“He is 25, Muslim and comes from a part of China recently known for deadly ethnic rioting. This weekend, he is competing for the title of Worldwide Mr. Gay.” The New York Times tells the tale.
Latest Updates: china RSS
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plimfix
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aziz
We didn’t discuss the China-India axis at Copenhagen around here. I found their argument of being the champions of the developing nations rather disingenuous.
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johnpi
A lot of money changes hands as Cambodia sends Uighurs back to China.
Visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping thanked Cambodia on Monday for deporting 20 Muslim asylum-seekers while handing the country $1.2 billion in aid , the government spokesman said.
The 20 ethnic Uighurs deported Saturday were sought by China in connection with violent anti-government protests. Human rights activists are concerned that they will face persecution in China.
The United States said Sunday it was “deeply disturbed” by the forcible deportations. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said the incident would affect Cambodia’s relationship with the United States and its international standing. -
johnpi
When the US wanted to put together a phony ‘coalition of the willing’ it turned to tiny rent-a-nations like Palau. When the Russians wanted to do the same thing with the piece they carved out of Georgia, they trot out sovereign entities such as the island nation of Nauru.
Impoverished Nauru, all 21 square kilometers of it, used to make its money from selling phosphates derived from sea bird droppings. When fossilised guano ran low, it established itself as a tax haven and dabbled in money-laundering. More recently, it has earned money by acting as a detention centre for refugee ‘boat people’ making the perilous journey across the Pacific to seek asylum in Australia.
Struggling to stave off total destitution, Nauru has also developed its own special form of ‘guano diplomacy’. In 2002, it derecognised Taiwan in return for a $150 million ‘aid’ package from China. This week, it recognised both Abkhazia and South Ossetia after reportedly securing some $50 million of Russian ‘aid’.
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johnpi
Who needs Afghanistan (for oil pipelines)?
The leaders of China and three Central Asian nations gathered Sunday in Turkmenistan ahead of a ceremony inaugurating natural gas deliveries from the energy-rich region to China.
….The pipeline culminates Chinese efforts to secure energy supplies for its fast-growing economy. The route also will enable gas producers in the region to diversify their exports away from Russia, which has exercised a virtual stranglehold over Central Asian energy supplies since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“This is a significant project of cooperation between two nations that will benefit all countries in the region,” Chinese leader Hu Jintao told reporters in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat.
“All countries in the region” except Afghanistan.
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abunoor
China executes eight Uighurs and one Han, Indicts 20 more over July “ethnic riots.” Uighur activists claim verdicts were political and the executed did not receive a fair trial.
The news service said another 20 people were indicted on Monday on charges related to the deaths of 18 people and other crimes committed during the riots. All but two of the prisoners listed in the report had Uighur sounding names, with the others appearing to be Han.
Overseas Uighur activist Dilxat Raxit condemned the executions as motivated by politics and the need to appease Urumqi’s angry Han residents, who marched in the thousands through the city in September to demand trials of those responsible for the July violence and the perpetrators of a bizarre series of hypodermic needle attacks.
“We don’t think they got a fair trial, and we believe this was a political verdict,” said Raxit, who serves as spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress.
“The United States and the European Union did not put any pressure on China or seek to intervene and for that we are extremely disappointed,” he said. -
johnpi
Rivals China, India in escalating war of words.
China and India have taken a vituperative war of words and diplomatic barbs to an unusual level of tension in recent days, prompting fears that the traditional rivalry between the two Asian giants could spin out of control.
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thabet
China goes shopping in Africa again…
China National Offshore Oil Corp. is in talks with Ghana National Petroleum Corp. to make a bid for a stake in the Jubilee oilfield discovery that would rival Exxon Mobil Corp.’s $4 billion offer, the Wall Street Journal said, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation. A Chinese fund is in dicussions with Guinea on possible financing for infrastructure, minerals and oil projects, the Financial Times reported.
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johnpi
More analysis on the Al Qaeda declaration of holy war against China from Time magazine.
Uighur dissidents in exile have also repeatedly rejected any connection with terrorist activity and argue that, despite a few incidents of bombings and attacks in China, China exploits the specter of a terrorist threat to further repress Uighur rights. Al-Qaeda’s recent statement does their cause few favors. “China could use it to shine a light on the Uighurs,” says Sanderson, “and say, ‘Look what you have brought upon us.’”
But while al-Qaeda’s support may not be welcomed by many Uighurs, no other nations in the Muslim world beyond Turkey — whose people see the Uighurs as a kindred community — have offered much solidarity. As China’s economic ties to the Middle East grow stronger, few governments can risk Beijing’s ire. Its traditional image in the region as a remote and non-interfering member of the third world is shifting toward that of a more influential power, but it remains far from generating the kind of animosity and suspicion that the U.S. attracts. Instead, “China is perceived as a bulwark,” says Ben Simpfendorfer, author of The New Silk Road, published earlier this year, which details the burgeoning links between the Middle East and China. “It can be a useful ally to push back against the United States.”
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thabet
When future historians write about the seemingly inevitable conflict in Iraq between Arabs and Kurds, this sort of news report will form part of the evidence for build up in ethnic tensions:
Iraq’s Oil Ministry, which deems deals the largely autonomous Kurdish region signs with foreign oil firms illegal, had already threatened to blacklist Sinopec, China’s biggest oil refiner, for acquiring Addax Petroleum Corp.
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johnpi
China: Al-Qaeda urges holy war to defend Muslims.
A leading Al-Qaeda militant on Wednesday called on Muslims worldwide to defend Uighurs in China’s restive northwestern region of Xinjiang. He told Uighurs to prepare for a holy war or Jihad and urged a “vast media campaign” to raise awareness of their fate at the hands of “oppressive” China.
In the video posted to jihadist websites, Abu Yahya al-Libi appeared to launch a frontal assault against China.
“This massacre is not being carried out by criminal Crusaders or evil Jews who have committed crimes against our nation,” al-Libi stated.
“Today, a new massacre is being carried out by Buddhist nationalists and communists against the Muslim population in eastern Turkestan,” said al-Libi.
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thabet
This might be another sign that Qatar wants to offer an alternative to Saudi Arabia as a ‘big player’ in the region: Qatar signs a deal with Turkey.
Turkey has the same energy concerns as the EU: Russia’s virtual monopoly over gas into Europe. Of course, Turkey realises it is a geopolitical-energy hub, and alongside deals with Qatar, the EU, talk of one with Iraq, it has signed one with Russia too.
I’d expect any EU-Turkey-Iran deal on Nabucco, an anti-Russian pipeline project and an effort the US supports at the present time, to upset the anti-Iran hawks. India’s stalling on a pipeline from Iran through Pakistan suggests some pressure from the US. But India (and China, which is busy signing deals in Central Asia) would still have energy needs. Expect the conspiracy theorists to be given more grist for their mills, as the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline is resurrected (at least in the media — the engineering of such a pipeline is another story altogether).
Steve LeVine, however, says this sorts of pipeline politics is no longer valuable to the US; events, such as the Russia-Georgia War, China’s aggressive emergence in Central Asia and developments in technology, having overtaken their policy.
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thabet
China is spending again: this time a $16bn deal with Venezuela to drill in the Orinoco.
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thabet
Opposition to sale of Pakistani farmland to Saudi Arabia:
Pakistan only recent agreed to give 7m acres of land to the Emirates Investment Group. Saudi Arabia joins other Gulf countries (Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar) in signing up these sorts of deals with poorer nations. China, South Korea, and India have all signed agreements in recent years. South Korea’s deal with Madagascar is cited by some as the reason for Marc Ravalomanana’s downfall.
Although Africa seems the primary target, Central Asian states, Southeast Asia and even Russia have been keen to offer their land.
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thabet
No surprises that the US remains the biggest supplier and spender of arms to other governments. With the Chinese and Russians closing the spending gap on the US, global military spending reached a record in 2008, despite the financial and economic crises (though, at this stage, this is probably due to a lag in record keeping and the completion of pre-existing agreements). Interestingly, three Arab countries, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and (oddly) Morocco were some of the biggest spenders on arms outside the OECD. Saudi Arabia and the UAE make sense given the geopolitical significance of the area and the stand off with Iran. Morocco seems harder to contextualise. As far as I can see, its main military efforts are in its ongoing occupation of Western Sahara, or combatting the emergence of the North African version of al-Qaida. Anyone have any ideas?
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thabet
Call me a cynic (some already do), but this seems rather convenient:
Abdul Aziz Al-Khudhairi, Makkah Governorate Undersecretary, who witnessed the declaration of the shahada described the event as a “direct response to critics of the government for contracting Chinese company.”
“We received hundreds of letters opposing the signing of a contract with the Chinese company and demanding that Muslims be contracted,” Al-Khudhairi said. “Six hundred and sixty of them have now embraced Islam.
There’s 5,000 Chinese nationals working on the project, and according to the report ‘the numbers of those converting will go up’.
Reminds of the claims/stories that French military officers miraculously converted to Islam just before they were able to help the Saudi authorities flush out militants from the Haram in Makka during 1979 siege.
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thabet
China continues its shopping for oil; it’s back in Latin America, signing a $10bn cash-for-oil deal with Brasil.
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thabet
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thabet
More protests in western China:
A witness told the BBC that as many as 2,000 ethnic Han Chinese have been demonstrating in the capital Urumqi.
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thabet
The Chinese are keen on Western hydrocarbon assets. Having wrapped up a massive deal with the Australians, they’re now putting the final touches on a deal with the Canadians.
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thabet
A book review of China’s interventionist non-interventionism in Africa.
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thabet
China’s ‘resource grab’ extends to Ecuador.
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johnpi
Web war breaks out between pro-China and pro-Muslim bloggers.
Pro-China and pro-Muslim hackers have clashed online in a series of attacks on Web sites triggered by deadly ethnic riots in China’s Muslim region last month.
Messages left on defaced Web sites have either supported or condemned China’s rule over Xinjiang, the western province where rioting killed nearly 200 people. Chinese government Web sites have become the latest targets, adding to online attacks against an Australian film festival and a Turkish government site.
….Pro-China hackers last month defaced the Web sites of the Turkish Embassy in China and the Melbourne International Film Festival. The embassy was targeted after Turkish officials criticized China following the unrest in Xinjiang, and the film festival was targeted as it prepared to show a documentary about Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur leader accused by China of organizing the riots.
Attackers placed the Chinese flag and messages blasting Kadeer on the film festival Web site, and later organized a flood of the festival’s online ticketing system that left the showing of the Kadeer documentary sold out.
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thabet
“Cultural misunderstandings” on a backdrop of unemployment leads to violence between locals and Chinese workers in Algiers:
Planeloads of Chinese workers have been arriving in the North African oil producer, mainly to work on state-funded construction projects, and their presence has fuelled resentment in a country where 7 out of 10 adults under 30 are unemployed.
“We can’t live with them,” said shop owner Rachid Azoug, who was among a group of men watching a row of boarded up Chinese shops. “They drink alcohol and do not respect our religion. They must leave.”
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The clashes appeared to stem from a combination of Algerians’ resentment at their lack of work and cultural misunderstandings between locals and Chinese, said Nacer Jabi, who teaches sociology at Algiers University.
“In poor areas unemployment is higher, and that could explain the anger of Algerian youth towards the Chinese workers,” Jabi told Reuters.
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razib, murtad fitri
the chinese aren’t very PC. Big trouble in China’s Chocolate City:
“If I had to choose whether to do business with a Middle Eastern businessman or one from Africa – I’d choose the African,” he says bluntly. “The Middle Eastern people are just too shrewd.”
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aziz
China buys the world – a special feature from AJE. (via @mohamed)
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thabet
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thabet
Language Log discusses an account of a British missionary in China and his observations of the language and literacy of Muslims he met.
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thabet
Dodgy election results in a Central Asian state.
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johnpi
More on brother Mu-adh’s post on modern science and Islamic teachings: For further reading, he excerpts the writings of one Shaykh Abdal Qadir as-Sufi, that are frankly Jew-baiting and anti-Semitic, full of references to “Jewish control systems” and “Jewish subversion” – and therefore discredited to my mind. See Suhaib Webb writing about the people who take advantage of “the ignorance of some Muslims, and the media machines in order to promote that Islam is a hateful religion” for a fuller rebuttal to this kind of conduct. As Imam Webb points out, “the community of the prophet had KNOWN hypocrites,” and this one is no different (NOTE: Imam Webb is speaking about other people and other subjects. The specific criticism of Shaykh Abdal Qadir as-Sufi here is mine and mine alone.).
I went to visit the web page of Shaykh Abdal Qadir as-Sufi. In his most current post he smears the Palestinians in general and Hamas in particular (for turning Shia, which is contemptuous and dismissive of Shia Muslims in itself) and calls the Chinese “sub-human.” The plight of the Uighurs is a superior concern over the Palestinians in part because ‘they still use an Arabic script.’
In the world outside a terrible crisis has broken and one which must involve the whole world community of Muslims. I refer to the abomination of the murder of Uighur men, women, and children and the destruction of the markets, houses and mosques of the Uighur people. It is time – and I call on our Arab brothers especially – to forget Palestine, that dismal nationalist failure. Hamas have turned Sh’ia and the other group are mired in corruption. Their problem is nothing to the devastating planned annihilation of a great Muslim people, one which still uses an Arabic script.
The Chinese are at war with us and the least action we can perform is to sanction all trade connections with the communist atheist entity. No Muslim business, no Muslim person, no Muslim nation should have any commercial intercourse with the sub-human regime.
Shaykh Abdal Qadir as-Sufi goes on to issue a fatwa:
…goods marked “Made in China” I declare forbidden to all Muslims…
