S Korea, China spar over Olympic torch violence

South Korea and China disputed blame on Tuesday for violence by Chinese supporters at the Olympic torch relay here, with Seoul vowing a tough response but Beijing saying they were protecting the flame.

In what threatens to become a diplomatic spat, South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo said attacks on Korean protesters during Sunday's relay damaged national pride.

"Legal and diplomatic measures are necessary as the incident hurt national pride considerably," South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted Han as telling a cabinet meeting.

He did not elaborate on what the measures might be.

The row is a further blow to the troubled Beijing Olympic torch, which has been dogged by pro-Tibet activists and critics of China's human rights record since it left Greece last month on its round-the-world journey.

Anger is growing here over the clashes, recorded on widely circulated video clips, in which Chinese students attacked Koreans protesting Beijing's rights record.

Justice Minister Kim Kyung-Han told the cabinet that the "illegal violent protests" were very regrettable. "The justice ministry will sternly deal with those responsible, regardless of their nationality."

Kim said authorities were analysing video clips, adding: "We will go after all those responsible and bring them to account."

National Police Agency chief Eo Cheong-Soo said Chinese embassy officials had indicated about 1,000 Chinese students were expected to welcome the torch, but 6,500 showed up.

"The Chinese side had worried about attempts to disturb the torch relay but as it turned out, disorderly, impetuous acts were committed by some Chinese students," Eo told journalists.

The government Monday voiced its "strong regret" to China's ambassador at the students' behaviour, which was also fiercely criticised by newspapers and Internet users.

Howeever China, which has repeatedly denounced the anti-Chinese chaos that has hit earlier relay legs, notably in London and Paris, declined to directly condemn the behaviour of its own students.

"Some Chinese students came out to safeguard the dignity of the torch. I believe that's natural," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

"Perhaps there were some radical actions, but we should recognise the real situation there," she added.

"We condemn large-scale violent demonstrations. As to the Chinese students and overseas Chinese, they just had some friction with those who disrupted and sabotaged the torch relay there. That's totally different.

"We express our solicitude to the South Korean individuals and police who were injured in the process."

solicitude

The clashes broke out when around 300 protesters, including North Koreans, demonstrated against China's forced repatriation of North Korean refugees and its crackdown on Tibetans following violence in the Himalayan region.

Thousands of Chinese demonstrators had also gathered for the start of the relay. In one clash some of the Chinese threw water bottles, stones, chunks of wood and drink cans at their adversaries.

In another incident, Chinese students surrounded and beat up a small group of protesters, according to witnesses. A local newspaper photographer was hit in the head by a stone thrown by the students.

In yet another encounter, recorded on video, hundreds of agitated Chinese chased a few protesters into a hotel lobby and attacked them.

Two American students wearing T-shirts reading "Free Tibet" were mobbed by before being rescued by police, Chosun Ilbo and other newspapers said.

Chosun, the largest-selling daily, said that it doubted "whether China has the common sense and standards to host the Olympic Games."

The liberal Hankyoreh daily said the conduct of the protesters had "aroused concern that Chinese nationalism is becoming excessive and violent."

China Investigates Forced Child Labor

By DAVID BARBOZA

Published: May 1, 2008

SHANGHAI — China said Wednesday that it had broken up a child labor ring that forced children from poor, inland areas to work in booming coastal cities, acknowledging that severe labor abuses extended into the heart of its export economy.

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Color China Photo/Associated Press

Chinese officials took more than 100 children from factories in the southern city of Dongguan.

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Color China Photo/Associated Press

Children from Sichuan Province, many between 13 and 15 years old, were forced to work in Dongguan for minimal pay.

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China Daily, via Reuters

A girl cried after being rescued on Monday from a factory where she had been forced to work in Dongguan, China.

Authorities in southern China’s Guangdong Province, near Hong Kong, said they had made several arrests and had already “rescued” more than 100 children from factories in the city of Dongguan, one of the country’s largest manufacturing centers for electronics and consumer goods sold around the world. The officials said they were investigating reports that hundreds of other rural children had been lured or forced into captive, almost slavelike conditions for minimal pay.

The children, mostly between the ages of 13 and 15, were often tricked or kidnapped by employment agencies in an impoverished part of western Sichuan Province called Liangshan and then sent to factory towns in Guangdong, where they were sometimes forced to work 300 hours a month, according to government officials and accounts from the state-owned media. The legal working age in China is 16.

The labor scandal is the latest embarrassment for China as it prepares to host the Olympic Games this summer. For much of the past year, the country has been plagued by damaging reports about severe pollution, dangerous exports, riots in Tibet and the ensuing disruptions to its Olympic torch relay by Tibet’s sympathizers, among other groups.

The abuses may also reflect the combined pressures of worker shortages, high inflation and a rising currency that have reduced profit margins of some Chinese factories and forced them to scramble for an edge — even an illegal one — to stay competitive.

The child labor ring, which was first uncovered by Southern Metropolis, a crusading newspaper based in Guangzhou, came less than a year after China was rocked by exposure of a similar problem in a less developed part of central China. Last June, labor officials in Shanxi and Henan Provinces said they had rescued hundreds of people, including children, from slave labor conditions in rural brick kilns. Many of those workers said they had been kidnapped.

The earlier case, which local officials initially sought to keep quiet, set off a national uproar in China and prompted a sharp response from President Hu Jintao, who vowed a broad crackdown on labor abuses. Local officials in Guangdong may have moved quickly to acknowledge the latest incident to keep it from becoming a running scandal as the Olympics approach.

The police in Guangdong said Wednesday that they had formed teams to search for child laborers in several coastal cities, including Dongguan and Shenzhen, another big manufacturing center, but disclosed nothing about the companies involved in employing the children, or the extent of the problem.

Officials did not identify the specific factories or products involved, and it is unclear whether any of them were suppliers to global corporations. But many companies in Dongguan and Shenzhen, where land and labor costs are typically higher than elsewhere in the country, are part of the supply chain for the country’s export manufacturers. The authorities have also said little so far about the identities of the children they claim to have rescued.

“These youngsters have no ID cards, so it makes it difficult to identify them,” said Zhang Xiang, a spokesman for the Guangdong Labor Bureau.

In recent years, Beijing has stepped up its efforts to crack down on child labor and labor law violations. Last August, Beijing revoked the license of a factory accused of using child labor to produce Olympic merchandise. Several other suppliers were also punished for labor law violations.

But experts say rising costs of labor, energy and raw material, and labor shortages in some parts of southern China have forced some factory owners to cut costs or find new sources of cheap labor, including child labor.

Even factories that supply global companies, including Wal-Mart Stores, have been accused in recent years of using child labor and violating local labor laws. Big corporations have stepped up inspections of factories that produce goods for them. But suppliers have become adept at evading such scrutiny by providing fake wage and work schedule data that suggest they abide by labor laws. Experts say the labor problems discovered in Dongguan are not uncommon.

“The Liangshan child labor case is quite typical,” said Hu Xingdou, a professor of economics and social policy at the Beijing Institute of Technology. “China’s economy is developing at a fascinating speed, but often at the expense of laws, human rights and environmental protection.”

Professor Hu said that while Beijing had pushed to improve labor conditions throughout the nation, local governments were still driven by incentives to grow their economy, and so they tried to lure cheap labor.

“Most of the work force comes from underdeveloped or poverty-stricken areas,” he said. “Some children are even sold by their parents, who often don’t have any idea of the working conditions.”

In a series of articles this week, journalists working for Southern Metropolis wrote that they had traveled to Liangshan Prefecture in Sichuan Province, an area of western China populated by ethnic minority groups and plagued by drugs and a lack of good jobs, to pose as recruiters and interview parents and residents.

The newspaper said recruiters and labor agencies working in Liangshan often selected and transported children south, where they were then “sold” to factories at virtual auctions in Guangdong Province.

At some coastal factories, children were even lined up and selected based on their body type, wrote the journalists, who also investigated factory areas in Guangdong.

The newspaper also said that children were paid about 42 cents an hour, far below the local minimum wage of about 64 cents an hour. By law, overtime pay is much higher.

Chen Fulin, a government spokesman in Liangshan Prefecture, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that the articles about child labor in Southern Metropolis were accurate.

“So far, we have detected and found four people in Zhaojue County suspected of luring the youngsters from Liangshan to Dongguan and forcing them to work in factories,” he said. “We are dealing with the illegal employment agencies and the labor dealers, according to the law.”

Officials in the city of Dongguan say they are now investigating all factories in the area to determine whether any are employing children.

In its report, Southern Metropolis said some children were threatened with death if they tried to escape.

The newspaper did not identify the coastal factories where the children worked, but the report said that one was a toy factory in Dongguan and that it had not been difficult for the journalists to uncover the labor scandal.

“Since journalists could discover the facts by secret interviews in a few days,” Southern Metropolis wrote in a separate editorial on Tuesday, “how could the labor departments show no interest in it and ignore it for such a long time?”

Chen Yang contributed research.

THE REBALANCE OF POWER

THE REBALANCE OF POWER

By Victor Mallet

Monday, April 28, 2008

Beware the Dragon: China – 1,000 Years of Bloodshed By Erik Durschmied Andre Deutsch £18.99, 336 pages FT bookshop price: £15.19 The Next American Century: How the US Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise By Nina Hachigian and Mona Sutphen Simon & Schuster $26, 368 pages The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East By Kishore Mahbubani Public Affairs $26, 336 pages Rivals: How the Power Struggle Between China, India and Japan Will Shape Our Next Decade By Bill Emmott Allen Lane £20, 336 pages FT bookshop price: £16 The debate about whether Asia will once again dominate the global economy – as it did for two millennia before the industrial revolution in 18th-century Britain and the rise of the US – is over. The 21st century will be the age of Asia's return to economic pre-eminence. Do not be distracted by the current turbulence in financial markets, however tempting it is to see the collapse of the dollar and the travails of investment banks as signs of US decadence. Asia's rise began decades ago, seeded by western investment and training and nourished by expanding international trade after the second world war, first in Japan, then in China and now in India. Asian growth, starting in the north-east and spreading west and south through half the world's population, has begun to feed on its own success. The effects are startling, especially in China, whose huge economy has been doubling in size roughly every seven years. Each year it has been building enough new power stations to provide electricity to the whole of the UK. It is consuming so much oil, timber, iron, copper and food to supply its factories and its 1.3 billion people that commodity prices have risen to record levels and aid agencies are struggling to feed the world's poor. China has put a man in space and proved it can shoot down an orbiting satellite with a ballistic missile. It is responsible for up to a quarter of the particles in Los Angeles's air pollution on the other side of the Pacific ocean. Asia is becoming richer and stronger, but is it therefore more threatening? An earlier wave of non-fiction books breathlessly analysed the business opportunities arising from Asia's economic resurgence. The authors of the books in this most recent cascade ask, with varying degrees of nervousness, what Asia's rise will mean for the rest of the world. Will it enhance or endanger global security? Could Asia convert its economic muscle into military strength? Might China stand in for the Soviet Union as the west's opponent in a new cold war? The consensus is one of cautious optimism. Although the admonitory title and scarlet cover of Erik Durschmied's Beware the Dragon is designed to chill the blood of pusillanimous Europeans and Americans already anxious about the rise of China, the book itself is a war correspondent's take on the past, not the future. Hooves thunder across the steppes, blood flows and slaughters multiply as Mongol horsemen and Maoist revolutionaries take their turns to rule the Middle Kingdom. Durschmied is fun to read on military tactics, and his liberal rewriting of history makes us spectators of the great battles that created the China of today. But he makes only a feeble stab, in the closing pages, at guessing what happens next. Nina Hachigian and Mona Sutphen, who worked long hours in a converted White House broom cupboard at the US National Security Council during the Clinton administration, approach the challenge of Asia's rise from an unashamedly American (and Clinton-Democrat) perspective. The Next American Century explains to its target US audience the rise of the “pivotal powers” – China, Europe, India, Japan and Russia – and argues passionately that the US should adopt a policy of “strategic collaboration” rather than confrontation with these other powers. Non-Americans might think this obvious, but Hachigian and Sutphen have watched with horror the chaos of US foreign policy under President George W. Bush. They want to avert the return of trade protectionism and China-bashing under the next US administration. Where Hachigian and Sutphen see the world through American eyes, Kishore Mahbubani, a former Singapore diplomat and proponent of authoritarian “Asian values”, takes what he believes is a resolutely Asian view of the world in The New Asian Hemisphere. Asia's rise, he declares, will make the world more peaceful and stable. He claims that the west, having triggered Asia's modernisation, is now perversely reacting with dread and foreboding to the inevitable increase in Asian power. Asia and the west need to reach some kind of common understanding as we enter “one of the most plastic moments in world history”. Mahbubani's criticisms of the west are often trenchant and valid. His weakness is that he rarely turns his critical faculties inward towards Asia, which leaves him with a falsely binary view of the world: Asia is pragmatic, flexible and visionary; the west is sluggish, complacent and hypocritical. For all the weaknesses of the European Union, it is hard to take seriously his scorn for EU diplomacy and his suggestion that the Association of South East Asian Nations (an ineffective group which failed to tackle crises in countries such as Burma and East Timor) is a diplomatic “superpower”. Bill Emmott, a former editor of The Economist, is one step ahead of his fellow authors. True, he says, “Asia is a dangerous place”. The menace, however, is not so much that Asia will confront the west, but that the three big Asian powers – Japan, China and India – may confront each other. He does not present a large amount of new information, but Rivals is remarkable for the clarity of its economic and historical analysis and the cogency of its arguments. It is by far the best work of the four reviewed here. Emmott says continued economic growth and integration in Asia would be the “single biggest and most beneficial economic development of the 21st century”. But he notes that the world economy has grown robustly in the past few years, largely because political turmoil has been concentrated in parts of the world (such as the Middle East) far from the great powers and from the main arenas of growth, trade and investment. That may change as China, India and Japan compete for influence. “The thing you have to understand is that both of us [India and China] think that the future belongs to us”, he is told by a senior Indian official. “We can't both be right.” This is not necessarily true (as Emmott points out), but it does hint at the rivalry to come. Hachigian and Sutphen also allude to the dangers of intra-Asian conflicts and how they might be exploited by outside forces; one Asia expert is quoted on India's fear of a situation where “the US will fight China to the last Indian”. Emmott does not come at the problem from an overtly western or Asian angle and his essentially neutral standpoint gives him several advantages. He delves deeper into the developing US-India relationship, harking back to the US-China detente of the 1970s and describing Mr Bush's realisation of India's importance as his “Richard Nixon moment”. He appreciates the often underestimated importance of Japan, still the world's second largest economy, and casts doubt on the “Asian values” explanation of east Asian success; such success, after all, has now spread deep and wide into non-Confucian cultures. One reason to agree with the cautious optimism that prevails in the literature on the rise of Asia is that “globalisation” is now an everyday reality, not merely a slogan. Barack Obama is an American whose father came from one foreign country (Kenya) and who spent part of his childhood in another (Indonesia). This may be unusual for a US presidential candidate but it is by no means unique: millions of people around the world have similarly mixed origins and upbringings. Globalisation applies to culture and politics but its origins are economic. For all the outrage in the US over dangerous toys imported from China, economic interdependence is a fact of life. Like it or not, China already dominates many of the links in manufacturers' supply chains. There was the usual outcry over Chinese safety standards when Americans were told last year that most of the toys recalled in the US for safety shortcomings were made in China, but this fact is unremarkable when you consider that 60 per cent of all the world's toys, and nearly 90 per cent of those imported into the US, are Chinese made; Chinese toys, in fact, were generally less dangerous than those of other importers, and many of the flaws turned out to be the fault of the US designers. Even terrorism and the spread of disease – Hachigian and Sutphen call them “the rotten fruit of globalisation” – force the great powers to acknowledge their common interests and collaborate. The two authors' solution to the rise of powers that rival the US is not for the US to confront them but to improve itself because “that's our new world. The domestic is international, the international is domestic.” What emerges most clearly from the noisy debate on Asia's rise is that there is no battle of ideas, at least not one that pitches a united Asia against a united west. Mahbubani may disagree, but the language of “us and them” is tiresome, outdated and almost wholly irrelevant to international and even Asian politics. Yes, the peoples of the world – in Tibet, Malaysia, Zimbabwe or Kosovo – rise up from time to time to demand freedom, justice or independence, but they do so because such aspirations are human and universal, not because the protesters are slaves to western ideology. Even Mahbubani acknowledges the “massive democratisation of the human spirit that is taking place in China” as a result of economic growth. Torture and detention without trial are outrageous abuses of human rights and proof of hypocrisy when practised by the US, but they are just as outrageous when they occur in Asia and right-thinking people in both continents condemn them. The process of economic growth itself forces nations to change in ways that make them more like the western industrial democracies. The point about the developed world, in other words, is not that it is western but that it is developed. When it comes to the almost obligatory list of bullet-point answers to the world's problems in the final chapters of these books, there is again consensus: the world's great powers should talk to each other, and the rising – or newly risen – powers should be given a seat at the table of global institutions. For Mahbubani, that means, inter alia, restructuring the permanent membership of the UN Security Council, skewed in favour of Europe, and reforming the leadership of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. For Hachigian and Sutphen, it means creating a “Core Six” or C6 group of the US and the pivotal powers variously excluded from the Security Council, the G8, Nato and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. For Emmott, it means having the US publicly embrace the East Asian Summit as an inclusive forum for Asia's interests, much as the US supported the European Union project from the 1950s onwards. These are surely the right kind of diplomatic solutions to manage an epochal changing of the guard among the great powers. The alternatives, including the rivers of blood evoked in Durschmied's Beware the Dragon, are too grim to contemplate. Victor Mallet is the FT's Asia editor

亚洲崛起的世纪（上）

作者：英国《金融时报》维克托•马莱(Victor Mallet)

2008年4月28日 星期一

《 谨防中国龙：1000年来的流血史》(Beware the Dragon: China – 1,000 Years of Bloodshed) 埃里克•迪施米德(Erik Durschmied)著，Andre Deutsch出版社，18.99英镑，336页，FT书店价格：15.19英镑 《下一个美国世纪：美国如何在其他大国崛起的时代里欣欣向荣》(The Next American Century: How the US Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise)

尼娜•哈奇格恩(Nina HACHIGIAN)与莫娜•萨特芬(Mona Sutphen)合著，西蒙-舒斯特出版公司(Simon & Schuster)，26美元，368页

《新亚洲半球：不可阻挡的全球权力东移》(The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East)

基肖尔•马布巴尼(Kishore Mahbubani)著，Public Affairs出版社，26美元，336页

《对手：中印日之间的权力斗争将如何塑造今后的十年》(Rivals: How the Power Struggle Between China, India and Japan Will Shape Our Next Decade)

比尔•埃莫特(Bill Emmott)著，Allen Lane出版社，20英镑，336页，FT书店价格：16英镑

亚洲是否会再次主导全球经济——如同18世纪英国工业革命和美国崛起之前的两千年里那样？这场辩论目前已告结束。21世纪将会成为亚洲重掌全球经济主导地位的年代。

切 莫被金融市场当前的动荡扰乱视线，美元的崩溃和投行的阵痛很容易被人视为美国衰败的迹象。但是，亚洲的崛起在数十年前就已开始。来自西方的投资和培训播下 了种子，二战后不断扩大的国际贸易又提供了进一步的滋养。首先是在日本，然后是中国，现在则是印度。亚洲的增长始于东北亚地区，之后向西向南扩展。它涵盖 了占全球半数的人口，并且已开始依靠自身的成功来维持发展。

其效果令人震撼，在中国尤其如此。这个庞大经济体的规模每7年左右增长一倍。它 每年都要新建许多的电站，其新增电力可以满足整个英国的需求。为了“喂饱”它的工厂和13亿人民，中国正在消费如此之多的石油、木材、钢铁、铜以及粮食， 不仅推动大宗商品价格升至创纪录水平，也制约了各援助机构向世界穷人提供食品的能力。中国人已经步入了太空，并证明自己有能力用弹道导弹击落在轨的人造卫 星。在太平洋彼岸的洛杉矶，空气污染物里1/4的悬浮颗粒源自中国。

亚洲正在变得更富有、更强大，但它会因此而更具威胁性吗？在早先的一批 非虚构书籍当中，一些作者兴奋地分析了亚洲经济复苏所产生的商业机会。在最近一大批类似的书籍里，作者们以不同程度的紧张态度在询问：对于世界其它国家而 言，亚洲的崛起意味着什么？它是会增强还是会威胁到全球的安全？亚洲会不会将其经济实力转化为军事力量？中国会不会取代苏联在新的冷战中成为西方的对手？

《谨防中国龙：1000年来的流血史》

这 些书籍的共识，是一种谨慎的乐观。埃里克•迪施米德(Erik Durschmied)的《谨防中国龙》带有告诫性的书名和鲜红的封面，这种设计是为了让那些本已对中国崛起感到焦虑的欧美人胆寒。尽管如此，这本书本身 却只是一位战地记者对于历史而非未来的感怀。在蒙古骑兵和毛泽东领导的革命者分别统治这个中央帝国之际，铁蹄踏过茫茫草原，流血遍地，杀戮无数。迪施米德 对军事战术的解读饶有趣味，他对于历史的创造性重写，仿佛让我们亲历那些塑造今日中国的历次重大战役。但对于今后将会发生的事情，他仅在篇尾的数页作出了 一些苍白的猜测。

《下一个美国世纪：美国如何在其他大国崛起的时代里欣欣向荣》

在克林顿政府期间，尼娜•哈奇 格恩(Nina Hachigian)和莫娜•萨特芬(Mona Sutphen)曾在美国国家安全委员会(US National Security Council)工作多年。她们无羞耻感地从美国人（尤其是克林顿式民主党人）的视角来分析亚洲崛起所带来的挑战。《下一个美国世纪》以美国的读者为目 标，书中解释了“关键大国”——中国、欧洲、印度、日本和俄罗斯的崛起，并动情地主张美国应采取一种“战略合作”的政策，而不是与别的大国进行冲突。对于 美国以外的人来说，这也许显而易见，不过哈奇格恩和萨特芬以恐惧的心情见证了乔治•布什(George W. Bush)任内美国外交政策的混乱。她们希望下一届美国政府防止贸易保护主义和“敲打中国”卷土重来。

《新亚洲半球：不可阻挡的全球权力东移》

哈 奇格恩和萨特芬通过美国人的眼光来看世界，而新加坡前外交官、威权式“亚洲价值观”支持者基肖尔•马布巴尼(Kishore Mahbubani)则在《新亚洲半球》中提出了另一种观点——他认为这是一种彻底的亚洲式世界观。他宣称，亚洲的崛起将会使得世界更加和平、稳定。他认 为，西方自己引发了亚洲的现代化，但现在却以一种头疼和畏惧的病态反应，来对待亚洲实力势不可挡的崛起。在我们步入“世界历史上最具可塑性的时期”之际， 亚洲与西方需要达成某种共识。马布巴尼对西方的批评往往是犀利、正确的。但他的弱点在于：他很少把自己的批判才能用在对亚洲的分析上。这就使得他带有一种 错误的双重世界观：亚洲是务实、灵活和前瞻的；而西方是怠惰、自满和虚伪的。尽管欧盟(EU)存在着种种弱点，但马布巴尼对欧盟外交的嘲讽，以及他认为东 盟(ASEAN)在外交上是“超级大国”（尽管它连缅甸和东帝汶这些国家的危机都处理不了），很难让人苟同。

《对手：中印日之间的权力斗争将如何塑造今后的十年》

《经 济学人》(The Economist)杂志前任主编比尔•埃莫特(Bill Emmott)比其他作者超前一步。他表示，没错，“亚洲是一个危险的地方”，但与其说这种威胁在于亚洲将要挑战西方，不如说亚洲的三大强国——日本、中 国和印度之间会相互对抗。埃莫特并没有提供出大量的新信息，但《对手》一书的出众之处在于其经济与历史分析的明晰，以及各个论点都有说服力。在我评述的这 四部著作当中，这本书绝对胜出。

埃

莫特表示，亚洲持续的经济增长和整合，将是“21世纪最 重大、最有益的经济发展。”但他提到，全球经济在过去数年中强劲增长，很大程度上是因为政治动荡一直集中在中东等远离世界强国、远离经济增长、贸易和投资 主舞台的地区。当中国、印度与日本开始争夺影响力的时候，情况将会出现变化。一位印度高官告诉他：“你必须理解的是，我们（印度与中国）都认为未来属于自 己。总有一方说的不对。”正如埃莫特所指出的那样，这种看法不见得正确，但它确实寓示着两国有可能成为对手。

哈奇格恩和萨特芬也暗示了亚洲 内部发生冲突的危险，以及这一冲突被外部势力利用的可能性；她们的著作引用了一位亚洲专家的话，表明印度担心出现“美国让印度同中国战斗到底”的局面。埃 莫特没有从明显的西方或亚洲角度来看待这个问题，这种基本上中立的态度给了他诸多优势。埃莫特深入研究了发展中的印-美关系，联想到上世纪70年代美中关 系的缓和，将布什对印度重要性的认识比喻为他的“尼克松(Richard Nixon)时刻”。他也认可日本的重要性。日本现在仍是全球第二大的经济体，它的重要性常常被低估。埃莫特对东亚的成功缘于“亚洲价值观”的解释表示怀 疑；毕竟，这一类的成功现已深入广泛地扩展到一些非儒教文化当中。

“全球化”已是日常现实

在有关亚洲崛起的著述当中，谨慎乐观的态度甚为普遍。赞同这种谨慎乐观的理由是：“全球化”现在已是大家每天要面对的现实，而不仅是一句口号。对于 美国人巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)来说，他的父亲来自外国（肯尼亚），他童年的一段时期是在另一个国家度过（印尼）。这对于美国总统竞选人来说也许非同寻常，但本身绝非独特： 世界上有数以百万计的人们具有类似的混合血统和成长经历。

全球化的影响波及到文化与政治领域，但它的根源却是经济因素。尽管美国人对那些从 中国进口的危险玩具感到愤慨，但经济上的相互依存已成为生活现实。不管你喜不喜欢，中国已经在许多制造商供应链中占据了主导地位。美国人在去年得知，在美 国因安全缺陷而被召回的玩具多数是在中国生产，他们自然对中国安全标准表达抗议。不过，当你意识到全世界有60%的玩具、全美90%的进口玩具都是由中国 制造，上述情况就不足为怪了。实际上，中国玩具的危险性通常低于从其它地区进口的玩具，而中国玩具的许多瑕疵后来也证明是美国设计者的失误。

甚 至就连恐怖主义和疾病的传播（哈奇格恩和萨特芬称之为“全球化的腐烂果实”），也在迫使各个大国承认相互之间的共同利益，并展开合作。两位作者认为，面对 其它大国崛起为美国对手，解决方法并非美国与之对抗，而是美国致力于自我完善，因为“这就是我们的新世界。国内事务就是国际事务，国际事务就是国内事 务。”

围绕亚洲崛起而出现的吵闹争辩当中，最清晰的一点是：没有意识形态斗争，至少没有那种亚洲联盟对抗西方联盟的观念冲突。马布巴尼也许不赞同这一点，但那种“我们对他们”式的语言已显得乏味、过时，并且几乎已与国际政治、甚至是与亚洲政治彻底失去了关联。

“发达”的涵义不限于“西方”

是 的，世界各地——西藏、马来西亚、津巴布韦或科索沃——的人民会时不时地站出来要求自由、正义或独立。但他们之所以这样做，是因为这些诉求具有人性与普遍 的意义，而不是因为这些抗议者已沦为西方意识形态的奴隶。就连马布巴尼也承认，由于经济的增长，“中国正在发生人性精神的大规模民主化进程”。当美国动用 刑讯或不经审判便拘禁疑犯时，这是对人权的野蛮侵犯，是伪善的证据。但当这些事情发生在亚洲时，也同样是对人权的野蛮侵犯。思维正确的美国人和亚洲人都会 对此予以谴责。经济增长进程本身正迫使一些国家进行某些变化，使得它们更像西方的工业化民主国家。换句话说，发达国家的意义并不在于它们是西方国家，而是 在于它们是“发达”的。

在这类书籍的结尾章节里，都包括一份针对全球问题的简要回答清单。各位作者在此又一次具有共识：全球大国之间应相互对话，而那些正在崛起——或是刚刚崛起的大国，应该在全球机构的会议桌上得到一席之地。

对 于马布巴尼来说，这意味着进行相关改革，其中包括重新调整联合国安理会(UN Security Council)常任理事国，改变其偏重欧洲的局面；改革国际货币基金组织(IMF)以及世界银行(World Bank)的领导权。对于哈奇格恩和萨特芬来说，这意味着要创立一个“核心六国”(Core Six, C6)集团，成员包括美国，以及那些分别被安理会、八国集团(G8)、北约(NATO)抑或经合组织(OECD)排除在外的关键大国。对于埃莫特来说，这 意味着要让美国公开支持东亚峰会(East Asian Summit)，认可它是一个代表亚洲利益的包容论坛，就像美国从上世纪50年代以来支持欧盟计划一样。

针对大国之间划时代的角色变化，这些建议当然是正确的外交解决方法。其它途径，包括迪施米德在《谨防中国龙》一书中描述的“血流成河”，想起来都令人生畏。

维克托•马莱是英国《金融时报》亚洲版主编

译者/李晖

Chinese Clash With Protesters in Seoul

紐約時報

By SANG-HUN CHOE

Published: April 27, 2008

SEOUL, South Korea — Thousands of young Chinese assembled to defend their country’s troubled Olympic torch relay pushed through police lines on Sunday, some of them hurling rocks, bottled water and plastic and steel pipes at protesters demanding better treatment for North Korean refugees in China.

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Ahn Young-joon/Associated Press

South Korean police officers blocked Chinese students as they tried to confront anti-China protesters during the Olympic torch rally in Seoul.

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Times Topics: Olympic Games (2008)

Times Topics: Olympic Torch

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Pool photo via Associated Press

Police officers grappled with a demonstrator who tried to set himself on fire during the torch run in Seoul.

Two North Korean defectors living in South Korea poured paint thinner on themselves and tried to set themselves on fire in an attempt to protest what they condemned as Beijing’s inhumane crackdown of North Korean refugees, but the police stopped them, according to witnesses and the police.

The South Korean police and Chinese students also overpowered at least two other protesters who tried to impede the run along a 15-mile route through Seoul. The route was kept secret until the last minute and guarded by more than 8,300 police officers.

In other cities, the globe-trotting relay of the torch leading up to the Beijing Games in August has triggered protests against China's crackdown on violent protests for independence in Tibet. In South Korea, one of the torch's final stops before entering China, demonstrators focused on human rights for North Koreans who live in hiding in China after fleeing hunger in their homeland.

The torch was scheduled to arrive in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. North Korea said it was preparing an “amazing” welcome, indicating that the totalitarian regime would mobilize hundreds of thousands of flower-waving people.

Hours before the torch run began in Seoul, several thousand Chinese, mostly students studying in South Korea, converged in this city's Olympic Park, singing, chanting and waving pickets that said “We love China” or “Go, Go China.”

When lone protesters demanded that China stop repatriating North Korean refugees, they were quickly surrounded by jeering Chinese. Near the park, Chinese students surrounded and beat a small group of protesters, news reports said.

In another scuffle, at the city center where the five-hour torch run ended, Chinese surrounded several Tibetans and South Korean supporters who unfurled pro-Tibet banners, and kicked and punched them, witnesses said.

The largest scuffle erupted shortly after the first torch-bearer left the Olympic Park, surrounded by dozens of police officers on foot or on bicycles and hundreds more in buses and trailed by a water cannon, ambulances and helicopters circling overhead.

Many of the Chinese gathered at the park surged toward about 150 protesters, mostly elderly South Koreans and North Korean defectors, who were shouting “No human rights, no Olympics” from across a boulevard.

Armed with plastic shields, the police scuffled with the Chinese as they tried to separate the two groups who were hurling objects at each other. At least one Chinese student was hauled away by the police for throwing a rock. A South Korean newspaper photographer was carried to hospital for treatment of a cut on his head.

The torch arrived in Seoul from Nagano, Japan, where protesters hurled garbage and flares during its run on Saturday and clashed with patriotic Chinese, who accused the West of vilifying Beijing. There, too, Chinese supporters far outnumbered those protesting the run.

Although the torch run stirred little interest among South Koreans in general, thousands of North Korean defectors in the South and their supporters saw it as an opportunity to press Beijing to better protect North Korean refugees in China.

In recent years, thousands of North Koreans have fled across the loosely controlled Chinese border, rather than the heavily fortified border with South Korea. China sends back North Koreans it catches as illegal economic migrants, a policy condemned by rights groups. They face life-threatening punishment in labor camps once repatriated, according to rights groups.

“Even as it is preparing for the Olympics, China is arresting North Korean refugees and sending them to the valley of death. Is that an Olympic spirit?” said Han Chang Kwon, a leader of North Korean defectors.

Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor and advocate for North Korean refugees, found himself surrounded by jeering Chinese students on Sunday.

“This torch run reminds me of Hitler, who first invented it in 1936 to divert world attention from human rights problems in Germany under the disguise of 'world harmony,'” he said.

Many placards Chinese waved on Sunday in Seoul criticized the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader whom China accuses of instigating violence.

“Tibet is part of China forever,” one said.

BBC

京奧聖火完成首爾傳遞轉往平壤

雙方對陣叫罵還動粗

雖然有小規模的干擾，但是京奧聖火在韓國首都的傳遞行程尚稱平順，而平壤站的行程即將登場。

平壤說，當地迎接聖火的規模和形式將令世人為之"眼睛一亮"。

以平壤為首都的朝鮮是世界上最封閉的國家之一，也不可能容忍任何形式的示威與抗議。

因此，不少人預料平壤的火炬傳遞可能會是這次境外傳遞路線當中最順利的行程。

如何看奧運火炬傳遞遭示威干擾？

警方此前警告，任何人企圖擾亂火炬傳遞都將受到嚴懲。

他們動員的警力中，包括120名陪跑警員和一架直升機。

在首爾火炬傳遞起點，親華觀眾似乎遠多於反華示威者

在首爾傳遞途中，雖然有大批留韓中國學生與僑民的助陣。

但是傳遞活動仍受到了支持西藏、抗議中國遣返朝鮮偷渡者等等團體的干擾。

一名定居韓國的"逃北者"（逃離北韓）試圖自焚，抗議中國政府遣返其兄弟，致使他們被朝鮮處決。

但是首爾市政府在沿途部署了8000名警察，令在場的警察得以制止這名男子的自焚行動。

這次助陣的學生與僑民人數明顯地遠遠超過抗議人數，雙方除了對陣叫罵之外，還互擲石塊、動粗，不過在警方勸阻之下，事態並未擴大。

聖火隨後轉往下一個境外傳遞站-朝鮮首都平壤。平壤的行程則是預定在周一（4月28日）展開。

Torch protests planned for Seoul 香港拒絕示威者入境

香港拒絕奧運聖火示威者入境

香港將是中國第一個進行奧運火炬傳遞的城市

北京奧運聖火本周將送到香港進行傳遞，三名關注中國人權問題的外國示威者被拒絕入境。

香港媒體星期天（4月27日）報道，包括丹麥雕塑家高志活（Jens Galschiot）在內的三名示威者飛抵香港機場後被拒絕入境。

但是隨行的電視台攝影師馬德森則獲准入境。

高志活一行四人是在星期六（26日）乘坐從倫敦希思羅出發的英國航空客機抵達香港的。他發起名為“橙色行動”的組織，在北京奧運期間抗議中國漠視人權。

據報道，高志活等三人被香港入境事務處移民官員盤查將近六個小時後，被一批“荷槍實彈的警員”押解登機遣返倫敦。

高志活登機前接受香港《明報》電話採訪時說，入境處官員要求他簽署確認被拒入境的文件，但他堅拒簽署，入鏡處官員也沒有交代拒絕他入境的原因。

如何看奧運火炬傳遞遭示威干擾？

“橙色行動”網站也轉發了高志活登機前寄出的電郵。高志活稱機場官員搜查了他們的行李，並沒收了照相機和手機。

香港入境處回應媒體查詢時說，他們有責任執行有效的入境管制，確保香港的公眾利益，強調會依法辦事，但拒絕透露遣返高志活等人的原因。

香港和澳門將先後在周五和周六（5月2日和3日）進行奧運聖火傳遞。這既是境外火炬傳遞的最後兩站，也是中國國境傳遞的首兩站。

民主派不滿

港府十分重視奧運火炬傳遞，並舉行了大規模演練

高志活對香港民主派人士來說並不陌生。他在1997年創作了“國殤之柱”雕塑悼念1989年北京六四學運死者。這件雕塑一直豎立在香港大學校園內。

他在出發前在“橙色行動”網站公布了在香港的行程，包括參與五?一勞動節和奧運聖火在香港、澳門傳遞時的示威活動，還有修補“國殤之柱”。

香港民主派人士紛紛對高志活一行被拒入境表示不滿。

民主黨立法會議員李永達說，高志活只是來港表達意見，不會搞破壞，而且“國殤之柱”已經在香港擺放多年，他被拒入境只會使香港的國際社會的形像變得更差。

立法會議員李卓人批評說，高志活等人只是一群到香港表達意見的藝術家，而且都公開了在港行程，不會影響火炬傳送，質疑入境處能否“拿出證據證明他們是恐怖分子”。

澳居民被捕

與此同時，澳門司法警察逮捕了一名當地居民，指他教唆他人搶奪奧運火炬。

司警局透露，被逮捕的28歲男子星期六凌晨在互聯網論壇發表“如何搶聖火火炬”的帖子，他們根據IP位址找到他在澳門中區的寓所，並上門進行逮捕。

司警表示，這名男子承認只是開玩笑，但有關行為已經構成“公然教唆犯罪”，星期一將把案件移交檢察院審理。

北京奧運火炬傳遞 3月24日，火炬在希臘奧林匹亞點燃，緊接在國內進行五天傳遞，最後送到雅典 火種移交北京奧組委後，3月31日送抵北京，隨即展開全球傳遞活動 火炬將在5月3日抵達澳門，緊接進行三個月的中國國內傳遞，到8月8日晚送到北京奧運開幕式上點燃 點擊這裡前往北京奧組委官方網站瀏覽詳細路線 非本網站內容BBC概不負責

Torch protests planned for Seoul

Human rights activists staged a demonstration ahead of the torch relay

The Olympic torch will be guarded by 8,000 police officers as it is paraded through the South Korean capital Seoul on the latest leg of its world relay.

Human rights groups have said thousands are preparing to protest over China's forced repatriation of North Korean refugees and its crackdown in Tibet.

Police warned anyone trying to disrupt the relay would be severely punished.

The torch arrived in South Korea from Japan, where four people were injured and five men arrested in scuffles.

More than 3,000 police could not stop Japanese nationalists and pro-Tibet activists clashing with pro-Chinese groups in the mountain resort of Nagano on Saturday.

China tries to promote itself as a civilised nation but what it's doing to [North Korean] defectors is uncivilised Kim Sang-chul Human rights lawyer

A coalition of human rights groups in South Korea is warning of similar scenes during the 24-km (15-mile) route from Olympic Park to City Hall in central Seoul on Sunday.

Protesters have threatened to stop the Olympic beacon crossing one of the main river bridges in the city.

Thousands of Chinese people study or work in South Korea and many of those are expected to welcome the torch.

The US embassy has cautioned its citizens in Seoul to avoid unnecessary travel during the relay, which is due to start at 1400 local time (0600 BST).

Dozens of human rights activists took part in a demonstration near the Olympic Park on Saturday ahead of the torch's arrival.

In addition to protests against the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the relay is also seen as an opportunity to raise the issue of China's policy of repatriating North Korean defectors.

Vowing to stop the march, human rights lawyer Kim Sang-chul told South Korean news agency Yonhap that China had repatriated some 75,000 North Koreans over the past 15 years.

As in Japan, thousands of Chinese supporters are expected to turn out

"China tries to promote itself as a civilised nation but what it's doing to the defectors is uncivilised," he said.

Security for the relay includes 120 police runners and a helicopter.

"Those who attempt to stop the relay will surely be arrested on the site and given stern punishment," a police spokesman said.

Over the following few days, the torch will stop in North Korea and Vietnam.

The BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul says the Pyongyang leg of the relay is guaranteed to be trouble-free.

North Korea tolerates no public protest and the torch will be greeted by hundreds of thousands of people in a choreographed mass display of flower-waving, he says.

Protests elsewhere on the torch's progress have turned the celebratory tour of 20 countries into what analysts describe as a public-relations disaster for Beijing.

Demonstrations in Athens, London, Paris and San Francisco have dominated media coverage of the relay.

But the flame has made relatively peaceful progress through other cities, including Bangkok in Thailand and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

台灣如何因應興起的中國？

以下的ppt文字很粗略 當作參考的出發點

"你以為這是雪梨？

這是中國的青島

你以為這裡是倫敦？

這是中國的上海

你以為你了解中國嗎？

中國，已是外匯存底世界第１

中國，已是石油消耗世界第２

中國，已是貿易金額世界第３

中國，經濟總產出為世界第４

我們其實並不瞭解中國

54.3％的台灣人坦承不了解中國

43.2％的台灣人認為政府並不了解中國

超速建設

中國城市的地圖，

每三個月就要改版一次，

才能趕上建設的腳步。

過去15年，中國修建了八十萬公里公路，

足足可以繞地球19圈。

超速建設

世紀建設

孫中山實業計畫中的東方大港，2005年底完工，洋山港已經超越新加坡、香港，成為全球第一大貨運港。

世紀建設

總長度32.5公里，相當於台北到桃園的距離的東海大橋，連結起洋山港與上海之間的貨運往來，讓長江三角洲直接與世界接軌。

世紀工程

一世紀的夢想，短短五年即告完工。

海拔五千公里冰原上，全長1118公里的青藏鐵路，

不僅加強對西藏的控制，更打通了西南的戰略通道。

用人才競爭下個世紀

中國，正用奧運級的教育方針，從文官、大學

到基層教育，打造下個世代的中國競爭力。

人才強國

文官教育

面對全球化的挑戰，中國不僅將一批批的官員送至哈佛、牛津、早稻田、漢城等知名大學受訓，甚至透過與韓國三星的合作，養成國際企業營運的實務經驗。

文官教育

透過ＭＢＡ教學常見的個案教學法，

要培養中國的官員具有三種能力，

戰略思維、全盤思考；

國際視野、國際接軌；

實際操作的管理能力。

領導人淬鍊

位在北京的中共中央黨校，是未來領導的養成班，而講師陣容除了國際政治家季辛吉、李顯龍，甚至包含GE、Intel等國際企業的CEO。

大學教育

十年間，中國的大學數量增加了一倍，光是中國大學生的數目，就高達2000萬，逼近台灣總人口數。

大學教育

這群高素質的知識份子，

將是中國征戰世界的最大優勢。

台灣，雖然是一艘不沈的航空母艦，

卻也是艘開不走的航空母艦。

不管如何，都需面對中國。

台灣如何因應？

人民，其實很清楚：

35.5％的台灣民眾認為，當務之急是減少政黨惡鬥。

38.3％的台灣民眾更認為必須加強人才培訓及研發能力。

台灣如何因應？

面對中國，最重要的一句話是：

「不要慌、不要怕，但也千萬不要再混了！」

http://www.cw.com.tw/issue/china

更多中國精彩報導，都在天下網站

Asia's other miracle (Vietnam)

The Economist 長達12頁的專題報導

Vietnam

Asia's other miracle

Apr 24th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Vietnam has developed at stunning speed by letting market forces do their work. It should free up its politics, too

NOT so long ago the word “Vietnamese” was almost inevitably accompanied in press reports by the phrase “boat people”. For two decades after the fall of Saigon in 1975, the defining image of Vietnam was the waves of bedraggled refugees washing up on its neighbours' shores, fleeing oppression and penury back home. How things have changed. Today, many former refugees are returning to seek new careers and start businesses in a transformed Vietnam. It is now one of Asia's fastest-developing countries, with annual growth averaging 7.5% over the past decade. Although this is less stellar than China's growth, our special report this week finds that Vietnam has made more impressive progress in cutting poverty than its vast northern neighbour. The government's initial hopes for 9% growth this year may be dashed, as the country struggles with double-digit inflation and a yawning trade gap. But the long-term outlook remains promising.

Shooting out of poverty

Vietnam's cities are bright and bustling and the countryside, where most of its 85m people still live, seems hardly less developed than that of officially much richer Thailand. A country once on the brink of famine has turned itself into one of the biggest exporters of farm produce. In a stark reversal of fortunes, the Philippines—once Asia's second-richest country—recently had to beg Vietnam to sell it rice for its hungry millions. Vietnam's social and economic progress has made it the poster-child of multilateral institutions such as the World Bank. It has become one of the fastest-growing destinations for multinational firms and holidaymakers. It is a rising diplomatic power: in July it will chair the UN Security Council, on which it holds a temporary seat.

There are many useful things Vietnam could do with its new-found prestige, through both example and active diplomacy. Other countries in transition could benefit from its advice on how to set aside old enmities, open up to the world and reform defunct economies. As a rare friend of North Korea and Myanmar, Vietnam could help coax those benighted places out of self-imposed isolation. As a country that has escaped deep poverty by embracing free trade, Vietnam could encourage developing countries to take a more constructive stance in the Doha round of world trade talks (and shame richer ones into doing the same).

Remarkable as its achievements are, Vietnam is still not satisfied. It wants to go all the way to become a rich, high-tech country and has set a target date of 2020 for getting there. As several foes have learnt over the past century, the intelligence and determination of the Vietnamese should not be underestimated. But if it wants to realise its dream, Vietnam must learn the right lessons from its own story so far, and from those neighbours who have got to where it wants to be.

Vietnam began to be a success only after its ruling Communists accepted that capitalism, free markets and free trade were the surest route to riches. They began in 1986 with a liberalisation programme called doi moi (renewal), though real reform came in fits and starts over the following 20 years. Collectivisation was scrapped, farmers were given their own land to till and agricultural prices were freed. In 2000, private business—until then strictly curbed—was legalised and a stockmarket created. Trade barriers were lowered, exports and imports soared, and Vietnam is now among the world's most open economies. There can probably be no going back: any attempt to reapply the dead hand of government will ensure that Vietnam's dream of riches by 2020 remains just a dream.

Like South Korea, Taiwan and now China, Vietnam has shown it is possible to escape poverty under an authoritarian system. But it is surely no coincidence that most of the world's richest countries by income per head are liberal democracies. Political freedom is a right in itself and it does not need to be justified by arguing that it has economic advantages. But it does have them. Vietnam's leaders are already discovering that it is hard to run a thriving market economy with the methods that suited a planned economy. Managing all the strains of a fast-developing society is easier if there is a free market in opinions as well as in goods and services. In particular, tough but necessary economic decisions are easier to sell if citizens feel they have had some say in them.

Now become a star

So far, the Communist Party seems determined to retain its monopoly on power. It calls pro-democracy campaigners “terrorists” and puts them in jail. But it should take special note of the experience of South Korea and Taiwan. Until the late 1980s they too were dictatorships. Their regimes, facing rising dissent, saw the writing on the wall and democratised. Now, though their politics are a bit rough, they have the sort of prosperous, technology-based economies that Vietnam aspires to. The Vietnamese Communist Party seems instead to have been taking more interest in the example offered by Singapore, another prosperous, high-tech neighbour. Singapore's tiny size makes it a bit of an exception but even its constrained democracy—with rivals to the ever-ruling People's Action Party allowed to compete within tight constraints—would be a good start for Vietnam.

It is true that Vietnam also has neighbours, such as the Philippines and Thailand, where democracy has been a bumpy ride. But what this demonstrates is that democracy is a necessary rather than sufficient condition for reaching the premier league. The present generation of Vietnamese leaders, children of the independence struggle who want the best for their people, should think about who might come after them. If the next generation is less principled and more corrupt but cannot be dislodged from power, the country will slide backwards.

So far there are few signs of revolt against one-party rule. But as the Vietnamese get used to their broad economic and social freedoms, they are bound to appear eventually. Why wait? How much better for Ho Chi Minh's heirs to go down in history as having led the way in bringing stability, prosperity and, at last, real freedom to the people of Vietnam.

Singapore Flyer

Singapore Flyer is the world's largest observation wheel. Standing at a stunning 165m from the ground, the Flyer offers you breathtaking, panoramic views of the Marina Bay, our island city and beyond. There's also a wide range of shops, restaurants, activities and facilities.

全世界最高的摩天輪「新加坡摩天景觀輪」(Singapore Flyer)15日正式對外開放，高165公尺、相當於42層樓，跟台北的美麗華摩天輪相比，還高出65公尺，光是繞一圈，就要將近40分鐘，最遠的視野還可以飽覽鄰國馬來西亞與印尼的風景。

陣陣的鼓聲，新加坡總理李顯龍為摩天輪正式揭開序幕，新加坡政府特別施放慶祝煙火秀，五彩繽紛的煙火將新加坡摩天景觀輪點綴得更加耀眼。 美輪美奐的摩天輪，座落的位置非常好，就位於新加坡河畔，遊客可以360度飽覽壯闊的海景，連鄰近的馬來西亞和印尼也可以看得一清二楚。

165公尺的高度不但是新加坡新地標，更打敗倫敦「千禧之眼」，成為世界第一高的摩天輪。新加坡摩天輪主席波倫說：「圓圈的部分，像是梯子一樣，而不是倫敦眼的三度立體結構，所以這是超越倫敦眼的新設計。」

這座新加坡新地標，斥資52億新台幣、耗時2年打造完成，共有28個座艙，每個大約是一部公車的大小，可以搭乘30人左右，搭乘一圈大約40分鐘，而且為了適應新加坡炎熱的天氣，還有空調設備。 藍色光圈與海灣交織成一幅炫麗夜景，可望為新加坡帶動觀光人潮。

官網：http://www.singaporeflyer.com.sg/

Chinese ambassador attacks Western media: Tibet Backers Show China Value of P.R.

中新網4月13日電 據中國外交部網站消息：中國駐英國大使傅瑩近日撰寫題為“火炬倫敦傳遞後的思考”的文章。全文轉載如下：

　　4月6日那天早上，我看著窗外漫天飛舞的雪花，不禁想：今天的北京奧運火炬倫敦段的傳遞將會怎樣？

　　大約八個小時以後，當第80位火炬手，英國著名中長跑運動員霍爾姆斯手舉祥雲火炬，跑上千年穹舞台，點燃了聖火盆時，場內4000多名觀眾一片歡騰。

　　這一天將以北京和倫敦之間的一次碰撞留在人們的記憶中，這個碰撞火花四濺，充滿躁動，中國是首次舉辦奧運會的發展中國家，而英國則是迎接火炬的第一個西方國家。

　　在返回機場的大巴上，北京奧組委年輕的女士們，包括前奧運冠軍喬，都堅定地認為是全英國的人在跟她們作對。一個女孩說，“這哪裡是養育了莎士比 亞和狄更斯的國家啊！”另一個說，“英國人的紳士風度到哪兒去了？”我花了很長時間試圖說服他們，但從她們潮濕的眼睛中我明白，我沒有做到。

　　我完全理解她們的看法。她們一整天都在車輛間來回穿梭，照應火炬手，鼻子凍紅了，雙手冰涼，前一天晚上只睡了三個小時的覺，有些人剛剛吃上午餐留下來的三明治。更糟糕的是，她們一路上還要反覆經受暴力衝搶火炬的行徑。

　　而我很幸運地坐在後面的車上，有機會看到數萬倫敦人頂風冒雪前來歡迎火炬，有揮手致意的老人，也有在風雪中表演節目的演員們。

　　夜幕降臨，看著奧運包機慢慢滑動到跑道上，我不禁想，飛機是否變得更加沉重了？北京奧運火炬全球傳遞這個艱難的旅程將讓13億中國人民可以更好地認識這個世界，也讓世界更好地了解中國。

　　一個年輕朋友看了BBC對火炬倫敦傳遞的轉播，他在給我的信中寫到，此刻百感交集，有悲哀、憤怒，也有不解。像他一樣，很多人可能從中領悟到，中國融入世界不是憑著一顆誠心就可以的，擋在中國與世界之間的這堵牆太厚重了。

　　最近，在中國兩億網民中最流行的不僅是有人企圖抓搶火炬的場景，更是一些感人至深的場面，例如火炬在巴黎段的傳遞中，坐在輪椅上年輕纖弱的中國 殘疾人運動員金晶，用自己的雙手和身軀緊緊護住火炬，使衝搶火炬的暴徒無法得逞。中國網民們對一段時間以來，西方一些媒體不惜使用移花接木的手段和來自別 國的假照片攻擊中國進行所謂“鎮壓”，也感到尤為憤怒。

Chinese ambassador attacks Western media

By Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor, and David Eimer in Beijing

Last Updated: 8:28am BST 13/04/2008

The Chinese ambassador to London has denounced "violent" British demonstrators who attacked the Olympic torch relay - and hit out at the western media for "demonising" China.

Full article by Chinese ambassador Fu Ying Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Fu Ying claims that Chinese Olympic athletes were so shocked by the protests at the relay in London that they questioned whether Britain could really have been the land that produced Shakespeare and Dickens. Fu Ying carries the Olympic torch through London In her article, Madam Fu says: "Many who had romantic views about the West are very disappointed at the media’s attempt to demonise China. We all know demonisation feeds a counter reaction. "Many complain about China not allowing enough access to the media. In China, the view is that the Western media needs to make an effort to earn respect." The unprecedented attack comes after international concern about the crackdown in Tibet, with Tibetan exile groups saying Chinese security forces killed dozens of protesters during violent clashes. Protests during the Olympic torch relay by activists critical of China’s actions have taken place all over the world ahead of the Beijing Games in August. Voicing her own disappointment that the relay in London last weekend was marred by demonstrations, Madam Fu said: "On the bus to the airport, I was with some young girls from the Beijing team, including an Olympic Gold Medalist Miss Qiao. They were convinced that the people here were against them. One girl remarked she couldn’t believe this land nourished Shakespeare and Dickens. Another asked: where is the 'gentlemenship’?"

Dismissing criticism of China’s actions in Tibet, she said: "Of those who protested loudly, many probably have not seen Tibet. People are well-fed, well-clothed and well-housed. That has been the main objective of China for centuries."

Gordon Brown has confirmed that he will not attend the Beijing opening ceremony, although he denied it was a protest or change of plan and said he will go to the closing ceremony instead. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also informed China that he will not attend the opening ceremony.

China’s President Hu Jintao defended the suppression of the protests in Tibet yesterday and appeared to rule out any possibility of holding talks with the Dalai Lama.

Chaotic scenes of protest marked the Olympic torch's progress through London

In his first comments on the protests, President Hu denied that they had anything to do with human rights, or with Beijing’s restrictions on religious freedom in Tibet.

Instead, he blamed the Dalai Lama for orchestrating the largest uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet for 20 years.

He said that China was ready to meet with the Dalai Lama, but only if the Tibetan spiritual leader stopped trying to "split the motherland", "incite violence" and "ruin the Beijing Olympics".

Interviewed on US television late on Friday, the Dalai Lama reiterated his opposition to a boycott of the Beijing Games and told China, "We are not against you. And I’m not seeking separation".

Chinese ambassador Fu Ying: Western media has 'demonised' China

By Fu Ying, China's ambassador to London

Last Updated: 11:01am BST 13/04/2008

Have your say Read comments

In the morning of April 6, looking at the snowflakes falling outside the window, I could not but wonder what the torch relay would be like.

News: Chinese ambassador says Britain 'lacks respect' About 8 hours later, when the torch finally struggled through the route, Olympic gold medalist Dame Kelly Holmes ran up to light the Olympic cauldron at the O2 dome, and 4,000 spectators cheered, obviously with a sense of relief. Fu Ying, China's ambassador This day will be remembered, as Beijing met London with splashes and sparkles. It was an encounter between China, the first developing country to host the Olympics, and Britain, the first western country to greet the 2008 torch. On the bus to the airport, I was with some young girls from the Beijing team, including an Olympic gold medalist, Miss Qiao. They were convinced that the people here were against them. One girl remarked she couldn't believe this land nourished Shakespeare and Dickens. Another asked: where is the "gentlemenship"? I used all my knowledge to argue for London, and looking into their watery eyes, I knew I was not succeeding. I can't blame them. They were running between vehicles for the whole day, noses red and hands cold, trying to service the torch bearers. They had only about three hours of sleep the previous night and some were having lunch sandwiches just now. Worse still, they had to endure repeated violent attacks on the torch throughout the relay. I was fortunate to sit at the rear of the bus and saw smiling faces of Londoners who came out in the tens of thousands, old people waving and young performers dancing, braving the cold weather. In the darkness of a London night, waving the chartered plane goodbye, I had a feeling the plane was heavier than when it landed. The torch will carry on, and the journey will educate the more than a billion Chinese people about the world, and the world about China. A young friend in China wrote to me after watching the event on the BBC: "I felt so many things all at once – sadness, anger and confusion." It must have dawned on many like him that simply a sincere heart was not enough to ensure China's smooth integration with the world. The wall that stands in China's way to the world is thick. In China, what's hot at this moment on the internet, which has 200 million users there, is not only the attempts to snatch the torch but also some moving images of Jin Jing, a slim young girl, a Paralympic athlete in a wheelchair, helped by a blind athlete. She held the torch with both arms to her chest as violent "protesters" tried repeatedly to grab it from her during the Paris relay. There is especially infuriated criticism of some of the misreporting of China in recent weeks, such as crafting photos or even using photos from other countries to prove a crackdown. On the other side of the wall, the story is different. Standing in the middle, I am concerned that mutual perceptions between the people of China and the West are quickly drifting in opposite directions. I cannot help asking why, when it comes to China, the generalised accusations can easily be accepted without people questioning what exactly and specifically they mean; why any story or figures can stay on the news for days without factual support. Even my own participation in the torch relay had been the subject of continuous speculation. I remember a local friend said, "We all like to read media stories. Only when it comes to ourselves do we know they can't all be true." Of those who protested loudly, many probably have not seen Tibet. For the Chinese people, Tibet is a loved land and information about it is ample. Four million tourists visit Tibet every year. The past five years saw the income of farmers and herdsmen increasing by 83.3 per cent. In 2006 there were more than 1,000 schools, with 500,000 students. In this Autonomous Region, where 92 per cent of the population is Tibetan, there are 1,780 temples, or one for every 1,600 people – which is more than in England, where there is one church for every 3,125 people. There may be complicated problems of religion mixing with politics, but people are well-fed, well-clothed and well-housed. That has been the main objective of China for centuries. Tibet may not grow into an industrial place like the eastern cities in China, but it will move on like other parts of China. I personally experienced China's transition to opening up, from small steps to bigger strides. I remain a consistent and firm supporter of opening up. The latest events have led the younger generation of Chinese, those born since the 1980s, who grew up in a more prosperous, better-educated and freer China, to begin a collective rethinking about the West. My daughter, who loves Western culture, must have used the word "why" dozens of times in our long online chat. Her frustration could be felt between the lines. Many who had romantic views about the West are very disappointed at the media's attempt to demonise China. We all know demonisation feeds a counter-reaction. I do pray from the bottom of my heart that the younger generation of Chinese will not be totally disillusioned about the West, which remains an important partner in our ongoing reform. Many complain about China not allowing enough access to the media. In China, the view is that the Western media needs to make an effort to earn respect. Coming to China to report bad stories may not be welcomed but would not be stopped, as China is committed to opening up. China is far from perfect and it is trying to address the many problems that do exist. It would be helpful to the credibility of the Western media if the issues they care and write about are of today's China, not of the long-gone past. In my one year in the UK, I have realized that there is a lot more media coverage about China than when I was a student here in the mid-1980s, and most of it is quite close to the real life of China, good or bad. China is also in an era of information explosion. I am sure that more and more people in the West will be able to cross the language and cultural barriers and find out more about the real China. The world has waited for China to join it. Now China has to have the patience to wait for the world to understand China. Fu Ying is the Chinese Ambassador to London

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Tibet Backers Show China Value of P.R.

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Tibet supporters marched along the Embarcadero in San Francisco ahead of the Olympic torch.

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Published: April 14, 2008

Soon after China was awarded the Olympic Games seven years ago, a series of public relations strategy sessions were held. But it wasn’t the Chinese government holding the sessions: it was grass-roots Tibet support groups in the United States and abroad.

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Times Topics: Olympic Games (2008)

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Darryl Bush/Associated Press

Two protesters were arrested during the rally in San Francisco. China has had a tough time deflecting the protesters’ message.

The protesters quickly established a communications plan, focused their message and ran camps where they taught members interview skills and even rappelling — as they showed off last week in hanging banners on the Golden Gate Bridge.

As a result, the protesters have pulled off a publicity coup. Instead of basking in the glow of the coming games, China has quickly found itself on the defensive, and protesters have turned the subject from athletics in Beijing to the crackdown in Tibet, along with human-rights violations inside China and China’s investments in Sudan.

“At first there was a profound sense of despair after the Chinese government was awarded the honor,” said Kalaya’an Mendoza, a coordinator for Students for a Free Tibet, an activist group. “But after five minutes passed, we realized this would be a monumental opportunity for the Tibetan people to be put in the international spotlight.”

For all its business success and military power, China is still something of a naïf when it comes to Western-style public relations. In many ways, China is facing the same challenge that companies like Philip Morris and Wal-Mart have in recent years as protesters and union activists have grown increasingly sophisticated in delivering their message.

“Our voice cannot be heard,” said Wenqi Gao, spokesman for China’s consulate in New York. “We have to improve our image.”

The Tibet groups, though, have courted the media. “The approach these groups have is spectacular in terms of public relations,” said Richard Funess, president of Ruder Finn Americas, a public relations firm.

While China has not mastered the art of the grass-roots publicity campaign, its government — with the Olympics in mind — has been exploring American-style public relations approaches.

According to a recent report in The Financial Times, the Chinese government is now seeking its own public relations representation. Executives from five P.R. firms with a large presence in Beijing said they had not been contacted about the project.

Mr. Gao of the Chinese consulate said that he did not know if the report was true, but that he thought some help was needed. “My personal view is, it is a good idea to talk about this public relations industry, and seek help from the public relations industry to see if we can do better with the media,” he said.

After China lost its Olympics bid in 1993, said David Liu, managing director for Weber Shandwick China, Olympic insiders advised it to hire a public relations firm before its next attempt. Weber Shandwick, owned by the Interpublic Group, won the contract, and, Mr. Liu said, his advice was that China separate its human-rights record from its Olympics bid.

What the firm suggested to the Olympic committee, Mr. Liu said, was that if Beijing were allowed to hold the Games, it might lead to some movement on a number of fronts. “If you give China the Olympic hosting rights, then it is like you are engaging China, and naturally they will improve on a lot of things.”

Currently, the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games is using the public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, owned by the WPP Group, to work on the Games. James B. Heimowitz, Hill & Knowlton North Asia’s chief executive, says that its sphere is limited, as the Beijing Organizing Committee is not empowered to comment on Chinese government policy.

Still, he said, his firm’s advice has been welcome. “I think increasingly we are seeing Chinese — both private companies and the government sector — increasingly trying to understand how to be more effective in an international environment, and that includes things like understanding and working with international-level communications and P.R. agencies,” Mr. Heimowitz said. “They’re trying.”

On the other side, the protesters use an approach that is one part strategy, one part necessity. The groups, largely financed by individual donations, have little money for advertisements. “Our organizations are relatively small, and the only way to get the word out is through the media,” said Wangchuk Shakabpa, a board member of the U.S. Tibet Committee.

To get that word out, the International Tibet Support Network, a London-based group that coordinates pro-Tibet organizations, has been sending press-focused bulletins to its 153 member organizations.

“We’ve been sending out regular daily summaries,” said Alison Reynolds, the group’s executive director, “of what’s news, what’s happening, what are the key political developments, who said what about the situation in Tibet.”

Students for a Free Tibet, a member of the international organization, sends out its own talking points, press release templates and protest plans to its 650 chapters. That is supplemented by two Students for a Free Tibet Facebook cause pages, which now have about 37,900 members and a YouTube page where organizers post reports and footage from protests.

Every other month, Students for a Free Tibet holds conferences for members of pro-Tibet groups, where media training is a focus. The sessions cover everything from giving a good sound bite to answering reporters’ questions artfully.

“S.F.T. realizes that the media is a very effective tool getting our message across,” Mr. Mendoza said. “One way that we ensure that our message stays on point and is disseminated to audiences it’s targeted to, is by training our S.F.T.-ers to be the best media spokespeople themselves.”

With an eye toward demonstrations that will get coverage, S.F.T. also holds weeklong “action camps” four times a year. Attendees learn to organize protests and deal with the police, and receive training in attention-getting activities like rappelling and guerrilla street theater.

The Tibet groups’ approach has, at least in recent weeks, shifted the focus from the Darfur cause. But “more pressure on China to do something is better,” said Jill Savitt, executive director of Dream for Darfur. “I have been really impressed with the turnout and the moral fierceness of how they have mobilized.”

The focus on the Olympics has brought an unprecedented level of coordination and media focus among the Tibet support groups. From 1951 until the late 1980s, the Tibet issue was largely a political one, said Robert J. Barnett, director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute. In 1987, an influential article by onetime Carter adviser Roberta Cohen about China’s human-rights record created interest in Tibet among non-Tibetans.

Demonstrations in Lhasa in 1987 and 1989 heightened that interest, leading to the creation of many Tibet support groups. While the different groups occasionally coordinated their work, it was on an ad hoc basis.

The groups decided to coordinate their efforts at a conference in 2000, creating the London group to do that. But the group did not have a staff until after receiving financing in 2005 — by which time the Olympics were already a focus of the Tibet groups. The London group hired a full-time Olympics campaign coordinator last year.

Across the street from the Chinese consulate in New York on Wednesday, about 35 protesters from five Tibet organizations had gathered, summoned by text messages and e-mail messages. They were shouting the same slogans that were being shouted across the country in San Francisco, which had been disseminated through e-mail messages and bulletins. Mr. Shakabpa, his sign leaning against his legs, surveyed his fellow protesters. “You’re talking about a handful of people,” he said, “but we can really get our message out.”

Gene Grabowski, a crisis P.R. specialist at Levick Strategic Communications who worked on the Chinese toy recalls, said he was not surprised that the protesters were winning so far.

“The Chinese government is still new to the challenges and the game of playing on a world stage, and playing on the world stage today doesn’t just mean understanding how to control the messages that come out of formal government ministries or the messages that are prepared and disseminated to the global news media,” he said. “There are the blogs, there are Web sites; there’s a whole world of Internet-based communication that the Chinese government still doesn’t seem to understand or appreciate.”

Two ways to repair China's image: end the torch relay and take a lead over Myanmar

alight (BURNING)

China and Myanmar

Keeping the flame alight

Apr 10th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Two ways to repair China's image: end the torch relay and take a lead over Myanmar

alight (BURNING) Show phonetics
adjective [after verb]
1 burning; on fire:
I had to use a bit of petrol to get the fire alight.
The rioters overturned several cars and set them alight.
He was smoking in bed and his blankets caught alight.
The sky was alight with (= brightly lit up by) hundreds of fireworks.

2 LITERARY showing excitement and happiness:
Her eyes were alight with mischief.

(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

最新一期英國權威媒體「經濟學人」指出，中共政府原本計畫利用舉辦北京奧運，向世人展現中共是和平興起的世界強國；但鎮壓西藏與聖火全球傳遞的強硬處理態度，讓世人見識到中共的黑暗面，成為中共公關形象的大災難，北京政府應停止聖火傳遞，才能修復負面形象。 這篇以「放下聖火」為題的評論文章指出，八月北京奧運舉行前，在世界各地進行聖火傳遞，原就有風險，所到處有眾多抗議者，而西藏的暴動與示威，使聖火傳遞從些許的外交難堪，一發不可收拾，成為全面性的公關災難，對中共形象造成長期傷害。 文章指出，聖火傳遞顯示中共政府焦慮、壓抑、易怒及固執的黑暗面，現在如果想終止聖火傳遞的鬧劇，避免有人受到更大傷害，解決之道就是停止聖火傳遞，但北京冥頑不靈，可能會排除這個可能性。 報導說，聖火從倫敦、巴黎到舊金山，所到之處都遭到強烈抗議，十七日聖火經過印度新德里，場面將更難看。如果再傳到西藏，對數十萬流亡海外的西藏人，此舉更具挑釁意味。 報導說，儘管外界抗議不斷，中共官員堅持將繼續海外聖火傳遞，並有信心完成任務；原本是一個標示中共興起成為全球友善強國的慶祝活動，現在已經荒腔走板，部分民眾甚至第一次對「中國勢力的崛起」感到恐懼。

China and Myanmar

Keeping the flame alight

Apr 10th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Two ways to repair China's image: end the torch relay and take a lead over Myanmar

Getty Images

WERE shooting oneself in the foot an Olympic event, China would surely be well placed for a gold. The Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay, taking the flame around the world before the games begin in August, was always a risk. Of course the flame would draw protesters like moths. But the suppression of riots and protests in Tibet has ensured the torch's progress has graduated from minor diplomatic embarrassment to full-scale public-relations disaster (see article).

An exercise intended to flaunt the new, outward-looking and confident China has displayed its dark side: nervous, repressive, prickly and stubborn. That stubbornness may rule out the obvious remedy: calling the whole farce off before someone is badly hurt. At least the International Olympic Committee should have nothing more to do with it. Protests this week in London, Paris and San Francisco were ill-tempered enough. The passage through Delhi on April 17th could be uglier. India is home to some 100,000 Tibetans. The only stop on the torch's world tour sure to be trouble-free is Pyongyang. As for its proposed procession through Tibet in June, it is hard to imagine a more provocative or insensitive gesture.

To accuse China's critics of “politicising” a sporting event is nonsense. What has the relay to do with sport? It is not some timeworn practice integral to the games. Rather, the idea of a relay from Greece to the Olympic venue was revived by the Nazis for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which is hardly a precedent China wants to advertise. The first “global” relay only took place for the most recent Olympics, in Athens in 2004. But that was not such a circus. China's pride may preclude any concession, however face-saving, on Tibet, or on human-rights abuses in general. But it is also facing criticism for its foreign policy—its links with the governments of Sudan and Myanmar in particular. Here, in theory, it can do something to show that it is indeed a responsible international “stakeholder”, with diplomatic maturity as well as economic clout.

Take Myanmar. After the bloody quelling of the “saffron revolution” last September, the ruling junta threw a few sops to international opinion. It accepted visits from a United Nations envoy, opened talks with the detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and gave a timetable for a political transition. China deserves some credit for forcing the junta's hand. Myanmar's generals are nobody's puppets. But China, with its big commercial interests in the country, and its support in the UN Security Council, is now the junta's best friend.

It is time to use that position again. Confident that the outside world's focus on their misdeeds has shifted elsewhere, the generals have stalled on dialogue both with their opponents at home and the UN's envoy. The plight of their country remains desperate (see article). The political “process” has degenerated into a drive to impose a constitution entrenching military rule. A referendum on this solution will be held on May 10th in a climate of vicious intimidation.

Members of the Security Council are mulling a new statement, calling for some of the minimum reforms needed for a credible vote—such as the release of opposition leaders, including Miss Suu Kyi. The first thing China can do is to allow the statement to be issued in the name of a united outside world. More than that, China could help resolve the sterile debate that has raged for two decades over “engagement” or “isolation”. Isolation has never worked, because China, India and South-East Asian countries see too much commercial and strategic benefit in links with the junta. But nor has “engagement”, since Western countries have imposed sanctions of varying severity, and the junta has little interest in engaging anyway.

Nobody wins gold for sitting on a fence

Despite this, there is a broad consensus about the need for reform in Myanmar. With anti-Chinese feeling mounting in Myanmar, it is not in China's interests to be perceived as the prop that always holds up a loathed regime. It could take the initiative in forming a contact group to engage the junta in talks on economic co-operation and political reform. Even if it excluded Europe and America, such a group, of China, India, some South-East Asian countries and Japan, could help show the generals that they cannot forever survive in the cracks of other countries' disagreements. And it could help show that China is not always, unequivocally, on the side of the thugs.