Communist Tax Lawyer

Taiwan’s Defense Minister Kao Hua-chu said over the weekend that Taiwan would continue to try and procure weapons from countries like the United States in an effort to stabilize the region.

“The United States has kept providing Taiwan with defensive weapons according to the Taiwan Relations Act, enabling Taiwan to be more confident in pressing for reconciliation with the Chinese mainland,” Minister Kao said.

“In the future, Taiwan will continue purchasing more weaponry from the United States… so as to build a smaller and leaner deterrent force.” Read the rest of this entry »

SEOUL (Reuters) – A senior Chinese envoy was in North Korea to prod the reclusive state back to stalled nuclear talks while the South sent a team across the border on Monday for talks to restart tourism projects halted due to political wrangling.

The North will also host the U.N.’s top political envoy later this week, with analysts saying this engagement may bode well for the dormant six-way disarmament-for-aid talks and could lead to Pyongyang reducing the security threat it poses to the region.

The destitute North is feeling pressure to return to the nuclear talks, where it can win aid to prop up its broken economy, due to U.N. sanctions imposed after its nuclear test in May 2009 and a botched currency revaluation that sparked inflation and rare civil unrest. Read the rest of this entry »

TAIPEI, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Taiwan said on Friday it would buy military helicopters from a European manufacturer, a move that could ignite China’s anger toward Europe following a storm over U.S. arms sales to the island that Beijing claims as its own.

The air force will buy EC-225 search-and-rescue helicopters, defense ministry spokesman Martin Yu said without offering details. Read the rest of this entry »

To further expand their uranium supply, state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) Overseas Uranium Holding Ltd. has come to a purchase agreement with Canada’s Khan Resources worth US$53 million.

Khan Resources is a uranium development company based in Mongolia, with their subsidiary Central Asian Uranium Company Ltd. (CAUC) primarily focused on the Dornod province in the country’s northeast. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems that since China apparently ruined the Copenhagen Summit in December and snubbed U.S. President Barack Obama while doing so, America has been on a mission show Beijing that although the U.S. is a mess, they will not be outmaneuvered in foreign policy.

They have done so by striking at some of the country’s most sensitive topics over the last month, namely: censorship, Taiwan, and the Dalai Lama.

It started with Google’s announcement that it would be leaving the Chinese market after suffering a series of sophisticated cyber attacks originating in China in addition to claiming that censoring their search results went against the company motto, “Don’t be evil.”

Google’s announcement came a week after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a private dinner with some of America’s top executives, including Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Coincidence? Read the rest of this entry »

America’s recent weapons deal with Taiwan was the correct decision, not “the wrong decision,” for the Obama administration. Here’s why:

WASHINGTON (New York Times)— For the past year, China has adopted an increasingly muscular position toward the United States, berating American officials for the global economic crisis, stage-managing President Obama’s visit to China in November, refusing to back a tougher climate change agreement in Copenhagen and standing fast against American demands for tough new Security Council sanctions against Iran.

Now, the Obama administration has started to push back. In announcing an arms sales package to Taiwan worth $6 billion on Friday, the United States leveled a direct strike at the heart of the most sensitive diplomatic issue between the two countries since America affirmed the “one China” policy in 1972. Read the rest of this entry »

Who said money can’t buy love?

An elitist and largely exclusive online matchmaking site for China’s growing upper class is taking off as the country’s wealthy bachelors look to spend their money (or their parent’s) on finding the most beautiful partner money can buy. Read the rest of this entry »

The fallout of the China Google drama picked up a notch yesterday, just as things seemed to be cooling off, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech on Internet freedom ruffling some feathers in Beijing.

“Censorship should not be in any way accepted by any company from anywhere,” Clinton said yesterday in Washington. “American companies need to make a principled stand. This needs to be part of our national brand. I’m confident that consumers worldwide will reward companies that follow those principles.”

“Some countries have erected electronic barriers that prevent their people from accessing portions of the world’s networks,” she said in words that clearly ring true in China. “They have expunged words, names, and phrases from search engine results. They have violated the privacy of citizens who engage in nonviolent political speech.” Read the rest of this entry »

Chinese cinemas have confirmed that they are being told to stop showing the international blockbuster ‘Avatar’ in standard format starting as early as Thursday, a move that the media claims is an effort to give domestic films a fair chance at the profits.

‘Avatar’ will retain about one-third of its showings in the popular 3D format while the 2D version is likely to be replaced with the Chinese film, ‘Confucius,’ starring Chow Yun-Fat and Zhou Xun.

Despite being featured in approximately 2,500 theaters across China since its debut on January 4th, patrons are still waiting in line for hours to buy tickets to the international blockbuster, the New York Times reports. Read the rest of this entry »

This article has just been removed from Xinhua’s website. Read it here on CTL:

Google China’s exiting statement has sparked worldwide attention to ties between China and the United States this week.

Discussions included China’s web environment, the China-U.S. trade relationship, and others. But it’s inappropriate to play up the issue, or turn it into a political one.

Read the rest of this entry »