe has mortgaged the nation's...

Top advisor: China to deepen reciprocal cooperation with Zimbabwe www.chinaview.cn 2007-04-22 00:05:22 HARARE, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Top Chinese Political advisor Jia Qinglin said here Saturday that China will work with Zimbabwe to deepen bilateral reciprocal cooperation in economy, trade and other fields. Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body, made the remarks at a meeting with Zimbabwean President Robert Gabriel Mugabe. He spoke highly of the smooth growth of bilateral relations and cooperation in various fields on the basis of mutual benefit. Jia, who arrived here Friday...

Quetta (AsiaNews/Agencies) ? Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf inaugurated a deep sea port in Gwadar, in the southern province of Baluchistan, on Tuesday. For many experts it will give China, which paid for much of the construction, direct access to the Middle East and the Arabian Sea. ?This port would prove to be a trade corridor for Central Asian states, China and the [Persian] Gulf as 60 per cent trade of oil and gas is done through this route,? the president said. ?The same Chinese friends [who helped build the port] will build an airport here for us, where the best...

Oil seals friendship for China and 'rogue' Sudan By David Blair, Diplomatic Correspondent Last Updated: 1:19am GMT 02/02/2007 When President Hu Jintao of China arrives in Sudan today, an isolated regime waging a brutal war in Darfur will offer an effusive welcome. "We are striving to be the best friend of China in the African continent," said Zahawi Ibrahim Malik, Sudan's information minister, as he announced Mr Hu's latest stop on his tour of Africa. Khartoum has much to be grateful for. China has become a key player in Sudan's burgeoning oil industry, which poured some £3.2 billion into the...

India sets sights on cruise missile market By Siddharth Srivastava NEW DELHI - Long considered among the top importing nations for defense hardware, India is now looking to access the fast-growing international market for cruise missiles, considered a lethally efficient weapon. US forces used almost 1,000 such missiles when they first entered Iraq in 2003, and the total worldwide market is expected to be more than US$10 billion in the next decade. An inventory of more than 80,000 such missiles is estimated already to exist around the world. Indian Defense Minister A K Anthony has said New Delhi is holding...

Hegemonism is the doctrine holding that every American action on the international stage should be examined under suspicion of evil intent. And what does it foresee occurring in Iraq - and the Middle East at large - after the United States pulls out? This is no trivial question. Hegemonist doctrine is a major factor in the rush toward abandonment of American responsibilities in the Persian Gulf. The hegemonist worldview is today dominant in American culture. With the effective collapse of the conservative consensus over the past half-decade, there is nothing to stand against it. It is the controlling ideology in the...

POLITICS Beyond Hegemony Related Resources On NationalJournal.com Poll Track: 2006 Polling On Foreign Affairs · Well-Read Wonk: "The Case For Goliath" (10/5/06) · National Journal: "Reunited Nations?" (3/12/05) · Off Message: "The China Canard" (7/1/05) · Social Studies: "Europe is the Next Rival Superpower. But Then, So Was Japan." (1/28/05) · Well-Read Wonk: "After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order" (4/15/04) · National Journal: "The New New World Order" (11/1/02) Additional Resources On The Web Robert Kaplan, "How We Would Fight China" (Atlantic Monthly, 6/05) · Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton Discusses Internationalism (12/15/03) · Then-Under Secretary of...

While interacting with a select gathering of "Russia hands" from Western academia, media and think tanks recently, President Vladimir Putin ventured onto the topic of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in terms, as he put it, that would be a "revelation ... something probably I have never said to anyone before". Putin, known for his reticence and choice of words, revealed that the Kremlin did not "plan" for the SCO's present standing, but had only set its sights on the organization's potential to resolve the "utilitarian question of settling borders" between China and its post-Soviet neighbors. SCO includes China, Russia,...

China says it has reached an agreement with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, to co-operate on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. China's official news agency said the agreement had been confirmed at talks in Beijing on Tuesday between Mr Mubarak and President Hu Jintao. No further details of the deal have been made public. Egypt plans to revive its nuclear energy programme, frozen 20 years ago after the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Russia has also said it is willing to help Egypt to develop a nuclear energy programme. Following his talks in Moscow and Beijing, Mr Mubarak has moved on...