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Media Report
March 06 , 2017
  • The Washington Post: Opinions：North Korea tests four more missiles — and China's patience
    The Washington Post comments: "Pyongyang can't stop shooting (a) missiles into the sea and (b) itself in the foot. At 7:36 a.m. Monday, local time, North Korea launched four missiles that flew about 600 miles over land before splashing into the Sea of Japan. As my colleague Anna Fifield reported, three landed within Japan's exclusive economic zone, dropping about 200 miles from the coast. The test was timed to provoke...Indeed, although North Korea has been getting on a lot of nerves lately, it may be China that is most acutely frustrated. And since China is North Korea's only real ally, that could hurt Kim Jong Un. China and North Korea used to be tight. Mao Zedong once said the neighbors were as close as 'lips and teeth.' But in recent years, China has grown frustrated with the North's potentially destabilizing economic woes, as well as a nuclear program that, from Beijing's perspective, keeps the U.S. military at the gate...China never liked North Korea's missile tests, but right now they are particularly inconvenient. Interrupting China's National People's Congress with yet another missile test makes it harder for Beijing to rail against South Korea's plans because it makes THAAD's stated purpose — shooting down North Korean missiles — seem legit. China on Monday expressed wary dismay at the latest development, with a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry saying Beijing 'opposes' launches that undermine United Nations Security Council resolutions. Behind closed doors, Chinese cadres will no doubt have more to say to their erstwhile friends."
  • Bloomberg：China's Defense-Spending Confusion Highlights Strategic Worries
    Bloomberg reports: "China omitted a key defense spending figure from its budget for the first time in almost four decades -- before an official disclosed the number -- highlighting concerns about transparency in the world's largest military. While authorities said defense expenditures would rise 'about 7 percent' this year, the budget report published by the Ministry of Finance on Sunday omitted the figures. Later, a ministry information officer said China's military budget would increase 7 percent this year to 1.044 trillion yuan ($151 billion). That's the slowest pace since at least 1991...China's 'lack of transparency about its growing military capabilities and strategic decision-making continue to raise tensions and have caused countries in the region to enhance their ties to the United States,' the Pentagon wrote in its report on China's military last year...The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates China's actual spending is about 55 percent above the officially stated figures...China's spending is constrained by other spending priorities, in particular social security in the face of an aging population."
  • USA Today：China reduces growth forecast for 2017 to 6.5%
    USA Today reports: "China is targeting growth of 6.5% in 2017 -- down slightly from last year's actual 6.7% rate -- a 25-year low for the industrial powerhouse. Despite the decline, that growth would keep China's economy as one of the world's strongest -- the second-largest behind the U.S. 'An important reason for stressing the need to maintain steady growth is to ensure employment and improve people's lives,' said Premier Li Keqiang, the nation's top economic official, Sunday at the opening of the annual National People's Congress in Beijing...The country will 'pursue better results in actual economic work,' he said. China will also seek to cut its surplus steel production, which is straining trade relations with the U.S. and Europe, Li told the national legislature. He also promised to improve access to China for foreign companies. With the U.S. and Europe seeking trade controls, China faces 'more complicated and graver situations' geopolitically, Li said. 'Both the de-globalization trend and protectionism are growing,' he said. 'There are many uncertainties about the direction of the major economies' policies and their spillover effects, and the factors that could cause instability and uncertainty are visibly increasing.' "
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