China Empire Bulges at Seams

choi

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Gideon Rachman, China is now an empire in denial. Financial Times, July 14, 2009.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/414f6e50-6fd4-11de-b835-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

Quote:

"When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it suddenly became obvious that the USSR had never been a proper country. It was a multinational empire held together by force. Might we one day say the same of China?

"The Soviet Union ultimately fell apart because of pressure from its different nationalities. In 1991, the USSR split up into its constituent republics.

"Of course, the parallels are not exact. Ethnic Russians made up just over half the population of the USSR. The Han Chinese are over 92 per cent of the population of China. Yet Tibet and Xinjiang are exceptions. Some 90 per cent of the population of Tibet are still ethnic Tibetans. The Uighurs make up just under half the population of Xinjiang. Neither area is comfortably integrated into the rest of the country – to put it mildly.

"In a country of more than 1.3bn people, the 2.6m in Tibet and the 20m in Xinjiang sound insignificant. But together they account for about a third of China’s land mass – and for a large proportion of its inadequate reserves of oil and gas. Just as the Russians fear Chinese influence over Siberia, so the Chinese fear that Muslim Xinjiang could drift off into Central Asia.


------------Separately
(2) 美政府委员会呼吁奥巴马制裁新疆. BBC Chinese, July 15, 2009.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_8150000/newsid_8152800/8152863.stm
("该委员会是在听取了世界维吾尔人代表大会的主席热比娅就新疆"7·5事件"所做的证词之后，作出以上呼吁的。")

My comment: Similar to United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission (www.uscc.gov), United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is an independent commission that is not part of any  federal department.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Commission_on_International_Religious_Freedom

(3) 上百非洲人冲击广州派出所. BBC Chinese, July 15, 2009.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_8150000/newsid_8152100/8152116.stm
("一名非洲裔人士在广州遭警察追捕时死亡，上百同胞冲击一处派出所，要求讨说法")

(4) 陆克文警告中国要顾全经济利益. BBC Chinese, July 15, 2009.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_8150000/newsid_8150900/8150993.stm
("路透社引述一份钢铁行业刊物的报道称，力拓与必和必拓两家澳大利亚最大的矿业集团星期三都暂停处理来自中国的铁矿现货订单，但没有说明原因。")

(5)
(i) 中国外汇储备余额超过2万亿美元. BBC Chinese, July 15, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_8150000/newsid_8150900/8150987.stm
($21,316bn at end of June)

Quote:

"经济数据显示，虽然中国外汇储备在6月份有大幅增长，但其实当月中国出口额连续第八个月下跌，同比跌幅达到21.4%。

"中国的外贸顺差6月份缩小至82亿美元，几乎是近年来最低水平。

My comment: I wonder where all the increase came from. Renminbi has not appreciated for about a year, so hot money is hard to believe, especially when the West needs money due to financial crisis.

(ii) Press release: Foreign Exchange Reserves as at the End of June 2009. Central Bank, Taiwan, July 3, 2009.
http://www.cbc.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=34850&ctNode=448&mp=2
($317.56 billion at the end of June 2009, showing an increase of $4.92 billion in ONE month)

My comment: The explanations provided by Taiwan may apply to China. For Taiwan's trade, export in particular, has shrunk drastically.

(6) (continued)
David Barboza, Mining Company Inquiry Puts Focus on a Black Market in China’s Steel Industry. New York Times, July 15, 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/world/asia/15riotinto.html?scp=2&sq=barboza%20steel&st=cse
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※ 修改:．choi 于 Jul 15 15:40:37 修改本文．[FROM: 128.197.0.0]