August 6:
The U.S.’ surprise move to accelerate negotiations for a civilian nuclear deal with Vietnam begun a decade ago has shaken China. Washington and Hanoi has are working on a deal similar to the one the Bush Administration signed with New Delhi in 2008. “The US is used to employing double standards when dealing with different countries. As a global power that has promoted denuclearization, it has challenged its own reputation and disturbed the international order," said Teng Jianqun, Deputy Director of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, in a statement carried by the official China Daily. China signed its own nuclear agreement with Vietnam last July, and had been hoping to supply nuclear technology and fuel imports. Under the proposed U.S.-Vietnam agreement, however, Hanoi would enrich its own uranium for fuel production. Earlier this year, China’s inked its own agreement to sell nuclear reactors to Pakistan, the Times of India reports.
Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza has published a lengthy commentary condemning Beijing’s “long-term interest to weaken the European Union as a manufacturer and exporter of goods and services, including as an institution that promotes democratic principles.” “Chinese expansion is not favorable for us,” said the left center newspaper, “Poland should be anxious to see a strong America.” It attacked EU’s common foreign policy as “wading around in the kiddie-pool” and said Europe’s common defense policy is “nonexistent.” It concluded by imploring Warsaw to support U.S. efforts to counter China: "Only the United States is capable of promoting effectively, or at least in a way that can be noticed in Beijing, the free market and democracy. There is no other world power with which we share all our political and ethical values.”
August 7:
Scores of Ethiopians and Ethiopian-Americans have staged a protest and burnt a Chinese flag in front of China’s Embassy in Washington, DC. They accuse Beijing of colluding with Meles Zenawi's regime in Ethiopia “for the triumph of tyranny over liberty and democracy for the people of Ethiopia, as it is doing in much of Africa.” The protesters demanded Beijing “cease supplying Meles Zenawi's minority ethnic dominated military,” “cease support for tyranny in Ethiopia/Africa,” “cease jamming the Voice of America, Deutsche Welle and Ethiopian Satellite Television,” “cease bribing and corrupting Ethiopian officials to get bid contracts from the government,” and “cease dumping their low quality and often dangerous products.” They called for China to “respect the human rights of the Ethiopian people” and treat “Ethiopian workers employed in Chinese-owned projects in accordance with labor and environmental standards as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” the Ethiomedia and Ethiopian Review both report.
[Editor’s Note: In power since 1991, the Meles Zenawi regime is accused by human rights organizations of crimes against humanity and genocide. Ethiopia, the second most populous nation in Africa after Nigeria, has a tightly controlled press. Independent media in Ethiopia and throughout Africa continue to be jammed with the help of Chinese technology.]
August 9:
Beijing is attempting to make good on its promise to improve China’s energy efficiency. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has identified 2,087 steel mills, cement works and other energy-intensive factories required to close by the end of September in an effort “to enhance the structure of production, heighten the standard of technical capability and international competitiveness and realize a transformation of industry from being big to being strong,” the ministry said. The factories were chosen as part of Chinese efforts to consolidate key industries and remove outdated or inefficient technology. Local officials regularly obstruct Beijing’s attempts to close polluting factories in their jurisdictions because they provide residents employment opportunities and social services. This time, to prevent local obstruction, named factories are barred from obtaining bank loans, export credits, business licenses and land. Beijing has also threatened to turn off their electricity. The National Development and Reform Commission, the government’s economic planning agency, also demanded 22 provinces stop providing electricity at discounted prices to energy-hungry industries. Closing factories has been made politically palatable because labor shortages in many cities have increased job opportunities for migrants, the New York Times reports.