Featured Article

Afghanistan in Chinese Strategy Toward South and Central Asia

By Tariq Mahmud Ashraf

05/13/2008 - The resurgence of great powers' interests in Central Asia in recent years is reminiscent of the “Great Game” that ensued in the region in the 19th century between Czarist Russia and Imperial Great Britain. Afghanistan’s geographic location has made it a much coveted strategic pivot in the current Great Game. Notwithstanding the similarities between the two periods, some stark differences stand out prominently: one, there are now significantly more stakeholders in Afghanistan’s security (United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, India and China); two, while the first Great Game was precipitated primarily by Russia’s quest for access to the warm waters and the creation of a buffer between British India and Czarist Russia, the stakes now include oil, hydropower sources, strategic metals, pipelines, transit routes and access to markets. These significantly higher stakes have led to Central Asia assuming military, geo-political, geo-economic and geo-strategic significance for two major blocs—one led by the United States (NATO) and the other by China (Shanghai Cooperation Organization)—vying for influence in the region with seemingly dissimilar interests. “China needs them, Russia wants to control their distribution, and Western powers want to ensure they are not monopolized by Moscow or Beijing” (USA Today, December 15, 2007).

Child Labor Ring Exposed in Guangdong

By Russell Hsiao

05/13/2008 - In a two-day operation completed on April 30, local police in Dongguan municipality, Guangdong Province, executed a high profile rescue operation that police reports claim rescued 167 children trafficked from the poverty-stricken Liangshan region in Sichuan, the Southern Metropolitan Daily reported (China Times, May 1). The investigation leading to the rescue operation was prompted by an earlier report from the Southern Metropolis Daily on April 28, which alleged that more than 1,000 children had been trafficked from Liangshan region to work in factories across the Pearl River Delta; most of the children were below the age of 16 and had an average hourly work rate between 3.5 to 4 yuan. In a rare public acknowledgement by central authorities of China's “open secret”—namely, the proliferation of child labor—Premier Wen Jiabao demanded a serious investigation into the labor scandal (Sina.com.cn, May 2; Ming Pao, May 5). Local officials from the Dongguan municipal government, however, contradicted the news report and claimed that the government's sweeping two-day investigation of 3,600 companies, employing 450,000 people, revealed no prosecutable evidence of large-scale use of child labor (China Times, May 1; China Labour Bulletin, May 2).