US sends out Chinese gifts to Filipino journalists

A newspaper employee shows off Friday, December 18, 2009 a Chinese-made umbrella sent by the United States Embassy in Manila. The trade dispute between Washington and Beijing had a record $268 billion surplus last year in China’s favor. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / December 18, 2009) – Despite a trade dispute between the United States and China, the US Embassy in Manila gifted Friday selected Filipino journalists a beautiful umbrella made in China.

The embassy’s Public Affairs Section sent out the huge blue umbrella emblazoned with the seal of the United States. The umbrella was wrapped in a clear plastic with Chinese markings and manufactured by Ing Yi.

The trade dispute between the two countries had a record $268 billion surplus last year in China’s favor.

According to the Washington D.C.-based Council on Foreign Relations, a major factor in China's quick rise has been its vigorous trade activity with the United States.

Trade volume between the two nations reached $211.6 billion in 2005, more than eighty times the $2.4 billion exchanged in 1979, the year they established normal trade relations. This has accelerated in recent years; from 2001 to 2005, the volume of U.S.-Chinese trade increased an average of 27.4 percent a year. The United States has become the top destination of Chinese merchandise exports and China is buying up more and more U.S. goods, with U.S. exports to China rising 21.5 percent each of the last four years.

In 2005 the United States ran a bilateral trade deficit with China of $202 billion, up from $162 billion the previous year.

The New York Times reported in September that both Washington and Beijing face domestic pressure to take a tougher stand against the other on economic issues. But the trade frictions are increasing political tensions between the two nations even as they try to work together to revive the global economy and combat mutual security threats, like the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

President Barack Obama also in September announced that the United States would levy tariffs of up to 35 percent on tires from China.

Obama’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese tires is a signal that he plans to deliver on his promise to labor unions that he would more strictly enforce trade laws, especially against China, which has become the world’s factory while the United States has lost millions of manufacturing jobs.

China’s commerce ministry issued a formulaic criticism of the American action, but after a frenzy of anti-American rhetoric on Chinese Web sites, the ministry announced that it would take the first steps toward imposing tariffs on American exports of automotive products and chicken meat.

The ministry said it was demanding talks with the United States on the tire tariffs. Carol J. Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the office of the United States trade representative, said the United States wanted to avoid disputes with China and continue talks, but would look at any Chinese trade decisions for whether they comply with World Trade Organization rules.

The New York Times reported that China exported $1.3 billion in tires to the United States in the first seven months of 2009, while the United States shipped about $800 million in automotive products and $376 million in chicken meat to China, according to data from Global Trade Information Services in Columbia, South Carolina. (Mindanao Examiner)

Yaman Ng Sulu Sea, Nasa Kuko Na Ng Mga Dayuhan!

TAWI-TAWI (Mindanao Examiner / 17 Jun) – Mistulang mga private security guards ang puwersa ng militar sa katimugang bahagi ng bansa na kung saan ay todo ang pagbabantay ng mga sundalong Pinoy sa naglalaking international consortium na nagsasagawa ng oil exploration sa Sulu Sea.

Lingid sa kaalaman ng publiko ay abala ang mga tropa sa pagbabantay sa karagatan upang masiguro ang interest ng mga dayuhan bansa, tulad ng Australia at Amerika, sa nasabing oil exploration. Posibleng ito rin ang dahilan kung bakit nagtayo ng kampo ang mga sundalong Kano sa lalawigan ng Sulu.

Dapat sana ay siguridad ng lalawigan ng Tawi-Tawi at Sulu ang bantayan ng husto dahil sa banta ng terorismo.

Nagkataon naman na ang dalawang bansa ay tumutulong sa Pilipinas sa pakikibaka sa terorismo. Kamakailan lamang ay lumagda ang Australia ng isangs security cooperation pact sa pamahalaang Arroyo upang makapagsagawa ng joint anti-terrorism warfare training sa Mindanao.

Nuong nakaraang linggo ay katatapos lamang ng Amerika at ng Pilipinas ng bisang joint amphibious training sa Sulu Sea. Hindi naman mabatid kung may kinalaman sa oil exploration ang mga salaping tinatanggap ng pamahalaang Arroyo at ginagamit sa anti-terror training mula sa Australia at Amerika.

Ang oil exploration ay pinangungunahan ng Australian firm BHP Billiton Petroleum at kasama nito ang Unocal Corp. at Amerada Hess ng Amerika.

Halos 8,000 square meters sa Sulu Sea ang oil exploration nito.Maging ang Tap Oil Ltd ng Australia ay may 85% interest rin sa oil exploration project Sulu Sea.

Bukod sa Australia at Amerika ay may interest rin diumano sa Sulu Sea oil exploration ang United Kingdom at New Zealand at lahat ng bansang ito ay may malaking kontribusyon rin sa pakikibaka ng pamahalaang Arroyo sa terorismo sa katimugan.

Hindi naman agad mabatid kung may pahintulot ang oil exploration mula sa pamahalaang ng Tawi-Tawi. (Mindanao Examiner)

RP, US War Games Starts Off Sulu Archipelago

The USS Harpers Ferry is surrounded by Filipino trawlers off the southern Philippines where some 2,000 U.S. and Philippine troops are to begin Thursday, 31 May 2007, a ten-day joint amphibious warfare called CARAT 2007, Cooperation Afloat Readiness And Training, in the Sulu Archipelago, where local security forces are battling members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group and Jemaah Islamiya. About 6 ships from both countries will participate in the war games. (Mindanao Examiner Photo Service)

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 30 May) – The Philippine military on Wednesday tightened security at sea in the restive southern region where some 2,000 U.S. and Filipino troops are to begin a joint amphibious training.

Locals on Wednesday cheered from the sea coast as they waved at the USS Harpers Ferry anchored off Zamboanga City.

The ship is one of three that the United States sent to participate in the ten-day war games called CARAT 2007 or Cooperation Afloat Readiness And Training starting on Thursday in the Sulu Archipelago, where local troops are battling members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group and Jemaah Islamiya.

The ship is being protected by U.S. and Philippine patrol boats. Filipino trawlers were also spotted near the USS Harpers Ferry.

The Philippines is also sending three smaller ships in the war games which will be held off Basilan island.

“There will also be joint medical mission in Zamboanga and Basilan (island),” Ensign Annaleah Palad, spokesperson for the Philippine Navy, told the independent regional newspaper, the Mindanao Examiner.

The Philippines is a staunch ally of the United States in the so-called global war on terror. Hundreds of U.S. troops are currently deployed in Zamboanga and Jolo island and other parts of Mindanao to help the Philippine military defeat local terrorist groups, blamed for the spate of bombings and kidnappings of foreigners in the troubled region. (Mindanao Examiner)