In this issue:

China Completes Deployment Of A Space-based Navigation System

Will the Chinese Space Program Spur a U.S. Response?

Vajpayee Visit to Germany Creates Crucial New Dialogue

German Industry in Indian Development

Vajpayee and Schroeder Make Plans for Afghanistan

Bipartisan U.S. Congressional Delegation Visits North Korea

Koizumi in Texas Says North Korea Is Not Iraq

Opposition Grows to Philippine Army's War in Mindanao

Thailand Supports Indonesian Crackdown in Aceh

U.S. Ambassador Threatens Malaysia

From Volume 2, Issue Number 22 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published June 3, 2003
Asia News Digest

China Completes Deployment Of A Space-based Navigation System

Just after midnight local time, on May 25, China launched its third navigation satellite, called Beidou, to complete its satellite navigation constellation, which will provide precision positioning information for objects on Earth in three dimensions—latitude, longitude, and altitude. It is similar to the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS).

Xinhua reported that the satellites could be used by the transportation industry to track moving ships and vehicles, emergency personnel for search and rescue, in telecommunications, etc. Also, like GPS, the system can be used for precision weaponry. China has no intention of being dependent upon the GPS system, which is run and controlled by the U.S. military, and can be turned off to civilian users at any time.

Will the Chinese Space Program Spur a U.S. Response?

Former Republican Congressman and chairman of the House Science Committee Robert Walker proposed May 29 in the Washington Times that the Chinese manned space program will have a "profound impact on the balance of power" with the U.S., regardless of any hostile intent on China's part. This, because it will demonstrate China's technological capacity, have an international impact (particularly on developing nations which would otherwise cooperate with the U.S.), and because China could "leapfrog the world in some important earthbound technologies," such as the use of lunar helium-3 to power fusion energy reactors.

Walker does not propose that the U.S. scurry back to the Moon to beat the Chinese to its resources, but that the U.S. develop technologies, such as "nuclear plasma engines," to position it to go back to the Moon, and also to Mars. The American aerospace industry and scientific community have been anxiously awaiting the first mission of Chinese astronauts, expected before the end of this year, to jump-start a long-range space exploration program for the U.S. and rebuild technical capabilities that have been all but destroyed.

Vajpayee Visit to Germany Creates Crucial New Dialogue

An important concrete result of the meetings that Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee held in Berlin beginning May 28, was the decision to hold bilateral summits at least once every year from now on, in addition to regular high-level consultations on matters of common strategic interest. Vajpayee met with President Johannes Rau and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, as well as with the German Ministers of Foreign Relations, Defense, and Economics.

Briefing journalists on his renewed April peace initiative on the Kashmir problem, Vajpayee told journalists that he has a vision that what was possible in Berlin, namely, the end of decades of tensions between East and West, when the Wall came down, should also be possible between India and Pakistan.

The Indian Prime Minister received support from Germany, when Chancellor Schroeder said at a press conference that he thinks the Pakistani leaders should accept India's extended hand and enter a dialogue for a peaceful solution to the problems.

German Industry in Indian Development

In a speech May 28 in Munich, Prime Minister Vajpayee called on German industrial firms to utilize their genuine engineering capabilities to help India build roads, railways, sea ports, and power plants. In particular, he proposed a German role in the grand national waterway plan, which is to connect 37 big rivers in India with canals, turning them into a huge waterway grid from the south to the north of the subcontinent. The project is also meant to improve irrigation in traditionally drought-plagued regions. Vajpayee said that plans for Indian highway development alone envision construction of 13,000 kilometers—approximately the equivalent of building two huge highways in Europe, from Gibraltar to Moscow, and another one from Helsinki to Istanbul.

The Indian Prime Minister also offered Germany assistance in areas where India has an edge—for example, in nuclear technology. Unlike Germany, India has kept working with this technology and developed further, over the past four decades. Not without irony, Vajpayee said that India could help Germany dismantle its nuclear power plants efficiently (as called for in the current program of Germany's SPD/Green Party government).

Vajpayee and Schroeder Make Plans for Afghanistan

Chancellor Schroeder and Prime Minister Vajpayee also discussed German plans to expand the mandate of the security force in Afghanistan, beyond the region of Kabul—which is welcomed by India, as contributing to the consolidation of stability and to the reconstruction of Afghanistan as a whole.

German Defense Minister Peter Struck, who attended the meeting, plans to increase the German troop contingent for Afghanistan and deploy forces as protection for reconstruction projects outside of Kabul that are crucial for the country as a whole. The mandate for this mission is entirely different from that of the U.S. forces, which have been engaged mostly in military operations, trying, without much success, to track down al-Qaeda terrorists.

There are reports that the Americans, most of them at least, will be pulled out in the coming months, and the German plan, coordinated with the Dutch and countries that neighbor Afghanistan, is to shift the emphasis to a new mandate as soon as possible.

China and Iran, two of the neighboring countries, already underlined their interest in reconstruction and infrastructure restoration of Afghanistan: Iran has completed work on the main highway leading into Herat in western Afghanistan and will soon open the route for regular transport; China signed an agreement for the Parwan irrigation project and hospital reconstruction, funded with a special $150-million loan to the Afghan government. The agreement was signed after meetings between Afghan Vice President Nimartullah Shaharani and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, in Beijing.

Bipartisan U.S. Congressional Delegation Visits North Korea

A six-member delegation of U.S. Congressmen travelled to North Korea with the State Department's blessing, headed by Curt Weldon (R-Penna.), who said, "We are on a fact-finding mission to open doors for dialogue." State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the group was not taking an official message from the Administration, but "We, of course, look forward to hearing from them on their return."

The delegation went first to Pyongyang, where they met May 31 with North Korea's number two leader, Kim Yong Nam (they will not meet with Kim Jong Il), and planned to visit a school, a factory, a church, and a computer center. They have requested to visit Yongbyon, the nuclear center.

Koizumi in Texas Says North Korea Is Not Iraq

President Bush and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi warned North Korea May 23 in a joint statement that any steps it took toward building additional nuclear weapons would be met with a "stronger response" from the United States and Japan, although they did not specify the type of response. In that sense, the joint statement was much like that of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and President Bush May 14, as both statements concentrated on demands that North Korea unilaterally disarm and threatened unspecified measures if it did not.

"We are confident that our diplomatic approach will bring a peaceful solution," Bush said. "Yet we agreed that further escalation of the situation by North Korea will require tougher measures from the international community."

Pressure had been exerted by the Chickenhawks for Koizumi to go much farther than Roh and really threaten Pyongyang, but the Japanese foreign policy establishment had evidently made it very clear to Koizumi that a war in the neighborhood would not be tolerated. Speaking to reporters at President Bush's ranch May 23, with Bush by his side, Koizumi announced, "President Bush has been stating very clearly that all options will remain available, but that our response to North Korea would be different from that to Iraq." He added that Bush is "confident that a peaceful resolution can be achieved."

Bush—who during South Korean President Roh's visit to the U.S. left Roh primarily in the hands of Cheney and Rumsfeld, meeting Roh personally for only 20 minutes—spent two full days with Koizumi, giving him the treatment he reserves for his favorite allies.

Opposition Grows to Philippine Army's War in Mindanao

The Philippines' Roman Catholic Bishops joined political leaders on May 27, and called for an immediate end to the government military offensive against the MILF, saying that the MILF had informed the Bishops that they were open to peace negotiations.

Philippines Foreign Minister Ople has been invited to attend an Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), to discuss the OIC's willingness to again serve as negotiator between the government and the MILF. Malaysia is also willing to continue aiding in that regard, while Senator Aquilino Pimentel and others have called for the U.S. to mediate. The Inquirer, the leading Establishment paper, editorialized against the government attack, while publishing a scathing column by Michael Tan called "Of Empires and Vassals," which directly accused Philippines President Glorio Macapagal-Arroyo of grovelling before the colonial master in Washington in exchange for favors to the court, while the country starves (the reference was to Arroyo's recent visit to Washington, where a state dinner was given in her honor).

President Arroyo has refused the MILF offer of a ceasefire, declaring it to be a trick, and announced continuing military raids on MILF areas.

Thailand Supports Indonesian Crackdown in Aceh

The government of Thailand has agreed to assist the Indonesian government in detaining leaders of the secessionist Free Aceh Movement, who are believed to be living in southern Thailand. Thai support came just days after the EU, Japan, and the U.S. asked Jakarta to reconsider its declaration of martial law in Aceh, where the secessionist Free Aceh Movement has waged its campaign since 1976. During a recent trip to Indonesia, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai defended Thai support for Indonesia's national unity, saying it was also in the best interests of Thailand for its neighbors to stay in one piece.

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has also sought Thai cooperation in cracking down on weapons and drug trafficking through its southern provinces. Weapon stockpiles from Cambodia's civil war are abundant, relatively cheap, and are also sustaining the Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger insurgency.

U.S. Ambassador Threatens Malaysia

U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia Marie Huhtala said in a May 23 speech which was not released until May 29, that Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad's speeches attacking the U.S. unilateral war policy in Iraq were "not helpful statements by any standard." She added that "they are bound to have a harmful effect on the relationship" between the two countries. Some reports claim that the U.S. considered withdrawing its Ambassador after Mahathir's speech in March to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Kuala Lumpur. Huhtala lied about that speech, claiming Dr. Mahathir had called the 9/11 victims "collateral damage," when in fact he had denounced the U.S. policy of referring to the thousands of innocents killed in Afghanistan and Iraq as "collateral damage," and asked rhetorically if that means the 9/11 victims are also to be considered "collateral damage."

Dr. Mahathir responded to the threat by saying that "We will speak the truth. We have to say what we believe to be true." He ridiculed Huhtala's effort to divide Mahathir from his expected successor, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, whom she had praised immediately after attacking Mahathir's speech.

On May 31, when asked about the "clash of civilizations," Dr. Mahathir told UPI that "it is happening—we are right in it." He said that "the focus is on the Muslim world, as shown by the 'Who's next?' debate. Any Muslim nation could be invaded under any pretext." He added that the Iraq war "took place against international law and against international public opinion," and has nearly destroyed the UN. He said that "I will continue to speak my mind after I have left government," which is expected to be in October.

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