Pepe Escobar: China plans to break petrodollar stranglehold (Asia Times)

Petrodollars have dominated the global energy markets for more than 40 years. But now, China is looking to change that by replacing the word dollars for yuan.
Nations, of course, have tried this before since the system was set up by former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in tandem with the House of Saud back in 1974
Vast populations across the Middle East and Northern Africa quickly felt the consequences when Iraq’s Saddam Hussein decided to sell oil in euros. Then there was Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi’s pan-African gold dinar blueprint, which failed to create a splash in an oil barrel.
Fast forward 25 years and China is making a move to break the United States petrodollar stranglehold. The plan is to set up oil-futures trading in the yuan, which will be fully convertible into gold on the Shanghai and Hong Kong foreign exchange markets.

(Andere Version dieses Artikels: The Petro-Yuan Bombshell, CounterPunch)

AFP: Top 1% control 3rd of China’s wealth (Bangkok Post)

The top one percent of households in Communist-ruled China control more than one third of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 25 percent control just one percent, official media said, citing an academic report.
The 2012 figures contained in a Peking University report released late Friday reveal the massive breadth of China’s social inequality, a widespread source of anger in the country.

Carsten A. Holz: Wage determination in China during the reform period (Suomen Pankki)

Returned Myanmar tell of ‚atrocious‘ working conditions in China (Burma [sic] News International)
Mo Hong’e: Ambassador denies China-Myanmar rail project cancelled (China News Service)

Russell Leigh Moses: Power Struggles: Seeing China’s Anti-Graft Drive in a Different Light (Wall Street Journal)

Recent moves against senior Chinese officials with ties to the energy sector present a challenge to one of the dominant story lines surrounding President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crusade.
An increasing number of observers are arguing that Xi’s sweeping corruption crackdown is about settling political scores and consolidating power – an old-school purge reminiscent of the Mao era.
But the formal indictment earlier this week of a former planning official on corruption charges and the firing last month of a top official with the National Energy Administration suggest the crackdown is motivated at least as much by a desire to remove people standing in the way of much-needed economic reforms.

Michael Martina, Clarence Fernandez: China probes more than 25,000 people for graft in first half of year (Reuters)

Friends of Palestine Hong Kong, Left 21, Socialist Action, Globalization Monitor, LSD, HKFS: Hong Kong People in Solidarity with Gaza: Stop the massacre! Get out of the Settlements! (Europe solidaire sans frontières)
Mo Hong’e: Ambassador denies China-Myanmar rail project cancelled (China News Service)

Russell Leigh Moses: Power Struggles: Seeing China’s Anti-Graft Drive in a Different Light (Wall Street Journal)

Michael Martina, Clarence Fernandez: China probes more than 25,000 people for graft in first half of year (Reuters)

Marlies Kastenhofer: Kampf der Giganten im Hinterhof Chinas (Presse)

Anlässlich der weltgrößten Marineübung im Pazifik entsandte Peking ein Spionageschiff vor die Küste Hawaiis. Seit Monaten kämpfen China und die USA um die Vorherrschaft im Südchinesischen Meer.

Mu Chunshan: Why China Must Pay Attention to the Israel-Palestine Conflict (Diplomat)

Under Mao Zedong, China sided with Palestine. Former Chinese leaders such as Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping had almost unconditional support for the revolutionary cause led by Yasser Arafat, who was called “an old friend of the Chinese people.” The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) obtained both funds and weapons from China …
During the 1980s, China began to abandon ideologically-driven diplomacy as part of its reform and opening process. China gradually began to draw closer to Israel. The reason is quite simple: Israel’s defense technology was attractive to China … At the same time, China’s stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has changed from unilateral condemnation of Israel to a neutral stance.

Nigel Wilson: Where the Brics Stand on Israel’s Gaza Offensive (International Business Times)

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa agree on a two-state solution for the long-running Israel-Palestine but their differing responses to the Gaza crisis reveal they are far from united.

Friends of Palestine Hong Kong, Left 21, Socialist Action, Globalization Monitor, LSD, HKFS: Hong Kong People in Solidarity with Gaza: Stop the massacre! Get out of the Settlements! (Europe solidaire sans frontières)