Friday, April 10, 2009
China Seeking Stronger Saudi Ties
China Confidential has learned that China and Saudi Arabia are regularly exchanging ideas about a number of foreign policy subjects, including the Iranian nuclear issue, the Middle East peace process, and the global economic crisis.
Wu Sike, Beijing's new special envoy to the region, is eager to strengthen China-Saudi ties. A former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, he replaces special envoy Sun Bigan.
Saudi Arabia is the largest supplier of oil to China. Angola was the top supplier until 2007.
Saudi Arabia sees China as the key to developing the kingdom's vast heavy oil reserves, which require increased refining capacity in Saudi Arabia or China.China Executes Two Men in Xinjiang
Chinese authorities say they executed two men on Thursday in the restive far-west region of Xinjiang for a deadly attack on border police four days before the Olympic Games last year.
Court officials announced the decision to execute Abdurahman Azat, 34, and Kurbanjan Hemit, 29, to an audience of about 4,000 local officials and residents at a stadium in Kashgar.
The execution was carried out later in private at a separate location.
The two men were members of China's predominantly Muslim Uighur minority.
The attack was the worst of several before and during the Olympics that left dozens of people dead. China claims separatist militants from the northwest region intended use the heightened media attention on China to gain publicity for their cause.
The two men were sentenced to death in December for carrying out the August 4 attack in Kashgar and intending to "sabotage" the Olympics.
Seventeen people were killed and 15 wounded when the men drove a truck into a group of policemen and then attacked them with bombs and knives.
- VOAThursday, April 09, 2009
Did North Korea Ship Enriched Uranium to Iran?
China Confidential analysts say: the rumors are right.
As reported today by the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, several Western intelligence agencies are investigating if a ship that recently traveled from North Korea to Iran had several dozen tons of enriched uranium hidden in its cargo.
North Korea's nuclear weapons program uses plutonium. The secret services suspect the Stalinist/Kimist state of trying to hide traces of uranium used to develop nuclear weapons, something the United States has long suspected.
North Korea and Iran are partners in nuclear/missile crime. Their close cooperation includes development and testing of sea-launched missile systems capable of turning cargo ships into existential threats.
A high-level, visiting delegation of Iranian scientists, technicians, and intelligence and military officers observed last week's illegal launch of a North Korean ballistic missile---a Taepodong-2 capable of carrying a nuclear warhead all the way to North America.
The missile flew over Japan, a total of about 1,900 miles, before plunging into the Pacific Ocean.US Economic War Game Reflects Growing Concerns
The Obama Administration's Dirty Little Secret
The Obama administration's dirty little secret is that it knows--and doesn't really care--that its policies won't restart the U.S. economy this year and maybe not even next year.
No matter. The President is selling Hope--his trademarked cure-all--not actual results. Incremental progress, positive feelings are enough for the (Snake Oil ) Salesman-in-Chief. His real goal is a permanent restructuring of the U.S. system--encompassing every aspect of American life. That, and the emergence of a supposedly more just, new world order that will cater to developing nations, in general, and rising Islam, in particular.
Economic pain and suffering--the blood, sweat, and tears of the American middle class--will oil the wheels of the Obamacrats' revolution.
True story. A hugely successful, 19th century, patent medicine man, "Dr." Andral S. Kilmer of Binghamton, NY, was once asked what his most famous nostrum, called Swamp Root, was good for.
"About $30 million a year," Kilmer answered.
Should someone ask Barack Obama what his Hope is good for, one suspects he would be tempted to reply, "the Presidency of the United States."
Friday, 10 April 2009
China proved to be best at a game rooted in frightening realities. Click here.
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