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Posted: 28 May 2013 05:45 AM PDT
Lu Zhi, left, counselor from the Chinese Embassy in Burma, speaks with UN special envoy Vijay Nambiar during peace talks between the government and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in Myitkyina on Tuesday. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
While Tuesday marked the eighth meeting between the two parties, it was the first gathering convened inside Burma and was attended by UN special envoy Vijay Nambiar and Chinese counselor Lu Zhi, who served as international observers. The meeting lasted for about two hours on Tuesday. Gen Sumlut Gun Maw of the KIO's military wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), said he was pleased with the meeting, but added that "we will have to discuss the details." On the formation of a monitoring team, which the KIO has proposed would observe ceasefire negotiations, Gun Maw said: "Regarding the monitoring team, we cannot decide unilaterally, we have to include all the parties—the government, KIO, local leaders." Nambiar, the special adviser to the UN secretary-general, said after the meeting that the talks had been excellent, with both parties discussing various issues that were also addressed during the previous meeting in March. He said he hoped "they do come to an agreement to lay the basis for a durable peace and sustained peace." Kachin MP Doi Bu said discussions thus far had been productive, though Tuesday's meeting did not yield any breakthroughs. "Both sides are harmonious," she told The Irrawaddy. "They discussed from their hearts for the peace for the public. "For the best result, the talk needs to continue, as it is important for both the Kachin people and the government." Tuesday failed to bring about any binding decisions, with the KIO set to meet with the public tomorrow at the same venue, Majoi Hall at Manau Park, to discuss the ongoing peace talks. "We hope to share our desires concerning future political dialogue with the public," Gun Maw said. The KIO has strong support from the Kachin public, according to youth and community members with whom The Irrawaddy spoke. Gun Maw, Sumlut Gam and other KIA leaders were warmly welcomed by thousands on Monday when the KIO arrived at its newly reopened liaison office in front of Manau Park. The meeting's attendees and observers spoke optimistically of Tuesday's talks. Sam Khun, deputy leader of public relations for the United Wa State Army (UWSA), told The Irrawaddy that "as an observer, I think they discussed openly even though it is my first time attending the KIO and government talks. "They are on the right track for the talks, I think," he added. An uneasy standoff between the parties leading up to the meeting saw the government pushing to hold the talks with only domestic observers in attendance, while the KIO had wanted an international presence. The two sides initially agreed to bar international observers from the meeting room. But speaking to The Irrawaddy before the meeting, Minister of Livestock and Fisheries Ohn Myint said it was not clear whether Chinese observers would ultimately attend. "We did not object to the KIO's invitation to foreign observers. Until the late evening on Monday, when we held informal talks with General Gun Maw, it was not clear whether China would attend or not. But we were later informed that the Chinese counselor would join the meeting." Lu Zhi, counselor from the Chinese Embassy in Burma, arrived at Majoi Hall just before the meeting convened. When asked about the talks by The Irrawaddy during a break, Lu Zhi said he would not comment at the moment as he was just learning about what had been discussed. Lt-Gen Myint Soe, speaking on behalf of Burma's military (Tatmadaw), said the Tatmadaw would continue its dialogue with the KIO, along with the government team, in pursuit of a mutually desired peace. "We have committed to working to reach an agreement for ending war by both sides," he said. All three parties—the government, KIO and the Tatmadaw—were upbeat about the prospects for the latest round of peace talks, which are also being attended by local Kachin leaders. "There are good guys, I am confident there will be progress," Nambiar said. Government representatives highlighted the fact that at present "fighting is nonexistent and peace is prevailing there." Kachin State has also seen the reopening of a major transport artery since the last talks. The government is trying to hold an all-inclusive meeting with ethnic leaders from all the country's major ethnic groups in July, but the KIO has said it will await further details before committing to attend. | |
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Posted: 28 May 2013 05:39 AM PDT
 
A man rides a buffalo near a section of the pipeline being constructed from Burma's Arakan coast to the Chinese border. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
The crucial strategic link will allow China to bypass the Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, and ship in oil from the Middle East and Africa via the Indian Ocean and a port on Maday island, off the coast of Burma. The island, just 10 square km in area with almost no infrastructure, is the origin point for both a crude oil pipeline planned to carry 440,000 barrels per day and a natural gas pipeline intended to ship 12 billion cubic meters annually to China's land-locked southwestern province of Yunnan. The oil pipeline is set to begin operation in 2014 and the gas pipeline was originally due to start up at the end of May, CNPC has said. CNPC's Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corp unit has built six crude oil tanks with capacity of 100,000 cubic meters each and is expected to complete six more similar tanks in about two months' time, a Huanqiu official told Reuters. "The island basically didn't have anything, so we need to ship in all the building materials using a small port. … CNPC is building a big terminal there," said the official, who declined to be identified, as he is not authorized to speak to the media. The additional tanks would double the facility's storage capacity to 1.2 million cubic meters, or about 7.6 million barrels. CNPC is building the terminal to moor big oil tankers on the island as China seeks to cut its dependence on energy supplies traversing the narrow Malacca Strait between Malaysia and Indonesia. The project has sparked protests by islanders, who say land has been confiscated for the deep sea port. The gas pipeline will bring gas from the Shwe fields off the coast of Arakan State, a western state bordering Bangladesh, to China's Yunnan province. But it could be delayed over security concerns as it runs across territories controlled by ethnic militia groups, a Burma energy official said this month. China has long worried about its ties with Burma, where there has been a history of resentment of China among the Burmese population and fierce public opposition to a $3.6 billion Chinese-built dam at Myitsone. President Thein Sein shelved that project in 2011, in a move that stunned Beijing. | |
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Posted: 28 May 2013 05:26 AM PDT
 
Small-scale gold miners pump water from a tributary of the Irrawaddy River in Kachin State. (Photo: People's Foundation for Development)
The People's Foundation for Development, a NGO based in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina, launched a report in Rangoon on Monday that documented ten cases in which local villagers lost their land and livelihoods to large-scale investment projects and rampant gold mining. The group said that in recent years about 3,500 people had been forcibly evicted to make way for the suspended Myistone hydropower dam and for for the Yuzana Corporation's massive cassava and sugarcane plantations in the remote Hukaung (also Hukawng) Valley. Since 2006, Yuzana, with the cooperation of local authorities, has been granted 81,000 hectares (200,000 acres) of land in the region. Much of it was reportedly confiscated from hundreds of Kachin families, while the firm allegedly also cleared large parts of a tiger reserve in the valley. Htay Myint, the owner of Yuzana Company, is one of Burma's most powerful tycoons as well as an MP from the ruling military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. Pollution caused by Yuzana's cassava-processing plants and the chemical run-off from the rampant small-scale gold mining in the valley has also affected the health of local communities and their animals, according to the NGO. "They processed cassava at their factory and the remaining waste they threw into the river, which is located near to the factory. We found that the water turned black and fish in the river died," the report quoted a villager, who claimed that locals got skin ailments after bathing in the polluted water. "We are worried about the effect on the population… and on our livelihoods," the villager told the People's Foundation for Development. The NGO also claimed that 74 farm animals in the Hukaung Valley had died after drinking polluted water. Ja Hkawn, an activist who helped draft the report, said local authorities and parliamentarians from Kachin State were turning a blind eye to such social and environmental impacts. "We found there were MPs involved these businesses. It is better to talk at Parliament in Naypyidaw in order to stop this project," she said. The massive Myitsone dam, which is being funded by China Power Investment Co. (CPI) and the Burmese firm Asia World Company, was suspended by President Thein Sein in 2011. Prior to this decision, about 2,600 people were forcibly evicted to make way for the project, which would dam the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River and flood 766 square kilometers of farmland and forest. In recent years, the villagers were relocated to two sites, Aung Myin Tha and Mali Yan, where CPI constructed homes and community buildings for them. The People's Foundation for Development said living conditions at the sites were poor and during a press conference in Rangoon on Monday some evicted villagers complained about life at the newly created communities. "We can't find work there, and we could not grow food or vegetables to earn money as the area is very rocky," said La Seng, who was resettled at Aung Myin. "We are on edge of crisis. We do not have enough food and no job." | |
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Posted: 28 May 2013 03:41 AM PDT
 
Mindat Township is pictured nestled among the hills of southern Chin State. (Photo: Myat Su Mon / The Irrawaddy)
"There have been more visits from tourists to Chin State this year than the previous years and most of them are researchers," said Saline Om Khou Ge, manager of the Oasis Resort in Mindat Township. Tourists to southern Chin State's Mindat and Kanpetlet Township this year were estimated at between 700 and 800 visitors. Tourism nationwide is expected to draw nearly 1.2 million foreigners this year. "There have been more tourists this year, most of them are Europeans. It is over one-and-a-half times the number of tourists in previous years," U Shine Ge' Ngaine, the founder of Nat Ma Taung National Park, told The Irrawaddy. Saline Om Khou Ge said formal submissions seeking government permission to travel in Chin State had tapered off since tourist visits were officially permitted there beginning this year. But due to the absence of precisely issued directives, local officials and visitors were at times inconvenienced by low-ranking law enforcement officers who continued to demand that foreign visitors obtain and carry with them government approval for their presence in Chin State. "The policy has now changed, but there is no follow-up directive," Saline Om Khou Ge explained. "We want to know exactly which department we have to report to when a foreign visitor comes and stays here. They say they don't need any permission. They say it is officially allowed. But the low-rankers [police officers] are still asking us for the permissions. "Formerly, when foreign visitors visited Mindat and Kanpetlet townships in southern Chin State, copies of the permission [document] needed to be delivered to the Special Investigation Department, the Immigration Department, the police Special Branch, the Military Intelligence Department, the township administrator's office and the district administrator's office." One local lawmaker acknowledged the need to clear up any policy uncertainty on the ground. "Although tourists are allowed to freely travel now, the fact that the lower staff are still asking for the order harms the development of the tourism industry in Chin State. A field study will be done starting from the lower level and submitted to the Hluttaw [Parliament] if necessary," said Har Shen Bwe, Mindat's parliamentary representative. He added that regional development hinged largely on tourism revenues because Chin State is one of the least developed states in Burma. Saline Om Khou Ge pointed out that one of the major hindrances to tourism's growth was inadequate local and national laws and regulations for the industry. He said excessive taxes levied on hotel businesses, which play an essential role in Chin State tourism's development, and inadequate supplies of water and electricity were additional difficulties facing the industry. On a trip to Chin State in March, Htay Aung, the minister for hotels and tourism, said a cooperative effort was needed between government and the private sector, given the tourism industry's vital role in the state's economic development. He also said additional training would be provided in Chin State to increase locals' understanding of the hotel business and the tourism industry more broadly. Despite a far more welcoming profile in 2013, foreign visitors to Chin State are not yet wholly unrestricted. A high-ranking official of the Matupi Township administrator's office said security concerns in Matupi required that travel to the township remain off limits to tourists, with access limited to some UN staff and other international aid workers only. | |
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Posted: 27 May 2013 11:39 PM PDT
 
Girls play in the courtyard of Su Taung Pyae charity school, shortly before the end of long summer holiday. (JPaing / The Irrawaddy)
As a child, the village boy in northern Shan State fled his home whenever battles broke out between Shan militias and the Burmese army, taking refuge with his family in a nearby forest for several days, and sometimes weeks. "We had to spend our days and nights in the jungle, running away from the fighting," the 18-year-old ethnic Palaung told The Irrawaddy recently. But now, studying for next year's matriculation exams at a boarding school for ethnic youth in east Rangoon, those fearsome days seem long behind him. The school, known as Su Taung Pyae, was founded in the early 1900s as a free monastic education center for poor children, but has since become a microcosm of privately run charities across Burma that offer shelter and an education to young people from the country's volatile ethnic regions, including Shan, Mon, Karen, Kachin and Chin states. Since Burma's independence in 1948, most of these areas have seen decades of war between the government's army and local rebel groups pressing for federalism or autonomy. These conflicts have killed thousands of people, left hundreds of thousands displaced or exiled, and stifled development. Frequent fighting has also forced teachers to forsake their schools. "Regional insecurity is one of the major factors in the mushrooming of charity schools for ethnic children in Burma," said Kaung Nyunt, who has trained charity school teachers in the country since 2005. "Nearly 90 percent of monastic schools throughout the country welcome them [ethnic children]."
"If they stick to their villages, they will finally be recruited by rebels or militias," he said. "Here in Rangoon, they are safe and become literate." As a missionary monk who traveled to remote corners of the country to promote Buddhism in the 1980s, Nandabivunsa was shocked to witness the isolation of ethnic communities. "They lacked everything—knowledge, education and health care" said the 53-year old monk. "All they had was fear of armed groups." After meeting children who had been orphaned by the fighting, he decided to bring a group of them to Rangoon in the late 1980s and put them under his care, unaware that this decision would herald his future mission for years go to come. "Whenever they saw someone in trousers, the children were very afraid and would run away," he said of his early days as a caretaker. "The only trouser people they had known in their lives were soldiers and rebels who scared them." "I came to realize that only education could make a difference for them, at least to some extent," he said, adding that most children under his care came from illiterate families and never went to school in their home villages. "Those [uneducated] children were easy prey for forced recruitments by local insurgent groups, having no idea what they were doing." Since then, during his missionary trips to the rough terrain of Burma's hilly regions, Nandabivunsa not only explains fundamental Buddhism to tribal people but also tries to convince parents to send their children to school. "It's not an easy task," he said. In southern Shan State, an illiterate father responded to his suggestions with anger. "Why should I care?" the father said, after the monk explained why education would benefit his children's future. When he asked families to send their children for schooling in Rangoon, a worried mother in the north asked, "Are you trying to traffic my child?" A common question he faced was, "Why should I believe you?" "I persuaded them that their children would be away from them for a while," the monk said. "And I firmly told them, 'I guarantee your child's safety,' and if he or she is not happy with us, we will send them back to you. Why don't you give it a try?'" More than two decades later, with more than 30 university graduates on its alumni list, Su Taung Pyae school is no longer short on students. Last year, more than 100 students enrolled from northern Shan State, an area close to north Burma's Kachin State, where recent fighting between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has displaced tens of thousands of people. "They're flocking here, giving me a headache to figure out their accommodation," the patron monk said. And he wasn't kidding. During a recent visit by The Irrawaddy, the girls' dormitory appeared cramped like a wartime hospital. Trunk beds with barely enough space for two sleepers were forced to hold the excessive weight of four occupants, ranging in age from toddlers to young adults in their early 20s. The charity has been recognized by the government for 10 years, but the monk said it survives on donations from well-wishers at home and abroad. To his relief, starting this year, 25 teachers at the school will go on the government's payroll. Still, he needs to stay frugal. Rather than buying most of his food, he farms a nearby paddy field—driving a tractor himself—to feed the children. When the annual rains come, he wears a pair of Wellington boots to transplant the paddies with his students. "The farm gives me enough rice for six months," he said. "For the rest of the year, I have to rely on donations." After more than two decades with the school, Nandabivunsa is starting to see some fruitful results of his long commitment. "Most of my high school dropouts have become teachers in their villages," he said. "Even though they are not qualified to be teachers, they can at least teach children in their villages how to read and write. They're doing good job." To his delight, three students have become government-appointed nurses and midwives in their villages, and one is now attending a government teachers' training college. "Children come here and they go," the monk said. "What they leave behind for me is happiness. What a great pleasure to see them safe and educated!" | |
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Posted: 27 May 2013 11:20 PM PDT
 
Gen Gun Maw on the way to the meeting room. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
The UN's special envoy to Burma, Vijay Nambiar, attended peace talks on Tuesday between the Burmese government and Kachin rebels in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, the first time the UN high official has participated in such negotiations.
Reporters from The Irrawaddy in Myitkyina reported that Chinese observers as well as representatives from eight of Burma's armed ethnic groups, including the Wa, Karen, Shan, Karenni and Mon, were also present for Tuesday's meeting. All ethnic and foreign observers who attended the meeting were invited by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).It is the first time the KIO agreed to attend peace talks in the government-controlled region of Myitkyina, with the previous two rounds of talks held in neighboring China. "We come to hold talks here [Myitkyina] not because there is peace in our state, but because it is necessary to come and hold such a meeting," said Gen Sumlut Gun Maw, the vice-chief of staff of the KIO's military wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). "We come here because we need to discuss political matters." In previous rounds of peace talks, the KIO had pushed for the presence of a "monitoring team" of Western and UN representatives to observe the negotiations. However, China strongly rejected the proposal, fearing such observers would interfere with the peace process. According to sources close to the Burma government's peace delegation, China even intervened in the wording of previous statements released jointly by the two parties. According to representatives of both the KIO and the government peace delegation, military affairs will also top the agenda during this week's negotiations, part of which includes a plan to open liaison offices in Kachin State where on-and-off hostilities have broken out in the past, in order to ease military tensions between the two parties.
Aung Min, who is the government's key peace negotiator, said he was also trying to arrange an ethnic conference in Naypyidaw in July, where he would invite all ethnic representatives to participate in the gathering. A high-ranking government army official, Lt-Gen Myint Soe, who commands the Bureau of Special Operations-1 overseeing military operations in Kachin State, also attended the Kachin peace talks, where he delivered opening remarks. Other ethnic representatives including the Karen National Union (KNU) were also present as observers. Civilian representatives such as Kachin State's Chief Minister La John Ngan Hsai, the KIO's education chief Sumlut Gam and other local Kachin observers were also presented for the talks. KIO leaders arrived in Myitkyina on Monday, greeted by thousands of Kachin supporters who took to the streets to welcome the KIO delegation's convoy. Many supporters waved KIO flags while others chanted an ethnic Kachin national anthem and played Kachin traditional instruments. The KIO have held several rounds of peace talks with the government peace team in an attempt to reforge a 17-year-old ceasefire agreement that was broken two years ago. The two sides have yet to produce tangible results. The KIO, the nation's second largest armed ethnic rebel group with an estimated 10,000 fighters, signed a ceasefire agreement with the former Burmese military regime in 1994, but the agreement broke down in June 2011 when fighting erupted between the government army and KIA soldiers. | |
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Posted: 27 May 2013 10:33 PM PDT
 
The Slow Search for Greener Pastures in Kachin State
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Posted: 27 May 2013 10:20 PM PDT
 
India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (2nd R) and Sonia Gandhi (R), chief of India’s ruling Congress party, meet with victims injured in an ambush on Saturday, at a hospital in the eastern Indian city of Raipur. (Photo: Reuters)
The attack in Chhattisgarh state showed that the Maoists still have the ability to strike, even at heavily guarded convoys, despite claims by the government that it has greatly weakened a guerrilla insurgency it termed the nation’s greatest internal security threat. "There are hills, rivers and dense forests and the population is very sparse. Searching these areas is very difficult," said Ram Niwas, a top state police official. The federal government rushed in 2,000 paramilitary troops to reinforce the 30,000 troops already stationed in Chhattisgarh to combat the rebels, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Officials from the National Investigation Agency, established after the 2008 Mumbai attack to fight terrorism, have also been flown in to lead the investigation. The ambush on Saturday came after a relative break in Maoist violence. While smaller skirmishes have occurred over the past three years, the Maoists’ last major attacks in Chhattisgarh were in 2010, including their bloodiest ever attack, in which they ambushed a paramilitary patrol and killed 76 troops. A month later, they triggered a roadside bomb under a bus carrying civilians and police, killing 31 people. Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management, said the violence declined over the last three years because the government stopped actively attacking the rebels. He said the Maoists were conserving their resources, and had not lost their capabilities. Niwas, however, said security forces remained in "constant battle mode" and had not been complacent. In rural villages deep in areas like Bastar, where the attack took place, the government is completely absent. There are often no schools or hospitals, and electricity and safe tap water are unheard of. Thousands die each year of malaria. Because the areas are rich in natural resources like minerals, many tribal people have been forced off their land to make way for mines and other industries. The Maoist insurgency feeds on the anger of the tribes who have been excluded from the nation’s economic surge. The insurgency began in 1967 as a network of leftwing ideologues and young recruits in the village of Naxalbari outside Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state. The rebels, who took the name Naxalites, are now estimated to have 30,000 fighters and have pledged to violently overthrow the Indian government. They control vast swathes of the so-called Red Belt in central and eastern India, where troops and officials rarely venture. The rebels are thought to operate in 20 of India’s 28 states. Saturday’s ambush, which targeted Congress party politicians returning from a campaign event with the indigenous tribal community, appeared to be a warning to officials to stay away from the marginalized groups from which the Maoists draw their support. The victims included Mahendra Karma, a Congress official who founded the much-criticized Salwa Judum militia to combat the rebels. The Salwa Judum had to be reined in after it was accused of atrocities against the tribals it claimed to be protecting. Angry and often violent protests from local tribes stalled South Korean steel giant Posco’s plans to build a $12 billion plant in the eastern state of Orissa, and London-based mining giant Vedanta Resources’ plans to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills in the same state. The rebels have ambushed police, destroyed government offices and abducted government officials. They have blown up train tracks, attacked prisons to free their comrades and stolen weapons from police and paramilitary warehouses. Since 2005, more than 6,000 people—including civilians, security troops and the rebels themselves—have died in Maoist violence across the country, according to data compiled by the Institute for Conflict Management. "The government has no idea of what the people in these areas need and they don’t even care," said Nandini Sundar, a sociologist who does extensive research in the area. The Maoists in contrast are "quite deeply embedded in the local community," she said. In 2009, the federal government announced a renewed military push—"Operation Greenhunt"—to oust the rebels. That effort petered out without any significant results, Sahni said. "Most top police and political leaders have no idea of what is happening on the ground," he said. "Their own lives are hardly ever at stake. It’s the lower security cadres who bear the brunt." | |
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Posted: 27 May 2013 10:15 PM PDT
 
Garment workers attend a march on the streets to mark International Labor Day in Phnom Penh on May 1, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Samrang Pring)
Police with riot gear were deployed to move about 3,000 mostly female workers who had blocked a road outside their factory owned by Sabrina (Cambodia) Garment Manufacturing in Kampong Speu province, west of the capital, Phnom Penh. A Nike spokeswoman in the United States told Reuters by e-mail that the company was "concerned" about the allegations and was investigating. Nike requires contract manufacturers to respect employees' rights to freedom of association, the spokeswoman added. Sun Vanny, president of the Free Trade Union (FTU) at Sabrina, told Reuters the injured included a woman who was two months pregnant and who had lost her child after military police pushed her to the ground. "There was a pregnant woman among them. She lost blood and then she lost the baby," he said. According to the International Monetary Fund, garments accounted for 75 percent of Cambodia's total exports of $5.22 billion in 2011. Low-cost labor has attracted manufacturers making clothes and shoes for Western brands but strikes over pay and working conditions have become common. This month, two workers were killed at a factory making running shoes for Asics when part of a warehouse fell in on them. Police revised down the original death toll of three given by a minister. A series of deadly incidents at factories in Bangladesh, including the collapse of a building last month that killed more than 1,000 people, has focused global attention on safety in factories in Asia makes goods for Western companies. Sun Vanny said the workers making the Nike clothing had been staging strikes and protests since May 21. They want the company, which employs more than 5,000 people at the plant, to give them $14 a month to help pay for transport, rent and health care costs on top of their $74 minimum wage. "Police used an electric baton to hit me on the head and if other workers hadn't pulled me away, I would be dead," Leng Pros, a 28-year-old male worker, told Reuters from his hospital bed. "I didn't know what happened next, I fell to the ground." Police and military police officials declined to comment on the clash, saying they were still collecting reports. Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre in Bangkok and Phil Wahba in New York. | |
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Posted: 27 May 2013 10:11 PM PDT
 
US President Barack Obama, right, meets with China's then Vice President Xi Jinping, second left, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Feb. 14, 2012. (Photo: Reuters / Jason Reed)
Xi told US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon—who was in Beijing to prepare for the June 7-8 meeting—that he expected positive results from the talks, which will be their first face-to-face meeting since Obama's re-election and Xi's promotion to head of the Communist Party last November. "The current China-US relationship is at a critical juncture," Xi said. The sides must now "build on past successes and open up new dimensions for the future." In a sign that both sides want to stem a drift in ties, the summit is taking place months earlier than the two presidents were supposed to meet. The setting—at the private Sunnylands estate of the late publishing tycoon Walter Annenberg in southern California—is supposed to be informal, giving Xi and Obama a chance to build a rapport. Donilon flew to Beijing this week to prepare an agenda and straighten out other technical issues. He told Xi that Obama is "firmly committed to building a relationship defined by higher levels of practical cooperation and greater levels of trust, while managing whatever differences and disagreements might arise between us." Meeting earlier with State Councilor Yang Jiechi, China's senior foreign policy official, Donilon said the summit is a chance for the two presidents to work through problems. Though they did not identify those challenges in their public remarks, ties are strained across the board, from longstanding differences over the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs to new disputes over cyberattacks and China's more assertive pursuit of territorial claims against US allies Japan and the Philippines. "The meeting will be an important opportunity for our presidents to have in-depth discussions about US-China relations, and a wide range of global and regional challenges facing both our countries," Donilon said. That Xi agreed to an informal summit has been seen by Chinese and US experts as positive. His predecessors always preferred formal state visits, splashing images of White House ceremonies and banquets in the Chinese media to bolster their standing as world statesmen. Good will aside, distrust has deepened in relations in recent years as the United States feels its world leadership challenged and China, its power growing, demands greater deference to its interests and a larger say over global rule setting. Chinese officials and state media regularly say Washington is thwarting China's rise, strengthening alliances in Asia to hem in Beijing and discouraging Chinese investment in the United States on grounds of national security. The official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday that ships and submarines from the Chinese navy's three fleets staged drills in the South China Sea late last week. The area is already a flashpoint, with Beijing's aggressive claims to disputed islands having rattled the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. On Sunday, Li Keqiang—on a visit to Germany in his first trip abroad as China's premier—pressed China's claim to a cluster of East China Sea islands held by Japan. Traveling to Potsdam, where allied powers declared the terms for Japan's surrender 68 years ago in the waning days of World War II, Li told reporters that Japan must not "deny or glorify the history of fascist aggression." The aggrieved sense emanating from Beijing goes beyond recent flare-ups in old territorial disputes. The website of the People's Daily, the Communist Party's flagship newspaper, is running a recurring column that takes a critical look at Americans and their institutions. First called "Immoral, dishonest Americans," the title of the column was changed to "The Americans you don't know about." One item on Donilon's summit plans is the guest list. Xi will stop in California after formal visits to Trinidad and Tobago and Mexico where he will be accompanied by a large group of senior officials. If that entourage descends in full on the Sunnylands estate, US diplomats said the White House might feel the need to bring similarly large numbers, making the summit less intimate. | |
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Posted: 27 May 2013 09:25 PM PDT
Thousands of supporters turned out to greet a Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) delegation as it arrived in the Kachin State capital Myitkyina on Monday for a fresh round of peace talks. The talks, due to start on Tuesday, will also be attended by the UN special envoy for Burma, Vijay Nambiar, and representatives of the United Nationalities Federal Council, an umbrella organization of 11 ethnic armed groups, DVB reports. It will be the first time the government and the KIO have held talks in Myitkyina since 1994, when the two sides reached a ceasefire that broke down in June 2011.
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Posted: 27 May 2013 09:24 PM PDT
A Burmese man ran amok in the Malaysian city of George Town, on the island of Penang, after stealing a gun from a local police officer, according to a report by the Kuala Lumpur-based daily The Star. The 33-year-old man grabbed the gun and fired three shots before police were able to subdue him. No one was injured in the incident, which took place inside a police station where the man had attempted to file a complaint against a friend who he accused of threatening him. According to police, the man also attempted to shoot himself, but failed because the gun jammed.
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Posted: 27 May 2013 09:24 PM PDT
ACE, one of the world's largest insurance companies, has announced plans to open an office in Rangoon later this year. The Zurich-based insurer said in a statement on its website that it had received provisional approval from the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration to establish a representative office in Burma, and would do so after completing the registration process. The move comes as a growing number of Western companies enter the Burmese market amid reforms that have signaled the end of nearly 50 years of military-imposed isolation and international sanctions.
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Posted: 27 May 2013 09:23 PM PDT
Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former US President Bill Clinton, was in Burma on Monday to represent the Clinton Global Initiative at a ceremony bringing Procter & Gamble’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water initiative to Burma. The country would have been denied such help a few years ago because it was shunned by the United States for its undemocratic military rule. But as secretary of state, Clinton's mother, Hillary Rodham Clinton, helped nudge an elected Burmese government toward democratic reforms, making a groundbreaking visit in 2011.—AP
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Posted: 27 May 2013 09:23 PM PDT
Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that a Chinese vessel slammed into a Vietnamese fishing boat while it was operating in Vietnamese waters on May 20, damaging the ship’s hull and risking the lives of 15 crew members. Ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi said the Chinese action seriously violated Vietnam’s sovereignty and demanded that China severely punish the violators, compensate Vietnamese fishermen and make sure similar incidents will not occur. Vietnam said in March that a Chinese naval vessel fired flares that damaging a fishing boat’s cabin near the Paracel islands.—AP
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Posted: 27 May 2013 09:21 PM PDT
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Posted: 27 May 2013 09:20 PM PDT
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Posted: 27 May 2013 09:20 PM PDT
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Posted: 27 May 2013 09:20 PM PDT
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Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Parties Upbeat as Day One of Kachin Peace Talks Closes
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