US report claims China

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US report claims China shoots down its own satellite

For the second time in three years, China has shot down one of its dysfunctional satellites with a missile, US-based Foreign Policy magazine reported in its latest issue.

The destruction of the satellite, which reportedly happened in January, shows China's defensive missile ability, the magazine said.

China's Ministry of National Defense has yet to comment on the report.

The reported firing took place at almost the same time as a successful missile interception test that China conducted on Jan 11.

The website of Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV said the anti-satellite missile test, if confirmed, is likely related to the missile interception test, which occurred at the peak of a dispute between Beijing and Washington on a massive US arms sales deal to Taiwan.

During the interception test, US agencies spotted two missiles launched from two locations from the Chinese mainland, colliding outside the atmosphere, a Pentagon spokesperson said.

China's Foreign Ministry then said the interception test was defensive in nature and was not targeting any country.

Many military scholars believe it was targeting the Patriot missile defense system that Taiwan was trying to buy from the US at that time.

China's first anti-satellite missile test was conducted successfully on Jan 11, 2007, destroying an abandoned Chinese satellite.

The Foreign Policy article did not reveal any other details of the move or any response from the US government.

Chinese military experts even warned that Washington appeared determined to surround China with US-build anti-missile systems.

However, Peng Guangqian, a Beijing-based military expert, said the newly reported anti-satellite missile test was not necessarily related to the US arms deal with Taiwan.

"It was a large test which needs time to prepare for," he said.

"If confirmed, I think it was a further step for China to improve its defensive ability in space."

Peng also said that China has long advocated the principle of a nonmilitary outer space, on which the US has long kept silent.

Source:China Daily

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Chinese dream no conspiracy, Foreign Ministry official

The international situation saw great changes during the first half this year, giving rise to new tendencies and trends. China has become a decisive force in the international arena. Everything about China, such as its growth, its influence or the changing perceptions of Western media, has become the focus of wide attention. Le Yucheng, Director General of the Policy-Planning Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared his views on the afore-mentioned issues in an interview in Beijing.

Competition among super powers a mainly "non-violent struggle"

Referring to the changes in the international situation, Le noted that the issue of development has become more and more prominent and the relationship between diplomacy and development is closer.

"Countries around the world have realized that development is of overriding importance following the global credit crunch and tried to find ways for better growth. Economic factors carry more and more weight in international relations and are interweaved with other factors such as politics, security and diplomacy. For instance, the economic and financial issues that the G20 discussed are also strategic and security issues. The transformation of the economic growth pattern has become the main task of diplomatic work to maintain stability and boost development. Chinese embassies and consulates overseas have played a crucial role in helping State-owned enterprises go global and explore overseas markets and resources."

Second, competition and cooperation among super powers coexists. According to Le, big powers are experiencing more friction on trade issues and disputes on international rules. However, unlike the Cold War, the current competition manifests itself generally in verbal struggles. Faced with more and more global challenges, no country can afford to solve problems alone. But generally speaking, cooperation still remains the mainstream and trends of relations among super powers.

There are still prolonged disputes over the RMB exchange rate. However, the U.S. exchange rate report did not single out China as a currency manipulator. Le noted that it is normal for China and the United States to have disputes on some issues, but what matters is that the two sides should handle the disputes rationally and keep a cool head to avoid frequent disruption of bilateral relations. It is a fact that China, the largest developing country, and the United States, the largest developed country, can benefit from friendly cooperation but suffer from confrontations. The stable development of bilateral relations can not only be beneficial to the two sides, but also to the world as a whole.

China has no conspiracy

At present, more and more Western media are reporting with that China has become intransigent. Le refuted such a claim, saying that it harms China when it is accused of being obstinate just for safeguarding legitimate rights and interests, which is neither fair nor reasonable.

China's diplomatic strategy is very clear that it is pursuing an independent and peaceful foreign policy, creating a better external environment for domestic growth and promoting world peace and development. Le said China has no conspiracy and doesn't aspire to hegemony, but instead, China only works for the interest of its people, seeks development and makes further contributions to world peace and development.

By People's Daily Online

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Iran calls for world body free of big power control

Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani listens during
a news conference at the Iranian embassy in Damascus July 1, 2010.

By Robert Evans
GENEVA

(Reuters) - Senior Iranian official Ali Larijani, whose country is under strong pressure from the United Nations over its nuclear program, called on Monday for a more powerful global body free of big-power domination.

Speaking to an audience including U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, Larijani said the new body should comprise "the elites" of the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and ensure more fairness in the global system.

"The current prevailing structure of power has not only been unable to secure international peace and security, but has also led to the emergence of such new phenomena as terrorism in a very dangerous and organized framework," he declared.

"No doubt this inability is due to the double standards and unilateral policies exercised by the big powers, including the USA," Larijani added.

Now speaker of parliament but formerly Iran's chief disarmament negotiator, he was speaking to a gathering of parliamentary speakers from IPU member countries on increasing global democratic accountability.

The U.N. Security Council imposed new sanctions on Iran in June over its nuclear program, Russia and China supporting U.S. proposals aimed at putting increased pressure on Tehran.

Iran says the program is only for peaceful purposes, but Western powers believe it is trying to produce nuclear weapons.

Ban earlier met Larijani and told reporters they had discussed how the Iranian nuclear issue could be resolved harmoniously.

"I emphasized the importance of the Iranian government working together with the international community to resolve this issue through dialogue and negotiations," he said.

(Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Tim Pearce)

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Is US countering terrorists or building a huge monster?

The Pentagon

According to a report from the Washington Post July 19, US anti-terrorism network is swelling to a huge monster after 9.11 Attack, where 854,000 intelligence agents work daily. The monster spends billions of US dollars and produces tons of analysis reports, while policy makers are drawn in the sea of rubbish intelligence.

The report says there are over 10,000 working places for US secret anti-terrorism network after 9 years' excessive expenditure and massive expansion. According to investigation, there are about 1,271 official organizations and 1,931 private companies that perform work at the top-secret level. The workforce reaches about 854,000.

According to the report, after 9.11 Attack, several "intelligence cities" have been formed, where anti-terrorism organizations assemble. There are 33 huge buildings of anti-terrorism organizations in and around Washington, which totally covers 17 million square feet. Inside these buildings, retinal scanning door entry systems, consolidated wall and anti eavesdropping systems are installed. Besides, a special room of classified archives is also built, of which the area is equal to 4 football fields. Budget of US intelligence system has reached 75 billion US dollars, 2.5 times of the budget before 9.11 Attack.

The report also points out some intelligence organs become important organizations. Department of Homeland Security now has 230,000 working personnel, ranking the 3rd place after the Pentagon and the US Department of Veterans Affairs. It owns a fleet of armored vehicles, a command center and a research organ. Besides, the Office of Director of National Intelligence now has 1,700 governmental personnel and 1,200 corporate employees by comparison of 11 personnel when it started to operate in 2005.

The report states that massive expansion and huge expenditure don't bring returns. An intelligence officer complained in 2007 that tons of reports were produced every year, but there was no valuable intelligence for the Iraq War and the Afghan War. Ironically, valuable intelligence were buried in the intelligence rubbish.

Besides, there is no communication among those intelligence agencies. For example, the governmental organs and military authorities of 51 states do the same thing in 15 cities: oversee fund flow of terrorist organizations

It's reported intelligence agents store, process and analyze communications in hopes of finding any track of terrorists in the room of classified archives the whole day. The average annual pay of a normal intelligence agent is 41,000 to 65,000 US dollars.

An official, a longtime conservative staffer on the Senate Armed Services Committee, described the US anti-terrorism network "a living, breathing organism" impossible to control or curtail. "How much money has been involved is just mind-boggling," he said. "We've built such a vast instrument. What are you going to do with this thing? . . . It's turned into a jobs program."

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U.S. says targeting China in new anti-piracy drive
WASHINGTON

(Reuters) - The United States will make China "a significant focus" of its beefed-up efforts to fight global piracy and counterfeiting of U.S. goods ranging from CDs to manufactured products, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

"It's fair to say China raises a particularly troubling set of issues," Victoria Espinel, the U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator, said in prepared testimony to the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

"Therefore, China will be a significant focus of our enforcement efforts as we address intellectual property infringement abroad," Espinel said testifying on the Obama administration's new intellectual property enforcement strategy, which was mandated by Congress.

The International Intellectual Property Alliance, which represents U.S. copyright industry groups, has estimated lost sales in China at more than $3.5 billion in 2009 due to piracy of U.S. music, movies and software.

U.S. manufacturers also complain that China's counterfeiters rip off their goods and sell them in markets around the world, including the United States.

"Whether it's coordinating our law enforcement personnel overseas, developing a strategy to go after foreign-based websites or using policy tools to address the competitive disadvantages that we face, China will be a priority," Espinel said.

(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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US expert challenges myths about China in Africa


After 27 years of research and field work, U.S. Africa expert Professor Deborah Brautigam is in a position to challenge prevailing Western orthodoxies about China's role in Africa.

Speaking in Beijing on Thursday, Professor Brautigam attacked lurid accusations commonly seen in the press that "the Chinese are the new colonialists, their aid is toxic; they are making poverty worse, and are undermining democracy and good governance."

She said she preferred the assessment of a Financial Times editorial that "Beijing has thrown down its most direct challenge yet to the West's architecture for aiding Africa."

"China's core ideas about development are quite different," she said. "It's not about colonialism. It's globalization with Chinese characteristics."

China's message to Africa is "Leverage what you have," said Brautigam. "Leverage the natural resources you have and use those to secure loans, to swap for loans, to build infrastructure." This approach, she said, reflects the Chinese slogan, "If you want to get rich, build a road."

China grants resource-backed loans that effectively fund infrastructure projects in Africa in return for raw materials. According to Professor Brautigam, the model is based on a Japanese US$10 billion loans-for-oil deal with China made in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution.

Brautigam said China learnt valuable lessons from its experience as a recipient of loans and is applying the lessons in Africa.

She emphasizes that Chinese involvement is about mutual benefit rather than aid. Loans are made at commercial, not concessional, rates and money is not handed to the recipient government but to the Chinese firms contracted to build roads, sewage systems, sports stadiums and so on.

But Brautigam says this model of exchanging resources for infrastructure, works better than giving cash loans that can be siphoned off into offshore bank accounts by corrupt politicians and officials.

And the infrastructure benefits the whole economy. Brautigam quoted a Nigerian diplomat as saying "The west came to Nigeria and it is all about oil, oil, oil. The Chinese are interested in all aspects of the economy."

Brautigam says the press also routinely exaggerates the extent of Chinese involvement in Africa. Even the World Bank gets it wrong, misquoting Wen Jiabao as saying China has given Africa a total of US$ 44 billion when the correct figure was 44 billion yuan (US$6.5 billion). Annual Chinese aid to Africa is currently around US$2 billion, much lower than figures commonly cited.

Another myth is that Chinese projects in Africa only employ Chinese workers. In fact, Professor Brautigam said, on average, Chinese projects employ 80 percent Africans and 20 percent Chinese.

This is not to say Chinese involvement in Africa is without problems, Brautigam said. Chinese manufacturers, traders and farmers compete with local businesses. Corruption and kickbacks are common practices, and Chinese firms often have low environmental and labor standards.

Nevertheless she compares China's involvement favorably with that of the West.

"The West is not very successful in Africa in raising living standards or fostering structural transformation," she said. "Our record is not very hard to beat"

Professor Brautigam's book The Dragon's gift: The real story of China in Africa was published in 2009 by Oxford University Press.

Source: china.org.cn

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US-China Tensions Loom in South China Sea Disputes
By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER

BANGKOK — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent passage through Southeast Asia saw Washington close ranks with its former adversary Vietnam, sending a warning to Asian heavyweight China that its assertive foreign policy in the region will be challenged.

The diplomatic battleground is the South China Sea, a stretch of ocean that has a spread of reefs, coral atolls and slender slivers of land that hardly qualify as habitable islands but for decades have been the subject of a territorial dispute in the region.

This stretch of sea washes the coasts of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and China, which have overlapping territorial claims in the area. Over the years, China has used military force to have a toehold on the often-submerged spits of land.


Reports of untapped oil and gas reserves have kept tensions up around the waters of the South China Sea, including the Paracel Islands archipelago and the Spratly Islands, which are also key shipping lanes.

While these disputes have seen the competing interests of all six claimants bubble to the surface, none compare with the diplomatic and military clashes that have occurred between traditional rivals China and Vietnam.

There is thus little wonder why analysts had been speculating that Hanoi would bring up the South China Sea issue at a series of ministerial-level security meetings it hosted last week. This annual gathering included foreign ministers from the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean), a 10-member regional bloc, and their counterparts from China, the United States, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

Yet it was not Vietnam as this year’s head of Asean—which also includes Brunei, Burma (or Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand—that tabled the prickly issue of the South China Sea during a closed-door session on Jul. 23.

Clinton waded into these troubled waters by endorsing a view that Hanoi has maintained, saying that the long-running dispute should be resolved in a multilateral setting than a bilateral one.

For years, Beijing has preferred a bilateral route as a way out of the tangle, although it has acceded to an Asean agreement to maintain the status quo in the South China Sea.

"The United States supports a collaborative, diplomatic process by all claimants for resolving the various territorial disputes without coercion," Clinton was quoted as saying after the Asean Regional Forum (ARF). "We encourage the parties to reach agreement on a full code of conduct."

"The United States, like every nation, has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia’s maritime commons and respect for international law in the South China Sea," Washington’s top diplomat added.

China did not remain quiet during the ARF closed-door sessions. "Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi expressed Beijing’s position about the South China Sea very forcefully," a South-east Asian diplomat who was in Hanoi told IPS on condition of anonymity.

"Beijing does not want the dispute under any international radar screen," writes Kavi Chongkittavorn, a commentator on regional affairs in Monday’s edition of ‘The Nation’, an English-language daily in Thailand. "Under the current Asean chair, Vietnam has been walking a tightrope as it is also a party to the conflict."

"Hanoi did not touch on the problem directly but discreetly reminded all claimants of its concerns," Kavi explains. "A recent working group meeting in Vietnam on this issue between the two sides did not yield progress."

Clinton’s position, however, reflects a shift in US policy toward Asean under the Obama administration—multilateral engagement with Southeast Asia—from the previous Bush administration’s reduction of Washington’s profile in the region.

"It is very clear that when the Obama administration looked around the world at the beginning of its term, it realized that there was too much emphasis on terrorism and on bilateral relations," Robert Fitts, a former US diplomat who has served in three Southeast Asian capitals, told IPS.

"Asean offered an opportunity for multilateral engagement, which is what the Obama administration is looking to pursue more forcefully."


Washington’s concerns over China’s role in the South China Sea mirror this position, which has prompted a strong reaction from China, reveals Fitts, a visiting scholar at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. "Last October, Beijing told Washington that it views the South China Sea as an area of its ‘core interest’."

The Chinese government has used the description ‘core interest’ when referring to Taiwan and Tibet to fend off criticism about what it views as sovereignty issues.

China, which has controlled the Paracels after a battle it waged with Vietnam in 1974 that left 18 people dead, alarmed Asean countries after its unilateral occupation of the Philippine-claimed Mischief Reef in the South China Sea in 1995.

That dispute paved the way for the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, the first political agreement between Asean and China to resolve disputes through a multilateral mechanism that strives for "peaceful solutions to disputes and conducting maritime cooperation in order to maintain regional stability in the South China Sea."

But Washington’s voicing of support for this multilateral approach, a return to the policy of US governments in the nineties, will add to China’s suspicion that it faces a daunting diplomatic challenge if Asean speaks with one voice on the territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

The position of countries like Thailand, however, may help allay Beijing’s fears. "Thailand’s position is to back Asean working towards a regional code of conduct with the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties," Thani Thongphakdi, the Thai foreign ministry’s deputy spokesman, told IPS. "It is our understanding that overlapping territorial claims will be handled bilaterally."

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Clinton comments on territorial claims, US-SKorea military drills roil U.S.-China ties
By: Peter Enav

TAIPEI, Taiwan - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's thinly veiled criticism of Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea has angered Beijing's leadership and quietly pleased Asian countries concerned about China's expanding military power.

Clinton spoke less than 48 hours before American and South Korean warships started high-profile military exercises in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, and the criticism is raising fears that long-dormant tensions between China and the U.S. could spike.

That would have worrying consequences for global stability, which benefits greatly from co-ordination between Beijing and Washington on issues like nuclear proliferation and financial stability.

Speaking Friday at an Asian security forum in Hanoi, Clinton called on China to resolve its offshore territorial disputes with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and other regional parties through international consultations. China favours a bilateral approach because it feels that would give it more control of the outcome. Low-key attempts to resolve the disputes have gone on for years but achieved little.

The Foreign Ministry in Beijing angrily characterized the Clinton comment as "an attack" and quoted Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi as saying that it would only make "things worse and more difficult to resolve."

International relations specialist Arthur Waldron of the University of Pennsylvania said that behind the Chinese statements are Beijing's long-standing efforts to assert sovereignty over 1,423,000 square miles (3,685,570 square kilometres) of South China Sea territory, giving it control over potentially rich oil and gas deposits and strategically important shipping lanes.

"At some point actions, in this case Chinese, force reactions," Waldron wrote in an email. "(The U.S. has) allies in the region for whom suddenly being washed or surrounded by Chinese territorial waters would come as a shock. So (the U.S. has) the unattractive choice of doing something, or doing nothing and losing (its) allies and (its) reputation."

China's South China Sea stance reflects its burgeoning military power. The People's Liberation Army's naval forces have been the biggest beneficiaries of a buildup that is reaching critical mass, funded by annual double-digit increases in the defence budget for almost every year of the past two decades.
During that time the Chinese navy has developed or bought — chiefly from Russia — new submarines, destroyers and frigates, many outfitted with sophisticated missiles and stealth capabilities.

The expansion has made the 225,000-strong naval force into Asia's largest and allowed it to expand its mission beyond retaking Taiwan, for 60 years one of China's core goals. Now it's focused on projecting the country's power deeper into the Pacific and protecting sea lanes vital for trade and energy imports.

None of this has gone down well in many parts of southeast and south Asia, where the U.S. is seen more and more as a counterweight to growing Chinese power.

Former American antagonist Vietnam is encouraging this trend, and officials in Singapore have cautioned against a wholesale American retreat from a region where it was once the predominant foreign power.

In northeast Asia as well, China's expanding power is encouraging many influential commentators to press for a resolute American defence presence. That includes the areas where South Korea and the United States are practicing naval manoeuvrs this week to deter Chinese ally North Korea from replicating the kind of attack that an international commission says killed 46 South Korean sailors aboard a South Korean warship in March.

Retired Lt. Gen. Noboru Yamaguchi, a professor of military history at Japan's National Defence Academy, said the best way to preserve peace between Tokyo and Beijing is to encourage closer Japanese defence ties with Washington.

"I am now arguing that we have to strengthen the alliance with the U.S. ..." he said in an interview. "By doing so, we can get closer to China."

Yamamguchi said that relations between South Korea and China have deteriorated in recent years — not least because of China's continuing support for the North — but that the South's ties with Washington remain strong.

"(That's) what allows me to sleep at night," he said.

Despite Yamaguchi's sentiments, some U.S. academics question Washington's resolve in seriously confronting China because of fears that Beijing could retaliate in ways that hurt American interests.

Edward Friedman, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said there appears to be disagreement within the U.S. government over how to deal with China. One side wants to remain soft on China to encourage it to consume more U.S. goods, while the security establishment favours a hardline approach, he said.

The security establishment "cannot help but see that (Beijing) is ever more assertive in establishing a China-centred order in Asia," he wrote in an email.

Added the University of Pennsylvania's Waldron: "The impulse to mollify China is very strong in Washington these days, strengthened by the way we are overextended already in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the longer term view, dating back to Kissinger and Nixon but still surviving, that Beijing, and not Tokyo, is somehow naturally Washington's appropriate partner in Asia."

Former Pentagon official Thomas Mahnken said a key question in determining the future of U.S.-China policy is whether the elements in the American administration that favoured containment prevail over those that favour engagement.

"During the Bush administration and into the presidency of Obama it has been the Treasury Department and perhaps to a lesser extent the State Department that has had the dominant hand in China policy, he said. "Both of these are bureaucracies that tend to favour engagement."
___

Associated Press writers Charles Hutzler in Beijing, Vijay Joshi in Bangkok and Eric Talmadge in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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China urges change in U.S. policy to avoid friction

(Reuters) - The United States should alter policy to take account of China's role as a major player on the world stage if it wants to avoid friction and instability, a major state newspaper said on Thursday.

The commentary in ruling Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily followed the latest spat in Sino-U.S. ties, over what China views as unwarranted U.S. interference in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea.

While senior officials, including U.S. President Barack Obama, say they welcome a prosperous, flourishing China, good words must be backed up by actions, the newspaper said.

"If the United States cannot find a way of recognizing and accepting China's entrance on the world stage as a big player, relations will swerve up and down like a roller coaster," it said.

"This instability in relations will have a negative effect not only on bilateral ties but on the world, and that is not something anyone wants to see."

Obama started out well, it said, with his visit to China last year, but arguments over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, Google Inc. and the value of the Chinese currency showed nothing has really changed in the United States.

"On the issue of how to co-exist with a rapidly developing China, Washington has in fact not thought things through in a calm manner."

It was wrong to think, as some experts in the United States believe, that China will be flexible on certain issues as relations between the two sides deepen, the commentary said, suggesting more discord to come.

"On cardinal questions of right and wrong, China has flinched neither in the past nor the present, and will not do so in the future," the newspaper said.

"It is impossible that when China's bottom line in reached there will not be a response. The state of Sino-U.S. relations directly impacts upon or even decides global peace and stability, especially in the Asia-Pacific region ... Future ties to a large degree hinge upon whether Washington can control its 'impulses'."

China, it said, was simply pushing back in the same way as the United States.

"'It is impolite not to reciprocate'," it added, quoting a classic Confucian text. "There is no lack of China experts in Washington who should fully understand the meaning of this."

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Ron Popeski)

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China rejects Western standards on human rights, Vice FM says

China is gradually learning and absorbing ideas on human rights that can grow on its soil, and remains opposed to attempts by the West to impose its standards on China, says Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying.

In a recent interview with the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Fu said it seems "controversial and illogical" that Western countries acknowledge China's economic success and contributions to efforts against the global financial crisis, while "definitely" turning a blind eye to China's political progress.

It seems as if the West wants to say that China has achieved all these without the leadership of the government and the Communist Party, maybe in total anarchy, Fu said.

"I still remember when I was an interpreter in the 1980s, human rights was always on the menu in our dialogues and our European guests brought lists of names with them," she said.

"Thirty years later, China has moved on, and so much has changed. In 2004, protection of human rights was incorporated into China's constitution. Many relevant laws and rules have been amended accordingly," Fu said.

However, European delegations still come to China with the same stance, accusing China in a commanding way, Fu said.

"I really don't hear much mentioning of China' s human rights progress," she said.

Yet, those political extremists seem to be presenting the whole picture of China's human rights for European countries, she said.

Fu believes that to know the real China, it's not enough to "single out things you are interested in, or only listen to people who talk your talk."

The most important is to look at the benefits of the majority of the people, she said.

"If you think your model is the best, and you use them as the ultimate measure of China, you'll find China does not fit," she said, "If the West insists on judging China by its Western standards, expecting China to become a Western-style country, it will always stay misguided."

"Yet, look around at countries that have adopted your system, how successful they are? Which one is doing as well as you are? Have they approached your GDP?" she said, "Maybe it (the Western system) works somewhere, but not necessarily everywhere."

China, with all its success, deserves respect and calm review about itself, Fu said. China is not rejecting any idea of human rights, Fu said. China is learning gradually and absorbing ideas that can be planted and grown and prosper on China's soil.

However, China rejects the ideas imposed on it, the vice minister said.

As for western countries'reports on China, Fu said some of those were tinged with jealousy.

Over the last few years, media reporting about China has been more extensive and balanced, but the jealousy is still there, she said.

She said if that people looked back at Western TV coverage of the rioting in Lhasa in 2008, "you would see on the footage police beating monks, but the police were wearing different uniforms every day. Those were not even Chinese police!"

"I am sure those insiders who put the footage on TV should know it was not from China, but why would they still do that?" she said, "It so damaged the image of your media in China, especially among the young. Your reputation will take a long while to recover from this."

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China denies forcing foreign firms to transfer technology

China Thursday denied charges by a US business group that its technology transfer rules for foreign firms constitute "theft" on a massive scale.

"Countries around the world have taken a lot of measures to encourage technology innovation," a Chinese commerce ministry official, who declined to be named, told AFP.

"The Chinese policies are in line with relevant WTO rules."

A US Chamber of Commerce report this week accused China of abusing the allure of its vast market to push foreign companies to transfer their latest technologies to Chinese competitors.

This was a "blueprint for technology theft on a scale the world has never seen before," the report said.

US Trade Representative Ron Kirk joined the fray Wednesday, responding to the chamber's complaints by saying the US planned to push Beijing on the issue.

"That is going to be one of the top items that we continue to engage China on," Kirk told reporters in Washington.

However, Chen Deming, China's Minister of Commerce, wrote in an opinion piece Monday in the Financial Times, saying, "in April we held a public consultation to review the criteria we use to accredit 'innovation products.' The results emphasized that all foreign enterprises are given equal treatment and that all their products are considered to be 'made in China,' while the same rules of origin are applied to them as to Chinese products."

In April, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao also reiterated Beijing's pledge that foreign companies with operations in China would be treated equally under the new rule.

A Chinese railway official Wednesday denied claims that China forces foreign companies to transfer technologies when they win contracts for work on the country's high-speed rail network.

Source: Global Times/Agencies

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China launches new global positioning satellite

China took a further step on Sunday toward ending its dependence on U.S. satellites to provide navigation and positioning services.

A rocket carrying the fifth of a planned array of 35 orbiters blasted off from the Xichang space launch center in Sichuan, southwest China, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Beijing started a drive to end its reliance on the U.S. Global Positioning System in 2000, when it sent an experimental pair of positioning satellites into orbit.

China's necklace of satellites aims to provide navigation, time and short message services in the Asia-Pacific region before 2012 and will be capable of offering global navigation by 2020, Xinhua said.

The system, codenamed "COMPASS," will be crucial for the transport and oil exploration industries as well as for weather and disaster forecasting, telecommunications and public security, the news agency said.

(Reporting by Alan Wheatley, editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

[hacksecrets]

The fifth orbiter into space, as part of its satellite navigation and positioning network known as Beidou, or Compass system, is launched on the Long March 3I carrier rocket at Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Xichang, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on August 1, 2010. (Xinhua/Du Cai)

[hacksecrets]

The fifth orbiter into space, as part of its satellite navigation and positioning network known as Beidou, or Compass system, is launched on the Long March 3I carrier rocket at Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Xichang, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on August 1, 2010. (Xinhua/Du Cai)

[hacksecrets]

The fifth orbiter into space, as part of its satellite navigation and positioning network known as Beidou, or Compass system, is launched on the Long March 3I carrier rocket at Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Xichang, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on August 1, 2010. (Xinhua)

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US companies continue to thrive off of exports to China

U.S. exports to China continued to grow in 2009 despite the global financial crisis, especially in the fourth quarter, which saw a new record of 20 billion U.S. dollars. Exports to China have become an important source of growth for U.S. companies, according to a report on exports to China released by US-China Business Council (USCBC) Monday.

The data in the report suggest that U.S. exports to China in 2009 are equal to the previous year but dropped by 20 percent to the rest of the world in the same period. And in the first five month this year, U.S. exports to China increased by 39 percent year on year.

"Even with a global recession, American businesses and American workers continue to benefit from expanding opportunities to sell high-value manufactured goods to the China market, the world's fastest growing economy," USCBC President John Frisbie said." It is a clear trend that began in 2000 and continued in 2009."

The report once again confirms the growing importance of the Chinese market for the continued vitality of the U.S. economy.

U.S. exports to China have jumped 330 percent since 2000, compared to 29 percent to the rest of the world. The exports to China in 393 of 435 members of Parliament election districts maintained a three-figure export growth rate. And the economies of all members of Parliament election districts benefit from their exports to China.

By Ma Xiaoning; translated by Zhao Chenyan

[sunny]

New Treaty Targets WMD Smuggling on Aircraft

Signatories to a pact finalized Friday in China would be expected to establish criminal penalties against the air-based transfer of weapons of mass destruction and their constituent parts, the U.S. State Department announced.

A U.S. delegate signed the 2010 Beijing Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Relating to International Civil Aviation.

“This treaty will strengthen our efforts to ensure that extraordinarily dangerous materials, such as biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, will not be transported via civil aircraft for illicit purposes and if such attempts are made, those responsible will be held accountable under the law,” U.S. acting Assistant Secretary of State Vann Van Diepen said (U.S. State Department release, Sept. 14).