Judy,
I am glad you are asking this questions. We the Africans in Diaspora need to think more about China's investment in Africa.Being a weak state and lacking good leaders, South Sudan is extremely vulnerable to China's exploitation. Being from South Sudan I am concern about this development and I would be glad to join any initiative to get some dialogue going regarding this topic.
Best regard.
Joseph
On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 12:07 PM, Judy Miriga <jbatec@yahoo.com> wrote:
Good People,What is your viewpoint and opinion in this subject, it looks very tricky?China has never been genuine in their vested interest in Africa.Will this not pose long term insurgencies with insecurities nowthat the power and leaders of Al-Shabaab have been destroyed.
We must look at this statement with much concern over Peace and Unity of Great Lakes Region that is fundamentally important yet China cannot be trusted when they begin to spread their wings deeper into Africa Militarily.......................
Is China planning to create its long term wealth from Africa militarily?
Sometimes, UN authorization to engage China's military engagement in Africa need to be questioned.Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.comChina To Deploy Troops To Join UN Forces In Protecting Civilians In Restive South Sudan
United Nations peacekeepers guard a United Nations base in Malakal July 23, 2014. The base is hosting about 17,000 people who were displaced by armed conflict , according to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Reuters/Andreea CampeanuChina will send about 700 soldiers to assist a United Nations peacekeeping force in South Sudan later this year to protect the country's oil field workers and other civilians, a U.N. official said Wednesday, according to Reuters. China is the biggest foreign investor in South Sudan's oil industry.Joe Contreras, acting spokesman for the U.N. mission in South Sudan, said that neither the date for the deployment nor the area has been finalized so far, Reuters reported. The civil war in South Sudan, which erupted in December between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar, has so far killed more than 10,000 people and forced 1.5 million people to flee their homes, and has threatened the country's oil industry."Nowhere in the current mandate and mission does it say that peacekeepers will be asked to defend oil industry installations. When circumstances arise ... our peacekeepers will be called upon to protect civilian oil industry workers but not the refinery or pipeline or storage tanks ," Contreras reportedly said, also denying that peacekeepers would protect other industrial infrastructure.Contreras denied a report claiming China had already started sending troops to the African country. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal, citing a spokesman for the country's president, had reported that the airlift of a Chinese infantry battalion to the states of Unity and Upper Nile was expected to take several days.Contreras also reportedly said that about 350 Chinese military forces , mostly comprising of engineers, are already serving under the U.N. mission in South Sudan. Tensions in the world's youngest nation, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, reportedly escalated after Kiir accused Machar of attempting to launch a coup.The deployment of troops by China will be the first time that the East Asian country has contributed a battalion to a U.N. peacekeeping mission, U.N. officials reportedly said. However, China had reportedly sent a smaller "protection unit" of about 300 troops to join a U.N. mission in Mali in March 2013.The rebels in the region have reportedly warned Beijing against taking sides in their fight with Kiir's government."The Chinese should work under the mandate and command" of the U.N., rebel spokesman James Gatdet Dak said, according to the Journal. "As long as they stick to that, we shall not have a problem with them."
====================
Reuters Videos
China, Russia and Central Asian countries conduct live drills
China, Russia and Central Asian countries conduct live drillsNEWPORT Rhode Island (Reuters) - Russia and China are trying to close the technology gap with the U.S. military and developing weapons systems that appear designed to counter traditional U.S. advantages, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Wednesday.Hagel was speaking before a NATO summit expected to bring Russia's souring relations with the West into sharp focus and the goals of NATO allies to strengthen defense spending.Hagel said the Pentagon was renewing a push to revamp how it works with the defense industry. The goal, he said, was to promote greater innovation needed to preserve America's technological edge, even at a time of tighter budgets."While the United States currently has a decisive military and technological edge over any potential adversary, our future superiority is not a given," Hagel told a defense industry forum in Rhode Island.U.S. defense officials have watched as Moscow and Beijing have tested a string of sophisticated weapons, from radar-evading aircraft and anti-ship missiles that fly many times the speed of sound, to integrated air defenses.While the Defense Department's spending of around $500 billion is still more than the next six or seven countries combined, research and development spending has fallen more than 20 percent since President Barack Obama took office.View gallery
U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speaks during a press conference with Australia's Defense …In contrast, China and Russia have been rapidly increasing their security spending and have passed new technological milestones in recent years."China and Russia have been trying to close the technology gap by pursuing and funding long-term, comprehensive military modernization programs," Hagel said."They are also developing anti-ship, anti-air, counter-space, cyber, electronic warfare and special operations capabilities that appear designed to counter traditional U.S. military advantages."Leading U.S. weapons manufacturers, including Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman Corp, have urged the Pentagon to continue investing in research and development of new weapons and technologies despite less military spending.Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, said he had been asked to lead an initiative that would take a longer-term look at research and development spending."When you cut R&D you are delaying modernization. Period," Kendall told the ComDef 2014 defense conference in Washington.(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Andrea Shalal-Esa and David Alexander; Editing by Grant McCool)====================China warplane interception 'unsafe', 'unprofessional': US official
A Chinese fighter jet's interception of a US surveillance aircraft last month was "unsafe and unprofessional", a US official said Tuesday as a top White House adviser concluded a visit to Beijing. "The Chinese answer was not 'no'," said one official who was not authorised to speak on the record…AFP
===============Criticizing NATO, Putin underlines need for nuclear deterrence
By Darya Korsunskaya MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday Russia must maintain its nuclear deterrence because of what he said were a growing number of possible security threats. With ties between Moscow and the West tense over the crisis in Ukraine, Putin signed a decree…Reuters
=========Somali militants threaten U.S. attacks to avenge leader's death
By Abdi Sheikh MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Islamist militants have threatened attacks in east Africa and the United States, warning President Barack Obama he would hear "shocking news" as punishment for a U.S. Al Shabaab made the threats late on Monday, hours after launching twin attacks inside…Reuters================Russia successfully tests nuclear missile, more planned: navy chief
Russia carried out a successful test of its new Bulava intercontinental nuclear missile on Wednesday and will perform two more test launches in October and November, the head of its naval forces said. The armed forces have boosted their military training and test drills since the start of the…Reuters
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===========================Ukrainians In Mariupol Prepare For War As Poroshenko Says Cease-Fire Is Breached
Ukrainian soldiers stand guard at the airport as military personnel and staff meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the southern coastal town of Mariupol Monday, Sept. 8, 2014. Reuters/Vasily FedosenkoMARIUPOL, Ukraine -- As the cease-fire reached Friday in eastern Ukraine shows signs of crumbling across the region, people in Mariupol, a port city on the Black Sea under assault by pro-Russian separatists, are preparing for a war that many here say is coming despite the current air of normalcy.On the surface, much of the city seems to be running as usual, with cars driving on the streets, pedestrians on the sidewalks, children in playgrounds and even weddings held over the weekend.But people are preparing for the advance of the rebels, whom the regular Ukrainian army and battalions of irregular volunteers have been unable to stop elsewhere in the country's east.A 43-year-old man named Aleksander, who declined to give his last name, is among the people getting ready for war. While many in the region have fled, he said he and his wife were staying put. They've got their basement equipped as shelter from shelling for themselves and their two children, stockpiling matches, candles, potatoes, canned goods and winter clothes.Those goods are becoming harder and harder to get in Mariupol. Every day, there are long lines at bakeries. Some shops are closed, including one-third of the stores in the city's largest mall. Automated bank machines are still dispensing cash, but people fear the money will run out soon. And in any case, wages have been delayed, so many do not have money to spend.A clerk at a convenience store in the eastern end of the city said the bread put out in the morning is gone by noon. Many of those who plan to remain in Mariupol are the elderly, who either cannot imagine leaving their lives behind or have nowhere else to go.Milania Nikolaevna, 71, said she has not been able to sleep because the fighting around the city is so loud. She does not believe peace is coming and has been collecting canned goods and water: "I am afraid, of course, but I will not go anywhere."Grocery bags in hand, 55-year-old Elena and 60-year-old Nikolai, who also declined to give their last names, said they were getting ready by stockpiling food in their basement, too. Both retirees, they said leaving the city was not an option for them.If the rebels took Mariupol, a corridor could be created between Russia and Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in March after a snap referendum that was declared illegitimate by Ukraine and the international community.Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko paid a surprise visit to Mariupol on Monday, saying that locals have resoundingly backed Ukrainian forces.Wearing an army uniform, Poroshenko told a crowd of officials and activists that the cease-fire had been breached but that only a political solution can resolve the conflict, and the plan agreed to by him and Russian President Vladimir Putin was the best option.Visiting the port city was a largely symbolic move to rally support around an army that may not be able to withstand the onslaught of rebels backed by the Russian armed forces. The Kiev government , as well as Western nations, contend the separatists are backed by Russia, although Moscow denies this.While Poroshenko vowed that Ukraine would not give up any more land, rebels remain in control of the eastern cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.More than 3,000 people have been killed in the five-month-long conflict, according to the U.N. It reached a critical point in the last couple of weeks, when a new front was opened in the eastern coastal town of Novoazovsk, which is now also controlled by rebels.Many Ukrainians believe Russia has used truces to resupply and organize the rebels. And in this instance, events on the ground backed Poroshenko's claim that the cease-fire had been breached.New advances by the separatists who have been pushing both west and south to Mariupol have also shown the weakness of Ukraine's defenses -- and interviews on Monday at a Ukrainian army checkpoint at the eastern entrance to Mariupol confirmed that impression.On Saturday, "we were shelled the whole night," said Vladimir, a fighter with Ukraine's national guard. In the face of the rebels' attack, "we escaped, we tried to hide ourselves," said the militiaman, who would not give his last name.A burnt-out truck with smoke still coming out of it was standing on the side of the road. On the other side was a gas station with a gas tank that a fighter said was hit by shelling and exploded.Slightly further away was a two-story building with pieces of metal and glass scattered on the ground outside. But reinforcing the air of normalcy about to collapse, a café and shop near the checkpoint still had its products lined up neatly on the shelves.Tatyana, 55, who lives in an apartment near the eastern checkpoint, said she could hear gunshots. She, too, does not believe the cease-fire will hold but has no plans to leave."It's our house, it's our land, so let it be what will be."
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