Applied Materials in Xian, China

Interesting article from NYT “China Drawing High-Tech Research From U.S.“,

For years, many of China’s best and brightest left for the United States, where high-tech industry was more cutting-edge. But Mark R. Pinto is moving in the opposite direction.

Mr. Pinto is the first chief technology officer of a major American tech company to move to China. The company, Applied Materials, is one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent firms. It supplied equipment used to perfect the first computer chips. Today, it is the world’s biggest supplier of the equipment used to make semiconductors, solar panels and flat-panel displays.

In addition to moving Mr. Pinto and his family to Beijing in January, Applied Materials, whose headquarters are in Santa Clara, Calif., has just built its newest and largest research labs here. Last week, it even held its annual shareholders’ meeting in Xian.

[...] Now, Mr. Pinto said, researchers from the United States and Europe have to be ready to move to China if they want to do cutting-edge work on solar manufacturing because the new Applied Materials complex here is the only research center that can fit an entire solar panel assembly line.

“If you really want to have an impact on this field, this is just such a tremendous laboratory,” he said.

Xian — a city about 600 miles southwest of Beijing known for the discovery nearby of 2,200-year-old terra cotta warriors — has 47 universities and other institutions of higher learning, churning out engineers with master’s degrees who can be hired for $730 a month.

[...] Small clean-energy companies are headed to China, too.

NatCore Technology of Red Bank, N.J., recently discovered a way to make solar panels much thinner, reducing the energy and toxic materials required to manufacture them. American companies did not even come look at the technology, so NatCore reached a deal with a consortium of Chinese companies to finish developing its invention and mass-produce it in Changsha, China.

“These other countries — China, Taiwan, Brazil — were all over us,” said Chuck Provini, the company’s chief executive.

[...] Applied Materials has greater challenges, including fighting technological theft, a chronic problem in China.

The company has taken measures, including sealing its computers’ ports here, to prevent the easy use of flash drives to record data. Employees are not allowed to take computers from the building without special permission, and an elaborate system of computer passwords and electronic door keys limits access to certain technological secrets.

But none of that changes the sense that tectonic shifts are under way.

When Xei Lina, a 26-year-old Applied Materials engineer here, was asked recently whether China would play a big role in clean energy in the future, she was surprised by the question.

“Most of the graduate students in China are chasing this area,” she said. “Of course, China will lead everything.”

[Via http://kempton.wordpress.com]

'Cold Energy War' dying - market first, politics second

According to a special section of London’s Daily Telegraph (with content from Russia’s Rossiyskaya Gazeta), energy transport and politics can go their separate ways following the realization of new gas and oil pipelines in Europe. Cold war-like tensions, it writes, between Russia and Europe will only last until the continent moves past Cold War energy infrastructure.

Apparently, energy infrastructure deals and the launch of strategic energy pipelines signal the true end of the Soviet Union’s energy legacy. The piece notes that tensions over gas deliveries between Russia and Ukraine were avoided this year, while Russia’s stranglehold over countries in Central Asia has been broken. Pipelines from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to the Far East are considered ‘game changers’.

The Kremlin’s response has been to build more pipelines, also heading east. One possible result of this emerging lattice of pipelines is that energy relations in and around the Continental and Asian landmass will become more civilised as competing routes force both buyer and seller to put market interests first, and politics a definite second.

Despite Moscow’s usual wariness over its eastern neighbor China, the new, emerging situation on the ground, including construction of the Trans-Asian gas pipeline, has even prompted the Kremlin to agree to deliver 68bcm of natural gas a year to China through two new pipelines starting in Siberia.

[Via http://europeoilandgas.wordpress.com]

与那国島への陸自配置、北沢防衛相の消極姿勢に、地元民はいらだちと不安

南の島が危ない　陸自配備の兆しなし

http://www.iza.ne.jp/news/newsarticle/politics/politicsit/368746/

沖縄本島の南「国境の島」の守りが危険にさらされている。自民党政権で、浜田靖一防衛相（当時）が打ち出した、日本最西端の沖縄県・与那国島への陸上自衛隊の部隊配置を現実のものにしようと、北沢俊美防衛相と会談した地元首長ら。

北沢氏は「陸自に検討を指示している」と語ったものの、防衛力整備の基本となる新防衛大綱への盛り込みや、具体化への道筋は示さなかった。

「国防の空白」は是正されるのか－。中国の軍備増強が進むなか、地元には、いらだちと不安だけが広がっている。

（中略）

１９９２年、米軍がフィリピンから全面撤退した空白を埋めたのは中国だ。９３年にはフィリピンが領有権を主張する南シナ海のスプラトリー（南沙）諸島の６カ所に軍事施設とみられる建造物をつくったことを甘く見てはなるまい。一昨年、尖閣諸島を領海侵犯した中国は今年、東シナ海の９本の２００カイリ内海域の３カ所でガス田の試掘を一方的に進めている。

その一方、国境の島々の無防備に住民が気が付き、現実を直視する動きも出てきている。

昨年１月の宮古島市長選で保守系が当選し、革新市政を転換させたことを皮切りに、同８月の与那国町長選では自衛隊誘致派が反対派を制した。今年２月の石垣市長選では４期１６年の革新系市長が保守系に惨敗した。

だが、こうした傾向への反発なのか、今月はじめ、与那国島の４カ所で「自衛隊誘致は町民の悲願です」と訴えている横断幕が、１カ所を除き、ことごとく切り裂かれるという事件が起きた。

地元で事業を展開している与那国防衛協会長の金城信浩（しんこう）さんは「石垣市長選の投開票日の直後であり、保守派が完勝したことに島外の誘致反対派が焦ったのでしょう」と分析した。

糸数さんは「テロではないですか」といいながら「絶対に屈しませんよ」と、横断幕の修復作業に取りかかっていた。

…………………………………………………

【鈴木正人】外国人地方参政権と国境最西端・与那国島の防衛

[桜H22/3/9]

埼玉県議会議員の鈴木正人氏をお迎えし、先月24日に自民党政務調査会の古屋圭司衆議院議員、山谷えり子参議院議員らと沖縄県与那国島を視察に訪れられた際の現地の様子や 、議会の情勢などについて、国境最西端の島として特に切実な、外国人地方参政権に関する見解を交わされた模様を映像でもご紹介しながら、お話しいただきます。

[Via http://mamorenihon.wordpress.com]

China Premier Warns Of Double Dip Recession

Many economists in the West have said they fear a double dip recession which would most likely be fueled by high unemployment and that this joblessness will dampen consumer consumption which is about two-thirds of GDP. Most experts expect the economy in the US, UK, and EU to slow considerably in the current quarter compared to the fourth quarter of last year.

Yesterday, worries about a double dip came from a senior Chinese official for the first. time.

China’s premier Wen Jiabao expressed his concern that most developed nation may have trouble recovering their growth rates this year.

The observation may end up being true. The stimulus packages which have been integral to economic improvement in large nations, including China, are likely to be withdrawn this years. In many cases it is because the cost of the programs is raising national deficits at an alarming rates. The head of the IMF has urged large nations to continue spending to support their economies, but, in certain nations like the UK, that may not be practical because their deficits are so high compared to GDP.

China has every reason to fear another recession. Its exports and factory production have been up sharply since the beginning of the year. If demand for its goods from its trade partners drops sharply, the engine of much of China’s GDP growth disappears.

Douglas A. McIntyre

[Via http://247wallst.com]

Health Supplements

Information is Beautiful is a wonderful site by a data journalist / information designer who visualizes information (“facts, data, ideas, subjects, issues, statistics, questions”). This visualization looks at “scientific evidence for popular health supplements”. It’s very neat (and fun!). If you hover over the “Show Me” tab on the right side you can filter the supplements according to what they treat or to the types of supplements. I clicked on mental health and it appears that there is strong scientific evidence that St. John’s wort is effective against depression, and that Valerian is effective for sleep and anxiety. Lavender, Omega 3, and Vitamin B8, however, are below the “worth it line” in regards to their efficacy for depression.

Also interesting: “what does China censor online?”

for one, it looks as though all the big blogging sites, including WordPress

&”Chinese democracy” (sorry Guns & Roses)

&YouTube, Facebook, and eBay (!)

&sites about Tibet

[Via http://blogonmelancholy.wordpress.com]

Scouting the mountains of Guizhou

Just last week, CET staff traveled to a Miao village in Guizhou to scout the location of a Spring Break service learning trip.  Starting off in the provincial capital of Guiyang, we drove about two hours west to a small city called Kaili, and from there, to a Miao and Dong ethnicity autonomous region another 1.5 hours to the southwest.

The Miao people are one of China’s larger non-Han ethnic minority groups, and live in the mountainous regions of Southwest China as well as numerous other countries including Vietnam and Thailand.  They are known by many names, in English often referred to as Hmong people, and are officially categorized by Chinese government censuses into numerous different subgroups. 

Miao people speak their own languages, and among the different subgroups, some of these languages are mutually unintelligible.  Despite linguistic differences, certain common customs and lifestyles tie many Miao people together, for example, shamanistic rituals that traditionally center around ox worship and sacrifice, as well as terrace agriculture and a preference for settlement on mountainsides.

The Miao village we visited was representative of these facts.  Beigao, one of several villages within the Wugao area, is situated on a mountainside with terraces of rice, flowering cabbage, and brilliant yellow canola above and below.  The village head, who is also the local shaman, invited us into his home for a meal of local chicken hotpot with cabbage, and a delicious pickled pepper dipping sauce.  We discussed with him the situation in Beigao, the condition of the village, and what we might be able to do if we were to return for a longer stay.

The village head pointed out that despite the great natural beauty and strong cultural heritage of the area, there were still many hardships that the residents must endure.  He showed us drainage ditches which were in disrepair and littered with debris and garbage. 

He also pointed out a dangerous path of dirt and stone that local women use to carry heavy loads of crops down from the terraces, mentioning that a number of accidents had occurred there in just the past year.  Any progress on these two projects alone would objectively raise the quality of life substantially for all village residents, and we were hopeful that a dedicated group of volunteers could complete at least one of them during a stay in the village.

Parting ways with the people of Beigao was an involved process, and it’s one of the customs we’ll never forget.  Maybe it could be described as a sort of singing contests.  One of the locals will sing a song to a target, and then the target is required to either sing a song in return or consume one of their delicious local treats.  We’re confident that when we return in the Spring, we’ll be doing a whole lot of singing, eating, and working together with them again.   We’re so confident about the amount of singing we’ll be doing that we’re telling students they’d better memorize a whole lot of songs before they get to the village!

[Via http://cetacademicprograms.wordpress.com]

Corruption related to Chinese officials’ children is the main source of public “dissatisfaction”

By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing, The Financial Times, Mar. 12, 2010-

China’s former state auditor has identified the business dealings of Communist officials’ children as the main source of public “dissatisfaction” in an online broadcast by the People’s Daily newspaper, the official Communist party mouthpiece.

Li Jinhua, vice-chairman of the national committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and former long-serving auditor general of the National Audit Office, also called for better legal structures and greater supervision over the business dealings of officials and their children.

“From the numerous cases currently coming to light, we can see that many corruption problems are transacted through sons and daughters [of officials],” Li Jinhua said in the online forum on Thursday. Mr Li is widely respected for his role as China’s top anti-corruption official between 1998 and 2008.

He said the rapidly growing wealth of Communist officials’ children and family members “is what the public is most dissatisfied about”.

A recent online opinion poll conducted by the People’s Daily found that 91 per cent of respondents believe all rich families in China have political backgrounds.

The children of China’s top leaders are often referred to as “princelings”. Many have been educated in the west and have extensive business dealings in China.

But it is unusual for senior officials and the party’s own mouthpiece to discuss the issue of nepotism and corruption in such a public way as the subject is regarded as potentially destabilising in a one-party state where the leadership lacks a democratic mandate.

“This is a broadside against those members of the party who are using the organisation for their own private purposes,” said Russell Moses, a Beijing-based analyst of Chinese politics. “It could also very well be the opening salvo of a more robust political campaign against certain parts of the party.”

Accusations of nepotism and special privileges for the children of China’s elite became rallying cries in the student protests of 1989, which ended in the bloody military crackdown centred on Tiananmen Square in Beijing……(more details from The Financial Times)

[Via http://chinaview.wordpress.com]