China Dispatches Troops To Djibouti To Set Up Its First Overseas Base
July 13, 2017 by admin
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In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, ships carrying Chinese military personnel depart a port in Zhanjiang. The country dispatched members of its military to Djibouti on Tuesday to man its first overseas military base.
Wu Dengfeng/AP
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Wu Dengfeng/AP
In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, ships carrying Chinese military personnel depart a port in Zhanjiang. The country dispatched members of its military to Djibouti on Tuesday to man its first overseas military base.
Wu Dengfeng/AP
China dispatched troops to set up its first military base overseas on Tuesday. After a ceremony in the southern port city of Zhanjiang, military personnel embarked on a voyage to the East African country of Djibouti to establish an outpost “conducive to China’s performance of international obligations,” state-run media report.
The base is generally intended to “assist China’s contribution to peace and stability both in Africa and worldwide,” according to the Xinhua News Agency.
Specifically, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said that means supporting anti-piracy efforts in the region, performing “humanitarian rescue” and helping to “drive Djibouti’s economic and social development.”
Reuters reports that the small country, which is on the Horn of Africa, perched at the mouth of the Red Sea, already boasts U.S., French and Japanese military bases. In fact, as NPR’s Renee Montagne noted when China broke ground on the base last year, the U.S. has its own major base in the same port city where China is establishing its military presence.
“Djibouti has two major advantages from a foreign military point of view,” NPR’s Gregory Warner told Renee. “They have a very friendly, peaceful government, and they have this location on a busy shipping route next-door to conflicts in Somalia and Yemen — a short flight to the Middle East without having to be based there.”
While Beijing has been careful to downplay the base’s significance, casting it as a focal point more for logistics than military maneuvers, an opinion piece in the state-run Global Times emphasizes its unprecedented nature.
“Firstly, it is indeed the People’s Liberation Army’s first overseas base; China will station troops there, and it is not a commercial resupply point,” the paper writes. “Foreign public opinion focuses on the base for good reason; this base will support China’s navy to go farther afield, and it is of great significance.”
And, as Gregory noted last year, the expansion fits a recent pattern of Chinese investment on the continent — not only militarily, but also in terms of soft power:
“Africa, as a whole, I think has been demanding that China become more of a long-term partner. And China’s been responding to that, showing that it’s not just here to build roads and airports, but it’s building jobs, building security.
“So we see a number of uncharacteristic moves by China in the last few years — first, dispatching a battalion of peacekeepers to a conflict in South Sudan. We see a tremendous investment in media on continent to tell that China story to Africans and more exchange programs for African students and engineers to go to China, something that the West used to offer but has decreased since Sept. 11.
“So China’s naval base, while serving China’s purposes first, is also part of that message to Africa, saying, ‘We’re here for the long-term.’ “
China has not been shy with its money elsewhere either, promising tens of billions of dollars for an initiative Beijing calls One Belt, One Road — an attempt to create “a new Silk Road.” One of the early fruits of that effort, a transcontinental train system linking China with Europe, rolled into London earlier this year.
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Yellen Says Economy Is Robust but Fed Will Stay Flexible
July 13, 2017 by admin
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Representative Maxine Waters of California, the committee’s ranking Democrat, began her opening remarks by criticizing Mr. Trump. “Since Day 1, the story of the Trump administration has been one of chaos and turmoil,” she said.
Representative Sean Duffy, a Wisconsin Republican, responded that Democrats liked to congratulate the Fed for economic growth, but that Mr. Trump deserved the credit. “The real change has been that we have a new president in the White House,” he said.
The economy is now in the ninth year of one of the longest economic expansions in American history. The economy added 180,000 jobs a month during the first half of 2017, about the same pace as the first half of last year, even as the unemployment rate has fallen back to pre-crisis levels.
In her opening remarks on Wednesday, Ms. Yellen said growth had picked up after a slow start to the year on stronger consumer spending and business investment. “A strengthening in economic growth abroad has provided important support for U.S. manufacturing production and exports,” she added.
House Democrats remain strongly supportive of Ms. Yellen, but several did ask her whether the Fed was heading for the exits a little too quickly. One reason for concern is that inflation remains below the Fed’s 2 percent annual target, and lately it has slowed.
Lael Brainard, a Fed governor, said on Tuesday at a conference in New York that she shared those concerns.
“I will want to assess the inflation process closely before making a determination on further adjustments to the federal funds rate in light of the recent softness,” she said.
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Ms. Yellen, too, said the Fed was keeping a close eye on the latest inflation data, but she reiterated the Fed’s position that it expected prices to start rising more quickly. She has some time to decide whether to hit the brakes. Analysts do not expect the Fed to raise rates any sooner than its final meeting of the year, in December.
Ms. Yellen declined to specify when the Fed intended to start reducing its bond holdings.
“The exact timing of this I don’t think matters a great deal,” she said.
Ms. Yellen also noted that broader measures of the labor market were improving. The unemployment rate, 4.4 percent in June, counts people actively seeking work. One of the broader measures adds people who are not job hunting but say they would like to work and part-time workers who want full-time work. This group made up 8.6 percent of the work force in June; a decade ago, in June 2007, it was 8.4 percent.
The unemployment rate among African-Americans stood at 7.1 percent in June, the lowest rate since April 2000 — although well above the national rate.
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Despite those strong numbers, however, wage growth remains weak. Average hourly earnings increased 2.5 percent during the 12 months ending in May. A broader measure including benefits rose 2.25 percent during the 12 months ending in March, the Fed said in a biannual policy report sent to Congress with Ms. Yellen’s testimony.
Another concern: Only 62.8 percent of adults were either working or looking for work in June, compared with the 66 percent participation rate a decade ago.
Representative Andy Barr, Republican of Kentucky, told Ms. Yellen that in his view some people were deciding not to work because of the generosity of government benefits.
“Many employers say to me that they simply can’t compete with the government for labor,” he said.
Ms. Yellen responded that in her view, demographic changes were the primary reason for the decline in labor participation. “To my mind, the major factor here is an aging population,” she said.
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On another issue, Ms. Yellen and House Republicans appeared to find common ground.
Mr. Hensarling applauded the Fed for publishing in its report to Congress an analysis of several formulas for determining the proper level of its benchmark rate.
Republicans want the Fed to pick a single formula. Ms. Yellen on Wednesday reiterated her opposition, asserting that there are many rules and that “there is no clear way to decide which ones are better than others.” The rules, she said, are best consulted for guidance.
But Mr. Hensarling’s comments hinted at a potential compromise. He asked Ms. Yellen to include in the next report a discussion of why the Fed’s course differed from the recommendations of the formulas, and she expressed a willingness to do so.
As is often the case at these biannual hearings, the questions ranged widely.
Representative Steve Pearce, a New Mexico Republican, asked Ms. Yellen whether the Fed was concerned about the federal debt and, if so, why it made little mention of the issue in its latest monetary policy report.
Ms. Yellen responded that the debt is a big problem — a problem, she gently noted, that is the responsibility of Congress to address.
“I believe a key thing that Congress should be taking into account in designing fiscal policy is the need to achieve sustainability in the debt path over time,” she said.
Ms. Yellen’s term as Fed chairwoman ends in February, and she avoided several questions about her plans. The Trump administration is in the early stages of its selection process and has not ruled out Ms. Yellen’s reappointment, although the choice of a new Fed chief is regarded as the more likely outcome.
Asked at one point whether this might be her final appearance before the House committee, Ms. Yellen responded, “It may well be.”
She will appear before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.
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