The Chinese victory- I
Fidel Castro Ruz

IN EUROPE, people had heard about China. In the autumn of 1298, Marco Polo told marvelous tales about an amazing country he called Cathay. Columbus, an intelligent and intrepid sailor, was aware of the Greeks’ knowledge about the roundness of the Earth.  His own observations led him to coincide with those theories.  He came up with the plan of reaching the Far East sailing westward from Europe. But, he calculated the distance with far too much optimism, for it was several times greater. Unexpectedly, between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, this continent loomed up on his route. Magellan would make the journey conceived by him, even though he died before reaching Europe. Still, the voyage was paid with the value of the spices gathered, and the trip begun with several vessels, out of which only one returned, was a prelude of future colossal profits.
Since those days, the world began to change at an accelerated pace. Old forms of exploitation were repeated again, from slavery to feudal serfdom; ancient and new religious beliefs spread over the planet. From that fusion of cultures and events, accompanied by technical advances and scientific discoveries, today’s world was born, and it could not be understood without a minimum of real precedents. International trade, with its advantages and disadvantages, was imposed by the colonial powers, such as Spain, England and the other European powers. These, especially England, soon began to control southwest, south and southeast Asia, and Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, forcibly expanding its rule everywhere.  The colonizers were not able to impose their authority over the gigantic country of China, which had an ancient culture and fabulous natural and human resources.
Direct trade between Europe and China began in the sixteenth century, after the Portuguese established the commercial enclave at Goa in India and at Macao in southern China. Spanish control in the Philippines facilitated an accelerated exchange with the great Asian country. The Qin dynasty, which ruled China, tried to limit this kind of unfavorable commercial operation with foreign countries as much as possible. It was allowed only through the port of Canton, today called Guangzhou. Great Britain and Spain had great deficits because of the low demand of the enormous Asiatic country, related to English goods manufactured in the metropolis, or Spanish products coming from the New World which were not essential to China.  Both of them had begun to sell opium.
Large-scale opium trade was at first dominated by the Dutch through Jakarta, Indonesia. The English observed the profits that were close to 400 percent. Their opium exports which, in 1730, were 15 tons, grew to 75 in 1773, shipped in crates weighing 70 kilograms each; with this they bought porcelain, silks, spices and Chinese tea.  Opium, not gold, was the currency Europe used to acquire Chinese goods. In the spring of 1830, faced with the unbridled abuse of the opium trade in China, Emperor Daoguang ordered Lin Hse Tsu, an Imperial official, to fight the plague; he ordered the destruction of 20 thousand crates of opium. Lin Hse Tsu sent a letter to Queen Victoria asking for respect of international standards and that she forbid the trade with toxic drugs.
The Opium Wars were the English response.  The first of them lasted three years, from 1839 to 1842. The second, with France joining in, lasted four years, from 1856 to 1860. They are also known as the Anglo-Chinese Wars. The United Kingdom forced China to sign unfair treaties committing this country to opening up several ports to foreign trade and handing over Hong Kong. Several countries, following England’s lead, imposed unequal terms of exchange. Such humiliation contributed to the Taiping Rebellion of 1850 to 1864, the Boxer Rebellion of 1899 to 1901 and, finally, the fall of the Qin Dynasty in 1911 that, for various reasons –including their weakness in the face of foreign powers– had become highly unpopular in China.
What happened with Japan? This country with its ancient culture and very hard-working ethic, like others in the region, resisted “western civilization” and for more than 200 years –among other causes because of a chaotic domestic administration– it remained hermetically sealed to foreign trade. In 1854, after an earlier exploratory voyage with four gunboats, a U.S. naval expedition commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry, threatening to bomb a Japanese town – defenseless before the modern technology of those vessels– obliged the shoguns to sign, on behalf of the Emperor, the Treaty of Kanagawa on March 31, 1854. Thus, the insertion of capitalist trade and western technology was begun in Japan. At the time, Europeans were unaware of the Japanese capacity to develop in that field.
On the heels of the Yankees, representatives of the Russian Empire arrived from the Far East, fearful that the U.S., to whom they later sold Alaska on October 18, 1867, would get a head-start on them in the trade activities with Japan. Great Britain and the other European colonizing nations arrived quickly in the country, with the same intentions. During the U.S. intervention in 1862, Perry occupied different parts of Mexico. At the end of the war, the country lost more than 50 percent of its territory, precisely those areas where the greatest oil and gas reserves were to be found, even though at that time, gold and land to expand into, not fuel, were the main goals of the conquerors. The first China-Japan War was officially declared on August 1, 1894.  At the time Japan wanted Korea, a tributary state subordinated to China. With more developed weaponry and technology, it defeated Chinese forces in several battles near the cities of Seoul and Pyongyang. Later military victories opened their way towards Chinese territory.
In the month of November in that year, they took Port Arthur, today Lüshun. In the River Yalu estuary and at the Weihaiwei Naval Base, surprised by a land attack from the Liaodong Peninsula, heavy Japanese artillery destroyed the fleet of the attacked nation. The dynasty had to ask for peace. The Treaty of Shimonoseki, which put an end to the war, was signed in April of 1895. China was forced to cede Taiwan, the Liaodong Peninsula and the archipelago of the Pescadores Islands to Japan “in perpetuity”; China also had to pay a war indemnity of 200 million taels of silver and open up four ports to the exterior.  Russia, France and Germany, defending their individual interests, obliged Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula, paying in exchange another 30 million taels of silver. Before mentioning the second China-Japan War, I should include another armed episode with a double historical importance; it took place between 1904 and 1905 and it cannot be omitted.
After being inserted into armed civilization and wars for the partitioning of the world as imposed by the West, Japan, which had already waged the first war against China as mentioned above, developed its naval power to such a degree that it was able to deal a harsh blow to the Russian Empire which was at the point of prematurely inciting the revolution programmed by Lenin when he created in Minsk, ten years prior, the Party which would later unleash the October Revolution. On August 10, 1904, with no advance warning, Japan attacked and destroyed the Russian Pacific Fleet at Shandong.  Czar Nicholas II of Russia, upset by the attack, ordered the Baltic Fleet to be mobilized and to set sail for the Far East. Convoys of colliers were contracted to bring in the shipments needed by the fleet while it was sailing towards its distant destination. One of the operations to transfer coal had to be carried out on the high seas due to diplomatic pressures.
The Russians, upon entering south China, sailed towards Vladivostok, the only available port for the fleet’s operations. In order to arrive at that point, there were three routes: the best choice was the Tsushima route; the other two required navigation to the east of Japan and increased the risks and the enormous wear and tear on the vessels and crews.  The Japanese admiral had the same thought: for this option he prepared his plan and located his ships so that the Japanese Fleet, after making a U-turn, would have all its vessels, mainly cruisers, passing about 6 thousand meters away from the adversary’s ships, a large number of battleships. These would be at the reach of the Japanese cruisers, outfitted with personnel that were rigorously trained in the use of their cannon. As a result of the lengthy route, the Russian battleships were navigating at a speed of only 8 knots as compared with the 16 knot speed of the Japanese vessels. The military action is known by the name of Battle of Tsushima. It took place on May 27th and 28th of 1905. On the side of the Russian Empire, 11 battleships and 8 cruisers took part. Admiral of the Fleet: Zinovy Rozhdestvensky. Losses: 4,380 dead, 5,917 wounded, 21 ships sunk, 7 captured and 6 rendered useless. The Admiral of the Russian Fleet was wounded by a shell fragment that hit him in the skull. On the side of the Japanese Empire, 4 battleships and 27 cruisers took part. Admiral of the Fleet:  Heichachiro Togo Losses:  117 dead, 583 wounded and 3 torpedo ships sunk. The Baltic Fleet was destroyed. Napoleon would have termed it “Austerlitz at sea”. Anyone can imagine the deep wound caused by the dramatic event to traditional Russian pride and patriotism. After the battle, Japan became a much feared naval power, rivaling Great Britain and Germany and competing with the United States.
Japan rehabilitated the concept of the battleship as the principal weapon in the years to come. They embroiled themselves in the task of empowering the Imperial Japanese Army. They requested and paid a British shipbuilder to construct a special cruiser, with the intent of later reproducing it in their Japanese shipbuilding yards. Later, they manufactured battleships that were much better than those of their contemporaries, both in amour and power. There was no other nation on the face of the earth that could come close to Japanese naval engineering in the 1930’s in the design of war ships. That explains the bold action with which, one day, they attacked their master and rival, the United States which, through Commodore Perry, started them off on their path of war. 

(to be continued)

Tibetans speak out experiences in 3.14 Incident
Zhan Yan & Cering Degyi

THE rioters turned my home into ruins, leaving me and my son homeless,” said Yangjain tearfully. The 48-year-old Tibetan woman stood in the burned-out husk of her three-room apartment and surveyed the damage. The apartment was in Chomsigkang, one of the communities that sustained the most damage during the two-day riots that broke out in Lhasa on March 14. Rioters looted and vandalized the shops run by Han and Hui civilians, and other minorities —-but not foreigners —- with stones, rods and fists and feet. Tibetans also suffered. The streets in Lhasa are becoming more peaceful, but blackened buildings remind people of the sights, smells and sounds of the riots.
Yangjain got up at 6 a.m. on March 14 as usual to make breakfast and send her son to school. Then she hurried to her small shop, not far from home. “Children heading for school would come to my shop to buy snacks,” she said. A native to Xigaze Prefecture in southern Tibet, Yangjain has lived in Lhasa for about 20 years. She supported her family by running the shop since her husband passed away years ago. “Although the shop is small, it provides me with hundreds of yuan every month. Residents living nearby are kind enough to patronize my business,” Yangjain said.
She never expected to see her apartment and its contents, which took 20 years to accumulate, being burned to the ground in less than an hour. “When I was in the shop and heard that someone was making trouble and setting fires, I closed my shop quickly and hurried home. I saw thick black smoke above our building, but it was only when I got to the building that I realized my home on the second floor was on fire. I cried and tried to rescue some of my belongings, but the fire was too big for me.” The first floor of the building was rented to shops. The rioters set fire to shops run by Han and Hui, and the flames rose to the second and third floors.
Blackened pots, bowls and remnants of a burned quilt lay strewn about Yangjain’s former home. She picked up a square frame and said: “This is my television.” In her home’s Buddha worship room (almost every Tibetan home has such a room), the burned Buddha statues were lying on the floor. “I’ve saved money through hard work and borrowed tens of thousands of yuan to buy this apartment. The debts are not paid off, but the apartment and belongings are gone,” said Yangjain. Chomsigkang market, visible through the windows of Yangjain’s ruined apartment, was one of the busiest markets in Lhasa, full of hawking and haggling. Now, only five migrant peddlers were seen selling vegetables and cigarettes from pedicabs.
Although outwardly, life has returned to normal, there are fewer people on the street than usual. In random interviews with Tibetan civilians, most said that they would avoid going out unless they had urgent business. Some said that they dared not go downtown to walk clockwise around the shrines, almost a daily religious ritual for some Tibetans. Basang in Lhalu Community recalled her encounter with the violence when she was passing Xuexincun Road. She saw some young men driving away shop owners with stones, knives and rods and then begin carrying boxes of rice and milk out of the shops, like they were “taking away their own goods.” When she scolded them, saying “You are so shameless. You rob others,” a group of seven or eight told her to shut up or they would set her home on fire.
Slin’nam Wanggyai, living at Nagaqen Road Northern Community, recalled he saw “black smoke billowing” and heard “horrifying howling” in the area. “They attacked and drove away the shop owners ... then they smashed the shops and moved goods outside to burn, while howling like ghosts. We could not understand what they said, as they mostly were not Lhasa locals.” Slin’nam Wanggyai showed pity on the victims. “I didn’t understand why they were doing this. Though we dared not go near to watch, we could see they were attacking the Han and some victims were beaten bloody. They run the shops to make a living. The mobs were just lawless.”
Rumors circulated among ordinary Tibetans when the incidents occurred on March 14. “We didn’t know what happened. Rumors say the rioters would rush into your home to find out whether you’ve rented rooms to Han,” said Slin’nam Wanggyai. “We heard rumors that you could escape from harm by hanging a piece of white hada [ceremonial silk scarf regarded as a token of respect] on your door. Some of us hung two or more pieces. Other rumors said it would not work and some shops run by Han were also destroyed, despite having white hada on the door. Maybe the mobs could discern that the shops were not run by Tibetans, like the beauty salons or Muslim restaurants,” he said. “The smell of the fire lingered for days.” Only a few shops resumed normal operations in the community, which was another of the areas seriously affected by the riots, including those run by Tibetans or shops near the station of the security staff.
Most civilians are still somewhat fearful. Cering Lhamo said that she could go out and walk clockwise around the shrines now and felt relatively safe at the sight of security staff. The rioters killed 18 and injured 382 civilians, according to the Tibet Autonomous Region government. Some rioters turned themselves in to the police. Zhoima from Nyingchi Prefecture confessed that she obtained “hundreds of yuan” when about 50 people smashed and looted the shops in Xuexincun Road in the afternoon of March 15. Talking about the future, Yangjain said: “ My son and I are living temporarily with relatives. I don’t know what to do. I pray to the Buddha that the heartless bad men be punished for what they have done”.






Indian Embassy involved in smuggling of secret nuclear weapons technology
Amjed Jaaved

A REPORT published in the Washington Post, dated March 14, 2008 has confirmed that Indian embassy in Washington D.C., and some Indian- government agencies had conspired with the international electronics executive Parthasarthy Sudarshan, aged 48, to obtain secret weapons technology from U.S. companies. The involvement of the Indian embassy came to light when Suderhsan pleaded guilty before a federal judge in Washington D.C. on March 13, 2008. He was executive of a Singapore-based firm Cirrus Electronics with subsidiaries in South Carolina (United States) and Bangalore (India). His accomplice Gopal posed as ‘international-sales manager’ of the company. The duo coordinated illegal smuggling of the sensitive equipment to India via other countries. At least two Indian Embassy (Washington) officials played a pivotal role in smuggling of the sensitive contraband. One of them was Manik Mukherjee, Counselor (Defence Technology). He officially visited Rochester Electronics Inc. Newbury Port, Massachusetts to witness testing of microprocessors. Mukherjee signed the ‘Inspection and Acceptance Certificate’ on behalf of the Indian government for 377 selected micro-processors. The other person was S. Janarthanan’ Mukherjee of Aeronautical Development Establishment;
The FBI holds evidence of tri-Iateral e-mails between Janarthanan and Cirrus Electronics (Sudershan and Gopal). The embassy officials remain to be charged before US District Judge Ricardo Urabina, for abetment in illegal export of missile and navigational technology to India. To US authorities, Gopal secretly shipped sensitive material, via Singapore, to prohibited Indian entities. He did so without obtaining an export licence from the US Department of Commerce under US Arms Export Control Act and International Emergencies’ Economic Powers Act. It is believed that the equipment was used in the nuclear capable Agni-III missile. This inference is based on the fact that the consignment of the equipment was sent directly to India’s Vikram-Sarabhai Space Centre, Bharat Dynamics Private Limited, and Bharat Heavy Electronics Limited. In another case, a Minnesota company, MTS Systems Corporation, confessed that it used forged documents to export equipment needed for India’s nuclear programme. The company was sentenced to two years’ probation and a fine of 400,000 dollars. The Washington Post report has sparked concerns about military use of the civil nuclear cooperation envisioned under the 123-agreement. Democratic Congressman Edward Markey has urged the US Congress to “re-assess the nuclear deal in the light of the FBI indictment’.