US rethinking Putin summit after Snowden move

President Barack Obama is rethinking whether to hold a summit in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin next month after Russia rejected US pleas and gave temporary asylum to former American spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, the White House said on Thursday.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama and US officials are “extremely disappointed” by Russia’s decision to give Snowden a one-year asylum in the face of entreaties from American officials to expel Snowden back to the United States to face espionage charges.

The Russian move also appeared to have put in doubt high-level talks scheduled for next week between US Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and their Russian counterparts. These talks are now “up in the air,” a US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But the Obama administration’s response to Russia’s move was restrained compared to the swift retaliatory steps urged by US lawmakers, including allies of Obama.

Snowden in June disclosed previously secret US telephone and internet surveillance programs while in Hong Kong and then traveled to Russia, where he holed up in an airport for weeks.

Russia’s move raised questions about the policy of “resetting” US relations with Russia that Obama embarked on after taking office in 2009, and put pressure on Obama to react decisively to what many saw as a Russian rebuke.

Obama’s first major decision is whether to go ahead with a one-on-one summit with Putin in Moscow next month in advance of a summit of G20 leaders in St. Petersburg.

“We are evaluating the utility of a summit, in light of this and other issues, but I have no announcement today on that,” Carney told reporters.

Obama currently plans to participate in the St. Petersburg event, but is giving no indication of going ahead with the Moscow summit with Putin. Face-to-face talks between Obama and Putin in Northern Ireland in June were tense. The two disagree over Syria, Russia’s human rights record and other issues.

‘STABBED US IN THE BACK’

Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat who is a strong Obama ally, urged the president to retaliate by recommending that the G20 summit be moved out of Russia.

“Russia has stabbed us in the back, and each day that Mr. Snowden is allowed to roam free is another twist of the knife,” Schumer said. “Given Russia’s decision today, the president should recommend moving the G20 summit.”

Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, already sharp critics of Putin, called the Russian action a disgrace and a deliberate effort to embarrass the United States.

“It is a slap in the face of all Americans. Now is the time to fundamentally rethink our relationship with Putin’s Russia. We need to deal with the Russia that is, not the Russia we might wish for. We cannot allow today’s action by Putin to stand without serious repercussions,” McCain and Graham said in a statement.

The two Republicans said the United States should retaliate boldly by, for example, pushing for completion of all missile-defense programs in Europe and moving for another expansion of NATO to include Russian neighbor Georgia.

“We have long needed to take a more realistic approach to our relations with Russia, and hopefully today we finally start,” they said.

Whether such steps were in the offing was unclear. Carney defended the “reset” in relations with Russia, saying it has proved beneficial on a host of issues, from cooperation on Afghanistan to dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, faces US criminal charges including espionage, theft of government property and unauthorized communication of national defense information.

The 30-year-old slipped quietly out of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport on Thursday after being granted a year’s asylum in Russia, ending more than five weeks in limbo in the transit area.

There is a long list of US differences with Russia on other issues, led by Russia’s support for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war even as the United States calls for his departure.

Andrew Weiss, who was a Russia expert on the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton, said he did not think the Obama administration would make a decision on Obama’s planned trip to Russia until at least next week, after the Russian foreign and defense ministers visit Washington.

The Kerry and Hagel talks are supposed to cover arms control, missile defense, Iran and Syria.

“If the Russians, at those talks, demonstrate a dramatic change in their positions, it’s conceivable the (Moscow) trip will still go ahead. I think that’s exceedingly unlikely based on everything that’s happened in the past couple of months, where the Russians are not looking to be terribly collaborative with the United States on those issues,” Weiss said.

Xinhua News via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/ZzZtpmrauhs/

China sails through ‘first island chain’

Passages show navy capable of patrolling waters far from home

The Chinese navy has fulfilled its long-held dream of breaking through the “first island chain blockade”, and its vessels have gained access to the Pacific Ocean through various waterways along the route, military observers said on Thursday.

They made the remarks in interviews with China Daily to mark the 86th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army.

“The Chinese navy has the capability to cut the first island chain into several pieces,” said Du Wenlong, a senior researcher at the PLA’s Academy of Military Science.

“Now the chain is fragmented.”

The “first island chain” refers to the first major archipelagos off the East Asian continental mainland, including the Japanese archipelago, Ryukyu Islands, China’s Taiwan and the northern Philippines.

In the 1950s, Washington came to regard the chain as an important barrier to contain China and other communist countries.

The United States and allied countries installed a strong military presence and advanced weapons at bases along the line.

The PLA’s anniversary came four days after five Chinese warships finished a historic trip, during which the Chinese navy for the first time entered the Pacific through the Soya Strait, known in Russia as La Perouse Strait, between the Russian island of Sakhalin and the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

The Chinese vessels passed through the strait to train in the West Pacific after a joint naval drill with Russia in the Japanese Sea. It was the first time the Chinese navy has conducted high-sea training right after a major drill, with no rest.

On July 25, the ships crossed the Miyako Strait between Japan’s Miyako and Okinawa islands on their return voyage to Qingdao, headquarters of the North China Sea Fleet. The move marks the first trip by the Chinese navy circumnavigating the Japanese archipelago.

Japan sent frigates and aircraft to monitor the Chinese fleet at a short distance.

Ministry of National Defense spokesman Geng Yansheng called for rational views on the training, adding that all countries have the right to navigate these waters and channels in the western Pacific Ocean.

Wu Dahui, a military and international studies expert at Tsinghua University, said the Chinese vessels went through the Soya Strait six hours after 18 warships of the Pacific Fleet sailed there.

Wu viewed it as proof of the growing capability and confidence of the Chinese navy.

“So far, counting from the south to the north, the navy has crossed the first island chain through Bashi Channel, Miyako Strait, Osumi Strait, Tsugaru Strait, and now Soya Strait,” said Du Wenlong from the Academy of Military Science.

“It has crossed all the strongest parts on the chain.”

Du said the repeated passages show that the PLA navy is now capable of sending and supporting its warships to navigate and fight in channels far from the continent.

Li Li, a researcher at the PLA’s National Defense University, said going through the Soya Strait means much more than giving China new access to the Pacific.

“Japan has been highly uneasy about the passage because the PLA navy usually enters the Pacific through waterways such as the Miyako Strait and the Osumi Strait, which are all in the South,” she said.

Despite the Chinese fleet’s passage through the first island chain, Du Wenlong said the US-Japanese alliance can closely monitor the chain with naval and air forces.

Ou Jianping, a senior expert at the National Defense University, said in an online discussion with military enthusiasts on July 26 that the Chinese navy must grow into a blue-water navy because almost all of the aggression against China in modern times came from the sea.

China has marine territory of more than 3 million sq km, and 97 percent of its trade with other countries is transported by sea, Ou said.

“We should view China as a maritime state.”

The Chinese navy has accumulated experience as a blue-water navy while protecting ships from around the globe in the pirate-plagued waters off Somalia, a task started in 2008 according to a UN resolution.

Beijing has also commissioned its first aircraft carrier.

President Xi Jinping vowed on Wednesday to protect China’s maritime interests and be fully prepared for the complex issues in the region.

He made the pledge while chairing a group study session of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee to discuss a roadmap for China to become a maritime power.

“We love peace and will remain on a path of peaceful development, but that doesn’t mean giving up our rights, especially those involving the nation’s core interests,” Xi said.

“China is growing into a global power and should have a navy that fits its status,” said Wu Dahui from Tsinghua.

“The further our navy can go, the further we can push out the security threats.”

By Li Xiaokun ( China Daily)

Mandy Peng via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/fGLQE8RAK-4/

China Reports Increase in Manufacturing

HONG KONG — A manufacturing index published by the Chinese authorities on Thursday provided an unexpectedly solid reading for July but did little to dispel the picture of an economy that is cooling more rapidly than many analysts had expected just months ago.

The reading, published by the National Bureau of Statistics, edged up slightly, to 50.3 from 50.1 in June, indicating that recent small-scale economic support measures announced by the authorities in Beijing might be aiding some parts of the economy.

Read Full Article HERE

Bettina Wassener, The New York Times via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/GxYRDobLRno/

China condemns U.S. Senate over sea dispute resolution

(Reuters) – China said on Thursday it had lodged a formal complaint with the United States after the U.S. Senate passed a resolution expressing concern about Chinese actions in the disputed East and South China Seas.

The U.S. resolution, passed on Monday, listed several examples of worrying Chinese behavior, including China’s issuing of an official map defining the contested South China Sea as within its national border and of Chinese surveillance ships entering waters disputed with Japan in the East China Sea.

Read Full Article HERE

Ben Blanchard, Reuters via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/4B685ENR37A/

World Bank Mulling Sweeping Proposals for China Reform

BEIJING—The World Bank is putting together sweeping proposals for China to privatize a major bank and allow farmers to sell their land, changes that could upend decades-old Communist Party ideology, according to officials familiar with the plans.

The recommendations are part of a reform agenda the World Bank is hammering out with one of the Chinese government’s top think tanks, the Development Research Center, at the request of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Their work will feed into a Chinese governmentwide effort to create a reform plan in time for a Communist party conclave expected by the end of the year. The aim: to stave off a sharper slowdown in growth and put the economy on a sustainable path.

Read Full Article HERE

Bob Davis and Tom Orlik, The Wall Street Journal via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/BhrsK4fZKNw/

Philippines, Vietnam discuss how they can cooperate amid territorial feud with China

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines’ top diplomat said he and his Vietnamese counterpart discussed Thursday how their governments can work together to deal with territorial disputes with China, including a possible sharing of information to better guard their territories from intrusions.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh agreed in their meeting in Manila to ask the regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to seek an early start of negotiations with China on a legally binding accord to prevent an armed conflict from breaking out in the disputed South China Sea. The territorial rifts were high in the agenda of the meeting, which also touched on increasing trade and a possible extradition pact.

Read Full Article HERE

The Associated Press via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/298boW_B2Zk/

Xi Calls for Boosting China’s Navy as Army Marks Anniversary

President Xi Jinping called for China to bolster its maritime forces while using peaceful means to settle disagreements, as the country seeks to balance its push for greater influence in Asia against its territorial claims.

To be able to deal with a variety of “complex situations,” China must improve its ability to safeguard its maritime rights, Xi said during a study session before the 86th anniversary today of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Read Full Article HERE

Bloomberg News via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/RHq_-L506ZY/