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The REAL Obama Agenda – the Destruction of US Nuclear Defense – the Long Overdue Fightback Begins

NewZeal

By Trevor
At a meeting in Seoul Korea, March 2012, with then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, US President Barack Obama leaned toward Medvedev, thinking he was off mike and said, “On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this can be solved, but it’s important for him [Prime Minister Vladimir Putin] to give me space.” He added, “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.”

That was the single most important statement made by Obama in his entire first term of office.

The destruction of the US nuclear deterrent and the American military has been Moscow’s, Beijing’s and Havana’s number one dream for decades.

It is what Obama’s communist mentors such as Frank Marshall Davis, Alice Palmer and Bill Ayers, have always worked relentlessly towards. Now their protege has the power to make that hellish fantasy a reality.

At last some in Washington seem to be taking the US’ looming national suicide seriously.

NATIONAL SECURITY LEADERS TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: STOP THE UNILATERAL DENUCLEARIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES

February 22, 2013

(Washington, D.C.): A group of former senior military and civilian national security professionals today called on President Barack Obama to abandon his reported intention to make further, deep and apparently unilateral reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Press accounts indicate that the President was planning on announcing a cut of as much as one-third of the American deterrent during his State of the Union address on February 12th. He evidently decided to postpone the unveiling of this initiative, however, when North Korea conducted on that same day it latest nuclear test – an event that underscored the fact that only the United States is, under his administration, engaging in denuclearization.

The authors, who include two former members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and eighteen others with “decades of experience with national security policy and practice,” declare:

“It is now clear that, as a practical matter under present and foreseeable circumstances, this agenda will only result in the unilateral disarmament of the U.S. nuclear deterrent. That will make the world more dangerous, not less.

In our professional judgment…America’s “Triad” of nuclear-armed land-based and submarine-launched missiles and bomber-delivered nuclear weapons have promoted strategic stability and discouraged proliferation. Steps that raise uncertainty about the viability, reliability and effectiveness of our deterrent will have the opposite effect.”

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., the President and CEO of the Center for Security Policy which facilitated this letter, observed:

“As President Obama meets today with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he is expected to emphasize the United States’ commitment to its most important Asian ally at a time when the threat to Japan from China and North Korea is growing by the day. The single most tangible thing Mr. Obama could do to give substance to such rhetoric would be to eschew further weakening of the U.S. nuclear arsenal – and the extended deterrent or “nuclear umbrella” it has constituted for nearly seventy years. The signers of this letter have rendered an incalculably important service by challenging the myth that doing otherwise in pursuit of a “world without nuclear weapons” is either achievable or desirable under present and foreseeable circumstances.”

Signers of the letter were:

• Adm. Thomas B. Hayward, USN (Ret.), Former Chief of Naval Operations
• Gen. Carl E. Mundy, Jr., USMC (Ret.), Former Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps
• Adm. Jerry Johnson, USN (Ret.), Former Vice Chief of Naval Operations
• Adm. James “Ace” Lyons, USN (Ret.), Former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet
• Vice Adm. Robert Monroe, USN (Ret.), Former Director, Defense Nuclear Agency
• Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, USAF (Ret.), Former Deputy Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force
• Hon. R. James Woolsey, Former Director of Central Intelligence
• Hon. John R. Bolton, Former U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
• Hon. Douglas J. Feith, Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
• Dr. William R. Graham, Chairman, General Advisory Committee on Arms Control, 1981-1985; Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President, 1986-1989
• Lt. Gen. E.G. “Buck” Shuler, USAF (Ret.), Former Commander of the Eighth Air Force (Strategic Air Command)
• Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, USA (Ret.), Former Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army, Pacific
• Rear Adm. Robert H. Gormley, USN (Ret.), Former Chief of Studies, Analysis and War Gaming, Joint Chiefs of Staff
• Hon. Kathleen Bailey, Former Assistant Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
• Hon. Henry F. “Hank” Cooper, Former Director of the Defense Strategic Initiative (SDI); Former U.S. Representative to the Defense and Space Talks
• Hon. Samantha Ravich, Former Deputy National Security Advisor, Office of the Vice President
• Hon. Troy Wade, Former Director, Defense Programs, Department of Energy
• Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., Former Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy
• David J. Trachtenberg, Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy
• Fred Celec, Former Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs

Expert: US in cyberwar arms race with China, Russia

openchannel

Rick Wilking / Reuters file

First Lt Michael Newman examines a server rack that is isolated from the Internet at the Air Force Space Command Network Operations & Security Center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., in July 2010.

By Robert Windrem, Senior Investigative Producer, NBC News

The United States is locked in a tight race with China and Russia to build destructive cyberweapons capable of seriously damaging other nations’ critical infrastructure, according to a leading expert on hostilities waged via the Internet.

Scott Borg, CEO of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, a nonprofit institute that advises the U.S. government and businesses on cybersecurity, said all three nations have built arsenals of sophisticated computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses and other tools that place them atop the rest of the world in the ability to inflict serious damage on one another, or lesser powers.

Ranked just below the Big Three, he said, are four U.S. allies: Great Britain, Germany, Israel and perhaps Taiwan.

But in testament to the uncertain risk/reward ratio in cyberwarfare, Iran has used attacks on its nuclear program to bolster its offensive capabilities and is now developing its own "cyberarmy," Borg said.

Borg offered his assessment of the current state of cyberwar capabilities Tuesday in the wake of a report by the American computer security company Mandiant linking hacking attacks and cyber espionage against the U.S. to a sophisticated Chinese group known as “Peoples Liberation Army Unit 61398.

In today’s brave new interconnected world, hackers who can defeat security defenses are capable of disrupting an array of critical services, including delivery of water, electricity and heat, or bringing transportation to a grinding halt. U.S. senators last year received a closed-door briefing at which experts demonstrated how a power company employee could take down the New York City electrical grid by clicking on a single email attachment, the New York Times reported.

U.S. officials rarely discuss offensive capability when discussing cyberwar, though several privately told NBC News recently that the U.S. could "shut down" the electrical grid of a smaller nation -- Iran, for example – if it chose to do so.

Borg echoed that assessment, saying the U.S. cyberwarriors, who work within the National Security Agency, are “very good across the board. … There is a formidable capability.”

“Stuxnet and Flame (malware used to disrupt and gather intelligence on Iran's nuclear program) are demonstrations of that,” he said. “… (The U.S.) could shut down most critical infrastructure in potential adversaries relatively quickly.”

China, Russia have different prioritiesBorg said China and Russia have similar capacity to cause mayhem, but have different priorities and skill sets.

“Russia is best at military espionage and operations,” he said. “That's what they have focused on for a long time. China is looking for crucial business information and technology. China's main focus is stealing technology. These things quite separate. You use different tools on critical infrastructure than you use for military espionage and different tools again on stealing technology."

Borg said that each has its strong suit. "The Russians are technically advanced. The Chinese just have more people dedicated to the effort, by a wide margin,” he said. “They are not as innovative or creative as the U.S. and Russia. China has the greatest quantity, if not quality."

Borg said the group featured in Mandiant’s report, the People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398, may be one of the most important groups working in China, but not necessarily the most important.

"There are at least two dozen groups carrying out aggressive operations against the U.S.,” he said. “They get in each other’s way and trip over one another, but they are all operating with the tacit approval of the Chinese government.

"They're not cooperating with each other because they don’t share capabilities," he added. "One group has good programming, but is bad at access or targeting." 

The Chinese hacking efforts are so broad, Borg said, that the highest-ranking Chinese officials “almost certainly do not know what all the groups are doing,” or the consequences. As a result, he added, they have been embarrassed by reports like the one in Tuesday’s New York Times, which first reported on the Mandiant assessment.

China is the most likely of the superpowers to leave a calling card, making their work the easiest to track. "China is very arrogant in its authorship of cyberweapons,” Borg said. “It does little to conceal its identity."

That’s in sharp contrast to the Russians, who he noted are not above writing code in Chinese to throw off investigators.

While the U.S. could respond to ongoing cyberattacks from China and Russia by shutting down the power grid of "any of its adversaries” and causing severe physical damage, Borg said it is encumbered by several factors.

One is its vulnerability to cyberwarfare as the world’s most networked nation, he said.

And from a geopolitical standpoint, Borg said, the U.S. would not want to badly damage the economy of either China or Russia. In fact, he said, the U.S. would almost certainly have to incorporate protections for critical systems like the power grid in any cyberattack.

Also, detecting the source of hostilities is not always easy, Borg said, as cybertracks are not as easy to follow as missile tracks. That means “mutually assured destruction,” the main strategic tenet of the Cold War, is problematic at best when talking about cyberwar, he said.

"It might be difficult to determine proportionate response,” he said. “It might not be simple to attack the attacker.”

For example, policymakers may think an attack has been carried out by the Chinese, when it was actually the work of the Russians or a rising power in the cyber world, like Iran. That is why intelligence -- getting insight into these operations -- is more important in a crisis than cyberforensics, which can take longer and not be as certain.

"There is no MAD in the Cold War sense," he said, "You can’t be 'assured' of attribution. The attack can be anonymous. It can be spoofed," or disguised as coming from another source. 

Iran developing 'serious capability'The U.S. first began to develop its own offensive capabilities 20 years ago when several strategic thinkers, particularly at the Naval Post-Graduate School, began to see the possibilities. It was not so much a strategic priority, but more "people familiar with electronics and hackers exercising their imagination." (Borg says one of those thinkers, Winn Schwartau, used fiction to discuss the threat and the possibilities, in a 1991 book, "Terminal Compromise.")

While the U.S. has the means to respond and to defend itself, Borg notes that some countries have no recourse. He cited the Russian invasion of the Republic of Georgia in August 2008, when the Georgian government and media infrastructure was quickly compromised.

What was particularly interesting, Borg said, was that the Russian military and intelligence services weren’t directly involved.

"The first wave was carried by organized crime," he noted. "The second wave was carried out by a (hacker) group organized though social media.” He said Russian hackers could download the attack software from a variety of popular sites, including dating and gun-collecting websites.

In both cases, Borg concluded, the organizers apparently were tipped off early about the timing of Russian military operations, he said.

The attack on Georgia also illustrated another aspect of cyberwarfare, Borg said, noting that Georgia, Estonia and Lithuania afterward formed a cyberalliance, leaving them in a better position to deal with future assaults.

That also appears to be the case with Iran, which recently announced that it decided to establish cyber army and claimed to have 4,000 to 5,000 military personnel involved in defensive and offensive operations. That isn’t all bluster, Borg said, noting that when the U.S. leveled new sanctions on Iranian banks last year, U.S. banks suddenly came under attack.

"Iran is developing a serious capability," said Borg. “It's exaggerating the present capabilities, but it’s working toward the future."

That’s especially troubling because the risk of smaller nations waging cyberwar against one other may be higher than with the online superpowers, he said.

He cited reports indicating that Iran may have been behind what he called one of the more serious cyberattacks to date -- an assault last August on the Saudi Aramco computer network that disabled more than 30,000 computers used to control the flow of Saudi oil. The Saudi Interior Ministry blamed "foreign countries" for the attack.

Borg said he believes the attack was an "Iranian fundamentalist attack ... at some point loosely the under auspices of Iran, and blessed by Iran. The fundamentalist group made a claim of responsibility. ... “Based on technical analysis, the claim has credibility."

For that reason, Borg says he is less worried about the possibility of China or Russia launching a catastrophic attack against the U.S. than he is about the emerging cyberpowers.

“What I’m really concerned about isn’t Russia or China, but attacks from Iran or terrorist groups working with state actors,” he said.

China World's Top Nuclear Power Generator by 2030

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China walks fine line on nuclear North Korea

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What’s the Real Crime Rate in China?

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community.travelchinaguide.com

Steven D. Levitt

Official statistics would certainly suggest that crime in China is extremely low.  Murder rates in China are roughly one-fifth as high as in the United States.  According to the official crime statistics there, all crimes are rare.  China certainly feels safe. We walked the streets in rich areas and poor and not for a moment did I ever feel threatened.  Graffiti was completely absent.  The one instance where I thought I finally found some graffiti near a train station in the city of Shangrao, the spray painted message on a bridge turned out not to be graffiti, but rather a government warning that anyone caught defecating under the bridge would be severely punished.

Yet, there were all sorts of odd behaviors that made it seem like some crimes were a big problem. 

First, there seemed to be an obsession with the risk of counterfeit money.  Our tour guides felt the need to teach us how to identify fake money.  Whenever I bought something with currency, the shopkeeper went through a variety of tricks to validate the legitimacy of the bills. 

Second, when checking out of some of our hotels, there was a fifteen minute delay while a hotel worker went to check out the vacated hotel room, I presume to check for stolen clocks, towels, and mini-bar items.  (Possibly I misunderstood why they checked the room, just as I struggled to understand why there was a $15 fee associated with each lost key card, which couldn’t possibly have cost the hotel more than a few cents.  On the key cards, it almost seemed like they didn’t have the device on hand that regular hotels use to program key cards in real-time as a new guest checks in, although this seems impossible.)

Third, places that no sensible person would ever want to break into (for instance, orphanages) were protected by guard houses and metal gates that had to be retracted to let vehicles in.  And I don’t think the gates were to keep the orphans in, but maybe they were!

Fourth, on the trains we took, they checked our tickets before we boarded, while we were riding the train, and also required that the ticket be produced on the way out of the station.

Finally, and most notably, public restrooms were completely devoid of toilet paper, even in some reasonably nice restaurants.  Again, maybe I’m completely missing something, but the impression was that (a) toilet paper was a very valuable commodity, and (b) if it were left in public restrooms it would be stolen.

New trend: Renting a boyfriend in China

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Hilarious video: Toddler moons at Chinese Vice President

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Xi Jinping urges CPC to accept criticism

xinhua

BEIJING, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese leader Xi Jinping has urged the Communist Party of China (CPC) to be more tolerant of criticism and receptive to the views of non-communists.

Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks on Wednesday, at a gathering convened to extend Lunar New Year's greetings to people from non-communist parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and those without party affiliations.

"The CPC should be able to put up with sharp criticism, correct mistakes if it has committed them and avoid them if it has not," he said.

"Non-CPC personages should meanwhile have the courage to tell the truth, speak words jarring on the ear, and truthfully reflect public aspirations," he added.

Criticism from non-communist personages could help the CPC to identify, analyze and solve problems, he pointed out.

Xi asked CPC committees at all levels to readily accept and welcome supervision from non-communist parties and personages so as to improve their work style and quality.

At the event, Xi expressed appreciation for the hard work of non-communist parties and personages in the past five years.

The general secretary called upon the non-communists to consolidate with the CPC their political common ground, that is, the socialist political system with Chinese characteristics.

Xi urged them to offer more wise and practical suggestions and consultations as pushing forward the country's development requires extensive force.

Li Keqiang and Yu Zhengsheng, both Standing Committee members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, were also present at the gathering to mark the Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 10 this year.

China has eight non-communist political parties that participate in state affairs under the leadership of the CPC. Under the multi-party cooperation system, the CPC and non-communist parties work together and supervise each other.

Bridge collapses after firework explosion on truck in China

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Data Freak: Behind mild China data, signs rebound is intact

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Piratas informáticos chinos atacan el diario 'The New York Times'

elpais

El primer ministro chino, Wen Jiabao. / EFE

Un grupo de hackers chinos ha realizado varios ataques contra el periódico estadounidense The New York Times en los últimos cuatro meses, ha anunciado el diario este miércoles. Los piratas informáticos se han introducido en el sistema del diario y han sustraído contraseñas.

Los ataques se han producido después de que el periódico haya publicado el pasado 25 de octubre un reportaje sobre las ganancias multimillonarias que habían conseguido los parientes del primer ministro chino Wen Jiabao en operaciones comerciales.

“Los hackers han utilizado métodos que nuestros consultores asocian a los que el Ejército chino ha empleado otras veces para penetrar en el sistema del Times”, ha declarado el periódico. Los piratas han robado correos electrónicos y documentos, introduciéndose, por ejemplo, en las cuentas de correo del jefe del despacho en Shanghai, David Barboza, que ha escrito la investigación sobre los parientes de Wen Jiabao, y en las del antiguo jefe del despacho de Pekín, Jim Yardley, que ahora controla el área del sureste asiático desde la India.

Al parecer, los hackers buscaban averiguar los nombres de las fuentes de las informaciones publicadas por Barboza. El diario había pedido a la empresa AT&T, que vigila su red informática, que estuviera atenta a cualquier actividad inusual en el sistema, cuando responsables del Gobierno chino les avisaron de que la investigación sobre los parientes de Wen Jiabao tendría “consecuencias”.

El periódico ha recurrido al detector de amenazas informáticas Mandiant el pasado 7 de noviembre, cuando los ataques se han incrementado. “Si se examina cada acción de forma separada, se puede decir que es el Ejército chino”, ha dicho el responsable de seguridad de Mandiant, Richard Bejtlich.

El New York Times asegura que ha conseguido cerrar el acceso a los hackers con la ayuda de expertos en seguridad informática. “Habrían podido hacer destrozos en nuestros sistemas”, ha afirmado el jefe de comunicación, Marc Frons, aunque, según la directora del diario, Jill Abramson, ningún correo o fichero del reportaje sobre el entorno de Wen Jiabao ha sido sustraído.

El ministro chino de Defensa ha desmentido cualquier vínculo entre las intrusiones y el Gobierno, y ha dicho que el New York Times, “que acusa al Ejército de su país de lanzar ciberataques sin pruebas, no es profesional”.
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Ver Family of Wen Jiabao Holds a Hidden Fortune in ... - New York Times

Sinkhole swallows whole building complex in China

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Pollution highlights the price China is paying for rapid development

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Skyscrapers are obscure by heavy haze in Beijing Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

By David Piper

Beijing has developed into an impressive modern city over the past two decades. But a tourist visiting the Chinese capital over the past four days would have difficulty seeing many of its ancient and modern landmarks because of the horrendous pollution hanging over the city.

China's capital has been notorious for its smog over the past few years, as have most northern Chinese cities.

In Beijing, the smog unexpectedly appears and is likely to be when there is no wind to blow away the pollution, as is the case at the moment.

At first you believe, charitably, it’s just morning mist.  But it doesn't disappear and just lingers all day.

More than 20 years ago, when I first visited, Beijing, like many Chinese cities, was a very different place.

There was only the odd skyscraper and factory. Most people used bicycles to get around rather than the car.

The smog seems to have just enveloped the city, making it dangerous for people to even go outdoors.

With the current levels of pollution, it might be healthier to sit in your car for hours in a traffic jam and let the air filters do their work rather than breathe in the polluted air as you cycle around Beijing. 

The smog seems to have just enveloped the city, making it dangerous for people to even go outdoors.

The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center is recommending that children and the elderly stay indoors.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/14/pollution-highlights-price-china-is-paying-for-rapid-development/?intcmp=trending#ixzz2Hxpx3aV9

China Newspaper: 'Prepare For The Worst' After Military Confrontation With Japan

businessinsider

China Defence Mashup/ The J-10 fighter

After repeatedly flying surveillance aircraft into disputed airspace with Japan, which made Tokyo scramble F-15s in response, China sent fighters of its own on Thursday into the East China Sea.  A Friday press release out of China confirms the incident began when Beijing was flying a Shaanxi Y-8 on a "routine Thursday patrol" over the "oil and gas fields in the East China Sea."
The fact that the aircraft was a Shaanxi Y-8 is interesting in that the Y-8 isn't necessarily any one particular aircraft.
The Diplomat calls the Y-8 a transport plane, and it can be, but the aircraft has more than 30 variants. The Y-8 performs everything from Mineral Research, to Geophysical Surveying, to Electronic Warfare to Intelligence Gathering and one variant is simply an innocuous but lethal fully loaded gunship, with two heavy cannons and three heavy machine guns.

Google Maps

Naha, Okinawa with bar scale and regional map inset (click to expand)

It's the perfect plane for a game of cat and mouse because if the Y-8 ever received fire from Japan's F-15s, China could simply maintain it was an unarmed transport model carrying troops, or the Y8-F model that carries only livestock. In the meantime, the plane can perform all manner of sophisticated tests on the seabed floor, while eavesdropping on Japanese communications. China has been flying these planes consistently lately to surveil the contested island chain that's supposed to hold billions in oil and gas reserves.
So, again, on Thursday Japan spotted aircraft in its Air Defense Identification Zone (above the islands) that it believed to be Chinese J-7 interceptors, along with some J-10 fighters whose combat abilities rival that of Western jets. Japan responded with two F-15s scrambled from Naha, Okinawa — just a couple hundred miles away. There are minor variations from either side about who sent what first, but all agree the aircraft met above the islands.
The Chinese planes scattered soon after, but this marked the first time China and Japan flung military assets at one another over the East China Sea island dispute. A line was crossed and staying behind it in the future will only be more difficult.

Google/ Air base Shuimen, China — disputed island chain — Naha, Japan

The U.S. assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell announced that he will be traveling to Seoul, and Tokyo. What he decides in Tokyo will filter south to Naha and the Japanese unit confronting the Chinese.
An interesting fact about Naha, aside from its proximity to the contested territory, is that while being fairly remote, it is also home to Alfred R. Magleby, a United States Consul General who holds a M.S. in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College. This is appropriate, since the Naha Port (formerly Military) Facility is part of U.S. Forces Japan and the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is less than nine miles from where Japan's F-15s scrambled.
It looks like the islands everyone's talking about are a few dots in the middle of nowhere, but all of this is taking place close to the U.S. Consulate and a contingent of several thousand U.S. Marines whose former commanding general told Time in 2010: "All of my Marines on Okinawa are willing to die if it is necessary for the security of Japan."

In the future, when responding to China's fighter deployment, if Japan considers permitting its F-15 pilots to fire tracer bullets as warning shots against Chinese planes, it is now reasonable to assume that U.S. forces at Futenma may have an indirect say in that decision.

Firing tracers, which usually contain phosphorous or some highly flammable material, sends a line of light through the air like a laser. Tracers are usually loaded in about every tenth round to let gunners know where they're shooting, but in this case they would be fired to show Chinese pilots they're being fired upon.

An editorial in China's state-run Global Times called this possibility, "a step closer to war," warning a military clash is "more likely" while its people need to prepare "for the worst." With a U.S. presence so close at hand to where these Japanese decisions are being made, and tactical practices employed, we can hope for at least a bit of immediate tempering.

The Chinese jets are likely flying from air base Shuimen, built east of the islands in Fujian Province, not too much farther from the islands than Naha, Okinawa. So both sides have assets equally within reach of the islands.

Defense Updates One of the many variations of the Y-8

Satellite imagery of the base  came to light in 2009, and experts believe it was completed late last year. 

The Taipei Times reported in May 2012 that J-10 combat aircraft, Su-30 fighters, and various unmanned drones were arriving at the base.

In addition to aircraft, experts believe Russian made S-300 long-range surface-to-air missiles ring the

airbase, providing some of the best missile protection in the world. The S-300 is comparable to the U.S. made Patriot missile recently sent to Turkey for its first line of missile defense against Syria.

The Shuimen airbase compliments China's East Fleet that maintains 35 ships in the region, including its newest warship the Type 054, seven submarines, and eight additional landing craft.

Among the subs are four Kilo-class diesel-electric Russian made submarines capable of the most advanced underwater warfare.

All of this located just 236 miles from the contested islands, which have been in dispute between Japan and China for some time. Han-Yi Shaw writes an interesting history of the dispute, for those interested in more background.

While the U.S. takes no official position on who owns the Islands, it would be expected to honor its U.S.-Japan security treaty signed in 1960.

Though this is a formal agreement that the U.S. will aid Japan if it comes under attack, there are few who believe the U.S. would risk a full-blown war with China over a few uninhabited islands, regardless of how much oil and gas lies beneath them.

But with a U.S. presence so closely intertwined in these events, and a contingent of Marines standing by, it seems that whatever happens could involve American input — one way or another.

Associated Press

What it's all about — or what's beneath them — the Senkaku Islands

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/china-fighter-jet-flights-diaoyu-senkaku-islands-2013-1#ixzz2Hu2VbCno

El yin-yang de Xi Jinping

elpais/ Georgina Higueras

Desde tiempos ancestrales, el pensamiento chino se ha desarrollado en torno al principio de dos fuerzas, yin y yang, opuestas y complementarias, que representan la interacción dinámica y de cuyo equilibrio depende la armonía. Los nuevos dirigentes del gobernante Partido Comunista Chino (PCCh), encabezados por su secretario general, Xi Jinping, han iniciado la andadura dando carrete a ambas fuerzas en su búsqueda de lo que llaman la “sociedad armoniosa”.

La espita del yin (negativo) la abrió la semana pasada el Departamento de Propaganda de Guangdong —la provincia más rica de China, con 100 millones de habitantes y la más liberal del país, en parte porque siempre fue la más abierta y en parte por su proximidad a la excolonia británica de Hong Kong que desde 1997 es región administrativa especial de China—. De la manera más burda y sin tener en cuenta las ansias de libertad de expresión de una sociedad cada día más conectada y en la que las redes sociales juegan un activo papel, los censores de ese departamento cambiaron una carta a los lectores del influyente Semanario del Sur (Nanfang Zhoumo), en la que se pedía que el nuevo año trajese un “Gobierno constitucional”, por una sarta de alabanzas al PCCh. Como era de esperar, los periodistas del semanario —que sabían lo que se jugaban cuando escribieron su carta y asumieron el riesgo— se sintieron humillados y se declararon en huelga.

La fuerza del yin no les tomó en consideración y continuó expandiéndose por los órganos centrales del PCCh que, en consonancia, actuaron de forma represora contra los huelguistas, los manifestantes y los internautas que acudieron en su apoyo. “No importa si esta gente está contenta o no... los medios de comunicación libre con los que sueñan son imposibles”, editorializaba el lunes, con una total falta de sensibilidad, Tiempos Globales —periódico ligado al órgano de difusión del PCCh, Diario del Pueblo—.

Sumido en su propia oscuridad, el yin ha revelado su falta de capacidad para valorar las demandas y las necesidades de una sociedad compleja, que integran 1.350 millones de personas y que en 2012, por primera vez en su historia, pasó de tener una mayoría rural a una mayoría urbana. El yin parece no asimilar que la brutal mejora en el nivel de vida que han experimentado sobre todo los urbanistas en las tres últimas décadas ha generado una clase media, que como todas las clases medias del mundo actual, está globalizada, viaja, conoce otras realidades y quiere participar, de una manera u otra, en el desarrollo de su propia realidad. De momento, esta clase media china no contesta el liderazgo único del PCCh, pero le exige libertad de información y de expresión con la que poder dejar en evidencia y luchar contra los desmanes que cometen muchos funcionarios y autoridades locales que se cobijan bajo el paraguas de secretismo e impunidad del PCCh.

Pero frente al yin, se ha abierto la puerta al yang (el principio positivo). El Gobierno ha anunciado que se está elaborando un plan para la reforma de los campos de reeducación por el trabajo, uno de los castigos más odiados por los chinos y una de las demandas más enraizadas en la sociedad, que considera estos centros de internamiento injustos y foráneos, ya que se crearon tras la fundación de la República Popular en 1949 y bajo la influencia del régimen de terror impuesto por Josif Stalin en la desaparecida Unión Soviética. Nacieron para reeducar a los contrarrevolucionarios, pero se convirtieron en las mazmorras de las comisarías policiales, donde agentes soberbios e incultos enviaban a cualquiera que contestaba su autoridad o lo que interpretaban como la autoridad del Gobierno y el Estado.

El fin de los campos de reeducación es una de las mayores reivindicaciones de las organizaciones de derechos humanos tanto chinas como extranjeras y se convirtió en objetivo prioritario tras el caso Tang Hui. Esta mujer de Hunan (una provincia del centro de China) fue sentenciada a 18 meses en un campo de reeducación por desatar en 2011 una campaña para exigir a los tribunales y a las autoridades del Gobierno local que impusieran penas más severas a los siete responsables del secuestro, la violación y la prostitución forzosa de su hija de 11 años. Tang fue liberada después de una semana de internamiento por las protestas de académicos, medios de comunicación y millones de ciudadanos en las redes sociales.

Uno de los primeros compromisos asumidos por Xi Jinping tras ascender en noviembre pasado a la Secretaría General del PCCh fue hacer de China un país gobernado por el imperio de la ley. El cierre de los laogai, donde los represaliados pueden ser internados sin juicio hasta cuatro años, es primordial para emprender la reforma de la justicia en China y acabar con una de las mayores frustraciones de sus ciudadanos, que se sienten indefensos ante la injusticia de su sistema judicial. De llevarse a cabo, la fuerza del yang sería arrolladora y frenaría de forma considerable el descontento de la sociedad.

Todo apunta a que Xi Jinping, que en marzo se convertirá en jefe del Estado, permanecerá al frente del destino de China durante la próxima década, pero para hacerlo sin sobresaltos no tendrá más remedio que escuchar las voces de sus ciudadanos. La libertad de expresión y el imperio de la ley son las dos principales demandas de la población y no le servirá contraponerlas como el yin y el yang, si pretende establecer una “sociedad armoniosa”, sino que de habrá de hacer de ambas sus caballos de batalla.

Lo más curioso de lo sucedido estos días en Cantón es que la carta que ha sido censurada por el celo del Departamento de Propaganda pedía precisamente un “Gobierno constitucional”, es decir, la reforma que el Ministerio de Justicia comienza a pergeñar, ya que según los expertos legales, los campos de reeducación violan la Constitución china.

Chinese Officials Pledge to Loosen Controls Over Embattled Newspaper

SPEAKING OUT: A man wearing a mask with words “Silent” holds a banner reading: “Let's chase our dreams together, go Southern Weekly newspaper” during a protest outside the headquarters of the newspaper in Guangzhou, Guangdong province on Monday. Photo: AP

nytimes

By EDWARD WONG and JONATHAN ANSFIELD

GUANGZHOU, China — Propaganda officials in the southern province of Guangdong have agreed to loosen some controls over an embattled newspaper whose struggle against censorship has galvanized free-speech advocates across China, according to journalists at the newspaper.

The agreement was part of a compromise in which reporters and editors who had said they would strike continued to work to put out the newspaper, Southern Weekend, also known as Southern Weekly, which is published on Thursdays. It is an iconic liberal publication that has regularly challenged Communist Party officials and policies but has come under tighter control in recent years, particularly since the summer.

In Beijing, talk of another newsroom in crisis emerged on Wednesday as reporters at Beijing News, a newspaper co-founded by the parent company of Southern Weekend, said propaganda officials forced the newspaper, against the judgment of its publisher and top editors, to run an editorial attacking Southern Weekend. Some journalists broke down in tears in the newsroom, according to various accounts, and the publisher, Dai Zigeng, threatened to resign, but was still in his job as of Wednesday night.

The deal in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, appeared to bring a tentative peace to a newsroom in turmoil, though journalists said they would have to see whether provincial officials followed through with their promises. The journalists appeared to back down from their demands that the top provincial propaganda official, Tuo Zhen, leave his post. Newspaper employees have accused Mr. Tuo of putting in place much stricter censorship rules since he began his job in May; in particular, they said he had a hand in the rewriting of a New Year’s editorial last week that was supposed to have been a call for enforcement of constitutional rights but ended up being more of a paean to the current system. It is unclear what role Mr. Tuo played in the changes, which ignited the call last weekend among some journalists to carry out a strike.

Journalists at Southern Weekend said that under rules imposed by Mr. Tuo, propaganda officials regularly reviewed the content of the paper before it went to print and vetted reporting topics proposed by journalists. Those rules are supposed to be abolished under the new agreement.

Zeng Li, a veteran journalist who reviews articles in-house at Southern Weekend to guard against riling the censors, said, “Now things are calming down.”

“To publish a good paper is the hope of both the leaders and the staff,” he added.

Hu Chunhua, the new party chief of Guangdong, China’s most liberal province, helped mediate the settlement, which took shape late Tuesday, journalists said. The clash over censorship is the first big test for Mr. Hu, 49, who is considered one of the party’s rising stars and a candidate to be the leader of China in a decade.

The battle at Southern Weekend also poses a challenge for the central authorities. Xi Jinping, the new party chief, made a trip to Guangdong late last year to stress the need to further open the economy. Analysts have wondered whether he might also call for greater political freedoms. Mr. Xi has made remarks, though, that underscore the need for China to remain true to its socialist roots.

Central propaganda officials appear to have taken a tough line on the censorship issue by demanding this week that the biggest news Web sites and some important publications print a scathing editorial criticizing Southern Weekend that was originally published by Global Times, a populist newspaper, and widely derided by Chinese journalists. The order to run the editorial led to the crisis at Beijing News on Tuesday night.

One journalist described the scene in the office in a blog post: “Some people look sad; some burst into tears; some shout that they are going to quit; some look serious.”

The post continued: “We don’t want to kneel down, but our knees have been shattered. We are kneeling down this one time while gnashing our teeth.”

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Rare China demo protests censorship

Kyodo News via AP

A protester holds aloft a banner that shows freedom of speech near the headquarters of Southern Weekly newspaper in Guangzhou, Guangdong province on Monday., Jan. 7, 2013. A dispute over censorship at the Chinese newspaper known for its edgy reporting became a political challenge for China's new leadership as protesters called for democratic reforms.

By NBC News staff and wire services

GUANGZHOU, China -- Scores of supporters of one of China's most liberal newspapers demonstrated outside its headquarters on Monday in a rare protest against censorship, backing an unusual strike by journalists against interference by the provincial propaganda chief. 

The protest in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, came amid an escalating standoff between the government and the people over press freedom. It is also an early test of Communist Party Chief Xi Jinping's commitment to reform. 

Negotiations between journalists and officials, whom the protesters held responsible for replacing a New Year's letter to readers that called for a constitutional government with another piece lauding the party's achievements, continued into the night, a senior journalist who asked not to be named told NBC News.

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