Con questo post intendo aprire una discussione monotematica , aggiornata settimanalmente , su quello che accade dal punto di vista militare , politico ed economico in Asia orientale , area dominata sempre più dalla Cina , un gigante economico in via di industrializzazione ma ancora monocratico ed impermeabile a “democratizzazioni” occidentali , indi per cui da tenere d’occchio.
La continua fame di energia della Cina causa tensioni in Estremo Oriente
China's insatiable demand for energy is prompting fears of financial and diplomatic collisions around the globe as it seeks reliable supplies of oil from as far away as Brazil and Sudan.
An intrusion into Japanese territorial waters by a Chinese nuclear submarine last week and a trade deal with Brazil are the latest apparently unconnected consequences of China's soaring economic growth.
10 Novembre 2004 :
Il portavoce del governo giapponese, Hiroyuki Hosoda, ha reso noto che nelle prime ore di oggi un misterioso sommergibile, la cui proveninenza non e' stata ancora identificata, si e' spinto in acque territoriali a sud del Paese, vicino alle isole Sakishima...
Il sommergibile ha poi lasciato la zona. E' mobilitata la marina giapponese, mentre aerei sorvolano la zona. Le isole Sakishima sono vicine ad un gruppo di scogli ed isole contese tra Giappone, Cina e Taiwan.
12 Novembre 2004
Il misterioso sommergibile, con ogni probabilità un sottomarino nucleare cinese, che ha sconfinato mercoledì mattina per circa due ore in acque territoriali giapponesi a sud dell’arcipelago meridionale giapponese di Okinawa, circa 2.000 chilometri a sud ovest di Tokyo, continua ad essere pedinato da navi e aerei della marina militare nipponica...
E’ al momento in navigazione in acque internazionali a nord del gruppo di scogli e isolotti disabitati di Senkaky, Diaoyu in cinese, contesi tra Giappone, Cina e Taiwan, nel Mar cinese orientale, e sta dirigendosi in direzione ovest verso le coste della Cina ad una velocità di 20 nodi all’ora. Sono le ultime notizie in arrivo da Tokyo su un incidente con contorni da war game dal vivo in una zona di mare strategica per la presenza di ricchi giacimenti di gas naturale e territorio di caccia quotidiano di sottomarini cinesi, russi e americani. E imbarazzante, se verrà confermata la nazionalità cinese del sottomarino, per i rapporti tra i due colossi d’Asia, da tempo sotto tensione
The connection, however, lies in an order issued last year by President Hu Jintao to seek secure oil supplies abroad – preferably ones which could not be stopped by America in case of conflict over Taiwan.
The submarine incident was put down to a "technical error" by the Chinese government, which apologised to Japan.
But even before the incident the People's Daily, the government mouthpiece, had commented that competition over the East China Sea between the two countries was "only a prelude of the game between China and Japan in the arena of international energy".
The Brazil trade deal included funding for a joint oil-drilling and pipeline programme at a cost that experts said would add up to three times the cost of simply buying oil on the market.
The West, however, has paid little attention to these developments. For the United States and Europe are far more concerned with the even more sensitive issues of China's relations with "pariah states".
In September, China ha minacciato di porre il veto a qualsiasi tentativo di imporre sanzioni al Sudan per le trocità nel Darfur , Pechinoha investito $3 miliardi nell’industria petrolifera del paese africano , la cui estrazione fornisce circa il 7% dell’oro nero di cui il paese asiatico ha bisogno.
Then, this month, it said that it opposed moves to refer Iran's nuclear stand-off with the International Atomic Energy Agency to the United Nations Security Council.
Una settimana prima , la 2nda più grande azienda di stato cinese ha firmato un accordo da 70 miliardi di dollari USA per l’estrazione di gas naturale e petrolio con l’Iran , paese che già fornisce il 13% dell’energia di cui Pechino abbisogna.
China has its own reserves of oil and natural gas and once was a net oil exporter. But as its economy has expanded by an average of nine per cent per year for the last two decades, so has its demand for energy. (uno dei motivi , credo , per la continua crescita del prezzo del greggio…)
This year it overtook Japan as the world's second largest consumer of energy, behind the US.
Its projected demand, boosted by a huge rise in car ownership as well as the need to find alternatives to polluting coal for electricity generation, has contributed to the surge in the price of oil this year. Shortages are already leading to power cuts in the big cities.
Since President Hu ordered state-owned oil firms to "go abroad" to ensure supply, they have begun drilling for gas in the East China Sea, just west of the line that Japan regards as its border.
Japan protested, to no avail, that the project should be a joint one.
The two are also set to clash over Russia's oil wealth. China is furious that Japan has outbid it in their battle to determine the route of the pipeline that Russia intends to build to the Far East.
Japan favoured a route to the sea, enabling oil to be shipped to both Japan and China. China wanted an overland route through its own territory, which would give it ultimate control if hostilities broke out.
Increasingly, analysts are saying that China's efforts have gone beyond what is safe or even in its own interests.
Claude Mandil, the executive director of the International Energy Agency in Paris, said the reserves in the East China Sea were hardly worth the trouble.
"Nobody thinks that there will be a lot of oil and gas in this part of the world," he said.
"It may be a difficult political issue but I don't think the energy content is worthwhile."
Eurasia Group, a New York-based firm of political analysts, said its oil experts worked out that China was paying such an inflated price for its investment in Brazil that the cost for the oil it ended up with was three times the market price.
"If China's economy falters, which, in my view, appears increasingly likely, then commodity prices will plummet, and with them, the value of the assets that produce them," Jason Kindopp, Eurasia's lead China analyst, said.
"Beijing may end up in a early 1990s Japan situation, where it is forced to sell recently purchased overseas assets for a fraction of what it paid for them."
China's wider aggression to secure oil and gas was the greatest threat to its international standing in the next decade.
"Sudan is the primary example," he said.
"It marks the first time in recent years that China has promised to wield its veto power in the UN Security Council against a petition initiated by the United States and backed by France and Great Britain."




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