02 China – Page 18 – Public Intelligence Blog

On the hidden battlefields of history’s first known cyber-war, the casualties are piling up. In the U.S., many banks have been hit, and the telecommunications industry seriously damaged, likely in retaliation for several major attacks on Iran. Washington and Tehran are ramping up their cyber-arsenals, built on a black-market digital arms bazaar, enmeshing such high-tech giants as Microsoft, Google, and Apple. With the help of highly placed government and private-sector sources, Michael Joseph Gross describes the outbreak of the conflict, its escalation, and its startling paradox: that America’s bid to stop nuclear proliferation may have unleashed a greater threat.

Read full article (5 screens).

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: US Attacking Iran and China — While Living in a Glass House”

2013/06/062013/06/06

NIGHTWATCH: Pakistan, China, & India — Regional Accommodation As US Gets Kicked Out of the Neighborhood — Next Up the Persian – Russian Peace Zone

02 China, 03 India, 05 Iran, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

Pakistan: Pakistan's National Assembly on Wednesday formally elected Nawaz Sharif as prime minister. Sharif, 63, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, was elected by an overwhelming majority. He received 244 of the 317 votes cast by assembly members. Many parties voted en bloc for Nawaz Sharif to curry favor with the new government.

President Zardari administered the oath of office at President House.

Prime Minister Sharif delivered a brief speech on the floor of the National Assembly after his election. He said, “The chapter of drone attacks on the country's soil should now be closed. As we respect others' sovereignty, ours should also be given respect. This campaign must come to an end.”

He also addressed Pakistan's many problems. In Churchillian fashion, he said he would not make attractive promises to the masses nor talk about any imaginary heaven on earth. He openly sided with the productive forces of the country agriculture, industry and exports, as the keys for economic revival. He said he would tolerate no corruption and nepotism and that the doors of dictatorship had been closed forever.

The only foreign country mentioned was China. The Prime Minister said he would form a study group to work on establishing a rail link to western China from Karachi and the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar via the Khunjerab Pass in the north. He plans to give free port status to the Chinese built and now managed new port of Gwadar in western Pakistan.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Pakistan, China, & India — Regional Accommodation As US Gets Kicked Out of the Neighborhood — Next Up the Persian – Russian Peace Zone”

2013/06/04

SchwartzReport: US Elective Invasion & Occupation of Iraq: Gift to China (and Iran),. Biggest Blunder Ever, Biggest War Crime in Modern History

02 China, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Peace Intelligence

You and I, thanks to Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Daniel Pipes, and a number of other lesser neocons, and an almost fatally incurious President, spent over a TRILLION dollars of public money, and squandered the lives of tens of thousands of young Americans who were killed, wounded, or permanently maimed, in order to achieve… nothing… for either America or Iraq, as t! his report makes clear.

Historians, I think, will say it was the worst foreign policy blunder in U.S. history. It has resulted in the destabilization of an entire region of the world, sucked out the money that should have gone to rebuilding our infrastructure and our schools, and laid the foundation for generations of anti-American hate throughout the Islamic world.

Fears of Civil War in Iraq After 1,000 Are Killed in a Month
PATRICK MARKEY – NBC News

As the previous story pointed out the deaths of thousands of Americans and some far large but never accurately counted number of Iraqis, and the wounding and maiming of hundreds of thousands of Americans and Iraqis produced no benefits for either country and great damage to both. Even on the terms the neocons argued for the war: it would protect Iraq's massive o! il supplies for the U.S. (read the neocons' corporate masters) turns out to be wrong, as this story makes clear. Everything the Bush Administration based its policy decisions on was wrong, and China is the main beneficiary.

China Is Reaping Biggest Benefits of Iraq Oil Boom
TIM ARANGO and CLIFFORD KRAUSS – The New York Times

2013/06/022013/06/02

Opinion: China’s Empire Soft and Pervasive + Meta-RECAP

02 China

Opinion: China’s Economic Empire

By HERIBERTO ARAÚJO and JUAN PABLO CARDENAL

New York Times, June 1, 2013

EXTRACT

By buying companies, exploiting natural resources, building infrastructure and giving loans all over the world, China is pursuing a soft but unstoppable form of economic domination. Beijing’s essentially unlimited financial resources allow the country to be a game-changing force in both the developed and developing world, one that threatens to obliterate the competitive edge of Western firms, kill jobs in Europe and America and blunt criticism of human rights abuses in China.

Ultimately, thanks to the deposits of over a billion Chinese savers, China Inc. has been able to acquire strategic assets worldwide. This is possible because those deposits are financially repressed — savers receive negative returns because of interest rates below the inflation rate and strict capital controls that prevent savers from investing their money in more profitable investments abroad. Consequently, the Chinese government now controls oil and gas pipelines from Turkmenistan to China and from South Sudan to the Red Sea.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Opinion: China’s Empire Soft and Pervasive + Meta-RECAP”

2013/06/01

4th Media: DPRK’s (North Korean) Nuclear “Electro Magnetic Pulse” [EMP] Bomb Could Be An Equalizer

02 China, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 10 Security, 11 Society, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

I strongly agree with [former US CIA Director] R. James Woolsey and [a former CIA analyst and Executive Director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, an Advisory Board to Congress] Dr. Peter Vincent Pry that the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threat to the U.S. demands our strongest attention (“How North Korea Could Cripple the U.S.,” op-ed, May 21).

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Continue reading “4th Media: DPRK’s (North Korean) Nuclear “Electro Magnetic Pulse” [EMP] Bomb Could Be An Equalizer”

2013/05/31

Jean Lievens: Chinese Open Source Manufacturing

02 China, 03 Economy, Manufacturing

Open Source Manufacturing

Chinese business website Caixin Online has a great video on China’s Open Source Hardware Movement, this is an area that promises to change the manufacturing industry.

Open Source is the philosophy of sharing intellectual property and allowing anyone to improve the idea on the proviso they share their changes with the rest of the world.

The hope is that open sourced products end up being more reliable than proprietary designs due to scrutiny from hundreds, or thousands, of reviewers.

Until recently, open source has been largely restricted to the software world but now it’s moving into broader Engineering and manufacturing circles.

As the Caixin video shows, the open source hardware movement is introducing geeks to a tool which many thought was dead – the soldering iron.

I noticed this a week or so ago when I walked into a co-working space and found the lady I was meeting hunched over a soldering iron putting together a part for a quadcopter.

Right now soldering parts to build quadcopters or game controllers is just the beginning, the really interesting things start when open source meets 3D printing – then we’ll see some real game changing things happen.

2013/05/272013/05/27

Michelle Monk: Monsanto Protest in Las Vegas Attracts 2,000 — Meanwhile, China, Haiti, Hungary Incinerate Monsanto Corn, Millions March Against Monsanto

01 Agriculture, 01 Poverty, 02 China, 03 Environmental Degradation, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 11 Society, 12 Water, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics

Monsanto protest attracts 2,000 in Las Vegas

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Protesters rallied in Nevada as part of a global protest against seed giant Monsanto and the genetically modified food it produces.

“March Against Monsanto” protests Saturday drew some 2,000 protesters in Las Vegas and about 150 in Reno.

Las Vegas protesters marched about one mile down Las Vegas Boulevard to the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign, while Reno protesters chanted and waved placards as they marched through downtown Reno.

Genetically modified plants are grown from seeds that are engineered to resist insecticides and herbicides, and to improve crop yields.

Most corn, soybean and cotton crops grown in the U.S. today have been genetically modified. But critics say genetically modified organisms can lead to serious health conditions and harm the environment.

Monsanto Co. says it respects people’s rights to express their opinion on the topic, but maintains that its seeds improve agriculture.

Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds

Hungary Burns All Monsanto GMO Corn Fields

Millions March Against GM Crops

Continue reading “Michelle Monk: Monsanto Protest in Las Vegas Attracts 2,000 — Meanwhile, China, Haiti, Hungary Incinerate Monsanto Corn, Millions March Against Monsanto”