China stresses dialogue in improving international security cooperation

Xinhua - April 17, 2015

MOSCOW, April 16  -- China insists that every country should place equal emphasis on development and security while advocating sustainability in the process and having common prosperity as the basic objective.
The remarks were made by Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Chang Wanquan in addressing the Fourth Moscow Conference on International Security held in the Russian capital Thursday.
To improve international cooperation in security and cope with global challenges in this regard, China believes it is necessary to advance establishing a fair and just international order, said Chang.
"All nations should safeguard the tenets and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, and work together to undertake the responsibility of safeguarding regional and international security and build a new international relationship characterized by win-win, cooperative nature at the core," said Chang.
It is important to insist in the effective way of developing cooperation via dialogue and all countries should work hard to forge security interest ties, improve crisis control and properly settle disputes by taking the other side's rational concerns into consideration, Chang stressed.

READ MORE....

Egypt joins China-based infrastructure bank, hopes for funds

YAHOO NEWS - APRIL 16, 2015 

Cairo (AFP) - Egypt has been approved as a founding member of the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, opening the way for it to benefit from the bank's $50 billion in funds, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

Britain, Germany, France and Italy are also among the 57 founders of the AIIB, despite scepticism about it in Washington and Tokyo.

As a result of its acceptance, Cairo will also have access to its "vast funding opportunities to finance development and infrastructure projects," the ministry said.

It will also be able to participate in formulating the institution's regulations and policies, the ministry said.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who ousted his Islamist Mohamed Morsi in 2013, has vowed to revive Egypt's economy battered after years of political turmoil.

READ MORE....

Turkey detains two suspected IS members from China

CCTV.com  04-15-2015

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has responded to Turkish reports that Turkey has detained two Chinese nationals suspected of being members of the Islamic State militant group. The reports say the two were caught as they attempted to enter Turkish borders last week.
Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular press conference there has been collusion between an Islamic militant group active in western China, and Islamic State. He said the group, named the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, has been responsible for terrorist attacks in China, and has also sent its members to conflict areas. And it is a grave threat to stability and security in the region and internationally. Hong said fighting the East Turkestan Islamic Movement is a part of the international counter-terrorism campaign, and China will strengthen international collaboration to do so.

READ MORE....

Israel joins Chinese infrastructure bank

Amiram Barkat

Globes - 15/04/2015

Israel is joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) despite US opposition.

The secretariat of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) today officially announced that Israel had been approved as the bank's 52nd out of 57 founding members. The Chinese initiative for founding the multinational financial institution was designed to provide financing for infrastructure development projects in Asian countries - general development of the region. The founding of the bank is slated for completion towards the end of this year.
The bank's founding is arousing concern in the US, which fears that it is the start of a process that will eventually end the dominance currently enjoyed by the US in the world's important financial institutions. Former US Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers even warned 10 days ago that "This past month may be remembered as the moment the United States lost its role as the underwriter of the global economic system."

READ MORE....

Chinese Leader to Pledge $46 Billion for Projects in Pakistan

SPUTNIK - 16.04.2015 

During a two day visit to Pakistan next week, Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to finalize a $46 billion deal which will jumpstart Pakistani infrastructure projects and strengthen ties between the two nations.  According to Pakistan’s foreign ministry, President Xi will visit on Monday and Tuesday, and plans to cement several multi-billion dollar agreements. If the deal goes through, Chinese will invest $34 billion in energy contracts and $12 billion in infrastructure projects.
The move is likely to worry US officials. As tensions rise between Washington and Beijing over the construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea, the US has expressed concerns about the growing influence of China in the region. Stronger ties with China’s neighbor to the west will likely increase those concerns.  But Pakistani officials think that a Chinese partnership will prove beneficial.  "China treats us as a friend, an ally, a partner and above all an equal – not how the Americans and others do," Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of the Pakistani parliament’s defense committee said, according to Reuters.

READ MORE....

China Has a Role to Play in Setting the ‘Right’ Standards

Yukon Huang

Op-Ed April 9, 2015 - Financial Times  

Summary The shaping of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank should be seen not as a threat to achieving the highest standards, but as a rare opportunity to help existing multilateral agencies develop the right standards. 

With nearly 50 applicants so far, the attention of the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has shifted from concerns that it would not secure enough participants for a credible presence on the international stage to having possibly too many to coalesce on important issues. Now comes the hard part: creating a development institution that is responsive to both the diverse needs of its Asian borrowers and the governance concerns of its broader funding countries in Europe and elsewhere.  Joining the bank is not politically feasible for Washington in the foreseeable future given the negative congressional sentiments, but the messages coming from the US have become more constructive, shifting from adamant opposition to signalling a willingness to co-operate in statements from senior Treasury officials. Yet these statements continue to raise concerns about whether the AIIB — with an intended $100bn registered capital — will adhere to the “highest standards” and over conditions on safeguards relating to social and environmental consequences at project level. Some of the later applicant countries such as Australia have cited such reservations to justify their initially lukewarm approach to joining.

READ MORE.....

With nearly 50 applicants so far, the attention of the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has shifted from concerns that it would not secure enough participants for a credible presence on the international stage to having possibly too many to coalesce on important issues. Now comes the hard part: creating a development institution that is responsive to both the diverse needs of its Asian borrowers and the governance concerns of its broader funding countries in Europe and elsewhere.
Joining the bank is not politically feasible for Washington in the foreseeable future given the negative congressional sentiments, but the messages coming from the US have become more constructive, shifting from adamant opposition to signalling a willingness to co-operate in statements from senior Treasury officials. Yet these statements continue to raise concerns about whether the AIIB — with an intended $100bn registered capital — will adhere to the “highest standards” and over conditions on safeguards relating to social and environmental consequences at project level. Some of the later applicant countries such as Australia have cited such reservations to justify their initially lukewarm approach to joining.


Read more at: http://carnegieendowment.org/2015/04/09/china-has-role-to-play-in-setting-right-standards/i68e?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRois6jKZKXonjHpfsX76O8uXKSg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YcHT8p0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D

The Future of U.S.-China Relations Under Xi Jinping:

Toward a New Framework of Constructive Realism for a Common Purpose

Summary Report, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School  April 2015

Kevin Rudd, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

The future relationship between China and the United States is one of the mega-changes and mega-challenges of our age. China’s rise is the geopolitical equivalent of the melting polar ice caps – gradual change on a massive scale that can suddenly lead to dramatic turns of events.
In this Summary Report of a longer forthcoming work, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a senior fellow at the Belfer Center, asks if this defining trend of the 21^st century can be managed peacefully. He argues that it can – if Washington and Beijing commit to placing their relationship on a stable, long-term footing.
Rudd's findings emerge from a major study he led at the Belfer Center on the possibilities and impacts of a new strategic relationship between China and the United States.
The choice is stark: Either China and America will author a common narrative of mutually beneficial achievements, or they will drift toward conflict. While the likelihood of near-term conflict is low, leaders on both sides of the Pacific are well aware of “Thucydides’ Trap,” the historical pattern of conflict when rising powers rival ruling ones.
Avoiding that trap means answering key questions about U.S.-China relations:

• Is China’s economic rise sustainable?
• How will China exert power differently under Xi Jinping?
• What does Beijing regard as Washington’s grand strategy toward China – and vice versa?
• What are the risks of armed conflict?
• How will China’s growing clout impact the regional and global order?
• Can both sides develop a common strategic narrative?

There is no deficit of analysis about these issues. The purpose of this report is to help policymakers synthesize that analysis to better anticipate and respond to one of the great challenges of our day.

FULL REPORT.....

"Katar'ın iki bankası, Çin'le İslami bankacılık konusunda bir anlaşmaya vardı."

卡塔尔银行拟与西南证券在华成立金融公司
美股腾讯证券[微博] 
2015-04-14

腾讯证券讯 北京时间4月14日下午消息，卡塔尔央行行长阿勒萨尼（Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani）周二向媒体透露，卡塔尔国内两家银行计划与中国券商西南证券签署一项谅解备忘录，双方将共同设立一家公司处理在华伊斯兰金融交易。

这两家银行分别是卡塔尔国民银行（Qatar National Bank）和卡塔尔国际伊斯兰银行（Qatar International Islamic Bank），不过，阿勒萨尼并未透露有关新公司的更多细节。

官 网资料显示，西南证券成立于1999年，注册资本23.23亿元，是重庆地区唯一一家全国综合性证券公司。公司在全国19个经济中心城市设有41家营业网 点，在北京、上海、深圳、成都、重庆5地设有投资银行业务部，并于2010年设立了从事直接投资业务的全资控股子公司西证股权投资有限公司。（萧何）

微信扫一扫，关注您的私人投资管家——腾讯证券公众号：腾讯证券（qqzixuangu）

The Leader Ruling China, from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping

David M. Lampton

University of California Press - 2014

With unique access to Chinese leaders at all levels of the party and government, best-selling author David M. Lampton tells the story of China’s political elites from their own perspectives. Based on over five hundred interviews, Following the Leader offers a rare glimpse into how the attitudes and ideas of those at the top have evolved over the past four decades. Here China’s rulers explain their strategies and ideas for moving the nation forward, share their reflections on matters of leadership and policy, and discuss the challenges that keep them awake at night.
As the Chinese Communist Party installs its new president, Xi Jinping, for a presumably ten-year term, questions abound. How will the country move forward as its explosive rate of economic growth begins to slow? How does it plan to deal with domestic and international calls for political reform and to cope with an aging population, not to mention an increasingly fragmented bureaucracy and society? In this insightful book we learn how China’s leaders see the nation’s political future, as well as about its global strategic influence.

Table of Contents
1. Evolution in the Revolution
Part One. China, a Wide-Angle View
2. Governance and Leadership
3. Policy Making
4. The World
Part Two. China, an Up-Close View
5. Nightmares
6. Soldiers and Civilians
7. Negotiation Chinese Style

READ MORE.....

"The China Challenge"

The Boston Globe - April 3, 2015  

Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor

Since World War II, the United States has been the most powerful state in world politics. Many analysts view a rising China as the most likely contender to end the American century. One recent book is even entitled "When China Rules the World."
Most projections of Chinese power are based on the rapid growth rate of its GDP, and China may pass the United States in total economic size in the 2020s. But even then, it will be decades before it equals America in per capita income (a measure of the sophistication of an economy). China also has other significant power resources. In terms of basic resources, its territory is equal to that of the United States and its population is four times greater. It has the world's largest army, more than 250 nuclear weapons, and modern capabilities in space and cyberspace. In soft power (the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than payment or coercion), China still lacks cultural industries able to compete with Hollywood; its universities are not top ranked; and it lacks the many non-governmental organizations that generate much of America's soft or attractive power.
In the 1990s, I wrote that the rapid rise of China might cause the type of conflict predicted by Thucydides when he attributed the disastrous Peloponnesian War in ancient Greece to the rise in the power of Athens and the fear it created in Sparta. Today, I think that is unlikely, though some analysts flatly assert that China cannot rise peacefully. Many draw analogies to World War I, when Germany had surpassed Britain in industrial power. But we should also recall Thucydides' other warning, that belief in the inevitability of conflict can become one of its main causes. Each side, believing it will end up at war with the other, makes reasonable military preparations which then are read by the other side as confirmation of its worst fears.

READ MORE....

CFP: Trans-l Encounters: Religious Education and Islamic Popular Culture in Asia and the Middle East

Call for Papers International Conference:

Trans-l Encounters: Religious Education and Islamic Popular Culture in Asia and the Middle East

The research network “Re-Configurations: History, Remembrance and Transformation Processes in the Middle East and North Africa” invites submissions for the international conference “Trans-l Encounters: Religious Education and Islamic Popular Culture in Asia and the Middle East”, to be held between 26 and 28 May 2016 at the Philipps-Universität Marburg. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 01 October 2015.

Follow this link: http://www.uni-marburg.de/cnms/forschung/re-konfigurationen/aktuelles/news/call_for_papers_transregional_islamic_encounters.
--
Prof. Dr. Claudia Derichs
Philipps University Marburg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research Duisburg
derichs[a]gcr21.uni-due.de

A New Report: Revising U.S. Grand Strategy Toward China

Council on Foreign Relations April 2015

"China represents and will remain the most significant competitor to the United States for decades to come. As such, the need for a more coherent U.S. response to increasing Chinese power is long overdue," write CFR Senior Fellow Robert D. Blackwill and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Senior Associate Ashley J. Tellis in a new Council Special Report, Revising U.S. Grand Strategy Toward China.
"Because the American effort to 'integrate' China into the liberal international order has now generated new threats to U.S. primacy in Asia—and could result in a consequential challenge to American power globally—Washington needs a new grand strategy toward China that centers on balancing the rise of Chinese power rather than continuing to assist its ascendancy."
The authors argue that such a strategy is designed to limit the dangers that China's geoeconomic and military power pose to U.S. national interests in Asia and globally, even as the United States and its allies maintain diplomatic and economic interactions with China.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT......

Joint Conference: The Silk Road Heritage in Asia's Imagined Futures - May 14-15, 2015

China Policy Institute
University of Nottingham

Date: Thursday 14th (09:00) - Friday 15th May 2015 (18:00)
Queries can be directed to Mrs Hua Geddes, External Relations Manager,  hua.geddes (at) nottingham.ac.uk

This joint conference aims to examine China's New Silk Road (NSR) initiative in historical perspective. How do NSR geo-political, economic and cultural realities measure up with life on the Silk Road in pre-modern times? Beyond superficial symbolism, can a continuum of globalisation be drawn from pre-modernity to modernity? How do we historically characterise and parse down moments of trade intensification across Eurasia? And how might such an undertaking help predict the future of the continent? How does Chinese NSR or pan-Asian rhetoric compare with other pan-Asian strands elsewhere at present and further back in time? Will NSR impact on the formulation of ideology, religion or culture across Eurasia in the near future? To what extent can China’s New Confucian discourse capture the hearts and minds of Asians, where Maoism previously failed? To what extent can NSR temper ethnic tension in Xinjiang? These are some of the question we will hopefully try to tackle.

Joint Organisers:
HH Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah Programme at Durham University
The China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham      

Sponsors:
The Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW)      
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/cpi/news-events/events/silk-road-event-14-5-2015.aspx 

Imams dancing to “Little Apple” in Uch Turpan, Xinjiang

By Sic on March 25, 2015

Imams in Uch Turpan dancing to the internet hit ‘Little Apple’ (Spring 2015)
Song and dance has long been harnessed in the service of China’s state policy, but this latest campaign in Xinjiang seems set to make music and dance into an ideological battleground.
Throughout Spring 2015, the people of Xinjiang have been involved in one of China’s more bizarre social campaigns: organised public dancing sessions to the internet hit ‘Little Apple’ (小苹果), in order to promote social harmony and combat religious extremism.

READ MORE.....

China and the Middle East Academic Network and Mailing List at VIRGINIA TECH UNIVERSITY

China and the Middle East Academic Network and Mailing List

China and the Middle East Mailing List is a scholarly network for all scholars and across disciplines such as sociology, political science, history, international studies and international relations. The major aim of this network is to study and understand China and the Middle East.

China and the Middle East mailing list facilitates the academic exchange of information on conferences, panels, articles, books, and events.

China and the Middle East
http://chinaandthemiddleeast.blogspot.com/

THE LIST STATISTIC

*  Country                  Subscribers
*  -------                  -----------
*  ??? (AC)                           1
*  Australia                          6
*  Austria                            1
*  Canada                             2
*  China                              5
*  Colombia                           1
*  France                             2
*  Germany                            3
*  Hong Kong                          1
*  India                              4
*  Indonesia                          1
*  Islamic Republic of Iran           1
*  Israel                             2
*  Italy                              1
*  Japan                              5
*  Malaysia                           4
*  Netherlands                        2
*  New Zealand                        1
*  Republic of Korea                  1
*  Singapore                          9
*  Switzerland                        1
*  Turkey                            13
*  United arab emirates               3
*  United kingdom                     9
*  United states                    166
*
* Total number of users subscribed to the list:    245
* Total number of countries represented:            25

--
Tugrul Keskin

Assistant Professor of International and Middle Eastern Studies
Portland State University

Editor of Sociology of Islam Journal (Brill)
Region Editor of Critical Sociology (Middle East and North Africa)
Book Review Editor of Societies Without Borders  

China: Egypt’s advancement towards the East on the chessboard

Aya Nader 

Daily News Egypt - March 13, 2015

A significant part of Egypt’s move towards the East to check Western influence is China. President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi gave a speech before the Egyptian-Chinese Business Council in China late December, inviting Chinese investors and companies to actively participate in the Economic Summit.
“This population is now inviting you to form a serious partnership and have constructive cooperation to achieve development,” the president said.
China was the first country outside the Arab region that Al-Sisi visited after his inauguration, with the Chinese premiere set to visit Egypt in April, Kandil said.
China’s policy towards Egypt has been clear and fixed for four years. It stood by both the 25 January and 30 June Revolutions, Kandil said.
“There is concordance between both the Egyptian and Chinese governments,” he added.

READ MORE....

Trade between China, Israel at record high

T24 - March 21st 2015

Trade between Israel and China in 2014 reached record peaks Haaretz newspaper reported on Friday. Calculating completed deals, transactions and plans for future transactions, the tally for 2014 reaches close to $4 billion.
The figure was determined by a law firm working on mergers and acquisitions involving Chinese companies, Weinstock Zecler & Co, led by partner Micki Shapira.
Shapira reported that Chinese investors are "investing more broadly in the Israeli economy."
“We are currently seeing the Chinese also investing in local venture capital funds, which had not happened before,” he said. “At its peak, it involves huge investment on their part in the Israeli market via holdings in companies like Tnuva and [Adama]. The trend will grow: 2014 is just the beginning, and we are already dealing with two more transactions and getting additional inquiries. If 2015 continues this way, it will surpass 2014.”

READ MORE....

SINO-ISRAELI RELATIONS

EMBASSY OF PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA IN THE STATE OF ISRAEL

• Bilateral Relations
• Economic Exchange
• Technology Co-operation
• Culture and Education

• "Ushering in a New Scene in China's Development of Rule of Law"(2015-01-22)
• Israeli President Shimon Peres gives an interview to Chinese press(2014-04-08)
• The Jerusalem Post Publishes Ambassador Gao Yanping's Article Entitled "China-Israel relations are bound to blossom"(2014-04-04)
• President Shimon Peres of the State of Israel will visit China(2014-04-03)

READ MORE....

China and Iran Economic, Political, and Military Relations by Scott Warren Harold, Alireza Nader

RAND CORPORATION - 2012

Over the past few decades, China and Iran have developed a broad and deep partnership centered on China's energy needs and Iran's abundant resources as well as significant non-energy economic ties, arms sales and defense cooperation, and geostrategic balancing against the United States. This partnership presents a unique challenge to U.S. interests and objectives. In particular, China's policies have hampered U.S. and international efforts to dissuade Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability. This paper examines factors driving Chinese-Iranian cooperation, potential tensions in the Chinese-Iranian partnership, and U.S. policy options for influencing this partnership to meet U.S. objectives. The authors conclude that the U.S. ability to fundamentally reshape China's relationship with Iran is fairly limited, but that the United States should continue to forestall an Iranian nuclear weapons capability and pressure China to reduce ties to Iran.

READ MORE.....

Chinese Foreign Policy Comes of Age

By ANDREW SMALL

The New York Times - MARCH 26, 2015

WASHINGTON — China’s public offer to mediate peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government marks a notable departure in Chinese foreign policy. It is the first time Beijing is taking a genuine leadership role, on its own initiative, on a geopolitical issue both sensitive and significant.

If Beijing has alarmed its neighbors in East Asia with its assertiveness over contested territory, elsewhere it is its policy of noninterference that has been criticized, especially by Western governments, as a form of free-riding or obstructionism. But now its efforts in Afghanistan suggest it will no longer leave all the diplomatic heavy-lifting to other states. Beijing is finally easing into its role as a great power.

China’s noninterventionism has been a diplomatic mantra since Zhou Enlai laid out the “five principles of peaceful coexistence” over half a century ago. The policy didn’t stop Mao Zedong from sending Chinese troops into India in 1962 and supporting revolutionary movements across the globe, nor Deng Xiaoping from invading Vietnam in 1979 and providing arms to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Yet noninterference remained a defining feature of China’s foreign policy mind-set.

In more recent decades, it was coupled with Deng’s injunctions to “hide our capabilities and bide our time” and “never claim leadership.” Partly a means of distinguishing China’s identity as a developing country from Western powers, partly a strategy to minimize risk, these principles have also been an excuse for inaction, and for protecting China’s commercial interests abroad, especially in the world’s trouble spots.

READ MORE.....

Revisiting the Uygurs of Kashgar, in north-west China

Joyce Morgan 

In China’s far north-west, the Uygurs of Kashgar are a reminder of the Silk Road outpost’s cultural convergence.

The Saturday Paper - Apr 4, 2015

The little mudbrick building is hidden behind gleaming high-rises. Nothing suggests the white-washed residence in the heart of Kashgar, China’s most far-flung city, was once a vital but unlikely listening post in a high-stakes spying game. Or that the assortment of explorers, spooks, writers and oddballs who stayed under its roof made it a Chelsea Hotel of the Far East.
Today, the down-at-heel Chini Bagh houses a Chinese restaurant serving mediocre food. Its shady verandah still offers refuge from summer heat. Inside, cast-iron stoves are reminders of how winters were spent more than a century ago where desert temperatures drop to minus 12.

I’m overjoyed to find the old house, battered but still standing, when so much of the traditional Muslim oasis has vanished. The building has suffered numerous indignities over the years. After its terraced orchards were left to rot and stables converted into a dank shower block, Chini Bagh was a flophouse sheltering Pakistani traders and backpackers when I first stayed under its castellated roof in the late 1980s. A view across Kashgar’s tilled fields to distant snow-capped Muztagh Ata was compensation for a sagging bed in a room shared with a Portuguese juggler, a Japanese with a taste for local rocket fuel and a brawny German yellowed with jaundice.

I wandered Kashgar’s enchanting alleys, bought pomegranates from stout matrons with heads covered for modesty, who raised their skirts to pull change from substantial cotton bloomers.

READ MORE.....

Israel Applies to New China-led Global Investment Bank

JNS.OR - April 2, 2015

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signed a letter of application to join the new China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
Israel seeks to join roughly 40 countries, including several Western and Asian allies such as the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore Korea, Switzerland and Denmark, as founding members of the bank. The US and Japan have not applied for membership.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that the country’s application to the bank highlights the importance of Israel “joining major Asian organizations on the continent.”

READ MORE....

Turkey plans to join China-led Asian infrastructure bank

REUTERS - Thu Mar 26, 2015
ISTANBUL

Turkey intends to become member of the China-led Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank, the Treasury said on Thursday.
At least 35 countries will join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) by the deadline of March 31.
India, Indonesia and New Zealand have also expressed interest in joining the bank, following a request by Britain, France, Italy and Luxembourg to become founding members. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay; editing by David Dolan)

Tug-of-war between China, Turkey over suspected Uighurs in Thailand

Reuters - Tue Mar 24, 2015 
Thailand  BANGKOK |

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre

A group of suspected Uighur Muslims has become the focus of a diplomatic tug-of-war in Thailand between China and Turkey, with both countries wanting to repatriate them and hundreds of other suspected Uighurs detained in Thailand as illegal immigrants.
The group of 17, all from the same family, were detained by Thai police in March 2014 after illegally entering overland from Cambodia, said their lawyer Worasit Piriyawiboon.
Two of the family's 13 children were born in custody.
The family, who use the name Teklimakan, have spent most of the past year in the main police immigration detention center in Bangkok.
The group claimed to be Turkish and, while still in detention, were issued with passports by the Turkish Embassy and granted permission to travel to Turkey.
China insists the 17 detainees are Chinese Uighurs who should be returned to the northwest Chinese region of Xinjiang, according to court documents seen by Reuters.
Hundreds of people have been killed in unrest in Xinjiang in the past two years, prompting a crackdown by Chinese authorities and small numbers of Uighurs to try and flee the country.

READ MORE....

Turkey, China fight over Uighurs detained in Thailand

By Miles Yu

The Washington Times - Thursday, April 2, 2015  

A diplomatic dispute has erupted over China’s and Turkey’s competing claims for 17 ethnic Uighurs who were detained in Thailand on charges of illegal border-crossing. Each is demanding the Uighurs’ return.  The Uighurs entered Thailand via Cambodia to escape their homeland in China’s Central Asian region of Xinjiang, where ethnic tensions between the Uighurs and the Chinese government have escalated in recent years.  The Uighurs are Turkic Muslims who live mostly inside Xinjiang, which was conquered by China’s Qing dynasty (1644-1911).  Because of ethnic, cultural and linguistic affinities, Turkey has been actively involved in improving the Uighurs’ lot in communist China. Ankara has been vocal in criticizing China for its mistreatment of the ethnic minority group.

READ MORE.....

Video: A Pakistani's grateful kiss for the Chinese navy

China Xinhua News @XHNews
APRIL 2, 2015

A sweet kiss from a little Pakistani girl on the cheek of a Chinese navy offical soothed people's nerves, leaving the flames of war in Yemen far behind. The girl was among 225 nationals from Pakistan, Singapore, Germany, Britain, and other 6 countries who arrived in Djibouti Thursday evening onboard the Chinese Navy's missile frigateon, Linyi.

China state visit to Egypt, Saudi Arabia delayed

The Cairo Post - April 1, 2015

CAIRO: Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Egypt and other regional states, which was scheduled mid-April, has been delayed, according to a brief presidential statement Wednesday.
Minister of Industry Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour told Al-Borsa and MENA that Xi was planned to visit Saudi Arabia then Egypt, and that the president “apparently” found it was better to postpone the visits due to the kingdom’s “current preoccupations.”
Abdel Nour said he called Chinese ambassador to Cairo Song Aiguo, who advised him the postponement is temporary and that his country would arrange another date for the visit.
The Egyptian minister had announced last month that Cairo was going to receive an economic delegation accompanying Xi. Earlier in March, a delegation from the Chinese presidency and Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited Egypt for several days to prepare for the state visit.
After the ongoing Operation Resolute Storm, led by Saudi Arabia against Houthi rebels in Yemen, was launched March 25, China expressed its concerns over deteriorating conditions in Yemen.
Egyptian-Chinese relations have been relatively positive in the past decades, continuing after the January 25 Revolution in 2011, and reaching high levels economically under the presidency of Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

READ MORE....

China unveils action plan on Belt and Road Initiative

Xinhua, March 28, 2015

China unveiled on Saturday the principles, framework, and cooperation priorities and mechanisms in its Belt and Road Initiative in a bid to enhance regional connectivity and embrace a brighter future together. The vision and actions on jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, an initiative raised by Chinese President Xi Jinping during visits to Central Asia and Southeast Asia in 2013, was issued by China's top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission and ministries of foreign affairs and commerce. The initiative aims to promote orderly and free flow of economic factors, highly efficient allocation of resources and deep integration of markets by enhancing connectivity of Asian, European and African continents and their adjacent seas.It is open to all countries and international and regional organizations for engagement and honors mutual respect and market operation to seek common prosperity, the plan said. "The programs of development will be open and inclusive, not exclusive. They will be a real chorus comprising all countries along the routes, not a solo for China itself," Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Saturday while addressing the opening ceremony of the 2015 annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in the coastal town of China's southernmost island province of Hainan. The Initiative is not meant as rhetoric. It represents real work that could be seen and felt to bring real benefits to countries in the region, Xi added. The plan called for policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds to make complementary use of participating countries' unique resource advantages through multilateral mechanisms and multilevel platforms.

READ MORE....

A New Book: China's Public Diplomacy

Ingrid d'Hooghe

BRILL 2014

China invests heavily in policies aimed at improving its image, guarding itself against international criticism and advancing its domestic and international agenda. This volume explores how the Chinese government seeks to develop a distinct Chinese approach to public diplomacy, one that suits the country's culture and authoritarian system. Based on in-depth case studies, it provides a thorough analysis of this approach, which is characterized by a long-term vision, a dominant role for the government, an inseparable and complementary domestic dimension, and a high level of interconnectedness with China's overall foreign policy and diplomacy.

Ingrid d'Hooghe, Ph.D, is a senior research associate at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations 'Clingendael'. She has published widely in the field of China's foreign policy and diplomacy.

READ MORE....

China Losing Battle Against Extremist Islamic Teachings, Says Muslim Official

EURASIA REVIEW - March 30, 2015

China may be losing the ideological battle against Islamic extremism due to a lack of “respected” religious leaders, a leading Muslim official in restive Xinjiang province said on Monday.
A lack of state-sanctioned Islamic leaders means too many of Xinjiang’s 12 million Uyghurs have turned to extreme interpretations of the Qu’ran, Adudulkrep Tumniaz, deputy director of the Xinjiang Islamic Association, told the state-run China Daily newspaper.
“If the religious leaders compete with the extremists on Islamic knowledge, I cannot guarantee that they would win. That’s what worries me,” said Adudulkrep, who is also head of the state-run Xinjiang Islamic Institute.
“The extremists often start by teaching people about the parts of the Qu’ran — Islam’s holy book — that have never been mentioned by their imams and then inject violent thoughts in people by misinterpreting doctrines,” he said.

READ MORE....

New think tank to facilitate Xinjiang development

Lǚ Sha

Chinese Social Sciences - 2015-03-12

The Xinjiang Think Tank opened at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing on Feb. 9. CASS President Wang Weiguang delivered a speech at the opening ceremony. He said the goal for building the Xinjiang Think Tank is to offer suggestions for work in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to policy makers, provide top-level design and theoretical support for Xinjiang’s sustainable social stability, security and other major strategic tasks, offer intellectual support for enduring peace and stability, provide reference and consulting service for minorities in board areas in terms of modernization of governance system and governance ability, and contribute to winning discourse power over issues pertaining to Xinjiang in international community.

READ MORE.....

The GCC States and the Viability of a Strategic Military Partnership with China

 By Imad Mansour

Assistant Professor - International Affairs - Qatar University

MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE | Mar 17, 2015

The term “strategic partnership” has been increasingly used in GCC circles to signify that relations with China are important and worthy of long-term investment. In a March 14, 2014 speech during his visit to Beijing, Saudi Arabia’s then Crown Prince Salman announced that “we are witnessing the transformation of the relationship with China to one of strategic partnership with broad dimensions, to the benefit of both our countries.”[1] Saudi Arabia’s position was echoed by the emir of Qatar during a 2014 visit to China in which issues of common concern to all GCC states, especially combating terrorism, were discussed.[2] Abdel-Aziz Aluwaisheg, GCC general assistant secretary for negotiations and strategic dialogue, has also noted that there is growing interest in the Gulf to develop a “strategic dialogue” with China.[3] 
Despite this growing GCC recognition of China’s strategic role in the region, what exactly a “strategic partnership” or “strategic dialogue” would look like remains unclear. This essay discusses why officials in GCC member states might be hesitant to embrace the idea of China as a viable strategic military partner, while at the same time recognizing the need to further develop relations with China.
Securing Independent Military Capabilities 
From the perspective of GCC leaders, the main military advantage of partnership with China is Beijing’s potential willingness to provide weapons that the United States is currently reluctant to sell. Given the United States’ lukewarm responses to recent regional unrest, the GCC countries are seeking to augment their independent capabilities, and China could be an important supplier, whether or not it is a full “strategic partner.”[4] These GCC views are based on the understanding that as economic interdependence grows, China might be more willing to provide advanced weapons systems in greater quantities. It is important to note that looking to China for arms sales is consistent with the GCC states’ broader strategy of expanding their network of suppliers.[5]

READ MORE....

Chinese police college enrolls foreign masters students

English.news.cn - 2015-03-19

KUNMING, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Yunnan Police Officer Academy in Kunming has become China's first police college to enroll foreign students in its masters program.
According to the academy, the application channel for its master of policing program has been open to in-service police officers and government officials from Third World countries since earlier this month.
About 30 to 40 overseas students will be enrolled in the program and begin their classes this September.
The academy, established in 1950, offers majors including counter-narcotics, criminal investigation and law. It has hosted around 20 international seminars on drug control.
The academy has also organized international police education programs since 2002 and trained a total of 1,560 foreign police officers and officials from 39 countries.

READ MORE....

Soft power - China's expanding role in the Middle East

As China's economic and political clout grows, so does the nation's role in the Middle East. The country has already overtaken the US as the largest oil importer. But can Beijing also bring stability to the region?

DEUTSCHE WELLE - 04.02.2015

With conflicts raging from Iran to Palestine and Syria to Iraq, the events unfolding in the Middle East are also being closely followed by Beijing. And there is good reason for China's interest in the Middle East. For the past two decades, China has been engaging with the region for the same main reason as other rising powers have: oil. More than half of China's oil imports - some 2.9 million barrels per day - come from this part of the world. And like other growing, industrializing powers, China needs the energy resources to power its economic expansion.
Even as China has focused on diversifying its energy suppliers by increasingly looking to Russia and Central Asia for oil and gas, any instability in the Middle East heavily impacts global prices, thus harming a net importer of energy like China, which surpassed the US as the world's largest importer in late 2013, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Oil is key
Driven by the rapid growth in oil and gas imports, Chinese trade with the Middle East has risen from around 20 billion USD a decade ago to an estimated 230 billion USD last year, with the trade volume expected to exceed 500 billion USD by 2020.

READ MORE....

The Middle East and China – Freeman

SUSRIS - March 16, 2015 

Remarks to a Conference of the United States Institute of Peace and Georgetown University
Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.)
February 17, 2015 | Washington, DC [not delivered due to inclement weather]

The Middle East is where Africa, Asia, and Europe come together and where the trade routes between China, India, and Europe converge. It has two-thirds of the world’s energy reserves. It is also the epicenter of this planet’s increasing religious strife. Relationships between this strategically crucial region and the rest of the world are now undergoing a sea change. I have been asked to speak to you about China’s likely reactions and role in the region as this occurs.

By the Middle East, China means the mainly Arab and Persian-inhabited areas of West Asia and North Africa. The collapse of the post-colonial order there has coincided with China’s return to wealth and power. We in the West often include Central Asia in the Middle East. China does not. The Chinese see the post-Soviet state of affairs in Central Asia — in the mainly Turkic-speaking Muslim nations between China, Russia, and Europe — as developing satisfactorily within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). They are nowhere near as sanguine about their ability to manage trends and events in the Middle East.

READ MORE.....

China in the Middle East - March 17–18, 2015 Peking University and Indiana University China Office

AIIB's 'door open to more members'

By Zhao Yinan

China Daily - 2015-03-18

Germany agrees to join; France and Italy set to follow UK in applying
Economic integration among Asian countries will be accelerated by more European nations joining the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, according to experts.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said during the first China-Germany high-level economic and financial dialogue in Berlin on Tuesday that Germany has decided to apply for founding membership of the bank.
France and Italy have also agreed to follow Britain's lead and join the international development bank, according to a Financial Times report that quoted European officials.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei did not confirm if the central government has received applications from France and Italy. But he said China is glad to see more countries join the AIIB as founding members, and the bank's diversified membership will boost the regional economy and promote professionalism and efficiency in investment.

READ MORE....

Arabic descendants in China' s coast big on business

Extremists from China have joined ISIS

Ananth Krishnan  Beijing

India Today - March 10, 2015

A number of extremists from China's Muslim-majority Xinjiang region have travelled to West Asia to join the war being waged by the Islamic State group, a top Chinese official said on Tuesday.
In the first official confirmation that Chinese terrorists had joined the Islamic State, the Communist Party chief of Xinjiang, Zhang Chunxian, said that "Xinjiang has extremists that have joined IS".
"We recently broke up a few cases involving those who had returned directly after fighting in war," Zhang was quoted by Reuters as telling reporters, speaking along the sidelines of China's on-going 10-day session of the National People's Congress, or Parliament.

 

 

China has blamed a string of recent violent attacks in Xinjiang on Uighur extremist groups such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, whose members Chinese officials say are in hiding in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Uighurs are an ethnic Turkic minority native to Xinjiang.

READ MORE....

China says Muslim Uighurs have joined ISIS

Authorities in the far-western region of Xinjiang - home to many of the nation's Muslim Uighur ethnic minority - say they will strengthen their crackdown on terrorism.

By The Associated Press | Mar. 11, 2015

Chinese officials say that members of the country's Muslim Uighur ethnic minority have gone overseas to fight with Islamic State, which controls sections of Syria and Iraq, and returned to take part in plots at home.
Authorities in the far-western region of Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, will strengthen their crackdown on terrorism and extremism, regional representatives said at a discussion on the sidelines of China's legislature.
Xinjiang has seen repeated violence as Uighurs have bristled under what they say is repressive Chinese government rule. Attacks blamed on Uighurs have also occurred in other parts of the country, including a car which plowed into Beijing's Tiananmen Gate in 2013, killing five people.

READ MORE.....

Are China and Russia Forging a New Ideological Bloc?

A ChinaFile Conversation     

JACQUELINE N. DEAL, WU JIANMIN, PAMELA KYLE CROSSLEY, JULIA FAMULARO, EDWARD WITTENSTEIN    

CHINA FILE - 02.27.15

With evidence of ties strengthening between Beijing and Moscow—over energy contracts, the handling of the Ukraine, and their diplomats’ stance toward outside interference in internal affairs, especially if it’s perceived as coming from Washington—can the world soon expect Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin to cooperate more broadly? Why, or why not, and to what effect? — The Editors

Responses

China and Russia can forge an ideological bloc based on shared resentment of the U.S.-led international order, but they cannot be true allies. Their competing interests are too important.
Moscow perceives the U.S.-led West as its current main enemy, interfering with its aspirations in the area from Eastern Europe to the Caucasus. Even so, some Russian analysts identify China as the long-term threat. While the Western powers seek to prevent Russia from expanding, China’s ambitions challenge Russia in the areas that it still dominates. Consider the following:

• The resolution of Sino-Russian border disputes in the 1990s did not lead to a revision of Chinese textbooks, which continue to teach that Russia stole 1.5 million square kilometers of China’s territory, and some of the border agreements have a limited duration.
• The disparity in population density across the border between packed Chinese Manchuria and the relatively empty, resource-rich Russian Far East is the greatest such disparity in the world. According to Alexei Arbatov, Chinese analysts now refer to Russia as China’s “resource rear”—a label that does not exactly connote respect for Russian sovereignty. The unrest that Russia has fomented in Ukraine has disrupted Chinese agro-investments there.
• Official Chinese maps of its Silk Road project through Central Asia to the Middle East and Europe omit the most obvious route—via the trans-Siberian railroad—thus cutting Russia out of China’s plans to economically integrate the Eurasian landmass. China and Russia would also seem to have conflicting interests in the Middle East, from which China needs stable, affordable oil and gas, while Russia is okay with instability and high prices.
• Further north, where Moscow has sought to establish its preeminence among the rival claimants that border the Arctic, Beijing asserts that, as a country with nearly one-fifth the world’s population, China is entitled to one-fifth of the global commons around the North Pole.
• Finally, China has reverse-engineered the weapons that it has bought from Russia, declining to re-up as a customer. Worse still, it now produces cheap copies for export, luring away other buyers of Russian wares.

In recognition of these dynamics, Russia—until recently, at least—has declined to transfer some of its most important defense capabilities to China. And while engaging with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in both multilateral and bilateral exercises, the Russian military has also continued to hold its own exercises aimed at countering a potential Chinese challenge.

READ MORE....

What is China’s CPPCC?

China's top political advisory body starts annual session

Xinhua - March 03, 2015

The third session of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) opens at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 3, 2015. (Xinhua/Li He)
BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The Third Session of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top political advisory body, opened Tuesday in Beijing, kicking off the most important two weeks on China's political calendar this year.
A total of 2,153 members of the CPPCC National Committee will discuss major issues concerning the country's development during the annual session.
At the opening meeting in the Great Hall of the People, CPPCC National Committee Chairman Yu Zhengshengdelivered a report on the work of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee in the past year.
Top Communist Party of China and state leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishanand Zhang Gaoliattended the opening meeting.

China Exclusive: Sino-Egyptian economic zone attracts more investment

English.news.cn - 2013-05-18


TIANJIN, May 18 (Xinhua) -- To boost investment in a Sino-Egyptian joint industrial zone, three large Chinese companies will start production there this year.
The three firms, Jushi Egypt Fiberglass Industry, XD High Voltage Equipment Company and Muyang Egypt Industry, will bring a total investment of more than 400 million U.S. dollars this year, said Liu Aimin, general manager of China-Africa TEDA Investment Co, Ltd.
The China-Egypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, located near the Suez Canal, attracted 49 companies with contracted investment totaling 524 million U.S. dollars by the end of 2012.
"Despite the impact of social unrest in Egypt and the European debt crisis, the zone's gross industrial output reached 55 million U.S. dollars in 2012, up 20 percent year on year," said Liu.
By the end of 2012, a 1.34-square-km starting area had been fully developed, creating more than 1,000 jobs for local workers and generating more than 50 million U.S. dollars in taxes for the Egyptian side over the past five years.
An agreement on another 6-square-km expansion area for the zone was signed between the two sides in late April. The land will be developed in three phases over a five-year period, with a total construction investment of 500 million U.S. dollars.

READ MORE....

Central Asian refugees in Saudi Arabia: religious evolution and contributing to the reislamization of their motherland

Refugee Survey Quarterly (2007) 26 (2): 12-21

Bayram Balci

Director, French Institute of Studies on Central Asia, IFEAC, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

The Uzbek and Uighur refugees that fled the communist regimes around the 1930s and 1950s in Central Asia formed cohesive communities in Saudi Arabia while their original identities suffered a downward slide throughout the XX^th century.

To appeal to Saudi sympathy on arrival in Saudi Arabia, these refugees claimed either their regional identity as Turkistani or their ethnic identity as Kashgari, Bukhari or Kokandi, as the Saudis were better acquainted with religious thinkers and eminent personalities from Central Asia than the region or its peoples. It was after the collapse of the USSR, when these refugees were able to revisit their countries of origin, that they gradually started to reclaim their national identities as Uzbeks and Uighurs.

For purposes of social integration, a large majority amongst these refugees had given up typically Central Asian mystical Islamic traditions and converted to Saudi official wahhabism or salafism. Since Uzbek independence in 1991 and China's opening in the 1980s, these recently converted returning Central Asian refugees and their descendants contributed to the reislamization of their countrymen. Some initiatives were personal while others were through more organized channels. Saudi religious authorities recruited and mobilized Uzbek and Uighur community members as missionaries sent to the field to proselytize in Central Asia and to encourage increasing numbers of pilgrims to Mecca. 

READ THE FULL ARTICLE......

China in the Middle East - March 17–18, 2015 Peking University and Indiana University China Office

Indiana University and Peking University Present an

International Conference on

China in the Middle East

印第安纳大学与北京大学联合举办“中国在中东”国际学术研讨会

March 17–18, 2015

Peking University and Indiana University China Office

http://english.pku.edu.cn

http://china.iu.edu

Organized by

Dr. Kemal Silay, Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies Chair, Indiana University, USA

Dr. Tuğrul Keskin, Portland State University, USA

Dr. Zan Tao, Peking University, People’s Republic of China

China drafts law on counterterrorism operations abroad

THE JAPAN TIMES - FEBRUARY 28, 2015

BEIJING – China is close to approving a law that will create a legal framework for sending troops abroad on counterterrorism missions as Beijing seeks to address the vulnerability of the country’s growing global commercial and diplomatic interests.
Experts said Article 76 of the draft anti-terrorism law would allay concerns among the military elite about the lack of a formal mechanism for carrying out such operations, as well as mark a shift in foreign policy thinking and military doctrine.
The article is a small part of a draft law chiefly aimed at combating terrorism at home that was made public in November. It has undergone a second review by a parliamentary committee and is likely to be adopted in the coming weeks or months.
China has rarely been the target of terrorist acts overseas but has vast energy interests, construction projects and mines in unstable parts of the world, including the Middle East and Africa.
The risk to those projects was highlighted in 2011 when the government evacuated thousands of Chinese workers from Libya during the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi. Some Chinese operations have also generated local hostility over issues such as the use of imported Chinese labor and the exploitation of natural resources.
Article 76 would authorize the military, as well as state and public security personnel, to conduct counterterrorism operations abroad with the approval of the “relevant country.”

READ MORE....

Tough choices for Beijing following execution of Chinese ISIS militants

THE INTERPRETER - 6 February 2015  

Despite China's long-standing diplomatic principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states, Beijing cannot completely control its citizens' involvement in terrorist activity abroad. Whether China likes it or not, it is being drawn into the conflict against ISIS.  China's state media yesterday reported that three Chinese ISIS militants were executed in 2014 following their attempted desertion from the terrorist organisation.
Quoting an unnamed Kurdish security official, a reporter for the Global Times wrote that one militant was killed in Syria in September after becoming disillusioned and trying to return to the Turkish university where he had been a student. The other two were beheaded in December along with 11 other militants from six different nationalities.
In response to the report, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson simply stated: 'China opposes all forms of terrorism. China is willing to strengthen cooperation with the international community to fight together against terrorist forces, including the "East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM)", in order to protect regional and global security and stability.'
This standard statement effectively summarises the Chinese Government's thinking on counter-terrorism: the emphasis is on the international community's cooperation with China in its fight against the threats of domestic terrorism and separatism (ETIM is an Islamic terrorist organisation founded by Uyghur militants in western China), while China's cooperation with the international community in its fight against international terrorist organisations remains limited.

READ MORE......

CHINA GOES GLOBAL IN EGYPT : A SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE IN SUEZ

Emma Scott

Stellenbosch | August 2013

ABSTRACT
This Discussion Paper examines China's economic and technological zone in Suez, Egypt , in view of the Go Global policy. In order to establish a comparative framework for examining whether the Suez Economic & Trade Co - operation Zone was modelled in line with China's Special Econ omic Zones ( SEZs ) , this paper maps out the key features of the Tianjin Economic - Technological Development Area (TEDA), as Tianjin Investment Holdings was the partner appointed by the Chinese government to develop the Suez zone. Not only does the paper find support for this argument, but also finds evidence to state that the Chinese government has been involved in shaping Egypt's special economic zones projects from the very beginning. The findings also show that the aims of Go Global policy are being realised through the Suez zone. The zone has potential ; however , there exist a number of pitfalls of which China should be weary including over - expenditure and Egypt's domestic politics. A surprising finding was that TEDA is set to become a bigger and more important actor in China's Africa strategy, where Egypt is only the beginning.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT......

Turkey to ink US$3.4bn air defense system deal with China

WANT CHINA TIMES - 2015-02-24

Turkey will go ahead with a deal to purchase a US$3.4 billion air defense system from China, the Turkish defense minister has said, according to a report in China's Global Times.
Turkish defense minister Ismet Yilmaz said the system will be integrated with Turkey's national defense system but not with NATO's systems.
The decision may not be final, as a spokesperson for Turkey's undersecretariat for defense industries has said that negotiations with all bidders for the contract were still underway, Reuters reports.
The system, called the Turkey Long Rage Air and Missile Defense System, would be jointly built by China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CPMIEC) and Turkish defense companies, based on China's HQ-9 long-range ground-to-air missile.
The bid for the system was first announced in 2009. CPMIEC's HQ-9 won the bid over manufacturers from Russia, the US and Europe. NATO's concerns about the HQ-9 and issues with integration forced Turkey to cancel the bid, however.
In the second round of bidding, CPMIEC won over bids from the French/Italian Eurosam consortium and Raytheon's Patriot missile system.

READ MORE....

China’s new Silk Road initiative attracts Turkey’s attention

International Shipping News 23/02/2015   

The first ever direct China-Spain freight train – which started its journey from Yiwu, a major trading hub south of Shanghai – travelled an epic 13,000 kilometers in 21 days (10 days faster than the conventional ocean freight), reaching Madrid in December 2014. The inauguration of a direct train link between Yiwu and Madrid should be seen as part of China’s ambitious foreign policy initiative to revive the ancient Silk Road.
The New Silk Road initiative consists of a network of both land and sea routes. The land route, the “Silk Road Economic Belt,” is planned to traverse Eurasia using three sub routes (north, middle and south).
The sea route, the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road,” will extend from eastern China to Southeast Asia, East Africa, the Middle East and Europe. In order to improve the infrastructure along these Silk Road routes, China will not only contribute $40 billion to set up a Silk Road Fund, but also provide up to 50 percent of the total capital ($100 billion) to establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

READ MORE....

500 Uighur Turks fled China for Turkey

Zeynep Bilgehan
KAYSERİ

HURRIYET - February/05/2015

A month ago, 500 Uighur Turks fled the western Chinese region of Xinjiang and settled in state housing previously used as official residences for police officers in the city of Kayseri.
The refugees agreed to tell their stories under the condition of anonymity, because they fear for the lives and safety of their families who are still in China. Here is the story of their escape:
Turkey has been home for thousands Uighur Turks who fled China since the 1950s. However, in the last couple of months the migration rate rapidly increased due to the law passed early this year that bans Uighur Turks to practice their religion freely. Turkey is the leading country that Uighur refugees would like to immigrate to. Seyit Tümtürk, vice president of the World Uighur Congress, said there are 367 detained Uighur refugees in Thailand who tried to flee China last month and those who managed to arrive in Istanbul were settled in Kayseri by Turkish authorities about a month ago.

READ MORE.....

Uighurs flee China for Turkey in search of peace

State crackdowns prompt China’s Uighurs to risk long, perilous journeys in search of security and stability

Al Jazeera - February 3, 2015

By Sumeyye Ertekin

Many of the hundreds of ethnic Uighurs who have fled China illegally to escape religious persecution and discrimination have made harrowing journeys to reach Turkey. But those who have finally settled in state housing in the city of Kayseri, in central Turkey, say despite the sufferings of their journey, they needed to escape injustice at home.
The Xinjiang region of western China, called East Turkestan by Uighur separatists, is home to about 10 million Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group. Uighurs say they are repressed in their homeland and are unable to practice their religion freely. A 2012 Amnesty International report highlights incidents of "detailed widespread enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment of Uighurs" and harsh retribution against those who seek information about missing relatives.
The Chinese authorities say Uighurs are separatists and "terrorists."

READ MORE....

Kunming terrorist attack suspects nabbed in Indonesia

China Daily - February 13, 2015

The Chinese and Indonesian governments exchanged information on nine terrorist suspects, believed to be from the XinjiangUygur autonomous region, who fled to Indonesia after plotting an attack in China last year, Indonesian media reported.
The Indonesian police arrested four of the nine. Three fled into the jungle and two others escaped to Malaysia. The captured suspects are likely to be extradited to China as the two countries signed an extradition treaty in 2009, Jakata Post reported.
The nine were believed to be part of the group that launched the terrorist attack in March at a train station in Kunming, Yunnan province, where 33 people were killed and 133 wounded, said Saut Usman, head of the National Counterterrorism Agency of Indonesia
Saut made the remarks after he signed an agreement in Beijingwith Meng Hongwei, deputy Public Security Minister of China on Tuesday as a part of an efforts to further enhance information sharing.
The suspects fled to Poso, Indonesia, by a land route through Myanmar, southern Thailand and Malaysia. From Malaysia, they entered Indonesia with Turkish passports, posing as asylum seekers, Saut said.

READ MORE.....