Wednesday, July 20, 2005
China arms budget has tripled, says PentagonFrom Jane Macartney in Beijing
CHINA is spending far more than it admits on its military as part of a modernisation process that signals long-term ambitions to extend its power not only over Taiwan but also deeper into the region, according to the Pentagon.
Li Zhaoxing, the Chinese Foreign Minister, yesterday swiftly dismissed a new report, presented to the US Congress on Tuesday. “China, remember, will continue to pursue a path of peaceful development,” he said, insisting that his country posed no threat to anyone.
The report could further fuel anti-Beijing sentiment among US politicians. Congress is already restless over China’s huge trade surplus, a currency policy seen as undervaluing the yuan to give Chinese goods an unfair advantage in the marketplace and a bid by a state-controlled energy firm for Unocal, the US energy producer.
“China does not now face a direct threat from another nation. Yet it continues to invest heavily in its military, particularly in programmes designed to improve power projection,” the report said.
The Pentagon estimates that China might be spending up to $90 billion (£52 billion) a year on its military, three times the officially acknowledged budget, a figure that would make it the world’s third-biggest defence spender after the United States and Russia. The Pentagon assessment details advances in China’s arsenal of short-range ballistic missiles, with between 650 and 730 deployed opposite the island of Taiwan, and notes that Beijing is adding to them at a rate of about 100 missiles a year. The issue of Taiwan lies at the heart of Sino-American relations since Beijing has said that it will retake the island, which it sees as a renegade province, by force if necessary while the United States is committed by treaty obligations to the island’s defence.
In addition, China possesses longer-range missiles capable of striking India, Australia and most American cities and has made considerable advances in sea and air power, including its indigenous Yuan-class submarine that was launched last year and a high-tech F-10 fighter expected to be rolled out this year. “Current trends in China’s military modernisation could provide China with a force capable of prosecuting a range of military operations in Asia, well beyond Taiwan, potentially posing a credible threat to modern militaries in the area,” the report said.
However, the report also cites weaknesses and concludes that China’s ability to project conventional military power remains limited. This, and the damage to China’s image and the impact on its economic growth, acts as a deterrent to military action against Taiwan.
The military build-up underscores why the US opposes any easing of a European Union arms embargo on China.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1702139,00.html
Li Zhaoxing, the Chinese Foreign Minister, yesterday swiftly dismissed a new report, presented to the US Congress on Tuesday. “China, remember, will continue to pursue a path of peaceful development,” he said, insisting that his country posed no threat to anyone.
The report could further fuel anti-Beijing sentiment among US politicians. Congress is already restless over China’s huge trade surplus, a currency policy seen as undervaluing the yuan to give Chinese goods an unfair advantage in the marketplace and a bid by a state-controlled energy firm for Unocal, the US energy producer.
“China does not now face a direct threat from another nation. Yet it continues to invest heavily in its military, particularly in programmes designed to improve power projection,” the report said.
The Pentagon estimates that China might be spending up to $90 billion (£52 billion) a year on its military, three times the officially acknowledged budget, a figure that would make it the world’s third-biggest defence spender after the United States and Russia. The Pentagon assessment details advances in China’s arsenal of short-range ballistic missiles, with between 650 and 730 deployed opposite the island of Taiwan, and notes that Beijing is adding to them at a rate of about 100 missiles a year. The issue of Taiwan lies at the heart of Sino-American relations since Beijing has said that it will retake the island, which it sees as a renegade province, by force if necessary while the United States is committed by treaty obligations to the island’s defence.
In addition, China possesses longer-range missiles capable of striking India, Australia and most American cities and has made considerable advances in sea and air power, including its indigenous Yuan-class submarine that was launched last year and a high-tech F-10 fighter expected to be rolled out this year. “Current trends in China’s military modernisation could provide China with a force capable of prosecuting a range of military operations in Asia, well beyond Taiwan, potentially posing a credible threat to modern militaries in the area,” the report said.
However, the report also cites weaknesses and concludes that China’s ability to project conventional military power remains limited. This, and the damage to China’s image and the impact on its economic growth, acts as a deterrent to military action against Taiwan.
The military build-up underscores why the US opposes any easing of a European Union arms embargo on China.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1702139,00.html
Why US is shifting nuclear stand with India
A bargain on nuclear technology may signal view of India as counterbalance to China.
By Howard LaFranchi Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON – US plans to broaden India's access to nuclear technology, announced this week during an enthusiastic visit to Washington by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, have their roots in designs from the earliest days of the Bush administration to build India's stature as a counterbalance to a rising and problematic China.
The proposed extension of nuclear access to what the White House likes to call "the world's largest democracy" raises questions about potential impact on other countries with nuclear ambitions and designs for international status. That is especially true as the announcement comes just days before the European Union is to return to negotiations with Iran to end its nuclear-weapons programs and six-party talks are to take up again in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear program.
But perhaps the greatest significance of the plan is what it says about 21st- century geopolitics and in particular about a Bush administration vision for dealing with China, some analysts say.
"The crux of this announcement is what it tells us about the US grand strategy, and that behind whatever else is going on here the US is preparing for a grand conflict with China and constructing an anti-China coalition," says Joseph Cirincione, head of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "In that scenario, India is even more valuable as a nuclear power, rather than as a nonnuclear country."
The White House plan, which would allow India broader access to international technology for its nuclear power industry in exchange for India granting some access to international inspections, still faces high hurdles: Opposition is expected to be strong both in the US Congress and among other nuclear powers who along with the US would have some say.
In the view of some specialists, the plan would certainly erode and perhaps mean the scrapping of decades of international nonproliferation effort in favor of an ad hoc, case-by-case approach that rewards certain countries while punishing others. "This is a plan that chooses good guys and bad guys, and says that what matters is power politics and not nonproliferation principles," Mr. Cirincione says.
But for others, the plan reflects a realistic appraisal both of exploding global energy needs and India's responsible track record in handling nuclear technology.
"Yes, this does look at India on an individual basis, but it also rewards a worthy country for its very good performance on nuclear proliferation, and in that sense it reflects a desirable change in US policy," says Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy in Washington. The US shift will raise protests from Pakistan, Mr. Harrison says, but in response to protests of special treatment for India, the US "has an answer, and that is: A. Q. Khan," he adds, referring to the "father" of Pakistan's nuclear program who developed a clandestine nuclear bazaar.
Certainly, the US increasingly sees India as a "good guy," both in terms of the South Asian region but also in international affairs. President Bush referred to "our shared values" during Mr. Singh's White House visit Monday, while State Department officials say the agreement points the way for US-India relations for the coming decades.
In a speech to Congress Tuesday, Prime Minister Singh emphasized India's record of guarding its nuclear technology from a dangerous spread, assuring members of Congress that India "never will be a source of proliferation of nuclear technologies." Harrison says the US agreement would also rectify an anomaly in the "outdated" international nonproliferation regime that allows the US to sell civilian nuclear technology to China but not to India.
The White House plan does not formally recognize India as a nuclear power, but some critics say it does grant de facto recognition.
Karl Inderfurth, a former assistant secretary of State for South Asian affairs during the Clinton administration, recognizes the plan will be controversial among many nonproliferation experts and in Congress. But he adds: "It's the right call for us and for the world, really. This is a way to bring India into a global nonproliferation regime, rather than leaving it on the outside."
Yet while the nuclear agreement signals new thinking on US-India relations, it won't really mean a new chapter in the partnership unless the administration is willing to fight for the plan and convince Congress of its merits, Mr. Harrison says. "This is a litmus test, for Indians and for others as well, as to whether the US is really serious about seeing India as a key and rising player in global calculations," he says.
No doubt China will be watching how far the US plans to take the relationship. So will Europe - in particular a European Union that does not see the rising challenge of China in the same terms as the US, but which has put off arms sales to China in response to US concerns. China is clearly a factor in US calculations on India, experts say, but some also warn that the US has little to gain if it develops ties to India primarily as a counterweight to another rising power.
"I know a lot of people are busy devising the scenarios of India counterbalancing China and joining us in confronting a rising power, but we need to be careful not to get into a triangular trap," says Mr. Inderfurth, now at George Washington University. The problems the global powers face, from poverty to the spread of nuclear weapons, are nothing any one country can address, he says. "We need to develop relations with both countries and work in a cooperative, not a competitive way."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0720/p03s01-usfp.html
US, India Open Can of Nuclear Worms
http://www.antiwar.com/bidwai/?articleid=6708
By Howard LaFranchi Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON – US plans to broaden India's access to nuclear technology, announced this week during an enthusiastic visit to Washington by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, have their roots in designs from the earliest days of the Bush administration to build India's stature as a counterbalance to a rising and problematic China.
The proposed extension of nuclear access to what the White House likes to call "the world's largest democracy" raises questions about potential impact on other countries with nuclear ambitions and designs for international status. That is especially true as the announcement comes just days before the European Union is to return to negotiations with Iran to end its nuclear-weapons programs and six-party talks are to take up again in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear program.
But perhaps the greatest significance of the plan is what it says about 21st- century geopolitics and in particular about a Bush administration vision for dealing with China, some analysts say.
"The crux of this announcement is what it tells us about the US grand strategy, and that behind whatever else is going on here the US is preparing for a grand conflict with China and constructing an anti-China coalition," says Joseph Cirincione, head of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "In that scenario, India is even more valuable as a nuclear power, rather than as a nonnuclear country."
The White House plan, which would allow India broader access to international technology for its nuclear power industry in exchange for India granting some access to international inspections, still faces high hurdles: Opposition is expected to be strong both in the US Congress and among other nuclear powers who along with the US would have some say.
In the view of some specialists, the plan would certainly erode and perhaps mean the scrapping of decades of international nonproliferation effort in favor of an ad hoc, case-by-case approach that rewards certain countries while punishing others. "This is a plan that chooses good guys and bad guys, and says that what matters is power politics and not nonproliferation principles," Mr. Cirincione says.
But for others, the plan reflects a realistic appraisal both of exploding global energy needs and India's responsible track record in handling nuclear technology.
"Yes, this does look at India on an individual basis, but it also rewards a worthy country for its very good performance on nuclear proliferation, and in that sense it reflects a desirable change in US policy," says Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy in Washington. The US shift will raise protests from Pakistan, Mr. Harrison says, but in response to protests of special treatment for India, the US "has an answer, and that is: A. Q. Khan," he adds, referring to the "father" of Pakistan's nuclear program who developed a clandestine nuclear bazaar.
Certainly, the US increasingly sees India as a "good guy," both in terms of the South Asian region but also in international affairs. President Bush referred to "our shared values" during Mr. Singh's White House visit Monday, while State Department officials say the agreement points the way for US-India relations for the coming decades.
In a speech to Congress Tuesday, Prime Minister Singh emphasized India's record of guarding its nuclear technology from a dangerous spread, assuring members of Congress that India "never will be a source of proliferation of nuclear technologies." Harrison says the US agreement would also rectify an anomaly in the "outdated" international nonproliferation regime that allows the US to sell civilian nuclear technology to China but not to India.
The White House plan does not formally recognize India as a nuclear power, but some critics say it does grant de facto recognition.
Karl Inderfurth, a former assistant secretary of State for South Asian affairs during the Clinton administration, recognizes the plan will be controversial among many nonproliferation experts and in Congress. But he adds: "It's the right call for us and for the world, really. This is a way to bring India into a global nonproliferation regime, rather than leaving it on the outside."
Yet while the nuclear agreement signals new thinking on US-India relations, it won't really mean a new chapter in the partnership unless the administration is willing to fight for the plan and convince Congress of its merits, Mr. Harrison says. "This is a litmus test, for Indians and for others as well, as to whether the US is really serious about seeing India as a key and rising player in global calculations," he says.
No doubt China will be watching how far the US plans to take the relationship. So will Europe - in particular a European Union that does not see the rising challenge of China in the same terms as the US, but which has put off arms sales to China in response to US concerns. China is clearly a factor in US calculations on India, experts say, but some also warn that the US has little to gain if it develops ties to India primarily as a counterweight to another rising power.
"I know a lot of people are busy devising the scenarios of India counterbalancing China and joining us in confronting a rising power, but we need to be careful not to get into a triangular trap," says Mr. Inderfurth, now at George Washington University. The problems the global powers face, from poverty to the spread of nuclear weapons, are nothing any one country can address, he says. "We need to develop relations with both countries and work in a cooperative, not a competitive way."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0720/p03s01-usfp.html
US, India Open Can of Nuclear Worms
http://www.antiwar.com/bidwai/?articleid=6708
Monday, July 11, 2005
Peg
PEG:
One currency is said to be pegged to another when the exchange rate between the two is fixed and the market forces do not influence the exchange rate. For instance the chinese yuan is pegged at 8 yuan to a dollar which means that one dollar will buy 8 yuans no matter what the markket conditions are.
http://www.19.5degs.com/element/18039.php
Purchasing Price Parity:
Purchasing Price Parity means the value of one currency against another in terms of a common basket of goods that they can buy in their respective countries. For instance to value a dollar against a rupee it needs to be seen how many of a burger, petrol and shirt can a dollar buy and how much of the same can the rupee buy. Then the two shall be compared to arrive at a price. (the examples taken are hypothetical).
http://www.19.5degs.com/next.php?r=18037&c=652
Purchasing power parity:
In economics, purchasing power parity (PPP) is a method used to calculate exchange rates between the currencies of different countries. PPP exchange rates are used in international comparisons of standard of living. They calculate the relative value of currencies based on what those currencies will buy in their nation of origin. Typically, the prices of many goods will be considered, and weighted according to their importance in the economy.
http://www.investordictionary.com/definition/purchasing+power+parity.aspx
Commodity Price Index (CPI):
Index or average, which may be weighted, of selected commodity prices, intended to be representative of the markets in general or a specific subset of commodities, e.g., grains or livestock.
http://www.investordictionary.com/definition/commodity+price+index.aspx
One currency is said to be pegged to another when the exchange rate between the two is fixed and the market forces do not influence the exchange rate. For instance the chinese yuan is pegged at 8 yuan to a dollar which means that one dollar will buy 8 yuans no matter what the markket conditions are.
http://www.19.5degs.com/element/18039.php
Purchasing Price Parity:
Purchasing Price Parity means the value of one currency against another in terms of a common basket of goods that they can buy in their respective countries. For instance to value a dollar against a rupee it needs to be seen how many of a burger, petrol and shirt can a dollar buy and how much of the same can the rupee buy. Then the two shall be compared to arrive at a price. (the examples taken are hypothetical).
http://www.19.5degs.com/next.php?r=18037&c=652
Purchasing power parity:
In economics, purchasing power parity (PPP) is a method used to calculate exchange rates between the currencies of different countries. PPP exchange rates are used in international comparisons of standard of living. They calculate the relative value of currencies based on what those currencies will buy in their nation of origin. Typically, the prices of many goods will be considered, and weighted according to their importance in the economy.
http://www.investordictionary.com/definition/purchasing+power+parity.aspx
Commodity Price Index (CPI):
Index or average, which may be weighted, of selected commodity prices, intended to be representative of the markets in general or a specific subset of commodities, e.g., grains or livestock.
http://www.investordictionary.com/definition/commodity+price+index.aspx
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Eat, sleep and drink and become senile, not merry
No social life, no brains
Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Eat, sleep and drink and become senile, not merry
Professor Üner Tan, a lecturer of physiology at Çukurova University, said people who spend their lives under the “eat, sleep and drink" philosophy and refrain from pursuing hobbies or having a rich social life, use only a small portion of their brains and are prone to senility at an earlier age, reported the Doğan News Agency.
Professor Tan said men and women use only 10-15 percent of their brains when they live by the philosophy of "eat, drink and sleep" whereas people who are engaged in stimulating physical or mental activities such as sports, music, reading, writing, deep thinking and analytical speaking remain “young” with their brain cells constantly renewed.
Tan said personal philosophy has to be diversified; people need to be dedicated to life and constantly active. He said, on average, humans lose 100,000 brain cells a day but an active brain regenerates and produces fresh cells. “When we take a look at important figures in history we can see that successful inventors, politicians, authors and scientists all had hobbies outside their primary work. For example, Albert Einstein was interested in music and played the violin. No matter how old you are you must do something. Even if you are over 40, you should learn a new language or take classes. If you don't do challenging work, your brain cells aren't renewed and your brain will 'rust'; it will deteriorate by shrinking at a young age and make you susceptible to senility at a young age. One should be a student of life and engage in the study of not only science and math but also art, philosophy and sports.”
He then quoted a Turkish proverb meaning “use it or lose it“ and gave steel as an example. If steel is used and worked properly, it won't rust.
He said the education system in Turkey causes students' brains to develop on one track. Students focus on passing university entrance exams at the expense of sports, music, literature, etc., and shortchange development of their imaginations.
Tan said politics in Turkey emphasizes an economic route and the education system is geared towards industry and practical technology. He said that within this system social development is not stressed because students think in materialistic terms and have stereotypical brains.
Article taken from http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=17392 out of personal interest and not for distribution.
Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Eat, sleep and drink and become senile, not merry
Professor Üner Tan, a lecturer of physiology at Çukurova University, said people who spend their lives under the “eat, sleep and drink" philosophy and refrain from pursuing hobbies or having a rich social life, use only a small portion of their brains and are prone to senility at an earlier age, reported the Doğan News Agency.
Professor Tan said men and women use only 10-15 percent of their brains when they live by the philosophy of "eat, drink and sleep" whereas people who are engaged in stimulating physical or mental activities such as sports, music, reading, writing, deep thinking and analytical speaking remain “young” with their brain cells constantly renewed.
Tan said personal philosophy has to be diversified; people need to be dedicated to life and constantly active. He said, on average, humans lose 100,000 brain cells a day but an active brain regenerates and produces fresh cells. “When we take a look at important figures in history we can see that successful inventors, politicians, authors and scientists all had hobbies outside their primary work. For example, Albert Einstein was interested in music and played the violin. No matter how old you are you must do something. Even if you are over 40, you should learn a new language or take classes. If you don't do challenging work, your brain cells aren't renewed and your brain will 'rust'; it will deteriorate by shrinking at a young age and make you susceptible to senility at a young age. One should be a student of life and engage in the study of not only science and math but also art, philosophy and sports.”
He then quoted a Turkish proverb meaning “use it or lose it“ and gave steel as an example. If steel is used and worked properly, it won't rust.
He said the education system in Turkey causes students' brains to develop on one track. Students focus on passing university entrance exams at the expense of sports, music, literature, etc., and shortchange development of their imaginations.
Tan said politics in Turkey emphasizes an economic route and the education system is geared towards industry and practical technology. He said that within this system social development is not stressed because students think in materialistic terms and have stereotypical brains.
Article taken from http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=17392 out of personal interest and not for distribution.
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