Category: China

Japanese motor companies overtook the United States in car sales last year:

Japan has regained its position as the world’s largest car producer after 13 years. China ranks third following the United States and outdistancing Germany. According to statistics for 2006 published by the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles on Monday, Japan overtook the U.S. by producing 11.48 million cars, up 6.3 percent from 2005 (10.8 million cars). Japan was the world’s top car-producing country from 1980 to 1993 but fell to second in 1994.

The U.S. slipped to second for the first time since 1994, producing 11.26 million vehicles. U.S. production decreased 5.7 percent from 2005 (11.95 million cars), registering a decrease for the fourth consecutive year. China produced 7.19 million cars in 2006, overtaking Germany, which manufactured 5.82 million cars, and becoming the world’s third-ranking car-producing nation. China’s production showed a sharp increase of 25.9% from 2005 (5.71 million cars). South Korea ranked fifth, producing 3.94 million cars, up 4.3 percent from 2005. France, the sixth-ranked country, made 3.17 million cars, down 10.7 percent from the previous year and lagging far behind South Korea.

Hopefully this will be a wake up call to the US automobile industry which appears to be poised to be by passed by China in coming years as well.  What is interesting is that China manufacturing abilities are being aided through industrial espionage being committed in Korea:

State prosecutors yesterday charged nine former and incumbent employees of Kia Motors Corp., the nation’s second-largest automaker, for leaking core manufacturing technologies to China.

The illegal transfer would cause trillions of won in loss to the domestic car industry, the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office said.

Five of them were arrested and indicted in the first industrial espionage case involving the automotive industry in Korea. Four others were charged without detention.

They are suspected of colluding to leak confidential data on nine separate occasions from Kia to a Chinese company since November. They received a total of 230 million won ($248,620) in exchange for the data, the prosecution said.

It seems like everything is made in China now a days so why not our cars as well seems to be the trend.

So does anyone think this apology will make as many headlines as the deliberate New York Times mistranslation did of Abe’s off the cuff comment about the comfort women last month?:

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday expressed regrets that his country’s military forced women into sexual slavery during World War II.

The remark, made in an interview with a weekly U.S. news magazine on the eve of his visit to the United States, may have been aimed at mending fences. The premier has been criticized by many countries for claiming there is no evidence that the Japanese military took any part in the forced recruitment of the so-called comfort women to serve its troops who invaded Asian countries.

"As Japan’s prime minister, I’m extremely sorry that they were made to endure such pain," Abe told Newsweek. The Japanese leader reiterated that his government respected and stood by a statement by former Chief Cabinet Minister Yohei Kono in 1993 that apologized for the Japanese military’s involvement in the use of women as sexual slaves.

Any bets when the first pundit comes out and claims this apology "isn’t sincere enough"?  I doubt this apology will even appease Congressman Honda who is playing up this issue for domestic political support from his Korean-American voting base.  He is going to keep playing this out for every last vote from political base just like Korean politicians back in Korea will keep doing the same thing. 

I do have a question for Congressman Honda though.  When is he going to start writing a bill to harass Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to apologize for the 20-30 million Chinese that died during the Great Leap forward, the up to 500,000 who died during the Cultural Revolution, or the 2,000-3000 civilians who were gunned down by the Chinese military at Tianamen Square.  What about an apology to the people of Korea for the Chinese intervention into the Korean War that killed up to a million Korean civilians and ensured the continued division of the country to this day?  How about another apology for the continuing human rights abuses of Chinese peasants and the sexual slavery of North Korean women?  Expect no bill on these issues because Congressman Honda considers these incidents as nothing more than "historical blemishes".

I do have to give China some credit because Chinese Premier Wen appears to be trying mend some fences with Japan with this week’s visit to the country.  Via Ampontan here’s some of what he said:

• “Japan formally admitted to wartime aggression and expressed deep remorse and apology, and the Chinese government and people high credit to Japan for it.”
• “China will not forget Japan’s assistance and support as the country reformed and modernized.”
• He described the two countries’ economic relationship as “mutually complementary” to a significant extent.

So does anyone think President Roh will make an announcement similar to this after yet another apology from the Japanese government?  I doubt it, especially with this year’s presidential election coming up; Japan bashing will be en vogue for at least the rest of the year.  If any mending of fences with Japan is to occur it will have to be after the presidential election and will last until a run up to another election.  That is how the cycle works and will continue.

The Chosun Ilbo today has an editorial about a phone call placed between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President George Bush. Here is what the reportedly discussed:

According to Japanese media reports, Abe said in the 20-minute phone call that he had apologized to women forced into sexual slavery during World War II and his remarks on the issue hadn’t been accurately conveyed.

(more…)

Anyone remember this controversy over an ultra-nationalist Korean group writing a book claiming an ancient Korean kingdom was larger than China and included this map in the book that was picked up by Chinese bloggers?

Well now Oh My News who never misses a chance to bash America or the Japanese has come up with a possible explanation to the recent text book controversy between the Chinese and Koreans, by blaming the evil Japs of course!:

Then who posted the original false maps, which caused such an outrage? Why did the maps become such a hit on Chinese BBSs? Some Koreans criticize the extreme perspectives of hoan-bba, a new term to indicate extreme nationalists, for causing these misunderstandings. On the other hand, some notes from Korean language bulletin boards and Chinese language ones guess that Japanese might have posted the maps with the purpose of stoking conflicts between Korea and China.

No word yet from Oh My News how the barbarian GIs in Shinchon are related to this yet but give them time.

Marmot has a whole lot more on the growing history crisis between Korea and China in regards to Chinese claims that Korean historical dramas distort Chinese history and the controversy over ownership of Mt. Paektu in North Korea.  Amazingly the Japanese get brought up those respective controversies as well.  At least everyone in northeast Asia can agree on one thing, they dislike the Japanese.

This is an interesting piece of news that may have greater strategic consequences than the North Korean nuclear test:

China last week successfully used a missile to destroy an orbiting satellite, U.S. government officials told CNN on Thursday, in a test that could undermine relations with the West and pose a threat to satellites important to the U.S. military.

According to a spokesman for the National Security Council, the ground-based, medium-range ballistic missile knocked an old Chinese weather satellite from its orbit about 537 miles above Earth. The missile carried a "kill vehicle" and destroyed the satellite by ramming it.

Why do I say this may have greater strategic impact than the North Korean nuclear test?  Despite all the media hype over the North Korean nuclear test, little has changed on the Korean peninsula because of it.  Until the North Koreans can demonstrate that they can put a nuclear warhead on a missile and fire it at someone, than the fact that they detonate an extremely small nuclear explosion in a cave is of little consequence at this time. 

Now the fact that the Chinese have proven they can shoot down a satellite is of huge strategic importance.  The US military has gone to great lengths to digitize the force was GPS devices and blue force tracking equipment that can plot and track friendly and enemy locations over a digitized map.  Additionally the military has continued to upgrade the Air Forces "smart bombs" to the JDAM GPS guided versions.  If hostilities broke out over Taiwan for example, the Chinese could shoot down America’s GPS satellites thus rendering all the American JDAM bombs as ineffective.  Does anyone now wonder why the US military won’t do away with conventional bombs such as cluster bombs that have been a popular cause-celeb for anti-military groups to ban?

So what now?  The US and other countries are going through the motions of condemning this test through the UN and other diplomatic channels, but realistically I can’t blame the Chinese for conducting the test.  It is in their national interest to develop this capability and they know Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations will do nothing to stop them.  To expect a great power like China to abide by some agreement to not militarize space is ridiculous.  Does anyone think that if China and the US went to war over Taiwan that either side would abide by some treaty not to destroy each others satellites?  What the US needs to do is react to this reality by developing technologies not depended on satellites or defensive systems to protect the satellites.  Notice that ever since the North Korean nuclear tests you hear no one talking against missile defense.  I suspect that with this Chinese missile test that you will hear no one talking against militarizing space now either. 

After reading about this I immediately thought back to a National Training Center rotation I did a few years back when the evaluators there were making my brigade’s leadership use nothing but the digital technology and the senior leaders were very resistant to it because they were comfortable with using the traditional paper maps, plastic overlays, and grease pencils to manage a battle.  It is ironic that we may need to start taking out and training with the paper maps, plastic overlays, and grease pencils again. 

One Free Korea has a must read posting about the arrest of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) members by Chinese authorities who were helping refugees escape from North Korea via China.  In addition to their arrests six North Korean refugees were also arrested that will surely be executed once returned to North Korea:

China’s treatment of the North Koreans violates the International Convention Regarding the Status of Refugees, to which it is a party and which bars "refoulement," or the repatriation of refugees to places where their lives or freedom would be in jeopardy. North Koreans who are sent home by Beijing face execution or a term in one of Kim Jong Il’s prison camps, which can amount to a death sentence.

The six refugees in jail in Shenyang include two orphan boys, ages 16 and 17; a 22-year-old woman; and three women in their 40s. One of the older women is the mother of a 19-year-old who made it to safety in the U.S. consulate last year and is awaiting resettlement in the U.S. along with two orphan boys — if China lets them leave. One of the women has relatives in Hawaii; another has family in South Korea.

Here is a sample of what One Free Korea has posted in response to these arrests:

(China’s abuse and repatriation of these refugees is a flagrant violation of the 1951 U.N. Convention on Refugees, which China signed, but of course, China really doesn’t care, and neither does the U.N., nor do the hypocrites who comprise the majority of the Human Rights Industry.  Ditto the “managed famine” that killed two million North Koreans during its largest-ever arms binge.)

Why the crackdown?  Because the food situation in North Korea is deteriorating fast, Kim Jong Il’s regime is under an increasingly effective financial attack from the United States Treasury Department, and the Chinese are doing everything they can to preserve their North Korean puppet and partial colony.  They may also be seeking to slave-catch their way to a refugee-free Olympics by 2008. 

As sad as that may be, this does remove one agonizing question from the shoulders of activists who had adopted a less confrontational approach with China for fear that we’d see just this result.  China is testing the world’s reaction, and I share China’s confidence that Ban Ki Moon and the U.N. won’t do anything particularly effective to interfere.

Make sure you read the rest of the posting.

Will the UN do anything?  I seriously doubt it when the United Nations Human Rights Council includes nations such as China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Russia just to name a few globally known human rights violators.  The United Nations is never short on condemning the US for the Gitmo Prison while continuing to keep their heads in the sand over the massive human rights violations going on every day in North Korea and the Chinese complicity in ensuring that it continues to happen.  The UN at least wrote a naughty letter last month to North Korea maybe they can at least send another one this month requesting that China free the six refugees and live up to their human rights obligations since they are a member of the UN Human Rights Council.  Then again this is the reason China is on the Human Rights Council to begin with, so they can prevent writing letters to themselves over human rights abuses.

Let’s hope this is true if North Korea collapses:

Chinese People`s Liberation Army (PLA) Assistant to the Chief of General Staff Zhang Qinsheng said in October, “Even in case an emergency breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, there is little possibility of Chinese military intervention.”

Assistant Chief Zhang, who ranks third in power order within the General Staff Office and has the deep trust of President Hu Jintao, made the aforementioned comment during a closed seminar carried out from October 22 to 24 in Beijing.

Being asked whether the Chinese military will intervene in case an abrupt situation arises in North Korea, he answered, “The Chinese military prefers the matter be solved by international bodies, especially the UN. If you see Chinese military involved, it would be in the form of a party to a UN force.”

Like I said before, let’s hope this is true, but I have a hard time believing that the Chinese will stand by doing nothing if North Korea collapses, especially if it is before the 2008 Olympics.  The only way the I don’t see the Chinese getting involved in a collapsed North Korea is if the South Koreans do not quickly occupy the North.  The South Koreans need to occupy and seal the borders before either the Chinese or Russians can organize a force to move into North Korea.  As far as the US involvement in a collapsed North Korea I have long maintained the US should not deploy troops to North Korea for a variety of reasons.

If the Chinese do get involved they have no plans of creating a unified, democratic Korean peninsula, but to avoid foreign intervention into Korean affairs that would continue the division of the peninsula the South Koreans need to have a viable and quickly implementable plan to quickly occupy North Korea.  However, no such plan exists due to South Korean governmental incompetency that unless reversed, will ensure the peninsula will remain divided well into the future.

Is North Korea running out of bridges to burn?:

North Korea may bring the date of a planned nuclear test forward after a contentious remark by China’s U.N. ambassador angered generals in the reclusive country, a source with close ties to Pyongyang said on Sunday.

U.S. envoy John Bolton said last week that while Britain, France and Japan had made clear a strong statement was needed to warn Pyongyang against testing, he was not certain “what North Korea’s protectors on the (U.N. Security) Council are going to do”.

In response, Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya said: “I’m not sure which country he is referring to, but I think that for bad behavior in this world no one is going to protect them.”

Wang’s remark riled North Korean generals who bristled at the notion of needing China’s protection and urged their leader, Kim Jong-il, to bring the test date forward, said the source who requested anonymity.

“North Korea is especially unhappy with China,” the source told Reuters after speaking with senior North Korean officials.

“This is chauvinism. North Korea does not need Chinese protection. North Korea is no longer a dependency,” the source cited the North Koreans as saying.

Korea was a Chinese protectorate for several centuries until Japan seized it as a colony in 1910.

If true this will be a true turning point in Chinese policy if China turns it’s back on North Korea. That would leave North Korea ironically with it’s only ally who is at the same time officially it’s sworn enemy, South Korea. If China decides to cut back on aid to North Korea in response to a nuclear test than President Roh better get the pocket book out because the South Korean tax payers will be making up for the shortage.

I think China originally was just hoping to keep North Korea issue quiet until at least after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but it appears North Korea is determined to get a deal done over it’s nuclear program before the Olympics. This is a sign that the US financial sanctions are hitting North Korea hard if the North Koreans are even breaking ranks with the Chinese over their nuclear program. I think it is also a sign that domestic politics within North Korea concerning the military is all playing a factor in the current crisis since the military is willing to denounce the Chinese in order to conduct a nuclear test.

Also I have to say that Ambassador Bolton is doing a great job as the United States’ UN Ambassador because not only did he get a Security Council Resolution with teeth in it passed after the NK missile tests in July, but now he has even gotten the Chinese and the North Koreans at odds against each other. Plus I wouldn’t be surprised if he cut a deal with the South Koreans where the US would support Ban Ki-moon’s UN Security General nomination if the South Koreans took tougher actions against the North after any possible nuclear test. Just a theory but I think it’s plausible. Once again I think Bolton has been doing great and just think he probably won’t be the ambassador to much longer because the Democrats seemed determined to sink his nomination. It is sad that petty politics will probably cause a quality guy like Bolton to get sacked from this important position simply because they hate President Bush.

Oh a quick note, I wonder if VANK will take note of the Korea was a Chinese protectorate for many centuries comment at the end of the article?

It looks like Kim Jong-il may have crossed China one too many times::

The Bank of China has frozen North Korea’s accounts at a branch in Macau due to Pyongyang’s counterfeiting and money laundering activities, it emerged Monday. It is the very BOC branch where South Korea’s National Intelligence Service transferred US$200 million to the North to guarantee the success of the first North-South summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and then-president Kim Dae-jung in 2000. U.S. pressure on the Macau-based bank Banco Delta Asia last year to freeze North Korean accounts reignited conflict between the U.S and the North.

Grand National Party lawmaker Park Jin said a former high-ranking U.S. official told him about the Chinese bank¿s decision when Park visited Washington last week. A South Korean government official later confirmed the account, saying Beijing could not turn down Washington¿s demand to clean up dubious accounts since it is well aware of the importance of improving financial transparency for the sake of trade. Analysts say that is one reason behind the recent rift between North Korea and its long-term ally over the North¿s missile tests.

US diplomats have been saying that China has been very helpful during the North Korean nuclear crisis and it appears behind the scenes they have if this latest crackdown is any indication.

If the Korean farmers think they got it bad; they need to talk to Chinese farmers. However, I hope the Korean farmers don’t pick up on this tactic:

A farmer angry over a court ruling set off a bomb in a Chinese courthouse, killing himself and four other people, a news report said Saturday.

The explosion Friday in Minle County in the northwestern province of Gansu killed the president of the county court and a local Communist Party official, the official Xinhua News Agency said.