Visiting China’s nuclear past

Posted by Matt in September 2nd, 2007 | no comment

Published in China, Nuclear, China, Nuclear

A remote atomic research base, long a forbidden zone, is resurrected as a ‘red tourism’ attraction.
Mao had counted on the Soviets to help China build its nuclear weaponry, but amid a schism between the two communist lands, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev reneged on his offer in June 1959. Within months, the last of the Soviet [...]

Taiwan: Anti-United States sentiment worries scholars

Posted by Matt in September 2nd, 2007 | no comment

Published in Anti-Americanism, Taiwan, Anti-Americanism, Taiwan

Tung Li-wen, deputy executive of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, agreed that the current intensity of anti-U.S. sentiment is unprecedented, saying that it is because the U.S. is “actually helping China change the status quo and pressuring Taiwan to kowtow to China.”
“The worst case scenario would be that Taiwan becomes not only an anti-communist [...]

Shifting alliances ‘down under’

Posted by Matt in September 2nd, 2007 | no comment

Published in Australia, China, Australia, China, down_under

But then last year, China signed energy deals with Australia valued at well more than $100 billion in the coming years. Beijing is buying uranium, natural gas and oil. Already, it appears, Australia is becoming addicted.
“Here in Australia, the view is that whatever commodity you’re going to make, your always going to be able to [...]

Iran’s Land Grab

Posted by Matt in September 2nd, 2007 | no comment

Published in Iran, Middle East, hezbollah, Iran, Lebanon, Middle East, tehran

Tehran buying up Lebanese villages via Hezbollah fronts.
September 2, 2007 — IRAN’S banks, operating through front men and companies, are financing land purchases that could redraw Lebanon’s complex ethnic and religious map.
Soon after last year’s Israel-Hezbollah war, the Islamic republic set up a “Lebanon Committee” ostensibly to rebuild Shiite areas damaged in the fighting. It [...]

China: Central Asian Rumbles

Posted by Matt in September 2nd, 2007 | no comment

Published in Asia, China, Energy, Russia, Asia, central_asia, China, Energy, Russia, Sino-Russian_Conflict

China is making a bid for Central Asia’s energy resources — a move that will ultimately expand into a bid for geopolitical control of the entire region. Russia is waking up to the threat and starting to take countermeasures, setting the stage for a broad Sino-Russian conflict in Central Asia.
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China’s influence spreads around world

Posted by Matt in September 2nd, 2007 | no comment

Published in China, Trade, China, Trade

For nearly three decades, Chinese peasants have left their villages for crowded dormitories and sweaty assembly lines, churning out goods for world markets. Now, China is turning the tables.
Here in the Australian Outback, Shane Padley toils in the scorching heat, 2,000 miles from his home, to build an extension to a liquefied natural gas plant [...]

New Russia, new threat

Posted by Matt in September 2nd, 2007 | no comment

Published in Russia, Russia

Working with the West is no longer the goal as the Kremlin flexes its muscle and rethinks its role in the world.
On Aug. 17, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin announced that a dozen missile-carrying strategic bombers, accompanied by support and tanker planes, will be permanently airborne. Their mission: to protect Russian territory. From whom?
Putin didn’t [...]

How the West summoned up a nuclear nightmare in Pakistan

Posted by Matt in September 2nd, 2007 | no comment

Published in Nuclear, Pakistan, Nuclear, Pakistan

Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark reveal how misguided deals with Pakistan have created a terrifying threat of nuclear terrorism
General Pervez Musharraf was surprised. Visiting New York for a session of the UN, the last thing the Pakistani president expected was to be confronted with evidence of his countryâ€™s secret sales of nuclear bomb technology and [...]