CHINA: The Geography of Chinese Power

Published: April 19, 2010

By ROBERT D. KAPLAN, I.H.T. Op-Ed Contributor

China’s blessed geography is so obvious a point that it tends to get overlooked in discussions of the country’s economic dynamism and national assertiveness.

Yet it is essential: It means that China will stand at the hub of geopolitics even if the country’s path toward global power is not necessarily linear.

Today China’s ambitions are as aggressive as those of the United States a century ago, but for completely different reasons. China does not take a missionary approach to world affairs, seeking to spread an ideology or a system of government. Instead, its actions are propelled by its need to secure energy, metals and strategic minerals in order to support the rising living standards of its immense population.

Within the Chinese state, Xinjiang and Tibet are the two principal areas whose inhabitants have resisted China’s pull. In order to secure Xinjiang — and the oil, natural gas, copper, and iron ore in its soil — Beijing has for decades been populating it with Han Chinese from the country’s heartland.

The mountainous Tibetan Plateau is rich in copper and iron ore and accounts for much of China’s territory. This is why Beijing views with horror the prospect of Tibetan autonomy and why it is frantically building roads and railroads across the area.

China’s northern border wraps around Mongolia, a giant territory that looks like it was once bitten out of China’s back. Mongolia has one of the world’s lowest population densities and is now being threatened demographically by an urban Chinese civilization next door.

Having once conquered Outer Mongolia to gain access to more cultivable land, Beijing is poised to conquer Mongolia again, albeit indirectly, through the acquisition of its natural resources.

North of Mongolia and of China’s three northeastern provinces lies Russia’s Far East region, a numbing vastness twice the size of Europe with a meager and shrinking population and large reserves of natural gas, oil, timber, diamonds and gold.

As with Mongolia, the fear is not that the Chinese army will one day invade or formally annex the Russian Far East. It is that Beijing’s demographic and corporate control over the region is steadily increasing.

China’s influence is also spreading southeast. In fact, it is with the relatively weak states of Southeast Asia that the emergence of a Greater China is meeting the least resistance.

There are relatively few geographic impediments separating China from Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, and China continues to develop profitable relationships with its southern neighbors. It uses Asean (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) as a market for selling high-value Chinese manufactured goods while buying from it low-value agricultural produce.

Central Asia, Mongolia, the Russian Far East and Southeast Asia are natural zones of Chinese influence. But they are also zones whose political borders are not likely to change. The situation on the Korean Peninsula is different. No one really expects China to annex any part of the Korean Peninsula, of course, But although it supports Kim Jong-il’s Stalinist regime, it has plans for the peninsula beyond his reign.

Beijing would like to eventually dispatch there the thousands of North Korean defectors who now are in China so that they could build a favorable political base for Beijing’s gradual economic takeover of the region.

China is as blessed by its seaboard as by its continental interior, but it faces a far more hostile environment at sea than it does on land.

The Chinese Navy sees little but trouble in what it calls the “first island chain”: the Korean Peninsula, the Kuril Islands, Japan (including the Ryukyu Islands), Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia.

China’s answer to feeling so boxed in has been aggressive at times — for example when, in March 2009, a handful of Chinese Navy ships harassed the U.S. surveillance ship Impeccable while it was openly conducting operations in the South China Sea.

Beijing is also preparing to envelop Taiwan not just militarily but economically and socially. How this comes about will be pivotal for the future of great-power politics in the region. If the United States simply abandons Taiwan to Beijing, then Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia and other U.S. allies in the Pacific will begin to doubt the strength of Washington’s commitments. That could encourage those states to move closer to China and thus allow the emergence of a Greater China of truly hemispheric proportions.

So can the United States work to preserve stability in Asia, protect its allies there, and limit the emergence of a Greater China while avoiding a conflict with Beijing?

Strengthening the U.S. air and sea presence in Oceania would be a compromise approach between resisting a Greater China at all cost and assenting to a future in which the Chinese Navy policed the first island chain. This approach would ensure that China paid a steep price for any military aggression against Taiwan.

Still, the very fact of China’s rising economic and military power will exacerbate U.S.-Chinese tensions in the years ahead. To paraphrase the political scientist John Mearsheimer, the United States, the hegemon of the Western Hemisphere, will try to prevent China from becoming the hegemon of much of the Eastern Hemisphere. This could be the signal drama of the age.

Robert D. Kaplan is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a correspondent for The Atlantic. A fuller version of this article appears in the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs.

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CHINA: Three pulled out of debris alive five days after quake

Updated: 2010-04-19 21:49

(Xinhua)

YUSHU, Qinghai - Three Tibetan women were pulled out alive from rubble Monday, five days after a 7.1-magnitude quake hit northwest China, rescuers said.

At about 11:00 a.m., Sichuan Mining Rescue Team rescued the 68-year-old Urgyan Tsomo and 4-year-old Tsering Belkyi, who had been buried for more than 123 hours. Their family had managed to send water and rice to the two buried under their collapsed house. Luckily, they had a bedboard overhead for protection.

Another saved was an unidentified Tibetan woman, who was rescued out of rubble 130 hours after the quake occurred.

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CHINA: Weather poses fresh misery over quake-hit region

Updated: 2010-04-19 07:53

By Zhang Jin and Zuo Likun (China Daily)

XINING - Snow, rain and strong wind, coupled with a drop in temperature, will descend on quake-hit Yushu county in the coming days, aggravating the misery endured by survivors and rescuers, a weather forecaster said on Sunday.

The temperature will fall by 4 to 6 C from Monday to Wednesday, chief weather forecaster Wei Shuxia, of the Qinghai Meteorological Bureau, told China Daily.

The temperature varies greatly by hours, she said. The mercury could be 15 C at noon, but fall below zero at night.

Wei said the lowest recorded temperature in Yushu in April once hit -12.8 C.

To make matters worse, the weather can vary within minutes.

"It could be sunny one minute, followed by snow and then hailstones," she said, suggesting that the variation in weather, along with the altitude of 4,000 meters above sea level, hampers outsiders from adapting to Yushu's climate.

Altitude sickness and harsh weather were the biggest challenges to rescuers and quake victims, Li Wenzhong, who heads a rescue team from Xi'an, Shaanxi province, said in a phone call from Yushu.

"I woke up at night feeling cold," he said, referring to Saturday night.

Meanwhile, Qinghai has banned the use of advertising balloons to ensure the safety of flights that deliver aid to, and ferry victims from, Yushu county.

"We have suspended accepting applications to use hydrogen balloons, especially those for commercial use," said Yuan Zhaosen, director of the policy and regulation department of Qinghai Meteorological Bureau.

These advertising balloons, with a diameter of one or two meters, are usually tied with huge banners and fixed to the ground. They could pose a threat to flights if the balloons break free, Yuan said.

"In the worst cases, a flying balloon could cause a plane to crash," he said.

"Severe punishment" will be imposed on those who violate the ban, Yuan warned.

As of 11 pm on Saturday, a total of 226 planes have flown to and from Yushu, carrying 4,470 people and delivering 547 tons of aid, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

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CHINA: China quake death toll climbs to more than 2,000

Ethnic Tibetan women rest amid the ruins of their destroyed house in the earthquake-hit Gyegu town in Yushu County, Qinghai province April 18, 2010.  Credit: Reuters/Stringer

BEIJING (Reuters) - The official death toll from an earthquake on China's remote Tibetan plateau has climbed to 2,039, state media said on Tuesday.

Another 195 people are still listed as missing following the quake, which struck Yushu county in the western province of Qinghai last Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency said.

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CHINA & TAIWAN: Ancient festival

Millions of people are expected to visit the temple in Dajia for the festivities

Page last updated at 23:20 GMT, Monday, 19 April 2010 00:20 UK

As Taiwan celebrates one of its most important religious occassions, the Mazu festival, an interesting interaction between China and the island that separated from it in 1949 is also taking place, the BBC's Cindy Sui reports.

A record number of celebrants from mainland China - more than 2,000 people from about 40 Mazu temples - are in the town of Dajia to witness the beginning of the Goddess of the Sea's 330km (205 miles) tour to bless adherents in more than 20 townships.

Centuries-old festivals such as this one organised by the Dajia Jenn Lann Temple have nearly disappeared in China. But they have been kept alive in Taiwan, which did not undergo the anti-feudal or anti-religious campaigns that China did.

Mazu originated in China, but thrives in Taiwan like nowhere else. In recent years, Chinese officials have sought help from Taiwan to help them rebuild destroyed or neglected Mazu temples.

Increasing wealth and openness have made many ordinary Chinese people curious about their cultural and religious history, with many turning to China's traditional religious faiths to help them cope with the challenges of life.

Many are now coming to Taiwan to explore their religious roots, especially after relations between the two rivals improved when Taiwan's China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou entered office in 2008.

Common heritage

Mazu, a fisherman's daughter who was widely worshipped in coastal areas of East and South-East Asia as a protector of fishermen and sailors, was born in Fujian province in China in AD 960.

For years China's communist government banned worship of her, along with other religions. Only in recent decades has Mazu worship begun to re-emerge in China.

Worshipping Mazu was banned for decades by China's communist rulers

Zheng Huan-qiang, an official from a Mazu temple in China's Fujian province, is one of the people in Taiwan this month to see how Mazu is worshipped here.

"I've believed in Mazu from a young age, along with my mom and dad. But when I was young, my parents didn't tell me much about Mazu and during the Cultural Revolution, we couldn't worship her," said Zheng.

He later rediscovered his faith in Mazu. "Taiwanese people's belief in Mazu is very strong. They put a lot of effort into the celebrations. Their ceremonies, processes, the rules they go by are all very elaborate," he said.

Even President Ma Ying-jeou joined in the ceremonies last week. Hundreds of people thronged the temple, with many eager to place incense in the burner and to see the traditional performances on the temple square.

But for China, sending its temple representatives here to join in the celebrations is not without its political motivations.

The Chinese government has placed great emphasis on reviving Mazu in China - seeing it as an important way to underscore its insistence that Taiwanese people and culture came from China - and that Taiwan is a part of China.

Beijing hopes to reunify with the island one day and has not renounced the use of force to do so.

"They're doing this to show both sides believe in Mazu and have a similar heritage," said Tsai Ming-hsien, a volunteer Mazu celebrations organiser who has had many dealings with Chinese temple officials.

Celebrants from mainland China have been instructed to not give interviews, according to their Taiwanese tour guides.

Zheng, who reluctantly gave an interview to the BBC, echoed the official line. Despite showing admiration for how Mazu festivities had been kept alive for a millennium in Taiwan, he emphasised that "the roots of Taiwan's Mazu beliefs lie in mainland China".

'Religion, not politics'

Another motivation for Chinese temples is tourism.

Taiwanese adherents over the years have given large amounts of money to help rebuild China's Mazu temples, but they have noticed that China's temple officials see Mazu differently.

            The colourful festival attracts many mainland visitors to Taiwan

"They're reviving the temples to make money. They're running the temples like enterprises, not based on faith," said Tsai. "They hold the festivals like a carnival, for tourism. They're always asking us how to make it run so that it makes money."

Some temples in mainland China charge entrance fees and the incense sold there can be expensive, Tsai said. In Taiwan, temples are open to all and there is no need to make donations.

Nevertheless, officials from both sides said the fact that both sides were stepping up cultural exchanges was a sign of improving relations.

"It's about religion, not politics. What's most important is doing things that are good for the economy of both sides' people," said the Dajia Jenn Lann Temple's vice chairman, Cheng Ming-kun.

He said that the increased number of Chinese visitors to Dajia had helped the town and nearby scenic areas.

"Mazu brings together the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and brings peoples' feelings closer," Mr Cheng said.

This year, Dajia is expecting more than seven million celebrants over the three-month festival period, with about one million over the most important nine days, he said.

Besides China, celebrants come from Australia, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore.

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JAPAN: Ministry aims to build over 14 new atomic power plants by 2030

TOKYO, April 19 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The industry ministry said Monday that Japan should build more than 14 new atomic power plants by 2030 as part of its effort to fight global warming.

Japan currently has 54 nuclear power plants nationwide. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry also proposed that the country raise the operating rate of the facilities to the world's top level of some 90 percent in 20 years' time, while the rate has been declining to around 60 percent in recent years due partly to safety checks at some plants.

The proposals are in a set of recommendations submitted by the ministry to the Advisory Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, an advisory panel to the METI minister discussing long-term energy policies the government should take in the next 10 to 20 years.

A draft guideline, unveiled last month, fell short of mentioning those numerical goals for 2030.

As for the 2020 target, the ministry said Monday that Japan should construct nine new atomic power plants, up from eight proposed by the earlier draft, adding that the operating rate should be raised to around 85 percent by the year.

While Japan has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 in the fight against climate change, the ministry says the country should achieve the goal by taking measures including promoting the use of nuclear energy.

But the proposal for wider atomic power use has been facing opposition from some lawmakers and conservation groups expressing concerns over radioactive toxic waste that poses disposal problems.

The advisory panel will work out Japan's new basic energy plan in early June after soliciting public opinions and discussing with ministries and agencies concerned.

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JAPAN: Japan's Uniqlo to open giant New York store

Posted: 19 April 2010 2138 hrs

A Uniqlo store

TOKYO: The operator of Japan's low-cost clothing chain Uniqlo on Monday said it planned to set up its biggest store in the world in New York as it ramps up new openings.

Fast Retailing said its US subsidiary had signed a lease contract for the 8,300 square metre (90,000 square feet) space on Fifth Avenue in New York, which would be the firm's second in the city. It gave no other details other than to say it saw a "minimal" impact on its financial results for the year.

Uniqlo's first outlet in New York opened in 2006.

The retailer is expected to open its fourth global flagship in Shanghai in May, boasting 1,100 square metres on three floors with a sleek design by the architects behind Apple's stores.

The firm recently reported net profit jumped 55.7 per cent to 55.4 billion yen (594 million dollars) in the six months to February.

The casual-clothing empire, founded by billionaire Tadashi Yanai -- Japan's richest person according to Forbes Magazine -- is seen as a rare success story in a domestic retail sector battered by deflation and weak demand.

Uniqlo has continued its expansion across Asia as well as Europe and the United States, despite tough competition from foreign rivals such as Gap, Zara and H&M.
- AFP/jy

Tadashi Yanai

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TRAVEL: Injured? Sick? Volcano? Travel insurance can help

By Eileen AJ Connelly, AP Personal Finance Writer

NEW YORK — The cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland that has shut down airports all over Europe is just the latest event to disrupt travel.

Hurricanes and other natural disasters, along with political unrest and personal problems, ruin vacation and business travel plans all the time.

One way to hedge against such events is travel insurance. For a relatively small fee — typically 4 to 8% of the cost of the trip — you can buy protection for your trip.

Typical policies cover costs for delays, like extra hotel stays or the price involved in changing plans; the nonrefundable costs for interrupted or canceled trips; lost or stolen luggage; medical emergencies and even medical evacuation. Older travelers and those who take more expensive vacations can expect to pay the higher prices.

But you can no longer get coverage for next week's planned trip to Europe.

The travel insurance industry has designated the eruption of the volcano beneath an Icelandic glacier as a "known event," explained Jill Rosenberg, manager of group and executive travel for AAA New York. That means you won't be able to buy coverage for trips that may be canceled or otherwise impacted by the volcano.

"It's sort of like buying homeowner's insurance while your house is on fire," said Jim Grace, president of Insuremytrip.com, which sells policies from 24 companies online.

Similar rules apply to a hurricane once it has a name, said Carol Mueller, a spokeswoman for the insurer Travel Guard.

Mueller said about 75% of claims in the industry are related to canceling trips, usually because of illness for the traveler or a family member.

Here's some tips for buying travel insurance:

• Purchase your policy within seven to 14 days of booking your trip to get the most comprehensive coverage.

• Ask questions to make sure you're getting the coverage you need. Grace said about 90% of the companies that sell policies through his website are covering volcano-related cancellations.

• Adventure travel and high-risk activities may require extra insurance on top of the standard policy.

• Extra protection is available through policies with "cancel for any reason" riders, which are more expensive. Some of these policies may not reimburse the full cost of a trip, so make sure you know how much coverage you're buying.

• Theft or damage of personal property is usually covered, but there are typically price limits. Homeowner's or renter's insurance may provide backup for expensive items like electronics or jewelry, but check before you leave home.

• Many booking websites offer travel insurance at the time you make a reservation, but you can also buy it separately through an aggregator like insuremytrip.com or directly from company sites. Prices vary, so it makes sense to shop around.

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RUSSIA: 'Returned' Russian Adoptee Stirs Debate On International Adoption

April 19, 2010

TRANSCRIPT

MICHEL MARTIN, host:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News.

Coming up, my weekly commentary. I'll share my thoughts about the Tea Party movement and what I think their anger is really all about.

But now it's time to go Behind Closed Doors. That's the part of the program where we talk about things that are often difficult to discuss, often because of stigma or shame. And I'm thinking there are few things that would cause a parent more shame than to admit that you just cannot cope with a child whom you have committed to raise and love forever.

Of course we're talking about that story out of Tennessee last week where a woman put her 7-year-old adopted son on a plane back to his native Russia. She says the boy's behavioral problems were too severe for her family to address, and that she had been misled about their severity by the orphanage from which he came.

Russia has since said it will suspend adoptions by American families. But as you can imagine, this has also raised questions and pushed a lot of people's buttons in the U.S. To talk more about this, we called Dr. Jane Aronson. She's the pediatrician specializing in adoption medicine. She's an adoptive parent herself. She's also the founder of the Worldwide Orphans Foundation, and she joined us from Maplewood, New Jersey.

Thomas DiFilipo is the president of the Joint Council on International Children's Services. That's an advocacy organization that works to protect the right of children to live in families around the world. He joined us here in our Washington, D.C. studio.

Also with us, James Blue. He is the father of two adopted children from South Africa. He's also a veteran journalist who's covered much of the world. He is actually en route to South Africa, and he's joining us now from Doha, Qatar. I welcome you all. Thank you all so much for joining us.

Dr. JANE ARONSON (Pediatrician, Adoption Medicine): Thank you.

Mr. THOMAS DIFILIPO (President, Joint Council on International Children's Services): Thank you, Michel.

Mr. JAMES BLUE: Thank you.

MARTIN: So, Dr. Aronson, can we start with you and ask about this specific kind of situation? It's been reported, for example, in a piece that aired earlier on NPR, according to Chuck Johnson, who's the acting CEO of the National Council for Adoption, the number of failed foreign adoption parallels studies of failed domestic adoptions. And it says it's about 15 percent, which I think is a number that surprises me. Can I just get your perspective on that?

Dr. ARONSON: I'm not surprised at all. In fact, I wasn't surprised by the story because in my 20 years of doing adoption medicine, there have been many stories that have been quite similar. I can tell endless stories about families who were not able to continue parenting their child and abandoned the child, actually, in different settings all around the world because the kids were adopted from different countries. So, these are dramatic moments, but there are many stories like this.

MARTIN: Mr. DiFilipo, the focus of this particular case has been Russian adoptions but children come to the United States from all over the world. Can you just give us a sense of, are there any patterns to where difficulties arise? It makes you wonder whether there's something about the circumstances in some parts of the world versus others that make it particularly challenging.

Mr. DIFILIPO: Well, in this year alone there'll be about 10,000 children that come into the United States through international adoption. It was a high of 24,000 a few years ago but because of government policies, it's cut, well, more than in half. Gyegu

And whether or not there's a predisposition for one type of a problem in one region, I would say that fetal alcohol syndrome is certainly more prevalent in Southeast Asia and also in eastern Europe, not so much in Africa or South America. Other than that, it really seems to go towards how long the child's been institutionalized, whether or not there was prenatal care, child's birth weight. And Dr. Aronson can certainly speak to all of this better than I can. But it's really the institutionalization piece, which is universal. Institution in one country is generally the same as another.

MARTIN: Dr. Aronson, can I pick up on a point that you started our conversation with, which is to say the idea that a parent saying, well, this child is too difficult for me, therefore I can't cope - do you think that within the context of adoption, people feel more free to say that than they might if they had given birth to the child? Because, I mean, in this country, it seems to me the result would probably be the same, would probably be foster care, whatever it is. But I do wonder what you think in terms of what's going on with the families and how they process whatever it is they're dealing with.

Dr. ARONSON: Birth parents and parents through adoption have a hard time expressing any feeling of disappoint in their role as a parent and in their child. I think it just goes with the territory. You've been waiting a long time. You put a lot of energy and hope. Your dreams are about being a parent and then you have a baby either by birth or adoption and you’re supposed to be happy. And so it becomes exceedingly difficult to express those feelings.

Frequently, people have postpartum depression after birth. There's something called post-adoption depression and it's a very common feeling that people have but people don’t feel free to discuss it, and they should feel free to discuss those feelings because if you do express them then you get help.

MARTIN: Have you noticed any difference between people who adopt domestically and people who adopt internationally? Because one of the things I've from people who have international experience - international adoption - is that sometimes people feel free to challenge them about it. They feel free to say well, why did you choose a child from there when there are many children here?

Dr. ARONSON: I think that's a very - I mean I think all of us agree, that's a very unfair comment.

MARTIN: Mm-hmm.

Dr. ARONSON: I think there are children available all over the world. They're all equally in need, and there are many reasons that...

Mr. BLUE: Why is that an unfair comment?

Dr. ARONSON: There are many, many reasons why people choose to adopt.

MARTIN: Well no, but that's my point. My question is...

Mr. BLUE: I mean that's a perfectly reasonable question.

MARTIN: ...that people sometimes feel free to say things that they wouldn’t feel free to say in other context. And that's why I was just wondering was there any additional element to it.

James, do you want to speak to that?

Mr. BLUE: I disagree with Dr. Aronson. I think that's a perfectly reasonable question. I do wonder why people go to such great lengths to adopt foreign kids when there are so many available in the U.S. And I don’t believe I'm a hypocrite. I have adopted children internationally but at the time we did the adoption, we weren't able to adopt in the U.S. So I do think that's a valid question.

MARTIN: Do you think though that people challenge you on that?

Dr. ARONSON: No, but it's usually a criticism, James.

MARTIN: Mm-hmm.

Dr. ARONSON: That's the problem is that people often, you know, take people to task. They get angry at them. Why are you going to China when you could adopt in New York City? And there are really very important reasons why people may go to a country. And they may not be satisfying to someone else, but if you have an interest in your roots for instance, in Eastern Europe or South America, Central America, that can drive people.

Mr. BLUE: Sure it can drive people, but as the other guest just said, the leading countries where we're getting kids from are China, Russia, Ethiopia and Korea. And I can guarantee you most of the people adopting there don’t have attachments or roots in those countries.

MARTIN: James, can I ask you as a - both as a journalist who's traveled widely and as an adoptive parent yourself, we talked about the role of institutionalization there and whether agencies in orphanages overseas disclose a lot about the children and their circumstances and the kind of care they receive. Can I just ask what your experience was?

Mr. BLUE: Well, you know, I think it's a really good question and I think it has a lot to do with the sort of pre-adoptive services that are available. In our example, we were living in London and, you know, this agency said okay, we have a kid available for you in Johannesburg. And, you know, we were thinking, oh my gosh, this is great because the U.S. requires several medical measures and all sorts of medical records.

And so we got all of his medical records, gave it to an independent doctor, our physician in London, and said would you look at this? What do you think the issue is? But we were very, very impressed with the orphanage that we worked with because when we asked for additional testing that we paid for ourselves, they were more than willing to take them to sort of local experts in Johannesburg. They were really able to get to the bottom of some of the outstanding questions that we had. And, you know, hats off to them for providing those services.

MARTIN: Can I ask you how you’re reacting to this story?

Mr. BLUE: I'm reacting to this story in two ways because in addition to being an adoptive parent, I'm also an adoptee. And the thing that I find so tragic, I mean it's so extreme to put a child on a plane and send them back sight unseen. And what I don’t understand is how she didn’t have the tools to sort of work through. But it just seems to me there has to be some interim step between things aren't working out at home and putting him on a plane back to Russia.

I'm just saddened by the fact that she didn’t have support services, information or know-how to figure some other route because, you know, regardless of her sending her kid back to Russia, it still is her kid.

Mr. DIFILIPO: It actually get's a little more complicated than that...

MARTIN: Tom. Go ahead. Mm-hmm.

Mr. DIFILIPO: ...as well. This child's a U.S. citizen. Our understanding in looking at the situation is that the agency she used has a history of placing children with special needs or who are older, so she had developed plan so if this happens, if this type of behavior happens what do you do? If the child becomes violent what do you do? And that plan had to be submitted and approved by the placing agency.

MARTIN: So what do you think this is about Dr. Aronson, do you think this is about adoption or do you think this is more about parenting and the isolation that some parents feel?

Dr. ARONSON: As a pediatrician again, I take care of both children who are from birth and from adoption and I find that parenting is really what we're looking at here. It's a reflection of parenting and how we look at the responsibility as parents, what we do to prepare for it, how we learn to be better parents.

Most important to me at this point is that in my work as the CEO of Worldwide Orphans Foundation, we're many different countries providing services for orphans in their communities. And I do believe that this is a point for us to look at how children are living in the world.

You’ve got kids with no prenatal care as already been noted, exposure to alcohol, malnutrition, etcetera, etcetera, exposure to toxins, smoking, drugs and I think we have an obligation now to look at what do orphanages look like. That's what I do in my other, you know, hat is try to help orphans be the best people they can be, to get a good education, good medical care and good mental health care.

MARTIN: Charles, lets hear from you. What do you think we should learn from this?

Mr. DIFILIPO: Well, I think it is an issue of parenting and not just international adoption, because take a look at the United States, we have 500,000 children at any given time in U.S. foster care system and the majority of them are there because of abuse or neglect. And our goal is to protect children from any type of abuse or neglect, but it happens and it happens whether the child is born into the family or adopted into the family.

So I think one of the most important things that we can learn and that families can learn from this is that there is help available. There are alternatives to hurting your child, to neglecting your child, or to putting them on a plane. I mean whether it's your local church community or your extended family starting there, or going to mental health professionals. So there are options.

MARTIN: Are you worried that this will give adoption a bad name, as it were? Or perhaps, is it appropriate for people to stop and think about whether they are emotionally prepared to address whatever challenges come down the line?

Mr. DIFILIPO: I think it's very important for families to stop and think before they charge ahead with an adoption. Make sure they have the capacity and that they're willing to get help if they need it, and that's a sign of good parenting. Reaching out to get help is what is normal. You know, when people come back and they say, we just want to live a normal life. Well, if your child has problems, that's normal for you.

Mr. BLUE: Right, I mean I also think...

MARTIN: James, final thought from you?

Mr. BLUE: Yeah, I think we're right to focus on, you know, this is a parenting problem. And, you know, in some ways putting the kid on a plane is a symptom of her inability to cope. And sure, the kid has issues, but I think its right that we shouldn’t blame the kid for her shortcomings.

MARTIN: Dr. Aronson, do you want to give us a final thought about what we should learn from this going forward?

Dr. ARONSON: Yeah, I think what James just said just now is very critical and that is to not blame the child, when you asked will adoption be hurt. I think a lot of times people do, you know, look at adopted children in a very negative way and we really just in general should learn all the victims of adult decisions. Government decisions, parent decisions, community decisions and I think that that's really important things for us to take responsibility as a world community. We’ve got to be better caretakers of our children around the world.

MARTIN: Dr. Jane Aronson is a pediatrician specializing in adoption medicine. She's an adoptive parent and founder of the Worldwide Orphans Foundation. Thomas DiFilipo is the President of the Joint Council on International Children's Services. That's an advocacy organization that works to protect the right of children to live in families around the world. And James Blue is the father of two adopted children from South Africa, a veteran journalist, and I should disclose, also a friend.

And I thank you all so much for speaking with us.

Mr. BLUE: Thank you, Michel.

Mr. DIFILIPO: Thank you.

Dr. ARONSON: Thanks, Michel.

Mr. BLUE: Thanks.

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S. KOREA: South Korea president vows to pursue those responsible for naval disaster

April 19, 2010 | 1:21 p.m.

By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times, Reporting from Seoul

In a televised speech to the nation, an emotional President Lee Myung-bak pledges to follow up on an inquiry into last month's deadly ship sinking, though he does not mention North Korea.

In an emotional speech televised live to a grieving nation, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Monday vowed to pursue those responsible for last month's deadly sinking of a naval warship.

Without mentioning North Korea, the conservative leader said he would "resolutely and unwaveringly cope with the results" of the investigation into one of South Korea's worst naval disasters.

Pledging to make South Korea's military stronger to prevent a similar episode, Lee broke into tears as he read the names of 46 crewmen who are presumed to have died when the Cheonan sank after a mysterious nighttime explosion.

The March 26 blast sank the 1,200-ton corvette as it patrolled near the contested sea border between North and South Korea. South officials have said they have not ruled out a possibility that the vessel may have been downed by a mine or torpedo.

The leader of the inquiry, which includes experts from the United States and other countries, has linked the cause of the sinking to an external blast, rather than exploding ammunition aboard ship.

North Korea on Saturday responded angrily to suggestions it was responsible for the disaster, accusing Seoul of spreading false rumors for political gain before upcoming elections.

On Sunday, however, South Korean officials suggested they would take the matter to the United Nations Security Council if the investigation found North Korean involvement.

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young on Monday turned up the heat on the government in Pyongyang, telling a parliamentary hearing that the South Korean military had "judged that it was a North Korean act as soon as the incident occurred."

Wearing a black suit and tie, Lee for the first time addressed the nation on TV concerning the Cheonan's sinking. Previously he had spoken about the sinking during his regular radio addresses, and he has flown to the scene to console family members of crewmen.

"I promise you that as the president I will uncover all details of the cause of the Cheonan's sinking to the end," he said in a 10-minute speech. Later in the address, he added, "I will make the military stronger."

Fifty-eight crewmen, including the captain, were rescued as the ship sank. In the ensuing weeks, 38 bodies have been found, most of them last week when the vessel's stern was raised from the water. Eight crew members remain unaccounted for.

One South Korean newspaper reported Monday that a senior U.S. intelligence official had visited Seoul this month to help determine whether North Korea had engaged in any suspicious activity around the time of the Cheonan's sinking.

Researcher Ju-min Park of The Times' Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.

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CHINA: Hope Amidst the Rubble

NI YUXING / EPA

A photograph of the Dalai Lama lies amidst the rubble of a collapsed building in the town of Jiegu in Qinghai province, China. Jiegu was the hardest-hit in last week's earthquake that devastated the region.

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CHINA: Buddhist Monks Cremate Quake Victims' Remains

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SHANGHAI, CHINA: World Expo song halted by plagiarism row

Monday, April 19, 2010

SHANGHAI (Kyodo) Use of the theme song for the World Expo in Shanghai has been suspended amid allegations that it is a plagiarized version of a Japanese song from 1997, according to the expo's Web site.

The expo's secretariat said it is concerned about potential copyright conflicts and that a final decision will be made after its investigation into the matter concludes, the secretariat said.

Japanese media reports and Chinese Web sites have focused on the melody of the expo theme song, which is said to be identical to "Sono Mama no Kimi de Ite," a song released in Japan in January 1997 by pop singer Mayo Okamoto.

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CHINA: Diabetes epidemic the price of China's growth

Monday, April 19, 2010

By CESAR CHELALA

China has a serious problem with diabetes, which has reached epidemic proportions in the country.

This is the conclusion of a group of researchers from Tulane University and colleagues from China, whose findings were published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 percent to 95 percent of all diabetes cases among adults.

According to the study, 92.4 million adults in China age 20 or older (almost 10 percent of the country's total population) have diabetes, and 148.2 million adults have pre-diabetes, a condition that signifies high risk of developing overt diabetes and/or cardiovascular disease. Of particular significance is the finding that the majority of diabetes cases are undiagnosed and untreated.

These figures indicate that China has edged ahead of India to become the country with the highest number of diabetes-afflicted people. The diabetes epidemic is not only a serious public health problem, but can also have serious economic repercussions as well. A study found that estimated medical costs for diabetes and its complications accounted for 18.2 percent of China's total health expenditure in 2007. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that diabetes, heart disease and stroke will cost China approximately $558 billion between 2006 and 2015.

Experts associate China's rapid economic development with increased urbanization, physical inactivity and unhealthful diet — all important contributing factors in the development of diabetes. Until just over a decade ago, diabetes was relatively rare in China.

Environmental toxins may also contribute to recent increases in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes. This is the opinion of experts who found a positive correlation between concentration in the urine of bisphenol A, found in some plastics, and type 2 diabetes.

Obesity has been found to contribute to approximately 55 percent of Type 2 diabetes. A study on the importance of lifestyle factors showed that those who had high levels of physical activity, a healthy diet, did not smoke and consumed alcohol only in moderation had an 82 percent lower chance of developing diabetes.

The increased rate of childhood obesity between 1960 and 2000 is believed to have directly contributed to the increased frequency of type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents. According to a 2004 survey, there were more than 60 million obese people in China, and another 200 million who were overweight.

Type 2 diabetes is a form of the disease that results from insulin resistance, or when cells fail to use insulin properly. Type 2 diabetes affects approximately 8 percent of adults in the U.S, and 18.3 percent of Americans aged 60 or older, according to the American Diabetes Association. By comparison, the worldwide prevalence of diabetes across all age groups was estimated to be 2.8 percent in 2000, and is expected to rise to 4.4 percent by 2030. Presently, the rate of increase of diabetes is much greater in China than in Europe or the U.S.

Diabetes and its consequences have become a major public health problem, not only in China but in many industrialized countries. It is imperative that, as recommended by the authors of the study of the situation in China, strategies be developed and instituted for preventing, diagnosing and treating diabetes in the general population.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.

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