Thursday, December 12, 2013

Typhoon Haiyan Challenges China’s Leadership

Stunned by the world’s most powerful storm to make a landfall in recorded history, the International Community responded swiftly to give aid to the badly-devastated provinces of the Philippines as the natural disaster feared claimed thousands of lives.

The United States, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom and Israel are just some of the 28 nations and organizations who immediately provided humanitarian assistance to the Philippines as the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, locally known as Typhoon Yolanda, struggle to survive.

View full report of Foreign Aid: www.gov.ph/faith/full-report

However, despite of the urgent call to help the storm-ravaged Philippines, including the United Nations’ plea, the world’s second largest economy was seemed singled out for its paltry donation.

The outpouring pledges of international community, both public and private, makes China's contribution for typhoon relief look like a trickle and a disgrace to Chinese leadership.

China was seems like battered by the tail-end of Typhoon Haiyan as criticisms strike its government for only pledging $200,000, including the amount given by Chinese Red Cross, to the Philippines, an initial donation that was dwarfed by the $20 million, $16 million and $30 million donations of the United States, United Kingdom and Japan respectively.

China has since increased its donation to $1.6 million, but it still even falls short behind the Swedish furniture chain Ikea's offer of $2.7 million donation, through its charitable foundation and Coco-Cola’s promise of $2.5 million in aid.

Some experts in international relations viewed China’s reluctance in giving more aid to the Philippines as an action influenced by the latter’s on-going conflict with the Philippines.

China and the Philippines’s relation have been frayed over the past years, after the two Asian nations embroiled in a standoff over the tiny group of islands in the South China Sea, which the Philippines recently renamed as the West Philippines Sea.

For Zheng Yongian, a China politics expert at the National University of Singapore, despite of the growing influence of China in the region, it still remains lags far behind the U.S in sphere of soft power, a non-traditional form of diplomacy in which emergency assistance is a major component.

"China has missed an excellent opportunity to show itself as a responsible power and to generate goodwill," said Zheng "They still lack strategic thinking."

Zheng also explained that Chinese leadership is still bound with old-fashioned major-nation diplomacy based on economic and military might.

Meanwhile, for Phillip Swagel, a former assistant secretary for economic policy at the U.S. Treasury Department, this incident only unveils China’s limited friendship relations with its neighbouring countries.

In his interview with the United Press International (UPI), Swagel said "China's action illustrates the blundering nature of its foreign policy."

"This is an unforced error for them, revealing to other countries the limits of Chinese friendship," he added.

However, for Bonnie Glaser, an East Asia adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, it is not unusual for China not to give more aid to other countries because it still sees itself as a third world country.

"The leadership worries that they would be criticized if they were found to be giving too much money away and not helping the poor at home," Glaser said.

China even insisted, in response to global criticisms, that their country was also hit by Typhoon Haiyan, putting some of its provinces under water.

The International Community remains monitoring the situations in the areas affected by Typhoon Haiyan as foreign assistance, particularly military relief operations of U.S, U.K, Japan, South Korea and Israel, seemingly makes the Philippines a center stage for world powers to show off their military strengths.

This even makes the Chinese power invisible in one of the world’s massive humanitarian missions, after the latter only sent its 14,000-ton navy hospital ship, the ‘Peace Ark,’ to the Philippines compared to the planes, warships and aircraft carriers sent by other forces.

In the meantime, relief and recovery operation continues in the Philippines weeks after Typoon Haiyan battered the central part of the archipelago.

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), more than 9 million people were affected in 44 provinces, 536 municipalities and 55 cities. Nearly 3.5 million were displaced, with about 400,000 of them finding shelter inside evacuation centers.

Based on the NDRRMC report, as of November 30, 2013, the death toll from the devastation wreaked by Typhoon Haiyan has hit 5, 598, with the number expected to rise further as some areas still left unsearched.


Typhoon Haiyan, apparently, not only unveils the worsening threat of Global Warming to the world, but also the capability of China to be the world’s next ‘Super Power’. – Vic Saure 

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Thai PM calls elections as 140,000 join protest



Thailand's premier called a snap election on Monday to try to defuse the kingdom's political crisis, but protesters kept up their fight to topple the government with an estimated 140,000 demonstrators flooding the streets of Bangkok.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has faced more than a month of sometimes-violent protests by boisterous demonstrators storming key government buildings in a bid to suspend the country's democracy in favour of an unelected "People's Council".

Thai opposition lawmakers resigned en masse from parliament on Sunday, deepening the political deadlock.

Yingluck, the sister of ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra, announced in a televised national address on Monday that she would dissolve the lower house and hold a general election "as soon as possible".

"The government does not want any loss of life," she said, amid fears the mass rallies could bring fresh violence.

But the leaders of the anti-government movement said they were not satisfied and pledged to rid Thailand of the influence of Thaksin, a tycoon-turned-premier who was ousted by royalist generals in a coup seven years ago and now lives in self-exile in Dubai.

"The movement will keep on fighting. Our goal is to uproot the Thaksin regime," protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, who faces an arrest warrant for insurrection, told AFP.

Thaksin -- who once described Yingluck as his "clone" -- is widely considered the de facto leader of the ruling party.

Yingluck's Puea Thai party said she was likely to be its candidate for prime minister again in the upcoming election, which it expects to be held on or around February 2.

The political conflict broadly pits a Bangkok-based middle class and royalist elite backed by the military against rural and working-class voters loyal to Thaksin.

His overthrow in 2006 by generals loyal to the king ushered in years of political turmoil and rival street protests by the royalist "Yellow Shirts" and Thaksin's supporters, known as the "Red Shirts".

Pro-Thaksin parties have won every election in more than a decade while the opposition Democrat Party -- whose MPs resigned en masse Sunday because they could not achieve anything in parliament -- has not won an elected majority in about two decades.

Democrat Party officials said on Monday they had not yet decided whether to take part in the upcoming election, which must be held within 60 days of the house's dissolution.

"The anti-government protesters want to take over the government. They do not want to contest for government because they have lost each time," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

"If they succeed we will likely have more turmoil in Thailand because the pro-government supporters, the so-called Red Shirts, have not been heard so far and we can presume that they must be very angry at the turn of events."

Dozens of people were killed in a military crackdown on mass pro-Thaksin Red Shirt rallies in Bangkok three years ago.

140,000 protesters take to the streets

Around 140,000 people were estimated to have joined the protests by early afternoon, according to the government's Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order, which was set up to deal with the unrest.

Demonstrators marched along several routes through the capital towards the government headquarters -- the main target of the rally -- paralysing traffic in parts of the city.

"We don't want politics any more -- no elections. Only the protesters can choose the next government. We choose, then the king appoints them," said one demonstrator who did not want to be named.

Tensions remain high after several days of street clashes last week when police used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets against rock-throwing demonstrators.

The unrest has left five people dead and more than 200 injured. Authorities have said they would try to avoid fresh confrontation.

"Police are unarmed, with only shields and batons. We will not use tear gas, or if we have no choice, its use will be limited," Interior Minister Jarupong Ruangsuwan said ahead of the rally.

"The government believes we can control the situation. We will focus on negotiation," he added.

The demonstrations were triggered by an amnesty bill, since dropped by Yingluck's ruling party, which opponents feared would have cleared the way for Thaksin's return.

The former premier went into exile in 2008 to avoid jail for a corruption conviction which he says was politically motivated. -Channel News Asia