Author: Anthony V. Rinna, Sino-NK
On 16 May 2016 Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern district, Yury Trutnev, met with officials
from Japanese and Russian energy and metallurgical companies. The
meeting followed a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and
Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss enhancing bilateral ties.
As Russia sees OPEC’s ability to influence markets diminishing,
it will likely push ahead in presenting itself as a major alternative
supplier of oil. Cooperation between Japan and Russia on energy provides
important mutual benefits. For Russia, the Japanese market diminishes
the risk of Russian overdependence on the Chinese market. For Japan,
Russian energy decreases Japanese dependence on the Middle East. This is
crucial for Japan not only due to the volatility of the Middle East,
but also because of rising tensions in the South China Sea.
For all energy exporting countries there is a perennial risk of
overdependence on fuel sales as a primary source of income. But in the
case of Japan–Russia relations, there is a risk of overdependence on
energy exports in a political, as well as economic, sense. Without
concurrent cooperation in areas such as diplomacy and territorial
dispute resolution, energy sales will become the only mainstay of
improving bilateral relations between the two countries.
The Kuril Islands/Northern Territories dispute has not stopped Japan
and Russia from developing relations in areas other than energy. In
2014, Japan became the Asian country with the largest volume of investment in Russia. The two countries have also announced a common priority of developing the Russian Far East.
Yet both sides have publicly expressed a consensus that Russo–Japanese relations remain underdeveloped,
and that their territorial disagreement is a major impediment to the
realisation of a more profound bilateral partnership. Commentators
frequently describe the Japan–Russia territorial spat as being
‘compartmentalised’ — in other words, separated from other more positive
aspects of Russo–Japanese relations.
The ability of Moscow and Tokyo to move past the Kuril Islands/Northern Territories disagreement
as the defining factor in their relationship is key to cooperation on a
broader range of issues. Unfortunately many analyses remain pessimistic
about Japan and Russia’s ability to overcome their disagreement and
implement a peace treaty. It is unlikely that an agreement will be met
any time soon.
Against this ongoing quandary, analysts cite cooperation on energy as
the mainstay of a potentially cooperative Japan–Russia relationship.
Yet Russian overreliance on energy sales to Japan as a means of building
relations is essentially the diplomatic equivalent of being a
one-export economy. Relying primarily on energy cooperation makes it
easy for the two countries to neglect other aspects of their
relationship.
Compounding this is the fickle nature of business itself. Nothing in
global politics is certain, and an excessive reliance on energy ties for
fostering friendly relations is particularly problematic. Basing
Japan–Russia ties primarily on energy runs the risk that the bilateral
relationship will become a prisoner to market forces, such as
fluctuations in oil prices. One of Russia’s top priorities regarding
Japan should be to diversify the foundations upon which it bases its
bilateral relationship.
Japan and Russia have already shown a propensity for cooperation in
other areas, including security. Japan has engaged in positive outreach
toward Russia, though not some of its other neighbours like South Korea,
this year in reaction to provocations from North Korea. After North
Korea’s fourth nuclear test and a rocket launch, Abe and his government
made a point of reaching out specifically to Russia for a coordinated
response.
Public diplomacy is also another area of great potential between the
two countries. Despite the ongoing feud at official levels in Moscow and
Tokyo, many ordinary Japanese and Russian citizens in the areas near
the two countries — including the population on the Kuril
Islands/Northern Territories themselves — have shown a propensity for
cooperation and interdependence.
Russia’s Far Eastern territories enjoy strong relationships with
several of Japan’s prefectures, especially on the level of so-called
‘people’s diplomacy’. In the disputed Kuril Islands/Northern
Territories, the ethnically-Russian population has, over the years,
developed a great deal of contact and sound relations with the people in
the northern part of Hokkaido. Their mutual dependence and exchange has
made these communities arguably closer to each other than to their
respective capitals.
With a prospective meeting between the Japanese and Russian heads of state
tentatively scheduled for September, there is no shortage of talk
between the two sides on deepening bilateral ties. Behind these public
professions are several concrete areas for potential cooperation, on
which both the Japanese and Russian governments can capitalise.
Vigilance will be required to avoid the snare of excessive reliance on
energy as a tool for augmenting relations. Anthony V. Rinna is an analyst on Russian foreign policy in East
Asia for the Sino-NK research group. He currently resides in South
Korea. Courtesy:www.eastasiaforum.org
Sri Lanka’s balance of payments is in dire straits. The country’s mounting foreign and domestic public debt, a huge fiscal deficit and a severe foreign exchange shortfall have led to potentially calamitous economic circumstances. Sri Lanka has not yet secured the means to meet its upcoming foreign loan repayments — US$4.5 billion is due over the next year, to be followed by another US$4 billion in the subsequent year.
Credit rating agencies Fitch and Standard and Poor’s downgraded Sri Lanka’s international sovereign rating in early 2016 in light of its rising fiscal deficit and foreign debt — the highest among Asia’s emerging markets — compounded by sluggish growth prospects.
While excessive public debt has been accruing over generations, the debt trap that the country is experiencing today is principally due to non-concessional commercial loans taken out between 2009 and 2014 by the previous government, led by Mahinda Rajapaksa. The loans, which went towards infrastructure development projects, roughly doubled the country’s external debt.
The current administration, led by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, manifestly worsened the country’s fiscal conditions in 2015. Outstanding domestic debts rose by over 12 per cent due to excessive government spending and foreign debt had increased by 25 per cent by the end of that year, albeit primarily to finance the previous government’s loans.
Sri Lanka’s foreign currency earnings and reserves are insufficient to meet its external financing requirements. The depletion in reserves is a consequence of large foreign capital outflows, reduced exports due to the global economic downturn, and falling remittances from migrant workers employed in the distressed Middle East region.
As temporary measures to avert a foreign exchange crisis, the government initiated a US$1.5 billion currency swap with the Reserve Bank of India and a US$1 billion currency swap with the Central Bank of China in March. Sri Lanka’s Central Bank also plans to raise up to US$3 billion through the issuance of international sovereign bonds this year.
Sri Lanka has resorted to extended foreign borrowing to counteract the rising fiscal deficit and strengthen foreign reserves. An IMF loan of US$1.5 billion has been granted on a 36-month Extended Fund Facility program, subject to formal approval by the IMF’s Executive Board in June. The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has said that the country hopes to obtain an additional US$5 billion in loans from other sources, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, once the IMF loan — a mark of international confidence — is in effect.
The IMF loan has come only as the Sri Lankan government has agreed to tough conditions, including restrictions on budget deficit sizes and tax-to-GDP ratio requirements. The government has since proposed a range of structural changes to its fiscal policy. On 8 March, emergency tax measures were announced.
The changes include widening the tax base by increasing corporate income tax, increasing value-added tax (VAT), reintroducing income tax on capital gains, and removing certain previous exemptions on VAT and the Nation Building Tax (a consumption tax introduced in 2009 to fund security forces and rebuild infrastructure damaged by terrorism and war). A Share Transaction Levy was reimposed on all share transactions. The government also shared its plans to introduce a carbon tax on vehicles with the IMF delegation in mid-April.
Two primary aims of the Sri Lankan government are to attract foreign direct investment and encourage the private sector to invest more. However, the government’s sudden changes to the budget — including unplanned and ad hoc tax policy changes — have dented investor sentiment, causing capital outflows. These post-budget policy changes have led to a state of economic uncertainty. Predictability and consistency in economic policy are key to a positive business and investment environment.
Downward economic momentum is expected in the short term as the proposed higher taxes will negatively affect low- and middle-income consumers, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and organisations importing raw and intermediate materials (which include those in the already ailing export sector). While it is necessary to increase tax revenue to meet growing public debt and stabilise the economy, higher tax rates discourage business and investment and reduce consumption, leading to less growth. With more than half of the registered tax payers in Sri Lanka known to be evading taxes, the country should focus instead on developing an efficient and comprehensive tax collection mechanism.
To reduce public debt, the government is looking to privatise state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that are currently running at a loss. These SOEs account for more than 80 per cent of domestic debt. Sri Lanka has invited Chinese companies and others to invest in these SOEs, proposing a debt-equity swap. Chinese companies have not yet responded to these proposals.
Despite the deterioration in its balance of payments, Sri Lanka showed positive growth momentum last year. There is hope for an economic turnaround in the medium term, following the IMF loan. As an emerging market, Sri Lanka has many lucrative areas for investment, including the booming tourism sector, construction and infrastructure development.
That said, some commentators believe the country lacks a clear sense of direction on economic policy and suspect that the government may not be able to effectively manage the widening balance of payments gap. This scepticism stems from the fragmented political landscape marked by the tense alliance between arch political rivals, the right-leaning United National Party and a segment of the more socialist Sri Lanka Freedom Party. The unpredictable economic management of the Ministry of Finance adds to this cautionary mood.
Such a coalition causes paralysis and a lack of debate around policy implementation. The gloomy short-term economic forecast is bound to test the strength of this coalition. In managing painful economic reforms, the government’s hard work is only beginning.
Iromi Dharmawardhaneis Research Associate at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) at the National University of Singapore.
A version of this paper was first published here as ISAS Insights No. 330 (4 May 2016).
The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and not of ISAS.
To mark the 2016 China Environmental Press Awards, Liu Jianqiang explains why supporting investigative reporters is more important than ever
chinadialogue's former editor Liu Jianqiang addresses last year's China Environmental Press Awards
It’s
a common view that standards in mainstream Chinese journalism have been
deteriorating for some time now. But when disaster strikes – for
example, as in the Tianijn explosions
– it is not just firefighters rushing towards the scene. Journalists
follow close behind. The public know that their most reliable source of
information during these fast moving events are the reports filed from
the scene by professional reporters.
China’s
news industry has seen huge changes in the past several years, and even
the most optimistic of observers admit these have not been for the
better. Commercial and political challenges have hindered traditional
media doing its job.
And “traditional” here does not just mean television, radio and print
media – it includes all reporting, including online and personal
websites or blogs, which embody the core values of journalists and seek
to protect the public interest. But many good journalists have left the
industry and as quality investigative journalism departments have been
closed down, and the number of exposés has dwindled. Now, the commercial
media is mainly a business rather than a public institution carrying
out a moral mission.
But in times of disaster, when the public needs to know the truth, those working in the media bravely fulfil their duties.
The morning after the huge explosions in Tianjin last August, many
journalists were already on the scene, including Tu Zhonghang of the Beijing News.
He
had rushed to the disaster zone, and managed to get into the control
room where the fight to contain the disaster was being supervised. From
there, he was able to get a major exclusive, learning that 700 tonnes of
highly toxic sodium cyanide had once been stored at the site.
Tu was one of over 20 reporters dispatched by the Beijing News,
and in the week after the disaster he and his newspaper printed dozens
of pages covering the explosion. Journalists and editors focussed their
investigations on what had happened to those 700 tonnes of sodium
cyanide; and the mysterious background of the site’s owner, Ruihai
Logistics. This led to a series of exclusive investigations, and by
getting the truth out quickly at a time of crisis, the Beijing News earned new respect for the news media.
Coverage
of the explosion involved “reporters working as a team on a huge story,
maintaining professionalism and producing comprehensive and objective
reports, and leading all other major outlets,” points out Professor
Jiang, one of the judges for chinadialogue’s press awards.
This
year Tu and his colleagues won the 'Best Investigation' prize. Their
reports on this major incident were both rapid and in-depth. Despite the
time pressure they were able to deliver a series of scoops – a fine
example to the rest of the industry.
The China Youth Daily also provided much fine detail on the same incident and their journalists are winners of the 'Best In-Depth Report' award.
The
explosion worried many residents of port cities – were they also living
next door to a warehouse full of hazardous chemicals? The China Youth Daily dispatched reporters Liu Xin, He Linlin and Lu Yijie to three major ports: Shanghai, Ningbo and Qingdao.
During a month-long investigation, they found many
hazardous sites were within 1,000 metres of residential buildings, in
breach of a safety rule. The reporting team also identified the risk of a
major chemical explosion causing numerous deaths and huge property
damage could happen at other ports besides Tianjin.
Previously, this major risk has consistently been overlooked in the media. Thepaper.cn
also investigated the reasons why the required distances between
hazardous storage and residential property were not adhered to. It
reported on how safety standards could be improved in other cities. The
paper’s work fulfils the responsibility Joseph Pulitzer
spoke of: “A journalist is the lookout on the bridge of the ship of
state…He peers through fog and storm to give warning of dangers ahead."
When
judging this year’s awards, the committee was surprised. Although the
mainstream news industry overall has been in decline, the number and
quality of investigative reports on matters of public interest had
actually increased.
An particularly praiseworthy example of this focused on a remote,
ecologically sensitive area of western China that won its author
'Journalist of the Year'.
The Kalamely Nature Reserve in Xinjiang has repeatedly been shrunk to
allow for mining, putting rare wildlife at risk. Shi Yi, a journalist
with Thepaper.cn filed a series of reports on the issue,
bringing the case to the attention of central government. A memo from
Xi Jinping resulted in an undercover visit by Party Central Committee
investigators, as well as a public visit by Zhang Chunxian, Xinjiang
Party Secretary. At the end of last year, the plans for the most recent
reduction in the size of the reserve were scrapped.
In
late September 2015 a source reported online that over 10,000 tonnes of
chemical waste were buried under a pig farm in Jingjiang, Jiangsu,
eastern China. Beijing Youth Daily reporter Li Xianfeng
was the first to find that source and get first-hand evidence – and gain
access to the now-sealed off farm to verify it.
Her reporting is a fine example of reporting in the public interest, and it won Li our 'Most Influential Report' award.
Li’s exclusive interview with the source was key to the story – it
managed to develop one online tip into a mainstream media story. That
triggered rapid interventions by the Ministry of Environmental
Protection, the Ministry of Public Security and the Supreme People’s
Procuratorate, which confirmed the veracity of the reports and are now
managing the site, with 4,000 barrels of hazardous materials being
removed.
Over 100 outstanding Chinese journalists have received prizes in the six
years that our awards have been handed out. During this time we have
seen for ourselves the decline of the news industry – but also seen many
fine journalists bucking that trend by carrying on the baton of
journalistic ideals and professionalism.
Journalism has never been an easy job, and those who possess the ideals
and the strength of character of a good journalist will flourish even in
the hard times – and it is perhaps the fact these journalists become so
prominent that tells us we are more in need of quality journalism than
ever.
Whether the industry is flourishing or in decline, journalists will
always be among those first on the scene when disaster strikes. But they
do not hope those disasters will occur. I hope society can give
journalists the opportunity to report on the dangers of explosions in
Tianjin, of harm to nature reserves in Xinjiang, of toxic waste buried
in Jiangsu, of poisonous fluids in the Beijing water supply before those
disasters actually happen and prevent them. That is the true value of
journalism.
Our annual press awards will be held in held in Beijing on Friday
May 27, when we will be publishing the first of winning stories across
seven categories. The remainder will be published over the next seven
days
Author: Christian Wirth, Tohoku University
At the end of this month President Obama will become the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima. The momentous visit is planned around Obama’s trip to nearby Ise-Shima for the G7 Summit. In light of the United States’ consistent pressure on Tokyo and Seoul to bury their own historical debate over the so-called ‘comfort women’, as well as Obama’s initiative to abolish the use of nuclear weapons, this visit is long overdue.
The initial steps towards this visit began back in September 2008, when Nancy Pelosi went to Hiroshima in her role as Speaker of the House of Representatives. In August 2010, then US Ambassador to Japan John Roos made the first official visit by a US government representative. And, in April 2016, Secretary of State John Kerry
became the highest ranking US government representative to visit when
he attended the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on the sidelines of the G7
Foreign Ministers meeting.
Though public support for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is declining,
the fact that there is still sensitivity surrounding a US president’s
visit to Hiroshima reveals that the so-called history wars are not
solely confined to intra-Asian relations. Rather than being a neutral
arbiter, or an ‘off-shore balancer’, the United States is deeply
involved in the intricacies of how to remember and overcome the
traumatic violence of the last century.
Despite the US–Japan relationship being stronger and more integrated
than ever, Hiroshima and Nagasaki still represent major obstacles in the
way of a complete ‘normalisation’ of bilateral relations. The exhibits
at the Yushukan Museum
adjacent to the Yasukuni Shrine, for instance, continue to blame US
security politics for provoking Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour.
Official Japanese apologies and acts of contrition for the attack also remain limited.
The reason for this reluctance to face up and reconcile this
unfortunate past lies in the continuing sense of victimisation among all
those who were involved in the wars of the 20th century. Victimisation
mentalities result from unresolved traumatic experiences. Instead of
sharing their grief and collectively coming to terms with the event,
actors remain isolated and see the betrayal or humiliation by another as
the one and only source of all their problems.
Such ‘ideational isolation’, or solipsism,
can lead to actors becoming caught in their own world, calling for the
restoration of their dignity and identity. If these impulses are
followed through the result may be a replaying of the (violent) past.
The strong US–Japan alliance is a major tool to bridge
the subliminal lack of mutual understanding and, possibly, difficulties
with intercultural communication that are grounded in disagreements
over history. The alliance also alleviates Japan’s isolation in East
Asia and secures its place in the international community.
Yet over recent years Asia-Pacific international relations have
become increasingly militarised, which has reinforced victim mentalities
in some countries. Even the strengthening of the US–Japan relationship
has been pursued for strategic security interests rather than for the
sake of building multidimensional ‘normal’ ties among neighbouring
states.
It is under these circumstances that Obama’s use of US hegemonic
power to overcome its own history problems with Japan might help to
relax the increasingly tight grip that governments hold on their pasts
in and beyond Japan.
Historical reconciliation with Japan will lessen Tokyo’s isolation
and diminish the perceived need to secure bilateral relations by
military means. And if the US–Japan relationship has a more solid
footing, it might be easier for Japanese decision-makers to positively
engage their neighbours over history issues in turn.
Even if the Chinese and South Korean ruling elites remain unmoved,
shedding some light into the dark corners of 20th-century Asia Pacific
history could prove an effective tool in navigating through the stormy
waters in the region.
Yet, for the symbolism of President Obama’s trip to be understood
across the Asia Pacific, the visit to Hiroshima has to be embedded
within a larger message. The inconvenient truths of historical events
cannot be forgotten. So-called ‘future-oriented’ policies require first
and foremost the acknowledgement that the victimised have been individuals, on all sides, not nations.
By acknowledging the suffering that the nuclear bombs brought to
people in Japan, as well as campaigning for the elimination of nuclear
arsenals, Obama will be an example of strong US leadership for those
still holding on to the memories of the past. If sustained, this
approach will be more helpful in maintaining US leadership — and
hegemonic stability — in the region than the current military-focused
‘pivot’ to Asia. Christian Wirth is a Visiting Associate Professor at the Tohoku
University School of Law and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Griffith
Asia Institute, Griffith University.
Online businesses could regenerate China’s rural economy and slow the drift to cities, writes Feng Hao
Liu Dongdong, one of China's new rural e-commerce entrepreneurs, is pictured with boxes of red dates
The province of Shanxi, in northern China, is famous for coal mining
and the industry’s impact is etched across the landscape.
But the province’s southern counties, which lie near the Yellow River,
are known for a very different commodity - red dates.
In 2015, a slump in the market for red dates (known in Chinese as jujubes) became big news in China. In Yonghe County,
over 40 million jin (20,000 tonnes) of dates were harvested, but only
half were sold around Chinese New Year, the county’s busiest shopping
period.
Upon
hearing the news, Liu Dongdong, a Yonghe native and then university
graduate working at a building and decorating firm in the provincial
capital of Taiyuan, thought of Taobao, China’s eBay with around 500 million users.
What
if people could sell the remaining dates online? Instead of farmers
waiting for customers to find them, they could deliver directly to
customers’ homes. Liu Dongdong returned home that night with dreams of
opening his own online business.
E-retail giants such as Alibaba and JD.com
have transformed the way people consume in China. The country now has
over 500 million online shoppers, making it the biggest e-commerce
market in the world, both in terms of number of consumers and total
spending – and the market is still expanding.
Recently,
the state has introduced a number of policies that specifically favour
the development of rural e-markets. Analysts predict that the next five
years will be a “golden era” for rural e-commerce. According to Alibaba
research, the rural e-commerce market may already be worth 460 billion
yuan (US$70 billion) in 2016.
In China’s villages people aspire to moving ‘up’, i.e. moving up the economic and social ladder by relocating to a big city.
In Yonghe County, the journey starts with moving to Yonghe town; then to Linfen, a prefecture-level city; and finally Taiyuan,
Shanxi’s largest city. As more and more young people, like Liu, flock
here to the cities to find work, their villages are left to deal with an
even-worsening labour shortage.
For
Liu, and other graduates like him working in Taiyuan, it’s hard to go
home. Poverty-stricken counties, such as Yonghe, suffer from infertile
land, poor transportation, high logistics costs, undeveloped industry
and a constant outflow of labour.
Liu believes that e-commerce might be part of the answer to saving his
hometown’s distressed economy. As well as rejuvenating the village’s
economy, it supports sustainable agricultural methods used by the local
farmers.
These young people, such as Liu Dongdong, are quitting jobs in the
cities to return home and give running their own e-commerce business a
shot.
This has big implications for distressed provincial economies. By luring
graduates back to the countryside, the opportunities offered by
e-commerce could help reverse the socially and economically damaging
effect of ‘empty nests’, where a region’s working age population moves
away leaving behind vulnerable parents, children and a distressed local
industry.
At the same time, the trend could take pressure off cities, which are
forced to accommodate ever bigger migrant populations, a trend that can
involve increased environmental costs than if these migrants had stayed
in rural areas.
Stagnant rural economies
The
sandy soil of the Yellow River basin, where Liu’s hometown is situated,
is ideal for growing dates. With warm days and cold nights, the earth
and climate combine to create sugar-rich dates - almost every household
grows some.
“It’s not that they’re no good, it’s just not enough people know about them,” he says.
Planting and harvesting dates can be backbreaking work.
“The farmers here suffer more than they do anywhere else,” sighed Yao
Na, a woman from a nearby county who recently married a local. “The
dates grow on steep slopes, so watering them, applying fertiliser and
harvesting is really tough.”
And even after work is done, a good harvest does not necessarily mean a good income.
“It’s about finding buyers,” Liu Dongdong told chinadialogue. “If we could sell [what is produced], each household could be making over 10,000 yuan (US$1,500).”
Without buyers for their produce, farmers have no choice but to seek work elsewhere.
In the past, 20 and 30-year olds left for the cities. Now 40 and 50
year-olds are now following them having fallen on hard times, and
leaving behind them ancestral arable land that often lies fallow.
Action needed
Feng Jianping was born in the 1990s and now runs a store that supplies
Taobao. He moved to Beijing at 15. He smiles wistfully as he recalls the
hardship of those early days, when he and his wife moved to Beijing,
leaving behind his parents and an eight month-old child.
In the four years they spent working in Beijing, the couple would, at
most, travel home once every three months. There was no high-speed rail
then, and the journey took a whole day.
“Looking at my daughter’s eyes every time I left, that was difficult,” he said.
The opportunity offered by e-commerce has tempted them back to Yonghe and now they run an online store selling local specialities; alcohol, dates and walnuts.
Government support
The future of these online entrepreneurs, to an extent, lies in the
hands of local government who grant the licences needed to operate.
Much of red tape relevant to e-commerce and agricultural produce
relates to food safety. China has endured a multitude of food scares and
poisonings in recent decades due to poor regulation and the widespread
pollution of air, soil and water.
In October 2015 China’s “toughest ever” food safety law
came into effect. It ruled that anyone selling food online – apart from
unprocessed agricultural products – must have the necessary licence,
with the online platform provider responsible for ensuring this is the
case.
Business
premises, equipment, staff, working practices and hygiene must all meet
standards before a licence is issued. Zhang Shuwang, an official with
the Yonghe Country Food Safety Bureau, told chinadialogue that, “health is no small matter, and food safety rules are getting more and more detailed”.
The
biggest challenge for businesses on Taobao is meeting the specifications
for family-run operations, such as Feng’s, that specialise in
foodstuffs.
On the plus side, the new Food Safety Law holds independent businesses
under its purview – those street-side sellers whose produce doesn't
use packaging or quality-assurance labels. Under the law, these farmers
are exempt from the need of a retail licence, an allowance which makes
their trade to possible.
Profits
That means Liu Dongdong’s shop can avoid costly, time-consuming
requirements to get a license. Within a month of moving back home, his
family’s red dates and walnuts were advertised online for sale.
Liu ran an e-retail outlet on Taobao while he was at university, selling
clothes, so he already knew the basics of running an online store. Even
in the off-season, he now makes 20,000 yuan (US$3,000) profit a month
from selling red dates online – far more than he made working in
Taiyuan.
After only a couple of weeks, the
receipts from the courier form a thick pile. Customers are spread out
all over China – from major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou
to small towns in Hainan. Yonghe’s deputy county chief, Cheng Wanjun,
said it’s a new way of doing business.
Now the farmers can sell the dates all around the country. It’s a new way of doing business
Cheng Wanjun, deputy county chief, has been working to promote rural e-commerce in the area. He told chinadialogue
that breakthroughs in rural e-commerce will come from improving
products through commercialisation and branding. Fostering local
companies and personnel, and building up their expertise, will be
crucial to this, he adds.
To
this end, the county government invited five teachers and 24 students
from the Communication University of Shanxi to help with brand design
for a soon-to-be-launched Yonghe online store.
Villagers who are interested only need to bring their computer and start
to learn, at no cost. The classes cover everything – from design of
branding and packages, to sourcing products, running the store,
and after-sales service.
Digital divide
But Cheng has his concerns: online competition is fierce, and even if
the county throws its full weight behind the companies and people
involved, businesses might still not make the most of their potential.
Furthermore, broadband access is limited once you leave the county
town. For example, the village of Lujiaokou to the south-west has 200
households, but only two with broadband.
Yonghe is not the only county in this situation. There is a stark
digital divide between China’s cities and villages – internet
penetration in rural China is only 30%, less than half of that in urban
areas.
In response, central government has set a target of
bringing unlimited broadband to 98% of China’s administrative villages
by 2020.
Li
Chang’an, a professor at the School of Public Administration at the
University of International Business and Economics, has suggested that
construction of network infrastructure in vulnerable regions should be
sped up, with connectivity and more Internet skills training for rural
workers.
According to Alibaba research, county-level e-commerce will require two million trained employees in 2015 and 2016.
According to Alibaba research, county-level e-commerce will require two million trained employees in 2015 and 2016.
It seems that it is finding enough qualified workers currently the biggest challenge.
Author: Tessa Morris-Suzuki, ANU
‘As President of the United States of America, I express my profound
apologies for the sufferings inflicted on the people of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki by the atomic bombings’. These, of course, are the words that
we are not going to hear Barack Obama speak in Hiroshima on 27 May,
when he becomes the first sitting US president to visit the city since
the atomic bombings in August 1945. It is sad that we will not hear at
least a version of these words. A simple but sincere apology might bring
some peace of mind to the survivors and their families, and could have a
profound effect on Japanese society.
The forces that shaped Japan’s postwar history created a situation
where the United States has never apologised, and the Japanese
government has been ambivalent about memorialising the atomic bombings.
This uneasy relationship with the memory of the bombings is surely one
reason why Japan has such difficulty in apologising sincerely for its own past aggression.
The deep sense of unassuaged victimhood left by the bombings feeds a
reluctance among many (though not all) Japanese to acknowledge their
country’s own role as an aggressor. An apology from the US president
might help to dissolve that feeling of victimhood. It could also provide
a model for reconciliation between Japan and its neighbours.
But Obama has already stated that he will not apologise. Political
resistance in the United States is too strong. Many still accept the
story that the atomic bombings saved hundreds of thousands of lives by
shortening the war, despite powerful arguments for taking a different
view of history. The Soviet declaration of war on Japan was almost
certainly as important a factor as the atomic bombings in pushing Japan
into surrender. There is also a credible argument that Japan would have
surrendered without Hiroshima and Nagasaki if the Japanese government
had felt assured that the emperor would be retained after Japan’s
defeat. Since the United States in any case intended to retain the
Japanese emperor in a symbolic position, this places a huge question
mark over attempts to justify the mass suffering caused by the atomic
bombs.
But the absence of an apology is not only a result of US decisions.
There is little evidence that the Japanese government wants the United
States to say sorry. Among documents released by Wikileaks in 2011 is a secret cable
quoting a leading Japanese diplomat as arguing against a US apology. It
seems that the Japanese government fears that an apology might promote anti-nuclear sentiments in Japan, and is all too aware that it could be put on the spot by a sincere act of repentance from the US leader.
If Obama does not apologise, what will he do instead? Can his visit
have any meaning without an apology? Can gestures speak louder than
words? When, in 1970, the then West German chancellor Willy Brandt fell
on his knees before the memorial to the Warsaw Gh
etto,
his silent act probably did more than any spoken apology could have
done to express remorse for the wrongs of the Holocaust. Brandt’s
gesture was powerful, though, not just because of its visible sincerity,
but above all because of the Chancellor’s own personal history as a man
who had resisted Nazism. The Brandt ‘kniefall’ spoke loudly because there was never any doubt of Brandt’s willingness to also put an apology into words.
Hiroshima is not the Warsaw Ghetto, and Obama is not Willy Brandt.
Yet his actions in Hiroshima will matter. Though verbally apologising is
an essential part of ongoing processes of reconciliation, listening is
also vital. The resentment towards the Japanese government felt by the
victims of Japanese wartime aggression arises not just from its recent
non-apologies, but from its refusal to listen and learn from their
stories. Even if he does not say the word ‘sorry’, the sincerity with
which Obama listens to the stories of the victims will be a touchstone
of the meaning of his visit.
He needs to listen to the silences too. I will never forget hearing a
friend who survived the bombing of Hiroshima describing the event. Half
way through the story, his words faltered and then stopped. More than
60 years on, his experiences of that day in August 1945 were still
unspeakable. If Obama can listen intently to the silences that still
haunt Hiroshima and Nagasaki, perhaps his visit can bring us closer to
the moment when the United States and its allies can finally speak the
three words that still need to be said: we are sorry. Tessa Morris-Suzuki is Professor of Japanese History in the
College of Asia and the Pacific at The Australian National University. cOURTESY:WWW.EASTASIAFORUM.ORG
New technology can enable better policing of the world's oceans, writes Douglas McAuley
An illustration of ship traffic in 2015. (Image by Global Fishing Watch)
Over
the past century, rampant overfishing, severe pollution, and runaway
coastal development have taken a huge toll on the world’s oceans. Now,
however, two major advances in global ocean governance are quietly
unfolding, offering hope that the early decades of the 21st century will
mark a turning point in which humanity can begin to repair the global
seas.
Yet a key question remains: Will the new availability of sophisticated,
satellite-based technologies, coupled with the democratisation of online
data about the health of our environment, help ensure that these
positive advancements live up to their potential to protect the oceans?
The first encouraging policy development is the explosive movement by
countries around the world to set up massive marine protected areas of
unprecedented size. The biggest of these newly proposed mega-marine
protected areas, the Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve,
is three-and-a-half times larger than the UK, and more than 100,000
times larger than the historical median size for an ocean protected
area.
The 19 mega-marine protected areas created or announced in
the last six years would comprise an area larger than all the protected
ocean areas created previously. Several huge marine reserves currently
being considered would add an additional 775,000 square miles (1.8
million square kilometres) of ocean protection.
The second key development is that the UN is now drawing up a treaty
that would, for the first time, manage biodiversity across the high seas
— the region outside the 200-mile exclusive economic zones of
individual nations.
The forthcoming UN high seas treaty would be setting new
rules for a swath of the ocean 22 times larger than the US. These new
regulations are focused on preserving marine biodiversity, establishing
international ocean reserves, evaluating processes for sharing marine
genetic resources, and effectively carrying out environmental impact
assessments.
In the absence of systems to monitor boundaries, large marine protected areas will be nothing more than huge paper parks.
These bold new policies suggest that decision-makers are finally
committed to taking the kind of aggressive actions needed to stay a step
ahead of industrialisation in the oceans — something we failed to do
when industrialisation occurred on land.
This issue extends well beyond industrial-scale
fishing. Recent innovation and technological development have now made
it possible to take the industries of farming, mining, power generation,
and even data centre management underwater.
The scope and significance of this mass acceleration
of new uses of the ocean cannot be overstated. In 2014, for example, the
world began eating more fish from farms than from the wild — a marine
reprise of our historic shift on land from hunting wild food to farming.
Mining claims have already been staked to roughly 400,000 square miles
of deep-sea ecosystems.
The campaigns to vastly expand marine protected areas and significantly
improve international governance of the oceans are extremely exciting.
But both of these important policy movements have an Achilles heel: Laws
only matter if you can ensure that people actually follow them.
These new policies cover such vast areas that they render
boat, plane, and other traditional forms of ocean observation as
obsolete as sextants. In the absence of systems to watch their
boundaries, large marine protected areas will be nothing more than huge
paper parks. Likewise, our efforts to control the exploitation of
high-seas biodiversity via the new UN treaty will only be effective if
we aren’t blind to what is happening in this large and distant part of
the ocean.
But just as technological innovation is fueling a rapid acceleration of
development in the ocean, high-tech solutions may also hold the key to
ensuring that a marine industrial revolution advances responsibly and
intelligently. These advances, when put in the hands not just of
governments but also of researchers, citizen-scientists and
environmental groups, promise a new era in which we can actively observe
and responsibly plan out what’s going on in the world’s seas.
A vital solution lies in the use of satellite-interfacing sensors and
data processing tools that are beginning to allow us to watch how ships
use the oceans as easily as we track Uber taxis cruising around a city.
Like airplanes, more and more ships now carry sensors that publicly
transmit their position so they don’t crash into each other. We can make
use of these same streams of safety data to detect where industrial
fishing is concentrated, to watch as seabed mining exploration begins,
and to observe how cargo ships overlap with whale migration pathways.
Seaweed aquaculture emerging in the Taiwan Strait. View gallery.Photo: Planet Lab
Instead of the oceans being a black hole of data, our new challenge is
figuring out ways to intelligently and efficiently sift through the
billions of data points now pouring in. Fortunately, smart new
algorithms can help pick out specific kinds of vessel behaviour from
this sea of big data. Ships leave unique behaviour fingerprints. For
example, purse seine fishing boats make circles around fish schools when
setting their nets, while long-line fishing boats travel linearly up
and back along the gear they set.
In a recent report in the journal Science, colleagues at the non-profit Global Fishing Watch and I monitored progress as the nation of Kiribati closed a section of its ocean the
size of California to fishing. After six months of observation, we
happily saw that all vessels, save one, left to fish elsewhere. Our
group also mapped out the activity of purse seine (a type of
net) fishing boats on the high seas of the Pacific — generating the
first publicly accessible view of where fishing activity occurs in the
very region that the UN high seas convention may consider setting up
international protected areas.
A key question ahead is whether governments will realise the value of
this new data and act on calls from the scientific community to require
that more vessels carry these observation sensors and use them properly.
We estimate that approximately 70% of all large fishing
vessels worldwide are already equipped with these publicly accessible
tracking systems. Some captains, unfortunately, misuse the tool by
turning it off after leaving port or failing to enter proper vessel
identification information into the system. All such noncompliance
issues are readily detectable by big data processing.
Imaging satellites can function like space-based red light cameras that snap pictures of law-breakers at sea.
If political will can be mustered to close these loopholes, these
observation technologies could shed an immense amount of light on our
now-dark oceans.
Orbiting in space alongside these ship-tracking satellites is another
rapidly growing fleet of nanosatellites that constantly take
high-resolution pictures of the earth. This technology promises to be an
important additional piece in the ocean-observation puzzle.
Tracking
The goal of the groups tending to these flocks of tiny
electronic eyes is to be able to take a high-resolution snapshot of the
entire earth, every day. These new imaging satellites may soon allow
marine ecologists, ocean conservation groups, and marine park managers
to begin to search in near real-time for ships in protected areas, to
monitor weekly (even daily) losses of coastal mangrove forests, and to
document abuses to coral reefs, such as dredging.
With foresight, the intelligence derived from the vessel
tracking systems may eventually be interlinked with these imaging
satellites to enable them to function like space-based red light cameras
that snap pictures of law breaking at sea as it happens.
Not all next-generation ocean observation has to be based in outer
space. An exciting array of new marine-monitoring technologies is
increasingly available that also could be useful. Aerial drones are
beginning to be used to patrol coastal waters. Fleets of drone ships may
follow suit and could help monitor both the health of ocean resources,
as well as the behaviour of those that harvest them. Shore- and
aircraft-based radar and acoustic recorders that listen for boat noise
could also be deployed.
High stakes
Now,
anyone can keep tabs on the most remote parts of the ocean on their
phones. Global Fishing Watch, for example, is releasing a product this
year that will let anyone view and interact with data on fishing from
across the global oceans for free. Planet Labs,
a startup that manages the largest constellation of earth-observing
nanosatellites, recently released a constantly updated, free library of imagery for all of California – including its estuaries, bays, kelp forests, and nearshore waters.
The challenge ahead, as we enter this new era of improved ocean
stewardship and attempt to govern increasingly bigger regions of the
ocean, is to ensure that our new policies are actually enforced. The
stakes here are high. We have to make these emerging protected areas and
treaties work, and we must do it soon, if we intend to help the oceans
continue to dish out large helpings of food, energy, and wonder.
Government promises crackdown and
delivery of new soil pollution law after hundreds of Chinese children
are poisoned by chemical waste, writes Zhang Chun
Angry parents demonstrate outside the school blamed for
illness in hundreds of children. The school was built close to a former
fertiliser factory (Image by weibo)
For
many Chinese, the country’s soil pollution crisis has become
increasingly acute in recent weeks after several hundred children fell
ill from attending a school built close to a former fertiliser factory.
Almost 500 students at the Changzhou Foreign Languages School suffered symptoms such
as skin inflammation, eczema and bronchitis after taking lessons at a
school that had only been open for six months, raising questions about
what the school authorities knew.
The school was built close to a former fertiliser factory site, and the
400 mu (266,700 square metres) dump had been owned by three chemical
factories. Of these, the biggest was Changlong Chemicals, a fertiliser
and pesticides company that had already been investigated for breaching
environmental regulations. The company operated on the site for 50 years
before relocating in 2009 and some of the chemicals detected at the
school are extremely toxic.
The school’s authorities initially responded by publishing an open letter
accusing the media of exaggerating circumstances, but then cooperated
with investigations and created a microsite to publish public updates.
The incident has given rise to comparisons with the Love Canal
scandal in the US in the late 1970s, when residents of an industrial
town near the Canadian border found that buried toxic waste has seeped
into their homes and made many of them ill.
The
Changzhou case is the latest in a spate of toxic soil scandals involving
schools across China. In the last decade, four other serious incidences
have emerged. The continued failure to clean up polluted sites, and a
lack of public disclosure relating to the operation of chemical
companies, has hampered progress.
The Changzhou school site has been passed on to shopping mall developers
who have already started planting trees in the polluted soil.
The investigation
In order to get confirmation that their children had become ill through
attending the school, parents of students called a third party company
to test the air and water at the site. They found heavy metals
iron, chromium and arsenic in the soil, and organic pollutants such as
acetone, benzene, toluene and dichloromethane in the air.
Chemical
pollutants such as chlorobenzene and carbon tetrachloride were
discovered in the soil and water at levels tens of thousands of times
higher than those legally permitted.
Under pressure to respond to the scandal, the government started to
monitor air, soil and water quality in and around the campus, after the
school denied responsibility for the illnesses.
Six monitoring points have been set up on school grounds to collect air
quality data, in addition to two more in Changzhou city itself which
will provide comparative data. Initial data suggest nothing unusual
about the air quality surrounding the school.
A team of medical experts say the school’s water meets national
standards and food hygiene is adequate. Furthermore, attendance records
show that there have been no outbreaks of infectious diseases at the
school. At the time of writing, an official government investigation
into the soil pollution was underway.
A recently published survey found that 80% of China’s agricultural land is polluted which will cost an estimated US$1 trillion to
clean up. However, Chen Nengchang of the independent Guangdong
Institute of Eco-environmental and Soil Sciences, said that survey may
have been imprecise through its use of sampling.
Health risks
Luo Qian, a deputy pharmaceuticals researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, told
reporters that chlorobenzene – a chemical detected on the school site -
“accumulates in the human body and will gradually damage the liver and
kidneys and irritate the skin and mucous membranes.” While carbon
tetrachloride – also detected – is toxic to embryos.
A number of experts, including Chen Tongbin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geographical Sciences and Guo Biao, professor at Peking University’s School of Public Health,
say that short term exposure to these pollutants is unlikely to cause
cancer but may cause ‘sub-acute’ poisoning. Long term exposure means a
higher risk of leukaemia and lymphatic cancer.
Instead
of removing the soil, a new layer will simply be laid on top and the
contaminated earth left to further pollute groundwater supplies, which
critics say is indicative of the government’s failure to enforce
accountability for the complicated task of soil remediation.
Weak oversight
Weak oversight has led to a number of chemical pollution incidents in
China, some involving Changlong Chemicals. In 2015, over 10,000 tonnes
of chemical waste was discovered under a pig farm in Jingjiang,
about an hour’s drive from the Changzhou site and the company’s
headquarters. Some of that waste was traced to Changlong. In late 2014,
the province's top court ordered six companies to pay a total of 160 million yuan for polluting rivers – Changlong’s share of that sum was 85 million yuan (US$13 million).
During
construction of the Songjiazhuang subway station in Beijing in 2004
three workers fainted while doing excavation work. It was later
discovered that the site had belonged to a fertiliser factory, and the
polluted soil was later removed and incinerated.
A similar incident
in Wuhan, central China’s most populous city, involved a fertiliser
factory site that was sold to a developer. The buyer was not made aware
that the site was polluted. When
construction started in 2007 workers mysteriously fell ill. The
vendor later had to refund the developer’s purchase price and pay 120
million yuan (US$18.5 million) in compensation.
Meanwhile, in Heshan a village in Hunan province
north of Wuhan, local authorities found that 70% of land in the city
was polluted to some extent, with 296,800 cubic metres of soil
contaminated. Major pollutants included organic phosphorus and chlorine,
with contamination reaching to an average depth of 1.8 metres – and 9
metres at some points. Experts estimated it would cost 280 million yuan
(US$43 million) to fully restore all sites in Heshan.
The new soil law
Three decades of urbanisation has seen China’s cities expand to surround
fertiliser and chemical factories that were originally built far from
human settlements. When land prices rise the factories relocate, leaving
mounds of toxic earth behind them. Cleaning contaminated soil is a
notoriously difficult, intensive and expensive process and cleaning
up heavily polluted sites can take years, if not decades.
A lack of awareness surrounding the dangers of soil pollution, weak
legislation and poor implementation where construction often starts
before environmental impact assessments are approved, are holding back
progress.
On April 25 Chen Jining, minister of environmental protection, said that
a long-awaited action plan for dealing with soil pollution will be
released and implemented this year, along with a detailed survey of soil
pollution.
That survey is still under discussion but will focus on agricultural
land use construction rather than industrial sites which remain
neglected.
China’s efforts, which mirror the development of US Superfunds, should address the current environmental laws
What China has done to address soil pollution
2012 An MEP circular establishes guidelines for cleaning up brownfield land for redevelopment
2014
Revisions to the1989 Environmental Protection Law strengthen penalties
for polluters and enshrine the public’s right to access environmental
data
2015 Beijing pledges approximately US$450 million over the next three years to help 30 Chinese cities tackle heavy metal pollution
2016 A 10-point soil action plan is drawn up
2017 The national Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law is expected to come into force
