China has demarcated an "air-defence identification zone" over an area of the East China Sea, covering islands that are also claimed by Japan.
China's defence ministry said aircraft entering the zone must obey its rules or face "emergency defensive measures".
The islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are a source of rising tension between the countries.
Japan lodged a strong protest over what it said was an "escalation" reports BBC News.
"Setting up such airspace unilaterally escalates the situations surrounding Senkaku islands and has danger of leading to an unexpected situation," Japan's foreign ministry said in a statement.
Taiwan, which also claims the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, expressed regret at the move and promised that the military would take measure to protect national security.
In its statement, the Chinese defence ministry said aircraft must report a flight plan, "maintain two-way radio communications", and "respond in a timely and accurate manner" to identification inquiries.
"China's armed forces will adopt defensive emergency measures to respond to aircraft that do not co-operate in the identification or refuse to follow the instructions," said the statement.
It said the zone came into effect from 10:00 local time (02:00GMT) on Saturday.
State news agency Xinhua showed a map on its website covering a wide area of the East China Sea, including regions very close to South Korea and Japan.
Responding to questions about the zone on an official state website, a defence ministry spokesman, Yang Yujun, said China set up the area "with the aim of safeguarding state sovereignty, territorial land and air security, and maintaining flight order".
"It is not directed against any specific country or target," he said, adding that China "has always respected the freedom of over-flight in accordance with international law".
US NAVY FEARS China's DF 21D missile
BOOM:
China Navy Blasts Into the Yellow Sea
The Senkaku/Diaoyu islands have been a source of tension between China and Japan for decades.
Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell. "More human than human" is our motto. Blade Runner
The Droids are Taking Our Jobs
We are looking at a brave new world of a massive and permanent unemployment of countless millions of people and ever increasing poverty caused by computers, the Internet and robotics.
In China more than 60 percent of the enterprises surveyed have reduced production line employees by at least 10% using robotics. While 16 percent of the firms have cut their production jobs by more than 30%.
Best of all, robots do not form unions, take vacations or want pay raises.
Zhejiang province is to invest 500 billion yuan ($82 billion) over the next five years to encourage manufacturers to adopt more robots to overcome the short supply and high cost of labor.
The program is underway and will help at least 5,000 companies a year, a source with the investment division of the Zhejiang Economic and Information Commission told China Daily, without giving details.
Replacing humans with robots is the most effective way to tackle the labor shortage and rising labor costs, the commission said reports China Daily.
From 2005 to 2012, average labor costs in Zhejiang, a hub for private manufacturing enterprises, almost tripled from 14,847 yuan to 41,370 yuan a year, with an annual increase of nearly 16 percent. In a survey conducted by the commission in May, 75 percent of respondents said rising costs were the main reason for switching to robots.
Robot Hamburger Maker Even fast food jobs are rapidly being abolished by technology. No longer will they say, “He’s going to end up flipping burgers.” Because now, robots are taking even these ignobly esteemed jobs. Alpha machine from Momentum Machines cooks up a tasty burger with all the fixins. And it does it with such quality and efficiency it’ll produce “gourmet quality burgers at fast food prices.” (singularityhub.com)
As factories used more robots, the proportion of surveyed enterprises with labor shortages dropped from 80 percent last year to 56.4 percent. The survey was based on replies from 515 enterprises that have introduced robot workers.
More than 60 percent of the enterprises surveyed have reduced production line employees by at least 10 percent, while 16 percent of the firms have cut their production jobs by more than 30 percent.
Meanwhile, robot workers have helped these factories improve productivity by more than 10 percent. . If such a strategy is adopted by large enterprises throughout the province, the labor shortage will be reduced by 700,000 workers, saving 29 billion yuan in labor costs a year, the commission said.
Li Gang, president of the robotics sector in China at ABB, a leading supplier of industrial robots, said China has become a "world factory", but with increasing awareness of health and safety the manufacturing sector faces challenges in the workplace.
"Replacing workers with robots in dangerous and unhealthy working environments and using them for more creative jobs will be an inevitable choice for China's manufacturing sector," Li said.
He was speaking at a forum during the 15th China International Industry Fair in Shanghai last week.
Li said robot sales in China accounted for 21 percent of the world's total in 2012, and he estimates that the country will become the largest robot market in the next year or two.
Communist Chinese troops will be simulating "humanitarian assistance" and disaster relief to a fictional third country.
"What the Fuck!" - This morning I woke the fuck up in some insane Twilight Zone episode. Pardon me as I look around for Rod Serling.
For the first time in American history, troops from Communist China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) will openly be on sovereign American soil starting early next week.
The story has reported by the right-of-center news portal Canada Free Press (via Google News) on Nov. 8, 2013 and also by China's governmental controlled Xinhua News Agency on Nov. 6, 2013.
Almost totally ignored by the American media, PLA troops will be in Hawaii from the 12th through the 14th of this month, to be hosted by the U.S. military's Pacific Command, also headquartered in the Aloha State.
Communist Chinese troops will be participating in the U.S. government's massive GridEx II military, quasi-military and civilian emergency response exercise reports the Examiner.
The New York Times reported on Aug. 16, 2013 that GridEx II specifically is consists of:
... thousands of utility workers, business executives, National Guard officers, F.B.I. antiterrorism experts and officials from government agencies in the United States, Canada and Mexico are preparing for an emergency drill in November that will simulate physical attacks and cyberattacks that could take down large sections of the power grid. They will practice for a crisis unlike anything the real grid has ever seen, and more than 150 companies and organizations have signed up to participate.
Three days after the NY Times article, the Department of Defense official website quietly noted rather generically that Chinese troops were invited to "attend next year’s Rim of the Pacific multilateral naval exercise."
Not quite done yet, the American Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel appeared before the world's press corps with Chinese Minister of National Defense Gen. Chang Wanquan.
The duo stated they've agreed "to expand the current system of defense exchanges and joint exercises."
Red Dawn - TRAILER (2012)
Is it an just a "coincidence" that China had the movie studio digitally change the
bad guys in the movie from Chinese to Korean?
Chinese Communist "Humanitarian Relief" Relief, along with friendly Communist troops, coming soon to a formerly American state near you.
Just because China wants it does not mean it is a bad thing.
The U.S. encouraging the powers of Europe, India and Japan to better defend themselves and be active in world affairs only frees up American resources and wealth making us stronger in the long run.
Believe it or not, for a thousand years Europe and Asia somehow managed to exist without the U.S. dictating policy and spending trillions in American wealth to buy "friends".
China’s official news agency has called for the creation of a “de-Americanized world”, saying the destinies of people should not be left in the hands of a hypocritical nation with a dysfunctional government.
Heaping criticism and caustic ridicule on Washington, the Xinhua news agency called the US a civilian slayer, prisoner torturer and meddler in others’ affairs, and said the ‘Pax Americana’ was a failure on all fronts.
With the #3 economy on earth Japan should be taking a larger role in Asia.
The official news agency of China, which is seen as the pretender to the world’s superpower crown, then rubbed in more salt, calling American economic pre-eminence just a seeming dominance reports the International Business Times.
“As US politicians of both political parties are still shuffling back and forth between the White House and the Capitol Hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world,” the editorial said.
It asks why the self-declared protector of the world is sowing mayhem in the financial markets by failing to resolve political differences over key economic policy. "... the cyclical stagnation in Washington for a viable bipartisan solution over a federal budget and an approval for raising debt ceiling has again left many nations' tremendous dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonised," the agency said.
It is not the first time Chinese leadership and newspapers have criticised Washington over a policy paralysis that threatens to devalue its dollar assets.
The European Union Why should the United States bankrupt itself in Don Quixote type quests around the world? . The economy of the European Union is larger than that of the United States. The EU has large and modern militaries to defend their borders and France and the UK have nuclear weapons. . Europe is rich and powerful enough to easily act, if needed, as policeman for North Africa and the Middle East. Most recently through NATO, Britain, France, Spain and Italy engaged Libyan forces to assist the rebels in the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.
More than two million people in China are employed by the government to monitor web activity, state media say, providing a rare glimpse into how the state tries to control the internet.
The Beijing News says the monitors, described as internet opinion analysts, are on state and commercial payrolls.
China's hundreds of millions of web users increasingly use microblogs to criticize the state or vent anger.
Recent research suggested Chinese censors actively target social media reports BBC News.
The report by the Beijing News said that these monitors were not required to delete postings.
They are "strictly to gather and "analyze" public opinions on microblog sites and compile reports for decision-makers", it said. It also added details about how some of these monitors work.
Big Brother Watches Bloggers The Chinese microblog site Sina Weibo has more than 500 million registered users with 100 million messages posted daily.
Tang Xiaotao has been working as a monitor for less than six months, the report says, without revealing where he works.
"He sits in front of a PC every day, and opening up an application, he types in key words which are specified by clients.
"He then monitors negative opinions related to the clients, and gathers (them) and compile reports and send them to the clients," it says.
The reports says the software used in the office is even more advanced and supported by thousands of servers. It also monitors websites outside China.
China rarely reveals any details concerning the scale and sophistication of its internet police force.
It is believed that the two million internet monitors are part of a huge army which the government relies on to control the internet.
The government is also to organise training classes for them for the first time from 14 to 18 October, the paper says.
But it is not clear whether the training will be for existing monitors or for new recruits.
The training will have eight modules, and teach participants how to analyse and judge online postings and deal with crisis situations, it says.
The most popular microblogging site Sina Weibo, launched in 2010, now has more than 500 million registered users with 100 million messages posted daily.
Topics cover a wide range - from personal hobbies, health to celebrity gossip and food safety but they talso include politically sensitive issues like official corruption.
Postings deemed to be politically incorrect are routinely deleted.
More than two million people in China are employed by the government to "monitor" web activity.
"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself--anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face...; was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime..." - George Orwell 1984, Book 1, Chapter 5
As the Chinese are abandoning socialism is favor of capitalism, the American politicians are adopting socialism and abandoning capitalism.
Goodbye Communism and poverty. Hello capitalism and wealth.
Operations formally kicked off Sunday at a new free trade zone in Shanghai that China's government has billed as a major step for financial reforms and economic experimentation, but significant changes look to be years away. . State media reported that a first batch of 25 Chinese and foreign companies were granted licenses to register in the zone.
The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone is a nearly 29-square-kilometer (11-square-mile) district that covers four existing special trade zones in Pudong district, including one at the airport reports CNBC News.
China's State Council formally announced rules for the new free trade zone on Friday. They include measures to cut red tape and restrictions for foreign investment in the country's tightly controlled service industry.
There are also plans to experiment with convertibility of China's tightly controlled currency, the yuan, and let market forces rather than regulators set interest rates.
The zone is aimed at serving as a laboratory for such financial experiments before they are rolled out elsewhere in China.
At a ceremony marking its opening, Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said the government hoped the zone would act as "an experimental field to conduct economic reform" and promote economic development nationwide.
The zone is aimed at serving as a laboratory for such financial experiments before they are rolled out elsewhere in China.
At a ceremony marking its opening, Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said the government hoped the zone would act as "an experimental field to conduct economic reform" and promote economic development nationwide.
China Tests New Free Trade Zone in Shanghai
Business, hard work, jobs and wealth - What a concept.
Chinese Consumer Culture
Luxury retailers know a gold mine when they see one. Just ten years ago mainland buyers accounted for 1% of global sales of luxury handbags, shoes, jewelry, perfume, and the like. Today the Chinese are the third-biggest high-end buyers on Earth, with more than 12% of world sales, Goldman Sachs reckons. Within a decade, China will likely leapfrog Japan and the U.S. to become the top luxury market.
"China is experiencing huge wealth creation, and there is lots of conspicuous consumption related to that," says Goldman analyst Jacques-Franck Dossin. "People want to show they are successful." One way of doing that, of course, is with a pricey Cartier wristwatch from this Shanghai store.
The corrupt Obama regime cut a deal with China to process American chicken without any U.S. government food inspectors.
What the fuck??? - In a corrupt deal with the Communist Chinese the Obama regime has now exported American food industry jobs from the U.S. to the People's Republic.
Despite China’s disgusting food-safety record, the feds for the first time are allowing American chickens to be sent to China for processing — and then imported back to the United States.
On-site US inspectors will not be required at these Chinese sites so there is simply no guarantee that food safety laws are up to United States standards. The chicken also won’t have to be labeled as coming from China.
The prospect of US grocery stores selling Chinese chicken nuggets laced with insecticide or substituted with rat meat prompted Sen. Chuck Schumer yesterday to demand aggressive action by US Department of Agriculture food inspectors.
“Given Chinese processors’ poor track record with regard to food-safety standards, the USDA should be taking every possible step to ensure that the chicken that ends up on our plates and in our McNuggets is safe,” Schumer (D-NY) said at a press conference reports the New York Post.
Some trade experts said the chicken deal could have been an effort by Washington to offer something to Beijing as U.S. officials keep pressing the Chinese on the value of their currency and other trade issues. The U.S. runs a bigger trade deficit with China than any other country.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) sponsored an amendment to the 2007 agricultural spending bill to block any government spending that would support implementing the new rule.
"Despite warnings from the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service's own inspectors of the safety of Chinese plants, and the possibility that we could bring a pandemic into our borders, imports will soon be coming into our country," DeLauro said in a statement.
Schumer said the U.S. must take two immediate steps: (1) increase the number of on-the-ground audits and inspections of the Chinese inspection system and all Chinese facilities where meat is processed and (2) increased inspection of chicken meat shipped back to the United States with the highest level of scrutiny and frequency, to ensure meat is safe for consumption and originated in the United States.
He pointed to the numerous and disturbing incidents of tainted food exported from China, including arsenic in calamari and rice, maggots in pasta, glass chips in pumpkin seeds reports the Staten Island Advance.
Is it really chicken under the orange goo? On-site US inspectors will not be required at these Chinese sites so there is simply no guarantee that food safety laws are up to United States standards. The chicken also won’t have to be labeled as coming from China.
Other examples of Chinese tainted foods include:
Police in China apprehended a group of criminals who have been selling rat, fox or mink meat as lamb for the past four years to markets in Shanghai and surrounding areas and made up to 10 million yuan ($1.6 million)
At least 175 people had been sickened by insecticide-tainted dumplings from China, prompting supermarkets to pull Chinese-made meat products from their shelves while Tokyo pressed Beijing to improve food safety.
The FDA effectively blocked the sale of five types of farm-raised seafood from China because of repeated instances of contamination from unapproved animal drugs and food additives. The F.D.A. said it decided to take the action after years of warnings and even a visit to Chinese fish ponds that resulted in no signs of improvement.
Uncooked pork was found glowing in the dark due to a phosphorescent bacteria. An unsuspecting woman bought the pork in a Shanghai market only to find it radiating later that night on her kitchen table. The ghostly pork returned to normal meat color by morning.
Hong Kong food inspectors found eggs imported from northeast China to be contaminated with high levels of melamine, toxic industrial additive at the heart of an adulteration scandal in Chinese milk products.
Hundreds of other parents in central China unwittingly bought bad baby formula, in which nutritional supplements had been replaced with starch or sugar. Nearly 200 other babies, including at least 13 who died, now have what local residents call ''big head disease.
‘Cadmium’ rice - Research published in February claimed that up to 10 per cent of rice sold in China was contaminated with heavy metals, including cadmium. Data collected by Nanjing Agricultural University found that the problem was most acute in Southern provinces, where in some areas 60 per cent of samples were contaminated, some with up to five times the legal limit.
Schumer said that these measures should be required because of the serious history of food-borne illnesses stemming from food products originating in China. He also pointed out that because no USDA country-of-origin labeling is required for food that is simply processed in another country, consumers will have no idea that their food has been processed in China.
Food contamination prompts milk smuggling in China
Pork Glows Blue in Shanghai . After years of nerve-racking food scares from "melamine milk" to "glow-in-the-dark" pork and "exploding watermelons" urban China is starting to embrace the shoots of a new, green revolution and is going organic. . China has been hit by a number of food scandals and fears about safety have lingered. In 2008, 300,000 babies became seriously ill and six babies died after being given formula contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. In April this year, police seized 40 tons of beansprouts which had been treated with dangerous growth promoting chemicals and hormones, while this month, watermelons started exploding in the fields because they had been treated with too much accelerant. /
In March health officials discovered pork that glowed and iridescent blue in the dark because it had been contaminated by a bacteria. . See more at the UK Telegraph. . And more fun at Top 10 Chinese Food Scandals
"My irresponsibility in spreading information online was a vent of negative mood, and
was a neglect of the social mainstream."
Charles Xue
Forced to confess on TV while in chains
Communism in Action - Chinese state television on Sunday broadcast a startling video of a famous blogger in handcuffs, renouncing his Web posts and saying how dangerous the Internet would be if left uncontrolled by the government.
The 10-minute news report featuring Charles Xue — a Chinese American businessman and one of China’s most popular bloggers — was the latest step in what appears to be a systematic campaign to intimidate online opinion leaders against speaking too freely or critically of the government.
“It gratified my vanity greatly,” Xue said of the Internet. “I got used to my influence online and the power of my personal opinions . . . and I forgot who I am.”
Chinese authorities have increasingly been broadcasting interviews after big-name arrests, forcing suspects to confess publicly to alleged crimes prior to trial or conviction. Several businessmen arrested in recent weeks have had their taped confessions aired nationally reports the Washington Post.
Charles Xue A Chinese-American Blogger with 12 million followers was forced to confess on TV while in chains to frighten Internet users.
Some legal critics have likened the practice to a Mao-era style of justice, when guilt was never in doubt, self-confessions were routine and the goal was to make public examples of the accused. Few online opinion leaders could serve as a better example than Xue, a venture capitalist whose liberal posts had won him 12 million followers on a weibo microblogging site, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
Xue was arrested three weeks ago on charges of hiring a prostitute. He was jailed at a time when several other online activists were arrested. Doubts about the validity of his case were so widespread online that Beijing police issued denials that he had been set up.
Authorities had earlier broadcast a report on Xue’s solicitation charges, but Sunday’s segment seemed intended to curb the huge online influence he has accumulated.
Chinese officials have condemned the postings of Xue and others as "rumor-mongering", and Xue endorsed party leaders’ views with a long and detailed confession.
“At first, I was careful and I didn’t write many posts,” Xue said, in a video interview that at times seemed to attribute to microblogging the addictive and destructive qualities of illicit drugs. “But later, I posted more than 80 every day. . . . In the beginning, I verified every post. But later on, I no longer did that.”
“All of a sudden you draw so much attention,” he said. “How do you describe the feeling? Gorgeous.”
In the broadcast, CCTV reporters presented some of Xue’s offending posts. In one, he wondered whether China’s water, whose quality is always in question, contained contraceptives.
“First of all, I didn’t double-check my facts,” Xue said. “Secondly, I didn’t raise constructive suggestions to solve the problem. Instead, I just simply spread these ideas emotionally.”
Sunday’s broadcast came days after the enactment of strict laws imposing penalties for posting online rumors. Those whose posts are deemed rumors and that have been viewed by more than 5,000 Internet users or reposted more than 500 times will be subject to prosecution and face a possible three-year prison sentence.
Xue was forced to praise the new laws Sunday. “It is very necessary to release these laws and regulations today,” he said in the video. “Without regulation, there’s no punishment for spreading the rumors.”
The confession of a man whose extensive posts questioned China’s society and government appeared aimed at recasting those comments as an exercise in vanity.
Xue said that as his online following grew, so did his ego. He received invitations from universities and entrepreneurs. He felt like the “emperor of the Internet.” But, he said, in what may have been his biggest mistake, he felt that even leaders of China’s ruling Communist Party were not as powerful as he was.
“It’s not right for [popular bloggers] to behave higher than the law,” he said in a chastened tone. “If there is no moral standard or cost for slander, you can’t manage the Internet. And there are no limits. It becomes a big problem.”
Blogging is a crime. Authoritarian governments from China to Saudi Arabia to the United States are frightened of Bloggers and the free flow of news and opinion on the Internet. These governments employ thousands of secret police to record, catalog and store every Internet communication for later use against "Enemies of the State." . In the U.S. we Bloggers are making Democrats and many Republicans shit themselves with fear because we cannot and will not be controlled by Big Brother. . See our article - Democrat says anti-Obama Bloggers are like Nazis.
The top executive at Shuanghui is a high-ranking member
of the Chinese Communist Party.
Around the world so-called "private" Chinese businesses that are connected to and funded by the Communist Party are buying up massive amounts of farmland and natural resources for shipment back to China.
The next Chinese target is the American companySmithfield Foods which won national security clearance for its proposed $4.7 billion sale to a Chinese meat processor, overcoming one of the biggest obstacles to a takeover.
The approval by an important government committee came despite the deep-seated skepticism of a group of lawmakers, who professed concern over a Chinese company owning Smithfield, America’s biggest pork producer.
The acquisition, which must still receive approval by Smithfield shareholders, would be the largest takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese firm.
Analysts, however, are expecting Smithfield and its suitor, Shuanghui International, to prevail. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, commonly known as Cfius (pronounced SIF-ee-us), has historically reviewed acquisitions involving key industries like energy and technology. But it has little precedent in examining them in the food sector. Both companies have argued that their combination poses no danger of compromising American food safety standards reports Farmland Grab News,
Smithfield, America’s biggest pork producer, to be sold to China.
Indeed, they have contended that the goal is to export more Smithfield pork to China, satisfying rising demand for high-quality meat in that country. “This transaction will create a leading global animal protein enterprise,” Zhijun Yang, Shuanghui’s chief executive, said in a statement on Friday.
“Shuanghui International and Smithfield have a long and consistent track record of providing customers around the world with high-quality food, and we look forward to moving ahead together as one company.” But the takeover, the largest ever of an American company by a Chinese counterpart, was almost certain to attract scrutiny.
Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan and chairwoman of the committee, said in a statement: “It remains unclear what factors the committee took into account in making its decision. We still do not know if the potential impact on American food security, the transfer of taxpayer-funded innovation to a foreign competitor, or China’s protectionist trade barriers were considered. It’s troubling that taxpayers have received no assurances that these critical issues have been taken into account in transferring control of one of America’s largest food producers to a Chinese competitor with a spotty record on food safety.”
Washington lawmakers have expressed concerns that the purchase of Smithfield by a Chinese company could squeeze U.S. pork supply as more of the meat goes overseas while leaving the U.S. susceptible to food safety concerns that have plagued Chinese companies, including Shuanghui. They also have worried that the acquisition would lead to additional takeovers of U.S. food companies by Chinese firms.
Two witnesses called by the committee — Usha C.V. Haley, an expert on Chinese business strategy at West Virginia University, and Daniel Slane, a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a group appointed by Congress — expressed multiple doubts about the transaction.
.
Ms. Haley said that pork was a “strategically important industry for China” as the growing ranks of the middle class demand more sources of high-quality protein. “The same patterns that occurred in other strategically important industries,” like paper, steel and glass, she said, “will repeat in this sector and the United States will lose its competitive edge in food, becoming dependent on China.”
.
Mr. Slane said that the fact that Shuanghui was effectively controlled by the Chinese government meant that it presented a national security threat to the United States.
.
The top executive at Shuanghui “is a high-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party,” Mr. Slane said, and he was appointed to that job by the party. “If he does not do what they say, they will remove him or worse.”
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In addition, the transaction is being financed in part by the Bank of China, Mr. Slane said. “The Bank of China does not finance any transaction unless it is told to do so by the Chinese government,” he said. “By any measure, this is a Chinese-controlled company.”
A Serf bows to his Lord. Free men own private property. Serfs own nothing and serve as tax slaves, working the land and forced to turn over the wealth they produced to their Lords and Masters in Government in return for "protection".
The Road to Serfdom Series . The world is moving toward a modern form of Neo-Serfdom where everyone works for the all-powerful State or businesses controlled by the State. A world where individual property rights and freedom do not exist.
Freedom is slowly vanishing. What happens when the major employers are owned by government backed investment groups, or your food comes from government owned farms, or your news is delivered by so-called "private" corporations that are in reality connected and interconnected to governments?
George Orwell had a name for it: Big Brother. Benito Mussolini had a name too: Corporatism or Fascism.
Please check out other stories in our Serfdom series.
Up to 10 years in prison for spreading "false" information
Blogging is not a crime - The power of Blogging has frightened to death corrupt political elites from Saudi Arabia to America to China. The fascists of the world cannot stand the idea that the common man now owns his own Internet printing press and can speak out against authoritarianism.
Communist China's leaders have accelerated a renewed push for control of the Internet with draconian new regulations that allow them to impose lengthy jail terms on those convicted of spreading online rumors or using social media to provoke unrest.
The proliferation of Twitter-like social media platforms such as Sina Weibo, which has more than 500 million users, has posed a challenge to the CPC’s control over information, with microblogs increasingly shaping public discourse in China.
Micro-bloggers who peddle "false information" or "slanderous comments" will face up to three years in prison, according to a judicial interpretation issued by China's top court which came into force on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, those found guilty of using "false online information" to provoke "serious public disorder", could face jail terms of up to 10 years, the state-run China Daily reported.
Charges would be brought if "defamatory" comments were "viewed by at least 5,000 Internet users or re-tweeted 500 or more times", according to China's official news agency Xinhua reports the UK Telegraph.
Sun Jungong, a spokesman for the Supreme People's Court and Procuratorate, said the interpretation was aimed at rumor mongers who "gravely harmed social order or the national interest" by "causing a mass incident, disturbing public order and inciting ethnic and religious conflicts."
"Some internet users fabricate rumors about others and create false information while making use of sensitive social issues, which has disrupted social order and triggered mass incidents," he said, according to Xinhua.
While state media said the new rules were "timely" and "another means for authorities to ensure the healthy development of the Internet", freedom of speech activists and some lawyers expressed alarm at the move.
Mo Shaoping, a leading human rights lawyers, said he hoped the measures would help prevent "absurd" cases such as one where a micro-blogger was arrested for tweeting that nine people had died in an accident when, in fact, the true number was only seven.
"[But] if not handled properly, this might have negative effect on freedom of speech and the online fight against corruption," he added. "I believe that in the near future online free speech and the exposure of corruption will be suppressed."
Yuan Yulai, another rights lawyer who has over 1.3 million followers on China's Twitter-like microblog Weibo, complained that the interpretation had been published "too hastily" and without public consultation.
The ongoing crackdown had "caused some panic" among micro-bloggers, he added. "I believe this is happening because the party and government are not used to the idea of a free society [or] democracy."
Writing on the Tech in Asia website, Charlie Custer, a China-focused blogger and commentator, said he feared "the new laws will be used to cow social media users into silence, and probably also used as a weapon for well-connected people to attack political or business rivals, rather than as a way of enforcing any actual standard of truth online."
The Chinese president Xi Jinping recently instructed Communist Party propaganda officials to "wage a war to win over public opinion" and "seize" control of new media, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported last week.
Tighter Internet Control for China with New Internet Regulator
India launches a new aircraft carrier to help counter China.
An increasing number of Chinese submarines venturing into the Indian Ocean Region pose a grave danger to India’s security interests, a classified Indian defence ministry document has revealed.
Citing subsurface contact data shared by US forces, the document said at least 22 contacts were recorded with vessels suspected to be Chinese attack submarines patrolling outside Beijing’s territorial waters last year.
It has warned that the “implicit focus” of the Chinese navy appears to be undermining the Indian Navy’s edge “to control highly-sensitive sea lines of communication” reports the Hindustan Times.
The Gwadar, Pakistan port, seen as the latest example of China’s ‘String of Pearls’ — strategic attempts to surround India with facilities that can be upgraded to naval bases — also has the navy worried. The port, located in southwest Pakistan, is operated by China.
The Chinese navy’s extended patrols may fully overlap with the Indian Navy’s area of operation.
China has set up a network of ports/facilities in Bangladesh (Chittagong), Myanmar (Sittwe and Coco Island), Sri Lanka (Hambantota), Pakistan (Gwadar) and has also secured docking rights in Seychelles, in what some describe as the culmination of the ‘String-of-Pearls’ strategy.
Experts, however, think the strategy is overrated and will not dilute India's influence in the region.
"Converting a port or token port facilities into a naval base is a huge leap. I don't think China can do that," said strategic affairs expert Rear Admiral (retd) Raja Menon. "Also, any country that allows China to do that will risk India's enmity."
Chinese submarines in Indian Ocean. (HT Photo)
INS Vikrant Naval milestone: India launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier at a shipyard in Kochi, Kerala state.
Elite list: India now joins a group of just four other countries - the U.S., Russia, France and Britain - capable of building an air craft carrier
The INS Vikrant, India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, was launched at Cochin Shipyard Limited on Monday, catapulting the country to an elite club of nations that can design and build 40,000-tonne aircraft carriers.
The aircraft carrier was launched by Defence Minister A.K. Antony’s wife Elizabeth Antony. She broke a coconut and christened the warship amid the showering of floral petals and release of Tricolor balloons. Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral D.K. Joshi, Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan, Chairman of Cochin Shipyard Commodore K. Subramaniam and a few Kerala Ministers were present.
The Navy acquired its first aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant in 1961, which played a decisive role in the 1971 India-Pakistan war. It was decommissioned in January 1997. The new Vikrant, which touched water on Monday, will undergo outfitting till 2016. Thereafter, it will go for basin trials and extensive sea trials. It is likely to be commissioned in 2018 reports The Hindu.
Russia’s Admiral Gorshkov, now named Vikramaditya, is due to join the Navy by the year-end. The Navy already has INS Viraat, 28,000-tonne aircraft carrier.
India launches first indigenous aircraft carrier 'INS Vikrant'
INS Vikrant, first indigenous aircraft launched
Vikrant will be capable of operating a mixture of Russian MiG-29K and Light Combat Aircraft.
“The launching of the indigenous aircraft carrier marks just the first step in a long journey, but at the same time an important one,’’ Antony said. It was a proud moment for the country in terms of achieving self-reliance in warship design and construction as only a handful advanced countries in the world have such capabilities to build aircraft carriers, he pointed out.
He said the Indian Navy, over the years, had made a distinct shift from a buyer’s navy to a builder’s navy. He urged industry to participate wholeheartedly in shipbuilding programmes. Besides the indigenous aircraft carrier, Cochin Shipyard had orders for 25 ships, consisting of platform support vessels for international clients and fast patrol vessels for the Coast Guard. The achievement of the shipyard reflected the new era of industrial growth in Kerala.
Admiral Joshi lauded the big boost to the Navy in its capabilities, saying 60 per cent of ships and submarines being built for the Navy were being constructed in Indian shipyards. Out of 47 warships, destroyers, and other vessels on order, 46 were being built at defence public sector or private shipyards in the country.
The launch of the indigenous aircraft carrier came within days of the country’s first indigenous nuclear submarine Arihant’s nuclear reactor going critical. This year, the Navy pressed into service P8I aircraft from the U.S. to keep surveillance, and is scheduled to get a Kolkata-class destroyer and a P28 ASW Corvette as well.
Vikrant will be capable of operating a mixture of Russian MiG-29K and Light Combat Aircraft, being developed by HAL. Its helicopter component will include Kamov 31 and the indigenously developed Advanced Light Helicopter. The aircraft carrier will have long-range, surface-to-air missile and close-in weapon system. It will be equipped with the most modern C/D bank early warning radar, tactical air navigational and direction finding systems.
The String of Pearls The network of Chinese military and commercial facilities and relationships (marked by red-yellow stars) along its sea lines of communication, which extend from the Chinese mainland to Port Sudan. . The sea lines run through several major maritime choke points such as the Strait of Mandeb, the Strait of Malacca, the Strait of Hormuz and the Lombok Strait, as well as other strategic maritime centers in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Somalia. (String of Pearls)
