Wednesday, January 13, 2010

[RED DEMOCRATICA] CFR.org Daily Brief, January 13, 2010

 

From the Council on Foreign Relations

January 13, 2010

View this newsletter as a web page on CFR's website.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

- Google to Stop Chinese Censoring
- Quake Devastates Haiti
- Afghanistan Civilian Deaths Rise
- UK Military May Shrink

Top of the Agenda: Google to Stop Chinese Censoring

Google announced it will stop censoring its Chinese search site and may withdraw from the country completely, prompting concern from Chinese Internet users and praise from human rights activists. Students gathered at Google's Beijing and Shanghai offices with flowers to show support for the company, which has more than 40 million users in China. Google said (WSJ) they had uncovered massive cyberattacks by China against its network and other foreign companies. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Google's allegations "raise very serious concerns and questions. We look to the Chinese government for an explanation ... the ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy." Google has impacted China's information technology sector since it entered the market in 2005, gaining a 35.6 percent share of the Chinese market. Shutting down Google's Chinese website could hamper investment in its Internet and telecommunications sector.

The only government response came from China's official news agency, Xinhua, which ran (NYT) a short item quoting an anonymous official who was "seeking more information on Google's statement that it could quit China". Rao Jin, the founder of the Web Forum anti-cnn.com, the company's announcement. He says Google made its decision under pressure from Clinton, who met with Google's chief executive last week as part of an effort to promote Internet freedom around the world.

Analysis:

In the New York Times, Thomas Friedman says it is short-sighted to overestimate China's problems and shortcomings since its political class is focused on addressing its most pressing issues.

In this CFR Podcast, Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project, discusses whether the Internet can bring democracy to China.

Background:

A CFR Backgrounder examines U.S. Internet providers and the "Great Firewall of China."

AMERICAS: Haitian Earthquake

The region's worst earthquake in more than two hundred years, with a magnitude estimated at 7.0, hit Haiti (NYT) Tuesday, causing mass destruction and an undetermined number of casualties. At least four Brazilian members of the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti were killed (Reuters), and a large number of Brazilian soldiers and UN personnel were unaccounted for.

United States: The $787 billion economic stimulus package created or saved roughly 2 million jobs but its impact on GDP growth dropped off in the final quarter of 2009, the White House estimates (WashPost).

MIDDLE EAST: Israel-Turkey Relations

Israel and Turkey are at odds (AFP) over a television series that Israeli officials say depicted Israel and Jewish people unfavorably. The television series, broadcast on the private Star TV channel, showed a Turkish secret agent storming an Israeli diplomatic mission to rescue a Turkish boy supposedly kidnapped by Israel's Mossad overseas intelligence service.

Yemen: The governor of Yemen's Shabwa province says (al-Jazeera) Yemeni soldiers killed the head of an al-Qaeda cell.

PACIFIC RIM: China Trade Pact

Indonesia wants (WSJ) China to renegotiate a free-trade pact between Southeast Asia and China that took effect this month because of local business concerns about unfair competition from low-cost Chinese imports.

SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA: Afghanistan Civilian Deaths

The number of civilians killed in war-related violence in Afghanistan reached 2,412 last year, the highest number since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, according (al-Jazeera) to a report by the UN mission for Afghanistan. Separately, a U.S. Predator drone fired a missile into a crowd of suspected insurgents in Afghanistan, killing thirteen people, according (WashPost) to military officials.

India: The Indian government plans to boost (Bloomberg) domestic supplies of rice, wheat, sugar, cooking oil, and lentils to contain food inflation from a near an eleven-year high.

AFRICA: Nigerian Political Crisis

A delegation from the Nigerian House of Representatives said they will visit (DailyTrust) Nigerian President Umaru Yar'adua in Saudi Arabia, long absent from his country for health reasons, to convey "issues of national importance," as protesters called for the vice president to take over as leader.

Zimbabwe: South African farmers, facing land seizures in Zimbabwe under President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reforms, are suing (BusinessDay) for land rights.

EUROPE: UK Military Cuts

The British armed forces could be forced to contract by up to 20 percent by 2016 because of rising costs, according (BBC) to a military think tank.

Germany: Germany, Europe's largest economy, contracted (FT) by 5 percent in 2009, its worst recession in post-war history.

TRANSNATIONAL: Global Health Funding Innovations

New innovations in funding for global health, including small donor funding and pool patents, could increase the poor's access to healthcare, the Economist reports.

In this CFR podcast, Peter Navario says a new patent pool giving generic drugmakers access to branded drugs to help lower costs of HIV-AIDS treatments in developing countries is timely and necessary, but more still needs to be accomplished.
 

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