Thread: China preparing for armed conflict 'in every direction'

The Telegraph

China preparing for armed conflict 'in every direction'

China is preparing for conflict 'in every direction', the defence minister said on Wednesday in remarks that threaten to overshadow a visit to Beijing by his US counterpart next month.



"In the coming five years, our military will push forward preparations for military conflict in every strategic direction," said Liang Guanglie in an interview published by several state-backed newspapers in China. "We may be living in peaceful times, but we can never forget war, never send the horses south or put the bayonets and guns away," Mr Liang added.

China repeatedly says it is planning a "peaceful rise" but the recent pace and scale of its military modernisation has alarmed many of its neighbours in the Asia-Pacific, including Japan which described China's military build-up as a "global concern" this month.

Mr Liang's remarks come at a time of increasingly difficult relations between the Chinese and US armed forces which a three-day visit by his counterpart Robert Gates is intended to address. A year ago China froze substantive military relations in protest at US arms sales to Taiwan and relations deteriorated further this summer when China objected to US plans to deploy one of its nuclear supercarriers, the USS George Washington, into the Yellow Sea off the Korean peninsula.

China also announced this month that it was preparing to launch its own aircraft carrier next year in a signal that China is determined to punch its weight as a rising superpower. The news came a year earlier than many US defence analysts had predicted.

China is also working on a "carrier-killing" ballistic missile that could sink US carriers from afar, fundamentally reordering the balance of power in a region that has been dominated by the US since the end of the Second World War.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ction.html

related

New at Wal-Marts in China: A Communist Party branch - Business - International Herald Tribune

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/busin ... .html?_r=1

BEIJING — Employees at the Chinese headquarters of Wal-Mart have set up a Communist Party branch, the company and the party said Monday, as part of a campaign by the party to expand at foreign companies.

The state-sanctioned labor body in China set up unions this year at Wal- Marts in the country.

Wal-Mart is one of the biggest and most prominent foreign employers in China, with 36,000 employees and 68 stores.

The party branch was set up Friday at the Wal-Mart headquarters in Shenzhen, according to The People's Daily. A company spokesman, Jonathan Dong, confirmed the move.

"Quite a few of our associates are party members already, so they have a right to establish branch organizations," Dong said, referring to Wal-Mart employees in China.

Dong said he did not know whether Wal-Mart would have any formal interaction with the branch or whether its establishment would affect operations.

The Chinese Communist Party and an affiliate, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, are trying to expand at foreign companies to keep pace with a fast-changing society.

State industries, the traditional base for the party and the federation, have slashed millions of jobs, while private companies are creating tens of millions of jobs.

The party, hoping to stay relevant, has begun offering membership to entrepreneurs and others in the new private economy. The party has about 70 million members.

The party already established a branch in August at a Wal-Mart in Shenyang, Dong said, and party officials there vowed not to interfere with the management of the store.

An official quoted by Xinhua, the state-run press agency, said the Shenyang branch would encourage members to "to play an exemplary role in doing a good job" and to help Wal- Mart grow.

The party and labor expansion campaigns were ordered in March by President Hu Jintao, who also is the party's general secretary, according to Chinese news reports. "Do a better job of building party organizations and trade unions in foreign-invested enterprises," the order said, according to Beijing News.

Many foreign companies in China already have party branches, either officially or unofficially.

One of the earliest was at Motorola in Tianjin. That branch was officially established in 1997, but news reports have said it was set up as early as 1990 and kept secret to avoid alarming Motorola management.

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions, an umbrella group permitted by the government, has announced a goal of setting up unions at 60 percent of the 150,000 foreign companies in China by the end of this year.

A federation spokesman, Li Jianmin, said Monday that he had no figures on progress toward that goal.

The party has not disclosed its own expansion target.

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, resisted the creation of unions at its Chinese stores for two years before agreeing in August to help the federation organize its workers.

Thank you WalMart Shoppers!

Short of food, dirt, lumber, and concrete, and a few clothes; can you think of anything Americans buy not predominantly made in China?

For some reason I just do not get that warm and fuzzy feeling when thinking about being a global citizen in this global economy.

Perhaps when we are finished homogenizing diversity things will be different?............

Perhaps it is best to just think about rainbows and unicorns.

from roundabout
Perhaps it is best to just think about rainbows and unicorns.

Hmmm seems to me the majority of people already do think that!!!!


Kathyet

Originally Posted by roundabout

For some reason I just do not get that warm and fuzzy feeling when thinking about being a global citizen in this global economy.

Perhaps when we are finished homogenizing diversity things will be different?............

Perhaps it is best to just think about rainbows and unicorns.

=================================