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N. Korea’s broken economy key to N-talks |
Jon Herskovitz
A PROMISE by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to improve the state’s broken economy is forcing him to ask for massive aid and may even bring him back to nuclear talks that Pyongyang once declared dead.
The North, which last month sent an envoy to the United States on a charm offensive, on Monday gave its clearest signal yet that it was ready to return to the six-way, disarmament-for-aid talks.
Plenty of obstacles remain to reviving the discussions, not least the fact that Washington wants Pyongyang to recommit to giving up its nuclear activities before negotiations.
“It is still too early to tell if the North is desperate enough to make the strategic decision about a change in its nuclear arms program,” said a diplomatic source in Seoul.
But Kim, it appears, has backed himself into a corner after having pledged to turn North Korea into a “strong and prosperous nation” by 2012 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of his father and the state’s founder, Kim Il Sung.
Meeting that promise and Kim’s need to pay off cadres to win their support for a generational change in Asia’s only communist dynasty help explain why he abruptly stopped raising tensions with the international community after numerous missile launches this year and a nuclear test in May.
“This puts pressure on the regime to get as much aid as it can, as fast as it can,” said B.R. Myers, an expert on the North’s state ideology at Dongseo University in South Korea.
“To say that it will be a strong and prosperous country and to say that will be achieved by 2012, and to raise expectations, is actually a very risky thing.”
The year 2012 not only marks the 100th anniversary of the elder Kim’s birth. It may also be the year when Kim Jong Il, 67, announces to his countrymen that he is handing over power to the youngest of his three sons.
Unlike other times when the North’s leaders were able to claim victory by touting fictitious economic achievements or blaming US imperialists for its woes, the North will have to show its citizens real change by 2012 because it has raised expectations so high, analysts said. “Very high and vast are the targets we have to hit,” North Korea’s KCNA news agency itself declared a few months ago.
AND very bare are its coffers. North Korea’s tiny economy, estimated at $17 billion or just two percent the size of neighboring South Korea, has been buffeted on several fronts.
First, a new government in Seoul cut off aid to North Korea in early 2008. It said the aid, roughly equivalent to 5 percent of North Korea’s economy, would only flow again if Pyongyang took concrete steps on nuclear disarmament.
Most recently, tough UN sanctions in the wake of the nuclear test in May have cut Pyongyang’s lucrative arms sales while the country is also suffering a poor harvest.
The North could get more from South Korea, which once supplied $1 billion in annual aid, than by trying to revive assistance worth a quarter of that value that was suspended when Pyongyang left the six-way nuclear talks a year ago.
But by returning to the nuclear talks, the North would please Beijing, host of the discussions and a critical player in enforcement of the UN sanctions. It could also head off any US plans to further crack down on its international finances.
IN recent months Pyongyang has sought direct talks with the United States even as Washington has refused to relent in enforcing the sanctions.
Pyongyang has also reached out to the government of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, which angered Pyongyang by cutting off unconditional handouts in early 2008.
“The North is shackled and can feel it. Its conciliatory moves and the attempt to improve things with the United States are all part of trying to unlock the shackles,” said Kim Yong-hyun, an expert on the North at Dongguk University in Seoul.
Kim has also moved to firm up relations with China, the closest Pyongyang can claim as a major ally and the main supplier of the aid that keeps him from sinking.
Some experts think the upper limit in any new talks would see North Korea give up its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant, thus putting it out of the plutonium-producing business, and perhaps handing over a portion of its stockpile of fissile material, estimated to be enough for six to eight bombs.
That would still leave the North’s nascent uranium enrichment program, another way to make a nuclear bomb and one that is harder for the international community to track given such activities can be carried out underground. But any progress depends on getting sputtering discussions among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States past procedural and implementation difficulties.
In North Korea, people have had to contend with one of the worst harvests in years, which has fed into rising food prices and aggravated years of economic mismanagement by leader Kim. “This ‘murderous agflation’ is shown in rice prices, where 1 kg of rice costs the same as a laborer’s monthly pay,” the Samsung Economic Research Institute said in an October report.
—Arab News
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Virtuoso's delight |
Yuan Yuan
JUNE 18, 2009. The stage of the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA). A hunchbacked character stops his performance several times over the continuous waves of applause coming from the audience. At the end of the opera, he bows to acknowledge the enthusiastic praise, promising he will return next June.
The object of this acclaim is 67-year-old Leo Nucci from Italy, considered to be the world's best baritone. The performance marked his 430th rendition of the opera Rigoletto. Nucci, hailed as the greatest living interpreter of Giuseppe Verdi's operas, had come to Beijing to take part in the first Opera Festival held by the NCPA.
Nucci and Rigoletto brought the opera festival to a climax. The 79-day event, held from April 16 to July 2, offered capital residents a feast of 13 operas performed by 10 opera companies and more than 2,000 artists.
"We are very proud to be able to present the first opera festival in China to introduce this wonderful art form to our Chinese audiences and let them enjoy this cultural heritage," said Dai Yuqiang, a famous tenor and an ambassador of opera selected to spread knowledge of the art for this festival.
New elements
New elements were added to classic operas during the NCPA festival, which included almost all top Chinese and foreign artists.
The seminal Puccini opera Tosca, which opened the festival, tells a story of love, politics, hatred and conspiracy. Painter Cavaradossi is arrested and his lover, Tosca, tries to save him but fails finally. In the end, Cavaradossi is killed and Tosca kills herself to follow her lover.
Though one of the most performed operas around the world, Tosca has not seen a Chinese stage in quite a while. So the NCPA invited famous Chinese and foreign artists to jointly create a new version of the opera as a gift to the Opera Festival of the NCPA.
Co-produced by the China Kunlun Cultural Development Foundation, the Music Channel of China Central Television (CCTV), the NCPA, and the China Philharmonic Orchestra, Tosca boasted an outstanding crew of designers, many of whom created the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
Dai, excited at the prospects of the remade opera, played the hero, Cavaradossi.
"To play Cavaradossi in Tosca is the dream of all tenors in the world. Now I'm in my 40s, which is the golden age to play the role because both my voice and apperception to the music are in the best condition. I am confident that I will make Chinese audiences fall in love with the opera," Dai said to Beijing media at a press conference on April 10.
Puccini's classic four-act opera, La Boheme, was also remade for the festival. The romantic tragedy of poet Rodolfo and the beautiful Mimi feature many songs that were melodious and classic, having been sung for over a hundred years.
Famous Chinese conductor Lu Jia and director Chen Xinyi have jointly performed La Boheme in a Chinese style. Both Chinese and Italian singers starred in the show.
"In this new version of the opera, the director has put the emphasis on the characters and plots," said Deng Yijiang, Vice President of the NCPA, to Xinhua News Agency. "We can see all the acting performed in a very casual way. In most operas, performers just stand on the stage and sing. But this time, they can sit on chairs and use more body language."
The production team boldly set the story in the contemporary artists' center, 798 Art Zone. The big warehouses and industrial buildings of the art zone were included in the stage setting, bringing a modern flavor to the classical opera.
Besides the opera performances on the stage, there were many other activities held at the same time aimed at helping opera fans appreciate the art form's charm from various perspectives.
"We thought a lot about how to utilize this opportunity. There are hundreds of opera festivals around the world, but the one here in Beijing is different," said Chen Zuohuang, director of the festival, at a February 18 press conference. "We will extend activities outside the performance halls. We will invite more than 100 professionals to give lectures in universities and factories. We also will hold an on-going exhibition about the development of this art form."
During the exhibition, visitors were able to learn about opera and view the glamorous costumes and posters from world-renowned performances. They could also listen to opera pieces through an advanced sound system.
Performers from professional troupes and art college students sang classical arias and explained the background and characters of several operas, offering an artistic and cultural tour to the public.
Record appreciation events, opera-lover's salons and opera-themed lectures held by famous opera singers, conductors and music critics were opened to the public. During the events, organizers hoped to spread the knowledge of opera and allow the audience to interact with artists. More than 100 professionals gave lectures in universities and institutions in Beijing, Shanghai and Hainan Province.
Opera development in China
Originating in 16th century Italy, opera was introduced to China in the early 20th century. Chinese opera reached its peak in the 1960s, after 1945's seminal The White-Haired Girl paved the way for the development of the country's own opera style. Chinese opera was based on real life stories and drew heavily from local folk melodies from Shanxi, Shaanxi and Hebei provinces. The revolutionary theme was later built upon by popular operas such as Red Guard of the Honghu Lake (1958), Liu Sanjie (1960), Red Coral (1961) and Sister Jiang (1964).
However, the development of this art form slowed down in the 1980s as television, modern music and other entertainment began to capture the audiences' imagination, changing their aesthetic preferences and expectations.
"Now, when Chinese original operas are mentioned, what we can list are still these operas," said Huang Dingshan, head of the Opera Troupe of the People's Liberation Army General Political Department, to Beijing Times. "Some of them are also being presented on the stage of this opera festival, but obviously these military- and revolution-themed operas are out of date and face the challenge of raising their aesthetic level and incorporating modern issues."
Some people think the reason for the slow development of opera in China is because this art form has roots in the West and cannot be understood by Chinese. To this, Zhang Jianyi, a famous Chinese tenor, said on his blog, "There are other forms also coming from the West, such as ballet and the symphony, which have developed much faster than opera. The China Philharmonic Orchestra, which was founded in 2000, has already become one of the top 10 in the world."
He said the deficiency of investment in opera is one of the important reasons for the slow development.
Yao Hong, a famous opera singer, agreed. "We have problems in financing," Yao said to music magazine Symphony. "If we want to rehearse a new show, the stage setting usually needs two or three days. But the rent of the performance halls is so expensive that no one wants to invest their money in it. It's not a profitable art."
Liao Changyong, a famous baritone in China, said a shortage of talent is another problem the art form faces. More and more students are beginning to learn vocal music, but few know about conducting or artistic directing.
"Even for the vocal music, they learn more about singing skills rather than the culture and background of the opera's story. To have a beautiful voice is just one step of being a good opera performer," said Liao.
Jin Man, head of the Opera Academy of Peking University, claimed that the younger generation of opera composers and musicians have borrowed heavily from Western styles but not focused on folk music. While some composers tried to find inspiration from the country's many folk ballads, the mixture tends to be just superficial adaptations.
The stereotype among the public may be the third problem. Because opera is a Western art and usually performed in foreign languages, many people think of it as a high art that is hard to understand and appreciate. Yao said that idea is silly.
"The idea that only professionals can understand opera is wrong. It's just like pop songs," Yao said. "We can't say that those who listen to pop songs are experts in pop music. There are many melodious songs and beautiful stories in opera, and the emotions in it are universal. So I believe opera can touch the soul of our Chinese audiences, no matter how much they know about it."
"We will strive for more government funds and investment, to recruit more professionals to form an integrated team from performance to production and to set ticket prices at various levels to meet different audiences' needs," said Chen Ping, head of the NCPA.
The feedback of this opera festival was good with the average attendance reaching 88 percent. Chen felt gratified for this. He said he will continue his efforts to promote opera in China, and if conditions permit, he will work to hold the opera festival every year.
"We are different from other theaters. The NCPA will commit itself to creating original Chinese operas and promoting the development of this art form in China. The 2009 NCPA Opera Festival is just the beginning of popularizing opera culture and knowledge in China," Chen told Global Times.
The NCPA has produced Turandot, The King, Madame Butterfly, Tosca, Red Cliff and five other operas since 2007 and says it aims to introduce and produce five to six operas every year, as well as to host the annual festival. According to Chen, the NCPA hopes that the festival and its Chinese and Western productions will help to stimulate greater awareness of and interest in opera, which will help lay the foundation for a more robust Chinese opera community.
"We are exploring ways to promote the development of original Chinese operas. Our production Xi Shi will be on stage this autumn. The story about an ancient Chinese beauty will feature a Western singing style. Later we'll make an attempt to produce folk operas, with our Countryside Female Teacher scheduled for later in the year," said Chen.
(The Daily Mail-Beijing Review Articles Exchange Item)
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A balanced & realistic look at China from Singapore |
Tom Plate
PUTTING US foreign policy into a proper strategic orientation in order to be useful in the 21st century was never going to be a self-evident process. Tough priorities would have to be sorted out. Try to do everything and little gets done.
Choose the wrong goals and frustration results. Wise foreign policy requires deep reflection of the fundamentals. Fifteen years ago, I faced a similar sorting-out problem — though, of course, on a dramatically tinier scale! That was when this foreign-policy column was born — hatched on the op-ed pages of The Los Angeles Times.
Choosing to concentrate on America’s relationship with Asia from Los Angeles was a major first step in editorial prioritisation (leave Europe and so on to the East Coast news media, etc.). But even that narrowing did not eliminate hard choices. What would be the column’s priorities regarding the vastness of Asia? What would be its purposes? How might it (somehow) contribute to public good?
Back then, stumbling around in an un-chartered forest of options, I looked around for advice. I spoke to a lot of smart people. One of them was Lee Kuan Yew, then five years past his epochal three-decade run as Prime Minister of modern Singapore.
I asked him, in his office on the government’s gorgeous Istana grounds, what was the wisest single message this column could convey to the American reader? Not hesitating, Singapore’s internationally-known political sage looked at me straight and said: Please tell the American people that everyone, especially Asia, will greatly benefit if America is able to get its relationship with rising China right. But if it doesn’t, the result will be geopolitical instability and serious trouble for everyone.
Perhaps today such advice seems almost conventional wisdom. But remember that, back then, America and China were still locked in elemental frigidity. No US President would even dare to visit China in the years that followed the 1989 Tiananmen Square shock. It got ridiculous: In 1997, a storm erupted over a simple deal that would permit China’s merchant ships to lease a dock in Long Beach, California. One of my first columns defended it: “The best advice is the simplest: Keep your powder dry. But keep a welcoming?hand outstretched.”
That view touched off controversy, as many of those nineties’ columns on China did. Some readers accused me of actually being Communist. One Californian Congressman published a letter to The Los Angeles Times stating that my views parroted the Beijing line. But wise heads encouraged me to stay the sensible course despite everything. One was Lee Kuan Yew, who would offer an occasional encouraging message.
Once noting my column’s worries about anti-China sentiment, the then-Senior Minister sent a fax from Singapore specifically about the port column: “Your ‘Protect Your Back and Extend a Hand’ is balanced and realistic. It is a necessary antidote to the hysteria building up among the ?anti-China groups.”
Lee, even now at 86, doesn’t stop offering the world his advice, thankfully. His latest effort to set the global table came in Washington recently while receiving the first Lifetime Achievement Award conferred by the US-Asean Business Council.
His acceptance speech covered a wide expanse of policy territory, but his China remarks remained true to what he has been advocating for decades — and to what he told me at Istana in 1997.
“China,” he said, “faces enormous problems. No one knows their seriousness better than China’s own leaders….[Thankfully], successive American Presidents have moved relations with China closer toward the centre of US policies….US policy kept a steady course to increase multinational trade, investments and mutual prosperity….Sino-US relations are both cooperative and competitive.
Competition between them is inevitable, but conflict is not….Unlike US-Soviet relations during the Cold War, there is no bitter, irreconcilable ideological conflict between the US and a China that has enthusiastically embraced the market….”
For Lee, now as then, a sensible China would not threaten America: “[The Chinese] will avoid any action that will sour relations with the US To challenge a stronger and technologically superior power like the US will abort their ‘peaceful rise’.”
What’s even more interesting about such a perspective is how many key Chinese leaders agree with it. This week, for example, China’s Central Military Commission finally agreed to upgrade the level of military exchanges between Beijing and Washington.
A number of us, perhaps most notably and creditably Admiral Timothy Keating, former head of the US Command in Hawaii (who just passed the torch to Admiral Robert F. Willard), have been urging Beijing to work harder to improve instant communications at high military levels.
For some time those pleas seemed to be falling on deaf ears. Now Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Xu Caihou seems to be paying attention. A quick trip to Washington for this purpose was suddenly announced. Lee Kuan Yew is not the only voice that makes such points. But he continues to play a valuable role. This deserves to be properly noted.
—Khaleej Times
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