On April 15, 50 Chinese soldiers were stationed in the Western border region to India, the Depsang valley in the region Ladakh. Both countries claim to be the right owner of the disputed area. According to Reuters, China agreed now, a few weeks after the incident to withdraw troops again, but the conflict is not yet over and both countries insist to annex the region officially to their own country.
Already in 1962, the two countries fought about the ownership of the region, as stated on GloablSecurity. Tension arose between the two after India promised the Dalai Lama asylum in 1959, which might have its influence to the outbreak of the Indo-China War in the region three years later, as the website describes. 2,000 people died during the 1-month war. As a result the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was established, a border, which both sides however to not totally accept but respect for now. According to Aljazeera, India and China held 15 meetings so far, but did not make significant progress yet on how the dispute can be solved.
Both, the article of Reuter and the one of Aljazeera consider contiguity to Pakistan of the disputed region to be China’s main interest for their claim of the Depsang valley. Pakistan is a major trading partner of China, especially as a customer of Chinese weapons. Read the rest of this entry »
Self-immolation is the most severe form of protest and displays deep beliefs and dedications of its performer. In this case people are willing to die for something they strongly belief in, as it showed in the case of Tibetan Monks suicides on February 24, 2013 in the Qinghai province, in eastern Tibet´s Amdo region. As remarked by Kate Saunders, Communications Director of the International Campaign for Tibet, over 107 Tibetans have killed themselves for conscience sake and their conviction that Tibet should be free. The issue whether Tibet belongs to China or should be an independent state has raised conflicts since decades. Still, today China claims sovereignty over Tibet and does not accept an uprising of its population. It is important to resolve this conflict in a diplomatic way in order to guarantee for more stability and peace among China and Tibet.
Location of Tibet
Looking back at the history of Tibet it can be pointed out that Britain as well as China made attempts to claim Tibet. Finally in 1913 Tibet reasserts independence after decades of invasions made by those two nations. However, in 1950 China enforces a long-held claim to Tibet and Tibetan leaders are forced to sign the so called, “Seventeen Point Agreement” in 1951. As stated by BBC News, this treaty guarantees Tibetan autonomy but at the same time also allows the establishment of Chinese civil and military headquarters at Lhasa. Since the 50´s conflicts and protests against Chinas policies continue and a concrete agreement on terms has not been established ever since. Read the rest of this entry »
Huawei launched latest Smartphone G520 with next generation of Touch-screen and self-designed software.
Huawei , as one of the world’s leading telecom products suppliers which has relied on cutthroat pricing and has been working its way up the food chain of telecom market and its rise has worried some other phone carriers and producers such as Apple, ZTE and HTC, is using its enormous scale and financial strength to invest money into research and jumping ahead of its weakened rivals in parts of the global technology race. According to the Asian News Network, it is reported that Huawei boosted its Research-and-development spending by more than a quarter in 2012 to $4.7 billion, which is just a hair behind Ericsson, the No.1 telecom equipment vendor by revenue, which spent $4.8 billion on R&D last year. Based on the market share record, Huawei has occupied approximately 4.9 market share in 2012. The leap towards the top is an achievement for Huawei in recent years. The fast speed growing for Huawei has brought more than billions of dollars benefits for this enterprise. Will Huawei become next Apply and make a huge difference and evolution in Smartphone industry? Read the rest of this entry »
The global economy is slowing down since the financial crises in 2007 and 2008, which still has a major impact on labor markets, financial institutions and currencies. Recently Cyprus´ economy had to be rescued by the European Union, as it was facing issues that the country could not overcome on its own anymore. Not only banks but also entire countries fail on meeting their financial obligations which frightens economist and the global community. Japan has been always known as a strong economy even though they faced trade and currency issues in the past. However, even Japan struggles to find its way out of its current economic situation which is dominated by slow growth, strong yen, slumping productions and export. It has to be asked if the economic reforms by the new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, called “Abenomics” will lead Japan out of its current recession. Read the rest of this entry »
For a long time, discussions about China’s aircraft carrier never stopped. The authorities also slowed cautious on this issue, because the western society always connects the aircraft carriers owned by China with the “China Threat Theory”. They believe China is eager to seek hegemony by building aircraft carriers and the development of Chinese military force will be a threat to global peace. All kinds of rumors about whether China has aircraft carriers were spread by the international community. However, military vessels can show the status of a country’s military development, therefore, it is unrealistic that China as a rising power would be without aircraft carriers. Hence, on September 29, 2012, the spokesperson of State Defense Ministry officially declared that the first aircraft carrier of China, Liaoning, went into service. China has been the10th country in the world to join the aircraft carrier “club”. This raises the question why China authorities are so determined to rapidly develop its naval force. The current territorial disputes must be one undeniable reason. Read the rest of this entry »
After drugs and guns, the illegal trade of wildlife is the third most lucrative international smuggling business. Every year hundreds of millions of plants and animals are caught from the wild are sold for various purposes, such as food, leather, tourist souvenirs, wooden musical instruments and medicine. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has noted that while a great deal of trade is legal, a worryingly large proportion is illegal. This threatens the survival of many endangered species. Wildlife trade as such is not always a problem; nevertheless according to the WWF, it has the potential to be very damaging since it is the second-biggest threat to the survival of species, after habitat destruction. But why should overexploitation concern us and what is currently being done about it? Is banning trade of wildlife the solution to this problem?
Silver Coin for the International Coin Collection, 1997
There are many organizations which are involved to protect threatened wildlife and endangered species. Some examples are the WWF, TRAFFIC, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Conservation International and Wildlife Conservation Society. Overexploitation should concern us for the several reasons. According to the WWF, wildlife is vital for rural households, which might depend on local wild animals for meat, local trees for fuel, and both flora and fauna which provide components of traditional medicine used by most people in the world. The flipside is that it causes a natural imbalance. An example is overfishing; it affects fish species and causes imbalances in the whole maritime system. In addition, illegal trade is worrying because conditions of
transport are likely to be worse and it indicates the inability of countries to protect their natural resources. Overexploitation and illegal trade would not only cause extinction of species, but also serious disturbances to the complex web of life.
To illustrate the impact of illegal trade during the last decades, Economist article of 5 March 2013 provided some examples. For example, the population of tigers decreased by 50 percent since 1990, although it was banned since 1975. In 2012, 668 rhinos are thought to have been killed, despite the existence of a trade ban since 1976. In 2011 almost 24 tons of ivory were seized, which is the largest haul since the trade ban in 1989. More information on ivory trade in particular was given by my fellow blogger Malte.Read the rest of this entry »
After the Second World War the world seems more united and wars are less likely to happen because nations know what causes it can have on an entire population. As argued by Samuel Huntington in his book “The Clash of Civilization”, wars happen because it lies within human nature. This pessimistic worldview is part of the dominant realist school of thought within the realm of international relations and is based on the premise that war will happen in the future because nations differ in cultures, norms, values and beliefs. For many years now, North Korea and South Korea have been at war and have not been able to sort out their differences. Despite various diplomatic efforts such as the so called “Six Party Talks” which are aimed at ending North Korea´s nuclear program involving negotiations between China, the US, North and South Korea, Japan and Russia, no peace treaty has been signed yet.
North Korea seems to be on the path of war, as they recently on 30 March declared” state of war” with South Korea. The following video informs over North Koreas recent actions and the reactions of the United States, reported by BBC News.
Apple is “eating” China, or China is “invading” Apple
On March 15, World Consumer Rights Day, China’s national TV broadcaster CCTV exposed what it called Apple’s discriminatory warranty-repair policy in an investigative programme. In this programme it was claimed that Apple discriminates against Chinese Apple users by treating them as second-class citizens. People’s Daily, an official government newspaper, even accused Apple as a firm of “unparalleled arrogance.” It reported that Apple offers shorter guarantees than in other countries and escapes after-sale obligations. However, as a response, Apple posted an announcement on its official Chinese website stating that it providers a 90-day warranty on repairs, just like in the United States. This is longer than the 30 days required by Chinese law. Both sides have their own arguments. The citizens would consider it as one normal economic case. However, the experts seem think this issue is not as simple as the public thinks. Hence, what is behind the Chinese government’s public “sanction” of Apple? Read the rest of this entry »
Peng Liyuan, as China’s new first lady, was seen as the most glamorous political female in the world.
She was a popular singing superstar in mainland of China, she is an AIDS ambassador in UN, she is a major general in China’s People’s Liberation Army, she is also the wife of Xi Jinping, who became China’s new president in earlier this month, and her name is Peng Liyuan, who made huge media sensation in China and western world, accompanied her husband, President Xi, to visit Moscow with a sweet smile on her face, dressed in a simple black peacoat and carrying an elegant unbranded bag. Her charming appearance and temperament has caused many Chinese people and Medias to swoon. After the diplomatic visit to Moscow was reported by media, the Peng’s influences are booming not only in diplomatic aspect but also in retaining trade on online shops. Since Xi Jinping has become China’s new president in March, Ms Peng who represents China’s soft power will now bear the responsibility of China’s new diplomatic reform and development in the future. Read the rest of this entry »
The next-generation Chinese passport displaying a map with the China South Sea and Taiwan as part of China has caused diplomatic conflicts with Asian countries such as India, the Philippines and Taiwan.
A passport, an essential form of identification used for travelling abroad, can also be a symbol of a country’s power from a diplomatic perspective. Why is that? I still remember that in a movie named The Tear of Sun, an American female doctor, who did voluntary work in an African village, shouted to the soldier at the border, “I am an American, open the gate”, while holding her American passport. I still recall the earthquake in Haiti, when American troops took over the airport and affected areas and asked people for holding American passport to be evacuated first through green channel. Finally I remember that Chinese citizens with new Chinese passport were refused to entry the Asian countries such as India and the Philippines just because a map displayed in the passport. This map shows the South China Sea and islands in it in which China has territorial disputes with other Asian countries . Why Chinese passport and American passport have such huge difference in international society? Read the rest of this entry »
