Chinese President Xi Jinping rolled out the red carpet for US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, November 8, as he made his first visit to Beijing.
Trump was shown around the Forbidden City, the ancient home of China's emperors, before the pair got down to business and discussed thorny issues like
North Korea and trade.
He is the eighth US President to visit China but the relationship between Beijing and Washington has changed out of all recognition since the first, Richard Nixon, visited in 1972.
© AP PHOTO/
US President Richard Nixon and Premier Chou En Lai meet in Beijing, Feb. 21, 1972, for the start of talks.
The People's Republic of China came into being in 1949 and the US was less than enamored of the new communist state, led by the charismatic Mao Zedong.
China Ignored by US for Years
For more than 20 years Washington ignored Beijing — then known as Peking — and retained relations with the defeated side in the Chinese civil war, the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT), who had sought sanctuary on the island of Formosa and set up the new state of Taiwan, which is still formally known as the Republic of China.
Relations between the two worsened when Mao sent the People's Liberation Army into the Korean peninsula to rescue Kim Il-Sung's beleaguered forces, which had retreated almost to the Yalu river in December 1950.
The Korean War formally ended in July 1953, but the US and China remained the best of enemies for almost two decades.
Then in February 1972 President Nixon, like Trump a Republican, made a diplomatic breakthrough when he visited Mao in Beijing.
Nixon had two aims — to drive a wedge between the Soviet Union and China, and to get the Chinese to put pressure on their ally Ho Chi Minh to come to the negotiating table and agree an end to the Vietnam war, which was costing thousands of US soldiers' lives.
"If we can find the common ground on which we can both stand the bridge between us and build the new world, generations in the years ahead will look back and thank us for this meeting we have held in this past week," said Nixon at the end of the eight-day trip.
US Formally Recognized China in 1979
Ironically the US still did not recognize the People's Republic as a state, something that had to wait seven years when Jimmy Carter was in power and the KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek had died.
At the time of Nixon's visit in 1972 China's economy was woeful, still recovering from Mao's Great Leap Forward policy of rapid industrialization in the late 1950s.
It was only after Mao's successor Deng Xiaoping dramatically modernized the Chinese economy with his gaige kaifang (reform and opening up) policy in the 1980s that China's huge population and natural resources turned it into an economic powerhouse.
© AP PHOTO/
This is a 1978 file photo of China's Deng Xiaoping.
In 1970 China's total GDP was US$92 billion. By 2015 it was US$11trillion.
That is 120 times bigger.
The US economy, by contrast, has gone from US$4.7trillion in 1970 to US$16.4trillion in 2015, an increase of just four times.
China Now Has Bigger Economy
The IMF and the World Bank both consider China to have a bigger economy than the US in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), a crucial measure that adjusts countries' GDPs for differences in prices.
China's growing economic strength in the last decade has shown by the fact that US presidents are visiting Beijing more than ever before.
Ronald Reagan visited only once during his eight years in office and his successor George H.W. Bush also went there only once, as did Bill Clinton.
But by the start of the 21st century, the penny had dropped.
George W. Bush visited no less than four times between 2000 and 2008 and Barack Obama traveled there three times, the most recent of which was in September last year.
Chinese leaders were also welcomed to the White House far more than in the past and relations with Taiwan were put on a slightly cooler footing.
Trump Attacks on China During Election Campaign
During his election campaign Trump heavily criticized China — which he pronounces Chiyna — but it is telling that only 11 months after reaching the Oval Office he is making a two-day trip there and playing nice.
Trump showed President Xi a video of his granddaughter Arabella Kushner singing in Mandarin and reciting classical Chinese poetry and Xi duly complimented her performance.
In August 2017, China owned US$1.2 trillion of America's national debt and in October 2016 the Chinese state owned US$3.12 trillion worth of foreign currency reserves, two-thirds of which is believed to be in dollars.
If China were to sell large amounts of dollars it would massively affect the currency markets.
China also has massively increased its military strength in recent years and has been flexing its muscles in the South China Sea.
© REUTERS/ JONATHAN ERNST
US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping leave after an opera performance at the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, November 8, 2017.
On Thursday, November 9, Trump's official ceremonial welcome at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing is due to be broadcast live on national television.
Los avances que está realizando China muestran que la visión de un lider como Mao Tse Tung esta rindiendo frutos para su pueblo.¡
Tibetans graze their yak in the grasslands of the high Tibetan plateau in the county of Naqu, Tibet, China in this Thursday July 6, 2006 photo.Big Science: China Melting the Permafrost to Create Forests in Tibet © AP Photo/ Elizabeth Dalziel, File
ASIA & PACIFIC
23:57 19.11.2017(updated 23:59 19.11.2017) Get short URL 0 617103
China will use solar power to melt the permafrost in Nagqu, a near-polar climate in Tibet, so that trees can grow in the region.
Nagqu is known for its extremely diverse wildlife, but extreme cold is believed to be the reason why trees cannot grow.
The flags of South Korea (C), China (L) and North Korea (File)
© AFP 2017/ MENAHEM KAHANA
'Last Thing China Wants is Conflict on Korean Peninsula' – Scholar
According to the state-run People's Liberation Army Daily news outlet, the absence of trees is causing mental breakdowns in Chinese military personnel in the city. Soldiers from Nagqu traveling to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, would hug a tree, in tears, upon arrival, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.
China's new project to use solar power to allow the creation of forested areas in Nagqu, will ignoring the local climate and the needs of its native flora and fauna, is aimed at helping make the landscape more bearable for its soldiers.
Many have noted the project's high cost and potentially damaging environmental side effects.
"Some official might do this to flatter the president, but most scientists have concerns about this project," an anonymous researcher said to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Workers have placed solar panels in alpine grassland areas to convert sunlight into electricity and power an underground copper-wire heating grid to melt the permanently frozen soil and potentially allow trees to grow.
"This is not sustainable," one scientist said. "These can be the most expensive trees in the world," another scientist noted.
The project is also thought to be likely to disrupt the region's delicate ecological balance. The emergence of artificially-grown trees will drain the area's water resources. In addition, Nagqu's wildlife includes bears, foxes, wolves, goats and donkeys that are accommodated to the high-altitude grassland environment.
This photo taken on January 2, 2017 shows Chinese J-15 fighter jets on the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier during military drills in the South China Sea
© AFP 2017/ STR
China Creates Advanced Catapult for Planes 'Outperforming' the US
This photo taken on January 2, 2017 shows Chinese J-15 fighter jets on the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier during military drills in the South China SeaChina Creates Advanced Catapult for Planes 'Outperforming' the US © AFP 2017/ STR
MILITARY & INTELLIGENCE
10:40 18.11.2017(updated 10:47 18.11.2017) Get short URL86808703
It is expected to significantly improve the country’s aircraft carrier fleet's combat capacities.
Chinese engineers have achieved a major military breakthrough by developing an advanced catapult for planes that was previously possessed only by the United States as the process of manufacturing has been very complex and sophisticated, China Daily reports.
According to Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo, director of the People's Liberation Army Navy's expert consultation committee, the catapult that is aimed at helping planes take off from an aircraft carrier could be considered a great achievement in Chinese military industry.
In this Feb. 28, 2017, photo, a Lockheed Martin F-35A Lighting II from the 323 Squadron, Royal Netherlands Air Force flies through the nicknamed Star Wars Canyon on the Jedi transition in Death Valley National Park, Calif.
© AP PHOTO/ BEN MARGOT
Dunford: US Military Superiority Over Russia, China Markedly Decreasing
The new system has already undergone a series of tests with J-15 carrier-borne fighter jets, which have made "thousands of takeoffs," Zhuo said as cited by the newspaper.
In his opinion, China has even outperformed the US in certain aspects, in particular in the development of ship-based power systems.
"Compared with the US, we have better technologies in key parts, such as motor-control devices and power distribution software. We are leaders in the research and development of integrated electric power systems."
The use of catapults helps an aircraft carrier launch large fixed-wing planes as aircraft taking off from the warship need an external force to drag them because flight decks are often too short for them to gain sufficient speed.
In this Feb. 28, 2017, photo, a Lockheed Martin F-35A Lighting II from the 323 Squadron, Royal Netherlands Air Force flies through the nicknamed Star Wars Canyon on the Jedi transition in Death Valley National Park, Calif.Dunford: US Military Superiority Over Russia, China Markedly Decreasing © AP Photo/ Ben Margot
MILITARY & INTELLIGENCE
10:38 17.11.2017(updated 11:33 17.11.2017) Get short URL154048714
The US has been losing its military supremacy over its peer countries like Russia and China over the last 10-15 years and should step up efforts to increase its deterrence potential, Joe Dunford, Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was cited as saying during a lecture at the Tufts University in Massachusetts earlier this week.
Russia and China have heavily invested in their capabilities to struggle against America’s traditional dominance in a range of spheres, General Dunford said, as cited in a news article published on the US Defense Department website.
"As an example, if you take the naval alliance in Europe, Russia understands that the transatlantic link is critical for us to meet our NATO commitments," he added. The rivals’ “anti-access” strategy is thus oriented at developing systems to limit US ability to move into the region and to operate freely on the ground to meet alliance commitments.
The areas that are in the Russian and Chinese spotlight are electronic warfare, cyber technologies, anti-space capabilities, anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles, aimed to prevent the US from spreading its power to Europe and supporting its allies.
Dunford stressed the conflict the world powers are facing falls short of a traditional military one. He called it an “adversarial competition” in which Russia performs tests and training on a day-to-day basis – moves that America does not conventionally make in peacetime.
"And while we may be inhibited in peacetime from using certain capabilities — certain cyber capabilities, conducting certain activities, conducting certain information operations and so forth — they don't share the same restrictions. They're actually conducting activities and employing capabilities that we may associate with war,” Dunford points out.
The other side of the world in the South China Sea is no exception, he said.
"I think we do have effective deterrence in the conventional fight against Russia, and frankly see China's methodology in dealing with issues like the South China Sea or in dealing with [terminal high-altitude area defense missiles] in South Korea".
Citing the complex post-World War II security environment, Dunford says no issue should be addressed in isolation, as, for instance, terrorist actions in East Africa affect operations in the Middle East and Asia, and “drug networks in South and Central America could be used by terrorists to ship people or weapons into the United States,” he pointed out.
https://sputniknews.com/military/201711171059180874-us-pentagon-military-russia/
MIENTRAS CHILE PERDIÓ EN LA HAYA 22.000 KM DE MAR PATRIMONIAL, SEBASTIÁN PIÑERA GANÓ MILLONES DE DÓLARES CON SU COMPAÑÍA PESQUERA EN PERÚ.
A proposito de la primera vuelta en Chile: Se quedo con los crespos hechos
La ambición del ex presidente “descendiente Inca” Sebastián Piñera no tiene límites, y ahora nos enteramos que tenía una inversión millonaria en la empresa pesquera Exalmar S.A., una de las más grandes del Perú, todo esto mientras era presidente de Chile y el país se encontraba en medio del juicio de Perú contra Chile por los límites marítimos ante la Corte Internacional de Justicia de La Haya. Como era de imaginar Piñera tenía sus huevos puestos fuera de Chile y la empresa pesquera peruana en la que había invertido millones de dólares resultó favorecida en sus derechos de pesca por la sentencia emitida el 27 de enero del 2014 por el referido tribunal internacional.
En términos simples, como lo consigna el periódico digital El Mostrador: “Parte de lo que Chile perdió a manos de Perú en ese juicio, lo ganó el ex Mandatario con sus inversiones en esa compañía peruana”.
Piñera, en su calidad de presidente de Chile, nunca informo ni comentó que tenía intereses económicos en el sector pesquero peruano, jugando a dos bandos con las relaciones y los intereses internacionales de Chile, negociando de manera privilegiada e interesada, con dos caras distintas, la de presidente y la de empresario, beneficiándose así mismo a cambio de mar patrimonial chileno.
Sebastián Piñera siempre ha sido un mercader “vende patria”, y sus negocios asquerosos e inmorales con el mar de todos los chilenos lo hace ubicarse a la punta de los corruptos más “sinvergüenzas y descarados” de la historia de la política nacional.
https://politicaconchile.cl/2016/11/sebastian-pinera-gano-millones-de-dolares-con-su-compania-pesquera-en-peru/
El Frente Amplio de izquierda, la gran sorpresa en las elecciones de Chile
La nueva coalición, liderada por exlíderes estudiantiles de 2011, alcanza el 20,27% de los votos con su candidata Beatriz Sánchez
Contra los pronósticos de las encuestas, que le daban un 8,5% de respaldo, el resultado de la candidata de la coalición de izquierda Frente Amplio, Beatriz Sánchez, fue la sorpresa de esta jornada electoral en Chile: obtuvo un 20,27% de los votos en las presidenciales. Aunque era predecible que obtendría el tercer lugar, no se esperaba que prácticamente le pisara los talones al candidato oficialista, Alejandro Guillier. Con el 22,64%, será el senador por Antofagasta el que se medirá en el balotaje del próximo 17 de diciembre con el expresidente Sebastián Piñera, que obtuvo un 36,66% de apoyo.
Piñera gana la primera vuelta en Chile pero con un margen muy escaso Chile prepara un giro a la derecha.
Constituida formalmente a comienzos de este año, la coalición Frente Amplio reúne a una docena de partidos y movimientos de izquierda. Sus principales líderes son dos exdirigentes estudiantiles de las movilizaciones de 2011: los diputados Gabriel Boric, del Movimiento Autonomista, y Giorgio Jackson, de Revolución Democrática. De 31 y 30 años respectivamente –una edad que no les permitía ser candidatos a La Moneda–, ambos parlamentarios se encuentran en los primero lugares del listado de los políticos mejor valorados por la ciudadanía, al igual que Sánchez.
El director de la Escuela de Ciencias Políticas de la Universidad Diego Portales indicó que "en términos de los estudios que se hacen en otras partes, sobre todo en Estados Unidos, muestran que los debates, en general, sólo refuerzan opiniones de los más convencidos. No cambia la opinión, tú ves lo que quieres ver".
"Este tipo de debates, que está muy encapsulado, muy a alta hora, muy para un público más o menos informado, en general la sociedad está totalmente excluida de la política. Este divorcio que hemos venido viendo hace que estas situaciones, estos realities son bastante encapsulados y no tienen un efecto derrame en todo el país", recalcó.
Sobre el debate presidencial de este lunes entre los tres aspirantes de Chile Vamos, expresó que "todos perdieron de distinta forma".
"Esta política del reality, del espectáculo, llegó para quedarse. No creo que haya una vuelta atrás y creo que es parte de la escena política y vamos a tener que ir acostumbrándonos cada vez con más frecuencia a este tipo de situaciones", advirtió.
Por su parte, el analista político Daniel Mansuy dijo en La Historia es Nuestra de Cooperativa que el debate televisivo entre los candidatos de Chile Vamos fue un "espectáculo lamentable" desde el punto de vista político.
El experto sostuvo que "entiendo que es un espectáculo televisivo, pero la verdad es que lo es más por el morbo que tiene como ver un reality show, como un cara a cara de decir que 'se digan cosas atroces y nosotros los miramos' y eso produce espectáculo".
"No creo que la política hoy necesite este tipo de espectáculo. Entiendo que televisivamente es un súper momento, pero políticamente lo encuentro lamentable. Como espectáculo de la derecha yo lo encuentro lamentable", reconoció.
Mansuy reflexionó que los candidatos "no logran desplegar sus proyectos, no logran desplegar ideas, sino que lo único que queda en la retina es cómo se dieron personalmente entre ellos y en un tono realmente muy agresivo".
"El que más pierde ayer (lunes) es Sebastián Piñera, que hasta aquí había hecho una campaña más o menos impecable, sin equivocarse, con muy poco error, muy contenido, y ayer Ossandón logró llevarlo a su cancha (...) Nadie lo había tratado con tanta rudeza como Ossandón, nadie lo había enfrentado cara a cara como lo enfrentó a él tan duramente y eso sin duda que lo desencajó", añadió.
Evidentemente el periodismo franelero, pro enemigo, aquí se pone las botas para defender a su candidato. Todo es "negocio" y lobbie pro enemigo del sur.
Bachelet fracaso, porque los votantes sólo querían ser parte de la torta. A nadie le interesaba modificar nada, no querían modificaciones, sólo ser parte del "negocio".
ORGE BARADIT| ESCRITOR SUPERVENTAS CHILENO
“Bachelet fracasó porque los chilenos solo querían su parte de la torta”
El escritor asegura que la sociedad chilena no pedía un país más justo, más solidario, querían participación de las ganancias
https://elpais.com/internacional/2017/11/16/actualidad/1510865963_948128.html
Exactamente como aquí. Interesa, antes bién, que el negocio se extienda. No importa como¡
Para no perder de vista, es un hecho que la Plutocracia chilena es la que esta dominando en el esquema político, mientras aqui se quiere tener este modelo. El grán deseo escondido es este.
Esto explica que aquí la justicia no sea un bien que se busque.
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