China-North Korea: China offered to help North Korea control cross-border crime and build law-enforcement forces, according to a report by Agence France-Presse on 12 August. A spokesman also said China provided military equipment to North Korea's National Defense Commission during a visit by China's Deputy Public Security Minister Liu Jing on 8 August.

North Korea's Security Ministry staff and a Chinese public security delegation met on 12 August, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

NIGHTWATCH Comment: The reports are intermittent in the public media, but cumulatively they establish a pattern of China using economic and law enforcement linkages to tie North Korea more tightly. When North Korean leadership has been strong, it strongly and successfully has resisted Chinese initiatives. That does not appear to be the case at this time. China's admission of providing “military equipment” is unusual and rare. The actors mentioned in the report suggest the reference is to crowd control equipment.

Phi Beta Iota: Hybrid and M4IS2 (along with bottom-up self-governance) will be the defining attributes of local to global governance in the 21st Century. The USA has consistently made the mistake of selling arms and withholding information sharing and intelligence capacity building (providing stealable funds does not count). A mix of hybrid bi-lateral (such as Australian-Cambodian task forces on human trafficking) and hybrid multi-lateral (e.g. a regional intelligence centre for Central America) will flip the international relations and national security paradigms.

2010/08/122010/08/12

NIGHTWATCH Extracts: China-Fiji, China Carriers, Venezuela-Colombia Re-Set

02 China, 08 Wild Cards

Below the line:

Full Extract on China-Fiji, Fiji as Potential Base of China in South Pacific

Full Extract on China Carrier Force and Implications in Region

Full Extract on Venezuela-Colombia Reconciliation

Phi Beta Iota: It's a shame no one will fund NIGHTWATCH to do Global Coverage, because it is consistently more intelligent than all the other “open source” offerings. Fiji is a failure, primarily an Australian failure but also a US failure; China's carriers are a natural progression, they advance while the US Navy retards–absent Whole of Government, a long-haul Air Force, and a 450-ship expeditionary Navy, US influence in Asia and the Southern Hemisphere is destined to whither. Our esteemed colleague is too hard on Venezuela. Read Open Veins of Latin America, understand Savage Capitalism and Sorrows of Empire as well as Killing Hope, and push the reset button–the US has screwed over Latin America for going on two centuries and throws a hissy-fit when Castro first, and now Chavez seek their own declaration of independence. America desperately needs someone with gravitas devising a sustainable strategy aimed at a Non-Zero solution: a prosperous world at peace.

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2010/08/052010/08/06

Journal: Over $1 trillion Wasted on Wars, Veterans and Families of Veterans Vocal Against Both Elective Wars

02 China, 02 Diplomacy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 10 Security, Civil Society, Government, Military

source article

$1 trillion wasted on wars

By KEVIN RAFFERTY

Aug 4, 2010
Special to The Japan Times

HONG KONG — The calculator busily counting out how much money the United States has spent on wars since 2001 has raced past $1 trillion — $1,024 billion plus at the start of August. There is little point in trying to give a more refined figure since the clock ticks remorselessly on, mesmerizingly faster than you can write the sum down, about $260,000 blown away in each passing minute.*

Meanwhile, the wars are being lost rather than won, U.S. and allied soldiers are dying and being maimed every day, tens and sometimes hundreds of innocent civilians are killed daily, and billions of dollars are being wasted and millions of lives being destroyed for no good reason apart from the overweening egos of politicians who are not prepared to admit that they are wrong.

Accompanying Veterans Today article (Obama burning with Bush)

The grim bottom line is that American military and foreign policy is bust and the greatest imperial power the world has ever known is failing. U.S. President Barack Obama promised to be different, but he has become trapped as a gear-lever in the same broken machine.

Phi Beta Iota: Apart from the stunning graphics, click on the photo of the two faces stitched together to get to a compelling article on veterans and families of veterans being against both elective wars, both wars of the rich of no benefit to the public.

Continue reading “Journal: Over $1 trillion Wasted on Wars, Veterans and Families of Veterans Vocal Against Both Elective Wars”

2010/08/042010/08/10

The 19 most influential cybersecurity organizations in the world (GAO)

02 China, 06 Russia, Computer/online security, General Accountability Office

The Government Accountability Office identified 19 global organizations “whose international activities significantly influence the security and governance of cyberspace.”

The organizations range from information-sharing forums that are non-decision-making gatherings of experts to private organizations to treaty-based, decision-making bodies founded by countries. The groups address a variety of topics from incident response, the development of technical standards, the facilitation of criminal investigations to the creation of international policies related to information technology and critical infrastructure, the GAO stated.

From the GAO report:

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a cooperative economic and trade forum designed to promote economic growth and cooperation among 21 countries from the Asia-Pacific region. APEC's Telecommunication and Information Working Group supports security efforts associated with the information infrastructure of member countries through activities designed to strengthen effective incident response capabilities, develop information security guidelines, combat cybercrime, monitor security implications of emerging technologies, and foster international cybersecurity cooperation.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an economic and security cooperative comprised of 10 member nations from Southeast Asia. According to the 2009-2015 Roadmap for an ASEAN Community, it looks to combat transnational cybercrime by fostering cooperation among member-nations' law enforcement agencies and promoting the adoption of cybercrime legislation. In addition, the road map calls for activities to develop information infrastructure and expand computer emergency response teams (CERT) and associated drills to all ASEAN partners.

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2010/07/292010/07/29

Bringing Martin Luther King to China (and back)

01 Poverty, 02 China, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

Gandhi’s movement for non-violent social change challenged America. Can Martin Luther King, Jr. do the same for China?

Bringing King to China is a documentary film about culture, race and human rights. The film takes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream of equality and peace to China—and then brings it back to the U.S. It's the story of a young American teacher in Beijing, whose failed protests against the Iraq war inspire her to produce a play in Chinese about Martin Luther King, Jr. Her journey begins after worldwide demonstrations fail to stop the invasion of Iraq and she learns (mistakenly) that her father, an ABC journalist covering the war, has been killed by a suicide bomber.

Video Trailer

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2010/07/282010/07/28

NIGHTWATCH Extract: US “Strategic Decrepitude” vis a vis South China Sea–US Navy goes wee wee wee, Hilary Clinton Does the Gerbil

02 China, 02 Diplomacy

China-US-South China Sea: The Chinese government reacted angrily on Monday to the announcement by US Secretary of State Clinton that Washington might step into a long-simmering territorial dispute between China and its smaller neighbors over sovereign rights to the South China Sea.

Speaking Friday at a forum of Southeast Asian countries in Vietnam, Clinton apparently surprised the Chinese by saying the United States had a “national interest” in seeking to mediate the dispute, which involves roughly 200 islands, islets and coral outcroppings and the seabed that are claimed by China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines. China claims all the South China Sea as its territorial waters.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH Extract: US “Strategic Decrepitude” vis a vis South China Sea–US Navy goes wee wee wee, Hilary Clinton Does the Gerbil”

2010/07/23

Crises of Capitalism Audio + Animation

01 Brazil, 02 China, 03 Economy, 03 India, 08 Wild Cards, Audio, Civil Society, Commerce, Government, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

This is an audio presentation by David Harvey accompanied by an animation that shows an interesting series of recent historical and geographical connections in the global financial system. The speaker admits to not having any solutions, but only providing the overview of what has happened.

test

Category: 02 China

NIGHTWATCH Extract: China – North Korea Law Enforcement…the Hybrid Model Advances