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Ethnic Unrest Flares in China
Violence in Xinjiang late last month has once again focused attention on the ethnic unrest in one of China’s largest provinces, where the Muslim Uighur ethnic group forms 41.5 percent of the total population.The latest incident took place in Kashgar, the province’s second largest city, where Uighurs make up 80 percent of the population. On July 31, a group set fire to a restaurant in the city and attacked bystanders with knives, killing eight people and injuring more than a dozen more. City police shot dead four suspects at the scene, while two others were reportedly killed two days later.
This incident comes on the heels of violence that took place on July 30 in Kashgar, where two men hijacked a truck after killing its owner and proceeded to mow down pedestrians before attacking passersby with knives. Six people were killed in the incident and Read more…
Chemical spill fear after dike breached
Huge waves pound the coast of Yantai city, Shandong province, on Monday. [Photo / Xinhua]
Authorities say situation under control as sea defenses rebuilt
DALIAN, Liaoning – Towering waves whipped up by tropical storm Muifa breached sea defenses protecting a petrochemical plant near a northeastern coastal city on Monday, raising fears of a toxic spill, before the breaches were plugged with thousands of tons of rocks and concrete slabs.
At about 3:30 am, two sections of a dike, each at least 30 meters wide, were breached by waves up to 20 meters high at the Jinzhou Industrial Zone in Dalian city, Liaoning province, according to local authorities.
The breaches threatened toxic chemical tanks at the petrochemical plant, located about 30 kilometers from downtown Dalian.
The nearest tanks were located about 50 meters away from the dike.
As of Monday evening, authorities had yet to confirm or deny if leaks had occurred in any of the tanks.
The Fujia chemical plant produces Read more…
China starts 14th nuclear reactor and Canadian Uranium Producers Optimistic
1. The second unit at China’s Ling Ao II nuclear power plant entered commercial operation on 7 August, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Co (CGNPC) announced. The 1080 MWe Chinese-designed CPR-1000 pressurised water reactor (PWR) achieved first criticality on 25 February and was connected to the grid on 3 May. CGNPC said that the unit entered into commercial operation following 168 hours of successful test operation. It becomes China’s 14th operating nuclear power reactor.
17 other CPR-1000s already under construction. Work is planned to begin on at least five more during 2011.
2. Mid-year reports from two Canada-based uranium producers share an air of quiet optimism despite feeling the effects of events in Japan.
The first half of the year saw Denison produce 679,000 pounds U3O8 (261 tonnes U). Even before the events of 11 March, Denison had revised its uranium production forecast for 2011 downwards to 1.2 million pounds U3O8 (462 tU). This figure remains unchanged despite revisions to Denison’s ore processing plans for the remainder of the year subsequent to its acquisition of uranium exploration and development company White Canyon, including the Daneros mine in Utah.
Cameco’s first-half uranium production totalled Read more…
China willing to facilitate military cooperation with Russia: senior military officer
MOSCOW, Aug 07, 2011 (Xinhua via COMTEX) — Chen Bingde, chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China, stressed here on Sunday that China is willing to further promote military cooperation with neighboring Russia.
Chen, who visited Russian military units from Friday to Sunday, said that China’s army would like to work with the Russian forces to further advance their military ties, exchange their beneficial experience on building forces, and share with each other the achievements of military reforms.
China wants to step up its cooperation with Russia to mutually promote the army building in both countries, said Chen.
During his stay, Chen has visited several Russian units, including the Read more…
China puts pressure on Japan, sends navy fleet to North Korea
BEIJING: China has put Japan under immense pressure by sending a navy fleet to neighboring North Korea, and accusing Tokyo of issuing misleading statement about Beijing’s military threat.
The fleet includes a missile frigate ” Luoyang“, which landed in Wanson in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or North Korea on Thursday. It also includes a training ship. Tokyo has for long been worried about close military relationship between China and North Korea.
The move came immediately after Japan warned that China’s naval forces were likely to increase activities around its waters. The two countries have been involved in bickering over ownership of parts of the East China Sea.
Tokyo’s issued a white paper discussing military threat posed by an increasingly aggressive China. Tokyo is particularly worried because China is close to launching its first aircraft carrier, which might be put afloat in seas close to Japan.
The white paper said China’s defense budget has shot up Read more…
Why Oceania Matters
Since World War II, the United States has devoted few resources to the promotion of peace and stability in Oceania. Instead, it has relied on Australia and New Zealand to maintain Western strategic influence in the region. However, faced with a rising China and other emerging security issues, many analysts believe that the United States can no longer take Oceania for granted. Indeed, without the support of the United States and other regional powers, some question whether Australia and New Zealand will be able to sustain their roles as the sole guarantors of peace and stability in the region indefinitely.
Few regional analysts have been as vocal as Ernest Bower, head of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ recently launched Pacific Partners Initiative (PPI),on the issue.
‘Very few US policymakers understand the importance (of Australian and New Zealander contributions to peace and security in Asia since World War II)…these are important US partners, but their views aren’t sufficiently reflected in our policies. This has resulted in US policy not being robust enough to manage security issues in Asia-Pacific in the next century,’ he says. ‘If we don’t shift the policy focus, then we will Read more…
This Nebraska Village May Be Sitting On The World’s Largest Untapped Deposit Of Rare Earth Minerals
The next commodities boom town.
Image: Google Maps
A tiny town in Nebraska might be where the US wakes up from it’s decade-long hiatus from mining rare earth elements.
The Washington Times reports that Vancouver-based Quantum Rare Earths Developments Corp. announced that they have found significant amounts of rare earth elements and niobium in Elk Creek, a rural town of 112 people. The company and the US Geological Survey estimate that Elk Creek is potentially the “largest global resources of Niobium & Rare-Earth Elements.”
Niobium is an element needed to make strong heat-resistant steel. Deposits of Niobium in Elk Creek surpassed Quantum’s estimates. The company found rich concentrations of “Europium, Gadolinium, Terbium and Dysprosium, associated with the Elk Creek Niobium Deposit” according to their website.
A Boom Town in Nebraska
Residents of the tiny town are Read more…
Aircraft Carrier Construction Well Underway in China
Bill Gertz at the Washington Times has an article on Chinese aircraft carriers, a vogue topic these days.
China has begun work on its first aircraft carrier and probably will develop two or more, along with outfitting a former Russian carrier that is set to begin sea trials soon, Pentagon officials said.
“We expect China to build at least one indigenous carrier, probably two or more, but they have not revealed how many they intend to build, what the construction schedule will [be] or what their missions will be,” said a defense official familiar with intelligence assessments.
A second defense official said China regards aircraft carriers as key symbols of global power projection and is unlikely to build just two.
Other defense officials said assessments about the indigenous carriers are based on intelligence showing construction of the first indigenous carrier at the Changxing Island Shipyard in Shanghai.
The carrier appears in satellite photos to be similar in design to the Varyag, a Soviet-era carrier purchased by China that uses a sky-jump style takeoff ramp at the front of the ship.
What makes this article different is that it cites Read more…
Hackers target 72 organisations in ‘biggest cyber attack in history’
Security experts have discovered the biggest series of cyber attacks to date, involving the infiltration of the networks of 72 organisations including the United Nations, governments and companies around the world.
Security company McAfee, which uncovered the intrusions, said it believed there was one “state actor” behind the attacks but declined to name it, though one security expert who has been briefed on the hacking said the evidence points to China.
The long list of victims in the five-year campaign include the governments of the United States, Taiwan, India, South Korea, Vietnam and Canada; the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); the International Olympic Committee (IOC); the World Anti-Doping Agency; and an array of companies, from defence contractors to high-tech enterprises.
In the case of the United Nations, the hackers broke into the computer system of the UN Secretariat in Geneva in 2008, hid there unnoticed for nearly two years, and quietly combed through reams of secret data, according to McAfee.
“Even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators,” McAfee’s vice president of threat research, Dmitri Alperovitch, wrote in a 14-page report.
“What is happening to all this data Read more…
China Boldly Goes (Again) Where Moody’s Has Never Gone Before, Downgrades US From A+ To A, Outlook Negative
As was predicted last week, China’s rating agency Dagong, unlike its worthless western counterparts, has come through on its threat to downgrade the US in the event a subpar debt ceiling deal was hammered out. As Xinhua reports, ‘Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. said Wednesday it has cut the credit rating of the United States from A+ to A with a negative outlook after the U.S. federal government announced that the country’s debt limit would be increased.” Confirming that not being branded a NRSRO is the only thing that allows a rater to still think straight (and not in terms of lost client revenue if one goes ahead and tells the truth), Dagong’s decision was spot on: “The decision to lift the debt ceiling will not change the fact that the U.S. national debt growth has outpaced that of its overall economy and fiscal revenue, which will lead to a decline in its debt-paying ability, said Dagong Global in a statement.” So while Moody’s, which is now certified as the Read more…
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