Author: andy

Categories
China Politics

U.S. Defense Chief to Meet His Chinese Counterpart as Relations Thaw

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will meet his Chinese counterpart Liang Guanglie next week on the sidelines of an ASEAN conference in Hanoi as the United States and China move to end an eight-month freeze on military exchanges.

Gates is reportedly planning to travel to China early next year.

“I think we are efforting to put together a meeting of that sort when Secretary Gates and his Chinese counterpart are attending the ASEAN-plus ministerial in Hanoi early next week,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters.

Continue reading “U.S. Defense Chief to Meet His Chinese Counterpart as Relations Thaw”
Categories
Russia

Russian Economy Shrinks

Even as the Russia military is flexing its growing muscles, the economy continues to shrink. It what may seem like a return to the heydays of the Soviet Union, the Russian economy contracted in the last quarter as rising unemployment sapped consumer demand, bank lending stalled and the government was slow to respond with support measures.

Bloomberg reported that gross domestic product contracted an annual 10.9 percent in the second quarter, the Federal Statistics Service said in an e- mailed statement today, citing preliminary data. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of seven economists was for output to shrink 10.2 percent. GDP expanded 7.5 percent from the previous quarter. The service’s data go as far back as 1995.

Categories
Cambodia & Laos Culture & History

50 Years Ago Today: Laos

From the International Herald Tribune:

SAM NEUA, LAOS Six battalions of Communist guerrilla troops have penetrated the borders of Sam Neua Province in northern Laos and hold more than 20 villages, the commander of the northern zone said today [Aug. 10]. “The situation is serious,” said Brig. Gen. Amkha Soukhavong. The Peking radio quoted Ta Quang Bun, Vice-Minister of National Defense, as saying: “If the army of any country dares to interfere in Laos, according to U.S. imperialist schemes, this would constitute not only an aggressive act against the Laotian people, but also an act directly threatening the security of the Viet Nam Democratic Republic.”

Categories
Cuba Culture & History

New York Philharmonic Considers Tour of Cuba

NYPhilharmonic

Ambassadors of the world, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra is considering a tour of Cuba. Orchestra president Zarin Mehta met with Cuban officials and toured facilities in Havana last week as the group looks to tour the communist nation later this year.

The orchestra toured North Korea in 2008 to both praise and criticism domestically and any tour of Cuba is likely to draw fire from opponents of Castro and the Cuban government.

“It has to be done soon. We have to go and work very hard with our board (of directors). We have to raise money, we have to arrange transportation,” Mehta told Reuters.

Categories
China

China Detention of Rio Tinto Execs Gives Foreign Investors Pause

The detention of four Rio Tinto executives in Shanghai last week is likely to rattle international investors precisely at a time when China needs foreign support as it strives to move away from an export-based, low-end manufacturing center. China’s Ministry of State Security took the four into custody and failed to inform either Rio Tinto or the employees’ families – one of the four was an Australian citizen whose government was also kept in the dark.

With allegations of pricing disputes, tit-for-tat over the recent blocking of a sale of part of the company to the Chinese state-owned Chinalco, and the lack of information coming from the Chinese authorities on the matter, foreign business working in China are beginning to voice concerns.

Continue reading “China Detention of Rio Tinto Execs Gives Foreign Investors Pause”
Categories
China Russia

China, India and Russia Question U.S. Dollar Dominance

China, India  and Russia are increasingly calling for a rethink of how global currency reserves are composed and managed, underlining a power shift to emerging markets from the developed nations that spawned the financial crisis.

“There should be a system to maintain the stability of the major reserve currencies,” Bloomberg reported former Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan as saying in a speech in Beijing.

Leaders from China and India are preparing to join their counterparts from the Group of Eight industrialized nations – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia – at a summit in Italy next week. In addition to China and India, Brazil will also send representatives to the summit.

Emerging markets continue to remain dependent on the U.S. dollar, thanks in part to the United States’ status as the world’s largest economy and a US$2.5 trillion export market. Shares of dollars in global foreign- exchange reserves increased to 65 percent in the first three months of this year, the highest since 2007 according to the IMF.

Categories
China Culture & History

Inspiration for M. Butterfly Dies

Shi Pei Pu, the Beijing opera singer and spy who was the inspiration for the broadway show M. BUtterfly died in Paris last week. Shi’s sexually convoluted love affair with a French Embassy worker created one of the strangest cases in international espionage.

The New York Times reported:

Mr. Shi, who was convicted of espionage in France in 1986 along with his lover, Bernard Boursicot, was believed to be 70. He had also been believed for years to be a woman, at least by Mr. Boursicot, who served time in prison after the affair and became a laughingstock in France.

Categories
Cuba

Lighting Up: American Cigar Aficionados Eye the Coming of Cuban Cigars

A possible end to the American trade embargo on Cuba has intensified a legal battle between cigar maker Swedish Match of Stockholm and Imperial Tobacco Group of Bristol, England. Both companies want exclusive rights to sell Cuban-made cigars in the United States, the world’s largest market for premium cigars.

According to Bloomberg News, Swedish Match sells cigars in the United States made in Honduras and the Dominican Republic under Cuban brand names which it bought from families that fled Cuba after Fidel Castro seized their cigar companies in the 1960s.

Continue reading “Lighting Up: American Cigar Aficionados Eye the Coming of Cuban Cigars”
Categories
China Russia

China, Russia Continue to Improve Relations

China and Russia are stepping up communication as relations between the two neighboring countries continues to improve.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang Thursday praised his country’s relations with its giant neighbor, Russia. China is willing to “join hands” with Russia Qin said, especially against the backdrop of what he describes as the “complicated international situation.”

Continue reading “China, Russia Continue to Improve Relations”
Categories
Cambodia & Laos

Comrade Duch’s Sentence Reduced

The U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal ruled that former Khmer Rouge torture chief Kang Guk Eav was detained “unlawfully” by the military and would be compensated for time served. The ruling means that Kang, better know as Comrade Duch, can no longer be sentenced to life in prison.

Duch is currently on trial for crimes against humanity in his role as the head of the notorius S-21 detention center in Phnom Penh from 1975 to 1979.

Continue reading “Comrade Duch’s Sentence Reduced”