• Oil industry sees China winning, West losing from Iran sanctions
• Philippines studying U.S. offer to deploy spy planes
• Twitter Can Censor by Country
• Lust caution: Lifting the lid on erotic Shanghai

Source: Reuters By Dmitry Zhdannikov

(Reuters) – As the European Union prepares to ban Iranian oil and the United States turns the screw on payments, oil executives and policymakers say China and Russia stand to gain the most and Western oil firms and consumers may emerge the biggest losers.

Iran will continue to sell much the same volume of oil – 2.6 million barrels per day or around 3 percent of world supply – but almost all of it will flow to China, they reason. And being pretty much Iran’s only remaining customer, Beijing will be able to negotiate a much reduced price.

The EU will ban Iranian oil from July. The United States plans sanctions on Iran’s central bank and possibly its shipping firm. European headquartered oil firms such as France’s Total and Royal Dutch Shell have already abandoned Iranian oil purchases or are in the process of doing so.

Japan and South Korea have signaled they may reduce purchases of Iranian oil to comply with U.S. sanctions designed to put pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.

That leaves a growing number of buyers competing for alternative supplies. Inevitably attention has turned to Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter and the only country that can quickly increase oil output and help the West avoid a price spike that would deal a severe economic blow.

The IMF said this week that crude oil prices could rise 20 to 30 percent if Iran were to retaliate by halting its oil exports altogether. Oil industry executives meeting in Davos said energy markets can afford to lose half of Iran’s 2.6 million barrels per day. That would be roughly equivalent to supplies lost during Libya’s civil war in 2011. They are confident Saudi Arabia will fill the gap.

“What we say is that oil is fungible. Iranian oil will still find its way into the market, to Asian markets, China and possibly at a lower price,” a top Saudi source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

“But if let’s say 50 percent of Iranian oil is lost, we have spare capacity, we have the capacity to replace it as Libya has shown,” he added.

The chief of Saudi state oil monopoly Saudi Aramco, Khalid al-Falih, moved from one bilateral meeting to the next during the World Economic Forum this week. Over the past month or so the kingdom has received requests for additional oil from the European Union, Japan and South Korea. The European Union and Turkey buy almost a third of Iranian oil exports with the rest going to China, Japan, South Korea, India and South Africa.

“As a regular conversation we talked about increased supplies. Saudi Aramco is always positive,” Jun Arai, the head of Japan’s Showa Shell, told Reuters.

Russia too stands to gain from Western sanctions on Iran. The world’s biggest oil producer is well positioned to raise its market share in Europe, despite misgivings among some Europeans about relying too heavily on Russia for oil and gas. Payment disputes between Russia and neighboring Ukraine have in the past threatened transit gas supplies to Europe.

“I’m sure Moscow is watching the situation with big interest,” said José Sergio Gabrielli, chief executive of Brazil’s Petrobras. Arkady Dvorkovich, the Kremlin’s top economic aide, concurred that Russia stood to benefit from sanctions that were guaranteed to keep oil prices at least at current levels around $100 a barrel by his reckoning.

Showa Shell buys 100,000 barrels per day from Iran under a deal that expires in March and like other firms would be exposed to U.S. sanctions if not given a waiver under the latest ban on dealing with Iran’s central bank. “We are waiting for guidance from the government,” said Arai.

For Total the guidance has been clearer. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been one of the main advocates of tough sanctions. “We have already stopped (buying from Iran),” said Total’s chief Christopher de Margerie. The firm was previously lifting 80,000-100,000 barrels per day (bpd) from Iran.

Peter Voser, chief executive at Royal Dutch Shell, said his company might take some time before suspending purchases, which market sources estimate at 100,000 barrels per day.

“We are a European company and therefore we are affected by the sanctions and we will obviously oblige and implement the sanctions. I need to study all the details in order to see how it goes forward,” he said.

Apart from Total and Shell, Europe’s biggest buyers of Iranian oil are Italian, Spanish and Greek companies.

CHEAP OIL

China has so far refrained from buying more Iranian crude but the perception in the industry and among diplomats is that the world’s No.2 oil consumer will find it hard to resist buying unsold Iranian oil at a knockdown price.

“I think (the Iranian) oil will go somewhere else … Iran may give a discount to make it easier and quicker but nothing will change,” said De Margerie.

Robert Hormats, U.S. under secretary for economy, energy and agriculture, could not say with certainty that sanctions would reduce Iran’s oil exports but he predicted more pain for the Iranian economy.

“You cannot predict what they (Iran) will do and how much they will discount their oil. But it will certainly cause more and more discomfort to the Iranian economy,” he said, adding that China too had an interest in a ‘constructive outcome’.

“No one has an interest in Iran continuing its non-peaceful nuclear program,” he said. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes – electricity generation and medical equipment.

To maximize the impact of the sanctions, the U.S. will apply waivers very “selectively” and “responsibly,” Hormats said. In addition, the U.S. administration is talking to Congress about extending sanctions to Iran’s shipping fleet although the discussion is at an early stage, he added.

Source: Reuters By Manuel Mogato | Photo: WSJ

(Reuters) – The Philippines is considering a U.S. proposal to deploy surveillance aircraft on a temporary, rotating basis to enhance its ability to guard disputed areas in the South China Sea, the Philippine defense minister said on Friday.

Ongoing talks in Washington on security ties between the two allies include plans to deploy more littoral combat ships and spy aircraft, said Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin.

An expanded U.S. military presence in the region should raise the Philippines’ capability to deter border intrusions, he said.

“I would rather look at it from the positive point of view that there would be stability in the region, that we would have enough deterrent,” Gazmin told reporters.

“Without a deterrent force, we can be easily pushed around, our territories will be violated. Now that we have a good neighbor on the block, we can no longer be bullied,” he said, referring to the United States.

U.S. and Philippine officials are discussing the expansion of military cooperation as the Philippines grapples with the growing assertiveness of China.

The talks with the Philippines, a U.S. ally which voted to remove huge American naval and air bases 20 years ago, follow Washington’s announcement of plans to set up a Marine base in northern Australia and possibly station warships in Singapore.

The Obama administration describes the moves as part of a “pivot” toward economically dynamic Asia designed to reassure allies who felt neglected during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

But China sees the deployments as part of a broader U.S. attempt to encircle it as it grows into a major power.

The South China Sea could be a flash point.

China claims the entire sea, while the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan all have claims to parts of the area believed to have rich deposits of oil and gas.

PROTEST

Gazmin confirmed a U.S. offer to deploy surveillance aircraft in the Philippines but he said there was no plan for any new U.S. bases. The Philippines has a constitutional ban on foreign military bases on its soil.

Gazmin said there would be more exercises with U.S. forces and a rotating presence through port visits for exercises, repairs and resupply.

Since 2002, about 600 U.S. commandos have been stationed in the south of the Philippines to help train and advise Philippine

troops in fighting a small Islamist militant group with ties to al Qaeda.

A Philippine military source told Reuters the head of the U.S. Pacific Command had proposed last August the deployment of P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft.

More talks are due in Washington in March.

Left-wing Philippine groups are planning to hold protests outside the U.S. embassy in Manila on Saturday to denounce what they describe as the “treacherous” negotiations with the United States.

“They say that they will not bring back the U.S. bases but the proposal aims for virtual basing just the same,” Renato Reyes, secretary-general of left-wing Bayan (Nation) group, said in a statement.

The Philippines hosted major U.S. military facilities with tens of thousands of airmen and sailors for nearly a century until 1992 when U.S. forces pulled out after a vote in the Philippine Senate to terminate the bases treaty.

In 1998, the Philippines and the United States signed a Visiting Forces Agreement that allows U.S. troops to visit for exercises and rest and recreation.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda also said the talks would not include the creation of any new U.S. bases.

Source: Wall Street Journal By Loretta Chao and Amir Efrati

BEIJING—Twitter Inc. says it can now make content selectively available to users based on geography, and plans to use that ability to enter countries with “different ideas” about freedom of expression as a human right—reflecting the difficult ethical questions facing Internet companies.

The announcement, published on the official blog of the microblog operator, said Twitter is now able to withhold content from users in a specific country while keeping it available to the rest of the world.

The effort underscores thorny issues for Internet companies as their websites become more global and interconnected among different countries, and as they must cooperate with diverse views on Internet content control. For websites like Twitter as well as social-networking site Facebook, this has meant being blocked in countries like China where controls are more aggressive.

“As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression,” the post said, adding that in Germany, pro-Nazi content is banned. It said the ability has not been put to use yet, however.

Twitter said in the post that it would take measures to notify users if it withholds posts. “If and when we are required to withhold a Tweet,” or microblog post, “in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld, and why,” it said.

Twitter will work with Chilling Effects, an Internet freedom advocacy website that compiles content take-down notices, to publish take-down notices. Such a practice would make it difficult for Twitter to operate in China, where Internet executives say prohibited keywords are treated like state secrets.

The company did not list countries in which it plans to use its new ability, but said that it would not be a solution for all. Some countries “differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there,” the post said, an implicit reference to countries such as China that have banned Twitter.

China has more Internet users than any other nation. Local Web firms in China employ dozens or hundreds of staff to police user-generated content daily, and are required by law to take down a frequently updated list of banned keywords for varying lengths of time, including those related to calls for peaceful political action.

Internet giant Google Inc., which had operated in China for four years while cooperating with censorship requirements, made the controversial decision two years ago to cease censorship in the country and to move its Chinese-language Web search service to Hong Kong. The decision was the subject of much disagreement both in and outside the company, and even among Internet freedom advocates, with some believing censorship in any form was unethical, and others believing that being present, even if censored, in China would ultimately help make information flow more freely within the country.

Twitter has been blocked for more than two years in China by Web filtering technology. Some loyal users use circumvention tools to access the website, but most microblogging users in China now use Chinese services, including by Sina Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. Some loyal users use circumvention tools to access the website, but most microblogging users in China now use Chinese services, including by Sina Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd.

These websites have grown quickly and collectively have hundreds of millions of user accounts, despite censoring content, and new regulations that require users to register for their services using real-names.These websites have grown quickly and collectively have hundreds of millions of user accounts, despite censoring content, and new regulations that require users to register for their services using real-names.

Though the new system likely wouldn’t allow Twitter back into China, initial reaction was negative among those who use it there through proxy services. “If Twitter starts censoring, then I’ll stop tweeting,” tweeted Ai Weiwei, the outspoken Chinese dissident artist and frequent tweeter.

Twitter has been instrumental in helping people to organize revolutionary or political protests in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, the U.K. and U.S.

Twitter, which has said it has more than 100 million active accounts around the world, is making a push to become an online-advertising giant like Google.

The San Francisco-based Twitter, created in 2006, currently has a handful of employees in the U.K. and Japan in addition to its more than 700 U.S. employees.

As it expands elsewhere, the company will have to comply with local law or its employees could potentially face prosecution or other legal action.

Twitter’s general counsel, Alex Macgillivray, is a former Google lawyer who had a hand in crafting some of that company’s censorship-related policies. He also has worked on ChillingEffects.org.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has stated that the company is “the free speech wing of the free speech party.”

More than a year ago, Twitter publicly disclosed that the U.S. government had obtained a court order requiring it to hand over information about four accounts of Twitter users in connection with an investigation of WikiLeaks, the website that published secret and classified information.

Twitter disclosed the request so that the account holders could “fight the request,” Mr. Costolo said last year.

Twitter said in its post, “One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user’s voice. We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent when we can’t.”

A culture preoccupied with “face,” a strong sense of privacy and an unfriendly political climate have made Chinese people more apprehensive about eroticism than residents in the libertine capitalist strongholds elsewhere in the world.

At least in Shanghai, however, behind the facade there’s a world to discover.

Kara Bierley, the 24-year-old Texas-born owner of adult shop Amy’s Bedroom, has already opened her second branch in the city, and she declares Shanghainese people love carnal products just as much as anybody else.

“I see conspicuous consumption all around me,” she says.

Here are Bierley’s top five remarkable erotic destinations in Shanghai.

With 32 shops nationally showcasing more than 4,000 products, Buccone is China’s undisputed leader of adult toys, or, as 49-year-old founder Mingta Tsai prefers to call them, “pillow-side games.”

“We want to make Chinese people know that there are items and processes that can elevate their sexual life, vent off stress, create harmony,” Guangzhou-born, U.S.-educated Tsai says.

To achieve this edifying mission, Buccone deconstructs the myth of lurid and seedy adult shops.

With dimmed lights and products kept inside glass shrines, the 200-square-meter Shanghai flagship store looks more like a contemporary art museum, provided the visitor turns a blind eye to the red-feathered doll section by the entrance.

Popular products are Shunga (from RMB 300), which are scented astringent or desensitizing lotions inspired by 18th-century Japanese erotic culture.

Among female accessories, top-sellers are Scandinavian brand Lelo which, says Tsai, luxury-hungry Chinese consumers expecially like.

While the gold-plated Lelo items are only available upon reservation, prices for the ordinary collection start at RMB 888.

Buccone, 3822 Hongmei Lu, near Yan’an Xi Lu 虹梅路3822号, 近延安西路, +86 135 2788 3261, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., www.buccone.com

2. Kaixuan Gate Health Product Market (凯旋门保健品市场地址)

This wholesale market is a necessary destination for anyone looking for quantity over quality.

While assortment starts euphemistically with ginseng and seahorse infusion at the lower floors, the market escalates at the fourth floor, with dozens of adult shops selling a disparate array of erotic paraphernalia.

Hundreds of phallic substitutes are available here, starting from RMB 8, including ingenious products such as the “Hummingbird,” with talking and music function and items with built-in periscopic light and window for combined stimulation and exploration.

In the Chinese medicine section, shoppers will find traditional remedies like black ant pills, the allegedly miraculous tiger penis oil and more exotic products such as the “Tibetan King,” a selected blend of yak, yellow ox and deer penis for potency.

Price for Chinese medicine starts from around RMB 50.

Kaixuan Gate Health Product Market, No 428 Tianmu Zhonglu, near Wuzhen Lu 天目中路428号, 近乌镇路, 9 a.m.–6 p.m., +86 21 6353 3839

3. Honey Time (阳光桔子)

Latex takes the most whimsical shapes at Taiwanese condom brand Honey Time.

In Shanghai, the chain has a tiny shop at the exit of People’s Square metro station, and its cutesy and playful style attracts crowds of passers-by.

As the shop attendant, who refused to disclose her name for privacy reasons, explains, customers often do not realize what they’ve got into until they step inside the shop and touch the products.

There is rubber for all tastes and needs: super-thin, super-thick, dotted, vibrating, strawberry-flavored, honey-lubricated, hand-painted — as well as more unusual choices like the rabbit-shaped and the night-glowing and even the metered ones for users with a size complex.

And while most customers seem to be open about the merchandise, there are also more austere items, packaged in chewing gum packets or traditional Chinese silk sachets to disguise the content.

Prices range from RMB 14-40 for a six-item packet.

Honey Time, BE-006, Huasheng Metro Shopping Hall, No 19 Nanjing Xi Lu, near Xizang Zhong Lu 南京西路19号华盛街 BE-006, 近西藏中路, 9:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m., +86 21 6327 6020

4. China Sex Museum (中国古代性文化博物馆)

This is a perfect day trip for anyone who wants to escape from the stress of Shanghai and surrender to the peace of senses.

Located at a Qing-dynasty garden house in the tranquil water town Tongli, the Museum of Ancient Chinese Sex Culture defeats the traditionally conservative stereotype of China and shows the concealed history of China’s eroticism in all its explicit tumescence.

Some 1,500 artifacts, collected by 79-year-old retired sociologist Liu Dalin (刘达临), span 4,500 years of sexual representation, from prehistoric phallic rock carvings to vulval-themed decorations on fine porcelain.

Particularly remarkable are the statues of highly “gifted” Buddhas, the collection of bronze bondage gears and the section dedicated to bestiality.

Museum of Ancient Chinese Sex Culture 中国古代性文化博物馆, no address, follow the signs inside Tongli Old Town, admission: RMB 20, 7:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m.; Tongli Tourism Bureau, +86 512 6333 1140

5. Kangding Lu red-light district

Long gone are the days when Simalu (today’s Fuzhou Lu) was Asia’s most infamous red-light district and the foremost symbol of imperialist decadence.

After 1949, the government banned prostitution and cracked down on the flesh trade all around Shanghai.

Nonetheless, there are now an estimated 21 red-light areas in the central districts of Shanghai alone. These are concentrations of massage parlors and hairdressers that informally provide more than what is on the menu

One of the most central of these is the Kangding Lu between Jiangning Lu and Taixing Lu, where after 10 p.m. male passers-by will be often lured by pajamas-clad girls and asked to stop by for a massage.

According to Lulu (露露), a 24-year-old girl from Anhui province who “works” on the street, price for the special services depend on age, physical aspect of the candidate and frequency of visits.

Kangding Lu, between Jiangning Lu and Taixing Lu 江宁路和泰兴路之间的康定路, 10 p.m.-6 a.m.

Source: CNNGo

• Philippines-U.S. in talks to counter China rise
• China says EU ban on Iran oil not “constructive”
• Clashes in China’s Tibetan Areas Claim Another Life
• Iowa readies welcome for China heir apparent
• China’s investments abroad take spotlight at Davos forum clouded by Europe’s troubles

Source: The Washington Post By Craig Whitlock

Two decades after evicting U.S. forces from their biggest base in the Pacific, the Philippines is in talks with the Obama administration about expanding the American military presence in the island nation, the latest in a series of strategic moves aimed at China.

Although negotiations are in the early stages, officials from both governments said they are favorably inclined toward a deal. They are scheduled to intensify the discussions Thursday and Friday in Washington before higher-level meetings in March. If an arrangement is reached, it would follow other recent agreements to base thousands of U.S. Marines in northern Australia and to station Navy warships in Singapore.

Among the options under consideration are operating Navy ships from the Philippines, deploying troops on a rotational basis and staging more frequent joint exercises. Under each scenario, U.S. forces would effectively be guests at existing foreign bases.

The sudden rush by many in the Asia-Pacific region to embrace Washington is a direct reaction to China’s rise as a military power and its assertiveness in staking claims to disputed territories, such as the energy-rich South China Sea.

“We can point to other countries: Australia, Japan, Singapore,” said a senior Philippine official involved in the talks, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the deliberations. “We’re not the only one doing this, and for good reason. We all want to see a peaceful and stable region. Nobody wants to have to face China or confront China.”

The strategic talks with the Philippines are in addition to feelers that the Obama administration has put out to other Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam and Thailand, about possibly bolstering military partnerships.

The United States already has about 600 Special Operations troops in the Philippines, where they advise local forces in their fight with rebels sympathetic to al-Qaeda. But the talks underway between Manila and Washington potentially involve a much more extensive partnership.

Officials in the Philippines — which has 7,107 islands — said their priority is to strengthen maritime defenses, especially near the South China Sea. They indicated a willingness to host American ships and surveillance aircraft.

Although the U.S. military has tens of thousands of troops stationed at long-standing bases in Japan, South Korea and Guam, as well as the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, it is seeking to solidify its presence in Southeast Asia. Some of the world’s busiest trade routes pass through the South China Sea and the nearby Strait of Malacca.

Instead of trying to establish giant bases reminiscent of the Cold War, however, Pentagon officials said they want to maintain a light footprint.

“We have no desire nor any interest in creating a U.S.-only base in Southeast Asia,” said Robert Scher, a deputy assistant secretary of defense who oversees security policy in the region. “In each one of these cases, the core decision and discussion is about how we work better with our friends and allies. And the key piece of that is working from their locations.”

‘Political sensitivities’

The distinction is critical in the Philippines, which kicked the U.S. military out of its sprawling naval base at Subic Bay in 1992 after lawmakers rejected a new treaty. Along with the nearby Clark Air Base, which the Pentagon abandoned in 1991 after a volcanic eruption, Subic Bay had served as a keystone of the U.S. military presence in Asia for nearly a century.

Manila and Washington signed a subsequent agreement that allows U.S. forces to visit the archipelago or deploy there periodically while remaining under U.S. legal jurisdiction. The constitution of the Philippines forbids foreign military bases without a treaty.

“There are political sensitivities, and the U.S. is aware of that,” said a senior Philippine official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations. “So how can we achieve that presence without it costing too much in terms of political friction?”

Philippine officials said they favor allowing the United States to deploy more troops or ships, as long as they rotate periodically or are considered temporary.

Temporary, however, can still mean a long time. The 600 U.S. Special Operations troops in the Philippines have been on the southern island of Mindanao since 2002, and there is no firm timetable to withdraw them.

The number of port visits by U.S. Navy ships has soared in recent years. The Philippines recently acquired a cutter from the U.S. Coast Guard and is seeking two more of the ships to boost its naval forces. It also wants to buy F-16 fighter jets from Washington.

In interviews, neither Philippine nor Obama administration officials would rule out a return by U.S. ships or forces to Subic Bay. The harbor is now a thriving economic hub and free-trade zone, so any American military presence would pale in comparison with the old days.

But even a small, visiting U.S. force in the Philippines would send a strong signal to Beijing. Although Washington has said it is not trying to contain China’s rise as an economic and military superpower, Obama announced a new military strategy this month under which the Pentagon will “rebalance” the armed forces toward the Asia-Pacific region in the aftermath of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

‘A necessary normal’

Some advocates said the shift in emphasis to Asia was long overdue, given its economic importance and China’s rise.

“I don’t really see this as a pivot. . . . What I see now is a return to a necessary normal,” said Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific affairs. “The presence of the United States has become the essential ingredient for stability.”

In addition to the Philippines, Vietnam — another country that once shunned the U.S. military — is restoring ties. In August, a U.S. Navy ship visited the Vietnamese naval base at Cam Ranh Bay for the first time in 38 years. Cam Ranh Bay is a deep-water harbor that served as one of the largest American military installations during the Vietnam War. Vietnam, which has its own territorial disputes with China, has slowly opened its bases to the U.S. Navy for port visits and ship repairs since 2009.

“I don’t see in the near future an American base in Vietnam, but we have seen much more increased military cooperation,” said Webb, a former Navy secretary who fought in Vietnam as a Marine. “They’re not shutting down their relationship with China, but they’re attempting to balance it.”

Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, chief of naval operations, has called Southeast Asia the region with “perhaps the greatest potential in the future” for the Navy to increase its presence through military partnerships. In a Jan. 10 speech to the Center for a New American Security in Washington, he singled out the Philippines as a country “where perhaps there will be more opportunities emerging,” although he didn’t elaborate.

Greenert cautioned that some of those partnerships would be limited, saying, “Not everybody is interested in getting in an alliance and getting tied up in a long term.” He cited Vietnam as an example. “We don’t want to push it too hard,” he said. “If you move a little too fast, there’s a hesi­ta­tion.”

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) – China on Thursday criticized the European Union for banning oil imports from Iran, Beijing’s third biggest crude supplier and a major trading partner.

The European Union agreed on Monday to ban imports of oil from Iran and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at pushing Iran into reining in its nuclear activities that Tehran says are for peaceful purposes.

China, the world’s second largest crude consumer, has long opposed unilateral sanctions that target Iran’s energy sector and has tried to reduce tensions that could threaten its oil supply.

Last week, Beijing told a visiting Iranian delegation that returning to nuclear talks was a “top priority.” During a tour to Arab states earlier this month, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao also made a strong statement opposing Iran developing and possessing nuclear weapons, but defended China’s right to buy Iranian crude oil as normal trade activity.

Asked about the EU embargo, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a faxed statement: “It is not a constructive approach to simply pile up the pressure and impose sanctions.”

“China hopes relevant parties to resort to measures conducive to regional peace and stability,” the statement added.

China is the largest buyer of Iranian crude oil, importing 30 percent more from Iran in 2011 compared to the previous year. But China halved its purchases from Iran in January and February, following a dispute over the terms of payment.

Source: Wall Street Journal By Brian Spegele

BEIJING—Security forces in a restive Tibetan region of China killed a second person in as many days, according to state-run media, amid intensifying riots and growing international criticism that threatens to cast a shadow over a landmark visit to the U.S. next month by Vice President Xi Jinping.

The state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday that police opened fire on rioters in Seda county in China’s western Sichuan province on Tuesday. The county is in the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, which has become a hot spot of Tibetan political activism and the site of protests and multiple self-immolations by ethnic Tibetans in recent months.

Xinhua quoted local police on Wednesday as saying rioters attacked a police station with stones, knives and gasoline bottles Tuesday afternoon, and that 14 police were injured. The London-based advocacy group Free Tibet said at least two Tibetans were killed in the incident and others were injured.

The accounts couldn’t be verified with residents in Seda on Wednesday. Officials from the Foreign Ministry in Beijing couldn’t be reached to comment. Government offices were closed for the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday.

The clash followed a similar incident on Monday in Luhuo county, also in the Ganzi prefecture. In that case, officials confirmed one person was killed after a mob stormed local shops and a bank and damaged police vehicles, though they didn’t say how the person died. Free Tibet said two protesters were shot and killed in Monday’s incident, among at least 36 people shot by security forces.

The violent clashes with police come as a wave of self-immolations by Tibetans puts the region on edge. At least 16 people have set themselves on fire since March 2011 in what Tibetans have described as a response to heightened government repression of Tibetan Buddhist monastic activities and an expression of growing desperation over Tibetan political and cultural autonomy. The self-immolations and clashes with security forces represent the region’s worst violence since deadly riots rocked a number of locations, including the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, in 2008.

In Washington on Tuesday, the U.S. State Department’s special coordinator for Tibet issues, Maria Otero, criticized what she called Beijing’s “counterproductive policies” in the region. “I am gravely concerned by reports of violence and continuing heightened tensions in Tibetan areas of China,” Ms. Otero said in a statement. “We call on the Chinese government to resume substantive, results-oriented dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives to address the underlying grievances of China’s Tibetan population.”

Separately, a State Department spokeswoman said Tuesday that the U.S. would raise the issue of human rights in Tibet and elsewhere in China during the visit next month by Mr. Xi, the Chinese vice president. Mr. Xi is expected to succeed Hu Jintao as president in a leadership change beginning late this year, and his visit to Washington will be a rare opportunity for U.S. officials to learn more about him.

While Beijing may expect some prodding on the Tibet issue during the visit, the fear among Chinese leaders likely centers on the possibility that Tibet-focused demonstrations in Washington will greet Mr. Xi, which would ruin the decorum around the important visit that China is aiming for.

China has long deflected U.S. criticism on Tibet, its sovereignty of which it considers one of its “core interests.” Mr. Hu is widely seen as a Tibet hard-liner; in 1989, as party chief of the Tibet Autonomous Region, he imposed martial law to suppress rioting.

It’s unclear how forcefully U.S. officials will press Beijing’s presumed future leader. In a speech last summer, Mr. Xi reiterated the party’s longstanding view that Tibet provides China a critical “national-security screen”—its mountains serving as a buffer between China and regional rival India—and stressed the importance of economic development as a means of maintaining stability in the region.

Lobsang Sangay, head of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India, called for greater international attention on religious and cultural restrictions in the Tibetan-populated regions of China’s west.

“It is high time for [the international community] to intervene to prevent further bloodshed,” Mr. Sangay said in a statement. “As a nation aspiring to become a world economic and political power, the People’s Republic of China cannot be permitted to behave in such [an] immoral and violent manner.”

China says that Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries and that living standards there have improved drastically since Communist forces took control of the region in 1951. But Beijing has struggled to suppress calls for greater cultural and religious freedom, or loyalty to the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, who fled to India in 1959.

Mr. Xi’s father, Xi Zhongxun, was a revolutionary hero who went on to serve as vice premier and is widely believed to have had good relations with the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989 and at times was considered close to Beijing. Panchen Lamas are the second-highest figures in Tibetan Buddhism.

Source: By Shaun Tandon (AFP)

WASHINGTON — US policymakers say they know little about Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, the growing Asian power’s likely next leader, but they are certain on one point — he is fond of Iowa.

When Xi visits the United States in mid-February, he will return to the Midwestern state to reunite with Iowans he met on his first visit to the United States in 1985 when he was a low-ranking local official on an exchange.

“He was very pleased with the very friendly, warm reception he received in Iowa and he really feels a kinship and friendship with the people of Iowa,” Governor Terry Branstad told AFP.

Branstad visited Beijing last year to invite Xi. He said the vice president received him at the Great Hall of the People for an unusually long 50 minutes and revealed that he had saved the itinerary from his 1985 trip.

“The first thing he said was, ‘I was in your office in Des Moines on April 26, 1985,’” said Branstad, a Republican who has been elected governor five times.

“Obviously Iowans made a very good impression on him,” Branstad said. “I think coming to Iowa symbolizes that he wants to focus on cooperation.”

Xi, who will receive a White House welcome from President Barack Obama on February 14, will travel the following day in Iowa starting in Muscatine, the Mississippi River town he visited as a county official from Hebei province.

Branstad said Xi would meet Iowans from the 1985 trip and then head to Des Moines, the state capital, for a formal dinner. Xi may also visit a farm before heading on February 16 to California, his final stop, the governor said.

Iowa’s interest in China is largely commercial. Its exports to China have soared in recent years as the Asian power’s rising middle class buys more pork, corn, soybeans and other agricultural products from the US Midwest.

But besides bringing business, some Americans hope that such personal contacts can help build trust between the United States and China and lower mutual suspicions.

Vlad Sambaiew, president of the Stanley Foundation, a Muscatine-based think-tank that supports international dialogue, noted that many future foreign leaders had formative exposure to the United States when visiting small communities such as his own.

“I’m always impressed about how we hear many years later about how someone really enjoyed their visit,” said Sambaiew, a former US diplomat.

“I think it provides a perspective that’s very different than if you’re only meeting with officials in Washington, New York or another major metropolitan centers. People do tend to be much more informal and Iowa has this reputation of being a very friendly state,” he said.

It is not the first time Iowa has taken a role in international diplomacy. At the height of the Cold War in 1959, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev toured a farm in Coon Rapids, a now-famous visit that helped humanize the superpowers.

Sambaiew said that there was nowhere near as much hostility in 2012 between the United States and China, with some 3,000 Chinese students in Iowa alone.

But the two countries have myriad disputes that are expected to come up during Xi’s visit. The United States has repeatedly voiced concern about Beijing’s rising military spending, while many Chinese policymakers are convinced that Washington is trying to contain the Asian power.

The United States is also likely to raise concerns about trade and human rights, amid accounts that China has recently shot dead protesters and imposed a virtual lockdown on Tibetan-inhabited areas.

In one bid to improve Beijing’s image in the United States, current President Hu Jintao, on a state visit a year ago, visited the Midwestern metropolis Chicago, where he showcased a Chinese-run factory creating jobs.

US officials have said that they are unsure how, if at all, Xi would differ from Hu in handling disputes with the United States.

Xi is widely tipped to assume the leadership of the Chinese Communist party and the presidency from Hu in a process due to begin this year.

Besides Xi’s fondness for Iowa, it is known that his daughter studies at Harvard University.

A US diplomatic cable released by whistleblower site WikiLeaks also revealed that Xi enjoys Hollywood movies and counts “Saving Private Ryan” among his favorites.